The ancient road is difficult, and it is difficult to reach the sky...
This is the most vivid description of Sichuan’s terrain by immortal poets throughout the ages.
However, further southwest from Sichuan and entering Yunnan through the ancient road, the terrain is more dangerous than the Shu road. There are no poetry immortals in this place, and the poetry immortals are willing to condescend to visit.
Therefore, the only description of the topography here is two ancient local sayings: The ground is not three feet flat, and the sky is not three feet long and it is clear.
In later generations, this place was naturally a tourist attraction, with beautiful scenery and the most primitive natural landscape. However, in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was a real wilderness.
Yunnan, Dali, the South of Colorful Clouds, the Land of Camellia, what a beautiful name. However, people who have never been here can never imagine the horror of this place.
The cavalry team has been walking in the deep mountains for more than half a month. Even with his peerless internal strength, Ziqin felt a feeling of oppression that made him breathless. In the past half month, except for the men in the cavalry team, there were many people on the way.
No human being has ever appeared again.
This is a truly wild place.
Poisonous insects are everywhere here, and from time to time, you can hear the howls of ferocious and terrifying beasts.
Originally, there were wild beasts in the Central Plains at this time, and there were tigers and wolves in the mountains and forests in the wilderness. However, compared with here, Ziqin found that the Central Plains at this time was simply a paradise.
There are wild beasts in the wilderness, but they will never appear along the official road. Unless you seek death and go deep into the mountains, there is almost no chance of encountering wild beasts.
But it was different here. The horse team was originally walking on an official road. Although it was rugged and narrow, it was definitely an official road and belonged to the official road of this generation in Yunnan. However, even on this official road, Ziqin and his group had already
I have encountered tigers no less than five times. This is because tigers have a strong sense of territory and there is only one tiger in an area.
"The scenery of Dali is concentrated around Dali City. In fact, except for a few big cities in Yunnan, the rest is a wild land."
On the way, seeing Ziqin's tired look, the old man smiled and spoke.
They are a caravan, and their ancestors walked this treacherous road step by step. Even the official road dug by the government was also dug along the road their ancestors had walked.
Of course, there were roads here before their ancestors, but the roads at that time were all side roads, almost just walking through mountains and forests. So at that time, unless the country went to war and the army passed through, there would only be some savages who went out to buy Han utensils.
Come out of the deep mountains, otherwise no one would come to such a place.
"It's pretty good at the moment. Although the road is dangerous and there are a lot of wild animals, we can still walk on it. If it comes during the rainy season, this road will be a real road to hell."
There was a hint of bitterness in the old man's smile.
Yunnan during the rainy season is indeed a road to hell in this era. When it rains, not only will the road here be completely impossible to walk, but you may fall into the mud at any time if you are not careful, and the poisonous miasma washed out by the rain will be even worse.
It's life-threatening.
In addition, the climate in Yunnan is erratic, especially during the rainy season. When it rains, the temperature is enough to freeze people to death, but once the rain clears and the clouds come out, the temperature is enough to cook people.
No one can bear the repeated weather.
However, every year during the rainy season, there will be two or three waves of caravans who need to take this road to hell.
More than ten days passed like this, and finally, those mountain roads began to level off, and from time to time, some masonry roads that were obviously repaired could be seen. Looking at these traces of civilization, Ziqin couldn't help but feel much better. However, at this time, Ziqin
However, he never noticed that the man in the caravan had a hint of pain on his face.
On this day, the horse team had just passed a mountain col, and suddenly, a checkpoint appeared in everyone's sight.
This is a checkpoint established by the Dali Kingdom. Although it does not have a tall city wall fortress like the Central Plains Dynasty checkpoint, it does have two huge wooden doors, as well as watchtowers and beacon towers erected on both sides.
When Ziqin saw this level, he clearly heard the old man sighing helplessly.
This made Ziqin confused. Seeing the checkpoint meant that they had entered the realm of Dali Kingdom in Yunnan. Logically speaking, the caravan's businessmen had successfully reached their destination this time. They should be relieved, but why were they sighing like this?
The caravan stopped in front of the checkpoint. Soon, Ziqin understood the reason for the old man's sigh.
A Dali general wearing armor arrogantly came to the caravan and began to check the goods carried by the caravan on this business trip.
In fact, since the road that the caravan ran was called the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, it naturally focused on selling tea and horses. This time they came from the Central Plains, and they naturally sold tea, as well as a large amount of cloth and utensils.
The general walked proudly past the goods carrying tea. Yunnan is also a big tea province and Pu'er tea is famous all over the world. However, the general was not very interested in tea. When he came to the cloth and utensils, the general looked proud.
The smile began to rise.
"Keep this horse, this horse, this horse, and the four horses over there, and then pay the tax to pass the customs."
The general pointed with his finger, and Ziqin looked carefully, but it turned out that it was the horses that the old man paid most attention to along the way. The goods loaded on them were the most precious goods in this business trip, and their value was probably as high as all the goods in the entire caravan.
Twenty-three out of ten.
