The sun hadn't come out yet, and the sky was already shining slightly.

In the middle of the night last night, the fleet entered the Yellow River from the Hulu River, but the current of the Yellow River was much faster than that of the Hulu River.

Chao Yong punched the bow of the boat, stretching his muscles.

The cabin space is limited, and the soldiers can only sit and sleep, and Chao Yong is no exception.

On the left side of the river is the majestic Helan Mountain Range, and on the right side is the Hanhai Desert.

The undulating sand dunes in the distance looked a little black, and it was very quiet all around, except for the sound of running water.

The sun slowly jumped out from behind the eastern dunes, and the blackened dunes slowly began to shine until the sun rose into the sky and completely turned into golden dunes.

The soldiers slowly woke up and took turns to move on the deck.

Chao Yong walked to the bow of the boat and said to the man who showed the way: "Where are you now?" ”

The Seed Master Dao sent three people who were familiar with the roads of Western Xia, and although there was no fork in the road in this section, the three of them were still divided into three shifts to ensure that there was always someone at the bow to guide the way, so as not to make mistakes.

"There are ten miles to the mouth of Qingtongxia Gorge, there is a stone fort at the mouth of the gorge, knock down that stone fort, we can enter Tanglai Canal, if Shunzhou does not intercept, we can reach Xingqing Mansion in the evening."

Chao Yong nodded and said, "Okay, then let's go to the mouth of the gorge and rest." ”

This section of the Yellow River went all the way to the north, and the Hanhai Desert on the right suddenly turned into a mountain range.

Both sides are more than ten zhang high cliffs, the river water will pass through the middle, no need to smash, is a stone falling on the river bank, the height of ten zhang brings speed is enough to smash the wooden boat into a big hole.

Li Jun looked at the mountains in front of him and exclaimed, "I have walked many waterways, but I have never seen such a dangerous gorge. ”

Han Shizhong also said: "The mountains on both sides seem to be one, as if they have been split, otherwise how could the place where the river passes through be so steep." ”

The people who led the way: "The locals said that the mountains on both sides of the river are Helan Mountain Range, which were originally one, and the river could not flow through. Nearby areas are often hit by flooding. When Dayu controlled the water, he used the axe to split out the bronze gorge, and the river passed through. Fields downstream can also be irrigated. ”

Li Jun smiled: "I don't know if this divine axe is the same as the plate axe of Brother Li Kui?" ”

"Haha"

Everyone couldn't help but laugh when they heard Li Jun ridicule like this.

The person who led the way smiled: "Mythical stories, let's make everyone laugh." After the Bronze Gorge, it is the plain. The Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty all built many diversion canals to irrigate hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland on both sides of the river, and it is known as plugging the south of the Yangtze River. In autumn, it is also rice fragrant fish fat, melons and fruits are fragrant. A poet of the Tang Dynasty once wrote that the orchard under Helan Mountain was completed. Saibei Jiangnan old famous poems. ”

Li Junqi said: "Can rice be grown here? ”

"I don't know when it started, rice was widely planted in the Tang Dynasty, and the rice eaten by the Xixia people came from the Yinchuan Plain."

Chao Yong's attention was different, and he asked: "Qin and Han have been cultivating here, so there should be no Han people here?" ”

"Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has immigrated to Tuntian here since he opened the border, and there are indeed many descendants of the Han people."

The stone fort at the mouth of the gorge was built on the north bank of the Helan Mountain Range.

The fleet docked more than two miles at the mouth of Qingtongxia Gorge, and could not go ashore any further.

After everyone went ashore, they moved around the river for a while, and Chao Yong left Zhang Qing's four thousand people to rest in place. Only brought a thousand groups of players under Li Kui's command to the steep cliff at the mouth of the gorge.

The stones of this section of the mountain range are all blue, and a cyan stone castle can be faintly seen on the summit.

Along the river to the north, the mountain range gradually steepens, and this section is already the remnant of Helan Mountain. To the north, you can see the mountains towering into the sky behind you. But people don't have to climb those mountains, they just need to solve the stone fort hanging above the river bank.

The cliff at the stone fort is only more than ten zhang from the river, which is not high. But there is more than enough to climb up the gentle hill from the flanks.

There were still dozens of zhang away from the stone fort, and dozens of Western Xia soldiers appeared on the stone fort.

The Western Xia soldiers in the stone fort did not know where these black-clad and black-armored soldiers came from, and shouted and questioned from the city walls.

Han Shizhong smiled: "They asked us where we were the soldiers and horses?" ”

Chao Yong smiled: "It seems that these soldiers and horses have been stationed in the stone fort for a long time. I don't even know my beam. ”

The Xixia soldiers in the stone fort saw that the soldiers and horses below did not answer, and scattered to continue to climb up, and knew that they had bad intentions, so they hurriedly asked the soldiers in the stone fort to release wolf smoke to warn, and at the same time, the soldiers at the head of the city began to carry the stones.

Chao Yong saw that the stone fort had entered the range of most people's divine arm crossbows, and he was also afraid of the attack of the Western Xia soldiers at the head of the city, so he shouted: "All the arrows." ”

Before leaving, Chao Yong had already transferred all the five thousand divine arm crossbows to these five thousand people. Just at the foot of the mountain, everyone wound up their crossbows, ready to strike at the enemy.

Although the soldiers under Li Kui's command were a little confused, they still raised their crossbows and shot them up, and the people behind could only look at the sky and shoot.

The whole sky was dark, and the angle of the people who threw them behind was high, and many arrows landed outside the stone castle. However, many sharp arrows also fell on the stone castle wall, and some of them even shot into the stone castle.

