The weather in the desert is like the devil, harsh and capricious. During the day, the sun is scorching, and the sun makes the population dry and the head and feet are oily, but at night it is suddenly cold below freezing, and people and animals shiver from the cold; In the afternoon, the sky is clear and there are no clouds, but in the afternoon there may be a sudden strong wind, and the yellow sand covers the sky and the sun.

Shu Yan and the three of them left Shanshanguo and traveled west along the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, deep into the hinterland of the desert. It is now almost autumn, and the desert is colder than the plains, and it is completely cold. Once the winter comes, they will face more severe challenges, so they dare not delay every day, and do their best to walk as long as possible, wanting to reach Dawan before the real winter comes.

However, they have not found water for a long time, and these days they have been sustained by the water reserves. According to the road map, there is an extreme shortage of water in this area, with only one or two small water sources, which cannot be found if you are not very experienced, even if you deviate even a little bit.

This season, it is very dry. The day is still a poisonous day that can tan a layer of skin. The three men had been walking on camels for most of the day, tired, hot and thirsty. I wanted to rest, but I couldn't find a big tree to shelter from it. Fortunately, there is a sandy slope ahead. The camel also understands human nature, and knows that the owner wants to rest in the shade, so without the owner's words, he walks directly to the sandy slope.

Camels are born for the desert: they have thick calluses on the soles of their feet, and they don't feel too hot when they walk on the sun-scorched sandy road; The eyes have two layers of long and dense eyelashes, which can effectively resist the entry of wind and sand; Although the nostrils are large, they can close freely like a door, avoiding the inhalation of sand particles and preventing the exhalation of moisture; Even if the weather is hot, it rarely sweats, and when there is a lack of water, it can even control the frequency of urination to minimize the loss of water in the body; The most amazing thing is the baby bump on their backs, one or two, which stores mysterious energy that can sustain them for days without eating or drinking.

In contrast, the three horses were not good, they did not have many special skills of camels, and after most of the day's exposure, not to mention that they often had to replenish water along the way, even the hot ankle-free sand made them miserable and full of embarrassment.

The camels crouched down and let their owners down, and they themselves rested on the soft sand. Liu Cai got off the hunchback, and before he had time to shake the sand on his body, he lay on the ground and didn't want to move.

"You guy, you patronize yourself comfortably, don't you know how to let the horse rest and rest?" Zhao Shun scolded and unloaded the luggage on the horse's back so that they could relax and unwind.

The three horses finally found a resting place and lay down like camels.

When he was in Shanshan City, he was glad that he had earned three horses for nothing. But as the desert journey deepened, they found more and more that this seemed to be not a blessing, on the contrary, it should be a burden.

"How much water do we have?" Shu Yan sat down against the sand dunes and asked Zhao Shundao, who was feeding the horses water.

"That's enough to drink for four days." Zhao Shun took a scoop of water from the water bladder and fed it to the horses, each horse was only given one scoop at a time, and it was drunk in an instant, but it was only able to quench their thirst, and it could not satisfy their long-indebted stomachs at all.

In addition to water, food for horses is also very scarce. There are occasional patches of pasture for grazing along the way, but as the desert deepens, the vegetation cover becomes less and less. At present, most of the area is yellow sand, and only a few unknown weeds are scattered sparsely.

For these unknown weeds, whether they are prickly, bitter, or unpleasant, camels do not refuse to come, and eat all the way. Horses are not so hungry and thirsty, but they have a hard time swallowing the food. It's not that they are hypocritical, but that their stomach and intestines really can't adapt, not only do they have indigestion, but they even have symptoms of mild poisoning.

After the horse drank the water, he was extremely unsatisfied, and prayed to Zhao Shun with longing eyes.

"This bit of water is a drop in the bucket for their size." Zhao Shun couldn't help except regret.

"What if it's just for people?"

"That can last for more than ten days."

In fact, there is a consensus on the current situation, that is, to give up the horse and save the body. It's just that no one wants to say it until the last moment.

"General, these three horses are worth a lot of money, and besides, you will need them for half the journey back, do you really want to give them up?" Liu Cai still had the intention of obstructing.

Shu Yan sighed and said: "If you lose your horse, you don't know if it's a blessing. Correspondingly, we have a horse, and we don't know that it is not a disaster. What do you think you can do in this situation? ”

Zhao Shun stuffed the scoop back into his bag and said: "Liu Cai has always been a miser, and he would rather give up his life than his wealth." The general Hugh must listen to what he says, otherwise the lives of the three of us will not be saved. ”

Liu Cai heard Zhao Shun scolding himself, and he also jumped up and retorted: "You stone-hearted thief! Although they are livestock, they are also life, and they have followed us for thousands of miles for so long, can you bear to abandon them? ”

"Why not abandon it?" Zhao Shun didn't talk to his mother-in-law either, and said helplessly and indignantly, "To tell you the truth, don't talk about drinking water, it's food, we don't have too much surplus, and we are forced to be helpless, so it's not to abandon them, but to kill them and eat meat!" ”

As soon as these words came out, Shu Yan's heart trembled: these horses have been driven by him for so long, and in the end, instead of protecting them, they have to kill them. What a sin for horses! How selfish human beings are!

