The crescent moon shines.

Shen Pearl and his clothes were lying on the felt mat in the felt tent, turning over and over and over and unable to sleep. Her instincts and previous events told her that something was going to happen tonight.

The first few times she went to camp, she was also so restless, and went to the felt tent many times to inspect the four directions, but always after she returned to the tent to rest, there would still be the disappearance of the attendant. Therefore, after falling asleep for a while, she simply got up and sat down on the felt mat, took out the knife she carried with her, and cut a thin slit on the felt tent. Because it is a tent on the grassland, it is different from a loose distribution in the valley, and the bright moon hangs high, so from this small gap you can see the movement of the surrounding tents.

The outside world is calm. The attendants took turns to patrol the guard, Chen Zhou was lying on the side of the bonfire, snoring from time to time, the bonfire was bright and dark, and occasionally a waiter came to add dry branches, Cheng Yuanzhen walked out of the felt tent opposite, whispered a few words to the waiter, watched from all sides for a while, and then slowly paced back......

Shen Pearl peeked from time to time, but there was nothing abnormal, and after a long time, she couldn't bear the sleepiness and dozed off, her head tilted to the side, and she was touching the tent frame where the felt tent was built, and she immediately woke up in pain. Squinting and looking out of the felt tent, she saw that on the far side of the camp tent in the south, an attendant fell crookedly as if drunk, she was shocked, her hair stood on end, and she didn't know how fast she was rushing out of the felt tent, shouting: "Someone! Come! There are assassins—"

Her shout instantly pierced the silence of the station, and Chen Zhou was the first to jump up from the campfire: "Where, where is the assassin?" "The nearest attendants have drawn their swords and looked around.

Shen Pearl clearly saw several black shadows suddenly popping out from behind the camp tent in the south, and she pointed in that direction: "Quick, quick, it's there, catch them!" ”

Just as he was calling, he suddenly heard someone shouting, "Go on! Shen Zhuqian raised her head and looked in the direction of the sound, in this electric light, the wind snatched with the sound of "whoosh" in her ears, and heard the sound of "Zheng" behind her, and an arrow feather passed close to her body, piercing into the beams and pillars of the felt tent behind her, and her strength was undiminished, still trembling.

Chen Zhou slapped his palms, scolded "damn it", and with a move of his hand, he immediately rushed towards the direction pointed by Shen Pearl with several attendants. At this time, all the attendants resting in the tents were alarmed, and rushed out of the tents one after another, and for a moment there was a sound of drawing swords, shouting and shouting and killing, and the torches were shaking in all directions.

Several attendants approached the guards on Shen Pearl's side, and the sound of fighting in the south could be heard as far as possible, and Shen Pearl was snatched the torch from one of the attendants, and said, "Let's go, let's go and see what is going on." ”

Walking briskly to the south, the sound of fighting came from farther away. There was only a team of flying dragon envoys left in the tent in the south, and when the team saw Shen Pearl coming, they pointed to the east and said, "The assassin fled to the east, and the two adults went to chase and arrest them, and left us and the guards to wait for the wife." Shen Pearl nodded, saw an inner flying dragon envoy lying on the ground, squatted down and asked, "What's wrong with this person?" ”

Team Zhengdao: "Looking at this, it seems that my mouth and nose are covered by drugs, and I am temporarily unconscious." The subordinate has asked people to take water and sprinkle it on the face, and they should be able to wake up immediately. As he spoke, one of the attendants had already taken a water bladder from the tent and sprinkled all the water on the face of the unconscious attendant, and sure enough, the attendant shook his head, and although he was dizzy, he still staggered to his feet and confessed.

Shen Pearl said: "I think those people must have used this method to easily rob many Inner Flying Dragon Envoys." There are many herbs that can be anesthetized for a short time in ancient times, but I don't know what this medicine is made of? ”

There was a difficult color on the front of the team: "This, the subordinates have seen and heard shallowly, and I really don't know." ”

Shen Pearl smiled, and also felt that it was difficult to ask a strong man. With such the ability to understand medicine, how many people in the world can there be besides Murong Lin Zhi?

At this moment, hearing the horse's hooves in the east, Shen Zhuzhu's face changed color slightly, and he wanted to speak, but he couldn't help himself, and then held his breath and listened carefully, but the sound of the horse's hooves gradually faded away, as if a storm swept over the grassland, and there was no sound in an instant.

