Uncle Shen led Jin's family to collect the goods and embarked on the journey to Anxi again.
Qiu Yong led the Pang family tribe, as well as the palace guards and Zou soldiers, escorting hundreds of horse bandits to Liangzhou.
As for Zhou Jun, he took Tuoba Huaisu and Sun Aying and headed towards the hinterland of Shazhou to find the Yanqi Long Tribe mentioned by Long Qi.
Long Qi once said that his tribe is located to the north of He Cang Feng and to the west of Luo Tu Hai.
There was a vast and endless desert, and Zhou Jun originally thought that he would have to spend a lot of effort to find the Dragon Division.
But in fact, when Zhou Jun and his party had just entered the desert, a cavalry squad came to find them.
Zhou Jun was on his horse, looking at Liuqi who was blocking the way.
These six cavalrymen were all in rags, and the sabers around their waists were also rusty. Only the flag with the statue of Yinglong on their back looked intact, fluttering in the strong wind of the desert.
The leader of the six knights shouted something.
Zhou Jun frowned upon hearing this. The language was not Mandarin of the Tang Dynasty, not Turkic, nor Sogdian. It was a language he had never heard before.
Tuoba Huaisu, who was dressed in a white robe, took out the Dragon Body Tag that Long Qi carried with him from his arms and handed it to the fire girl beside him.
The fire girl rode out of the team, came to the dragon cavalry again, showed the token, and said something.
The cavalryman received the token, his expression was excited, and he spoke much faster.
The two sides talked back and forth like this for a long time.
The fire girl rode back to Tuoba Huaisu and said, "Holy girl, they said we can visit the Dragon Palace, but we can't bring so many people."
Tuoba Huaisu looked at Zhou Jun.
Zhou Jun said: "You, me, Sun Aying, and ten more people will go with them, and the rest will camp where they are."
Zhou Jun led a dozen people, followed by the six riders of the Dragon Division, and ran across the desert for a long time. Finally, in the evening, they arrived at a camp beside an oasis lake.
Far away in the desert, herdsmen were slowly returning with their camels, horses and sheep.
Hundreds of gray tents were set up around the oasis, with men, women and children coming in and out.
Zhou Jun looked at those people and saw that they had deep facial features and slender figures, and they all looked like people from the Western Regions.
It is dinner time now, and the food eaten by the Long tribe people is crude and strange.
They peeled a strange fruit similar to sea buckthorn fruit, dug out the flesh, ground it into a paste, mixed it with coarse wheat, bran and other materials, made it into a cake shape, covered it with a layer of wet mud, and buried it
Dip into the sand and bake in the fire.
Bake it out into a black mud ball, shaped like charcoal. Crush the dry soil on the outside, then brush the cake clean and distribute it to the men of the clan first, then the children, and finally the women and the elderly.
Zhou Jun sighed with emotion as he followed the Longbu sentry and entered the largest tent in the Dragonbube.
There were several old men sitting in the tent. The middle one among them was wearing a linen robe with a portrait of Yinglong painted in black dye. He was probably the clan leader.
When the leader of the Dragon Tribe saw the people walking in, he was stunned for a moment, then opened his mouth and said something.
The fire girl heard this and said to Tuoba Huaisu: "He said he didn't want to have anything to do with Zoroastrianism."
Tuoba Huaisu said to the fire girl: "Tell him that the real owner today is not me, but a nobleman from the Tang Dynasty."
After the fire girl finished speaking, the leader of the Dragon tribe turned his attention to Zhou Jun. After a while, he asked in half-baked Tang Mandarin: "Do you know Long Qi?"
Zhou Jun nodded and said: "Yes."
Chief of the Long Tribe: "Long Qi once told me that Queen Yanqi is now in Chang'an. Do you know that?"
Zhou Jun nodded again and said: "I know Queen Yanqi's people." The leader of the Long tribe was overjoyed when he heard this. He stood up and said to Zhou Jun: "Tell me quickly!"
Zhou Jun reminded the leader of Chaolong tribe in a deep voice: "It's a very important matter."
The leader of the Long tribe glanced around, stood up tremblingly, opened the curtain of the inner tent, and said to Zhou Jun: "The distinguished guest will follow me, and the others will stay first."
After hearing this, Sun Aying felt a little anxious and wanted to follow Zhou Jun in.
The latter comforted him for a few words, and then followed the leader of the Long tribe into the inner tent.
The leader of the Dragon Tribe waited for Zhou Jun to walk in, lowered the curtain, and said: "My name is Long Maoyuan, and I am the leader of the Luo Tu Dragon Tribe."
Zhou Jun: "Clan Chief Long, before I tell you the whereabouts of Queen Yanqi's descendants, I have a question to ask."
Long Maoyuan: "Excuse me."
Zhou Jun: "It has been five hundred years since the Dragon Tribe left Yanqi. What are the Dragon Tribe's plans for the Yanqi Kingdom?"
Long Maoyuan frowned, but he didn't expect that Zhou Jun's first question would hit the key point.
