Strange Records of Xijing

Under the leadership of Zhang Feiran, the crowd drove nearly [-] miles to the west and came to a simple camp.To say it is simple, is actually just a comparison with the place where the Northwest Army is stationed.The security here is still heavily guarded, even three points higher than that of the Northwest Camp. There are soldiers closely patrolling around. If they were not led by Zhang Feiran, they would not be able to get close at all.

"I've seen the general." As soon as he entered the camp, a soldier came trotting over, first gave a military salute to Zhang Feiran, and then said, "The general took people out early in the morning to look for him, but he hasn't returned yet."

"It doesn't matter," Zhang Feiran turned to the crowd and introduced, "This is Centurion Lin Ping. If General Jin Yong is not around on weekdays, he will be in charge of everything in the camp."

Lin Pingtian raised the corners of his mouth and smiled, and he greeted everyone cheerfully: "Everyone came from a long way, you have worked hard all the way."

Zhang Feiran asked again: "Have you gained anything these two days?"

Lin Ping showed shame, shook his head and said, "Not yet, let the general down."

Zhang Feiran also knew that this matter should not be rushed. No one knew the address of the ancient city. At that time, Prince Wei and his party encountered a rare strong wind in the desert, lost their way in the wind and sand, and entered by mistake. ancient city.And when they found the place where the prince and the other five people were, there were undulating yellow sand as far as they could see. Where did the ancient city come from?

But the crown prince was critically ill, and his lover Pei Jingxing was also cursed by the ancient city, so he had to enter the ancient city as soon as possible to find a way to lift the curse.

Zhang Feiran knows that the morale of the army cannot be shaken, Lin Ping can be discouraged and feel guilty, but he can't.

"Let's go in first, and you tell us about the search results of the past two days."

"According to the records in the file four years ago, this is the place where the prince's guards chased the rogues. If you go further west, you will find the desert." Lin Ping said to a map on the table, "After entering the desert, , the route is difficult to grasp. The general and I speculate that the group of rogues were barbarians who went south from the northwest to rob. They are familiar with the desert area, and they probably fled to the northwest. Leading people mainly searched in the northwest direction, while others searched in the southwest and due west directions."

Zhang Feiran didn't speak, just nodded, and then gave Gao Zekai a look - Gao Zekai is the leader of this four-person team, even if there is Zhang Feiran's beloved apprentice Pei Jingxing, he still wants to give Gao Zekai this face.

Gao Zekai looked at the map, as if he had thought of something, he suddenly turned his head and asked Pei Jingxing: "At that time, you encountered sandstorms, did the sandstorms come suddenly, or did they gradually grow larger?"

Pei Jingxing recalled it carefully for a while, and replied: "There was no wind that day, the sun was high, and the sun was very poisonous. Many of us felt dehydrated. The wind and sand came very suddenly, fast and violent, as if it was a sudden There was a giant blowing on our backs, completely without warning."

Gao Zekai asked again: "Where is the direction of the wind?"

Pei Jingxing shook his head: "We lost our way in the wind and sand. Someone took out the compass, only to find that the pointer on the compass was spinning wildly, and there was no way to locate it. And not only his compass, but all of our compasses failed."

Gao Zekai was a little disappointed.

He originally thought that if the wind and sand were extremely strong, the Prince Guards might have been blown forward by the wind and sand, so if they knew the direction of the wind and searched all the way, they might be able to find it.

Gao Zekai didn't give up, and asked a few more questions, but it didn't help in finding the ancient city.

At this moment, soldiers outside came in to report that General Jin Yong had returned with two barbarians.

"The last general has seen the general!" A middle-aged man in armor walked in first, took off his helmet, gave a military salute to Zhang Feiran, and walked around the other three people in the military tent, "These three This person must be the special envoy of Xijing."

Seeing Jin Yong's relaxed face, Zhang Feiran asked, "Is there any good news?"

"Isn't it? As soon as the three special envoys came, the signs of this matter were exposed." While speaking, Jin Yong winked at Lin Ping, who understood, and strode out of the military tent. He brought in two barbarians.

Jin Yong explained to everyone in the military tent: "At the end of today, the general will take people to the northwest and take a different route. Apart from the sand dunes, there are only some Populus euphratica and lizards. Unexpectedly, on the way back, I encountered Seeing the grandparents and grandchildren. The general saw that their lips were cracked, and he gave them his water bag for fear of lack of water. How long will it take to go in this desert with only two legs? So the general I plan to take the grandparents out of the desert, and give them some water and food. The road to the desert is boring, so I chatted with them for a while, and then I accidentally heard that there is a legend about the holy city in their tribe. From the description of this holy city, it seems a bit like the ancient city His Majesty was looking for, so he brought them back."

After Zhang Feiran heard this, he smiled and said, "I haven't seen you talk so much on weekdays, but today you have finished talking for ten days."

Jin Yong said with a smile: "The general saw that the appearance of the grandfather and grandson was somewhat similar to that of the general's grandfather, so he accidentally felt sympathy."

"General Jin is a barbarian?" Gao Zekai was a little surprised, "Looking at General Jin's appearance, he doesn't look like a barbarian at all."

Jin Yong laughed and said without hesitation: "My grandfather is from Hu, but my grandmother and mother are both from Dazhou, and I am also from Dazhou."

The territory of the Zhou Dynasty expanded to the northwest, and many Hu tribes belonged to the Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, in the northwest border, there were many mixed marriages between Hu people and Zhou people. There are no characteristics of Hu people's blood.

Zhang Feiran was quite at ease with Jin Yong, a subordinate, and deliberately ignored the hostility in Gao Zekai's words, and said, "Let's listen to what they say first."

