The third day of the month of fertility.

The western part of the empire, Zenagonsakai, forest trails.

It took about six days to set out from the new area of Sesu, and he returned here again - that day he entered the empire, that is, he walked through the pass of Sakai of Xenago.

It took less than eleven days to get from Zario Sakai to Zinagangsang, which was almost the same as the time he took to get from here to Geng Laoyuan that day. You must know that he was a single man back then, but now he has four more people and a large moat car.

With this speed, the only way to do this without the help of borrowing the Dharma Ring is to rest less and hurry more, and on this way, the time to rush is almost twice as long as the eastbound before Aozong. Therefore, not to mention Fei Lin and Pigenbo, who are weak and old, even if they have swordsmanship, their physical strength is not inferior to that of ordinary men, because they are tired, they have a lot less words.

Naturally, Ao Zong and Di Duo Du Du were not affected by this fatigue, and unexpectedly, even the Qiang Qiang along the way was not tired - forage was just a snack for this product, and as long as it was fed with Proud Lord, its spirit would always be sufficient.

Two days ago, on the road, they ushered in the arrival of the new year.

Unlike some worlds, where there is a countdown or something when the New Year comes, the welcome program of the world of Proz is sleeping, at least on the Empire's side, but on the first morning of the new year, that is, on the day of the fertility god, there will still be a series of celebrations, and for the vast majority of ordinary people, the most important thing in this series of celebrations is the dinner of the night - in this custom, this meal is usually the most hearty meal of the year for the family.

It was the first time for Ao Zongheng to celebrate the New Year in a foreign land, so although they still had to hurry, they still prepared a good dinner, in order to eat comfortably, they chose the location of this meal in a certain wilderness, Ao Zongheng and Di Duoli were responsible for providing the ingredients, Piganpo was responsible for cooking, you said Bao Lin, she was good at holding a sword, but not a pot and spoon.

With his superhuman sense of smell and hearing, and the cold winter has come to an end, it may be a little difficult for him to find fruits and vegetables, but it is easy to find meat. And Aozong has borrowed the magic ring, and the seasoning and spices for eating and drinking are naturally readily available. Coupled with the fact that Bao Lin is responsible for chopping wood and Fei Lin is responsible for lighting the fire, this combination of division of labor is simply wonderful. Well...... Something seems unnatural?

Needless to say, the richness of the meal was the most shocking of all, of course, the coachman, who was willing to pay five times the price to get the coachman who was willing to reluctantly leave the car during the New Year, and he complained from time to time along the way. But as soon as Pigenbo's good dishes and arrogant good wine were put away, his face immediately froze - lying grass, this formation is too exaggerated. He didn't expect that this wealthy family would actually let a commoner like him dine together.

In short, the happiest and most fierce meal was the coachman, who finally remembered his duty and didn't dare to let go of drinking, but he alone at least killed half a bottle of famous wine, and he was satisfied with his "restraint", so he gave him the remaining half a bottle of wine, and this one immediately regretted it - I knew it was given to me, and I only drank half a glass at most. This can't be blamed for his stinginess, just because he knows very well that if he hadn't met this high roller, he would have thought about this bottle of wine at most in his life, and he might not even have a chance to touch it.

The meal was enjoyable and tiring enough, except for the coachman who had to stay awake like a man who had not touched any wine, the others slept until noon the next day before waking up one after another, even Doudoli was no exception - his alcohol was excellent, but it depended on what kind of wine it was, and he could only lie down when he encountered an opponent like Aozong who had hidden wine from all over the world.

Although the arrogant man is not drunk, his heart is drunk, and on this festive season, he can be called a friend in the world of Proz, except for Balf and Ryzedesi, who are all drinking by his side, how can he not be drunk in this situation?

By the way, I forgot to mention that the two little brothers who were sent out by Yi Li to keep an eye on Ao Zongheng seemed to be drunk - after chasing Ao Zongheng and leaving Sesu Xinyuan for half a day, they had been keeping a distance of about two hundred whips from the trench car, and suddenly their eyes went black, and when they woke up, they immediately had a feeling - it hurt, just like the kind of intense headache that wakes up after being drunk.

Zena Gang Sakai was originally located in the western frontier of the Bogar Empire, adjacent to the Kingdom of Miredang, and the empire had conquered the Kingdom of Miredang many times, and most troops were sent from here. The few territories occupied in the past were directly under the rule of Zina Gang Sakai, but last year's war was very good, and the elite soldiers swept through several counties, so it is not good to directly divide it into Zina Gang Sakai - you have to consider the feelings of other Sakai, and it is not all you who contribute to the money.

