The Dading Dynasty has been in existence for nine hundred years. It has five states and thirty-two counties, hundreds of millions of people, and is stable and prosperous.
The imperial capital Zhongjing is located in Jingzhou, the core of the five states, and the county where it is located is Zhongjing County. Zhongjing County is surrounded by mountains, with thousands of miles of fertile wilderness, and the Wei River running across it. It has a pleasant climate and abundant water and rice. It is the holy land of Zhongzhou that is envied by many people in the world.
Zhongjing County is surrounded by natural dangers and is defended by the famous five passes and one city. Among them, the one facing the southwest is Sanguan. Sanguan is known as the first pass in Jingzhou. It can be said to be the most important gateway between Beijing and the two western states. After leaving Sanguan in the west, there are only dozens of miles of mountain roads, and then there is thousands of miles of plains. Going north to cross it is not considered majestic. The Daqing Mountains are Wuzhou in the northwest, and Hanzhou in the southwest is the Han River in the south that is not too turbulent.
In the early morning of this day, a rare official convoy came up the canyon official road more than ten miles outside Sanguan. The canyon is not deep. On one side is a gentle slope of densely wooded mountains, and on the other side is a river channel four to five meters deep and dozens of meters wide. The official road in the middle can accommodate ten carriages running parallel, and it is spacious and magnificent.
The motorcade left the customs for a long journey, with dozens of carriages in front and behind. The carriage pulled the covered carriage in the front, and the ox cart pulled the open truck in the rear. There were a team of hundreds of officers and soldiers guarding the front and rear, with flags waving and armor in full. It would have looked a bit majestic if not for the hundreds of ragged refugees following closely behind the convoy.
The officers and soldiers were walking in formation, each one looking attentively, and the team was quite orderly, which showed that they were well-trained. However, the refugees behind the convoy were extremely chaotic. It was already late autumn, and the weather was getting colder day by day. It has been raining for the past few days and has not cleared up. When the mountain wind blows in the canyon, the chill is piercing the bone marrow. However, few of the refugees can be seen wearing thick clothes. Most of them have their arms or calves exposed. Some are older or younger. Some of them were already pale and without blood, and their movements were stiff and they were clinging to each other, not knowing where they were supported before they fell down.
You know, even though this place is still within the scope of Jingzhou, it has already left Sanguan. Once you leave the convoy, it is very dangerous to survive in such a canyon wild for one night. Not to mention monsters, even encountering wolves is very dangerous. The result of death and no life, plus at a glance, most of them don't even have a simple cloth bag, see that they are penniless and don't have any food. If they leave this official who still gives out some rice and porridge every day, The family's caravan will not be able to make it to the next city to beg, and even if it does not encounter monsters and beasts, it will not survive.
So no matter how difficult it is, no one really falls behind.
Because if they didn't even have the strength to hold on, they wouldn't have had the courage to walk out of that barrier in the first place. Even if winter came and it would be difficult to live in Jingzhou, they wouldn't dare.
The motorcade moved forward slowly, and after rounding a low hill on the opposite side of the river channel, the entire team gradually came to a halt.
Because on the official road in front, there were piles of rocks and broken trees scattered here and there, completely blocking the road. It was obviously not a natural formation such as a landslide, but it looked man-made.
"Hold the shield!"
The man with a dark face and a beard who led the officers and soldiers at the front of the convoy immediately became alert. While shouting and ordering the officers and soldiers to be on guard, he took off his shield from behind to protect himself in front of him. He stared back and forth at the two men with a pair of bull's eyes. The woods on the side of the mountain were quiet and lifeless at all.
He held the sword in his right hand, and his whole body was slightly bent, like a liger ready to pounce on its prey at any time. While guarding the surroundings, he looked back to the back of the convoy. The adjutant who was left there on purpose had already heard his cry. , also ordered the rear team to form a formation and be on guard.
The atmosphere suddenly became solemn. The refugees who were following behind were so frightened that they gathered in a panic and did not dare to move. Even the drivers of the convoy who were protected in the middle did not dare to express their anger. They were either petrified or moved as if they were petrified. He hid on the side of the car frame and looked around with frightened eyes.