Shen Pearl sighed: "It's a pity, that gang of thieves must have escaped." I wonder if the two adults caught one or two fish that slipped through the net? ”

After a while, Cheng Yuanzhen and Chen Zhou rushed back with the attendants with a dazed expression.

Chen Zhou shook his head and scolded: "This group of people is well deployed, it turns out that there are soldiers and horses in the ambush early!" We chased after us, and they fought and retreated, not entangled with us, and chased for miles, and the people who answered us fired arrows in a random manner, but we wounded several dragons, but they did not lose a single penny, and retreated. ”

Cheng Yuanzhen was unhappy and kept his mouth shut. Thinking that it was a short-handed encounter, the Inner Flying Dragon made him lose again, and he was very unhappy in his heart.

Shen Pearl and Chen Zhou inspected the attendant's injuries and asked, "Do you know where they come from?" ”

Chen Zhou casually picked up an arrow pulled from the injured attendant's body, and said, "They shoot arrows with bows, although the arrows are short and powerful, but the scope of damage is limited, so our flying dragon envoys are only injured by flesh and skin, and a little medical treatment is enough." This is the bow and arrow that the Uighurs are accustomed to. This group of people should be Hui people. ”

Shen Pearl also saw this kind of short arrow in Huifu in the past, and he bowed his head slightly.

Chen Zhou went to see the attendant who had been stunned again, and came back and said: "I have inquired about this person's symptoms, and that ** is not a special thing, it is a kind of herb that grows everywhere in Hui, called Teng'er Zhi." ”

Shen Pearl said: "Oh, why is the name so weird? ”

Chen Zhoudao: "Because the Uighurs live on nomadic herds, many of them are injured in fighting with wild beasts, and this Tengerzhi is originally a Turkic language, which means 'lost', which can make the pain of the injured temporarily subside, which is roughly the same as the pharmacology of Ma Boiling Powder in our Central Plains. ”

"These two things are closely related to Huifu, and it seems that as soon as we enter Huifu, we will be targeted early." Shen Pearl said.

Chen Zhou frowned: "But what is their intention in dealing with us?" Just to stop us from saving Your Highness? In the current situation, we are no different from their strength to block the car, so why bother with such brains? Killing us with one brain, won't everything be fine? Zhao Cheng Yuanzhen shouted: "Brother Cheng, you can't keep your head shut and say nothing, what do you think about today's events?" Along the way, his relationship with Cheng Yuanzhen seems to be closer, and occasionally he is commensurate with brother and brother, but most of the time he is respectful and polite.

Cheng Yuanzhen smiled bitterly, pulled out his long sword and stuck it on the ground, clasped his hands together, turned his back to Shen Pearl and Chen Zhou, and stood still for a long time.

Shen Pearl comforted: "Don't be discouraged, my lord, today's events are enough to boost morale." ”

"Madam, two adults, this arrow shaft is strapped with letters!" An inner flying dragon envoy was running briskly and handed the arrow feather in his hand to Cheng Yuanzhen.

Shen Pearl sighed and said, "Isn't this the arrow that pierced the pillar of the camp just now?" ”

The team said "exactly".

At that time, the situation was urgent, and Shen Pearl only wanted to catch the attacker quickly, and did not notice what was special about this arrow, only then did he see a piece of brown paper tied with a silk rope on the shaft of the arrow.

Cheng Yuanzhen untied the kraft paper, and Shen Pearl opened it and read: "If you want to find the traces of His Royal Highness the Prince of the Tang Dynasty, travel one hundred miles east from here to Pingluoyu, and then turn north for three hundred miles." "The handwriting is twisted and twisted, and it seems that writing Chinese characters is very difficult.

Chen Zhou was very surprised, took the brown paper, looked at it from beginning to end, and muttered, "How can this be? How so? ”

"What's wrong?" Shen Pearl and Cheng Yuanzhen spoke in unison.

