Children of Loulan

A long team slowly marched through the vast desert. This Gobi Desert was like an endless sea of ​​sand, which was awe-inspiring. It would take at least five days to lead so many camel-riding beauties out of the desert. On the way, they could only rest in the garrison sheds that were carefully selected and cleverly built according to the geographical location.

These garrison sheds may seem simple, but they actually have a lot of mysteries. They are not only able to withstand strong wind and sand, but are also extremely durable. Back in the day, when the king was still a prince, he devoted many years of hard work and wisdom to build these garrison sheds that are not afraid of wind and sand erosion.

From the outside, these garrison sheds seem to be just simple sheds built with a few pieces of wood, but when people walk into them, they will be amazed at the different world inside. It turns out that behind the outer wooden wall is a thick wall made of mud; not only that, there is a deep cellar dug deep underground in the shed, and the cellar is surrounded by bricks and stones, which is extremely solid. Such a sophisticated design undoubtedly makes the garrison shed a safe shelter in the desert.

Such a garrison tent is not afraid of any sandstorm. As long as the doors and windows are closed when the sandstorm comes, the people inside are safe. There is also enough dry food inside, so they can wait until the sandstorm stops.

After a whole day of arduous journey through the desert, they finally arrived at a garrison tent. Surprisingly, there were originally two or three hundred soldiers stationed here, but now their team included many concubines, maids, guards, and additional guards sent by the nearby garrison commanders before entering the city, totaling seven or eight hundred people.

As a result, the small garrison tent that could only accommodate 200 to 300 people suddenly became overcrowded, with the number of people reaching thousands! Faced with this situation, Keremu made a prompt decision and issued an order: all the beautiful women should first stay in the garrison tent to rest, and all the soldiers quickly took action and began to build a temporary expansion tent.

These expansion tents were prepared in advance and transported by horses and camels. After arriving at the destination, they needed to be tied and connected one by one around the garrison tents, and they must not be built in isolation. Doing so can not only maximize the use of space, but also enhance the stability and defense of the entire camp.

After all the tents were successfully built, Keremu ordered all the horses and camels to be tied together in one place. This was to prevent the animals from being blown away and lost when the sandstorm came, which would cause unnecessary trouble or even danger to the journey. After everything was arranged, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and could take a short break to recover their strength.

Due to the poor conditions, all the concubines took their own quilts and went into the shed to rest. There were no beds here, so the garrison soldiers slept on wooden boards or directly on the ground. Although the shed could accommodate two to three hundred people, they slept in two groups and took turns to stand guard during the day and at night.

Now there are more than 300 concubines and maids, and it is extremely crowded for them to rest at the same time. The whole house and the cellar are filled with rows of neatly arranged quilts, and all the maids are helping their masters to tidy up and rest.

In order to ensure that these girls would not take advantage of the chaos to cause trouble, Keremu decisively issued an order: All girls must remain quiet and not cause trouble. If anyone violates this order, not only will the person concerned be sent back to his hometown, but all the people related to him will also be implicated and sent back to their hometown. Although this decision may cause dissatisfaction and resentment from some people, Keremu knows that some of these girls may be able to rise to prominence in the future. However, at this moment, he had to make such a decision. After all, in just half a year in Mo City, the number of girls has decreased by nearly half. It is conceivable how fierce and cruel the struggle between them is. Once they seize the opportunity, they will never show mercy.

In addition, Keremu knew that there were many complicated power relations involved. How many spies of Consort Xian and Consort Zhu were hiding here? They were watching his every move closely all the time. If a large-scale accident happened during this period, these people would definitely seize this rare opportunity to suppress him.

After almost all the beauties were settled and lay down quietly one by one, he stepped out with confidence and led his men to inspect the setting up of the tents and make proper arrangements for the guards outside the tents.

After everything was done and he was truly settled, he returned to his tent to rest. However, not long after he lay down, a quarter of an hour after midnight, a loud noise suddenly came from outside, waking him up from his sleep. He opened his eyes suddenly, sat up without hesitation, and quickly reached out to grab the sword beside him.

At this time, Ziya was heard running and shouting loudly: "Report...Prince! There is an enemy attack!"

Hearing this, Keremu didn't even have time to think about it. He jumped off the bed, grabbed his clothes, put them on quickly, and ran out of the tent. Before he stepped out of the tent, Ziya had already flashed into the tent.

"What exactly happened?" Keremu asked solemnly.

"Your Highness, the situation is urgent. We have been suddenly attacked by enemy forces. It is roughly estimated that there are about a thousand enemies, and they are currently in front of us!" Ziya replied breathlessly.

