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This strict man is the leader of the Marquis of the Five Clans of the Xiaoyue Clan, and the current King of the Xiaoyue Clan, Shalile. ｛{x}

He has the ferocity of a wolf, the cunning of a fox, the poisonous snake lurking in the shadows, and the patience to kill with one blow, the Huns call him the fox of the desert, the poisonous snake of the Yueshi.

The people of the Satsuki clan call him the bravest king, the messenger sent to the world by Ahura Mazda, the god of light and wisdom, and the savior who saves the people of the Yue clan.

Shalile looked sad: "No, I'd rather I am still the Marquis of the Yue Clan, not the King of the Xiaoyue Clan, the right Xian Wang Juli has oppressed us more severely, our clan is weakening day by day, in a few decades we will have to leave Yin Wu and hide in the mountains to survive, you understand my intentions." ”

"I understand, I know a lot about the current situation of the Satsuki clan."

Gan's father hung his head in shame, he was the same as the Yueshi people who surrendered to the Huns, he was the vanguard of the Xiaoyue clan, traitors are often the most active and cruel when they treat their own people, half of Gan's father's marksman prestige is accumulated from countless corpses of the same clan that have fallen down, the Xiaoyue clan is nearly half smaller than when it was divided twenty years ago, the total population of the whole clan is only more than 100,000 people, and the soldiers who can draw bows and shoot arrows are only 20,000 people.

The staggering number of 20,000 people in the Western Regions is far worse than the 100,000 iron horsemen under the account of King Youxian. Not to mention that the sworn enemy of the Yue people, Wusun Kun Mo Hunting, has 30,000 horsemen under his command, and the land west of the river is occupied by the shameless Yue traitors, and the Xiaoyue people are attacked from two directions, east and west. It can only be entrenched in the narrow space from the Qilian Mountains to the Longxi Plateau, which is weaker than the heyday more than 60 years ago.

"There is not much time left for us, if you plan to go to the people of the Otsuki clan, I can take my brother Pugma with you."

Father Gan's eyes widened in surprise when he saw a middle-aged man as strong as an ox flash out of the crowd, who was only a little shorter than Saliler (2 meters) tall. Born with long hands and feet like a gibbon, his archery skills are on par with Gan's father, and his arm strength is slightly better. He is known as a man who has the hope of becoming the strongest warrior of the Gujon tribe.

"Father Gan!"

"Pugma!"

The two remained motionless in a star-gaze posture, like a male lion meeting another male lion who was evenly matched, and just eye contact exuded monstrous war intent.

Pugma said coldly: "Your body is stronger than it was more than ten years ago, but your strength will never be as strong as mine." I can shoot a strong bow with two stones and eight buckets (168 catties). And you can never do it! ”

"You don't have my explosive power, even if you shoot accurately, what's the use of great power? When you shoot one arrow, I can shoot three arrows in a row, and each arrow can kill a strong boar. "Father Gan patted the two-stone strong bow (12o city catties) on his hand, as if to say that my bow is not much worse than yours.

The two-stone bow is his true level, and pulling such a heavy strong bow with hundreds of arrows is the capital under his account of the right sage king. Otherwise, it would not have made a name for itself as a small tribe on the grassland.

"Since I didn't see each other for more than a decade ago, my explosive power has come a long way. The arrows are nearly half as fast as before, and your arrows will no longer be able to threaten me. ”

"Hehe, forcibly lifting it will only reduce your accuracy and strength, are you distressed by your hit rate? My archery skills aren't just about being fast. ”

Pugma frowned slightly, the Gan family has been a tribe rich in archers for hundreds of years, and almost every generation will have a sharpshooter before the Yue clan is defeated, and Lian Baiya is a stunt that this family has improved after dozens of generations of accumulation, but Gan's father can raise Lian Baiya from one stone and five bucket bows to two stone bows, which is closest to the limit.

"Your family's secret art is amazing, is that your boy? As a teenager, you're so strong, it seems that your archery heritage has been settled. Pugma said to the boy who was grinning at him.

Father Gan smiled proudly: "My kid's talent is not much worse than I was back then, even if I don't go through the war and train for another ten years, I can still inherit most of my mantle, I also met a great marksman talent in Han Land, his body is better than my kid." ”

"Oh? And a Han man with better talent than you? I don't believe it. ”

"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not." Father Gan glanced at him and said, "Are you ready?" Come with us to the West in search of our lost companions. ”

"The cowards? They have been frightened by the Huns, and they went in vain. ”

"You don't care about this, if we can't go, there will naturally be other places to go, do you dare to follow me?"

