Some of the soldiers who were rescued were already so frightened that they were paralyzed on the sand, their faces were pale, and many of them were trembling, and their horses had long been submerged in the quicksand.

More than a dozen soldiers died because of the quicksand, which made the entire army begin to panic, Zhao Ziliang angrily grabbed the collar of the guide of the sentry team and asked, "Say, haven't you made several trips back and forth?" Why is there a large area of quicksand here? Did you old thing deliberately bring my army to this dead end? If you don't make it clear to Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu killed you alive today! ”

The guide had long been so frightened that he trembled, and now he was so angry that Zhao Ziliang roared like this, and immediately collapsed to the ground in fright, and stammered: "General, general, the villain is wronged, I really don't know why there is a quicksand land like this, the villain has been back and forth twice, and there has been no accident, and he has not encountered quicksand, this is the first time he has encountered it!" The villain's family lives in Chang'an, and there are dozens of people in the family, even if there are a hundred dares, they dare not do anything to endanger the army, and please ask the general to know it! ”

"Two trips? Only two trips? I'm grass, only two round trips, and you dare to claim to know everything about this desert terrain and climate? I'm going to kill you! Zhao Ziliang scolded and pulled out a horizontal knife to slash the merchant guide.

Chu Ge, who had been standing behind him, immediately hugged Zhao Ziliang and persuaded: "The general is angry, the general is angry, now is not the time to be rash, the overall situation is important!" ”

Zhao Ziliang calmed down when he heard this, and inserted the horizontal knife into the scabbard, Chu Ge let go of him, and he grabbed the merchant guide's collar again and said coldly: "Ben will ask you, how can you get by in this quicksand?" When to set up camp? If you don't come up with a way for General Ben, General Ben won't be able to spare you! ”

"Yes, yes, general, the villain has already thought of a way, the general only needs to order the soldiers to spread their shields on the sand, lead the horses on foot, and the soldiers behind will take back the shields. Then pass it to the front piece by piece, so that you can not only cross this quicksand, but also take back the shield, this quicksandy land should not be big, you can definitely go out! ”

In order to survive, this merchant guide really competed with his brains, and came up with this feasible method before Zhao Ziliang went crazy. Zhao Ziliang thought about it for a while, and felt that this method should be feasible, so he beat his horse and came to Fumeng Lingcha to report: "General, just now due to the quicksand incident, I lost more than a dozen brothers and a sentry captain. Some of the soldiers were apprehensive, and asked the general to give an order for the soldiers to spread their shields on the ground, dismount and lead their horses to step on the shields through this quicksand, and then the soldiers who walked at the end took back their shields and passed them to the soldiers in front of them piece by piece, so that they could not only cross the quicksand, but also recover their shields."

Fu Meng Lingcha nodded: "Okay, this method is good, just do it!" Kang Huaishun. Pass on the general's military order, and do it according to Ziliang's method! ”

Kang Huaishun hurriedly agreed: "No! ”

Fumeng Lingcha said to Zhao Ziliang again: "Ziliang, you have many ways, so be it." You hand over the soldiers of the headquarters to a credible person to take charge, and you take some other people to the front of the army to take command, and you will take care of the front of the army, and the general will be more relieved! ”

This can be said to express full trust and value to Zhao Ziliang. Zhao Ziliang immediately bowed his hand and said: "General rest assured, the last general will do his best!" ”

According to the method of crossing the quicksand with the shield under their feet, it really worked, and the army crossed the quicksand in a thrilling way in an hour. After all the shields were withdrawn, everyone, including Fumon Lingcha, breathed a sigh of relief.

After Zhao Ziliang was in charge of the front of the army, he immediately replaced the sentinel team of the Fumeng Lingcha faction, and let Chu Ge and Wang Can take their own sentinel team and merchant guides to explore and open the way in front of the army.

Zhao Ziliang pulled the merchant guide and said, "Shopkeeper Fan, General Ben is a rough man, he was a little impulsive just now, please don't mind."

The shopkeeper named Fan Zhen saw Zhao Ziliang apologize, and hurriedly said: "The general is tormenting the villain, in fact, it's no wonder the general, anyone who encounters this kind of thing will be like this, the villain doesn't take it to heart at all, please rest assured that the villain will do his best to arrive in Hengros City safely with the army."

Zhao Ziliang nodded, and asked again: "If the shopkeeper Fan doesn't mind, Ben will ask, how much can you earn by your caravan to and from Chang'an, Dashi, and the Eastern Roman Empire?" ”

Fan Zhen said with a smile: "What's so bad about this, this business is a hard job, it's not a big deal, the farther you run, the more goods you bring, the more you earn, just like the villain's owner, it was originally a capital of 150,000 yuan, except for the silver money to hire the escort team, the food, drink, and taxes along the way of the caravan, and some other dots, a round trip can earn about 200,000 yuan!" ”

"More than double the profit, very rich! Sure enough, the bigger the capital, the more you earn! Zhao Ziliang nodded.

Fan Zhen said again: "But the risk is also very large, the larger the caravan, the more valuable the goods, the greater the probability of being robbed, if it is robbed, not only the goods are not guaranteed, but the caravan may not survive."

