A man and a woman were busy until the sun went down, and they still seemed to be unsatisfied, until the sky was dim and it was difficult to see, and then they packed up and hurried away by the riverbank.

"Do you want to keep up with them?" asked a female voice, her eyes finally off the telescope, which could barely see clearly.

"No, I should be back tomorrow. The male voice next to him was quite tired, he slowly turned over, moved his already soreness shoulders, looked up at the gradually darkening sky, and his mood was quite gloomy.

Another night is coming, unconsciously in the vast place north of the clouds has been in this vast place for half a month, from Dingbian to Urad Qianqi, from Baiyun to Chahar Houqi, from Zhuozi to Tumut Left Banner, and then from Tumut Left Banner to the Four Princes Banner, this toss down and ran three zigzag back and forth, there are no thousands of miles, and there is not much difference.

The man is Xu Wen, and the woman is naturally Shen Yingjie, and the two of them are crawling in a grass nest thousands of kilometers away from the river beach at the moment, staring at the busy pair of men and women just now, staring at them all day. As soon as the grassland fell into the night, the temperature plummeted, although the two had been prepared, but they were too cold to bear, so they simply cleaned up and left quickly.

Shen Yingjie made a mistake in the matter of Li Tianzhen in eastern Guangdong, and was very depressed, and after being investigated, she was supposed to return to the national security department of Xishan Province, but the instructor was worried about her situation, so he simply transferred her to the special operations team, firstly, to protect, and secondly, because she was his own student, he knew the roots.

Because it was a temporary transfer, she didn't even have time to go through the formalities, nor did she participate in the short and hasty special training, and after receiving the order halfway, she joined Xu Wen, and the things about the Zhang family and this mission were all temporary, and listened to Xu Wen's dictation.

Shen Yingjie did not expect that this time he and Xu Wen encountered the most confusing and undisciplined task, looking for a ruins called 'Er'er Eqi', what the ruins looked like, was it an ancient city, an ancient tomb, or something else, the instructor did not explain, and it was very likely that he himself did not understand it at all.

The only information Xu Wen has in his hand is pitiful and almost negligible, and there is an ancient painting that has been burned and only less than a quarter is left in his mobile phone, an ancient map restored by the instructor's self-righteousness, and there is a back image of an antique, like a jade slip, and like a large wrench, there is a pocket portrait on the protrusion of the wrench, which can only be seen clearly with a magnifying glass, it is a hideous beast head.

This head is lifelike, with a natural murderous aura, giving people infinite pressure, the red eyes are as big as goose eggs, which hides a sharp edge, the dark texture of the left eye is extremely complex, it seems to be composed of countless runes, but unfortunately it has been magnified to the limit, it is still unrecognizable, and the right eye has a faint gray picture, like a world, which looks very gloomy and desolate against the background of the blood-red eyeballs, and faintly carries the breath of destruction.

The long fangs of the beast are also blood-colored, very aggressive valgus, which is easily reminiscent of the terrifying tearing sensation when stabbing into the opponent's body, the nose of the beast is the most featureless and simplest part of the facial features, only two small black holes, if you look closely, there seems to be a bright spot in the center of the black, but it is also magnified to the limit, and it is still not clear to see.

With Xu Wen's own knowledge, he has flipped through a lot of information, and he can't find any information related to the beast, in other words, this thing should not exist in today's world, and can only guess out of thin air, whether it is an ancient creature that once really existed, or just a totem in a racial belief, or a beast in the extraterritorial space, in short, there is no clue, and it is impossible to guess what the avatar of the beast means, and it is only stored in the mobile phone for backup.

What really worked was the map given to him by the instructor, which was purely hand-drawn, and even the scale of the scale was filled in by hand, which was hand-drawn by the instructor according to some of the information he found in the Zhangjia ancestral hall, combined with the background in the incomplete ancient painting as a model, and then compared countless electronic map models, and finally determined the general direction.

