Wang Yuan and his entourage rested at the edge of the desert until the end of the desert before stepping into the desert. Although in order to avoid the high temperature of noon, although it is almost evening, the sand in the desert is still hot, and the heat wave is steaming, and people and horses are a little unbearable.

But fortunately, after an hour, the sun is not so hot, and the more it is in the evening, the more you can catch the cold and the heat. The heat rises on the sand, and the cold air in the sky sinks, giving people a strange feeling of being cool for a while and hot for a while, and the lower body is hot and the upper body is cool.

At sunset, the red sunset hangs over the top of the sand dunes in the distance, gilding the sea of sand and the continuous sand dunes with a layer of red edges, and the scene is magnificent and breathtaking.

When resting on the top of a small sand dune, Wang Yuan took his hands to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the sunset, and the poetry was full of excitement, and he chanted: "The vast desert is endless, and the lonely hill is windy on all sides. The horses are on the moraine, and the sun is falling in the sand'. This poem is simple and easy to understand, even these generals and guards around them can understand the poem of Dashuai, and they can't help but praise Dashuai's export of both civil and military. The old guide was also full of praise.

In the short dark time before sunset and moonrise, everyone simply camped and rested. Wang Yuan adopted the old guide's suggestion, since it was almost late March, but the light of the last quarter moon was still bright enough to illuminate at night. To avoid the scorching heat of the day, it is best to travel at night. It's easy to get lost at night, but the veteran guides are all experienced and don't worry. Without this experienced guide, it is very dangerous to wander around the desert at night.

The only inconvenience was the cold at night, but this was not taken care of, and everyone put on armor to protect against the cold a little. The grass balls that the old guide collected along the way were used to light fires at night, but at this moment they also came in for another purpose, which was to stuff them in the armor as a cold thing, not to mention, quite effective.

The speed of the night was much faster, and in the five or six hours from moonrise to dawn they traveled three times as far as the day. Walking in the desert can sometimes only walk five or six miles, or even only two or three miles a day. But that night, Wang Yuan and the others walked nearly 20 miles, obviously extremely efficient.

In the morning, when it was time to shi, everyone hid in the shade to avoid the sun and make up for sleep. The weather was a little cooler, so I hurried again. After the second night in the desert passed, when the morning sun was rising, after two days and two nights of trekking, everyone had approached the area of the Jinchuan River, where the Bison Castle was marked on the map.

The old guide seemed very nervous, and when he entered the range of ten miles away from the Jinchuan River, he kept reminding Wang Yuan to slow down his pace and lead everyone to approach in a roundabout way along the north side of the tall sand dunes. Wang Yuan didn't dare to take it lightly, and sent a small group of personal guards to follow a few guides to reconnoiter the situation in front and on both sides.

Finally, when everyone climbed a high sand dune and crawled on one side of the sand to look out at the other, the sight was amazing.

The tall sand dunes are like a barrier, and below the barrier is a large flat land, through which a river flows from a distance, and it is unknown where it comes from, let alone where it is going. On both sides of the river is a vast expanse of oases, and after a few days of watching the yellow sand dunes, you can see an emerald oasis and river in the middle of the sea of sand, which makes people feel like paradise.

Ordinary rivers and weeds on the ground, which you don't usually notice, are like treasures when you change the ground.

"Sir, please look into the distance. That's Bison City. The old guide whispered as he pointed to the depths of the oasis.

Wang Yuan looked at it, but saw that on the side of the river bay four or five miles away, a city stood there, because it was too far away, and it was in the distorted field of vision of water vapor in the oasis, if you didn't look carefully, it would be almost difficult to find this bison city. The scale of this city is not too large, but it is a city at the level of a big ** town. But Wang Yuan knew that there were thousands of Tibetan soldiers and horses stationed in this bison city. This oasis is also the closest place to build a city near the border of the Tang Dynasty, and it is also the best place to garrison troops.

"Father-in-law, there are Tibetan cavalry." Liu Jun shouted softly.

