Urban Sims

…

Far up the long river among the white clouds, there is an isolated city called Wanren Mountain.

Why should the Qiang flute blame the willows? The spring breeze does not cross Yumen Pass.

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A song "Liangzhou Ci" vividly illustrates what kind of place Liangzhou is.

The plateau environment is very high, sparsely populated, and mountains surround both sides of the isolated city. Travelers do not need to play the Qiang flute to complain that the willows are not green, because the place is desolate, lonely and lonely, and the spring breeze cannot blow into the Yumen Pass.

Liangzhou, the most important frontier state of the Great Zhou Kingdom, most of the area is Gobi desert, lacks rainfall, the agricultural structure is semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral, the economic development is backward, multi-ethnic people live together, and the western border faces two nomadic kingdoms : One is the "Turkic Kingdom" on the northwest grassland, and the other is the "Turkish Kingdom" on the southwest plateau.

These two countries are currently the two most important border troubles of the Great Zhou Kingdom. They invade the border all the time. Especially thirty years ago, the Great Zhou Kingdom opened the Ganquan Corridor and controlled the Western Regions. After reopening the Silk Road, it surrounded the Western Regions. In the struggle for hegemony in this strategic location, the three countries have waged endless wars for years.

However, among the three countries, the Zhou Dynasty was the most powerful, and the Turkic and Tufan countries, which had been suppressed many times and had been suppressed for a long time, had to unite and form an alliance to attack from both sides in the narrow strips such as the Western Region and the Ganquan Corridor. Great military pressure was created on Da Zhou, and the three countries repeatedly engaged in tug-of-war competition around some important military points, which has been deadlocked.

Therefore, in order to maintain the smooth flow of the Silk Road and the hegemony of the Western Regions, the Great Zhou Dynasty deployed a huge army with a total number of 300,000 in the area from the Western Regions to Liangzhou. This elite army was mainly composed of children of good families, with a small number of They are criminals who were exiled to the army. And the generals and soldiers of this huge army have been stationed at the border for a long time, ranging from three to five years for a short period of time, and as long as twenty or thirty years.

Moreover, there are endless wars at the border. Most of the soldiers have taken root here since the day they left their hometown, and have never returned to their hometown.

…

After Zhou Ming and his party entered the pale and deserted Liangzhou territory, they occasionally heard the melodious sound of the Qiang flute in the distance. The scenery of the frontier fortress and the customs of the desert made Zhou Ming's poetry and writing style change drastically along the way, and his talents and thoughts surged. Sometimes one day He can write more than a dozen frontier poems, and the output of poems is quite amazing.

Yinzhou is an important node on the Silk Road. In this state, Zhou Ming and others followed a caravan with thousands of camels and mainly sold silk. They followed an ancient road and traveled westward for more than 2,000 years. Here, head to the border pass: Yumen Pass.

While following the caravan, Zhou Ming wanted to know something about the situation. After becoming familiar with the merchants selling silk, after several conversations, Zhou Ming had more ideas about the Silk Road. Intuitive and clear understanding.

Why do these merchants go to foreign lands to sell silk, despite the dangers of lack of water in the desert, horse bandits, and enemy plunder, traveling thousands of miles with their heads on their waists?

Profit, one thousand percent profit.

In the Far West countries, which are far further west than the Western Regions, a piece of silk is more expensive than gold of the same quality. Silk merchants can return home loaded with gold and silver as long as they make a successful sale. As long as they complete a transaction, they will be rich in gold and silver in the next life. Basically, no worries about food and clothing.

Attracted by the huge profits, even if less than five out of ten silk vendors could come back, it still could not stop countless businessmen from spending all their wealth and giving it a try.

Moreover, the Zhou court would also protect these silk traders. Some large caravans would even be accompanied by local garrison troops. They would also clean up horse bandits around the trade routes from time to time to maintain the overall smoothness of the Silk Road... ...It shows that the court attaches great importance to it.

Why is the Silk Road so important to the Great Zhou Kingdom?

Zhou Ming believes that it is still due to the lack of gold and silver in the Great Zhou Kingdom, and even the shortage of copper coins... The shortage of various types of circulating currencies has seriously restricted the healthy development of the national economy, so we have to open up the Silk Road and use silk to... Foreign exchange for large amounts of gold and silver.

