"Ah~~~~~h

In July, when the melodious shouts were blown by the northwest wind, the scorching sun in the sky scorched the entire Gobi Desert.

Under the scorching sun, Jiayuguan, which stands in the northwest, is dressed in bronze, and between the Western Regions and the Hexi Corridor, it puts on a majestic and strong, iron-walled copper pass.

Jiayu Pass, as the first pass in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, its pass is famous for its dangerous terrain and majestic grandeur, and the "first pass in the world" Shanhaiguan is far away and is famous all over the world.

In Jiayu Pass, the outer wall of the inner city is connected with each other, the corner tower of the arrow tower leans against each other, a black and shiny cannon is parked on the horse road, leaning on the battlement of the female wall, aiming towards the northwest, it seems to have been waiting for an opportunity to open the cannon.

It's just a juncture, starting from here to the west, thousands of miles of yellow sand are uninhabited, and what can be seen is only the ruins of the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty that seem to float like a dragon.

The beacon remains of the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty are still on the yellow sand, between the wind and sand, a piece of broken wall ruins looming, like a historical picture that condenses the vicissitudes of the border plug, people can't help but regret that the descendants of later generations can not even occupy the place where the ancestors built the Great Wall.

It's just a juncture, starting from here to the east, the Qilian Mountains that stretch for thousands of miles are accompanied by the cold wind in the northwest, sweeping through the Han family's humanistic demeanor of more than 1,800 years, blowing over the cities, taking away pieces of cooking smoke, and finally leaving only the whirring wind.

It is just a juncture, which separates the Western Regions and Hexi, protects the people of Hexi from the invasion of the enemy in the northwest, and also separates the history that countless people yearn for.

The yellow sand wears gold armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will not be returned if it is not broken......

This spirit cannot be separated by the city gates, and only the ruler weighs the pros and cons that can stop it.

Blue sky, white clouds, Gobi, snowy peaks...... These natural landscapes have condensed into a kind of majestic atmosphere, simple wind and masculine feelings that belong to the Hexi Corridor.

Desert, lonely smoke, camel bell......

The simple six words show the magnificence of the barrenness outside the gate and the longevity of the swan song to the fullest.

Zhu Ciran was standing here, standing on the gate tower of Jiayuguan, his hands were high and open, and the cry in his mouth seemed to vent everything he had faced these days.

After more than a dozen breaths, when Zhu Ciran put down his hand in a deflated manner, his shout also stopped on the Gobi Desert in front of Jiayu Pass.

He stopped shouting, just quietly looked into the distance, looked at the northwest sky dome that was as clean as a blue cloth without a trace of clouds, and looked at the rolling Qilian Mountains, and was silent for a long time.

The vermilion city tower still stands tall, reflecting the year-round snow-capped Qilian Snow Peak.

Ascending to the top and looking down, the Great Wall is like a giant dragon flying in the vast Hanhai, and a mirage may be visible on a sunny day.

Lowering his head, the melodious bells came from the camel caravans in the Gobi Desert under the city, which made Zhu Ciran suddenly recall the Han and Tang caravans and travelers who passed by thousands of years ago.

"Your Highness, the wind and sand are strong, you better go back to the city......"

When Jinyiwei's voice sounded, Zhu Ciran also looked up at the northwest again: "I've come for almost 5,000 miles, but now I still have to be afraid of the invisible wind and sand?" ”

Five months of eating and sleeping in the open air, all kinds of things in the world have made Zhu Ciran grow a lot, because of long-term riding, his figure is thin but very well-proportioned, and his facial features can vaguely see Zhu Youxiao's shadow, but his face shape is similar to his mother Zhang Yan.

Although it is not as amazing as Zhu Youzhen and Zhu Ciran, the temperament full of wildness makes people can't help but praise it.

Facing the yellow sand in the northwest, Zhu Ciran, who was dressed in coarse linen clothes, murmured at the head of the city:

"My uncle showed me books about the Western Regions, and four hundred miles northwest from here was Guazhou in the Tang Dynasty."

"Three hundred miles southwest from Guazhou, it is Yangguan without a reason to go out of Yangguan in the west."

