Start with the humble bridegroom

Chapter 369 Yunhe, Alive!
From the summer of Zhanghua's 43rd year to the beginning of Zhanghua's 44th year, the situation in the Central Plains has undergone great changes.

With the success of Zhang Xinzhi's currency war against Southern Wu, the alliance between Cai Guo and Hai'an County King, and the invasion of the three northern countries by Xing Kong Khan, the situation of the six countries attacking Zheng was completely broken.

In the winter of Zhang Hua's 43rd year, the main army and horses deployed in the north of Zheng State entered the rest period, and they were always ready to see the opportunity to bite off a piece of meat from the three northern countries.

Since the Beibei people began to go south, envoys from various countries gathered in Xilu secretly, lobbying Xilu's government and opposition, hoping that Xilu would send troops to attack Zheng in order to restrain the main force of Zheng.

Out of fear that his lips were dead and his teeth were cold, Lord Xilu decided to fight Dazheng without hesitation.

Zou Tianyang, who had just defected to Dazheng not long ago and had a semi-independent interest, was also afraid that Dazheng would really develop again after seeing the tragic situation in Nanwu, and then actually swallow himself.Therefore, when Xilu's envoy first arrived in Lanke, Zou Tianyang accepted the canonization of Xilu Kingdom and became the official Lanke County King of Xilu Kingdom, hereditary Lanke County.Lord Xilu also asked Zou Tian to adopt his second son to adopt his own daughter.

In January of the 44th year of Zhanghua, the army of Xilu State recaptured the county seat occupied by King Banan County of Dazheng on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.The Xilu water army and Zheng Jun Xijiang water army fought on the Xijiang River, winning three battles in a row.At the same time, the Lord of Xilu led 13 troops to camp on the south bank of the Xijiang River, threatening Xijiang City on the opposite bank.

Zou Tianyang pulled all the young and strong men from Shangyin County into the army. He won a total of [-] troops, claiming to be [-], and came to attack Wuling County.

Zou Tianyang burned half of Shangyin County because the trails in the mountains could not pass through, and drove tens of thousands of people from Shangyin to chaos Wuling through the trails in the mountains. Surround the refugees, and then attack them in one fell swoop.The chief general of the Ceshan army saw through Zou Tianyang's arrangement, and the whole army only guarded the pass in Yanmen County.

From the eighth day of the first lunar month, a large number of Zou troops arrived outside the Yanmen Pass through the trail.

Observation envoy He Ganzhou, who got the reward, hastily dispatched the remaining [-] Wanshan troops westward for reinforcements.

After the memorial quickly entered Chang'an, an accident occurred in the palace immediately.

Concubine Shentu entered the palace for the first time to take charge of the affairs, and consigned Concubine Xu from Xilu to the cold palace.

At this time, the government and the public knew that Emperor Zhanghua had been ill since the twelfth lunar month and could no longer take care of affairs. The affairs of the court and China were presided over by three assistant ministers.As for Xi Lu's attack, he received a secret report from Concubine Xu, who learned that Emperor Dazheng was critically ill.

The reason why the prince has not been recalled is because of the old emperor's stubbornness. He still believed that the northern warplanes were rare in a century, so he was not allowed to disclose his situation to the prince, so as not to weaken the prince's fighting spirit.

When the Central Plains was turbulent, Zhang Zhe was still consolidating his achievements in the northwest.

Since the beginning of the year, until the Lantern Festival, the abnormal weather in the northwest reappeared, a big sunny day with water.Zhang Zhe completely consolidated his authority in Yunshang County through two night raids.

At the same time, it was announced that Yunshang County had completely entered the period of military control.

Except for a small part of the grain of cattle and sheep snatched from the two ministries, which were distributed to persons with military exploits, the rest were all registered and put into storage by Zhang Zhe.All the people who want to obtain food must obey the orders of the Taishoufu.

Men between the ages of sixteen and forty-nine are required to receive military training and exercise every five days; healthy men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-six are all recruited as soldiers.Men who join the army are provided with meals by the county, and they participate in patrols and drills, and each man is given an extra catty and a half of meat and rice every day.

A catty and a half of meat and rice is enough for the family members of ordinary households to eat half full.

But if no one in the family joins the army or there are too many old and young people, the prefect's mansion will issue a certain amount of public service every day for the people to collect and do, and then pay a certain amount of rice and meat.

At the prefect's mansion of Yunshang County, Zhang Zhe sent away the second wave of Taha envoys who came to negotiate.

After these barbarians bowed respectfully and left, Chen Jiong asked Zhang Zhe with a smile.

"Tai Zun really decided to share the grassland in Henan with the Taha tribe equally? From then on, we will live in peace!"

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the first wave of envoys from the Taha tribe arrived in Yunshang County.Merdeko Khan, representing the Taha tribe, expressed his willingness to make friends with Zhang Zhe.

In the simplest analysis of the stakes among the tribes, the Taha tribe, which has only [-] cavalry in all, has a low chance of winning in the face of Yunshang County's [-] cavalry and thousands of ax gangs.

