The saline-alkali land in the Bailongdui is as hard as a stubborn stone. Even if a camel walks, it will bleeding from all four hooves in a few days, and many livestock are killed in the Bailongdui.

Therefore, in order to avoid hurting the hooves when walking on the salt rock road, wrap their four hooves with soft cooked leather.

Radish is very obedient and can be merciless at Ren Hong's mercy.

But when Che's father, who was called "Ye Tingfeng", was wearing leather a stallion, the horse was nervous. He raised his hind legs and kicked Ye Tingfeng's forehead with his hooves in a straightforward way!

After a muffled sound, the father of the car fell to the ground and lost his breath on the spot...

Everyone was shocked, and just before blinking, Ye Tingfeng was still talking and laughing with Zheng Ji next to him, talking about the tips for raising horses.

In the blink of an eye, only a dead body was left.

In ancient times, in the desert, death was like a shadow, and it could happen anytime and anywhere. Your friends might die from the biting of small insects or under the hoofs of horses whom you have cared for for many years.

You have to get used to it.

You have to get used to it!

But it is clear that everyone is doing things as heavy as Mount Tai, why is it so light when they die?

Ren Hong only felt depressed.

But Fu Jiezi and the others seemed to have become accustomed to this. Seeing that there were not many beans, they killed the disobedient stallion, leaving the horse head to worship Ye Tingfeng, who was lonely in front of the white dragon pile, and the horse meat was roasted and divided.

Han Gandang and Sun Shiwan chewed the roasted horse meat viciously, as if they were avenging Ye Tingfeng, and Xi Chongguo told Ren Hong:

"This is the last hot meal. After entering the White Dragon Pile, don't think about finding a piece of firewood!"

As he said, the White Dragon Pile is a truly barren land. Not only is there no birds on it, but even the most tenacious red willow and camel thorns disappeared. For the next five days, Ren Hong could not see a living plant again.

Only the dead branches of poplar trees occasionally appear, telling that there might be some vitality here a thousand years ago...

When we arrived at the center of Bailongdui, even the dead poplar trees were gone, and lack of firewood was just a trivial matter. After all, the envoys could last for five or six days by eating naan and carrying water. Even Sun Shiwan, who claimed to never eat naan, could hold a wooden bowl and soak it in water and chew it slowly.

Ren Hong could even use a knife to cut the sausages brought from Dunhuang on the rocks that were scorched by the sun, and spread them all over the pieces to roast them. For a moment, the fragrance was so strong that even Sun Shiwan smelled the fragrance, and drooled with greed.

After eating one piece of food, the sausage that looked like a dark dish was evaluated as a delicacy by everyone in the mission group.

But they themselves are not much better. They are like burnt sausages, enduring the burning roasting of the white dragon alkali pile. Even if they wear a felt hat, people often faint from heatstroke. At this time, a bowl of garlic water is the best recipe for heat relief.

At night, the feces dried by horses and camels became the only fuel for the envoys to burn fire to keep warm, so they could help them survive the long night of cold wind like a knife.

But the biggest test is direction.

The 120-kilometer Yanban Road has a vast territory and the surrounding scenery is basically the same. It only turns forward along the undulating "white dragon spines". It is easy to deviate as you walk. During the process, two camels were frightened and ran away, and the envoys did not even dare to chase after them.

Speaking of which, Ren Hong spent money to find magnets when he was in Hecang City, Dunhuang, and tried to make a simple compass.

But the facts proved that he was thinking too much. After all, a liberal arts student can only do it based on memory and cannot do it at once according to Baidu Encyclopedia. The things he made are full of mistakes and can't be used at all.

It is more reliable to see the sun and stars in the sky to determine the direction. It is not easy to encounter a cloudy weather in the White Dragon Pile.

But we can't be sure that the West is walking alone. Most of the roads of this white dragon pile are extremely hard, but some of the scales are dangerous quicksand under the ground. The envoy's group is trapped in and can never be saved.

