After descending the mountain, we were actually still about twenty miles away from the city, but as Wei soldiers marched out ten miles away, the distance seemed to be shortened all of a sudden. Although it was already dark, everyone felt more energetic, as if their hometown was right in front of them.

The city is too small to accommodate tens of thousands of soldiers. Each battalion is arranged in different villages and towns, and only officials above the battalion chief can live in the city. Nirvana usually only has 500 soldiers responsible for maintaining public order, and the villagers of each town take turns

After the Wei army entered the city, with special permission from Prince Jiu, a battalion of Wei troops was stationed around the city. One team was stationed in the city, and the remaining four teams were stationed outside the four gates of the city. Most of the shops outside the four gates were temporarily requisitioned as barracks.

.

Si Mang's main tent was set up in the city lord's palace. Prince Jiu stayed in the west wing, leaving the main hall to Si Mang. Si Mang refused and insisted on letting Prince Jiu live in the main hall, while he lived in the private room. Finally, Si Mang

Mang said: "If the young master refuses, I will not dare to enter the city, but I can set up tents in the camp." The dispute ended.

After entering the city, Gongzi Jiu entertained Si Mang in the main hall. Si Mang gave the main hall to Gongzi Jiu, and Gongzi Jiu shouted "Trespass", so he regarded himself as the master and treated Si Mang as his guest. The lord of the city accompanied Gongzi Jiu as the Prime Minister, but

All supplies belong to the city lord.

At the end of the banquet, Si Mang asked: "It is not a long-term strategy to station the army in Nirvana. How should we return?"

The city lord said: "I have sent an envoy to Shangdang City on the order of the young master. Please look for rural guides and lead the army back to Anyi! There are many towns in Shangdang and merchants gather together, so they will definitely get them, so don't make a mistake."

Only then did Si Mang know that Gongzi Jiu and his party didn't know the way. They probably just made up nonsense based on hearsay. He couldn't help but feel a lot heavier. But now that the matter had come to this, it was naturally inconvenient to reveal his thoughts, so he had to force a smile and said: "Shangdang

If you have long-term relationships with merchants in Anyi, you will surely find your way!"

Young Master Jiu also laughed and said, "Yes, yes!"

Shangdang is more than two hundred miles away from Nirvana, and it often takes ten days for people to travel. However, at the request of Gongzi Jiu, the envoy rode away. It is estimated that he will arrive in two days, but it is uncertain when the township guide will come. The envoy is here

Gongzi Jiu sent the envoy immediately after arriving, one day before Si Mang arrived. Si Mang arrived at Nie City at night. It is estimated that the envoy had just approached Shangdang and might not be able to enter the city until the next day.

After Si Mang learned about the situation, he immediately left the city and went to the camp to visit Lord Xinling's retainers. Those retainers were nominally the guards sent by Lord Xinling to Si Mang, but in fact they ignored Si Mang; on the contrary, Si Mang had to take care of them.

Si Mang originally wanted these disciples to leave the middle camp with Prince Jiu so that they could have some animals to ride on, but the disciples refused and claimed that they were protecting Si Mang on the order of the emperor and abandoning their master in danger.

The situation was incompatible with Yi. Si Mang had no choice but to send a battalion of people to protect and serve them. Although these people were proud, they were not uneducated and incompetent. Although climbing over mountains and ridges was not as easy as walking on flat ground, it was not difficult;

Not only did they have no complaints about the difficulties on the journey, they also had many ways to deal with them. Along the way, they were the only group of people who did not reduce their numbers and were still alive and well, maintaining their combat effectiveness.

In fact, when Lord Xinling was appointed, he paid special attention to selecting talents with both civil and military skills. However, they relied on their talents and knowledge, looked above the top, and regarded the world as nothing, including Lord Xinling. If they were not polite enough, many people would ignore them.

