When Wang Huaqiang heard this, he felt a burst of regret in his heart, and sighed: "It's a pity that my Han dynasty is unable to recover the Western Regions, so that the kingdoms of the Central Plains are occupied by the Turks. ”

Li Fan smiled: "Brother Wei Chi, let's do something fierce later, Brother An said just now, the Western Turks did not send troops to occupy the entire Western Regions, but only sent officials to monitor and control these countries in the Western Regions, force them to submit, form an alliance with them, and pay tribute to them every year, so the Turkic cavalry will not be able to reach this desert for the time being."

You must know that the Turks never robbed without oil and water, there were no people in the desert, if they robbed the caravans, cut off the trade routes, and the countries in the Western Regions could not pay their taxes, then the final loss was the Turks themselves. ”

An Xinggui also echoed: "Brother Li is right, all the countries in the Western Regions are oasis countries in the desert, with few populations and horses, like Gaochang Country, which is almost half the size of Liangzhou and has five big cities, but the national capital Gaochang City only has a population of 30,000, and the total number of cavalry in the country does not exceed 4,000, so basically they don't patrol this desert much." Even the Gaochang people didn't come, and those Turks were even more unlikely to come, so Brother Wei Chi could rest assured. ”

Wang Huaqiang frowned: "What about the robbers in this desert?" Since there is no bullet pressure from the officers and soldiers, it should be natural for them to attack and loot the caravan. ”

An Xinggui shook his head with a smile: "The horse thieves in the desert, the big one is four or five hundred, and the small one is dozens of people, all of them are rogues who eat in this desert all year round, and our Guzang Chamber of Commerce has long been clear about their whereabouts, and the money for buying roads every year is also given in full, so in the past few decades, as long as we play our banner, no one dares to rob, and even take the initiative to help us guard." ”

Wang Huaqiang glanced at the bags of iron ore on the camel team behind him, and was still a little uneasy: "But this time it's hundreds of thousands of catties of iron ore, what if they see the wealth and start temporarily, then what should I do?" ”

An Xinggui said: "This iron ore is valuable in the East Turkic, but in the Western Regions, there is the Altai Mountains, and there are countless iron ores. It's just that the An brothers and sisters have to bring 20 million yuan this time, and there are more than 4,000 catties in gold, so they have to worry about these things. ”

Wang Huaqiang's eyes lit up: "No, they were escorted by Turkic cavalry when they came to this gold, so they shouldn't be afraid of being robbed, but when we come back, with these hundreds of guards, is there a little less manpower?" ”

As soon as these words came out, Li Fan and An Xinggui's faces also changed color slightly, Li Fan groaned for a while, and said to An Xinggui: "Then tell Lao Cao, send troops out of the customs to escort, and bring a thousand more people, it should be fine." ”

An Xinggui shook his head: "Now they are wearing the clothes and armor of the Sui army, I'm afraid it's inappropriate." A thousand men is also considered an army, and even if it marches into the desert, it can be regarded as an invasion of the subject states of the Western Turks. ”

Wang Huaqiang glanced back at Duan Da and the others who had finished unloading the goods in the distance and began to sit around to rest, his heart moved, and he turned his head to Li Fan and said: "I think it's better to let my guys follow all the way, don't worry about the combat effectiveness of these veterans, and the patrol horse bandits can easily solve it if they come to six or seven thousand." After all, there are 4,000 catties of gold this time, which is easy to attract hungry wolves. ”

Li Fan thought about it carefully, and said to An Xinggui: "Brother Wei Chi is reasonable, we have not transported so much gold at one time before, last time I remember that when An Suiyu brought the two thousand catties of gold, it was two thousand Turkic cavalry who escorted them to the trading point ten miles outside the pass, and then Brother An Xian brought someone to pick them up.

