"PS: I went out to have a hot pot meal with my family today, and I'm sorry that the second chapter was not delivered until now."
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After a two-day voyage, Zhao Hongrun's fleet of ten transport ships docked in the "Huayin" area in the west of Sanchuan County. Ran Teng's thousand-man team and Xiang Li's thousand-man team, about 2,200 people
The elite merchant navy soldiers got off the ship and moved the baggage, grain and grass carried on the ship to the shore.
After landing on the shore, Lu Balong pointed to the south and said to Zhao Hongrun and Lintao Lord Wei Ji: "About five or six miles to the south, there is an abandoned earth city. After a brief cleaning, it should be a good garrison place."
Zhao Hongrun nodded after hearing this.
After a while, Zhao Hongrun and more than 2,000 merchant navy soldiers, carrying carts of baggage, grain and grass, headed south, while the fleet returned to Xiangfu Port.
I have to say that Sanchuan County looks very desolate at first glance, because the grassland here is not the kind of endless grassland. Some places are full of potholes and overgrown weeds. To be honest, there are no
As beautiful as imagined.
But Lintao Lord Wei Ji was a little excited. After all, this land was the place where their brothers from the Wei family in Longxi, the Zhao family in Longzhong and the Zhao family in Longyou, had walked for hundreds of years. The ancestors of these two Zhao clans left
After Longxi, after a difficult trek, we passed through the vast Sanchuan County and finally reached the Central Plains.
Although Lintao Lord Wei Ji was born in the Lintao Wei family, this did not prevent him from admiring the Longzhong Zhao family and the Longyou Zhao family.
"What's wrong with you, Lord Wei Ji?"
Zhao Hongrun asked in surprise, because he found that Wei Ji's body seemed to be trembling.
At first, he thought that Wei Ji's discomfort was due to being unaccustomed to riding a boat and causing him to get seasick. But after asking, he found out that Wei Ji was actually expressing his appreciation for the perseverance of the Zhao family.
"..."
Seeing Wei Ji's excitement, Zhao Hongrun opened his mouth and hesitated with a strange expression, but in the end he said nothing.
Because he gradually discovered that Lintao Lord Wei Ji's character was actually somewhat introverted and melancholy, and he was also a very emotional person.
To put it bluntly, it is sentimental.
This character led Wei Ji, Lord of Lintao, to generally follow his heart rather than focus on interests when making decisions on certain matters.
Of course, this does not mean that Lintao Lord Wei Ji really has no desires and desires, but what he wants is different from what ordinary people want. Compared with material desires, Wei Ji should be pursuing a certain kind of emotion.
For example, taking back the inheritance left by the ancestors in Longxi from the hands of the Qin people, so that after his death, he could face the ancestors of the Wei family in Longxi.
This kind of people generally have strong and entangled hearts, so Zhao Hongrun wisely made excuses to stay away, so as not to disturb the affectionate Lord Lintao's memory of his ancestors.
A journey of five or six miles would actually take more than half an hour in other places. However, in the land of Sanchuan County, this time is far from enough. No, Zhao Hongrun and his team had to walk through the wet mud.
After walking hard on the grassland for more than an hour, I finally saw the ruins of the ancient city Lu Balon mentioned.
After riding a horse and getting closer, Zhao Hongrun visually inspected the ruins of the ancient city and found that the ancient city was really small and extremely dilapidated.
Although there was a wall built around the ancient city, it was only an earthen wall as high as a person, and it collapsed in many places and was riddled with holes. This made Zhao Hongrun, who was used to seeing stone walls, very disappointed.
However, Zhao Hongrun can understand. After all, this is the west of Sanchuan County, and what is preserved is the abandoned city of Wei State hundreds of years ago. It can be said that the ancestors of the Zhao family at that time were still using the method of piling earth to make walls.
But as long as you continue eastward towards the eastern part of Sanchuan County, it is not difficult to find that the ancient cities of the Wei Kingdom may still be preserved along the way. Each one is larger than the last one, and all the way to Luodi, a stone city wall finally appeared.
Therefore, it can be said that this area of Sanchuan County still retains the development process of the ancestors of the Zhao family, and is getting closer to the Central Plains culture little by little.
If there was a sentimental person like Wei Ji, Lord of Lintao, in the Zhao family, who walked from Longxi to the present-day Wei State, he might be moved beyond belief, because this road was the path taken by their ancestors of the Zhao family.
This is the thorny road on which the Zhao family surnamed Ji gradually began to prosper.
However, Zhao Hongrun does not have this kind of sensibility.
"Ran Teng and Xiang Li, tell the soldiers to station themselves in this ancient city, and you two will be responsible for commanding them."
Zhao Hongrun called two thousand-man generals, Ran Teng and Xiang Li, and gave them instructions.
"Yes!" Ran Teng and Xiang Li accepted the order with fists clasped, and then left to direct the garrison affairs.
They are responsible for many things, such as setting up military tents, deploying city defenses, etc.
The deployment of city defense mentioned here does not rely on the earthen walls of the ancient city in front of them that can almost collapse with a push. This kind of thing is purely a decoration in a siege battle, and what Ran Teng and Xiang Li have to do is to reinforce and repair it.
These earthen walls, and the deployment of repeating crossbows brought by ships - this is the greatest reliance.
In fact, there are houses and buildings in the city, but they are very decayed. Looking at the entire ancient city, there is almost no complete one, and there are broken walls everywhere.
