Daqin: Zulong's Traveling Frog

Chapter 302 Cultivation
"I heard that there are often horse thieves in the Western Regions. I don't know if it is true or not?"

His voice was not loud, but with inexplicable fear, it penetrated the audience like magical power.The horse thief who heard these two words first stopped the siege, and then a series of induction waves covered every horse thief. The sound of shouting and killing and the sound of golden blades handing over suddenly stopped. Youlong reined in his horse and stood tall.

There is a proverb in the ancient desert: "There are seasons when flowers bloom, but no one knows when horse thieves will arrive."

In March of Yangchun, the heaven and the earth are born, all things are prosperous, the earth is full of vitality, and it is the season of flowers blooming. Spring in Dunhuang is long overdue, but it is finally here—populus euphratica is verdant, red willows, wool strips, flowers The sticks and other shrubs have sprouted new shoots.Weeds such as goosegrass, licorice, flavescens, and bitter beans burst out of the ground, blooming colorful small flowers.Splashes of spring color, clear and fresh air.

People who have been dormant for a winter are eager to move, rushing out of the house to enjoy the spring.

Merchants from the Western Regions stranded at Yumen Pass also began to pack their bags and prepare to leave.

For them, this is the starting point of a long journey. They will spend nearly a month crossing the vast Gobi and desert to return to their respective countries.

After more than half of the merchants resold the goods from the Central Plains, they had to organize caravans to transport various special products from the Western Regions back to the Central Plains before autumn in order to grab the maximum benefits.

These people spend most of their time traveling through the Central Plains, the Western Regions, and Central Asia. For them, time is money, and it is always extremely precious. They couldn't wait to hit the road.

Yumenguan is the gateway to the west of the Central Plains. According to legend, when Zhiguan was building the city wall, a huge piece of beautiful jade was dug out. People inlaid it on the city tower and used the light of the jade to guide passing caravans, hence the name.

This is the gateway to the Western Regions, West Asia, and European countries. Silk, lacquerware, paper and other products from the Central Plains are continuously exported to the West through this, and good horses, camels, grapes, melons, etc. from the countries of the Western Regions also pass through here. Passed to the Central Plains.

The so-called "running around the post, endlessly, merchants and peddlers, and Japanese money under the plug" describes the busy scene of Yumen Pass.

All persons entering and exiting the customs must first exchange points before they can obtain passage qualifications.

From early in the morning, caravans swarmed onto the street like a spring gushing from the ground, and a long queue formed at Yumen Pass.There was an endless stream of animals carrying goods to the west gate, camel bells and people screaming, congesting all the roads and roads in the pass.

The Loulan caravan led by Gan Qi started early and ranked third.

It was especially fortunate that the people dressed as merchants at the front were not real merchants, but treasure hunters who went to the desert to search for treasures.Because the permafrost melts in spring, the wind and sand are the strongest, and desert storms can often blow out ancient cities that have been buried by quicksand.These people had no goods, and they applied for clearance in advance, and passed the inspection quickly.

The second-place merchant Muta from the Moshan Kingdom [one of the 36 countries in the Western Regions] did not carry much goods this time, only a few boxes of jewelry and more than [-] horses of silk and lacquerware.The heavily armed Central Plains soldiers were roughly pulling out the silk from the package, turning it over and over one by one for inspection.

Gan Qi could even clearly see the twitching flesh on Muta's face—he felt distressed, those were the finest silks in the Central Plains, and once shipped to the West, they were worth as much as gold.

Soldiers in the Central Plains acted so barbarously, not to mention wasting the goods, if the silk was damaged, the value would be greatly reduced.

But Muta could only watch helplessly, not daring to raise a word of protest, not daring to make the slightest change.What is the solution?

Businessmen all know that it is easy to enter the Yumen Pass but difficult to get out of the Yumen Pass.

Moreover, the crude inspection by the Central Plains soldiers was not aimed at Muta alone. All people who left the customs, whether they were merchants or monks, would be treated in this way.Just because the Central Plains is a big silk-producing country, it has always regarded sericulture and mulberry planting as a way to make money, and tried every means to prevent silk secrets from being spread out, and strictly prevented silkworm eggs from being taken out of the Central Plains. This has long been a practice.

