In the early morning of the next day, the mission, led by Li Xianzhong, left Haozhou City and walked several miles north to the Huaihe River. Although the Huaihe River cannot be compared with the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, it is also a big river. It flows from the source to the lower reaches of the Hongze River.

The lake is more than two thousand miles long and extremely wide. It is more than a hundred feet wide at its widest point. It is a mighty river.

The Huaihe River was originally a landmark river dividing the north and the south within the territory of the Song Dynasty. However, after the Shaoxing Peace Conference, this river became the boundary river between the Jin Kingdom and the Song Dynasty. The large area of ​​the Central Plains north of the Huaihe River has become

The Jin Kingdom invaded and occupied dozens of cities, including Bianliang, the original capital of the Song Dynasty, and Peiying Tianfu, all of which fell into the hands of the Jin people. Half of the country and millions of people in the Song Dynasty were occupied by the Jin people.

At this moment, riding his horse on the high embankment beside the broad Huaihe River, Fang Zian felt a lot of emotion as he looked at the dark and wide river surface under the dim sky.

Everyone walked westward along the south bank of the Huaihe River for more than ten miles. The sky was gradually getting brighter, and they finally arrived at the place where Li Xianzhong said they were sneaking across the river. The river here seemed to be a bit fast, with the sound of water rushing, and the water was mixed with

There was a clanking sound, like floating objects colliding in the water.

Li Xianzhong whistled, and hundreds of soldiers suddenly appeared in the woods under the dark embankment. The leading generals rushed forward. Li Xianzhong got off his horse and walked down the slope of the river embankment, asking in a deep voice.

"Xu Dingshan, is the rope bridge ready?"

"Report to Commander Li, the construction has been completed. The brothers have been busy for most of the night. It's almost dawn, and we have to cross the river quickly, otherwise we will be seen at dawn." The general reported back.

Li Xianzhong nodded, turned to Fang Zian and said, "Master Fang, come and take a look at this bridge to see if your troops can cross it."

Fang Zian followed Li Xianzhong closely and went down to the edge of the forest. The river was rushing in front of him, and there was a loud crash. Although the light was dim, Fang Zian could still clearly see a rope bridge not far away leading to the dark river.

When Fang Zian looked at the bridge, he took a breath. This was not a bridge. It was just dozens of ropes pulled less than one meter above the river, with wooden planks underneath. The plank deck of the cable bridge was very low from the river.

, almost grazing the water. The bridge is swaying and looks precarious.

"Director Li, is this the bridge you said allows soldiers and horses to cross the river?" Fang Zian frowned.

Li Xianzhong nodded and said: "That's right. My brothers put up the wooden planks for this rope bridge overnight. The ropes were pulled before and sank under the water. When we need to cross the river, we pull up the ropes and tighten them.

Lay the wooden planks. It is not easy to build such a rope bridge. You'd better go there before dawn. Our people will have to remove the wooden planks and sink the ropes into the water again, so that the Jin people will not notice that this rope bridge will still be there in the future.

It works, and it saves us the trouble of smuggling over to build a new rope bridge in the future. To be honest, we have to be destroyed by a golden dog almost every month, and have to re-build it in another place.

The river surface is only more than thirty feet

It is wide and is the best location for a rope bridge. If the Jin people discover this place, we will have to work hard to find a place to build it."

Fang Zian understood. Although there was peace between the Song Dynasty and Jin Dynasty, there were constant conflicts, harassment, retaliation and friction on the border. The big river blocked it, making it inconvenient to come and go, so they created this kind of cable that had been set up in advance and sunk at the bottom of the water.

The bridge is a method of sneaking across the river. The ropes are usually sunk in the water. When needed, the ropes are pulled from the bottom of the river to put up the bridge deck planks to cross the river, and then sink again. It is estimated that the two parties have secretly built many such rope bridges.

, and I don’t know how many types of these rope bridges have been destroyed by the other side.

"This...can people, horses and vehicles pass through?" Fang Zian expressed doubts. This kind of bridge is wobbly when walking on it. How can it be possible for his group to cross the river?

"Don't worry. Don't ride a horse, pull the horse. Don't carry too much goods on the vehicle. Two hundred people will pass by two or three times each way. Of course, some people may fall into the river if they are unlucky. It's usually okay if they fall.

, but it can’t happen now. Did you hear it? There was a sound of ice particles in the river, and that was broken ice. The river water is very cold, and if you fall, you will definitely die," Li Xianzhong said.

Fang Zian rolled his eyes and thought to himself: I was worried, and you still said such things.

Li Xianzhong obviously also saw Fang Zian's doubts, and immediately gave a demonstration himself. He pulled Fang Zian onto the rickety rope bridge deck, and while walking forward, he said: "A group of ten people cannot cross the river.

