In late February, the Gan River surged north, while two thousand Qin troops followed the current and headed south.
Heifu was riding on his horse, standing by the river, looking at the long queue, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
This was the most difficult journey he had ever taken in his previous life.
In later generations, it only took six or seven hours to drive from the north to the south of Jiangxi.
But in this era, it takes at least a month to travel, not only because the distance is more than a thousand miles, but also because within this thousand miles, there are very few settlements, let alone cities.
There was no flat road for the army to walk. The Qin army trudged on the paths trampled by humans and animals. Sometimes they had to chop trees and thorns to move forward. Heifu specially arranged for Gong Ao to lead 500 people to chop down trees in front.
Trees clear the way, so the distance we walk every day is not long...
"With such a long distance between the north and the south, how did Chu rule Gansu?" One day, when he was tired of walking, Heifu asked his staff Xu Shu.
Upper Gan, the upper reaches of the Gan River, where the State of Chu granted a county title, and it is said that they only communicated with Shouchun once a year.
Xu Shu said with a smile: "I heard that when King Chu Mourning was in power, he appointed Wu Qi as his commander. Wu Qi believed that Jing had more land and less people, so he moved the nobles of Chu's counties to the south of the Yangtze River.
In the land of Guangxu, there have been many feudal lords, and Lord Shanggan is the furthest one."
These Jiangnan feudal lords were far away from the border, and the cost of travel was too high. Therefore, the King of Chu did not even bother to collect taxes from them. He only occasionally sent some local novelties as tributes. Therefore, Shang Ganjun, Fanyangjun, etc. had a high degree of independence.
, thanks to this enfeoffment system, Chu State was able to spread its territory so widely.
Xu Shu said that Lord Gan's men did not have more than five hundred soldiers, so Heifu was not worried about fighting at all. Compared with the weak monarch ahead, the long road and the increasingly hot weather were their biggest enemies.
At this time, there was a commotion in the marching team. Ji Ying wiped his sweat and came over and said, "A few more soldiers have fainted..." Fill some light salt water and ask Qi Paoze to carry it forward on a stretcher.
The reply said that we have to walk another ten miles to find a suitable place to camp."
During the month he was stationed in Fanyang, Heifu asked for a lot of supplies from Jiujiang County, one of which was salt. Zhao Tuo transported a large ship of salt to Pengze, and carried it with mules and horses to join the expeditionary force.
Heifu asked people to dissolve salt into the water so that when the army marched against the sun, they would not suffer from fainting and heat stroke due to excessive sweating and lack of salt.
Even so, about ten people fell down every day. For those who could carry the duty belt but could not walk, Heifu could only let them stay where they were, set up outposts, and wait for the army to return.
Seeing the sun setting, they finally arrived at the place where they camped. It was an open area by the water, surrounded by dense green jungles in all directions. The ancient trees were hung with hard old vines, and from time to time they could hear the roars of animals and the chirping of birds.
.
Heifu asked everyone to set up camp quickly. Although the hot day was about to end, the soldiers were not looking forward to the night because mosquito bites would make them miserable. The mosquitoes in southern Gansu were really big, bitey and painful.
Various beetles emerged from the soil and crawled everywhere. The most dangerous time for Heifu was when he woke up and found a colorful snake on the camp couch...
The Yue people sent by Wu Rui to guide him saw the snake's body and said that it was a highly venomous snake and a bite would definitely kill him.
Hei Fu shuddered, but the Yue people were very happy to remove the snake, skin it and roast it to eat. The Yue people had a rich diet, and snakes, insects, rats and ants were all considered delicacies.
Just when Hei Fu asked his guards to check the grass near his camp, Xiao Tao came over and said to Hei Fu seriously: "Sima... there is someone in the forest watching us!"
"where?"
Xiao Tao took Heifu to the edge of the camp and pointed to the woods more than a hundred steps away. There were indeed several figures on the trees there.
Heifu immediately became vigilant. In the past month, they had been attacked several times, all by the Yangyue tribe along the Gan River.
Compared with Qianyue, Yangyue was more ignorant and uncivilized, and was extremely courageous. Sometimes when the Qin army passed by his tribe, groups of Yangyue people would appear and roar, trying to stop them from advancing. There was even one occasion.
, hundreds of Yangyue people, wielding crude weapons and roaring loudly, attacked Heifu's path-opening troops.
The Qin army was not polite. Any Yue tribe that showed hostility was wiped out and all their food was plundered. After entering the upper reaches of the Gan River, similar things rarely happened.
Therefore, Heifu thought that those who were peeping at the Qin army in the forest were some scattered Yue people, so he asked Dongmen Leopard to lead more than a hundred people to check and disperse them.
Dongmen Bao and others had been gone for half an hour. In the evening, when smoke was coming from the earthen stove, a group of people came back and shouted outside the tent for Heifu to come out and see what they had caught.
"It turns out that those who spied on the camp were not Yue people, but some hairy weirdos!" Dongmen Leopard was very excited.
"Weird?" Heifu was a little surprised. He dropped the diary of the Southern Expedition that he was writing and followed him out.
"Those weirdos were black and hairy, huge in stature, and extremely powerful. It took two people to kill them and bring them back."
