Five days later, the expeditionary Tang army arrived in Dunhuang County, Shazhou, a Han people settlement in the Hexi Corridor, there are tens of thousands of people in Shazhou, of which more than seventy percent are Han people.

Shazhou nominally belongs to Tubo, but there is no Tubo garrison, which is also an agreement reached between Tubo and Hui and the local Haoqiang in Shazhou, which will use Shazhou as a buffer zone, and the Tubo and Tuyuhun armies will not be stationed in Shazhou, and the Hui and Shatuo will not attack Shazhou, and the local Haoqiang will be autonomous.

Although nominally belonging to Tibet, the people of Shazhou never agreed, and they still insisted that they were the subjects of the Tang Dynasty.

Guo Song's expeditionary force did not enter Dunhuang County, they only passed through Shazhou, and they were far from having the strength to defend Shazhou, and their rash action would only give Tubo and Shatuo an excuse to enter Shazhou, thus changing the status quo.

The Tang army passed through Dunhuang County at night, but stopped at the Dayun Temple in Mogao Grottoes, and as soon as the sky was bright, two middle-aged men rushed to Mogao Grottoes from Dunhuang County on horseback, surrounded by more than a dozen followers.

"The temple was built by Emperor Zetian, it has been more than 50 years so far, the main Buddha of Maitreya is the second largest Buddha statue in Mogao Grottoes, and it is also the true face of Emperor Zetian......"

Master Zhiguang, the abbot of Dayun Temple, is giving Guo Song as a tour guide, introducing the Buddha statue of Dayun Temple, Guo Song looks up to this Buddha statue, this Buddha statue he has seen in later generations, it is the Nanda statue of Mogao Grottoes, which was excavated by Wu Zetian's decree and was not completed until the Tianbao year.

It's just that the big statue he saw in later generations is still different from the current Buddha statue, but he can't say what the difference is, it seems that the current stone statue is more full and vivid, lifelike.

At this time, a soldier walked in quickly and whispered a few words in Guo Song's ear, Guo Song nodded, and said apologetically to Master Zhiguang with his palms together: "The guest I am waiting for has arrived, and I can only listen to the master's wonderful advice another day." ”

"Guo Changshi is polite, please!"

There are two middle-aged men sitting in the Zen guest hall of Dayun Temple, one of them is called Cao Qingyun, and the other is called Zhang Feng, representing the two powerful Cao family and Zhang family in Shazhou, for more than 100 years, the two major families have been ruling Shazhou, and the current autonomy of Shazhou is actually governed by these two families in turn.

Guo Song walked into the guest hall, and the two men immediately stood up, and Guo Chongqing next to him introduced the two of them: "This is Guo Changshi, and he is also the commander of our Western Expeditionary Army." ”

The two hurriedly bowed, and Guo Song smiled: "The two are the head of the Cao family and the head of the Zhang family!" ”

"Exactly, in Xia Cao Qingyun, this is Zhang Feng, we are looking forward to the stars and the moon, and finally looking forward to the army of the imperial court, which shows that the imperial court has not forgotten us."

Guo Song smiled and invited the two to sit down, a monk served them tea, Guo Song smiled slightly: "Two days before I left, the Son of Heaven also specially received me, the Son of Heaven has always been very concerned about the Western Regions, including Dunhuang, in fact, not only the Son of Heaven, the ministers of the court are also concerned about the Western Regions, I believe that every Tang Dynasty person is dreaming of restoring the territory of the Tang Dynasty." ”

"Does the Son of Heaven or the Imperial Court have any plans for the recovery of the Western Regions?" Cao Qingyun asked eagerly.

Guo Song was silent for a moment and said: "I hope the two of you can understand the fact that the Son of Heaven and the imperial court really want to recover the Western Regions, but the recovery of the Western Regions has always been a long process, just like when we established the Western Regions Protectorate, from the Sui Dynasty to the Middle Tang Dynasty, it took more than a hundred years to establish it, and similarly, the recovery of the Western Regions involves all aspects, I estimate that it will take at least twenty years, and the starting point is that this time I went to the Western Regions." ”

Hearing that it will take another twenty years, Cao Qingyun's face showed a look of disappointment, but Zhang Feng was very realistic, he knew that the Tang Dynasty was divided into feudal towns, and there were many problems, and he had no time to take care of the Western Regions for the time being, he smiled: "As Guo Changshi said, with the first step of the Western Expeditionary Army to set foot in the Western Regions, it is a good start, but in any case, we are still grateful to Changshi and the soldiers." ”

Next to him, Guo Chongqing said with a smile: "They are referring to the matter of horse bandits." ”

"Shazhou is also infested by horse bandits?"