There are too many people going on the bridge together. The ten people should be five on each side, and they cannot all tilt to one side, otherwise the bridge will flip over. As long as the steps are consistent and careful, you can cross. You must put blinders on the horses, otherwise the horses will

Easily frightened and jumpy, difficult to control. As for vehicles, it’s best to pass one at a time.”

Fang Zian walked a few steps on the wooden rope bridge. He felt that although the bridge looked particularly scary, it was not as shaky and unsteady as he thought. In fact, there were ropes on both sides woven like fishing nets.

The wooden boards laid underneath the fence are obviously not ordinary wooden boards, but wooden boards with mortise and tenon joints that fit together one by one. When they are joined together, they look like a whole. As long as the bridge does not flip over, nothing will happen.

questionable.

No matter what, there is no choice now. Fang Zian immediately ordered all the people to dismount, blindfold the horses, and pull the reins tightly. They formed a group of ten people, one pair at a distance of ten feet apart, to look at the bridge.

Go up. The first group of ten people were scared to death when they went up, but they were scolded by Fang Zian and walked up bravely. Under the eager eyes of everyone, they walked into the dark mist of the river. Soon after, Feng Yiming, who followed them, kicked

He ran back without stopping, and without waiting for Fang Zian to ask, he reported the good news that the group had successfully crossed. Now Zian and the others were relieved. The next group started crossing the river one by one, and finally one car

A big car.

When it was daybreak, Fang Zian helped Shi Hao, who was the last group to cross the bridge, accompanied by Li Xianzhong and seven or eight soldiers. When he stepped on the ground on the other side, Li Xianzhong

He didn't go ashore. He stood on the rickety rope bridge and bowed his hands.

"Master Shi, Master Fang, please forgive me for not sending you far away. I hope you have a smooth and safe journey."

Shi Hao and Fang Zian returned the favor and thanked Li Xianzhong. Li Xianzhong waved his hands and ordered the bridge to be dismantled. However, they saw several soldiers quickly starting to dismantle the ship planks from the bridge head. They disassembled the ship planks piece by piece and tied them with ropes to carry them to the other side.

All the way away from the north bank where Fang Zian and others were standing, the cable bridge with its planks removed was reduced to dozens of ropes. When Fang Zian and others got ready to set off, the cable bridge they came from had disappeared.

.Dozens of ropes were tied with heavy objects and completely fell into the river without any trace. Unless you used an iron rake to hook the ropes along the shore, you would never believe that there is a rope bridge under the water.

It was already daylight, and Fang Zian knew that the longer he stayed on the river bank, the more dangerous he would be. So he ordered his troops to quickly reorganize and set off. He did not dare to walk openly on the embankment, but first walked along the willow forest below the river beach.

Walking, he sent people to check the path on the bank. Soon after, Fang Zian found the small mountain range close to the bank of the Huaihe River that he saw on the sand table. Then he asked everyone to climb over the river embankment and follow the side of the hill to the north along the hillside.

And go.

Although Huainan and Huaibei are separated by a river, the scenery is completely different. In the Song Dynasty, although it was desolate, you can still see some villages and people, as well as fields planted with winter wheat. However, after crossing the river, you can see

, in addition to the rolling hills, there are large areas of grassy land, as if you are on a grassland.

Fang Zian felt puzzled. When he told everyone about his feelings, they all felt the same. After walking for a long time, they didn't see a field, a field ridge or a ditch. This was really strange.

Shi Hao heard everyone's discussion in the car, so he opened the car window and said to everyone: "It's nothing strange. The Jin people don't know how to farm, they can only herd sheep and cattle. After they occupied the land of Huaibei, they abandoned a large number of fertile fields and sowed

Grass seeds are used to plant grass. After so many years, this place has long been a patch of pasture. Only cattle, sheep, horses and sheep can be raised."

Hearing what Shi Hao said, everyone cursed and gnashed their teeth with hatred. On both sides of the Huaihe River, the fertile fields were large and fertile. They were supposed to be a place for rice and wheat harvests, but these golden dogs sown them with grass seeds and turned them into pastures.

This is simply a waste of natural resources. As a result, the original people of the Song Dynasty will have no land to plant. Moreover, once the fertile land is occupied by weeds, it will be difficult to restore it in the future. Weeds are the most attractive to the soil, and the fields in the future will require a lot of plowing and weeding.

Grain can be grown only once, and the harvest will inevitably be poor unless fertility is increased. These golden dogs are lacking in great virtue.

Although they were very angry, everyone could only curse. The good news was that after a large area of ​​grassland was formed and the ditches were filled, cars and horses could travel unimpeded. Except for some places where the snow had not yet melted, the ground was a little soft and slippery.
Chapter completed!