Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 441 A cup of fermented rice wine, two cups of wine, three cups of sanle jiang (a type of fermented rice drink), may your great achievements be remembered forever!

An auspicious day according to the Chinese calendar, suitable for offering sacrifices.

For the previous three days, Lin Dao had to bathe and change clothes regularly every day.

He slept in separate beds from Zhou Ehuang for three days to maintain physical and mental cleanliness, as a sign of sincerity.

After three days of fasting, Lin Dao changed into the imperial robes he had not worn on his journey of thousands of miles.

This is a formal dress worn only on formal occasions.

The only occasion that could make Lin Dao feel it was a solemn occasion and thus put on his ceremonial robes was a sacrificial ceremony.

He was not worshipping heaven and earth, but rather a group of people from two hundred years ago.

A group of soldiers who defended their homeland for more than forty years, whose hair had turned white and who were still willing to die for their country, ultimately all of them perished.

The Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty, white-haired soldiers!

When the An Lushan Rebellion broke out, the Tang Dynasty urgently mobilized its border troops stationed in the Western Regions and other places to attack the rebels.

These elite border troops were mostly killed in battle at Xiangji Temple.

When they were transferred, not all of them left; a small number remained to guard various places.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the Tibetans seized the Hexi Corridor and Longyou region, severing the connection between Guanzhong and the Western Regions.

These Tang troops who remained in the Anxi Protectorate and the Beiting Protectorate were thus isolated thousands of miles away.

This one skill, will last a lifetime.

Despite the relentless attacks from the overwhelming Turks and various non-Turkic groups, the small garrison that remained held out endured for over forty years.

More than forty years, even if one was only eighteen or nineteen at the time, after forty years of hardship, one is already an old man in his sixties.

But they continued to fight, guarding the last Han territory in the Western Regions, fighting to the death and refusing to surrender!
This is Kucha, the place where those white-haired soldiers fought their last battle two hundred years ago.

A group of white-haired old men, dressed in tattered armor, carrying weapons with many chips and nicks.

They held fast to this last Han city in the Western Regions, fighting to the last moment against the surging tide of Tibetans.

Lin Dao is here today to pay tribute to them.

More than a thousand years in advance, we come to commemorate these last heroes of the Western Regions!

Offering table, inkstone table, incense burner.

Memorial tablets, incense table, and officiant's seat.

Offerings that had been prepared earlier were laid out on the table.

The table was laden with sacrificial animals, millet, rice, pomegranates from Lintong, fermented rice wine, wine, mulberry wine, Sanle broth, and Jiannan liquor.

Lin Dao stepped forward to wash his hands before the ritual ablution, and then went to the incense table to burn incense.

As the incense began to waft through the air, Lin Dao began reciting the sacrificial prayers.

A large number of soldiers who had made military achievements carried their memorial tablets to the altar and placed them there.

Two hundred years have passed, and despite the best efforts to search for information, only a small portion of Bai Fabing's name and place of origin can be found.

Most of them were anonymous!
The memorial tablets were placed densely on the altar, which used the earth as its table.

It looks as dense as a forest at first glance.

After reciting the eulogy, Lin Dao stepped forward.

Behind him followed the generals and soldiers who had distinguished themselves in battle against the Tibetan warriors.

The group of people stepped forward one by one and stood in order.

Lin Dao led the way, bowing to the memorial tablets first, followed by the others.

After the ceremony was completed, the bachelors who had not yet been assigned a place, led by their respective captains and generals, walked with their heads down and in small steps, carrying trays in the order arranged beforehand, to the people performing the sacrifice.

Beside each person stood a bachelor, bowing low.

On the tray they carried were three glasses of wine.

"A cup of fermented rice wine~"

Lin Dao knelt before the memorial tablets, raised the first cup of wine, and slowly poured it onto the ground, "to comfort you all who are homesick~"

Everyone knelt down and took the first cup of wine, shouting along with Lin Dao as they poured the wine onto the ground.

Picking up his second glass, Lin Dao's voice boomed, "Two glasses of wine, a toast to everyone conquering Tianshan!"

The soldiers followed suit, shouting and offering libations.

Lin Dao picked up the last cup and spoke again.

"Three cups of wine, three sips of liquor, may your great achievements be remembered forever!"

The 3,112 selected people shouted in unison, their voices echoing across the fields.

The city of Kucha seemed to tremble slightly.

After the libation ceremony, Lin Dao stepped forward and presented the prepared offerings one by one.

This is the first offering.

Repeat this three times: first offering, second offering, and final offering.

Pan Mei was chosen to serve as the prayer official, and she kept reciting the prayer text.

Later, his throat was parched and his voice was hoarse, but he dared not slacken in the slightest, roaring with his broken voice.

After offering the three libations, he was finally able to stop, bow his head, and quickly step forward to hand the prayer document to Lin Dao.

Lin Dao personally gathered the incense burner and various funerary objects together.

He picked up the incense burner, burned the prayer texts and funerary objects, and sent 3,112 deities back to heaven.

He put down the incense burner and watched as the prayer text and funerary objects burned fiercely in the fire.

Lin Dao's gaze fell upon the numerous memorial tablets.

It was as if I saw smiling faces full of wrinkles, and I slowly faded away with satisfaction.

He recovered this fertile land of the Han people more than a thousand years ahead of schedule, fulfilling the wishes of the white-haired soldiers.

They stood there for a long time.

