On the eve of the imminent destruction of the city by the coalition forces of the Xiongnu and the Quan Di clans, the newly revived Jincheng Yi clan once again faced life and death.

Under the arrangement of my great-grandfather, my grandfather's two elder brothers led all the women and children, fine soft and servants of the whole family to cross the river to the south, and fled for their lives in the direction of Bashu Jingxiang along the old road of the first escape of the late Han family.

Before he was married, he married his grandfather, who had no family, and his great-grandfather entrusted him to the caravan of the Green Mountains and Kushan Kingdom.

This caravan from a foreign country and our Jincheng Yi family are friends for several lifetimes, I heard my grandfather say that the merchant to which the caravan belongs is one of the largest households in the Kushan country, and once monopolized the silk trade in the country and the Central Plains, of course, there is also the credit of our family.

What's more, when its founder, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Samarkand, first came to Jincheng County, it was the most prosperous time for our family.

It is said that this foreign lad only brought three emaciated camels, and the jade and gold coins he brought to trade had already been looted by passing robbers and checkpoints along the way.

It was at such a time when the mountains and rivers were exhausted that our ancestors of the Jincheng Yi clan took him in and worked as a domestic servant and translator in my inn for five years.

Later, another caravan from the Rouran Kingdom passed through Jincheng County to Chang'an, and on the way back, it happened to stay at our Yi Inn.

In the past five years, Samarkand's loyalty and diligence have also touched the ancestors of the Yi family, who were housekeepers at that time.

So the old ancestor lent him a great deal of money, and bought ten camels and hundreds of horses of fine silk.

He also applied for the customs clearance documents of the Han Dynasty from the government, and equipped him with a few accompanying men.

In this way, he followed the caravan from his hometown back to Guishan safely and smoothly, and the silk he brought back also made him make a fortune, and he suddenly became a local wealthy family.

The next year, this young man organized a larger camel caravan and returned to Jincheng County, and used the goods brought from the Western Regions to offset all the debts owed to my family.

The fate of the Samarkand family of Kushan Kingdom and our Jincheng Yi family has been inherited since that time, and there have been several generations of marriages in the middle, which have changed from the original business partners to closer relatives.

Such family ties have lasted for hundreds of years, and it was not until the troubled times of the late Han Dynasty that there was a period of breakage.

It was only after my great-grandfather raised the wine flag of the Jincheng Yi's Inn in the early Jin Dynasty that the caravan run by the descendants of Samarkand returned to Han to visit the deceased in Jincheng County, and the relationship between the two families was reconnected.

Therefore, in a time of family crisis, it is not a wise and reassuring choice to let the young grandfather and the caravan of Samarkand go all the way west.

After settling all the younger generations, the great-grandfather himself insisted on staying, and went to the nearby mountains to continue his former life of fishing and hunting, and also took care of the property in the city on behalf of the whole family.

This great-grandfather was a very stubborn old man, and several of his sons, including my grandfather, broke their heads and asked him to flee with him, or to stay behind to take care of the ancestral business on his behalf.

He resolutely disagreed, and even forced his sons to hurry up on the road.

In this way, the originally happy and prosperous family could only hug their heads and cry and say goodbye.

This farewell is the same as the one at the end of the Han Dynasty, and there is no chance to see each other at the end of the world.

The great-grandfather who made great contributions to the prosperity of the family has never heard from him since.

Every year when the family commemorates, we Yi clansmen who are far away in Khotan can only burn incense and kowtow to the east, praying for the spirit of our great-grandfather in the sky.

Before leaving, my great-grandfather prepared two Hexi horses and dozens of catties of gold sand for my grandfather, more than a dozen accompanying family members, and several carriages of food for my grandfather.

This escape to the west is also a helpless choice in times of crisis, and it is destined to be a trip with many disasters and difficulties.

The Guishan caravan and his grandfather hurried through the night without stopping, and at first they encountered no major obstacles except for the harassment of a small number of displaced people along the way.

Just when everyone began to relax their vigilance and treat this trip as an ordinary business trip, the crisis suddenly came to everyone's eyes.

At noon one day, just after Wuwei County, they came to the land of Zhangye County, and everyone got off the horse to rest and bury the pot to cook.

At this time, the area where the distant grassland and the loess plateau meet was suddenly filled with dust, and countless crying and shouting homeless people flocked to the ground, and behind them was the sound of the Hun cavalry and horse team chasing and killing.

Everyone didn't have time to discuss, so in a panic, they mounted their horses and galloped westward, and all the camel wagons loaded with goods and supplies were thrown down.

At this time, escape is the first priority, if you are coerced into the ranks of the homeless, you will inevitably end up in a dead end, and become the prey of the Hun knights.