The black-faced man's heart was also filled with chills. This was the core of the Dading Dynasty. Jingzhou, where the imperial capital was located, was only about ten miles away from Sanguan. There were people who dared to openly block the official roads. If it hadn't just come out of nowhere. He killed a new group of bandits who had burned out their brains, then...
Before the black-faced man could think about it, the buzzing sound coming from the forest on the other side of the river immediately made his heart beat wildly. Along with the sound of arrows shooting through the sky, the black-faced man roared and hissed, "Enemy attack." !! Form a shield array facing the river!!!"
The centurions in front of the convoy were the first to react. They had originally raised their shields to defend themselves. They raised their shields and lowered their bodies. They moved slowly like running water, and soon formed a shield wall, which blocked most of the arrows fired from them. Bounce.
The black-faced man was not at all proud. He quickly integrated into the corner of the shield formation, then turned to look at the end of the convoy. He was suddenly shocked and angry!
After a sparse wave of arrows, the originally huddled group of refugees, led by someone unknown, rushed towards the convoy crying and shouting. The hundred-man team behind the convoy could not react as well as the front team, and they were not yet fully prepared. They formed a shield formation, but were broken up by the impact of the refugee group!
The man in the dark was probably waiting for this moment. The arrows that were originally pouring randomly towards the entire convoy immediately changed their direction and fell towards the chaotic place at the end of the convoy!
Immediately, the blood in the crowd turned red. They were wailing, crying, falling to the ground and struggling desperately. They were pushing and grabbing people to block them in front of them, and they were in a mess!
The black-faced man suppressed his anger and said in a deep voice, "Shield array, move laterally, towards the rear!"
With an order, the front team, which was basically intact, moved. Without the suppression of flying arrows, the shield array moved not too slowly. The official road was very wide. The entire shield array leaned from one side of the convoy to the other side of the river. Passed without any problems.
But as soon as the front team moved here, the team that was still stationary suddenly became commotion. The coachmen who were avoiding the arrows next to the carriages in the front quickly climbed onto the carriages one by one, cheered and drove the carriages to turn around. We have to go around the other side of the convoy and escape! The other cart drivers looked around and there were still people who were willing to stop where they were and act as the vanguard of the convoy. Even the ox cart drivers who were originally in the rear group turned around and ran back. After all, there was a customs clearance of more than ten miles behind. Damn it for these people. The bandits would never dare to chase them to the Sanguan city wall even if they had the guts of a bear and a leopard!
Just when the black-faced man was looking at the chaotic scene in front of him, he was shocked and angry, and suddenly a loud roar came from the forest on the side of the mountain behind the motorcade!
"How dare you, rat!!"
Accompanying that roar were two flashes of light blue light.
I saw two light blue rays of light intertwining down in the forest, and hitting two golden lights dozens of meters away from the official road. The moment the four lights intersected, it seemed that the time and space between heaven and earth paused briefly, and then, The light disappeared, and a dull sound like a huge drum exploded in everyone's heart!
"Boom——!"
Then, broken wood flew into the sky, and earth and rocks rained down!
A large crater with a radius of ten meters was immediately formed where the explosion occurred!
There is no vegetation within dozens of meters! !
The two unlucky ox carts closest to the explosion site had already been blown away by the shock wave and fell into the river channel. The driver and the oxen died without even shouting. Several other ox carts that had not escaped were also blown crookedly. Fortunately, Some coachmen are still coughing up blood from exhaustion, while some unlucky ones have already passed out and do not know whether they are alive or dead...
Just when the battlefield fell into a very brief silence.
The curtains of a carriage in the convoy ahead were lifted at a corner, revealing a beautiful face that was unlike any other human being.
Her eyebrows are like the moon, like the spring water of a jade pond, her mouth is smiling, like rain-moistened cherries, her jade face is peach cheeks, her neck is slender, her fingers like bamboo shoots pinch the curtain, revealing a section of white snow...
Suddenly, an arrow shot across the beautiful scenery, almost hitting her wrist and shooting into the car!
The arrow tail nailed to the wall of the carriage was vibrating endlessly.
Her hand holding the curtain did not tremble at all, just like her eyes looking into the distance, as quiet as an empty valley...
