Unlike the armies of Ma Teng and Ma Chao, Zhang Yan's army encountered a serious problem from the beginning, that is, the desert.

Because Zhang Yan mistakenly underestimated the vastness of the desert, for several days, Zhang Yan, Xu Chu, Tai Shici, Pang Tong and others were still wandering around the desert.

The weather in July, which was already very hot, coupled with the fact that it was in a hot desert area with a lack of water, further increased the ability of Zhang Yan's army to march.

Up to now, Zhang Yan's army has the opportunity to advance at a speed of 100 miles a day, and this kind of turtle speed has made Zhang Yan almost fed up.

Moreover, the war horse has lost his unique advantage in the desert area, which makes them now in this predicament.

So, Zhang Yan decided to rest during the day and march at night, but at night the vision was not good, and he could not distinguish the direction, and the heat during the day made people not rest well, making the army look slightly tired.

And now, the water brought by the army for drinking has been drunk, the horses are sticking out their long tongues, and the lips of the soldiers are chapped with a layer of skin, and if there is no water source, this army is likely to die of thirst in this desert with men and horses.

In the makeshift tent, Zhang Yan was anxious, if they hadn't replenished all the water in the water source area before entering the desert, he would have died of thirst by now.

Zhang Yan sent out many scouts to find water in various directions. Because he firmly believes that there must be oases in the desert.

As for where Zhang Yan currently lives, although he has a map in hand, he has already lost his way. So these days. He has been walking in one direction. I hope to be able to get out of this desert as soon as possible.

In the evening, the scouts finally returned, but they brought back disappointing news that they had not seen the oasis.

But no matter what, Zhang Yan definitely couldn't sit still here, he suddenly remembered the story of Wangmei quenching his thirst, so he regrouped his army. In the afterglow of the setting sun, it constantly boosted the morale of the officers and men of the whole army, and said that two hundred miles away, there was a large oasis, and there was a freshwater lake in it, and as long as we persevered to get there, we could get out of this desert.

The soldiers believed it, and everyone played with twelve points of spirit, in order to be able to reach that oasis, in order not to die of thirst in this desert. They set out on their journey again.

After the sun set, the army walked in the desert without scorching sun. The soldiers mounted their horses one after another and galloped forward. Together with the war horses under them, they also seemed to feel the power brought by the water source, and they walked with their steps, unswervingly walking in the desert at night, advancing towards the water source area at the fastest speed.

During the march, Pang Tong said to Zhang Yan in confusion: "His Royal Highness King Yan, the scouts obviously didn't find a water source, why did we lie to these soldiers that they had found a water source?" If they had walked 200 miles and still had not seen a source of water, would they not blame us for deceiving them? When the time comes, the military will only be on the verge of collapse, and I am worried about ......"

"We have been walking in this direction for a long time in the past few days, and we have never seen the end, even if it is a big desert, there will be an end, the location investigated by the scouts is only fifty miles in a radius, I believe that if we really go another two hundred miles, we will definitely encounter a water source. And don't you see, as soon as the soldiers heard that there was a water source, they were very energetic, and tonight, maybe they could walk a hundred and fifty miles in one night. If you really can't do it, you can only kill the horse and bleed and drink the horse's blood to quench your thirst. Zhang Yan said.

Pang Tong said: "However, if after two hundred miles, you haven't walked out of this desert, so what? ”

Zhang Yan frowned, looked up at the night sky, and said, "If it really comes to that point, you can only resign yourself to fate." ”

Pang Tong didn't ask anymore, and secretly prayed to the sky in his heart, this expedition was his first time, but he didn't want it to be the last, praying that the army could get out of this desert and find a water source along the way.

Xu Chu, Tai Shici and others are all generals in the army, and they know very well what Zhang Yan means by doing this, but no one has a bottom on their psychological side, they don't know where they will be after two hundred miles, and they don't know if they can get out of this vast desert.

However, as Zhang Yan predicted, the soldiers' expectation of water sources had already aroused their inner desires, and they marched at night much faster than before.

Moreover, the heavens seem to be watching over this team, and the cool breeze blows in the night, making the heat of the day disappear.

However, the only difficulty was that the horses were not very good at walking in the desert, and it was very difficult to walk on the deep and shallow feet, and they carried cavalry and some baggage on their backs, and they were not only full of speed, but also a little overwhelmed.

In the second half of the night, the army had only walked fifty miles, and the distance of two hundred miles was only a quarter, and three-quarters of the distance was waiting for their challenge, but at this time, the war horses were already tired enough, and there was no water to drink during the day, and there were about five or six hundred weaker war horses, which directly foamed at the mouth of the tired people, and after a short time, they lay on the ground motionless, and were actually exhausted to death.

