There is no hurry in this matter for the time being, and the car will not be found in a while, so everyone packed up their things and stepped on the train from Jianghan.

Whistle all the way, they went from Jianghan to Lancheng, after the Shaanxi Provincial Plateau, they have seen the verdant greenery decreasing, and when they arrived in Lancheng, only the eyes are full of desolation, which is a more desolate world than the Shaanxi Provincial Plateau.

After getting off the train, Song Siyuan passed through the capital and found the transport team to the desert of the Western Regions in Lancheng, and several people finally didn't need to rent a carriage anymore, and got on the car without danger, and rushed to Dunhuang City in the roar of the wheels.

……

Western Regions, Oasis, Dunhuang City

The wasteland Gobi and yellow sand are long, the sand is flying and the summer wind is hot and dry.

Outside the city of Dunhuang, a group of cars roared like a roar, coming towards the city gate from a distance, Yue Guanchao and they sat in the carriage, shaking like a boat, all of them were tired and abnormal.

Although they said that they found a car that can quickly get to Dunhuang City, they really didn't feel good along the way, these cars were completely used to pull trucks, noisy, easy to bump, in the open air, the wind and sand hit the face is even more painful, even if the roof is full of windproof sand shelter, it is only a little better for them, the wind and sand will still drill into the car from the gap in the shed, and a car of dust will fall.

At this time, it was already June and July, and in the hot and dry climate of the northwest, their faces were red, their lips were chapped, and even the water they drank smelled of wind and sand, and their bodies had been shaken apart.

Goo-goo...... Yue Guanchao opened the kettle, poured it into his heart with his throat, and wanted to use cold water to suppress the heat, but he saw that Song Siyuan's mouth was already chapped, so he poured a glass of water from the lid of the kettle and handed it over: "Otherwise, if you drink it again, your mouth will be chapped." ”

Song Siyuan took off her headscarf, picked up the binoculars and looked into the distance, and waved her hand at him: "No need, I see that Dunhuang City will arrive soon, wait until we find an inn or something to replenish our strength, the water on the road always smells of sand." ”

Yue Guanchao closed the kettle: "That is, we haven't seen a few rivers seriously on the way, the water in the northwest is more expensive than gold, this water is still we want from the inns along the way, Dunhuang City is on the edge of the desert, it is estimated that the situation here will only be more serious." ”

When the car stopped, everyone stood on the car and looked at Dunhuang City not far away.

In front of their eyes, that is, the current Dunhuang City, this city is located on the west bank of the Longle River, the four sides are regular, there are blue brick city walls, three gatehouses are opened on the city wall, roughly speaking, there is no difference between here and the ancient military town city tower, only the flag of the Republic of China is hung on the wall, only to make people realize that this is in the Republic of China era.

Outside the city gate, there is a ditch river dug along the perimeter of the city wall, which attracts water from the Longle River from the southwest, and after a week around the city, it passes through the northeast corner and returns to the Longle River, so as to form a ditch and live water, which is convenient for introducing clean water into the city.

In front of the moat river and the city wall, there is also a ring of sheep and horses common in the northwest cities surrounding the city.

What is Sheep and Horse City?

Among the important military towns in the northwest, the cities in the Hexi Corridor are particularly important, and they can be called the throat of the Central Plains to control the Western Regions.

Whenever the Central Plains Dynasty is weak, this is the front line of the Central Plains people's resistance to foreign races, and it is known as the land defense channel, as long as it is guarded here, it can avoid foreign enemies from invading the Guannei and maintain the security of the territory.

If the Central Plains Dynasty is militarily strong, it will annex the Western Regions and the desert along the Hexi Corridor, then it will become a military town in Hexi from the front line of resistance to the enemy.

In history, any foreign tribe who wants to trap the Central Plains, the first thing to fight is the idea of the Hexi Corridor, these military towns have experienced countless wars, of course, they have also developed a unique city model, Sheep and Horse City.

This kind of sheep and horse city belongs to the ancient defensive low wall, most of them are square or oval, along the city wall around the periphery, the width of the city wall can be walked, the simple fortress tower is built at intervals, and the original tower of the city wall forms a response, to prevent the enemy from attacking when there is a defensive dead end, easy to see the situation.

In history, the Sheep and Horse City has played an important role, and the last time the Sheep and Horse City outside Dunhuang played a role, it was Zuo Gong to recover the Western Regions.

Far aside, they turned their attention to the outside of Dunhuang - outside the city, there is rarely no yellow sand wasteland, the Longle River flows near Dunhuang, bringing abundant river water to moisten this dry land, many tributaries also lead the water of the river to various places, forming a large oasis near the river, which can be seen that there are more shrubs and forests unique to the desert on the oasis.

These oases are like green patches, sewn into the desolate land west of the river, and this should be the biggest surprise for travelers who travel far to the edge of the desert.

They rode through the moat, the sheep and horse city, and the city wall to the ancient city of Dunhuang, and waited for the opportunity for the car to enter the city for inspection, and they walked up to the city wall and carefully observed the pattern of Dunhuang City.

Dunhuang City, known as Guazhou and Shazhou in ancient times, is the westernmost city of the Hexi Corridor since ancient times, before the Han Dynasty, it used to be the land of the Dayue clan, the Wusun people and the Sai people, the Xiongnu rose during the Qin and Han dynasties, and then it was occupied by the Huns.

