Chapter Fifty-One: West of Yangguan Pass

  Liu Ze chose a golden armor for himself, wearing a large red cloak, with the Longyuan sword hanging on his left waist and the Tai'a sword on his right. Guan Yu was also in golden armor, wearing a green robe, holding a Qinglong Yanyue knife. Zhang Fei wore black armor and black robes, holding a 8-foot-long snake spear gun in his hand, looking majestic and powerful.

  Jia Xuan was stunned, this was not a merchant caravan, but a fully armed military force. The bright armor was clearly the exclusive equipment of the Imperial Guard's Feathered Forest Army. Jia Xuan thought to himself, could it be that Liu Ze was not just a horse trader, but an imperial official with a special mission, disguised as a merchant caravan, sneaking out of Yangguan to carry out some secret task.

  Liu Ze seemed to see through his mind and smiled at him: "Is Mr. Wenhe taking me as a special envoy of the imperial court, coming here to carry out a secret mission?"

  Jia Yu had no words, he was waiting for Liu Ze's answer.

  Liu Ze smiled and said, "Mr. Wenhe is mistaken, I am not an official of the imperial court, nor do I have any special mission. I am just a plain businessman. The purpose of this trip is to find the sweat-blood horse. As for arming these men, it's just in case something unexpected happens. I've heard that the Xiongnu people are also looking for the sweat-blood horse. If we encounter them, we can defend ourselves. Although the sweat-blood horse is precious, it's not worth losing our lives in this desert."

  Jia Yu nodded in agreement, but his doubts did not decrease.

  Pan Feng came over to report: "Reporting to Your Excellency, the cavalry is fully equipped, awaiting orders!"

  "Very well, the 300 cavalrymen will be divided into three teams. Guan Yu will lead the first team to open the way ahead, Zhang Fei will lead the second team to guard the rear, and Pan Feng and Wu Anguo will lead the third team to protect the central army. All large vehicles will be abandoned, and the entire army will set off immediately for Congling!" Liu Ze issued the marching order at once.

  Zhang Fei was not satisfied with being left to guard the rear, but Liu Ze's expression was stern and his orders had to be obeyed. He did not dare to argue back. The various generals received their orders and took up their positions, and the troops marched off in an orderly manner towards the west.

  On the march, Liu Ze secretly ordered Pan Feng: "Pan Feng, you send two people to specifically protect Mr. Jia, and must ensure Mr. Jia's life safety, and absolutely do not let him escape! In short, if Mr. Jia loses even a single finger, I will hold you responsible!" Pan Feng happily accepted the order.

  Strong winds, sandstorms, and treacherous roads that were difficult to traverse. To be more accurate, there was no road at all. Everywhere they went, the ground was covered with ankle-deep sand. As far as the eye could see, there was only endless yellow sand. In order not to get lost in the desert, Liu Ze constantly adjusted his compass and corrected the direction of their march. Jia Xiang was very interested in this object, so Liu Ze gave him one to study carefully.

  On this day, just after noon, the sky suddenly changed, and the originally clear sky became overcast, presenting a grayish-yellow color. The wind blowing from the north was cold and piercing, the horses were neighing restlessly, and the camels knelt on the ground, refusing to get up even when whipped by people. The faces of those native guides showed a look of terror. Liu Ze saw all this and hastily asked Jia Xian beside him.

  Jia Xun's face turned heavy, and he said: "This is a sign that the big sandstorm is about to arrive. We must quickly find a place to take shelter from the wind. Otherwise, when the big sandstorm comes, sand dunes dozens of feet high can move, and if you are buried alive by it, you will truly have no place to be buried."

  Although Liu Ze had not personally experienced a massive sandstorm, he was familiar with it from watching movies in his past life. Facing the rolling and overwhelming yellow dust that filled the sky, he felt tiny like a grain of sand. Looking around, there was no place to take shelter except for the low sand dunes everywhere.

  As he was thinking about how to avoid the big sandstorm, the scout sent by Guan Yu came back to report that a abandoned ancient city had been found. Liu Ze's spirit lifted greatly and immediately ordered everyone to advance towards the ancient city at full speed. Just as they entered the ancient city, the big sandstorm struck with great force, the strong winds howling with large grains of sand, people couldn't see their hands in front of them, all they could do was squat on the ground, praying for this terrible weather to end soon.

  The massive sandstorm finally ended after an hour, and the sky turned blue again. People crawled out of the sand dunes, shaking off the dust from their bodies, spitting out the sand from their mouths and noses, and cursing the damned weather. Liu Ze, on the other hand, was interested in examining this abandoned ancient city.

  The city is square, with each side over 300 paces. The walls are not made of brick or stone, but rather a mixture of mud, reeds, and branches. What interests Liu Ze the most is that there are no houses in the city, only tall towers, some three stories high, others six, and the tallest reaching nine stories, with an octagonal base and a round top. He feels as though he has stumbled upon the legendary ancient city of Loulan. When he asks Jia Xian, the answer is affirmative - this is indeed the city of Loulan. It appears that the city was abandoned not too long ago, for although it is devoid of human life, all the buildings are still intact and not in ruins. Occasionally, one can spot a few scattered white bones, as if telling people that this place had recently witnessed a brutal massacre.

