Chapter 81 Magic Sword (1)

This was three days before Ye Ziqi stole the weapon talisman at night.

Four hundred miles north of Hanye City, on the outskirts of Chongwu Mountain

In Ju State, the further north you go, the colder and damper the weather becomes, which is really miserable. Chongwu Mountain still retains the feeling of winter at this time. The branches of the trees on the entire mountain are bare, and there are only a few camps set up by bandits.

They are arranged horizontally and vertically on the top of the mountain, which is particularly eye-catching.

But just at the foot of the mountain, there were four thousand men standing like cast iron, letting the cold wind flow through their formation like a wave, not timid, motionless, and silent.

Deputy General Xue Yi rode his horse back and forth, scanning these people - this team is the most elite army among the four northern countries, the Second Guards of the Ju Kingdom.

At the front of the team, there are two tall horses with one person each. One of them is heavily clad in polished silver armor and has a dark heavy sword in its scabbard. It is Lian Hongye, the captain of the second guard. The other is tall and tall, with snowy hair and yellow robes.

It is the chivalrous Taoist elder - "The Immortal Lord of the Earth" Le Zhong.

This old man who does not belong to the Erwei is here because of the cooperation between the Ju State military and Chiayi Dao. Xue Yi knew very well that in the Xuelongpo martial arts competition he hosted, the Erwei attracted about 2,000 civilian warriors from the people.

And fully half of them are actually chivalrous Taoists. This is also the original intention of holding the "Martial Arts".

As early as half a year ago, Xu Jing, the former Centurion of the Second Guards of the Ju Kingdom and now an envoy of the Chivalrous Way, had negotiated with Lian Hongye about the Chivalrous Way assisting the Ju Kingdom in suppressing the horse thieves.

His reputation was not so good among the people, so in the end he resorted to recruiting soldiers from the private sector to deceive others.

More than ten days ago, after the leader of the country, Baicheng Jiong, was sent to the Yi Kingdom, the second guard was divided into several thousand-man teams to eliminate the horse thieves from south to north. Now there are four thousand-man teams gathered here to solve the problem at hand.

"Hard stubble" rooted in Chongwu Mountain.

Le Zhong stroked his white beard, looked up at the top of the mountain and asked: "These Qianzhou barbarians are very strange. After robbing things, they don't rush home. Instead, they imitate the bandits and set up camp here."

"This is called a 'grain gathering nest' among the barbarians," Lian Hongye explained with a smile: "Each tribe of them would store things they robbed in one place, just like a group of rats preparing for the winter.

In the end, we will choose a time to transport the food back to Qianzhou together. At that time, each tribe will send heavy troops to support them on the banks of the Wanmu River to prevent other tribes from seizing the food along the way.

The twelve tribes of Qianzhou have twelve dens like this set up in Leizhou. The thieves inside regard the dens as their lifeblood, and when attacked, they will not fight and flee like usual, but will fight stubbornly."

Le Zhong nodded and asked: "I heard that the leader of your country was attending the Leizhou Conference in Tianshui City to discuss the suppression of bandits. Why did the general send troops to attack these barbarian strongholds so quickly?"

"In the past two years, the Leizhou Conference has focused on discussing border disputes and not hindering domestic actions. What's more -" Lian Hongye raised his whip and pointed north: "The rats are right in front of us, so why not clean the house?"

"Ha," Le Zhong smiled when he heard this, cupped his hands and said, "The general is so powerful, and all chivalrous people obey the general's command."

"Xue Yi!" Lian Hongye shouted: "Take a thousand troops and guard the important roads out of the mountain!"

"I have the order." Xue Yi immediately ordered his troops to leave.

Then, Lian Hongye ordered the remaining troops to gather, and two thousand people formed a formation and marched forward beating drums.

The second guard army was greeted by a hail of arrows from horse thieves. A horn sounded from the army, and everyone raised their wooden shields upwards. The military formation kept an orderly pace and moved forward. The arrows rained one after another, but the military formation was rigorous and there was no chaos.

.

As they approached the foot of the mountain, a group of bare-chested barbarians in animal clothing finally lost their composure. Some held up sabers, some held bows and arrows. They screamed strangely and rushed towards the neat military formation, like a pouring flood rushing towards the hard ground.

rock.

At this time, Le Zhong reined in his horse and followed Lian Hongye to observe the battle situation from a high place. He saw the horse thieves rushing to the front of the military formation. The two guards shouted: "Advance!" The neat spears suddenly unfolded from the military formation, like a line.

A long snake came out of the hole and bit the enemy outside the hole fiercely.

The horse thieves could not hold back their momentum, and they were immediately stabbed to the point of flipping over. After a while of massacre, the corpses were piled into a hill. The horse thieves finally realized that the army coming this time was powerful, and they could not fight hard, so they began to retreat.

Seeing this, Lian Hongye ordered the drums to be beaten again. The cavalry ambushing on both sides of the military formation immediately mounted their horses, roared and chased the fleeing horse thieves. The horse thieves immediately became frightened and fled.

After this battle, the barbarians who were still guarding the camp closed the camp gate tightly and refused to attack again. Lian Hongye also ordered the soldiers to stop on the hillside.

Le Zhong asked with joy on his face: "General, why don't you take advantage of the victory and pursue it?"

Lian Hongye shook his head: "The bandits are condescending and it is difficult to attack by force. It is time for weapons to come out. We also need all of you who are chivalrous and righteous."

