Oriole Line

The scouts sent out have to double the search range.I don't worry, it's better to investigate by myself. "

Pu Chen smiled and shook his head: "You have never been a scout, so you are not as good as them. Let me ask you, where are you going to investigate?"

"Xiangyang." Wen Tao answered simply.

"The news that Xiangyang was massacred came from our own scouts. If you don't find anything here, you may be in danger." Pu Chen said.

Wen Tao shook his head: "People from Beiyan massacred the city mostly for food and money, and then they abused women. In cities like Nanyang and Xiangyang, if they really slaughtered cities, robbed food and abused women, they would not be able to finish slaughtering in ten days. This time It is unreasonable to have slaughtered two cities in just a few days."

"You mean our scout information is wrong?" Pu Chen said.

"The scouts are well-trained, so they shouldn't make false reports. Xiangyang and Nanyang must have been slaughtered, but it may not be the kind of massacre we often see." Wen Tao analyzed.

"By the way, the scouts reported that the two cities of Nanyang and Xiangyang had signs of fire, and many people in the cities were burned to death." Pu Chen recalled the military report.

"Obviously there is a lot of food and money to take, why burn it all?"

"Then what do you mean?"

"I can't figure it out, so I'm going to investigate."

"I'll go with you." Pu Chen was firm.

"Didn't you say there was danger?" Wen Tao raised his eyebrows, "You are the Patriarch of the Pu family, a rich man, and coming to Jingzhou is already an adventure. If you want Mr. Wei to know that you took the risk to go to Xiangyang, can he not teach you?"

"Hmph, then don't let him know." After saying that, Pu Chen stepped onto the horse that Wen Tao had pulled out, pulled the reins, and pinched the horse's legs, the horse was eager to try, as if it was about to run out.

"Hey, my horse!" Wen Tao was annoyed.In terms of riding and shooting, how could he compare to Pu Chen who grew up in the Wuchang military camp, seeing that Pu Chen was about to leave in the dust, he became anxious for a moment.

"Together." Pu Chen directly extended his hand to Wen Tao without explaining.Before Wen Tao had time to think, he was pulled to the horse by Pu Chen.He used to be very average in riding and archery, and he usually sat unsteadily on the horseback. Now there are two people sitting on the narrow horseback. Take the reins and circle him directly.Wen Tao was holding a lock of horse mane, and he had no stirrups to step on. His whole figure seemed to be hanging in the air, and he might fall down at any time, like a panicked rabbit.

Pu Chen chuckled: "Don't move, Wen Tao." Pu Chen said this very lightly, especially the last two words, Wen Tao couldn't tell whether Pu Chen said "Wen Tao" or "Tao Tao" ".

"I'd better go back to the prefect's mansion and lead another horse. The two of us on the horse will affect the speed." Even though he felt that he would fall off at any time, Wen Tao still made a clear idea that he thought he would not be refuted. current situation.

Pu Chen ignored it.

Wen Tao vowed not to give up until he reached his goal. Relying on his lightness kung fu, he was lucky enough to jump off the horse by force, but at the moment when he was about to run out of luck, he heard Pu Chen say quietly: "Aren't you Silly, there is a post station in front, and there will naturally be horses at the post station."

"You..." Wen Tao was suddenly discouraged, like a balloon that was ready to go was suddenly pierced by someone, and he fell back full, and fell into Pu Chen's arms.

"Look, it's much more stable this way."

You fucking... Wen Tao wanted to curse for the first time in his life.

38, 38.

The two traveled day and night, changed horses several times at the post station, and finally arrived in Xiangyang within three days.Along the way, Pu Chen had already reported his whereabouts to Jingzhou. Everything in Jingzhou remained the same, and Beiyan remained silent.

"Here we are." Pu Chen and Wen Tao rode horses side by side, and Pu Chen pointed to a city not far away.

Xiangyang is not as grand as Jingzhou City, let alone Wuchang.However, Wen Tao couldn't look at the slaughtered city with any ease. The shape of the city wall was still there, but two sides were ruined.There was still a little black smoke rising from the whole city, indicating that Xiangyang had been burned as reported by the scouts.These scenes coincided with some of the images in Wen Tao’s memory. The looted city, the scorched earth, the crying of women and children, the buried mass graves piled with the bones of adult men, and sometimes their heads were hung on the city walls. above.

Pu Chen had already rushed to Xiangyang City one step ahead, Wen Tao sighed and followed closely.Pu Chen didn't go directly into the city, but carefully inspected the two damaged city walls, and after a while he said, "How do you think the city walls were broken?"

"This city wall has obviously been smashed by heavy objects. It should be a catapult." Wen Tao analyzed the marks on the city wall that were obviously damaged by heavy objects such as stones.The catapult, originally an instrument only available in Jingchao, can reach tens of feet in height, and it can easily smash down the city wall with heavy objects such as huge boulders. It is a rare siege weapon.Beiyan originally did not have heavy siege equipment such as catapults, but after Haril captured Luoyang, he collected a lot from the arsenal.