Therefore, Zhou Ming respected these silk vendors who were brave and fearless and benefited the country and the people. He even wrote several poems to praise these vendors. Through these poems, several silk vendors suddenly learned that he was actually a famous person. When Mr. Zihua moved the world, he was very excited for an instant, and then the whole camp was shocked! That night, they took off the best dozen pieces of silk from the camel's back, built a silk tent, and arranged for the two most beautiful orchids to serve in the tent and treat them with the highest courtesy... Zhou Ming couldn't refuse.

Zhou Ming, who enjoyed all kinds of preferential treatment and soon became the most watched person in the caravan, felt quite regretful. If he had known this, he should not have revealed his real name before. Celebrities also have their own troubles. If the whole world If his fans are so fanatical about celebrities, he can almost choose to remain anonymous. Otherwise, his normal life will be seriously affected.

Zhou Ming and this caravan traveled for more than a month on a journey of more than two thousand miles. In the second half of the journey, they encountered a group of ferocious horse bandits numbering a thousand people. This group of horse bandits was very cunning. They launched an attack in the early morning, intending to swallow the caravan whole. However, they heard the faint sound of horse hooves, and Zhou Ming, who woke up earlier, immediately woke everyone up, because he warned in time, and the caravan formed a thick circular formation. With very slight losses, they successfully repelled the horse bandits.

During the fight against the thieves, Zhou Ming borrowed a three-stone hard bow. He opened the bow and nocked an arrow, and shot fifteen horse bandit leaders in a row. This shocked the morale of his own side and cheered repeatedly. The caravan not only repelled The horse bandits were pursued for several miles and hundreds of horses were captured.

…

"Is the Jade Gate closed here?"

A city made of loess, with a height of about ten meters and a circumference of nearly ten miles, appeared in front of Zhou Ming.

The surrounding area of ​​the city is very desolate. The surrounding sandy land only has drought-tolerant plants such as camel thorns, sand holly, and sandweed jujube growing here and there. The rest is covered with yellow sand and gravel.

Yumen Pass.

The three white and simple characters on the city gate clearly told Zhou Ming that his destination had finally arrived.

Yumen Pass, this frontier fortress, has a long history. As early as thousands of years ago, there was a powerful dynasty named "Wei". After opening up the Western Regions, they mobilized 200,000 troops and spent ten years building this place. A pass.

And because this pass is close to the Dayin Mountain and Tianzhu Mountains, on the top of the snow-capped mountains, a large amount of snow water melts every year and flows into the underground river. After this underground river was discovered by Master Kanyu, the pass was located on top of this underground river. The large amount of fresh water provided by Yumenguan is enough to meet the drinking water needs of hundreds of thousands of livestock.

Therefore, Yumen Pass is an important stop on the Silk Road where any caravan replenishes fresh water.

In Yumen Pass, there is not only a garrison of 50,000 people, but also hundreds of inns, warehouses, restaurants and restaurants. The supporting banks, casinos, bathhouses and brothels are also available.

Even here, Zhou Ming unexpectedly saw a "Zihua Bookstore" that had been open for half a year and was doing a booming business... He couldn't help but look at the manager of this Zihua Bookstore in a different light, because this was a border area. , is not within the scope of the ten states in the world. The store manager of this Zihua Bookstore can find business opportunities here and successfully open a store, which is enough to prove that he is a talented person who is full of courage and dares to think and do! Therefore, after some encouragement, Zhou Ming appointed him as the "General Agent of the Western Regions", and he will take care of all the Zihua Bookstores opened in the Western Regions in the future.

The store manager was so moved that he almost knelt down.

With the following silk vendors building momentum, and the "Zihua Bookstore" laying the groundwork, in less than half a day, a group of well-equipped soldiers rushed to the inn where Zhou Ming and others were staying, and said : General Su Lie, the commander-in-chief of the Ganzhou Marching Army, has invited Mr. Zihua to be a guest at the commander-in-chief’s residence. The banquet has been prepared. I hope Mr. Zihua will take the time to meet him, discuss books and articles together, and have a good time over wine...

The leading soldier was very respectful.

Zhou Ming nodded, tidied up a little, and then followed the group of soldiers through the triple city gate, passing by groups of armored soldiers. After walking for more than ten minutes, he finally arrived at the general manager's door. In the living room of the first wing of the mansion, I saw the owner who had been waiting for a cup of tea - an old man wearing a green robe, with white hair and beard, and stern eyes.

"Are you Tian Zihua?" After seeing Zhou Ming, the old man was taken aback for a moment, then blurted out.

"Exactly!" Zhou Ming raised his head and chest after slightly cupping his hands, and said neither humble nor overbearing.

