The Mystery of Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 20
In Hongshi City, Western Jizhou, Tu Wei was drinking tea leisurely on the second floor of a tea house facing the street.

This is the junction of Daxia Xiji State and Jiannan State. It is named after the continuous red stone mountains behind the city.A few hundred miles to the southwest of Hongshi City is Tianxiong Kingdom, so although the city is not big, it is extremely lively. Businessmen from Xia Kingdom and Tianxiong come and go on the street, and even some blond-haired and blue-eyed Euro merchants are interspersed in it. There are also a variety of tools, such as those leading horses, riding donkeys, and riding camels. I remember that Tu Wei saw Borneans riding elephants when passing by here a few years ago.

Looking at the scene on the street, Tu Wei felt very comfortable.Although he is a senior doctor of Qingying Division of Yuan Pavilion, and his rank is comparable to that of a second-rank servant in the imperial court, Tu Wei has never been interested in being an official. , non-emergency will not give him orders directly.

It's just that the situation was really tricky this time, and Tu Wei didn't dare to be careless, so he came to the Red Stone City in person.

After a while, a person who looked like a merchant came upstairs. Tu Wei's eyes lit up when he saw the person coming. This person was Han Shan, the head of Yuange Red Stone City.

Han Shan sat opposite Tu Wei, and Tu Wei asked, "How?"

Han Shan didn't dare to neglect, and quickly replied: "There are a lot of people coming and going in the city recently, and there are three waves that need to be paid special attention to. The soldiers under the new governor of Xiji Prefecture should come to look for Li Hui, the guard of Hongshi City. Li Hui used to Following Yang Sheng to fight in Lingnan. Yesterday, a group of Tianxiong merchants entered the city. Although they looked like merchants, they were all masters. The subordinates sent people to check their carriages and horses last night, but there was no cargo. Besides, there was a young People need to pay extra attention.”

Tu Wei raised his eyebrows, quietly waiting for the next sentence.

Han Shan continued: "This man entered the city the day before yesterday without any luggage or horses. His subordinates tracked him down in three batches, and they were all easily thrown off by him. He must be a master."

Tu Wei suddenly found it interesting that so many masters had come to the small Red Stone City, it seemed that the answer he wanted might be in this city.

"Has the Eagle Book ever been issued?"

"It was issued yesterday."

Xia Guo usually uses flying pigeons to deliver messages, but Yuan Pavilion is different. In order to prevent people from being intercepted halfway or encountering other raptors on the road, the Qingying Division specially trained a group of falcons for messaging. The important news was handwritten by the doctor. Secret letter, and then use the falcon to deliver it.

This time, in order to investigate the matter in Xiji Prefecture, the pavilion owner Mu Qing ordered him to use Yuan Pavilion's No. C hidden pile in Tianxiong Kingdom. To be on the safe side, Tu Wei did not meet with him, but sent a letter by means of an eagle letter.

While the two were talking, another person went upstairs. Han Shan saw that it was his subordinate waiting.

The waiter handed a piece of paper to Han Shan. After Han Shan glanced at it, he handed it to Tu Wei with a solemn expression.

The reply letter from Bingsan's secret post had some strange symbols written on it. Han Shan knew that this was a secret letter, and only Tu Wei could translate it.

Tu Wei flipped out the secret letter in his mind, and his face became extremely ugly.

Han Shan dismissed his subordinates and hurriedly asked, "My lord, what happened?"

"Master Tianxiong has an army of [-] troops, heading towards Hongshi City."

"what?"

Redstone City guard Li Hui was talking with someone in the study, and the person sitting opposite him was Zhang Xiaoding.

After receiving Yang Sheng's order, Zhang Xiaoding didn't dare to delay, changed into ordinary clothes and rushed from Yecheng, the capital of Xiji Prefecture, to Hongshi City. He ate and slept all the way, and finally arrived in Hongshi City seven days later.

Li Hui has always been Yang Sheng's man.

He was born as Yang Sheng's personal soldier, and he fought with Yang Sheng in Lingnan for many years. He was transferred from Lingnan to Hongshi City five years ago, and officially entered the ranks of generals.

Li Hui already knew about the news that the old boss Yang Sheng took over as the Governor of Xiji State, and he had been waiting for Yang Sheng to send someone to contact him. Sure enough, Zhang Xiaoding came after a few days.

"What does General Yang want me to do?"

Zhang Xiaoding recounted Yang Sheng's words verbatim. Yang Sheng is worthy of being a veteran of the Xia army. Just like what Mu Qing thought, if such a large number of ordnance weapons were stolen, the thieves would definitely pass through Red Stone City if they wanted to transfer them. This is very critical, especially since he has been with him through life and death for many years, and he is someone he absolutely trusts.

Li Hui knew that the current situation was extremely dangerous, and if he was not careful, he would be doomed, so he couldn't help but fell into deep thought.

"If I find something here, what will General Yang ask me to do?"

