The two men packed up their belongings and led the three remaining horses and horses to the gate of the city.

Suddenly, Grandpa Lu Yu pointed to the blood-colored Hun chasing wind flag on the city gate, and shouted in horror: "Huns! ”

Grandpa also followed closely and saw the unique scimitar of the Hun cavalry carried by the soldiers defending the city.

It seems that the country of Loulan has been occupied by the Huns, and going back to the city at this time is tantamount to a moth to a fire.

The two of them turned their horses' heads in a panic, left this place of right and wrong, and galloped southwest along the poplar forest on the coast of Puchang.

Fortunately, the Huns were stationed in Loulan City and its surroundings, and they never met the devil's army in the eyes of the Han people in other areas.

Since the final destination of their trip is the country of Rouran south of the Green Ridge, they will continue to advance southwest along the Peacock River, and they will be greeted by another formidable sea of Huanglong sand.

Such a seemingly calm desert is already an invisible Yama in the eyes of Grandpa.

The fickle black storm and the moving sand dunes are truly unpredictable and unstoppable by human power.

According to the sheepskin roadmap, the next oasis will be the Khotanese kingdom in the Khotanese Valley, the most powerful kingdom of the Western Regions.

Before he was separated, the leader of the Samarkand caravan told him that the kingdom was now a form of Mahayana Buddhism that had been passed down from the kingdom of Tianzhu, from the king down to the common people.

Every household here is dedicated to the Buddha to eat and fast, and compassion is cherished, so it is also an ideal place to live in troubled times.

There was no way back, and the two of them could only continue along the old rutted road between Puchanghai and the edge of the desert.

Along the way, they did not encounter the terrible Yellow Dragon again, but an even more terrible thing befell them, and they lost their way.

On a summer afternoon, a mirage oasis suddenly appears in the depths of the desert, and the two men can clearly see the poplar forest, the clear lake, and the herds of alpacas grazing by the lake.

"Young master, look! We're here! Khotan! Grandpa Lu Yu danced happily, spread his horse's hooves and galloped away in the direction of the oasis.

Grandpa, who had no experience of "mirage", also happily followed, thinking that the months of suffering and marching were finally over.

The oasis in front of you seems to be right in front of you, but you can't get anywhere.

By dusk, both men and their mounts had fallen from exhaustion on the slope of a sand dune.

The oasis illusion at sunset has disappeared without a trace, only an endless sea of sand that has been dead for thousands of years.

The trail of chasing the phantom has long been buried by the flowing sand, and the original path can no longer be found.

An unprecedented cool air rose from the lower part of his backbone, and Grandpa couldn't help but shiver.

In his early years in his hometown in Jincheng County, he heard countless stories from passing caravans about getting lost in the Huanglong Sand Sea.

And there is only one ending, which is death. Either starve to death or die of thirst, and some cowards will be scared to death by their own fears.

Fortunately, before entering the desert, the two of them had prepared enough drinking water, and they were both newborn calves who were not afraid of tigers.

So Grandpa and Jia Ding Lu Yu didn't think about it so much, and after a short rest, the two set up a tent to prepare dinner.

Even if you die now, you have to eat and sleep enough, and all the troubles will be talked about after dawn.

Fortunately, in the Western Desert in summer and autumn, it is a sunny and cloudless day during the day.

Grandpa also learned from a big food merchant the general way to find directions in the heart of the desert.

At noon in this season, the place where the figure of the person falls is the north, and the corresponding place is the south.

Since the country of Rouran is in the south, as long as they keep walking south, there will always be a day when they will get out of the desert.

In this way, the grandfather and their master and servant walked and trekked in the desert of the Western Regions for more than a month.

All the food and water had been exhausted, and all the horses that accompanied them had been slaughtered, and the eating of raw horse meat and thirst for horse blood had been delayed for some time.

When the two of them were completely exhausted and about to sit still, one morning they faintly heard the sound of distant goats chirping.

It is said that when a person is about to die, it is also the time when his sensory system is most sensitive and developed, and at this time he can hear voices beyond the horizon and see the end of the sky.

The two of them quickly stood up with each other's arms, and staggered towards the place where the sheep crowed.

The first thing they saw was a poplar forest as far as the eye could see, then countless cattle and sheep grazing on the pastures on the edge of the desert, and then they saw the blue waters of the clear wind and the great lake.

The kingdom of Khotan has finally arrived! The ecstasy of the rest of his life after the catastrophe made Grandpa Bu and Lu Yu The two young people suddenly came to their senses and rushed towards the big lake.

Just as they were happily bathing in the blue waves of the great lake, an old herdsman who was grazing cattle next to them forced them up with a long lasso.

Then, the bronzed-skinned, white-bearded old man explained to them in a local dialect they couldn't hear.

Later, my grandfather finally understood what he meant, and he was full of gratitude.

The old man of the other race told them that the two of them, who had been hungry and thirsty for a long time, must not drink too quickly after the first encounter with the sweet spring, otherwise they would blow up their hearts and lungs.

He also gave an example of a survivor who had just come out of the desert in the past, and after seeing the Qingfeng Ze Great Lake, he was like them, and had a cow drink without scruples.

Then just listen to the sound of "touch", and the person's life is over.

The old man also gave them a few pieces of naan, and after drinking water and food, Grandpa and Lu Yu finally came back to life.

Thanks to the old shepherd who had never lived in his life, the two washed their clothes by the lake and hung them on the branches of the poplar trees to dry.

Then, facing the mirror-like lake, he shaved off the savage-like hair with the blade of his dagger.

Grandpa, who was born in a wealthy family and grew up in fine clothes and fine food, doesn't want to appear in front of the world like an unkempt beggar.

After taking a bath and cleaning up, the two of them walked around the lake and carefully observed the entire exterior of the royal city of Khotan.

To the surprise of the grandfather, in a clearing on the shore of the big lake, they saw a huge bluestone monument engraved with Chinese characters.

Only then did they know that the big lake in front of them had a very poetic name, called "Qingfengze".

Hundreds of years ago, the military horses of the Han family came to this place and became the masters of this kingdom for a time.

"Lu Yu, let's not go to Rouran Country, let's settle down here!"

"Young master, there won't be Huns here, right?" Lu Yu asked worriedly.

In the eyes of grandpa, the relationship between him and Grandpa Lu Yu is no longer a master-servant relationship, and they have long become brothers who share life and death.

"Even if there are really these Huns, I won't leave! It is better to die of thirst and starvation in the desert than to die under someone's knife! Grandpa said unquestionably.

Before the two entered the royal city, the grandfather specially dug a deep pit behind the "Qingfengze" stone tablet and buried the hundreds of taels of golden sand he carried with him in it.

When this property was about to die of thirst and exhaustion in the desert, he was not willing to abandon it, this is all the family wealth of the Jincheng Yi clan to revitalize the court in the future!