Kizilkum desert, night.

It is impossible to march in the Kyzylkum Desert in summer, only at night.

However, it was childish for Kitard to leave all his fate to the Turkmen horse thief named Rahman.

Fortunately, the desert near the northwest end of Xiahai is not as barren as imagined. There are several intermittent rivers here, and piles of weeds and shrubs can be seen everywhere.

Of course, he was not completely unprepared.

According to Norbu, there is a city of Kyzylorda not far upstream of the Syr Darya River. It is the farthest castle that Kazakh Dayuzi can control at the moment.

There is a large river near the castle, the Kizil River, where it merges into the Syr Darya River.

After entering the desert, start walking straight ahead. After walking for about a hundred miles, turn east and you will encounter the Kizil River. Then go straight south along the river bank to reach the vicinity of the desert mine - at this time

The Kizil River did not stop flowing halfway as it did in later generations.

Its birthplace is only a few dozen miles away from the desert mine!

What's more, as a time traveler, he has even built a machine tool, how can he not have a compass?

So, Rahman actually has another purpose.

Kizil means red. During the day, under the strong sunlight, standing in the middle of the desert is like being in a reddish-brown ocean with flames erupting. The ground temperature is as high as 70 degrees. Not to mention the people.

Even camels stay away.

Night, only night, or night by the river is the only choice.

Of course, if you choose to walk closer to the Aral Sea, you won’t have this worry.

However, in order to deceive others, Kitard had to go deep into the desert.

On the way, Kitard asked Rahman to lean on him and let a few soldiers sandwich him in the middle. Although he was not afraid of him escaping, he was still prepared.

"Rachman"

"In"

"Do you know Rashim?"

"..."

"Where's Arslan?"

At this time, Rahman hesitated and replied: "I know you"

Kitard couldn't help but feel a little strange, "I would understand if he said he knew Rasim but not Arslan"

"Because the punishments imposed on those who betray others are extremely harsh among horse thieves, and are even more severe than the measures taken by herdsmen to catch horse thieves."

"Generally speaking, they are more afraid of horse thieves than herdsmen. What do ordinary businessmen like Rahim have to fear?"

However, he did not force him, but continued to ask: "Do you know what happened in Kungel in the past three months?"

"Know"

This time Rahman did not hesitate.

"Wait"

Kitard suddenly thought of something, "Is your communication with Kungel through ships?"

Rahman nodded, "Two months ago, a big event happened in Kungel. There was a coup d'état among the Mongols near Lake Sarykamysh to the west of the city. The tribal nobles who believed in Islam killed the former

Sweat and replace"

"A pair of sons and daughters of the Great Khan escaped by chance, but were intercepted by the Manjit people on the way, and both were sold into slavery. The son was sold to a desert mine, and the daughter was sold to the Kungel bathing pool."<

/p>

"It is said that a month ago they were rescued by a nobleman who claimed to be from the Kazakh tribe. The son returned to Lake Sarykamysh. Since the new Khan had not been appointed for a long time, he had not yet fully taken control of the tribe."

"The son gained the support of his uncle's tribe in Muirak, secretly sneaked into Lake Sarykamesh and suddenly appeared. The tribesmen near the lake responded and killed the new Khan's family."

"Because the Kazakh nobleman was warmly received by Ankit, a big businessman in Kungele City..."

"Ankit?"

"Yes, that's him. He used to be from Bukhara. He is the largest gem merchant in Bukhara and Khiva. He has amazing wealth and powerful forces behind him. After the Persians evacuated, he gave

Half of the family's property was given to Manjit's Yilak, so he was deeply trusted."

"The first coup of the Sarikamysh people was planned by Manjit Yilak. After the second coup, it showed that Yilak's plan failed, which made him a little annoyed."

"So, he prepared to kill Ankit, but Ankit received the message in advance and ran away in advance."

"Where have you gone?"

"I don't know. It is said that the entire territory north of Yulongjie Chicheng is under the control of the Manjit people. Unless Anjit flees to the desert, he will not be able to escape Yilak's pursuit."

"However, although Yilak did not capture Angit, Angit had business houses in several big cities throughout the Khiva Khanate, so he naturally confiscated them and rewarded half of his family property to Arslan.

