The trajectory of Jin Jiajiangxingfang in the desert is winding and extending toward the southwest.
Zhou Jun led his troops and followed him deep into Shazhou, arriving at a sand dune north of Xinghu Lake.
After climbing over the top of the hill, what appeared in front of everyone was a scene after the battle.
The overturned wreckage of the cart was half-buried in the gravel; the blood stains left after the fight were vaguely visible around it.
Zhou Jun rode on his horse and glanced around: "There was a battle here, but no bodies were left."
Tuoba Huaisu: "Two possibilities. First, there are official signs on the corpse. If found by interested people, the traces of Changxingfang will be exposed, so the battlefield has been cleaned repeatedly; second, once the phantom poison is poisoned, the poisoned person will
It was difficult to move, and only a few people who were determined and lightly poisoned fought with the enemy, but in the end they were all captured."
Zhou Jun nodded, called for Sun Aying, and said to the latter: "Going forward, the horse bandit camp is getting closer and closer. I'm afraid there are enemy sentries patrolling around. Take a group of people and move forward quickly.
No matter who I meet, I will catch him."
Sun Ah responded, ordered a team, and set off lightly.
As the team continued to move forward, some oases gradually appeared in the original desert.
When Zhou Jun's large group of troops arrived at the mouth of a rocky canyon, Sun Aying came back and captured three horse bandits' outposts.
Of the three outposts, the leader is a strong man with a scar, and the remaining two are all weak.
When the strong man saw Zhou Jun and his party, he was startled for a moment, then started to curse and laughed at them for seeking their own death.
Zhou Jun waved his hand towards Sun Aying, who drew his sword and slashed, causing the strong man's head to fall to the ground.
Seeing that the remaining two people's faces were pale, Zhou Jun said: "I ask a question and you answer it. Whoever speaks slowly will die; if the answer is different, he will also die."
Next, like pouring beans out of a bamboo tube, the two outposts told the situation of the bandits' camp in detail.
The horse bandit camp is located in the largest cave in the canyon. There are more than 1,300 combatants in it, as well as many slaves, servants and miscellaneous guests.
The passage inside the cave is connected with nine twists and turns, and there are undercurrents and gusting winds. There is a suspension bridge at the main entrance of the cave, with falling rocks and trees at the bridge head, and more than a hundred archers.
Tuoba Huaisu heard this and said to Zhou Jun: "If we attack by force, there will be a lot of casualties. Secondly, my senior sister will definitely flee when she hears the news."
Zhou Jun asked the prisoners: "Is there a way out in the camp?"
One of them hesitated and replied: "I have heard accidentally that there is a pit in the back mountain on the north slope, and there is a small path in the pit that leads directly to the "Luogu"."
Zhou Jun: “What is ‘Luo Gu’?”
The prisoner shook his head and said, "I don't know, I've never been there."
Zhou Jun and Tuoba Huaisu looked at each other and walked aside.
Zhou Jun said: "There are two most important purposes of this trip. One is to seize the mastermind of opium manufacturing, and the other is to find ways to rescue Jin Jiafu. Therefore, we will detach an elite soldier and sneak into the camp from Luogu. If we can
It would be best to find your senior sister and the whereabouts of Jin's family's workshop. If this is not possible, use the sound of arrows as a signal, then set fires everywhere to cause chaos, and then use heavy troops to take advantage of the chaos to attack the front gate, cooperate from the inside and outside, and capture the camp in one fell swoop."
Tuoba Huaisu nodded slightly.
Zhou Jun turned around and went to find Sun Aying, intending to lay out a strategy to divide his troops.
He hadn't taken two steps when he suddenly heard two screams coming from behind him.
Turning around, it was Tuoba Huaisu who ordered the Zoro soldiers to kill the two prisoners.
Zhou Jun frowned and didn't say much.
Soon, the division of troops was arranged.
The elite soldiers who sneaked into the camp through the back door included a fifty-man brigade under Sun Aying and a dozen members of the Pang family led by Qiu Yong.
The army responsible for the attack at the front gate included another fifty-man brigade brought by Sun Aying, the hundred-man mansion guards who went on patrol with the Hushi Supervisor, and the two hundred Zoroastrian soldiers brought by Tuoba Huaisu.
Tuoba Huaisu said to Zhou Jun: "Erlang stays outside, and I will go in through Luogu."
Zhou Jun: "I'll go in from Luogu with you."
Tuoba Huaisu objected: "This matter is dangerous."
Zhou Jun: "No matter which way you go, it's dangerous, so why bother with persuasion."
