In the second year of Zhaoxi, it was May 21st. In the Citon Bay of Lincang City, military flags were hunting and war drums were thundering.
Since a few days ago, more than a dozen of the Peng Kingdom's elite five-tooth warships have been docked in the port. Now, these warships have been filled with the ballast baggage of the long voyage carried aboard by porters and coolies, and are ready to go.
The sea breeze stirred up fishy droplets, which were thinly coated with a crystal clear film on the deck that had just been brushed with tung oil. The water vapor also stained the face and body of the sergeant standing on the deck, making it look strange.
The Kuijiao leather armor, which was as shiny as iron armor, shone like ink under the dazzling sunlight.
The hull heaved up and down in the sea water, and countless white foam appeared on the side, attracting large schools of swimming fish in the sea, and countless seabirds with red beaks and silver backs hovering over the port, refusing to leave for a long time.
A dark green horn flag painted with a shark pattern was hung high on the bow of the ship, fluttering in the wind. Its leading general was counting the last batch of oak barrels shipped on board one by one - in the current fleet, there are enough
There are ten thousand wooden barrels like this. What is sealed inside the barrel is the blue flame that makes Pengguo proud in the world.
At the moment, beside the general, stood a delicate and delicate girl. It was taboo for women to go to sea with the ship, but the officers and soldiers on the ship had no objection to this because they knew that the young man who led the team was not easy to mess with.
The young general stretched out his hand and took off the animal-headed mask covering his face. Where the nose should have been, two terrifying hollows like skeletons were revealed. It was Yu Li himself!
A few days ago, even he himself would not have thought that Peng Guo Duke Ying Ren would actually hand over 30% of his main ships and nearly half of the blue flames into his hands. And the only condition is that he goes to sea with the ship. That
Dozens of knowledgeable doctors and scholars from the Peng Kingdom.
Soon the fleet raised its sails and anchored, and lined up to leave the port. In Yuli's mind, the meeting at the Shiobei Palace a few days ago reappeared, and even if he thinks about it today, it still makes people feel frightened.
…
"I just heard from the palace guards that you two actually hold Huang Jiulang's token in your hands?"
Duke Ying Ren of the Peng Kingdom was sitting in the Chao Lei Hall, looking coldly at Yu Li and Zi Yuan who had just walked into the palace door.
What the two young men held in their hands was nothing but a dark object that was not very regular in shape. It was half a tiger talisman used to mobilize troops, but it did not resemble the shape of the Pengguo army. However, Ying Renfu suddenly
When he saw it, he still couldn't help but straightened his body and asked in a low voice:
"How on earth did you two get this thing from Kuro?!"
"How you got it, the king doesn't have to worry about it. However, Huang Jiulang has long expected that even if you see the token, you may not be willing to believe it, so he asked us to send you a message: Let's go to the mountains and rivers together!"
Before Yu Li could speak, Zi Yuan beside him responded first. However, the young man had never heard anything mentioned by the girl. Now that he heard it, he felt uneasy in his heart.
It aroused a lot of doubts.
When Ying Ren heard this, he suddenly stood up from the throne: "You two have really met Huang Jiulang!"
The dark-eyed girl nodded slightly: "Huang Jiulang was once a general in the Wuyin Army under the lord of the country. The lord of the country should know his methods and martial arts, how could he allow us to make mistakes? Now the feeling of joining the army still exists, Huang Jiulang personally
Handing this token to us shows his trust in us. Since the king trusts him, he can also trust us."
Zi Yuan responded in a neither humble nor arrogant manner, with pauses in her tone and a steady look, completely unlike the calmness and sophistication expected of a girl who is not yet eighteen years old.
"If you can ask Huang Jiulang to help, you two came to see me today. It must be something important, right? The one standing behind -"
Ying Ren finally nodded, but his eyes turned to the fire-wielding man behind the two of them.
Ziyuan bowed her knees and saluted, and then said:
"Your Majesty, you should recognize this person, right? A few months ago, he accompanied a man named Kun into the palace to ask for an audience. Duke Peng also promised him that he would not be the first to send troops north to defend the capital..."
