After inspecting the thief's injury, Chai Shaoning found that the sword of Miao Jianglong or Huo Liangdong happened to pierce the right eye of the thief who was looking in the cave, and the tip of the sword was deep into the brain, and he had already lost his breath.

This kind of thief is not a pity to die. Chai Shaoning ignored the corpse under his feet, and looked at the environment in the cave with all his attention, and saw that the cave led to a huge natural stone crack. The crack in the stone closed before reaching the outside of the cliff, leaving only the small opening that could be seen before, and the gap leading to the mountain was very wide, like a huge well hidden in the mountain.

After the processing of the thieves in the Black Tiger Village, a steep path was opened on the stone crack, and the steep steps extended upwards along the edge of the bottomless big crack, and I don't know which direction it leads to the village? There is also a long rope hanging on the wall of the stone crack, which is cut off with an iron ring at a distance, so that the rope can lead to the place where the thief wants it to reach along the direction of the ring.

Seeing this setting, Chai Shaoning estimated that at the other end of the rope, there must be an object such as a bell or a bronze bell, when the secret sentry in the stone cave found the enemy's situation, pulled the rope, and the personnel above decided the strength of the attack according to the length of the bell, pushed down the boulder, and ruthlessly attacked the enemy who intended to climb to the top of the peak from the back cliff.

Chai Shaoning was amused in his heart, Luo Huaping is probably a mouse, and he has a lot of research on making holes.

While he was thinking about it, there was a sudden sound of footsteps above the crack in the stone, and a faint light flickered, and there was indeed more than one thief in the cave.

The thief who came down may have heard the first alarm and stopped moving, so he couldn't rest assured, or maybe he heard a faint noise in the cave and came down to check. Anyway, to the thief's misfortune, he was still about ten feet away from below, when he felt a sudden gust of wind blowing in his face.

The thief was amazed. In addition to being for people to look at, the only unobtrusive entrance to the cave below is usually blocked by people with specially made, camouflaged wooden planks, how can such a strong wind blow in this closed cave?

The thief hurriedly stretched out his hand to protect the small oil lamp that was held up in front of his head and hung on the wall only when it reached the bend below, so that no one could see the bright light of the road from outside.

Walking on the steep stone steps of the cliff, if there is no light, if you are not careful, you will fall into the bottomless crack next to you, and your bones will be shattered.

However, as soon as the thief raised his hand, he felt that he had touched a cold blade.

Before the thief could scream, Chai Shaoning had already grabbed his throat, and with a little force, the thief's eyes were pinched so that his eyes protruded, and he sat down on the stone steps behind him.

Chai Shaoning didn't have time to spend time with this thief, so he caught the oil lamp that the other party had dropped, put it on the stone steps, pressed the blade on the thief's neck, and threatened in a low voice: "If you dare to make a little noise, I will cut your throat and let you die here in a little pain." ”

The thief was frightened, understood everything, and nodded his head in understanding.

Slowly letting go of the left hand that was holding the thief's neck, Chai Shaoning asked, "Where does this secret passage lead?

This thief was also simply, knowing that he couldn't play tricks, so he simply told everything.

This dark passage is a huge crack that Luo Huaping accidentally discovered when he built the village, which leads to the stone field of the inner village of the Black Tiger Village above.

Today's stone yard has been surrounded by Luo Huaping's other high wall, and Luo Huaping's daughter Luo Qingling led the ten henchmen and more than 100 personal soldiers to guard it closely. In addition to these people sent on the stone field, even the leader of the village did not know that there was such a secret passage behind the ridge.

In addition to the stone chamber where the lookout hole is located below, in the middle of the dark passage, where the mountain crack is narrowed, Luo Huaping also chiseled the wall and installed a groove and embedded an iron plate to form a second stone chamber, which was guarded by two other secret sentinels. Once someone is found entering, the thieves in the stone chamber lock the iron door, and it is difficult for the people below to insert their wings.

At the exit of the secret passage on the top of the cliff, there is also a basement, and above the basement is the sentry tower standing in the center of the stone field, on the one hand, it can be used as a place for the quarry guards to receive alarms and rest, on the other hand, if the secret passage is completely lost, the thieves only need to pour the prepared fire oil into the basement, and after ignition, they can prevent the enemy from entering, and even burn the people who sneak into the secret tunnel. If there are a large number of people who have entered the tunnel, the thieves can also fill the basement with stones from the quarry, and the tunnel will be completely closed.

Of course, all these facilities are just in case, and the biggest role of the secret passage is still to provide a way out for Luo Huaping, his family, and his subordinates at the last moment, as guessed by the Merry Four Envoys.

The lookout hole was located at a height of thirty zhang on the cliff wall, and if it wasn't for the reason, Chai Shaoning wouldn't have been able to find it at all, or he wouldn't have the ability to enter the secret passage hidden behind that inconspicuous pit.

After asking everything clearly, Chai Shaoning ordered the thief's acupoint, put him on the stone steps, and then ripped off the thief's coat, tore it into strips of cloth, and walked up a long enough way, and then carefully tied the long rope and the iron ring that hung it one by one with the torn strip of cloth.

It wasn't until he was sure that the change in the weight of the rope would not trigger a cliff top alarm, so Chai Shaoning cut off a long rope below.

