Cui Xiuning's daily office is Furong Pavilion, which is only one hall away from Li Luo's Lingxu Pavilion. Usually, Li Luo met with the minister in the Lingxu Pavilion, while Cui Xiuning handled matters such as intelligence and firearms in the Furong Pavilion.

Today, the female guard Shi Coral brought in a middle-aged man into the Hibiscus Pavilion.

"Niangniang, the nitrate worker Lu Wuer has already brought." After Shi Coral finished speaking, she stood on one side, her hand pressed on the bag, and there was her slingshot.

The middle-aged man immediately bowed down and said in a trembling voice: "Villain Lu Wuer, meet Her Royal Highness the Queen!" ”

Cui Xiuning was wearing a goose yellow dark flower shoulder, a pleated Luan Fengxiang skirt, and a white bun on her head, which looked elegant and dignified, and a little heroic.

Where does Lu Wuer still look up? Just bow your head and bow down, full of apprehension.

"Lu Wuer, have you discovered any new nitrate ore?" Cui Xiuning put down the booklet and brush and asked lightly.

Lu Wuer's heart was pounding, and he replied cautiously: "Back to His Highness, the villain is grateful for His Highness's kindness, and he doesn't dare to slack off for a moment." During these days, the villain searched for many places, but he didn't find nitrate. The villain is incompetent, and he misses the big thing of His Highness, and the crime deserves death! ”

Lu Wuer was originally a spy of the Yuan Court hidden among the craftsmen of Poyang Lake, but after being discovered by the Special Investigation Bureau, because he was born in a family of generations of nitraters and was very good at finding nitrate, he was specially recruited by Cui Xiuning.

This person was able to discover natural nitrate based on the color of the vegetation and stones, as well as the smell of the earth.

In order to calm his mind, Cui Xiuning even instructed the Special Investigation Bureau to rescue his family from the north and reunite with him. In addition to this, he was given the title of a master craftsman.

To be a spy and do this, Lu Wuer is proud enough.

He was very grateful to Cui Xiuning, and after receiving the task, he went around day and night to find nitrate. But two months passed, and nothing was found.

Cui Xiuning frowned, "So, the possibility of finding it recently is also very small?" ”

Lu Wuer's body trembled, and he hurriedly said: "Your Highness knows that the villain judges that this southeast should be a place lacking in nitrate, and even if you look for it, it will be difficult to find it." The place where nitrate is produced in the world, the northwest is the most, followed by Yunnan. In this southeastern place, the villain of the fifth generation of nitrate workers has never heard of nitrate mines. ”

In fact, he was right, even if the detection technology was so developed in later generations, Jiangnan was also a land of poor nitrate, and nitrate ore was rarely found. The nitrate mines in the northwest account for more than half.

Cui Xiuning doesn't know that Jiangnan is poor in nitrate, nitrate is an unpopular mineral, and she is not a mining major, how do you know where these are?

I finally found a small mine in Haidong before, but now it has run out. Since no nitrate ore has been discovered in Jiangnan, she did not dare to relocate the gunpowder workshop in Haidong to Jiangnan.

As early as a few months ago, Cui Xiuning ordered the collection and purchase of private nitrate to encourage the people to "sweep up the nitrate". But the nitrate obtained is far from enough for tens of thousands of firearms soldiers to consume.

The only feasible way to solve the massive gunpowder consumption of tens of thousands of firearms soldiers is to find nitrate as soon as possible.

"Jiangnan doesn't have it, so you can only look for it in Haidong." Cui Xiuning thought of this and immediately made a decision.

"Lu Wuer, you prepare your manpower, and set off with me today and take a boat to Dongzhou. A mine was once discovered there. Cui Xiuning said.

Lu Wuer's eyes lit up, "Since nitrate ore has been discovered in Dongzhou, there must be some of them, so it depends on how to find it." Your Highness, rest assured, the villain will definitely find it! ”

In the Lingxu Pavilion, Li Luo was discussing military affairs with Wen Tianxiang and others.

Cui Xiuning entered the Lingxu Pavilion, and Wen Tianxiang and the others bowed down together and saluted: "I have seen Her Royal Highness!" ”

The so-called statement that ministers rarely knelt before the Yuan Dynasty in later generations is completely a beautiful misunderstanding that does not exist. A large number of surviving court paintings of the Tang and Song dynasties, as well as murals of the Han Dynasty, prove that the kneeling ceremony was originally a frequently used ancient ceremony. The scenes described in ancient books also illustrate "kneeling at every turn".

Not to mention seeing the king, even to his parents, he can't kneel down at every turn.

