Holy Bone

Chapter 386 Entering the Desert of the Western Regions
half a month later.

A group of people sat sideways on the back of a sheep, wrapped in a sand-proof turban, and their figures were wrapped in the long yellow sand and hot wind. They were slowly walking on the increasingly desolate Gobi Desert on the back of the sheep.

He used one hand to block the glare of the sun above his head, and held a Feng Shui handout "Yin Yang Qing Sac Classic" in the other hand, leisurely flipping through it.

The "Yin-Yang Qingsang Jing" and "Shenfeng Tongkao" that Mr. Yi sent to Jin'an at the beginning became the only interest in the boring journey.

He was about to enter the desert of the Western Regions, where there was no man's land for hundreds of miles. Jin'an felt that if he lost his way in the desert or could not find a source of water due to lack of water, this "Yin Yang Qing Nang Jing" might help him.

After all, what if such a thing happens?
No one can tell, isn't it?
Since leaving Huangzishan Village, Jin'an has been eating and sleeping in the open all the way. When he meets a village, he goes into the village to buy some water and then continues on the road. If he can't find a place to sleep at night, he finds a leeward side and uses the earth as a quilt, just like that. sleep on the belly of a goat.

The Northwest is vast and sparsely populated, and there are no villages without water sources. It is common to not come across a village after driving for dozens of miles, so it is normal to eat and sleep in the open.

Thanks to his strong physique and his poisonous internal energy to keep out the cold, ordinary people would have frozen to death on the desert Gobi desert where the temperature difference between day and night is huge.

Even the goat suffered a lot from following him along the way.

Frozen at night, listening to the howling of wild animals.

During the day, they have to carry people on their backs.

If it weren't for the blood-enriching pills on Jin An's body, this irritable sheep who refused to suffer would never let people ride it honestly.

This goat is smarter than the monkeys on Mount Emei.

Knowing that the blood-enriching pills on Jin An's body are good things, they are great tonics.

Just like the physique of this goat, it is bigger than when it was in Wuzhou Fucheng a month and a half ago, and now it can no longer be said to look like a calf, it should be an old calf?
I don’t know if it’s because the vastness of the Northwest is sparsely populated, and the more and more people are getting rarer, or the sunshine here is too strong, and the fire is too strong, just like the flaming mountain that the Taishang Laojun’s gossip stove overturned in the world. After driving for half a month, I didn't even see a ghost.

Later, he thought about it, maybe this also has something to do with the sturdy folk customs in the Northwest, where the whole village often hits the bone piles.

"Bah."

The goat under the seat let out a weak cry, indicating that there was movement ahead. Jin An raised his eyes from the "Yin Yang Qing Nang Jing" and looked into the distance. He saw the dusty sky ahead and a large group of villagers holding hoes and poles.

Jin An gasped in surprise, thinking that another villager had set up a drought bone pile to pray for rain, but after inquiring closer, he realized that it was not a dry bone pile, but the villagers were chasing a group of robbers.

There were three robbers in that gang, two men and one woman. They looked like they had lost their drinking water bags. They injured several villagers but failed to grab the water. As soon as the wounded villagers returned to the village, they greeted them immediately. The folks and elders pursued and sought revenge along the way.

However, after chasing for a long time, they couldn't find the bandits. The bandits' footprints were all wiped away by the sandstorm on the Gobi Desert. Seeing that they couldn't be chased, the villagers were about to go back cursing.

"Daoist, you have to be careful. Those robbers didn't grab the water. I guess they will guard the road and block the road to rob other people's water." A villager kindly reminded.

Jin'an clasped his fists together to thank him for the reminder, and asked how far it was from the frontier fortress city pass. Finally, he heard good news. Walk forward for about three or four days and you will see several plateau snow-capped mountains. I can see Cyprus.

In the next few days, Jin An did not meet the three unlucky robbers who failed to grab water, and he didn't know which Gobi desert he died of thirst. The sand is as inconspicuous.

The terrain characteristics of Xizhou Prefecture are like a long and narrow knife piercing into the Western Regions. It can restrain the countries of the Western Regions on the left and interrupt the expansion of the Northern Grassland tribes to the Western Regions. From a strategic point of view, it completely blocks the Western Regions and the Northern Grasslands. tribal contacts.

The south of this long and narrow knife borders on the rainy Wuzhou Prefecture, with green mountains and green waters;
The eastern part and the eastern part, because they have been eroded by the wind and sand from the Western Regions all the year round, are becoming more and more arid. The entire eastern part, that is, the entire blade body, is the khaki Gobi Desert.

And the position of this khaki long and narrow knife point is the frontier fortress guarding the Western Regions——

Yang Guan.

