Not long after, Tiechina came back.

As expected by Kitard, he also brought back several prisoners.

Under the threat of Kitard, these Turkmen prisoners rushed to tell the story of the desert mine.

"There are nearly a thousand miners of various pagan origins in the mine. Most of them are Shamans, Zoroastrian believers and Christians who are unwilling to convert to Islam."

"There are usually three hundred cavalrymen guarding the mine, and one hundred cavalrymen are on duty at night"

"Then why did you come to such a far place today?"

"This..."

At this time Rahman stood up.

"Noble man, they are not the guards of the desert mine, but the guards of the desert tower"

"Tower of the Desert?"

"My lord, look..."

Kitard followed his hand and saw a thin shadow on the east bank of the Kizil River, deep in the desert.

In fact, he discovered it at the beginning, but he thought it was because of the moonlight, the sand dunes, or because the Kizil River stopped flowing here, and the river water seeped from the ground to the distance, causing trees to exist there, thus creating a thin shadow.

.

"Although most of the Turkmen people in the Kyzyl Kum Desert have converted to Islam, their funeral habits still follow the previous practice. After death, the body is placed on the top floor of the Tower of Solitude and allowed to be eaten by birds and beasts. In the end, only the skeleton is left."

"Then the skeleton was buried at the bottom of the tower. Although the tribe's mullah from Persia strictly prohibited this, since the tribe had only converted less than ten years ago, the tribesmen still followed the previous practice."

"The Great Khan naturally took drastic measures and demolished some Towers of Solitude, but after they were demolished, the people built them again. In response to the Great Khan's move to demolish the towers, some people from time to time rose up in resistance, and in the end the Great Khan had no choice but to give up.

”

"Finally, under the advice of the Great Mullah, the Great Khan accelerated the pace of building mosques in areas with relatively large populations. He also taxed and allocated manpower for construction from the tribesmen who still retained this habit, in order to force those tribesmen to

The people have completely converted to Islam”

Kitard suddenly thought of something.

"If this is the case, then every tower of loneliness must be hosted and guarded by someone."

"Yes, every Tower of Loneliness is a temple. There are Zhuozheng and Zouwei inside. Of course, there are no such people in name. Zouzheng is mostly the leader of a nearby small tribe, and Zouwei is also under his command.

The herdsmen take turns"

Kitard understood, "In order to prevent the Islamists from discovering this situation, the Zoroastrian Guards will patrol around when they are on duty?"

"Yes"

He looked at the four Zoroastrian guards who were tied up and thrown to the ground. He took a closer look and discovered the clues.

It is also an ordinary star-and-moon turban, but the gem inlaid in the center is also fiery red. Generally speaking, red gems are blurry under the moonlight at night, but the gems on their heads reflect the light.

Taking a closer look, it turns out that there seems to be a ball of fire in the red gem!

"But doesn't this prove that they are Zoroastrians?"

"Otherwise", Rahman took off a person's turban and turned it over, and there was another turban with gems on it, but the gems inlaid were ordinary red!

"If the fiery red color looked the same as ordinary red in the bright day, they could wear it inside out to avoid the inspections of the pagan Turkmen cavalry, and at night, especially when guarding the Tower of Solitude, they would

Will turn it over and put it on"

Kitard nodded, "It is said that there are many Turkmen in the Ashgabat Valley, plus the slaves in the Khiva Oasis, no wonder the fire rubies of Turgut are so popular."

Rahman sighed and said: "In the past, the four major tribes of Khiva and even the nobles in Bukhara also wore fire-red gemstones. People at that time followed their way of wearing them. Therefore, in Bukhara,

People in Hara, Ashgabat, and Khiva are proud to wear this object."

"That is, in the Turkmen tribe in the desert, because the newly arrived big mullah was eager to make the entire tribe completely convert to Islam, he ordered the tribesmen not to wear this thing, so that he could distinguish the real Islam."

Kitard smiled and said: "Is this why Turkmen has the most horse thieves?"

As he spoke, he pulled off the turban on his head and turned it over before he could react.

As he expected, there was a fiery red gem inside!

Seeing this situation, the four Zoroastrian guards seemed to see hope, so they knelt down and kowtowed: "Noble sir, since you also have Zoroastrian believers, why don't you let us go?"

Kitard said: "Of course I can let you go, but you must answer my questions first."

"You said"

"How many towers of loneliness are there in the desert? How many herders are there? Is there a big leader?"

One of them replied: "My lord, why are you asking these questions? If it is going to be detrimental to us, I won't tell you even if I am beaten to death."

Kitard smiled and said: "Have you seen that I have three thousand fine cavalry and all have muskets?"

"So what?"

"Have you ever heard of the Salay Kamysh?"

"So what?"

