Puchangze is the lowest lying in the southern part of Tianshan Mountain. The ice and snow melting water from Tianshan Mountain, Aljin Mountain, and Kunlun Mountains eventually converges into seven or eight rivers, including the Tarim River, Peacock River, Cheerchen River, Shule River, and then injects into Puchangze. Zhao Xingde estimated from the map given by the Military Information Department that the lake area of ​​Puchangze may exceed 5,000 square kilometers. The amount of water injected into Puchangze over the years has been different, causing the lake surface to shrink and wander, leaving a large area of ​​swamps on the lakeshore. Many roads that were originally accessible on the Puchangze also became dead ends due to the changes in the lake surface and swamp areas.

Several trade routes around the post station extend westward in a faintly visible manner, and not far away, they hide in the growing water plants. If you march along these trade routes, you may be led astray. If you do not march along the trade route, you will easily fall into a swamp. The major rivers injected into Puchangze have many forks near the lake, making it difficult to tell which of the rivers and canals around Puchangze are crisscrossing, making it difficult to tell which is the main stream of the Qiemo River.

"I thought we should avoid Puchangze and march south to the semi-dry area between the desert and the swamp, and then march westward until we encounter the Qiemo River." Zhao Xingde pointed to the map. On the south side of Puchangze, there was a piece of quicksand. He estimated that there was at least a relatively dry and hard ground between the quicksand and Puchangze. In this way, we would not have to be restricted by the swamp and misled by the Shangdao River Canal, and we would take a nearly straight march road.

"You mean you want to leave the road and march," Du Chujiao pondered, "and you have to go to the edge of quicksand." He suddenly laughed, "It's too risky."

"That's right, there's no way, there's no reason." Several other dozen men agreed.

"Walking on the edge of quicksand may not be without danger."

"This way, you have to go around at least twice as long as you want. Maybe you will delay the marching delay."

"I have only seen people who walk on the wrong path, but I have never seen people who don't walk on the road."

Someone whispered: "The rookie is indeed a rookie."

Even Jian Cheng looked at Zhao De with suspicion. Instead, Wang Tongdeng's eyes flashed slightly, and he looked at Zhao Delai seriously.

Although most people opposed leaving Puchangze's existing business roads, Zhao Xingde's face remained unchanged. He stood up, looked around the ten men present, and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, please forgive me for taking the liberty. When you go deep into the aquatic and grass swamps on Puchangze, no matter which road you choose, you are just a bet. Once you go astray, you can only turn back because of the restrictions of the swamp. What you need to march is not only the road, but also the freedom to correct the direction at any time. When you go deep into Puchangze, what you lose is the opportunity to correct your mistakes and the delay of time."

Zhao De was usually very kind, but now he was stubborn. At that time, several dozen chiefs couldn't stand it and said, "Zhao, you're too worried." "It's hard to leave the road and march without missing the schedule. Are you better than Li Guang?" "Although the road is unclear, the direction is always known. Once you find something is wrong, it's nothing to turn back immediately."

Du Chuijiao smiled slightly and asked Zhao De: "Have you finished speaking?"

Zhao Xingde glanced at the ten-masters present. Except for Jian Cheng and Wang Tongdeng and other young men, they looked at him with sympathy, and the others were disdainful. The most experienced in the army was the most concerned. A man who had just joined the army was pointing fingers and wanted to march and leave the road. No matter what. After Zhao Xingde figured out this, he bowed to Du Chujiao and said, "I'm done, I'm sorry for taking the liberty."

"Okay, sit down." Du Chujiao smiled and turned to the other ten-men with high titles and seniority and said, "Which road do you think is the right way to take?" Everyone got together again and analyzed which road was more like a business trip that was passed by recently.

After the military agreement was over, most of the tenth chiefs felt that they should take a road that was going straight west, so they decided to set out tomorrow. Jian Cheng followed Zhao Xingde, patted his shoulder, and whispered: "Xingzhi, I think you are right, but..." Looking at his desire to speak but stopping, Zhao Xingde smiled, patted his shoulder, and whispered: "I also hope that the road I chose leads to Qiemo River."

