Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 119 Opening a Banquet and Introducing the Ancestral Tent (4)

Puchangze is the lowest depression in the South Tianshan Road. It originates from the melting ice and snow of Tianshan Mountain, Altun Mountain, and Kunlun Mountains, and finally converges into seven or eight rivers such as Tarim River, Kongque River, Cheerchen River, and Shule River, and then flows into it. Pu Changze.Zhao Xingde estimated from the map provided by the Military Intelligence Department that the area of ​​Puchangze's lake may exceed [-] square kilometers.The amount of water injected into Puchangze by major rivers varies over the years, causing the lake to shrink and shift, leaving a large swamp area on the lakeside. .

The several commercial roads around the post station stretched to the west faintly, not far away, they were hidden in the fresh water plants.If you march along these trade routes, you may be led astray.If you don't march along the trade route, you will easily fall into the swamp.The major rivers that flow into Puchangze diverge into many forks near the lake, making it difficult to tell which one is the main stream of Qiemo River.

"I thought we should avoid Puchangze and march south to the semi-dry area between the desert and the swamp, and then march westward until we meet the Qiemo River." Zhao Xingde pointed to the map. To the south of Puchangze was a piece of quicksand , he estimated that there was at least one piece of relatively dry and hard ground between Quicksand and Pu Changze.In this way, there is no need to be restricted by swamps and misled by commercial roads and canals, and walk a nearly straight marching road.

"You mean to leave the road and march," Du Chuijiao murmured, "and walk on the edge of quicksand." He suddenly smiled, "It's too risky."

"That's right, it doesn't make sense if there is a way." Several other ten commanders echoed.

"Walking on the edge of quicksand may not be without danger."

"In this way, the itinerary is at least twice as long, and we have to go around in a big circle. Maybe it will delay the marching schedule."

"I've only seen people who go the wrong way, but I haven't seen people who don't go the same way."

Someone whispered, "A rookie is indeed a rookie."

Even Jian Cheng looked at Zhao De suspiciously.Instead, Wang Tongdeng's eyes flickered slightly, and he looked at Zhao Delai seriously.

Although the vast majority of people opposed leaving Pu Changze's existing business route, Zhao Xingde's face remained unchanged. He stood up, looked around at the ten elders present, and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, please forgive me for taking the liberty. Going deep into the water and grass swamp by the Puchang Lake, no matter which road you choose, it is just a gamble. Once you go astray, because of the restrictions of the swamp, you have to turn back. What you need for marching is not only the road, but also the correction of the direction at any time freedom. What I lost when I went deep into Pu Changze was the opportunity to correct my mistakes and the time delay that was multiplied.”

Zhao De is usually very kind, but at this moment he was stubborn. At that time, several ten commanders couldn't see it, and said one after another: "Mr. Zhao, you have too many worries." Are you better than Li Guang?" "Although the road is unclear, the direction is always known. Once you find something is wrong, it's okay to turn back immediately."

Du Chuijiao smiled slightly, and asked Zhao De, "Have you finished?"

Zhao Xingde glanced at the ten chiefs present, except for Jian Cheng, Wang Tongdeng and a few younger chiefs who gave him sympathetic glances, the others all dismissed him. Seniority is the most important thing in the army. Shi Chang, who had just joined the army, was gesticulating, and it was impossible to march off the road.After Zhao Xingde wanted to understand this point, he cupped his hands to Du Chuijiao and said, "I'm done talking, please forgive me."

"Okay, sit down." Du Chuijiao said with a smile, then turned to the other elders with high titles and seniority and said, "Which path do you think is more appropriate to take?" Everyone got together again, Analyze which road is more likely to have been traveled by a business traveler recently.

After the military discussion, most of the ten commanders felt that they should take a straight road to the west, so they made a decision and prepared to set off tomorrow.Jian Cheng followed Zhao Xingde, patted him on the shoulder, and said in a low voice: "Straightforward, I think what you said makes sense, but..." Seeing his hesitant to speak, Zhao Xingde smiled, and also Patting him on the shoulder, he whispered, "I also hope that the road I chose leads to Qiemo River."

