After the northward expedition led by Xiao Daoyan and the Lelanghai expedition led by Hu Anjun converged at the mouth of Heishui, the two sides waited here for the left expedition led by Long Zhi for more than a month, and they were worried that something might happen to the left expedition. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

There was an accident in the left expedition team, and it was pointless for Xiao Daoyan, Hu Anjun and the others to continue to wait here.

The two sides agreed not to wait for the left expedition and to continue to explore their unexplored areas before returning to Pyongyang as originally planned.

The Middle Route Expedition will head south along the coast to the Governor's Mansion in Dongzha Prefecture, and the Lelanghai Expedition will explore the future Sakhalin Island, the west coast of the island where the Kushuo tribe of the Heishui Ya tribes lived.

Before leaving, Xiao Daoyan had a thick wooden plank erected in the camp for the left-hand expedition, which might be late, to explain their return to Pyongyang along the coast.

With the departure of the two expeditions, this small peninsula on the south shore of the Heishui estuary, eight or nine miles deep into the sea, fell silent again, and only one empty camp and wooden trestle bridge silently recounted the hustle and bustle of the place.

More than 1,400 miles northwest of the Heishui estuary, a tired and ragged team was struggling to march eastward in the wilderness.

The Xuan Banner fluttering in the wind was dilapidated and old, the Tang character on the flag was missing a mouth below, and one-third of the flag was almost hung into strips of cloth by tree branches.

After walking for a long time, Zhang Xiaoyun, who was the leader of the map and mapping team of the left expedition, was a little tired and panting, so he stopped and found a stone to sit on to rest, and couldn't help but feel nostalgic for the comfortable scene of learning Taoism with his master Ye Fashan four years ago. They all regretted that they didn't stay in the Taoist temple to learn the sages of the Daomen, why did they participate in the expedition organized by King Yan and go to this wilderness to suffer.

The soldiers who were walking forward step by step with heavy steps passed in front of him, Zhang Xiaoyun sighed, and shouted at Long Zhi, the deputy chief in front: "Captain Long, let the soldiers stop and rest for a while before leaving." ”

Ryuji stopped, looked back at the tired looks of the soldiers, and felt a little sorry for them. Nuo didn't insist that he must explore the Omuro Weibu who lived in Lingbei, and he would not have caused the soldiers to trek with him in this uninhabited wilderness, and he couldn't see where the road ahead was.

"Rest in place for an hour, prepare lunch, and then hurry when you are full."

"Captain Xie." The soldiers were overjoyed, some sat on the ground, and some simply found a big stone slab to lie on it and hummed a hometown song comfortably.

"Liu Sanyang, how many miles did you say we drove after we set off from Duovayue City?"

Zhang Xiaowu lay weakly on the grass, asking his fellow villagers and friends lying beside him.

Liu Sanyun took a sip of water and cleared his throat, "I can't remember clearly, let's pass through the land of the seventeen divisions of Murowei, the distance between each of them is two or three hundred miles for the shortest, six or seven hundred miles for the elders, let's not say seven or eight thousand miles." ”

"Isn't that fucking almost 10,000 miles?" Zhang Xiaowu was stunned: "I haven't walked so far in the first half of my life." ”

"According to the original plan, we don't need to go so far, we just need to go down the black water to the mouth of the sea to join the other two expeditions. It's all Captain Long'......" Liu Sanyang said angrily with resentment in his heart.

Zhang Xiaowu looked at the others, and when he saw that no one noticed them, he whispered: "Be quiet, if others hear this, tell Captain Long, be careful of stumbling on you." ”

"Hmph" Liu Sanyun closed his mouth indignantly and unwillingly, Zhang Xiaoyun, who was sitting not far behind Liu Sanyun and the two, happened to hear it clearly, shook his head and sighed in his heart: The people's hearts are not aligned, and if you go on like this, you will not see the end, and I am afraid that this team will have to be chaotic.

After resting for a while, the soldiers found some dry firewood to make a fire for cooking, but they took off the bags of dry food from the only remaining thirty or so horses and found that they did not have much dry food left.

The news of the lack of dry food quickly spread throughout the team, and one by one they hurriedly got up from the ground and ran to see the dry food bags.

Looking at the small amount of dry food, the soldiers were extremely depressed, looking at the surrounding mountains, there was no village in front of the village, there was no store behind the store, hundreds of miles along the way, there was not even a small tribe of Murowei, and the whole team had to starve to death if they ran out of food in this wilderness.

The soldiers' worries and dissatisfaction with the prospects became more and more high, and there were many discussions, and many people pointed at Sang and scolded Huai, and the spearhead was pointed at Longzhi.

Originally, they should have descended down the black water to the mouth of the sea to join the right and middle expeditions two months ago.

But when they reached the confluence of the Jieya River and the Black Water, as the deputy head of the northward expedition, Ryuji, the leader of the left team, insisted on going to the Omuro Wei Division, striving for a northward expedition to explore the territory of the Murowei Division, and then east to the sea, along the coast to the south.

However, the northern chamber is located in the vast area north of Heishui, which is wider than the area south of Heishui, and the population is even more sparse.

Even if the same Murowei lives between the Heishui River and the Jieya River, the situation of the Omuro Wei is not clear, and it can be reached by going north along the Jieya River.

Ryuji's resolute and resolute north to Omuro Wei, the journey of nearly a thousand miles, went through hardships, on the way in order to save the already small amount of dry food, had to kill horses to satisfy hunger before arriving at Omuro Weibu.