Tuoba Huaisu looked at Zhou Jun for a while and finally said nothing more.
The group of people hid in a hidden place, waited for the sun to go down, and started to take action according to the pre-planned arrangement.
Zhou Jun, Tuoba Huaisu, Sun Aying and Qiu Yong led the elite soldiers responsible for infiltration and detoured to the north slope behind the camp.
The group of people took advantage of the darkness to eliminate the enemies patrolling the mountain and the lurking sentinels, and finally found the huge pit leading to the valley.
Climb along the pothole to the depths of the cave.
Zhou Jun looked above his head and could vaguely see the bright moon hanging high in the sky through the huge sinkhole.
The further we walked, the moister the air became, and we could still hear the faint sound of water.
Standing on the edge of the mountain road and looking down, I saw an underground river rushing through the bottom of the cave.
After walking along the underground river for several hundred meters, the moisture in the air became more and more intense, and a beautiful and spectacular sea of flowers appeared at the end of the field of vision.
Zhou Jun frowned when he saw those flowers, and said to Tuoba Huaisu: "Those are poppies. It seems that the horse bandit camp is not far away."
Tuoba Huaisu nodded and walked forward along the field ridge beside the sea of flowers.
Suddenly, she stepped on a hard object, looked down, paused, and gestured to Zhou Jun, telling him to take a look.
Zhou Jun walked over, took a closer look, and couldn't help but take a deep breath.
It was a mutilated human arm.
Qiu Yong looked aside and said to Zhou Jun: "Look, Erlang, the incisions are scattered but there are no bone spots. This arm may have been chopped off before the person was dead."
Zhou Jun took the sword in Sun Aying's hand, pushed aside the poppy plants beside him, and looked at the land in the flower field. He couldn't help but be shocked by the scene in front of him and opened his eyes wide. He saw that in the soil of the flower field, there were densely packed trees everywhere
They are all rotting human limbs and heads.
Tuoba Huaisu: "Long Qi once said that the horse bandits would take the captured prisoners deep into the camp to worship the gods. This must be their final destination."
Zhou Jun retracted his sword, clenched his fists, looked ugly, gritted his teeth and said one word: "Let's go."
A group of people walked through the poppy field, which was beautiful on the surface but filled with death underneath, and came to a stone gate built into the mountain.
Sun Aying put his ear against the stone door and made a motion for everyone to disperse.
Not long after, several horse bandits wearing blood-stained short robes walked out of the door carrying several huge wooden baskets.
Sun Aying led several Tang soldiers and quietly approached from behind, raising his sword and lowering it.
Zhou Jun glanced at the human remains in the wooden basket, then stepped over the corpses of the bandits on the ground and walked into a long corridor lit with torches.
The cold mountain wind flowed in the corridor, and the wind was filled with a disgusting stench. People's cries of despair and fear could still be vaguely heard.
I don’t know how long I walked, but the corridor finally reached the end, and there was a wide and huge stone chamber.
Looking around, everything here is as scary as hell.
Countless iron hooks hung from the roof, with broken human remains hanging on them.
Several blood-stained stone beds were placed in the center, serving as the butcher's chopping boards.
In the corner of the room, there were several strong and heavy wooden cages, containing some living people with dull eyes and murmuring voices.
Tuoba Huaisu came to those wooden cages, inspected them carefully, and said to Zhou Jun: "These people have gone completely crazy. Each of them smells of opium."
Zhou Jun: "Those horse bandits used prisoners to test the properties of medicine. These are the results of failed experiments."
Sun Aying couldn't bear to see it and asked Zhou Jun: "Erlang, are you going to let them go?"
Zhou Jun thought for a while, shook his head and said: "Don't let it go now, deal with business first."
The group of people exited the stone room, walked through several crisscrossing forks, and bypassed many scattered stone platforms, and finally came to a dark dungeon.
Sun Aying took off the torch on the wall, followed the iron door of the dungeon, and looked through each room.
Finally, he stopped and shouted to Zhou Jun: "Erlang, here!"
Zhou Jun hurriedly came to the cell door and had someone break the iron lock. He saw Uncle Shen lying unconscious on the ground and a group of Jin family guards.
Tuoba Huaisu came over and took a closer look, took out a porcelain bottle from his arms, uncorked it, and shook it under Uncle Shen's nose.
Not long after, Uncle Shen slowly woke up and turned around. The moment he saw Zhou Jun, he could hardly believe his eyes.
Zhou Jun patted Uncle Shen on the arm and said, "If you have anything to say, let's talk about it when we go out."