The person who came was none other than the queen's retainer, Yaoyang Jian. Zhao Bohu first led him into the inner room and looked at Ji Hu, who was still sleeping. Then the two sat in front of the table and whispered in secrets.

"Thanks to Master Young Master for taking such good care of me, the Queen has been worried about it!" Naoyang Jian was extremely grateful.

"The tiger was careless for a moment and let the prince follow him in the car. He was so ashamed!" Zhao Bohu told the truth.

"The prince acted arbitrarily, it's not your fault!"

The two of them made concessions before getting to the point. Zhao Bohu asked, "My lord, the retainer, is here to take the prince back to the palace?"

"No. The king and the queen have decided to let the prince follow you. When will you leave the army and when will the prince return to the palace? I am here to deliver a message to Fan Kingdom on the order of the queen."

"Oh? What arrangements does the queen have?"

"The queen secretly ordered Fanzi to lead the army to try to delay the Chu army and slow down its march, so as to buy time for Mr. Zhao to assemble the army."

Zhao Bohu could no longer describe his inner feelings with surprise. How could the queen, who was far away in Haojing, know about his current predicament and lend a helping hand in such a timely manner? Could she be able to figure it out? At this time

, he was completely convinced: "The queen is planning the strategy, and I am not as good as the minister."

"By the way, has it been a smooth journey?" Nianyang Jian asked pretending to be casual.

"This------" Zhao Bohu picked up the bamboo arrow on the table and handed it over: "Today on the mountainside path, someone shot a cold arrow. If the prince hadn't blocked it with a knife, the tiger would have

I'm afraid he's already dead on the bed by now!"

"Is this happening?" Yaoyang shoulder took the arrow and looked at it carefully. Although iron tools appeared at this time, they were not widely used due to the complicated forging process. Most of the upper-class nobles used bronze tools, while ordinary ones

Common people can only use bamboo and wood pottery, and arrows are no exception. Most people can only use hardwood such as mulberry to make bows, cut bamboo into arrow bodies, and only use copper, tin or iron to make arrowheads. This arrow looks like the bamboo arrowheads owned by ordinary hunters.

Arrows are no different.

"The retainer might as well give it a whiff," Zhao Bohu suggested.

Naoyang Jian put the arrow shaft under his nose, smelled it, nodded and said, "There is a fishy smell of sea salt. Is there anything wrong with this?"

Zhao Bohu took the arrow and said slowly: "The State of Qi is located on the coast of the East China Sea and enjoys the benefits of fish and salt. For many years, it has boiled the sea to make salt, which is sold all over the world. All arrows from Qi Land are often soaked in salt water.

To increase the toughness of the arrow body."

Naoyang Jian heard some secrets: "According to Young Master Zhao, this assassin is from Qidi? Who is that? The Marquis of Qi? Or Prince Xi?" He felt a sudden chill on his back: "Then who is this assassin?

Are you here for the prince?"

"It's either the prince or the subordinate. It's no different. The retainers will take this arrow back and present it to the queen so that she can take precautions in advance."

"No! I will set off immediately and report back to the queen!"

In the vast darkness of night, in the wilderness at the foot of the Bronze Mountain, there were seven or eight figures running wildly. All of them had disheveled hair and no clothes on their bodies, and they were running like wild horses running wild.

After a long time, until I looked back and saw that Tonglu Mountain was already the size of a small bonsai, an older man turned around and said to a young man: "That's it, they haven't caught up, right? I really can't run anymore!"

This young man is only in his early twenties, and his figure is obviously smaller than these terminal ones.

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The mine slave who was not covered by the sun was much stronger. He looked back at the copper-green mountains in the distance, took a breath and said: "I keep my promise. You help me hide my identity, and I promise to help you escape.

Be free. Now that it’s done, let’s go our separate ways!”

The mine slaves looked at each other, and the same elder said just now: "No! You are sending Buddha to the West. We don't even have any clothes. If we can't go far, we are afraid of attracting suspicion. If we are caught again, we will die!"

We are all barbarians, please take us with you!"

"Yes, yes! Dazhou has always been strict with escaped slaves. If they are caught, they will die! Please save us!" The other mine slaves also begged.

The young man thought for a while, bit his lip and said, "Okay! But you have to obey me in everything. If you don't obey, you will die!" There was a sharp cold light in his eyes.

The escaped slaves trembled and knelt down: "Yes! Everything will be decided by the leader!"

"Remember, my name is Rongyi, and from now on, you will be my dead soldiers!"

The young man was Rongyi. He led more than ten dead soldiers out of the camp, crossed the Han River day and night, and came to Tonglu Mountain. This time he was originally here to inspect the defense situation of Zhao Bohu's army, but he didn't want to

By such a coincidence, he bumped into Zhao Bohu and Ji Hu on the trail. He didn't expect that the assassination operation would go so smoothly. At that time, his hand with the bow and arrow was trembling. He had been to Haojing City and had seen Zhao Bohu, but he had never seen the prince.

Ji Hu. At that time, Ji Hu was wearing ordinary clothes, and his hair was loose and loose because no one had taken care of it. He thought he was Zhao Bohu's book boy, so he pointed his arrow at Zhao Bohu.

He missed a single hit, but fortunately, the Yi miners rescued him and saved his life. It was an unexpected joy to be able to bring these seven or eight people to join the dead soldiers he left at the foot of the mountain. Walking on the road, Rong Yi

Start planning the next assassination in your mind.

