After a day in Luntai, on the morning of the tenth day of March, the group embarked on a new journey. Continue their long train journey.

This time they were not lucky enough to buy a first-class sleeper ticket, only a second-class ticket, and even if it was a hard sleeper, they could only hold on to Kashgar, there was still a long way to go from here to Broken Leaf City, but the railroad tracks had not yet been paved.

"Now we're going to use camels and horses to move forward." The experienced Shi Laoqi found a white-bearded old man in the bazaar: "Uncle An will take us along the trade route." ”

"Friends, all friends." Uncle An looked at the ticket that Kuo Shao Guo Shan took out, and his eyes were straight.

"It's not too far from here to Shattered Leaf City, you can get it in three days if you walk a little slower, and you can get there in two days if you walk fast." Shi Laoqi sat on the camel very steadily, but the three young men rode horses for the first time, and they staggered one by one. Their three black guards kept a wary eye on the herders grazing along the road.

Although there was no railway between the two places, there was a gallop road that was built to facilitate the transfer of troops. It is a road made of clay, gravel and glutinous rice pulp. The clay has a deep red color because it is rich in iron, and Uncle An says that this is the road that Xia Zhaozong built with the blood and mud of the unyielding pagans.

After walking for about two hours, I got farther and farther away from Kashgar City, and the blue sky and grassland in front of me also seemed monotonous, but the snow-capped mountains in the distance were still so far away - Uncle An said that Broken Leaf City was on the other side of the snow-capped mountains, and from the mountain pass, it entered the Hezhong area.

"Boring, boring." Huang Yang couldn't help yawning, the wildflowers on the side of the road couldn't arouse the interest of this young master, and Cheng Qi had learned to read on horseback. He was holding a small book that he had bought yesterday in a grocery store in Kashgar for two pieces of Song money, which recorded folk tales from the snow-capped mountains, some of which were absurd, but some of which were very interesting.

"Here's a story, let's share it with you. is talking about the last Tang army - after the Anshi Rebellion, the four towns of Anxi gradually lost contact with the Tang Dynasty proper, and they were invaded by the Tubo in the south and the Samanid dynasty in the west, and finally had to abandon the last stronghold, Broken Leaf City, and then disappeared into the vast desert. Some say they built a new city, still called Broken Leaves, while others say they went north to the vast prairie. But in any case, no one knows their last trace except God. ”

"This is the relics of the martyrs." Guo Shan said: "If we can find the final location of these Tang Dynasty martyrs, it will be a great merit." ”

Huang Yang patted him right away: "Old man An, have you heard of the Tang people with broken leaves?" ”

"Tang people?" Uncle An shook his head: "I haven't heard of any sugar man, honey man." ”

Shi Laoqi turned around and said, "There is a Tang Army Museum in Broken Leaf City, if you want to visit, it is convenient at any time." ”

With a target, it seems that the pass in the snowy mountains ahead looks a little closer.

But because the three heroes rode horses for the first time, they dragged on for most of the day, and there were still twenty miles away from the pass. Shi Laoqi discussed with Uncle An for a while, and felt that he still couldn't catch up with the pass before sunset, and it was more dangerous to walk the mountain road at night. So he simply decided to set up a tent in the wilderness and temporarily set up camp in this vast grassland.

Naturally, there were three black slaves to do the manual work, and the young masters picked up the juju and kicked happily on the natural lawn.

Suddenly, Cheng Qi felt tripped over something under his feet, and almost didn't fall into the mud. Fortunately, he shook and stood firm.

"Damn it." He turned around and kicked the thing, but it felt like it wasn't grassroots, but a metal object. He squatted down and tossed around the grass a few times, and sure enough, he found a metal wedge-shaped object on the turf.

"It looks like an arrow." Huang Yang ran over with a juju: "Can you recognize which dynasty and which generation?" ”

"I'm not capable of that, but I feel like it's either Turkic or Uighur." Cheng Qi took a closer look and found that this arrow was not unusual, and it seemed to be coated with a layer of gold leaf around it, so it could maintain a relatively complete appearance.

However, with the bitter temperament of the steppe nomads, how can they afford to use the arrows with gold leaf to wrap their heads, how can they be a great sweat, right? Cheng Qi still found a silk cloth bag to put away the arrowhead, and prepared to ask someone who knew how to ask it when he arrived at the broken leaf.

Soon it was night, under the bonfire, the blacks sang melodious songs, and the foodies only knew how beautiful life was to watch the fat burst barbecue, the naan bought in Kashgar, the raisins of Hami's specialty, and some wine.

Cheng Qi leaned on the hump of a camel, covered with a Uighur-style woolen blanket bought in Luntai, with the vast and brilliant Milky Way above his head — Uncle An said that they had arrived too early, watching the stars in the Ili River Valley around the summer solstice, which was an ancient event. It is said that many, many years ago, before there were written records. The ancestors of the Western Regions learned to divinate good fortune by looking up at the starry sky, and the shamans at that time were able to read the language of the stars and comprehend the will of the gods, but later this ancient technique was slowly tried on, leaving only such an event as a stargazing event.

