Li Siye felt in a trance that he was being dragged by his feet, and he just opened his eyes with difficulty, but closed them again. Under the effect of the medicine, his hands and feet were completely unconscious, and his head was as sleepy as if he hadn't slept for seven days and seven nights.

He can't just fall asleep, he must fight with his will and medicine, otherwise he will be slaughtered in his sleep.

He was pushed to the trunk of a tree, and three fellows were tied in a circle with hemp rope, and one of them squatted in front of him, untied the strap, and threw him far away.

Li Siye was tightly tied, and he felt the whole process in a half-dream. A sturdy figure stood in front of him, it was that Lu Qian.

"Li Siye, Brother Li?"

Lu Qian shouted twice, but Li Siye didn't answer, and then made a mockery and said: "Go down to the underworld, don't blame me for my brother, who let you provoke the big people in Chang'an City." But don't worry, I, Lu Qian, can't do it against my own people, and there are other people who come to take your life. ”

He immediately turned around and led a few cronies to get on their horses and leave, leaving only Li Siye tied to a tree in the whole poplar forest, the broad and sparse yellow leaves rustling above his head, when the whole world fell silent, the sound of poplar leaves falling in the wind was extremely terrifying, like a note of urgency.

The two healthy horses went and returned, Li Siye squinted his eyes, but it was two soldiers from Lu Qian's cronies, and after they turned over and dismounted, they quickly approached the black fat tied to the tree.

The two of them unloaded the backpack from the black fat body, threw the Mo knife aside, and directly opened the backpack, dumping everything on the ground.

"Hey, what is this?"

One soldier peeled off his oilskin-wrapped compressed biscuits, took a bite and spit it out: "Why did you do that?" ”

"Don't mess with those things, get the money away!"

The two of them only picked out a few hundred treasures that he had stored in his backpack, and the rest of the needles and threads, thistles, traps, quilts and other things were discarded. His homemade compressed biscuits were tossed to the floor.

The soldiers rode away, and Li Siye wanted to make a sound, but he got stuck in his throat.

At this moment, the sky is still dark, and the North Star rises from the desert and becomes the brightest star in the clear blue sky. Perhaps as soon as the morning dawned, those who wanted to take his life came out from other oases to harvest his head in a rage.

His sense of touch seemed to be slowly recovering, and his numb arm was able to move, and he struggled to bend his wrist up, shaking his cuffs with great effort to get the grunt in his sleeve.

The tip of this thing is sharp, and although it is not very sharp, it is very effective at cutting hemp rope. He quickly loosened the rope and slapped his aching muscles.

He picked up the straps and tied them around his waist, squatted on the ground and collected the supplies in his backpack, although all the money he carried was taken, the rest of the things were kept, especially compressed biscuits and healing medicine, which were essential to save lives during the journey.

The thin scale armor was neatly tied to the black fat body, he stepped forward to untie the rope, began to put on the armor, starting from the feet, tied the shin guards on the calves, the skirt armor on both sides of the thighs, the thin scale armor of the torso extended to the sides of the knees like a trench coat, buckled the shoulder armor and arm guards, wrapped the belt and the belly guard around the waist, and finally put on the scarf, tied the tie in front of the neck, and the full set of armor was draped.

He hung his backpack on the right side of the horse, tied the water bag on the left side, hung the horizontal knife and barrier knife on his waist, and carried the Mo knife on his shoulder, turned over and rode on the black fat.

Maybe he was carrying too much cargo, or maybe he was heavy, and the black fat screamed with difficulty, and spread his hooves and ran.

Five or six miles away from here is the center of the oasis, is the last official post station of the Tang court in the Xizhou desert, around the post station there is a small earthen fort, there is no city gate, only the earth city wall blown out of the gap by the wind and sand.

He rode to the outside of the earthen fort, where the traces of the garrison left by the Metropolitan Guards last night were clearly visible, and a few thin children wandered around the abandoned fire after the army had set up camp, rummaging through the ashes with wood, hoping to find the remaining food.

He didn't choose to waste time in the market town, the five hydration bags were full and didn't need to be replenished.

Li Siye flipped off his horse, took out a compressed biscuit from his backpack, and unwrapped the oilskin paper. He walked up to one of the emaciated children, squeezed the biscuit in his hand and asked him: "When did the army go, and in which direction?" ”

The child looked at the sky, gestured with his finger, and then pointed to the vast Gobi in front of him.

He reached out and touched the child's head, shoving the biscuit into his hand.

He got on his horse again and ran on the dividing line between the oasis and the desert, looking back at the oasis market town surrounded by yellow sand.

I don't know how many people are chasing him later, and I don't know how strong or weak he is, and if he stays in this place, he will only lose his life in vain. Of course, the desert is also dangerous, he has never traveled in this area, and if he is not careful, he will get lost in the depths of the yellow sand, and become a pile of dry bones.

In fact, it is ideal to choose to wait for a caravan to accompany him, but the enemies will not give him time to wait. Therefore, Li Siye only hesitated for a moment, then resolutely rode forward, entered the yellow sand in the sky, and stayed away from the oasis full of vitality here.

……

Whining!

The sound of a whistle broke the silence of the poplar forest, and four ponies and two camels descended into the forest, slowly searching in the direction of the market town.

There were two more people in the bandit's team, and they were the swordsmen they hired from the garrison city near Yumen Pass, although these people had military status, but they had long since broken away from the sequence of the Tang army and became a destabilizing factor on the Silk Road.

While Zhang Kuo and the others searched everywhere, the two of them rode on the camel and remained immovable, maintaining their arrogance.

They knew that the four people in front of them were cruel vultures, with no rules and no evil. Under normal circumstances, they are reluctant to be in the company of these four people, but this time Zhang Kuo's price is too high, which makes them excited.

It turns out that abandoning the moral bottom line does work, as can be seen in the difference in their attire. Zhang Kuo and others wore sheepskin jackets, sheepskin underneaths, brocade robes and crotch robes, and rhinoceros leather belts tied around their waists.

The two swordsmen looked much shabby, their tops and bottoms were made of various animal furs, the handwork was poor, and many plush flying in the wind outside were the tails of some kind of animals, and the whole appearance was no different from the cave people on the top of the mountain tens of thousands of years ago.

In order to shelter themselves from the wind and sand, they did not wear a veil, but wrapped their heads in a long linen cloth like a bandage, revealing only their eyes and mouth, and staggered on a camel like two sloths.

Zhang Kuo traced the traces to the poplar tree and saw a pile of ropes that had been cut open.

His face immediately sank, and he reached out and pounded the trunk of the tree hard. People in the government will always make mistakes! He could have easily slaughtered the bound lambs, but he could only chase the frightened geese in the vast desert, and the difficulty of cutting off Li Siye's head increased exponentially, wasting time and energy in vain.

The two young people, San'er and Ah Wu, seemed particularly manic, they had long been thinking about the top brand of the Qinglou in Lanzhou City, tasting the warm fragrance of nephrite in their dreams, and now that the meat sheep had escaped, their return journey had been extended indefinitely, how could they not be annoyed!

"It doesn't matter where he is! Give me chase! ”