Liu Qian's face turned pale and he looked down at the simple book Liu An handed him.
The bamboo slips show the number of ironware produced in and out of Huainan in the past few years. The amount is shocking.
"What did my father do with the pig iron?"
Liu Qian had already thought of the answer, and he felt a little frightened and at the same time faintly excited.
"Forge ordnance."
Liu An looked calm and was quite satisfied with his son's reaction: "Sooner or later you have to know these things. If you understand them earlier, you will be better prepared."
Forging ordnance is indeed...
At this moment, Liu Qian's heart beat like a drum, and he asked in a trembling voice: "How long have father been preparing for this?"
"It's been a few years. If you return to Chang'an in the future, regardless of success or failure, you will have to change your identity."
Liu An means that if he succeeds, he will be the prince, and if he fails, he will be a death row prisoner!
Liu Qian took a deep breath: "What preparations has Father made?"
"In addition to preparation and armor, other arrangements involve all aspects. If we are weak, we will join forces with the other party and lead the two to fight. This is the way to fight."
The other side can only be the Huns... Liu Qian said: "My father is conspiring with the Huns?"
"It's just taking advantage of each other. If we don't do this, how can we cause chaos and turmoil and get opportunities?"
"Why would Father do this..."
Liu Qian did not dare to say those two words directly, and instead asked: "When does father plan to start?"
"Don't rush into it yet. What should be arranged has been arranged for a long time. It's ridiculous that Chang'an still doesn't realize it."
"If we fail, we..."
"Don't worry, I have already prepared a retreat. Even if the incident fails, our lineage will not be wiped out, we will just stay in peace!"
"My sister is still in Chang'an..."
"She is much smarter than you and can take care of herself."
Liu An looked out the window in the direction of Chang'an.
After waiting for so many years, we are finally taking the first step.
————
As evening approaches, the fiery sunset colors the sky.
The wind howls on the grassland.
Da Dan Yu Yizhi's face was expressionless, and he lowered his head to look at Qu Meng's body with a big hole in his chest.
The corpse had been dead for twenty days, but it was protected by the mysterious power of the Xiongnu shaman. It did not rot, but its face was black and purple, which was very frightening.
He pressed his chest, and even now he could still feel a sharp surge of military force.
Not far away, there was the spear that Huo Qubing shot through the air to kill Qu Meng. The blood had dried, but the sharp Qi still lingered on the gun body.
The great shaman was also beside him, with black energy lingering at his fingertips. He pointed a single finger at the center of Qu Meng's eyebrows, as if he was connecting life and death for him and performing the final sacrifice!
The great shaman also sensed the sharp edge condensed in the wound on Qu Meng's chest.
In the past few days, he has tried to absorb that power.
But every time you let go of your hand, Bing Feng's Qi will soon gather at the wound, stirring endlessly.
"The power left behind by this Han general destroyed everything in Qu Meng's body, not even a trace of his soul remained." The great shaman frowned.
The Huns believed that there is a world after death. To practice the life soul is to look forward to the day when the physical body dies and the life soul becomes stronger and can enter the world after death.
But in this situation, he was really dead and his soul was gone.
"Bury!"
The corpse was lying on a wolf-skin mat, located in the grassland further north of Ulaanbaatar. The fields were empty, with a river winding in the distance and greenery flowing.
This is a valley, the cemetery of the Subu clan.
Huns' cemeteries are usually located in forested valleys, along the banks of large rivers or tributaries, and are distributed in groups.
Qumeng is the contemporary leader of the Xub tribe and the king of Youguli of the Xiongnu, with a respected status.
So even Yi Zhixie came to the funeral in person.
Inside and outside the valley, there were tens of thousands of soldiers from the Hun royal tent and the Xub clan. It was so quiet that no one made a sound.
There is only the sound of howling wind, whimpering in everyone's ears.
"I...the master of the grassland tribes will personally cut off the Han general's head and make it into a wine vessel."
Yi Zhixie looked solemn: "Bury, kill the sacrifices!"
Cutting off the heads of the leaders of hostile forces was a way for the Huns to show their bravery.
Living sacrifice is also a ritual for the burial of powerful Huns. The nobler the Huns are, the more grand they will be during their burial. All their slaves during their lifetime will be killed and buried with them, so that they can still be served by these servants in the world they enter after death.
.
At this time, around the valley, there were hundreds of people kneeling with their heads held down by the Huns soldiers. They were both men and women, with frightened expressions. They were all Qu Meng's slaves during his lifetime.
Almost all the slaves of the Huns were plundered Han Chinese.
It was impossible for them to let their troops be buried with them, so most of the people they killed were Han slaves!
The Hun soldiers responsible for beheading the sacrifices held sharp daggers in their hands. They moved in unison and pressed on the slave's neck. They struck quickly and hard, opening a slit throat wound.
Then exert force to suppress the dying sacrifice.
The power a person generates before death can even break the leather ropes that bind them.
