The distance from the mouth of Wuhaqu River to Fuqi City was only fifty or sixty miles. For the BMW horses the three of them were riding, it was only a short time. The three of them did not take a break and left as soon as they thought.
After running west for a while, Dugu Xiang whispered to Jiang Shuo: "Brother Shuo, otherwise... let's not go to Fuqi City..."
Seeing Jiang Shuo's puzzled expression, she continued in a low voice, "We're going to Suiye City. I heard it's six thousand miles away. Ye Ye and A Niang are taking care of us all the way, so it's not a pleasant experience."
Jiang Shuo frowned and said, "But how can I tell you? You can't say that you don't want them to take care of it, right?"
Dugu Xiang could see that Jiang Shuo didn't want to go with her grandpa either, so he smiled and said, "Hey, it's up to me if this isn't easy."
She suddenly raised her voice and said loudly: "Brother Shuo, it seems that our every move is being watched secretly. If we continue to act according to the original plan, wouldn't we be controlled by others everywhere?"
Jiang Shuo immediately understood what Dugu Xiang meant and pretended to be worried: "Yes, the Hidden Alliance seems to be everywhere, but what good way do you have to get rid of them?"
Dugu Xiang pointed his riding whip to the north and said in a voice that Nan Jiyuan could hear: "Brother Shuo, if we don't go to Fuqi City to join Ye Ye and the others, is there any way to get to the Four Towns of Anxi?"
Their original plan was to meet up with Duguwen and others in Fuqi City, then go north along the Weushui River to exit the Qilian Mountains, and go to the Western Regions via the Hexi Corridor. The Weowishui River Valley in the Qilian Mountains is known as the North Gate of the West Sea. Back then, Ge Shuhan came from Zhangye County, Ganzhou To send troops, they would go through the weak water valleys of the Qilian Mountains and enter the West Sea.
Jiang Shuo said: "I once lived with the eminent monk Mahayan in the west of Tuyuhun for two years. There is a vast basin between the mountains in the west. According to Mahayan, he passed through this basin and entered Tuyuhun. .”
Dugu Xiang said: "I have also heard from the herdsmen here that you can enter the Western Region by passing through the land surrounded by mountains in the west and climbing over a big mountain. The Western Region is divided into north and south halves by the Tianshan Mountains, and a large desert in the south of the mountain is named after the map. The four towns of Lunqi and Anxi are all to the west of Tulunqi, so they are also called the four towns of Qixi."
Jiang Shuo said: "Yes, Mahayan told me that after crossing the Snowy Mountains, walking west along Tulun Qi South Road, you can reach Yutian Town. Going west again is Shule, and Suiye City is just beyond Shule. North, if you follow this road, you can reach Suiye City in only five thousand miles, which is nearly a thousand miles closer than the Tianshan North Road."
Nan Jiyun was shocked and said: "This road not only has to cross the vast snow-capped mountains, but also crosses thousands of miles of vast seas. I have never heard of Han people taking this road... Young Master, please think twice, you cannot take risks."
Dugu Xiang said: "How come no one has passed by? I heard that the jade merchants who came from Khotan during the Han Dynasty all entered and exited through Guancheng to the west of Dunhuang City, so Guancheng was named 'Yumen Pass'. If merchants came from the Tianshan Mountains in the north, they should go How can we go to Shazhou and Dunhuang from Guazhou? It shows that there is a feasible road to the south."
The "Yumen Pass" mentioned by Dugu Xiang here refers to the Yumen Pass in the Han Dynasty. The Yumen Pass in the Han Dynasty was first located in the west of Dunhuang City, and later moved to the northwest of Dunhuang. The old pass was renamed Yangguan, and the two passes, one for the army and one for the people, were all located in the east of Qidian.
In the Tang Dynasty, Yumen Pass had been moved to the west of Daze formed by Guazhou Mingshui, and became the gateway to control Beiting and enter the Central Plains. Judging from the location of Yumen Pass in the Han Dynasty, it was indeed the South Tianshan Road that many caravans took.
Nan Jiyun said: "Even if we have to take the south route, we can still inform Senior Dugu and the others. Fuqi City is to the west, so there won't be much detour."
