Xiao Hongtao and Wei Jiang led ten sturdy soldiers along the road they had walked in the afternoon to the north side of Yizhou City, and walked along the riverbed in the night to the place that the white-faced woman had said on the Broken Tiger Cliff. After arriving at the location, Xiao Hongtao ordered everyone to light torches and began to search for the three red stones nearby. The defenders on the city wall found Xiao Hongtao and others, and put a few arrows, but the distance was too far, and the arrows were not as powerful, and they didn't dare to go out of the city, so they had to give up.

"Found it!" Soon, a soldier found the three red stones in front of a pile of stones not far from the riverbed, and Xiao Hongtao felt very surprised to find these three red stones so quickly, things are often not good if things go too well. Xiao Hongtao and Wei Jiang hurriedly went over to check, only to find that these three stones were really too special, no wonder they were found so quickly.

These three stones are all transparent, showing a bright red color, and the light transmittance is very good, shining under the light of the torch, and it is very conspicuous in the night.

Holding the stone in his hand and examining it carefully, Xiao Hongtao found that these three stones should be three pieces of jade strictly speaking, and they are the best jade.

Xiao Hongtao once heard others say that jadeite is not superior to green, and jadeite does not only refer to hard green jade, jadeite is actually two colors of jade, the ancients called red jade, green jade, collectively called jade.

The value of red jadeite in good condition and water is not lower than that of green jadeite, and because of its scarcity, the market value is often higher.

Xiao Hongtao leaned over and took the three pieces of jadeite in his hand, and his doubts were even heavier: these three pieces of red jadeite have excellent light transmittance, and they should be regarded as glass species at first glance, and the three pieces are the same size, all of them are the size of a fist.

But here's where the problem arises!

Now but in the Later Zhou period, although the Chinese have always had a history of wearing jade, but the popularity of jadeite jewelry and the rapid increase in the value of jadeite began at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and Myanmar is the main production area of jadeite, now the appearance of such a large three pieces of superb red jade seems very abrupt, compared with the mining technology and trade at that time are less than one ten-thousandth of the later generations, these three pieces of jadeite from mining to transportation will cost a huge amount of money. Who mined these three pieces of jadeite, and who brought him to this small city in Xinjiang, there are many doubts.

Just when Xiao Hongtao was checking the three pieces of red jade, Wei Jiang and the others continued to search nearby, Wei Jiang clearly remembered what the white-faced woman said on the Broken Tiger Cliff, if you can find the red stone, you can find a way to break through Yizhou City without spending a single soldier, but now that the stone has been found, the method of attacking the city is still unknown.

In fact, Xiao Hongtao's puzzle was the same as Wei Jiang's, and after carefully thinking about the origin of the red stone, he thought to himself, what does this stone have to do with the siege of the city?

"Wei Jiang, did you find anything" Xiao Hongtao couldn't figure it out, and asked Wei Jiang if he had any clues.

"Father-in-law, I've searched around here, and I haven't found anything abnormal, except for these three stones, the others are ordinary stones. "The riverbed is so big, Wei Jiang and the others searched several times, but they didn't find anything abnormal.

"That's weird, that woman doesn't have to lie to us, she could have killed us directly on the Broken Tiger Cliff, and didn't have to go to such great lengths to trick us here. Xiao Hongtao was puzzled.

"Yes, father, but there is nothing special in this area, they are all ordinary stones. Wei Jiang looked around again, but still didn't find anything.

Xiao Hongtao said: "Bring the torch!"

After getting the torch, Xiao Hongtao leaned over to check the place where he had just found the three red stones, and when he saw Xiao Hongtao leaning over to check, Wei Jiang also squatted down and looked towards the ground with Xiao Hongtao.

Xiao Hongtao suddenly said to Wei Jiang: "Wei Jiang, do you see anything different?"

Wei Jiang was puzzled, looked at it carefully, and replied: "No, father-in-law, it's just an ordinary stone!"

Xiao Hongtao said two words slowly: "Size!"