"One hundred and fifty miles northwest from Yangguan, it is the Yumen Pass where the spring breeze does not pass the Yumen Pass."

Zhu Ciran looked at the northwest pass with only yellow sand, and told the knowledge he learned from books one by one, so that people didn't know whether he was recalling the Han and Tang dynasties or simply narrating.

"There are good and bad things in the vastness of the territory, but if it is not beneficial to the people, then the territory is useless."

"Uncle said that the monarchy of the world will benefit the people, and if the people are benefited, they can ignore the civil and military."

"Liu Shun, are you right when you say what your uncle said......"

Zhu Ciran asked about the hundred households of Jinyi Wei who had accompanied him for more than 4,000 miles, and Liu Shun heard that he was a return gift:

"The slave maid thinks that His Highness actually has an answer in his heart."

Liu Shun's words made Zhu Ciran clench his fists slightly, as if he had made some kind of decision.

"The homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Ming Dynasty must recover it!"

After saying this, Zhu Ciran turned around and walked down the city wall, and the general of Jiayuguan, who was responsible for guarding Jiayuguan, had been waiting for Zhu Ciran on the horse road, after all, this was the prince.

The general escorted Zhu Ciran to the city, and walking on the sloped road, Zhu Ciran could also have a full view of the situation in Jiayuguan City.

More than 30,000 people live in the neatly planned Jiayuguan City, and together with the 100,000 people in Suzhou City, they are responsible for cultivating the fields between Jiayuguan and Suzhou.

The brick and stone streets are lined up with merchants from Hami and merchants from the east, most of whom are private merchants, and many state-run goods can only be purchased in the Imperial Store.

Most of the people in the city were dressed in the fields, and among them were many men with hat-shaped helmets, blue armor, and gray faces.

In the fifteenth year of the Apocalypse, Jiayuguan was a steel city in the northwest.

The so-called "steel" is not only reflected in its appearance in front of external enemies, but also in its internal appearance.

Since the twelfth year of the Apocalypse, under the implementation of Zhu Youzhen's "New Deal of the Apocalypse", Jingtie Mountain in the Qilian Mountains south of Jiayuguan has made Jiayuguan an industrial city standing in the Hexi Corridor.

Tens of thousands of tons of iron ore produced by Jingtieshan were artificially excavated, and the ore was sent by mine truck to the west of Jiayuguan City, 150 miles away.

After the smelting of the Jiayuguan Chengxi Steelmaking Plant, these iron ores were turned into railroad tracks, which were sent by horse-drawn carriages to Longxi County, Gongchang Prefecture in the east, for the construction of the Jingjia Railway.

Six years have passed since the construction of the Jingjia Railway, and although Daming has mobilized millions of workers, the construction of this railway is still far away.

When Zhu Ciran entered the boundary of Hexi, the Jingjia Railway had just arrived in Ningyuan County, and it was still more than 50 miles away from Longxi County.

More than two months have passed, and the Beijing-Jiajia Railway has reached Longxi County, but there is still a distance of 1,600 miles from Jiayuguan.

According to the time, it will take at least four years for the railway to be fully opened.

However, even if the railway was not connected, the benefits of industrialization radiated from the capital to this distant Jiayuguan.

Among the more than 400,000 people in Suzhou Prefecture, nearly 20,000 are engaged in mineral mining and nearly 10,000 are engaged in steelmaking.

More than 400,000 people, to put it bluntly, 80,000 or 90,000 households, and these 30,000 men engaged in steel work are the pillars of 30,000 families.

Therefore, the relevant industrial jobs in a mining area basically solve the problem of feeding one-third of the population in Suzhou.

In the past, it was impossible for a single mine to use 30,000 people.

However, with the continuous investment of industrial steam engines and the increasing production of gunpowder, the demand for steel in the Ming Dynasty continued to increase.

One Jingtieshan mining area is enough to mobilize 30,000 miners.

Zhu Ciran visited and found that the wages of these miners were 20 wen a day.

In a place like Hexi, where the average daily wage is only 10 wen, each catty of rice is only 4 wen, and a catty of mutton is only 15 wen, the daily wage of 20 wen can already make a family of five have enough to eat.

Compared with the price of goods, the seemingly small wages are very abundant in the context of the fact that these workers were once immigrants.

