A few hours later, when they were on the road again, there were only ten sergeants left of the fifty cavalry who had been in charge of escorting them at the beginning.

Looking at the ten withered and exhausted sergeants in front of him, Vice General Hao smiled and comforted Ye Feng: "Fortunately, there are fewer people, and the water is not so nervous." ”

He could still laugh!

But in Ye Feng's eyes, the smile on Vice General Hao's face was almost like crying.

Of course, he would feel sorry for his subordinates who were buried under the yellow sand. But what he received was a death order, and his mission was to ensure Ye Feng's safety.

Regardless of the cost, all of his men, including his own life, are ready to die for the mission.

Just because they are soldiers, they are warriors!

Facing this general with a resolute face and firm beliefs, Ye Feng couldn't help but feel a sense of respect in his heart.

But no matter how strong his beliefs are, he is still a man of flesh and blood after all.

After walking for more than half a day, Vice General Hao finally couldn't support it, shook his body a few times, fell off the horse, and fainted.

Everyone had already respected him, and jumped off their horses and surrounded him.

Miss Cheng checked it briefly and said, "He's fine, it's just that his body is a little weak due to fatigue and dehydration, and he will be fine after drinking some water and resting for a while." ”

Ye Feng, who was on the side, immediately untied the water bladder he was carrying and handed it over.

After pouring a few sips of water, Vice General Hao woke up leisurely.

As soon as he woke up, he struggled to get up.

Miss Cheng stopped him and shouted, "Don't move! You need to rest now, don't you want to die?"

Vice General Hao gasped a little weakly and said, "But, I still have to hurry." ”

Ye Feng comforted him: "This vast desert, there is no hurry to travel, at this time, you have a good rest first, and then think about it in the long run." ”

At this time, Zhang Fatzi next to him suddenly stretched out his hand in a daze and pointed into the distance, and stammered: "Feicheng, Loulan Feicheng, we have arrived, we have finally arrived!"

Everyone looked in the direction of his finger, and suddenly they were all stunned.

I saw a city looming in the blue sky in the distance!

The houses and streets are all vivid, there are rivers and bridges in the city, green trees and flowers, and the flow of people is like weaving, so it is not lively.

However, the whole city was floating in mid-air, swaying, and it didn't seem very far away.

Xie Zhenliang was so shocked that his mouth couldn't close together, looked at the strange scene in front of him, and touched the fat man Zhang next to him with his hand: "This, isn't this a fairyland?"

Zhang Fatzi shook his head: "I don't know either." ”

In fact, about the fairyland, it was recorded as early as in the "Historical Records Feng Zen Book": "Ziwei, Xuan, and Yanzhao make people go into the sea to seek Penglai, abbot, and Yingzhou." The three sacred mountains, which are spread in the Bohai, are not far from the people, and when the trouble comes, the wind of the ship will lead them away...... Before it arrives, it looks like a cloud; when it arrives, the Sanshen Mountain resides underwater; when it comes, the wind leads it away, and it can't be reached. ”

In the past, when Zhang Fatzi read this unreachable account of the ups and downs of Sanshen Mountain and the sea and sky, he always scoffed at it and thought it was nonsense.

Is there anything in the world that floats in the middle of the air, beyond reach?

But now, when he saw with his own eyes this city floating in the sky, and there were living people walking back and forth in it, he couldn't help but feel ashamed of his shallowness.

It turns out that there really is such a place in the world!

Did you see it wrong?

Now everyone around is stunned to see this strange scene, can't everyone be dazzled?

If this is not a fairyland, it must be Feicheng, Loulan Feicheng!

However, didn't Old Man Fu say that Loulan Feicheng had fallen into the salt sawa?

Could it be that his ancestor Fu Jiezi is talking nonsense?

At this time, the blindfolded old man Fu Shuangling, who had been riding on horseback, understood what they saw from their exclamations, and suddenly shouted: "Don't look at it, that's not true!"

Everyone was stunned when they heard it, and they didn't understand the meaning of his words.

