Chapter 178 Shanshan (22 more updates for the sharp red envelope)
What! Hu Biao, who suddenly fell from power, was still alive as a desperate commander.
It's just that this guy who was the first to rush into the enemy's position suffered a lot of attacks from dismounted bandits in a short period of time; thanks to the protection of his high-quality armor, he didn't suffer any fatal wounds.
The problem is, it really hurts!
During the battle, he could barely hold on, but once he found out that the victory was determined, he couldn't bear it anymore.
As soon as I felt relieved, I fell to the ground and fainted immediately.
When Ah Li and Fengrui saw what had happened, they whipped their horses and rushed behind Hu Biao, without even dismounting their horses to take a closer look.
Just looking at the armor on this guy's body is not damaged, and the chest rises and falls quite regularly, you can tell a little more:
Don't panic, it's not a big deal if you rush into the street.
This is indeed the case. After being carried by four rookies including the soldier, the second fat man, the lecturer, and the war elephant, he was carried to the foot of a poplar tree.
After taking off his armor and feeding him some Huoxiang Zhengqi water, Hu Biao slowly woke up after a minute or two.
According to the patient's narration: except for the tightness in the chest, all other problems are gone...
It was night, and considering that after many days of traveling, all the people in the team were already very tired.
The most important thing is that Xufeng and the others found out a lot of good news after interrogating several captives of the horse bandits.
For example: Among the many horse bandits, only one bandit like "One Piece of Sky" is smarter. Or maybe they are looking for death themselves and are blocked here in the canyon waiting for them to come.
Even Zahar did this huge feat in order to monopolize the Huns.
They all deliberately avoided other horse bandits and sand bandits, and came to this area secretly, claiming that they saw no chance and simply went to other places to make a fortune.
So don't look at the horse thieves who participated in "One Piece of Sky". Now they have been scattered and are running around.
However, it would be at least three days before other horse bandits and sand bandits encountered them and learned about the Han envoys' detour.
Therefore, in the past three days, this small team of messengers was actually very safe.
Even if the other horse bandits caught up later, they would just eat ashes behind Hu Biao and others, unable to catch up at all.
So, when Hu Biao and Hu Yitong reported all the latest information to Ban Chao and Guo Xun.
The two discussed for a while and made a decision that made everyone happy: according to the original plan, they would continue to camp near the spring of the canyon tonight.
Let's have a good night's rest here, and wait until tomorrow morning to regain our energy, and then hurry up and go on the road.
As soon as this decision was made, everyone cheered; because tonight, Hu Biao and others could finally take a good bath.
That spring that doesn't even have a name is, to put it bluntly, just a small pond of about ten square meters.
Although the depth and water storage capacity are very good, it is absolutely impossible to go in for a bath or something. Fortunately, it is enough for everyone, and you can definitely fetch water for bathing.
Good guy! Anyway, after Hu Biao washed eleven buckets of water that night, he then rinsed the spring water on his body, so it wouldn't be black water.
Of course, the same is true for other people.
One of them is very dirty, so don’t laugh at the second one.
That night, in order to celebrate this almost desperate victory, Hu Biao asked Huang Yizhi to buy some food and let everyone have a good meal.
To be honest, Huang Yizhi's craftsmanship is mediocre, and he doesn't have any good ingredients on hand. He only has some fresh horse meat that was killed in battle.
However, Huang Yizhi added some ingredients that he successfully brought from the modern plane.
There were several large pots of horse meat in total. After it was cooked in a rich red sauce, everyone who had been eating pancakes for a few days made everyone smile with joy...
****
Early the next morning, the envoys set off again.
Because in yesterday's battle, they captured another 56 horses, so the number of people in the envoy group was at least one person and three horses, or even four horses.
In this way, they only need to use one of them to carry various supplies and equipment, and the remaining two or three horses can be used for riding in rotation.
Immediately, the speed of everyone's advance became even faster.
And just as Ma San, a veteran of the Anxi Protectorate, said the same thing at the beginning; after arriving here, it is not far away from Shanshan Kingdom.
As their horses' hooves continued to leave the Gobi Desert behind, the green vegetation in front of them became more and more dense.
Relying on the speed of their horses, after only a day and a half, a vast lake appeared in front of them. This was the famous Lop Nur in later generations.
Because the Kongque River has not yet changed its course, it can still receive a large amount of water resources.
Therefore, the water in the lake is very clear, and you can see big fish weighing several kilograms or even ten kilograms jumping out of the water from time to time; they are not afraid of people, and can be easily stabbed with a spear while standing on the shore.
Seeing this, all the people didn't care if they could finish the food, so they landed a bunch of them in one fell swoop.
To be honest, if Hu Biao and others had not checked the information in the modern plane, they would not have believed that the large lake with lush water and grass in front of them was actually Lop Nur, which represented death in later generations.
In the following days, everyone who felt nauseated after eating horse meat ate grilled fish, boiled fish, and braised fish in various ways.
The main reason is that these fish, which do not have any pollution, are of excellent quality in terms of fish meat. Even if they are boiled in clean water and added with a little salt, they still taste great when eaten.
The only regret is that fish without chili tastes like it has no soul when eaten in Hu Biao.
Fortunately, such regret did not linger in Hu Biao's heart for long; it was not in the Han dynasty that they found peppers in the Western Regions that are currently only found in the American continent.
But Shanshan Kingdom has finally arrived...
Shanshan Kingdom, if such a name was placed in later generations, many people may feel very strange; but if you mention his other name "Loulan", it will immediately sound like thunder.
In fact, this place was called Loulan in BC, and became Shanshan Kingdom in AD.
To be more specific, Ban Chao's predecessor, the famous Fu Jiezi of the Western Han Dynasty, changed his name to Shanshan Kingdom after killing King Loulan who was planning to defect to the Huns.
Shanshan State is located on the transportation artery of the Silk Road, and its geographical location is quite important.
But in terms of strength, it's not that good.
During a certain break, Hu Biao heard Guo Xun and Ban Chao talking about this, which was considered the official understanding of this place:
"The kingdom of Shanshan, whose real name is Loulan, has a king who controls the mud city. It goes from Yangguan to Yangguan for 1,600 miles and to Chang'an for 6,100 miles. It has 1,570 households, 4,100 inhabitants, and 2,912 victorious soldiers.
"
The purpose of Ban Chao's visit this time is to reunify the Western Regions.
Because since Wang Mang's rebellion, the Han Dynasty had to shrink its military strength from the Western Regions. The result is that this area has now become the sphere of influence of the Huns.
In order to defeat the Huns, they must be prevented from borrowing the manpower and material resources of the Western Regions.
Therefore, although a small country like Shanshan in the Western Region, which is about the size of a booger, is not big, it is still very numerous, and it is a force that needs to be united...