After waiting for more than half an hour, the Central Plains soldiers finally inspected the package. Mu Taru was amnestied, and hurriedly ordered more than ten servants to repack the silk.

Seeing that Muta had been let go, Gan Qi hurriedly turned his head and told his caravan to follow carefully. Suddenly, he heard someone protesting loudly. When he turned his head again, there was a sudden storm on the ground—Muta was grabbed by the arms of several Central Plains soldiers. Involuntarily pressed down on the ground and knelt down.

A heavy-backed soldier pulled out his waist knife, stood behind him and waved his hand slightly, and easily chopped off his head.

The bustling pass suddenly fell silent, and even the dark horse, which had been in a commotion just now, stopped snoring.

A strong stream of blood spewed out from Muta's severed neck, shooting it obliquely forward.The soldier who grabbed him let go, and his headless body fell forward to the ground, writhing a few times in the pool of blood, before dying of breath.The chubby head flew out, fell to the ground and rolled out, just in front of Loulan's camel team.

In front of the caravan was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old guard, pale and thin, quiet and feminine. His name was Changmai. Seeing Muta's distorted face, his beard and beard were all stretched out, and his expression of panic and anger was vivid.

You Qi's wide-open white eyes were staring at him, the situation was extremely frightening. He was stunned for a moment, suddenly screamed, turned around and ran away, but was grabbed by the arm by the guard leader Wei Xiang.

Weixiang is 27 and eight years old, with a dark light on his sun-tanned forehead, two vertical lines carved by a knife between his thick eyebrows, a beard, deep-set eye sockets, and an expressionless face like a piece of wood.Changmai was very afraid of him, and stammered to explain: "Kill...killed..."

Wei Xiang whispered: "We have all seen it!"

This kind of thing often happens at the border, just turn your head and don't look at it.But it's best not to move around, so as not to arouse suspicion and bring unnecessary trouble to the caravan. "

Chang Mai was stunned for a moment and said: "You...are you accusing me? How dare you speak to me in such a tone?"

He was furious and wanted to break free, but Wei Xiang had a strong and mighty body, and his hand was extremely strong, one hand locked his arm like an iron hoop, and he couldn't move an inch.

Changmai's military adviser, Wu Price, rushed over from behind and said angrily, "Weixiang is bold, don't let him go quickly! Why do you dare to treat Prince Changmai like this?"

Weixiang let go of his hand, and said solemnly: "Weixiang is reckless, and I ask the prince to forgive me. But we have already agreed at the beginning, the prince will come to the Central Plains this time, and he will obey my orders, right?"

The Western Regions were not as hierarchical as those in the Central Plains, and the status of warriors and soldiers was also high.Chang Mai did not dare to say anything more, so he only responded in a low voice: "Yes." Weixiang took a serious look at Wuji, and then said: "The prince left the team without permission before..."

The leader of the caravan, Gan Qi, suddenly turned around and shouted in a low voice, "Shut up, the real master has appeared!"

I saw the Yumen gate guard in full body armor, with a sullen face, walking down the city wall step by step, looking around the audience, and shouting in a deep voice: "Who dares to take silkworm eggs out of the gate without permission, this is the end."

After deliberately pausing for a while, he waved his hands and ordered the soldiers to drag the headless body away, and hang the head high on the city wall for public display.

Of course, Muta's livestock, goods, and even several servants were all confiscated on the spot and used as payment for the border guards.

A soldier came over and gave Gan Qi a hard look.

He has been in a state of high tension, instinctively startled, thinking that something bad is about to happen, but unexpectedly the soldier didn't pay much attention to him, and just stabbed the gun in his hand into Muta's head with force, like a hunted hare Picking it up on the shoulder, he slowly climbed up the city wall, and stretched out the spear from the crenel above the city gate.

This is the most eye-catching position for entering and exiting the pass. Hanging the head here for public display can have the greatest deterrent effect.

Unexpectedly, there happened to be a young man standing there, looking intently into the city gate. The blood on the severed neck of Muta's head was not congealed, and some dirty blood dripped down on top of his head.

(End of this chapter)