The prototype of this centipede-hanging mountain ladder evolved from the tools used by the Red Eyebrow Army in the Han Dynasty to siege cities. It was later modified and perfected by dozens of generations of people until it became what it is today.
After everything was prepared, everyone saw that the colorful mist was still rising in the rift valley, but it had weakened a lot near noon. The venomous pythons and poisonous insects in the mountains all like yin by nature, so they must be dormant at this time and can take action.
So Chen Yulou raised his hand and ordered people to pour bags of lime into the deep stream.
The lime bag fell into the valley bottom, and it burst because it was scratched by the protruding rock wall. The lime inside spattered and boiled. No matter what vicious poison it contained, it could not withstand the violent choking. Even if it was lucky enough to survive,
He must have escaped far away.
However, in a hurry, the engineer camp only prepared more than two hundred bags of lime. When they were thrown down, some of them were blown away by the mountain wind. The remaining ones were not enough to cover the valley bottom. It was a drop in the bucket and far from enough.
When everyone saw that there was not enough lime on the top of the mountain, they stamped their feet anxiously. However, as they deserved their success, the lime sprinkled still had a great effect. The poisonous mirage in the depths gradually disappeared, leaving only
The vast white clouds in the sky.
Blind Chen planned to send three or two skilled men to explore the way first, so he asked: "Which brother wants to go first?"
When the group of thieves heard this, they immediately walked out two strong men, one was a monkey racer and the other was a jumper on the ground. They were both good at climbing mountains and drilling in forests.
The two of them had always wanted to find an opportunity to show off their skills in front of the leader of the Xiling bandits, and now they expressed their willingness to risk their lives to find out. Blind Chen praised them for their courage and ordered them to go off the cliff.
The two men bowed to accept the order, holding a piece of five-poison medicine cake in their mouths, carrying a pigeon cage for testing the poison on their backs, carrying a box of cannons and short knives on their waists, and covering their mouths and noses with black cloth. They walked to the edge of the cliff and were about to descend.
But suddenly I heard someone say: "Wait a minute!"
Seeing someone stopping him, hundreds of people looked at Zhang Lin. Chen Yulou frowned and asked, "What does the Taoist priest mean?"
Zhang Lin walked to the edge of the cliff, looked down and said, "I don't know what's going on down here. I'm afraid it's inappropriate for the two of them to go down so rashly."
Saihuo Monkey jumped on the ground and heard the words: "We are all prepared, what's wrong? The Taoist priest and the boss are waiting here, and we will bring the good news soon."
Luo Laowai said: "These two brothers are right. It's getting late, so Taoist Master should not waste time."
Zhang Lin said: "What did Luo Shuai say? I followed Mr. Chen's request to protect Mr. Chen's head. Logically speaking, I shouldn't care about this.
But you all say that Pindao has a share of this wealth, and Mr. Chen also promised that all the Taoist scriptures in this underground palace will belong to me, so Pindao has to do something."
As he spoke, he felt from his arms, took out a few talisman seals, divided them among the two of them, and said: "This is a talisman paper with a red string. It's called: Peace Talisman. You two tie it up and wear it close to your chest. If you encounter difficulties when you go down,
If a crisis is discovered, it will generate heat and alert you two. You must remember that its warning range is ten meters. If one of them becomes hot, you need to be more careful. If it spontaneously ignites, you should not stay longer and retreat quickly.
Here are a few more talisman papers, called fire talismans. You should put them in a place where you can easily use them. If you are in danger and cannot escape, bite your index finger, stain it with blood, and throw it out, and it will fall down.
A fire wall of about five feet will be formed in the place, and the fire wall will last for about three breaths to block evil spirits and buy you some time to escape."
Luo Laowai's lieutenant heard this and said: "Shuai Luo, what this man said is very evil. I think it is just a trick of the rivers and lakes. He must want to use this to carve up more of the underground palace's wealth. Do you want it?"
As he spoke, he touched his neck, which seemed to make Luo Laowai look for an opportunity to get rid of Zhang Lin.
Luo Laowai whispered: "Keep an eye on him. He was invited by Mr. Chen. It's not easy to deal with him now. We'll wait until we get the property."
When the adjutant heard this, he nodded and left.
On the other side, the two brothers who had heard that there was a living god on their trip excitedly took Zhang Lin's talisman, put it close to their bodies, and then went down the centipede-hanging mountain ladder.
The two of them were walking through the clouds and mist in the mountains and disappeared in an instant.
The rest of the people were constantly looking down at the cliff at the top of the mountain, sweating for them. It would depend on the fate of these two people whether they would live or die.
The two of them went down for a long time but saw no movement.
Chen Yulou looked calm on the surface, but now he was uncertain about good or bad luck, and he was also uneasy in his heart. Luo Laowai kept taking out his pocket watch to check the time.
But the group of thieves waited on the edge of the cliff for a long time, their necks hurt from stretching, and their eyes were sore. They kept calling them loudly from above, but it was always quiet in the rift valley, without any movement, only the ominous clouds and mist.
The more it gathers, the thicker it becomes.
Miss Hong said worriedly: "Boss, will something happen to them?"
Chen Yulou became even more anxious when he heard this, but as the leader of the group of thieves and the leader of Sanxiang, he must not mess up his position at this time, so he said: "It's still early, let's wait."
As he spoke, he looked to Zhang Linda, who had finished writing and drawing in his notebook and was putting away his notebook, and said, "Taoist Priest Xiaoyao, what are you doing?"
Zhang Lin smiled when he heard this and said, "Oh, it's nothing. I just wrote down how much money the boss owes me. I did the math, and now it's five hundred silver dollars."