A fierce struggle, two deep ravines were kicked out of the ground, the pain of a broken throat, despair, fear, numbness, all the emotions were quickly frozen on the face of the fierce struggle.
As the blood splattered on their necks, they slowly became motionless, and their life and body temperature quickly passed away.
Eventually everything quieted down.
Among the executioners, some of the Huns soldiers brought the bloody blade to their mouths, licked it, and kicked the body into the grave pit at the bottom of the valley.
The filling was soon completed, and the desolate sound of horns sounded on the grassland.
Yi Zhi turned his head and looked to the south: "The Han people dare to attack the Huns, and we will pay them back a hundred times."
The great shaman Enchi on the side is holding a withered yellow bone plate in his hand, which looks like the skull of some kind of creature, filled with blood.
At this moment, the blood in it suddenly twisted into lines of Xiongnu characters: "Have your men ever reached Wuhuan?"
Yi Zhi glanced sideways at the writing on Enchi's hand bone:
"Tell him that when we withdrew, as agreed with him, we left an elite force to go east and hide in Wuhuan. If someone from the Han people in Beiguan raises a fire, my team will appear to help him!"<
/p>
The great shaman responded according to what Yi Zhixie said. Within a moment, the writing on the bone vessel changed: "There will be news within three days."
Yi Zhixie: "How sure are you that you can cause chaos in Chang'an?"
Changes in the blood stains on the bone tools: "I have been preparing for this day for a long time..."
"Where is the Han general who killed Qu Meng now?"
"The Han people are celebrating the victory in the Battle of Beiguan, and the emperor is hosting a banquet for hundreds of officials in Chang'an!"
The writing ends here.
Yi Zhi looked sideways at the Great Shaman: "The Han people want to use our Xiongnu troops. We fancy the opportunity to plunder and kill the Han army. How much hope does the Great Shaman think this time?"
"The place where the Han people have the most luck is Chang'an. It depends on whether Chang'an will change." The great shaman said.
Yi Zhixie: "What is the origin of that person...does the Great Shaman know?"
"I don't know, but I guess it should be a descendant of the clan of the Qin Dynasty, or an earlier country. He seems to have a deep-seated hatred for the current Han Dynasty."
The great shaman said: "There is at least one thing about him that transcends worldly power, which can obscure any investigation.
I have used several ancestral artifacts that have been passed down, but I have not been able to find any information about him.
Only with this kind of power can he operate in the Han region and escape the pursuit of the Han emperor."
"Is he one person or many people?"
The great shaman shook his head slightly: "I don't know."
————
Evening, Chang'an.
"Have everyone been found?"
Huo Qubing was sitting in the Chang'an Guards Command Hall, where Shi Jian, the doctor's order, usually worked.
Shi Jian happened to go home early today. It was said that his father was unwell.
Shi Jian was a filial son, and his reputation was passed down to future generations because of this incident.
"I have sent people to find the two generals Shi Jian and Cheng Bushi, the lieutenant of the Northern Army Zhang Cigong..." It was Song Ran who answered, and Xiao Ying on the other side.
Huo Qubing was responsible for taking over the Chang'an Guards, and Song Ran and Xiao Ying were sent to assist him.
At this moment, there is also a great turmoil within the secret investigation.
The Chang'an Guards include the Southern Army, the Northern Army and the Forbidden Army.
All three are nominally under the control of Lang Zhongling Shi Jian, who directly controls the Forbidden Army. The Southern Army is under the command of Changle Weiwei Cheng Bushi, and the Northern Army is headed by Zhang Cigong.
"What happened to Zhang Cigong?" Huo Qubing asked.
"Our people are looking for him, probably... he probably went to a private house somewhere to have an appointment with someone."
At this time, someone from the secret service came in and whispered a few words to Xiao Ying.
When Huo Qubing heard that they were reporting Zhang Cigong's whereabouts, he said, "I will go to Zhang Cigong's place myself."
South of Chang'an City, outside a courtyard.
Huo Qubing and his men came at full speed while it was dark. A spy stepped forward and shattered the closed door with force, and the group broke in.
There were several Zhang Cigong's followers in the house, standing on the outer corridor. They all obviously knew Huo Qubing. They were stunned when he came in, but did not resist.
Huo Qubing waved his hand and walked to the depths of the courtyard without letting too many people follow him.
His thoughts spread, and he had already discovered the situation in the inner house, so he went outside a house and knocked on the door before opening it.
There was a man and woman in the room who had just gotten off the couch. The man was Zhang Cigong.
The woman was covered in white, her face was frightened, she had just put on a robe, her hair was messy, she was Liu Ling, the daughter of the King of Huainan.
Seeing that it was Huo Qubing, Zhang Cigong breathed a sigh of relief and whispered: "Why don't you come and say hello to me? What happened if you just barged in like this?"
Huo Qubing was thinking that if you fell into the hands of others, you might be used to implicate your uncle, and you would also die. Do you think I am willing to come?