Because they are immigrants, they not only have jobs, but also the land that they have cultivated in the three years since they came.

Suzhou has a population of more than 400,000, and nearly 300,000 people have been migrating from the seventh year of the Apocalypse.

After the end of the First Northern Expedition, Zhu Youzhen once came to Suzhou, where there were only 400,000 acres of arable land for the 100,000 people, and most of the 100,000 people were halal Mongolians.

However, in the fifteenth year of the Apocalypse, when Zhu Ciran came to Suzhou, the cultivated land area of Suzhou had reached more than 3.2 million mu.

The people here received roughly fair treatment under the supervision of the government and the army, and the government promised to plough cattle, pull horses, and immigrant grain in full.

Because of this, they were able to reclaim more than 3 million mu of cultivated land in just eight years, and they all relied on water from the Qilian Mountains and rivers to irrigate the fields.

The people of Suzhou basically have 20 or 30 acres of land in every household, and those with a larger population can even reach more than 50 acres.

Although the yield per mu in Suzhou is only eight buckets of rice, with so many acres of land, the life of the people of Suzhou is much better than that of most of the people in the northern region at present.

"You go and go your way, I'll go shopping by myself."

After getting out of the city, Zhu Ciran waved his hand to the general, signaled him not to follow, and then took Liu Shun to wander around the city of Jiayuguan.

Walking on the streets with a northwestern style, they can see many Westerners, Mongols and Arabs wearing Hanfu.

Of course, the most striking of these are the Tibetan people who have migrated from Uszang in recent years.

After these Tibetans were relocated to Hexi, the Hexi Buzheng Secretary did not require them to wear Hanfu.

It's just that the 400,000 former Tibetan slaves suddenly became "people", which made them a little uncomfortable for a while.

In order to avoid being affected in their lives or being "punished" for disobedience, they honestly changed their family into Hanfu after earning wages in the "cash-for-work" project in Hexi.

It has been almost a year since they moved to Hexi, and many Tibetans can speak a few words of Chinese, especially those who went to work in the mining areas.

The reason why Zhu Ciran can distinguish them is because they are very different from the skin color of Hexi people.

The complexion of the plateau is not something that can be raised in a few months, so in terms of physical characteristics, they are still relatively obvious.

Walking on the street, looking at some Tubo people sitting and talking in roadside stalls, Zhu Ciran looked around, and then chose a Tubo stall to sit down.

This Tibetan sells mutton noodles and, like other Han Chinese stalls, has a wooden sign with prices written in simplified Chinese.

【Wuwen a bowl of mutton noodles】

The characters were all simplified, so Zhu Ciran looked at the stall owner, and he could be sure that the stall owner was a Tibetan immigrant, because the people of the Ming Dynasty generally did not write in full simplified characters, but only wrote simplified characters when they encountered particularly complicated characters.

"Stallholder, I want two bowls of noodles!"

"Good!"

Zhu Ciran shouted, and the Tubo man who was kneading the dough also responded with a grin.

A bowl of mutton noodles is still a bit expensive, but this is not the stall owner's problem, but the price is like this, so there are not many people eating noodles at the stall.

In addition to Zhu Ciran and the two of them, there are only two Tubo people eating, and they are estimated to be fellow villagers of the stall owner.

"The noodles are coming......"

It was only five minutes, and as a mouthful of Daming official dialect that was not fluent sounded, two bowls of mutton noodle soup the size of a plate of noodles were placed on the table.

Zhu Ciran and Liu Shun took the fast son, but compared to Liu Shun's fast movement, Zhu Ciran chatted with the stall owner who was about to go back to the noodle stall to sit:

】

"The stall owner, I'm from Beizhili to beg for a living, can you tell me something about Jiayu Guancheng?"

"It's from Beizhili?!" Hearing the words "Beizhili", the stall owner's eyes lit up, and he took the opportunity to sit next to Zhu Ciran and them.

After he sat down, Zhu Ciran looked at him.

Compared with the Han people, his nose is sharper and taller, his lips are thin, and there is less fat on his face, which is a typical Tubo appearance, which is why Zhu Ciran can find out at a glance that he is a Tubo.

