The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 433 Gao Qiu! Do you recognize this treasure?
Wang Yuan finally boarded Chen Shen's pirate ship.

So the three of them headed south together, all the way to Liujia Gorge.

The so-called Xihe Camp was actually the logistics camp set up in Jiehechuan, Xizhou when Wang Shao attacked Dingqiang City in Hezhou.

However, as the Song Dynasty's border troops successively wiped out the remaining enemies in Xihe and invaded the hinterland of Huangzhou, the Xihe camp gradually moved northward along the Tao River. It is now located in the Liujia Gorge area where the Tao River merges into the Yellow River. Its main function is to provide logistical support for the army invading Huangzhou with the help of the Tao River.

Liujia Gorge is not a canyon, but a complex terrain consisting of many river valleys and narrow roads. The Yellow River and Tao River, which meet in this area, cut through the complex terrain in an almost quick and has allowed humans to pass through this almost maze-like area in a relatively simple way.

Similarly, when the Song army controlled the waterways in this area, whether the Tibetans in Huangzhou or the Xixia people further north wanted to invade the two states of Xihe, they had to take a detour through Lanzhou, which was hundreds of kilometers away, or take a detour from the other side through Jishishan in the heart of Tibet (there were seven passes guarding the pass, including Wutai Pass and Jishi Pass).

The Xihe Camp of the Song Army, located in a river valley in Liujiaxia, was a semi-permanent military camp with extremely tight defenses.

In terms of offensiveness, the Song Dynasty army is almost at the bottom among all dynasties, but in terms of defense, the Song Dynasty army is definitely the leader in the era of classical cold weapons. As for classical defensive tactics, the Song Dynasty, with the experience of its predecessors, has almost reached the pinnacle in this field.

Whether it is defending the city or setting up camp, the technical level is enough to surpass the Han and Tang dynasties.

The corrupt Southern Song Dynasty relied on this point to gradually destroy the Jin Dynasty and weaken the Yuan Dynasty several times. Even if Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, had failed in his fight for the throne with Ariq Böke, the Yuan Dynasty would most likely have followed in the footsteps of the Jin Dynasty.

Of course, to be honest, the later Ming Dynasty’s experience in this regard was not inferior to that of the Song Dynasty.

However, the Ming Dynasty's army had already entered the era of semi-thermal weapons. The use of early gunpowder weapons such as muskets, cannons, and explosive packs made almost half of the classical military defense experience invalid.

It took Chen Shen, Wang Yuan and Han Wu five days to reach the vicinity of Xihe camp.

No matter how tightly the Xihe camp was arranged, it could not stop Chen Shen's infiltration. After all, he had the strongest stealth talent [Absolute Silence]. Not to mention the military camps in the mortal world, even the back garden of the evil god, he could go in and out freely.

However, Chen Shen only climbed to a high place and looked at the Xihe camp from afar, then gave up the idea of ​​sneaking in.

The reason why Chen Shen gave up on infiltrating was very simple. There was a very special psychic disturbance covering the entire camp. If Chen Shen chose to sneak in, no matter how secretive he was, he would inevitably expose his whereabouts.

Perhaps you will ask, Chen Shen has never even tried it, how can he be sure that the psychic disturbance will expose him?

It was all because Chen Shen, in order to save Dou Chong'er's life, had repeatedly broken into the forbidden land of the plague demon, Rouchen Forest, to steal the chaos potion, forcing the demon to use many methods to capture him, and this kind of psychic disturbance was one of them.

Of course, this kind of psychic disturbance can only be regarded as a means of early warning. It can only warn the evil spirits that the "thief" is coming.

Even if the Xihe Camp had this kind of early warning method, it would be impossible to prevent Chen Shen from entering and leaving. However, Chen Shen's purpose of coming here was to rescue people, and he relied on the surprise attack. Otherwise, if the other party was alerted and killed the hostages in advance, then his trip would be in vain.

In order to avoid the danger of harming the enemy, Chen Shen had no choice but to resort to backup measures.

A day later, three horses that were almost exhausted from running rushed to the Xihe camp like crazy. The riders were also covered in dust and looked dying.

After he and his companions were stopped by the camp guards, the three of them fell off their saddles and fell to the ground. The leading knight fell to the ground, holding tightly a five-foot-long box, and shouted loudly: "Wang Yuan, the garrison commander of Wuquan County, has been ordered by Gao Yongyi, the acting magistrate of Wuquan County, to meet with Tong Guan (Tong Guan), the envoy of the inner palace, for a matter of utmost urgency. I hope you will report it to me!"

