Chapter 390

In the middle of the night, the officers and soldiers outside the north gate suddenly attacked, and a large number of archers rushed to the city and shot arrows into the city, and the sound of shouting and killing was endless; Yang Hu, Qi Yanming and other leaders of the thieves were greatly panicked, and the thieves at the head of the city also hurriedly shot arrows to defend, and the noise shook the sky.

At the same time, under the faint light of the half-bent waning moon, the simple gate on the east side of the camp of officers and soldiers opened, and five or six black shadows left the gate and went eastward. After walking for three or four miles, the sound of water in front of me was roaring, and I came to the side of a river.

"Master Jun, this is the Surabaya River." The voice of the old stonemason rang out.

Song Nan nodded and said, "Ready, go into the water." ”

Everyone went down to the riverbank, Li Daniu took the lead and slowly touched it, and as soon as his body entered the water, he exclaimed: "The water is so cold, the old man doesn't know if he can stand it." ”

Song Nan bent down and stretched out his hand, the river was really cold and biting, forgetting that it was late October, if it was in the northern border, I am afraid that it would usher in the first snow of this year, but I forgot whether the old stonemason could withstand it.

Unexpectedly, the old man stepped into the water without hesitation in three steps and two steps, and said, "This is also called cold?" Back then, the old man and I worked in the water in the cold winter and the moon, which was several times colder than this, and now even if it is not as good as back then, this cold can still stand it. ”

Song Nan raised his fingers and praised: "When you are old, you are strong, and you admire it tightly." ”

Everyone no longer hesitated, they went down to the river, and the accompanying few people were all good swimmers in the army, two of them specially protected the old stonemason, two of them protected Song Nan, and Li Daniu took the lead in exploring the way, everyone left the river bank and went to the center of the river, and after a while, they were carried by the strong current to the direction of Gunzhou City.

The river water was cold and biting, and Song Nan only felt that his whole body was cold, and he could barely breathe; The current in the center of the river is too strong to resist the rapid current, so you can only try to keep your mouth and nose on top and follow the current.

It didn't take long for everyone to reach the left side of the city of Gunzhou, looking at the torches and lanterns dotted at the head of the city, and the figure of the thieves on the corner tower of the city wall, everyone in the river became more and more careful; Although the clamor and shouting of killing on the battlefield in the north are earth-shattering, it can attract some attention; But under the city wall of the east city, the sound of shouting and killing on the front is actually not too noticeable, on the contrary, against the backdrop of the shouting and killing, I feel that this side is more quiet.

Fortunately, the sound of the river at night is the best cover, everyone only leaks their heads in the water, it is estimated that from the city, the river is dark and I am afraid that I can't see anything clearly.

After drifting along the city wall of the east city for a mile or two, the tall black shadow of the gate tower of the east city gate could already be seen in front, and the old stonemason in front struggled to point his hand to the shore, and everyone understood that it was time to go ashore; Everyone struggled to swim to the shore, and suddenly heard a soldier shouting softly, and Li Daniu shouted: "What's it called?" Looking for death? ”

The soldier cursed, "There are spikes in the river, and the villain has been stabbed in the soles of his feet, so be careful." ”

Everyone was shocked, their hearts tightened, and Song Nan commanded in a low voice: "Da Niu is exploring the way ahead, and the rest of the people are following him." ”

With Li Daniu's water nature, he is naturally not afraid of underwater spikes, Li Daniu held a sharp knife in his hand, dived underwater, cut off the underwater spikes densely covered in the river bank one by one, and opened up a channel, everyone followed him step by step, and it took half an hour to leave the water and come to the river bank.

It is also customary to defend the city by laying spikes and thorns in the moat to prevent the enemy from swimming down when attacking the city, and I am afraid that these thorns and thorns are not laid by the thieves, but by the officers and soldiers who defended the city before; It's a pity that such a strong city was broken by thieves, Xu Yande was evacuated back to Beijing after losing Dongchang Mansion, and the remnants of his army didn't even have the courage to defend the city.

There is still a gap of more than ten zhang between the Surabaya River and the city wall, this open space is the place of death, if it is discovered by the defenders of the city, there is no reason to survive; Everyone held their breath and crawled ashore like a large turtle laying eggs, and slowly climbed to the dead corner under the base of the city wall, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

The body was drenched and blown by the wind, and everyone was so cold that they grinned, Song Nan understood that he had to act quickly, and if he delayed it until he was frozen enough to choke on it, in case anyone accidentally sneezed, everyone would be finished.

The old stonemason had squinted his eyes and walked slowly along the city wall in the hazy moonlight, carefully recalling the impression left in his mind decades ago, the culvert was built too long, but fortunately, the open space outside the city wall to the river bank was rarely visited on weekdays, and there was basically no change in the decades, but the old stonemason's memory was wrong.

"I remember that when the culvert was built, there were several large bluestones under the base of the wall facing the city wall, and when we came up from the water, we all sat on the stones to rest, and we couldn't find them." The old stonemason muttered softly, looking around.