Chen Zhou wiped the sweat from his forehead: "As far as I know, from Pingluo to the north, it is a great desert that cannot be seen. How could His Royal Highness the Crown Prince be there, and how could people be allowed to survive there! This, this, what does this brown paper mean! ”

Shen Pearl bit her lip lightly, thousands of thoughts flickered in her mind for a while, all kinds of conjectures were intertwined and wrong, and her mind was confused, and it took a long time before she could barely settle down and said: "This matter is indeed strange, since they want to attack us and others, why do they send a special letter to inform His Highness of his whereabouts?" Could it be a plan to invite you into the urn? If they want to do us badly, why don't they do so to kill us? If it is not against us, why do you raid and plunder your attendants? ”

Chen Zhou and Cheng Yuanzhen were also at a loss, Cheng Yuanzhen said: "In the opinion of Madame, how do we act next?" Still marching in the direction of the royal court, or according to this brown paper? ”

Shen Pearl took a long breath, seeing that the galaxy was gradually falling at this time, and the sky was about to break, he said: "We are tired from tossing all night, I don't expect those people to come again tonight, let's go back and think about it carefully, and discuss it tomorrow morning." ”

In fact, where could Shen Pearl sleep, she went back to her felt tent and took the brown paper book back and forth to read and think.

Judging from the tone of this letter, Li Yu should not be in danger of his life and is still in the world. The greatest purpose of this letter should be to lead (or induce?) She and her attendants went in the direction they were pointing to find Li Yu.

However, why did they lead them to find Li Yu? There are less than 100 people in his group, and no matter where he is, he can't turn the wind and waves, and he won't be looked at by anyone and taken to heart.

It's still the same old saying: what's the intention, what's the intention!

The next morning, he discussed the matter with Chen Zhou and Cheng Yuanzhen again, and Shen Pearl said: "We will follow what is written in this letter and go north after Luo Pingyu!" ”

Chen Zhou waved his hand and said, "Madam, how can we be so passive and be led by the nose by that group of people!" ”

Shen Pearl smiled helplessly: "Then how should we go?" In fact, you and I don't know where His Royal Highness is, there is a civil strife in Huifu, and even if we move in the direction of Huiwang Court, we may not be able to find His Highness. These people are so deliberate against our little team, it is better to do what they say, there may be a windfall. ”

Cheng Yuanzhen also echoed Shen Pearl and said: "What Madame said is reasonable, it is better to try your luck as she said in the letter." ”

Chen Zhou spread his hands and said, "Since Mrs. and Brother Cheng both said so, Chen will obey his fate." It's just that there is another one, after the Pingluo encounter, you only said that after entering the desert from the north, but you didn't say where His Royal Highness is, if we travel 300 miles and still don't find the prince, what can we do? ”

Shen Pearl thought about it and said: "Since that group of people wants to lead us into Tianjin, they will naturally try to show us the way when the time comes, otherwise how can it be considered a good show." I don't think there's any need to worry about this. ”

Pingluoyu is the name of Monan Village, so the terrain is flat, the water and grass are abundant, there are nearly ten families of people to settle around, naturally forming a small village, but also because Pingluoyu is a big desert to the north, and then can reach the northeast of the important town of Terri, so some business travelers in the past mostly stay here to rest, reserve water and grass.

There are no roads on the grasslands, and herders only need directions to travel. The direction is the road of the grassland. Fortunately, there were many business trips in Pingluo, and the grassland left wide or narrow, shallow or deep ox cart ruts, and Chen Zhou was good at knowing the direction, and the group was led by Chen Zhou, galloping horses, and it only took one day to arrive at Pingluoyu smoothly.

The Hui people of Pingluo were accustomed to seeing the Tang people, and they were not surprised by Shen Pearl and his party, only one or two Hui girls were surprised by Shen Zhu's beauty, and when Chen Zhou traded with them in exchange for dry food, they couldn't help flashing their big dark amber eyes, staring at Shen Pearl with envy.

Chen Zhou had already heard that there was no oasis in the desert to the north of Pingluo, and when he asked these Hui girls at this time, the girls all smiled: "Grandpa and Grandma have always said that the desert in Pingluo is as wide as the clouds on the horizon, not to mention that you must prepare enough food, grass and water for half a month, if you get lost, I am afraid that you will not be able to get out of the moon." I've never seen a pound in it! In Turkic language, "only Jinze" means green space in the desert.

Cheng Yuanzhen and Chen Zhou cleaned up the luggage again, abandoned many useless utensils, and exchanged six good horses for four camels to meet the people of Pingluo, and prepared enough water for more than 20 days. The abundant water bladders weighed heavily on the camels, cows and horses like hills.

After a peaceful night's rest in Pingluo, the group headed for the desert.

There was still a small river in Pingluo that was heading north, and as the team marched, they saw that the river was gradually drying up and had entered the Gobi Desert. After walking for another day or two, the Gobi Desert gradually took on the appearance of a desert, with less and less vegetation. In the end, it finally became a complete desert.