"Young, really young! When I was your age, I was just a general who commanded thousands of people, but you have already moved the world with your literary work, and your reputation is far above me. You are to be feared in the future, and you are to be feared in the future!" The old man praised, He said with emotion: "This practice of martial arts is really not as good as that of Xiwen..."

Hearing the old man's words, Zhou Ming, who was originally quite serious, suddenly laughed and said:

"Why did the old general say this? I have grown up listening to your stories. You defeated the Turks in the East and West, conquered Gaoji in all directions, destroyed three kingdoms and captured three kings, defeated Tufan repeatedly, and conquered all countries in the Western Region... You fought with military force. For decades, what you have done is not to shock the world and protect the country and the people? If there were no generals here to guard the country, the world would have been in chaos. How could there be a stable life for the people? How could there be a boy? An opportunity to show off your reputation? I would rather be a centurion than a scholar. Compared with the old general, the boy is useless and can only add smiles! "

"Hahaha!"

The old man's face glowed red at the words, and he pointed at Zhou Ming and laughed: "What a good Mr. Hua! I thought you were a talented, arrogant and unruly person, but I never thought that you would also flatter others... Hahaha, laugh. I’m dead!”

The old man's laughter was like thunder, shaking the roof tiles, completely unlike an old man in his seventies.

This old man is known as the "War God of the Great Zhou Dynasty". He joined the army with his father at the age of fifteen to defeat thieves. He served as emperor for three dynasties and participated in dozens of battles. He won countless victories and destroyed several countries. He never lost a battle. General Su Lie and Su Dingfang.

However, although this old general has great military exploits, he also has some outstanding achievements, so he has never been used by the court. He is like a brick, which needs to be moved wherever it is needed. Therefore, wherever there is a brick on the border of the Great Zhou Kingdom, The police, the situation was heading towards corruption, so sending the God of War Su Lie to take action became a subconscious choice of the court.

General Su Lie has no regrets about these arrangements made by the court. In the past fifty years, from north to west, from west to south, many states in the world have left traces of this war god’s conquests, and this war god is not good at money. He was rigorous in running the army and loved his soldiers as his own children. He was not only deeply loved by the soldiers, but also had a very positive and good impression in the hearts of millions of people in the Zhou Dynasty.

The surrounding enemy countries respected and feared him, to the extent that they invaded the border many times and ordered the withdrawal of their troops as soon as they heard General Su Lie's arrival.

Therefore, in front of this respected old general, Zhou Ming did not dare to show off his reputation as "Mr. Zihua" at all. Instead, he treated him respectfully as an elder.

Su Lie was very satisfied with his attitude, and was photographed by his comfortable flattery from time to time, even more smiling from ear to ear, and regarded him as a friend who had forgotten the years. Afterwards, the two often discussed marching formations and winning wars The secrets of the elements are sometimes in contention. For example, when he heard Zhou Ming describe a weapon that could defeat 100,000 people head-on with only 10,000 people equipped, the old general yelled that it was ridiculous. Weapons, he is still stationed here in the bitter cold place? He had long led his troops to sweep across the grasslands and flatten the plateaus, quickly wiping out the Turks and Tufans...

The two rarely discussed topics related to poetry and prose.

Two days later.

The old and young people, who were chatting happily, called some people and rode out of Yumen Pass together to enjoy the scenery beyond the Great Wall.

Standing on a high sand dune, with the breeze blowing, looking at the desert scenery of yellow sand in front of me, the geese fly north under the setting sun, and a nearly vertical thick smoke rises from the top of the mountain not far away. Immediately inspiration came Zhou Ming composed a poem and wrote on the spot the famous line "Zheng Peng leaves Wei Sai, returning geese enter Hu Tian. The lonely smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun sets over the long river."

However, after this poem was written, it did not attract a lot of applause. Zhou Ming felt strange, turned his head to look, and saw the old general and several lieutenants, all with serious faces, staring at the thick black smoke, waiting After it rose three times in a row, the deputy general next to him raised his hands and said to the old general: "General Manager, there are three pillars of smoke. The enemy army should be more than 100,000 people!"

"Go back to the pass, beat the generals' drums, prepare food, grass and weapons, and prepare for the expedition!" The old general, whose demeanor had completely changed, issued several military orders in an instant.

"promise!"

All the generals expressed their promise together!

…

Half a day later, a Tanma entered the city and reported urgently: "Report! Tupan Lunzanqin led 100,000 troops and stormed Stone City. Zhang Yuan, the defender of Stone City, please send troops to the rescue. Reinforcements must arrive within five days!"

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