That night, Ji Zheng led the Vietnamese army to leave Chaikou Town and return to Yue, in order not to be discovered by the Wu people, Ji Zheng ordered the whole army to give up the baggage, only bring dry food and travel lightly, when the army passed through the territory of Wu, but also deliberately bypassed the official road along the small road to march quickly.

More than half a month later, the army marched outside a gorge on the Wu-Yue border, and as long as they crossed this canyon, they could return to the country of Yue. The canyon is long and narrow, with high cliffs on both sides, like a moat. If it weren't for the fact that the dry food was almost exhausted, and this canyon was the only road outside the official road, Ji Zheng would not have chosen to pass through here anyway, after all, this kind of road is too dangerous. Before entering the canyon, Ji Zheng sent people to scout carefully, and after repeatedly confirming that there were no ambushes, he led the army into the canyon.

The Vietnamese army walked in the canyon for more than an hour, and there was no end in sight, and 3,000 people were still sandwiched between the cliffs. Ji Zheng had an ominous premonition, although it was steep and long, it was enough to walk out in more than half an hour, but now he couldn't see the exit.

Ji Zheng suppressed the uneasiness in his heart and continued to lead the team forward. Another hour passed, and the team was still trapped in the valley, seeing that it was getting late, and the sunlight could no longer shine into the valley, so they could only cut a clear boundary on the cliff on the left.

The ranks gradually stirred, the soldiers were a little panicked, and Ji Zheng's heart became more and more impatient, he swung his sword forward, and ordered the troops to rush forward. But the agitation was meaningless, and after a quarter of an hour, everyone was out of breath, and there was still an endless canyon in front of them.

Ji Zheng took a few deep breaths and tried to calm himself down. He looked up at the last rays of sunlight above the cliff to determine the current position and direction of the procession, and then he took out a piece of parchment and scribbled on it the trajectory of the procession.

Half an hour later, the team was still trapped in the valley, and Ji Zheng had drawn a huge circle on the parchment.

Qingmen stepped forward, the injuries of the previous days had not healed, he looked a little weak, "General, did we encounter a ghost hitting the wall?" ”

Ji Zheng was dismissive of this statement, but he couldn't explain the current situation, he frowned, pondered for a moment, and said, "We have been walking in circles, there must be something wrong." Qingmen, ordered the troops to rest in place, sent scouts, and searched this canyon in a comprehensive way. ”

"Whoa!"

It was getting late, it was already dark in the canyon, and the cold, damp wind was blowing from the depths of the canyon, accompanied by the strange screams of wild beasts, which was terrifying.

The soldiers lit a bonfire and sat around the fire to eat, and it seemed that the night was going to be spent in the canyon.

Ji Zheng sat on a rock, staring intently at the dancing flames, his shadow swaying lonely, like a black cloud floating overhead.

Qingmen walked behind Ji Zheng, gently draped a cloak on Ji Zheng's shoulder, and he handed Ji Zheng a dry ration, "General, let's eat something." ”

Ji Zheng shook his head, pushed away the dry food handed by Qingmen, and asked, "What did the scout find?" ”

"General, the grass and trees here are vigorous, and there are some forks in the canyon, it is estimated that we are just lost for a while, and we should be able to go out at dawn tomorrow."

"Hmm."

Ji Zheng nodded, but he didn't know the bottom in his heart, he always felt that things would not be so simple, but at the moment there was no better way than to wait until dawn to try again.

In the middle of the night, Ji Zheng fell asleep by the campfire. In his sleep, he seemed to hear a flute sound, the sound was ethereal, it seemed to be far away in the sky, and when he listened carefully, it seemed to be close to his ears in a trance. He opened his eyes, and the bonfire was beating uneasily in the night wind, and Qingmen stood by his side, stirring the charcoal in the bonfire with his burning stick from time to time, and the flames were vigorous and crackled.

"Blue Gate."

"General, I'm sorry, my subordinates have made a noise with you."

Ji Zheng shook his head and sat up, "Haven't you slept all the time?" ”

"I didn't sleep, it's my subordinate's duty to protect the general."

"Qingmen, listen, is there a flute sound?"

Qingmen looked around, carefully searching for the sound in the wind, "General, I only heard the wind. ”

"Oh. Maybe I'm overthinking. ”

"General, there is still an hour before dawn, you can sleep for a while."

Ji Zheng nodded, and then slowly lay down. Qingmen helped Ji Zheng cover his cloak and continued to stand aside. Ji Zheng closed his eyes, and there was an ethereal sound of flute in his ears, he listened carefully, and unconsciously fell asleep again.