Entering the desert, everyone truly realized the meaning of the words "boundless desert".

The scorching sunlight is like a golden thread of jade, densely covering the desert with a layer of golden armor, and the boundless yellow sand seems to connect the sky and clouds. In the desert, the red willow flowers bloom like fireworks, the branches of the shuttle are green and soft, accompanied by each other, and there are sporadic camel thorns and sand dates, which are sparsely dotted with this yellow sand desert.

Shen Pearl entered the desert and lifted the curtain of the carriage, and the dazzling sunlight made her suddenly unable to open her eyes.

She suddenly remembered that six or seven years ago, Li Yu had traveled thousands of miles from Hui to take her back to the Central Plains. It was winter and early spring, and although we had to pass through the desert, the sun was not so brilliant and arrogant. They were accompanied by the eldest grandson, who invited her to play chess every day, and Li Yu would hold her hand and say, "Don't be tired." ”

Away from him for so long, so far away, and the shadow that covers his heart, how can it fade away. Even if he would forget her, even if he would never understand her, he would still suddenly transform into a light and shadow, flying through her world in shock, landing in the mountains and valleys, enveloping her, making it difficult to distinguish between the sun and the moon day and night.

Chen Zhou had his own set of methods, as soon as he entered the desert, in order to prevent falling into the sand, he ordered the attendants to put wooden shoes on the hooves of oxen and horses, and wrapped yak skins on the hooves of camels.

April is not the best time to cross the desert due to its dry climate and hot days, and some parts of the desert are windy and sandy, which the local Hui people call sandflow, which can hinder the journey at least and endanger their lives. The only time of the year is from October to March, when crossing the desert is the most advantageous. Along the way, most of the sights were piles of sand buried halfway up the mountain, wavy sand dunes and jagged rusty peaks.

By the fifth day, according to Chen Zhou's calculations, the group had traveled nearly three hundred miles to the north, and it should not be far from the place referred to in the letter, but as far as everyone could see, it was still a vast desert like an ocean, and there was not the slightest trace of green space. Some of the attendants couldn't help but start to wonder, but they were afraid that Chen Zhou would lead the way in the wrong direction, and if they went in the opposite direction, it would be terrible.

Chen Zhou, who has a lot of experience, saw that Shen Pearl was a little worried, so he explained: "Walking in the desert can only be guided by the rise and fall of the golden crow (note: the Tang people call the sun the golden crow) or the movement of the sand dunes to know the direction. In particular, Jin Wu rises and falls in the east and west and indicates the direction most reliably. At this time, it was early in the morning, Chen Zhou pointed to the rising sun and said: "Madam, you see the golden crow is rising, and the shadows of everything we see are falling to the west, and after a few hours, until three quarters, the golden crow is located in the south, and the shadow points to the north, and when the golden crow reaches due west, the shadow points to the east." Walking in the desert in this way, you will never lose your way. ”

After listening to his explanation, everyone was relieved.

That night, everyone snuggled up to sleep on the camels. The daytime rush was hard, not only the attendants, but even Shen Zhu, Cheng Yuanzhen, and Chen Zhou slept very deeply.

Near midnight, Chen Zhou suddenly woke up. With years of combat experience, he was faintly uneasy in his heart. Tired, he lay still, his face pressed against the horse's neck, and he only opened his eyes, relying on a hazy consciousness to listen to the movements around him. After a while, his face moved slightly, and he saw a procession of more than a dozen camels in the distance, heading towards them.

His whole body tensed, and he vigorously pushed Cheng Yuanzhen on his side: "Be careful, someone is coming!" Cheng Yuanzhen reacted very quickly, pressed the long sword on his waist with his hand, and quickly wanted to bounce to get up, Chen Zhou held him down: "Don't startle the snake." ”

Cheng Yuanzhen nodded immediately, half-knelt behind the camel horse, and carefully inspected the other party's appearance. After a while, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It should be a passing caravan, it looks like the camels are carrying a lot of goods." Having said that, after all, he didn't dare to take any chances and wake up the attendant beside him. In this order, all the attendants were awakened, each with a sword in preparation for battle, and Shen Pearl also sat up from the carriage.

The caravan approached.

This distance does not seem far, but it is actually not so easy to shorten. After about a long time, the caravan came to the back of a small hill and disappeared into formation. However, it soon appeared out of nowhere, and it was surprisingly fast.

"What people!" Chen Zhou raised his voice and shouted in Hui.

(Tianjin)