"Huh?" Wei Jiang sighed, immediately looked down again, and suddenly raised his head and said, "Yes, father-in-law, the stones here are all smaller than those nearby, could it be that the secret is under these stones?"

"Very likely," Xiao Hongtao replied, "find two brothers to dig down here and have a look." ”

"Yes, Father. Wei Jiang was a little excited, and then beckoned people to start digging down with his sword.

At the beginning, Xiao Hongtao and others did not make any special progress in their excavation work, because they did not carry special excavation tools, so they could only use the sword they wore to dig, and the river beach was full of stones, so the excavation speed at the beginning was very slow, and it took about half an hour to dig down only about half a meter.

Suddenly, there was a muffled sound from the excavated pit, which was distinctly different from the sound of digging stones, apparently the excavated sword had touched something other than stone.

Wei Jiang, who was standing on the edge of the pit, immediately asked everyone to stop digging, and went down to the pit himself, he removed the broken stones, and found that a bamboo board appeared below, Wei Jiang knocked it with his hand, the thickness was not bad, under the light of the torch, through the gap on the edge of the bamboo board, it could be seen that there was still a lot of space under the bamboo board.

Wei Jiang raised his head and said to Xiao Hongtao: "Father-in-law, I found a bamboo board, and there seems to be something underneath!"

Xiao Hongtao was overjoyed in his heart and ordered, "Sure enough, there is something inside, continue to dig." ”

So, Wei Jiang ordered everyone to dig up the bamboo board, don't look at the difficulty of digging stones with a sword, but it is very easy to cut off the bamboo board with a sword, and the bamboo board will be cut off after three or five strokes. Xiao Hongtao and others found that there was a deep pit under the main board, Xiao Hongtao ordered someone to throw a torch, and the firelight illuminated the deep pit, Xiao Hongtao found that the hole was about two meters deep, the bottom of the hole was very flat, and the sides and above the hole were covered with the kind of bamboo slats that had just been cut.

Xiao Hongtao instructed Wei Jiang to lead five people to guard the entrance of the cave, and he took the remaining five people down the rope to the bottom of the cave - if what the white-faced woman said was true, then the way to break through the city should be in this cave.

When he got below, Xiao Hongtao found that this was not a deep pit at all, but a tunnel. This tunnel leads to two directions, one direction is Yizhou City, and the other direction is the Broken Tiger Cliff, but I don't know why, the direction leading to the Broken Tiger Cliff was blocked by someone with a huge stone bar, Xiao Hongtao and others tried to push hard, but to no avail, can only be seen from the gap in the stone, there is a passage behind the stone.

This side is sealed, so you can only go in the direction of Yizhou City. Xiao Hongtao found that the tunnel is very elegantly built, the whole tunnel is about two meters high, three meters wide, fixed with bamboo slats all around, supported by stone pillars at intervals, the ground of the tunnel is very flat, and even some places are paved with stone slabs. This tunnel is not said to be a person walking in it, even if you are driving in it, you can do it. In addition, walking in the tunnel does not feel stuffy at all, which shows that the tunnel has ventilation holes, which ensure the circulation of gas in the tunnel.

Generally speaking, the tunnel generally has several functions, one is for escape, most of the tunnels that Xiao Hongtao saw on TV when he was a child are like this, such tunnels can be called secret tunnels. The second is to trade secret goods, such as the popular trade in dark places in recent years, dark objects are generally carried out in tunnels. The third is to be used for war, such as the authentic use in Xiao Hongtao's popular "Tunnel Warfare" when he was young.

But now this tunnel is built so elegantly, and the situation that it is blocked by the waist in the middle makes Xiao Hongtao feel incredible, if there is no exit of a tunnel, it will lose the function of the tunnel, since it has lost its function, it is still so elegant, which is a bit difficult to understand.

Walking in an unfamiliar environment always feels that time flies very slowly, Xiao Hongtao and others walked in the tunnel with torches for about a stick of incense, and suddenly found that something was wrong in front of them.