The mouth of the wolf of Yinglong, the grandson of the other side of the clouds and mountains,

In the northern part of the Mediterranean, on the west coast of the Italian peninsula in the province of Milan, a ship from outside the country is slowly approaching the port area of Livorno, where the local Tang people held trade points and colonies.

As the last imam of the former secret society, the Bailong Sect, Sun Yinglong did not expect that he would come back one day after being hunted down and killed for thousands of miles in exile.

"Elder Sun, there is a message from the King Kong, and those Eastern Qin naval forces that are following the sea have disappeared."

Xin Jiuru, a Daxia man who was the owner of the ship, cautiously asked.

He is a legendary figure known as the "Seven Seas Ship Owner" hundreds of years ago, and one of the descendants of Sinbad, a naturalized eater; And in his branch, it is said that there is still the bloodline of the founder of the Great Food Sect, the ancestor of the Great Food Sect, who died out of the righteous army; Therefore, relying on the origins and Yu Ze handed down by his ancestors in the Great Xia Navy, he is also quite the number one person on the route between the Earth Sea and the Red Sea.

This time, he tried every means to get the errand of picking up the envoys from the new dynasty of the old country, and he couldn't help but be unscrupulous on the ground and sea, and he had to be cautious and cautious in everything, so as to be thorough and safe; You must know that his predecessor has already lost face once, and when he crossed the Tears Gate Strait between the Red Sea and the Kunlun Ocean, he was actually harassed by the Kunlun Sea Bandits from the nearby coast.

Although these ships are like ant-possessed pirates, it is a joke after all under the bombardment of firearms with the ships, and countless corpses are rushing to each other. However, the royal family of the northern realm, who were the former vassal kingdoms of Ansu (Axum Kingdom) and sat in the Monk (Zanzibar) domain, had a disgraceful face and the court was shaken.

There was even an envoy from Yecheng (Jerusalem) who asked if it was necessary to send a land and water division from the Yemen (Yemen) domain to cross the sea and borrow land to help suppress Yunyun. As a result, there was a lot of trouble, and it eventually became an encirclement and suppression of the remnants of the great food species on the coast of Ganzhou in the south, and the city-states of Henna.

On the other hand, it is the benefactor and backer behind him, the instruction of the Yuwen clan in Dingxi (Baghdad). As one of the nine wings of the prime minister's lineage in the "Clan Chronicles" of Great Xia, the branch of the first ancestor Seth Gong and Mrs. Gongxian (Wang Siyue) who stayed in the ancestral land; They are trying to reunite and renew the lineage with the new dynasty of the mother country of the Eastern Soil, the Yizhou Yuwen clan from the line of the Qingyuan Dynasty.

"Isn't this a matter of course, and don't look at the sea between Ganzhou in the south and Xiniuhe Prefecture, who is in charge now?"

Another fellow military attaché wearing the uniform of the new navy said proudly.

"In ancient times, the seven states of the Tang people who crossed the Kunlun Ocean to the Earth Sea have now all been subordinated to the five departments, and what is the mere Taixi barbarians."

"He is still using oars, but I am afraid that I have never seen a sailless boat in my life."

His name is Fan Zhongchu, and he is a descendant of Fan Zhongyan, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty after the Old Northern Dynasty; It is also a representative of the young generation of Dongtu who rose in Huaishang and swept away the Northern Tang and Southern Liang, unified the world and the rapid decline of the family lineage, and took the opportunity to ask for the shackles of the identity of the children of the family, and came out to seek opportunities and futures.

It's just that as the remnants of the three Wu scholars who buffered the north and south in the past, after he passed the pass from the officials and officials to the primary election of the new dynasty affairs officer, he neither attached himself to the Cai (Yuan Chang) Pingzhang who was known as "Fujian, half the world", nor did he meet the old Zhao (Ding) who always liked to promote outstanding backwards.

Instead, he finally found the Privy Council Governor Yu (Yunwen), who couldn't beat him, and took the initiative to ask to be transferred to serve in a separate sailor of the new dynasty; And thus lived a life of oil, salt, soot and sweat.

But I didn't expect him to do a good job, not only to encircle the crude men from salt lords, smugglers, and fishermen among the subordinates of the sailor, but also to stand out from the children of the overseas island clan and the remnants of the sailor family with his excellent literary foundation; In the end, he also received the honor of being a follower envoy as a representative of the Nanyang Navy.

accompanied by Chen Yuan, the commander of the Fourth Army of the New Dynasty's Internal Guard, nicknamed "Chen Wangsun"; He was also the official who secretly commanded the escort forces of the mission. It is said that his ancestors are the descendants of the Great Qin Mission who stayed in Chang'an, Middle Earth, during the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty in the former dynasty, and have been passed down for more than ten generations; So for him, this time there is no sense of visiting and tracing the origins.