When he returned to the team, the soldiers were already burying their own pots to make rice. "Captain Zhao, drink it while it's hot." Sergeant Chen Yongqi brought Zhao De a basin of soy soup. When the military was discussing just now, Zhao De rashly proposed a ridiculous suggestion to leave the road. The repair of the veteran ten-men has spread in the military camp. Some people laughed at him, and some people are unfair about Zhao De. In fact, this proposal should have been considered more solemnly, but it was wiped out just because the person who proposed it was not qualified enough.

Zhao De picked up the hot soup, drank it, closed his eyes, and felt a warm stove steaming in his belly. Xia Kingdom's supplies for long-distance marching almost reached the extreme of this era. Each team of ten people brought four horses, two large carts, and five camels to transport the supplies needed for the marching. In addition to the fine ingredients for livestock, the dry food carried by the sergeants included blocks of beef and mutton fat, dried meat as hard as stones, compacted dry dough, air-dried vegetable balls, cheese blocks, and salty sauce buns. The sergeants of Xia Kingdom were able to identify some edible wild vegetables. Whenever conditions permit, the marching meal first melted a small piece of dry dough with hot water to make a pot of thin noodle soup, and then threw various ingredients into it and boiled it together with the wild vegetables collected by Zuo. Although such a marching meal was far worse than that of Li Ruoxue's hand-cooked, it was at least not difficult to swallow, and it would basically not have diarrhea.

"Captain Zhao, we think what you said makes sense." Chen Yongqi, Liu Zheng, Shi Yan, Tan Binglong and other teammates surrounded him. During the marching period some time ago, Zhao Xingde did not show off his long and orderly handling the affairs in the team. The other soldiers were gradually convinced by him. Every time he went to a mountain, river, and town on a marching map, Zhao De had to carefully measure it with the celestial positioning meter to master the usage of the celestial meter and correct its error. At first, several marching Sima thought he was pretending, until Zhao De occasionally talked to them that the error of the celestial meter was about twenty miles. The three marching Simas were shocked. The positioning error of the 10 miles was extremely rare in the marching department. All the devices themselves must be adjusted accurately, and the moments of observation of the celestial phenomena were also extremely accurate.

Looking at the comforting eyes of several people in the team, Zhao Xingde smiled and said, "The truth is not that people say it is right, it is right. The truth can only prove itself." He put down the soup basin that had been drunk, knocked it, and smiled and said, "I also hope to find Qiemo River in one go and arrive in Qiemo City in advance. Maybe there is still time to catch some jade."

"Captain Zhao, is there really jade in the moment?" Tan Binglong asked. These days, when Zhao Xingde and the soldiers were camping at night, they chatted with each other, and they seemed to know astronomy and geography. At first, everyone thought he was talking nonsense, but later there were several places that happened to be confirmed by what everyone knew, and they admired him for his extensive knowledge.

"Of course, everyone knows the beautiful jade of Khotan, but they don't know that the main origin is Qiemo." Zhao Xingde smiled and scrubbed the soup basin with hay and put it in his bag. "The main mineral veins must have already been in charge, so we can only try our luck."

The customization of Xia State, whoever discovers the veins will have the right to mine. The court only collects mineral taxes to supervise the mining of mineral deposits and does not destroy the local water and soil. Therefore, there were countless young people in Xia State. After learning the technique of observing the sky, they carried their luggage and surveyed the vast Western Regions and the northern part of the desert. Once the veins were discovered and their location was measured, they could register at the Prime Minister's Mansion and sell them at the auction. The huge wealth that countless generations could not accumulate was obtained, which stimulated countless young people to study the technique of observing the sky and finding mineral veins. In just a hundred years, the various minerals discovered in the Western Regions and the northern part of the Mo was exceeded by the total accumulated in all dynasties in the past.

After dinner, Zhao Xingde set up the Tianguan positioning instrument as usual. This post station is marked with longitude and latitude on the military map, which is obviously very important. He must enter the swamp and at least he must clarify the location of his departure.

He opened a wooden box with Guantianyi, and a pendulum clock wrapped in silk cotton was exposed. If it was placed safely, Zhao Xingde believed that its daily error would be within one second.
Chapter completed!