Yes. Mr. Xinling is your noble son, and he has time and energy to pay homage to them; Si Mang is the leader of the army, and he is too busy with daily operations. He has no time to pay homage to them, so he can only put it aside. When they saw Si Mang

He didn't pay much attention to himself, but felt that Si Mang looked down upon others! Only Mr. Jin and Cao Er had some friendship with Si Mang in Huayang. They both had some knowledge of military affairs and did not blame him.

After visiting the gentlemen one by one and asking them about the food and drink, Si Mang left. He found Mr. Jin and said, "I wanted to go to Anyi, but I ended up in Nirvana. Where is that?"

Mr. Jin, who is very knowledgeable, answered: "Nirvana, named after the water, lives in the upper reaches of Zhang River. Along the water, it is Zhaoye. I heard that Nirvana is also the place of Gaolang, or the old residence of Zhaogaolang, on the Huotai Mountain.

Right; now I see that this place is on the left side of the mountain, maybe it is not the other place..." Mr. Jin quoted scriptures and introduced the allusions to Nirvana. Si Mang was not familiar with these things at first, and he was confused and confused. It was easy to finish listening.

I thanked him and said goodbye. It was already midnight. I called the city gate open and entered the city. I climbed up the tower alone and looked into the distance.

The weather that had always been gloomy suddenly cleared up, and the moon was shining brightly in the sky that night, and the mountains and rivers in the distance were all hazy. Densely populated houses and fields spread out in front of us, immersed in silence, with only one or two dog barks occasionally heard.

Although Si Mang was also a member of the Wei family, his family was poor and he could barely make ends meet with only a few acres of thin farmland. When he came out to serve as a military officer, he was still bribed. Since the military soldiers were returned to the royal family, only soldiers were recruited from the private sector.

They were selected from aristocratic families and used weak generals to strengthen the troops, so the combat effectiveness of the soldiers gradually declined. Although Si Mang had not been selected by the soldiers, he was still a hard-working group of officers among the officers. He paid attention to military affairs on weekdays, and also imitated the appearance of famous ancient generals, and interacted with

Soldiers share the same joys and sorrows. After more than ten years of meritorious service and promotion to the rank of school leader, he was hired as Xinling Lieutenant by Lord Xinling. After one year of service, he was sent out to perform tasks independently. He did not have his own team, and even his relatives

There were no soldiers or generals. He climbed up the tower and looked far away, but he was alone. If he had questions in his heart, there was no one to discuss with him. He was like an orphan, abandoned in the vast wilderness, left to fend for himself. When he thought of this, he felt sad in his heart.

He walked around the city wall twice. Under the hazy moonlight, although the mountains and rivers were not fully displayed, their outlines were extremely clear, as if nature had eliminated unimportant details for him and only showed the important joints. Here are four sides

Surrounding the mountains. The Nirvana water comes down from the west mountain, flows eastward along the southern foot of the mountain, and winds southward to the east mountain: that is naturally the only channel from Nirvana to the outside world. But the mountains on all sides are not very high, like them

It's also possible to go over the mountains and ridges during the day, but it doesn't have to be along the foot of the mountain... Si Mang watched and thought, and he didn't realize that the east was white.

The envoy to Shangdang came back five days later, bringing with him a caravan of about a hundred people and dozens of animals, all carrying goods. The envoy said: "Shou Jun ordered this salt merchant to guide them to Anyi."

The city lord reported Gongzi Jiu, and Gongzi Jiu informed Si Mang. Si Mang, Gongzi Jiu and the city lord met the group of Jia Jia.

The leader of the caravan seemed to be an expert, and he took the initiative to introduce himself: "The common people are doing business in the cities of Shangdang. They are not alone. They use furs and delicacies from the mountains to buy sauce, salt, utensils and the like at the foot of the mountain. Shoujun

I heard that the young master wants to go to Anyi, and since the common people are familiar with the mountain roads, I ordered him to serve! The young master has to be dispatched, so he dare not resign!"

Si Mang asked: "Where are you going to Anyi? If you don't have what you need, would you rather waste your livelihood?"

