comeback [rebirth]

The entire island is not too small, and it would take at least half an hour for the boat to circle around. By the time all the soldiers surrounded and searched from all directions, gathered in the center of the island, and reported to Yan Xuan and Cen Yuan respectively, it was already two quarters. It's after the clock.

Those soldiers were almost all soldiers who followed Yan Xuan to the battlefield, so after saluting with Cen Yuan, they naturally turned to Yan Xuan: "Commander."

Yan Xuan signaled him to say.

"We found a total of three caves on the island, two of which were used to manufacture weapons, the other seemed to be used to manufacture ships, and the rest were forests." Someone stepped forward and reported, "As for the school grounds, there is only one here. .”

Yan Xuan: "Understood."

Cen Yuan thought for a while, and it was best to leave it to Yan Xuan to deal with weapons, so he said, "You can deal with it over there."

"Okay, be careful yourself." Yan Xuan responded, so the soldiers split into two groups and walked towards the cave with the soldiers.

After counting, there were nearly a hundred people living in the school grounds. They were all recruits who had passed the assessment when the Confederate Army started conscription. They were sent here together after leaving Qingjiang Wharf by boat for so-called special training.

In addition to these soldiers and the tents they lived in, there was another mountain hut near Dianjiangtai. After questioning, it was learned that it was the residence of the leader who fled earlier.

Cen Yuan searched by himself, and found out the list of soldiers, including their names, which batch came to the island, who were in the family, and what they did.

In addition, he also dug out a locked wooden box.

He turned his gaze to the side, and Lou Yuanbai conveniently found a bunch of keys on the leader.

When the wooden box was opened, the contents inside were all letters.

Cen Yuan glanced and took out the thickest letter among them, and saw that "Liu Shuo" was written on the signature.

"Oh, my lord."

The leader was still wearing a military uniform, and was kneeling beside the soldier tightly, his armor making a crisp sound as he struggled.

But in comparison, the way he speaks makes people feel that he is not wearing armor, but some straw bags that can be broken in one blow.

"These are all ordered by the people above, saying that these recruits are not allowed to contact the outside world, in case they expose the island in the letter, anyway, the military camp has always stipulated that the letter should not be returned. We..." He paused , Smiling and sighing, "Damn, we're just following orders!"

Cen Yuan didn't want to listen to his nonsense at all, and turned a deaf ear to the whole process, just put the letter back, and handed the whole box to Lou Yuanbai.

"First return it according to the signed payment. If anyone wants to write a letter to report safety, after collecting it, send someone to send it out as quickly as possible."

When these soldiers return to Qingjiang, they will probably have to be questioned individually first, and there is a high probability that they will not be able to go home immediately.

Lou Yuanbai took the wooden box and nodded "Yes".

Cen Yuan continued to go back and look through the bookshelves, his movements were casual, his fingertips slid across the neat spines of the books one by one.

"Who are the people above you?" Suddenly he asked.

"Well..." The idiot leader raised his head, his eyes flickered in the air for a long time, the soldiers beside him saw that he was silent, and immediately pressed his head: "Answer honestly!"

"Hey, hey! Let me tell you!" He said immediately, "The people up here... Oh, don't look at me wearing a suit of armor, it looks very majestic. On the island, supervise the weapon-making caves at the back, and take the little soldiers and generals sent outside to do some basic training and familiarize themselves with military books.

"Don't talk nonsense." Cen Yuan asked repeatedly, "Who are the people above you?"

Following his words, the soldiers pressed down on the leader's hand that was holding the straw bag: "Be honest!"

"Hey brother! Shoulder hurts!" The idiot leader immediately yelled, complaining lamentably that he was past the prime of life, and he was no longer like the soldiers in their prime, every part of his body would be broken at the touch of a finger , have to "handle with care" and so on.

The soldiers did not relax at all, but exerted more force.

"That's enough, that's enough!" the idiot leader howled again, "It's really going to end this time!"

Cen Yuan winked at the soldiers, and the latter finally relaxed his grip, allowing the idiot leader to finally have a moment to breathe.