"I am from Xiaoyuzi, Kazakhstan. I was entrusted by the Rakshasa people to rescue the Rakshasa captives trapped in the desert mine. If you still have a big leader and enough manpower, I can assist you just like Sarekame.

How can anyone do another coup and make a big leader who believes in Zoroastrianism serve as the Great Khan?"

The four people’s eyes lit up.

They gathered together and whispered in an incomprehensible Turkic language.

After a while, the man just said: "These towers of loneliness are all in the north. There are thirty in total. There is a tribe near each one, roughly a hundred households. As for our leader..."

Kitard thought to himself: "It goes without saying that such a leader must be hidden in the tribe. If he had shown up, he would have been killed by the Turkmen Khan. It is reasonable for him to be cautious."

He said: "Forget it, I won't make it difficult for you. It's just after midnight. If you are interested, you should hurry up and notify Zhuozheng and ask him to inform the big boss. I will raid the mine some time before dawn, and then I will

I’ll wait for you there for a day”

"Let's go together to attack Zharavshan..."

"Hun... Kitard!"

Chu Huer on the side whispered advice, then leaned into his ear and said: "Huntaiji, don't forget that we are going to Kungel!"

Kitard also said in Mongolian: "I just thought about it. With our strength, it is probably possible to defeat the Manjit people, but we want to capture Kungel City as soon as possible and take away the people, wealth and materials inside.

I’m afraid it won’t be possible to move it empty”

"Originally, I was thinking of moving as much as I could, but now that these Turkmens who believe in Zoroastrianism suddenly appear, I have an extra chance of winning."

"You mean..."

"According to what Rasim said before, there are five major tribes in Khiva. Only the Turkmen are excluded, and they have never controlled the power of the oasis zone as Yilak."

"But since they are one of the five major tribes, they must have a lot of manpower, at least 30,000 households. If they can successfully help the Zoroastrian coup succeed and allow them to occupy Kungel..."

"I'm afraid not. Even if the coup succeeds, they are Zoroastrian Christians and are more of an eyesore than the Sarekamyshes in this area. How can they stop the combined attack of the other four major tribes?"

"So I still want to benefit from it. I have decided that if I can successfully capture Kungele City, in addition to promising to let them occupy it, they can also take away half of the property."

After that, without asking for his permission, he directly expressed his thoughts to those people in Turkic language and asked them to go back and inform them quickly.

The army has begun to move again.

On the way, Chu Huer complained: "Huntaiji, what if these Zoroastrian Christians inform the people in the desert mine?"

"No," Rahman replied. "The people who assist the Manjit people in guarding the mines are Turkmens who have completely converted to Islam. They are usually in the same situation, so how could they do such a thing?"

Not even a quarter of an hour later, I saw a horse flying over from a distance.

The man dismounted not far from Kitard, then bent down and said: "Zhuo Zheng wants to ask you to go there in person."

"Where to go?", Kitard thought to himself, "Do I need to go to Zarafshan myself?"

"Tower of Loneliness"

Kitard hesitated upon hearing this, and after a long while, he said: "Well, why don't you just rest nearby for a while. The river here is intermittent, and it will probably disappear completely before you go too far. Take advantage of the time and rest early."

, eat and drink before going to the mine."

Then he took Techna and a hundred cavalry and followed the man towards the Tower of Loneliness, which was about a few miles away.

Not long after, they saw a dark tower hidden in the sand dunes. When they took a closer look, they realized that the tower was built with reddish-brown weathered stones that are a specialty of the desert.

The tower is about three feet high, with an eight-sided body and a flat top.

The entire tower was built in the middle of a sand dune. When you look at it, there are two sand dunes on its front, back, left and right. At this time, everything around it is silent, and the moon is blocked by a dark cloud.

The earth suddenly became darker. The tower and the four sand dunes reflected each other, and the sound of the breeze blowing through the sand dunes made people shudder.

There is a stone door facing the east. The stone door seems to be firmly embedded in the tower body. At night, it looks more like a tomb stone tablet.

"Since we are old friends, why not come up and have a seat?"

At this moment, a voice came from the tower.

The voice seemed familiar, which made Kitard feel a little dazed.

"I have never been to the Turkmen tribe, how could I have any old friends..."

"Gah..."

At this time, the stone door opened and was moving to one side, revealing the dark space inside.

Kitard felt a shiver in his heart at first, and immediately stepped in alone.

When he first entered, the stone door quickly closed again, locking out Chu Huer and others who were about to follow them in.

Chu Hu'er and others naturally refused, and started yelling at each other below.

"Quiet!"

Kitard's voice came from the middle of the tower. The voice was steady and quiet, which finally made Chu Huer and others feel relieved.

Then I thought, "There are thousands of people outside, and they will knock this tower down."
Chapter completed!