When the soldiers guarding the camp heard that the person was coming to see Tong Nei Shi, they did not dare to neglect him. The leading lieutenant told his men to go into the camp and find Tong Nei Shi's personal attendant, and reported that someone outside the camp wanted to see Tong Nei Shi. The personal attendant was a little impatient when he heard this, and said to himself: "How can a mere county magistrate or deputy commander have the face to come and see us?! Tong Da Ban is not a person of such status, how can he casually meet with these poor people! Just drive them away!"

The lieutenant had some sense of justice, so he advised: "I saw that the three men had gone through a lot of hardships on the way. Especially the leader Wang Yuan, he is very famous in the border army, he is not a frivolous person. If they are not in trouble, it's fine, at most they can be beaten and sent away; but if they are really involved in something serious, I am afraid that Tong Nei Shi will be delayed!"

The steward was somewhat unhappy, but the lieutenant's words made some sense. What if something really happened?

You must know that he followed Tong Guan to the northwest border to eat wind and sand, not for fun, but to accumulate some merits.

So the steward followed the lieutenant colonel and hurried out of the camp.

Even from a distance, the steward started to shout, "How dare these filthy people come here to disturb Tong Daban! If he doesn't tell the truth, I will not let him go!"

When they got closer, the steward looked down at the three people, especially the long box in Wang Yuan's hand. He thought it was a gift or bribe, but he sneered and asked, "Why do you want to see the eunuch?"

Wang Yuan looked at the people around him with some embarrassment and said, "The matter we are responsible for is of great importance. I dare not say more since I have not seen Tong Nei Shi."

The steward was furious when he heard this and said angrily: "How dare you underestimate me!"

Wang Yuan said submissively: "I dare not! I dare not! I just don't know your identity."

The steward said proudly, "I am Gao Qiu, the steward appointed by the current emperor to be the eunuch's chief! Even if a young eunuch sees me, he must show respect! How can I not listen to the important matters you are talking about!"

Wang Yuan was about to explain, but his attendant behind him shouted, "Please let the governor know. My Gao Tuiguan accidentally found the [Xiao Lian], one of the three sacred swords of the ancient Yin Emperor. The Tuiguan wanted to present it to the emperor, but the news leaked out, and the commander of the Shenlong Guard, Liu Yanqing, was a bad man and sent troops to seize it. Gao Tuiguan knew that he could not resist, so he sent us to present the sacred sword to Tong Neishi to prevent the sacred weapon from being covered in dust and falling into the hands of villains."

Gao Qiu was an unlearned man, so he didn't know the significance of the three divine swords of the Emperor Yin. But he was also smart, and after hearing the words "Emperor's sword", he realized that the damn thing [Xiao Lian] was an imperial item and could not be used by others.

He was suspicious and said, "How can I know whether the things you presented are real or fake? If it is just a false pretense, it will be embarrassing for Xu Tong and his companion!"

The servant cried out in injustice, "Even if we are out of our minds, we dare not play with our lives! Don't you know that the ancient Yin emperor has three swords, Hanguang, Chengying, and Xiaolian? Hanguang has shape but no shadow, Chengying has no shape but has shadow, Xiaolian has no shadow and no form, they are all magical! How can we fool these magical objects!"

Gao Qiu was furious when he heard this, and sneered, "I'm throwing you guys, you said Xiao Lian is invisible, but since we can't see him, isn't it just a good way to fake it? I didn't even bother to do this kind of trick when I was ten years old and wandering around the streets!"

The attendant was so angry that his face turned red, and he shouted, "Captain, we have risked our lives to protect the magic sword, how can we let others underestimate us! Bring out the sword, open his eyes, and clear our name!"

Wang Yuan turned around and shouted, "Chen Er! Stop making noise! ​​We are entrusted with important tasks by the high-ranking officials. How dare we play with the sacred objects and attract the attention of irrelevant people!"

Gao Qiu became even more furious after hearing this, and shouted, "Leaders and subordinates, arrest these three swindlers! Anyone who dares to resist will be beaten to death!"

At this time, many soldiers and generals had gathered in front of the camp to watch the fun. Some of them were willing to flatter Gao Qiu and came forward with their spears and sticks.

Wang Yuan was in a hurry when he saw the situation. He had no choice but to break the long box and pick out the sword from it. With the rainbow light in his hand, he swung it and broke several spears. He shouted, "Whoever dares to come forward, don't blame me for being ruthless with my magic sword!"

(End of this chapter)