"Brother, let's hurry up! Grandma, sister-in-law and we agreed on a one-year period, and now more than half a year has passed, and I don't know where the city of Rome is! We won't be able to go home for another three or five years! ”

Holding a white silk scroll, Gulando sat on a large rock on the side of the pass and interrogated as he carefully traced every landmark, mountain peak or river near the Gambisi Pass.

"Yes, young master, it's important to hurry! According to our current itinerary, we don't have at least two years to return to Khotan! A slight delay is three or five years of time, and there are several three or five years in a person's life! ”

Shamihan chimed in as he tightened the leather rope on his horse's back.

"It seems that you still can't get married when you walk the rivers and lakes! I'm really worried about you, old man! Three years later, our sister Yinglan stayed alone in the empty room and couldn't bear the loneliness and ran away with others, what should you do! ”

Qin Chong, who came and went alone, had nothing to worry about, and wantonly made jokes about Shamihan.

"Who dares to mess with my mother-in-law, Lao Tzu will go back and destroy his whole family in the future!"

Shamihan, who has always been honest and generous, was crowned by Qin Chong's anger, and the beautiful Yinglan Lille was his only relative and concern in this world.

If there is really any disciple who dares to peep at his wife, the three-foot long knife in the old man's hand is not a vegetarian.

Seeing that the old man who was pulling out the mountain was really enraged, Qin Chong was so frightened that he stopped talking and buried his head in beating his leggings.

The three brothers, Qin Chong, Sha Mihan, and Liu Zhen'er, can no match Sha Mihan in terms of their ability to fight alone.

"The old man is angry, Qin Chong, this kid is just underbeaten! Rest assured! Yinglan Lille is in my house, and it will be absolutely fine with my grandma and Kuzhina! Hahaha! ”

The subordinates turned their faces, and only I, the young master, came forward to reconcile.

"The villain just spoke! Please forgive me, young master! Shamihan bowed respectfully to me and reproached himself.

"What a big deal! Hehe, I listen to everyone! Let's go! ”

As they spoke, everyone had changed into tight-fitting and thick mountain autumn clothes, and under the guidance of Hessrul, they headed into the depths of the rolling mountains to the west.

Perhaps the Cambyses Emperor of that year was the same as the Qin Shi Emperor of our Eastern Han Kingdom, so happy and happy to levy it.

The ancient road that runs through the mountains at your foot is so wide that the horses and carts carrying heavy loads can live on it.

So our two horses drove through here side by side, and it was even more like walking on a flat river.

Such a horse road connecting the east and west of the Persian Empire must have taken millions of manpower to build it over the years.

It is very similar to the Qin and Han Chi roads leading from Chang'an to the counties in Hexi and Dongtu, and like the plank roads in the mountains of heaven that connect Longdi and Xichuan.

During the war, the grain and grass of military horses were transported, and in the era of peace, it was the blood hub of the goods to the world and connecting the country's sergeants, farmers, and industries.

Raise the power of one dynasty to benefit thousands of years, and leave the merits and demerits to be commented on by future generations.

The Zagros Mountains stretch from northwest to southeast, with many folded mountains and numerous ravines and ravines.

The folds and protrusions are either brown bald, red dragon-like mountains, or cloud peaks that have been piled up with snow and ice for thousands of years.

The recessed part is a densely populated oasis in the mountains, or an ancient oak forest that grows here in an unknown year and month.

Towering into the clouds, boundless, the oak forest slope on the high plateau in the East Tuguan is simply Mount Tai compared to here.

Galloping through it is like entering the wild and Hongmeng illusion of Pangu's groundbreaking generation.

Except for the occasional Persian stagecoach who came from afar to pass us along the way, sometimes there was not a single figure in sight all day.

When we encounter a herd of deer and wild sheep migrating through the galloping road to the other side of the jungle valley, we will hunt a few to replenish the day's provisions.

Hessrul tells us that this mountainous area was first owned by the Medes in the valley of the two rivers, and later the rise of the Persian Empire occupied the entire Zagros plateau.

Later, the Roman Empire went east to compete with Persia for world supremacy, and the heroic Alexander the Great led 100,000 Roman horsemen to the east from here and occupied the entire northern part of the Persian Empire.

From the Khorasan region, he bypassed the Karn Mountains and occupied Herat, the western important town of the Great Xia Empire, and finally was invincible all the way along the various mountain passes of the Green Ridge Ice Field, until today, the territory of the Poison Country in the southeast of Fulousha, the new capital of the Kushan Kingdom, stopped the pace of conquest.

A hundred years ago, the remnants of the Persian Empire, the Sassanid kingdom, rose up and gradually regained lost territory, driving the Romans out of the Zagros mountains again.