Dugu Xiang said to Nan Jiyun seriously: "Nan Ba, our operation must be unexpected. The Yin League must have expected that we would join Grandpa and the others. If Brother Shuo and I go west now, You go tell my grandfather and my mother-in-law so that the Yin Alliance can be caught off guard."
Only then did Nan Jiyun understand that Dugu Xiang meant to get rid of himself, Dugu Wen, and Ge Ruliang. He smiled bitterly and said, "But Xiang'er, you also said that you feel like someone is watching you. I'm afraid the news of the young master's rebirth has already been announced by the Hidden Alliance." I know, I’m really worried about the two of you acting alone.”
Dugu Xiang said: "Nan Ba, the two horses we are riding on are both good horses. If we let go, the messengers from the Yin League will not be able to catch up with us. As long as they don't run in the direction expected by the Yin League, their news will be lost." The transmission can’t keep up with us.”
Nan Jiyun hesitated and said: "Although the words are good, they are too risky after all...
"
Jiang Shuo said: "I know Nanba you are concerned about my safety, but the Yin Alliance is really unpredictable. Instead of being passively defensive, it is better to break through thousands of tricks at once and defeat ten tricks at once. As long as we act fast enough, we may be able to disrupt the situation." The deployment of the Hidden Alliance."
Jiang Shuo's words were not entirely an excuse for Dugu Xiang. Nan Jiyun also knew that Jiang Shuo was right, so he could only cross his hands and said: "Young Master, then I will inform Senior Dugu. It's just that the mountains in the Western Region are high and the water is far away. Even if we run at full speed, it will take more than a month, so how can we meet up?"
Jiang Shuo said: "I have never been to the four towns of Anxi, so we decided to meet at the first restaurant in the west of Suiye City. Whoever arrives first will leave a mark of Jianghu Alliance in that store."
Seeing that Jiang Shuo had made up his mind, Nan Jiyun had no choice but to cross his hands and say yes. He had an idea and said, "It won't be too late. I'll set off now."
As he said this, Nan Jiyun was about to ride forward. He wanted to go to Fuqi City first to tell Dugu and ask them about the whereabouts of Jiang Shuo and Dugu Xiang. Maybe he could stop them in time.
Dugu Xiang hurriedly grabbed the bridle of the bay-red horse he was riding, and said with a sly smile: "Nan Ba, come on, Brother Shuo and I will go first, and you can take your time to Fuqi City."
At the same time, he clamped the jade lion between his legs and urged Jiang Shuo: "Brother Shuo, let's go quickly!"
While Dugu Xiang and Jiang Shuo rode their horses along Wuhaqu, they looked back at Nan Jiyun from time to time. Nan Jiyun could only smile bitterly and control the horse to move slowly until Shuo and Xiang turned around a ridge and disappeared. He raised the riding whip in his hand and turned the horse's head to the south and left, intending to rush to Fuqi City south of Wuhaqu to report the news. Unexpectedly, the reins in his hand suddenly broke. He loosened his grip and almost fell off the maroon horse.
It turned out that when Dugu Xiang pulled the bridle of his horse, he hid a knife in his sleeve and used a gold tooth dagger to secretly scratch his reins. When he pulled hard, the reins suddenly broke. In order to delay Nan Jiyun's action, Dugu Xiang , and used such a small idea, Nan Jiyun was really dumbfounded. He was very good at riding. He grabbed the horse's mane with both hands and controlled the horse towards Fuqi City, but the speed was naturally much slower.
But Dugu Xiang and Jiang Shuo, fearing that they would be overtaken by Dugu Wen and others, urged their horses to gallop along the mountain road. During the summer day on the plateau, the earth was very hot under the scorching sun, but it was extremely cold after the sun went down. Come on, it's night now, and the cool breeze is blowing. Taking advantage of the coolness to run horses, both people and horses feel extremely comfortable. Although they are running horses under the moon, the speed of the two horses does not slow down at all.
The two of them did not dare to rest their horses all night, so they only galloped a hundred or two hundred miles away from the river and into the mountains before finding a secluded place to spend the night. The next day, they continued to zigzag westward in the valley. After traveling four hundred miles, they crossed the mountain pass and saw a dirt road passing between two lakes, one large and one small. The two of them tasted the water on both sides of the lake, one was light and the other was salty.