The reason why it is hand-painted is because more than 200 years have passed, the geography has changed greatly, and many place names have disappeared or changed in the long river of history, and the most useful landmark, the Erna River, has also been rerouted, so it can be said that many places have changed beyond recognition.

With this pitiful thing, Xu Wen and Shen Yingjie embarked on an unknown journey, and the two of them put on makeup as a little couple, signed up for a group of donkey friends who went on an expedition to the desert and grassland, and headed towards the legendary 'Er'er Eqi' monument.

But the map studied by the instructor is quite unreliable, one is large, the range is too large, so big that there is no edge, to the first stop Yulin, Xu Wen began to get dizzy, looking directly at the map and going to the actual place are completely different things, second, there are only suspected points in the map, there is no core point, to put it bluntly, it is not sure of the specific location, this is the most head-making place.

600 kilometers north of Yulin is the Baiyun mining area, which is the northern limit in the map, so a north-south range is already very large, but the east-west range is even larger, almost across Bayannur, Yikezhao and Ulanqab three leagues, there is an east-west Yinshan mountain range in the middle.

According to the five key areas defined by the instructors, in addition to Dingbian County in the north of Yulin, the first is the westernmost Wulate Qianqi in Bayannur, that is, the northern military town of Woye Town in the Wei and Jin dynasties; second, it is located in Guyang County to the east of the Wulate Qianqi, coincidentally, its east side is also the historical town of Huaishuo; third, further east, Wuchuan County is located between the left and right banners of Tumut, and the last place is the Four Princes Banner 70 kilometers northeast of Wuchuan, and Tuchengzi in the southeast is also a famous military town in the Wei and Jin dynasties, Fuming Town.

Five key areas, four of them are north of Yinshan, coincidentally, they were all the northern military towns of the Wei and Jin dynasties, the so-called six northern towns of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there are four in it, which indicates that it is not easy to say, the instructor has studied the history of the Wei and Jin dynasties, especially the Six Towns Uprising, although it is interesting to read, but it has not come up with a reason, the key is to find out what the two dynasties will be related to in the long history of 1,500 years from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the middle and late Qing Dynasty.

The above analysis is naturally not something Xu Wen can imagine, he doesn't even know how much information the instructor stole from the Zhang family ancestral hall, and he doesn't know what kind of conduct the instructor has to change his gun to make a pen, anyway, just do things according to what the instructor has figured out blindly.

But after all, the instructor is not studying geography and archaeology, and he is very unprofessional, so he simply threw it to the more unprofessional Xu Wen if he couldn't find it.

Xu Wen and Shen Yingjie had a simple discussion, and decided to grasp the key point, not thinking about the range of thousands of kilometers at all, that would really drown people, and only spend effort on the five key areas, and use the elimination method to strive for each breakthrough, otherwise it is undoubtedly a fool's dream for the two of them to find such a place that is not recorded in the history books at all.

The two stayed with their fellow travelers in Dingbian for more than a day, making excuses to wander out and inquire about 'Ergeqi', which should be Mongolian, but no one had heard of it, not like a place name, but a bit like a title 'Ergeqi', which translates to mean beautiful sister, Xu Wen was confused, but Shen Yingjie laughed.

One day in vain, back to the accommodation, these stupid children do not plan to go back to Yulin, but the plan is to go to the Mu Us Desert to explore, set to set off early the next morning, Xu Wen said that he was not feeling well, so he and Shen Yingjie broke away from the army together.

The area is too big, and it is still five key areas, the time is quite tight, Xu Wen naturally can't stay in Dingbian for too long, if there is no result in the evening, he will set off to Jingbian early the next morning, because he has heard the instructor say that the ancestors of the Zhang family 200 years ago had led troops to garrison in the area of Jingbian Willow Stream, which is very likely to be the origin of the Zhang family's secret, why the instructor did not list this place as a key area, Xu Wen did not understand, but still felt that it was practical to go to Jingbian.