"...My lord, I really don't have many contacts!" After a while, he sighed, and said, "The one who usually contacts a lot is Li Duwei, and those other high-ranking officials, what do I look like? I don’t even know about it. As for today’s matter, if Lao Zhang didn’t bring the people on his boat to hide on the island, I wouldn’t know about it either!”

As he said that, he seemed to think of something again, raised his head and asked: "...you should know who Captain Li is?"

Cen Yuan naturally recognized it.

The man's name was Li Ping, he was the captain of Huachu, and he was in charge of the conscription of the southern army.

When he was in Danlin, he met him once at a dinner party invited by the king of Chu, and later he and Yan Xuan followed him to the Chu army camp once.But in comparison, it is Yan Xuan who has dealt with more.

Therefore, Cen Yuan doesn't have a deep impression of this person. He only remembers that the person is not tall, and he is still a little older. Although there is majesty and courage in his actions and words, it is more because of being an elder. His identity, if he really stands on the stage, it will pale in comparison - especially when standing side by side with Yan Xuan, his aura is completely crushed, and it is incomparable at all.

However, they also knew that Li Ping was absolutely inseparable from Chu's conscription, and they never underestimated it.

Facing the leader's question at this time, Cen Yuan didn't react much, and glanced at the other party lightly.

The idiot leader has always had a casual attitude, as if he has broken the tank, and he has never been afraid when facing Cen Yuan.

However, at this moment, he was swept away by the other party's indifferent eyes, and he felt as if a heavy sledgehammer appeared on his back for no reason, and his knees that were knocked on the ground were faintly painful.

After a while, a trace of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

Cen Yuan withdrew his gaze, returned his attention to the bookshelf, and asked, "How do you usually keep in touch?"

"My lord... Your lord." The idiot leader seemed to be pardoned, but when he spoke again, his voice trembled a little, and his eyes were not as casual as before, "I also said just now, I usually contact Captain Li, and most of them are It's a letter."

"A letter."

"My lord, if it were you, would you dare to keep this letter?"

His words were full of contempt, so the soldiers at the side wanted to suppress him after hearing the words, but Cen Yuan waved his hands at the soldiers calmly, signaling them not to move.

Immediately, he withdrew his gaze, and scanned the intersecting bookshelves again.

Lou Yuanbai stood aside holding the wooden box and said, "This bookshelf always looks a little uncomfortable."

Cen Yuan was noncommittal, and suddenly raised his hand to take off the two top volumes of "Wu Qi's Art of War", swapped places and put them back.

"So that's how it is." Lou Yuanbai said immediately, "Other books are on the right side, and only this set of "Wu Qi's Art of War" is on the left side of the second volume."

Just as he was speaking, he heard a sudden "creaking" sound from the wall-it was the sound of gears turning.

In an instant, Lou Yuanbai and another soldier looked up at the source of the sound at the same time. Cen Yuan took half a step back, and then saw one of the bookshelves slowly moving outwards. A big mouth was revealed.

The entrance was pitch black, and only a few candlesticks that could be lit on the wall and a staircase that seemed to lead to the abyss could be vaguely seen.

Cen Yuan looked back, and saw that the idiot leader's face was stiff, and his face was also dark.

"You keep asking." Cen Yuan instructed Lou Yuanbai, took a candlestick by himself, and walked down the stairs step by step.

·

After Yan Xuan dealt with the three caves, he went back to the school grounds and asked, only to find out that Cen Yuan was still in the hut in the mountains.

When he walked into the house, he saw only three people.

He glanced at the soldiers and the leader who was pinned to the ground and was sweating coldly, and then asked Lou Yuanbai, "Where is the man?"

Lou Yuanbai knew that he was asking His Highness, so he briefly explained the situation and glanced at the corner between the bookshelves.

I don't know what kind of design is in this basement. People above can vaguely feel the cool breeze blowing from the ground.

——as if a monster opened its huge mouth and was panting heavily at them.

"This guy just said nonsense one after another, but now he refuses to utter a single word...Master Yan?"

Lou Yuan hadn't spoken yet when he saw Yan Xuan's face suddenly changed for some reason, staring at the entrance of the basement intently, the hand holding the sword tightened even more, and even the veins on the back of the hand were obviously bulging.

If you look closely, you can still find that his hand seems to be shaking.

"Master Yan?"