This time, the place where we traded was in Xingxing Gorge at the edge of the desert, five or six hundred miles away from here, there was a gust of wind, this guy was ruthless, so it was better to guard against it. ”

Wang Huaqiang said with a smile: "Regardless of his gusts of wind and two gusts of wind, if he is accompanied by my brothers, he will not be afraid of anything, President Li, please let the brothers come out with some war horses, my brothers are all from cavalry, not used to camels, this scorching desert does not need armor, there is a bow and crossbow and a sabre." ”

Li Fan nodded in agreement, and went to Cao Zhen later, although Cao Zhen was not convinced, but since Li Fan had spoken, he was not good at refuting it in person, so he had to reluctantly transfer a thousand war horses, and took out the weapons and equipment of the cavalry from the treasury in Yangguan and sent them to Duan Da and others.

As soon as these fierce warriors rode on their war horses, they were all imposing, even if they were unarmoured, they were obviously a well-trained elite cavalry, and Li Fan and the others were secretly frightened.

Next, An Xinggui led everyone out of the customs, Li Fan and Cao Zhen stayed in the customs, the heavy gate was closed behind the last camel, Wang Huaqiang took a deep breath, faced the strong wind and sand in the desert, and walked forward without looking back.

This time, An Xinggui's people were the porters, one rode a camel, one pulled in front, the long caravan composed of more than 500 camels was two or three miles in front and back, and more than 600 Xiaoguo knights escorted them, like an army, they sent scouts from the front and back to the left and right, and followed An Xinggui's scouts to firmly grasp the situation around the caravan for more than ten miles.

After walking more than ten miles, the Yangguan behind has gradually disappeared, Wang Huaqiang looked back, the majestic Xiongguan between the two mountains, has become a small black spot, it is dusk, the smoke rising from Yangguan there goes straight to the clouds, and the sun that hangs down in the west has fallen to the halfway up the mountainside, the remnant sun is like blood, a good desert lonely smoke, the spectacular scene of the sunset of the long river.

Since leaving the customs, the caravan went out for more than 30 miles, the climate of the desert changes greatly day and night, it can be cold and frozen at night, and at noon it can be so hot that the sand is boiled eggs, Wang Huaqiang has come all the way, and has also crossed several deserts, how much he is familiar with this climate, and at night he puts on two layers of leather jackets and hurries, drinking spirits while walking to keep out the cold, and when the sun is on three poles, he camps and sleeps, so day and night, the biological clock is completely reversed.

The desert outside this pass is more than 7,000 miles, and the climate change is much more powerful than a few small deserts of hundreds of miles in the pass, and after a while, it can almost freeze people, and they can't resist wearing two leather jackets, so they have to take out the silk in the goods, wrap it in several layers on their bodies, and drink a lot of spirits to keep moving forward.

After driving more than 100 miles this night, it was not until dawn that a water source was found, An Xinggui raised his hand to signal everyone to stop, and let people lead two camels to drink water first.

After hearing the order to rest on the spot, they brought the camels over one after another, and more than 400 camels sat down on the spot on the periphery, forming a small camel city, with cargo boxes piled on the inside, and ranger duty sentry posts arranged on the periphery, so that the defense work was basically in place.

Everyone gathered in a circle, lit a bonfire, Xiaoguo knights and An Xinggui's subordinates mixed and sat together, most of An Xinggui's people were Hu people, unrestrained by nature, playing the huqin, singing and dancing, and the Xiaoguo knights were rarely so relaxed for many days, a few mouthfuls of yellow soup and stomach, and they also began to brag about their heroic deeds during the southern expedition, and these Hu people were stunned.

An Xinggui gathered around the three stewards sent by the other three families and discussed tomorrow's route in a whisper, while Wang Huaqiang took the opportunity to find a secluded corner, set up a tent, and sent a few Xiaoguo knights to guard outside, but he discussed the next arrangement with Duan Da and Changsun Sheng.

Duan Da complained while drinking wine: "The desert raised by the son of a bitch, it is this kind of ghost weather, it annoys people to death, it will heat people to death in a while, and now they will freeze people to death, it is really not a place for people to stay." ”

Changsun Sheng smiled slightly: "Duan Yitong, don't you think this desert is the best protective zone for my border pass?" The war horses of the Turks cannot be nomadic here, so it has always been safe here in Yangguan Yumen Pass, and those who dare to take this road are basically only Silk Road merchants who want money and do not want their lives. ”