The next morning, Li Zhen and the four arrived at Gaochang City on horseback, Gaochang City belonged to the Tang Dynasty Xizhou, after the Fan army occupied the towns of Anxi, Gaochang City was the only city kept by the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions.

It was under the repeated pleas of Tang Xiujing, the governor of Xizhou, that Wu Zetian resolutely decided to recover Anxi, and three years ago, Wu Zetian ordered Wang Xiaojie to be the main general, leading a large army to attack Anxi, and recovering the four towns of Anxi from the hands of the Tubo people.

Like Dunhuang City, Gaochang City is also a necessary place on the Silk Road, with prosperous commerce and harmonious coexistence of various ethnic groups in this large city in the Western Regions.

Gaochang is also the Turpan of later generations, where not only the business is prosperous, the winemaking industry is also very good, the unique climatic conditions, high-quality raw materials, so that it has become the largest production area of Datang wine, every year hundreds of thousands of barrels of Gaochang wine along the Silk Road to Chang'an and Luoyang.

Secondly, Gaochang also planted cotton from the West, and spun a unique specialty of Gaochang - white cloth, that is, cotton cloth, which was deeply loved by dignitaries and nobles in the Central Plains.

Li Zhen and the four of them entered the north city gate, and the exotic style came to their faces, most of the houses here are flat-roofed mud houses, which are built very densely, making the whole city show a gray and white tone.

There are not many Han people on the streets, but mainly Hu people of various ethnic groups, and they are full of vendors and shops selling all kinds of goods, and the breweries next to each other make the streets waft with a rich aroma of wine.

"Ah Zhen!"

Kang Dazhuang urged the horse to gallop from behind, and said to Li Zhen: "I have inquired just now, Uncle Ban's caravan has not yet arrived, and it is estimated that it is still behind us." ”

"Will something happen?" asked Xiao Xi worriedly, leaving an indelible impression on him from the sandstorm that day.

"Probably not, camels can withstand sandstorms, they all have experience, nothing will happen. ”

Li Zhen nodded, "Let's find a place to live first, and wait patiently for their news." ”

At this time, Jiu Zhi asked in a low voice, "Lao Kang, where is the Tocharian Trading Company you are talking about?"

"There it is!"

Kang Dazhuang pointed to a shop not far away, the signboard of the shop pù is also white and old, the handwriting on it is blurred, it can be seen that this shop pù is some years old, looking at the goods at the door, it seems to be a leather store.

"Da Zhuang, is this shop reliable?" asked Xiao Xi a little uneasy.

"It should be reliable, this shop has been here for 20 years, the owner is a very kind old Tocharian man, he is kind and charitable, he likes to help others, he has a very good reputation, I met him three years ago. ”

Kang Dazhuang turned back to Li Zhen and asked, "Shall we go?"

Li Zhen thought about it, of course he had to ask, but he couldn't be too reckless, he had to be subtle, he saw a wine shop not far away, so he smiled and said: "I'll go and ask Da Zhuang, Lao Fat and Xiao Xi will go to the wine shop to order, and we'll be back soon." ”

Jiu Zhi was a little uneasy and admonished: "Lao Li, don't take out that thing!

"Alright!

Li Zhen was also said to be big, "Go to the wine shop! Order a few more dishes, and ask for two pots of good wine, you are allowed to eat first." ”

Jiu Zhi smiled and left with Xiao Xi, while Li Zhen and Kang Dazhuang went to the Tocharian firm on the other side of the street.

Walking into the shop, the shop was full of all kinds of furs, but he didn't see the so-called kind old man, Kang Dazhuang asked loudly: "Uncle Dolly, are you there?"

At this moment, a young man came out of it, with deep eyes and thick eyebrows, dark skin, typical Tocharian appearance, but he asked in fluent Chinese, "What is the matter with you?"

"Is Uncle Dolly here?"

"The shopkeeper has something to do when he goes out, he hasn't been here for the past few days, I'm his buddy, and now the shop is temporarily taken care of by me, can I help you?"

Li Zhen and Kang Dali glanced at each other, it turned out that the shopkeeper was not there, Li Zhen knew that the old monk must have something to do with this shop, otherwise he would not have left the parchment with the name of the shop by his side, and he was also telling the person who had found him that he could go to this shop.

But Li Zhen didn't want to say the old monk lightly, he groaned, took out a piece of paper that had been copied in advance, and handed it to the young man, "Can you translate the name of Tocharian on this for us?"

The man took the piece of paper and looked at it, and said to the two: "This is the name of a monastery, called Little Atuo Temple, located in the city of Ashu, this monastery has thousands of monks, and it is one of the three major monasteries of Tocharo. ”

"Thank you!"

Li Zhen turned around and left, and when he walked to the door of the shop, he stopped and turned back and asked, "Does this temple treasure any famous items?"

The guy smiled: "The Tocharian monasteries are all extremely rich, and there are countless treasures of all kinds of priceless treasures, I don't know what you mean exactly?"

Li Zhen remembered the old monk's death, groaned for a while, and asked, "Is there any poison that has become golden all over and his body stiff as a stone after taking it?" ”

"You are asking the right person this, only we know in Gaochang City, you are talking about a famous poison of Tocharo, called Suole, also known as Chilian Jin.

It is actually snake venom, extracted from the body of a desert poisonous snake, the venom is colorless and tasteless, the poison is long-lasting, its biggest feature is not that the whole body becomes golden, but it can penetrate directly from the skin into the body, extremely poisonous. ”

"But the people I saw seemed to die after a few days of poisoning, and they weren't very poisonous!"

