So she openly set up the banner of "Cao" on the Seven Punishment Mountain, not only stepped up the training of 8,000 iron-blooded dead soldiers, but also built a solid wall and watchtower on the three mountains of Yaoguang Peak, Kaiyang Peak and Yuheng Peak of the bucket handle.

At the same time, she had a large number of restored weapons taken out of the cave and distributed to the ordinary believers who had come to gather, each of whom was rewarded with a considerable sum of gold and silver. And solemnly promised that in the future, as long as every city is built, all the possessions and women in it can be taken for themselves and enjoyed.

In less than a month, the number of believers from all over the country who came to join the gathering was mixed with many ordinary speculative people, and at one time reached more than 100,000 people. In August of that year, under Sima Ruyan's order, more than 100,000 sect members launched a swift attack on the surrounding prefectures and counties as planned.

Because the imperial court at that time was not ready, the prefectures and counties in various places were only in a hurry to respond to the battle, and they were defeated for a while, and they captured more than a dozen important towns in one go.

At the same time, Sima Ruyan was carried away by this series of victories, and began to wantonly divide the princely generals, as if a big event could be expected. The princely generals under her command who had just been divided were just some short-sighted people, and after they occupied some important towns in states and counties, they began to enjoy themselves wantonly.

In this way, their offensive slowly and unconsciously slowed down, and there was no doubt about it, which also gave the imperial army's troops a rare time to adjust, allowing them to quickly mobilize a large number of elite troops from all over the country for deployment.

When the Tang Emperor Tang Xuanzong Li Chen heard this, he was naturally furious, and immediately dispatched the surrounding Huainan Jiedu envoy and Wei Duke Cui Xuan to personally lead heavy troops from all walks of life to suppress it. Although the teaching army pulled up by Sima Ruyan was claimed to have reached hundreds of thousands at that time, it was very vulnerable in front of a veteran general like Cui Xuan and the elite divisions under him.

In less than three months, the hundreds of thousands of religious troops on the periphery were all divided and eaten, and most of them were defeated with one blow, and the remaining part of the effective resistance was also brutally killed by the officials and soldiers. In the end, only 3,000 of Sima Ruyan's 8,000 iron-blooded dead soldiers remained, and they were still stubbornly holding on to the three peaks of the bucket handle.

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The combat effectiveness of these iron-blooded dead soldiers is not trivial, in this mountain where there is no natural danger to defend, in the face of more than ten times dozens of elite officers and soldiers, they have struggled to support for more than ten days. In the end, Sima Ruyan knew that the general trend had gone and the destiny of heaven was inviolable, so she reluctantly ordered the whole army to give up resistance, she couldn't bear to see everyone annihilated, she decided to exchange herself for the survival of all the remaining iron-blooded dead soldiers.

But these loyal members of the sect who have already been brainwashed by her will not let her sacrifice herself in exchange for their way to survive no matter what.

In a hurry, Sima Ruyan's most elite doll guard, they secretly discussed it by themselves and made the only decision to disobey the order.

They decided to divide the troops into two ways: one was composed of most of the male dolls, forming several assault teams, sneaking down the mountain at night to assassinate the leading generals of the officers and soldiers, burning the grain and grass of the officers and soldiers, and creating chaos for the officers and soldiers below as much as possible, of course, the chances of survival of these people were almost zero, and their choice was originally made

is suicidal.

On the other hand, the remaining female dolls, forcibly carrying their sect leader Sima Ruyan, escaped into the cave through the hidden secret passage, and temporarily lurked, waiting for the opportunity to raise the banner again.

After they had finished their deliberations, they exchanged views with the remaining leaders of the Iron Dead, who immediately agreed with their decision and decided to resolutely cooperate. Most of them, who had already been wounded, rushed down the mountain in the dark of night and started a suicidal fight with the officers and soldiers, creating the illusion that the breakthrough could not be achieved and the entire army was annihilated.

The remaining small number of iron-blooded dead soldiers with minor injuries followed and retreated into the cave as a spark for their comeback. At the same time, they also concealed Sima Ruyan, selected a female doll that looked very similar to her, and asked her to dress up as the sect leader, and finally died in the chaos after exhausting her strength.

After everything was agreed, they launched a suicidal blitz that night. In the end, everything was as they wished, and all the cultists who rushed down, including the fake Sima Ruyan, all died in the melee. And Sima Ruyan was forcibly escorted by the rest of the sect members, and safely escaped into the cave in the belly of the mountain, and temporarily lurked.

Although this "Caojiao" incident lasted only a few months and affected only a dozen prefectures and counties, it caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and caused a huge disaster to the local area.