"Of course, although the Shatuo army abides by the agreement and does not invade Shazhou, they condone the raids and looting of the horse bandits in Shazhou, especially when the wheat is harvested every year, the horse bandits come to grab the wheat, we also organize the militia soldiers to resist, the two sides fight fiercely, dozens of people will be killed every year, in the past ten years, Shazhou has been robbed by hundreds of women, and the wealth is countless, so we heard that Changshi led the army to annihilate three horse bandits, we are simply grateful."

"The Tang Army's total annihilation of them is also out of self-preservation, and we are also deeply pleased if we can bring peace to the people of Shazhou."

"Can we do something for Tang Jun?" Cao Qingyun asked.

Guo Song nodded, "I need you to do two things, the first thing is to supply, we need some dry food, of course, we will hand over the war horses, leather armor and weapons captured from the horse bandits to you." ”

"No problem with supplies!" Cao Qingyun and Zhang Feng said in unison.

Guo Song smiled slightly: "The second thing is about the situation in Shazhou, I want to write a detailed report on the situation in the Western Regions, and report it to the Son of Heaven and the imperial court, which will also be an important article, today I invited the two of you, and I also want to know more about the current situation in Shazhou." ”

.......

The Tang army rested in the Dayun Temple for two days, and after receiving supplies, the three hundred Tang troops continued on the road.

Leaving Shazhou and heading southwest, they soon entered the territory of the Tuyuhun people, which was mostly an alpine desert area with a vast area and was not easy to encounter the Tuyuhun army.

However, the most difficult part of this road is not people, but the harsh environment, infested with wild wolves, especially in the Puchanghai area, nearly a thousand miles of desolate Gobi and desert, as well as the quicksand that disappears from time to time, lurking in the desert like a killer, is a severe test of the soldiers' will and physical strength.

Yang Xiaoyan brought a total of five of his men to Chang'an to report the news, two of them were swallowed by the quicksand near Puchanghai, and the other died at the hands of the Suzhou Shatuo Sentinel.

Puchanghai is today's Lop Nur, a large lake formed by the end of the river and the Chihe River, from Dunhuang, to approach the Gobi and the desert for thousands of miles.

The Tang army soon entered the desert for hundreds of miles, and a guide led them with more than two dozen camels.

The cold wind was bitter, blowing like a knife to make the face hurt, the wind and sand were all over the sky, the whole sky was yellow and cloudy, the overwhelming wind and sand were everywhere, the soldiers were struggling to move forward with their heads down, unable to speak, and could not even open their eyes, in order to prevent the soldiers from getting lost, every fifty soldiers held a long rope.

For several days, the soldiers struggled to advance in bad weather, and even the war horses could not stand such weather, and more than 20 horses died after only three days.

It was getting dark, but the wind and sand did not abate, and it still roared and raged in the ears of the soldiers with a sharp whistling sound.

"Rest in place!" There were soldiers shouting ahead.

It's not easy to find a campsite, you can't find a low place that will be buried by the wind and sand overnight, and it's usually up to an experienced guide to decide where to spend the night.

The soldiers, having already spent the night in the desert several times in a row, had experience, and they were tightly huddled together, surrounded by two dozen camels, which would get up in case of danger.

The soldiers barely ate a little dry food, full of sand, but these are small problems, the biggest problem is water, when starting from Dunhuang, each soldier brought five big gourds of clear water, not only people want to drink water, two war horses also want to drink water, they are almost consumed at the rate of most of the gourd water every day, this is only five days, the soldiers' water storage is generally only two gourds, but there are more than two hundred miles away from Puchanghai.

The soldiers were back to back, covered their heads with sheepskin blankets, and drank water and ate dry food in small sips.

A soldier got into the parchment blanket and said to several people: "The guide said that the wind and sand may end tomorrow!" ”

"It's just wonderful!"

Several soldiers let out a long sigh, "I have never experienced such a climate, and if it continues like this, neither man nor horse will survive." ”

"Sand and dust is nothing, more importantly, we have no water, we must save water, there are still more than 200 miles away from Puchanghai?"

"We can drink less, but the horses need water!"

The soldiers are very anxious, if they can't catch up with Puchanghai within three days, the consequences will be more serious, if it is flat land, there is no problem at all, but this is a desert!

.........

The next morning, the wind finally stopped, and the warm sun shone on the endless desert, as if dyeing the desert with a layer of gold.

In the vast desert, the long line began to pick up speed and run in a northwesterly direction.

Three days later, the exhausted Tang soldiers and horses arrived at Puchanghai, they finally saw a boundless ice world, their lips were chapped and blistered, and the Tang soldiers who were almost dying of thirst screamed hoarsely, and ran towards the white jade ice with all their strength, they smashed open several huge ice holes, and the men and horses plunged into the cold and biting water.