Chapter 164: Meeting Scouts at Xiao Pass

That Hu girl, a princess of a small country in the Western Regions, had a pair of sapphire-like eyes, covered her face with light gauze, and instead of hiding her beauty, it set it off even more enchantingly. Her waist was half-exposed, her figure was like a willow branch, and she wore several silver rings on her arms. Except for the not-so-good smell on her body, she could be considered a peerless beauty in the mundane world.

There are many Hu girls doing business in Chang'an, serving wine and dancing.

Therefore, as soon as she saw Qian Chen sitting down in front of the Hu merchant, she stepped forward, opened the seal of the wine jar, lowered a wooden spoon into the jar, scooped out the wine, and poured it into the wine bowl in front of Qian Chen.

That light green, turbid wine liquid was floating with a layer of washed-white floating objects, like ants.

Qian Chen saw this kind of wine liquid, just raised his eyebrows, and didn't show any strange color, just scolded Yan Shu again in his stomach. The fine wines of the Central Lands are also like clear springs, amber, and even soft emerald, with pure color as the best, but those are immortal wines, naturally brewed from immortal fruits and spiritual grains.

And the wine in the mundane world naturally wouldn't have such luxury, the most common is still turbid wine!

What is turbid wine? It is the appearance of the bowl in front of Qian Chen, known as "Green ant new fermented wine, red mud small fire stove." Now it is the weather of early August, and it is dawn in the post station, naturally there is no "late snow is about to fall." This kind of turbid wine, the light green color is all fermented by microorganisms, commonly known as mold, asking Qian Chen "Can you drink a cup?"

Of course, he can't.

So this Li Tang often drinks low-degree turbid wine, but Yan Shu poured him the Kunlun Cup of the Jade Void Palace. Qian Chen has not mixed much in the mundane world and doesn't know these things. It can be said that Yan Shu, who has also wandered overseas, pretended not to know, which shows that his mischievous heart to see Qian Chen make a fool of himself is completely punishable.

That Hu merchant is good at observing people's eyes. Seeing Qian Chen frown slightly and fan his nostrils slightly, smelling the mellow and fresh wine Qi on Qian Chen, he suddenly knew why his promoted goods failed. He hurriedly pressed the wooden spoon the Hu girl was using to pour wine and said: "This is turbid wine that we traveling merchants drink when we are thirsty."

"Go and send the Persian red wine I treasured to the distinguished guest!" The Hu merchant hurriedly ordered his partners.

The Hu girl on the side curled her lips. It was clearly bought when they arrived at the Hexi Qianhe of the Great Tang, but it was just changed into a Persian-style jar, and he wanted to lie to people that it was brewed in the Western Regions of Persia.

Qian Chen didn't care where his red wine came from, just threw over a money bag and said: "This is the expense on the road."

The Hu merchant reached out and took it, weighed it slightly, and opened the money bag without changing his expression. Seeing a bit of golden color inside, he was overjoyed. Merchants like him who travel back and forth like light goods the most, and the money from selling goods every year has to be exchanged for silk before setting off. That's why this trade route is called the Silk Road.

Although gold is not a light good, compared to copper coins, the value ratio is also extremely large.

And he himself is a gem and gold craftsman, and he earns more by turning gold into goldware.

The Hu merchant took the money bag and shouted: "Pack the luggage for the guest!"

He dragged the tail sound long, with the accent of a foreign race.

Qian Chen lifted the sharkskin scabbard in his hand. The white sharkskin scabbard was decorated with white jade buckles, and the scabbard mouth was inlaid with several fiery red gems, but the long sword inside was wrapped with fine hemp on the hilt, which was unremarkable. But such an unremarkable long sword, once installed in such a gorgeous scabbard, made people not dare to underestimate it.

"I am alone with one sword, traveling the world, there is no luggage!"

This Hu merchant team was also in a hurry, wanting to arrive in Chang'an before the Thousand Autumns Festival the day after tomorrow. Therefore, before long, Qian Chen was swaying on a camel, drinking red wine with a five-colored jade cup.

The crimson red wine was filled in the jade cup, the Affectionate Sword was slung on one side of the camel, and he was leisurely heading towards Chang'an.

From Longxi to Chang'an, it would take at least ten days. Unless it was a cultivator like Qian Chen who could fly, otherwise this Hu merchant team would have to show some skills. Just out of the post station, the Hu merchant took out a copper oil lamp, pondered on the oil lamp for a few times, and a group of yellow sand blew down from the spout of the oil lamp.

That yellow sand was rolled by the wind and spread silently under the camel's feet.