When the day dawned, the soldiers extinguished the bonfires, and the curling green fireworks rose into the sky through the narrow valley mouth.

After breakfast, Ji Zheng led the troops to continue their march. Despite all the attempts, the canyon is still the same as yesterday, stretching endlessly, with no exit.

At noon, the sun shone directly into the canyon, and the temperature in the canyon rose sharply, and the high temperature consumed a lot of physical strength of the soldiers. They were exhausted, hungry and thirsty, but there was no water source in the canyon, and the soldiers were left with only their last dry food, and many even fainted from heat stroke.

Ji Zheng was really anxious now, he could no longer keep his composure, and his face showed a nervous and flustered look. He personally led people to search the canyon, whether it was marking along the way, or pulling the rope into the fork, no matter how much they tried, they were always spinning in place.

The days in the canyon are very short, and as the stingy sun is about to leave the canyon, the valley begins to darken and the temperature drops dramatically. Ji Zheng sat on the ground resting, after a day of tossing, he was exhausted and hungry.

Qingmen stepped forward, opened the corners of his chapped mouth, and said in a hoarse voice, "General, drink some water." ”

Ji Zheng took the water bag handed by Qingmen, took a small sip, and then pushed it in front of Qingmen, "You can drink some too." ”

"General, subordinates are not thirsty."

"Drink!" Ji Zheng ordered.

"Whoa." Aoto took the water bag, put it to his lips and sipped it, and then carefully put it away again.

It was dark again, and the night was falling again, and it was especially difficult and long for the Vietnamese soldiers trapped in the canyon.

In the middle of the night, Ji Zheng was half-asleep and half-awake, and suddenly, there was the sound of the flute from far and near last night in his ears. Ji Zheng sat up abruptly, "Qingmen, listen!" Flute sound! ”

Qingmen pricked up his ears and tried his best to search for the sound of the wind, but he could still only hear the sound of the wind.

"General, I really can't hear it, I think it should be the wind."

"That's not right!" Ji Zheng put on his cloak, pulled out his Chongli sword, and groped for the depths of the canyon with the sound of the flute in his ears.

Qingmen followed Ji Zheng in the dark canyon for a long time, but never found anything, and after half an hour, the two were completely lost in the canyon, and even the location of the camp could not be found. Qingmen was panicked, he wanted to persuade Ji Zheng to wait for dawn, but Ji Zheng was determined to pursue the sound of the flute, and Qingmen couldn't stop it, so he had to pull out his double knife and follow closely.

The two of them bypassed a bend, and a point of light suddenly flashed in front of them, and the sound of the flute became clearer and clearer. Ji Zheng believed that that point of light was the source of the sound of the flute, and the exit of this canyon must be hidden in that light.

Coming to the bottom of the light, Ji Zheng found that the light came from a stone cave above the cliff, and the stone cave was located one person above his head, and the sound of the flute also came from here.

"Qingmen, help me up."

"Whoa!"

Qingmen half-squatted down and let Ji Zheng step on his shoulder, he grabbed Ji Zheng's feet and slowly stood up against the cliff. He felt that Ji Zheng's body was trembling slightly because of the exertion, if it was placed in the past, Ji Zheng could go up with just one leap at such a height, but since Ji Zheng was injured by Huang Yun's shooting, he lost seventy or eighty percent of his kung fu. Thinking of this, Qingmen couldn't help but feel sorry for Ji Zheng, and felt guilty of himself.

Because of the disability, Ji Zheng's hands were completely weak, so he struggled to stand on tiptoe, put his whole arm on the outer edge of the stone cave, and it took a lot of effort to lift himself up with the strength of his elbow.

Ji Zheng found that this stone cave was only half the size of a room, and several braziers were burning in the stone cave, and the flames reflected the light of the small space. In the center of the cave is a chess table, with an endgame on the board. An old man with gray hair knelt on one side, holding the white zi in his hand, staring intently at the plate, completely ignoring Ji Zheng's arrival.

"Old man." Ji Zheng bowed deeply.

The old man didn't look up, just stretched out his hand and pointed to the opposite side.

Ji Zheng understood and sat down in front of the chess basket full of sunspots. He swept the endgame, and suddenly felt that the chess game was exquisite, only to see that on the chessboard, a black dragon was being suppressed by the white dragon, the black dragon rushed hard, the white dragon chased after him, and the black dragon was covered with bruises, but his breath was vigorous. At present, the line of life and death, if you are not careful, the black dragon will be doomed, and if you can break through the encirclement, you can be reborn.

Ji Zheng fell into the chess game, and suddenly got carried away, he picked up the sunspot and landed on the board. I saw that the black dragon also waved its claws and tore off a large piece of the white dragon's scales.