"It really shouldn't be!"

"Who will kill the killer unless it is absolutely necessary? It's a matter for the three of us, and I'm not for myself! Zhao Shun sighed, "Okay, just listen to the general's decision, I have no complaints." ”

Shu Yan was silent for a while and said, "Actually, according to the road map, there is a water source near the left and right of this area, but we are not sure that we can find it at all. So, we don't kill the horses ourselves, but when it comes to the emergency, we can't keep them. Let it be. ”

All three wanted to rehydrate a little. Shu Yan sat upright in the middle, and Liu Cai leaned on the sand slope to his right. After Zhao Shun finished drinking the horse, he took out three gourds full of water, divided one for each person, and lay down next to Shu Yan's left.

"General, where is the next city-state?"

Shu Yan has studied the road map given by the Dawan merchant many times, and he has already memorized the city-states listed in the map, so he basically doesn't need to look at it temporarily. But now in a desperate situation, this road map is like a talisman, even if you know it by heart, you still want to open it and look at it, as if you can find hope in it.

"The next city-state is Yanqi, and the place we are in now should be this area." Shu Yan pointed at Yanqi City with his finger, but his expression was gloomy at the death zone marked by the road map, a thousand miles of no man's land.

Liu Cai took a big sip of water, shook the half-empty gourd and said, "It doesn't matter where the next city-state is, what I want to know is how far away it is?" ”

Zhao Shun glanced at him and said, "Who can say for sure?" If you are in the pass, there are place names in the township pavilions as small as ten miles, as long as you know the place name, take out the map to find, you can know the county, county, and state to which you belong, and then you can calculate the approximate distance from a certain place to a certain place, but here you can't even see a figure, it is all the yellow sand, not to mention the place name, how to calculate the distance? ”

Shu Yan smiled bitterly: "Yes, indeed." We don't even know where we are now, so how can we know how far away we are from a certain place? If we roughly estimate the distance we walked, it would be about 500 miles. ”

"Five hundred miles? How many days to go! How can you survive such a situation! Liu Cai said sadly.

"Five hundred miles, or an optimistic estimate without deviating from the route."

"Huh? Wouldn't it be ...... if something happened to you?"

"If you can't hold on, you can go back early, and no one will stop you."

Hearing Zhao Shun teasing himself, Liu Cai immediately raised his eyebrows and stared at him: "Who can't hold on?" I'm just talking about it casually! ”

Shu Yan looked at the sky in the distance, knowing that it was difficult, but his eyes were extremely resolute: "In such an environment, only everyone can take care of each other and maybe they can get out of life, if they return alone, it is tantamount to self-destruction." People will win the day, and you must have confidence in yourself. ”

"The general is right. Of course we are confident, it was all Zhao Shun who deliberately choked me. Liu Cai finished expressing his determination, and looked up at the sky like Shu Yan. He suddenly pointed to the sky in the distance and said, "Why is the sky not quite right over there?" ”

Shu Yan and Zhao Shun looked in the direction of his finger, and the originally clear sky didn't know when patches of yellow mist appeared, and they surged over to this side completely. Due to the distance, it seems to be unhurried, but in fact it is very fast.

Although the three of them have never experienced this phenomenon, they always feel that the comer is not good.

"I'm afraid it's not good!"

Before the words fell, the sandstorm had arrived. The strong wind mixed with large and small grains of sand came all over the sky, regardless of direction and everything, as if enveloping everything. The three of them instinctively lay down with their faces on the ground, and in an instant, their bodies were covered with a thick layer of sand, and before they had time to shake it off, a thicker layer came up again. In less than a moment, the sand on his body was so thick that he couldn't see the outline of his body.

Shu Yan put on his mask and sat up, barely opened his eyes and observed for a while, and said decisively: "Hurry up and get out of here and climb over that sand dune!" ”

"What, general, have you been blown stupid, such a big wind and sand, how to go?" Liu Cai didn't dare to open his eyes, and buried his face in the sand.

"I'm not blown stupid, I'm blown sober. In the direction of the downwind ahead is a large sand dune, and according to this wind, it will not take two hours for the sand of that dune to fill the place, and we will not be able to walk away if we want to. ”

Some people died, but not completely......