Nick had recently learned something new: Central Asia had only two kinds of weather—desert summer and Siberian winter.
Even though Beijing was still in the sweltering heat of summer, the Mulan Hunting Grounds were already quite cool, and the Mulan Autumn Hunt was underway.
According to the merchants who traded with Mongolia, the journey from Zhangjiakou to Guihua took three months. Even if they set out immediately, it would be October by the time they arrived, and few people went to Siberia then. Even Siberians themselves, like hibernating bears, did not venture outside lightly. The average temperature there was more than forty degrees below zero, and the snow sometimes reached one's waist. Carriages could not get through at all; one could only travel by dog sled.
Setting out for Ili at this time, however, would coincide perfectly with the desert winter. So long as they did not encounter a sandstorm or a snowstorm, it was an excellent time to go.
So Nick abandoned his plan to head north from Tiger-Slaying Pass into Siberia. Even if he went, he would have to wait until spring the following year, when it would be summer in Siberia.
These merchants gathered beside the sacred altar for sacrifices to Heaven and prayers for grain. Legend said that a cooking vessel called a "cuan" was kept there, filled with cold water that would boil by itself without any firewood. Thus, people said it was Zhuge's Traveling Stove.
Zhuge Liang was a remarkable man. No one had yet managed to replicate the Wooden Ox and Gliding Horse he designed, nor the Eight Trigrams Formation he created. As a result, anything unbelievable seemed perfectly reasonable once his name was attached to it.
Nick had seen a bronze basin called a Fish Wash Basin at the old goods market.