From Jiaohe City to Yumen Pass, there are more than 80,000 miles in total.

The army marched without hurry or impatience, and it was not until the first month of the next year, that is, the first month of the seventh year of Guanghe, that it could reach Yumen Pass.

Yumen Pass and Yangguan, which is only 3,000 miles to the south, are the gateways between Shenzhou and the Western Regions.

Xia Yice rode under the pass, looking up at the majestic pass like a mountain, and his face was shocked with an unconcealable shock. This Yumen Pass is really majestic and terrifying-the walls of the city are at least three hundred zhang high!

A big mountain is stuck between the cliffs and steep walls on both sides, and it is impossible to open it!

In such a pass, as long as the army guarding the pass is not too hasty, or an army of 500,000 will attack, the final outcome can only be a halberd and sink into the sand!

Taking a long breath, Xia Yi said in a long voice: "There are all departments, line up, enter the customs!"

After the Yumen Pass, it is Dunhuang County, Xia Yi led the army, through the pass, all the way to the east, across Dunhuang, received Xia Zhuo's order on the bank of the underworld, and then stationed down, no longer moving.

It is located in the north of the deep spring. Yuanquan is a county on the eastern boundary line of Dunhuang. Passing through Yuanquan County, it is wine

Izumi County.

On the shore of Mingze Lake, Xia Yi stood on an extremely smooth boulder washed by the lake, raising his eyes to look at the vast Mingze. Beside him, all the soldiers under his command were on the side.

"The underworld is vast, with a radius of five hundred miles. There are strange beasts, which are called cross-fish.

Xia Yi suddenly spoke: "Xia's "Chronicles of the Dragon" has a saying, there is a horizontal fish in this underworld, which of you has ever seen it?"

"Smelt?"

Cheng Ying was stunned for a moment and said, "The last general Nanyang people don't know much about this place. Lin Junhou is a native of Jiuquan and should have heard of it.

Lin Junhou is a military candidate under Xia Yi.

"Exactly, Lin Junhou, tell me and others, what's so strange about this cross-male fish?" Xu Rong said with a smile.

Xu Rong is also a member of Xia Yi's command.

Xia Yi never thought that Xu Rong would be a member of the Sima Department of the Rear Army. After taking over the Hou Jun Sima Division, Xia Yi was secretly happy to learn that Xu Rong was in the ranks.

This is a general, although the martial arts are not profound, but now there are four high-level numbers, and it is not a problem to be promoted to the fifth or sixth rank in the future.

More importantly, Xu Rong is good at using soldiers.

That's a lot of money.

When Lin Dong heard this, he smiled slightly and said, "Then the general will be ugly."

"The horizontal fish in the underworld is shaped like a carp and is red, the big one is more than ten zhang, and the small one is two or three feet. Hidden in the lake during the day, and ashore at night. Its scales are tough, its sword is not harmed, and its fire is not dead!'

"The sword doesn't hurt? The fire doesn't burn to death?"

"What a strange beast!"

A cadre of soldiers was amazed again and again.

"This cross-smelt is so powerful, won't it come ashore and hurt people?" A soldier asked.

"But I have rarely heard of the Henggong fish hurting people." Lin Junhou replied: "I have never seen a cross-smelt with my own eyes, but I heard from the elders in the village that the cross-smelt is timid, so it only dares to land at night. As long as you don't approach the underworld at night, you'll be fine.

"I see"

Everyone bowed slightly, and Xu Rong said: "If this Henggong fish is a disaster in the township, I am afraid that it will be exterminated by the imperial dynasty." It's a good thing that this beast is timid.

The others couldn't help but laugh.

"Lao Tzu has clouds, where misfortune and blessing are relied upon, and where blessing and misfortune lurk. This male fish may seem timid, but it is not a good thing that it can preserve the reproduction of the population. Xia Yi said with a smile: "Since the ancient ancestors opened up the way for my race to survive, for ten thousand years, how many powerful beasts have been annihilated in time in the land of Shenzhou?" It is precisely because they are strong that it is easier to find trouble. ”

"yes."

