The next morning, we had a quick bite to eat and were back on our way.

To the east of the cottage is a rolling ridge of uneven hills, overgrown with trees, and knee-deep weeds and thorns on the ground, making it difficult for horses to walk. Just like a few days ago, I ordered He Yun, Yang Chong, and Zhu Kui to lead people to cut through thorns and open the way in front, Li Shubai and Zhang Han took seven or eight brothers to cover on the side, and I and Bailitu and Jiang Shun led the remaining brothers in the dart game to walk unhurriedly behind.

Because of the adequate rest, the spirits of the brothers in the dart game have improved, and the brothers who have contracted the wind cold and been bitten by poisonous insects have also suffered from less injuries, and in the past few days they have been depressed all day long, and they need to be helped by others to walk, but when they get up in the morning, they can talk and laugh with others. However, out of safety, in order to prevent the recurrence of some of their old diseases, I and a few dart masters gave up all the horses to them and let them ride forward.

As we suspected, we did see four or five small tribal cottages on the way. But fortunately, these small cottages are all empty, and no one can be seen. The tribes of the Western Regions live in groups, and these tribes can appear within a radius of forty miles, which can only be said that these tribes are interdependent and coexist, probably these small tribes are the subordinate tribes of the tribe where we camped last night, and the cottage was slaughtered, and they were all beaten by chickens and eggs, and they fled separately.

We walked out of this rugged mountain range in the afternoon, and in the evening, in the sound of roaring rapids, we arrived at Kufeng Bridge.

Taoshui begins in the Western Regions, but it is a tributary of the Great River, and the river channel is not much narrower than the main trunk, but with the steep and complex terrain of the Western Regions, there are still many extremely narrow sections of the Taoshui Branch, and Kufeng Bridge is one of them.

Kufeng Bridge is located on top of two deep cliffs. The two overhanging abysses stand east and west, the north and south are long for many miles, the height of forty or fifty zhang from the water surface, and the width of the two sides is enough to expand to the two sides, but when you get here, the cliffs on both sides are surprisingly close, almost bordering, at first glance, it is not so much that the Kufeng Bridge is a bridge, but rather a huge arched stone between the two banks. Due to the narrowing of the river, the river under the Kufeng Bridge also flows unusually turbulently, and when you walk over the bridge, the rumbling and rushing water is simply more powerful than the flood discharge.

There are stone railings standing on both sides of the Kufeng Bridge, and there are many relief carvings of birds, beasts, grasses and vines carved on it, but they are all inferior, and they are blurred by the wind and rain. Yang Chong told me that here is a key road from the Central Plains to the Western Regions, Kufeng Bridge is the boundary mark of the two places, the history is long, the bridge body is built by the people of the Western Regions tribes, the relief pattern on it is carved by the people of the Central Plains in ancient times, the reason why this bridge is built, the purpose is that the people of the two places can live in harmony and have good exchanges, in ancient times, here was also an endless stream of merchants and carriages, the number of people who went to the two places to do trading transactions is countless, lively and extraordinary, but since the chaos of the Western Regions, it has also cooled down here, and few people pass here.

As soon as you cross the Kufeng Bridge, the terrain immediately becomes flat. It's also strange, across a short Kufeng Bridge, the scenery of the two places is diametrically opposite, behind him is an undulating mountain range, the same knee-deep grass, and to the side of the bridge, but as far as the eye can see, but as smooth as paper, the road surface suddenly becomes gentle. Looking around in the golden remnant sun in the west, I only felt that the air became unusually fresh, and my heart was indescribably happy, I stayed in the Western Regions for more than half a year, and the mixture and sinister nature of that land really made me reluctant to turn my head and take another look, for fear of taking a look, as if I had returned to the bridge.

The barbarian witch Gu was rampant, the tribes were fighting non-stop, and the intervention of the Central Plains martial arts fought endlessly with the Changsheng Hall, adding to the desolation of the already dilapidated land of the Western Regions. The people of the rivers and lakes are like grass mustard, landing on the ground as a tomb, and several times of escaping death have also made me have a lot of disgust for the Western Regions, and if I were to pick a piece of my own grave, I would rather die on the side of the bridge. Thankfully, I'm finally back.

※※※

The road is wide, we are moving much faster, and we are getting closer and closer to Minzhou City.

There are many border passes in the west of the Great Song Dynasty, headed by Wenzhou Jianmen Pass, there are dozens of state fortresses in the north and south, all of them have heavy troops of the imperial court, Minzhou City is one of the many border cities, and it is also a gate city that is closer to the Western Regions on the western border of the Great Song Dynasty, and the Kongtong faction, which is one of the seven major sects in the Central Plains, is also located here. Minzhou was the city of Yongzhou in ancient times, it was the residence of Xiqiang, there was Minshan in the south of the state, there was Kongtong Mountain in the northwest, when the chaos in Tubo was in the early years, the various ethnic groups in Tubo had joined forces to take the opportunity to break through Minzhou, and then the military and civilians of the former dynasty would join hands with the sons of Kongtong to fight back, it took several years to recapture a large area of territory in the east of Minzhou, but at that time a large area of land in the west of Minzhou had fallen into the hands of Tubo. Later, the Song Emperor founded the country, in view of the instability of the national foundation, and did not recover Minzhou in time, but only ordered to set up Minzhou City between the two mountains, stationed with heavy troops to guard, while the Tubo State was turbulent due to the internal situation, and the invading departments had to retreat to the west of Taoshui, opposite to the Song army across the city. The disputes and grievances between the two places are quite deep, whether the Tubo tribes will invade the Central Plains in the future, there are many whispers in the Song realm, but since the establishment of the city, the territory of Minzhou is surprisingly calm, the imperial court did not crusade against Tubo after stabilizing the national foundation, and the Tubo Dongzhui departments did not want to invade again, Minzhou City, a former important place for soldiers to fight, has now inexplicably become the largest trade city on the border between the two places, and because the Kongtong faction is entrenched here, the Central Plains martial arts high-rollers often set foot, it is Minzhou City has also become the most mixed place among dozens of state fortresses。

