The city wall that was just completed today has not been put into use. There is only a small military station under the city gate, guarded by seven or eight soldiers.
It is already early in the morning, the weather is cold and the ground is freezing, and the soldiers are huddled in the pavilion and falling asleep.
Song Che leaned against the city wall and walked very slowly and lightly. He walked around the military station and came to the northwest corner of the city wall. He scraped off the soil covering the ground with his hands, revealing a light brown wooden board. After removing the wooden board, It is like a tunnel leading outside the city.
He would never build a city wall for the barbarians without any reason. Everything he did had a purpose.
This escape passage is just the tip of the iceberg. The city wall he designed is far from as strong as imagined. He has already made manipulations at the joints of the city walls, and it only takes a few cannonballs to collapse it.
When Daliang's troops approach the city in the future, this west wall will also have a breakthrough.
"Woof woof woof!"
The faint sound of barking.
Sure enough, Kuimu sent hounds to track him down.
Song Che didn't dare to neglect, so he got into the tunnel and ran out. After climbing out of the hole, he hurriedly moved a few stones to completely seal the tunnel.
He took one last look at the capital of Hu State, which had imprisoned him for three months, and cursed secretly: "Go to hell!"
The next time I return, I will bring thousands of troops with me!
He started running towards the northern mountains and forests.
Since they originally had to cut down trees in the mountains and collect sediment from the river, a road was specially opened for horse-drawn carriages to transport goods. The snow on this road was cleared, making it much easier to run.
The hounds were very likely to catch up, so Song Che didn't dare to delay for a moment. It took him only two-quarters of an hour to reach the forest in half an hour.
After resting briefly at Linkou, he followed the marks he had made in the past and began to approach the Lianghe River.
After running for another two-quarters of an hour, the dense woods became sparse, and the vision in front of me suddenly became clearer. A river frozen into ice reflected the night light like a mirror.
Song Che came to a tree by the river, dug up the surrounding leaves, and took out the skates and a bag of food and wine that had been buried.
He put on his bag, put on his skates, jumped onto the glacier, briefly felt it, and then began to slide downstream.
The ice was very thick, making it very solid to step on. Song Che's movements gradually opened and closed. Coupled with the potential energy from high to low, the speed was not even less than fifty miles. When he encountered a larger gap, he Just keep your feet together and glide effortlessly.
"Alas!"
Although the cold wind was like a knife, it could not extinguish the burning desire for freedom in his heart!
At this speed, he could run at least two hundred miles before dawn. No one was plowing snow fifty miles outside the capital of Hu State. There had been several heavy snowfalls in the past half month, and the roads had already been closed. Even if they wanted to send cavalry to chase him, they couldn't catch him.
Song Che just slid and slid on the glacier. When he was tired, he would take a bite of frozen beef, and when he was thirsty, he would take a sip of strong liquor.
Before you know it, there are signs of dawn on the horizon.
Mo Yue estimated that he had escaped at least two hundred miles. Today was Timur's coronation ceremony, so the Hu State would definitely have no time to pursue him.
After running around for most of the night, Song Che was exhausted. He found a low hill with leeward wind on the shore, and simply dug a "cat's ear hole." After curling up, Song Che sealed the entrance of the hole with snow, leaving only Several small holes for air circulation.
The tense nerves were relaxed, the fatigue gradually fermented, and soon I fell asleep.
When he opened his eyes again, it was already dark outside the cave, and the few air holes left were almost blocked by the wind and snow.
Song Che climbed out of the cat's ears, and a biting cold wind hit his face. "Whoosh, whoosh..." Snow and goose feathers were flying all over the sky.
Is it snowing again?
Well done!
The more it snows, the thicker it becomes and the greater the obstacle to the cavalry.
Song Che breathed into the palm of his hand and shook off the snowflakes on his velvet robe. The beef and flatbread had also been thawed by his body temperature.
After a hearty meal to replenish his strength, he stepped onto the glacier again and continued to slide downstream.
I previously learned from Bi Deng that most of the Hu State is located in the north of the Hexi Corridor, nearly 500 miles away from Xiliang Kechang.
These five hundred miles refer to the land route. If calculated based on the water route, the Lianghe River is winding and winding, so an additional hundred miles must be added.
At Song Che's current skating speed, it would take up to two nights to enter the Daliang border. However, considering the tense situation at the border, it is definitely impossible to enter directly.
Escape from Hu State is mostly the first hurdle, and how to cross the border is the second hurdle.
Like this, another night.
As we continue to go west, the temperature has obviously increased, the ice has gradually thawed, and the texture of stepping on the glacier is obviously much lighter than when we left.
Song Che knew he couldn't skate anymore, otherwise once the ice cracked and fell into the ice hole, he would freeze to death even if he didn't drown.
On the morning of the second day after escaping from Dadu, Song Che dug a cat-ear hole by the river as before, preparing to sleep through the day and continue on his way at night.
Exhausted, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
But just as he was sleeping soundly, the sound of "rustling..." shaving ice suddenly came to his ears.
He woke up suddenly, and as soon as he opened his eyes, a machete was placed on his neck!
The man holding the knife was an old man in his fifties with a dark complexion and wrinkles on his face. He was wearing a thick cashmere jacket and had a bird bow on his back. He stared at Song Che coldly, and first asked Song Che in the Hu language. How could Che understand it?
Seeing that Song Che didn't understand, the old man pointed the knife outside the cave and signaled Song Che to come out, but the machete never left Song Che's neck.
Song Che slowly climbed out of the cat's ear hole, thinking about how to kill this person when he went out later. But when he climbed out of the hole, he found that there were two people standing outside, one looked middle-aged and the other looked like a teenager. He carries a bird bow on his back, holds a machete, and leads two hounds on his hands.
They should be hunters and a family of three.
"Who are you and why do you sleep in the snow?" the middle-aged man asked in unskilled Mandarin.
Song Che said: "I am a businessman from Daliang. I was lost in the snow because of a snowstorm..."
"Businessman?" The middle-aged man looked suspiciously, "Hu State had closed its doors as early as a month ago. How did you get in?"
"This is a long story, I——"
Without waiting for Song Che to explain, the young man snatched Song Che's baggage and poured the wine, food, dry food, and several ingots of silver on the ground with a "crash..."
"Dad, he has so much money!"
The young man kicked away the dry food and quickly picked up the silver. The eyes of this family of three are brighter than silver.
"You three fellows, you can take the money, but I'm really just a loan shark, so just let me go, right?"
Song Che cupped his fists and saluted, hoping to make a fortune and ward off the disaster, but the middle-aged man stared at the gold ring on Song Che's ring finger with greedy eyes.
(To be continued...)