Zhang Yan then asked the dead horses to bleed, and the soldiers came over to drink the horse blood. Horse blood is relatively hot, and not everyone can drink it, but in order to survive, the soldiers still drank it hard, the blood of more than 600 war horses was all drained, and those who drank horse blood were not easy, some could not adapt to the heat, became restless, and some vomited directly, but no matter how they retched, they couldn't spit anything out of their mouths.

After a short rest, Zhang Yan asked the army to set off again, this time, in order to relieve the pressure on the horses, all the soldiers marched on foot, carrying heavy loads on horseback.

After walking about thirty miles, the soldiers who were walking at the front suddenly spotted a bonfire, and around the bonfire was a circle of camels, about twenty or thirty heads, which looked a bit like a caravan.

So, the soldiers reported the situation to Zhang Yan, who hurriedly led the people to the caravan and asked the owners of the caravan where they were, how they could get out of the desert, and where there was a water source.

The merchant told Zhang Yan that they had reached the territory of Zhangye's vassal state, and that they would walk about forty miles northwest to reach Juyanze, the only oasis in the desert, and that there was another city near Juyanze, but it was not inhabited by Han Chinese, but by Xianbei people.

This important news made Zhang Yan gain a lot, so he said goodbye to the merchant and led the army to Juyanze.

When the merchant saw that Zhang Yan and the others were in trouble on the march, he took out a water bladder and gave it to Zhang Yan and asked Zhang Yan to drink water. But Zhang Yan refused, and told the merchant that the desert ahead was very vast, and it was difficult to get out, so the merchant changed his way.

The merchant smiled and said that he had traveled back and forth on this road countless times, and that there had never been a problem, that although the desert was large, there were no horse thieves or other thieves, that his caravan was relatively safe, and that he had brought camels with him, that he could go days without drinking water, and that he had carried them with him quickly, and that the water he had brought with him was sufficient to get out of the desert.

Reflecting the firelight, the merchant suddenly became interested in the war horse under Zhang Yan's seat, so he asked: "The general's war horse under the seat is a bloody horse?" ”

Zhang Yan nodded, admired the businessman's unique gaze, and asked the businessman how he saw it.

The merchant said that he was from the Western Regions, and because he often traded on the Silk Road, he was proficient in Chinese and many other different languages, and he once passed by Dawan and saw Dawan's sweat and blood BMW once, so his memory is still fresh.

The soldiers passed by near this bonfire, and Zhang Yan talked with the merchants, and learned from the merchants' mouths that there was a civil strife in Dawan a few years ago, and the cause was because of the sweat and blood BMW, because the sweat and blood BMW was too famous, so the strong enemies around wanted the sweat and blood BMW.

However, Dawan's sweat and blood BMW production is small, and the strong enemies of the countries in the Western Regions are not enough, so they often bully and squeeze Dawan. The people of Dawan are overwhelmed, and the royal family of Dawan is very fond of sweat and blood, so the people have rebelled, and the rebel army has invaded the capital of Dawan and slaughtered sweat and blood horses.

The royal family sent troops to suppress it, but the rebellious army defeated the royal army, stormed the palace, and killed the royal family together. However, only the prince of Dawan escaped from the clutches of the rebels with a pony of a bloody horse, and since then, the Dawan kingdom has never seen the figure of the bloody horse again.

This news not only made Zhang Yan stunned, because the white dragon horse under his seat was a purebred sweat and blood BMW, and there was a horseman named Ayub beside him, coincidentally, Ayub came from the Western Regions, and when he came, he also led the white dragon, and then wandered to Liaodong, and then Liaodong Taishou Gongsun Du gave this war horse to Zhang Yan together with Ayub, and became Zhang Yan's mount.

If what the merchant said is true, and Zhang Yan contacts the origin of Ayub and the sweaty BMW, it is not difficult to speculate that Ayub should be the prince of Dawan.

Zhang Yan said goodbye to the merchant, stepped on the white dragon horse, and galloped quickly to the front of the army, constantly looking at his horseman Ayub along the way, only to feel that Ayub was a little noble, and he seemed to be a little prince in his gestures.

Zhang Yan had never asked about Ayub's true origin, but when he suddenly heard such an explosive news, he became very interested in Ayub, and secretly thought in his heart that maybe when he entered the Western Regions after the Xianbei people were severely damaged, Ayub's identity would be very useful to him.

But now, Zhang Yan just pretended that nothing had happened, and waited until he got out of the desert and hit the Xianbei people hard. (To be continued......)