The wind picked up the sand on the ground and carried it far away.
An inch of windy sand can at most confuse other people's eyes.
But the gathering of wind and sand from hundreds of miles of desert is also overwhelming.
Sandstorm.
A natural disaster caused by wind and sand.
Fortunately, today's deserts are vast and sparsely populated, so they can affect only a few people and animals.
However, this is very dangerous for people who live or work nearby.
Lives in the southwest of Yanze.
After taking down Ju Yanze and taking control of Taiyuan and the Hexi Corridor, Zhang Qi still named this important road leading to the Western Regions Xiliang.
The four counties of Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang are still the same, while Juyanze is a separate county of Juyan, and a total of five counties of Xiliang.
Although the Han Dynasty still has control over the entrance to the Hexi Corridor, the road Zhang Qi and others entered Juyanze has long been changed. The Liaoning-Zhejiang Railway, which spans more than 2,000 miles, has long been completed from the desert outside the Great Wall. connected.
Wuwei County is not actually the starting point for entering the Western Regions. For Liao Zhengquan, it is the starting point for entering the Han Dynasty from Xiliang.
Now relying on Juyanze's lush water terrain to store reservoirs, Juyan County has begun to transform from nomadic to semi-nomadic.
Living in Yanze, just by listening to the name, you know that it is mostly a land of water and swamps. A large amount of water gathers here, forming today's rich water system.
After Hu Shui captured this place, Zhang Qi sent an engineering team to arrive early to select a site to build a reservoir to collect the overflowing water and guide the water from the snow-capped mountains to flow through it.
Later, a large number of Lezhou workers who repaired the Liao-Ze Railway arrived here. After several years of railway construction, they were already skilled workers. After adding hundreds of thousands of skilled workers, relying on the planning of the Planning Bureau, one by one Large water canals flowed to once dry areas, thereby nourishing more land.
With water, pastures also spread, which is a great attraction for grasslands that have been locked in a war for pastures.
In addition to Hu Shui's title as King Temujin and the feats of Xiutu and Ding Ling's surrender, a large number of people in the grassland tribes were semi-dependent on Hu Shui's rule.
The number of these grassland people is quite large. The population of the Xiongnu at its peak was only four to five hundred thousand, but the number of Hu people in the entire grassland was more than ten times that of them. Although these years of war have been consumed every year, a large number of strong men died on the battlefield or were killed. Compiled by Zhang Qi.
But the number of tribes in the entire grassland is still more than two million.
Now, they have all arrived around Juyanze, and a large number of pastures and transformed pastures in the five counties of Xiliang have been allocated to them.
In addition, through the purchase of wool, milk, etc., commodities from the Liao region have flooded into the eyes of the grassland people. Now they have discovered that raising cattle and sheep can make money faster than fighting. Gradually, all the warriors in all tribes who can fight are being bullied. Most of Shui, Xiutu, Ding Ling and others were incorporated into the army and went to war with Youyi's army.
Of course, except for Juyan County, the population of the other four counties is still sparse. The population that immigrated from the Han Dynasty is only half a million, and the population of more than 500,000 is scattered among the four counties like water dripping into the sea.
However, the biggest role of these Han people is not to develop the land of the four counties. With the Han people here, after a few generations, there will be no grassland people in Xiliang, and they will all be Chinese people.
Dunhuang.
As a county facing the Lop Nur Desert, sandstorms have a huge impact here.
Today's Xiliang has not built the Yumen Pass and Yang Pass that were later built.
Instead, there are two mutual markets named after two levels.
This was used to conduct trade with the countries in the Western Regions.
Of course, the current situation is that a large number of merchants from the Western Regions come to the two cities of Yumen and Yangguan to purchase goods, and Liao's official foreign trade has not yet begun.
The wind and sand have increased, and the people in these two places have become accustomed to covering their faces with sand. They also dress closer to the residents of the Western Regions, looking very exotic.
It's just that now, their faces are sallow after being washed by the wind and sand, and they look weathered at first glance.
"To be honest, I've had enough of this place. I'd rather go back to Liaodong and fight in the wind and snow than live like this again, where I can swallow a few ounces of sand when I drink water."
In a house made of loess.
A dark-faced young man slapped the table angrily.
There were some people in the house, and they looked like they were traveling around all year round.
"Calm down, calm down, since you want to make a lot of money from this, you have to endure this unbearable pain, otherwise, the money will be given to you for free?"
The leader, an old man in his forties calmly reassured.
"Wait a minute, that underground salt water lake is already a bit frowned upon. Once the sampling is completed, the income this underground salt water lake can bring you is enough to feed and drink for generations of you."
Perhaps the old man's words were useful, and the young man who was so angry before was no longer so angry now.
Discouraged, people appear a little depressed.
"I have gone through so much trouble to find a salt water lake, but I don't know what its use is. Liao land is close to the sea. How can a salt water lake be as big as the sea?"
"So, if you don't like studying, don't talk. Just listen to the arrangements. If it weren't for your father's sake, we wouldn't take you with us."
In the crowd, a young man who was reading a book couldn't stand it anymore and scolded him.
Unlike others here, he is a serious student who graduated from Liaodi University and studied physics and chemistry.
The others didn't know what they had spent years looking for here, but he did.
This was the first task he was given personally after meeting Zhang Qi.
That is to look for the underground potassium reservoir in Lop Nur.
Just find this underground potassium reservoir.
Liaodi's chemical industry and agriculture will once again experience skyrocketing growth.
The young man spoke, but no one else in the room dared to speak.
On the surface, everyone is working under the old man, but after so many years, they all know that the real person in charge is the young man reading in front of them.
In addition to the prospectors like them, a forestation team of more than a thousand people also came here in the huge Lop Nur.
It’s just that the task of the afforestation team is in the villages and counties outside Lop Nur.
The vast desert area also made them suffer a lot.
But none of them complained.
West of Yangguan.
The camel cart swayed towards the edge of the desert pulling water from Yangguan.
On the sand on the back slope, hundreds of people bent over and divided the sand into one-meter-wide grids with hay.
The special shovel can be stepped on by foot.
With each press and step, the hay was pressed into the loose gravel, and the raised grass became walls guarding the squares.
A small seedling was pulled out of the seedling pile and planted in the middle of the grass square.
Just at this moment, the camel team carrying water arrived. They also kept up with the planting team and sprinkled water into the grass squares where the seedlings had just been planted.
These seedlings.
Naturally, the Haloxylon ammodendron and Populus euphratica trees can grow in desert areas.
(End of chapter)
