The priests and the heads of the hundred were called together for a meeting, and when they heard the news, their first reaction was "impossible."

The northern part of the continent is a series of rolling mountains, which are impassable in many places. The reason why the Niu people were able to draw a rough map of the northern part of the continent was because they had paid a lot of human lives in the past thousands of years. But even so, they were unable to access the inland areas blocked by tall mountains, and had to sail along the coast in canoes. Ice, Storm, Beasts...... Generations of explorers have gone forward one after another, and countless people have stepped on the bones of their predecessors to move forward silently. It's not because of interest, wanting to explore the unknown, but wanting to break the harsh reality and find more suitable areas for survival.

As early as more than 200 years ago, the Niu warriors discovered that there was a lake in the north surrounded by lofty mountains. The climate is pleasant, with spring all year round, fertile soil, and a large number of deer and wild goats running among the forests and meadows.

At that time, the whole clan rejoiced at the good news brought back by the explorers, but the harsh reality ensued———— the mountains were difficult to climb, and more than half of the route the explorers traveled was steep cliffs, which could only be climbed with the help of various aids and great personal skills...... In short, with the comprehensive strength of the Niu tribe at that time, the vast majority of people could not cross the natural obstacles and reach the fertile lake area in the north.

What's more, at that time, Black Horn City had begun to take shape, and the entire Niu clan was centered here, and the radiation spread around it. Of course, it is good to have a piece of fertile land, but the problem is that it is basically impossible to come back to that place, and even if it is well developed, it is equivalent to cutting off contact with Black Horn City from now on. This practice is tantamount to erecting a new, uncontrolled power bloc within the community out of thin air. As long as the supreme ruler is not a fool and an idiot, no Majesty the Bull King will accept this reality.

At the seminar, people were talking and talking.

"Of course we know there is a lake to the north, but it's full of mountains, and we can't get across."

"My grandfather's grandfather used to be there, and he said it was a good place. The road is actually not far, but it is difficult to walk, and even if you really want to pass, it can only be young people, and it is impossible for the elderly and children. ”

"The mountain to the north is too high and full of stones to dig in."

Shouyi turned a deaf ear to these objections. His attitude was resolute———— this was an order personally arranged by the new patriarch and must be carried out unconditionally.

The next day, a road construction team of more than 300 people left the dry vine village and headed north.

The road construction team stopped at a distance of about three kilometers from the stockade, from where there was no way out, and the cliffs of more than 200 meters high blocked all access and could not be detoured. Only the most dexterous hunters can climb the rocks to the summit with the help of ropes and steel drills. Looking at the entire withered vine village, there are no more than five such people.

Shouyi had the hunters climb the cliff and find a strong, hard spot to tie the rope. At his command, people moved a heavy sealed wooden barrel from the skid. The solemn expressions of Shouyi and the soldiers from Rock City bound the barrels with ropes to form a dense and tight grid. At this time, the hunters who had already climbed to the top of the mountain also set up the pole frame according to the instructions of the craftsmen. It is a simple device that uses coarse steel bars to combine with each other to form a simple device that is directly above the cliff, can be controlled and lifted by itself through metal pulleys, and is close to the rock wall, and can be operated manually.

Heavily armed soldiers stood guard around the barrels, their expressions solemn, as if they were guarding the most precious treasure in the world.

Shouyi raised his hand and patted the shoulders of the two craftsmen who were already ready, and told him seriously: "Be careful, do what you draw on the paper, you will succeed." ”

The improvised winch on the top of the hill set up was in motion, the rattan rope soaked in grease was very strong, the crotch and waist of the two craftsmen were fastened, Shouyi held a small red flag, raised his head, looked at them slowly rising, and when he watched the height rise to the obvious crack in the middle of the cliff, he raised the flag in his hand and waved it three times in a row from left to right.

The winch at the top of the mountain stopped, and two craftsmen suspended in mid-air also reached out to hold on to the stone wall, took out the steel drill from the tool bag that was carried cross-body on their waists, inserted it into the gap in the stone in the middle of the cliff, picked up the hammer and smashed it hard, and nailed it until it was stable.