Lou Yuanbai yelled again, waking Yan Xuan up suddenly. The latter walked quickly into the black entrance without saying a word.

in the basement.

Cen Yuan couldn't hold back his complaints: "Did this idiot build a prison for himself?"

Judging from the location, the basement is just below a slope. The entire basement is surrounded by gray walls, and only one wall has an opening about the size of two palms at the top, presumably for ventilation.

The vent was sealed with a few short iron railings, but they couldn't completely block the light, and the sound of soldiers stepping on the grass and carrying weapons could be heard vaguely as they passed by.

I don't know whether it is because of the heavy humidity on the island or what, but there are traces of water stains on every wall, which are of different shades and appear abnormally mottled. Water stains or something else.

——It’s hard not to conjure up some bad memories.

"... Tsk." Cen Yuan raised his hand in disgust and waved the dust exposed to the light in front of him, feeling that this place was really disgusting, and it was lucky that the idiot could hide in this environment and secretly pass on the news.

He didn't want to stay for too long, so he quickly glanced at the shelf beside him by the candlelight, and found that almost all the shelves were filled with wooden boxes.

Fortunately, he still had the key he had just snatched from the leader. After a few tries, he opened all the wooden boxes, and most of the boxes were paper. This is a map of the sea from the east of Daning.

There are several lines marked on the map, and Cen Yuan still has some impressions of some of them, which are the water transportation routes between the south of the Yangtze River and the Northeast.What interests him even more is that on the sea outside these routes, not only is this island located near the state of Chu, but also many icons representing islands are drawn.

It seems that in the past few years when Daning opened up water transportation, the people behind it have already figured out the resources at sea.

Cen Yuan cursed secretly, and then went to carefully look at the notes next to the icons of the islands.

Next to the island where they are now, there is a record of "Jiawei [-]", while next to an island in the northwest is recorded "Yimao [-]", and at the end is a "Man" written with a vermilion pen.

Looking at another one in the northeast, it also records "Dingwu [-]" and also has the word "man".

Cen Yuan looked at several other islands farther away, and they also recorded in the same way, so he guessed: "Jiawei", "Yimao", and "Dingwu" are probably the logos or directions of the islands, and the numbers behind It should be the number of people each island can carry.

Suddenly Cen Yuan thought that when Yan Xuan went to the Huajin area to resist the Huns' invasion, he could only bring three thousand soldiers.

"It's ridiculous." He murmured, "Since there are so many people, how good it would be for the little general."

"Victory with less" is easy to say, but I am afraid that only those who have really experienced it can understand the crisis behind it. Only the scars that still remain on Yan Xuan's body can prove the danger.

Cen Yuan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and barely suppressed the impulse and anger in his heart to fly back to Chang'an immediately to sanction that Duan.

Fu opened his eyes again, he put the map away, and was about to reach out to get the other things in the box, when he suddenly heard footsteps coming from the direction of the stairs.

Familiar voices hovered between the dark gray walls, Cen Yuan was taken aback, and unconsciously looked in the direction of the stairs.

this voice...

In a trance, he seemed to have returned to his previous life, in the final prison, after drinking poisonous wine.

The surrounding environment is equally dark and frightening, the broken moonlight outside and the faint candlelight complement each other, and even the sound of the soldiers carrying weapons outside is like the loud drum music from the distant lamp market.

So at this moment, even the footsteps that were too hurried to cover up seemed very similar, as if...

It's like... no matter in the past or present, the one who will overcome all difficulties and walk towards him will always be that person.

——Yan Xuan stepped down quickly, and as soon as he walked out of the long stairwell, he saw his highness standing intact behind the desk, with his hand still hanging over a wooden box, staring in his direction blankly.

He stopped abruptly, exhaled the breath deposited in his chest silently, and walked slowly towards the other party.

"What did you find?"

Cen Yuan suddenly came back to his senses, and reflexively replied "map", then looked at the other party again, and asked, "Did something happen outside?"

How could it make his little general so flustered?

However, Yan Xuan paused, shook his head, did not continue this topic, and asked again: "Only the map?"

Cen Yuan finally woke up like a dream, and patted the box: "I haven't read the rest yet."