It's just that it is not called kneeling, but "worship", which means the same thing.

"Excuse me!" Cui Xiuning smiled warmly, "Sango, order to heat a few ginseng soups and warm up the body of the king and Mr. Wen." ”

"Thank you, Queen!" Wen Tianxiang and others thanked them one by one.

Li Luo was dressed in a yellow and dark dragon pattern regular clothes, with a white jade belt across his waist, and a moire hat on his head, looking graceful and heroic.

Regardless of the person's heart, just the appearance and demeanor are hard to get.

"Zitong, but what's the matter?" Li Luo can only be called this in front of his courtiers. The Han emperors called their wives, not by their names, but by their names, and often by "Zitong", which was a unique honorific title.

Cui Xiuning said: "Exactly." The king, the concubine is going to Dongzhou... The matter of gunpowder cannot be postponed any longer. ”

Li Luo nodded, "Zitong will go by himself, and the journey will be safe." ”

When Cui Xiuning said goodbye and left, Wen Tianxiang smiled and said: "The king, the queen's virtuous ability, is not only the mother of the world, but also the female Yao Shun!" ”

This is also because Li Luo and his wife have a deep relationship, if they change monarchs and hear the courtiers praise their wives as "female Yao Shun", even if they are not jealous, they will be uncomfortable.

But when Li Luo heard it, he was very happy. He is still a modern person's thinking, others praise my wife, my face is bright!

Eat one's heart out? Inexistent.

Cui Xiuning didn't dare to delay, and left as soon as he said so. She said hello to Li Luo, and took Lu Wuer and the others on the ship to Haidong.

Not only did she have to personally supervise the first time to find the nitrate, but she also had to produce gunpowder as soon as possible.

The Tang Kingdom doesn't have much time left!

…………

On the corridor of western Liaoning, a caravan of dozens of people was hurrying in the cold wind.

This is a caravan that went to Yunnei Prefecture (later Baotou) to exchange salt for skin. Because they had the Goryeo queen's merchant tooth card, the road was unimpeded, and they had already passed through Jinju two days ago.

The leader of the caravan was a steward about forty years old, who spoke with a Liaodong accent.

"Li Yang, the king sent you, is it really just looking for someone? I don't think so. The middle-aged steward grabbed the reins of the horse and asked a young man in mink fur and dressed as a young man.

The young man spat out a mouthful of white mist and grinned, "What's the matter, Uncle Gao still can't believe my words?" He looked back and saw another Yingwuzi in his early twenties, "Yan Falcon, what do you say the king sent me to do?" ”

"Looking for someone, of course!" Yan Falcon laughed, "Could it be that you really want to do business!" ”

This middle-aged steward is called Gao Yao, he is the old man of the Luoning caravan, and he is also Yan Duo's subordinate back then. In recent years, he was one of the responsible persons in the salt and horse trade of Haidong and Liaodong Nayan. Moreover, he is very familiar with Saiwai and has also been to Yunnei Prefecture twice.

Gao Yao wondered in his heart, who was so important in the secret way, so that the king sent Li Yang and a group of guards to the bitter cold outside the fortress?

Who in the Tang Kingdom doesn't know that the most trusted by the king and queen are their students and guards?

Liu Dadao said with a smile: "Uncle Gao will know that he is really looking for someone." It's just that they don't have to be alive. ”

Gao Yao is still trustworthy, and his family is also in the Tang Kingdom, otherwise he would not be allowed to be a guide and participate in such an important event. Reveal this beforehand, lest he feel that he is always in the dark.

Not necessarily a living person?

Gao Yao can become the caravan steward that Cui Xiuning trusts, of course, he is very shrewd. It immediately occurred to him that it was not necessarily a living person, but a dead person.

The king and queen are so aggressive just to find a dead man outside the fortress?

It doesn't make sense.

But he couldn't think of any other possibility.

"The most dangerous thing in the steppe is not the Mongol cavalry." Gao Yao said, "The Mongolian cavalry will not rob caravans casually, because caravans are related to the livelihood of herdsmen. The most dangerous in the steppes are horse thieves, wolves, and blizzards. ”

"The horse thieves and the wolves don't talk about him, the water and the earth cover the soldiers. But now it's the end of October, and the blizzard is coming. At this time, it is really not conducive to travel. ”

Yang Yu said: "No wonder we all passed Jinzhou, but we didn't see other caravans along the way. "Unlike the previous guards such as Yan Falcon Liu Dadao, he is the current captain of the guard, but he was also sent out this time.

There are forty-nine people in the entire team, and only he and Li Yang, Yan Falcon, Liu Dadao, and Yan Tong know the secret. Everyone else is still in the dark.

