Riding the wind of rebirth

“In that direction.” Zhou Zhi pointed north: “At that time, Jiang Wei was blocking Zhong Hui’s army at Jiange Pass, which is three hundred miles away from here, and there are two passes in between, Fucheng and Jiangyou.”

"But it's only two hundred li from here to Chengdu. As for the road conditions, you have the most direct experience of what it was like for us along the way."

Looking at the couplet on the gate tower that read, "To the south lies the fertile land of Yizhou, stretching for thousands of miles; to the north, the Qinling Mountains lock in eight hundred miles of clouds," Li Laosan said, "There's really no hope for him. The terrain on both sides of the pass is completely different. One side is far away and dangerous, while the other is flat and close. Moreover, if Jiang Wei doesn't surrender, he'll be trapped in the Jinniu Road by Zhong Hui and Deng Ai, right? Both of them are famous generals, and they certainly won't give him another chance."

"There are examples of people who surrendered first and then rebelled in dire straits, and ultimately succeeded." Zhou Zhi leaned on the battlements: "In the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign, Li Zicheng was driven by various Ming armies into the treacherous Chexiang Gorge. The only exit was also cut off by the Ming army. Li Zicheng used the method of feigned surrender to bribe Ming officials and make the Ming army believe that he had accepted the offer of amnesty. When the Ming army was preparing to send the remnants of the peasant army back to their hometowns, Li Zicheng killed the pacification officials, raised his banner again, and in the end, he still managed to capture Beijing."

Li Laosan shook his head as he listened: "They are not ordinary people; only they can do things that ordinary people cannot. After seeing it in person, if I were Liu Shan, knowing that the enemy had already captured Baima Pass and blocked my only reliable field army in Jinniu Road... what would you do, Elbow?"

“Me? I’ll definitely run towards Lianhe Township, enter the Qiang people’s settlement from Jiaozhou, and rally the Qiang people to return and rescue Jiang Wei.” Zhou Zhi smiled bitterly: “After all, the Qiang people are hardy and warlike, and Jiang Wei has a lot of prestige among them. Jiang Wei is not without the ability to fight Deng Ai.”

"Of course, that's assuming I'm in the same physical condition as I am now. Otherwise, it's simpler to choose to be a duke."

"Hahaha..." Cousin Anxin laughed, "Do you think you can take your good reputation in Lianhe Township back to ancient times? Maybe the Qiang people will take it to Deng Ai to ask for a reward!"

"Let's take it one step at a time. At the very least, I'll have to be imprisoned in Chexiang Gorge like Li Zicheng before surrendering," Zhou Zhi said. "But right now we're just chatting and enjoying the cool breeze on the city wall. When we actually get to that point, our mindset will probably be completely different."

“That’s true.” Li Laosan nodded: “We don’t need to worry about the ancients; it’s all a given fact.”

As you enter Baima Pass, the Jinniu Ancient Road lies beneath your feet. This section of the Jinniu Ancient Road is called the "Baima Pass Section," stretching ten miles from Baima Old Town, which we just passed, in the south, to Luofeng Slope in the north.

This section of Jinniu Road is paved with bluestone. It is about three meters wide, and the road surface is uneven. The stone slabs on the edges are covered with moss, while the stone slabs in the middle still clearly show the ruts left by carts in the past, telling the story of its former prosperity.

The roads here have a very interesting feature: low walls are built on both sides, forming a "passage". This design was actually very common in ancient times and served many functions, including protecting mules and horses from being frightened by the treacherous road environment, avoiding enemy attacks, and preventing friendly forces from scattering.

This ancient road is very well preserved. Mai Xiaomiao even noticed that some of the stones used to build the walls had patterns mixed in: "Hey, elbows, these look like things from ancient times, right?"

Zhou Zhi used a twig to scrape the moss off the patterned stone: "Oh, this is really something from ancient times! These are bricks and stones from the Three Kingdoms period!"

"How did you figure that out?" Old Li asked with great interest.

Zhou Zhi carefully removed the texture from the bricks and stones. On one of the bricks and stones was a copper coin pattern with the four characters "Da Quan Bai Qian" written on it. He said, "This is something the Eastern Wu regime liked to do. They issued denominated currency, such as Da Quan 2 Qian, Da Quan 5 Qian, etc. However, there is no Da Quan Bai Qian. This is just an auspicious phrase that the brick makers imagined based on the Eastern Wu coins."