Looking at the Milky Way overhead, under the influence of alcohol, he thought further, is this Milky Way the same as the starlight he once bathed in? How many unsolved secrets are there in this vast universe? Human beings, in the face of those unreachable light and heat, are so small. At this moment, he suddenly felt his ignorance...... Compared to the entire majestic universe, the knowledge that human beings can grasp is too small and insignificant. It is no wonder that in the face of such a vast spectacle, countless religions will erupt like a blowout.

Unconsciously, he fell asleep with a contemplation of the fate of mankind, and the next day, when the eastern land was shining with the sun, Cheng Qi also woke up to the shouts of his partners.

"Let's go, we'll pass the customs today morning, and then we'll walk the mountain road for a day. The rest of the road is much easier. Uncle An greeted everyone.

Ahead is the famous Urukchati Pass, which is a transliteration of 黠戛思, meaning majestic mountain pass. 黠戛思 is an ancient ethnic group in the northwest, Han as the Kun or the Kun, Jiankun; From the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Sui Dynasty, it is called the protective bone, or the knotted bone, the contract bone, and the bone; The common Chinese translation name in the Tang Dynasty was 黠戛斯. According to the notes handed down by the Tang people, in the 22nd year of Zhenguan, a tributary group from the upper reaches of the Yenisei River (now part of the Xianbei Governorate of the Great Liao Empire), thousands of miles to the northwest, arrived in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, under the leadership of its chieftain Lost Boqu Azhan. At that time, there was an endless stream of tributary groups from all over the world, but this Legation was a bit special, in addition to paying tribute, they also shouldered the mission of "recognizing relatives". The chieftain claimed to be a descendant of Li Ling, of the same ethnic group as the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and wanted to "recognize his relatives" with the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Because Li Ling is a native of Chengji, Longxi (now Qin'an, Gansu), and the grandson of Li Guang, a famous general of the Western Han Dynasty. The ancestors of the emperors of the Tang Dynasty also came from Chengji in Longxi, and they were also after Li Guang.

Tang Dynasty notes say: Since the Han Dynasty, the people recorded in the history books and chronicles are all red-haired and green-eyed, and are recognized as the descendants of Chidi. And these people who claim to be descendants of Li Ling are black-haired and black-eyed, and obviously have the characteristics of mixing with the yellow race. Therefore, the credibility is still very high. Qu Azhan and his entourage were warmly entertained by Tang Taizong. At the banquet, the chieftain who had successfully recognized his relatives drank happily and asked to belong to the Tang Dynasty. Tang Taizong immediately agreed to set up the Jiankun Governor's Mansion in the jurisdiction of the Yanran Governorate, which was subordinate to the Yanran Metropolitan Protectorate, and named the chieftain of the Huangnes Dynasty, Tong Lifa, as the general of Zuotunwei and the governor of Jiankun. For more than 100 years, the Tang Dynasty maintained friendly relations.

In the second year of Tang Jinglong, when the envoy sent an envoy to visit the Tang Dynasty, Tang Zhongzong's old words were repeated: "The country is the same clan as me, not its comparison." In fact, he has always been a staunch ally of the Tang Dynasty in the Mobei region, and has participated in coordinated actions with the Tang army many times. Until the fall of the Tang Dynasty and the rise of the Liao Dynasty, they inherited the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the various tribes of Mobei.

After the Western Xia moved westward, in order to consolidate the Anxi region, a policy of great tribal migration was adopted, on the one hand, nomadic fishing and hunting tribes were recruited from the Liao Dynasty's Jiaozhou Prefecture to occupy pastures, and on the other hand, Han people were recruited from the Song Dynasty to occupy the towns. It was in this context that one of the pieces of Juansi came to Anxi. Xia Zhaozong felt the loyalty of the people to the Central Plains Dynasty for hundreds of years, so he gave them the vast grassland near Shule as a place to live and reproduce. And selected elite cavalry riders to serve as the Guards cavalry to fight in the north and south.

After crossing the mountain pass, there is a flat avenue sandwiched between the high mountains. Uncle An introduced to everyone that this road was originally rugged and bumpy, and could only accommodate a single horse, which was possessed by the Xia King Heavenly God, incarnated into a huge magical boar, broke the hard rock with its fangs, and flattened the road with its hooves, so as to form this road that is more than 20 zhang wide and flat as a stone.

Cheng Qi rode on the horse and noticed that there were artificially planted green plants on both sides, and slope protection belts were also set up on some steep slopes, which showed that the Xia people were still quite concerned about the maintenance of this road.

And every 10 or 15 miles or so, you can see a post station, the post station is generally selected in a relatively flat terrain and close to the water source, where business travelers or pedestrians can rest, drink saliva, eat a mouthful of dry food and then go on the road.

About halfway through, Shi Laoqi discussed with Uncle An and stopped at a post station on the side of the road. There were some young girls dressed in national costumes, all of whom had long blond hair, blue eyes, and were very tall. Seeing the strange young men coming, they all greeted them enthusiastically to help them hold the reins of the horse's head, and watched the three young men clumsily climb off the saddle, and a young girl who was anxious also simply reported Huang Yang with a bear hug.