Immediately he took out a few envelopes from the wooden box, the four corners were a little yellowed, and some of them were stuck together due to moisture.

There is a date written on the lower right corner of the envelope, and the top one is written: "April, 14th year of Ninghuan".

Cen Yuan thought for a while and said, "I remember that Daning started to use water transport by sea at the end of Ninghuan's 13th year, and Ninghuan's 14th year happened to be the year of conscription."

At this moment, Yan Xuan couldn't see the flustered appearance at all, and regained his calm expression, and let out a "hmm".

Fortunately, the paper inside the envelope was fine, so Cen Yuan took it out, and saw that the letter was concise and concise: "Delivery to Dingwu, quantity first".

"'Dingwu' is another island that goes northeast from here," Cen Yuan pointed to the corresponding place on the map, "I'm afraid they are sending their soldiers to the larger island first, so that training and management can be done well." Much more convenient."

He paused, and guessed again: "This letter is probably not long after the discovery of these islands."

Yan Xuan didn't say right or wrong, took out several other letters and read them one by one, and finally said: "Not long after Daning opened up the water transport route, he discovered these islands intentionally or unintentionally, so he restricted the route of the ships, and at the same time made great efforts. , gathered all the resources on the island.”

"He's not afraid that when a huge wave blows from the sea, his secret bases will be completely flooded." Cen Yuan smiled sarcastically, "But since he has been recharging his energy for so many years, why is he acting so ostentatiously this year? "

In the past few years, the Confederate Army's conscription was not under the jurisdiction of Yan Xuan, but according to the records, there was no apparent inappropriateness in the documents at that time.

……and many more.

Thinking of this, Cen Yuan suddenly thought that in the previous life, Yan Xuan didn't find any abnormalities in the conscription at the very beginning, and didn't start to investigate until the beginning of the next year, let alone the end of this year.

He wouldn't doubt the little general's ability, so that being the case, it meant that these anomalies were barely within a reasonable range.

——If it really deviates from the plan, there should be an advance investigation of the conscription in this life.

Cen Yuan cast his eyes on Yan Xuan, who didn't seem to notice, and opened another wooden box, flipping through the letters in it.

For a moment, the only sound left in the dark basement was the sound of papers being flipped.

Suddenly, the voice fell silent, Yan Xuan stopped and said, "We all overlooked one point."

"what?"

Yan Xuan laid the letter flat on the table, and tapped it with his fingertips: "The king of Chu was the first to propose the adjustment of the water transportation route."

Cen Yuan was still thinking about how to ask the other party about the process of discovering the difference in the conscription so as not to be so abrupt, but at this moment when he heard the other party's words, he had no time to take care of it, and hurriedly looked down.

The date of the letter was in April of this year, shortly after the king of Chu proposed to adjust the route of the water transport, and the letter said: "Everything is as usual, and if the people are full, they will be sent to Jiawei. There is no need to worry."

"Everything remains the same..."

Cen Yuan murmured, these four seemingly ordinary words deepened his guess.

——If it is true that everything remains the same, how did Yan Xuan discover the anomaly in advance?Could it be that something happened after that that he didn't know about?

He hurriedly dug out other letters in the same wooden box, unfolded them one by one, and saw that most of them were some simple arrangement adjustments, mixed with a sentence or two of consolation that seemed impatient, and then roughly scanned until He stopped suddenly when he saw a letter dated May of this year.

The handwriting on that letter was obviously different from the others, it was quite scribbled, and many words were written with a pen, but the general meaning is not difficult to decipher:

"At the end of May, I have time to go to the south of the Yangtze River, and we will discuss it when we go ashore.

Xin".

Cen Yuan murmured: "This signing..."

Before he finished speaking, he and Yan Xuan glanced at each other, and they both saw the words in each other's eyes after these three words——

The "Xin" of "Yi Xin".

Cen Yuan didn't make a sound, he took out the sachet he had just confiscated and put it on the table, the light smell of Eternal Soul Flower faintly floated into the air, surrounding the word "Xin" in the corner of the sachet.

"At the end of May, no wonder..." Cen Yuan suddenly thought of something, sneered and said, "I remember the day when Zhao Yu went to Beijing to Chang'an, it happened to be in May."