In front of Liu Jie's eyes, in addition to the blue sky like a calm lake, only the boundless yellow sand filled the eyeballs.

Liu Jie still remembers the excitement when he first set foot in this desert, he was impressed by the beauty of this heaven and earth, and couldn't help but chant an impromptu poem. But as the journey into the desert progressed little by little, the poetic idea in Liu Jie's mind had long since disappeared. The unbearable heat of the day seemed to squeeze out the last bit of moisture in the body, and the night was so cold that I wanted to put on all my clothes and sleep with the horses. The most unbearable thing is that in this place where every part of the body has a strong thirst for water, there is not a drop of water, and before going to the next oasis to get water replenishment, everyone has a certain amount of water, and if you drink an extra sip, then you will fall into the crisis of water cut-off sooner than others. Although Liu Jie, as the crown prince, could have asked others to give him his share of water, it also meant depriving that person of his right to live, so Liu Jie has always insisted on not using his privileges. Of course, this comes at the cost of having to hold back a thirst that tears in your throat and a daily routine without washing at all.

Since leaving Chang'an, Liu Jie has gained many life experiences that he will never experience in the deep palace, and has also seen the whole experience of being inferior to the wild land from the rich land of the Central Plains little by little. Seeing the trees and greenery around him degenerate into sparse grasslands little by little, and then to the wasteland where there is almost no grass at all, Liu Jie realized why since ancient times, places like Liangzhou and Ganzhou were only included in the territory when the country of silk was strong enough. Because without the support of strong national strength, it is impossible to garrison troops in such a place and be able to hold on to it - without a certain scale of armed forces and combat capabilities, especially the ability to control local water sources, it is not enough to resist the attack of the enemy, and to maintain such combat effectiveness requires a large amount of food logistics support, all of which require the state to exert all its strength behind the scenes. War is a thing that consumes only goods and lives, in exchange for possible land and honor, and inevitable death.

In such a hot environment, Liu Jie has no appetite at all, not to mention that the so-called food in the desert must be dry hard dough and scones that are not easy to perish, if you are unfortunate enough to eat spoiled food, then you will lose more water due to diarrhea, and even die from it.

It's not that Liu Jie can't tolerate such coarse food, and he has long been used to it. In fact, after leaving the Lingzhou territory, he began to eat and live with the soldiers under Wang Hanxin's suggestion, and fully experienced the hardships and hard work of being an ordinary soldier. Although the coarse food is difficult to swallow, it is very effective in invigorating the spirit, and after eating these foods, Liu Jie feels that his body has become stronger and more powerful. In fact, this is somewhat related to his daily horseback riding bumps and experience the baptism of wind and rain, but Liu Jie himself thinks so without others pointing out the reason. Of course, Wang Hanxin did not deliberately try to break the reason behind this.

In order to maintain his strength, Liu Jie barely ate while walking, but his mouth, which had already dried up, did not secrete any saliva to digest the food at all, Liu Jie almost chewed until his cheeks were sore before he barely swallowed two mouthfuls, and finally he had to give up the idea of continuing to eat and let his cheeks rest.

Try not to drink too much water during the day, because even if you do, it will immediately evaporate into sweat and dissipate, and once you have taken a sip, you will keep wanting to take another sip, even if it is a small sip, a little smaller, not too small a small sip. This mentality is very torturous, and can sometimes torture people to the point of madness, so the best thing to do is to forget about the thought of water during the day as much as possible.

The only advantage of walking in the desert is that it is easy to judge the time, because whenever you look up, you can always see the position of the sun, and you can grasp the general time, but this does not include when you are dizzy and dizzy from the scorching sun, at this time if you are not following the group, then you are very likely to hallucinate and misjudge, deviate from the direction of walking, if you miss the oasis, then you will almost certainly not be able to get out of the desert and die here.

Finally, the sun fell below the horizon in front of him, and the day's journey was over, but then the temperature dropped sharply, and Liu Jie hurriedly pulled out a blanket from the bag he was carrying and wrapped it around his body.

Liu Jie wanted to make a fire to keep warm, but there was no wood in the desert, and if he insisted on doing so, then he would probably have to rely on burning his entourage. Moreover, most of his belongings were left in Liangzhou, except for the belongings used to reward the soldiers of the Western Regions Protectorate, Wang Hanxin suggested leaving all unnecessary belongings. Once in the desert, the baggage vehicles were completely useless, and the 50,000-strong army had to rely on livestock for all its use. Those gorgeous and impractical things were all thrown in Liangzhou by Wang Hanxin, in fact, if according to Wang Hanxin's original intention, he wanted to throw away these cumbersome things when he was in Lingzhou, and it would be very face-saving for Liu Jie to be able to stay in Liangzhou.

After two sips of water, Liu Jie tried to eat half a cake, and then he leaned close to his mount, trying to get some warmth from its body. At first, when Liu Jie began to sleep with the soldiers, he could not sleep all night because of the unbearable stench - when he entered the water-scarce area, washing gradually became too luxurious, and when tens of thousands of men who had not washed for ten or twenty days gathered together, the smell emitted in the middle was almost unappetizing even for hungry wolves.

But all this doesn't matter, Liu Jie knows that the smell on his body is not much different from that of animals, even if he sleeps together, it doesn't matter, being able to warm each other is the most basic need.

"Your Highness, it seems that you have fully adapted to this kind of life." Wang Hanxin, who came back from inspecting the camp, said with a smile.

"Please stop making fun of me like that, Lord Protector. I have long said that if I can have a bed, a glass of wine, a bowl of rice, and a basin of bath water, it will be like heaven on earth. Liu Jie sighed.

"If you don't know the sufferings of the world, you don't know the joys of the world. His Highness now knows the hardships of the soldiers' marches, and it can be regarded as a great gain. It is important to know that the soldiers would rather travel thousands of miles than face a difficult battle. In this kind of battle, no one dares to guarantee that they will survive to the end. ”

"Therefore he who does not know the evil of using soldiers cannot know the good of using them." Liu Jie summed up what Wang Hanxin wanted to express, and then asked, "I may be the westernmost prince in the history of the Silk Country, right?" ”

Wang Hanxin nodded with a smile and said, "If His Royal Highness becomes the emperor one day, then he will also be the westernmost emperor." ”

Liu Jie smiled back politely, and then asked, "How long do we have to get out of this desert?" ”

Wang Hanxin thought for a moment and said, "According to the current marching speed, one more day, we can reach the next oasis, and after replenishing the water there, we will walk for five days, and it will be Yizhou City." After that, we have our own post stations and outposts along the way, and Your Highness will be able to relax a little. ”

"That's great." Liu Jie yawned as he spoke, then shrunk into a ball, and fell asleep in a short time.