The great war was raging ahead, and the Roman church became a temporary ambulance.

From above, from time to time, horse-drawn wagons loaded with wounded soldiers galloped from the direction of the Gambisi Pass in the northeast, crossed the pontoon bridge tied with logs on the river, and stopped in the square outside the church.

The pontoon bridge was the only way to cross the long river, and on the other side of the bridge was a large stone checkpoint, on which four or five lightly armored guards were standing, staring at the river.

"Young lord, this river is called the Tigris, and it is the boundary river between Rome and Sassanid Persia! I was here 20 years ago! On the other side of the river the guards were the tax cards, and the Roman tax system was paid per capitation! Wherever there are ferries, mountain passes, and bridgeheads, there are tax cards! Hehe, let's go too! ”

Hesrul pointed to the river and introduced us, and Qingluan had already flown over the river and stood on the spire of the church waiting for us.

"Let's go! Take off all the Zoroastrian ornaments and hang them on the cross! Rome! Here we are! Hahaha! ”

I took off the Zoroastrian eagle badge that Demir had given mere and hung the cross around my neck from the Byzantine priest.

When I finally entered the territory of Rome, I was suddenly inexplicably moved, and the scene of getting along and separating from Amica eight years ago came to me like a tide.

Although time has long passed, this trip to the west not only visits Yamika, an old friend, but also has the important task of finding his father and exploring the way.

But the Roman woman Amika, who opened the door of my love, is a deep concern that I have buried in my heart for a long time.

When we waved goodbye on the edge of the ancient road outside the city of Khotan, she was twelve or thirteen years old, just like my little sister Gulando.

The curly golden hair, the blue eyes, and the graceful posture brought me endless happiness and a beautiful time in the summer and autumn.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but glance at the Gulandot on horseback.

The scorching sun on the Persian plateau had tanned this beautiful tomboy the color of wheat.

"Brother, why do you look at me like this!" Gulando's face smiled in surprise, a shy flush on his face.

"Big brother, what's wrong with you? You girl! Stop being verbose, hurry up and keep up! I pretended to prevaricate with majesty.

Brother Ruhl had already led the way with his horses to the edge of the ferry.

We also dismounted, and Dawan Wuqing, who was leading the pack of goods in one hand, followed him closely.

"No, my brother must be missing his sister-in-law, or he is missing that Miss Amika, a girl from Rome!" Gurando looked back and smiled, mischievous and playful.

In half a year, this lovely little girl has grown into a big girl, her size reaches my shoulders, and her linen coarse robe can't hide her perfect figure.

The short-handled Hun scimitar on her waist was a gift from her grandfather when she returned from Dongtu the year before last, making her charming and heroic.

This little princess who was in trouble in the former Ronglu country came to our Qingfeng Ze Yifu, and in a blink of an eye, ten years have passed, and now she is walking with me on this westward road, providence!

It is a great blessing for me to have such a loyal and capable little sister by my side.

The pontoon bridge is made of logs and countless leather ropes and vines tied together, and it is the same as flat ground except for a slight shaking on it.

Now the Tigris River is the most abundant season of the year, and the current is so strong that I am really worried that the pontoon bridge will suddenly run away with the river if it is not firmly fixed.

So he hurriedly urged Brother Luer and Qin Chong in front of them to speed up, and beckoned Liu Zhen'er, Sha Mihan, and Langton behind them to hurry up and follow.

The checkpoints at the mouth of the river seemed confident in the sturdiness of the pontoon, and a log fence blocked our way.

The Roman guards, with their arms bare, their waists wrapped around their waists, and their shields in hand, did not seem to be interested in where we came from or whether we were spies of the Persian kingdom.

All they do is collect taxes, taxes per capitation!

After a brief exchange with the sergeant of the guard, Hesrul turned to me and smiled: "Young master, fourteen silver coins are taxed!" This guy is talking about horses buying road money! ”

"Tell them I'll give you twenty silver coins! The remaining six bought wine for the commanders, and asked them if they wanted to clear the customs when they walked through Rome! ”

When Hesrul relayed my reply to them in Roman, the sergeants' faces changed dramatically, and they lifted the barricades for us with a smile on their faces, allowing us to pass.

"Brother, it's really rich to make ghosts grind! The Roman soldiers thought we were Egyptians! ”

Gurandot looked back at us and grinned, even though it was Roman with a strong accent, she could still make out the meaning.

"Young master, the military leader said that the Egyptians are also the people of the Roman Empire, and they don't need roads, just pay taxes along the way!" Hesrul replied back.

"Okay, let's go over and talk about it first!"

Feeling that the roaring river under my feet might wash away the pontoon bridge at any moment, I patted the back of the horse in front of me with the scabbard in my hand and urged anxiously.

The Roman sergeant stood respectfully as he passed by, bowing his hand to us.

"Ruhl! We are descendants of the Han people of Khotan, how can these Romans think we are Egyptians? ”

After crossing the river, everyone got back on their horses, and Qin Chong caught up with Hesrul and asked curiously.

"Yes! I didn't care about it before, but now looking at the facial features of you, the young master, and Liu Zhen'er, they are really similar to the Egyptian natives on the Canaan Plain in my hometown! Ha ha! However, they don't have buns, and the clothes they wear are simpler than you Han Chinese! ”

Hesrul exclaimed in surprise as if he had discovered a great secret.