The crowd agreed.

"I heard that there is a stone lake in the depths of this underworld, which is the birthplace of the crossfish." Xia Yi looked at Lin Junhou and smiled: "Has anyone been to Shihu?"

"But I don't know." Lin Junhou thought for a while and said, "Shihu is in the depths of the underworld, and its location is very secret. In addition, there are horizontal male fish in the underworld, although the horizontal male fish will not hurt people, but ordinary people do not dare to go deep into the underworld. ”

Xia Yi nodded: "There is a saying in "The Chronicles of the Dragon" that although Henggong Yu is not afraid of swords and fire, he has something to restrain him.

"What Sima said is very true." Lin Junhou hurriedly said: "Legend has it that there is a black plum tree in the stone lake, and the black plum on the tree is the nemesis of the horizontal fish.

"There is a black plum tree in the lake?" Cheng Ying and others were surprised.

"Yes." Xia Yi said with a smile: "The meat of the Henggong fish is a great supplement, it can heal the wounded, legend has it that the ancients wanted to catch the Henggong fish, so they first took two black plums, lured the Henggong fish to eat it, and died in three moments."

"Then isn't this Shihu black plum highly poisonous?"

"I don't know if it's poisonous." Xia Yi said: "This innate all things must be one thing and one thing, this way of balancing yin and yang."

The crowd nodded their heads.

Of course, the Heng Gong Fish in the Stygian Stone Lake is just an episode, just have fun chatting about it.

As he spoke, Xia Yi shifted the topic to business.

"The general summoned me and asked me to stand still in the underworld and wait for orders." Xia Yi said slowly: "Now that the three Simas, Li Xu, Guo Yan, and Niu Fu are one step ahead of me, and they have all entered the territory of Wuwei, and I will wait for the next step, and I will be stationed here."

"Everyone should know that the general does not want to enter the court to be the walking dead. Now that the internal undercurrents of the imperial dynasty are surging, and the border barbarians have repeatedly provoked border troubles, it is a good opportunity for our soldiers to make meritorious contributions. The general's meaning is to drag it first and see if there is a turnaround. What do you think?'

The imperial edict was public, and everyone under Xia Zhuo knew about it.

Among them, some people are envious, and feel that they are already a very good minister and a glorious ancestor when they enter the court, and they feel that they are already a great minister and a glorious ancestor, so it is difficult for these people to understand Xia Zhuo's intentions. There are also people who hold the meaning that Xia Yi just said, the battlefield is the destination of soldiers, and *** is a good opportunity for soldiers to make contributions, so these people feel that Xia Zhuo is very suitable for the spleen.

But there are still a very small number of smart people, who can probably see Xia Zhuo's ambition.

But no matter what, Xia Zhuo's management of the military spirit under his command is in place. No matter what the generals under his command thought, in the end, it was Xia Zhuo who obeyed his orders.

This reminded Xia Yi of a romance novel in his previous life, saying that Xia Zhuo had a certain strategist surnamed Li planning for him, and said that it was his son-in-law. Xia Zhuo clearly only has Niu Fu, a son-in-law, in fact, he has been able to get to this point, he has spelled it out by himself, where are the strategists around?

Xia Zhuo is fierce and strategic, but he is not just joking.

"The general's orders must be obeyed."

Cheng Ying was the first to speak, and gave an affirmative reply, and then said: "Maybe the emperor will give an order to urge, but the general will not accept the order of the foreign monarch, let us march, we will march, but this speed can be controlled independently."

Except for Xia Zhen and Xia Ying, the rest of the people bowed their heads together.

Xia Yi saw clearly, these generals had already been loyal to Xia Zhuo, unless Xia Zhuo died, otherwise,

He nodded slightly: "That's it, let's be stationed on the bank of the underworld recently, if there is an order from the emperor, I will talk about it after receiving it."

