The yellow sand, earthen walls, and rough wood seem to have undergone countless years of wind erosion, decay, and are stained with thick mud.

This is a small town in the southwest of Qiuci, Liu Cang crossed the water along the Tarim River, and heard the news of a conflict between an armed group and the Western Regions Protectorate at the beacon tower established on the riverside, and turned to this side along the way.

Half a year has passed since Liu Cang sent troops to the Western Regions. In half a year, the Western Regions Protectorate stabilized the permanent army of 100,000, Wulei sheltered 30,000 settlers, and the army herded livestock.

During this time, the Han army did not have much head-on conflict with the countries of the Western Regions, but dozens of Han armies were still running around the Western Regions to suppress bandits.

Although the 36 countries of the Western Regions are all named after the country, the population of these countries is actually very limited. According to the algorithm here, Wulei can already be regarded as a big country.

The countries of the Western Regions are usually established on the basis of oases, with populations ranging from tens of thousands to thousands, a bit like medieval Europe.

Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population of the Western Regions has increased slightly, but 36 countries have returned to the Han Dynasty, and there are still more than a dozen or twenty small countries that consider themselves independent, and the population statistics of the Western Regions countries by the Metropolitan Protectorate are only about 400,000.

The hussars suppressed bandits for half a year, and the small countries that considered themselves independent bulldozed ten places, and the number of horse bandits killed once reached 150,000, but it did not have any real impact on the population of the countries in the Western Regions.

The fact that the Western Regions have a large number of mercenaries is one thing, and on the other hand, it is not difficult to see that the population reported by the countries of the Western Regions is also quite large.

As for the small countries that were bulldozed by the hussars, there is nothing to say, bulldozed in the real sense. A mountain pass, a dock fort, an earthen wall four or five meters high, hundreds of soldiers, a total population of two or three thousand, often the hussars charge a wave and the wall collapses and the soldiers die.

Seriously, these small hussars didn't really want to bulldoze them. The situation in the Western Regions is really special, where thousands of people can gather, there is basically a water source and a green space.

And the people in those places can be regarded as the lifeline in the desert in a sense, and for the people who walk in the desert, they often play the role of a ray of life.

Although they are usually extorted by them if they go to their land, it is better than burying the corpses in the sand sea.

It doesn't matter if the people in these places surrender or not, including some powerful forces in the Western Regions, they usually don't kill them all, and their stationing maintains the existence of the oasis to a certain extent, which is their true value.

Completely different from the Han land, the hussars attacked them mostly because they wanted to extort the passing army, or simply the base camp of a certain horse bandit.

There are basically no regular soldiers in the Western Regions, and most of their soldiers are mercenary mercenaries. This also leads to the fact that many mercenaries will work part-time horse bandits, and the hussars have been killed in the Western Regions for more than half a year without being able to kill the horse bandits, and the number of mercenaries in various countries has generally decreased or increased to varying degrees.

It is not uncommon for the so-called small country to be the base camp of horse bandits, but Liu Cang's behavior of blackmailing the army is more puzzled.

Maybe it's the habit here, or maybe it's also recognizing your own value. For these small, self-reliant nations, the hussars usually slaughtered their mercenaries, and even turned around to help them build the ruined walled buildings, lest a sandstorm destroy the water supply.

These people in the Western Regions will not be grateful to the hussars for their help, and the hussars will not be relentless when they kill the rebels.

If necessary, the hussars will also rob some cattle, sheep and women, and if the other party's resources are too scarce, the hussars will leave them some supplies and money from the horse bandits, including weapons to protect them from wild beasts.

It's a weird battle mode, and it's probably better to describe it as chaotic. And this is the Western Regions. There are all kinds of customs and folklore all over the world, and the Western Regions has a different scenery that belongs to it, whether it is nature or folk feelings.

Xiluo Pass, a hundred miles west of Qiuci, is located in a village and town in a mountain col next to the main road leading from Qiuci to Gumo.

