(Easter egg at the end of the chapter, map of northern Longyou and Liaoping Prefecture!)
This is the first time for Zhao Yanxun to visit Tianma Castle.
There is a complete fort wall here to prevent army attacks. It is right between Yuanyang and Liaoping. It can be said to be an important place to defend the north.
Because of this, Zhao Yanxun sent troops to garrison here.
Previously, Tianma Fort was occupied by the "Ming Army", and the attack by the Wangfu Army caused a fire in the fort, burning two-thirds of the buildings.
After the palace sent people to move in, they repaired Tianma Fort, but they only tidied up the unburnt houses to give the troops stationed here a place to stay.
Rebuilding Tianma Castle is a huge project. At this stage, the palace has no spare capacity, and there is no need to rebuild it.
After all, there are only about a hundred people stationed in Tianma Fort now, and the remaining houses are enough for living.
At this moment, Zhao Yanxun was standing at the door of a converted warehouse, and Qin Hao was opening the door in front.
After the door was opened, Zhao Yanxun took Lin Dagui and walked in. Inside were grains packed in sacks.
Seeing the neatly arranged food, Zhao Yanxun said slowly: "There is a well for drinking water and there is no shortage of food. Tianma Castle can sit back and relax!"
Then he walked out of the warehouse and walked to the fort wall, where he could have a better view of the situation inside the fort.
"There is such a large open space inside. It can be used as a training place on weekdays. Don't let it go to waste!"
Qin Hao, who was standing on the side, said quickly: "Your Majesty, as long as I have nothing to do, I will perform martial arts here!"
Zhao Yanxun didn't say much. He would promote Qin Hao one after another, so he naturally trusted him in his heart.
Next, Zhao Yanxun continued to check around the fort wall, and finally stopped at the north side of the fort wall.
Looking into the distance, mountains spread out to the east and west, forming a gap dozens of miles away.
Qin Hao explained: "Your Majesty, over there is Baishan County, Liaoping Prefecture!"
"How far is it from Baishan Realm?" Zhao Yanxun asked.
"Yuemo...it's possible within twenty miles!" Qin Hao replied.
Zhao Yanxun then asked: "Is there any invincibility in Baishan County recently?"
"Reporting to the prince, no enemy was found!"
…………
After only staying at Tianma Castle for an hour, Zhao Yanxun selected five guards and continued northward, including Lin Dagui.
There are too many people, and the target is too big. He is going to assassinate this time, and concealment is the first priority.
Speaking of concealment, Zhao Yanxun and his party also brought civilian clothes, which allowed them to better conceal their identities.
Riding their horses to the north, Zhao Yanxun and his party soon entered the Liaoping boundary.
Liaoping governs five counties plus the capital city. Zhao Yanxun is not very clear about the situation on the other side, at least he doesn't know where Zhu Jinzhang is now.
He only knew that the other party had already captured Liaoping Fucheng and was now carrying out spring plowing.
If the other party is like him and goes out of the city to supervise spring plowing, it will be really troublesome to find him.
"Your Majesty, there are two roads to Liaoping Mansion, one goes through Baishan and the other goes through Xingyuan. Which way should we take?"
Zhao Yanxun glanced around and finally said: "Let's go far!"
Xingyuan County is located in the southwest of Liaoping. This is the place where Zhu Jinzhang started his career, and it is also the fiefdom of the unlucky King Xingyuan.
Of course, I chose to go this way into the city because Xingyuan County has the ability and the informant arranged by Lin Quan.
After entering Liaoping, the density of zombies was much higher, which slowed down Zhao Yanxun and his party.
At a mountain pass in Xingyuan County, Zhao Yanxun drew his bow and arrow, aiming at a zombie wandering in the distance.
With a "whoosh" sound, the strong bow came out from its string and shot directly through the zombie's throat, and then the zombie fell straight to the ground.
This zombie was so tall that Zhao Yanxun once thought that he had encountered a highly mutated zombie.
But there were no zombies around, so Zhao Yanxun chose to shoot him. It turned out that this was just an ordinary zombie because the system did not add skill points to him.
After entering Xingyuan County, Zhao Yanxun and his party changed into the clothes of ordinary people, and each of them looked no different from refugees.
There were a lot of zombies in the mountain pass, so Zhao Yanxun could only lead his men to kill them all the way, and he had to waste a lot of time in the process.
After passing the mountain pass, you will see that the front is suddenly clear, and the terrain is flat and filled with fields.
Although Xingyuan County was occupied by Zhu Jinzhang, it had a small population and a small army, so the actual controlled area was not large.
The land in front of us that is suitable for farming is now completely abandoned, which looks very regrettable.
Of course, in this overgrown field, there are also green sprouts. This is the wheat that was in the rotten ground last year, and new sprouts have sprouted this year.
"Your Majesty, this is a good place. When will our palace bring him down?" Lin Dagui couldn't help but ask.
"Don't worry, we will win it sooner or later!" Zhao Yanxun said calmly, then continued on his way with a whip.
Along the way, they could only ride on official roads, so the possibility of being discovered was extremely high. However, they encountered no living people except zombies along the way.
It was not until they were about thirty miles away from the city that Zhao Yanxun and his party finally discovered the presence of horses and some artificially dug ditches.
Obviously, the Ming army used these to isolate zombies.
Continuing forward, we saw that the fields in front of us were already marked by cultivation. In addition, there were horse hoof prints everywhere on the ground, which showed that this place was already under actual control of the Ming army.
"Keep on going, be careful... don't get discovered!"
This is actually nonsense. As long as they ride on horseback, the possibility of being discovered is not small.
A group of six people beat their horses and continued to move forward. By chance, they met a patrol after only four or five miles.
There were not many people on patrol, only five people, but they were all on horseback.
There was no doubt that Zhao Yanxun had been discovered, and then a voice came from the other side asking: "Who is it?"
The sky was dark at the moment, and the two sides were dozens of meters apart, making it impossible to see each other's situation clearly.
Zhao Yanxun was heard whispering: "Take them down and try to catch them alive!"
"yes!"
So Zhao Yanxun shouted to the other side: "We are refugees, who are you?"
Unexpectedly, the other person directly asked: "Fleeing? Are you fleeing and traveling at night?"
No one can survive in this world with a simple mind. At this time, the first thing to do is doubt.
There happened to be six people on the opposite side, which made a few people on patrol even more defensive, and they all put their hands on the handles of their knives.
Zhao Yanxun continued: "The county seat is ahead, so we rushed to it overnight. I wonder what the situation is like in Xingyuan County?"
When he said this, Zhao Yanxun was still approaching on horseback, and Lin Dagui and others followed closely.
"Stop...who are you?" the other person said in a cold tone.
At this time, Lin Dagui couldn't help but scolded: "Didn't I tell you... we are fleeing, who are you?"
The atmosphere at the scene immediately became tense, and Zhao Yanxun was still approaching.
"Stop!" Everyone on the opposite side drew their swords.
"Who are you?" Zhao Yanxun asked sternly, as if he was being pushed into a panic.
At this time, Zhao Yanxun reminded again: "Try to catch them alive!"
These people have become suspicious, and they must not be allowed to leave alive. Capturing them alive and forcing them to interrogate them becomes the first choice. How to deal with them later depends on the situation.