Keremu frowned, "It's right in front of us? Isn't it surrounded?"

According to common sense, they were now in the Gobi Desert on the edge of the desert. If a large number of enemies came to attack, the most stable and effective strategy should be to implement encirclement tactics. However, the enemy attack today did not adopt this common method, which was really unexpected.

Ziya said anxiously: "The enemy originally wanted to surround us, but because we have too many tents here, plus there are so many horses and camels, so even though they wanted to encircle us, they simply couldn't do it!"

Hearing this, Keremu suddenly came to his senses. Oh, yes! Their tents were also built in a circle around the garrison tents, so the circle naturally became larger.

Without any hesitation, he immediately stepped out, while issuing orders non-stop:

"Ziya, you lead a hundred men to guard the front and back doors of the garrison tent and ensure the safety of all the concubines! In addition, send another hundred men to be deployed on both sides of the tent to prevent anyone from taking the opportunity to launch a surprise attack from the rear. In addition, arrange two soldiers to quickly go to the garrison tents on both sides to request support. As for the rest of the people, follow me out to fight the enemy!"

When Ziya heard this, he was immediately anxious and quickly advised: "Master, why don't you let your subordinates go out to meet the enemy, and it would be better for you to protect those concubines yourself."

However, Keremu's face was slightly angry, and he shouted: "No need to say more, just do as I say!"

After he finished speaking, he rushed away like an arrow without even waiting for Ziya to respond, leaving Ziya standing there in shock. Looking at the figure of his master walking away, Ziya felt reluctant and worried, but he knew that there were more urgent things to deal with at the moment.

Although there were more than a thousand people on this trip, more than 30% of them were concubines and their personal maids, and nearly 20% of the remaining 600 to 700 people were responsible for taking care of everyone's daily life and chores. As a result, these people had almost no fighting power at all.

In fact, there are only 600 soldiers capable of fighting. Among them, 100 soldiers need to protect the beauty, and another 100 soldiers need to guard against the enemy's surprise attack from behind. After deducting these 200 soldiers with special missions, there are only 400 soldiers who can fight on the front battlefield! With only 400 soldiers against the enemy's 1,000-man army, the chances of winning are slim, and there is almost no chance of winning this battle.

The ladies who had been sleeping peacefully in the garrison tent were also awakened by the noisy noise outside the tent. They sent their maids to find out what happened. However, just as they were about to open the door to find out what was going on, the guards waiting outside the door quickly stepped forward to stop them and said earnestly: "Don't worry, just rest."

The people inside were kept in the dark and knew nothing about what was happening in the outside world. They could only hear some intermittent sounds of fighting.

Someone was curious and asked, "Why is there a fighting sound outside?"

Before he finished speaking, another person took over the conversation: "I heard that this area is often invaded by barbarians. Could it be that they are attacking this time?"

This person originally just spoke casually, but he didn't expect that many beauties would be terrified when they heard his words. They turned pale and looked flustered. They only wanted to find a safe place to hide.

"How dare you!" An angry shout suddenly rang out, like thunder breaking through the sky, shocking everyone's hearts and minds. The ladies looked in the direction of the voice, and saw a nanny in her fifties standing in front of them, her eyes like torches, scanning the people present. Her face was stern, her tone was extremely sharp, and she shouted angrily:

"Don't panic! You are all selected from among the most beautiful ladies, and you are likely to become concubines and noble ladies in the palace in the future. Such a small matter has caused you to panic. Have you forgotten that you are ladies from noble families?"

After hearing what Mammy said, the crowd raised doubts again:

"Mammy, that's easy for you to say! These are barbarians, cruel and brutal, and they kill people without hesitation. We can lose our lives if we are not careful! Even if we are all precious young ladies, well-educated and well-mannered, what good is that? If we lose our lives, everything will be in vain!"

As soon as she finished speaking, many of the beauties around her nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Madam Taji simply glanced at the young lady who was speaking:

"As the Queen's personal nanny, I am naturally aware of the interests involved. And you are the ones who are about to become the King's concubines, and you are responsible for the important task of expanding the royal family. Let's not talk about why the King and the Queen would abandon us, just the sounds of fighting coming from outside the house at this moment,

It is clear that our brave and fearless prince of Loulan is leading his soldiers in a bloody battle, protecting us with all his strength, so that everyone can stay here safely. But what about you? Not only do you have no trust in them, you don't believe that your soldiers can definitely defeat the strong enemy, and you even doubt whether the king will send reinforcements to protect you... With such a lack of trust in your own country, are you still worthy of entering the palace to be the king's concubine?"