This time, Ying Ren did not answer, but his face darkened. The girl had already expected that the other party would react like this, so she still followed her plan and said calmly:
"Don't be angry, Mr. Peng. Please listen to what my daughter has to say. Have you ever thought about it? Peng is located at the east end of the mainland. If you want to send troops to the north, you can only go east by sea or go west by land. However, the sea route is time-consuming.
It is long, and the land route needs to pass through Weiliang. Once the situation in Changzhou is stable, anyone only needs to send heavy troops to guard Suoyang Pass, and then block the ferry along the Yu River. No matter how powerful the blue flames of Peng are, it will be difficult to use them.
, it cannot be done without a huge cost.
Ying Ren couldn't help but wonder why such a crucial strategic analysis of the Peng Kingdom came from a seemingly immature girl, and he couldn't help but become interested in the real purpose of the two of them:
"When I led the army to fight, your little baby was not yet born. There is no need for you to tell me these things. But you can tell me, now that nothing has happened in Yujing, why do I have to send troops north to Changzhou?"
Seeing this, Ziyuan cleared her throat and said seriously:
"The king may wish to think carefully, does Mr. Kun persuade Peng Guo to stand still for any other purpose? Or maybe it is because he regards Peng Guo as one of his few opponents in the world.
, and want to use Yujing and the precarious situation of the Bai Jiang clan as a guise to make the king have no time to care about him? In this way, they will not discover the huge secret they want to hide."
Hearing this, Ying Ren couldn't help but murmur to himself: "Secret... The palace guards also said that you two are dedicating a huge secret to me this time?"
"Peng Guo Gong asked Miss Rong to speak slowly. The young hero beside me once served as General Pinghai in the Benhai camp of Ye State. By chance, he learned that the leader of the country, Qi Shouyu, had obtained an ancient map. And that big secret
, so it is recorded on this picture.”
The girl said and turned to look at Yu Li beside her. The young man understood and immediately took over the conversation:
"Yes. Duke Ye regarded this picture as a treasure, but he never thought that it would be betrayed when the Cheng Kingdom invaded. He stole the picture and fled. The king ordered the general and Ziyuan to pursue the picture with all their strength. Who knows that even though the picture has been taken away?
We could not return to our homeland, so we wanted to continue crossing the Ling River via Zeyin and seek refuge in Pengguo."
"What exactly is drawn on that picture?" Ying Ren asked again.
Yu Li cupped his hands and continued to explain loudly:
"The picture records the location of an ancient city of our ancestors. Under the ruins of the city, there is an ultimate power that can surpass all the weapons in the world. This power is so strong that even the blue of the Peng Kingdom
The flames can only be seen on the back of the neck. And according to Qi Shouyu, anyone who obtains this power can look down on the world and command the heroes!"
Hearing this, Ying Ren suddenly narrowed his eyes. His two eyes were like two sharp blades shining with cold light. He looked up and down at the man and woman in front of him, as if he wanted to see through their skin, flesh, bones and blood: "Since it is so rare, How could you two be so willing to give it to me as a secret?"
"The lord of the country has learned clearly that the ancient city of the ancestors is far outside the territory of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Now with the strength of the two of us, it is impossible to go there, and it is impossible to decipher the secrets. That is why I want to borrow the power of the Peng Kingdom. Let’s work together for a great cause!”
After Yu Li said that, he knelt down solemnly in the hall. When Ying Ren saw this, he also laughed, but did not agree immediately. Instead, he asked:
"Wait a moment. Young man, you just said that you and this girl crossed the Ling River from Zeyin to Lincang City?"
"The two of us traveled thousands of miles, traveling to the three realms of Yu Kingdom, Nanhua, and Cheng Kingdom, and we just met the king..." Yu Li nodded in agreement. But before he could finish speaking, he suddenly saw the eyes of the Duke of Peng Kingdom. In a moment, he actually ordered to capture him and Zi Yuan on the spot:
"Let me search these two people carefully!"
"By acting like this, Duke Peng Guo, isn't he afraid that Huang Jiulang will criticize him in the future and is he not afraid of being ridiculed by everyone in the world?"
