Although the sky was full of dark clouds, it was already bright.

Kapok, along with Agu and Setsui, stood on a high hillside and watched, as a city spread out in all directions on the land a few miles ahead of them.

The east side of the city is a large undulating hilly area, there are continuous mountains in the north, and the south side is hidden in the vast morning fog and cannot be seen clearly, but the three of them have checked the Xizhou landform map sent by the king of Linhai on the way, and the south and west sides of the city are relatively flat.

"Lord Wang, General Yagu, this is the ancient city, the oldest and largest castle in the Xizhou Continent! How does it compare to the princess city and the wine fairy city in your prairie? Jiesheng asked with a smile.

Yagu said with a serious face: "Don't hide it from the military division, in terms of size, our princess city and wine fairy city in the prairie are not as good as this ancient city. ”

Kapok Zi looked into the distance and said: "Strategist, I see that this city is not only big, but also has two walls, inside and outside!" ”

Jiesheng said with a smile: "Lord, if you take a closer look at the location of the central palace of the castle, there is also a city wall, so if you want to break into the palace of the king of the ancient land, you must pass through three city walls. ”

Kapok's eyes widened and he looked at it for a while and said, "Yes, there is a high wall outside the building complex in the center. ”

"I saw that there seemed to be a moat outside the middle wall." Agu stared at the ancient city road.

"The general's eyesight is so good!" Jiesheng said: "That is the ancient city river, the river originally flowed from the northern mountains to the southern plain to cross the ancient city, the middle wall is the outer wall of the old ancient city more than a hundred years ago, the old ancient land king used the river water of the ancient city river to build a moat around the city wall.

After the father of the king of the ancient land succeeded to the throne, he thought that the old ancient city was too small, and the national strength was becoming more and more sufficient, he used a lot of manpower and material resources to use more than ten years to build a new ancient city in the outer circle of the moat, and now the total area of the ancient city is five times that of the old ancient city, and then after 20 years of rule and construction of the ancient land king, the ancient city has become the first largest city in the Xizhou continent, and the population of the city has reached 200,000. ”

"Two hundred thousand!" Yagu gasped, "The number of people in our Prairie Princess City is less than one-third, but I heard from the military advisor that the total number of people in the Ancient Land Kingdom plus the newly annexed Western Land Kingdom has exceeded four million, and in comparison, there are not many people in this city. ”

Jiesheng said with a serious expression: "What the general said is extremely true! However, this city is very important to both the Ancient Land Kingdom and the Xizhou Continent, and its geographical location is the center of the entire Xizhou Continent, and it is also the commercial center of the Xizhou. There are more than 200,000 Qizhou people living in Xizhou for business, and there are 30,000 Qizhou people living in this ancient city alone.

Lord, general, you look at the houses in the old city in the center of the city, although they look no special or even very old from the houses in the new city on the periphery, but the decoration inside the houses is very luxurious and comfortable, because except for the barracks of the two legions, the rest of the old city is the residence of the princes and nobles and the most powerful people in the ancient land.

In the new town, many of the ordinary houses were inhabited by handymen who provided various services to the people of the old town, and the multi-storey houses on both sides of the street were all taverns and inns, and the people living in them were merchants from all over the Western continent.

Prince Ming and Prince Ke, whom the prince met more than 20 years ago, have already changed their names and surnames to live in the ancient city to do business, although the country is ruined, but both of them have inherited a large amount of wealth that has been secretly transferred to Xizhou for a long time, so they have enough capital to be a big boss in Xizhou.

The two princes were the first to be pharmacists in Xizhou, they resold the medicinal materials and drugs of Qizhou to all parts of Xizhou, and later in order to restore the national plan network talents, they established the Qizhou Chamber of Commerce in the ancient city. More than 20 years later, although the dream of restoring the country has not been realized, they are now one of the five major merchants in the ancient city. The Qizhou Chamber of Commerce has set up branches in various castles in Xizhou, and the people of Qizhou who do business in Xizhou have basically joined the Chamber of Commerce. ”

After hearing this, Kapok Zi looked at Jiesheng and said with a smile: "This time we have met the queen of the ancient land, we will go to meet these two princes and big businessmen, if we want to defeat the gene people, we must have the strong support of these rich bosses to succeed."