At this time, Qian Chen sensed that the road below was flowing silently. The camel team was like a dozen small boats in a river, flowing downstream. The boat didn't move, but it seemed as if the scenery beside it was moving. Plus the camel itself was walking slowly, for a time, it actually gave a feeling of taking a train in the previous life.

"So it is the art of rowing on land."

Qian Chen saw it clearly.

Among the techniques used for traveling in spells, besides flying techniques, there are shrinking-the-ground techniques, moving techniques, teleportation techniques, etc. This rowing on land is also one of the small techniques for traveling. This technique is not much practiced in the Central Lands, because the soil in the Central Lands is solid, and this technique is only easy to use in desert places.

This kind of spell can turn quicksand into flowing water, carrying people to move, or it can also be called sand escape technique.

But in places without deserts, one can only rely on magic treasures to turn out a stream of quicksand and flow on the soil.

So looking carefully at the camel's feet in the caravan, they are all flowing yellow sand. That stream of yellow sand spreads on the ground, carrying the caravan above to move forward, just like the conveyor belt of an airport, and people walking on it are naturally much faster than other places.

On the way, there was also a team of black-armored knights galloping past on the post road.

On the iron forehead of the helmet, everyone wrote the name of the Taiyi God, wrapped in slight divine light, and passed the caravan. The leading knight looked back slightly when passing by, and looked at Qian Chen who was mixed in the Hu merchants. Qian Chen clasped his fists to signal... The knight smiled slightly and drove his horse away.

"The power of the divine talisman, plus the military marching technique." Qian Chen praised slightly: "It is indeed the black-armored iron cavalry, which is extraordinary."

There were many Hu people in that team of knights, and there were no fewer people who had cultivation.

It only took a day for the caravan to walk to the foot of Xiao Pass. Xiao Pass was set up several dynasties ago, specifically to resist the Qiang people and other Hu people in Xiliang, and it was the last pass guarding Chang'an. After this, it is a ten-thousand-mile plain, and there is no danger to defend. Therefore, the defense is the strictest, and it is not easy to pass the pass.

This majestic pass was as majestic as iron, with a vigorous momentum on the earth, blocking the merchants from the west like a natural chasm.

The city wall was more than thirty zhang high, built with giant stones one zhang wide, the wall was flat as a whetstone, and black iron was poured between the stone seams, reflecting the metallic luster, indestructible. The city tower was several zhang high, and the large arrow tower beside it was built with black stones, and the cold light of the spear blades reflected like a forest and rain, with a murderous aura.

The military atmosphere on the pass city was strict, all wearing iron armor and horizontal knives, and the majestic murderous aura went straight to the nine heavens. The military Qi crossed the sky like wolf smoke, and ordinary cultivators couldn't fly over this pass at all. Even birds flying over the pass would be broken in heart and gallbladder by the hidden murderous aura and fall down. The iron armor of the Great Tang soldiers had hidden divine light, which should be the blessing of magic spells with divine power. Qian Chen looked with his Dharma eyes, and many of them were military cultivators, people who breathed and practiced Qi.

Near the city, one could vaguely see more than a dozen Weng cities and guard cities surrounding the majestic pass. Each city was large or small, and they were all places for stationed troops. The sound of armor and weapons clashing came out for a hundred miles.

At this time, it was not allowed to pass the pass. The Hu merchant caravan stayed honestly outside the pass city, preparing to rest for a night before passing the pass on the road.

Xiao Pass is an important pass on the trade route, and there are many merchants coming and going. At this time, they all gathered in the fence set up for them by the pass city. Many tents were connected, and it was like a small city. The Hu merchant found a general who arranged their station here, and then a small official holding a book in one hand and a pen in the other stood on one side of the fence entrance, counting their goods expressionlessly and checking the documents.

He also collected the customs duties and gave them the documents and road guides to pass the pass tomorrow, and divided a piece of open space for them to set up tents.

The Hu merchant smiled flatteringly while stuffing a jade bracelet hairpin. The small official weighed it slightly and saw that it was white jade from Khotan. Although it only had some miscellaneous colors, it was enough to take back to please the wife at home.

The partners of the caravan were busy for a while, packed up the goods, set up tents, and even lit bonfires in the air between the tents.

The sky was already getting dark.

The merchants who came early around had already lit bonfires. The roasted Hu cakes carried the fragrance of fennel and sesame, covering the camp. There were already sounds of pipa and Qiang flute around, accompanied by loud shouting and noise, and shouting was everywhere. In an open space, several Hu people grabbed poles, raised a few ropes, and soon two agile children climbed the poles and walked on the ropes, turning somersaults on them. ===== CHAPTER 165 =====