"That must be diluted, the real original venom, a small drop can poison dozens of people, this kind of poison is rare, only in the area of Ashu City, there is no one here in the Western Regions, where did you see the poisoner?"

"I only heard about it, but I didn't see it with my own eyes, and I took my leave. ”

Li Zhen arched his hand and walked out of the shop, the old monk is a monk of Xiaoatuo Temple, then this copper box should also be something of this temple, you can ask the owner of the shop, but the shopkeeper is not there, this matter can only wait for a while.

As soon as Li Zhen and the two left, the guy called a little boy, pointed to the backs of the two of them and whispered a few words, the little boy nodded, and jumped up and followed them.

Li Zhen and Kang Dazhuang came to the wine shop they had agreed upon, Kang Dazhuang was really hungry and went directly into the wine shop, but Li Zhen stopped and looked back, he felt as if someone was following them.

Not far behind him was a group of children playing, and he didn't see any suspicious people, it seemed that he was suspicious, Li Zhen shook his head, and also walked into the wine shop.

"Lao Li, this way!"

As soon as he entered the wine shop, he heard Jiuzhi's loud voice calling him, they sat in the innermost part of the lobby, the lobby of the wine shop was very spacious and bright, and the Central Plains was different in that it was not sitting on the ground, but all stools, sitting on the stools to drink and eat.

Business in the liquor store is good, most of the seats are full, and merchants from all over the world speak different languages.

Li Zhen stepped forward and sat down and said with a smile: "Why do you sit in the lobby?"

"There is no second floor here, it's all here, there are all stools here, and we also have them in Dunhuang, are you used to sitting there?"

"I'm okay! I've sat there before. ”

The wine and food had been ordered on the table, but there was only one dish, a whole roasted golden sheep, placed on the wooden grid, there was a lot of wine, and everyone was full of a large bowl of strong black wine in front of them.

"Why is there only one roast lamb and other dishes?"

Jiuzhi said lazily: "I want to eat Dunhuang's sweet and sour mandarin fish, braised boy chicken, fried three fresh, but there are none here! Roast whole sheep, roast camel, roast horse meat, and boiled lamb leg in red wine is good, but unfortunately sold out." ”

"Forget it, but there are a lot of melons and fruits here, why not have some?"

"I've asked the bartender to buy it, huh!"

Jiushi pointed to the door in surprise, "Why are there a bunch of guys with knives?" ”

As soon as Li Zhen turned around, he saw more than a dozen Hu people dressed as samurai standing at the door, wearing triangular hats, wearing black leather armor, wearing five-color belts around their waists, holding long knives in their hands, a group of people were murderous, and they were negotiating something with the bartender.

The Tocharian men also saw him, and pointed at them and shouted, "There it is!"

More than a dozen Huren warriors pushed away the bartender and rushed in, and there was a sudden chaos in the wine shop, Li Zhen kicked over the table, picked up the skin bag and shouted: "Go through the back door!"

At the moment when the Hu Ren warrior rushed in, Li Zhen had already seen a small door next to him, and he rushed out of the back door directly with his three companions.

It was also their luck, there was a stable outside the back door, and their horses were tied to the stakes outside the stable, Li Zhen's red-blooded BMW was too ostentatious, and he specially dyed it, looking like a leper horse with mottled coats, but it was slightly taller and stronger than other horses.

"Lao Li, what's going on?" Jiuzhi is still confused, roasting the whole sheep without eating, but running around like a fly.

"Hurry up and get on the horse, I'll tell you later!"

The four of them untied the reins and turned over on their horses, at this time, more than a dozen Hu warriors rushed out of the back door, waving their knives and rushing towards them, Li Zhen drew out a long sword, stabbed out more than a dozen swords, only to hear a few screams, three people had been hit by the sword, and the rest of the Hu warriors were stunned and retreated in fright.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Zhen clamped his horse between his legs, and the war horse galloped out of the back door, and the other three also galloped with him

The four of them ran for several miles in one breath and found a secluded place, and Jiu Zhi hurriedly asked, "Who are they, why are they chasing and killing us?"

Kang Dazhuang said in a deep voice: "Those people should be the famous Tocharian warriors on the Silk Road, all of them are ruthless and strong in martial arts, and they are generally hired by caravans as escorts."

"What?" Sakushi froze for a moment.

At this time, Li Zhen sighed and said, "I'm afraid things are more complicated than I expected, not only Scarface's gang is looking for the Tocharian monk, I'm afraid there are other people who are also looking for him, and the one who came is not good." ”

"It's all for that copper box, what's inside?" Jiuzhi couldn't help but hate.

"Fat brother, be quiet!"

Xiao Xiao, who climbed a big tree and kept a sentry, whispered to them, "I see that scarface." ”

Li Zhen was secretly startled, and hurriedly asked, "Where is he?"

Xiao Shen pointed to a wall not far away, meaning that behind the wall, the three of them stopped talking, and in a moment, Xiao Xiao jumped from the tree.

"There were more than twenty of them, all on horseback, and they had gone away. ”

The eyes of the three of them all looked at Li Zhen, and when he came up with an idea, Li Zhen pondered for a moment and said: "Let's find a place to hide first, we are in the dark, they are in the light, and the initiative is in our hands." ”

Kang Dazhuang said: "I know an inn run by Sogdians, it is nearby, everyone come with me!"

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