The road construction brigade of more than 300 people did not follow, they stayed half a mile away, cut down trees, pried large stones from the ground to clear the ground, widened and leveled the distance between the cliff and the dry vine village, and made preliminary preparations for the next road construction work.

It is very difficult to operate on a suspended cliff, the main thing is that there is no focus point. But even so, it took the craftsmen more than two hours to drive more than a dozen steel bars into the gaps in the stone wall to create a steel frame that slopes from the outside to the inside.

At noon, a new rope was lowered at the top of the mountain, and under the watchful eyes of all the fearful and expectant eyes, the heavy barrels were bound by the rope nets and slowly left the ground with the pulling force of the winch turning.

A soldier from Rock City approached Shouyi, uneasy, and uncertain, and asked, "Boss, is this possible?" ”

"Of course you can!" Shouyi turned his head abruptly and glared at him viciously, his face unleashed unprecedented fanaticism: "This is a treasure that His Highness found from Jeju Island, everything is designed by His Highness himself, as long as we implement it carefully and there is no mistake in any link, it will never fail!" ”

His words were like a shot in the arm, completely dispelling the soldiers' concerns. The latter immediately had a resolute look on his face, pursed his lips vigorously, and nodded slightly calmly and forcefully.

The craftsmen hanging in the air looked solemn, and when they reached out to hold the barrel, their hands trembled. Hailing from Rock City, they are highly trained to handle all kinds of surprises in similar situations**. But the more this happened, the more they felt that their hearts and bodies were controlled by a mysterious force, and with indescribable expectations and impulses, under the restraint of reason and calmness, they silently recited the operation steps taught by the new patriarch himself, and pushed the heavy wooden barrel into the inclined support of steel and mountain rock, and firmly embedded it in the middle of the gap in the stone wall.

A craftsman pulls out a gunpowder bag from his tool bag. This thing has been specially treated, weighing half a kilogram, and the thick muslin cloth has been repeatedly wrapped in several layers, leaving a fuse tens of meters long in the middle, and at first glance it seems that a slender black snake is repeatedly coiled on the surface of the cloth bag, mysterious, ferocious, and has a chilling death deterrent.

Shouyi waited until the people on the top of the mountain came down and everyone evacuated to a safe area as instructed, then he took out the flint and the fire fold, rubbed the sparks with trembling hands, lit the flames, and lit the long fuse with indescribable excitement.

Turn around and run as fast as you can in your life.

When a huge explosion was heard in the direction of the cliff, everyone who stayed half a mile away felt the ground tremble. In the distance, people saw a cloud of black smoke rising from the top of the mountain, which was covered by dense forests, and countless earth and gravel were scattered like raindrops, and "fluttered" on the ground.

It's a landslide!

The people of the withered vine village opened their mouths one after another, and they saw the reality clearly with their round eyes. The tall mountain range that had existed for thousands of years collapsed from the middle, as if there was a huge iron pickaxe in the void, which was waved high by an invisible giant, and dug this obstructive thing with all its might.

“…… This, this is the power of the gods, it is the power of the gods! The priest of the withered vine village was incoherent, and he subconsciously found the most plausible explanation in his mind.

Several leaders of the hundred people were dumbfounded, their ears echoed with a "buzzing" sound, looking at the dusty distance, subconsciously thinking that what the priest said was right, but the reality they saw told them that all this had nothing to do with the gods.

It was our people who climbed to the top of the mountain.

It was our men who drove steel bars into the cliffs.

It was our men who shoved that barrel into a crack in the stone wall.

The key is in that bucket, what exactly is in it?

"That's the power of science." Shouyi stood up from his hiding place, he patted the dust that fell on his body with his hands, turned to look around at the people gathered nearby, and laughed loudly: "Let's go, let's go over and have a look together." ”

The power of a vat of nitroglycerin was terrifying, and despite the lack of sophisticated calculations, the explosion destroyed the entire mountain, causing the entire upper part of the cliff to collapse completely. From afar, it seems as if one of the neatly arranged front teeth in someone's mouth is missing, and through the dusty sky, you can see a faint scene in the distance.