In the early morning, after Zhao Bohu had finished washing up, as soon as he stepped out of the room, he met the panic-stricken E Shizi Yu Fang, followed by a mine supervisor with a frightened face.

"What happened?" Zhao Bohu asked calmly.

"Last night, several mining slaves killed two guards and fled down the mountain. The assassin must be among them, hey!" E Yufang smacked his palm angrily: "We should have killed all those mining slaves yesterday.

, don’t leave any trouble in the future!”

Zhao Bohu frowned: "It's me they want to assassinate, and I'm the one who ordered the pardon. Why should the prince be so upset?"

E Yufang heard the displeasure in his words and quickly saluted, "It's Yu Fang who made a mistake! Your Majesty the King is also worried about the process of making troops. Originally, you shouldn't bother your Majesty with such trivial matters, but because you were assassinated yesterday,

That’s why I had to go back and forth!”

"Forget it, right now the princes and troops are gathering towards the Tonglu Mountain. We really can't spare the energy to chase the assassins, so we'll put this aside for now and just strengthen the security in the future!"

"That's right! That's very good." E Yufang seemed to have the same intention, so that no matter who it was in the future, it would be difficult to hold accountable the King of Zhou's envoy for the assassination in Tonglu Mountain.

On the winding mountain road, a cavalry team is marching forward. The sergeants wear helmets made of bamboo, wood and rattan. The armor on their bodies is probably not made of metal. The war horses under their crotches are also ponies from the land of Jingchu.

Not necessarily tall. The bronze armor and helmets worn only by generals shone with a dazzling light in the sun. Although the Chu people's expedition team was small,

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They looked shabby, but they were all in high spirits and had high morale. Their bronzed skin and bulging biceps showed the results of the Chu people's integration with the southern barbarians during the hundreds of years since they immigrated here.

Behind the cavalry was a military chariot formation, with about 200 chariots moving forward. Chariot confrontation was originally a tactic that the northern Central Plains was good at. The Chu people did not have chariots. After Xiong Qu came to the throne, he determined to conquer the north, and then war developed.

Therefore, the chariots of the Chu people were not many compared to those of the Central Plains countries, and they were not strong enough. There could only be one charioteer standing on the chariot and one chariot on the right. Only the chariot of King Xiong Qu of Chu was slightly larger.

At this time, he stood proudly at the front of the military chariot, with the word "Chu" on the red flag behind him fluttering in the wind.

Except for the youngest son who stayed in Danyang because he was too young, Xiong Qu took his eldest son Xiong Kang and his second son Xiong Hong with him on this expedition. It can be said that the whole family came out. It has been ten days since we set off from Echeng, and we are now far away from Tonglu Mountain.

There are still seven or eight days to go, which can be described as a "turtle speed" for the Chu army, which has always traveled quickly.

Unknowingly, the army entered a long and narrow valley. There was only a passage about three meters wide between two hills hundreds of meters high. It was estimated that only one military vehicle could pass through. Xiong Qu reined in the horse's head,

The order was sent: "The terrain here is dangerous and it is easy to set up an ambush. Kang'er, Hong'er!"

The second son heard the order and drove forward: "Father, what are your orders?"

"You each take a team of men and go to search these two mountains to see if there are any ambushes?"

"Got the order!"

An hour and a half later, Xiong Qu was already impatient with the waiting, and his two sons panted and came forward to report: "There is no ambush! But there are traces of a large group of people passing by, and there are discarded flags, flags, and curtains."

Xiong Hong handed over a small flag to his father, with the word "Fan" embroidered on it. Xiong Qu threw the flag to the ground and said angrily: "It's these Fan slaves again! Huh! My surname is in vain the 'Zhurong Eight Surnames'"

One of them actually acted like a tiger and was willing to be the lackey of the concubines of Hanyang. I, Xiongqu, can't spare them!"

Now that the danger has been eliminated, the large group of people continues to move forward. This valley is sandwiched between two mountains, and there is no end in sight. I just feel that the further forward I feel, the narrower and more difficult it is to navigate, and the two mountains on the left and right are squeezed tighter and tighter---

---

Suddenly, the cavalry team at the front stopped. Perhaps because the stop was too violent, the horses pulling the military chariot behind them had no time to react, and they raised their hooves and neighed in a show of resistance. Xiong Qu was caught off guard and braked suddenly, and couldn't help but yell: "Fuck!"

Yes, what’s wrong?”

The outpost came to report: "Report to your Majesty, there are huge rocks blocking the mountain pass ahead, making it impossible to pass."

Xiong Qu and his two sons rode forward in a hurry. It turned out that the narrow mountain road turned sharply to the right, and then there was an even narrower pass of less than two meters. This pass is now blocked by a huge stone, not to mention

Even a man and a horse could not push the chariot forward. Moreover, this boulder was huge, like a stone hill, and weighed more than 100,000 stones, so it could not be pushed. Needless to say, this must be the result of the French army's outpost.

"These dogs don't dare to confront us head-on, so they resort to all kinds of despicable tactics. They suffered heavy losses in two ambushes before, and then they can only chop down pontoons and build ferries, and now they can only push rocks to block roads."

Looking back on the experience of being harassed by Fan Jun along the way, the young and energetic Xiong Kang was extremely angry.

Xiong Qu said nothing and stretched out his hand to his second son: "Hong'er, take my bow and arrows!"

(End of chapter)
Chapter completed!