Although the territory occupied by the Omuro Weibe was vast, it was sparsely populated, and it was a fishing and hunting people, and there was not enough food to exchange for the left expedition except for some dry goods.

At the end of Omuro's trip, some of the soldiers did not approve of Ryuji's plan to go east to the sea, and proposed to return the same way. But the journey back for nearly a thousand miles worries many soldiers. There are only about 30 horses left of the original more than 100 horses, and even if they kill horses to satisfy hunger, they may not be able to go to the black water.

When the two sides of the expedition on the left were at a disagreement, the leader of the Omuro Wei tribe, who was close to Ryuji, pointed out that he would go east, cross a mountain ridge and there was a river, and go down the river to the settlement of the U Gairen, where he could exchange food with them, and it was not far from the sea.

Only then did most of the soldiers agree to enter the sea eastward according to Ryuji's plan, and then return to Andong along the coast.

But all the way out of Omuro Weibe, as far as the eye can see, there are either tens or hundreds of miles away in the vast mountains or endless wilderness, not a single figure can be seen, and the desolate scene is heartbreaking.

The food exchanged was almost consumed in the past few days after leaving the Omuro Wei Division, not to mention the coast, and there was no trace of the Wu Conversion Settlement that the head of the Omuro Wei Department had said.

The disgruntled soldiers made several officers loyal to Ryuji hurriedly run to report it.

"Captain, we are running out of food, the soldiers are resentful, if there is no hope, my subordinates are afraid ......"

"I know."

Long Zhi waved his hand to signal them to leave, and came to Zhang Xiaoyun and asked, "Dao Chief, do you think we can go back alive?" ”

In the land of Lingbei, no one has ever set foot in China, and Long Zhi led a team to set foot here is an unprecedented pioneering move.

But after all, Huaxia has been here since Longzhi, and there is no historical data to rely on, and it is extremely unreliable to know the situation in this area only from some people who have listened to the stories of their fathers.

Ryuji himself was afraid that they might not be able to leave this wild land this time, and maybe the coastal area where the leader of the Omuro Wei tribe was talking about was actually thousands of miles away from the Omuro Wei tribe.

"There must be hope in the midst of difficulties, and without hope, we really can't get out of here." Zhang Xiaoyun waved the dust in his hand and said.

"But how can you give hope to the soldiers?"

"Can Captain Long know the allusion of Cao Cao's Wangmei to quench his thirst?"

"This?" Long Zhi's face was embarrassed, he was born in an ordinary military family, although he read a little when he was young, he didn't read much, and the allusions in history were rarely involved.

Zhang Xiaoyun smiled when he saw this, and explained the allusion to Wangmei's thirst.

"Dao Chang is saying that we will learn from Cao Cao?"

"Even if you comprehend, why bother to say it explicitly?"

Long Zhi was worthy of the wisdom of the cultivator in his heart, bowed to Zhang Xiaoyun three times, and thanked: "Thank you for your guidance." ”

Due to the shortage of dry food, the soldiers were only half full, and everyone walked eastward with a sad and indignant look on their faces.

After walking thousands of miles in the wilderness, the soldiers of the expedition who were originally brightly dressed, in addition to the officers and a not too tattered armor, the armor on the ordinary soldiers had already been exchanged for food with the Murwei people.

At present, most of the soldiers are wrapped in animal skins, and they are dressed like the same as the Root Muro Wei Savages, and they have no spirit.

Long Zhi looked at all this, and Xin Daonuo didn't think of a way, I'm afraid that when the food is cut out, it will be when the expedition team will collapse. At that time, this team that had traveled thousands of miles together was about to happen to a terrible person.

Ryuji didn't want to witness the tragedy of his subordinates, like Zheng Rentai, who was chasing the Tiele tribes during the Longshuo period, when they returned without food, and their subordinates were so hungry that they fought each other and devoured each other.

Finding two cronies, Long Zhi sent them out to explore the way, and came back in a day or two to report that they would be able to reach the settlement of the Wu people in another three or four days, just as Zhang Daochang said that Cao Cao Wangmei quenched his thirst and encouraged the soldiers to move forward.

Two days later, when the expedition soldiers were increasingly dissatisfied with the fact that the food was about to run out, two sentry horses sent by Ryuji returned with a false report that they would be able to reach the settlement of the Wu people by walking along the creek for another three days, and that they could exchange food with them.

The soldiers who did not know the truth were overjoyed, and even if they did not have enough to eat, they were still tigers and tigers, and they wished that they would arrive in one day after a three-day journey.

Seeing this, Long Zhi was not only not happy, but worried. If the lie is broken, he will have to be torn to pieces by his subordinates who are angry and starved of food, and his 100 catties of meat will become food for his subordinates to live.

When the soldiers of the left expedition were starving for three days, Ryuji and the two cronies of the false news were nervous and unexpected.

The expedition encountered a group of locals who had just returned from hunting and were dressed in the same way as the Murowei people.

The two sides looked at each other strangely.

Compared with the curiosity of the natives about the expedition soldiers, the expedition soldiers were undoubtedly much more excited, this was the first time they had seen the locals in half a month, which meant that the destination was almost there, and their suffering was almost over.

When Ryuji spoke to the other party in a lame Omuro Wei dialect, the other party actually understood, and replied that they were indeed Wu Gairen who lived near the mouth of this small river.

When Ryuji translated the other party's reply, the expedition soldiers suddenly raised their heads in excitement and shouted, and the roar echoed in the valley on both sides of the river for a long time.