Everyone squinted and saw a group of camel cavalry galloping along the banks of the river from the direction of Bison City, numbering in the hundreds. Patrolling along the edge of the oasis, he was still in the desert for a long time before moving in other directions.

"It was morning, and they were all going out to make their rounds. This group of Tibetan soldiers and horses was quite lazy, and the old man and I once again saw their patrolling camel cavalry in the desert more than ten miles away, and I and my companions buried ourselves in the sand to avoid them, and we were half dead of fright. The old guide whispered.

Wang Yuan nodded slightly, and said in a low voice: "Let's retreat a few miles back and find a secret place to camp and rest." Set up sentries here and keep an eye on their camel cavalry. ”

The old guide said, "What is the big man going to do next?" Although I told the old man that the old man could touch the oasis. ”

Wang Yuan said with a smile: "Don't bother with my father-in-law, the next thing we will do is to die." ”

The old man said, "What are you waiting for?" ”

Wang Yuan smiled and said, "Wait for the person to wait." ”

The old guide knew that he shouldn't ask anything more, so he followed Wang Yuan and the others back to Lixu and found a place where the two sand dunes met and set up camp.

……

Twenty miles northeast of the oasis, Wang Ji and Luo Xizao and more than 200 Praetorian Guards were following the footsteps of several guides all the way to the southwest. After seeing the figures of the fleeing guides, the guides sped up to shake off the soldiers and horses behind them. But Wang Ji and Luo Xixiao let them disappear from view, and followed them closely behind them despite the tiredness and heat.

The deeper they went into the desert, the more they had no way out, and the more they had to grasp the guides as a lifeline. So, even though the guides started to hurry at night, they gritted their teeth and followed.

For a day and a night, the weary Wang Ji and Luo Xizao and the more than two hundred guards were no longer human, and a pressing problem appeared before them, they had brought water back and forth for four days when they came, and now most of it had been consumed. In particular, Wang Jie, because of his fat body, could not stand the heat, not only drank a lot of water, but also had to wash his face and wipe his body with water to cool off, wasting a lot of precious water. The guards had a lot of complaints, and even Luo Xizao secretly scolded him a few times.

On the afternoon of the third day, the scorching sun burned all over the body. Because a lot of water was wasted, and these people didn't know how to drink water in moderation, the two Qincha counted the water and were shocked to find that there was not much water left. This little water is not enough for more than 200 horses, and it may be consumed by night.

In the distance, a few tireless guides had climbed to the top of a high sand dune and quickly disappeared behind it. The flame of hope in the hearts of Wang Ji and Luo Xizao slowly faded away with the torture day by day. They no longer have any hope of going out, and their only hope now is that they can drink enough water and find a shady place to sleep.

But they can't do that. The two still have some willpower, after all, they can become high-ranking officials in the imperial court, and they also have their own qualities. When you are in a desperate situation, the difference between a good person and a mediocre person is revealed. When the guards around them had lost their desire to survive, the two of them didn't think about giving up. They urged and shouted at the Praetorian Guards to catch up, not to lose the guide's footsteps, for that was the last hope.

Finally, after going through many hardships and climbing to the top of the sand dune, Wang and Luo Xizao were stunned. In front of me was an oasis with a long river. After struggling in the desert for a few days, just as we were running out of ammunition, it was an ecstasy to see this paradise in the desert.

The Praetorian Guards tumbled down the dunes and ran madly towards the oasis and a small lake at the end of the river. Wang Ji and Luo Xizheng did not stop it, because they were also in a hurry to drink enough water, soak in the water, and extinguish the heat that was almost burning on their bodies.

Puff p Like a group of hippos vying for territory, they are writhing and wandering in the water, getting their bodies wet.

"Our lives shouldn't be extinct, our lives shouldn't be extinct." Wang Ji was almost in tears when he soaked in the cool water of the lake.

Luo Xixiao took a big sip of the lake water, and said with a smile: "Let's just say that it's good to follow the guides, they know that there are oases and water sources here, so they brought us here." This place is really good, I didn't expect there to be such a fairyland in the desert. ”