The horse-drawn carriages of this era actually did not travel very fast, and could only barely meet the minimum limit of the slow trains of later generations; moreover, they had to alternate draft horses at stations along the way. Therefore, in addition to the occasional passenger and freight carriages passing by each other, Jiang Tian could also see carriages, horses and pedestrians on the parallel straight road.
Regardless of whether it is a four-wheeled passenger car with swaying lights, a fully loaded flatbed truck, or a traveler walking at night with a lamp in front of his horse, they all seem to be faster than this track-hung car. The only advantage of the horse-drawn track is that it has a large carrying capacity and is stable.
However, the place Jiang Tian wanted to go wasn't too far away, it was just in Bianzhou, which is part of Duji Road. So amidst the low shouts and spurs one after another, riding on the frosty moonlit night, walking along the hardwood and cast iron tracks for most of the night, Bianzhou arrived.
In the vast expanse of darkness with deep night dew, the landmark of Bianzhou is undoubtedly the ferry bridgehead located on the Bian River, which is a brightly lit station carport all night long. It is said that at twelve o'clock every day in this pivotal place, there are people on duty waiting for loading, unloading and transshipment needs.
Therefore, when the carriage where Jiang Tian was sitting drove into the shed on one side and started to get off amidst the low voices of orders, the first thing he saw was the stretching civil fence, with many people gathered like ants in the station all night long. The low, lingering clouds of smoke evaporated by the bare-chested handymen at work.
The people in this large area of the station seemed to have become accustomed to this level of mobilization. Except for one minor official on duty and two united army officers who were stationed as guards, they came over to ask a few questions and read the identity card documents, and there was no more disturbance.
Later, the brigade commander Lu Zhang, who was responsible for leading the troops, dismissed this person and came to ask Jiang Tian for instructions. Should we take a short rest nearby and wait for the following people and horses to meet up? Or should we set off without stopping? Jiang Tian did not hesitate to choose the latter, wasn't that why he came all night?
Therefore, the sergeants of the half regiment who came with the car did not hesitate to prepare their armor. After checking each other's shapes, they followed Jiang Tian and his group, who were leading the group, and filed out of the side-opening auxiliary door. Station area. Under the light of the leading fire, Jiang Tian also saw the stop sign here.
"Chenqiaoyi/Chenqiao Station." He couldn't help but read out loud, and then smiled dumbly. It was really a very memorable place. In the distance is the brightly lit Bianzhou City. Later, after leading the way to Qingdao with flags raised in front, they encountered several patrol teams for interrogation.
This small marching team also turned on another route away from the city. When the sky turned fish-belly white, Jiang Tian, riding on Suo Luzi's back, finally heard the morning bell ringing in the distance. Then he noticed the building in the low mountain recess ahead.
Yulin Temple is a typical mountain temple far away from the downtown area. It belongs to the thatched cottage of a certain generation of mountain-dwelling monks and was expanded into a temple through fundraising. Although it is quite old, if it were not for the "animal disaster" that happened, no one would have noticed such a little-known mountain temple.
The place where the beast disaster happened to happen was a pagoda forest on the mountain behind the temple, which is also the resting place of monks in the past generations after they passed away and sat in vats. However, a group of white beasts came from nowhere and were entrenched in it; even most of the monks in the temple suffered from this misfortune.
Because this temple is far away from the busy city and is a closed-door descendant temple. Therefore, except for certain festivals, we rarely receive visits from believers and offer incense. A few days after the accident, there was only one little novice monk who survived like a bloody man, and he ran away like a madman and reported it to the official;
The stationed Jinwu Guards who were ordered to hunt them also chased them from the mountain in front of the temple to the pagoda forest on the ridge of the back mountain. Only then did they completely kill all the thirty-seven white beasts that were moving in groups. And that little clay jar was found in the beast's nest in the Tallinn at the back of the mountain.
Therefore, when the team arrived at the foot of the Yulin Temple, the dozen or so local soldiers who were staying at the scene looked very surprised and hurried out to greet them. In fact, they are responsible for ringing the morning bell that is used to tell the time now, thinking that it is time to announce peace.
Not long after, everyone led by Jiang Tian passed through the wide open mountain gate and saw a messy temple that had not yet been cleaned up; black blood and scratches were spattered everywhere, and the temple was torn to pieces due to the huge collision and tearing. the entrance door; and most of the Buddhist hall was destroyed after the fire.
Jiang Tian even saw that even a small brick and wood pagoda had half of its base excavated and collapsed to the ground; after crushing a big tree, it smashed through a monk's house and a building. The blood-stained and blackened pagoda can be seen faintly among the broken bricks and tiles; this shows the despair of the monks who hid in the pagoda at that time.
According to the records at the scene, the young novice monk named Sanjie fell into the manure pond next to the vegetable patch; he was able to escape the sniffing of the vicious beasts, and finally escaped after the beasts retreated. Zed survived. But the person was also frightened and could only say a few words in a state of confusion.
Then, the further you go up the zigzag staircase at the back of the mountain, the more you can see all the traces of the previous Jinwu soldiers chasing and killing ferocious beasts; broken arrows, knives and guns, scratching hooks, ropes, and fragments of nets. Among the devastated trees, you can still step on some black gum.