Before Old Man Fu could speak, Xiao Sanji on the side said with a serious face: "Yes,

It's an illusion, it's a mirage. ”

In everyone's eyes, little Sanji is just a **-year-old child, how can what he said be convincing? Everyone looked at him with puzzled eyes.

At this time, Old Man Fu nodded and said: "What he said is right, this is a mirage, but the power of the devil in the desert conjures up the illusion of a distant city, if you really want to look for it, it will always seduce you in front of you, but you will never be able to go until you die of exhaustion." ”

(The mirage phenomenon is actually an optical phenomenon formed by the refraction of light reflected by objects through the atmosphere.)

In the desert, the sand on the ground is hot, so the air layer near the ground becomes hot, while the air layer in the air is cooler, and the air density between the upper and lower layers is formed by the principle of cold expansion and cold contraction.

Therefore, the light and shadow reflected from afar can be projected to form a mirage.

Ancient people did not understand the density of air and temperature, so they said that it was the power of the devil in the desert. ）

Everyone was confused by Old Man Fu's words, but they didn't dare to believe it, so they could only look at each other for a while.

Zhang Fatzi's face was full of disappointment, and he lamented: "Then you mean that we have to continue to move forward, where is this Loulan Ancient City?"

He even began to wonder in his heart whether this old blind man really knew the way to the ancient city of Loulan, and he couldn't even see it.

Old Man Fu heard the meaning of his words, smiled slightly and said, "Then you don't have to go anymore." ”

Zhang Fatzi was stunned and asked, "Why?"

Old Man Fu stretched out his hand and pointed to the front and asked, "Look at the northwest direction, are there three continuous sand dunes, the middle one is slightly larger, and the two sides are slightly higher?"

Everyone turned their heads and looked, and sure enough, it was the case.

Old Man Fu lowered his head and let out a long sigh, and said, "I can't imagine that in a few decades, the old man will be able to come back here again in his lifetime." ”

Ye Feng's heart moved, and he was so excited that he stammered a little and asked, "You, what do you mean by being old, you mean that we ......?"

Old Man Fu nodded, and said in a loud voice: "That's right, under the desert we are standing on now is the former Yanze, and the place where those three sand dunes are the Loulan King City that fell back then!"

Everyone was stunned and looked at each other, you look at me, I look at you, and there was no response. After going through so many hardships, enduring so many hopes and disappointments, in the face of the sudden good news, everyone couldn't believe it.

The only rat in the group was the rat-like rat, who didn't say a word, and hurried towards the three dunes.

He stumbled and crawled to the sand dune, and removed the large cloth bag he had been carrying with him.

Opening the cloth bag, he took out a few pieces of black iron pipe-like things from the dazzling array of items inside, spliced them together, and instantly became a long iron rod, with an arc-shaped curled blade at one end, like a shovel.

Looking at the strange-shaped tool in the mouse's hand, everyone was inexplicable, but Zhang Fatzi vaguely felt a little familiar.

He remembered that in the Huashan Valley, when Ye Feng and Tang Da were buried alive in the secret passage, the second brother Xie Zhenliang arrived with the people of the old Sun family in Guanzhong.

It was all thanks to the help of the old Sun family, the first Tufuzi in Guanzhong, that he was able to dig through the secret passage and rescue Ye Feng and Tang Da.

At that time, when the people of the old Sun family were exploring the terrain, they used a tool called "Luoyang shovel", which was vaguely similar to the strange tool in the hands of the current mouse.

It's just that the Luoyang shovel is made of a wooden handle, while the one in the mouse's hand is made of a hollow iron pipe.

Standing in front of the dune, the rat held the pole with both hands, spread his feet apart, and straightened his waist, and thrust the curled edge towards the sand. Then, with both hands, he kept spinning the iron rod and went down hard.

After doing this a few times, try to slowly withdraw the iron. He first carefully observed the sand brought out by the curled edge, then dismantled the hollow iron pipe, took out the sand and studied it carefully, and even took some of it and put it in his mouth and chewed it.

After tossing like this, the rat successively selected seven or eight places around the sand dunes in a row, and concocted them in this way, and everyone watched him busy from a distance, but they didn't understand what he meant, and they saw it in the fog one by one.