Seeing that the general was about to lead the horse away after giving instructions, Ziqin felt angry but immediately wanted to speak. Next to him, the old man's hand suddenly stretched out and grabbed Ziqin.
Ziqin turned his head and saw the old man shaking his head at him with a painful look on his face.
"Let's go."
The old man took Ziqin and headed towards the checkpoint first. When he passed the checkpoint, Ziqin saw the young man who had helped the old man along the way. He smiled and handed a few ingots of silver to the soldiers beside the checkpoint.
The soldiers took the money and took some cloth from the passing horses.
Such behavior was almost the same as that of a bandit. Ziqin felt so angry that he almost couldn't help but smash all the Dali soldiers to death with his huge shield.
"A bunch of robbers, robbers."
After barely holding back his anger and walking out of the checkpoint, Ziqin finally couldn't help but curse fiercely.
"Don't be angry. This is still a vassal state of the Song Dynasty. If we go further to the southwest and escape the influence of the Song Dynasty, the things we will encounter then will be really annoying."
At this time, the expression on the old man's face had calmed down.
"You are not angry."
Ziqin frowned and looked at the old man. According to his understanding of the old man, it seemed that the old man should not have such a good temper.
"What's the use of being angry? If the Tang Dynasty was still powerful now, maybe we could still fight to get rid of these bastards, and then contact the border officers and soldiers to seek protection. But now is the Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty will not give it to the son of a turtle.
It’s good to be a grandson, but you still want to hope that the border troops of the Song Dynasty can fight for us and the border troops of these vassal states.”
There was a sarcastic smile on the old man's face, but after saying this, Ziqin had nothing to say.
Indeed, this was the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty in which the economy and culture were developed to the extreme. However, it was also the weakest dynasty in Chinese history.
Dali is a small country, but the border army will never conflict with the Dali border army. The reason is very simple. The Song Dynasty's border army cannot defeat the Dali border army.
In fact, if force is not enough, does the Song Dynasty want Dali to be able to establish a country? Just kidding, the emperor of the Song Dynasty is also an emperor, doesn't he want to become the emperor of the Tang Dynasty with a vast territory? The emperor of the Song Dynasty also wanted to, but
I can't do it, I don't have the strength.
Ziqin sighed slightly and refused to continue the topic.
This is just the world of famous people. Logically speaking, he shouldn't have so many thoughts. However, the men in the caravan and Su Shi are all his friends, and he himself is a Han Chinese, so how can he be completely indifferent to this kind of thing.
The powerful Tang Dynasty and the prosperous Han Dynasty.
These four words are such a dreamy word for the Chinese Han people. It is a pity, it is a pity that these four words have become history forever.
Going back to later generations, even when China was at its most glorious, the scene of the powerful Tang Dynasty and Han Dynasty did not reappear. The Korean Peninsula has never been ruled by the Han people since the Tang Dynasty, and Sakhalin Island is not far away from the Han Dynasty.
Countless thoughts were running through Ziqin's mind, but he didn't know what to say. So, the journey became dull.
After leaving the Song Dynasty, the men in the caravan spoke less and less. After a few days, it was time to break up. Ziqin and the caravan would no longer be on the same road.
"We Han people will one day stand proudly in the world again, and we may not be able to see that day."
When they were leaving, they should have said some kind words, but Ziqin blurted out these words for some unknown reason. After the words fell, he and the old man were stunned for a moment, but then they looked at each other and laughed.
Although they had known each other for a short time, they knew each other very well, but they both knew the arrogance in their hearts. They may not have much affection for the Song Dynasty, but they would never want foreigners to look down on the Han people.
"Green mountains and green waters, we will eventually meet again, little brother, cherish it."
The old man clasped his fists on the horse and spoke loudly. This time, Ziqin also clasped his fists in return and said goodbye to each other.
Riding the horse donated by the horse gang, Ziqin headed in the direction of Wuliang Mountain, but he couldn't help but think of his previous words to make the Han people stand proudly in the world again.
This sentence may contain a bit of impulsive emotion, but it is by no means said casually.
In fact, no matter how heinous people are in this world, they will never want their nation to lag behind others. What's more, even if Ziqin is not a good person, he has absolutely nothing to do with heinous people.
It is actually a bit strange that the Song Dynasty was the weakest Han dynasty in history. The Song Dynasty's Military Commission was not weak. Even when the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Jin Kingdom, the Song Dynasty's soldiers were definitely not weak.
The Song Dynasty also had many famous generals. In fact, the only thing the Song Dynasty lacked was a wise king.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin Kingdom had already reached the capital. Li Gang, a civil servant, advocated a war of resistance and was still able to defeat the Jin Kingdom. This shows that the Song Dynasty was not weak, and those who were weak were all at the top.
Along the way, Ziqin constantly analyzed the strength and weakness of the Song Dynasty, but he came to this conclusion. However, although he came to this conclusion, he had no clue if he wanted to change. In addition, Wuliang Mountain was in sight, and the free mission was like a maggot on the tarsus.
, Ziqin also had no time to think about other things for the time being, so he could only put aside this problem for the time being and work hard to solve the Xiaoyao mission. (To be continued.
