The clouds were in front of him, flowing, like an endless white ocean, and Li Bida stood on a protruding rock with a cloak of animal fur, his eyebrows covered with silver-white frost, and watched the eagle vulture soaring among the peaks, and behind him, the marching procession continued.

"Great deeds come from hardship." Lybida muttered to himself, and he couldn't help but think of Leo, Paruma, and Yuajit, all of whom were his children, and although there was a difference between biological and adoptive, Leo was determined to be the heir, and Euygit, according to the mysterious but powerful Sybil Prophecy, was to become king of the East, and Paruma would then follow his instructions and go to Mauritania to serve as a barrier to the western periphery.

However, the hub of this qiē, the hub that brings these kingdoms together, is the brotherhood between him Li Bida and the child's brothers, but what about when he dies thirty years ago? Or fifty years, a hundred years from now, after two or three generations of their children, will this friendship still exist? When the conquest and expansion of the outside world had reached its zenith, there must have been internal strife between relatives, and the flames of war might have reignited a hundred years later in Gaul, Italy, Egypt, and Asia Minor—but I may not have been worried about such a thing, and the proverb of the Cyris Empire ridiculed this mentality, saying, "A man has no life of a hundred years, but he has a thousand years of sorrow", and by that moment I had already entered that mysterious cave, and had become a skeleton like Caesar, and feasted and danced with all those who died first and those who died, Looking at the world on another level, all the glory and disgrace have nothing to do with us.

Bursts of thunder and lightning fell inexplicably on the hillside. It was as if it had fallen directly over everyone's heads. People didn't expect it here. So close to the angry Heavenly Father Jupiter, "All hands on their knees, crouch down, squat down with all their might!" According to the guide's instructions, thousands of soldiers and slaves squatted on the gravel slopes on the snowy line of the Sierra Nevada, pulling restless mountain mules. Not daring to run wildly, everyone put their cloaks and leather on their heads, and trembled in the rolling flashes, and in a moment the dense hail and snow flew down, and now the soldiers moved one after another, and took their shields covered with cloth, like defending against the arrows of the enemy.

"Will it rain?" Li Bida wiped the frost foam and asked Colora, who was trembling next to him, "The guide just said. Not here, because of the clouds of cumulonimus. They all sank to the bottom of the mountain. Corora said, and peered into the gorge and the deep valley, where it was all dark and could not make out anything, and the antelope and other elk were jumping from cliff to cliff.

The weather in the mountains is so cloudy and sunny, sometimes stormy, sometimes heavy rain, and more and more people are falling behind, but because of Leo's strong logistics supply and abundant materials, most of the soldiers are still preserved, as for some of the unfortunate deceased, Li Bida ordered not to abandon the corpses at will, ordered the military slaves on the snow line, dig shallow pits, collect them, and scribble their names on the table, whether it is a legion soldier or a temporary recruit of Spanish volunteers, Afterwards there would be a pension, and then the pit would be covered with stones, layered on top of it, and the javelins or swords of the deceased would be inserted into them, and a cloth belt would be tied to mark them, "Let those who come up later carry these warriors down and bury them properly." ”

But this sentence may really be just a consolation - most of the dead will remain in this snowy region and foothills for about forever, and their bones will completely decay by the next year, and there will be no trace of them again.

Finally, on an undulating hillside, the mountain guide of Colora, and the spearhead who walked ahead, saw a few coiled goats lounging under the sun-facing trees, gnawing on the buds, "This is not wild, it is raised by a shepherd." The guide was sure.

When the chief centurion transmitted this message to Li Bida in the rear, the judgment was obvious, "The most difficult part of this mountain has been crossed, and it is not nature but the enemy that needs to be dealt with below." The implication is that they are already close to the fortresses and settlements at the northern foot of the Sierra Nevada, even in the mountains where the so-called "settlements" may be just a few mountain people.

Li Bida ordered the whole army to be silent, dig a simple camp at the back of the mountain to rest, and continue to enforce the ban on fireworks, and then he asked Odax to lead a team, consisting of four mountain guides, two centurions, and eight Spanish native soldiers, to form a special vanguard team, and soon attacked a mountain village and captured a few "tongues".

"Where is the fortress where the enemy recently controlled the mountain passes and roads!" The high priest asked the interpreter majestically, and the rods around him were like a forest, and the axes and daggers were shining with cold light.

But the captured mountain people knew, but they couldn't say clearly, "Odax, this is your dereliction of duty, these guys who have never seen the world can't make an accurate description of the distance and shape." Li Bida reproached, and then he asked one of the bold, "According to your statement, anyway, the general from Urshao didn't tear down your house and relocate when he built the fortress?" ”

The guy nodded hurriedly, and Li Bida saw that there was a play inside, so he gave him a money bag, and a sturdy cloak and double army shoes for soldiers (these things are the favorite of the mountain people), and continued to ask kindly, "How is it?" Can you think of the appearance of the commander of the fortress, or the name, if you can roughly understand the text. ”

The mountain man took a stick of firewood and drew the name of Macchius on the ground, although there was a mistake in the spelling, and he still happened to see the signature of the village proclamation, and forced it to be memorized, but this was a great contribution to Li Bida's judgment.

"It turns out that the guard is the director of engineering, Machius, and it looks like he's going to fall into my hands for the fourth time. The other party is a guy who doesn't know soldiers, in the past in the battle of Cophenium, Italy, during the day, he would be captured by our army because he got lost, this time he guarded the road down the mountain, and he didn't even clear the surrounding settlements - Odax, you go again immediately, this time you have to go deeper, I will give you two days, carefully lurk, survey all the terrain of the fortress opposite, as a reward, I will give this guide fifty silver coins, hurry up! ”

When Odax set out again, Li Bida ordered the whole army to disassemble the equipment from the beasts, quickly assemble a few capable and light siege engines for backup, and then "the whole army waits for the order to set off and attack." ”

In the twilight, Odax and a few soldiers "guarded" the mountain man tightly, and around the long grass and crooked paths, cautiously approached the front. (To be continued......)