In a daze, Wang Junlin heard a girl's scream that resounded through the sky, he knew that it was the cry of Su Jingxiang's little maid and little fish, the little lynx got up suddenly, and Wang Junlin also sat up.

The cute little maid was obviously born in the Western Regions, why is it called Xiao Yu'er, this Wang Junlin doesn't know, but he knows that this little fish must have screamed because he saw eight corpses at the door of the tent.

Wang Junlin guessed that this little girl might be frightened. But when he got out of the tent, he found that the little maid was not as unbearable as he imagined, and after being startled, he bravely ran into the tent to protect his young lady and escaped, and then he may have been told the truth by the young lady, and began to serve his young lady to fetch water and wash, but he was a little scared when he looked at Wang Jun again.

Xiao Yu'er was born in the land of tigers and wolves in the Western Regions, although she has never killed anyone since she was a child, but it is not once or twice that she has witnessed other people's murder and dead corpses, which can be seen from her performance when the horse thief came yesterday. Even Wang Junlin found out yesterday that Xiao Yu'er and their young lady Su Jingxiang can both ride horses and shoot arrows, which is still a little different from the delicate eldest ladies of the Central Plains family.

Next to the nine corpses, Wang Junlin, Su Jingxiang, and Xiao Yu'er ate dry food, and after helping the little lynx to feed, Wang Junlin began to dress up Su Jingxiang and Xiao Yu'er.

The two girls had rouge cosmetics on their bodies, which happened to be used by Wang Junlin, and what surprised Wang Junlin even more was that they each brought a set of men's clothes. After Wang Junlin asked, he learned that this was prepared by Su Jingxiang when she escaped from Shazhou City before, but they escaped from Shazhou City and before they could use it, they were found by the head of the Su family, that is, Su Jingxiang's father Su Beitian, and forcibly sent them back.

More than an hour later, a big man took two handsome young people, each riding a horse, leading a yellow sheep, and set off with a little lynx in his arms. They abandoned the carriage because it was the carriage of the Su family with a sign on it.

After walking for most of the day, in the evening, after a long journey, Wang Junlin and his entourage finally arrived at the important town of the Western Regions - Shazhou City (later Dunhuang).

Geographically, Shazhou City is indeed very dangerous, north of the Tianshan Mountains, dangerous rocks and strange rocks, dangerous and unclimbable; The south is close to the river of Qiulai, because of tens of thousands of years of river erosion, the river valley is dozens of zhang deep, one or two miles wide, the water flow at the bottom of the valley is turbulent, the knives on both sides of the river are cut and the axe is sharpened, only the birds can pass through. Further southeast, there is the frozen Qilian Mountain.

From the foot of the Tianshan Mountains to the valley of the river, but ten miles, is the narrowest place at the west end of the corridor, as long as it occupies and chokes this place, it can be attacked, and it can be defended when retreating, not only the three counties of Zhangye, Wuwei and Xiping are stable, but the central and western regions of the entire corridor can be guaranteed, this is the key to the west of the Hexi Corridor, and the pass can be basically guaranteed.

Therefore, after the Great Sui captured the three counties of Zhangye, Wuwei and Xiping last year, the Sui Emperor and the imperial court had already begun to plot Shazhou City for most of the year. In the sand table of the Hexi Corridor made by the latter, Yu Juluo and Wang Junlin, the governor of Yongzhou, did not hesitate to deduce and discuss strategies and tactics such as how to take Shazhou City without being besieged by Tuyuhun and the Western Turks.

Therefore, if he watched Shazhou City fall into the hands of King Tuyuhun Bailan right now, Wang Junlin would be a little unwilling. It's just that he can't do anything for a while at this time, all he can do is to destroy the marriage between King Bailan and the Su family first, and then sneak into the city to find out the specific situation.

The city wall of Shazhou City is three zhang and five, into a square shape, and the circumference is ten miles of road. There are 30,000 households in the city, with a population of 100,000, which is already a big city in the Western Regions, much larger and more prosperous than Gaochang City and Gaotai City.

After paying the city gate tax, Wang Junlin took the slightly nervous Su Jingxiang and Xiao Yu'er into the city, and arranged for the two of them to live in a relatively remote inn.

The ethnic groups in Shazhou City are very mixed, with the Han people, Rouran people and Xianbei people being the most, in addition to the Tuyuhun people, Turkic people, Tubo people, Qiang people and so on. These people make a living in this city, and under the maintenance of the Su family, the Rouran people, and the Xianbei Murong clan, they are generally safe and sound, and there is a preliminary order. The three factions divided the city into three parts, each patrolling its own territory with cavalry to maintain law and order.

Near the commercial square in the south of Shazhou, there is a civilian settlement area called Shajia Lane. This is the junction of the three forces, the dragon and snake are mixed, the people are chaotic, the public security is very poor, the street fights and brawls are just a common thing, there are often people who kill people on the street, but because the cost of living here is cheap, so it is still quite lively, those small traders who do not have much capital, take all kinds of risks, or find a reliance, so they set up some storefronts on this street, and started a sitting business.

