Chapter 532 8.50 The River of Quicksand (3)

Nature has its own set of rules.

When there are continuous heavy rains, the flowing water on the high ground will merge into the stream, eventually causing the water level in the downstream valley to rise and surge violently.

The same is true for this thick "quicksand river" in the black desert.

Although the Sahara is vast, it is surrounded by the sea on both sides. The monsoon will throw fine sand like talcum powder into the sky and fall slowly like rain.

When accumulated to a certain amount, the quicksand will flow rapidly along the terrain and finally merge into the quicksand river.

The reason why Lao Hashi was upset about his decision to rest early last night was that it would be very easy to cross the sand river in clear weather. Quicksand will only accumulate in a relatively low position, and the flow speed will not be too violent.

The quicksand river in the sandstorm will become a completely different scene.

When the caravan was still hundreds of meters away from the river valley, they could already see a dark yellow "smoke wall" rising not far away. As the caravan got closer, everyone could directly feel the heavy yellow sand covering the sky and the sun, and the visibility would be reduced a lot after walking for dozens of meters.

"Hold the torch high! Find a way to let the team in front and behind see your position clearly!"

He shouted only one sentence in a hurry, and the dry sand immediately poured into Old Hash's mouth, forcing him to close his mouth.

Talking against the strong wind of the sandstorm is an extremely laborious behavior. Even if the two people are very close to each other, they need to shout loudly for each other to hear clearly.

Old Hash looked behind him with great concern.

At this time, he could only see two dim firelights behind him, and in the distance there was a chaotic dark yellow.

(I have already given all the instructions before setting off. If there are still mistakes, this may be the will of the Fire King.)

Reaching out his hand to signal the subordinates behind him to slow down, Old Hash took out a hard wooden stick and probed the land in front of him every two steps like a blind man.

The first thing to do to cross the Quicksand River in a sandstorm is to avoid falling into the riverbed.

The closer you get to the river valley, the more violent the surging and floating yellow sand becomes. Mortals cannot tell what kind of terrain is ahead with their eyes.

Outside the river valley, they are no different from blind people.

It took Old Hash nearly an hour to walk a few hundred meters. After making sure that the stick in his hand touched the hard rock, the next step was to get close to the riverbed and find a "milestone".

It's not just the caravan merchants who need to cross the Quicksand River.

The free people living in the depths of the desert also need to cross this river with rushing sand to go to Memphis to purchase scarce food, salt, and other daily necessities in the desert.

As business gradually prospers, more and more free people begin to rely on the goods sold by the Chamber of Commerce. In order to cross the river more stably, they also need to consider the important issue of "how to cross the Quicksand River in sandstorm weather".

Therefore, the free people will bury a lot of "milestones" around each crossing.

Old Hash groped along the riverbed, and after walking dozens of steps, he finally found a giant marble pillar more than one person tall.

This huge stone pillar, like a tombstone, has no decorations, only an arrow and three Greek numbers painted on it.

[Turn left and continue forward 122 meters]

The frequent sandstorms forced the free people to think of this method. As long as they can touch the riverside of the Quicksand River and move forward along the river bank, they will definitely encounter this kind of stone tablet with direction and distance marked after walking dozens of meters.

In this way, they can have a rough estimate of the direction of the ferry.

Fortunately, we are not far from the ferry.

Hash silently recited a few words of praise for the Fire King in his heart again. The extremely low visibility in the sandstorm often makes it impossible to identify the direction of advance. At this time, the caravan is not far from the ferry. Seeing that the sun above has passed the midpoint and gradually tilted to the west.

Old Hash knew that the caravan must hurry up.

Walking in the sandstorm during the day, although the vision is all dark yellow, fortunately, you can still see the range of about 10 meters in front of you.

Once it is night, the fine sand with almost zero reflectivity is like a giant hand holding people tightly. At that time, the human eye has no visibility of even 2 meters.

Walking in the dark desert is like stepping into a sticky black hole.

Even the most experienced caravan merchants may not be able to escape unscathed.

According to official statistics from the city of Memphis, there are a total of 6 proven crossings on the Quicksand River, but the actual number is much larger than the official statistics.

The Arab governors in the city have colluded with the sand bandits outside the city, which has almost become an open secret. It is well known that there are often sand bandits wandering around the 6 major crossings, which is one of the important reasons why large chambers of commerce never go out of the city walls.

The bulk caravans that often appear in the black desert each have their own crossings.

The one chosen by Old Hash is a seemingly dilapidated iron chain bridge. In ancient times, this was a "cargo loading and unloading dock".

The buoyancy of sandboarding is much greater than that of flowing water.

The biggest use of this river of quicksand by the pharaohs was to carry heavy stones for building palaces and tombs.

There are 6 huge marble pillars on the sand river, connected by bridge arches. When the boat floating on the sand river floats to the center of the stone pillars, the two stone pillars on the left and right will use iron cables to fix the boat, and then the heavy stones will be slowly lowered to the ferry through the pulley on the top of the bridge.

After the fall of ancient Egypt, most of the buildings in the sea of ​​sand have decayed, but these six hard marble pillars on the Quicksand River have survived.

Merchants connected the stone pillars with iron chains to form a simple floating bridge.

This is not a hidden ferry, but for decades, only a handful of merchants have passed through it every year. The main reason is that this "bridge" looks very dangerous.

After walking on the bridge, the bridge made of iron chains is shaky, and you can immediately see the violently rolling quicksand under your feet.

This quicksand is different from the flowing water in ordinary rivers.

If a person falls into the water, he will float up, but if a person falls into the fast-flowing quicksand, he will be swept into the ground in a few seconds.

No one knows how deep this sand river is.

But one year, heavy rain fell for a month, and a large amount of quicksand was carried away by the flowing water, exposing part of the riverbed of the Quicksand River for the first time.

The bottom of the sand river was filled with deep caves like a honeycomb, and each cave contained eerie bones of varying sizes.

From beginning to end, there was no end in sight.