Dual Transmigration: Starting from being captured and brought to the Hehuan Sect!

The three of them spent most of the afternoon wandering around Lianhai County, silently memorizing the locations of the city walls, streets, port, and several major buildings.

Before dark, they planned to find a place to stay, but to their surprise, after asking at four or five inns, the inns gave surprisingly consistent answers:

Full house.

"Not a single room?"

Are the inns in Lianhai County made of gold?

Are you telling us to sleep on the streets at night?

The shopkeeper, without looking up, continued typing away on his abacus, replying slowly and deliberately:

"Please calm down, sir. It's not that our shop refuses service, but it's the peak tourist season in Lianhai recently, and there are so many customers that even the stables have been booked out for people to sleep on the floor."

How about you guys try your luck at the newly opened Tianlai Inn?

"It's in the west of the city, it just opened recently, there should still be vacancies."

The three followed the direction the innkeeper pointed and found the Tianlai Inn in a quiet alley in the west of the city.

Finally, I have a room! It's number three in the Jiazi building, facing south on the street, with plenty of sunlight and a large room.

The skinny guy let out a long sigh of relief and slammed the pass onto the counter:

"The new inn is much more reliable. Those run-down shops didn't even have a standard room. How dare they open for business?"

Upon entering the room, the three of them were momentarily stunned by the furnishings.

Snow-white bed sheets, wall lights, transparent glass windows, and a separate bathroom in the corner with a white porcelain toilet.

These things, which were commonplace for the locals of Lianhai, were all unheard-of wonders to the three imperial guards who had just arrived from the capital.

The skinny boy circled the room, then ran to the wall and pressed the light switch several times, watching the light turn on and off with the excitement of a child who had found a new toy.

He studied the white porcelain toilet for a long time, frowning and asking whether it was for bathing or drinking, and even bent down to peek inside several times.

The sturdy man squatted at the bathroom door, eagerly trying to flush the toilet.

Master Ma sat alone on the edge of the bed, took off his dusty official boots, and looked at the dim lights outside the window, but did not look inside.

The people of Lianhai County lived better than anyone he had ever met in the capital. He couldn't understand a single word of the multiplication tables the children on the street were reciting, but he had a vague feeling that they were not simple.

And then there was the story I heard in the teahouse that afternoon, the storyteller's tale of "The Adult's Journey to Immortality," the description of Madam Wen was truly captivating.

He thought of Lady Wen and the palace maid, and then of the Empress, and his lower abdomen couldn't help but feel a little hot.

He stood up, about to call his two companions to go out and look for a brothel, when suddenly a very faint buzzing sound came from the floor beneath his feet. It was like the kind of fly that you can't shake off outside the window in summer, or the kind of low-frequency vibration that makes your scalp tingle in a beehive. It crawled up the floor and into the iron pipes of the bed frame, making the soles of his feet tingle slightly.

He instantly became alert.

But just as he was about to rush out through the glass window, blinding arcs of electricity simultaneously erupted from all the metal surfaces of the entire room.

The three of them instantly emitted blue smoke, their eyes wide open, their mouths agape, as if they wanted to say something, but no sound came out of their throats.

In the monitoring room, Zhou Ping turned on the switch, picked up the walkie-talkie and ordered the sniper team to remain on standby, and also ordered the cleanup team to go upstairs immediately to confirm the scene.

A moment later, the cleanup team's reply came through the walkie-talkie:

The three targets showed no vital signs, their skin was charred black, and their pupils were dilated, confirming their death.

Zhou Ping let out a long breath and waved to his deputy behind him:

"Clean up and restore the room to its original state."

Inside the Tartar camp, in the golden tent.

The Khan sat on a tiger-skin chair, holding a secret report sent from the south in his hand, his brow furrowed.

The generals sat on either side of the tent, with a large sheepskin map spread out on the table. The territory north of the Yellow River had been trampled by the iron hooves of the Tartars, but the rich land south of the Yellow River still made them drool.

"Report..."

A scout captain strode into the tent and knelt on one knee.

"Great Khan, three crossing points on the south bank of the Yellow River have been identified. Nine out of ten villages along the river are empty. The remnants of the Xia army have retreated to the south bank and are now deploying defenses along the river."

However, the true condition of those cities on the eastern side of the south bank remains unknown.

The Khan slammed the secret report onto the table and said in a deep voice:

"Unsure of the truth?"

What have I been doing keeping you scouts around?!

The scout captain immediately lowered his head:

"Great Khan, please calm your anger!"

There is indeed something strange on the east side of the south bank.

None of our scouts returned once they approached the borders of Hezhou Prefecture; not even one who brought news came back alive.

The scouts secretly called that area "the Gates of Hell," and no one dared to approach it.

"gate of hell?"

A burly commander with a thick beard chuckled and slammed his wine bowl heavily onto the table.

"What kind of hell gate could a mere Hezhou Prefecture have?"

"We've already captured the capital of Great Xia, why would we be afraid of a mere small county in the southeast?"

At this moment, a commotion arose outside the tent, and a centurion led several Han Chinese civilians, whose hands were bound, into the tent and shoved them to the ground.

"Great Khan!"

"This humble servant has captured several Han Chinese refugees west of the Yellow River. They claim to have important intelligence and want to exchange it for grain!"

The Khan waved his hand, and the centurion dragged one of the old men forward.

The old man trembled all over and knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly. The Khan's interpreter asked him in Chinese, and he told him everything in detail.

"Great Khan, spare my life!"

I've heard that there's a county called Lianhai in Hezhou Prefecture that's incredibly wealthy!

The people there wear clothes better than the wealthy merchants in the capital, the streetlights can burn all night without oil, and there's a giant iron ship in the harbor, bigger than the imperial palace in the capital!

"A ship made of iron?"

The bearded commander frowned.

"Do you think we're easy to fool?"

How can iron float on water?

"No, no!"

That's true!

That's what they all say, and the common people are all beaming with health, eating white rice every meal!

The Khan raised a hand to stop the bearded man who wanted to ask more questions, and after a moment of silence, slowly spoke:

"Iron ship..."

If that's true, wouldn't my army be able to use this ship to sail south?

He pondered for a moment, then looked at the generals below his tent.

"Who is willing to lead troops and take this Hezhou for me?"

The bearded commander immediately rose and clasped his hands in greeting:

"Great Khan, this humble general is willing to go!"

"Give mere Hezhou two thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry, and I guarantee I'll raze it to the ground and bring back the iron ships from Lianhai County to the Great Khan!"

The Khan nodded:

"Then I, the Khan, will await your good news."

The bearded man accepted the order and that very night mustered his troops, with two thousand cavalry in front and ten thousand infantry behind, and marched in a mighty force toward Hezhou Prefecture.

As he left the camp, the bearded man rode confidently on horseback, looking quite dashing. His adjutant beside him laughed and said:

"My lord, I've heard that Han women have fair skin and tender flesh, much better than the women on our grasslands."

"Now that we've captured Lianhai County, my lord, you should reward me with several more soldiers."

The bearded man laughed heartily, his laughter carrying far on the night wind:

"Once we take the city, you can choose any woman you want!"

"I only want that iron ship; I'll return it to the Great Khan, and that will be a great achievement for us!"