Put the rope in your hand and twist it, it is soft and cool, it is specially made of high-quality silk, it does not seem to be thick, but it is very tough, and it is not twisted with the strength of Chai Shaoning's hand to open the stele and crack the stone.

Relieved, Chai Shaoning fixed one end of the rope on the iron ring of the lanyard at the bottom of the dark passage, and tried to pull it, whether it was the iron ring or the light silkworm rope, it was enough to withstand the strength of his body, and then he grabbed the other end of the rope and slipped out of the hole.

Simply told Geng Qiuwen and Fang Xiaoyun what happened, and the two of them were overjoyed.

At this time, there were less than two hours left before dawn, and Fang Xiaoyun showed his light skills and rushed back to the officer and soldier camp with all his might.

If they can't attack the cottage through the dark passage tonight, and when the enemy finds out that the secret passage is lost, all the efforts of the three of them will be in vain.

After watching Fang Xiaoyun leave, Geng Qiuwen and Chai Shaoning climbed into the secret passage along the rope and found the real exit of the secret passage confessed by the thief, which was a stone gate more than half a person high that was dug out by hand. I took out the mountain rock closed at the exit, and found that it was on the side of the cliff as high as 50 zhang from the bottom of the valley, and the cliff path was 10 zhang below, but the exit passed through the height difference of 10 zhang and had passed diagonally to the front of the rockfall range.

If the exit is at the end of the path, it is easy to be guessed, and even if the bottom of the valley is deserted, in order to occasionally deal with people who are as suspicious as the Merry Four Messengers, falling rocks will cause damage to the path, and even if you come out of the secret passage, there is no way to go.

On this forty-zhang mountain road, even if Luo Huaping himself is not careful, he will fall to pieces, and no one dares to risk death, and he jumps ten zhang to explore the possible hidden passages behind the wall above the path, not to mention that ordinary masters of the rivers and lakes simply do not have the ability to jump to such heights.

In short, this is a retreat that Luo Huaping thinks is foolproof, but he would never have imagined that the strongest link would become his most fatal weakness.

The problem of finding out the secret passage has been solved, but the greater difficulty is how to deceive the iron gate locked in the middle of the mountain road and get the soft ladder placed there? Relying only on the section of rope cut by Chai Shaoning, on this cliff wall forty or fifty zhang high, it is too dangerous, not to mention that I am afraid that a few people will not be able to climb up until noon.

Of course, the officers and men would have brought spare ropes, but the time was short, and it was impossible to make a soft ladder that would facilitate the personnel to climb up and down.

The two of them carried the captured thief and slowly sneaked upward, walking for more than half an hour, before they approached the so-called iron gate in the middle of the dark passage. But at first glance, the hearts of the two suddenly became cold.

Here, the crack in the mountain shrinks into a straight shaft, and the iron gate is like a manhole cover that tightly blocks the upper and lower passages, and only opens a small hole where the rope penetrates. If someone calls the door below, the thief above only needs to look down from the small hole to immediately see the situation below, so the original plan to force the thief to open the iron door cannot be implemented at all.

In this narrow passage, Chai Shaoning and Geng Qiuwen had no place to hide at all.

Just when they were at a loss, the two of them suddenly heard the faint sound of footsteps coming from above, and then someone asked, "Qi San, why are you the only one here?"

The thief named Qi San replied: "After the previous alarm, there has been no news for a long time, and I don't know what happened below?" Liu Er went to Sun Wu to ask about the situation. ”

"What can happen? Most of the time, Sun Wu is bored and sends an alarm to smash the wild boar to play. The thief who came was obviously very slack, and snorted dissatisfiedly: "It's just that the leader Xu thinks that the officers and soldiers have failed to attack the mountain during the day, and he can't rule out the possibility that they want to find a passage from behind." I couldn't wait for dawn to wake me up, and ordered me to change shifts in advance and replace Sun Wu to find out the situation at the bottom. ”

"Brother Da Lu is extremely right!" Qi San's sycophant voice came down: "Don't say that this passage is difficult for outsiders to detect, even if you tell the officers and soldiers, they can't climb up!"

Hearing the conversation between the two, Chai Shaoning and Geng Qiuwen below were suddenly overjoyed.

The two thieves above were so confident that they bet they wouldn't look down there before opening the iron door.

Chai Shaoning lifted his sword and jumped to the bottom of the top cover, and with a "squeak", the light of a large oil lamp had leaked from the iron lid that was lifted.

However, for the thief above, what was brighter than the light was a sword light that shot out from under the iron cover that had just been lifted!

This sword light came so fast, so fast that the thieves couldn't react, and it was so bright that it made them cold to the bone.

In order to prevent accidents, Chai Shaoning directly killed the two thieves.

Eliminating the threat, Chai Shaoning stood at the mouth of the cave and looked at the stone chamber that had been carved out of the narrow cracks in the upright mountain.

It is much more comfortable than the observation hole below, and in addition to the huge oil lamp hanging in the corner of the wall, there is not only a wooden bed for resting, but also a place of wine and meat on the floor for people to enjoy.

In the dark caverns deep in the belly of the mountain, it is easy to paralyze one's mind, and it is not uncommon for one's guard post to be turned into a comfortable dwelling.