Among the grandparents and grandsons, the grandfather was full of silver hair, and the wrinkles on his face were almost innumerable. At this time, he was standing tremblingly against his grandson.Zhang Feiran couldn't bear it, and specially asked Lin Ping to bring a stool over for the old man to sit on.

The old man was old, and finally the grandson, who looked to be in his early twenties, stepped forward to answer the question.

"There is a legend in our tribe that there is a holy place in the desert. When people in our tribe die, their bodies are sent to the holy place, so that their souls can ascend to heaven and no longer suffer from the pain in the world." Sun Tzu's official words are not true. He is fluent, and many of their tribe's languages ​​are mixed in. Fortunately, Jin Yong is there. His grandfather is a Hu, and he is no stranger to these Hu languages, so he acts as a translator.

"Where is this holy place?"

The young man shook his head: "I don't know, this is just a legend. People in our tribe are buried in the sky after death, and will not be sent to holy places."

"Let me tell the story." At this time, the grandfather among the grandparents and grandson had enough rest, and said, "This holy place, the younger generation doesn't even know about it."

Compared with his grandson, the old man's official words are quite decent: "This holy place existed decades ago. At that time, if one of our tribes died, the priests would lead a few people to die." Young people, together carry the body of the dead to the holy place."

Zhang Feiran estimated the old man's age and asked, "Have you been there?"

"Of course I have been there," the old man chuckled twice, "but I didn't go too far. There are many priests and many young people living in the holy place. After we carried the corpse in, we put it in the On the ground, the priests and young people in the holy place will send these corpses to deeper places in the holy place."

"Aren't these priests and young people from your tribe?"

"General, our Hu people's living customs are different from yours. We are a tribe, and we can be divided into many small tribes, living by water. Those people in the Holy Land, although they belong to the same tribe as us, but we I don’t know them, even our priests are afraid of them.”

"Then where is this holy place? How to get in?"

The old man replied again: "Only the priests know the location of the Holy Land."

When everyone was disappointed, the old man said again: "But when I was young and courageous, I went to the Holy Land several times, so I secretly drew a road map, and planned to go to the Holy Land to try my luck when I couldn't stay any longer. .”

Regardless of other matters, Gao Zekai asked directly, "Where is the road map?"

On the contrary, Zhang Feiran was cautious and asked, "I can't stay any longer? What do you mean?"

Looking at the positions of the people in the military tent and their attire, the old man knew that Zhang Feiran was the biggest official among them, so he naturally answered Zhang Feiran's question first.

"At that time, there were fewer and fewer oases, and the grasslands were getting smaller and smaller. There were several conflicts between tribes over prey and clear water. To be honest, our tribe was not the largest one, not even those in the middle, but the most Weak ones. In several conflicts, many of our cattle, sheep and land were taken away, men and children were killed, and women were taken away by other tribes, and we were about to decline."

"So you fled to the Holy Land?"

The old man shook his head: "My mother-in-law is dead. She refused to let the men with the heads of our tribe touch her. She killed two of them with a small saber, and her throat was cut by other enemies next to her. Although I wanted to save him, but still Take a step slower, and only touch my two fingers."

While speaking, the old man raised his left hand, and everyone realized that his left thumb and index finger were gone.

The old man continued: "My mother-in-law died, the eldest and youngest two sons died, and the only daughter was trampled to death by a horse, leaving only one second son. I can't let my mother-in-law and child die in vain , so I plan to take my second son and take him to the Holy Land to try his luck. If he is lucky, he will survive, but if he is unlucky, he will die sooner or later anyway."

"And then? Have you reached the Holy Land?"

The old man nodded first, then shook his head: "That time, we had already seen the Holy Land, but just as we were about to enter the Holy Land, the Holy Land suddenly disappeared."

Gao Zekai asked disappointedly: "Disappeared?"

"Yes, it disappeared, right in front of my eyes, there was no sound at all, and it disappeared all at once." The old man shook his head and said, "I can still see people walking around in the Holy Land, but not those who live in the Holy Land." People's ordinary attire, but they look like soldiers of the Zhou Dynasty."

Zhang Feiran, Jin Yong, Lin Ping, and the others were confused by what they heard, but Pei Jingxing and the others probably guessed the identities of these soldiers——Back then, Prince Abandoned had a concubine named Xian Nu, who was from this tribe. The waste prince coaxed, or perhaps accidentally slipped the tongue, letting the waste prince know about this place.Later, for some reason, the abolished prince secretly occupied this holy place and hid some things in it, but unfortunately he was killed because he was defeated before he could get it out in time.

Is the holy land that suddenly disappeared decades ago really the ancient city that Prince Wei and his party stumbled into four years ago?

In the military tent, no one knew the answer.

Seeing the silence of the crowd, Jin Yong took the lead and said, "General, special envoys, please forgive me for talking too much. We don't have any other clues right now. Why don't we just try our luck."

"Trying luck?" Gao Zekai said angrily, "This holy place disappeared decades ago, how do you let us try our luck?"

Jin Yong thought for a while and said: "When General Zhang led his troops to find the prince and others, there were no traces of any cities around. I heard that some ancient cities would disappear overnight due to wind and sand, but wait Decades later, the sand may be blown away by the wind and resurface."

Gao Zekai was speechless, Pei Jingxing thought for a while, looked at the old man, and asked, "Do you still remember the route to the Holy Land?"

"Of course." The old man chuckled, "I will never forget that place for the rest of my life. The map is in my head."

At any rate, Pei Jingxing had the experience of living in the desert four years ago, and said to Zhang Feiran and Gao Zekai, "It's getting late today, and the temperature drops sharply after nightfall in the desert. It's better to start tomorrow morning."

Zhang Feiran naturally agreed, and although Gao Zekai felt that this plan would not work, but there are no other clues right now, so it is just a matter of luck.

The author has something to say: Second update~