, let him continue to travel to Turgut for gem trading”

Hearing this, Kitard was not only a little surprised.

"Ankit? It doesn't look like an Islamic name. Could it be that he only uses the name Rashim in front of the Turghut people?"

Just as he was thinking about it, Rahman continued: "It is said that after Nayilak took over several business houses and properties in Ankit, he could support his standing army for at least two years..."

"What's Yilake's last name? How many standing troops does he have?"

"Yilak is called Artuk. The Manjit are the largest nomadic tribe in Khiva. The core tribe has nearly 50,000 tents, and there are also 20,000 to 30,000 tents in the periphery. The standing army is 10,000."

"Ten thousand?", Kitard thought to himself, "A standing army of ten thousand, including men and horses, requires at least 80,000 shi of food every year. According to the price of Khiva, it requires nearly 400,000 half-weight Bukhara silver coins, plus

The salary paid is five hundred thousand yuan."

So he asked: "So many, how many are there?"

Rahman smiled. The moonlight in the Kyzylkum Desert at night was exceptionally bright, and his greedy expression was clearly visible when he smiled.

"The silver coins alone are at least 300,000. The total number of gold, gems, grain, etc. is also this number. Adding the shops, houses, fields, and pastures, there are even one million."

"Arslan told you?"

"..."

"Okay, keep talking"

"Yes, after Artuk led his troops to the north, in addition to capturing Ankit, he also divided five thousand troops to attack the Sarekamysh people. However, the newly ascended little prince got the message early and moved his tribe to the Xhosa Sea.

and swore allegiance to the Persians"

(Xhosa Sea, the Turkic name for the Caspian Sea)

"Although the famous Persian emperor Nader Shah died, the Persian Empire still exists, and Artuk did not dare to provoke it at will, so he had to give up."

"Persians?"

"Yes, they have castles and troops that govern the land on the east coast of the Xhosa Sea in Balkanabat, not far from the east coast of the Xhosa Sea"

Kitard secretly thought that it was not good, "In this case, I am afraid that Shen Muhua's people may not be able to find Sangkun and the others. Instead, they will be arrested by the Manjit people for intruding into Lake Sarykamesh."

He quickly asked: "Since the Sarykamysh people left the Great Lake, this place was naturally occupied by the Manjit people?"

"No, it is said that in order to show goodwill to the Turkmens who are herding in the desert, Artuk is going to give them this fast place, but the Persians are also wooing them, promising that they can move to the Ashgabat Valley.

There is no movement at the moment, obviously the Turkmen Khan is hesitating."

"Is this the Great Khan who is entrenched in Zharavshan deep in the desert?"

"You...you also know?"

"You are a Turkmen, tell me why you became a horse thief?"

"This..."

General Chitard took the thorn in his hand, and the manganese-added thorn emitted a dazzling cold light under the moonlight.

Rahman quickly said: "Dissatisfied nobles, the Turkmens in this area are divided into three groups, half of them are in the alpine pastures near Ashgabat, and the other half are in Khiva. Half of the Khiva are herder slaves of the four major tribes."

And the remaining half of existence can only graze in the desert where others are not interested."

"Basically all the people near Ashgabat have converted to Islam, and the herder slaves were all captured from the desert by the four major tribes. Since they are still herder slaves, they naturally do not believe in Islam, and the same is true for those in the desert."

"The previous desert Turkmen Khans were all pagans, and their jurisdiction over the herders in the territory was very loose. However, a coup occurred there ten years ago. Just like the Sarekamysh people, nobles who believed in Islam took over.

Taiwan..."

"Wait a minute," Kitard seemed to understand something, "What did they believe in before?"

"Zoroastrianism"

"I see." Kitard couldn't help but wonder. How come there were still tribes that believed in Zoroastrianism in the 18th century?

He stared at Rahman and asked: "You are a Zoroastrian, aren't you? The horse thieves are not firm in their beliefs. They probably have all kinds of beliefs. But what is strange to me is that the last time you attacked Sharkar, most of them

Why do Turkmen people all wear turbans shaped like stars and moons?"

"Sharkar?"

Rahman had a look of astonishment on his face. Kitard observed it carefully and found that it didn't seem to be a fake.
To be continued...