The leader said: "The land of Anyi is close to Jiechi, and its salt is sold all over the world. However, the road is far and difficult to travel, and it may not be possible to travel there in March or May. Now is the festival, when furs and mountain treasures are on the market, and their prices are high. Maybe in March and May.

The land is rich in salt and stones, and it is worth living, thanks to the gift of the young master!"

Si Mang said: "The march of the army is not like that of merchants. Orders and prohibitions must not be violated. But what about military laws?"

The man shrank his neck in fright and said: "Master Mingcha. We are all good citizens, and we don't dare to make jokes in the army!"

Si Mang also vaguely heard that Anyi is a place that produces salt. After asking a few more questions, and seeing that there were no flaws in what they said, he ordered him to be taken down to rest for a day and set off the next day. The caravan dispersed, but did not rest.

, but traveled from village to city, buying mountain goods, and was busy for most of the day.

After resting in Nirvana for nearly ten days, most of the stragglers caught up, and most of the injured and injured people recovered. After reorganizing the battalions, the marching sequence was arranged: the first battalion of the front army opened the way, and the fifth battalion followed;

There are five battalions at the head and five battalions at the rear, each with livestock; the four battalions at the back are responsible for the reception work. The reason why each ministry arranges a maximum of five battalions is because there are mountain roads along the way and there is usually not enough open space for the army to set up camp.

The fifth battalion could remain mobile. Si Mang still arranged for Xin Lingcheng to be in charge of the tenth battalion of the Chinese army. This time he personally led the sixth battalion of the former army to clear the way for the whole army. Gongzi Jiu was still in the Chinese army, and the disciples naturally followed Si Mang in.

In the former army, each unit set off an hour apart.

Under the leadership of the caravan, the team went directly to Nanshan. The leader explained to Simang: "But after passing this mountain, we will reach Tongtan, a large city, where we can garrison troops!"

Prince Jiu was still in the central army, so that he could travel on horseback. The retainer who was responsible for contacting the front army was still the retainer. The retainer said: "Tongtan is about eighty miles away from Nie, and it is also in Han County."

Si Mang said: "If you go to Tongtan, you still have to rely on Yan!"

The retainer said: "Tongtan Ling is very kind to the young master, so I have no other words to say."

The leader continued: "From Tongdan to the west, there is the Jieshui River. Along the Jieshui River, we go down for more than three hundred miles to Duanshi. From Duanshi, we go down the mountain for hundreds of miles and reach Yicheng. We continue for hundreds of miles.

Yuli, even Anyi!"

Si Mang sighed after hearing this: "The Jishui River on the Anyi Road still runs six to seven hundred miles to Tongtan. The cities in Shangdang are each hundreds of miles apart. The round trip for business is only a thousand miles. How much time does it take?"

The leader smiled bitterly and said: "Young Master pities the common people, but they only rely on this for food and clothing, so I have no choice but to do it! If you practice this way, you will go back and forth three times a year. However, most of the common people go to Yicheng to do business. Ruopingyang, Ruo Pingyang, Ruo Pingyang, etc."

Anyi will do it occasionally."

Simang asked: "Where does Yicheng belong now?"

The retainer said: "The order is like a Korean!"

Simang said: "There are so many cities in Han!"

The retainer said: "Pingyang, the old capital of Han, is the homeland of Jin. Yicheng is the land of Tang, and was granted the title of Tang Shu, Marquis of Jin. Uncle Quwo was granted the title of Quwo, fifty miles west of the wing. There is Xinjiang in the west, also

It is also the capital of Jin. This is also the land of Han. There is Xiangling in the north, so it is also the city of Wei. "

The retainers said that Xiangling was the old city of Wei, mocking Wei for dedicating all its land east of Hedong to Qin, and now Xiangling has become the land of Qin. But Si Mang seemed unaware of this and looked confused.

His teachable attitude actually made the retainer feel embarrassed.
Chapter completed!