Dozens of soldiers on the fort wall were shot like hedgehogs before they could fire a single shot.

Chao Yong saw that there were no more people standing on the fort wall, and hurriedly climbed up.

Han Shizhong and others also followed.

When I arrived at the bottom of the stone fort, I found that the fort wall was full of height.

Chao Yong jumped up, climbed the fort wall, turned over and jumped up.

The dozens of people on the fortress wall have all fallen in a pool of blood, and the people who did not die have lost their mobility, and there are only a few dozen people in the city in the huge stone fort.

Chao Yong jumped into the stone castle, opened the castle door, and asked the team players to search the various rooms of the stone castle.

"Smack"

"Smack"

The soldiers kicked open the door of the stone fort one after another, carefully covering the search with regimental signs.

"Who?"

Suddenly, there was a loud shout from one direction.

When Li Kui heard someone, he immediately rushed over with a board axe.

Chao Yong looked over, but it was a room with obvious traces of fireworks, and there was a chimney on the roof, which seemed to be the kitchen of the stone castle.

"The general spares our lives, we were captured by the Tanguts."

"We are also Han Chinese."

As soon as Li Kui rushed to him, he heard two more Chinese words with a Kansai accent.

Li Kui heard that it was Han and shouted, "Bring it out." ”

"Yes"

Soon, the soldiers inside escorted three thin men out.

The three men saw that there were many soldiers standing outside with swords. Immediately frightened, he fell to his knees.

Li Kui lifted a person's face, only to see that the person's face was full of long scars, and there was a relatively new scar that looked like it had been whipped.

Although the other two had their heads down, they could also see that their faces were scarred.

Li Kui gritted his teeth and said, "What's the scar on your face?" ”

The thin man saw Li Kuisheng's ferocity, gritted his teeth again, and was even more frightened, and said in a trembling voice: "If you are late for cooking or you have sprinkled too much water from the bottom of the mountain, the Xixia people will whip it with a horsewhip." ”

"Son of a bitch. I'm going to cut them down. ”

Li Kui cursed, then turned and walked towards the castle wall.

Chao Yong walked up to him and said, "Let's all get up and talk." ”

"General Xie."

"Thank you, General."

The three of them kowtowed before they got up.

Chao Yong looked at the three of them cowering and said, "How long have you been caught?" ”

"I've been for five years."

"I've had three years."

The last man did not speak, but raised three fingers.

The man, who had a new scar on his face, was afraid that his companion would be misunderstood, and explained: "His tongue was cut off by the Tanguts. ”

Chao Yong frowned and said, "Why? ”

"The Tanguts whipped him with a horsewhip, and when he said that he was noisy, they cut off his tongue."

Chao Yong heard that this was the reason, and couldn't help scolding: "Bastard." ”

Han Shizhong shouted at Li Kui, who had just climbed the wall: "General Li left two alive." Sprinkle the family to kill him. ”

Yao Pingzhong was also angry and said, "Go up to the wall and smoke them." ”

Sun Li, who had always been steady, couldn't help but go to the city wall.

Li Kui originally wanted to hack those Western Xia soldiers to death, but when he heard Han Shizhong's shout, he also reacted and took the plate axe in his hand. smashed the wounded soldier hard, picking the non-lethal place.

"Son of a bitch, let you smoke, I'll let you smoke. Let's see if you dare to smoke it. ”

The Western Xia soldiers who were not dead on the city wall suddenly fell into a life-and-death dilemma. There was a burst of crying.

The three of them listened to the screams coming from the city wall, but they seemed to hear fairy music, and their faces showed expressions of enjoyment.

A man fell to his knees. Crying: "Thank you General for avenging us." ”

The other two also hurriedly fell to their knees.

Chao Yong helped the three of them up and said, "You're welcome, we are all Han people, and soon the Han people in Western Xia will not have to suffer anymore." ”

The three of them also felt the firmness in Chao Yong's words, and a man said excitedly: "We have been looking forward to it day and night, and finally we are looking forward to the arrival of the soldiers and horses of the imperial court." ”

Chao Yong also knew that most of them didn't know that Daliang had replaced the Song Dynasty, so he nodded and said: "The Central Plains has changed dynasties, the Song Dynasty has perished, and we are the soldiers and horses of Daliang." ”

The man suddenly realized: "So that's the case, I thought it was because the court clothes and armor had changed color." When I go back, I will definitely set up an immortal tablet for Emperor Daliang. ”

The conversation between Chao Yong and them was carried out in the midst of the screams on the city wall, and after listening to it for a while, Chao Yong felt that he had enough, and shouted: "Don't torture them, kill them all." ”

Several people on the city wall also vented a lot of hatred in their hearts, and after listening to the prince's order, they sent the Western Xia soldiers on the road.

Chao Yong said: "Are there only dozens of soldiers in this stone fort?" ”

"Originally, there were 500 people, but they were all transferred away a few days ago, and I heard them say that they went to Shaanxi to loot again, and these people who stayed behind are still very envious."

Chao Yong sneered: "I'm afraid that those who went to the Central Plains are almost dead." Is there still a stone castle on this Bronze Gorge? ”

"No, there is one at the mouth of the gorge."

"Then you come with us, I'm afraid that there will be Western Xia soldiers looking for you if you stay here."

Standing on the stone castle wall and looking down, you can see the rolling river water more than ten zhang down. After a few more glances, I felt a little dizzy. Looking northeast is a steep canyon with jagged cliff faces, and if you want to go over the cliffs, you don't know how many detours you have to take.

Chao Yong looked into the distance, and did not see the stone fort again, so he also collected his troops and went down the mountain. (To be continued......)