This was expected, everyone was prepared, and there was nothing to say.

However, Hu Hongxiu, the leader of the delegation who had gathered these guides and had gradually figured out some geographical factors over the past few days, suddenly took the initiative to raise a question: "After arriving at Datun City, do we still need to go north through the Nanhe River (the Han name for the Tarim River), to the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and then turn east to reach Hamili?"

The Khotanese merchant nodded immediately.

"And if we go through the mountain pass in front of us," Hu Hongxiu, with a ruddy face, turned around and pointed to the Qilian Mountain Pass behind him. The pass was so obvious that it was visible to the naked eye. "Can we go straight to Hami without taking a detour?"

"Yes." It was the Han merchant from Xining who answered Hu Hongxiu. "So that Minister Hu knows that if we go from here, we will reach Shazhou (Dunhuang), and Hamili is just north of Shazhou. If we go from here, we can arrive in half a month..."

As soon as these words were spoken, Yelu Yudu and others, who also had red faces, looked at each other, apparently moved.

"But Shazhou is in the hands of the Xixia people." The Han merchant responded cautiously. "When the Xixia people encounter ordinary merchants, whether they are Han or Hu, they will set up checkpoints and exploit them, let alone the nobles in Dongjing City?"

Everyone fell silent again.

"If we go from Shazhou to Hamili, are there any natural dangers that we must cross?" Hu Hongxiu asked seriously.

"Minister Hu is confused." Lian Yelu Yudu was somewhat helpless. "To the northwest of Shazhou is Yumen Pass, and to the southwest is Yangguan Pass. We go to Loulan through Yangguan Pass, and to Gaochang through Yumen Pass. We are going to Gaochang... We can't avoid the Xixia people. According to the foreign generals, we should be patient for a while and continue to go west!"

Hu Hongxiu frowned when he heard this: "General Yelu, should we go to Hamili or Gaochang?"

Yelu Yudu was slightly startled, and immediately asked, "Aren't they all the same place? Are they all where the Western Region Uighurs are? And according to what was said before, the Western Region Uighurs have just signed a subordinate agreement with my King Dashi, so if we find the Western Region Uighurs, we can get news about my King. Calculating the time, it's impossible even if we see them in person."

"That being said, Gaochang and Hamili are not the same place." Hu Hongxiu shook his head. "Gaochang has to go through Yumen Pass, so what about Hamili? We are actually going to find the Western Region Uighurs, right? We didn't specify Gaochang or Hamili?"

Yelu Yudu wanted to refute, but was discouraged in the end... He really didn't want to offend this Zhao Song official whose personality was a little serious to the point of being awkward.

In fact, even other Song Dynasty entourage felt that Hu Hongxiu was overthinking it. Hamil and Gaochang both belonged to the Western Regions and were one family. If one wanted to go to the Western Regions, wouldn't one have to go through Yumen Pass or Yangguan?

However, at this moment, the Khotanese merchant who could speak Chinese suddenly interrupted and said, "If you go from Shazhou to Hamili, you don't have to go through Yumen Pass."

Everyone turned around to look.

"Shazhou, Guazhou, Hamili and Gaochang are a four-cornered circle..." The Khotanese merchant hurriedly explained under the gaze of the crowd. "Yumenguan is between Shazhou and Gaochang, Hamili is northeast of Gaochang and northwest of Guazhou... If you want to go to Hamili from Shazhou, of course you can go through Yumenguan to Gaochang and then go to Hamili, but you can also turn east from Shazhou, retreat to Guazhou, and then go directly to Hamili from Guazhou... There are no checkpoints on this road."

Han Shang also nodded heavily.

Yelu Yudu and Hu Hongxiu looked at each other in silence, apparently moved, and the latter turned back to look at the two heads of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War.

The two officers hesitated for a moment, and then one of them, a certain official in the Ministry of War named Liang Jiaying, blurted out in a strange accent: "We can bet! The population here is so sparse, we can split our troops into two groups, one with light cavalry from Guazhou to Hamili... How can we not bet!"

Hu Hongxiu nodded immediately, and the matter was approved.

There was no way. Among the four people who had a say, three had been to the battlefield, and the three who had been to the battlefield had basically no doubts about this risky choice, which left the learned Yuwenlang of the Ministry of Rites speechless.

After a while, everyone had made a plan. Hu Hongxiu and Yelu Yudu carefully selected a hundred riders, covered them with tattered clothes of the local yellow-headed Tatars, took enough water and food, went out of the Zhengbei Pass, entered Shazhou, retreated to Guazhou, and then went straight to Hamil.

The rest of the group, led by Liang Jiaying and the deputy minister of the Ministry of Rites, continued to move westward with baggage, caravans, gifts, and ceremonial guards. After another twenty days of walking, they turned into Datun City in the Western Regions as a backup plan.

Since the decision had been made and the leaders were all veterans of the battlefield, they did not hesitate and immediately implemented it.

It can only be said that the Xixia people never thought that the one hundred cavalrymen who appeared at the Qilian Pass were actually Han envoys. In fact, they did not even notice these one hundred cavalrymen... After the one hundred cavalrymen came out of the Qilian Pass, they followed the guide's instructions and ignored Shazhou City. Instead, they hid during the day and moved at night, first rushing to Sanwei Mountain, and then passing the small town of Changle City on the way. They only bought enough food and water in the villages around Changle City, and then crossed the river at night from the north of Guazhou City, bypassing the small desert in the Shule area, and finally galloping all the way to the northwest.

The Xixia people did not react throughout the whole process.

They had no reason to react. The Xixia Xiping Military Headquarters in Guazhou only received a report from Changle City two days after the incident, saying that there was a group of yellow-headed Tatars, who must have just made a robbery and were actually quite rich, heading from west to east... The people of the Xiping Military Headquarters wanted to look for them, but when they learned that these people had already crossed the Shule Desert, they lost all interest.

Who would be willing to care about a place like this, as long as it doesn't disturb the core land of the Hexi Corridor?

So, after a few surprises, nothing serious happened. Five or six days before the Chinese New Year, Hu Hongxiu and Yelu Yudu arrived in Hamil, and then they received accurate news that Yelu Dashi was in Gaochang (later Turpan) ahead!

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