Among the vegetation and trees filled with an unpleasant smell, several mutilated corpses wearing the black armor of Ye Guo Zhoushi were covered with maggots, flies and ants. Not far away, a troop of dozens of people were working together with the soldiers.
, going back and forth to gather the scattered corpses in one place for screening and identification. At present, the faces of the soldiers were covered with a layer of linen cloth moistened with salt water, but it was still difficult to bear the pungent rotten smell to their noses.
Come in.
"General, except for the part swallowed by the galloping wolf, all the remaining body parts have been found. There are eight people who can be clearly distinguished, and they should be the cavalry that disappeared before."
A young official took a metal object half the size of his palm on a tray from his hand, and turned to return to the captain of the owl cavalry who was leading the team into the mountain. The man with a thick beard took out a small handkerchief from his arms.
, took the metal object from the square plate held by the opponent, held it in front of his eyes and looked at it carefully.
It was an iron plate made of a whole piece of pig iron, completely black, and heavy to hand. It was surrounded by a ring of concave and convex wing feather pattern lace made of silver, and there were still a few obvious tooth marks on it. The reverse of the iron plate was
The small characters record the name and military number of the owner of the iron plate in detail. On the front is an eagle's head with a hooked beak and round eyes. Under the eagle's head, eight strong and upright characters are engraved:
"Riding the wind and riding the waves, the falcon soars and strikes."
"It's really the iron ultimatum from our navy!" Lieutenant Xiaoqi snorted heavily, "Damn it, those two galloping wolves appeared at the right time, and they didn't even leave a single person alive!"
"Please forgive me for my words. Shouldn't this galloping wolf have been driven into the bitter cold land of the north more than a thousand years ago? Wanzhou is located in the southwest. Where did these two giant beasts come from?
Is it possible that the rebel mountain people who were hanged by us before were secretly raised in this deep mountain?"
"I'm here to find someone this time, and we'll talk about other things later. Are there any other clues found on the body?" The captain did not show any agreement with his subordinate's bold speculation, and frowned and responded hastily.
Asked again.
"My subordinates have ordered us to search everything, but found nothing."
Shi Li didn't dare to say anything else, so he had to give his hand again. However, the Commander Xiaoqi opposite seemed unwilling to end the case. His eyes jumped left and right a few times, and actually landed on the end of the body full of arrows.
On the female wolf:
"Where are they in the bellies of the two beasts?"
"The young wolf was dead, so I ordered someone to cut it open. There was nothing in its belly. But this big one - it's a bit difficult to deal with."
The official looked with some fear at the huge creature on the ground that was seriously injured and had already been tightly wrapped around its feet and neck by several thick ropes. Because of the nervousness, his breathing could not help but become heavier.
"Why, this she-wolf has been gnawing on the corpse on the mountain for several days. Don't you plan to take out the bones from her belly so that your colleagues can be buried intact?!"
The captain glanced sideways at Shi Li, his eyes were even more ferocious than the man-eating beast in front of him. He was so frightened that the other official trembled immediately, and for a while he couldn't speak clearly.
"General, this, although this female wolf has been dead for a short time, she is still struggling to her death. No one, no one dares to approach easily."
"A bunch of trash!"
The man with a beard shouted angrily, raised his hand and pulled out the gleaming white iron sword from his waist, pushed the official in front of him away, and walked quickly towards the female wolf.
The female wolf seemed to feel the approaching murderous intent, and instantly stretched the rope tied to her body straight. However, the rope had already been driven into the ground with a half-foot-long steel nail. Even if she was not injured at the moment, it would be difficult to break free. But
Even so, the trapped beast still bared its bloody tusks and barked menacingly at the man who was approaching it, salivating.
Captain Xiaoqi was not afraid of the big mouth that could bite him at any time. He actually squatted down in front of the she-wolf with a knife. Even the official who was watching from a distance couldn't help but pinch him.
Sweat. But I don’t know what method the man used. He just whispered a few times to the giant beast in front of him, and he quickly made it stop struggling, just like a domesticated domestic dog, and lay obediently on him.
in front of.
The captain immediately drew a semicircle in the air with the long knife in his hand, and cut off the head of the female wolf in the blink of an eye. Then he cut the rope tied to the wolf with the knife, held the sharp blade upside down and cut open its belly, and with his own hands
He groped between the steaming, still slightly twitching muscles and internal organs.