Yangguan is a frontier fortified city, heavily guarded by soldiers. There is a small earthen castle more than ten miles away from Yangguan. This is the concentration place for caravans entering and leaving the Western Regions or diplomatic missions from various countries. People will make the last stop here to replenish water and dry food. , camels and other supplies before leaving the Western Regions.

You can go without food for several days in the desert, but you must not live without camels and water.

In the town of Tubao, besides the merchants from the Western Regions, there are also many local merchants from the Western Regions. The Western Regions are united, and the local businesses of water, camels, dry food, and fodder for camels are all monopolized by these locals.

Foreigners can also pay for guides here. These guides include Han Chinese and Western Regions who understand the Chinese language.

Jin An didn't spend money to hire a guide, because the place he was going to was deep in the desert, and it was useless to find an ordinary guide. He planned to spend some money to find a caravan from the Western Regions to take him for a ride.

It’s just that those large caravans with a lot of people don’t want to talk to Jin’an, a lonely Taoist priest. At first glance, he has never suffered hardships or entered the desert. They have seen this kind of pampered Central Plains people a lot. will die in the desert.

They don't lack that little money and don't want to cause trouble.

To put it simply, in their eyes, Jin'an is a weak chicken who will drag his feet in the desert.

In the end, Jin An bought the leader of a small caravan with money, and the leader readily agreed to let him accompany the team, because no one would be against money.

The team leader is called Batur, which means warrior in the Western Regions. He is a middle-aged man with a big beard and a scimitar on his waist. He is a bold man, so Jin An directly called him Big Beard.

The bearded leader and his caravan are all Westerners with high noses, deep eye sockets, and three-dimensional facial features. They bought porcelain, tea, silk, sugar, iron and other trading commodities in Kangding State, and planned to ship them to some countries in the Western Regions for sale. , and then exchange them for luxury goods such as gems, pearls, and diamonds, and then bring them to Kangding for sale. The middle price difference is very large.

The caravan did not set off right away. The bearded man said that they were small caravans. In the past, they would form a team with a few small caravans to enter the Western Regions. In the Western Regions, apart from sandstorms, there were sand robbers and wild beasts. The number of merchants was too small. The team is as dazzling as a single Populus euphratica in the desert.

The bearded man had already found a small caravan, and said he would find one or two more small caravans to form a team. If everything went well, they would be able to set off tomorrow, and asked Jin An to find a place to live in Tubao Town first.

The town of Tubao is very simple. The houses here are all one layer of loess walls. There are no triangular roofs and no tiles. They are only square like a square box. When you enter the town, you will be greeted by camels. The feces and urine stinks, and the air is cloudy and unpleasant.

There are more camels in the town than people, because more camels are needed to carry supplies for the team when entering the desert.

The turbid stench made people's eyes burn, so Jin An didn't live in the small town in the end, and just found a sheltered rock outside the small town for the night.

……

The next morning.

Jinan waited for the notice from Big Beard as promised. The camel team set off for the Western Regions today. He brought a strong goat and three camels to the appointment. The three camels were carrying the dry food and the preparations for this trip to the desert. Clear water, the most important thing is to carry a lot of clear water.

In the end, this somewhat strange team consisting of three small caravans and Taoist priests walked out of the small town of Tubao and set off for Chaoyang Pass.

It has been two months since the Dojo Yinfen was re-sealed, and the armies of the Western Regions surrounding the frontiers have retreated. In the end, these Western Regions still did not have the courage to dare to attack Kangding. Seeing that there was nowhere to go, these loose troops chose to retreat one after another.

It has been half a month since the frontier fortress resumed customs clearance, but it can still be seen that the defenders here still have not let down their vigilance, strictly checking all people who exit and enter the customs.

The camel bells are mellow, the caravans are coming and going, the envoys are coming and going, the frontier fortress is prosperous, and people are coming and going. It doesn't look like a barren land at all.

"Master Dao, the desert in the Western Regions is different from the Gobi Desert in Xizhou Capital. The desert in the Western Regions is a hundred times more dangerous, a thousand times more dangerous. Even the businessmen from the Western Regions who are most familiar with the deserts have many caravans permanently staying in the desert every year. Can you tell me?" You have to think twice before you act." With a sturdy body and bulging temples, he looks like a guard of a veteran soldier who has inspected Jin'an's Taoist plate and the customs clearance document stamped by the Lord Fuyin. It is rare for Jin'an to look soothed kindly reminded.

Others are not treated so well. Whether it is a businessman from the Western Regions or a businessman from Kangding Kingdom, they are all treated equally in the eyes of these officers and soldiers.

"Thank you for the reminder. I already know about the dangers in the Western Regions." Jin An clasped his fists and said with a warm smile.

"Well, you go over." The officer didn't say anything more, waved his comrades to let him go, and then continued to check the team behind.