  "Loulan was destroyed by the Xiongnu only three years ago. After the Xiongnu moved west, they launched a large-scale military campaign in the Western Regions, successively destroying the countries of Qishe, Kucha, Wusun, Dayuan, and Yuezhi. The Loulan kingdom had a population of 100,000 and an army of 8,000, but under the impact of the Xiongnu cavalry, it was powerless to resist. The city of Loulan was quickly breached, and the Xiongnu massacred everyone indiscriminately, regardless of age. According to legend, even the Kongque River turned red. After killing and plundering, the Xiongnu abandoned the city, and Loulan was buried by sandstorms, disappearing from people's sight forever." As a resident of Liangzhou, which is not far from the Western Regions, Jia Xi had a very detailed understanding of the situation in this region.

  Liu Ze sighed and said, "The Xiongnu people are indeed extremely cruel and brutal, not even sparing women, children and the elderly. Is it that these people do not have any humanity at all?"

  "The horseback nation on the grassland, what they practice is survival of the fittest. In their eyes, killing a person and killing a sheep are no different. They would attack and destroy cities and tribes at will. Not only did this happen to various Western Regions countries, but our Great Han has also been constantly raided by the Xiongnu for hundreds of years. The ordinary people living in the border areas such as Hexi, Hezhou, Bingzhou, and Youzhou have all lived in displacement and terror, always on the brink of death."

  Jia Xu was born in Liangzhou, Wuwei. He naturally had a deep understanding of the difficulties faced by the common people here. Moreover, he himself was from a scholarly family in Wuwei, and his ancestors had served as officials in various states and commanderies. However, due to the frequent wars in this region, the Jia family was unable to accumulate any wealth. After Jia Xu resigned from his official position, he became extremely poor and could only humble himself to work as an interpreter at Yangguan Pass to make a living.

  Liu Ze listened and remained silent. Wu Ankou came over to report that the troops had completed their assembly, and asked if they should set off immediately. Liu Ze let out a breath and gave a brief order: "Depart!"

  Leaving Loulan, the team headed west, and Liu Ze chose a road that was closer to the southern mountains (in the Western Regions, the Kunlun Mountains were called the Southern Mountains, and the Tian Shan was called the Northern Mountains). Although it was more rugged, it had the nourishment of snow water from the southern mountains, with oases scattered about, and drinking water and food could be guaranteed. The morale of the entire team was not dragged down by the harsh desert environment, and they maintained their high fighting spirit.

  Jia Xian watched with admiration in his eyes, thinking that the Han army, especially the imperial guards, were lax in discipline, lazy, and afraid of hard work. If they had really marched through this vast desert, some would have escaped, and others would have deserted. But Liu Ze's team was strict in discipline, neat in formation, and high in morale, which was a world apart from the imperial court's army.

  Jia Xian did not know that this team's daily training was ten times more rigorous than their marching, let alone the fact that some of the soldiers had been through the "journey to hell" and were tempered by it. For them, this deadly desert was nothing to be afraid of.

  The troops marched day and night, and after many days of marching, they had already approached the intersection of Congling and Nanshan. At this time, Zhang Fei, who was scouting ahead, sent someone to report back that a small group of Xiongnu cavalry tracks had been discovered. Since leaving Yangguan, Zhang Fei had been worried about his own role as the rear guard, and he had repeatedly asked Liu Ze to reassign him in private. Liu Ze also considered the hardships of scouting ahead, so he arranged for Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's two teams to take turns every ten days, and this was when Zhang Fei was serving as the vanguard.

  Liu Ze personally went to check. The small group of Xiongnu cavalry, about 100 or so people, were camping in a river valley on the south mountain. The river valley was quite wide, with steep cliffs on the west side and gentler terrain on the east side. After descending the slope, there was a large area of poplar forest, and after passing through the forest, there was a nearly dry riverbed. The 100 or so Xiongnu soldiers were having a picnic on the riverbed, roasting whole yellow sheep and deer, and it was that enticing aroma that led Zhang Fei to discover them.

  It is unknown whether it was the negligence or arrogance of this group of Xiongnu soldiers, but they all gathered on the riverbed to gnaw on wild game, and their horses were leisurely eating grass about a hundred steps away. They didn't even dispatch a single sentry. Liu Ze's heart was overjoyed, serving them right for their misfortune. This was his first battle since arriving in the Three Kingdoms era, seemingly easy but facing battle-hardened Xiongnu cavalry who had killed countless people, he couldn't afford to be careless. Liu Ze ordered all personnel to dismount and proceed on foot to assemble at the mountain valley entrance, everyone treading carefully and quietly, not making any noise, so as not to startle the Xiongnu soldiers who were having a picnic.

  After all personnel were in place, Liu Ze ordered Guan Yu to lead his team to circle around to the back of the valley, Zhang Fei led his team to seal off the entrance of the valley, and he personally led 100 people from east to west through the poplar forest, launching a sudden attack on the Xiongnu soldiers on the riverbed. After the battle began, Guan Yu attacked from inside out, while Zhang Fei attacked from outside in at the same time. Liu Ze demanded that they must annihilate the enemy completely and not let anyone escape, and capture as many alive as possible.

  Guan Yu and Zhang Fei led the way, Liu Ze measured the distance between the poplar forest and the Xiongnu to be about 100-200 steps, so he required all personnel to abandon their longbows and switch to composite short bows, quietly crossing the poplar forest, approaching the Xiongnu.