"The catapult must have been used, but the smashed city wall still has scorched marks." Pu Chen pointed at the scorched city wall.

"Could it be the scorch marks caused by the fire spreading to the city wall when Xiangyang City was set on fire after the city was destroyed?" Wen Tao asked.

Pu Chen shook his head: "If there are traces of the fire, they should be patches of black, but the scorched marks here are all on the gaps where the city wall was smashed, and you can smell it, and it smells like tar." Pu Chen climbed on the city wall. In two steps, a little burnt mark came to the tip of Wen Tao's nose.

"It's indeed tar." Wen Tao's nose twitched, but then he was very puzzled, "How can there be tar here?" Tar is a fuel that is more lethal than coal and only craftsmen in Ouchi can refine it. There are only some kept in Jiankang's Forbidden Army and Wuchang for military use.Although the Beiyan iron cavalry is frightening, it is still far behind Nanjing in terms of ordnance. In terms of tar, the temperature after burning is several times higher than that of coal, and everywhere it goes is scorched earth, whether it is defending the city or Siege is a sharp weapon.

"Go, go in and have a look." Pu Chen frowned and walked quickly into Xiangyang City.

All the houses in the city had been burned, and there were charred corpses everywhere, emitting a disgusting stench.Pu Chen's brows became tighter and tighter. This is not an ordinary city massacre. If it were an ordinary city massacre, the Beiyan cavalry would usually kill the men and snatch the women in the city, leaving the old and weak to fend for themselves. It is a real purgatory on earth, a complete massacre of all people regardless of gender, age or child.

Pu Chen clenched his fists. He didn't stop, but continued to search around the city. When he was about to reach the mansion, he suddenly heard a sound, and a figure rolled down from the roof.

"Be careful, there are people!" Pu Chen said while protecting Wen Tao behind him.

Wen Tao took a second look, and saw an eight or nine-year-old boy fell on the ground, his clothes were torn, his body was burned in many places, and his face was scorched.Pu Chen looked at the roof that the boy fell from. It was not a wooden house, but an earthen house made of yellow mud, so it was not affected by the fire. "He's still alive!" Wen Tao said.He stepped forward quickly and picked up the boy, who was dying and seemed to have only one breath left.

"Give him water." Wen Tao said.Pu Chen handed the water bag to Wen Tao, Wen Tao carefully fed the boy a few mouthfuls, the boy coughed violently after choking on a few mouthfuls.After a while, his breathing gradually stabilized, he took a few more sips from the water bag, opened his eyes, and shrank instinctively when he saw the two of them.

"Don't be afraid, we are not from Beiyan." Wen Tao said softly.

Only then did the boy relax, but the whole state was still as if he had lost his mind.

"I'll take care of him here, you can check again in the city." Wen Tao made a decisive decision.

Thinking of the time constraints, Pu Chen didn't stop any longer, and quickly walked into the burnt-out government office to inspect it.Half an hour later, Pu Chen and Wen Tao reunited, and saw that the boy he had just rescued had closed his eyes, showing no signs of being alive.Pu Chen's heart tightened, Wen Tao lowered his eyes and said, "Just now he fell too hard, and the burns on his body have already been infected... Even if he survives, it will be very painful."

Pu Chen nodded with difficulty: "Did he mention anything just now?"

"The kid is a little delirious, but he just kept talking about the big fireball."

"Fireball?" Pu Chen looked puzzled.

Wen Tao also shook his head: "I don't know what he was talking about. He said that many big fireballs fell from the sky, setting people and houses on fire."

"Fireball... Catapult..." Pu Chen muttered to himself, and suddenly his eyes lit up, "I understand! Beiyan must have used catapults to attack the city, but this time, they loaded them on the catapults and threw them at the city wall It’s not just stones, but stones dipped in tar and ignited! Those burning stones were smashed into the city wall by catapults, and even hit the city directly, causing a big fire, and Xiangyang would be destroyed by itself!”

When Wen Tao heard this, the explanation really fit perfectly. When the two of them thought of the scene where the flames were soaring into the sky and those burning boulders were smashed into the city, they couldn't help feeling sad, what kind of purgatory it was.

"Did you find anything there?" Wen Tao asked.

"I went to see the government office in Xiangyang. The government office was not seriously burned. The armory was looted, but the granary was still full."

"Northern Yan is heavy on martial arts. They don't have the skills to make iron, so they just rob or buy their weapons. Since they broke Xiangyang City, it's not surprising that they moved the army armory," Wen Tao said.

"But the people of Beiyan live as nomads, and they are short of food all the year round. One hundred thousand cavalrymen need a lot of rations. Since they looted the armory, why don't they take the food with them?"

Wen Tao couldn't help but fall into deep thought, tar... huge rocks dipped in tar... armory... lightning massacre... granary!

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