It's night.

In the big tent of the Chinese army, Xia Yi was holding a roll of bamboo slips, and was reading with the dazzling light from the Wuyang lamp.

Suddenly, he put down the bamboo slip, lifted the brush in his hand, unfolded a piece of cloth, and a letter flowed smoothly on the silk.

"Brother Changsheng: It has been more than ten months since the sixth year of midsummer. Brother in the army.. I sincerely invite my brother to come and help him."

Slowly put down the brush and dried the ink on the cloth, Xia Yi looked groaning.

Before leaving Hedong last year, the scene of meeting Guan Yu in the main vein was still in front of me. For his own promise, for Guan Yu's promise, he kept it in mind.

In the past year, Xia Yi didn't think about sending a message to Guan Yu too early and asking him to come over to help. But Xia Yi felt that he had just integrated into the Chengji Lieutenant Department, and his foothold was not stable, so it was not very convenient, so he pressed it for the time being.

By now, he felt that the time was almost up.

On the one hand, he has become a confidant under Xia Zhuo and has the right to speak.

If nothing else, the imperial dynasty will fall into the Yellow Turban wave in the near future, Xia Zhuo has the opportunity to lead the troops to fight, Xia Yi, as Xia Zhuo's subordinate, naturally needs more strength to help in order to achieve the purpose of obtaining greater benefits in this *** *.

The three Xia Yi were worried. In case Guan Yu followed the old path of the person in the world in his memory and followed the big ear, wouldn't his previous actions be in vain?

So dig people as soon as possible.

At this time, there is no war, and it is in his spare time that he should finish this matter that has been hidden in his heart for a long time

Putting aside the letter to Guan Yu, Xia Yi wrote a second letter, which was a letter to his family. For most of the past six months, Xia Yi has been corresponding with his family every month, talking about business with his father in the letter, chatting with his mother about family affairs, and greeting each other with his younger siblings by the way.

The correspondence between family letters made his heart very full and happy, a lonely person, there is no sense of happiness.

Thinking of these in his heart, Xia Yi's face flickered and flickered under the Haoyang lamp.

When the ink on the two cloth letters was dry, Xia Yi shouted: "Someone!"

Then one of the guards opened the door of the tent and entered.

"Sima!"

"You take these two letters and silks, and ask the two brothers to go to the Yuanquan Post Station and send the books to Hedong to say hello." Xia Yi rolled up the book and handed it to the guard.

"Whoa!

The guards didn't say a word, and walked out of the big tent with the book in hand.

Xia Yi's army is not without tools for transmitting messages, and the two wooden kites are not ornaments. But it is a military communication tool, which is dedicated to the transmission of war reports and military orders with direct superiors.

Xia Yi will not be at his own expense. Although Guan Yu was summoned, it also involved a little bit of official business.

The people of the imperial dynasty already had a sound communication system and a post station.

The station's communication is also carried out through wooden kites.

But it's a civilian wooden kite.

The civilian wooden kite is not as good as the military wooden kite in all aspects, whether it is speed, sturdiness, or even concealment.

However, Xia Yi's two letters do not involve any secrets, and it doesn't hurt to pass them on at the post station, but the time will be delayed

Longxi, Linzhao.

Xia's Wood Fort.

This kind of building is very common in the border fortress area of the imperial dynasty.

On the whole, it is like a small city, the city has the necessary basic defense facilities, and even the families and clans with capital will also carve martial formations on the walls of the dock fort.

There is only one reason for the appearance of this kind of building, and that is war!

Since the establishment of the Imperial Dynasty, there have been few times of calm in the border area. This Longxi County, adjacent to Zhongcun in the south, and above the dense forests of the plateau, there are many Qiang tribes. These tribes were nominally attached to the imperial dynasty, but in private, they did a lot of unsightly things.

It's good to rob homes and houses, and sometimes even send troops to loot the county, but they don't label it as a rebellion on the surface.