Song Nan and the others followed behind, scratching their ears and cheeks, and couldn't help, the old stonemason walked back and forth several times within dozens of steps, and suddenly patted his head and said: "Oh, I forgot about it, after the culvert was repaired, those few big bluestones were carried down the river by us as stone steps, and they were old and old, and they had no memory." ”

There was a sound from the city, and the old man hurriedly stopped his chattering, and everyone stuck to the city wall, and looked up, only to see the red light flashing, and a group of thieves walking past the wall with torches, and the coughing and footsteps could be heard clearly; After a while, the footsteps headed north, and the surroundings were calm again.

"Uncle, can you find a place?" Song Nan asked in a low voice.

"Master Jun, I'm afraid I'm going to go down the river again, the left and right are nearly twenty steps to the left, and after going into the water, I will touch the bluestone stone steps, and the bottom of the water under the stone steps is the entrance to the culvert." The old man said in a low voice.

Song Nan nodded, beckoned to Li Da Niu, "Da Niu, let's go down again." ”

Li Daniu agreed in a low voice, the old stonemason wanted to follow, but Song Nan waved his hand to stop him: "The old man is resting here, and the old man doesn't need to do these things." ”

The old stonemason was also very tired, so he nodded and pointed to the black river and said: "Master Jun, remember, the banks on both sides of the culvert are very steep, in order to bury the culvert deeply, the government ordered us to build the inclined river bank straight, I don't know if there are spikes on both sides, the military masters should be extra careful." ”

Song Nan nodded, waved his hand, and everyone crawled on the ground, crawling into the river like a turtle that had laid eggs; When they got to the shore, they slowly tumbled into the water, and sure enough, the place where the toes touched was bottomless, and the old stonemason was right, the bank of the river was dug steeply, and the water was very deep, which was probably also to let the river enter the city through the deep buried culvert when the water was dry.

Song Nan waved his hand, everyone divided into pieces, groped for more than 20 steps, and soon saw a soldier in the south drilling out of the water and waving his hand, everyone quickly gathered over, and climbed in the stone crack on the riverbank with one hand to stabilize his figure.

"My lord, there are a few big stones down here, maybe they are the bluestones that my husband said." The soldier gasped.

Without waiting for Song Nan to speak, Li Daniu dived under the water with a fierce son, and came up after a while and said: "It's a culvert, a culvert that is one person high, just under the bluestone, about a foot from the water." ”

Song Nan was overjoyed and said: "Okay, make a mark on the riverbank, and make a mark on the other bank later, but don't forget." ”

Li Daniu nodded and said: "I'm going down, I just touched the mouth of the culvert and there seems to be an iron fence, see if I can break it." ”

Song Nan didn't say a word and took a breath and went underwater, only to hear the water whistling in his ears, the water was black, and after a while, he did touch a large stone with a protruding horizontal strip in his hand, and then it was a hole that was square and upright, and there was a faint flow of water flowing into the hole.

Li Daniu next to him also sneaked down, and the two of them held the iron fence at the mouth of the culvert at the same time and pulled out, but the iron fence did not move, Li Daniu kicked it with his foot, and the iron fence was kicked and bent, but although it was rusty, it was still continuous because it was too thick. Song Nan couldn't hold his breath, he floated up quickly, and let out a long breath, Li Daniu couldn't hold it back either, and came out of his side.

"Brother Nan, what should I do?" Li Daniu asked while wiping the water on his face.

Song Nan thought for a while and waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about it for now, let's go back after making a mark." ”

They climbed to the base of the wall, and took the old stonemason along the base of the wall to the north, and when they arrived, they crawled like water on the shore, and swam with the water to the opposite bank, and then ran several miles to the east, and then swam in a big circle and crossed the river back to the camp.

Hearing that the governor of the capital returned, all the generals gathered in the big tent to ask, Hou Dabiao and Xu Tai no longer feint, an order, all the banners went back to the camp to sleep, the thieves at the head of the city saw that the officers and soldiers suddenly saw that they all withdrew, they all felt strange, the officers and soldiers did not even do a decent attack, only shot a few rounds of arrows up, the sound of shouting resounded in the sky, is this the siege of the officers and soldiers?

Yang Hu, Qi Yanming and other thief generals laughed, and shouted triumphantly at the head of the city: "Have you seen it? The officers and soldiers are all pustud eggs, and whatever they say about how the city is broken, they are all. Sue you, these officers and soldiers don't want to attack in their lives, some of you want to die as soon as possible, if you teach Lao Tzu to know that you are playing tricks behind your back, Lao Tzu will kill you alive. ”

The soldiers and people at the head of the city were silent, and some of them had already planned to escape or respond when the city was broken or the officers and soldiers were attacking, but the officers and soldiers were incompetent, so what was the use of just clamoring for arrows? They made up their minds that if the officers and soldiers did not break the city, they would never be allowed to move, and no one would dare to be the first bird, and they would be cut into pulp.