Afterwards, Tang Xuanzong was very shocked, and killed more than 100 local officials at all levels at one time, and strictly ordered all localities to continue to hunt down and kill those who were caught, and to be sure to cut down the grass and eradicate the roots to prevent them from resurrecting and causing chaos again.

At the same time, historians at all levels were secretly ordered not to record this extremely disgraceful "incident of the cult," and even the people were not allowed to circulate it in any form.

Since the ordinary sect members at that time did not know that this secret place existed in the Seven Punishments Mountain, and the backbone elements who knew this secret, except for a few people who escaped safely into the secret passage, all the rest were all killed in the tragic final battle. Therefore, this secret of the Seven Punishments Mountain, which has been preserved for more than a hundred years, has been preserved forever again.

The eighth picture, Phantom Void, roughly means the following.

Later, months later, in the early morning of this day, Sima Ruyan quietly emerged from the secret passage alone. When she saw that everything she had worked so hard to manage had changed into a dream, she couldn't help but feel disheartened.

Especially, thinking of his faithful believers, almost all of them died heroically in order to protect themselves, and the rest of the disciples were also ruined, so they had to accompany themselves to hide in this cave and never see the light of day.

At this time, she seemed to finally really understand the four sentences written by the ancestor Sima Danyun in the general record of the "Four Xuans" - I still miss the world, I pity myself, and the phantom is far away, and the void is too mysterious......

After wandering in a daze for three days and three nights, she returned to the Seven Punishments Mountain. After returning, she first instructed her female dolls to use euthanasia to kill the iron-blooded dead soldiers who had finally followed her here, which, in her words, was their best relief. Then, she took the only eighteen remaining female dolls and walked into the deepest dark blue hall together.

And these female dolls are exactly the eighteen maids she carefully trained back then, and of course they are also the disciples and heirs of her who entered the house. There, with their help, she completed the engraving of these stone carvings, which can be regarded as leaving a complete account for future generations. In the end, she and her closest disciples committed suicide by taking poison together.

As for her body, why can it be preserved for more than a thousand years and still be so bright, like a living person? What are the names of the two strange flowers and trees in front of her, and what strange magic do they have?

Did the "Four Mysterious Books" left by her ancestor Sima Danyun finally destroy them with her, or were they hidden in some other secret place? Where did the huge wealth she left behind go, were they all scattered during the incident, or were they put into the last eight black boxes, or were they already transferred to other places by her?

She obviously left the stone carvings in this small stone room for the world, and she calculated that there would be destined people to see all this in the future, but why did she deliberately lay down these magical information mechanisms to destroy everything?

All of this, it is estimated that only this peerless woman who is indeed like smoke can truly explain it herself. Perhaps this is also the mystery she deliberately left behind for future generations, allowing future generations to imagine and kick endlessly, which is not in vain for her title of exquisite goddess......

After everyone listened to Xiao Qingfeng tell these dream-like, but real-life stories, everyone stayed there in a daze, speechless......

Volume 12: The Wild Ghost Village of Qingyun Mountain

That day, after everyone had eaten in the No. 8 Escape Hall, the lone wolf returned to the provincial capital with the prodigal son and went to report his work truthfully.

Unconsciously, more than a month has passed, and on this day, Mengshan Turtle, who has always been picking and searching, actually invited the remaining six people to eat for the first time, and deliberately set up a decent big field. When everyone was drinking happily, Mengshan Turtle finally said the true intention of inviting everyone to dinner, which was to invite everyone to accompany him back to his hometown.

It turned out that Mengshan Turtle's father was going to celebrate his seventieth birthday in a few days, and Mengshan Turtle was the only son of the old man.

However, Mengshan Turtle has had a strange temperament since he was a child, and he has no real friends in his hometown at all, and even if he arrives here, he is just the best brothers and sisters in this group, and most of the others have no real friendship. Therefore, he earnestly invited everyone to accompany him back for a while, at least to support him.

After everyone understood his true intentions, after deliberately manipulating it, under his repeated pleading, they reluctantly agreed. After contacting and discussing with the two people in the provincial capital, everyone agreed to leave in three days.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Mengshan Turtle immediately happily toasted everyone with three glasses of liquor. He counted the days, and the fifth day happened to be the right day, and when everyone arrived, he could help clean up the day.

Sure enough, on the evening of the next day, the lone wolf and the prodigal son came back from the provincial capital, and when they arrived at the low-rent apartment of the little Taoist, it was already more than ten o'clock at night, and the three of them simply dealt with each other and rested, and did not alarm everyone so much.