With the advent of the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Huo Qubing defeated the enemy country by attacking the Xiongnu on the right, and it was incorporated into the territory of China for the first time, which became the territory of the Western Han Dynasty.

In the past two thousand years, with the weakness of Guanzhong, this place has been occupied by foreign races several times, repeatedly renamed and renamed, repaired and abandoned, and has been constantly changed for thousands of years, and finally formed the Dunhuang City they see now.

Today's Dunhuang City, according to the pattern is divided into Luocheng and Guocheng, Luocheng is located in the center of the city, is a nested small city in the big city, the whole presents the "day" character distribution, the north half is used for all kinds of official offices in Dunhuang, the south half, in the past belonged to the banner family to live in the city, later, after the establishment of the Republic of China, the flag family moved out one after another, now three city walls have been demolished, can only be seen from the outline, can also be seen to be full of city, the rest, are integrated with several nearby streets and alleys.

Guocheng, outside Luocheng, is a place where ordinary people live, and the current street shops are mostly concentrated in the streets and alleys around Luocheng, and the commercial area rebuilt by the city is mixed into a piece, which is called Nanjie Market!

If you look closely, this city is centered on the "day" shaped Luo City, and through a "ten" shaped official road, the ancient city is divided into four corners, east, west, north and south, and the area of these four parts is divided into countless square streets and alleys, and finally forms a pattern similar to a chessboard pane.

Every block, every street, every house, is a small set of large, interlocking, forming a huge chessboard structure, the houses are lined up with ancient buildings, which look extraordinarily regular, and at the same time full of fireworks.

Looking further outside the city, the city is surrounded by oasis forests outside the city, and it can be seen that countless oasis fertile fields stretch endlessly, and there are farmers who are constantly working, as for a little further, there are only the earth-colored Mingsha Mountain and Sanwei Mountain, they are like loess sand dunes, slightly undulating at the edge of the oasis, outlining the desolate and bizarre skyline.

At this moment, the scorching sun has just risen from the horizon to the clouds, a round of red sun hangs high in the air, shining on the farthest undulating sand dunes, reflecting the golden and brilliant mountains, the Gobi desert outside the oasis seems to be covered with golden sand, shining brightly, the nearby Dunhuang City has cooking smoke from time to time to fill the air, like the ethereal green smoke flying above the desert.

In the desert, the red sun and golden mountains, the starfall sand dunes, and the oasis of the ancient city all come into view, and the scenery is like a colorful and layered oil painting, which is extremely shocking to see, and sweeps away the depression and hardship of the past few days.

Sun Daqiao searched for the ink in his stomach and muttered: "The desert is lonely, the sun sets on the long river, it is said that Dunhuang is plugged in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is really like that from here, in the closest place to the desert, you can see this kind of beautiful scenery on the plug, it is worth the trip." ”

Yue Guanchao saw Sun Daqiao fiddling with the ink in his stomach, and teased: "Old Sun Tou, this sun has just come out, what does it have to do with the sunset." ”

Sun Daqiao didn't feel embarrassed, touched his beard and joked: "Hey, that's what old decay means, this kind of stuffed scenery is not common, ah...... There is a feeling, there is a feeling. ”

Xu Xiake pointed to the commercial blocks in the city and said, "I remember that the last time I came, I stayed at the Yichao Inn next to Luocheng, and I will take you there later." ”

As they spoke, the car inspection was done, and they separated from the car convoy and called a carriage to rush to the South Market.

The pattern of this Dunhuang city, basically follows the city of the previous dynasty, even if it is now the Republic of China, it is only adapted to local conditions and has more modern buildings, the city looks like it is still an ordinary ancient residential building, the outer wall is mostly loess color and gray white, with the old wooden red window, the deep hole square window, there is a feeling of being in an ancient exotic land.

It wasn't until they were close to the South Market that they had a little more of a modern atmosphere!

The location of the South Market is still the old street of ancient buildings, but there is more commercial atmosphere, shop signs are fluttering everywhere, occasionally meet a few modern buildings, you can also see colorful billboards, lively everywhere, walking in an endless stream.

Now the city wall of the city only retains a section of the northern Luo City, the city walls in other positions have been cut off by half, the remaining height is only to the position of the heart of the waist, the inside and outside are replaced by modern buildings, along the original city wall ruins, forming a "concave" shape modern building group facing the south, they are looking for the "Yichao Inn", located in the courtyard outside the east wall of the city!

What is a courtyard building?

This is the architectural form evolved in the northwest according to local conditions, most of the blue brick frame, yellow mud rammed wall, the rammed earth of the circular building is tight, the door opening is open from the front, the external wall, the window is made thick and small in order to prevent the wind and sand, and the wooden frame is closed tightly, and the corridor towards the inner courtyard is mostly a corridor passage, which can go to the room in different directions along the corridor, the corridor wall is built tightly, and there are many large windows with cylinder mouths, which are used to ventilate and disperse gas.

During the day, these large windows can be supported by poles, and at night, in order to keep the wind and sand down, the window panels can be closed to form a closed corridor, while the bottom floor is unoccupied and used as a stable and straw shed.

In this way, it can be both ventilated and transparent, as long as the door is closed, it can also prevent thieves from wandering, a bit close to Fujian Tulou and Shaanxi pit courtyard.