Grandpa and his subordinates are all strong and strong, some are skilled in archery and horses, usually together for more than ten years of training and hunting, have a strong ability to deal with crises, and have a tacit understanding with each other.

In a hurry, everyone still took most of the horses and some cotton clothes and blankets, water bladders and meat.

They all knew that this trip was different from the past, and it was a life-and-death road of exile, so everyone was highly vigilant.

Unfortunately, the fate of the Kushan caravan was miserable, and the leader of the group was too concerned about the goods on the hunchback, and lost the best chance to escape.

As a result, he was completely engulfed in the sea of homeless people, and completely lost contact with his grandfather and his party.

Their final fate can only be handed over to God, maybe the Huns will open up to them, because these Hu Rong are now mainly targeting the yellow-skinned and black-eyed Han people.

The guys of the Kushan caravan are all blonde-haired and blue-eyed Gentiles, who are almost the same clan as these Hu Rong, and should be treated preferentially.

The original plan to follow the caravan to the Western Regions of the Green Mountains has now failed.

There was no way back at this time when he returned to the south, and his grandfather could only take the family all the way west.

Everywhere I went, the cities and villages were ten rooms and nine empty, with broken walls and ruins, and it was difficult to find even a trace of a Han person.

After passing Jiuquan County and leaving Jiayu Pass, the supplies left on horseback are almost consumed, and in front of them is the Huanglong Desert that the ancient and modern merchants talk about.

According to the route map provided by the Rouran caravan, along the edge of the vast sand sea, all the way south, you will pass the Loulan Oasis, and then go south to reach the countries of the Western Regions.

Once there, they were safe, and they could choose to stay in place, or they could cross the green mountains to reach the Kushan Kingdom and seek refuge from the Samarkand family.

So my grandfather led his men to look for supplies and water, and finally found a bitter water well and a few families of mountain people who lived by grazing.

The water quality of the bitter water well was bitter and difficult to swallow, but everyone still filled all the skins on the horseback, and these waters were the source of life in the Gobi Desert, which was thousands of miles away!

The wilderness herdsmen's families didn't have anything good, and Grandpa exchanged a few pieces of cloth for a few hundred catties of jerky and cheese.

With these provisions, they began to follow the ancient road that was faintly visible on the Gobi and headed for the Puchanghai Oasis in the southwest.

Along the way, you can also see the Great Wall and beacons built during the heyday of the Han Dynasty, but now it has long been empty and lifeless.

At first, everyone didn't care much about the sinister Huanglong Sand Sea depicted by the merchants of the Western Regions, except for the calm sand dunes everywhere, there was no danger under the blue sky and white clouds.

But one night they finally appreciated the power of the Yellow Dragon, and the originally starry night sky was soon shrouded in dark clouds, the wind blew stronger and stronger, and the sand dunes began to move, making a terrible roar, and the Yellow Dragon woke up!

In the blink of an eye, the tent where the camp was camped was completely covered by moving sand dunes, and all the luggage of the men and horses who had not had time to escape was buried inside.

Grandpa and another family named Lu Yu came out at night to relieve themselves, and they were lucky to escape.

By daybreak, the black storm had passed, and the terrible Yellow Dragon had calmed down again.

But the place where they had camped last night had been erected as a hill, and at the edge of the dunes were a few horses half-buried in the sand, unable to move, neighing weakly.

The two of them hurriedly ran over and dug out the few remaining legs with great effort.

Fortunately, the skin bag for water on the horse's back was not broken, and the bag containing the jerky was still on it.

It's just that he took pity on these family brothers who followed him to this place, and a group of lively young men were completely engulfed by the Yellow Dragon in the blink of an eye.

Remorse and mourning were useless, the master and servant could only step on the yellow sand and continue to move south, and finally came to the boundary of Loulan after more than ten days.

At this time, it is summer, the vast Puchang Sea is vast, the egrets are flying on the lake, and the gulls and geese are weaving.

The reeds on the shore of the lake are lush and boundless, and the appearance of the south of the Yangtze River in the yellow sand of the Hanhai Sea is stuffed outside.

Grandpa and Lu Yu first desperately plunged into the big lake and took a refreshing bath, and then drank the salty lake water.

These days, drinking bitter water and chewing dried meat along the way, the two young men who were originally like Yushu in the wind have turned into bearded people with frosty faces and red sauce skin.

After going ashore, they also deliberately took out clean clothes and deliberately decorated them, hoping that when they entered Loulan City, they would not be called Huazi as a begging for food, and they would be driven out by the guards guarding the gate.

In addition, I heard that the beauties of the Western Regions in Loulan are very beautiful, and the grandfather who has been born in the past twenty years is a young master, of course, he doesn't want to miss such a good opportunity.

The grief of having just lost a companion has been replaced by the curiosity of youth.