Zhao Ziliang listened to Fan Zhen's words and suddenly figured out why those Sogdian merchants would do business as envoys of a certain country, this was to prevent being harassed or robbed by the local government, with the identity of diplomatic envoys, their caravans would not be troubled by local officials, and if the caravan was robbed by bandits, the local government would definitely do its best to suppress the bandits and recover the caravan goods that had been robbed in order not to cause disputes.

Zhao Ziliang remembered something again and asked, "Shopkeeper Fan, what is the best time to camp?" ”

Fan Zhen hurriedly said: "General, it's best to camp in Haishi, you see it's still a little hot, but it's far from being as hot as the day, the deeper the night, the colder it is in the desert, if you don't camp in Haishi, people will be frozen, and there are often strong winds or storms raging in the middle of the night in the desert."

Zhao Ziliang nodded and estimated, it was only about nine o'clock in the evening, and he could walk for more than an hour to set up camp, if it was too late, it would not work.

In order to ensure the safety of the soldiers and prevent a single soldier from falling behind, getting lost and falling into quicksand, Zhao Ziliang found Fu Meng Lingcha and asked him to order that no one should be allowed to leave the brigade without permission, even if he wanted to defecate, he had to wait until he set up camp to solve it.

At that time, they chose a leeward sand dune to camp underneath, the soldiers experienced yesterday's battle, and today they braved the scorching sun and scorched for a day to march quickly, and at night they were frightened by the quicksand incident, and they were extremely tired, and after eating and drinking, they all crowded into the tent and fell asleep, and the night was peaceful.

In the early morning of the next day, the army set out again after breakfast, as yesterday, it was too hot at noon, camped and rested for an hour and a half, and then pulled out the camp and continued to march when the hottest time passed, because Zhao Ziliang always maintained sufficient drinking water and food, the army did not appear at all like other caravans or armies in the desert lack of water and food and could not move an inch.

At dusk, Zhao Ziliang was riding a war horse at the front of the army, when he rode in front, and when he got closer, he saw that it was Wang Can.

Wang Can stopped his horse sweating profusely, and arched his hand: "General, there is an abnormality in front, and it is difficult for subordinates to say, the general should go and see it in person!" ”

Zhao Ziliang immediately ran forward with Wang Can, and after running three hundred meters, he saw Wang Can's men galloping in panic under the leadership of Chu Ge for more than a dozen nights.

Wang Can suddenly found that there were four fewer people in the entire sentry team, so he immediately asked: "Chu Ge, what about the four people under Lao Tzu?" Where did it go? ”

Chu Ge's face was frightened, his face was extremely pale, and he was shocked and said: "General, it's too scary, it's too scary, the four of them have turned into piles of white bones in the blink of an eye!" ”

Zhao Ziliang's expression changed, and he immediately said: "Don't panic, let's be clear, what's going on?" ”

Chu Ge was just about to speak, when he heard one of them exclaim: "It's coming, it's coming・・・・・・"

Zhao Ziliang looked behind Chu Ge and the others, and saw a huge black ball with a diameter of more than five meters quickly rolling over two hundred meters in front of him, and this black ball was rolling on the sand, the speed was extremely fast, and it was almost like walking on the ground.

Zhao Ziliang fixed his eyes, and when the huge black ball got closer, he finally saw it clearly, and his face suddenly turned pale, I grass, isn't this a desert marching ant? How can there be desert marching ants in this hellish place?

Looking at the huge black ball rolled by countless desert marching ants getting closer and closer, Zhao Ziliang turned his head and looked back, the direction it was moving in was just the direction of the army, if it ran into the army, the consequences would be unimaginable, he immediately shouted: "Quickly dodge to both sides, retreat!" Retreat three hundred paces, quick! ”

Chu Ge, Wang Can and his subordinates did not know what to say for more than a dozen nights, but they still immediately rode their horses and fled in the north and south directions.

Zhao Ziliang looked at the front again, and the huge black ball rolled by the desert marching ants was spread on the sand at this time to form a "black carpet" with a length of 100 meters and a width of more than 10 meters, but soon the "black carpet" rolled up again, and it rolled up bigger and bigger, and finally formed a black cylinder more than two meters high, and then the column slowly turned back into a black ball with rapid progress.

Zhao Ziliang was frightened, and immediately turned around and galloped in the direction of the army, and before he ran in front of the army, he shouted: "Dodge, retreat three hundred steps to both sides, and quickly retreat three hundred steps to both sides・・・・・・"

The cavalry in the front row heard Zhao Ziliang's words, and saw Zhao Ziliang rushing over like crazy with a golden nail jujube yang lance, and they all scattered to both sides, but the space for scattering was not large, and after Zhao Ziliang rode his horse over, the front row cavalry showed signs of closing.

"Dodge away, dodge to both sides, don't close it, leave a passage, quick!" Zhao Ziliang roared anxiously while galloping his horse.

After a while, he ran in front of Fumeng Lingcha, and Fumeng Lingcha couldn't help frowning and shouting when he saw this: "Zhao Ziliang, what's the matter?" Why disperse the soldiers? (To be continued.) )