With Yu Wenjing's assistance, the three of them quickly received the pass certificate to Hunu Town, a memorial to the Jixi Jiedu Office and the Paoling Guardian. The certificate was carried by Yu Wenjing, and it was probably a large stack, not for the convenience of office work, but for the purpose of getting on the job.

Just like other documents, the paper surface at the beginning and end is thicker, roughly yellowish-brown, and several sheets of light brown paper stacked inside naturally says, "There are three soldiers from Shule Town, Yang Chengen, Yang Shouyu and Sun Xiurong, whose hometown, their age, and their origins. They will be sent to the Hunu Town, the Khotan Army, and will continue to serve as the government soldier. What are the things they carry? How many days will they set off, how many days will they have to arrive before, what punishment will they receive if they arrive delayed, etc."

This document is very important. Without this document, Sun Xiurong and the other two could only walk upstream against the Tuduo River and finally arrived at the Yu River (Karakash River), where Hunu Town is located. There is a post road between the two rivers, which is a rarely visited. Almost no one has walked by except for horse thieves. Of course, this road is much closer than going north to Shule Town on the northern foot of Kunlun Mountain and the southern edge of the desert. Yutian Town is much closer, but it is also much more dangerous, and the time of the journey is almost impossible to effectively control.

But if you walk the road from Paling-Shule Town-Yutian Town-Karakash River-Hunu Town, the journey is 2,000 miles long. According to the speed of the army of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions at this time, when there are horses, it is only 30 miles a day. This can be seen from the fact that Gao Xianzhi ran a thousand miles to Xiaobolu in history.

Starting from Kucha, the route is Bahuancheng (Aksu), Shule Town, Paoling Shouqiao, Wahan Valley, Xiaobolu. The journey is 3,000 miles long. Gao Xianzhi waited for a hundred days before he arrived, and the average speed is only about 30 miles.

As an old man in Anxi, Bian Lingcheng did not make things difficult for the three of them. The distance between two thousand miles was only allowed to arrive within 70 days. Of course, the route was planned, and he could only follow the open road mentioned above. After passing through each city, the local government must stamp it to prove that you have arrived here and arrive at the specified time, so on.

However, at this time, there was a tribe able to travel at high altitudes and high cold areas without any obstacles.

Xiangxiong tribe.

In historical records, the Chinese call it the Yangtong tribe. It was destroyed by the Tubo Kingdom during the period of Songtsen Gampo of the Tubo Dynasty. However, it has only been about a hundred years now. There are still a large number of Xiangxiong people who do not accept the jurisdiction of the Tubo people. From the scattered kingdoms to the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, they were almost all present in the entire Aksaichin, Ladakh, Pamir Plateau, and Hindu Kush Mountain.

Some of them integrated into the local Sogdian tribes and Turkic tribes, and some became horse thieves. The Xiangxiong horse thieves with the original Bon religion were very fierce in the Pamir Plateau. This is also an important reason why the Pamir Guard City moved all the farmers to the city to live.

Yu Wenjing took the remaining eight teenagers from the camp to leave. He was a real man. Although Sun Xiurong appreciated him, he could not have the intention of saying goodbye.

Before Yu Wenjing left, he left a pack horse for Sun Xiurong and the others. This was a hybrid horse between Yanqi horse and Tibetan horse. The hair was long and dense, and it was very suitable for the life of the plateau and the high cold, so he became a pack horse for three people.

After solving the big problem of his adopted son, Bian Lingcheng seemed to relax. He decided to stay in the Paoling City for a few more days. As the deputy envoy, Bian Feizhong naturally rushed to hunt on the nearby mountains and went down the river to dig ice and fish to honor his eunuch father.

However, in Sun Xiurong's estimate, because the generals above the local governments were arrested and above, officials were going to Kucha City to report their duties. As the ambassador of the two major defenders of Beiting, Anxi and the Jixi Jiedushi, he was indispensable. That occasion was an excellent occasion for him to show his authority and gain benefits.

Therefore, Sun Xiurong believed that he would stay in the Pamir City for at most for three days, and in three days he would set out to Bohezhou. If he wanted to go to Bohezhou, he would have to go to Wahan Valley!

On the second day after Yu Wenjing and others left, under the harsh eyes of the border loyalty, Sun Xiurong and the other two left. Although they were all descendants of the criminal family, it was nearly forty years at this time. At least the second generation of descendants of the former Khitans and Han rebels in Youzhou had been born. After two generations passed, the comfortable inertia would make them forget their past experiences. The only priority at the moment was to maintain the hard-won stable situation.

Therefore, although they were both descendants of the rebels, Sun Xiurong and others did not cause any major waves, and they left very early, which surprised Bian Yiquan.

"If I had known this, so what if I had let them stay here?"

Looking at the figures of the three of them heading north along the road on the west side of the Tudor River (later Tashkurgan River) in the morning light, Bian Yi couldn't help but sigh.

Because, as a brave thunderbolt, he also admired Sun Xiurong and Yang Shouyu's martial spirit very much. If these two men were his subordinates, he would naturally be very happy.

But things can't be reversed at this point, let alone two young men who are still a year away from becoming a soldier?

Three people and four horses were fully armed and winding on the Paoling Post Road. At the end of winter and early spring, it was the time when the wind was extremely cold. The strong winds swept from all directions were mixed with sand and gravel, which sometimes covered the entire post road. After some of the sand and gravel unfortunately fell into their clothes, the bone-broken chill would make people shudder.

