Garmic Mountains.

Dozens of Rhodoks were sent around looking for a place to camp. There are some ruins around here, and along the broken wall, soldiers are already setting up tents one after another.

When Rhodok's soldiers were stationed, they usually shared a tent with twelve soldiers. In peacetime, each soldier carried a thick bundle of felt and a length of rope. Everywhere they went, the soldiers would gather timber to erect their skeletons, and then use felt to cover them with a camping tent. When Aaron, the officers once showed the naval cadets a knick-knack invented by the Kujits, that is, a few sections of hardwood or iron skeletons were folded together, which was light and easy to carry, and could be directly assembled into a camp skeleton when they arrived at the camp, saving the effort of collecting materials. Unfortunately, this kind of thing was not popularized in the army, and the soldiers could only use spears to erect the main pole on the top of the mountain, hastily hang the felt on it, and then get into it and rest next to each other.

With the exception of the soldiers, who were busy setting up the camp, all the soldiers were watching a staff officer named Sabel from the edge of a dark abandoned well. Now Mr. Sabel, with a cloudy face and rope wrapped around his body, was saying goodbye to several officers.

"Good work, Mr. Sabel," said Sabo Marion to Sabel as he examined the rope section by section, "we have tied two ropes to you, and unless they are both broken, you will be safe." And this third rope you hold in your hand, pull it in case of an emergency, and we will pull you up; After hitting the bottom, we pulled twice in a row, and we fixed the rope. Don't shout, you should know that people who call the surface underground are inaudible, I once met a miner''"

Sabel interrupted the chattering Marion, "We're professors in the Academy of Sciences." ”

Marion thought for a moment: "There is such a level? ”

"Uh''', well, I've followed the goblins to hear reports a few times."

Marion raised his eyebrows and pulled the rope one last time: "Good luck".

Sabel held a torch: "Oh my God, I dreamed last night that I was swallowed by a cow and rolled in its stomach." It can be seen that the goblin guy said that dreams have special meaning, and it is not all nonsense", and as soon as he said this, Sabel's head slowly fell into the crack. The soldiers unconsciously moved closer, and the light of some torches began to flow dimly from the mouth of the well, and before long, the abandoned well was completely dark.

Marion commanded the six soldiers to slowly lay down the rope, stopping for a short time every few feet. I don't know how long later, several soldiers felt the rope in their hands suddenly loosen, and at the same time, the third rope quickly tightened twice: Sabel had bottomed out.

Marion couldn't help but marvel at the depth of the well, and the stone that Sabel had thrown must not have touched the bottom yet, and the distance was much greater than the estimated thirty meters. The rope that is not in the cave is more than sixty meters long, and if this distance can lead to the cliff wall, it will be almost halfway up the mountain.

After a silent observation, my father ordered twelve soldiers to take turns guarding the ropes and waiting for Sabel's return. The soldiers were ordered to rest and began to walk to their tents, and the wind blew up the snow to dry and hard like sand, and soon the soldiers' camp turned into a dozen spiky snowdrifts.

Marion and his father huddled in a tent, where a soldier used a dagger to cut a small piece of bacon and then used a blade to put the meat in his mouth. From time to time, the coughing of soldiers came from other camps, and the wind whistled. When people got together, although the smell was unpleasant, the temperature was slowly rising, the air exhaled by the sleeping soldier no longer turned into a white mist, and in the warm tent, the father began to fall asleep.

The father began to have a dream: in the dream, Jill and Elune were dancing happily, and suddenly Jill became Ukhru, and Elune cried; Then the moonlight fell, and Kazak bled profusely, and then the sun rose, and Rhine said she was not afraid; Then Xiao Kui stood gloomily in the sunflower field, but her eyes were blue, Xiao Kui suddenly became Marion again, Marion said something loudly, the sun was dazzling, and the dream was silent.

"Wake up, wake up", the father opened his eyes and saw Marion shaking him, the soldiers in the tent had woken up, and two soldiers had put on their helmets and walked out of the tent. "Sabel is back".