A group of soldiers had gathered in front of Heifu's tent. They were all amazed. Seeing Sima coming, they all got out of the way.
When Heifu went over and took a look, he was immediately happy.
The thing lying on the ground was covered with long black hair, but its face was hairless. After death, its mouth was wide open, revealing sharp canine teeth. Its shoulders were broad and round, and its neck and limbs were unusually thick...
What kind of weirdo is this? He is obviously an orangutan!
And it is a very huge orangutan, nearly two meters tall...
At this time, Xu Shu and the Ganyue guide who led them also came over. After taking a look, they couldn't help but said in surprise: "Isn't this the Giant of Gan?"
"Gan Giant?" This name is quite new.
Xu Shu explained: "Sima, this Gan water originates from Upper Gan. There are many Gan giants in the area, with human faces, long arms, black bodies and hairy bodies. This is why the water is named after this person..."
Heifu suddenly realized, what was the original meaning of "gan"? However, he did not expect that in Jiangxi two thousand years ago, there were close relatives of gorillas. Maybe they became extinct gradually in later generations.
This episode passed quickly. Dongmen Leopard tried to skin and eat the meat of the "Gan Giant" and gave Hei Fu a bowl, but Hei Fu refused. He would rather eat domestic animals than eat weird food.
Game, what should I do if I get sick?
He inspected a circle of the camp and saw that the soldiers were all settled before returning to his tent. With Sima Weiwei's anointing lamp, he added the story of the Giant of Gan to his marching diary...
After he stopped writing, Heifu was a little worried. Days of marching in the jungle had seriously depleted the soldiers' physical strength, and the weather was getting hotter day by day. If they stayed in southern Gansu after summer, the hot climate and the accompanying diseases would cause
Massive attrition. "The war must end before summer begins!"
…
Fortunately, Shangganjun cooperated very well with Heifu. When the Qin army arrived in Shanggan Xiaoyi in mid-March after a month and a half of arduous trek, it was already an empty city." Shangganjun learned from the Yue people who went south.
Knowing that the general's army was coming to attack, he fled south with the people of the city. "The few remaining people did not want to leave here, so they hid. After being captured by the Qin army, they told Hei Fu truthfully in the local dialect that was extremely difficult to understand."
Escape?" Hei Fu's men looked at each other in confusion. In everyone's eyes, Shanggan was already at the edge of the world. Where else could Lord Shanggan escape to?
Xu Shu reminded Heifu: "A hundred miles south of Shanggan, there is a Limen fortress. That is the southernmost territory of the Chu Kingdom!"
Therefore, after resting in Gancheng for a few days, Heifu had to take half of the army and rush to Limensai in person.
Limensai is located in Dayuling in later generations. The terrain here is rugged and dangerous. For more than ten miles of mountains, there is only one stone trail winding upward.
When they panted and arrived at this small stone pass that could only be called a "checkpoint", like in Shanggan, Heifu did not see a single figure. The King of Chu was dead and the Chu territory was bereft. Those who were unwilling to be
The Chu people under Qin's rule knew that they could not resist, so they even gave up here.
Heifu climbed to the top of the two-foot-high pass, which is also the highest point of Dayu Mountain. Looking south, he only saw a tropical rain forest that was older and denser than the forest along the way. The towering large
Trees, twining vines, and lush flowers and plants intertwined into green mazes, an endless forest sea. "Where else can they escape?" Hei Fu looked at Xu Shu.
Xu Shu also didn't expect that the last lord of Chu State could run away so well. He cupped his hands and said: "The south of Limen is no longer the territory of Chu State, but the location of the various tribes of South Vietnam..." "It is said that on the coast of the South China Sea,
There is a small town called Chu Ting, where Chu merchants traded rhinoceros horns, elephant tusks, and emeralds and pearls with the South Vietnamese. Lord Shang Gan might have fled there. "
Yes, Heifu knew in his heart that from this pass to the south, we reach Guangdong.
Shang Ganjun can run to Chuting, but Heifu has no intention of pursuing him. His southern expedition ends here.
At this time, Ji Ying, who was investigating on the other side of the pass, shouted: "Sima, there is a word here!"
When Heifu and others went to the other side of the pass, they found that on the black wall of the pass, the Chu Kingdom's insect-bird script was written in dark red blood.
The soldiers of the Qin army could not understand it, but they had been on an expedition against Chu for so long and had been dealing with Chu people's simple letters for a long time. Heifu could roughly guess what it meant.
This is a saying that has been very popular in Chu since the demise of the Chu State was doomed. It is said to have been said by Nangong, a noble scholar of the Chu State.
In Huaibei, Huainan, Hubei, and Jiangdong, there are people whispering, raising their arms and shouting, and reciting this sentence silently in their hearts.
Now, Heifu saw it again.
It's like an unwilling curse.
It's like a mysterious prophecy.
Hei Fu shook his head and read it out. "Although Chu has three households, if Qin is destroyed, Chu will definitely die?"
ps: I'm busy watching the game, it's a bit late. Sorry, congratulations rng, congratulations to the puppy! Normal updates will resume tomorrow. I currently owe about ten chapters, and I will put the update on the schedule.
ps: Book friends, this is my new show in July. I recommend a free app that supports downloading, listening to books, zero ads, and multiple reading modes. Book friends, please pay attention!