As early as when the return route was agreed, Yang Chong had told me about Minzhou City, because there was a Kongtong faction, and I also thought about bypassing Minzhou City and returning to the Central Plains from Jianmen Pass in the south. However, Jiang Shun warned me, now that the battle between the Seven Great Sects and the Changshengtang has come to an end, no matter whether they win or lose, the major sects are bound to return to the Central Plains, and the Jianmen Pass is one of the important ways they must pass, if we go around to pass through the Jianmen Pass, not only will the road be much farther, but we may also encounter the Seven Great Sects that have returned, and at present, most of the people of the Kongtong faction are on the way back, but the interior is empty, if I return directly from Minzhou City, it will also save a lot of distance for my trip to the capital, and the Kongtong faction would never have imagined that I would pass under their noses。 Jiang Shun has been in the rivers and lakes for decades, he is a predecessor in the rivers and lakes, and his experience in the rivers and lakes is much deeper than that of our group, and it is precisely because of this that I will choose to return to the Central Plains through Minzhou City.

As soon as I crossed the Kufeng Bridge, there were gradually more people on the road.

After hurrying for more than ten miles, bypassing a loess slope, Yang Chong suddenly ran over from the front and said in a deep voice: "Darthead, we have arrived! Look, there is Minzhou City in front!"

At this time, the sky was getting dark, I pulled the one-eye mask that Zhou Huairen had woven for me with grass and vines, and looked along Yang Chong's fingers, only to see a hazy black shadow of a huge city in front of me. Although I have heard a lot about Minzhou City along the way, it is the first time I have seen it with my own eyes, and it seems that Minzhou City is much bigger than Chenzhou. I said, "Is that the pass?"

Yang Chong nodded and said, "Exactly." He turned his head to look to the right, and said in a low voice: "Darthead, entering Minzhou City is entering the territory of the Kongtong faction, bypassing the city gate and walking there to reach Jianmen Pass, are we ......?"

I looked at Minzhou City in the distance. Minzhou city is built between the mountains, the whole city is a towering knife cutting mountain on both sides, because the distance is a little far, the whole city of Minzhou city looks very blurry, but the hanging mountain cliffs on both sides of the city I can see clearly, that is because the mountain here is really dangerous and continuous, more than 10,000 zhang high, even though Minzhou City is huge, but it also seems a little small. However, when I looked at it this way, I still saw that there was a sheep intestine path in the mountain forest on the right side of the city, which led directly to the southeast deep mountains, and I thought that the path was the road to Jianmen Pass. I lifted the one-eyepiece and said, "No need, it's not early, we'll stay in Minzhou City for one night tonight." ”

Yang Chong pondered for a moment and said, "Darthead, then Brother He Yun and I will go to explore the path first, in case we meet people from the Seven Great Sects, we can also make a branch first." ”

I thought for a moment and said, "Go ahead, be careful." ”

Yang Chong smiled and said, "It's okay, the people of the Seven Great Sects don't know me and Brother He Yun, and when they see it, they can only treat us as if they are in a hurry." ”

After that, he pulled two horses from the ranks, hurriedly ran forward, and after a few words to the front of the team and He Yun whispered, the two rode fast horses and galloped towards Minzhou City.

The two of them went first, and we continued to walk slowly behind.

The further you go, the more pedestrians there are.

This is the border between the Great Song Dynasty and Tubo, most of the pedestrians are people from the tribes in Tubo, or in groups, or in groups of threes and fives, the old and weak women and children account for the majority, they are almost all wearing tattered coarse cloth animal skin clothes, unkempt, as if they have suffered a lot all the way to this place, when they see our team coming, they immediately bow their heads and flash to the side, their faces are full of vigilance. Among these people who rushed to Minzhou City together, there were also many mercenaries from the Central Plains, compared to the tribesmen on the road, they looked relaxed, or seven or eight people galloped on horseback, or more than a dozen people drove the carriage together, and the horses were hoarded with bulging animal skin packages on the carriage, which were full of animal skins and herbs hunted.

When we arrived at the city, it was already dark, but we saw a sea of people at the city gate, boiling in the sky, bustling and noisy, and many people were clamoring to crowd into the city gate.

We all stood still. In the crowd, He Yun and Yang Chong led their horses out of the crowd and ran towards us. As soon as they came to me, the two of them hugged each other at the same time, and He Yun said in a deep voice: "Dart, there is a curfew in the city, and the officers and soldiers guarding the city are not allowed to enter the city?"

I frowned and said, "Curfew?"

On the other hand, Baili Tu suddenly shouted: "There is a curfew in the city, and now it has just passed the unitary hour, where is the curfew time? Are these dog officials crazy!"