"Looks like an Egyptian? Hehe, this is the first time I've heard of it. Could it be that the descendants of the Yan and Huang of the Han family traveled thousands of miles across the ocean to Egypt thousands of years ago, and established an empire there that is even older than our three emperors and five emperors? Even the Egyptian pharaohs were of the same clan as our Han Chinese? Hehe, how can there be such a strange thing in the world! Unless we Hanmin are really descendants of the gods! ”

After listening to Heslul's introduction, I also thought it was very grotesque.

It can be said that the ancestors of Green Ridge and Daxia have the blood of our Han family, after all, there are records in the history books.

But now it is a bit unbelievable to say that Egypt thousands of miles away still has ethnic groups of the same clan as the Han people, and it seems that our ancestors could not have gone that far a thousand years ago.

"The Egyptians were now also the people of Rome, right? Why don't we just pretend to be there, and we can save a lot of trouble on the rest of the road! Gulando's eyes were full of life, and he reminded on the side.

"Yes, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and we Canaanites were all part of the sixth satrapy of the Persian Empire! Six hundred years ago, Persia declined and gave our land to the Romans to this day! ”

Hessrul sighed.

I'm not interested in dynastic change in this land, but as Qulandall said, we can save a lot of trouble by posing as Egyptians in Roman territory, and that's something I'm willing to accept.

"Qin Chong! Pot helmet! In the next trip, we met the three of us in the checkpoint Tucheng and wrapped up the headscarves and talked less! Ruhl and Gurandot, who know Roman, will open the way! ”

On the way, Liu Zhen'er basically became a stuffy gourd, except for the beautiful women in the wine shop and the big meat of the helmet cake that could arouse his interest.

Immersed in his own things, he is far from the kind of work that he had on the road to Dongtu Jiankang.

We used to be four of us, and we were mixed together all the time.

But now that I've become seven, I've become the leader of the team who has to worry about everything.

Communication with this old fellow was not as frequent as before, and sometimes he could not speak a word for days.

Fortunately, everyone is a brother who has passed his life, and people can just be there.

"Young master! It's as hot as a stove on this day, and a turban can't be a steamer! Ruhr, what is the Egyptian's hairstyle? Liu Zhener asked.

"Egyptian men, as far as I know, many are bald-headed, like Buddhist monks! There are also people like the old buddies of Qishan Racecourse, Mutaniel, who have shoulder-length hair! Nowadays, Egyptian folk hairstyles are mostly from short hair with the Romans! ”

Hesrul said that although he himself had spent so many years in the Western Regions, his living habits and clothing and beard were no different from ordinary Roman men.

"It's definitely not okay to have a bald head, and it's weird to have short hair! Young Lord! If we were dressed as Egyptians, we wouldn't have to wear headscarves! Just put the bundle down and rest a little according to the Egyptian hairstyle! ”

Qin Chong continued.

"This is a very good idea, the body is given to the parents, so that the nourishment and blasphemy of the ancestors can be disguised to protect themselves, so it is decided! Gulando, you're here to do it! ”

As I spoke, I dismounted, sat down on a boulder beside the road, pulled out the hairpin on my head, and my long hair poured down like flowing water.

Gurandot was not polite, he pulled out the sharp waist scimitar, cut my hair in two, and the part below the neck was cut alive, and the top of my head suddenly felt much easier.

The young master took the lead, and it was too late for Qin Chong and Liu Zhen'er to retreat, so they could only stretch their necks obediently and wait for Gu Landuo's crisp and neat knife.

Although I can't see what I look like now, but if I look closely at Qin Chong and Liu Zhen'er, they now have short hair and thick beards, eyes like electricity, wearing Persian linen clothes, summer shoes with toes on their feet, and holding a Persian long knife.

"Brother Ruhr, don't my brother look like Egyptians anymore?"

Gulando asked as he patted the hilt of the scimitar with both hands, looked at the three of us with interest, and laughed.

"When you meet Tucheng ahead, young master, you each buy two sets of summer cotton robes of our Canaanite, just like a fake bag!" Hesrul smirked.

Brother Langton and Shamihan looked at us gloatingly, and were sincerely happy that our three Han Chinese were completely integrated with them, the descendants of the Hu people.

"What is cotton?" I asked, surprised.

"Cotton, like your silkworm cocoon, is widely cultivated in the valleys of these two rivers and on both sides of the Nile, and is used to spin and weave cloth! We Canaanites, Babylonians and Egyptians are simply a piece of cotton cloth in the middle of summer, and we are simply dressed and put on our bodies! Ventilation and sweat absorption, a hundred times cheaper than your eastern soil's thin feather cicada silk, more comfortable than Persian sackcloth, the Romans' felt cloth clothing and cotton clothing compared to the eastern soil is simply like the eastern soil's kudzu clothes to Ayala, the difference between heaven and earth! Hesrul took out his skin and drank a few sips of water.

"There are such amazing crops in the world, then I want to see them!"

Hearing that there is a cloth in this world that rivals the silk of Middle-earth, the master tailor of the ancient landoper is very surprised.

"Yes! At that time, the Roman Empire made many crusades to the east for the silk and spices of the East, the cotton cloth of Babylon, the iron tools of the Persian country, and the papyrus and gold of the Egyptians! ”

The eldest brother of Hesrul of the Canaanite speaks of the anecdotes of his family and country in this land throughout the ages, like a number of treasures.

But for those of us Oriental businessmen, it's a fog.