As he sat down, Zhu Ciran also asked: "The stall owner, your official words are very good, have you been in Suzhou for a long time?" ”

"Me? I have been in Suzhou for thirteen years, and I have been in Suzhou for two and a half years. ”

Perhaps it was Zhu Ciran's age and his emaciated body type, and in the face of his question, the stall owner responded very kindly, while smiling constantly on his face to show his friendliness.

"So how are you doing in Suzhou? If I come here, will I be bullied? ”

Zhu Ciran understands his own advantages and uses his own advantages to find out local news.

"No, no, no!" The stall owner hurriedly raised his hands and shook them, and explained: "I've been here for two and a half years, and no one bullied me when I didn't speak official words at first. ”

"You are Han, they will definitely not bully you, as long as you don't go over their pastures and fields."

Speaking, the stall owner also elaborated on some local rules in Suzhou, which are basically similar to those of Beizhili.

The people living here, their bottom line is their own pasture and cultivated land, and outsiders will come and go at will, they must be unhappy.

Zhu Ciran walked so many places and knew that this was the rule of all places in the Ming Dynasty, so he nodded to indicate that he knew, and continued to ask the stall owner for more detailed information.

As for his question, the stall owner only thought that it was the anxiety of the fleeing people, and did his best to explain it to him.

Although Liu Shun, who was in his twenties next to him, aroused the vigilance of the stall owner, Zhu Ciran also used the lame excuse that this was his cousin who was not good at words.

In the stall owner's puzzle, a clearer Suzhou appeared in Zhu Ciran's mind.

He didn't say the stall owner's previous name, he only said that his Chinese name was Mu Shouzhong.

The reason why it is this name is because before he came to Hexi, the surname Mu was the only Han surname he had heard, and Shouzhong was because he wanted to express that he would repay the Ming Dynasty well.

From the information surnamed Mu, Zhu Ciran deduced that Mu Shouzhong was a native of Duogan and the eastern region of Wusizang, and the fact was as he expected, Mu Shouzhong was a native of Wuqi City, a small Tusi city on the road to Naqu from Qamdo.

Because he was a slave of the nobles of Wuqi City before he came to Hexi, and the arrival of the Ming army liberated them, he wanted to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty, which was a very simple idea.

According to Mu Shouzhong, he met his current wife on the way to Hexi, and then married his wife after arriving in Suzhou.

The next day, the local government arranged for them an adobe house, and sent them a ploughing ox and ten sheep as promised by the chief minister, as well as a wooden plaque for the land reclamation and a grain stamp of 20 stone of rice and wheat.

After getting this, Mu Shouzhong and his wife cultivated the land every day and learned Mandarin at the same time.

In just one year, they cultivated two acres and four quarters of land, and they raised the ten sheep, and the next year gave birth to fourteen lambs.

Since the couple did not like to graze, they left one breeding sheep and sold the other rams to the royal shop in exchange for one or three pieces of silver.

Using this money and the family's sheep, Mu Shouzhong rented his current stall in Jiayuguan City and sold some mutton noodles every day for a living.

He didn't say exactly how much silver he could make, but judging from his much fairer skin than other Tibetans, Zhu Ciran knew that it was at least much more than what he could get from farming.

In the casual chat that followed, Mu Shouzhong also talked about his own situation.

His family still lives in an adobe house allocated by the government, but he has reclaimed eight acres of land around the adobe house.

When the farm is busy, he collects the stalls and goes home, and on weekdays his wife takes care of the fields.

He now has two children, both boys.

As for his current life, he also lamented that it was as if he was living in a dream, and not only him, but also those Tibetans who were once slaves.

It is precisely because of the good life that they are afraid of returning to the days of being treated as slaves, so in Suzhou, they all live extra carefully and try not to conflict with others.

It's just that they're a little too careful.

"The people here are very nice, and if you make a home here, you will definitely live a happy life."

Mu Shouzhong smiled to appease Zhu Ciran, and after Zhu Ciran nodded, his eyes had a hint of eagerness: "You are from Beizhili, have you seen Manjushri Bodhisattva, Fuxian Bodhisattva and Guanyin Bodhisattva?" ”

Manjushri Bodhisattva, Puxian Bodhisattva and Guanyin Bodhisattva, this is the name of the liberated slaves to Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youzhen, and Sun Chuanting.

