The Wuhu River (Amu Darya) and the Yaoshu River (Syr Darya) flow into the Aral Sea from south to north to west, and the two rivers are sandwiched by the Hezhong region, where the power of the Tang Dynasty once extended, and now the Hezhong region is the territory of the Taohuashi Khanate, which in fact became a vassal state of the Seljuk Empire.

It had been a long time since merchants from the Central Plains had arrived here, and in Samarkand, Hazhong Province, Li Xiangxian and the silk and tea they brought from the Central Plains were warmly sought after by the locals.

Li Xiangxian sold a few of them, and continued to march to Khorasan in the southwest.

The lower reaches of the Wuhu River are small flower thorns, Li Xiangxian and they crossed from the middle reaches of the Wuxu River, and after crossing the river, they went southwest for a short time, and they entered Khorasan! And now Khorasan is the territory of the Seljuk Empire.

The ruler of the Seljuk Empire was called Sultan, and the word Sultan means regent, but also the king of the East and the king of the West. The capital is in Baghdad.

The once powerful Abbasid Empire, the black-clothed eater who defeated Gao Xianzhi in Talas, has now largely been replaced by the Seljuk Empire.

The Abbasid caliph still lived in Baghdad, but he was now only a symbol of a divine rune, and the military and government were in the hands of the sultan (regent).

The Seljuk Empire developed from a small tribe in the lower reaches of the Yaoji River to a thriving empire, which is not a long time, which is calculated from the first year of the Qing calendar of Song Renzong (1041).

Now it's showing signs of decay!

Four years ago, after the death of the previous Sultan Malikshah, his sons fought for the throne, and the mighty Seljuk Empire was now shattered.

Before entering Khorasan, Huang Yong, the most powerful subordinate, persuaded Li Xiangxian once, because he heard that Khorasan was now in the midst of war.

Malikshah's third son, Sanjar, was enthroned in the Khorasan region, and his elder brother Nizad was attacking Sanjar.

Khorasan was originally taken by the Seljuk Empire from the Ghaznavid Empire in the south, and now the Ghaznavid Empire wants to take advantage of the Seljuk civil strife to recapture the rich Khorasan, so it also sent troops to attack Sanjar, and now Sanjar is attacked on both sides, and the situation is precarious.

It is too dangerous to enter Khorasan at this time.

But the journey of tens of thousands of miles has come here, how can Li Xiangxian give up willingly?

When they set out from Xining, there were nearly 100 of them, but now there are only more than 40 left, Li Xiangxian gritted his teeth and continued to advance to the southwest.

On this day, it was still about dozens of miles away from Mulu City, a big city in the Khorasan region, and I faintly heard the sound of killing on the other side of the mountain.

Li Xiangxian galloped up the hillside and looked, only to see that in the vast grassland under the mountain, thousands of troops were fighting, one side was dressed in green clothes and black armor, holding a crescent flag, holding a Damascus scimitar, riding a tall Arab horse, fighting extremely fiercely; Unfortunately, they were too few in number, surrounded by the other side, rushing left and right, the sharp Damascus scimitar was wielding wildly, and people were constantly falling off their horses in the smoke and dust.

On the other side, the yellow clothes and silver armor, wrapped in a turban, and playing the blue background eagle flag, the number of people increased several times, and they were also holding sharp scimitars, and they were encircling and killing the people and horses with the crescent flag in the middle, and the people on the periphery were scattering inward with longbows, and the killing scene made the sun look dim.

Judging from the situation on the battlefield, although the men and horses in the middle with the crescent moon banner fought fiercely, the number was too small, and defeat was only a matter of time.

Li Xiangxian didn't dare to look more, so he came back and led the caravan to the woods on the mountain to take refuge.

Although her subordinates are all elites who have survived a hundred battles, there are only a few dozen people, which is not enough for others to stuff their teeth.

The sun gradually sank, the earth seemed to be covered with a thin black veil, the battle under the mountain had long ended, only a piece of human and horse corpses remained on the grass, staggered horizontally and vertically, the thick smell of blood had not dissipated, and some wounded and undead war horses let out a few sad screams from time to time, making the mountain even more sad.

Li Xiangxian hurried to the direction of Mulu City with a caravan, this kind of war scene, they have seen a lot all the way to the west, they have always been able to hide and hide, generally when encountering a large-scale war, no one on either side cares about businessmen like them; However, they fought with horse bandits or those greedy small tribes along the way, and they lost more than half of their men.

After walking for ten miles, through a sparse wood, he came to a dry riverbed; Li Xiangxian, who was walking in front, suddenly saw a slight noise in the grass, she glanced at Wang Yong, and the two quietly pulled out their knives and forced them over one left and one right.

A person suddenly sat up in the grass, shouting in a language that Li Xiangxian and they couldn't understand, this person was about twenty years old, with a high nose, clear lines on his face, and a very handsome appearance.

He had a stab wound in his waist and an arrow stuck in his right foot; Covered in blood, it was clear that he had just escaped from the battlefield.

Li Xiangxian asked the guide hired from Samarkand to come up and ask, but the guide only asked two words, and his face immediately changed greatly, and he stammered and explained to Li Xian: "He...... He said that he was Sanjar, and on the way back from Flower Thorn Zim, he was ambushed by the men and horses of Ghaznavid Mamud, and the men and horses of Mamud took advantage of the victory to attack the city of Mulu, if you can help...... Help him and return to the city of Nishapur quickly, and he must be grateful. ”

Hearing the name Sanjar, Li Xiangxian was also stunned, and Sanjar, the third son of the previous sultan of the Seljuk Empire, Malikshah, was conferred the title on Khorasan. She inquired about these things when she set off from the Peach Blossom Stone Country.

