On the sixth day after leaving Chang'an, Li Ke and others had arrived at the original border between Tuyuhun and Datang. After crossing a slope in front, a dilapidated village appeared in front of Li Ke and others again.
There was a cemetery not far from the village. Li Ke and the others slowed down. When passing by the cemetery, they could see that many of the graves were new. The village not far away was somewhat dilapidated. The scouts who went to investigate had already came back.
"Your Highness, there is no one in the village anymore. It should be the same as the previous villages. It was invaded by Tuyuhun before, and the surviving villagers have all moved away. This place is already empty." The scout said solemnly.
Li Ke nodded silently. The environment here is not bad. There is a river flowing not far away. The weeds in the fields in the distance are already very lush, but no one is cultivating them anymore. Judging from the land here, although it is not fertile, there is no problem in raising a family, and it is considered good land.
It's a pity that the people who live here no longer exist.
The Tang Dynasty in Zhenguan was known as the prosperous age of Zhenguan in history, but in this border area, there were still ten rooms and nine empty houses.
Li Min, who was next to Li Ke, also watched all this silently. As he arrived in the Western Region, everything around him became more and more different from what he imagined.
He didn't know how he was holding on these past few days. The wounds on his legs had to be re-opened almost every day, but as time went by, it seemed that he was becoming more and more resistant to pain.
At least yesterday he secretly saw the third brother applying medicine to himself. It turned out that the third brother's legs were also worn out. After giving him the pad, the third brother's saddle naturally became harder.
But when he applied the medicine, it was as if he wasn't applying medicine to himself at all, and his hands didn't even tremble at all.
Li Ke's legs were indeed bruised. After all, he had never ridden a horse with such high intensity, but this pain didn't matter to Li Ke, it was drizzle.
"To die on the battlefield and be wrapped in horse leather sounds like the romance of all soldiers, but no one has ever known that those soldiers who fought bloody battles just wanted their families behind them not to be like this village, that's all."
"Li Min, do you know?" Li Ke asked.
Li Min was stunned for a moment, then paused and said, "Third brother, I'm stupid."
"This Tang Dynasty, this prosperous age of Zhenguan, was supported by tens of millions of people. Now our Tang Dynasty is fighting external wars. Do you know what constitutes war?" Before Li Min could answer, Li Ke spoke calmly. He said: "War is when our royal family provides swords, guns and armor, the aristocratic families provide officials and generals to command and control logistics, and the common people provide food and children."
"When the war ended, our royal family took back their swords, guns and armor, and the wealthy families began to fight for power and profit with big fish and meat to gain more benefits for this war, while the common people were hungry and looking for the relics or ashes of their children."
"What do you think they are for? To give you food, drink and fun?"
Li Min sounded a little uncomfortable, but he...he didn't know how to refute. He felt very uncomfortable. Li Min never thought that one day he would feel uncomfortable because of these muddy legs, but at this moment, he just felt uncomfortable.
Su Dingfang and Pei Xingjian had silent expressions. They just rode silently on their horses and did not speak, as if they could not hear His Highness's words.
"Blow the trumpet, let's go!" Li Ke did not continue to preach, but directly gave the order.
"Woo..." A low and melodious horn sound sounded near the village that had become dead silent, and the dull sound of horse hooves began to move again. Li Ke, who was riding the horse, had a silent expression, and the skin on his face was also affected by these. The sky became a little rough due to the rush, but his eyes became brighter and brighter.
On the eighth day, Li Ke waited for more than 3,000 riders and crossed the high slope in front. A blue lake in the distance came into view. Qinghai Lake officially appeared in front of Li Ke. Everything in the distance seemed to be the same as what Li Ke had seen in his previous life. Nothing seemed to have changed much, as if something appeared in front of him again across time and space.
But Li Ke knew that this was different. There were more birds on this vast lake, and there were no houses or asphalt roads here. Only a large white tent in the distance was unusually obvious on the black, gray and green land. .
Li Ke and the others have already come into contact with the rear logistics troops left by Li Jing. The reason why the land is black and gray is because when Murong Fuyun learned that Li Shimin ordered Li Jing to attack Tuyuhun, he implemented the policy of clearing the country and burning all the pastures and forewarned areas. The hay left behind was intended to trap the Tang Dynasty's cavalry.
But now, in the burned pasture, the underground grass has grown. Soon, the black and gray ground will be completely covered and become green again.
The area where the tents were located was the "royal city" of Tuyuhun. It was said to be a royal city, but in fact there was no city, just a large tent area. Although the royal city of Tuyuhun did not move, they were still composed of tents as a whole, with only a small amount of stone. house and wooden fence.
A group of sentries in the distance have quickly arrived here on horseback.
"The last general, Wang Daliang, has met His Highness." A captain who arrived immediately raised his hands and saluted loudly on his horse.
"Excuse me, what's going on now?" Li Ke asked.
"Duke Dai has ordered people to continue tracking Murong Fuyun. The battle is going well. The royal city of Tuyuhun is under our control and the general is currently in charge. Duke Dai is waiting for you in Chihai." Wang Daliang said quickly.
"Then we will rush directly to Chihai today, but the horses are already very tired. Let's change the horses here." Li Ke said.
"Yes! Don't worry, Your Highness, there are good war horses here. The most important thing we are currently lacking is war horses." Wang Daliang said with a smile.
After everyone changed their horses in Tuyuhun King's City, that is, near the south bank of Qinghai Lake, Li Ke and the others ran directly towards the Red Sea. The mountainous area between Qinghai Lake and Chaka Salt Lake is not steep. Although the peaks are not low, the overall The terrain was relatively flat, and Wang Daliang and the others had already found a suitable route.
Under the leadership of Wang Daliang's scouts, Li Ke and the others arrived at Chihai in about two hours! That is the Chaka Salt Lake in later generations.
Seeing the surrounding environment, Li Ke felt a little emotional. It is much more beautiful here than in later generations. The area of Chaka Salt Lake seems to be larger than that in later generations. Although there are grasslands around Chaka Salt Lake in later generations, they are very sparse and farther away. It’s not much different from the Gobi Desert.
But now, the grassland here is very lush, and it can be seen that large-scale grazing can still be done here. From a long distance away, Li Ke saw a large number of cattle, sheep and horses on the grassland, which must have been captured by Li Jing and the others.
Just from the battle reports alone, we know that they captured more than 400,000 miscellaneous animals. It is estimated that they cannot be put here. We saw many of them in Qinghai Lake before.
Li Jing had been waiting here for a long time. After Li Ke came over, before Li Ke could dismount, Li Jing smiled, cupped his fists and saluted: "Your Highness, Li Jing, has met His Highness King Qin and His Highness King Liang."
"You're welcome, Duke Dai." Li Ke quickly turned over and dismounted, took two quick steps, and supported Li Jing with a smile.
"To be honest, I didn't expect to see His Highness King Qin here." Li Jing was a little happy.
"Hahaha, I didn't expect that the last time we said goodbye, Dai Guogong's style was still the same." Li Ke also said with a smile, "It seems that the current situation of the war is going well?"
"It went well. Murong Fuyun has run away. According to the latest news from the scouts, he may have gone to Qiemo Kingdom and other places." Li Jing said.
Li Ke nodded. The Qiemo Kingdom was the location of Qiemo County next to the Taklimakan Desert in later generations. Now, because the water volume in many basins of the Tarim River is still large, the oasis area there is also larger. For example, the Qiemo Kingdom is one of the thirty-six kingdoms in the Western Regions. A settled country, not a nomadic people.