In the end, the fire chief who was stationed in the mansion and led the way refused to go forward anymore. He just pointed out the wooden sign marking the restricted area outside the tower forest hidden among the trees, and stayed on the periphery. And Jiang Tian, who continued to move forward, suddenly understood why he refused to come in.
Because, among the dozens of lopsided pagodas/brick towers, there is a huge ruins of a nest that has been burned by the fire; however, even if it has been burned by the fire, the black and white ashes and charcoal are still there. , the shriveled and blackened skeletons can still be seen, densely packed and intertwined.
Gu Ru
Normal people would feel no discomfort or great mental pollution just by looking at it. However, what exactly caused this tragedy? Or, in other words, why did these ferocious beasts gather in the pagoda forest behind the Yulin Temple, even build a nest and develop a strong sense of territory?
You know, according to Jiang Tian's judgment of the surrounding environment, the general shade here is not dense enough to effectively block and cover them, and they can barely maintain activity during the day. Is there something important to the survival of the group that attracts them?
According to what Zheng Jinwu said, white beasts are just the weakest among the alien beasts that have appeared; so much so that the group size needs to be maintained, and individual existences are rarely seen. Therefore, as long as the soldiers are prepared, they will not be disadvantaged even if they are one-on-one.
Even some wild tigers and wolves can prey on them. Therefore, the probability of directly bloodbathing a temple in a wild state without any control or induction is really low; let alone the instinctive reaction to protect the nest shown in the strangulation of King Wu's disciples.
And Jiang Tian came here just to find out the root cause and origin. As for the accompanying group of laymen (field service), they are just basic safeguards to take over and ensure that the scene is intact, and to be prepared in case of emergency.
However, there was nothing surprising or unusual about the scene that had been initially cleaned, burned and disinfected; there was not even any hint in Jiang Tian's field of vision. So he called over the brigade commander Lu Zhang and assigned men to dig three feet into the site.
Then, Lin Jiulang was asked to lead a team of people to occupy the highest point on the ridgeline; it was not only a warning and warning sentry, but also a buffer to prevent certain incidents. Zhang Wusheng and Li Huan were arranged to lead people to completely knock down the remaining pagodas/towers and smash them to pieces.
However, after working for a long time, the entire Tallinn had become unrecognizable; many jars and urns in the underground were dug out and smashed open in public. Jiang Tian still didn't see any prompts, as if the root that caused the mutation had completely disappeared.
It was close to noon at this time, and although the soldiers had not received orders, they were still busy. Jiang Tian slightly reluctantly announced a pause and ordered them to stop to repair and eat; while he continued to wander around in the nearby mountains and forests. ; but still found nothing.
When he returned to the scene, which was filled with the smell of earth and dust, he saw Zhang Wusheng offering him tea soup and a paper bag of dry military rations that he had brought with him. Jiang Tian was also a little hungry and thirsty, so he took a few sips, but suddenly his heart moved and he poured the remaining tea soup on the ground.
Then he asked for several more leather water bags and poured them on several bottoms one by one. After carefully observing the flow direction and leakage degree in the highlands, he suddenly pointed to the bottom of a slope and shouted: "dig down, I'll Don’t stop until you say stop.”
So, after a few picks and hoes gathered in private and dug hard for more than a dozen times, a large section of the slope was lost out of thin air. Suddenly there was a muffled sound of something breaking. Immediately, after the floating soil covering the surface was removed, the edge of a deformed copper vat was revealed.
Then the copper cylinder with a diameter of half a foot and the slightly deformed and cracked top cover were finally seen again. In Jiang Tian's field of vision, multiple prompts suddenly appeared one after another; "Very small amount of biological radiation detected (activity gain)" "Subtle biological radiation detected (activity gain)"...
Then, as everyone quickly retreated and used the lead-tin clad copper plates they brought to block a small isolation area, Jiang Tian pulled open the top cover of the purple-red copper cylinder; in an instant, the prompt in his field of vision was Changed from “trace amount” to “small amount” and “medium amount continues to be emitted.”
Then, a carbon crystal-like fragment fell into Jiang Tian's hands. Then he stuffed it into a special cup-shaped container with quick eyes and hands, and covered it tightly. The prompts in the field of vision suddenly disappeared.
However, the next moment the blockade was opened, Zhang Wusheng and others exclaimed: "Sir, you are here." "It has changed, everything has changed." "It's surprising, it's surprising."
Because at this time, varying degrees of changes had already appeared around Jiang Tian. In the areas separated by copper plates, all kinds of vines, weeds and flowers on the ground almost grew a little taller than the similar ones in the surrounding areas; they appeared to be unusually green and tender.
Then, it visibly withered and turned white. From this, Jiang Tian suddenly had some suspicions. The small clay pot before was just a container; only the derivatives produced after the ingredients inside were catalyzed by biological radiation were the source of the special healing/proliferation effect.
As for the groups of alien beasts, they were attracted by the leakage reaction of this derivative to build their nests. It was only later that under the strangulation of Jinwuwei's disciples, the burning of the nest caused the earth and stone on the mountain wall to peel off, which inadvertently covered up the radiation effects leaked to the outside world, and was ignored.
At this time, Lin Jiulang on the ridge also sounded the alarm. Jiang Tian couldn't help but turn around and look down, but he didn't see any danger coming, but another army in uniform, marching quickly towards Yulin Temple. Apparently, Bianzhou local authorities also received corresponding news.
