"If we continue at this rate, it will take more than a month. Moreover... Yumen may still be far away from where we want to reach. I think it will take at least two months to reach the vicinity of the ancient city of Dunhuang."
Cheng Zhijie and Hou Junji looked at each other speechlessly. Every time they heard this, their scalps went numb. Cheng Zhijie couldn't help but murmured: "How did those damn businessmen get there?"
Hou Junji smiled bitterly and said: "I have read an atlas of the Western Regions. After passing the ancient city of Dunhuang, we will soon reach Gaochang, but I didn't expect it to be so difficult to walk all the way.
Many prisoners were sent here during the Sui Dynasty, and I want to see how they are doing. Hey, it seems they are all dead now, right?"
Cheng Zhijie said to himself, you really have a lot on your mind...
Groni echoed next to him, "When we reach Gaochang, we are in the Western Region. It is normal for merchants to travel for a year. Even if they lose half of their goods on the road, as long as they can walk back and forth safely, they will have everything they need when they arrive in Guzang.
.
The family of Wang Li, who died a few years ago, once maintained several caravans, and his family business was extremely large. Later, he specialized in collecting goods from passing merchants in Guzang.
Without his permission, no one can go to Zhangye, do you think it's serious?"
Li Gui's deeds are a legend in the northwest. His transformation from businessman to emperor is indeed quite attractive. There are legends about him everywhere.
However, this man has been dead for several years, and things about him have been reduced to anecdotes passed down by word of mouth, similar to those of Bai Yusuo and others.
"The wind has stopped..." Cheng Zhijie said with surprise during the march.
For many days, the wind has been really uncomfortable.
"Yes, the wind has stopped..." Groni murmured over there, but there was fear in his voice.
He raised his head and looked around for a while, and gradually became panicked. At this time, Cheng Zhijie and Hou Junji also noticed that something was wrong, and both the horses and camels were becoming uneasy.
Over there, Groni had already shouted: "Sandstorm, it must be a sandstorm, stop quickly, quickly, find a place leeward, and connect the people and horses together."
I just said I have to wait in Zhangye, and it will be fine in the summer..."
Sandstorm is one of the most terrifying natural disasters in the Hexi Corridor. Cheng Zhijie and Hou Junji both heard about it in Guzang. A caravan encountering a sandstorm will not survive even one out of ten, especially in the desert.
People can be spared.
It's just that they have never really seen a sandstorm. They looked up at the sky. The sky was high and the clouds were light. It was no different from usual, but they looked at Groni and his two sons.
In addition, the guides in the team also panicked, and Cheng Zhijie felt that he would rather believe it than believe it.
So he grabbed Groni and said, "Why are you panicking? Find us a good place to hide quickly. Damn it, if the sandstorm hadn't come, I would have killed you old thing."
Under the urging, the team speeded up. The guides ran to the front of the team to find shelter. Panic and fear spread quickly among the team.
It's just that the elite of the Tang Army was not a herd of sheep that had no choice but to keep in formation. He stayed in front of his comrades to ensure that no one fell behind.
Only two or three miles ahead, the wind suddenly picked up and gradually became stronger and stronger. The sky began to turn dim and the scenery in front of me became blurry.
It's like God suddenly changed his face and changed the world immediately.
The people in the team were shaken around, and some horses were frightened and began to lead their owners away from the team.
Groni ran back and led the team towards a hillside. Apparently he did not find a good shelter from the wind. The same guides also lacked some experience.
They noticed it too late. It is said that some people can predict the coming of a sandstorm one day in advance.
But we can't blame them for being incompetent, because there are too few people like that. The probability of survival of those who have experienced sandstorms is extremely low. If they can survive two sandstorms, they must be blessed by the gods and Buddhas.
Don’t have river beach experience?
When we arrived at the slope, the sky was filled with yellow sand and the sky was dark. The whole world seemed to have been filled with strong winds and sand dust, and could no longer accommodate anything else.
The soldiers of the Tang Army forced the horses to the ground and hugged their heads tightly to prevent them from being frightened and trampling the crowd.
The guides surrounded the camels around the team, tied them one by one with ropes, and then rolled and crawled into the crowd, not caring about anything else.
At this time, there was no distinction between high and low, and everyone gathered tightly together, just praying to the gods and Buddhas in the sky to make the wind stop quickly.
There are so many sandstorms, they blow from the desert areas in the north, hit the Qilian Mountains head-on, and sweep southward through the mountain valleys.
The wind never stopped, and at night the sandstorm became even more terrifying.
Even a rough man like Cheng Zhijie, who has experienced life and death many times, is still alive. He feels that he is about to end up in this ghost place.
He didn't dare to open his eyes at all, his ears were filled with the sound of howling wind, his mouth and nose were filled with sand, and it became increasingly difficult to breathe. There were obviously people around him, but he seemed to feel that he was the only one left in the world.
In the face of such power of heaven and earth, people become so small and pitiful.
It wasn't until midnight that the wind gradually died down, but people still didn't dare to move. Many people even had hallucinations, and the wind became stronger and stronger.
It wasn't until the early morning of the next day that Cheng Zhijie slowly crawled out of the sand. The wind was still blowing, but it had returned to its normal level. The sand kept surging, and the natives were burrowing through the sand with their horses and camels.
come out.
The frightened people only dusted themselves off for a moment before starting to rescue their companions. The cold corpses were dug out and laid out in rows on the sand. Some cried bitterly, while others cursed the heaven and the earth.
A team of more than a thousand people was wiped out by a sandstorm, and one-third of them were gone, which shows how terrifying the sandstorm is.
In fact, they were relatively lucky, because the sandstorm had reached the foot of the Qilian Mountains and was at its last resort. If they had encountered it in the northern desert, it would have been a narrow escape.
Hou Junji also survived. He directed people to dig a big pit and bury the people in it again. He also had people mark the holes and planned to take all the bodies back when he returned.
In fact, it was just to encourage people. When they came back, the body had already rotted, so how could they bring Gu Zang back?
When starting the journey again, people felt very heavy, and there was not much drinking water. They had to find water sources to replenish their supplies, and they could not wait until Fulu City to replenish them.
Groni lost a son, but he only cried a few times. People in the northwest have always lived a precarious life. Neither they nor their ancestors will give the deceased too much.
emotion.
Because they must be strong to face the disaster that may happen again at any time...
