Shazhou is the last inhabited place to the west of Chen State.
After leaving Shazhou, less than ten miles to the north is Yangguan, and more than a hundred miles to the northwest is Yumen Pass. Beyond Yangguan and Yumen Pass are the boundaries of the countries in the Western Regions.
Shazhou is located on the edge of the desert and is surrounded by the Gobi Desert. It suffers from water shortage all year round and has suffered from bitter sand for a long time. In Shazhou City, people can be seen everywhere covering their faces with gray cloth to prevent them from inhaling sand and dust.
Women rarely go out, and even when they go out, they must cover their faces with gauze. The weather here is dry and the wind and sand are strong, which will cause great harm to their delicate skin.
Although Shazhou is remote, it is not poor.
This is because this is the only place for merchants from the Western Regions and the Chen State to enter and exit the customs. A large number of caravans stay here every month. Some of them are traveling from the Chen State to the Western Regions for business, and some are entering the customs from the Western Regions.
Merchants from the Western Regions have to pay part of the customs duties when their goods stop in Shazhou.
Whether it was merchants from the Western Regions selling specialties from the Western Regions to the Chen State, or merchants from the Chen State bringing silk, tea, etc. to the Western Regions, they could not bypass Shazhou. Just the taxes paid by these merchants accounted for a very considerable portion of the Chen State's treasury income.
part.
Naturally, the Shazhou government also benefited greatly from this process.
A large number of caravans stayed in Shazhou, which also greatly promoted the commercial development of Shazhou. Within the city, there are many inns, restaurants and brothels. It can be regarded as the most prosperous city on the northwest border of Chen State.
Prosperity returns to prosperity, and the crisis shrouding Shazhou becomes more and more serious as the situation in the Western Region changes.
To the east of Shazhou lies the State of Chen, and to the west lies the Western Regions. Once there are changes in the Western Regions, Shazhou will be the first to bear the brunt.
In the past few years, Xiaowan's rise has been unstoppable. Currently, their energy is still focused on conquering the small countries in the Western Regions. When they completely conquer the Western Regions, disaster will come for Chen State.
In order to cope with the changes in the Western Regions, after the imperial court pacified the grasslands, it stationed 400,000 troops in Shazhou and Suzhou and other places, and reinforced the city wall of Shazhou to more than two feet wide and five feet high. In this vast sea of sand,
A wall of copper and iron was built.
With heavy troops guarding it, the towering city walls can be seen from a distance. This makes the people of Shazhou finally feel a little more at ease. They hope that Xiaowan will lose in the struggle for power in the Western Regions, or that the imperial court will simply send troops to pacify the Western Regions, so that they can keep it.
Shazhou’s long-term stability.
At this moment, at the city gate on the east side of Shazhou, a group of people led their horses slowly into the city, attracting frequent glances from passers-by.
Shazhou welcomes many outsiders every day, some of whom are from the capital and some from the Western Regions. The people in the city have long been accustomed to seeing them, but the composition of this group of people is so strange that people have to take a closer look.
Walking at the front were three young men and women. The man was handsome and the woman was pretty. One man and woman looked like they were in their early twenties, and the other girl was only twenty-eight years old, and her face was still a little immature.
Apart from the fact that these three people are pleasing to the eye, there is nothing strange about them. What is strange is the person behind them.
A strong middle-aged man followed behind them, with a butcher's knife on his waist, which ruined the aura of the three people in front. Next to the middle-aged man was an old man in dirty clothes.
, dressed like a beggar, sometimes scratching his butt, sometimes picking his nose, looking extremely slovenly.
Behind the two people, there were several figures, three old men and three old women, all of a certain age, following them step by step, as if they were following servants.
Seeing such a combination, everyone was puzzled. If a noble man from a certain family was traveling with his beauty, he should have brought some guards. But among these people, there was only the middle-aged man with a butcher's knife on his waist.
, there are still a few who look like guards, and the rest are all old people who look like half of their feet are already buried in the ground. I am afraid that if they travel a little bit, they will die.
Tangning naturally noticed the strange looks in the eyes of passers-by around her, but the truth was often not what outsiders saw.
None of these old people, who seem to have one foot in the ground, are very economical when it comes to taking action.
Any one of them can easily annihilate a small country in the Western Region. It is not difficult for six Wan Gu Sect elders to join forces and annihilate a medium-sized country with a population of several thousand.
In addition to the fourth elder and eighth elder who were by Tang Ning's side before, when Tang Ning entered Shazhou, there were already six Wan Gu Sect elders gathered around her.
If it weren't for the fact that the Ten Meridians had just been integrated and a few elders had to be left to handle church affairs, Tang Ning felt that Su Mei would send out all the new top ten elders.
The elders of Wan Gu Sect may not be Lao Zheng's opponent in a single fight, but they can play the role of nuclear weapons against ordinary people, even some small masters, which is beyond the reach of Lao Zheng and the old beggar.
As for Tang Yaoyao and Xiaoxiao, they were just here to join in the fun.
The reason Tang Ning didn't stop them was that Tang Yaoyao said she was following him to see if he would be a prostitute in the Western Regions. If Tang Ning didn't let her follow, wouldn't it look like she was guilty.
Xiaoxiao, who had always listened to Tang Ning's words, refused to listen to his arrangements this time and wanted to come to the Western Regions with them. Tang Ning could tell that she seemed to have a slight resistance to Guizhou, so she didn't insist anymore.
Unlike Xiao Ru Xiaoyi, the two of them have a certain ability to protect themselves, especially Xiao Xiao. Even Tang Ning can't see her depth now, and Tang Yaoyao has long been no match for her.
Taking the two of them along is not only not a problem, but also a help.
What's more, this time he came to the Western Regions not to confront Xiaowan head-on. Tangning would not use other means if they could negotiate peacefully.
Shazhou was much more prosperous and prosperous than Tang Ning had imagined. He originally thought it was a small, run-down border town at the junction of the Chen Kingdom and the Western Regions, but he didn't expect that although the city of Shazhou was small, it lacked everything it should have.
Walking to the main street of Shazhou City and looking at the shops lined with customers, Tang Ning even thought he had arrived in the capital.
Of course, there are still big differences between here and the capital.
The most significant difference is that only half of the faces on the street are Han Chinese, while Westerners with high cheekbones and high nose bridges account for the other half. There are also some faces that are even more different from Han Chinese, and not exactly the same as Westerners.
Same, probably from a country farther west.
Of course, she met more women from the Western Regions along the way. Most of them wore clothes that were very different from Han women, and some even had their navels exposed. Tang Ning even saw a few foreign girls wearing jewelry on their navels...
The exotic atmosphere in Shazhou City is much stronger than that in the capital city. However, the weather today is not very good. The sky in the distance is filled with sand and dust. Many people wear gauze scarves when they go out. Tangning and her group did not prepare such things.
, Xiaoxiao, who was standing next to him, coughed several times along the way, probably because he was not used to the air here.
Tangning was about to remind her to buy a gauze scarf later when she suddenly felt a pain on the other side of her waist.
Tang Yaoyao held his arm and asked with a smile: "Does it look good?"
Although she was smiling, her teeth were clenched tightly, and a delicate hand pinched the soft flesh of his waist.
Tang Ning withdrew her gaze, immediately looked straight and said, "In broad daylight, with the universe bright and clear, how can one be so decent if his clothes are not covering his body..."