The reason why they call the three of them so is because of different reasons.

In their view, the emperor has always been an incarnation of Manjushri, and all the monks told them so.

As for Zhu Youzhen's title of Fuxian Bodhisattva, it is the appearance of some Tubo people living in the east of Hexi who have seen the train start, and the Han people say that these things were made by the King of Qi, so they feel that the King of Qi must be the incarnation of the Fuxian Bodhisattva.

Compared with Zhu Youzhen, the last Sun Chuanting was able to obtain the title of Guanyin Bodhisattva incarnation because of his feat of liberating more than 400,000 slaves.

If it weren't for Sun Chuanting who liberated them, they would still be wearing chains, dressed in tatters, eating bran that the nobles didn't eat, and carrying ox yokes on their backs to plow the fields for the nobles.

When it came to Sun Chuanting, Mu Shouzhong also prayed for him, but Zhu Ciran didn't know what to say when he looked at this scene.

I asked him if he had seen his father and uncle......

"Of course I haven't seen ......it," Zhu Ciran replied stiffly, and when Mu Shouzhong heard this, the eagerness in his eyes couldn't help but decrease a little.

He said in frustration: "Also, how can mortals see a bodhisattva? ”

"That's ...... Is that...... Hehe...... "Zhu Ciran was very embarrassed, but Mu Shouzhong didn't let him go, but asked:

"I heard from the students of the official school that the three bodhisattvas all have the appearance of bodhisattvas, is that true?"

Mu Shouzhong's words were a little awkward, and the words were also very inappropriate, but Zhu Ciran still thought about it when he heard it.

He hadn't seen Sun Chuanting, but he had seen his father and Uncle Qi.

In his personal opinion, his father looks quite like the Buddha in the temple, but Uncle Qi Wang looks like a dragon and a phoenix, and the watch of the sky, and when he wears armor, he is almost the same as the god of heaven.

"Almost, I heard from the people in the capital......"

After a few words of disguise, Zhu Ciran began to roughly describe the appearance of his father and Uncle Qi Wang.

As for Zhu Youxiao's appearance, he skipped it as much as possible, but he described Zhu Youzhen's appearance in great detail.

"The people in Beijing say that the King of Qi has a white and beautiful face, a tall figure, nearly five feet and nine inches, a bee waist and big eyes, a momentum that covers the sky, and Mengrui is the crown of the world."

"But you don't have to be afraid, the people in the capital say that King Qi is funny, open-minded, and often cares about the lives of the people."

"Not only the Han people, but even how you are doing, he has to personally ask the people below."

"And ......"

Zhu Ciran said a lot, except for the words that Mu Shouzhong couldn't understand, the other descriptions were exactly the same as the Bodhisattva in Mu Shouzhong's heart.

Especially when he heard that the Bodhisattva would still care about how their group of slaves lived, and that he was presiding over the liberation of their group of slaves, Mu Shouzhong even folded his hands in front of him and bowed again and again.

Seeing this, Zhu Ciran lowered his head and ate two large mouthfuls of noodles, and when he looked up again, Mu Shouzhong had already returned the salute to him with satisfaction:

"Thank you Brother Xiao Mu for solving my doubts, I will invite you to eat these two bowls of noodles."

"That won't do! No way! Hearing that there was no need to give money, Zhu Ciran immediately panicked.

Before he left Beijing, Zhu Youzhen had explained that he had to give money regardless of whether the people collected money or not, but if he didn't give it once, he immediately asked Jinyiwei to arrest him back to the capital.

Therefore, Zhu Ciran immediately took out a ten-penny Apocalypse Tongbao from his arms, and suddenly stuffed it into Mu Shouzhong's arms, pulled Liu Shun and ran towards the street, not knowing that he thought he had eaten the overlord meal.

"You ......" When Mu Shouzhong reacted, he didn't see anything except Zhu Ciran's back.

Holding the Apocalypse Tongbao in his hand, a smile appeared on his face, and he folded his hands and bowed to the sky:

"Bodhisattva ...... for 10,000 Years"