Northwest.

Xu Shen didn't find out that Hu Si'er's family was sneaky, because they had already hidden their faith underground, in fact, even if they were to engage in religious ceremonies openly, the government would not do well, and the mosques in Lanzhou City had never been closed, in fact, most of the Hui people who had survived the catastrophe themselves were in trouble.

Xu Hao remembered some later descriptions that when the population proportion of Islamists was very small, people were often very docile.

Xu Shen rode out of the pass, patrolling with the team in the vast prairie and the vast sea. The scorching sun baked him, which was the best enjoyment in winter, and he tossed and turned in silence for days on end.

It seemed that he could still smell the grass under the frozen soil, and he walked silently without saying a word against the gently undulating grassland. Between heaven and earth, this place that has been tossed by the cold and heat for countless centuries since ancient times, people have become rough and strong, and every qiē in their hearts is blocked by cold faces, if there is no liquor or something special to release the soft part of the nature of the prairie people, you will never want to break through the barrier between each other.

No Han Chinese liked the Mongols, at least not before the Ming Dynasty, because they were the most brutal beasts, endlessly plundering and killing the Han Chinese inside the Great Wall, even though many of the herders were enthusiastic and heroic.

Of course, that refers to the Mongols in the depths of the steppe, and the herdsmen who live inside and outside the Great Wall do not consider themselves Mongols, they may be descendants of the Xiongnu, Turkic, Xianbei, Western Regions, Dangxiang, Liao, etc., who have been living with the Han people in the northwest for an unknown amount of time, and they are just as eager for a stable and prosperous life, and they are disgusted and afraid of the robbers in the north.

However, with the Mongol conquest, most of the herders were forced to become Mongols, and it has been nearly 200 years since Mongolization.

In an oasis, herders came out of their yurts to welcome Xu Ember and other Ming soldiers, bringing with them much-needed tea and spirits, and the Ming army also needed furs and other goods. Bringing it back can cover all the costs of coming out this time.

Xu Yan's colleague Baiyin Bao Gree is eighteen years old this year, he is a child of this tribe, and his father is a hundred households canonized by the Ming Dynasty.

Xu Yan looked at the white-haired grandmother and smiled happily, she threw herself a cowhide wine bag, and then affectionately took her grandson in her arms and kissed Baiyin Bulgari's forehead.

In the yurt, there was a dark-eyed little girl who was quietly drinking tea sitting inside, Xu Shen untied the waist knife on his body, and asked, "What's your name?" ”

"Somya. Are you a Han Chinese named Xu Ash? ”

The little girl's voice is sweet and very good. Xu Ember nodded, and smiled at Baiyin Bulgari, the other party laughed, the little girl also laughed, Xu Ember picked up the cowhide wine sac and poured a large sip of milk wine.

The patriarch entertained them affectionately, and a large plate full of mutton was brought in, but the Ming army lacked interest one by one, and the rarest thing for them now was not meat but vegetables.

Having drunk enough spirits, the slightly drunk patriarch held his son's shoulder. Walking outside to breathe in the fresh air, he pulled Baiyin Bulgari's shoulder and said slowly: "Child, from the day your mother was killed by the Tatars. I always wanted revenge, and that year I slaughtered three Tatars with my own hands and fulfilled my oath. Now I'm old, for the safety of my clan. You should know how tired I am, do a good job, my little calf. You have to be like your grandfather and father, the men of the Eji family are all manly, and you have to be a man on horseback. ”

Xu Shen had heard that Baiyin Bulgari's childhood was very similar to his own, his father served in the Ming army like crazy, and he lived with his grandmother in a clansman's house. From an early age, he became a child in a tent, learned to collect dung, catch calves, coax spring lambs, drive healthy oxen to wells in the grass to haul water, and use pony poles of his own construction to lass sheep and foals.

Somya is the same age as him, both born in the Year of the Goat, and both are grandmother's treasures. The two of them work together, childhood sweethearts.

Every boy on the prairie dreams of becoming a man who can take charge of himself, and whenever an adult man leaves home for various reasons such as fighting, the boy will rise in his heart a sense of pride in overcoming his father's dignity, and there is no need for his elders to call the shots. In the vast grassland, the boys would straighten up majestically, and the girls would stand cautiously aside, looking at them with trust and admiration.

The Chinese New Year was approaching, and the women were all dressed in new leather robes with bright yellow and bright lace smoked from cow dung, and Xu Shen brought gifts for them, and six or seven girls sat in the yurt, happily looking through the mooncakes, flower hand towels, and porcelain tea bowls.

The grassland gave Xu Ember, who grew up in Liaodong, a sense of intimacy, and he walked up the hillside, saw the blue glass-like river flowing quietly, drawing a boundary with the Han people on the distant land, looking at the faint stars and felt bags in the river bay, Xu Ember silently recited the word hometown.

Three days later, the Ming army left the oasis and braved the wind and snow to rush to the next guard. Xu Ember rode on a majestic black war horse given by the tribe, gently stroked his musket, and remembered the loud war song behind him, he pulled the horse's head, and saw the silver-haired grandmother walking and singing energetically from a distance.