Back in the team, the sergeants were already cooking their own food. "Captain Zhao, drink it while it's hot." The sergeant Chen Yongqi brought Zhao De a pot of sauce soup. During the military discussion just now, Zhao De rashly proposed a ridiculous suggestion to leave the road. Word spread in the barracks.Some people ridiculed, while others complained about Zhao De.In fact, this proposal should have received more serious consideration, but it was dismissed simply because the person who proposed it was not qualified enough.

Zhao De picked up the hot soup, drank it, closed his eyes, and felt the heat of the stove steaming in his stomach.Xia Guo's supply for long-distance marches has almost reached the acme of this era.Each ten-man team brought four horses, two carts, and five camels to transport the luggage needed for the march.In addition to the concentrate for livestock, the dry food carried by the sergeant includes blocks of beef and suet, dried meat that is dried as hard as a stone, compacted dry dough, dried vegetable balls, cheese blocks, and salty sauce packets.Most of the soldiers in the Xia Kingdom will identify some edible wild vegetables. Whenever conditions permit, the marching meal first melts a small piece of dry dough with hot water to make a pot of very thin noodle soup, and then puts various ingredients into it. Go in and cook together with the wild vegetables collected near the left.Although this kind of marching meal was far worse than Li Ruoxue's homemade cooking, at least it was not difficult to swallow, and basically it would not cause diarrhea.

"Captain Zhao, we think what you said makes sense." Chen Yongqi, Liu Zheng, Shi Yan, Tan Binglong and other team members gathered around. He handled it in an orderly manner, and the other sergeants gradually became convinced of him.Every time he went to a mountain, river, or town where the longitude and latitude lines passed through on the marching map, Zhao De had to carefully measure it with the sky locator, so as to master the usage of the sky locator and correct its errors.Several marching simas thought he was putting on airs at first, until Zhao De occasionally told them that the error of the sky-observing instrument was about twenty li.The three marching commanders were all astonished. A positioning error of ten miles was extremely rare among the marching commanders. The various devices had to be adjusted very accurately, and the timing of the observation of the sky was also extremely accurate.

Looking at the consoling eyes of several people in the team, Zhao Xingde smiled and said: "True is not what people say is right, it is right. The truth will only prove itself." He put down the drained soup bowl, tapped , smiled and said: "I also hope to find Qiemo River at once, and arrive at Qiemo City ahead of time, maybe there is still time to fish some jade."

"Captain Zhao, do you really have any jade?" Tan Binglong asked. These days when Zhao Xingde and the soldiers were camping at night, they had nothing to do and chatted, and they seemed to know astronomy and geography. A few places happened to corroborate what everyone knew, so I admired him for his broad knowledge.

"Of course, everyone knows Khotan's beautiful jade, but they don't know that the main production area is in Qiemo." Zhao Xingde laughed, and wiped the soup basin with hay, and put it in the bag. It's just a matter of luck."

According to Xia Guo's custom, whoever discovers the mineral lode has the mining right.The imperial court only collects mining tax and supervises the mining of mineral deposits so as not to damage the local water and soil.So there are countless young people in the Xia Kingdom, after learning the sky-viewing positioning, they carried their bags and surveyed around the vast Western Regions and Mobei. Once they found a mineral vein and determined its location, they could go to the Prime Minister's Mansion to register. , and then sold at auction.The huge amount of wealth that countless generations have been difficult to accumulate has been obtained, which has stimulated countless young people to study the art of observing the sky and finding mineral veins. In just a hundred years, Xia Guo discovered various mineral deposits in the Western Regions and Mobei, surpassing The cumulative sum of all previous dynasties.

After dinner, Zhao Xingde set up the sky locator as usual.This post station is also marked with latitude and longitude on the military map, which is obviously very important.We are about to enter the swamp, at least we need to figure out the starting point.

He opened a wooden box that matched with the Sky Observation Instrument, and a pendulum clock wrapped in silk and cotton 'revealed' out. If it was placed safely and securely, Zhao Xingde believed that its daily error would be within one second.

At noon, Zhao Xingde adjusted its time. He wondered if the old marching clock had convulsions after half a day of turbulence.Zhao Xingde smiled wryly, carefully moved the marching clock out, and watched the scale on the clock face, now he is used to the algorithm of 120 minutes per hour.