"The key is here: the four characters below the coin pattern. Do you recognize them?"

“The sixth year of Jian...Xing…” Li Laosan deciphered each word.

"Huh? Third Brother, you're quite something! Oh, I forgot you guys were learning traditional characters." Zhou Zhi suddenly remembered that traditional characters weren't a problem for Li Laosan, and laughed, "In the sixth year of Jianxing, Zhuge Liang attacked Qishan of Wei. The three counties of Tianshui, Nan'an, and Anding rebelled in support of Zhuge Liang. Wei sent Zhang He to resist him. He defeated the Han general Ma Su at Jieting. Zhuge Liang executed Ma Su and submitted a memorial to demote himself. In November, he attacked Wei again, exiting Sanguan and besieging Chencang, but returned due to running out of food." "These bricks were actually fired the year Ma Su was executed!" Li Laosan stamped his foot, "Then these bricks should have some value, right? Just leaving them piled up here like this?"

“Piling them up here is itself part of history.” Zhou Zhi found some moss under the tree roots and covered the Han Dynasty bricks with it: “Look ahead, how many are left?”

Sure enough, looking further ahead, there were still many broken city bricks buried among the stones in the walls on both sides.

“We are also walking through history.” Mai Xiaomiao asked, “What year is the sixth year of Jianxing?”

Memorizing chronologies is a fundamental skill that every connoisseur of antique collectibles must master. Zhou Zhi could answer immediately: "227 AD".

Mai Xiaomiao was startled: "One thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine years! I just discovered a huge brick from one thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine years ago?!"

Zhou Zhi laughed: "We don't have time, but how about we ask Third Brother to take us on another trip to the Three Gorges? You can still find Paleolithic and Neolithic artifacts from five or six thousand years ago at the cultural relic rescue site there. Or we can ask Runtu to take us back to his hometown. In his village, almost every family has copper arrowheads that they found while plowing the fields, the oldest of which are more than two thousand years old."

Mai Xiaomiao felt inexplicably proud: "Our China has such a long history..."

Li Laosan and Anxin's cousin were secretly laughing behind their backs. Mai Xiaomiao was actually American, but after getting together with Zhou Zhi, she seemed to have forgotten about that. She hadn't even married yet, and she had already given in to Zhou Zhi.

The stone path was very clean; apart from the moss along the sides, it was almost spotless in the middle, for some unknown reason.

Wandering through the lush, verdant forest, reflecting on the past and remembering the sages of the past, is a wonderful feeling.

After passing the ancient road and a memorial archway, at the top of Baima Pass on Lutou Mountain, the four of them saw a temple with red walls and green tiles, with a three-courtyard layout, nestled among the lush green cypress trees.

The two imposing stone lions at the entrance, their paws resting on a round ball and their heads held high, are both endearing and majestic. This is the ancestral temple and tomb of Pang Tong.

"Pang Tong's ancestral temple and tomb is the earliest and best-preserved site of the Three Kingdoms Shu Han period in Sichuan. Look at these two cypress trees, they are ancient trees that are 1,700 years old. It is said that they were planted by Zhang Fei."

Zhouzhi explained to everyone: "Because one tree's crown resembles a dragon and the other a phoenix, later generations believed that they respectively symbolized Zhuge Liang (the Crouching Dragon) and Pang Tong (the Young Phoenix). They were planted outside the 'Two Masters Hall' where Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong were worshipped, hence the elegant name 'Dragon and Phoenix Two Masters Cypress'."

After entering the mountain gate and admiring the two ancient cypress trees, which are strong and magical and covered with moss, you will arrive at the Ershi Hall.

The Ershi Hall is a place to worship the two military advisors, Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang. The couplets in front of the gate are mostly related to the Sleeping Dragon and the Young Phoenix.

One of the more ordinary ones, the kind of thing even Zhou Zhi could write casually, reads: "His achievements will be remembered throughout the Three Kingdoms; his loyalty belongs to the two masters." (End of Chapter)