The lake in the north is small, but has luxuriant water and grass, and there are fish swimming in the water. There are flocks of cattle and sheep on the lakeside. The lake in the south is big, but the shore of the lake is full of white salt flats. There is an island in the middle, on which gulls gather, like It looks like Egg Island on the shore of the West Sea. The most surprising thing is that there is a small river connecting the two lakes, but they are still salty and salty.
Seeing this wonderful scene, the two of them couldn't help but play for a while, but no one was chasing them, so they stayed by the lake for another night.
After that, the terrain became gradually flatter and wider. Seeing the mountains receding into the distance, the two knew they had entered the big basin that the herdsmen mentioned.
This area is very desolate and rarely inhabited. There are many lakes and rivers, but the water is salty and inedible. The two carefully followed the places with fresh water and soon found the pattern. Wherever fresh water accumulates, there will be A meadow and a swamp were formed, and the two of them only had to find a water source to stop and rest, and replenished the fresh water before setting off.
Fortunately, this place is sparsely populated, but there are many animals. The most common ones are yellow sheep, green sheep, wild ass, white-lipped deer, etc., and you can also see big guys like wild camels and wild yaks. The two of them were not short of food. They couldn't eat the big beasts, so they hunted some small beasts such as deer and badgers to eat.
Stopping and going like this, the further west you go, the more desolate and barren you get. At first you can still see herdsmen grazing on the meadows from time to time. Later, you can only see large tracts of Hanhai Desert. In these deserts, there are steep hills. , or like a hundred boats fighting against the current, or like the back of a dragon's back whale, or even more strange, like a city wall, a tower, or a steep rock wall of a high tower, but obviously they cannot be dug by humans.
Facing the miraculous craftsmanship of nature, the two of them couldn't help but admire it again. At this time, they were so far away from him
It had been more than ten days since we left Xihai. We no longer worried that Dugu Wen, Nan Jiyun and others would catch up. We simply wandered around here for a few more days, and finally passed a lake on the 20th day. After the emerald green salt lake, you can see the towering mountains on the western edge of the basin.
This mountain stretches for thousands of miles, bordering the Qilian Mountains to the east and the Kunlun Mountains to the west. It is recorded in the "Book of Sui" as the "Nanshan Mountain of the Western Regions". Because it is in the south of the Western Regions, the local herdsmen call it "Aletun". , "Aletun" means "gold", I wonder if gold is produced in the mountains? Or it is unknown whether it is called "Golden Mountain" because of the abundance of trees, herbs, and wild animals in the mountain.
When passing by a small hill, the two of them saw a small spring. The pool formed by the spring water was round and only a few feet wide. Spring water was constantly gushing out of the spring in the middle, as if the spring water was boiling.
The rock walls around the spring are even more strange, with a dark red color. It is unknown what minerals are contained in the spring water. For thousands of years, the spring water has overflowed, dyeing the land within a mile around it into red.
The two of them didn't know if the red spring water was poisonous, so they didn't dare to get close, so they could only watch from a distance. Dugu Xiang couldn't help but be a little scared and said: "Brother Shuo, the eye of this spring really looks like a human eye, no... like a devil. s eyes."
Jiang Shuo said: "This is just the result of the release of earth energy. The Chinese earth veins originate from Kunlun. This place is not far from the Kunlun Ice-free Spring, but over this mountain is the Tulum Moraine of the Western Region. The height difference between the two is thousands of feet. The earth's energy was greatly suppressed, so it burst out at this end of the mountain and became this magical spring.
The two continued to cross the mountain pass to the west. As expected, the terrain dropped suddenly by thousands of feet, but only the foothills had abundant water and grass, lush forests, and many wild animals. Going further north, they could only see the boundless desert.
They crossed the Qiemo River and traveled through the junction of mountains and forests. Although the road was long, they encountered no danger. It took more than a month and more than 2,500 miles to finally reach the southernmost point among the four towns in the Western Regions. of Khotan.
What the two of them didn't know was that the Tianshan North Road was called the "Silk Road" by later generations. It was the trade route for Chinese silk and porcelain, while the Tulum Qi South Road was called the "Jade Road" and was the trade route for Khotan and other places. The route for transporting jade to the Central Plains.
