Amaraham's head was suspended from a corner of the Seva watchtower. That's where Asana had seen Yao Ping find the caravan.

Lake Seva under the watchtower is as sparkling as it has been for thousands of years, but the Seva tribe on its shore is now a fragmented and ruined scene.

While they routed the remnants of the Seva and wiped out the herdsmen near the Seva, more than half of the inhabitants of the Seva Oasis fled in all directions.

"Report to the general, the troops have all been stationed. The 1st Cavalry Battalion yesterday plundered more than 800 camels in the northwest of the oasis. ”

"Got it, go and call Cao Yan over to me." Xi Lie stood in the tent of Chief Seva and said to the captain who came to report.

After a long time, the tent curtain rolled up, and Xi Lie thought it was Cao Yan coming, but saw that it was Shao Jun who came to the chief's tent.

Shao Jun asked when he saw Xi Lie, "General Xi, do you know all about the original construction works of Seva?" ”

Xi Lie nodded, "I've seen it all." ”

"Hmm." "I think it's a little short and broken, but we can still build a fortress that meets our needs." ”

Xi Lie nodded thoughtfully, he thought for a moment and then asked Shao Jun, "I wonder if the court envoy can design a towering beacon here?" ”

"Design Beacon?" Shao Jun thought for a while and asked, "Yes, but in the beacon to be connected in order to transmit information over a long distance, what is the use of us building a beacon in this Seva?" ”

"Didn't the governor discuss the matter with the court envoy?" Xi Lie turned to say, "After the governor conquers Kava, he will also build a beacon there. ”

"General Wei Wushuang had already mentioned this to me at Yaoshan Pass before, but do you know that just by establishing a beacon connection to Yaoshan Pass from here, it will take at least thirty or more to ensure the effective transmission of information." Shao Jun said, "This kind of work is by no means able to be completed in a short period of time, and it requires a very large number of people." ”

"Ben will know..."Xi Lie was about to speak thoughtfully, but saw that Cao Yan suddenly arrived at this time and stepped into the tent.

"General, Imperial Envoy." After Cao Yan entered the account, he greeted Xi Lie and Shao Jun respectively.

Seeing Cao Yan coming, Xi Lie turned to him and asked, "Vice General Cao, what happened to what the general had arranged for you to do?" ”

"General, the last general is doing it." Cao Yan clenched his fists and lowered his head and said, "Most of the remaining residents of this Seva Oasis are women, children, old and young, I'm afraid it's for a while."

"Hmm." Xi Lie waved his hand, and then said to Shao Jun, "Shao Ting's envoy, most of the residents of the Seva Oasis have run away, and some of the ones who dared to resist have been killed, and the remaining part, I don't know if you can use it for other purposes?" ”

Shao Jun couldn't help but be stunned when she heard Xi Lie say this, she hesitated for a moment and said, "It's useful, building a walled city in the desert Gobi is not as good as Guannei, where there is a lack of wood and it is difficult to ram the earth." I need a lot of people to carry sand and rubble to build the fortress, and if I have one more person to help, the fortress can be completed a day earlier. ”

"Hmm." After hearing Shao Jun's words, Xi Lie glanced at the messenger sitting in the corner next to him, and then said, "Send the message." ”

After the messenger prepared the paper and ink, Xi Lie said in a loud voice, "Wei Wushuang, the general of the chariot cavalry, and the last general Xi Lie have conquered Seva, and the army is stationed here. At present, the residents of Seva are less than forty percent, and now it is known that the imperial court envoy Shao Jun needs a lot of labor to build a city here, so the remaining residents are temporarily sent to Shao Ting's envoy for deployment for construction. The last general will be arbitrary, and when the city is built, the rest of the Sevans will be expelled from the country. ”

After Shao Jun heard Xi Lie's words, she suddenly had an epiphany in her heart, she thought, it turned out that Xi Lie couldn't bear to blindly expel and slaughter the women and children who slaughtered Seva, so he used the banner of her imperial envoy to report to Wei Wushuang, and saved a large number of women and children here. Shao Jun looked at Xi Lie, she suddenly felt that he was wise and brave and not lose the style of a gentleman, she looked at him and nodded lightly and smiled.