At this time, you have to rely on the guide's experience.

Lu Jiushe walked on this Loulan Road several times. He had a map of the white dragon pile in his mind, and told Ren Hong that in fact, there were many road signs in the seemingly empty white dragon pile, that is...

"Corpses!"

...

In the pile of white dragons, you can often see small piles of artificial soil mounds, which are the tombs of Han soldiers. Whenever Fu Jiezi passes by, he will sort out his clothes and bow to them.

As a result, the old Fu bowed dozens of times every day!

Because during Li Guangli's two expeditions to Dayuan, the Han army suffered the greatest losses not the Battle of Yucheng or the Battle of Luntai, but the damn White Dragon Pile on the return journey!

In the white world, there is a shortage of food and water, and the officials only care about their own wealth and do not care about their soldiers. Almost every mile, several people died.

So while the Han army walked, they left many tombs, unifying them to the east, and now they have become the most obvious signpost for future generations to travel west...

In addition to the tombs of the Han army, you can often see the bodies of Hu merchants or nomads in the Western Regions along the way. Some of them became bones, some turned into mummies, leaning weakly on the earth beam, or snatching the ground with their heads. This is when you were crazy about digging out water from the ground before you died.

There are more corpses of livestock, including horses separated from their owners, and some wild camels that fell dead next to the withered puddle after accidentally entering the White Dragon Pile, all of which were silently submerged in the wind and sand of the White Dragon Pile.

After seeing too much death along the way, Ren Hong also brought a hint of heaviness and tragicness to his feet. How many lives did he pay when he first opened up this road?

Ren Hong now fully understood why the Han Dynasty would rather send their small troops to Loulan to take risks and engage in beheading operations than launch a large army to attack again.

The cost is too high, and the military's logistics supplies are very heavy. After trekking along the way, the most optimistic estimates are the most optimistic estimates.

After five days of walking in the White Dragon Pile, the water brought by the envoy was about to be exhausted and I could no longer drink as happily as I did at the beginning.

Fu Jiezi limited the amount of water to drink for everyone, and carried it in a pot, and was willing to sip it a little bit.

Five days after being scorched by the scorching sun, the officials and soldiers were already exhausted and rode on horseback and marched hard.

Ren Ren Hong was a little dizzy. He was shaking on the back of the carrot, and in a daze, he could even see two shadows trekking ahead:

A Hu man was carrying a horn bow on his back and was supporting a Han envoy with disheveled hair. The Han envoy was holding a flag in his hand and refused to let go.

No matter how hard Ren Hong rushed forward, he could never surpass them.

He poured water on his face, and Ren Hong opened his eyes again, and the two of them disappeared. It turned out to be their own hallucination.

For a period of time, similar hallucinations followed one after another.

Ren Hong heard the sound of horse hooves behind him, and turned around and thirty-six cavalry rushed past in parallel with the envoy, galloping towards Loulan. They were all full of energy. The leading Kansai Han and Ren Hong looked at each other and showed a hint of encouragement.

The fake ones are all fake. There are only white saline-alkali land on the side of the camel fleet.

Sometimes, there are phantoms of two monks appearing beside them.

A man with his head bare and wearing a hat was heading west, with his body withered but firm.

One was wearing a magic crown and a white dragon horse, carrying a load of scriptures. He was on the way back to Chang'an, and even Monk Sun Monkey Zhu Bajiesha was guarding the left and right.

It’s still an illusion. Buddhism has not yet been spread to the eastern part of the Western Regions. There are no Buddhist tutus on the Loulan Road these days.

What's even more strange is that Ren Hong finally saw a thin modern man wearing glasses walking alone in this desert, staggering, and a piece of candy paper with big white rabbit milk candy fell behind him.

Ren Hong subconsciously beat the horse to help the man, but he only felt the air, which was still an illusion.