The old man slowly lifted the white son that was eaten by Ji Zheng, and a smile appeared on his face.

With some effort, Qingmen also jumped into the stone cave. The scene in front of him surprised him, but he didn't dare to speak, just stood quietly behind Ji Zheng.

It was then that he finally heard the so-called flute sound, which was a very strange sound, the sound and the wind were completely blended, the wind was high, and the wind breathed low, as if the wind was blowing. He searched around, and finally found the musical instrument playing, it turned out that there was a strange bamboo row hanging at the entrance of the stone cave, the bamboo row was composed of seven bamboo flutes of different lengths, whenever the wind blew, the bamboo rafts fluttered with the wind, making a flute sound like a wind groaning.

Ji Zheng and the old man fought dozens of hands, during which the situation changed and dangers arose. Ji Zheng had a black dragon in his hand, but he saw that the black dragon was rampage, rushing left and right, killing the white dragon and cutting down a river. Although the white dragon in the old man's hand was dead, the wreckage turned into countless silver tigers, attacking cities everywhere and killing all directions.

In the end, Ji Zheng fell into a sunspot, and the old man observed for a long time, no longer falling down, and arched his hand: "Empty hand." ”

Ji Zheng no longer fell into the line, and returned the salute, "Empty hands." ”

At the end of the game, Ji Zheng waved his hand over the chessboard, "Please count the number of gentlemen." ”

The old man smiled and waved his hand, and said, "It doesn't matter if you win or lose, the important thing is that after this game, I know what you think." ”

"Oh? What is the meaning of this chess game? Please give me advice. ”

The old man nodded, and said slowly: "This endgame is not fair to the sunspot you use. At the beginning of the endgame, although you have a black dragon, the black dragon is suppressed and restricted everywhere. Looking at the overall situation, the opportunity has been lost, and it is difficult to return to the sky. ”

"What Mr. said is true, and I don't think it's fair, but since I've taken over, I'm going to do my best to fight for it."

"Even if there is little hope?"

"Even if there is little hope!"

"Well, that's good. The general did it, starting with an extremely inferior board, and was able to fight to this point. Well...... It's not easy, it's not simple. Moreover, the black dragon in your hand is really powerful, if it weren't for it, I'm afraid this game of chess would have ended long ago. ”

"That black dragon is my hope of victory, and it is also the advantage I have. Since we want to win, we must accept the situation, give full play to our strengths, and make good use of all the forces that can be used. ”

"The general is right, from the chess game, I can see that the general is a good soldier."

"Mr. has won the award, although he has led the troops to fight for several years, but after all, the chess skills are not proficient, and it is far from being able to integrate the art of war and the art of chess."

The old man smiled: "Hehe, chess is the art of war, killing a son on the chessboard and killing someone on the battlefield are all the same." ”

Ji Zheng shook his head and said: "It's different, the chess game can be repeated, but war is life and death, life and death of people, life and death of the country, and life and death of the world." ”

"Oh? The general has the world in his heart? ”

"I never dare to forget."

"Hahaha, good! Good! ”

Ji Zheng no longer answered, but lowered his head to look at the plate again, and sighed: "This plate is really not easy, now that black and white are staggered, I am afraid that the victory or defeat is just a millimeter." Since it is a game of chess, there must be a winner and a loser, sir, why don't we count the winners and losers? ”

"Huh." The old man stroked his beard and smiled: "If the general is still obsessed with winning or losing, it will make me hesitate." ”

"Hesitation? What do you mean, sir, please make it clear. ”

The old man was not in a hurry, and slowly took the white son back into the chess basket, and Ji Zheng also helped clean up the sunspots, and after a long time, the plate was cleaned up, and the old man said slowly: "How long has the general been trapped here?" ”

Ji Zheng was stunned for a moment, and said calmly: "It's been two days." ”

"Two days? Has the team ever been in turmoil? ”

"Nope."

"Well, even if you manage the army well, there is no water source in this valley, it is hot during the day, cold at night, and there is no chaos after being trapped for two days, hehe, yes, yes."

"Now that the soldiers have run out of water and dry food, their lives have long been hanging by a thread, and if they don't leave here, 3,000 people may die in the valley at any time."

The old man's expression was subtle, "Three thousand? Hehe. And how many more people did you kill on the beach in Chaikou? ”

As soon as the words fell, the air instantly froze. Ji Zheng stared at the old man and didn't say a word. Although he could guess that the old man in front of him was by no means an ordinary person, he never expected that this old man would know everything, and it seemed that this predicament in the valley was also set by this person.