"Haha, why don't you dare?"

Pugma waved her hand lightly, and the sturdy and brave Xiaoyue people of the hundredth came rushing over.

Zhang Qian only used his eyes to meow, and he knew that these hundred and ten people were all proficient in archery, everyone left thick calluses on their hands, and there were strange basket leg shapes with slightly bent legs, only when they lived on horseback for a long time since they were children would they leave such deformed legs and feet, and the Hun cavalry's basket legs were better than them.

Shalile left in a hurry after a few words, and the herdsmen of the Xiaoyue clan closed their mouths very tacitly, and each returned to their original positions to continue singing and dancing, as if they had never given birth.

The blizzard, which had lasted for several days, finally stopped, and the warm southeast wind that followed blew away all the cold and dampness in just a few days, and the snow melted and thawed in the warm sun, and the grass grew in the soft soil, the most tenacious creatures in the desert and the supply of millions of livestock.

The transition between winter and spring in the Northwest Desert is so fast, the first few days are still the cold and cold season, and a few days later it will enter the warm and humid spring.

The melting of the snow and ice is only the beginning, and the soft soil cannot leave immediately. The herders waited patiently for the snow-soaked soil to harden, and then drove their cattle and sheep to various pastures to find their own pastures.

The Huns left early, due to the threat of Shalil, the king of the Xiaoyue clan. Forcing their search to be in vain, Hamuk's vicious gaze before leaving made the crowd unhappy.

Shalil's intervention improved the living conditions of the caravan, at least the forage needed by the caravan mounts would not be so scarce.

"Your camels have been freed, and all your slaves have been ranched, and I will help you to get 45o sturdy mares. Make sure that every mare has a foal with him, and that there is plenty of mare's milk for you to have at your disposal, is that salt really going to get rid of it? I'll build yì you keep some. The first thing on the steppe desert is salt. Shaliel kindly reminded.

Zhang Qian nodded and said, "We have a lot of salt in our hands, and it doesn't matter if we give it all to the herdsmen." ”

"Well, these 1oo stone salts can be exchanged for another 5oo mares, counting your own 7oo horses, which is enough to get through all the needs of the desert."

Father Gan suddenly said, "There are too many stallions in the caravan. We intend to trade the sturdy stallions for the strongest mare in the grassland. I know you have the right mare in your hands. ”

"Oh, is that what you think?"

Shaliel pondered for a moment and agreed to his request, too many stallions will affect the stability of the caravan, so many bow horses will immediately cause chaos in the caravan once they enter the estrus, and the horses that cannot be bounced will look for mating mares everywhere, which is the most terrible disaster for a horse team, so many nomads will choose to keep only some of the sturdy stallions, and the rest of the stallions will be killed directly as food.

"Yes. Your war horse is good, I can let you change it one-on-one. Keeping 5o stallions should be enough for you, but it is very important for you to change to warhorses to carry goods evenly to reduce weight, and the progress of the trip can be improved to normal riding. ”

The members of the caravan silently packed up, and it took a whole year to walk a small part of the total distance, everyone was in a hurry to leave, no one knew how long it would take for the pursuers of the Right Virtuous King to arrive, saving time was the best way

The next day, when it was dawning, the caravan slowly left the valley of Yin Wu's end.

At this time, the Yueshi people in the valley had already left, and only a few tribes that moved slowly were busy packing up their belongings, and there were tribes outside the valley that drove cattle and sheep out of the valley.

Shaliel warned: "It is dangerous to march all the way, there are only more than 300 of you to bring more arrows and wounds, and remember that astrology is very important, before going to bed, set up camp in the direction of your direction facing the stars, avoid getting lost halfway, take the middle line and cross the sea of death as quickly as possible, beware of the pursuers of the Right Virtuous King who will soon catch up, and be careful of the arrogant interception, do not make any stops in between, go quickly!" ”

Outside the valley, Father Gan wanted to speak several times, and silently arched his hand: "Be careful of the accountability of the Right Sage King, cherish it a lot!" ”

"Don't worry! The Huns on the grassland can be called the strongest, they are much worse near the Sea of Death, Ju Li can't figure out the distribution of the grassland of the Sea of Death, and dare not lightly involve the Sea of Death, with my ears and eyes can easily grasp the movement of the Sea of Death, the Right Sage King can't catch me, send you away, I'll take the tribe to migrate around, you guys go quickly! ”

Shaliel whipped his mount's buttocks, and more than 16oo horses sped away with some of their luggage.