Last year's expedition, at most, the kingdom of five counties, this is almost one-tenth of the kingdom, but in the eyes of the empire, this point of Sakai is still a little smaller, and it is difficult to determine how to divide it into a year and a half, plus the war situation at that time was good, the report of the front-line army commander and the heads of the eunuchs agreed that the results of this battle must be more than five counties, so the imperial court made a decision - put aside the controversy and move forward. All these newly conquered lands were designated as occupied areas, and the front-line army commanders were under military management.

There is no need to repeat what happened next, the five counties that the Empire thought were in the pocket were recovered with the fiasco of the night of shame that was privately called Gagawa, although not all of them, but still under the control of the Empire, only about one and a half counties.

From that fiasco to the present, although the two sides have continued to test each other, no major war has occurred. On the one hand, both sides lack the strength to bulldoze each other at the moment, and on the other hand, it is also related to intermittent negotiations.

As mentioned earlier, and even among the people of the two countries, the Kingdom Army had a vote of hostages, the most important of which was, of course, the Liuhuo Er, and their offer was for the Imperial Army to return all the kingdom territories currently occupied, and to sign a permanent truce and peace of state in the presence of the gods. Naturally, the Empire was unwilling to give up the meat that had already been put to its mouth, and they offered the Kingdom two options, either to redraw the border and sign a two- or three-year truce and peace agreement under the current state of actual control of both sides, or to return the remaining one and a half counties to you, and the truce and peace agreement would not be signed. Obviously, the differences between the two sides are too big to be negotiated, but the middle of winter is not the time to use troops, so it can only be so deadlocked first.

These negotiation options were supposed to be confidential, but if the negotiation took too long, secrecy became impossible, and it was Arrogant that he was able to get these information from the tavern inn before he entered the Zena Gang Sakai.

However, these things are easy to inquire about, and other things are much more difficult, such as the location of Liuhuo'er's detention.

The reason why the emperor and the kingdom can still negotiate intermittently is because of this, although there are still many imperial prisoners who have status in the hands of the kingdom, but other people add up, and it is difficult to say whether there is a finger in the emperor's mind, so the place of detention must be top secret.

According to arrogant conjecture, the place of detention of the Emperor was either in the royal capital, or in some top-secret and secret place behind the rear far from the war zone. Although the royal capital is heavily guarded, this is not a war, and whether the troops are strong or not is not the key, on the contrary, with the strong power of the empire, there will definitely be no shortage of secret agents in the royal capital, and it may be easier to detect the traces if you want to hide your cheeks in the royal capital. And if it is hidden elsewhere, and the kingdom is a rather limited royal power, it is not easy to mobilize those places and dukes, and the secrecy is even worse, and the most likely is that other kings outside the royal capital are directly under the king.

However, it is too early to say this, and the priority should be how to cross the borders of the empire and the occupied territories to reach the territory of the kingdom of Miredan.

Speaking of bad luck, when Ao Zongheng came from the kingdom of Miredang, the borders of the empire were not allowed to enter, because the war situation was very good at that time, and the empire also wanted to encourage the border lords to gradually move to the occupied areas to speed up the local naturalization. However, after suffering that big loss, only a small half of the occupied area remained, and troops were still stationed everywhere, so what kind of naturalization was there to talk about at this time? It was pure nonsense, so the border defense was simply closed on the side of Zena Gang Sakai, and no one was allowed to pass except for those who had permission from the Ministry of Military Affairs.

Of course, Ao Zongheng couldn't get permission from the Ministry of Military Affairs, smuggling was his only choice, and he came here like this that day, but at that time he was a solo man, and now he is not a burden with Doudolly, but Fei Lin and the other three have no choice.

Proud was not anxious, he first hired a coachman to take them to a hotel near the western boundary of Zena Gang Sakai to find a hotel, and then let Pigenpo go to buy food and drink, while Diodoli stayed in the hotel to guard the three of them, but he himself and the devil were gone for three days, and when he reappeared, he only said a word.

"Pack your things and set off when it's dark. ”

If you want to smuggle people, of course, night is more suitable than daytime, but now it is a state of defense, even at night, there are a large number of local defenders and people patrolling the boundary, anyway, at this time, there is no shortage of sergeants in the occupied area. If you want to break through the darkness, it is really not easy to avoid the sight of patrols.

The route chosen by Ke Ao Zongheng, no matter how good the sergeant is, plus hundreds of torches to illuminate, don't want to find it, because his route is neither a river nor a mountain, but a tunnel, a newly dug tunnel.

The entrance to the tunnel is hidden in a mess of rocks, and it is almost a stretch of ground from the nearest border, a distance that the patrolmen would not have come to here.