There are two roads on the Silk Road from Jinchang to Broken Leaf City, one is to walk in the northwest direction after leaving Jinchang, passing through the dangerous 800 miles of Mohe Yan Moraine, this 800 miles of Mohe Yan Moraine is an endless quicksand, there is a danger of being swept away by quicksand all the time, even if it is not swept away by the quicksand, there is a great possibility of dying of thirst or getting lost in the desert, starving to death or dying of thirst in that sea of dead sand, after passing through the 800 miles of Mohe Yanmoraine, there are five peaks, each peak has Tang soldiers stationed, but this has no impact on Zhao Ziliang and his party, No one dares not to let go, after the five peaks and then enter the territory of Yizhou, the road after arriving in Yizhou is easy to walk, the oasis that can be seen everywhere can allow the army to be supplied, and after arriving at Yiwu, the Zhishu of Yizhou, there are two branch roads to go to Broken Leaf City, one is to take the Zhishu Tingzhou of the Beiting Duhufu, and the other branch road is to go southwest to Yanqi Town, one of the four towns of Anxi.

The second road is to leave Jinchang and enter the Shazhou boundary to the west, through Shazhou Dunhuang, through Yangguan, and there are two branch roads to reach the Broken Leaf City, one branch road is all the way to the west, through the original Loulan hometown Puchanghai, and then along the Peacock River to the west, and then along the Red River (that is, the Tarim River) to Qiuci Town, from Qiuci Town to the city, through the Bodaling and then to the Broken Leaf City, the other branch road is much farther, that is, after leaving the Yangguan to the southwest through the vast desert to Ruoqiang, and then from Ruoqiang continue to the southwest and the end, From the end of the road, take Anxi to defend the Lancheng in Khotan Town, go all the way to Khotan, and then march to Shule Town, pass through Tuoyun Fort, and then go northwest to reach Broken Leaf City.

Now it is summer, the temperature in the desert is too high, the further south the weather is, the hotter it is, a few years ago Zhao Ziliang returned to Chang'an from Anxi to take the first branch of the second one, but it was the turn of winter and spring, take the first branch of the second one, the weather is warmer, but now it is the middle of summer, you can only take the first road, and then take the second branch road after arriving in Yiwu, that is, it is much safer to take Qiuzi Town, after all, he has no connections in the Beiting Duhu Mansion, and it is different to block the four towns of Anxi, and there are comrades-in-arms, colleagues and subordinates who have a good relationship everywhere, Even the deputy capital protector of Anxi and the envoy of the festival, Meng Lingjing, also admired him very much.

Not long after walking out of Jinchang City, the topography and the environment along the way have undergone great changes, the endless Gobi Desert appears in front of you, the Gobi Desert is gently undulating, the ground is covered with a large area of gravel desert, the fine sand on the ground has been blown away by the wind, only the gravel is covered, the eyes are all earthy yellow, and you can't see any green plants.

In addition to the gravel desert covered with gravel, there are many rock deserts on the Gobi Desert, there are many towering rocks on the ground that are bare, bare, without grass, strange shapes, and some places are full of rock deserts, even if there is a large army hiding in them, it is not easy to be explored.

The hot weather and wind and sand make the marching speed of the escort army more busy, only fifty or sixty miles a day is already the limit, the best time to march is from four to ten o'clock in the morning, before four to eight o'clock in the afternoon, the temperature drops at night, you can only camp to rest and keep warm, the temperature is too high at other times, during this period of marching will cause a large number of non-combat attrition, Zhao Ziliang does not dare to take this risk, even the Tang army often stationed in this generation does not dare to move around during this period of time.

This evening camp, Zhao Ziliang was talking to Ash Naxin, Brehan opened the curtain and walked in, and saw that Ash Naxin was also here, so he was a little hesitant, Zhao Ziliang frowned when he saw this: "Brehan, what's the matter?" What could the Khan not know? ”

Brehan arched his hand and said: "General, Khan, the scouts sent by his subordinates have reported that in the past two days, several times they have found that people are secretly spying on our army and camps, but when the scouts go to chase them, they quickly run away, which shows that the snoopers are extremely familiar with the terrain in this area, otherwise they will not easily get rid of the pursuit of our scouts."

"Oh? Zhao Ziliang frowned when he heard this, but Ashina Xin's face changed, and his heart was raised to his throat.

Ash Naxin may have stayed in Chang'an, and his blood was almost grinding, and when he heard this kind of thing, he felt that someone was going to be unfavorable to him, and he was extremely worried: "General Zhao, there shouldn't be an accident, right?" ”

Zhao Ziliang said with a straight face: "Khan, don't worry, if someone really wants to be unfavorable to us, even if we are worried, the enemy will not watch us leave, they will naturally do it when it is time to do it!" What is not good for us now is that we don't know who is going to deal with us, what is the strength of the other party, we are not afraid of war, in this Gobi Desert and in the vast desert, only two things are the most important, the first is water, the second is food! Without water and food, no matter how strong our army is, if we are hungry for a few days and thirsty for a few days, they will all become dead fish! Brehan, the general ordered the men to make dry food for three days overnight, and prepare three days of drinking water for each soldier, so that they could carry their own water and food to eat, and they were not allowed to distribute it to others, but also to protect it, and no more food and water would be distributed within three days, and if they finished eating and drinking in advance, they should be hungry and thirsty, and all the other food and water should be under the centralized care of the baggage team, and the baggage team should be vigilant to prevent anyone from sneaking up on our grain, grass and drinking water, and send more scouts to go out to investigate, and report every other hourIf you find an enemy, report it at any time! ”

"No!"

