Tibet

In the blink of an eye, the midsummer season has arrived in the Hezhong area, and the hottest month of July has arrived. It has been four months since Li Ye served as the Broken Leaf Soldier and Horse Envoy.

This morning, Li Ye was on his way back to Suiye with more than a hundred cavalry. They were coming back from Bahan and traveling eastward along the Zhenzhu River. The Zhenzhu River was located three hundred miles south of Suiye City, but there was a gap between the two. It's not the grassland, but the vast Tianshan Mountains. In other words, Li Ye and his party have to pass through the Tianshan Mountains.

In fact, Atami is a lake formed in an alpine basin, surrounded by mountains. The Tianshan Mountains are to the south and east, the Kunge Mountains to the north, where they meet the Tianshan Mountains, and the Qianquan Mountains to the west, which is today's Kyrgyz Mountains. .

Surrounded by mountains, a huge basin is formed, with the Atami in the middle, and alpine pastures and some small towns scattered all around. The huge outlet of the basin is in the northwest, which is the Chu River Valley. The Chu River is very long and stretches all the way. to Lake Akzai in the north.

Although there are mountains all around, due to the influence of glaciers, the mountains are relatively broken, with many huge canyons filled with large and small rivers. At this time, Li Ye and his party passed through the Tianshan Mountains along the Nalen Canyon, Atami It is located at the foot of the northern foot of Tianshan Mountain.

As far as the eye can see, there is an endless forest at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, with tall and straight pine trees and firs growing there. Through the lush forest, there is a grassland area more than ten miles wide, which is like this for hundreds of miles around the lake. The terrain transitions from grasslands and forests to alpine pastures and snow-capped mountains.

Atami covers an area of ​​6,300 square kilometers and is a freshwater lake. China's largest freshwater Poyang Lake is only two-thirds of its size.

Although Li Ye arrived at Rehai, he could not reach Suiye City and had to spend the night in Yezhi City.

Suiye City is still a long way from Atami. Suiye City is about 80 miles away from Atami. Walking northwest along the Chu River, it happens to pass through a grand canyon in the Qianquan Mountains. After exiting this 80-mile road After walking through the long Grand Canyon, we arrived at Suiye City, located on the south bank of the Chu River.

Therefore, it is not easy to go to Bahanna from Suiye City. It takes more than half a month to go back and forth, and it takes several days just to walk through the Tianshan Mountains.

After resting for a night in Yezhi City, Li Ye led his army early the next morning and continued along the Chu River Grand Canyon in the northwest of Athai. The Chu River Grand Canyon is located between the Qianquan Mountains and the Kunge Mountains. The widest part of the canyon reaches 100 meters. It is more than 20 miles long at the narrowest point. In fact, it can no longer be seen as a canyon.

There are large tracts of grassland on both sides of the river, and you can see herds of sheep from time to time. The Chu River Valley is a rare oasis. It was originally the core territory of Tuqishi. The royal court of Tuqishi has been attacked by the Tang army. The entire area around Rehai, Chu The river basin, the southern part of the Yibo Sea, and the Yili Valley to the east are currently under the actual control of the Tang Dynasty.

But there are still many small tribes of Tuqishi living here. One concept needs to be clarified here. What the Tang army destroyed was the royal court of Tuqishi, not all the Tuqishi people. Without the royal court, these The small Tuqishi tribe could only rely on the Tang army and had to pay taxes, provide soldiers, etc. In fact, they became subjects of the Tang Dynasty.

There are also two Tuqishi tribes that are not attached to the Tang army and live in the Talas River Basin in the west. They claim to be the heirs of the Tuqishi royal court. But just this spring, these two Tuqishi tribes were defeated by Ge Luolu. The people annexed it, and treated the Tang army as if nothing had happened.

Two days later, Li Ye finally arrived in Suiye City.

The soldiers were exhausted and went back to the military camp to rest. Li Ye also returned to his residence. He still lives in the VIP Inn now, not in the house attached to the government office. It is more convenient for him to live alone in the VIP Inn. a little.

After walking into the gate, Yi Cheng Zhou Xiangdong stepped forward to salute and said with a smile: "The soldier and horse envoy is finally back!"

It took half a month to go back and forth. It was really not easy. Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "I'm really exhausted. It's so hot today that I'm almost melting. Prepare a few buckets of water for me. I'm going to wash it." Cool."

"It'll be there soon!"

Zhou Yicheng quickly arranged for his men to carry five or six buckets of water to Li Ye's yard. Li Ye closed the door, took off his clothes, and took a quick shower with cold water to dissipate the heat from his body.

Li Ye changed into another cloth, took a fan, and went to Longxi Restaurant opposite the inn to have dinner.

The cloth shirt Li Ye wore was made of cotton. In the Tang Dynasty, it was not called cotton cloth, but white folded cloth. It was actually cotton cloth. It was a specialty of Dashi and Sogdia. Cotton was grown in Dashi and Hezhong areas. It was passed down from Egypt. come over.