It's just that he is obviously destined to be disappointed, because the so-called Western Qin that is now visiting is just a new dynasty that has recovered its homeland that has fallen into the hands of barbarians, and then it has only been more than a hundred years since it was cut off and established on its own; On the contrary, the country of Eastern Qin, which is now set on the shore of the strait, has a deeper relationship with the ancient Great Qin.

As the ships docked, the long-awaited costume orchestra in the harbor also played a variety of ancient Roman instruments, such as bronze tuba, hydro organ, kisala, lyre, and Aulos, which were said to have been excavated from the ruins of the classical era.

"The descendants of Saint-Sixville, the Vandals, the Visigoths, the Gallic in and out of the mountains, the protectors and co-owners of all the Black Forest and the Norman coast. The Chief Senate of the Empire, the First Citizen, the First Tribune, the Plenipotentiary ... Contemporary Augustus"

It took a long time for the pot-bellied minister of etiquette and eunuch in charge of greeting him to finish reading these lengthy titles.

"Welcomes the representatives of the new ruler of the great Cyris, and is willing to conclude friendship and exchanges since the oldest times of the empire"

"On the orders of Julian Caesar, come and escort the legations"

Generals with black hair and black eyes wearing elaborate cuirasses and mane helmets are much more concise and straightforward.

"Contemptible Lucien, cavalry officer of the 1st Wing of the Imperial Forbidden Army, Gascony."

"Why do you want someone to escort. Or the forbidden army came. ”

Sun Yinglong couldn't help but notice this detail and opened his voice in Latin.

"The Celts (natives of the Alps) beyond the mountains have just been severely punished by Caesar for their disrespect to the Empire."

Lucien ignored the eunuch's gaze and said unabashedly.

"So there are losers who flee into the white mountains, and become a threat to the passing merchants."

At the moment when he heard the words of the white mountains, Sun Yinglong seemed to have a vivid scene and voice in his ears.

"The people of the white mountains are free, neither the Romans, nor the Franks, nor the Greeks can take it away. Even until the last moment when breathing stops. ”

The mouth of the wolf, which devoured countless lives in the Alps, and the huge heart of the innkeeper with a secret mission, were as if they had happened only yesterday. However, Leopold I, the Grand Duke of the Alps; and his "Death Dog" acting officer, Wolflang, has become a thing of the past;

Now he is one of the most famous firearms experts and ordnance supervisors of the new dynasty, and he is also the deputy head of the mission to the Western Great Qin, and his main task is not to negotiate and trade overtly, but to collect intelligence and records privately, and even to make a limited assessment of the people's livelihood and armament standards, resource output, and social form under the rule of Western Qin.

As the Seris Dynasty that broke away from the Eastern Great Qin hundreds of years ago, and the Second Western Roman Empire, which was independent in the name of reviving the classics, led by the descendants of Sivir, the first commander of the former Maritime Legion, was also one of the natural allies of the Eastern Bactria Empire;

It can be said that whether it was the predecessor of the Maritime Legion or the Second Siro of the later state, they were inextricably linked with the Tang city-states and princes as far away; At least until the Byzantine Empire, which occupies the hub of the two seas and the bridgehead of the Eurasian continent, still exists and maintains sufficient momentum, this kind of long-range and close-range attack will continue to exist.

In fact, hundreds of years ago, in response to the call of the great era of the founding saint of the Great Xia and Liang dynasties, the Tang forces that entered the Mediterranean region in the Rim, whether as far as the Iberian Peninsula, or as close as the Levant and Lebanon on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, or the Carthaginian coast of North Africa, they all occupied one side or the corresponding trade colonial strongholds.

It can even be said that from the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, no regime or power that wants to make a difference in these waters can bypass the networks and ties they operate and forge. And among the remnants of the foreign Turkish regimes after the conquest, they are also full of all kinds of Tang forces, or the descendants and bloodlines of the noble surnames left by the Tang people.

It's just that compared to the Dongluo Empire, which was heavily influenced by the East, it established a relatively high degree of centralization and a huge bureaucratic system. This revival of Ciro is due to the reconquest of the Roman homeland completed by the four Great Crusades; It absorbed too many remnants from the central and western parts of the collapsed Frankish kingdom, as well as the Vandals, Goths, and even the remnants of the Germanic barbarians, and more of a dualistic system of provinces ——— feudalism.

Therefore, in addition to the provinces of Gallic outside the mountains, which were the basic ruling areas of the dynasty, there were many large and small feudal vassal states and vassal states, which served and contributed to the nominal co-lords (emperors) of the empire in the form of alliances in the classical Roman era.

