Chapter 95: The journey must be carefully prepared
Li Siye waited at home for several days and made full preparations. The journey from Chang'an to the four towns of Anxi was thousands of miles long, so there was naturally some hardship.
This was the first time in his life that he had traveled far away in this way. In the Tang Dynasty, when there were no high-speed rails or tools for drinking oil, this was a process that required full preparation both mentally and physically.
Prince Shou's Mansion has sent the Qingzhui horse over. Although professional horse doctors were asked to repair the broken bones, Li Siye has no way of knowing how they fixed the bones, but he will not be able to ride within a hundred days, and there will be no problem walking.
Therefore, except for the saddle, all the luggage was carried by Li Siye himself. In order to gain experience in going out, he personally invited Zhang Xiaojing over. While eating wine and meat, he asked him what he should pay attention to on the way to Anxi. The most important thing is
What are the potential dangers?
"There is usually no danger when you follow the Anxi Protector's team, but if you are alone, you need to pay more attention. Try to take the road as much as possible, and you are not afraid of encountering wolves and other wild beasts. Warriors encounter one or two wolves.
There is no problem, but if there are more than three, you may be in trouble, so gold sore medicine is indispensable."
"There is basically no problem from Chang'an to Dunhuang, but after leaving Yangguan in the west, there are horse bandits and swordsmen in the desert. If a lone traveler does not want to go all the way, he should prepare a few more sets of money and hide them.
In different places, it is easy to deal with these people. But you don’t have to think about this. The Anxi Protectorate has hundreds of personal guards in Yao. Wherever the Protector’s banner goes, not even Tuqishi and other Hu tribes dare to
Sharpen his edge."
"What if there are other emergencies? For example, if I get sick, or I am left alone unexpectedly." Li Siye asked diligently.
Zhang Xiaojing glanced at Li Siye in surprise: "Then you need to make some other preparations. Although you have left the East Palace, your official status is still there, and at least you can be a brigade commander. As the Tang Army's brigade rate increases, it can recruit its own troops.
Qu, equipped with fine scale armor, and a second-class horizontal sword. The Protector will naturally give you these things."
"If you are worried about emergencies, prepare dry food for seven days and purchase the Seven Things from the West Market. Just in case, go to the Yin Market in the West City to buy a powerful crossbow. You are almost ready."
"Okay." Li Siye patted his trouser legs, stood up from the ground, pulled Zhang Xiaojing's sleeve and said, "We'll go right away."
…………
The two wandered around the West Market and bought a Tang Army standard crossbow, a two-inch-long knife, a sharpening stone, needle slips, Qi Jue, Qi Zhen, a flint bag, and some pens and paper from a merchant in Yin City.
, some good sealing grease cloth.
I bought some flour, millet flour, rice noodles, and celadon bottles for salt at the mill. I also bought some extravagant pepper.
They passed by a store specializing in Taoist items. Li Siye went in curiously and took a look. There were peach wood swords and copper coin swords from large to small, as well as straw figures, yellow paper, drawing talismans, and compasses.
Zhang Xiaojing was confused again, and followed behind him and asked: "Are you afraid of getting contaminated on the road? They are all martial arts practitioners... I thought you didn't believe this."
"I'm not trying to ward off evil spirits."
He casually took down a compass from the wall. The copper plate was engraved with directions and hexagram symbols. The plate was too big and was too inconvenient to carry on his body.
"What are you doing with this thing? Do you need to know the Feng Shui direction when you go out?"
Li Siye pinched the tip of his nose shyly, held up a compass and asked the Taoist priest in Taoist robes who was sitting on the futon: "Taoist Priest, I want the fixed needle on this, is that okay?"
"Nonsense, if you take off the needle, who will I sell it to?"
After a while, Li Siye walked out with the compass in his arms, and bought several feet of the strongest Sichuan brocade and hemp cloth from a cloth shop in the West Market. Zhang Xiaojing had no idea what the purpose of these items he bought was.
The two returned to Xinchangfang. Zhang Xiaojing saw that Li Siye was fine, so he said goodbye and left.
Li Siye returned to the main hall, spread out the paper and began to draw. What he drew was the shape of a tactical backpack. Since there was no zipper, he designed the mouth of the backpack to be a drawstring. After drawing five or six drawings in a row, he waved his hand.
An old maid at home called over.
"Sanniang, I heard that you used to make clothes at the master's house. How is your craftsmanship?"
"Of course, Alang, I'm not bragging to you, Sanniang has never seen anyone with better skills than me."
"That's good. I want to ask you to make something like this. Let's see if you can do it?"
The old maid was a little confused when she held the paper in her hand. This thing was quite new, but it could probably be sewn, but it required a lot of handwork. Li Siye patiently told him several times, and the old maid regarded it as a challenging task.
I happily took the fabric and went down.
"That's right." Li Siye looked over and said, "Hemp cloth and Shu brocade are mixed together with flour and paste, and then you can sew more lines vertically and horizontally using the money you make."
"Okay, Langjun, are you going to use it for a lifetime? Sichuan brocade and hemp cloth are strong enough."
While the old maid was sewing the backpack, Li Siye ran to the kitchen to fry the fried noodles. He put three kinds of flour into the iron pot and stir-fried, added salt, pepper, and some mutton oil, and stir-fried a large pot.
After that, take it out to dry.
He specially made an iron grinding tool in the blacksmith shop, one inch wide and two and a half inches long. He filled it with fried noodles mixed with mutton fat, tamped it with an iron ingot, and poured it out of the mold into pieces of compressed biscuits.
He prepared a total of more than 60 pieces of such compressed biscuits, which can basically last for a month. He wrapped these homemade biscuits with grease cloth cut into small pieces and tied them with hemp silk.
After doing this, he bought a copper amulet from the Western Market and polished it into a round shape with a sharpening stone. He took off the fixing needle from the compass he bought and embedded it in the copper sheet to make a small compass.
By the time it got dark, the old maid had already sewn the backpack into the shape of a third-level bag. The capacity was large enough that even if someone killed someone and licked the goods on the road, it could still be packed in it.
The old maid also sewed cowhide covers on both sides and the surface of the backpack, on which a crossbow could be hung. Li Siye bought two sets of crossbow arrows from a merchant in the West Market, a set of sixteen, one of which was hung on the crossbow belt.
, and the other set is hung on the backpack. Put the compass and compressed dry food in it, and there is still a lot of space.
At this point, all preparations for the long journey were made, but he was still worried. The next day, he went to the blacksmith shop in the West Market to make bear traps and iron caltrops, which added weight to the backpack for no reason. In fact,
These things are useless, but don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of the unexpected. Who knows what may happen on the road.
He was waiting for information at home when the Japanese Fujimaki suddenly came to his door. This surprised Li Siye, thinking that he came specially to say goodbye. Didn't he just have a farewell banquet the day before yesterday?
"Li Lang, there is something that requires your consent. I have cleared up the relationship and left the East Palace to go to Anxi."
Li Siye was shocked and asked: "You are a Japanese, why don't you just stay in Chang'an, and you insist on going to Anxi?"