It was in this situation that Luo Ming proposed to take the award to comfort and protect the castle.

In order not to make the northern castle guards feel uneasy, Luo Ming rejected the city lord's suggestion that he take two people from the four generals to protect the castle together.

The Northern Castle is naturally a fortress built in the north of Black Cloud City, on the mountain near the Xuanwu border of the Alliance. In front of the fortress, along the commanding heights of the mountain range, there is a simple earthen wall fortification, which is very similar to the Great Wall of Qin. It was the only bulwark they had against the Northern Confederate States.

Behind the mountains is a plain with no danger to defend. Therefore, military generals know that this is an important line of defense.

If ordinary people walk, Mingyang Fort is about two days away from the capital city of Black Cloud City. The mission that Luo Ming followed went by carriage and arrived in about half a day. When he was still about fifty miles away from Mingyang Fort, Luo Ming left the team with Xiao Yu and flew away. They were dressed very ordinarily, no different from the children of the common people.

When they were about to protect the castle, they saw a dozen ordinary people dressed in shabby clothes, carrying the firewood and grass they had just fetched, and staggering towards the fortress on the mountain. Luo Ming thought to himself, this must be to collect firewood and grass to sell in the barracks, we can pretend to be the children of the common people and follow them into the barracks.

So he stepped forward and accosted: "These uncles and uncles have collected so much firewood and grass, are they going to pick it up and sell it in the barracks?"

One of them replied, "The poor in the barracks are all poor and dead, how can they have money to buy firewood and grass?"

Luo Ming was surprised and asked, "Then did you volunteer to serve the army, do voluntary hard labor in the barracks, or did they force you to do this?"

A few of those people glanced back at him, and one of them said, "Little brother, you're not from here, are you?" Luo Ming said casually: "Well, I just came from out of town. ”

The people said, "What is the place where you can't stay and what are you going to do in this place where you are so poor that you want to die?"

"Is this place poor?"

Someone snorted from his nose and said, "The grain harvest here fails every year, and the people don't have enough to eat." If it weren't for the official saying that the military salary owed to us by the imperial court would definitely be paid in a few days, I would have run away. What kind of soldier are you going to be?"

"So you are soldiers in the fortress?" Luo Ming's eyes widened in shock.

In the blink of an eye, the group had reached the gate of the tall stone compound that protected the castle. Qin Tianzhu originally thought that such a military fortress should be heavily guarded and the atmosphere was serious and tense. But he saw that the door of the compound was open, and the guard in front of the gate was useless, and no one had come to question them.

There was a bit of a commotion inside the fortress, and it looked like a bazaar. Many of the soldiers were not wearing uniforms, they were all wearing the clothes of ordinary people, and Luo Ming would not know if they were not soldiers if they either had weapons in their hands or were working hard for the fortress. There were also uniformed officers and soldiers, but most of them looked shabby and dirty, presumably because they had not changed for a long time.

Luo Ming saw that no one paid attention to him, so he swaggered straight in. The walls of the fortress and the buildings inside were made of stone, which was not only tall, but also quite strong.

The large perimeter wall was wide enough for the defending soldiers to move on it. The buildings on the first floor of the compound have no windows except for the sturdy doors, and only the second floor and above have windows.

The idea was that once the gate of the compound could not be guarded, the enemy soldiers who rushed into the compound would be flanked by the bone soul bows and crossbows on both sides of the walls and buildings.

Luo Ming entered through the open door of the building and followed the officers and soldiers who came in and out.

The second floor of the building is much cleaner than the first floor, and it seems that ordinary soldiers do not come here. He was outside a rather imposing room, and he heard a loud conversation, so he leaned over to see the excitement. I heard one person say, "I heard that the city lord's envoy is about to arrive? ”

Another said, "Don't think about it. The main purpose of a special envoy is to come to condole, and Black Cloud City has no money at all, what other good things do you want?"

"If we don't pay the soldiers, we won't be able to restrain these soldiers. Damn, it's really not good, let's go to the other side and join the alliance, anyway, we have a full meal. ”

At this time, Luo Ming had already walked to the right side of the door, and saw a well-proportioned middle-aged man talking in the room, with a helpless expression, smiling slightly embarrassed. A tall general in a general's uniform next to him said disdainfully: "Don't rush to the doctor." To go to the alliance to put it lightly, what if people come to fight in the future, invade your hometown, and insult your wife and children?"

The middle-aged man sighed and said, "Alas, that's what I said." ”

The general said: "To be honest, although the Tiger King and I have been friends since childhood, I don't want to participate in their revenge battle. What's there to fight about?

I only care about my subordinates being fed and clothed, otherwise what else will I do on this errand? What do you want me to do when I go back to the city? My duty is to defend the country here. ”

He suddenly turned his head to look at Luo Ming, who was looking outside the door, and shouted, "How did this kid run in? Why doesn't anyone care?

The people in the room suddenly raised their voices and shouted: "The surname Luan, for the sake of our friendship for many years, I have talked so much with you." Just one sentence: Are you going or not? If you don't go, don't blame Lao Tzu for being polite. I heard a bang, and the sound of releasing the bone soul came from the door.

Luo Ming thought to himself, it seems that General Luan is unwilling to follow this guy to commit treason, and now he is in danger. He pushed the door open, and saw that the heavy wooden door had been bolted from the inside. So he hurriedly exerted all the strength of his body, rose up, kicked the door out with a flying kick, and fell down with a bang. It looks like the latch is stronger than the hinges on both sides.

In the middle of the dusty room sat a middle-aged man in an official uniform, bound to a chair by a thick hemp rope. In front of him was an officer who had unleashed the light blue bone soul power, ready to cast his skills with his teeth and claws.

Behind the kidnapped man were two soldiers, with sabers in their hands, looking intently at the tied general.

The door was kicked open suddenly, causing the men to be stunned at the same time. Although he still kept his movements unchanged, he turned his head and looked at the door in surprise. What they saw was two small teenagers and girls, they didn't believe that the two children kicked the door open, and thought that someone else was making trouble. The officer who released the Dao soul was still shouting, "Who is it, get out!" and he didn't notice that the girl had released the golden bone soul power.