Zi Yuan's shoulders were tightly held down, and she was kneeling on the ground unable to straighten up. However, she still managed to raise her head and asked sternly. But Ying Ren seemed to have already made up his mind to punish the two of them:
"Just now, an emergency report came from Zeyin City, saying that a man and a woman killed several people in the busy city and then escaped. Are they the two of you? Huang Jiulang just helped you enter the palace to see me, but he didn't say anything I can't blame you! If the ancient map is true now, you two may still be able to survive. But if you make up lies and deliberately deceive, I'm afraid you will have to save your lives today!"
When the imperial guards searched every inch of the two men's bodies, they found no map. Upon seeing this, Ying Ren immediately waved his hand and wanted to order the two men to be taken out of the palace and beheaded. However, they were killed. Unexpectedly, instead of being afraid, the dark-eyed girl burst into laughter:
"By doing this, Peng Guo Gong underestimated the two of us. How could we carry such an important picture with us? If we lost it halfway, wouldn't we have given up the opportunity to others? "
Ying Ren shouted sternly: "How dare a young girl threaten me? Where is that picture! If you don't tell me, you will force me to use severe punishment!"
Zi Yuan smiled faintly, as if she was not worried at all, maybe she would be greeted by the butcher knife falling on her neck:
"The picture has been burned a long time ago. Now only I and I know what is drawn on the picture. Today, we will be killed here and the secret will be buried forever. No matter how unknown it is, it will still be with the two of us. Please make Peng Guogong think twice before making a deal."
"How do I know that you two are not lying and deceiving me?"
Ying Ren was still a little unsure. But Zi Yuan stared into his eyes, not allowing him to hesitate at all:
"The two of us did not hesitate to seek Huang Jiulang's recommendation, and we went to the palace today at the risk of being beheaded, not just to make such a joke with Peng Guo!"
Finally, Duke Pengguo, who had a tough attitude, finally relented:
"Okay, what's the deal you want to make?"
Zi Yuan looked at each other with the stunned Yu Li beside him, struggled to break free from the restraints of the guards behind him, and responded calmly:
"We want to borrow troops and ships from you, appoint the general next to me as commander, and set off to sea soon. Also, we are going to explore the location of the ancient city of our ancestors. I don't know what kind of difficulties we will encounter along the way. Peng Guotai
Please allocate half of the blue flames stored in it to us..."
"You were so calm and composed in the palace that day. Could it be that you already knew that Duke Peng was just testing us?"
The sea gradually opened up in front of him, and Yu Li came back to his senses. He turned to ask the girl who had been standing behind him without saying a word.
Zi Yuan shook her head: "I don't know. But Ying Ren is suspicious by nature, and this is the only way to make him have to keep us alive, and he has to agree to these extremely unreasonable demands of ours."
"But now, although I am known as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, I am in name only. The supervisors in the fleet have already obtained the secret order of Peng Guo. If they find any abnormality between you and me, they can be kidnapped immediately and questioned..."
Yuli seemed quite worried about his current situation. When the dark-eyed girl saw this, she comforted her softly: "At least we borrowed a warship and have gone to sea."
The young general shook his head and laughed a few times in a self-deprecating manner, then suddenly changed the subject:
"Did Uncle Huang also teach you this trick? When did you two meet again? And why did he suddenly agree to help us?"
Zi Yuan was startled at first, then smiled slightly, but did not answer directly: "Don't ask so many questions. As long as we achieve our goal now, isn't it enough? Besides, I have another good news to tell you.
you."
"What good news?" The doubts in his heart could not be reasonably explained, which made Yu Li feel very frustrated.
However, Ziyuan stepped forward and gently pressed his shoulder: "A few days ago, I asked Duke Peng that when I return from this trip, he will come forward as a witness to let you marry me.
"
"Seriously? He agreed?" The young general couldn't believe his ears. He raised his head and looked at the girl in front of him, his face full of surprise and suspicion.
Zi Yuan raised her hand to cover her lips, showing a shy look: "Why, don't you want to marry me?"
"I think it's all a dream! I just can't believe it. Could this be a dream?"
Yu Li nodded vigorously, pinching his lips as if he was afraid that the other party would regret it again.
However, he did not notice the fierce and decisive killing intent faintly emanating from the ink-like eyes of the girl in front of him...
The starting point is not the first release, and all copies are free.
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