Since the center of the imperial dynasty has gradually declined, this stuffed land has become more and more erosive. Twenty years ago, Liangzhou and the surrounding Qiang tribes gathered hundreds of thousands of troops to create a rebellion against the emperor, and the emperor finally couldn't bear it, and led 30,000 troops to conquer with Duan Yun as the general.

Duan Yun conquered the Qiang barbarians with weak troops, won consecutive battles, and beheaded countless people, which suppressed the arrogance of the Qiang barbarians in Liangzhou. But over the years, although Qiang Manming did not dare to rebel again, the contradiction between him and the Hanmin in Liangzhou secretly has become deeper and deeper.

There are more and more buildings in this self-defense mode of dock forts.

For example, the Xia clan in Longxi, which is backed by the Fenglong clan, is strong in the place, and the scale of its dock fort is not bad compared to the smaller county towns.

Longxi Linzhao Xia clan is a side branch of Xia Zhuo's Fenglong Xia clan.

In the dock fort, a wide school field, on.

A majestic figure with a war knife in his hand stood in the air!

Under the blessing of the strong true qi, the war knife is essentially more than ten zhang long, I saw that the person slashed out with a knife, and the ordinary five-grade powerhouse may not even see the shadow of this knife, and I saw a rockery dozens of zhang high not far away, which was cut into two pieces with a knife!

The fracture is so smooth that it looks like it has been painstakingly polished by a skilled craftsman!

At the same time, a deep knife mark is embedded in the ground under the rockery, which is hundreds of feet long and bottomless!

"Head of the house!"

At this moment, an old man walked into the school yard, and an old voice came out of his mouth.

The figure standing in the air paused slightly, put away the knife and looked back, but it wasn't Xia Zhuo Xia Zhongying? !

Xia Zhuo stepped forward, spanning a distance of hundreds of zhang with a snap of his fingers, and had already appeared in front of the old man.

"The head of the family," the old man bowed slightly: "The third master is back."

"Oh?" Xia Zhuo laughed: "Shu Ying is back?"

"It's the third master.

"Old housekeeper, take Shu Ying to my study," Xia Zhuo said, "I'll change my clothes and go to see him immediately."

"Yes, Master."

In the study, Xia Zhuo was already wearing a wide-sleeved collared robe.

Xia Min knelt across the desk.

"How?"

Xia Zhuo asked.

Xia Min frowned slightly, sighed, shook his head, and said, "My brother is incompetent, and I didn't do what my brother explained."

"Tell me about it." Xia Zhuo nodded.

This was to be expected.

"Since I arrived in Luoyang, I went to Yuan's mansion first." Xia Min said: "But I haven't been able to see Yuan Kui."

"Yuan." Xia Zhuo raised his eyebrows: "Do you know why he didn't see you?"

Xia Min shook his head and said, "I haven't seen Yuan Kui in the Yuan family's mansion, so I went to the mansion to be a master craftsman."

"What does He Jin mean?"

He Jin accepted the goods, but did not make it clear. I only said that I would say a few kind words in front of the Son of Heaven. Xia Min said.

"A few nice words. Oh. It's better than not seeing anyone. It seems that He Jin still has some good intentions. Xia Zhuoyi's face groaned.

"Brother, since I visited Yuan Kui and He Jin, I went to visit Yang Biao. Yang Biao saw it, but this person didn't take care of anything else, and he didn't receive any goods.

"As for the eunuchs. Please forgive my brother. Brother Shi didn't want to ask for a thief!

"It doesn't matter." Xia Zhuo waved his hand and pondered, "Do you know the movement of the harem?"

"My brother didn't get into the harem." Xia Min sighed: "But I heard that the Queen Mother also mentioned her brother a lot in front of the Son of Heaven, but"

"I know for my brother."

Xia Zhuo frowned: "Is there no movement on the side of the main vein?"

