After leaving the royal city of Khotan, the carriage galloped along the ancient road of poplars on the banks of the Khotan River, all the way to the upper reaches of the river.

It is in summer and autumn, the abundant meltwater of the Kunlun Mountains makes the Khotan River surging, rushing all the way into the embrace of Qingfengze, which is a bit of the momentum of the Yellow River in Jincheng County, his hometown.

After a short rest at a post town along the way, the carriage left the riverbank and headed farther into the verdant terrain that connected to the mountains.

Green Ridge is such a green and verdant highland and mountain field at a glance, and grandpa finally understood the reason why the Han people in China called this area "Green Ridge".

The ancestors of Murong's predecessors came to this Hudi from thousands of miles away, and they still followed the feng shui philosophy of Han residents in choosing their home sites, which made Grandpa very admirable.

"Young master, this place is so beautiful!" Lu Yu's exclamation interrupted his grandfather's thoughts, and he was also shocked by the scenery in front of him.

The carriage was running through a wasteland full of sand, willows, flowers and gravel. On one side is the undulating, magnificent and majestic Kunlun Mountain, and on the other side is the endless, silent Huanglong Sand Sea.

Under the golden sunset, the exotic atmosphere of the desert smoke and the sunset over the long river is blowing in the face.

Grandpa and Lu Yu couldn't help but get up from the carriage and roared at the mountains and the sea of sand, they hadn't been so happy for a long time.

"Descendants, when our Han Dynasty was at its peak, Master Zhang Qian and Master Ban Chao, who were envoys to the Western Regions, all walked on this road! Ay! Who would have thought that the Han people, who are so rich and powerful, and all the countries come to court, would be reduced to the situation of being slaughtered by the Hu people today! It's sad and lamentable! ”

The old man Murong, who was sitting on the side, sighed faintly.

Thinking back to the prosperity of the past, and then looking at today's outlaw world, the mood of the two people suddenly fell down.

Before sunset, the carriage finally drove into Murong Villa.

The entire estate is built on a high granite platform with an unobstructed view of the Khotanese River in the distance.

The walls, watchtowers, dwellings, floors, and furniture are all made of local materials, poplar wood, stone bricks, and huge pebbles from the river.

In terms of architectural style, the general style of Tocharian dwellings is mainly chosen, with flat roofs and ridgeless, ventilated and open. The furnishings in the house completely inherited the general style of the Han land in Longxi.

The men had returned from their work in the river, and were now eating dinner shirtless around a huge stone table in the yard!

Seeing the owner coming, he also brought back two young Han people, and the guys put down the dishes and chopsticks, and surrounded them curiously and enthusiastically.

Most of these people are local Tocharian people, and a few are merchants from the western kingdom of Yunhai and the rest of the countries where the trade route is impassable, and the business fails.

Murong Qiu introduced them to Grandpa and Lu Yu in the local language. Then I told my grandfather the origins, specialties, and names of each guy.

From this day on, Grandpa and Lu Yu settled down in Murong Villa at the foot of Kunlun Mountain.

During this time, he learned all the tricks of identifying the jade and surveying the jade veins from the old housekeeper and the old man Murong Qiu.

The beautiful jade of the Khotanese River has been famous all over the world since ancient times.

Since the time when Pangu opened the world, the melting snow on the Kunlun Mountains has brought countless pieces of rare jade to this land.

Year after year, day after day, layer by layer.

Therefore, during this period, it was not very difficult to mine jade along the Khotan River.

Every year during the wet season, digging a pit in the sand by the river is enough for a dozen people to work for a summer.

During the dry season of the Khotanese River in winter and spring, it is much easier to find it directly in the rubble piles on the riverbed.

Jade is everywhere, but finding those flawless and sufficient jade wool depends on fate and luck.

Master Murong Qiu is picky about the requirements of jade seeds, and every piece of jade polished and carved out in his parents' Anfang is a masterpiece that can be handed down to the world.

The carriages that transport materials in the royal city usually come once a month.

Murong Qiu took a small hammer and beat it for a long time in the pile of jade that his grandfather had worked so hard to bring back.

Or call a few guys, lift up the big stone, and look at the sun to see what is inside.

In the end, the jade materials that Master Murong's carriage transported back to the royal city were less than one percent of the ones they picked.

In the eyes of Master Murong, the rest are all worthless defective products.

Grandpa, they still have to work hard to transport these stones to the jade mountain next to them.

What a veritable "Jade Mountain"!

Next to Murong Villa, the stone materials that have been accumulated from secondary materials and waste materials have become a big mountain bag.

Under the sunlight of the sunny day, it emitted a dazzling light that could be seen from far away from the royal city.

"Little brother, don't feel distressed, the jade industry is like this, it's better to lack than to overuse! In previous years, when the Taiping New Year Jingjing Commercial Road was smooth, the price of a large item in our Chang'an Fang was enough for us to eat for many years! ”

Looking at the look of pity on his grandfather's face, the old housekeeper was relieved that in the eyes of these old fellows, this was already a sparse and ordinary thing.