Zhao Ziliang remembered what Le Tinghuan had said when he came out of Jinchang City, maybe he was hinting that someone was going to be unfavorable to the escort army? Who is the other party coming for, is it coming to him Zhao Ziliang, or is it coming to Ashina Xin? Zhao Ziliang has no way of knowing, there is too little information, and now he will take one step at a time to respond to all changes.

After dinner, Zhao Ziliang ordered the whole army to gather, he roughly changed the situation found by the outpost, and made a request to make the soldiers more vigilant, and cheered up: "Now we don't know who the enemy is hiding in the shadows, but don't worry, brothers, you must know that we are soldiers, we are the Shenwu army in the Tang Forbidden Army, even if any enemy comes, we don't have to be afraid, not to mention that the most people who appear in this Gobi are only some horse bandits and small thieves, As long as the soldiers do not panic and obey the military orders, the enemy will not be able to help us! This is the land of my Datang, some horse bandits and small thieves can't make the climate, at most two or three thousand people, and this little force wants to take down my 1,000 fully equipped and powerful Shenwu army? Isn't their leader afraid of cracking his big teeth? ”

"Hahaha·······" The soldiers were originally a little worried, after all, the people here are unfamiliar, and the environment is poor, it is false to say that they are not afraid or worried, but when they heard Zhao Ziliang say this, everyone was not worried, and they laughed one by one.

This is to despise the enemy strategically, but tactically it is necessary to pay attention to it, many times it is because it is too careless and is turned over by the enemy, Zhao Ziliang does not want to be a person who is turned over by others, and the preparations that should be made will not be left behind.

On the fourth day of the eighth month, it has been two days since the army entered the Gobi Desert, and in the past two days, there have been knights spying on the Tang army led by Zhao Ziliang, and the number of snooping has become more and more frequent.

When camping and resting in the morning, Brehan reported to Zhao Ziliang: "General, the detective cavalry has found some clues, judging from the means of snooping, the opponent's attire, the posture of riding a horse, the mannerisms and the things discarded, there is no doubt that the other party should be a horse bandit!" ”

Other things can be faked, but the posture of riding a horse can not be faked, this is a long-term habit of riding, regular cavalry is strictly formal training, the posture of riding a horse has a plank and an eye, even the cavalry of the steppe nomadic tribe is also trained, you can see the traces of training, while the posture of the horse bandits is different, some of them are young people can ride horses, some are halfway monks to learn to ride horses, but they have not undergone formal training, how comfortable they are how to ride, the posture is very free, And like to play fancy moves.

After listening to Brehan's report, Zhao Ziliang said: "They may have to make a move, pass the order, from now on, be ready to fight at any time!" ”

"Yes!"

At about four o'clock in the afternoon, the army set off again, according to Zhao Ziliang's plan, this period of time marched for ten hours a day, according to the calculation of walking eight miles per hour, the daily march distance is eighty miles, this march on the Gobi Desert is already a very fast marching speed, the morning is from four o'clock in the morning to ten o'clock in the morning, the afternoon is from four o'clock to eight o'clock in the evening, eight o'clock is not completely dark, there is still time to set up camp, in the middle to avoid the hottest noon six hours and the coldest eight hours at night.

At about five o'clock, the army had just walked out of a bare rocky desert area, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, after all, this area was very likely to be ambushed, and after walking out of this rock desert area, there was a gravel desert area without any sight.

However, before the army could completely get out of this rock desert, Zhao Ziliang heard the rumbling vibration, and his face changed and he immediately shouted: "Brehan, quickly check what the situation is!" ”

"No!" As soon as Brehan agreed, he immediately sent a few men from his horse to reconnoitre, and he himself immediately jumped off his horse and lay on the ground with one ear on the ground.

After a long time, Brehan got up and reported to Zhao Ziliangyu: "General, about 500 cavalry came ahead, listening to the sound of horses' hooves, the formation was scattered, and it was not strict!" ”

Zhao Ziliang turned his head and looked at it, and said to Brehan: "Send someone to the rear to check the situation and report at any time!" The others stayed where they were and waited," and after giving the order, he rode his horse and galloped towards a high ground on the left, and several Hu Congzheng and the brigade commander followed with horses, and the three Shenwu military captains stayed in place to lead the troops and horses.

Coming to the high ground, Zhao Ziliang picked up the telescope and looked forward, a large number of cavalry appeared in the lens of the telescope, and sure enough, the formation was scattered, the smoke and dust were everywhere, and there were about five or six miles away from here.

He also used a telescope to observe the situation behind the army and between the surrounding rocks and desert stone forests, and found no traces of other enemies, Zhao Ziliang was relieved, this was really a group of horse bandits, and they didn't understand soldiers and horses.

"Go, go down!"

Back in the main formation, at this time, the horse bandits in front of them had appeared in front of them, and the sound of horses' hooves came endlessly, and a large amount of smoke and dust were everywhere.

Zhao Ziliang immediately ordered Shi Chonglin, the cavalry captain of the Shenwu Army: "Captain Shi, about five hundred cavalry came from the opposite side, and the order led the two hundred cavalry of the Shenwu Army to meet the enemy, are you sure?" ”

Shi Chonglin hugged his fists and said: "General rest assured, if it is five hundred regular army cavalry, his subordinates dare not say big things, but it is only five hundred horse bandits, and if his subordinates and his two hundred cavalry can't deal with them, their subordinates can only go home and farm!" ”

"Very good, but you remember, after defeating them, you are not allowed to pursue, you are not allowed to clean the battlefield, you are not allowed to go back!"

Shi Chonglin was a little puzzled and wanted to ask why, but remembered that Zhao Ziliang had already said that he must obey the military order and was not allowed to ask why, so he didn't dare to ask again, and promised: "No!" (To be continued.) )