Sanjar, Governor of Khorasan!

Li Xiangxian quickly came back to his senses and shouted to Huang Yong: "Immediately help him get arrows and wrap up his wounds, leave a few people to guard the camel caravan, and the others will accompany me, and quickly escort the governor of Sanjar to Nishapur City." ”

The reward of the imperial court has come down, and the actual position has not changed much for the time being, Yang Yi has been awarded the rank of senior university scholar of the Imperial Palace, and the rank of general of Jin Wuwei has been awarded to generals and soldiers at all levels, but in general, the reward for the false title of the general is not low, but the bounty and silk are relatively small, and it can even be said that it is a little shabby.

This Yang Yi can understand that after this war, coupled with the rush to repair the Yongtai Mausoleum, the imperial court is not having a good time now, and is tightening its pants to support it. The peace talks with the Liao State have not yet been announced, and Wuzhou outside the Yanmen Pass is still deadlocked!

But he can understand, it does not mean that all the soldiers understand, this time Huanzhou has paid the most, suffered the greatest casualties, and has the most outstanding military achievements, and the rewards are quite different from their original expectations, and there will inevitably be many complaints in the army.

For this reason, Yang Yi had to go to the barracks to appease him again and again, and with his prestige, he could be regarded as temporarily pacifying the soldiers; But this can't really eliminate the complaints in the hearts of the soldiers, it's just that there is no trouble on Yang Yi's face.

This kind of complaining is buried in my heart, and it is extremely detrimental to future operations.

It wasn't until a small rumor quietly spread among the Huanzhou Army that the soldiers really laughed.

It is said that when Yang Zhizhou was drinking with the generals one day, he was indifferent to the problem that the imperial court reward was too little, and Yang Zhizhou felt ashamed of everyone, so he promised to allow the soldiers to loot privately once or twice in the future when fighting the Xia army to compensate everyone.

This news has now spread to everyone in the army, but without Yang Zhizhou's own confirmation, many people still have doubts.

Later, Liu Laohu shouted: When did Yang Zhizhou let us suffer?

Just this sentence, everyone laughed! Everyone was happy for a while.

With the efforts of tens of thousands of Xia soldiers, the reconstruction of the walled forts in Huanzhou has progressed rapidly, and the remaining people in the camps outside the city are less than 1,000 people, and most of them have moved back to their new homes.

The White Horse River outside Fort Guide, the Qingjiang River is like a practice, the water is rippling, and the small wild chrysanthemums all over the shore are blooming; A white fox flew out of the woods, and ran away in a hurry, with its big tail running straight, and it turned out that it was chasing a mighty white wolf behind it.

Suddenly, a powerful arrow shot at the white fox's right eye, and the white fox immediately fell to the ground, struggling a few times before being silent.

Mu Lanhua put away her longbow, glanced at Yang Yi proudly, and ran towards the white fox with a peach blossom horse between her legs, but before she could arrive, the white wolf had already picked up the fox with the arrow in her mouth and ran towards Yang Yi.

Qing Niang sat in front of Yang Yi, her eyes smiling like a crooked crescent moon!

"Brother Yang, hurry up and hug people down!"

As soon as Yang Yi dropped her off the horse, the white wolf immediately offered a treasure and gave the fox to Qing Niang; Mu Lanhua galloped back, stepped over all the way to Xiao Yeju, and said angrily: "The hateful big-tailed wolf dares to rob my prey!" This one is mine. ”

Qing Niang stood in front of the white wolf and said with a grin: "Sister Mu, this fox was originally chased by Xiaobai, and when I saw that it caught up, you just released the arrow, and you robbed my Xiaobai." ”

Yang Yi stretched his waist and said: "Qing Niang is right, this fox should be counted as ours, okay, the time is up, now count and see who has more prey." ”

After counting, there were two missing on Mu Lanhua's side, so she had to take the prey to the stream and disembowel.

Yang Yi's archery method was unsatisfactory, and he was ridiculed by Mu Lanhua for shooting five feet crooked, so the two sides made a bet that within an hour, who would hunt less prey and who would be responsible for "cooking".

Mu Lan had good archery skills and thought she would win, but it turned out to make her very depressed and very depressed!

She galloped and shot for a long time; Yang Yi and Qing Niang walked leisurely, picking flowers and playing in the water by the river, but in the end there were two more prey than her, but Yang Yi used not a bow and arrow, but Xiaobai.

Qing Niang's crescent moon was still bent, and she took Yang Yi's hand and whispered: "Brother Yang, I think Sister Mu is angry that you sent Brother Ma to the Western Regions, hehe!" Sister Mu must be lovesick! ”

Yang Yi tilted his head, thought about it very seriously and said: "Qing Niang is reasonable, this season is quite easy to suffer from lovesickness, as the so-called flowers float and flow artesianly, a kind of lovesickness, two sorrows, this situation can not be eliminated, only frowned, but on the heart......"

"Yikes! Brother Yang, you're the worst! Worst! Worst! Peek at what people write."

Qing Niang was so ashamed that her face flushed, and she shook Yang Yi's sleeve unresignedly, her words were full of lovesickness, who is this lovesickness for, do you need to say more?

This time it was impossible to make fun of Mulan, but Yang Yi made fun of her, and Qing Niang was embarrassed for a while.

Yang Yi laughed, picked up her light body, and ran towards the hillside full of small wild chrysanthemums, laughing all the way.

(To be continued)