The procession with flags and guards of honor winds its way up to the majestic Alps. In the end, in addition to the Gasconi cavalry wing wearing a feathered helmet from the Forbidden Army, there were also veterans of the Fifth Frontier Garrison Wing from the Ravenna Regiment in the local Fort of Turin.

These veterans of the garrison, who carried iris-shaped shields, broad shields and crossbows, half-handed swords and broadswords, nose guards, helmets, chain mail and blue-gray bird-patterned robes, walked silently but firmly on the road; It also made the guards and military attaches in the mission feel a certain unusual meaning, and secretly took out the short guns and wheel quick guns they carried with them.

It's just that when this vigilant procession arrives at the valley at the top of the mountains, and people see the wolf's mouth on the side of the Alpine cliff again, they can't help but feel and miss things again.

Sun Yinglong once again recalled the bits and pieces of the innkeeper with big breasts, as if it was still yesterday, Glendale's warm and fiery body and outstanding mind;

In the midst of the freezing mountain wind and snow, he was a lost traveler who was dragged back before falling off a cliff or an ice lake, and wrapped in greasy fur in front of the firewood pile and warmed himself up.

Then when he woke up, something naturally happened; The other party did not blame him or accept his so-called reward; Just on a sunny morning, like most travelers who stop on the road, re-embark on the journey far into the mountains.

Then, after he came to the mountain with some kind of retribution and repayment, he was naturally recruited and hired to become a supernumerary member of the mountain resistance organization she represented behind her because of his skills as a professional "alchemist" and "pharmacist".

However, that time was the most absurd and chaotic time he had ever spent, and it was full of pleasure and unbridled feelings; Standing with him were all sorts of people, etc. There were frustrated wandering knights, cross-crusaders who broke the vows and practiced penance, noble children who lost their possessions, and even pirates and serfs who went ashore and were banished ashore;

But more of them are mountain people and local nobles and handicraft merchants outside the mountains; They all came together to rebel against Caesar's younger brother, the ruthless military commander Archduke Leopold, and to destroy the pass he had established to isolate the local rebellion. Successive generations used corpses hung on the city walls to prove their persistence and perseverance.

Most of them die needlessly, and they do not care that there is no tomorrow, nor do they give up all means of pleasure, nor do they care about any moral and ethical constraints; But this atmosphere of erosion and decadence also affected him at that time.

Under the temptation and infection of the environment, he also does not remember how many temporary partners he has sought and exchanged; There are village girls who have a lot of taste, there are the widows of ranchers who maintain a very close relationship with the shepherd boys, there are former noble ladies who have lost their family protection and are sold, there are wives of small tribal leaders, prostitutes brought by merchants, and even the lover of a certain monk.

If Sun Yinglong hadn't managed to collect enough saltpeter sulfur and make that cart of "Satan's Wrath" to end all this, maybe there would have been more people who would have died on those city walls in this day.

However, Glendale, the innkeeper he had been obsessed with, had no chance to see all this; When he gets the news in the midst of his indulgence, he can only see her mutilated corpse. Fortunately, at a terrible cost after the destruction of the city, they captured the "Death Dog" acting officer Wolflang and used a burning spike to compensate.

It's just that half of the cart of gunpowder he managed to make was blown off, and the castle on the shore of the great lake in the mountains, known as the "Wolf's Mouth", has been rebuilt on the original site in the Gothic style with vertical walls and spires; and apparently more tall and sturdy, and the civil walls were re-clad with fired bricks; Even the cliffs and slopes, which were supposed to be accidental holes and flaws, have been re-leveled and filled in.

I saw the spear-like vault reaching into the sky and seemed to pierce the low clouds on the top of the mountain, and once again saw all kinds of corpses hanging on the city wall.

Although his body was covered in blood and part of his body was pecked by the crows, he vaguely recognized it as Cranent; A small leader of mercenaries who came from the mountains and fought for money; It was also after the carnival night that destroyed the wolf's mouth that he led a group of people to go outside the mountain to find a new job; Now it hangs here with the corpses of a group of men, women, and children.

Before he could think much about it, the sound of trumpets was heard on the head of the city, and the guards with spears and axes came out in a procession to meet many cheap nail leather armor and a few chain mail, and then hurriedly retreated to the side of the road and looked at the cavalry of the Imperial Capital Forbidden Army in front of them with envious expressions, and flew in front of them with high spirits.

It's just that when the members of the central envoy group also passed through the door wall, there was a rather abrupt and inconsistent scene like a painting style. The soldiers were surrounded in the open space on both sides of the doorway, and they were executing more than a dozen people with red fruits on their heads. There are both men and women; Other mutilated corpses were piled up on the ground with large patches of blood.