Merdeko Khan believes that even if he fights to the death with Yunshang County, it will only benefit the tribes in the north of Banjiang River, so he proposes to Zhang Zhe to give up the part of the Mulet tribe's pasture near the Taha tribe to the Taha tribe. The two sides have lived in peace ever since.

After careful consideration, Zhang Zhe allocated half of the grasslands of the Mullerte tribe to the Taha tribe with a swipe of the pen, including the three most plump Xiaohaizi (small lakes).

Merdeko Khan was shocked by Zhang Zhe's generosity, and immediately asked his envoy to bring gifts to make a contract with Zhang Zhe, for fear that Zhang Zhe would regret it.Naturally, Zhang Zhe would not regret it. After signing the contract generously, he also gave Merdike Khan a glass statue of the wilderness god he believed in.

"So, I, Yunshang County, finally have a chance to breathe!" Xu Jidao also had a smile on his face, "Giving half of the grassland to Tahabu seems to be a disadvantage for us, but it also prevents Merdeko Khan from going to Hebei tribal possibility."

"Hehe, if any tribe wants to cross the river to fish for a pole, the most anxious person is probably this Merdeko Khan. After all, he owns the best grassland in the south of the river!" Xie Lun sneered.

"Don't stop the training in the county before spring!" Zhang Zhe told Geng Liang, "It doesn't matter for the queue training. Now the main thing is to grasp all the riding skills. Including those we have not assigned to the horses, we will transfer some of the horses to let them They take turns practicing."

Then he looked at Xu Jidao again.

"The oxen and carts should not be idle. A hundred or so men were drawn from the captives to dig coal. The coal yard in Zhalan did not stop every day. The coal was piled in the back city when it was transported back."

"No~!"

After dismissing the crowd, Zhang Zhe rode out of the city with [-] soldiers, Chen Jiong, and several minor officials, and came towards the old river more than ten miles away.

By the old river, Chen Jiong pointed at the surrounding area regretfully.

"Tai Zun, I heard that a hundred years ago this place was an excellent grassland, but after a violent earth dragon overturned, it actually cut off this cloud river, leaving our area completely barren. The wells in our city have also dried up. Now there are only fourteen available."

After the earthquake, the rivers on the ground disappeared for nothing more than two reasons.

One is that the earthquake caused large cracks in the ground, and the river subsidence changed from a surface river to an underground river.The second is that the source of the river has been blocked, causing the river to divert.

Zhang Zhe rode on the horse and looked at the surrounding wilderness. There was no green within a few miles.

He thought to himself: If an underground river is formed, it will not lead to no grass on the surface, and there is a high probability that it will be diverted from the source.

"Where does the upper reaches of the Yunhe lead?" Zhang Zhe pointed to the distance of the river with his whip.

Chen Jiong was very familiar with the terrain here, so he answered immediately.

"This river goes westward for thirty miles, and then turns to the southern high mountain, where it converges."

Zhang Zhe rode out first.

"Then let's go to the mountain to have a look!"

"On the mountain?" Chen Jiong shook his head helplessly and followed.

What can they do if they find a place to cut off and face the huge rocks in the deep mountains?
After going southwest for more than 50 miles, the wasteland disappeared and the terrain became steeper.Zhang Zhe left a few people to take care of the horses, and the rest followed him up the mountain, climbing all the way among the rocks and weeds.

On the ancient road outside Qinguan, a long row of donkey carts was slowly heading west.Behind the convoy were more than 400 unkempt refugees.This is Zhang Wuliu's convoy responsible for transporting grain and seeds. There are more than [-] donkey carts, and they never rest for almost a day.

Zhang Wuliu was even more anxious than Zhang Zhe expected, and he promised a lot of money along the way, making hundreds of coachmen forget about it for years.Taking advantage of the lack of snow in the northwest, Zhang Wuliu left Qinguan without stopping.

The "refugees" behind him were coaxed by Zhang Wuliu.

The battle between Yanbei Road and Hedong Road caused countless people to go into exile.Among them, tens of thousands of people fled to the northwest, and Zhang Wuliu accidentally ran into a large number of refugees.

What he transported was all food and seeds, all things that could fill their stomachs, which were the most urgent needs of the refugees.

At that time, the refugees had already blocked the way of the convoy tremblingly, and the conflict broke out only in a flash.

Fortunately, Zhang Wuliu thought about it and immediately came up with an idea.

He asked someone to set up a stall on the side of the road, and used grain to recruit people going to the Northwest on the spot. The key point was to have skills and courage.

After ten carts of food were distributed, the convoy had 300 more craftsmen and more than [-] men.

Zhang Wuliu loaded the vacant donkey cart with some of the recruited elderly and children.With the help of these people, they successfully escaped from the refugee group.

In fact, many refugees followed them all the way to Qinguan before being stopped.

At this time, there are six huge dogs leading the way for the convoy, two Tibetan mastiffs led by Dahei, two high speed dogs and two black backs.

