The afterglow of the setting sun shines through the gaps in the curtains into the carriage carriage, illuminating the interior with a golden glow.
Zhou Jun, who was sitting in the carriage, had just attended the reception banquet prepared for him by Prefect Wen and was on his way to the temple.
Huayue sat opposite him and looked at the street scene outside the curtain.
I saw a majestic city with earthen walls, a lonely sun in the desert, smoke steaming from every house, and bursts of camel bells reaching my ears.
Huayue leaned against the window and said softly: "The scenery here is somewhat similar to the capital of Dashi."
Zhou Jun looked at her and asked, "What? Are you homesick?"
Hua Yue withdrew her gaze: "It's just touching the scene."
Zhou Jun thought for a while and changed the topic: "You also participated in today's banquet. Do you think there is anything weird about it?"
After recalling it carefully, Hua Yue said: "Many of the guests at the banquet did not seem enthusiastic when talking about rebuilding the Dunhuang trade route."
Zhou Jun nodded lightly.
Hua Yue: "I don't understand. If the trade routes are rebuilt, Dunhuang City will definitely prosper, and the high-ranking dignitaries in the city will also be able to profit from it. Why are they not happy?"
Zhou Jun: "First of all, Dunhuang trade routes have been abandoned for hundreds of years. People in the city are naturally aware of the difficulties in reopening trade routes, so they are not very enthusiastic."
Huayue: "Well, that's true."
Zhou Jun: "Secondly, if the Dunhuang trade route is reopened, it will inevitably affect other routes of the Silk Road. If someone has interests in other routes, they naturally do not want to see Dunhuang prosper..."
Huayue: "Other routes? You mean the northern route of the Silk Road? The trade route that goes from Jinchang to Yiwu and then to Gaochang?"
Zhou Jun: "The northern route is only second. After the reopening of the Dunhuang trade route, there is actually another trade route that will have the greatest impact."
Huayue thought for a moment, then finally understood, and blurted out: "The plateau trade route passes through Tubo."
Zhou Jun nodded and said: "That's right. If you want to transport silk, silk cloth, tea and other items from the Tang Dynasty to Tianzhu and Dashi, the most convenient trade route is to take the plateau route. Tubo is a province like a bear, and every year it is just tariffs and
The profit from mutual trading exceeds one million yuan. If you add in indirect income such as accommodation, restaurants, livestock, etc., the profit is incalculable and difficult to calculate."
Hua Yue: "You want to say that there are people in the city who are in cahoots with Tubo?"
Zhou Jun: "This is not a rare thing. In the eyes of most businessmen, they only care about profit, and they don't care about their family and country..."
Huayue suddenly put her finger to her lips and made a silencing gesture towards Zhou Jun.
Zhou Jun was puzzled.
Huayue listened carefully and said to Zhou Jun: "The camel bell has stopped."
Zhou Jun: "Camel bell sound?"
Before he finished speaking, Huayue suddenly stood up, and with lightning speed, grabbed Zhou Jun's sleeve and pulled the latter out of the carriage.
The next second, a boulder weighing a thousand kilograms fell from the sky and smashed the carriage into pieces.
Amid the screams of the people around him, Hua Yue pulled out the two swords from his waist and dragged Zhou Jun to a house next to the street.
Since he was attending a banquet in the city, Zhou Jun left Sun A Ying and other Tang soldiers in the camp at Shisuo. The only ones responsible for guarding were the military guards of the state capital.
The enemies hiding in the street, seeing that they missed a hit, took out their weapons one after another, jumped out, and fought with the guards. Zhou Jun looked closely and saw that these enemies were tall, short, fat, thin, and dressed in different clothes.
There are Tang people from the Central Plains and Hu people from the Western Regions, and the weapons in their hands are also all kinds of strange.
In addition to ordinary swords, there are also hook sickles, ring blades, double dragon thorns and other strange weapons.
The most surprising thing is that there is a monk with a fleshy body and a scar on his head. The weapon in his hand is actually an iron pestle as tall as a person and as thick as a thigh.
Huayue pulled Zhou Jun into the gate of the courtyard, and ordered the military guards to form a shield formation to guard the entrance of the courtyard.
Zhou Jun looked at the charging enemies, frowned and said: "These people attack without any plan. They just rely on their bravery to fight on their own. They don't look like soldiers."
Hua Yue took advantage of the military guards to block the enemy, took out a bolt-type sounding arrow from his arms, pointed it at the sky and released it.
Then, she raised her swords again, assumed a posture to face the enemy, and said to Zhou Jun behind her: "These people are killers, and their target is you."
While the two were talking, a tall and thin Taoist priest split the fortune-telling flag in his hand into two, revealing the sharp blade. He moved like the wind, jumped into the martial arts flag, and moved like the wind.
The shield wall erected by the guards.
After dodging repeated attacks, the Taoist waved the weapon in his hand and pierced the throat of a military guard. He then said to his companions behind him: "Don't be reluctant to fight, kill the Red Lord quickly!"
The fleshy monk swung the heavy iron pestle, and with the sound of hunting wind, he knocked the two guards away with just one attack, raising a cloud of blood mist.
The enemy is strong, the formation is damaged, the morale of the guards is low, and they are about to lose their support.
With an arrow step, Hua Yue rushed into the shield formation, filled the gap with the dead military guards, and waved his two daggers. The light of the swords was like a swimming dragon, protecting the gap.
A swordsman who wanted to attack the shield array collided with the sword light. Before he could block it, the sword blade stabbed his throat, his heart and lower abdomen, and he didn't even let out a scream.
He fell to the ground.
The military guards were determined and cheered one after another.
When the killers saw this, they retreated in fear.
When the Taoist saw this, he couldn't help but said anxiously: "It's just a girl and a bunch of cowards!"
After saying that, the Taoist touched the ground with his feet, his body instantly lifted up, and the flag sword in his hand struck Hua Yue's head.
Hua Yue calmly folded the two swords into a posture. The moment they came into contact with the Taoist's weapon, he turned his wrist downwards, causing the opponent's downward slash to change direction and fall straight to the side.
The Taoist, who originally thought of underestimating the enemy, was instantly frightened. He was unable to retaliate, and at the same time, he had nowhere to rely on in the air. In the end, he could only abandon his weapon, use a lazy donkey roll, and hide backwards.
Just when Hua Yue wanted to pursue him and kill the Taoist on the spot, there was a strange noise in the house behind him.
I saw a dwarf man less than one meter tall, taking advantage of the chaos outside the door, holding a double dragon thorn, emerged from the mound in the courtyard, and rushed towards Zhou Jun.
Huayue opened her eyes wide and turned around to save her, but at this time, she couldn't catch up.
Zhou Jun took a deep breath, looked at the charging enemy, pulled out the dagger on his leg for self-defense, put aside distracting thoughts, and planned to fight to the death.
At this moment, a loud roar came from the courtyard wall.
Accompanied by the sound of the iron chain twisting, a black broken knife cut through the sky, like lightning, with a plop, and penetrated straight into the chest of the dwarf man.
Long Qi, who was standing on the courtyard wall, shook the black iron sword chain suddenly, and a ripple like an ocean wave quickly traveled along the iron chain towards the blade.
The broken knife in the dwarf man's body was shaken by a huge force, rolled and reverberated, and collided with the iron chain and bones, making a harsh sound, which actually caused the former's chest to explode from the middle, splattering a large pool of blood.
and minced meat.
Everyone present was horrified when they saw this scene.
The killers turned around and ran away, ignoring their dead and injured companions, and disappeared within a moment.