Under the anxious gaze of the soldiers, the man took out all the remains of severed limbs that had been digested in the wolf's belly for several days. Most of the minced meat and broken bones mixed together were beyond recognition, but one of them was tied tightly
The small leather pouch that closed the mouth of the bag was still well preserved. The captain picked up the pouch and threw it to the clerk aside:
"This thing is obviously not a common thing found on the soldiers of our navy. Find out what is inside."
The small sac filled with blood and mucus hit Shi Li's nose directly, but he did not dare to dodge. He just held it with both hands and handed it to him for identification. It only took half a stick of incense to get the result.
"General Luo, that small bag is full of herbs collected from the mountains. The eight dead soldiers all suffered fatal bites. I don't know who these herbs are intended for."
"Bring it to me and see."
The bearded man's face darkened, as if he had already expected such a result. The clerk quickly presented the withered and decayed herbs to him on a tray.
"This is obviously a hemostatic medicine that is only used by hunters in the mountains! As expected, apart from these cavalry and two galloping wolves, there were other people on the mountain when the incident happened! Keep looking, and you will see people die.
I want to see the corpse!"
After speaking, Captain Xiaoqi stooped down and carefully surveyed the hillside together with the soldiers. After the heavy rain washed away a few days ago, the soil on the mountain had already become muddy, making it difficult to leave any traces, but
Even so, he still noticed some clues.
"Did you see these piles of weeds lying on the ground?"
The official didn't know what the general wanted to say, but he didn't dare to avoid answering, so he had to bite the bullet and answer: "Please forgive me for being stupid. Aren't these just ordinary weeds?"
"These grasses have not been repeatedly trampled and crushed. It would have looked like this if the soldiers were not fighting fiercely with the wolves. And judging from the direction in which the grass blades fell, the people who left the traces did not seem to be trying to avoid the wolves.
The wolf fled all the way up the mountain, but instead fought and retreated from a higher peak, and finally died here!"
The captain frowned and continued to climb towards the top of the mountain where the roaring water sounded. Soon he found another large patch of trampled weeds in front of the cliff on the east side of the mountain.
The large fallen grass blades seemed to have covered the earth with a coir raincoat, blocking the violent erosion of the heavy rain. Under the grass blades stained with black blood, a few well-preserved footprints were finally revealed.
"This is the place where the cavalry and the galloping wolf first fought! That beast followed him all the way from the bottom of the mountain. It was probably to avenge his cub... But the one who killed the cub seemed to be someone else. These people... the cavalry also followed these people up to this mountain peak and blocked their way... There were two lines of vague footprints near the cliff. They looked smaller than an adult and weighed less. There were quite a few... They should be the two children that the old witch mentioned! One of them seemed to be injured, and his steps were different... They jumped from the cliff!"
The captain gently touched the messy footprints on the ground with his fingertips and distinguished them carefully. Following these clues that seemed almost difficult to identify to ordinary people, he actually slowly deduced the whereabouts of Jiang Yan and Ning Yue!
Shi Li stood on the edge of the cliff, lowered his head and looked at the pool of water under the abyss: "Then we——should we continue to pursue it?"
The man with a beard shook his head decisively: "Eighty percent of the streams on Leiyin Mountain will merge into the Pheasant River. Any place along the way can be used to land and hide. Even if these two children are still alive today, we can't It’s almost impossible to find a trace.”
"But we have been searching for so long and spent a lot of energy but found nothing. How will the general explain to the governor after he returns?"
"You don't need to worry about this matter. Can the Lord Governor demote me to guard the camp again?! Send my order, and all the soldiers will immediately go down the mountain and return to the Pheasant River crossing camp!"
There was suddenly a hint of resentment in Captain Xiaoqi's tone - he was Luo Jianli, who had escaped from the shipwreck last winter. He was punished because no one among the hundreds of elites on the Tiger Head Flying Fish ship survived. He was severely punished and was demoted to the third level by Qi Shouyu, the Marquis of Jinghai who served as the governor of the fleet division. He was no longer the all-powerful commander.
However, Shi Li didn't know the reason for this, but he didn't dare to ask any more questions, so he had to accept the order and leave in a hurry.
Thank you for your tasteful attention to "Twin Moon". I hope the wheat grown by Xiaoli will suit your taste. You can search for the official account with the same name~