Jiesheng said with a smile: "The prince can be said to be their savior, if they know that the prince has come to the ancient city, they will definitely be happy, and besides, Jiesheng has already taken into account the important role of their Qizhou Chamber of Commerce in the fight against the gene people." ”

Yagu smiled: "Strategist, I am more interested in your senior brother Haidong who is the commander of the legion, not to mention that he is also the savior of our prince. Now that we are in the Ancient Lands, we must meet him, and if we can convince his legion to join our expeditionary force, it will be the best of both worlds, and we will replace all his legions with the military equipment of the steppe. ”

Jiesheng's expression became serious: "Lord, general, from the moment you made Jiesheng a military advisor, Jiesheng thought of Senior Brother Haidong, it is not difficult to persuade Senior Brother to join our expeditionary force, but before our large army enters Xizhou, we can't be in a hurry." Because before the conditions are ripe, my senior brother's joining the expeditionary force will make the king of the ancient land dissatisfied, and it will be detrimental to the overall situation of the war.

In addition, Jiesheng has considered that if it is necessary for our expeditionary force to recruit the legions of Xizhou to join the army, only one legion is too little, and the information of the prince says that the genetic people have 50,000 troops, which is equivalent to the strength of fifty legions. Therefore, we must recruit at least five Xizhou legions to join the expeditionary force, plus all the weapons and equipment of the prairie, so as to form a backbone of the Xizhou War of Resistance. ”

Kapok and Agu immediately agreed with Setsuo's suggestion.

"Naturally, the more troops the better, but in addition to Senior Brother Haidong of the military division, can we still convince other Xizhou legions to join our expeditionary force?" Kapok asked.

"Lord Wang, general, Jiesheng told you in the car last night that the King of Gudi has four sons, and they are all very capable, and they are known as the four great generals of Gudi Kingdom in Xizhou. There are ten legions under each of them, and my senior brother is directly under the orders of the second general.

Because most of the soldiers in the elder brother's legion are descendants of the Qizhou people, his legion is nicknamed the Qizhou Legion in the army. The second general not only appreciated the eldest brother very much, but also never looked at the Qizhou Legion differently. This is not only due to the national policy of recruiting talents from all over the world implemented by the King of Gudi after succeeding to the throne, but also because the senior brother is strong in martial arts and righteousness, and the Qizhou Legion has outstanding military achievements.

Therefore, if it is necessary at that time, we can befriend the second general through the senior brother, and strive to get him to hand over the five legions directly under the command of our expeditionary force, and the prince can provide him with the weapons and equipment of the other five legions in exchange. "Jiesheng Dao.

Kapok Zi said happily: "Okay, if we can do this, our expeditionary force will have 10,000 people, plus the weapons and equipment of the steppe, we can control the situation of the war in Xizhou, but we must get the King of Gudi to agree to stop the civil war today." ”

After inspecting the ancient city and the surrounding landscape, the three descended the hillside, where their chariots and five warriors waited.

The five fighters had already flexed their muscles and feet, and set off from Wanghai City overnight for a long journey of 800 miles, although they did not worry about eating and drinking in the car and took turns driving, but they were trapped in the car and bumpy for a night, and everyone felt uncomfortable.

The avenue outside the east gate of the ancient city is lined with hills and valleys overgrown with weeds and covered with various woods.

At this time, the huge east gate was slowly opened by a group of soldiers, and five soldiers stood on each side of the gate on duty, each carrying a gunpowder spear and holding an iron sword in his hand.

At the head of the city at the east gate there was a battery with ten gunpowder cannons, and a group of artillerymen walked up to the battery with sleepy eyes. No sooner had they entered their respective posts than one of the soldiers noticed the anomaly, a never-before-seen monster that looked like a ship appeared on the deserted avenue in the early morning.

"Hey, look, what's that?" He shouted.

When the soldiers at the head of the city saw the boats and carts, the soldiers on both sides of the city gate on the ground noticed.

When the soldiers guarding the city gate recovered from their panic, the huge ship and wagon were already close in sight. The soldiers tried to rush forward to stop the rapidly approaching monster, but the boat suddenly let out a high-pitched and terrifying chirp, and the soldiers were immediately frightened, and they took a few steps backwards to the sides in terror to dodge, and the boat roared into the city.

The panicked soldiers shouted after the van, which soon disappeared to the other end of the empty street.

The soldiers on the other side of the moat had just pushed open the gate and lowered the drawbridge over the moat when they heard a faint cry coming from the new town. They stopped to watch, and after a while, they saw a strange kind of boat and cart rushing towards them quickly. By the time they reacted and ran up to the city to turn the drawbridge device, the uninvited guests had already rushed onto the drawbridge and then rushed into the old city gate.

The chariots rushed to a gate at the sound of the pursuers' calls, and the pursuers were relieved to see that the heavy gate of the palace compound was still closed.

But to their surprise, the boat did not stop but rushed headlong towards the gate, and with a loud sound of crisp metal impact, the gate of the palace compound and a section of the city wall on both sides collapsed.

Then the wagon ran over the shattered iron gates and masonry on the ground and broke into the palace.