After all, the stakes are high, and the less people know, the less risk there is.

"Uncle Gao, you are really a crow's mouth." Yan Tong looked up at the sky and tightened the fur on his body, "The wind is getting stronger and stronger, look at it and it will snow soon!" ”

Sure enough, the caravan had been gone for more than an hour, and the wind and snow came. Large snowflakes were swept by the cold wind like cotton wool.

Fortunately, everyone chooses northerners, who are used to the wind and cold, and they don't do anything.

Gao Yao looked at the gray grassland, as well as the Yin Mountain not far away in the wind and snow, raised his head and drank a sip of mare's milk wine and said: "Although it is not a white-haired wind, the snow is getting heavier and heavier, and it is necessary to find a place to spend the night." ”

He pointed ahead, "Twenty or thirty miles ahead, it seems that there is a military camp, and I will spend the night there." ”

Li Yangqi said: "Barracks? Uncle Gao, although we have the Goryeo queen's merchant tooth card, the Yuan army camp will not allow me to wait overnight, right? ”

The queen of Goryeo issued more than one tooth card, and the major Mongolian magnates also issued various merchant tooth cards. If you can stay in the barracks with a tooth card, then it's not messy?

The Yuan army is far from degrading to this point.

"I didn't make it clear." Gao Yao laughed, "That military camp has long been abandoned, and it is not the Yuan Army barracks, but the Jin Army Barracks." It is said that a hundred years ago, a Meng'an soldier was stationed there, not only to guard against the invasion of the grassland tribes, but also to regularly go north to sweep the grassland. ”

"Later, Temujin retaliated and sent troops to slaughter the barracks and nail all the corpses of the Jin army to the stakes."

If you want to talk about what Jin Guo did back then, it is not very glorious. So Yan Falcon and the others were a little embarrassed. But when he heard what Temujin had done, he was furious.

"However, legend has it that the military camp is haunted, and more than once there have been overnight pedestrians dying in it, and we are sent by the king, protected by the king, and the ghosts and gods are not close, so we are fine." Gao Yao said with a smile.

Liu Da patted the snow on his hat, "What's the haunting!" I'm afraid of what he will do! ”

Everyone laughed.

Spy Li Yang has an extra eye. I'm afraid that the rumors of hauntings are not groundless, and even if there are no ghosts, they will not be without weirdness. I and others have a heavy responsibility, but we can't fold here before we find something.

As a professional spy with several years of experience, caution has been engraved into Li Yang's bones. So he immediately spoke out against it.

"I'll not go to that abandoned barracks, let's set up a tent and camp at night." Li Yang said.

Although Gao Yao is the guide, the top person in charge of the entire team is Li Yang, a big spy.

Even the veteran guards such as Yan Falcon and Liu Dadao, the current head of the firearms regiment, do not dare to oppose Li Yang. Although they don't like Li Yang's temperament, they all know that Li Yang is a capable person.

There are only a dozen of Her Royal Highness's first students, which one is the idle person? They didn't think that Li Yang was afraid of ghosts. It is said that this man has done many great things, and it is impossible for him to be so cowardly.

But Gao Yao objected.

"But. This weather is the most likely to encounter large wolf packs. Especially in the south of the Yin Mountain and the north of the Great Wall, there are many wolves. On snowy nights, they will go south in groups to forage for food, chasing the breath of humans and animals. ”

"The tent is too weak to withstand the wolves! Once surrounded by a large group of wolves, everyone is lost, no joke! ”

Liu Dadao said unconvinced: "Uncle Gao, are you talking about fart!" I waited for forty or fifty people, all of them elite soldiers with swords and bows, afraid of wolves? ”

Yan Falcon, Yan Tong and others also shook their heads, expressing disbelief.

"Afterlife!" Gao Yao was annoyed, "Don't be reckless!" Which of the teams of merchants in the south of the desert has no origin? Which is easier to go? Aren't people also strong and strong, carrying bows and knives? But there are more people than us, and they have also been destroyed by the mouths of the wolves! ”

Gao Yao pointed to the front, "Fifty to a hundred miles ahead, there is a tengu platform, and the one who sacrifices is the wolf. The Hu people of the steppe called the wolf a tengu. It was there, more than a decade ago, a large pack of more than a thousand wolves appeared, destroying a large caravan of more than two hundred people. ”

"Wolves on the grassland, when they encounter caravans hungry in the snow, often meet in small groups and large groups, and it is not uncommon for hundreds of wolves to attack. I don't have any armor, and if I encounter a big wolf pack hunting, even if I kill or injure a person or a horse, it will not be cost-effective. Even if there are no casualties, the arrows consumed are losses. ”

Li Yang thought for a while, "Then listen to Uncle Gao and go to the abandoned Jin State military camp for the night." ”

As soon as he agreed, there was no point in the others.