"General..."Cao Yan was surprised by Xi Lie's speech, and he asked, "General, then the task you ordered the last general..."

"You can do it yourself." Xi Lie said.

"Yes, General." Cao Yan said, "Then the general will go." ”

After Cao Yan left, Xi Lie turned to Shao Jun and asked, "Envoy Shao, regarding the matter of the beacons we discussed just now, how many manpower do you think will be needed to build the more than thirty beacons connected to Yaoshan Pass from here?" ”

"It depends on what regulations the general needs and how long it will take to build." Shao Jun said.

"Within half a year." Xi Lie said, "Each beacon fort should also be able to accommodate at least 20 days of food reserves for 5,000 soldiers and 5 days of food reserves for 20,000 soldiers. ”

Shao Jun said after thinking for a while, "It seems that the general is not only going to build an ordinary beacon, but also to connect the beacons into a supply line. ”

Xi Lie smiled and said, "I don't know how many people the court envoy estimates will be needed to do this in half a year?" ”

"At least fifteen thousand." Shao Jun said, "Thirty beacons started construction at the same time, and each construction site had hundreds of laborers. This is not counting the personnel who transport grain to them, if the normal proportion is to be viewed, the entire project wants to be completed quickly within half a year, when there are more than 20,000 deployable laborers. ”

"Okay, even if it's 30,000." Xi Lie nodded and said, "At that time, I will ask the court envoy to be sold." ”

Looking at Xi Lie's confident appearance, Shao Jun asked in confusion, "The general said so, when there are 30,000 laborers?" ”

"Don't say 30,000, there will be 300,000." Xi Lie said.

"What does the general mean?"

"Soon, the people of Gwangju will come here from their hometown in the East one after another." Xi Lie said.

"There is such a thing..."Shao Jun asked in surprise, "Could it be that the Imperial Court and Shaoguang Prefecture are going to forcibly relocate those people who have been affected by the disaster?" ”

"It's not compulsory, it's just that for those people who have lost their land by the sea and don't have the money to buy land in other states, the royal court and the state government will guide them to move to the Western Regions." Xi Lie said, "When they come here, not only will the imperial court and the state capitals of various ways give them help on the way here, but also after coming here, the imperial court and the governor will also give them great assistance and support. ”

Shao Jun pondered for a while after hearing Xi Lie's words, and then nodded lightly and said, "In the face of a large number of people who have been invaded by the sea and lost their land, this is also a good way. It's just that I don't know if it's easy for the people to accept the reality of leaving their homeland and moving to another land. ”

"This kind of thing must be difficult for the people to accept for a while, but in order to live, they have to do it." Xi Lie said, "In order to enable the people to live here in peace and reduce their longing for their hometown, the imperial court and the governor have ordered the names of all the tribes in the Khaldo Desert to be changed. ”

"Name change?" Shao Jun asked puzzled, "What does that mean?" ”

"The city of Kawa, which the governor is about to conquer, will be renamed the city of the Illusory Sun, which is completely submerged by the sea, and here in Seva, it will be renamed Qingfu." Xi Lie said, "The intention of the imperial court and the state government to do this is to hope that the people who have lost their land in the two places of Huanyang and Qingfu can treat this place as their hometown, and also hope to increase the sense of identity of the people of the whole empire with this land." ”

Shao Jun nodded, and after a moment of silence, she said softly, "For the sake of the land that the people rely on for survival, Iluo, who has never liked to conquer, will inevitably want to occupy other people's land and expel others from their homeland. ”

"Your Excellency, I don't think that this is someone else's homeland in the Western Regions." Xi Lie said, "As a clerk of the imperial court, you should also know that my Yiluo royal Ji clan moved east from the Western Regions to the foot of Qishan under the leadership of Gu Gong's father, and then attacked the previous dynasty. ”