Lin Dao turned around and glanced at the crowd. "Line up and come forward to receive the sacrificial meat."

Receiving sacrificial offerings symbolizes receiving blessings from the white-haired soldiers.

At this point, the entire sacrificial ceremony came to an end.

According to the Confucian principle of "treating the dead as if they were alive," such a large-scale sacrificial ceremony would take several days.

But Lin Dao would never abide by Confucian rules, and the matter was over in half a day.

After changing his clothes, Lin Dao rode his horse into the city of Kucha.

The city of Kucha was surrounded by walls, and the city had three layers.

There are thousands of Buddhist pagodas and temples in the city, and the locals make a living by farming and raising livestock.

Lin Dao frowned deeply upon seeing so many Buddhist temples. He didn't speak, but his generals already understood his meaning.

Several days later, there were no more Buddhist temples in or around the city.

Upon arriving in Kucha, Lin Dao decided to divide his forces.

“Pan Mei”.

He summoned General Pan Mei and said, "You shall lead the cavalry of all the tribes, advance along the Tian Shan Mountains, and conquer the Karakhanid Khanate."

"After that, they will be stationed in the area, and within three years, troops will come to rotate and guard the border."

"Upon the success of this undertaking, a royal title shall be conferred to celebrate your meritorious service."

Pan Mei was overjoyed. Even though her voice hadn't recovered, she shouted "I accept the order!"

Lin Dao, of course, wouldn't be idle either.

"The rest of the tribes, follow me into Khotan!"

"All units should fight bravely to recover the lost territories of the Han and Tang dynasties!"

The generals all accepted the order in unison.

Despite Lin Dao's journey westward from Bianjing, a journey spanning thousands of miles, he still manages to achieve his goal.

However, at this time, they still could not fully recover the lost territories of the Han and Tang dynasties.

This shows how powerful the Han and Tang dynasties were at their peak, and how vast their territories were.

What Lin Dao needs to do now is to first restore the former lands of the Han and Tang dynasties.

After the railway line is built, the army will follow the railway line and sweep across the world.

By this time, most of the bachelors who had come from various places had been settled.

Even including those Hengshan Dangxiang who won military merits and were naturalized, there were only more than 30,000 people left.

Lin Dao let Pan Mei take 20,000 with her to settle in the vast land from Suyab to Shule.

He himself led the rest of the people straight to Khotan.

Yutian is the same as Hotan.

The most famous local product is Hetian jade.

The Karakash River and the Yurungkash River are filled with high-quality jade.

Lin Dao plans to bring back all the best jade from the area after this trip.

The straight-line distance from Kucha to Khotan is approximately over a thousand li.

However, this straight-line distance is entirely within the terrifying Taklamakan Desert.

Under normal circumstances, even with the best guides and the most thorough preparations, the success rate of a camel caravan crossing the vast desert from Kucha to Khotan would not exceed fifty percent.

Therefore, most caravans took a detour.

Lin Dao chose to go straight.

He led his army, mainly composed of infantry, across the Kuqa Desert south of Kucha and arrived at the banks of the Tarim River.

Afterwards, they traveled west along the river and arrived at Mo Man.

This is the Aksu of later generations.

Normally, caravans on the Silk Road would continue westward at this time, arriving at Shule (Kashgar).

If you want to go to Khotan, head south from Shule, detour around the vast Taklamakan Desert, and make a big loop.

Lin Dao didn't take a detour, but went directly south from Mo Man, deep into the desert.

Without a doubt, this is a very risky thing to do.

Under normal circumstances, even if they successfully reached Khotan, they would lose at least half of their manpower.

But Lin Dao has a cheat code.

Several bottled water companies in Haicheng, a modern city, have received a large order.

Every day, large quantities of bottled water are transported by truck to designated warehouses.

After unloading the bottled water, the empty water barrels must be recycled and taken away.

For the company, more business means more money.

For drivers, it means driving more and covering more distances.

For the hardworking loaders, however, there were many more questions.

"How did so much sand get on these buckets?"

There aren't any large construction sites around here.

In the vast desert of the Five Dynasties period.

Sitting in the carriage, Chen Xiaoqi shook his sun hat and went to the carriage to pour water.

"You can drink eight hundred times a day!"

Huang Dashan, who was resting in the carriage, grumbled, "We only have one bucket of water a day, so you'd better take it easy."

There were six people in their car; apart from the two of them, the other four were all naturalized Hengshan Dangxiang Qiang.

Two horses were pulling the cart, which carried the six of them and all their belongings.

There are two buckets of water left.

One bucket of water was for six people, and the other bucket was for the horses.

Two buckets a day, yet there are constant complaints that it's not enough.

Not only them, but almost all the carriages complained about the lack of water.

These complaints made the locals who had been "invited" to be guides roll their eyes.

every day!

Two large buckets of water!
If those who perished in the desert from thirst heard this, they would be furious again.

Those who traverse the desert, unless they find an oasis, will only have water from their water bags for the entire journey.

We'll still share it with the camels.

These Han Chinese are still not satisfied even with the help of immortals, truly~
The convoy stopped again.

Soon everyone began setting up tents around their respective carriages to prepare for the night.

The desert is unbearably hot during the day.

The bus was sheltered by large parasols and sun hats, with each person carrying a palm-leaf fan, and water for protection.

But at night, the temperature will drop sharply to below minus ten degrees Celsius.

If the tent isn't securely pitched, people could really freeze to death!
(End of this chapter)