Everyone rushed in the snow against the wind and horses, and accidentally found white bones on the side of the road. Gao Yao said that there were wolf tooth marks on this bone, and it must have been eaten by wolves.

The team walked straight for more than half an hour, and finally saw a dilapidated building at the bottom of a gentle slope.

At this time, it has been out of the Liaoxi Corridor, this place is very desolate, except for the Yin Mountain not far away, and the decaying withered grass, it is this deserted building.

For half a day, not even a single herdsman could be seen. Looking south, the Great Wall is also out of sight.

"It's not a good time!" Gao Yao sighed, "In the summer, you can still see herdsmen's cattle and sheep on this road. After the Yuan court occupied the Central Plains, most of the herdsmen in the south of the desert went south to live a good life, and there were very few people left on the grassland. ”

He's right. After the establishment of the Mongol Yuan, in order to maintain the rule of the Central Plains, most of the tribes in the grasslands of the southern desert and the northern desert were all classified as Mongolian nationalities and migrated to the Central Plains to fight as soldiers.

This makes the steppe even more inhospitable.

When they came to the dilapidated building, they saw that most of the walls were still two feet high, and although the gate of the barracks had collapsed, it had just blocked the door.

This barracks is built of bricks and stones, covering an area of dozens of acres, many of the barracks inside have collapsed, but there are still some rooms that look intact, and the highest beacon tower has not collapsed, and a big drum on the beacon can be faintly seen.

The scale of this military camp can indeed garrison thousands of people, and it should have really been stationed with Meng An's soldiers and horses back then.

Li Yang and the others dismounted, drew their swords and cut through the half-human-high dry grass, and came to the gate.

The gate was completely blocked by collapsed masonry. Li Yang scraped away the snow with a knife, and soon a mossy bluestone caught his attention.

There is handwriting on it.

Li Yang scraped away the snow and moss, and vaguely recognized the words "six years of Mingchang".

Six years of Mingchang? Li Yang said to Yan Falcon: "It was built in the sixth year of Mingchang, it is estimated that it is more than a hundred years, right?" ”

"Nope." Yan Falcon shook his head, "Mingchang is the first era name of Zhang Zong, which is less than a hundred years, and ninety years is there." ”

Li Yang smiled: "This is the military camp of the Jin Kingdom, do you feel something in your heart when you see this situation now?" Although he asked with a smile, the look hidden behind the smile captured Yan Falcon's expression clearly.

This is the skill taught to him by the teacher, how to use a natural and sudden sentence to observe words and colors, and speculate on the other party's thoughts.

He is already familiar with this trick, and now he is just at his fingertips.

Yan Falcon was a military general, and he couldn't imagine that Li Yang's seemingly ordinary simple question would hide a trap that he couldn't detect.

"Feelings? Angry and undisputed. He pointed to the abandoned barracks in front of him, "One generation after another, just like this barracks, there are times when they prosper and there are times when they collapse. If the owner fights, he can continue to repair and live forever. If the master is not angry, this is what it looks like. Dajin Country, that's all. ”

Li Yang quietly captured Yan Falcon's tone and expression, including every word he said, and pondered in his heart, secretly saying that this Yan Falcon was not lying, he had no dissent, and he was an open-minded person.

Also, if this person has a different heart, with the teacher's eyesight, how can he be allowed to come?

In fact, along the way, Li Yang has already tested several backbones.

"Where there is a gap, I will enter the camp from where we wait, and then plug the gap. It's getting dark, so don't let the wolves show up. Gao Yao said.

He mentioned the wolves many times, and he also made everyone dare not underestimate the wolves anymore.

The people led the horses and pulled the wagons into the abandoned barracks, and then re-plugged the gap with bricks and stones.

As soon as they entered the barracks, the cold wind suddenly became much less, and everyone felt a lot more at ease.

In this vast snowy night grassland, it is better to stay in a walled building than to camp on a meadow.

Although, this abandoned barracks looks... It's a bit weird, but it's better than being outside.

ps: Crab everyone's concern and touching. Today's symptoms are better than yesterday, so I won't take time off. There is a high probability that it will be added tomorrow. After looking at the ticket list, it has been exceeded a lot in the past two days, I hope you can help me top, crab crab. I hope everyone will discuss the latest plot more in the group. Good night.

Qingyi literature