At the end of the summer of the second year of the Yongli year of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the ninth day of the ninth month of September.

The weather is so hot that there is no trace of wind, the scorching sun scorches the earth, evaporates all the residual moisture on the ground to the sky, and then disappears, leaving a steamer-like temperature that continues to shroud the loess, the dust visible to the naked eye floats in the air, the official road rammed by the loess has been sanded into pieces of gravel, as far as the eye can see, there are no birds in the sky, there are no beasts underground, there is no trace of green on the vast plain, except for some yellowed horse rush grass lying listlessly on the ground to survive, the whole land is like a dead land.

An old man with a white beard, black and thin, walked on the official road with a bundle of dead branches that he found out of nowhere, and the dead branches basically lost their moisture and became very light, but the old man still carried it very hard and walked very slowly.

There was no one else on the official road, or rather, there was no sign of human activity in the entire field of vision, and the only living thing on the earth was this old man carrying firewood, who walked slowly forward alone, and the scenery on the side of the road slowly galloped past him. On both sides of the road, there are some abandoned broken walls, waste bricks and tiles, which seem to be the ruins of Zhuangzi, a village that was inhabited in the past.

On the distant horizon, a yellow pillar of smoke rose, and the old man squinted his eyes, looked at it blankly, and stopped.

The column of smoke became thicker and thicker, and gradually, it turned into a cloud of smoke, and under the smoke, a group of black dots gradually appeared.

The sound of horses' hooves accompanied by the approach of smoke knocked on the old man's eardrums, and the group of black dots slowly became larger, from small dots to a black shadow, and finally, into a vigorous knight, into the old man's cloudy eyes.

The old man is still wooden, he is very old, the skin on his face is like a grapefruit that has lost its moisture, wrinkled and shriveled, the black dirt in the deep wrinkles is like a line on the line, even against the background of the gray skin color, it is so eye-catching, a linen clothes with I don't know how many holes are tied around the waist with a rope, which can cover his lower body, on the dark chest, a hideous scar is cut from left to right, it seems that this knife almost cut him in half, After many years, it is still thrilling.

He looked in bewilderment at the group of riders who were getting closer and closer, and had not seen anyone pass by in this dry season for a long time.

The horse was a healthy horse, and it was by his side in an instant, and the man riding in front looked at him on the horse, and then relaxed his hand that was clenching the hilt of the sword, and the old man heard the words of the knight on the horse: "It is an old man who gathers firewood, and there is no danger." ”

More and more knights rushed over, looking at the shiny spears, the old man became nervous, although he was not afraid of the horse thieves in this wasteland, he was afraid of another kind of people.

Officers and soldiers, he is afraid of officers and soldiers.

And this group of people in armor are officers and soldiers.

The horse thief robbed things, burned the house, killed people and set fires, and did all kinds of evil, but for an old man like him, the horse thief disdained to kill him.

The officers and soldiers were different, his head was completely cut off, brought back as the head of a horse thief, and then received a reward.

The old man involuntarily took a step back, because in the middle of the group of knights, a man who looked like a white-horse general, glanced at him.

As the general passed by him, he slowed down his horse, looked at it carefully, but did not pause, and then swept by, and then galloped again, and went straight into the distance.

There were more than 200 riders in total, and they rushed past the old man with a bang, like a spring thunder that had not been seen for a long time, rolling in and out.

The old man couldn't help but squint his eyes to avoid the sand rushing in front of him, and when he opened his eyes again, the cavalry had turned into a series of small black dots in the sky, just as they had just appeared, and they were lost in the smoke and dust.

After the cavalry continued to run forward for an hour, the burly man in the lead put his finger in his mouth, circled it, and let out a loud whistle.

When the cavalry of more than 200 people received this signal, the speed of the horses slowed down invariably, and in a few breaths, the whole team stopped together, and at a glance they knew that this was a well-trained veteran team.

The leading man pulled down the white cloth covering his face, rode his horse to the general riding the white horse in the middle of the team, and said in a loud voice: "My lord, there is a Zhuangzi in front, there is water in the Zhuangzi, and there are people living, we can go over and rest, this hot day, and the horse can't eat it if we run down." ”

The white horse general also covered his face and spat a few mouthfuls of spit, although there was a white cloth to cover his face, but the pervasive dust during high-speed riding still got into his mouth, making him feel like he had eaten the sand of the day.

As soon as the white cloth was pulled down, Wang Huan's handsome face was revealed.

He blinked vigorously, squeezed out the sand grains in his eyes, frowned and said to the burly big man Mi Layin: "Has the weather in Gansu always been like this?" ”

Mi Layin smiled "hehe", revealing a mouthful of white teeth: "Not really, in the Wanli period, it was not so hot here, and there was not so much wind and sand. ”

Wang Huan looked at the horizon of the sky, and on the Loess Plateau, where he couldn't see the edge, there were layers of undulating hills one after another, but without exception, there was not even a single grass on the bare mountains.

"How far is this place from Ganzhou?" Wang Huan asked.

Milayin looked up at the sun, looked around again, and replied, "There are still two hundred miles, and Ganzhou is about five hundred miles away from Jiayuguan." ”

"Is it as deserted as this along the way? We have all walked hundreds of miles, and we only see an old man carrying firewood, what about the others? Wang Huan said again.

Mi Layin's black face suddenly darkened, shook his head and said: "Gansu originally belonged to Shaanxi, and it was only after the Tartars came over that it was drawn out from Chengyi Province. Shaanxi after years of catastrophes, these ten years almost have not been peaceful, either drought or military disaster, locust plague, no one can live, can run all run, did not run people have cast thieves, now this thousands of miles of land, has become a no-man's land, only some oasis where there is water, and some Zhuangzi remain, but in order to prevent horse thieves, these Zhuangzi are built in remote places, standing on the official road to see, naturally no one can be seen. ”

Wang Huan frowned, and said in a deep voice: "Longxi has abundant water and grass since ancient times, and there are more good horses in the imperial court, why in just a few decades, the fertile grassland has become a Gobi wasteland, such a scene, how to produce horses?" ”

Mi Layin snorted, hateful voice: "My lord doesn't know, this place was indeed grass and fertiliser, but during the Wanli period, the three major conscriptions of the poor army, the imperial court expanded the scale of the horse farm, forced the Longxi horse households to increase the number of horses, and also ordered the army to open up the wasteland, cut down trees and open fields, and then catch up with the Chongzhen period of the great drought, the fields are barren, the grassland is withered, less than a hundred years, Longxi horse land, it has become a dead horse land, now we want to buy horses, we have to go west out of Jiayuguan, to the Mongols to buy. ”

Wang Huan also sighed secretly in his heart, environmental protection, it seems that it has been a serious subject since ancient times, the military tun plus uncontrolled grazing, coupled with devastating climate change, Gansu at the end of the Ming Dynasty has no land to raise horses, and it seems that he really has to run outside the plug to become a trip.

"The Khalkha Ministry has already agreed to sell horses? More than ten years ago, they called the Donglu a tribute, and we are the enemy of the Dongyu, and they will sell us horses? ”

Milayin grinned and said with a smile: "My lord looks down on the Mongols, they have long lost the backbone of Genghis Khan, one by one the philistines are very good, whoever gives more silver, the horse will be sold to whom, there are so many tribes in Mongolia, the Khalkha Department is far away from Liaodong, the control of the East is not so tight, their horses are worried about no market, I sent someone to ask, they rushed to agree, I said to 3,000 horses, they also asked if they want more, they still have, hahaha!" ”

(End of chapter)