The two signed up for a tour group, followed a group of old men and old ladies to participate in the red tour of the day, Jingbian is the old revolutionary area, there are the old sites where the older generation of revolutionaries lived and fought, as well as the remains of the ancient Great Wall, there are many short-distance groups, lively and lively, but it is convenient to act.

Along the way, Xu Wen inquired with the tour guide about the history of Jingbian, and the tour guide was talkative, but his understanding of history was only general, and he could not give an answer, and it was impossible to know Er'e Eqi, so he recommended to Xu Wen the revolutionary scenic spots Jingbian River, Tianci Bay and other places.

Xu Wen understood that the tour guide could not be as familiar with the county chronicles as professionals, let alone know that the Qing army had been stationed in a cantonment, so he had no choice but to chat casually. And Shen Yingjie next to him chatted hotly with the old lady in the opposite seat, but he didn't get any useful news after tossing for a long time.

When he arrived at the county seat, Xu Wen didn't take the instructor's warning to heart, broke away from the tour group, and went directly to the county government office.

Xu Wen once had the identity of a reporter, which came in handy at this time, and entered the door to make up a reasonable reason, an old man in the office had a lukewarm attitude, and looked left and right at the document for a long time before calling for instructions, and it didn't take long for a young staff member to lead him to the reception room.

The young man is quite enthusiastic and talkative, and can answer most of Xu Wen's questions in detail, but he doesn't know the key things, he is a student of history and politics, and he has a few treasures for the county chronicles, but he doesn't know that there was a garrison in Jingbian during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, let alone any Erqi.

Xu Wen was disappointed, but the young man then told a historical story of Zhenjingbao, talking about the largest horse gang Qingyun business in the area from Zhenjingbao to Liushujian in the late Qing Dynasty, the chief shopkeeper Zhang Songlin was a well-known figure at that time, not only had several large tea and horse caravans, but also had their own special dart shop, there were armed guards from south to north, and the business was very large, almost monopolizing the tea and salt, porcelain, and The cloth business, it can be said that the old man Zhang stomped his feet, and the whole cloud was going to shake three times, and then it was passed on to the next generation, the Zhang family began to decline, and the business name also became a bandit and a businessman, and was suppressed by the Beiyang military government at that time, and then the Zhang family was torn apart, and most of them moved south.

Zhenjing Fort is the county seat of Jingbian in the Guangxu Yearbook, not a new castle in the Qianlong period, this history, Xu Wen also roughly listened to the instructor, but when asked about Zhang Songlin's ancestors, the young man couldn't say clearly, as if he had been cut off invisibly.

Fearing that Xu Wen would not believe him, the young man turned around and went out, and after a while brought a publication, which was a yearbook of local chronicles from 1991, and there was an article devoted to the study of the history of bandits and caravans in Jingbian.

The article analyzes the emergence of the horse gang in modern times to the civil uprisings in the northwest at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and elaborates on the relationship between the horse gang and the bandits. The birth of Ma Jiajun took up a lot of space, until the decline and division of the Zhang family were drowned in the mud and sand of history.

Xu Wen read this jerky article twice, and finally sighed at the sky, and after thanking the young man very much, the two said goodbye.

Along the way, Xu Wen was sullen, Dingbian County's original hope was not great, and it was reasonable to say that there was no gain, but Jingbian also made no progress, which made him very annoyed, if it weren't for Shen Yingjie's reminder, he couldn't lift his spirits all afternoon, the young man had mentioned that the old site of the head office of Qingyun Business should be near Jingbian Xiaohe, because he had not researched it, he also listened to a deceased old gentleman, it was not true.

Xu Wen suddenly came to his senses, patted his head and scolded himself for having no brains, on the tour bus, he had also heard the tour guide introduce this scenic spot, and deserted away from the tour group in the middle, and now he is just in time to rush over.