Out of the valley along the river all the way to the river, along the way encountered a lot of migratory tribes, along the way the herdsmen saw Pagma and Gahuro have taken off their hats to salute, the two of them in the Yue clan people have a very high status, the Yue warriors under their hands are all high-spirited, as if to say that they have never been afraid of anyone in their own territory.

This road leads directly to the seat of the former country of the Cheshi (Turpan), which is as peculiar as the famous fire basin thousands of years later, the temperature is surprisingly high every summer, but the morning and evening are very cool, and the peculiar climate here has long been the interesting custom of the Cheshi people not going out during the day and sleeping lazily in the morning.

Cheshi country is a small country, because of the inheritance is divided into the front and back, they are nominally subordinate to the Xiongnu, the actual situation is the same as the Xiaoyue people, the former country of Cheshi has only a few thousand households, a total of about 15,000 households, only more than 1,000 soldiers, half-farming and half-herding settled in a small basin and nearby oasis, the population growth is slow, the life is relatively stable, a typical small tribe with no ambition and ability.

The small basin with the Tianshan Mountains in the background is a very peculiar place, Yin Wu is rich in refreshing cantaloupe, and Cheshi is rich in delicious grapes. The eating habit of wrapping lamb in a belly and burying it under the fire opened the eyes of the newcomers to the Han people, who thought that the northwest was just a harsh place surrounded by wind and sand. The riches and prosperity of the Western Regions greatly exceeded their expectations.

The caravan was temporarily disbanded, and each of them went in small groups of detachments to find interesting things and report back.

Lu Heng and Feng Shou were in a team, and the two of them went straight to the barbecue mutton stall, one big and one small stared at the barbecue stall and drooled, they were helpless The people of the Western Regions used gold as currency, cloth and salt from the Han land as currency, and horses as currency. The only thing that is not used is copper coins, and merchants in the Western Regions do not use copper coins, and they don't use them before and now.

Touch the few taels of gold given by Zhang Qian in his pocket. The two of them swallowed wildly, and there was nothing they could do.

Sima Tan was the clerk of the caravan, and he was the most knowledgeable and the best and fastest in handwriting, and dozens of thick diaries were prepared for him to make records, and ordinary brushes could not meet his use. It was replaced with the feathers of a falcon dipped in ink. With his extensive experience in drawing and making sand tables in the palace, it was easy to trace the path of the caravan, including the simple things of time and life.

Zhang Qian walked to the fruit stall and looked at the strange fruit curiously.

"Taste it, the raisins here are delicious."

"This is a raisin? It's pretty sweet. ”

The chariot merchant who sold raisins said proudly: "A few people go to the neighborhood to ask, my grapes are famous far and wide, even the king and queen have eaten our grapes, do you want to take some to eat as a snack on the road?" ”

Zhang Qian grabbed a handful of raisins. Thinking of Cao Shi's instructions to him, he asked, "Your grapes here are so good." Can it be planted elsewhere? ”

"Yes, just take out the grape seeds and plant them, but the grapes in other places are not as delicious as our Cheshi country, and the unique climate is the magic weapon of Cheshi grapes.

"Is there anything wrong with growing grapes?"

"Do you want to buy my raisins or not? Don't buy it, don't delay doing business! ”

Zhang Qian smiled and shook his head, this businessman would not tell the truth without a little blood: "Buy, buy, buy, you can wrap me 3o stone raisins, can you trade them with salt?" ”

"Huh? 3o stone raisins? It's a big deal, and the salt deal couldn't be better, so you wait for me to pick it up. ”

The chariot merchant explained a few words to his youngest son, and hurriedly walked to the backyard, and after a while, an old man with a white beard appeared, speaking in a half-baked Xiongnu language, and said: "Distinguished guest, we have 5o stone of good raisins at home, if you are willing to buy these raisins, the old man will explain all the cultivation techniques and precautions for growing grapes in their original form." ”

"Is this true?"

"The old man lived seventy-six years and never lied, and Ahura Mazda did not allow the believers to lie." The old man performed the standard behavior of Zoroastrians, according to the ancient Persian beliefs and customs, it was strictly forbidden to lie, and the old man's greed did not mean that he would do untrustworthy things.

"Then buy it! Is there a problem with two stone salt? ”

"Two stones of salt? What a generous person you are! Thanks a lot! The old man was dying of joy.

