The Dading Dynasty has been in existence for nine hundred years. It has five states and thirty-two counties, hundreds of millions of people, and is stable and prosperous.
The imperial capital Zhongjing is located in Jingzhou, the core of the five states, and the county it is located in is Zhongjing County. Zhongjing County is surrounded by mountains, with thousands of miles of fertile wilderness, and a Wei River running across it. It has a pleasant climate and abundant water and rice, which is the envy of many people in the world.
The Holy Land of Central Continent.
Zhongjing County is surrounded by natural dangers and is guarded by the famous five passes and one city. Among them, the one facing the southwest is Sanguan. Sanguan is known as the first pass in Jingzhou and can be said to be the most important gateway between Zhongjing and the two states in the west.
After leaving the Sanguan Pass, it takes only a few dozen miles of mountain roads, and then there are thousands of miles of plains. Going north across the not-so-majestic Daqing Mountains is Wuzhou in the northwest, and going south across the not-so-robust Han River is Hanzhou in the southwest.
Early that morning, a rare official convoy came up the canyon official road more than ten miles outside Sanguan. The canyon was not deep, with gentle slopes of densely wooded mountains on one side, and a river channel four to five meters deep and dozens of meters wide on the other side.
The official road in the middle can accommodate ten carriages running in parallel, and it is spacious and magnificent.
The convoy left the customs for a long journey, with dozens of carriages in front and behind, the horse-drawn carriage pulling the covered carriage in the front, and the ox-cart pulling the open-topped truck in the rear. There were a team of hundreds of officers and soldiers guarding each front and rear, with flags waving and armor in full.
If the convoy were not followed by hundreds of ragged refugees, it would look a bit majestic.
The officers and soldiers were walking in formation, each one looking attentively, and the team was quite orderly, which showed that they were well-trained. However, the refugees behind the convoy were extremely chaotic. It was already late autumn, and the weather was getting colder day by day.
It has been raining for the past few days and has not cleared up. When the mountain wind blows in the canyon, the chill is piercing the bone marrow. However, few of the refugees can be seen wearing thick clothes. Most of them have their arms or calves exposed. Some are older or younger.
Some of them had turned pale and had no color, and their movements were stiff and they were clinging to each other, not knowing where they would support before falling down.
You know, even though this place is still within the scope of Jingzhou, it has already left Sanguan. Once you leave the convoy, it is very dangerous to survive in this canyon wild for one night. Not to mention monsters, even encountering wolves is very dangerous.
The result of death and no life, and at a glance, most of them don't even have a simple cloth bag, and they see that they are penniless and don't have any food. If they leave this official who still gives out some rice and porridge every day,
The family's caravan will not be able to reach the next city to beg, and even if it does not encounter monsters and beasts, it will not survive.
So no matter how difficult it is, no one really falls behind.
Because if they didn't even have the strength to hold on, they wouldn't have had the courage to walk out of that barrier in the first place. Even if winter came and it would be difficult to live in Jingzhou, they wouldn't dare.
The motorcade moved forward slowly, and after rounding a low hill on the opposite side of the river channel, the entire team gradually came to a halt.
Because on the official road ahead, there were piles of rocks and broken trees scattered across the road, completely blocking the road. It was obviously not a natural formation such as a landslide, but it looked man-made.
"Hold the shield!"
The man with a dark face and a beard who led the officers and soldiers at the front of the convoy immediately became alert. While shouting and ordering the officers and soldiers to be on guard, he took off his shield from behind to protect himself in front of him. He stared back and forth at the two men with a pair of bull's eyes.
The woods on the side of the mountain are quiet and lifeless at all.
He held the sword in his right hand, and his whole body was slightly bent, like a liger ready to pounce on its prey at any time. While guarding the surroundings, he looked back to the back of the convoy. The adjutant who was left there on purpose had already heard his shouts.
, also ordered the rear team to form a formation and be on guard.
The atmosphere suddenly became solemn. The refugees who were following at the end were so frightened that they gathered in a panic and did not dare to move. Even the drivers of the convoy who were protected in the middle did not dare to express their anger. They were either petrified or moved as if they were petrified.
He hid on the side of the carriage and looked around with frightened eyes.