After thinking for a long time, Long Maoyuan replied: "The survivors of the Dragon tribe have been away from home for hundreds of years, and they all hope to return to their country. But now that the Tang Dynasty is strong, the restoration of the country is just a wishful thinking..."
Zhou Jun nodded and thought to himself that at least all the tribes in the Dragon tribe could understand the situation... If this group of people got into this situation and kept shouting about rebellion, then it would be better for Yanqi and his distant relatives to just disappear.
Long Maoyuan continued: "The various clans of the Dragon Tribe are scattered throughout the Western Region. They have had different ideas over the years, and they have gradually shown signs of disintegration. Although I am the leader of the Dragon Tribe, I am not orthodox after all, and it is difficult to lead the crowd.
It’s just barely keeping the tribes together. At present, only by welcoming back King Yanqi’s descendants as soon as possible can all the tribes of the Dragon Tribe be reunited and not separate from each other.”
After hearing this, Zhou Jun also understood Long Maoyuan's intention.
For the Dragon Tribe, Queen Yanqi is more of a symbol, a sign, used to maintain the alliance between the various tribes of the Dragon Tribe.
After understanding the purpose of each clan in the Long Tribe, Zhou Jun asked Long Maoyuan again: "I saw that the people of the Luo Tu Long Tribe live in poverty and don't have enough to eat. What's going on?"
Long Maoyuan sighed: "After the Thirteen Dragons escaped from the Yanqi Kingdom, they initially moved into Shazhou together. At that time, the Silk Road from the Central Plains to the Western Regions started from Liangzhou and passed through Ganzhou and Suzhou.
Guazhou, then enter Dunhuang in Shazhou, pass through the sea channel in Shazhou, cross the vast desert, and finally arrive at Shicheng Town or Yanqi Town in the Western Regions."ъiqugetvt
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "However, a hundred years ago, the sea channel in Shazhou gradually dried up, and the original rivers were scattered and became sporadic oases. The caravan thought that Shazhou was difficult to travel, so they did not want to
Then take the Great Sea Road to enter the Western Region, then turn from Jinchang in Guazhou, go north to Yiwu, then go around Gaochang, and finally enter Yanqi."
"So, fewer caravans came to Shazhou, and the place became increasingly desolate. The Thirteen Dragons tribe, which originally relied on guides, inns, water and land, and bodyguards, gradually lost their livelihood. As a last resort, most of the Thirteen Dragons tribe
, moved out of Shazhou and went to other state capitals to try their best to survive, but only the Luo Tulong tribe held on for a while and stayed."
Zhou Jun asked: "Since no caravan passed through Shazhou, how did the Luo Tulong tribe survive?"
Long Maoyuan: "It mainly relies on two methods. First, most of the young people in the clan are capable like Long Qi. They go out to find errands. After making money, they exchange it for rice and grain and bring it back.
To subsidize the clan.”
Zhou Jun shook his head and said: "This is not a long-term solution."
Long Maoyuan nodded and said: "Indeed, the Luo Tu Dragon Division has been able to take root in Shazhou for so many years, mainly relying on the second method..."
Zhou Jun: "What is the second method?"
Long Maoyuan: "A hundred years ago, the sea channel in Shazhou dried up. People thought that Shazhou was covered with yellow sand and there was no possibility of trade anymore. In fact, although the sea channel dried up, most of the river water was stored underground.
, when there is a sandstorm in Shazhou, the strong wind blows away the sand layer on the surface, revealing the water source buried underground, which becomes an oasis for pedestrians and livestock to rest."
"This kind of oasis formed by wind and sand has an unstable existence time. Sometimes it lasts for a year and a half, and sometimes it only appears for a few days."
When Zhou Jun heard this, he immediately realized. Isn't this referring to a "migratory inland lake" similar to Lop Nur in the desert?
Long Maoyuan: "After so many years, Luo Tulongbu has recorded his travels in the desert and has already figured out the occurrence patterns of sandstorms and the migration paths of water sources. Therefore, even if the Shazhou Sea Channel has dried up, we can still start from Dunhuang
, passing through those temporary oases that appeared in the desert, and arrived safely in the Western Region."
Zhou Jun was a little surprised when he heard this: "You mean, you can lead the caravan directly through the desert of Shazhou and reach the Western Regions by the shortest route?"
Long Maoyuan: "Yes, compared to the routes in Jinchang, Yiwu, and Gaochang that go around the desert, Longbu can go directly westward through the desert, saving more than three thousand miles of distance."
Zhou Jun: "Then why don't you rebuild the Western Region trade route in Shazhou? As long as caravans come over, you will make a living, and you won't have to live in such hardship?"
Long Maoyuan smiled bitterly and said: "Rebuilding trade routes requires a lot of food and money, and also requires craftsmen and servants to build facilities. How can the Luo Tu Long tribe have that ability? Besides, the caravan is now used to Jinchang
No one is willing to risk their lives on the new road to travel the old Dunhuang road. Therefore, now we can only receive guide contracts from some who are in a hurry or small caravans, and we can barely make ends meet.