"It's such a shame. You're all a bunch of idiots. ”

The eunuch minister couldn't help but shout and scold at the tax officer, the garrison officer, the centurion and others who had arrived.

"How can you show these ugly things in front of the vision of the Eastern Ceris Empire."

"This is exactly what you need to deter those who rebel on your orders."

A centurion standing among the officials had some submissive words.

"So since the day before yesterday, I've been cleaning the prison until now... Remember to finish it in the future... ”

"Get them out of here. It's all good. ”

The eunuch minister was on the silk curtain sedan chair, waving his fat fingers in disgust.

"Don't let these things stain my vision anymore. If this becomes a serious diplomatic incident. Before Caesar exiles me to the salt mines of Cyprus, I will send your whole family to hell one by one. ”

So, after a lot of commotion and noise, these cruel scenes finally disappeared completely; Even the blood-stained ground was shoveled off along with the dirt and poured into the ditch and washed away.

In the midst of this farce-like process, Sun Yinglong, through the car window, suddenly saw several familiar faces among the defenders, although they had become fat, bloated, or somewhat stern and cruel, stiff and old, and no longer the original enthusiasm, cheerfulness and sincerity.

Sun Yinglong only felt that he was suddenly rejoicing, and once again saw that his comrades-in-arms who fought side by side in the past were on the side of the oppressors they wanted to overthrow and destroy in the past, and continued to assume the role of Wolflang's once hated acting officer, and constantly tortured those suspicious people, etc., this is undoubtedly the greatest sorrow and joke.

Like the shirtless executioner with a leather helmet, Raki, a shy and shy tanner's apprentice, who had a long-standing physical relationship with a rebel widow who liked older women. Until he occupied the wolf's mouth, he vowed to go back to the countryside with this woman to form a family.

Then, he rejected the suggestion to stay and rest for a while, and walked straight through the cliff-like ramparts, and continued on his way, leaving behind all the ugliness. However, not long after walking out of the city, there was a slight panic in the Kaidao cavalry wing that suddenly walked in front.

In the smoke and dust, they were met with rockfalls and traps in the apparently narrow mountain paths, and although the cavalry seemed to be well-trained to jump down to meet and dodge, some frightened horses and knights broke out of the mountain with them, and then tumbled and fell into the air.

Then on the mountain road in the direction of their front, a team with huge baffles and spears appeared and slowly pushed towards them.

At this time, the frontier garrison veterans who surrounded Sun Yinglong's convoy were also in trouble, because from the market town in the valley behind the Guansai, a wave of attackers armed with knives, axes and clubs suddenly appeared, and they rushed into these garrison veterans at an extreme distance;

Then they were neatly untied and blocked by the iris-shaped shield, which was separated and slashed and struck, but it was not able to take another step beyond the thunder pool; Then the veteran behind him had already begun to wind up his crossbow, but at this time a number of smoking objects were thrown from among the attackers, and there was a thud that exploded into clouds of black smoke.

The defensive positions of these veterans of the garrison also began to show some confusion and gaps, and some of them were rushed in by the attackers; and had to fall into hand-to-hand combat;

Sun Yinglong, who was waiting to watch the battle coldly and be on guard, felt a little ridiculous and a little sad at this moment, because the weapons used by these attackers to frighten the horses were the so-called "Seris firecrackers" he made for the rebels back then. Now it is being used against the team that attacks them.

At this time, the support from the city gate was suddenly knocked into the ranks, and the carriage that was ignited into a raging fire was temporarily blocked and cut off at the gate.

"It's terrible, come on."

The eunuchs and ministers who were traveling with them were already pale and their lips were blue.

"Could it be that the soldiers provided by the empire are all waste and dead people?"

And Sun Yinglong could also see a silver-haired scar-faced man with a long and short knife and a dagger in his mouth, with a dozen armed men covered in blood, who had already killed the outer guards, and rushed towards his vehicle first; It was a famous bounty hunter he was familiar with.

"Goodbye old friend Geralt. It will be indefinite. ”

He muttered in his mind, pulling the trigger of the four-eyed short gun in his hand.

A few days later, according to the local authorities, the attack was carried out by local rebels, supported and instigated by foreign forces, in an attempt to sabotage Ciro's diplomatic success, but was massacred by firearms in the Seris mission.

In the days that followed, Sun Yinglong also got the news of the rest of the rebels from the surviving captives, and some continued to fight among the underground rebels, tirelessly trying to overthrow and drive out all the foreign forces that tried to rule the local area.

Some died as mercenaries in the far north and east, some died in their homes with their wounds and diseases, and some became drunkards and beggars, selling their lives on the streets.

But there are also those who are co-opted and sold by the Empire; Obviously, although the old wolf's mouth has been destroyed, the new wolf's mouth has been born in the hearts of these people.

(End of chapter)