The bare grey yellowstone hills, with only mottled grass and shrubs, resemble human settlements in villages and towns, and the locals often carve out the walls of the mountains to serve as their dwellings.

In the open space of the col are earthen huts, most of which are open to the public, and can be found in restaurants, casinos, brothels, stables, blacksmith shops, and even market transactions.

Coming across the horse, Liu Cang rode four people three times, Dafu and Sifu accompanied Liu Cang, and Liu Cang rode with a girl in his arms.

There is no wall shelter in Xiluo'ao, surrounded by mountains on all sides, twenty or thirty meters of mountain, the mountain is relatively gentle, and there are passages into the col in the west and north.

Liu Cang and the others came from the west, and as soon as they entered the mountain pass, under the wooden shed erected by the roadside, more than a dozen slaves tied to leather ropes looked at Liu Cang and the others, and their eyes flashed with hope.

"Your Majesty, most of these slaves were arrested because they had committed taboos and lacked property. He has no specialty, and he is not good at fighting, and the price should not be expensive, and a ploughing horse can be exchanged for two or three people. Liu Cang glanced in the direction of the wooden shed, and the girl in his arms introduced Liu Cang.

Ma Yunlu, Ma Teng's daughter, was included in the harem by Liu Cang and sealed Jieyu. Since Ma Teng and Ma Chao are allowed to sit in the Western Regions, there is no suitable marriage with Ma Chao among Liu Cang's heirs for the time being, so it is natural for Liu Cang to accept a girl from the Ma family.

Ma Yunlu is young and beautiful, with a mixed-race coquettishness, born in the family of Xiliang warriors, and has a little heroic and brutal temperament.

The girl covered her face with a light veil, shrunk in Liu Cang's arms but was very well-behaved, she grew up in Xiliang, in order to accompany Liu Cang to wander the Western Regions, Ma Yunlu made a lot of efforts to understand the customs and customs of the people in the Western Regions.

"It's all Europa, a taboo?" Without paying much attention to those slaves, Liu Cang stroked Ma Yunlu's slender waist and asked casually.

"Gambling is lost, there is no money to eat and buy water, etc., there should not be many people who are caught stealing and robbing, and that kind of person is usually taken in by mercenaries and will not be reduced to slavery." Ma Yunlu explained softly.

"Heh, it's quite particular about catching slaves here." Liu Cang chuckled.

"Hehe, if you have the ability and don't pay attention to it, you will establish a country, but at that time they don't have to do scattered slave trade." Ma Yunlu said with a smile.

Laughing and letting go, the appearance of Liu Cang's three Han people is more conspicuous here. Nowadays, the Uighurs have not yet come here, and the ethnic group in the Qiuzi region is mainly Indo-European whites, the Europa style.

In fact, during this period, out of Yumen Pass, white people in the Western Regions were very common. Because the three of them were riding war horses, pedestrians on the road avoided Liu Cang and the three of them.

The Western Regions are vast, and it is generally necessary to have mounts when traveling, but more mounts here are camels, and those who can use war horses as mounts are usually not easy to provoke.

Aristocrats, horse bandits, mercenaries, often only such people can ride more delicate horses. And the special appearance of Liu Cang, as well as the armor stomach on Dafu and Sifu, in the eyes of people here, they are obviously another more difficult existence to mess with - the Han army of the Duhu Mansion.

The vigilant gaze swept to Liu Cang's body from time to time, but no one stepped forward to provoke. This kind of gathering place in Xiluoao is a neutral area in the Western Regions, mercenaries, merchants, Han soldiers, and horse bandits can come to anyone, and no one cares about fighting here, as long as you don't kill the locals, as long as you destroy things and lose money.

If the rules on this side are broken, the strong side will not be tough if they can't do it, they should beg for mercy and beg for mercy, and they should run away.

But if you come back in the future, you have to be careful. What kind of drugging, night raids, stealing horses, burning goods and the like, the people here are also forced to do it.