She held her grandson in one hand and Somya in the other, and she walked firmly, her silver hair fluttering in the wind.

That night, the old woman insisted on sleeping on the west side of the yurt, and vacated the white mat felt directly north of the stove that belonged to the newlyweds.

Nowadays, not only the people of Hebei, Henan and Shandong are "breaking into the east", but the Han people in many counties in Gansu have also begun to break into the west, and the people of Suide, Mizhi and Yulin in Shaanxi Province are pulling camels to the west; In order to live a better life, the men of the Han family relied on various crafts, and dared to push the birch flat cart and the jujube wood flat car, and took the guys' wives and children through the Great Wall checkpoint to settle outside the dangerous pass.

Xu Yan's elite rangers are to ensure the safety of these emerging towns and people of all ethnic groups, and to deal a timely blow to any robbers who dare to attack.

Dahe Town, which became a necessary place for immigrants in the sixth year of Hongxi, has built a strong city defense, with as many as 10,000 residents, all men, women and children who do not know how to use muskets.

This year, a breeding station was built in the city, the house frame was erected, and three veterinarians who graduated from the new school came, all of whom were from the northwest.

The Tianshan Mountains, which are thousands of miles away from Dahe Town, are like two places with the blue pine and tender grass at the northern foothills, the red stones are broken all over the ground at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, the soil is pale red scorched earth, the traces of wind erosion on the mountain stones are as clear as knife cutting, and the vicious sharp stone edges are piled up in waves.

The three hundred weary knights, in this majestic desolation, could no longer care about their own insignificance, and continued to walk slowly along the hillside, and the guide had returned.

After traveling thousands of miles, the team finally walked into Hanjiazhai, and a plush of wolf smoke rose faintly on the top of the mountain, and suddenly understood the true meaning of the desert lonely smoke.

Hanjiazhai is located in the middle of an iron-gray Gobi Desert in the north of Turpan in Xinjiang, south of the Tianshan Mountains. The dry mountains without vegetation are like iron slag piled together, and no grass grows.

In such a harsh environment, there are more than a dozen families living in Kentun, as early as the Han Dynasty, there are Han people living here in Kentun, the Tang and Song dynasties set up prefectures and counties, and another group of Han people moved to foreign lands.

From the Han Dynasty to the present, Hanjiazhai has been persisting for at least 1,000 years.

Three hundred knights dismounted and dressed in the clearing, and at the door of the mud huts around them, old and young stared at them stupidly, because they had not seen outsiders for a long time, and the place was barren to the point that no one cared about it.

There was a little girl in a torn red cotton jacket, looking at them in alarm.

The knights were pinched in their hearts, the villagers were all Han costumes, and in an instant they understood that this place was indeed called Hanjiazhai.

Since the Han Dynasty on various maps, the Han family village will be found on it, in such a Jedi, how to survive, what to plant, what to eat, in later generations has become a mystery.

But this is by no means a myth, after the founding of New China, Hanjiazhai still exists. "Song envoy. Gao Chang Biography "According to the envoy Wang Yande, there is a saying that "two more days to the Han family". It is a village, and it is a place where the Han people stick to it.

The Ming knights were moved, and carefully coaxed the little girl, saying that we are your relatives and from your hometown, and when the little girl smiled shyly, these warriors seemed happier than anything else.

Then the knights spontaneously left everything they could for these Han people, and they shouldered the heavy responsibility of going to the Western Regions.

On the third day, the knights left Hanjiazhai and continued to march towards the Turpan Basin. The earth tilted even more, and on the straight slope, the black stones stretched for hundreds of miles shimmered with white light.

The knights suddenly stopped, and looked back at the Tianshan Mountains together, and the entire southern foot rose out, rugged and indescribable. Looking down at Turpan in front of you, the outline of an oasis has appeared like a mirage, not far away, but the Han people of Hanjiazhai have adhered to their responsibilities for generations, living on the desolate mountains.

Hitting the road in such a bleak and severe environment, every man's heart swelled with a resolute spirit, his eyes became resolute, and he understood what they should fight for! They felt the desolation and vastness of perseverance like this landscape, and the glory of empathy boiled in their hearts.

Walking through a turn, the knights were still thinking about Hanjiazhai, and they didn't know if there would be a day of reunion.

The scout at the front suddenly turned the reins excitedly, and the big guys turned their heads one after another, and saw a small red figure on the cliff, which was the torn red cotton jacket of the little girl in the village.

The men fought back the excitement in their hearts and continued their journey. From that day on, they said goodbye to Hanjiazhai, and from that day on, no matter where they went, they were unconsciously holding on to something.

There was a knight who later published an article in the newspaper, he wrote that Hanjiazhai was the most touching experience in his life, in Yongle Zhou, in Hanwangzhou, he always recalled Hanjiazhai, carefully thought about every detail, when he walked through the Gobi of Hanjiazhai, the indescribable feeling under the empty mountains and valleys will always be filled in his heart and chest.

In the twelfth year of Hongxi, Xu Hao ordered his son Xu Yan to escort a large number of supplies to Hanjiazhai, built a strong castle for the villagers, and built 36 border villages along the way, recreating the Silk Road. (To be continued......)