This place is not as good as the main street in Shazhou, selling all daily necessities, the price is cheap, and the quality is naturally not too good. The sixth shop, which walks from the west, is such an ordinary place. The shop is an old shop, and the guy is an old man, but the shopkeeper is the new shopkeeper who just transferred the shop to his hand half a year ago.

This shop is the same as the shop used by Gaochang Cheng Wusan and others to hide, it is a weapons shop, and the weapons are made on the blacksmith site in the backyard shop, the workmanship is rough, but the price is cheap, and generally some soldiers of great value will not buy this weapon.

Fortunately, there are always a few rich people, so this armory shop without even a signboard can survive. But I didn't dare to hire more people, the blacksmith was the shopkeeper, in his forties, and there was another helper and a man, and no one else.

There were no customers today, so the shopkeeper moved a wooden chair and sat at the door of the store and watched the various hurried pedestrians outside the shop in a daze.

The guy in the shop is called an old guy because he has been working in the shop for a long time, and he was already working here when the previous shopkeeper was there, not because he was old, but actually very young, still a young man in his early twenties.

The old guy recently noticed that the new shopkeeper was often in a daze at the door, or watching the pedestrians coming and going on the street. What is the shopkeeper looking at?

"Shopkeeper, I want to buy weapons." A man stood at the door of the armory, blocking the bright and warm spring sun. The shopkeeper looked up at the visitor, first stunned for a moment, then a little puzzled, but waved his hand and motioned for him to go in by himself.

The man smiled slightly, revealing a very ordinary, but bright-eyed face, smiled, walked into the shop, and said to the old fellow who was yawning, "Man, I want to buy a weapon." ”

The old man smiled professionally and said, "What kind of weapons do you want to buy, we only have all kinds of knives in our shop, and there are only a few swords and bows and arrows. However, the knives in our store are all made by our shopkeeper himself, and although they look rough, they are very practical and cheap. ”

The man said, "Give me nine long knives, four short knives, two daggers, and a hard bow, and a sword, and give me the word king engraved on the scabbard and the scabbard. In addition, I have to customize twenty knives. ”

As soon as the old man heard about such a big business, he replied fluently: "Okay, you can pick as you like, after you pick it, our shopkeeper will naturally engrave it for you, what kind of knife to customize, and we will talk to our shopkeeper later." ”

What the old man didn't notice was that the right hand of the shopkeeper sitting outside the shop on the arm of the chair trembled slightly, then got up and walked back to the counter slowly, waved the guy to leave, looked at the guest with a smile on his face, and said, "The amount of money for the goods that the guest wants is not small, how to trade it............ This merchant, let's go into the inner room and talk again! ”

"That's fine." The customer said with a smile.

The old shopkeeper told the man to watch outside, and led the guest into the back room.

The customer who bought weapons was naturally dressed up by Wang Junlin, and he followed the shopkeeper into the back room, only to find that this was completely different from the joint location he imagined, and it was actually clear and bright.

There was no tea, no hustle and bustle, the shopkeeper stared at Wang Junlin's eyes, and the doubts in his shrewd little eyes were even heavier, he looked at the person in front of him like his own lord, but obviously not, and finally with a hint of caution, he said: "The guest is from Gaotai City?" ”

Wang Junlin nodded.

The old shopkeeper made a gesture of please, Wang Junlin nodded with satisfaction, he used to do business in the Western Regions, and there were shops in cities like Shazhou and Gaochang City, and it was also the base he used to find out the news, and it was also the prototype of his preparation for the development of the intelligence system organization in the future, so from the very beginning he set extremely strict intelligence management regulations, and the code of this set of joints just now was stipulated by him, although it was cumbersome but it could ensure that nothing went wrong.

It was only at this time that the armory shopkeeper confirmed the identity of the other party, and the whole person completely relaxed and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

This shopkeeper is actually a blacksmith among the more than 200 craftsmen of all colors that Wang Junlin took in more than half a year ago, because he is cautious and bold and careful, so he was arranged by Wang Junlin to be in charge of the intelligence base here in Shazhou City. It's just that Wang Junlin's disguise skills are really superb, and he hasn't seen Wang Junlin for a long time, so he didn't recognize it for a while.

The shopkeeper looked at Wang Junlin and said, "Your Excellency was sent by the martial arts steward?" ”

Wang Junlin smiled, shook his head and said, "I wasn't sent by Wu Si, can't Liu Lao hear my voice?" ”

The shopkeeper's face changed slightly, now Wu Si is the big butler in Wang Junlin's mansion, and all the business and intelligence bases are taken care of by him, it can be said that he is in a high position in Wang Junlin's private forces, and people from Gaochang City dare to call Wu Si's name, except for Wu San, there is only Wang Junlin.

PS: In the new week, ask for support, ask for monthly passes, ask for collections, ask for recommendations————