It's really you singing and I'm on the stage, this Gambisi Pass has been a necessary place for the two great rivals of Persia and Rome to conquer the east and west, and compete for the world.

And a careful study of the history of our Eastern Tuhan Kingdom is also the era of the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons, the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, the Great Qin Iron Cavalry to dominate the world, the Chu and Han dynasties, and the Three Kingdoms.

In this way, no matter what happened, the world at that time was a mess.

So along the way from this ancient road, the imprints left by various imperial dynasties can also be seen everywhere.

The temples of the Medes, the fortresses of the Romans, the cliff carvings left by the Persians on the brown bare cliffs, and the tall mausoleums built of many dark stones.

Buried inside may be some capable ministers who govern the country and heroes in troubled times.

Due to the turmoil and strife over the years, it has also created a strong folk customs here.

Even the shepherds they met by chance on the side of the road seemed to burst out with this terrible murderous aura in their eyes, which made passers-by shudder.

Therefore, even in some flat valleys in the mountains, with indigenous villages or earthen towns, our horse team will not stop for a moment.

Unless we needed to procure supplies, our horse corps would rather spend the night in the wilderness than camp in a populated area during the ten or so days of travel through the Zagros Mountains.

On top of such a dangerous ancient road, in addition to us merchants, there are also monks and saints who preach the word.

On the Green Ridge Ice Plain, we met poisonous monks who were on a mission to the East, and yesterday on a mountain field called the Blue Valley, we met a dozen Christian priests who had come on foot from Constantinople to preach in the East.

He is dressed in black, with a lead-colored cross on his chest and a wooden staff with a cross in his hand.

All of them were ragged and haggard, but their eyes flashed with the glory of sacredness and solemnity, pious and persistent, and they did not look back despite all the hardships.

From the priests, we know that the Roman state today takes Christianity as the state religion, and regards all believers in the world as brothers and sisters, regardless of whether they are high or low, and they are all God's people.

In order to pass through the kingdom of Rome, one must be cared for by Jesus Christ, to whom one needs to give alms, preferably to this religion.

Faith needs to be consistent and cannot be treated with utilitarianism.

We were all devout Buddhists, and we could not temporarily convert to Zoroastrianism because it was beneficial to us, and we could not convert to Christianity because Christians were under the care of God and the king in the Kingdom of Rome.

So I chose to give twenty Sassanid silver coins, and received ten black crosses from the priest who led the process, as a talisman for our journey through Rome.

Ahead of us was a solitary peak, which towered into the sky, and after rounding it, we temporarily entered the territory of the Roman kingdom.

"Venerable emissary of the East, the armies of Persia and Rome outside the mountains are at war! If you are not in a hurry, you can walk south along this valley and find another passage out of the mountain fifty miles to the southeast! May our Lord Jesus bless you! Amen! ”

The leader of the priest with a thick beard and hawk-nosed crossed his hand and introduced us to the road ahead.

The ancient oak forest was so dense that horses carrying skins could not pass through the middle.

Unless we give up all our bags and our mounts on foot, it will be possible to cross such a valley.

Abandoning these silk goods meant that we would have to live by begging or robbing our homes, and there would be no need to go to Rome.

After saying goodbye to the Byzantine priests, the horse team was in a dilemma.

In the end, we gained the upper hand along the current ancient road to the west, and we set up camp at the foot of the mountain, where we planned to spend the night, and then go over the mountain the next day when the people were in good spirits.

The entire valley in the middle of the night was as silent as an ancient tomb, and the sassy mountain wind was mixed with a strong smell of blood, which should be the blood of those soldiers on both sides of the battlefield!

At noon on the second day, we came to the opposite ridge and looked down the hill, and the field in front of an ancient castle was already strewn with corpses, and the wails of the wounded soldiers who had not died were horrible.

Banners, broken darts, bloodstained Persian knives standing among rocks, torn chariots, and whimpering horses.

The few hundred remaining heavily armored sergeants on both sides were still fighting each other, and the screeching of bids across the sky echoed through the valley with the goal of seizing control of the fortress.

Gurandot, who had never seen such a formation, turned pale with fright, and quickly hid behind me.

The horses we stepped on had an inexplicable impulse, neighing at the sky, and kicking the iron hooves restlessly and anxiously.

The exit of the descending ramp is the gate of the castle, so it seems that there is no hope of getting out of the mountain, as the priest said.

"Shamihan and Qin Chong open the way in front! Walk south along the ridge! Liu Zhen'er, we are broken! Gulando, Ruhl, and the three of you are in the middle! ”