Fortunate Young Gentleman

Shazhou is the last inhabited place in the west of Chen State.

After leaving Shazhou, less than ten miles to the north is Yangguan, and more than a hundred miles to the northwest is Yumenguan. Beyond Yangguan and Yumenguan, it is the territory of the Western Regions.

Shazhou is located on the edge of the desert, surrounded by desert Gobi all year round. It is short of water all year round. The people have suffered from the sandstorm for a long time. In Shazhou City, people can be seen everywhere covering their faces with gray cloth to prevent inhalation of sand and dust.

Women rarely go out, and even if they go out, they must cover their faces with light gauze. The weather here is dry and the wind and sand are strong, which will cause great damage to their delicate skin.

Although Shazhou is remote, it is not poor.

This is because it is a must-pass place for merchants from the Western Regions and Chen State to enter and exit the customs. A large number of caravans stay here every month. Some of them are Chen State merchants traveling from Chen State to the Western Regions, and some are Western Region merchants entering the customs from the Western Regions. The goods of these merchants stay in Shazhou and they have to pay part of the tariff.

Whether it was Western Region merchants selling Western Region specialties to the State of Chen, or Chen State merchants bringing silk, tea, etc. to the Western Regions, they could not avoid Shazhou. The tax silver paid by these merchants alone accounted for a considerable part of the treasury income of the State of Chen.

And the Shazhou government naturally made a lot of money in this process.

A large number of caravans stayed in Shazhou, which greatly promoted the commercial development of Shazhou. In the state city, there were many inns, restaurants and brothels. It was the most prosperous city in the northwest border of the State of Chen.

Prosperity is prosperity, but the crisis shrouding Shazhou has become more and more serious as the situation in the Western Regions changes.

To the east of Shazhou is the State of Chen, and to the west is the Western Regions. Once there is a change in the Western Regions, Shazhou will definitely bear the brunt.

In the past few years, Xiaowan's rise has been unstoppable. At present, their energy is still focused on conquering the small countries in the Western Regions. When they completely conquer the Western Regions, it will be the time for the disaster of the State of Chen to come.

In order to cope with the changes in the Western Regions, after the imperial court pacified the grassland, it stationed 400,000 troops in Shazhou and Suzhou and other places, and reinforced the city wall of Shazhou to more than two meters wide and five meters high, creating a copper wall in this vast sea of ​​sand.

With heavy guards, the towering city walls stand tall from afar, which finally makes the people of Shazhou feel a little more at ease. They hope that Xiaowan will lose in the struggle for power in the Western Regions, or that the imperial court will simply send troops to pacify the Western Regions, so as to maintain the long-term stability of Shazhou.

At this moment, at the city gate on the east side of Shazhou, a group of people led horses slowly into the city, attracting frequent sidelong glances from passers-by.

Shazhou welcomes many outsiders every day, some of whom are from the capital and some from the Western Regions. The people in the city have long been accustomed to it, but the composition of this group of people is too strange, which makes people have to take a few more glances.

Walking in front were three young men and women, the men were handsome and the women were pretty. A couple looked to be in their early twenties, and the other girl was only 28 years old and still looked a little immature.

There was nothing strange about these three people except that they looked pleasing to the eye. The strange thing was the people behind them.

A sturdy middle-aged man followed behind them, with a butcher knife on his waist, which destroyed the extraordinary temperament of the three people in front. Next to the middle-aged man was an old man in dirty clothes, dressed like a beggar, scratching his butt and picking his nose from time to time, looking extremely sloppy.

Behind the two people, there were several figures, three old men and three old women, all of whom were old, following them step by step, like servants.

This combination made everyone confused. If they were to ask which nobleman was traveling with his beautiful daughter, they should have brought some guards. But among these people, only the middle-aged man with a butcher knife on his waist looked like a guard. The rest were all elderly people who looked like they had one foot in the ground. I'm afraid that a little travel would cost them their lives.

Tang Ning naturally noticed the strange looks of the passers-by around him, but the truth is often not as outsiders see.

These elderly people who looked like they had one foot in the ground were not easy to deal with when they started fighting.

Any one of them could easily destroy a small country in the Western Regions. It was not difficult for the six elders of the Wan Gu Sect to join forces and destroy a medium-sized country with a population of thousands.

Together with the fourth and eighth elders who were by Tang Ning's side before, when Tang Ning entered Shazhou, six elders of the Wan Gu Sect had gathered around him.

If the ten sects had not just been integrated and a few elders had to stay to handle the affairs of the sect, Tang Ning felt that Su Mei would send out all the new ten elders.

The elders of the Wan Gu Sect might not be the opponents of Lao Zheng alone, but they could play a role like nuclear weapons against ordinary people, even some minor masters, which was beyond the reach of Lao Zheng and the old beggar.

As for Tang Yaoyao and Xiaoxiao, they were just here to join in the fun.

The reason why Tang Ning did not stop them was that Tang Yaoyao said she came to see if he would mess around in the Western Regions. If Tang Ning did not let her follow, wouldn't it make her look guilty?

Xiaoxiao, who always listened to Tang Ning, did not listen to his arrangements this time and wanted to follow them to the Western Regions. Tang Ning could see that she seemed to have a slight resistance to Qiandi, so he did not insist.

Unlike Xiaoru and Xiaoyi, the two of them had a certain ability to protect themselves, especially Xiaoxiao. Now even Tang Ning could not see through her depth, and Tang Yaoyao was no longer her opponent a long time ago.

Taking the two of them with me is not only not a problem, but also a help.

What's more, he didn't come to the Western Regions to confront Xiao Wan head-on. Tang Ning would not use other means if he could negotiate peacefully.

Shazhou was much more prosperous and wealthy than Tang Ning had imagined. He originally thought that this was a run-down border town at the junction of Chen State and the Western Regions. Unexpectedly, although Shazhou's city was small, it had everything it needed.

Walking to the main street of Shazhou, looking at the shops on both sides of the street with customers coming in an endless stream, Tang Ning even thought he had come to the capital.

Of course, there is still a big difference between here and the capital.

The most obvious difference is that only half of the faces on the street are Han people, and the Western Regions people with high cheekbones and high noses occupy the other small half. There are also some people whose appearance is more different from that of Han people and not exactly the same as that of Western Regions people. I think they are from countries further west.

Of course, there were more Western women along the way. Most of them wore clothes that were very different from those of Han women. Some of them even exposed their navels. Tang Ning even saw several foreign girls wearing ornaments on their navels...

The exotic atmosphere in Shazhou City was much stronger than that in the capital. However, the weather was not very good today. The sky in the distance was filled with dust. Many people wore scarves when they went out. Tang Ning and his party did not prepare such things. Xiao Xiao, who was standing beside him, coughed several times along the way. It seemed that she was not used to the air here.

When Tang Ning was about to remind her to buy a scarf later, he suddenly felt a pain in his waist on the other side.

Tang Yaoyao took his arm and asked with a smile: "Does it look good?"

Although she was smiling, her teeth were clenched tightly, and one of her delicate hands pinched the soft flesh on his waist.

Tang Ning retracted his gaze and immediately said without looking away: "In broad daylight, in the open air, you are naked. How shameful, how shameful..."