"Father Gu, come to the court. Rate the West Water Margin, as for Qixia. Shao Jun said, "I know all this, could it be that what the general wants to say is that the location of the Western Regions, even outside the Yaoshan Pass, should have been my Yiluo's homeland?" ”

"Exactly." Xi Lie said, "The general thinks that everything that the Bai Ling Army and the Shaking Light Army have done is just to recover the homeland that has been lost for thousands of years. ”

Shao Jun thought for a while and said in a low voice, "If the general thinks so, it is not bad for the soldiers to find a moral excuse to go out to fight. ”

"Senior sister, there is no shortage of sand in this oasis, but the wood nearby is too scarce." Wei Wanxing and Shao Jun walked by Lake Seva and said to her.

"It's hard to build a high wall with just sand and gravel." Shao Jun said as he leaned over and placed a marker stake on the ground.

Wei Wanxing said after wrapping the alignment around the stake, "Yes, senior sister, we can't even erect scaffolding. I wonder if you can bring some timber here from Yaoshan Pass? ”

"It is not practical to transport timber for construction, although Xi Lie captured a lot of camels in this campaign, but those camels mainly have to be used to travel to and from Yaoshan Pass and here, responsible for transporting grain and grass." Shao Jun said as he took a small shovel from his waist and scooped up a small pile of sand on the sandy soil of the oasis.

Looking at Shao Jun who was shoveling up the sand, Wei Wanxing asked, "Senior sister, I heard that there is a river on the other side of Kava, so there should be more wood over there, right?" Can you let Xi Lie write to Wei Wushuang and ask him to bring some wood, in this case, the way to transport the wood is much closer than from Yaoshan Pass. ”

"It's hard to get the timber over there for the time being, Wanxing." Shao Jun patted the sand with a small shovel, and then said, "Wei Wushuang is now leading the Shaking Light army to besiege Kawa City, and the timber near it must have been cut down by the Shaking Light Army in large quantities to prepare siege equipment. ”

"Senior sister, then what method should we use to build the city?" Wei Wanxing asked.

Shao Jun untied the water bladder on her waist and poured some water on the sand mound she had just patted, she looked at the sand mound that had collapsed slightly due to water absorption and said to Wei Wanxing, "Mix Sanhe soil." ”

"Sanhe soil.." Wei Wanxing looked around at the shore of Lake Seva after thinking about it, and then muttered, "Then you need to find clay, I don't know where you can dig up such clay around here..."

Wei Wanxing was looking for a search when he suddenly saw a black horse running slowly from a distance and came to the shore of Lake Seva to drink. Looking at the black military horse, Wei Wanxing couldn't help but speak, "Senior sister, look, there is a horse without a saddle on the shore of the lake, he is completely black, and no one rides, it was a wild horse at that time, how about I go and put it on?" ”

Shao Jun got up and looked at the horse that Wei Wanxing was pointing to, and then said, "How can a military horse run in this desert Gobi for no reason?"

"Maybe the Caldons lost it." Wei Wanxing said.

"The horse is handsome, but it looks a little embarrassed." Shao Jun continued.

"That's right, if it's not embarrassed, I may not be able to trap it." Wei Wanxing said that he was about to go to the horse.

"Wanxing, that horse still looks a little bit like... Your Senior Brother Pei Xia's Xuanji?" Shao Jun said as he watched the horses take a few steps forward.

"Senior sister, do you miss Senior Brother Pei Xia?" Wei Wanxing said, "How could Xuanji be here?"

Without waiting for Wei Wanxing to finish speaking, Shao Jun dropped the tools in his hand and ran quickly towards the black horse by the lake.

"Xuanji!"

Shao Jun recognized the dark horse as soon as he ran closer. "Xuanji" also seemed to recognize Shao Jun, and it did not dodge Shao Jun who ran over, but stood in place and waited for her to approach him.

Shao Jun immediately shouted its name excitedly after approaching "Xuanji" and stroked its jaw and neck. After stroking for a while, Shao Jun turned to look around and searched for Pei Xia's figure.