Rats until the circumference

After surveying the sand dunes for a while, he turned to everyone and shouted, "There are salt grains deep in the sand, yes, it seems that we are indeed on the salt of the year!"

Everyone was silent for a moment, and suddenly there was an irrepressible cheer. Everyone jumped and shouted to their heart's content, waving their hands, and even Vice General Hao, who was lying on the ground and was still very weak just now, didn't know where the strength came from, stood up, and laughed with everyone.

After suffering so much, suffering so many sins, and fighting a few times on the threshold of life and death, now, they have finally reached their destination!

The legendary Loulan King City, the dried up Yanze, the life-saving underground dark river, all of this is close at hand, how can it not be exciting?

After indulging in the festivities, everyone came to the three sand dunes.

The mouse glanced at the blindfolded old man Fu who was carried by the Helian Tie, and seemed to be a little surprised that such a blind old man who couldn't see could guide the way so accurately.

Then he said to everyone: "Under these three sand dunes, there is indeed a huge thing, probably a building like a house, maybe what you call the Loulan King City. ”

"And the sand deep below the surface of the sand in this vicinity contains extremely high levels of salt. The salt you are talking about used to be a huge saltwater lake before it dried up, but after it dried up, it was buried by yellow sand, and the salt layer at the bottom of the lake was also buried underneath, so the desert we are standing on is probably the site of Shiozawa in the past!"

After listening to the mouse's words, everyone was overjoyed.

Zhang Fatzi had been looking curiously at the strange-shaped tools of the rats on the ground, and he leaned over to pick up a hollow iron pipe, and there was still some sand and soil brought out of the iron pipe.

He put some sand into his mouth and tasted it like a mouse, it was bitter and astringent, and he couldn't taste anything, only making his mouth full of sand, and he kept spitting, causing everyone to laugh.

Ye Feng still remembered what the camel had said, and he asked the mouse, "What about the dark river, is that underground river also down there?"

The mouse hesitated for a moment, and said with a somewhat depressed expression: "The sand and soil below here are not damp, and there is no moisture, so even if there is really an underground river, it will never be here." ”

When everyone listened to his words, they all felt extremely disappointed, and when they thought of the less and less clear water left around them, their expressions couldn't help but darken.

Seeing everyone's expressions, the mouse comforted: "Below here is the bottom of the dry Yanzawa Lake, and it is also possible that the dark river is somewhere under the bottom of the lake." Anyway, we have already arrived here, and the Loulan Royal City is in front of us, if we use the dead horse as a live horse doctor, we may be able to have unexpected gains. ”

He raised his head, and a fiery light flashed in his eyes: "What do you think?"

Everyone, look at me, I'll look at you, what else can be done now?

Since the mouse said that the dark river may be under this lake, instead of sitting here and waiting for death, it is better to take a risk and find out, and maybe there is a chance to survive in a desperate situation.

So everyone unanimously agreed to give it a go.

But what should be done? Do you have to dig from here to the bottom of the lake?

Not to mention the time and effort, with the clear water they have left now, I am afraid that everyone is already exhausted and thirsty before they have dug it yet.

The mouse looked at the three sand dunes and groaned, "That's not necessary. If it is true that below this sand dune is the legendary Loulan Flying City, then these three sand dunes should be the top of the entire building. ”

"If we could enter the interior of the royal city and follow the building down to the base, wouldn't it be much less time-saving and labor-saving than if we were to dig like this?"

Everyone felt justified and nodded their heads.

"It's just that," the mouse shook his head and sighed, "our biggest problem at the moment is that the interior of the building is not swallowed up by quicksand, so we can go up and down freely. ”

"Second, we don't know what the internal structure of this royal city is, since it is a royal palace, the internal structure must be very grand and complicated, if we know in advance the layout of the houses and the direction of the road, we can greatly save time. ”

Everyone felt dejected when they heard it, how could they know the internal structure of the royal city more than a thousand years ago? This is simply a fool's dream.

At this time, an old voice sounded slowly: "Perhaps, this old decay can help!"