The black-faced man's heart was also filled with chills. This was the core of the Dading Dynasty. Jingzhou, where the capital of the empire was located, was no more than ten miles away from Sanguan. There were people who dared to openly block the official roads. If it hadn't just come out of nowhere.
He killed a new group of bandits who had burned out their brains, then...
Before the black-faced man could think about it, the buzzing sound coming from the forest on the other side of the river immediately made his heart beat wildly. Along with the sound of arrows shooting through the sky, the black-faced man roared and hissed, "Enemy attack."
!! Form a shield array facing the river!!!"
The centurions in front of the convoy were the first to react. They had originally raised their shields to defend themselves. They raised their shields and lowered their bodies. They moved slowly like running water, and soon formed a shield wall, which blocked most of the arrows fired from them.
Bounce.
The black-faced man was not at all proud. He quickly integrated into the corner of the shield formation, then turned to look at the end of the convoy. He was suddenly shocked and angry!
After a sparse wave of arrows, the originally huddled group of refugees, led by someone unknown, rushed towards the convoy crying and shouting. The hundred-man team behind the convoy could not react as well as the front team, and they were not yet fully prepared.
They formed a shield formation, but were broken up by the impact of the refugee group!
The man in the dark was probably waiting for this moment. The arrows that were originally pouring randomly towards the entire convoy immediately changed their direction and fell towards the chaotic place at the end of the convoy!
Immediately, the blood in the crowd turned red. They were wailing, crying, falling to the ground and struggling in despair. They were pushing and shoving and grabbing people in front of them. They were in a mess! The black-faced man suppressed his anger and said in a deep voice.
, "Shield formation, lateral movement, direction of the rear team!"
With an order, the front team, which was basically intact, started to move. Without the suppression of flying arrows, the shield formation was not moving very slowly. The official road was very wide. The entire shield formation leaned from one side of the convoy to the other side of the river.
Passed without any problems.
But as soon as the front team moved here, the team that was still stationary suddenly became commotion. The coachmen who were avoiding the arrows next to the carriages in the front quickly climbed onto the carriages one by one, cheered and drove the carriages to turn around.
We have to go around and escape from the other side of the convoy! The other cart drivers looked around and there were still people who were willing to stop and serve as the vanguard of the convoy. Even the bullock cart drivers who were originally in the rear group turned around and ran back.
, after all, there is Sanguan more than ten miles behind, and if these damn bandits have eaten into their hearts and courage, they will never dare to chase them to the walls of Sanguan!
Just when the black-faced man was looking at the chaotic scene in front of him with shock and anger, a loud roar suddenly came from the forest on the side of the mountain behind the motorcade!
"How dare you, rat!!"
Accompanying that roar were two flashes of light blue light.
I saw two rays of light blue rays of light intertwining down in the forest, and hitting two rays of golden light dozens of meters away from the official road. The moment the four rays of light intersected, it seemed that the time and space between heaven and earth had paused briefly, and then,
The light disappeared, and a dull sound like a huge drum exploded in everyone's heart!
"Boom——!"
Then, broken wood flew into the sky, and earth and rocks rained down!
A large crater with a radius of ten meters was immediately formed where the explosion occurred!
There is no vegetation for tens of meters around!!
The two unlucky ox carts closest to the explosion site had already been blown away by the shock wave and fell into the river channel. The driver and the oxen died without even shouting. Several other ox carts that had not escaped were also blown crookedly. Fortunately,
Some rickshaw drivers are still coughing up blood from exhaustion, while some unlucky ones have already passed out and do not know whether they are alive or dead...
Just when the battlefield fell into a very brief silence.
The curtains of a carriage in the convoy ahead were lifted at a corner, revealing a beautiful face that was unlike any other human being.
Her eyebrows are like the moon, like the spring water of a jade pond, her mouth is smiling, like rain-moistened cherries, her jade face and peach cheeks, her neck and slender bones, her fingers like spring bamboo shoots pinch the curtain, revealing a section of white snow...
Suddenly, an arrow shot across the beautiful scenery, almost hitting her wrist and shooting into the carriage!
The arrow nock nailed to the wall of the carriage vibrated endlessly.
Her hand holding the curtain did not tremble at all, just like her eyes looking into the distance, as quiet as an empty valley...