As for the goat that was bigger than a calf, the officers and soldiers didn't ask too many questions except to take a second look.

They were guarding the frontier, and they had never seen any rare animals in the Western Regions, and a bigger goat would not be too surprised.

Yangguan is a majestic pass guarding the canyon between the mountains. After leaving the pass, it is a flat and open Gobi Plain.

As long as you guard the canyon, you will be in charge of the pass, and you don't have to worry that someone will cross the nearby mountains and invade Kangding.

This is the plateau Gobi Desert. When marching and fighting in the desert, one must walk along the river or water source in order to replenish the water source and identify the direction in time.Crossing mountains and ridges in the plateau area requires a lot of physical strength. In the mountains, there is only sand and no water source. If people and horses lack water for half a day, they will just stay where they are waiting to die.

So if you want to enter Kangding country, you must first pass Yangguan.

In the first few days after leaving Yangguan, the caravan traveled relaxedly, walking and singing. Those songs carried exotic customs and customs, and combined with the boundless Gobi sandstone land around them, the exotic customs made this journey not like traveling in Facing the desert of death, it looks like they came out to play.

However, within half a day, Jin An got tired of this kind of exotic interest, and the foreground in front of him was boring Gobi.

So I took out the "Yin-Yang Qingsang Jing" again to pass the boring road.

A few days later, the team gradually walked out of the Gobi area, and the surrounding environment began to be dominated by sandy deserts. Next, we had to save water for drinking. According to Big Beard, their next hydration point would be ten days later.

In the desert, apart from the boundless sea of ​​sand, there are no landmarks that can be used as references. People falling into the sea of ​​sand are just a drop in the ocean, and it is easy to get lost because you can't tell the difference between east, west, north, and west.The bearded businessmen from the Western Regions have dealt with the desert for generations, and they have their own way of distinguishing directions in the desert.

"To identify the direction in the desert, one is to rely on the river or the valleys and riverbeds washed out by the river, and the other is to rely on some scattered rocks and mountains in the desert." The bearded man is an enthusiastic and forthright desert man. He talked about everything along the way. He introduced all kinds of strange things in the desert to Jin An.

"However, relying on the rocks to confirm the direction can only be useful in the outskirts of the desert. After half a month, we will go deep into the desert and we will not see these rocks. Submerged. After we go deep into the desert, we can only follow the desert river or the dry riverbed. If we leave the river or the riverbed, people will soon get lost in the desert, and the only thing waiting for them is thirst or sunburn.”

Seeing that Jin An was listening intently to his speech, the bearded Batur continued to jolt on the back of the camel, "I am a bearded man who is honest and honest. Since I have received the money, I must take the Taoist Master Jin'an with you." Destination. The most ferocious thing in the desert is not the sand robbers who never leave alive, but the weather that changes at any time! If you encounter sand robbers, Daoist Jin'an, you are weak and hide in the caravan, I am Batur I will protect you as much as possible, but the weather in the desert is the most dangerous when it changes like a woman's face... Sometimes the sky is sunny, and sandstorms will come in a blink of an eye, and people and camels will be blown away before they can find a shelter Yes! The reason why I told you these experiences in the desert, Daoist Jin’an, is that if we get separated, you can have more chances of survival in the desert, Daoist Jin’an. As long as we walk along the river bed, even if we get separated, we will definitely be able to survive. Find Daoist Jin'an again."

Jin An was moved when he heard that: "Thank you for reminding me."

"You don't need to thank me, I should thank you for the money you gave me." The bearded man smiled humorously at Jin'an.

"Except for the outer periphery and the deepest part of the desert, how do you confirm your location in the deepest part of the desert?" Jin An humbly asked for advice. After all, the Kingdom of the Undead Gods he was looking for, the Kingdom of Guchi, were all located in the deepest part of the desert.

Unexpectedly, the bearded man changed color when he heard the words, and even the warrior on the desert shook his head timidly, and said solemnly: "In the deepest part of the desert, there is the biggest quicksand in the desert, and there is the biggest sandstorm in the desert. It has been so filled with sand that not even the river bed can be found, and even the most seasoned guide or trader would be disoriented. There are buried gods' corpses and curses, and no one will come out alive."

Even the bearded man who has lived in the desert of the Western Regions all year round was so frightened that he heard the word timid. It seems that the deepest part of the desert is even more dangerous than imagined.

Afterwards, the bearded man put on the sand-proof turban again, pulled the camel's reins, and went to the back of the caravan to check the caravan to see if anyone was left behind or the goods were not tied securely.

The sun is shining, the camel bells are lingering, hundreds of camels are connected to the reins, and they are walking slowly on the endless desert in a long line. A leaf was quickly swallowed up by the sea of ​​sand, leaving only continuous sand dunes that looked exactly the same.

(End of this chapter)