At that time, the Murong family of Wuwei County had prospered in the jade business for dozens of generations, and it seemed that it was not in vain.

The reason why Master Murong Qiu was able to gain a foothold in this distant Western Regions royal city was because of his ancestral ability to identify beautiful jade.

The jade wool that can enter his eyes is the best of the best, and no one in the entire Khotan country can match such a unique skill.

When I first arrived at Murong Villa, the old guys were a little bullied, and these tall and strong men in the Western Regions didn't take Grandpa and Lu Yu seriously at all.

In their opinion, these two young men from Middle-earth were the little Huazi that Master Murong accepted with kindness, and they were only worthy of doing some work to wash their feet.

So in the beginning, everyone could call them at will, and they could have fun with them if they had nothing to do.

A few times he went too far, and Lu Yu couldn't help but break out, but he was pressed down by his grandfather.

The strong dragon does not suppress the landlord, and the newcomers can only show weakness and not be strong.

These people are well-informed guys who have traveled from south to north, and they can't be convinced without real skills.

If they force their actions, although they will be beaten down, they will also lose the hearts of the people, and it will be even more difficult to get along with each other in the future.

In this case, let alone being a foreman, it is difficult for the two of them to gain a foothold in this villa, and they have also failed Master Murong Qiu's hard work.

Therefore, the only thing that grandpa can do is to endure with the smiling face and learn from everyone with an open mind, while waiting for the opportunity to perform.

Finally, once on the Khotanese River beach where jade was mined, such an opportunity finally came.

Among the guys, there is a young man from the country of Rouran, Amir, with blue eyes and brown hair, and infinite strength.

He pointed to a two-hundred-pound oval boulder beside him and gestured to his grandfather and Lu Yu.

Amir meant that the two of them lifted the boulder, and he carried it to the car on the shore alone.

This is not only to show off his strength, but also to embarrass grandpa and them.

Grandpa walked over with a smile, and with a little luck, he easily picked up the boulder, walked slowly back to the shore, and put the stone firmly in the ox cart.

During the whole process, grandpa's face was not red and his heart was not beating, which attracted the applause of all the guys.

They didn't know that the Yi clan of Jincheng County had a tradition of practicing martial arts for hundreds of years, and the family had hired martial arts masters who taught their children kung fu all year round.

Grandpa has been in his teens every day under the guidance of the teacher to lift stone locks and squat horses.

So this kind of hard work of hugging a boulder is not a matter for grandpa at all.

After returning to the villa in the evening, Amir also wanted to challenge his grandfather to test his strength in order to save face during the day.

Grandpa said to the old housekeeper, who was also a Han Chinese: "Grandpa, tell Amir that everyone is a brother together, and whoever hurts everyone is not good." Otherwise, how about I perform a set of Han stick techniques to cheer everyone up? ”

The old butler translated his grandfather's suggestion to everyone, and all the men agreed, squatting or sitting around the stone tables in the courtyard, waiting for his grandfather's performance.

Grandpa found a poplar tree, and after a little processing, it danced like the wind.

Lu Yu, who was familiar with his grandfather's stick method, specially brought a bowl of water and sprinkled it towards his grandfather.

When the waving stick stopped, people were surprised to find that there was not a drop of water on Grandpa's body.

The flying of the sticks formed an impenetrable net, blocking all the clear water from the shadow of the sticks.

Grandpa Lu Yu, who was originally good at shooting, also took advantage of the opportunity to perform the archery technique of piercing Yang in 100 steps for everyone, and won another applause.

The two grandfathers who were young and had such skills completely shocked everyone, and since then everyone has been impressed and convinced by them.

The old housekeeper even boasted that they were the big men who were in trouble, and now they are just tigers falling into Pingchuan, and there will be a day of development in the future.

Since then, grandpa and they have become the right-hand men of the old housekeeper.

In addition to leading everyone to pick jade for Master Murong Qiu, Grandpa also had one more errand.

In his free time, as a leader, he teaches everyone the kung fu of the Han region.

In the more than two years of Murong Villa, Grandpa harvested several of the proudest treasures in his life.

The first is the connections that will survive and develop in the Khotanese kingdom.

The men left Murong Villa one after another, and some returned to their homes, returning to the old business of East-West commerce, and becoming the most loyal group of frequent customers of our Yi's Qingfengze Inn in Khotan.

There are also people who choose to develop in and around the Kingdom of Khotan, and after a few years they became the leading figures in the area, but they always regarded my grandfather as their leader Anda.

In addition, during this time, the extremely clever grandfather learned the native language of the Western Regions, even the Western Kingdom of Yunhai, Sasanian, and Rest, from the other guys.

This provided great convenience for his future career.

Of course, among all these treasures, the most precious should be to marry his lifelong partner, my grandmother, Princess Murong Qionglin.