The prince loves me like his life, but I force him to rebel

When the sandstorm first started, a team of more than a thousand people scattered in search of shelter. When the sandstorm covered the sky, everyone lost track of their location and had lost contact. When the real strong winds swept through, many people were blown away and disappeared.

Along the way, there were corpses of guards.

After being tortured by the sandstorm and then exposed to the sun in the desert, the corpse took on a horrible expression.

Gu Nianzhi looked at the corpse and her body tensed up.

A pair of large hands covered his eyes.

"Don't look at it. You will have nightmares." Sima Yao behind him whispered.

Gu Nianzhi had seen pictures of deserts and Gobi Deserts on the Internet, and had thought about traveling to these places to experience the sadness and great martial arts in martial arts novels, with lonely smoke over the long river and the setting sun. But now that she was there, she suddenly realized how naive her idea was.

In extremely harsh natural environments, people have to use up all their strength and luck to survive.

Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why the Qiang people and the Cinan people are so cruel and vicious.

In such a harsh environment, the only way to survive is to be ruthless, even more ruthless.

That is the survival code engraved in their bones, passed down from generation to generation, and that's all.

"If we can't find elder brother and Huaiyuan today, they might be in great danger..." Sima Yao said it very vaguely. He knew better than anyone what it meant to lose contact for two days in such a vast desert.

"There seems to be someone over there." Gu Nianzhi looked at the sand dunes in the distance and saw something moving.

"Gee..." Sima Yao also saw the target. Without saying a word, he rode away.

The followers behind him also quickly caught up, but Sima Yao's horse was a royal horse and was faster, and he soon had a distance of one or two hundred meters from the others.

When Sima Yao and Gu Nianzhi arrived at their destination, they discovered that the object they had just seen moving was just a tattered silk scarf caught on a bush on the sand dune, perhaps it belonged to a palace maid in yesterday's wedding procession.

Sima Yao turned his horse around and returned along the same route.

But then Gu Nianzhi screamed and pointed to a place not far ahead: "The sand is moving, moving..."

Sima Yao took a closer look and was horrified: "Quicksand! Stop now! Don't go any further!"

Before he could finish his words, a horse's front foot stepped into the quicksand and was wrapped tighter and tighter by the powerful force of the sand. The guard on the horse quickly retreated, but one of his feet was caught in the quicksand and he could not escape.

A group of people from the Central Plains, who had never seen such a scene before, wanted to step forward to rescue people, but they didn't know how to do it.

Almost in an instant, the yellow sand buried the horses and people.

"Retreat, retreat, everyone retreat..." Sima Yao shouted with all his strength. The small team he led was almost entirely made up of guards brought from the palace, and he was the only one who knew something about the desert.

Now the fast-moving quicksand is like an unfathomable river, lying between Sima Yao and other team members. Both sides can only try to stay as far away from the quicksand as possible to ensure their safety.

"Lin Heng, don't come over here, go back to Dingxi Prefecture quickly and let their people come to find us..." The scope of the quicksand was getting larger and larger. Sima Yao gritted his teeth, turned his horse around, and went deep into the desert.

The sunset in the sky became dimmer and dimmer.

Sima Yao galloped on his horse and finally arrived at the edge of the desert before dark, where there was a vast Gobi desert.

"We can't go back tonight." Sima Yao said, "But don't be afraid. We will try to find a crevice in the rocks and spend the night there. When daybreak comes, we will cross today's desert and return to Dingxi Prefecture."

Two people and a horse were walking slowly across the Gobi Desert.

If their lives were not in danger, the scene of them leaning on each other in the last rays of sunset would seem quite romantic.

"Will both of us... die here?"

The last ray of sunset light disappeared. Gu Nianzhi felt a chill coming towards him and couldn't help shivering.

"No. Absolutely not." Sima Yao tightened his arms around Gu Nianzhi. "Believe me, I started training in Dingxi Prefecture when I was thirteen or fourteen years old, and lived in the desert Gobi for three or four years. I am very familiar with this area."

Sima Yao looked around.

The moonlight grew brighter, and gradually replaced the sun as the light for both of them.

There seems to be some building in the distance.

Sima Yao quickened his pace and soon arrived in front of the building. He dismounted from his horse and helped Gu Nianzhi down.

"There seem to be characters from the Da Sheng Dynasty here." Gu Nianzhi pointed to a stone tablet nearby. The stone tablet had been broken by the harsh wind of the Gobi Desert, and the specific content could not be seen, but some strokes could still be roughly seen.

"This was a military station of Dasheng in the past." Sima Yao stroked the ruins, feeling a little sad. "At that time, this was still an undisputed Dasheng territory, and I was stationed here for half a year. Later, this place was attacked by Qiang people, and my father thought that the desert and Gobi were worthless, so he did not send troops to reinforce it. Gradually, this place became a disputed area among the Three Kingdoms."

The moonlight poured down, casting a layer of light on the dilapidated military station.

Sima Yao brought Gu Nianzhi into the military station, and the two found a relatively complete room and prepared to spend the night there.

"It will be very cold at night. I am going to collect firewood nearby. You wait here for me. I will be back soon."

The wind blew through the military station, swirling in the empty rooms. The "woooo" sound was like someone crying in her ears. Gu Nianzhi shook her head like a rattle: "No, I'll go with you. I'm really scared to be alone."

Sima Yao smiled, and there was a hint of doting in that smile.

"To be honest, I have never seen a man as weak and timid as you." Looking up and seeing Gu Nianzhi hating him with dissatisfaction, Sima Yao knew that he had said something wrong and quickly added: "Although Brother Nianzhi is weak, he is really smart."

The two men picked up a lot of dry shrubs on one side of the military station. These shrubs grow in deserts and Gobi. Even though they are cold-resistant and drought-resistant, they can hardly withstand such a harsh natural environment. Occasionally, some of them dry up and die, or are blown away by strong winds. Their broken branches drift with the wind, and some are blown to the walls of the military station, and naturally piled up there.

Sima Yao and Gu Nianzhi picked up the dry shrubs and brought them back into the room. Sima Yao took out a tinder and lit them. The orange-red flame lit up, and the temperature of the whole room became slightly warmer.

Gu Nianzhi's stomach growled at this moment.

"You'll have to go hungry tonight." Sima Yao handed over the water bag, "Drink some water slowly. Hang in there, and we'll be able to go back tomorrow morning."

Gu Nianzhi brought the water bag to her mouth. She always felt that there was a strange taste in the water, but she was really thirsty and hungry, so she had to drink a few sips.

"This water bag is made of sheepskin. If you don't like the smell of sheep, you will find the water unpalatable. But in a place like this, we have no choice in what to eat and drink. When we return to the capital, I will treat you to the best wine, no, the best tea..." Sima Yao leaned against the corner, looking at the flames in front of him, as if he was imagining the good days after escaping.

Gu Nianzhi understood that Sima Yao was not so confident in escaping the predicament, but he had to appear firm in front of her, otherwise both of them would soon lose faith.

"Okay, I'll wait for the day when you invite me for tea." Gu Nianzhi forced a smile. At this moment, the two of them had to support and help each other.