The father sat up, rubbed his eyes, and then the curtain of the tent to keep the snow out was lifted, and a snowman came in with a cold head down. Several soldiers moved the ground to make way for the man.

Sabel patted the snow off his shoulders and head, rubbed his hands and said tremblingly, "It's so deep, it's almost impossible to see the bottom." ”

Sabel then told the tent people: "There are no church-like domes under the mountain, only some winding tunnels. Some places are really worried about not being able to get in and out, and they are very narrow. But it's warm inside the mountains, at least much stronger than outside. Occasionally, snow falls, but it melts away quickly. The well diggers did not say that there were some puddles of water below, and there were constant drips of water on the ground, and when the water came out, it would flow to the lowest place. I followed the current slowly, getting deeper and deeper, and the air became more and more stuffy. I simply stuck the torch in a crack in the stone and continued to walk down. Then I couldn't see anything, and the ground became dry. And then '''"

"And then what's wrong?"

"Then I was scared and came back."

Several people in the tent were listening to Sabel's adventure story with a serious attitude, and when they heard this, they all had a feeling of being anticlimactic.

Marion was so happy: "Well, since there are no clues, then there is no need to waste time here." Tomorrow on the last day of searching, if there is no way down the mountain, let's turn back to Amerafort along the road. The work inside the camp should be heavy right now."

No one objected. Sabel dried his hair with a woolen blanket, and when he heard this, he said, "No, there is another reason why I have come back." ”

"Oh?"

"Well, I heard the prayer bells of the Salanders, and the stone wall of the place where I had arrived was only four feet wide at most, and it could not be thicker, or else the sound would be sucked up by the stone. I'm not sure where the wall will be after it's been chiseled, but how can I know if I don't try. ”

Marion frowned, "Three feet wide, this kind of stone, if ten soldiers take turns to knock the stone with their heads, it will take three days to chisel through." But the more than 200 people could not wait until that time. ”

The father thought for a moment, "Are you sure you heard that?" ”

"Yes, it's clear. It's a bit ambiguous, though. At first, I was startled and thought it was some kind of devil. It was only later that the prayer bell of the Salander came to mind. ”

"If that place were to be dug up, where would it be at Fort Garmic?"

"It's not optimistic, it should be more than 20 meters above the ground on the wall. If it's a slope, it's fine, but if it hits a cliff that goes straight up and down, it's completely useless. There is no way to chisel it, and as Mr. Marion said, it will take a few days to chisel."

"And what about your support?" Father asked.

"Just like you".

"Chisel?"

"Chisel!"

Marion questioned, "You didn't hear a word of what I said before, did you?" You can't ask 30 people to do it in three days, you have to wait at least three days for this job, no matter what. At that time, I am afraid that many of the soldiers were already hungry, and they would not be able to attack the Salanders at that time; I can't go back to Amera Fort for the second time. How do you explain to General Garcia? ”

The father nodded, remembering the story of the Salander people crossing the desert that he had heard in Aaron: the Salander merchants had to walk for many days to bring the newly made dates to the end of the desert. In this way, there is often not enough food on the way, and at this time, some of the Salanders will give food to the others, and they will go back hungry, so that at the end of the day some people will be able to walk through the desert.

Now the situation is different, but the essence is similar. As long as you ensure that some people complete the sneak attack mission, it is not much more expensive.

"So, Uncle Marion, take a hundred men back, and leave behind the heavy weapons, baggage, and food, so that you can walk back to Amerafort in a day and a half, and when you get to Ameraburg, I will give you a day to rest, and then return here as soon as you can with more food. If we are then able to cut through, we will attack the Salanders as the case may be; If there is no chiseling, let the soldiers take turns to return to Fort Amera. That is, to ensure that there are always enough soldiers on standby on the snowy mountains. ”

Marion thought for a moment, "Well, I'm going to go to that place and see it for myself."

Sabel stretched and was ready to go to bed, when he suddenly noticed that everyone was looking at him, "What's wrong?" ”

"Lead the way". Everyone said in unison.

When Sabel was tied with two ropes on his body, and his face slowly sank into the ground, he no longer had the demeanor of being admired by everyone for the first time, and Sabel didn't even bother to say anything about adjusting the atmosphere at this time.