"Yes." Xia Min said: "But it's not very useful. In the past few hundred years, the main vein has rarely interfered in the politics of the imperial dynasty, although there are many connections, but most of them are sages in the opposition, and their opinions are difficult to hear directly.

Xia Zhuo couldn't help but shake his head: "As the elder brother often says, the main vein's strategy of dealing with the world is too negative to avoid the world. Otherwise, with the background of the main line, where will it be the turn of the Yuan family and the Yang family to take charge of the government now?"

Between the words, Xia Zhuo was still a little resentful.

It's no wonder that Xia Zhuo is no wonder.

The main vein of the Fenglong Xia clan is very deep, and there are many strong people. However, its principles of life are not positive. Although he does not talk about seclusion, he hardly interferes in politics. Unlike the Yang family and the Yuan family, which only have a few hundred years of experience, they can control a large part of the voice in the court, which cannot but make Xia Zhuo depressed.

If the Fenglong clan had intervened in the military and politics of the imperial dynasty early, now he Xia Zhuo is still on the rise?

Where will it be like now, to pretend to be sick and engage in some small actions that cannot be put on the table?

"The Lord will always realize that it is too late, and only then will he stuff people in the army and the government." Xia Zhuo shook his head and said; "If we had started cultivating military and political personnel 20 years ago, the situation would have been much better now"

"The main vein has the intention of the main vein." Xia Min disagreed: "Brother, the main vein can last for thousands of years without falling, and it will never be as incompetent as my brother said."

Xia Zhuo was silent.

After a long time, he slowly spoke: "Another thing I asked you to inquire about, do you have eyebrows?"

Xia Min's expression sank: "The celebrity Liu Tao admonished the Son of Heaven, saying that Zhang Jiao, a native of Jizhou, was a big disaster in the world to confuse the public, and said that Zhang Jiao conspired with the eunuchs inside and outside to subvert the emperor and impeach the eunuchs. However, "

"Then the Son of Heaven doesn't believe it, right?" Xia Zhuo laughed: "The Son of Heaven is not having a good time this day, the power of the court is controlled by the family, and if the Son of Heaven wants to take power, he has to rely on eunuchs." The eunuchs are now powerful, and there are many eunuchs in the thirteen states of the imperial dynasty, which affect the whole body. Besides, without the eunuchs, the Son of Heaven will have no knives, how can he fight with the ministers of the court?"

Xia Min was speechless, silent for a moment, and then said: "The Son of Heaven sent Liu Tao to prison, and Liu Tao died in prison."

"That's proof." Xia Zhuo shook his head while laughing: "The loyal and upright people are all dead, and the court is full of people with bad intentions, fighting for power and profit, and flies and dogs, so it is strange that the imperial dynasty will not decline and the world will not be turbulent!"

"With Liu Tao's ideological realm, I don't believe he can't feel the consequences of exposing this matter, and with his martial arts realm, it's not impossible to escape from Luoyang in advance, but." Xia Min looked regretful.

"But why not run away?" Xia Zhuo smiled: "This is a true gentleman!" A gentleman is willing to die, his deeds are commendable, and his ambitions are commendable!

Xia Min sighed and said, "After Liu Tao's death, Jizhou Zhang Jiao seems to have restrained a little. I sent people to Jizhou to investigate, and in the past, Zhang Jiao, who used to use water everywhere to cure diseases and save people, seemed to have evaporated from the world. The Taoists of Taiping Dao are rarely seen. ’

"A moment of silence before the storm."

Xia Zhuo's eyes narrowed slightly: "Liu Tao will definitely not talk nonsense, Zhang Jiao colluded with the inner servants to rebel, it must be true." It seems that the day of change is just around the corner."

He stood up, walked back and forth a few steps, and said, "When the news comes out, it is said that my injuries are gradually recovering, and I will be able to recover in half a year at most."

"By the way, Shu Ying, you handed me these recitals into Luoyang." As he spoke, he took out a stack of recitals from his sleeve and handed them to Xia Min: "I have to arrange them as soon as possible!"