Once it falls into the water, it will sink to the bottom of the river and it will be difficult to salvage it by manpower alone.
Given the caravan's cautious approach, the delivery must have been in the middle of the night.
Just think about it.
The dark night.
On the turbulent river surface, you need to rely on manpower to sneak to the bottom of the river and salvage thousands of kilograms of iron.
Moreover, iron ore is thrown from a mountain hundreds of meters high. If it falls into the river, it will definitely sink very deep. If there is silt at the bottom of the river, it will even hit directly into the silt layer.
How much effort does it take to fish it out?
How much time will it take?
At least one night is not enough. If there are too many people, it will attract attention, and it is not concealed and safe enough.
In addition, iron blocks are prone to rust when exposed to water, and if not handled properly, the iron will be scrapped, which makes the gain outweigh the loss.
Prince Xiang thought about it carefully and had to nod: "What you said makes sense, so how are they going to deliver the goods?"
Xiao Lingyue doesn't know either, but: "The caravan smuggled more than once or twice. They must have their own methods. It's useless for us to guess. We will know when the time comes."
"We know the location, but what about the delivery time?" King Xiang asked again.
Speaking of this, Xiao Lingyue was speechless.
She directly took out the riddle letter and handed it to Prince Xiang: "Read it yourself."
Prince Xiang took it and opened it, and said in surprise: "I thought it was another secret message, but I didn't expect it to be quite straightforward!"
Xiao Lingyue was puzzled: "How is this so straightforward?!"
If the middle-aged man hadn't explained it to her, she would have never understood what the nine words in the letter meant.
"Isn't this straightforward? The date and specific time are clearly stated."
King Xiang said casually: "Now is March, which is the month of Jiayin. Isn't the 'Gengzi Day' in the first line today?"
The wild chicken below is on the third day of the day.
Huangji refers to the rooster's crow, which is the ugly time.
The uprightness of the wild chicken refers to the uprightness of the ugly time.
Ridan refers to the alternation of day and night, which is Yin hour. Three should be three quarters.
Therefore, the third day of the day refers to the three quarters of the Yin hour.
In other words, don’t these nine words mean that tonight the ugly hour is on the third quarter of the Yin hour, which is the time for trading?”
Xiao Lingyue fell into silence for a moment after listening to his random explanation: "..."
She finally understood why she couldn't read the letter.
Because the way to calculate time is different.
In ancient times, a day was divided into twelve hours, arranged according to Zichou and Yinmao. One hour is equal to two modern hours.
Each hour has many nicknames, such as Huangji, Ridan, Xishi, etc.
This is a very familiar term to the ancients.
You'll understand it as soon as you hear it.
Xiao Lingyue is accustomed to using the modern twenty-four hours to calculate time. Although she also knows Zichou Yinmao, she doesn't use it often. What's more, the letter written on the letter is another name for hour, which is even more unfamiliar to her.
This is especially true for dates.
Yihai, Gengzi, these terms are not commonly used by Xiao Lingyue.
She won't be able to remember it at all for a while.
King Xiang is different. Like Zhong Ronggui, he is a native of the ancients.
I usually use Zichou Yinmao to calculate time, so I understood it immediately when I saw the nine characters on the letter paper.