When Sabel finally hit the bottom, Marion and my father went down the well, and then the soldiers took down six more soldiers and four heads.

My father used the torch to look around, and many places looked cramped, and the stone walls were paved as if they were going to crush people. The further down you go, the more humid the air becomes, and the stone pillars are covered with a shiny layer of water. The soldiers baked black marks on the walls with torches to prevent them from getting lost.

In front of a low stone wall, Sabel asks everyone to extinguish the torches. Marion shook his head: "No problem, there must be a gap between here and the outside, the air is still fresh, bring a torch." The soldiers were still worried that they would run out of air and suffocate themselves--- which had happened to many miners, so they took only one torch and extinguished the other five.

Sabel was still more satisfied, and grinned at Marion: "Five to one, haha".

Marion shook his head and followed Sabel into the crack in the stone. The stone crack here is a passage that appears after a whole stone is broken, and it is more than 20 meters long, and it can only crawl and move in it, and the extremely oppressive environment makes people think of what will happen to the stone once it closes itself.

This short distance is nerve-wracking, almost like walking two miles on the edge of a cliff.

But after climbing this distance, the whole space suddenly opened up, and the soldiers struggled to raise the torch to the top floor.

Sabel patted a wall: "This is it".

Marion walked over and touched the wall, his face pale: "Granite, if you're unlucky, you won't be able to chisel through it for a week, and it will break if you hit it a few thousand times." ”

A miner-born soldier came over and put his ear against the wall, then touched the stone, nodded and added: "Yes, granite." In the past, when we encountered a rock in the way, we didn't use a hammer to chisel. We burn it with fire, and then we swoop the water, and the stone will explode. That would be much easier. But this place can't be done like this, because I don't know how big the vents are in it, and if there is not enough air, the fire will not burn much, and it will be useless. ”

"Let's try it first," said my father.

The soldier took a pickaxe and slammed it into the wall, sparking sparks into the wall. The soldier stepped back, and the rest approached with torches to check: a white spot appeared on the rock.

"No, the stones here are too hard. It may not be possible to cut through it for a week," the soldier said, shaking his head, frustrated.

"Then give you two weeks," said Arcadio the second, "and now the six of you take turns to chise, and you are not allowed to stop for a moment." A few of you stay here, and we'll send someone to rotate you in an hour. ”

Soldiers, you look at me, I look at you. "Yes, sir."

When the group of three people was struggling to climb out of the stone crack, there was a sound of Ding Ding behind them.

As Marion tied the rope to his body under the entrance of the cave, he couldn't help asking, "Is it okay that there is no one to supervise?" ”

"It's all right," said the father with a smile, "and they'll be scared to death as soon as they stop." Sabel's brows furrowed, feeling that there was some sarcasm in his words, but he didn't care when he thought that he could go up and rest.

Just in the mountain behind Garmic, just as the six soldiers were vigorously chiseling against the stone wall, Edward, who was standing at the head of the wall, was inexplicably alarmed, he had an ominous premonition, and couldn't help but look back at the Garmic Mountains.

When Aziz left before dawn with little Marion, he half-jokingly told Edward, "Fort Garmici will not be lost from the gates." Edward heard the vague words. I can only nod my head in response. At that time, Aziz was stuffing little Marion into the cargo box of the mule in the back, and then stepped on the front end himself. Then Aziz's expression suddenly changed, and he became a simple, tame merchant uncle, even though he knew Aziz's viciousness, Edward couldn't help but be confused by the generous smile of the man in front of him.

"Goodbye, sir".

"Yes", Aziz leaned down with a smile and motioned for Edward to come closer, "Boy, I know your old fox Zaitsev, so I have a relationship with him." Listen, it's good for you, if you can't win, run away, and keep a boat for you by the sea. ”

"Huh?"

"Peace be upon you, my friend."

Taking advantage of the pre-dawn darkness, the city gate creaked open. With the heavy sound of mules' hooves, a magnificent morning sun is rising over the sea in the distance.