Two more months passed.

Wu Liang and others walked along the sunny side of the Qilian Mountains, passing through Tianshui County, Anding County, Wuwei County, Zhangye County, and Jiuquan County in order, and finally came to an oasis town called "Yuanquan (later Jiuquan and Guazhou County)"

.

Since the victory over Wuwei County, the places where the Hu army passed have become increasingly desolate, and the distance between each town has also become farther and farther. Sometimes not even a single person can be seen for a whole day.

Therefore, in order to avoid accidents and being trapped on the deserted road, they must take a good rest every time they pass through a town, and prepare enough food and drinking water before continuing to set off.

And in fact.

After passing Wuwei County, except for some relatively large towns, there are few small places where the shadow of the Han Dynasty official government can be seen.

Even if there are still government offices in some places, it is rare for government officials to see the shadow of Han officials again. Most of these places are held by some local ethnic minority leaders or respected elderly people. Basically, they are in a relatively loose but more united state.

state of autonomy.

This was the inevitable result of the political instability in the Han Dynasty.

Today's Han Dynasty court cannot even control the Central Plains, and even the emperor himself has become a puppet at the mercy of others. How can he still have the power to govern these places where the emperor is far away?

Even when the situation in Liangzhou was turbulent a few years ago, those officials and merchants who were accustomed to oppressing the local ethnic minorities had already fled back to the Central Plains with their families. Those who ran fast could save their lives.

Those who were too slow have been killed by the local ethnic minorities, and no one dared to be an official in such a place ever again.

This is the case these days. Killing a county magistrate is nothing at all, and even killing a prefect may not be held accountable.

However, the lives of the Han people in these places are relatively stable. This is because after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, many Han people who moved in worked and intermarried with the local ethnic minorities. After hundreds of years, the local Han people and the ethnic minorities have already completed the blood and marriage relationship.

In the fusion of cultures, it is not an exaggeration to say that there is me among you and you among me, and we will naturally live in peace and harmony.

Fortunately, the local people and merchants passing by were not too hostile.

Perhaps living on the Silk Road, they have become accustomed to the existence of traveling traders. Sometimes when they want to go somewhere, they will negotiate with traveling traders passing by. In this way, they can not only get protection from the caravans on the way, but also get some food and drink, which is convenient.

It’s safe and it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

besides.

Sometimes they would also ask passing merchants to help carry some goods that were not available locally, or to send some oral messages and letters. For such requests, passing merchants would usually not refuse, and it was convenient for others and for their own convenience.

Just like this time.

Then a family of four boarded Wu Liang's caravan from Yumen.

They were going to Yuanquan to join their relatives, and happened to be on the way with the Hu army. After Wu Liang had a sideways conversation with them, he discovered that this family of four was indeed a relatively simple common people, especially with a man and a woman.

The half-grown children are basically unlikely to pose any threat to them, so they are naturally happy to provide some food, drink and shelter in exchange for free guide services.

in addition.

Something else happened during this process.

According to the information obtained by Yang Wanli, shortly after the soldiers of the Hu army killed Ma Chao and Pang De, several large-scale battles took place between Ma Teng and Han Sui.

The battlefield is in Tianshui County between Jincheng County and Yi County.

As for the specific reason, it was naturally Ma Chao's death.

Ma Teng insisted that it was Han Sui who sent an ambush to kill his son Ma Chao, but Han Sui had never done such a thing and naturally refused to admit it. Ma Teng then asked Han Sui to swear a poisonous oath to prove his innocence. After all, Han Sui was also a general. How could he agree?

He bowed to Ma Teng, and the two had some grudges, so they started fighting for no apparent reason.

It is also said that Li Jue and Guo Si, who are now in charge of the government, have sent people to mediate the war, and they don't know what the final result will be.

In response to this, Wu Liang looked at his nose and heart, saying that I was just a passerby passing by, and I didn't even want to have a name. You heroes can create your own.

And Fang Qiong.

On the way, Wu Liang also specially took Fang Qiong to Lufu, Jiuquan, hoping to stimulate her by revisiting her old place, and maybe help her regain some memories and consciousness, so as to pry more interesting things out of her mouth.

Value information comes.

result.

But to no avail, nothing was gained...

…

"We're here, that's my uncle's village!"

The middle-aged man named "Kabul" who was traveling with the Hu army pointed at a small farm surrounded by red willows on the outskirts of the town and shouted.