"Pei Xia..?" Shao Jun looked around, but she found that there was no one else except a group of Bai Ling soldiers washing their blood-stained military clothes by the lake in the distance, and she shouted the name on her lips, and finally turned to whispering because she had no goal.

"It's really Xuanji?" Wei Wanxing came quickly, and he asked Shao Jun excitedly, "Senior Sister, Senior Brother Pei Xia is back?" ”

"I haven't seen him yet." Shao Jun said and looked around again, and finally she simply rode to the "Xuanji" to search nearby, but after riding and searching for a while, Shao Jun still did not find any trace of Pei Xia.

When Shao Jun slowly dismounted from the back of "Xuanji", Wei Wanxing saw that her eyes were full of sadness.

"Senior Brother Pei Xia, will he go to the barracks, I'll go find it for you, Senior Sister." Wei Wanxing looked at Shao Jun, who looked a little lonely, and said.

Shao Jun gently stroked the back of the horse of "Xuanji", she was about to open her mouth to speak to Wei Wanxing, but suddenly saw that there was a small tube with a strange shape tied to the root of Xuanji's horsetail.

Shao Jun immediately untied the small sac from the ponytail of "Xuanji", she took the small sac in her hand and looked at it, and then pulled out the capsule with force. Flipping the small sac, Shao Jun poured the small sac into the palm of his hand, and the end of a paper roll was exposed in the small sac.

After pulling the paper roll out of the small sac and unfolding it, Shao Jun was surprised to see that the paper roll was densely covered with Pei Xia's handwriting.

The moment he saw this letter, Shao Jun already felt very bad. She controlled her emotions and read the letter repeatedly for a long time, but finally quietly shed tears as she looked at the letter.

After Shao Jun read the letter with tears in his eyes, Wei Wanxing slowly asked, "Senior sister, you... Brother Pei, he.."

"He can't come." Shao Jun wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with a handkerchief, and then said to Wei Wanxing, "He was caught by the Yasuor. ”

"Huh..? Brother Pei, he..."

"In order to investigate Azor thoroughly, he rushed to the place where they had devoted their entire nation to building a huge building." After being silent for a while, Shao Jun looked at "Xuanji" and said to Wei Wanxing in a low voice.

"Senior sister, don't be sad, senior brother, he was just arrested, right? He's life-free, and with his skills, he'll be back." Wei Wanxing immediately comforted Shao Jun first.

"He was deliberately captured by the Atholls." Shao Jun sighed lightly, and then said.

"Senior Brother Pei Xia, he was arrested on purpose? Senior sister, why is that? Wei Wanxing asked after waiting for Shao Jun to further calm down.

"Pei Xia said in the letter that he thought it was strange that the Yasol people had used tens of thousands of laborers to build the building, and that the main structure of the tower was filled with huge stones, except for a part of the center of the tower, which was separated." Shao Jun whispered, "He wants to find out what the Athore people built this giant tower for. ”

"What's the use..... Wei Wanxing thought for a moment and said, "What can a solid building do?" Nothing more than an imperial mausoleum .. Or maybe it's a monument? Why is Senior Brother Pei Xia so obsessed with investigating Qing? ”

"There is no afterlife in the Yasol culture, and their emperors never built mausoleums." Shao Jun said, "Their monuments were never built in the form of towers, but in the shape of doors. The Athors seldom did this kind of fearless work, and they had always been keen to conquer cities and conquer all directions. ”

"So...," Wei Wanxing thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that the building, as those rumors say, is really a building that can cause the sea of other countries to rise?" ”

"Wanxing, do you also believe that nonsense?" Shao Jun looked at Wei Wanxing and said, "Pei Xia's letter also said that he also went to investigate the southern coast of Azor, where they were also attacked by the sea, and many Assor people were displaced. ”

"Ah, this ....." Wei Wanxing was surprised for a moment and didn't know what to say.

"Pei Xia thinks that the tower hides a huge secret that no one knows." Shao Jun said, "This time, he vowed to find out." ”