It is unrealistic to tear them all down and clean them up, because the Shangshui soldiers did not have so much time and energy, so they built tents on the basis of the broken walls, making full use of the still solid walls of the houses.
There were all kinds of strange tents, but the marching tents were finally set up before dusk that day, so that more than 2,200 soldiers would not have to spend the night in the wilderness.
After all, it is already early winter, and the weather has already gradually turned colder. The terrain in Sanchuan County is flat and the air is humid, so the cold wind is particularly severe. If the cold wind blows here all night, even the strongest warriors may not be able to bear it.
While the soldiers were busy, the clan guards had already lit a bonfire in front of the commander's tent that was first built in the center of the ancient city.
I have to say that it is more difficult to build a bonfire in Sanchuan County, because there is almost no forest in this area. At most, there are some short trees with thin and damp branches. If you are inexperienced, you may not even have a bunch of them.
Can't even light a bonfire.
Fortunately, there are Lu Balong and his tribe's warriors here. These are all natives of Sanchuan. Finding suitable firewood to light a bonfire is an easy task for them.
Under Lu Balong's guidance, the Shang Shui soldiers quickly built piles of bonfires, and then Lu Balong led about three to four hundred Shang Shui soldiers to search for water sources.
Yes, look for water.
Although there are puddles everywhere on the Sanchuan grassland, it seems that there is a sufficient water source, but in fact, at least half of the water on this grassland is inedible.
Because it is stagnant water, some animal bones can even be picked up from some ponds, polluting the originally edible ponds.
What Lu Balong led the Shang Shui soldiers to look for was the kind of flowing streams. Even if some streams looked very small, only one palm wide and two knuckles shallow, even if some streams were flowing into a small pond.
At the end, it looks a little turbid, but in fact, these are edible.
However, based on these experiences, unless they are the Jie, Yi, or Yi people who have lived on the Sanchuan grassland for many years, it is difficult for ordinary people to tell whether the water sources in this area are drinkable.
Of course, the question of whether the water is drinkable does not mean that some water sources are poisonous. To be precise, there should be bacteria, or even epidemic bacteria, which can cause people who drink it by mistake to become sick, vomiting and diarrhea, and then not be able to survive for a few days.
Then he died.
While Lu Balong was in charge of looking for drinking water sources, Lintao Lord Wei Ji had already visited the entire ancient city and told Zhao Hongrun after returning that there might have been an ancient county in this ancient city.
Zhao Hongrun laughed it off.
About half an hour later, Lu Balong came back. The Shang Shui soldiers who were accompanying him carried wooden barrels filled with water. After briefly filtering it with gauze, they put the barrels on the bonfire to boil.
This is also the experience summed up by the people of Sanchuan: the water on the grassland of Sanchuan, even if it is drinkable water, must be boiled before it can be drunk.
While waiting for the water to be boiled for cooking, Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao took out the map of the Sanchuan area in time and spread it on the ground. Zhao Hongrun, Lintao Jun Wei Ji, Lu Balong and others sat around on the ground to analyze the current situation.
situation and make plans for the next few days.
"...We are now here (Huayin), very close to the Qinling Mountains, so when we were on the boat, I suggested that His Highness dock in this area. It would be very dangerous to get closer... In addition, if I am not mistaken,
At present, Qin's army is either about a hundred miles west of us, or southwest of us." Pointing to the position on the map, Lu Balong introduced to Zhao Hongrun and Lintao Lord Wei Ji.
Zhao Hongrun nodded after hearing this. He naturally understood why Lu Balong made two assumptions about the location of the Qin army, because it depends on the Qin army's response to the Jie tribe - if the Qin army decides to eradicate the threat of the Jie tribe first
, then they will attack the Jie tribe in the southwest; conversely, if the Qin army's main strategy is to quickly seize the land of Sanchuan County, then they may ignore the threat of the Jie tribe.
"It should be in the southwest." Lintao Lord Wei Ji thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "Based on my understanding of the Qin Army, the Qin Army will not sit back and watch the existence of the Jie tribe. If those Jie tribes are really like His Highness King Su,
As powerful as they say, then the Qin army will take the lead in attacking the Jie tribe."
Zhao Hongrun nodded when he heard this. He also hoped so. Otherwise, they would have no choice but to evacuate eastward. After all, with a mere two thousand Shang Shui soldiers, there was no way they could compete with the Qin army.
After thinking about it, Zhao Hongrun turned to Lu Balong and said: "Lu Balong, I need the warriors of your tribe to quickly get in touch with the Jie tribe in the southwest. If they are ready to counterattack the Qin army, I hope to come to
Sometimes we can watch from a distance and see the strength of the Qin army."
After hearing this, Lu Balong said with a smile: "Don't worry, Your Highness King Su. When we were looking for water just now, I had already sent soldiers with tokens of our Sichuan-Luo Alliance to contact the Jie people. I believe that tomorrow evening at the latest,
The warriors of my tribe will bring back the news... In addition, I also sent people to find out the location of the Qin army."
"Very good." Zhao Hongrun nodded with satisfaction.
Sure enough, on the evening of the next day, the soldiers of the Lun tribe brought back a reply from the Jie tribe in the southwest, saying that they had gathered tens of thousands more slaves and were preparing to fight the Qin army in two days.
After hearing about this, Zhao Hongrun took only Lintao Lord Wei Ji, Lu Balong and a few clan guards and rode to the southwest overnight, preparing to visit the battlefield in person and watch the war between the Jie tribe and the Qin army.