readx; "The boat has passed the Three Gorges, and people's hearts are cold; I'm most afraid of Kongling; Death! A trumpet, I sweat all over! A trumpet, my guts! ”

The long and agitated boatman's horn floated for a long time in the Wuxia Gorge with thousands of walls. But as far as the eye can see, it is full www.biquge.info of mist, clouds and clouds, and you can't see things a few feet away, and you don't know where you are.

A procession that stretched for miles was walking cautiously hand in hand along the sheep intestine road taken by the slender man on the bank of the river. Walking to a boulder, a young general said strangely: "Come and see!" How can there be dents on this big rock? ”

The soldiers nearby were tired of walking, and they were also attracted by this fast strange stone, and they all stopped to watch and admire. A young man who looked like a scribe and had the sleeves of his robe hung one by one by mountain rocks and tree vines said with a smile: "General Li, this is called the Slender Stone. These dents are not naturally formed, but are made by the rope. ”

"Lord Chen, are you kidding?" The young general said in disbelief, "No matter how thick and strong the rope is, it is soft after all, this is a stone, not dough!" ”

While everyone laughed, the young scribe said solemnly: "How dare a student talk nonsense. The water of the Three Gorges is turbulent, and it is not feasible to rely on oars and sails to sail against the current, so for thousands of years, if a ship wants to go up the river, it can only hire a slender man to pull the fiber. In the process of pulling the fiber, the slender man will use the boulder on the shore to wrap the rope around the stone to share the force of the water rushing against the boat. It took many years for such a dent to form. And you see there are a little pits on this stone, this is when the ship goes here, the people on the boat use the artemisia rod to point the stone to control the direction of the ship, and after a long time, it becomes like this, the spots are like teardrops, so the slender stone is also called the slender man tear stone. ”

The two people who talked were Li Laiheng, the general of Dingnan, and Chen Tiangong, the director of the military department. It had been two full days since they entered Wuxia. At this time, the two of them were tired and hungry, and finally there was such a place to rest by the river, so they sat on the boulder to rest, and the soldiers nearby also lay on the ground, they were so tired!

Not long after, Li Dingguo also caught up, and he was accompanied by a team of slender men who pulled fiber. These men were short and lean, and they were all over*, but the muscles on their bodies were bursting up at all, showing that they were exerting great strength. A thick rope was wrapped around each person's shoulder, and at the end of the rope, a wooden boat gradually emerged from the thick fog, but all the horses were standing on the boat.

It was from the mouths of these slender men that the agitated boatman's horn came out.

Li Laiheng and Chen Tiangong hurriedly vacated the space and asked the slender man to tie the rope to the boulder. A foot away is the mighty Yangtze River, and although the surface of the water looks calm, the flow rate is really not low, which can be seen from the tight rope. At this time, even the Qin soldiers who had been in a hundred battles couldn't help but look at these slender men who were not amazing, and they couldn't believe that they just relied on their strength to pull the ship full of war horses up from downstream.

If the plank road in Xiling Gorge is barely walkable, then the plank road in Wuxia is higher and more dangerous, and many places have decayed and are impassable. Fortunately, there is a fiber road by the river for the slender man to pass, but because the inclination is too large, it can only be crossed by people, and the war horse cannot pass in any way. In order to pass through the Xiajiang Road as soon as possible, Li Dingguo had to decide to separate the men and horses, the soldiers took the fiber road, and the war horses hired ships and slender men to transport.

Although the expeditionary force lacked food and grass, there was no shortage of silver, at least tens of thousands of taels. In order to reach Chongqing as soon as possible, the expeditionary force paid a high price and hired almost all the slender men and cargo ships in the Three Gorges area, and only a small part of them were here.

Taking advantage of the rest, Li Dingguo asked the slender man in detail about the geography of this place.

A slender man in his fifties said with a smile: "If you go back to the military master, the Three Gorges is divided into Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge, Qutang Gorge is the shortest, Xiling Gorge is the longest, we are now in the middle of Wuxia, and the distance has been five stops and four stops." ”

Li Laiheng was overjoyed when he heard this: "So, we will be able to get out of the Three Gorges tomorrow?" ”

"Tomorrow won't be it!" The slender man shook his head again and again, "I will have to go for at least another five days." This year, there is a big drought and little water in the upper reaches, if it is changed to previous years, the Three Gorges waterway may not be able to pass in a month! ”

"What? Five days! Li Laiheng shouted anxiously, "How can it be so slow? Didn't Li Bai's poem say, 'Between the white emperor and the clouds, thousands of miles of Jiangling will be returned in one day'? Even if it's a bit exaggerated, Xiling Gorge is so long, won't we come here in four days? ”

"The military master doesn't know, the downward movement is fast, but we are on the upward side, and the further we go, the more difficult it will be." "From Wuxia to Qutang Gorge, the river gradually narrows, especially the 'Kuimen' at the entrance of the Three Gorges, which is only about ten zhang wide. Master Jun, please think, so many rivers pass through such a narrow place, how rapid is the water potential? So the further you go, the more effort you have. ”

"It's not just strenuous, it's dangerous!" Chen Tiangong also said, "Although the students have been to the Three Gorges, they have seen from the book that there is a big reef at Kuimen, called 'Turbulent Pile'. In autumn and winter, when the water is dry, when the water rises in spring and summer, most of the reef is submerged, and the part that emerges from the water is only the size of a horse. At this time, the water is the most urgent, the boat is launched, such as the arrow off the string, the difference of centimeters will hit the reef, the ship is destroyed and people die, so there is the saying that 'the river is as big as a horse, and the pond cannot be lowered'. ”

The old slender man nodded frequently and said, "What this lord said is true!" Therefore, the villain and others would rather pull the boat up than pull the boat down. The more you get to the front, the more steady you have to go, so it will take at least five days. ”

"How can this be done..."Li Laiheng said with a sad face, "It has been more than half a month since we started our troops from Beijing, and if we delay for a few more days, Sichuan may not be in chaos!" ”

"It doesn't matter." Li Dingguo said calmly, "You and Lord Chen follow the boat slowly, and I will lead a group to walk to Fengjie first, which should be there in two days at most." There are still 600 miles from Fengjie to Chongqing, but the terrain is a little slow, and it will take another five or six days to march quickly. Maybe I'll capture Chongqing, and you and Chen Dacai have just left the Three Gorges. ”

"How's that going to work!" Li Laiheng immediately jumped up and said, "The pioneer Li Shoujun is my subordinate, and I must come to fight the battle of Chongqing!" ”

"Didn't the Holy Lord want the two generals to attack Chongqing?" Chen Tiangong saw that the two generals were arguing again for the opportunity to fight, and persuaded with a wry smile.

"Will be outside, the king's order will not be affected." Li Dingguo said lightly, "The road has been delayed for too long, if you wait for the war horse to pass, it will really be too late." Brother Laiheng, since you want to go first, you can do it. It's just that Chongqing's terrain is dangerous, and you don't have a war horse, so you should only outwit and skillfully, not attack hard. ”

"Brother Dingguo, don't worry, the Holy Lord has taught me, win by surprise, and try to avoid a war of attrition!" Li Laiheng laughed and stood up, and hurriedly ran forward.

"General Li, didn't you say just now that you want to hear the students talk about the twelve peaks of Wushan and the legend of the goddess of Wushan?" Chen Tiangong shouted teasingly.

"You tell Brother Guo, he doesn't have an aunt yet!" Li Laiheng didn't look back and said, "I already have Xiaofeng, it's not uncommon to be a goddess, haha!" ”