"General Yang said that once General Li finds the traces of the ordnance, he can send a letter by flying pigeons, and General Yang will send troops to come. However, Yecheng is far away from Hongshi City, and General Li needs to try to intercept it." Zhang Xiaoding finished speaking It was found that Li Hui's face was uncertain.

It was too difficult for Li Hui. There were a total of 5000 Redstone City defenders, and half of them were distributed in the fortresses near the snowy field. There must be a lot of thieves transporting such a large amount of ordnance. The strength of his own troops may not be able to resist.

But both public and private, Li Hui knew that he couldn't evade it. On public affairs, he was the guard of Xia Guo's Red Stone City, and on private affairs, he was Yang Sheng's confidant and personal soldier. If something really happened in Hongshi City, he was duty-bound.

"Please report back to General Yang, I will do what he says."

Zhang Xiaoding probably also understood the ins and outs of the matter, and knew that Li Hui had a heavy list on his shoulders, but his identities were so different from him that he really had no place to speak.

At this time, Li Hui's personal soldiers came to report, and Tu Wei, the doctor of Qingying Division of Yuan Pavilion, came to visit.

Li Hui hurriedly asked his own soldiers to invite Tu Wei in. The doctor of Qingying is very high-ranking, so there must be something important to come to the door in person.

Zhang Xiaoding retreated outside the door, and when he left, he saw a middle-aged man of medium build led into the study by his own soldiers.

On the other side of Redstone City, Young Master Tianqi of Tianyuan Dao was talking with two envoys of Tianxiong Kingdom.

The envoy of Tianxiong Kingdom was very angry about the death of the previous three envoys in the capital, "The three Jaewu are our officials of Tianxiong Kingdom, and they died in the hands of your Xia people like this. You must give us an explanation."

Regarding Tianxiong's envoy's censure, Tian Qiyun did not express his position lightly, but said lightly: "The murderer has been killed by us, and, are you here to continue the negotiation or to avenge your people?"

The Tianxiong envoy is still clamoring, but Tianqi doesn't want to delay any longer, so let's leave if we don't talk about it.

"Let's go? Our king is almost here, where are we going?"

Tianqi's face changed: "Is your country chief coming to negotiate directly?"

The envoy of Tianxiong looked at Tianqi proudly,

"No, the eagle in the grassland is here to show you the way."

"What? 10 people?"

The news that Tu Wei brought really surprised Li Hui, "Tu Langzhong, is the news reliable?" 10 people invaded, and it was so easy to crush his Red Stone City, sweat dripped from Li Hui's forehead.

Tu Wei knew that the news was too sudden, but fortunately, the emperor had been strengthening his military equipment since he ascended the throne, and the Xiji Prefecture to which Red Stone City belonged had been stationed with heavy troops. As long as the news was timely, there was still time to respond.

"How many days until Tianxiong's army arrives here?"

Tu Wei said slowly: "The news we got is that Lord Tianxiong raised his troops three days ago, and it should be ten days away from here. I have sent people to send the news to the West Pole Governor's Mansion and the Kyoto Armed Forces Academy. Lord Mu Qing also I will report to the emperor urgently, but General Li Hui, you still need to make preparations early."

Li Hui understands what Tu Wei means. What he needs to do now is to gather all the troops in the fort around Hongshi City into the city, and prepare food, grass and ordnance to defend the city. Otherwise, once the Tianxiong Army breaks through the city, it will be meaningless to send millions of reinforcements. , because the terrain of Redstone City is too dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, once it is occupied by the enemy, it may take 10,000+ Daxia soldiers to die before it can be taken back.

"Come here, burn the wolf smoke."

With the smoke coming together, soldiers and horses from dozens of fortresses, large and small, will gather at Redstone City immediately.

When the news arrived, Tu Wei left. Tianxiong Kingdom's menacing attack this time, whether there is any conspiracy behind it, still needs to be checked by him.After Li Hui sent Tu Wei off, he turned around and found that Zhang Xiaoding was still waiting outside the door, and said, "Zhang Xiaoding, right? I just received the news that the Tianxiong Kingdom raised [-] troops, and the target is my Red Stone City. It is estimated that General Yang will soon Reinforcements will come, the battle is imminent, you should leave quickly."

Hearing Li Hui's words, Zhang Xiaoding couldn't help being very grateful, and when he heard the Tianxiong Kingdom's [-] troops attacking, his heart surged with enthusiasm, and he said loudly: "General Li, you just said that General Yang Sheng will come to help in a few days. Please also let me be dispatched under your account temporarily, and give me a chance to fight in battle."

Li Hui looked at Zhang Xiaoding, who was full of enthusiasm, just like himself who followed General Yang when he was young, with the same passion and fearlessness, the same desire to fight, and he was actually moved.

"Okay, then you will be incorporated into the first battalion under my command, and follow me to fight the enemy."

(End of this chapter)