"Ordnance?" Le Zhong looked at the battlefield and saw that a trebuchet had been sent to the foot of the mountain. He immediately understood that Lian Hongye had been prepared for this attack on the mountain.

However, what surprised him the most was that the stones placed next to the catapult looked like they had hearts. There was a fiery red stone heart in the center, and fire-colored lines spread from the stone heart to the surface of the stone.

.

"Is it the Explosive Flame Stone?" Le Zhong exclaimed.

"That's right." Lian Hongye said with a smile: "This kind of mineral can explode after a simple refining, so it is most suitable for throwing stones. It is a strictly prohibited contraband in all countries in Kyushu, and it is expensive.

.Originally, this kind of thing is not something that a small border country like ours can afford."

Le Zhong smiled and said: "But the only place where it is produced is the snow ridge in the north of Leizhou."

Lian Hongye nodded with a smile, pointed to the military formation in the distance and said: "The place buried deepest in the snow has the hottest heart in the world, just like these young people in Leizhou."

After the order was given, the trebuchets threw huge stones at the camp on the top of the mountain. The stones hit the earthen wall and exploded, causing secondary damage to the fortifications. Some of them fell into the crowd and exploded, causing corpses to fly everywhere and wailing.

Lian Hongye also issued a war order to the Chivalrous Path, and the people of the Chivalrous Path swarmed up. They all had light skills. Although they were not as good as the soldiers of the second guard when they formed a battle, they were able to quickly climb mountains and enter the stronghold to disrupt the enemy's position.

Do better than ordinary soldiers.

The second guard then attacked with all their troops. With just one attack, they captured all the camps. Thousands of horse thieves fled in panic. Xue Yi was waiting for them at the intersection out of the mountain.

After cleaning up the battlefield, the setting sun hid behind the mountains, and there was silence between heaven and earth.

Numerous bonfires were lit in the camp on the top of the mountain. The soldiers counted the seized materials overnight or rested in place. Lian Hongye, Le Zhong and other leaders walked into the main hall of the camp and talked by night.

"Congratulations, general!" Le Zhong congratulated him as soon as he sat down and said, "It is a great merit to seize these rations from the people and use them to help the victims."

"It's just a matter of duty." Lian Hongye said to Le Zhong and the three middle-aged knights following him: "It's so gratifying that the elders and all the martyrs can come to Ju to help."

"This is also our responsibility." Le Zhong lowered his expression and said: "Over the years, the Central Plains have been saying that civil strife among the barbarians is nothing to worry about; we originally thought so too.

But when I returned to my homeland, I realized that the barbarian harm was getting worse and worse, and it was already raging in the northern country. Don't worry, general, when we return to the Central Plains, we will publicize the serious disasters caused by the barbarians this year among the people and officials, and order the Zhongzhou court and other countries to

The princes are on guard.

Fortunately, I heard that the emperor has also sent the poor Princess Feng to Leizhou to inquire. Princess Feng has an old relationship with Immortal Master Yin Changqin, so she should speak out for the people of Leizhou. The general's worries will definitely not come true."

Lian Hongye nodded and sighed lightly.

In fact, he has been having an ominous premonition over the past few years. It is well known that barbarians will come to Leizhou to plunder in winter. No matter which tribe they originally belong to, as long as the barbarians come to Leizhou, they will temporarily put aside the hatred between tribes and cooperate.

, this tacit understanding always arouses Lian Hongye’s premonition of danger.

He was most worried that the two Khans of the East and West would suddenly put aside their hatred and dispute and jointly raid Leizhou, catching the entire Song Dynasty off guard. When it was discovered last year that among the horse thieves who came to plunder, the number of barbarian soldiers increased rapidly, and Lian Hongye would

This is regarded as a bad omen.

Therefore, he has vigorously promoted cooperation with Zhongyuan Chiayidao this year, all in order to put Zhongzhou on guard.

Now that he heard what Le Zhong said, he seemed to be able to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Le Zhong added: "It's just that I couldn't see the general drawing his sword today, which makes me a little regretful. After all, the general is holding——"

"Its current name is 'Heizi'." Lian Hongye interrupted gently when he saw Le Zhong reaching for his sword and pointing it at his side.

"Heizi? What a good name." Le Zhong stretched out his old hands from his yellow robe and put them on his knees. His face looked up with a look of fascination:

"I remember twenty years ago, I heard that the Demon Sword recognized its master, and the entire Central Plains was greatly shocked. I was worried about the rise of the Demon Sect. At that time, I was just an ordinary disciple of the Chivalrous Way, and I was just as worried as the people around me. Never thought,

Hey, this has become the biggest joke in the demon sect in the past twenty years."

"Demon Cult, I haven't heard this name for a long time - do they still hate me?"

"Hey, of course, their most sacred object fell into the hands of people outside the church. This is a shame they have never experienced before. But apart from being unwilling to give in every night, what can those little guys do to the general?"

Lian Hongye seemed to be aroused by Yue Zhong's words. He silently stroked the scabbard of the black sword. After a while, he smiled and said: "Listening to the elder talking about this, it seems that tonight, I must have a drink with the elder."

"If a general is in a good mood, a chivalrous man will never dissuade others from drinking."

"I wonder if the elder is still good at talking after drinking? I have been in the frontier for a long time, and I am deaf and blind. I still want to hear the elder talk about the current situation in the world."

When Le Zhong heard this, his expression perked up and he made a big move:

"Here comes the wine!"
Chapter completed!