After entering the realm of Yuanquan, the family insisted on taking Wu Liang and others to meet their relatives. They said that the Hu army had taken good care of them along the way, and they wanted to express their gratitude as landlords.

In fact, this is simply generosity to others.

After all, they also come to seek refuge with others. To put it bluntly, it is not much different from coming to escape.

However, Wu Liang accepted their proposal.

It's not that he even wants to take advantage of this. The main reason is that in a place where he is unfamiliar with life, it is easier to have an agent who is familiar with the local area. After all, when he passed through "Wulan" not long ago, the local agent

The people there were extremely distrustful of outsiders like them, and they encountered some difficulties in supplying supplies. Only Yang Wanli spent money to find a local fellow to act as his agent, and finally got rid of this embarrassing situation.

"Your uncle is quite wealthy, and he is very happy just by looking at his life."

Looking at the lush small farm, Wu Liang smiled.

"Of course. My uncle is a famous witch doctor in this area. He has saved many people's lives. He is especially famous among us Yuezhi people."

Kabul puffed up his chest and said quite proudly.

"The doctor is kind-hearted. Your uncle must be a good man."

Wu Liang said with a smile.

"You are still wise. My uncle is also a philanthropic person. Sometimes when Han Chinese like you are in trouble and have to escape here, my uncle will also give them some food to help them. That's why I brought you here. If

My uncle knows that you have not only taken care of us all the way, but you are also a talented person who can turn water into ice. He will definitely be happy to make friends with you, and he will naturally entertain you."

When Kabul spoke, he always had that honest and simple smile on his dark face, which made people never associate him with a villain.

Although his wife and two children are not as talkative as him, there is no trace of scheming in their daily behavior. They also smile with the same smile, and they look like a family at first glance.

As for what Kabul said about "turning water into ice"...

This is actually just a small trick of Wu Liang. Because the weather has been too hot in the past few days, Wu Liang saw that the people in the Hu army couldn't stand the heat, so he used the saltpeter he carried to make some ice cubes from local materials.

Everyone cools off the heat.

People in this era knew too little about saltpeter.

Naturally, they didn't know that saltpeter would absorb a lot of heat when dissolved in water. Using this very common chemical knowledge in later generations, ice cubes could be made to relieve the heat even in hot summers.

Therefore, when they saw Wu Liang taking out ice cubes from the water, everyone in the Hu army and the family of four were really surprised. They all looked at Wu Liang as if they were seeing gods descending from the earth.

Then.

Since then, they have lived a magical life that even the royal family in this era who had the ability to use cellars to store ice in winter would not dare to imagine. Being able to eat a bowl of cold and delicious smoothies in the hot summer, is there anything more comfortable than this?

What?

Since then too.

Although the four members of this family did not say anything, they seemed to regard Wu Liang as a lofty shaman in the hearts of the Yuezhi people, and their every move was full of respect and admiration.

"I also hope to make friends with people like your uncle, so I'll trouble you to introduce him."

Wu Liang nodded slightly and became somewhat interested in this well-known "witch doctor".

…

After entering this small village.

We walked further in until we saw a row of houses built with bricks made of mud and grass mixed in the sun.

"Brother Youcai, what does it smell like? It stinks!"

Zhuge Liang took the lead and covered his nose, wrinkled his face and said to Wu Liang in a sullen voice.

"Yes, it stinks so bad, and it also smells fishy!"

Everyone also said in confusion.

In fact, they didn't smell the stench just now, but the stench before was not so strong, at least it was within the tolerable limit, so no one said anything.

After all, some places are already using excrement as agricultural fertilizer at this time, and some odors are normal. We are not fairies who do not eat fireworks from the world, and we are not unable to smell any stench. It will only make people feel pretentious to say so.

"I don't know why, but this smell seems a bit familiar to me..."

Yu Ji sniffed twice, but cast a surprised look at Wu Liang.

"Is it corpse odor?"

Wu Liang was startled. He also felt that the smell was extremely familiar, but he couldn't tell what it was for a while. Now Yu Ji's look finally woke Wu Liang up.

"Sir, look what that is."

Yang Wanli, who was walking at the front, quickly stopped, turned around and pointed at the row of rolled straw mats neatly placed in front of the row of houses, and said with a surprised expression.

"..."

Not just Wu Liang, everyone followed Yang Wanli's finger and looked over.
To be continued...