The reason why it was not detonated directly from the foot of the mountain was due to safety concerns. There are two uncertain factors: one is that the overall weathering of the mountain range is severe, and the force of the explosion will cause the cliff to completely collapse hundreds of meters long; The second is that the explosion force is insufficient, and it cannot cause damage to the mountain within the established range, but will damage the cliff structure, which will bring difficulties to the blasting again.

The whole plan is to blow up the upper part of the cliff first, and then reduce nitroglycerin to carry out a second blast at the bottom of the cliff.

Looking at the gravel under his feet, the priest of the withered vine village was stunned.

“…… Miracles, this is a real miracle......" he repeated the words, and his simple and pious brain could not find any applicable words.

"It's not the power of the gods." Shouyi loudly corrected the error in his words: "This is the wisdom of His Highness the Patriarch, it was he who told me to blow up this mountain in this way. Take a good look at these stones, even an old woman can move them away. ”

No one denied his claims, no one questioned all this.

People's hearts are filled with hope for a happy future.

I heard that the new patriarch, His Royal Highness, is a shaman, and it must have been told to do so by the gods, and he is the earthly spokesman who has truly been blessed by the gods and can use the power of the gods.

The barrier to the lake to the north opens a gap.

In the coming days, this gap will continue to widen.

……

The entire Lei Niu Department began a comprehensive rectification.

With a steady stream of food from Rock City and Thunder Point City being delivered to various villages, coupled with the urgent production of leather jackets and padded jackets, people can enjoy the long-lost satiety and warmth this winter.

Of course, all this is not without cost.

No other village can enjoy the peace of winter as in the past, and between "stay at home and go hungry" and "have to work when you are full" are a pair of xenobiological twins. According to the orders of the new patriarch, all villages must prepare for road reconstruction before next year's spring planting season to clear the obstacles between the villages and the city.

Whoever refuses to obey orders, kill!

Stealing and cheating people, kill!

Whoever dares to question the orders of the new patriarch, kill!

There were violators everywhere, but in terms of the total amount, it was not much, and the civil affairs officers sent by Tianhao to the various villages faithfully carried out all his orders, and each of them killed several people. These hideous-looking heads, frozen into hard lumps in the cold north wind and ice and snow, served as a good example, and no one dared to disrespect the order anymore, and no one questioned the orders of the new patriarch.

……

The territory of the Thunder Bull Tribe, south of Rock City, near the border with the Deer Clan.

It was a leeward col with hundreds of crossbowmen stationed on the surrounding ridges, towers built on the summits, and heavy ballistae with extremely long ranges. The special location made it easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the road to Rock City was condescendingly guarded, and although the defenders were small in number, they were able to rely on ample food and arrow reserves to block the attack of tens of thousands of enemy troops until their own reinforcements arrived.

As night fell, a group of more than fifty people came slowly from the south. Dressed in costumes indicating that they were deer-people, apparently calculating time and speed, the sun set below the horizon shortly after entering the col, and although a little light shone on the sky, most of the world was shrouded in darkness, and soon became invisible.

In the secluded open area deep in the mountain pass, several wooden houses have already been built. It was the defenders' rest quarter, now temporarily requisitioned by the Chief's Guard from Thunderhorn City, and the perimeter was filled with guarded soldiers, well-armed, and their armor was deliberately painted with light gray and black stripes, making it difficult to distinguish them from their surroundings even during the day.

When Lu Qingxi walked into the wooden house, he saw Tianhao sitting across the firepit.

"Sit down, I've been waiting for you for a long time." The young patriarch smiled beautifully, and his whole body released a gentleness that was easy to touch, like a fire in winter, which made people want to get close.

Lu Qingxi stood in place and observed the surroundings, making sure that there was no existence that could pose a threat to him, so he took a step and walked to the fire pond and sat down.

"You're still so cautious. Why, are you afraid that I will harm you? Tianhao picked up the clay bowl placed on the table next to him, scooped up a bowl of steaming broth from the boiling pot, blew off the hot air on the surface, and drank it along the edge of the bowl.

"This is the pheasant I caught today, stewed for an afternoon, and it tastes very good. If you want to drink it, you can do it yourself. He raised his hand and pointed at the dishes and chopsticks on the table: "I'll taste it first, you said that I poisoned the soup." ”