The frozen Tuduo River, the continuous deserts on both sides, and the bone-broken coldness on the snow in the distance made Nikan think of a poem by Cen Shen.

"The general's horn bow cannot be controlled, and the guardian's iron clothes are hard to keep.

The vast sea is covered with ice a hundred feet, and the sorrow clouds are bleak and condensed thousands of miles away."

As ordinary soldiers, according to the rules, they can only be equipped with light armor, that is, leather armor or wooden armor. Of course,

If you have good conditions at home, you can also be equipped with iron armor, but there are very few people like this. According to the rules of the Tang Dynasty, "weapons" such as iron armor and Jizhangnu are generally configured by the state. Although they were open and confident in the early Tang Dynasty, it was impossible to allow the people to allocate heavy weapons.

Therefore, leather armor painted with black paint is the standard for ordinary soldiers.

For Sun Xiurong, since he was amnesty and joined the ranks of the government soldiers, he had equipped himself with a complete set of equipment. In addition to the weapons mentioned above, he was wearing a piece of cotton armor that was only available in later generations. The Pamirs are located on the ancient Central Asia Road, including the four towns of Anxi in Central Asia. In addition to jade and cotton, Sun Xiurong also bought some and made a robe-style cotton armor for himself.

The so-called cotton armor is actually pressing the cotton into thin sheets, soaking it, and then drying it. After repeated several times, sewing it into the cotton cloth with the iron sheet. The iron sheet is not everywhere, but in key parts such as the heart and heart. Because the tamped cotton sheets are not particularly cold, the iron sheets are nailed firmly with rivets. Sun Xiurong cannot obtain the copper block, so he can only use iron nails that are prone to rust instead.

Of course, cotton armor appeared mainly to deal with firearms in later generations, but it still had certain protection against bows, arrows, swords and guns. The main reason was that leather armor was too troublesome to wear. His father left him a set of leather armor painted in black, which he also carried, including leather helmets, Pidon necks, leather shoulder guards, leather arms guards, and leather waist guards. The main armor was connected by a large number of small rectangular small leather armor pieces with hemp ropes, which were very easy to damage and the protection was really worrying.

As for the feet, there is a pair of black leather boots, most of the leather goods are camel leather, and a few parts are made of cowhide.

Sun Xiurong is currently wearing black leather boots except for the leather helmet and black leather boots, and the rest is carried on his ten-year-old chestnut horse.

After his father became a military soldier, he had 50 acres of duty-free land according to the rules. It was through the grain transactions of these 50 acres of duty-free land that his family could prepare all these equipment. After his father passed away, since Sun Xiurong was underage at that time, 80% of the land had to be taken back by the government, he could only leave 20% of the land, which is ten acres of "Yongye Field". Of course, once he became an adult, he could also apply to the government for another 40 acres of land.

At present, he, the Yang family's fields had just been planted for a while, but he could not watch them grow and even harvest. In such a situation, when they arrived in Hunu Town, the local military fort would allocate the same amount of fields from the public fields to him. The Tang Dynasty did a very good job in this regard. Of course, Sun Xiurong planted wheat here, but when he arrived in Hunu Town, there was only barley, and the yield was completely unparalleled.

Although all three of them were soldiers in the palace (Yang Chengen was 48 years old this year. According to the rules, soldiers in the palace could not retire until they were fifty-five), it was not safe to walk on the ancient Pamir Road, so all Yang Shouyu's belongings were on the hybrid horse given by Yu Wenjing, while he was wearing leather armor and weapons at the front, which was actually a scout.

In the Tang Dynasty, even the soldiers of the infantry were horses. They were definitely horse-riding infantry. In this world, the Tang army had the most dynamic power.

Compared with Gao Xianzhi's march speed, the three-person team was obviously faster. After walking fifty miles a day, they arrived at Beizhen, which belonged to Paoling Shouqiao. There was an intersection - from there, you could reach Shule Town to the north, you could reach Paoling Shouqiao City to the south, and you could go around the Wahan Valley to the west!

Any place where the Tang Dynasty officially set up prefectures or military towns must have an inn. At this time, if the thoroughfare is located, it is called an inn. If it is a small road like the Pamir Plateau, it is called an inn.

As soldiers of the government, they are also qualified to enjoy inn services, but they only provide places to live, and they still have to rely on themselves for food, bedding and other items.

Compared with military forts and castles, the Datang inn is a very good building. The Beizhen inn, which was captured by the Pamirs, is in the Beizhen castle. Seeing that three ordinary soldiers came to join the post, the postmaster took the post and looked at it briefly, and pointed to the innermost house in the yard and said, "Live there, there is a kang inside, a stove, and some firewood. You can prepare it yourself. The stable is there, and you will get alfalfa here later."

There are at least twenty houses in a border town and inn. At present, these houses look empty. The postmaster asked them to live in the smallest house in the innermost house because they were low-level. The three of them didn't say anything and acted honestly as they told them.

In addition to the postmaster, there are naturally seven or eight postmasters in the postmaster. They are in charge of the horses in the postmaster and are naturally armed, because they have to serve the nobles and nobles at any time.

Previously, Sun Xiurong had prepared a lot of food for this long-distance trip, including the jerky he worked hard to dry, the flour he fried overnight, and some dried wild vegetables. Since there is a stove, it is good to mix these things together and cook them.

The trip was exhausted, and the three of them lay down shortly after using up dinner.
Chapter completed!