But Sogdian merchants would not sell this kind of white folded cloth to the Tang Dynasty. Not to mention the space it takes up, it cannot be sold. To transport it so far away, the tofu would have to be sold for the price of meat. A piece of cloth would be worth at least a hundred guan. It's a long journey, but apart from dignitaries and dignitaries, who would spend hundreds of dollars to buy it?

You can't see this kind of white folded cloth for sale on the streets of Chang'an, but there are many of them in Suiye, and they are very cheap. Everyone wears clothes made of this kind of cloth.

Longxi Restaurant was opened by Li Bai and his family. It had two floors and was in typical Central Plains style. Li Ye went up to the second floor and sat down by the window. The shopkeeper came up and said with a smile, "When did the military envoy come back?"

"Just arrived today!"

Li Ye smiled and asked, "What important news has Sui Ye got in the past half month?"

The shopkeeper thought for a while and said: "There is no news here in Suiye City, but I heard that there was a conflict over at Aitao Lake and many people died!"

Aitao Lake is located in the Yili River Valley at the northern foot of the Kunge Mountains, about 150 miles away from Suiye City. It is under the jurisdiction of the Suiye Tang Army. There is a small Tuqishi tribe living there, and nearby there are Ge Luolu tribe! "

Li Ye frowned and said, "Did the Geluolu people and the Tuqishi people have another conflict over the pasture?"

"Seems to be!"

Conflicts between the Tuqi and the Geluolu people were commonplace, and there had been no fewer than five such incidents in the four months since Li Ye took office.

Li Ye didn't bother to ask any more questions and said, "I'm hungry. Serve the food according to the old rules!"

"Okay! General, wait a moment, he'll be here soon."

Most of the taverns in Broken Leaf serve Hu people's meals, mainly roast mutton, mutton soup and scones, paired with goat's milk wine.

But this Longxi restaurant has a taste of the Central Plains, with barbecue, chicken, duck, fish, vegetables, and wine. Its signature dishes are Longxi steamed white fish, Liangzhou acacia chicken, Longxi stewed duck, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and Zhangye wine.

After a while, the wine and food were served, and Li Ye drank and ate by himself.

The biggest problem for a person working as an official in Suiye is loneliness. He has no friends, relatives, or lovers. He is just alone. He can't even find anyone to drink or eat with.

Once he calmed down, the loneliness in a foreign country would bite into his heart.

Pei Xiu and An Taixuan were his friends, but they were not in Suiye City. One was a general in Helie City and the other was a general in Yezhi City. Li Ye gave them the opportunity to act alone.

As for colleagues, they are even more unreliable. For example, Zhang Xian, the chief clerk, Li Ye found out that he was Gao Xianzhi's man and sent him to monitor Chen Fengzhong. Therefore, Chen Fengzhong lived a miserable life for the past four years and simply ignored government affairs.

At night, Suiye City becomes more prosperous and lively. There are no walls in Suiye City. Once the city gate is closed, various taverns, brothels, and commercial hotels in the city can stay up all night. They are hung with all kinds of colorful lanterns. They are so colorful that you can’t see them during the day. The women who arrived all came out at night, and they were basically Hu Ji from various countries and ethnic groups. Although this was the territory of the Tang Dynasty, if you wanted to find a Han escort girl, you would definitely not be able to find one.

Young Han women are very precious. They are cut off in Beiting and Anxi, and they cannot come to the distant Suiye.

At night, the main street, Atami Street, is much more lively than during the day, with people coming and going, laughter and laughter.

Everyone is lonely and needs to spend money to buy laughter and forget the troubles in a foreign land.

By the Broken Leaf River, Li Ye silently looked at the dark river water. Today was his last day to practice martial arts in the water. He persisted for four full months. Even if he went out on patrol or went to the Khanna, he never stopped.

He completed the final breakthrough three months ago. The sign of the breakthrough was not the opening of any meridians, but the fact that his knife speed under the water was the same as that of Pei Xingyan.

Instead of what Pei Min told him at the beginning, the number of knives he could chop on water and land within a certain period of time was the same. It can only chop fifteen times at most. No matter how powerful a person is, he cannot ignore the existence of resistance in the water.

He breathed three times in one stick of incense and could chop out ninety-eight swords. Lie Feng told him that with the same stick of incense and the same sixty-pound sword, Pei Xingyan could chop ninety-eight swords in one stick of incense. Nineteen swords, if you can reach this number, and stabilize it for another three months, you will have mastered the Suzaku Mental Technique.

Li Ye consolidated for three months, always hovering between ninety-eight and ninety-nine swords, and could not reach a hundred swords. When the water is full, it will overflow, and when the moon is full, it will lose. He does not want to force himself anymore.

Li Ye lit the incense with a fire stick, took a deep breath, and jumped into the river with the armor-breaking spear.

This chapter is a transitional chapter, mainly introducing the situation of Suiye and the surrounding terrain, so that everyone can have a general impression of Suiye and Suiye City.

The plot will unfold slowly next.