Raisins are not rare in the Western Regions, there are herdsmen who grow grapes all over the place, but they are the best ones planted by the drivers, 5o stone raisins don't cost much, but 2 stone salt is different, salt is very expensive in the Western Regions, it is definitely bragging to say that salt and gold are equivalent, but in the Western Regions, twenty stone salt is equal to one stone of gold (6o city catties) is not a problem.

Sima Tan recorded with his head stuffy, he was really afraid that he couldn't hold back his laughter, but fortunately, the old man who dealt with the driver was Zhang Qian, who talked about people and talked nonsense, and if he wanted to change it, he would definitely not be able to help but mess up the deal.

Originally, when the caravan came out, there was not much salt prepared in the caravan.

Last year, there are a lot of saltwater lakes and marshes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and people and animals will be unbearable by the saltwater if they are not careful, so Zhang Qian immediately thought of using local materials to dry salt.

Before they left Longxi last year, they heard that the salt pond in Hedong was in full swing to carry out new process transformation, and the natural salt drying field of Qi Guohe Huiji was also improving the new salt drying process, and it was estimated that the renovation project could be completed by this summer, and Zhang Qian copied it directly from the diary without the slightest pressure.

The salt drying method is very simple, simply speaking, digging pits and exposing to the sun to obtain unusable salt brine, mixing it with water filtration, continuing to expose to the sun and repeatedly clarifying and removing impurities, and the result is the best snow salt.

Last year, I delayed so much time on the plateau, on the one hand, I wanted to attract as many Shengrong Qiang people as possible to go down the mountain, and on the other hand, I wanted to get some Qinghai skull and countless salt.

When Yin Wu inquired, he found out that there were many saltwater rivers and saltwater lakes in the Western Regions, and the salt content of several large rivers running through the Sea of Death was not small, after all, it was the Western Regions with an amazing annual steaming volume, except for some long-flowing lakes that were freshwater lakes, most of the small lakes were saltwater, including Lop Nur in the northeast of Loulan was also a saltwater lake.

In Sima Tan's view, the people of the Western Regions are very interesting.

Seeing that the salt water could not be used, they went to buy the sky-high price of salt shipped from other places all day long, so that the outrageous price of 25 stone salt to huàn1 stone gold had already been obtained, but they had the skill of drying salt in their hands.

In these years, the most important thing in the Western Regions was river oases, livestock such as cattle, horses, sheep, and camels, and hard currency such as salt and cloth was the most lacking.

"Wait, we want your raisins on a conditional basis, and the cultivation technique will be explained carefully to me, and if there is the slightest lie, beware of the anger of Ahuramazda."

The old man Bai was bluffed, and hurriedly explained the original viticulture technology, including the temperature and sunshine during cultivation, and the use of livestock manure as fertilizer.

On the way back, Sima Tan couldn't help but smile every time he remembered the funny expression of the old man who wanted to keep trade secrets but didn't dare to lie.

"What are you laughing at so happy?" More than a dozen people drove dozens of horses behind Gan Yanlu, Gan's father asked him to buy suitable mare around the coach, the expansion of the horse team is a way to improve the survivability of the desert, as long as you don't go to the desert and use horses as a means of transportation is the fastest, camels are not as good as war horses.

"See the raisins in the back? 2 stone salt for 5o stone raisins, and our snacks will be no shortage in the future. ”

Zhang Qian said with a tiger face: "Can that be called a snack?" It's a trade item, and you can only eat a little bit. ”

"Yes, yes! Let's eat 3o stones, and leave 2o stones for trade. ”

Gan Yanlu took out a handful of the package on horseback and stuffed it into his mouth, and his round eyebrows with a bulging mouth danced: "Hmm, it's delicious, sweet and sweet is better than dried cantaloupe, after eating dried cantaloupe for a winter, my nose is not my nose, and my mouth is not my mouth." ”

"You can do it, some of them will be very good." Sima Tan opened the cloth bag and divided the raisins equally among the horse team members behind him, and the reckless men ate two or three bites, wiped off their saliva and stared at the cloth bag.

Raisins are desserts!

In the era when the price of stone honey is fried to the sky-high price of clouds, grapes are the most precious desserts, noble women love to eat sweet food, and the simple shape of apples and pears can not meet the needs of the nobles.

Zhang Qian sighed: "I have a strong premonition that this trip to the Western Regions will go down in history, and maybe it will change the entire era and the fate of the Han family!" (To be continued!)

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