Chen Yulou's face darkened when he heard this, and the girl Hong beside him said even more angrily: "You are a Taoist priest, wasn't it three hundred yesterday? Why is it five hundred now?"
Zhang Lin heard this and said as if he had been insulted: "What did Miss Hong say?
You can doubt my product, but you can never doubt my character.
Yesterday there were three hundred and one peace talismans, and today the two men each brought ten fire talismans.
A fire charm costs ten silver dollars, plus two peace charms of one silver dollar, which is 202 silver dollars. I think the boss is a regular customer, so I wiped off the small change for you with good intentions. How can you still insult people's innocence out of thin air?
You Xiling family has a huge business, why do you still want to default on your debt?"
Upon hearing this, Miss Hong said anxiously: "Don't talk nonsense, it was obviously given by you..."
Chen Yulou stopped Miss Hong and said with a headache: "Five hundred silver dollars, we will pay Xiling."
Upon hearing this, Miss Hong said anxiously: "Boss, that's five hundred silver dollars, which is enough to feed a thousand refugees for a month..."
Chen Yulou held down Miss Hong and said, "Don't be impatient for a moment! We will discuss this matter when we get back."
Hearing this, Miss Hong looked at Zhang Lin fiercely. Seeing this, Zhang Lin shrugged disapprovingly.
My mission is to save people, but they belong to Chen Yulou and Luo Laowai, so they still have to pay for the expenses.
And when several people stopped and waited anxiously for the news below, suddenly a loud arrow shot out of the clouds, followed by a sharp sound, and exploded straight into the air.
It was the two people visiting the tomb who sent the signal - there were no longer poisonous mirages in the deep valley under the cliff.
Luo Laowai's gangsters cheered when they saw this, and the gang of thieves also shouted: Dump it! Dump it!
Everyone took their arms and sleeves and asked for help to rob the tomb.
Chen Yulou has been a bandit leader in Xiling for several years. He knows that if he wants to convince the public, he can't just rely on words and generous money. He must also take the lead and share the joys and sorrows with his subordinates.
Therefore, every time I rob a tomb, I do it myself and do not hesitate to put myself in danger.
Only by showing his true excellence in front of his subordinates can this golden throne be secure.
The poison in the deep valley may be afraid of the sun or temporarily driven away by the lime, and is hidden somewhere in the tomb.
Although the poisonous mirages below have dispersed, it is still too early for the whole group to move into the underground palace to transport treasures. Therefore, Chen Yulou plans to bring some elite warriors to go down and clear out the hidden dangers in the deep valley.
He discussed his concerns with Luo Laowai, and then he selected twenty or thirty nimble men from the group of bandits in Xiling. He also took along Luo Lao's adjutants and led them himself, and went down the Centipede Hanging Mountain Ladder.
Dozens of people used soft rope hooks and centipede hanging ladders together to climb the cliff and descend through the clouds and mist.
The gravel and soil in the gaps between the pine and rocks were blown down by the bamboo ladder and kept falling. The distance between the cliffs on both sides was narrow and the sound was loud. A small stone falling would make a loud noise. There were echoes in the ears, and there were many sounds on the stone wall.
There are slippery moss and vines crisscrossing the area. If the thieves are not careful, they will slip and fall, falling into a deep ravine and falling to their death.
The bandits were all desperadoes. They followed Chen Yulou and climbed to the bottom of the valley without making a sound.
After passing through several layers of clouds and mist, the light became increasingly dimmer, water droplets seeped on the walls, and the cold air was overwhelming. The thieves estimated that the closer they got to the underground palace, the heavier the gloomy air would be. The ancient tombs were hidden in sight, but their spirits were lifted.
.
At that time, the main lighting methods in the mountains were burning bamboo chips and pine candle torches. Not everyone could afford horse lanterns using foreign oil. However, in addition to horse lanterns and gas lanterns, tomb robbers also purchased them from Toyang mine owners.
The miner's lamps are of various kinds anyway, and there is no unified equipment. At this time, each of them turns on the miner's lamp and horse lantern tied to his body.
For a moment, dozens of fireflies seemed to light up on the damp and dark mountain wall, and the lights were scattered, undulating and swaying up and down.
Chen Yulou was born with night eyes and did not need a candle to explore the way. He went down first and had already reached the end of the deep ravine.
This crack in Pingshan mountain becomes narrower as you go down. At the narrowest point, two people standing side by side cannot turn around.
Although we have reached the bottom, the cracks cut through the mountainside and continue to extend downward.
Exposed in the cracks in the belly of the mountain is a large karst cave. The cave is extremely deep and wide, and only the bad wind can be heard.
Although you can't see far away, you can feel that the gloomy atmosphere inside is particularly deep, and a large hall with double eaves resting on the mountain is under the crack.
The hall is tall and solemn. It is covered with glazed tiles like fish scales. A hole has been dug under the mountain crevice. The wooden citrons under the tiles are exposed, with a lot of freshly thrown lime splashed on them. There is a hanging hanging on the top of the hole.
There is a layer of mercury frost. It seems that there used to be a lot of mercury stored in the underground palace. Due to the cracking of the mountain, all the mercury has long been evaporated, leaving only many black mercury scars.
Chen Yulou gently placed his feet on the wooden citron, walked to a stable place with his footsteps, and then made a whistle, trying to contact the two people "Sai Huo Monkey" and "Di Li Bang" who came down first.
But the top of the main hall of the underground palace was covered with clouds and mist, and everything was silent. There was no trace of those two people.
At this time, Hua Maguai had led the rest of the people to follow him one after another. He looked at the situation on the left and right and stepped forward and asked: "Commander, how is the situation?"
Chapter completed!