After being blessed by entropy, they have partially evolved, and their sense of smell is now more developed than that of their modern counterparts.

Dahei followed the smell in the air, walking very fast.

On this ancient road, there are dogs' own dry feces that Zhang Zhe arranges to throw down along the way.

A few days later, the dogs successfully brought the convoy to the cracks at the edge of the sand sea, where there are springs and green grass.

On Zhang Zhe's side, he also searched and climbed in the mountains for several days, and finally found the crux of the cut-off in a mountainside at an altitude of 600 meters.

In the huge mountainside, hundreds of streams flowing down from the high mountains gather, and the huge roar shakes the mountainside.

Seven or eight fires were lit on the stone beams high in the mountainside. Zhang Zhe and others saw through the firelight that a huge rock fell off the mountainside rock wall and got stuck in the northeast position. Many small stones and soil that fell raised the height in the northeast of the mountainside by seven or eight meters.

The converging water flow was stopped by this boulder and soil. In the process of slowly gathering and lifting, it rose by five or six meters, and finally overflowed the four-meter-high stone beam in the southwest. The gap flowed in the other direction.

"What can be done without manpower!"

When Chen Jiong saw the boulder weighing several thousand catties, he felt extremely desperate.

But Zhang Zhe showed no signs of giving up, but looked thoughtfully at the junction between the boulder and the top of the rock wall.

There is a two-meter-long and three-to-four-meter-thick edge protruding from the rock wall, which just caught the huge rock that was about to fall outward.

"Go, let's go back first!"

Zhang Zhe smiled, turned around and took the lead to leave.

A few days later, Zhang Zhe brought hundreds of people, carrying big and small bags, to the huge mountain belly again.

Under Zhang Zhe's guidance, soldiers from Orion nailed huge iron stakes one after another on the mountain wall, and then tied a strange blue rope, slowly bypassing the huge inner lake on the mountainside, extending all the way to the top of the boulder.

The most courageous people stood above the boulder with ropes tied around their waists, and nailed one iron hook after another on the hard protrusion.Then one after another, small wooden barrels were carefully sent by Zhang Zhe's soldiers to the top of the big rock with ropes.

The people on the boulder hung these small wooden barrels on the protrusion one by one according to Zhang Zhe's instructions, and then connected the twisted threads on the small wooden barrels to each other.

The warriors left the boulder one by one, and returned to the exit of the mountainside along the climbing rope.The last person took out a torch and lit a windproof candle.

The last warrior to leave, under the tense eyes of everyone, struggled to climb back slowly from the rock wall.At this moment, the candle has burned one-third of the way, and the fuse stuck on the candle is about to be ignited.

Zhang Zhe put down his binoculars and patted the shoulder of the last warrior hard.

"What's your name!? I remember you, you are the first one to kill the barbarians!"

"My lord, my name is Lei Hu!"

"Leihu, the one who killed Mulethan? He really is a good guy! Sanqi, today everyone who loads the medicine will be rewarded with five taels of gold, and Lei Hu will be rewarded with ten taels of gold."

Several men including Lei Hu were overjoyed and hurriedly thanked them.

At this moment, a huge roar occupied everyone's senses, and the entire mountain seemed to be shaking.

"The landslide?!"

Some soldiers hurriedly prepared to flee with Zhang Zhe, but fortunately they were stopped by Zhang Zhe.

Under the leadership of Zhang Zhe, a group of people came to the mountain belly again with doubts and cautiousness.

Five or six of the fires that had been ignited high on the mountainside had been extinguished, and the light from the remaining few fires illuminated the situation of the boulder.The rock protrusion that stuck the boulder was blown away by more than half a meter, and gravel is still falling down continuously.

Everyone was terrified, only Zhang Zhe felt a little disappointed, and it seemed that he would come again several times.

"My lord, look!" With Lei Hu's shout, everyone noticed that the speed of falling rubble from the protrusion of the rock wall was rapidly accelerating.At first, a few small pieces fell every second, but soon it turned into a rain of gravel.

The bulge that was half a meter thick was blown off, and soon shattered and fell off, reaching more than one meter.

The boulder stuck below also began to make a loud rattling sound.

The weight of the boulder itself, the weight of the soil, and the pressure of the huge inner lake in the mountainside all pressed on the protrusion that was less than half a meter long.

The sparks of violent friction flashed, and the last point of the protrusion was snapped off by the boulder, and the boulder finally fell outward.

Five or six breaths after the boulder fell, Zhang Zhe and the others heard the violent landing sound of the boulder, and the huge water flow rushed towards the lower northeast mouth in the space on the mountainside.

"My lord~!" Lei Hu and others knelt down to Zhang Zhe with tears in their eyes, and knocked hard without saying a word.

The water in the mountainside was decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and finally stabilized when it fell below the southwest stone beam.

A team of soldiers who were training by the old river suddenly heard a roaring sound coming from afar.

I saw a white line spreading rapidly along the river from the horizon.

The muddy river passed by the stunned soldiers, washing everything in the river.

Yunhe is alive!
(End of this chapter)