But Ren Hong woke up and burst into tears before he knew it.

Those phantoms seen are stories that Ren Hong knew in later generations, and the heroes who once trekked in the White Dragon Pile.

Zhang Qian, Ban Chao, Faxian, Xuanzang, Peng Jiamu.

The quicksand desert and endless snow-capped mountains blocked the path the Chinese people walked out. This is the natural dangerous wall placed by the sky around China. It is like the Earth's online administrator, and it has special restrictions on this bug country.

But every generation of Chinese people is trying to explore the Western Regions, wanting to see the outside world and continue to do so.

Ren Hong was not alone. On this road, he had countless pioneers and later generations as his companions for two thousand years. Even the dead Han soldiers were using corpses and tombs to point them ahead.

"Ren Hong, why are you running to the side? Are you dizzy?" Fu Jiezi's scolding came, and Ren Hong immediately returned to the team.

He also has more than 30 robes that share life and death, supporting each other, and is determined to cross the White Dragon Natural Hazard!

Later, the radish was so tired that Ren Hong dismounted and led it, walking with difficulty.

One step, two steps, until the sun starts to deviate westward.

When Ren Hong and Zhao Han'er climbed another white dragon-like earthen beam together, they suddenly saw a shimmering sea...

Ren Hong shook his head: "I saw a mirage again, there is so much water, and a big lake."

Zhao Han'er's mouth was cracked and she murmured: "I saw it too, and I could smell the water."

“This time it’s not fake.”

Fu Jiezi also climbed up with his flags as his staff, stood among them, and said with a smile:

"You guys, we will walk out of the White Dragon Pile."

"In front is Pu Changhai and Loulan!"

...

Pu Changhai and Luobu Nur, the second largest inland lake in China, were not the sea of ​​death during the Han Dynasty, but the sea of ​​life. It was he who nourished the Kingdom of Loulan.

The blue lake is endless, and the boundless water extends to both sides, and there is no head at all. Beside the water are large areas of reeds and dense forests, and countless white water birds hover over it, and the fish jump out of the water, full of vitality, completely opposite to the dead white dragon pile behind it.

"Water! Water!"

Han Gandang, who drank the kettle early, screamed, and rushed to the edge of the water first. He knelt on the ground, quickly spooned a scoop of water and sent it into his mouth.

Then he vomited with a bitter face and cursed: "It's so salty, so bitter!"

The old people in the envoy laughed, and Xi Chongguo mocked Han Gandang and said, "The water in Puchanghai has always been salty, and the more you drink it, the more you become thirsty."

"What should I do?" Han Gan looked bitter.

"Follow me, there is a fresh water spring in the reed marsh, I remember it is nearby."

Lu Jiushe asked Ren Hong and Sun Shiwan to follow him to find Danshui. After they disappeared from the dense reeds, Zhao Han'er walked to the waterside, squatted down, frowned and looked at the footprints on the ground.

In addition to the messy waterfowl footprints, there is a row of deep beast claw marks here. Zhao Han'er stepped on her feet and couldn't even fill half of them!

"Why are there beast claws again?" Zheng Ji came over and saw it and muttered, "Will anyone pretend to be a mountain mandrill like in Longcheng?"

Zhao Han'er looked serious: "This is not a forgery, but a real beast's footprint, and she is not small."

But hesitated for a long time and didn't say what kind of animal it was, because when he was in Dunhuang, Zhao Han'er had never seen such an animal at all.

However, Ren Hong and the others were looking for the legendary freshwater spring, but they heard a sound, crackling, and heavy objects stepped on the reed pole.

Ren Hong turned around and happened to see a huge beast from the reeds. His pair of hanging eyes met Ren Hong!

The coldness was uploaded from the soles of his feet, and Ren Hong's mind was blank. At this last moment, what he thought of was...

"Xinjiang tiger is a living Xinjiang tiger!"

...
Chapter completed!