The eighth day of the Lunar New Year, night.

At this time, Liu Mingqi and others' team had already left the Gyeonggi area.

Because it snowed heavily some time ago, even the official road was a bit slippery and difficult to walk.

Especially the fleet has a lot of fine experiments and extraction equipment, so the speed is not fast.

At this time, the lights in the entire tent area have been turned off. Only the lights with starry lights can clearly see the existence there.

What no one knew was that on a tall hill ten miles away from the tent area, there were about a dozen short men with big waists and big hips looking at this side.

The two leaders were not old, one had a beard and the other had dark skin. You could tell at a glance that they had worked for many years.

But the hair on both sides of their heads was shaved cleanly, and the hair on the back of their heads was shaved cleanly, leaving only a bunch of hair in the middle of their heads, and tied up a bun.

Similarly, you can tell that you are from Japan at a glance.

If they looked more carefully, at least two or three hundred people would sit cross-legged behind them, and they were covered in darkness, but they were silent.

"General Uemura, General Kokuyama, our spy has returned." A short man knelt on one knee and reported: "They have arranged a large number of open and secret whistles in a radius of seven or eight miles. If we were not good at night, we would have been discovered long ago.

And we can’t see where Liu Mingqi is located in the camp.”

"I have been out of Beijing for so many days, but I have never relaxed my vigilance for a moment. These Dakang people are really cautious!" A Japanese man next to him couldn't help but sigh.

"They were bitten by snakes once, and they were afraid of the ropes for ten years." Hiroshi Uemura, who was bearded, also smiled, "The Prince Okayaka was killed back then, but it caused a sensation in the whole world."

Dark-skinned Zuo Zhi of Guoshan stared at the vague light in the distance, and a sneered at the corner of his mouth: "Or I would lead people in to burn, kill, loot, and set fires everywhere, they would lose sight of each other."

"No." Hiroshi Uemura shook his head, "As long as you can't kill Liu Mingqi, it will be a failure, and it will also alarm the general, which will also damage the general's plan."

When he heard the name of General, even if he was a little crazy and a little crazy and known for his bloodthirsty and cruelty, Zuo Zhi of Guoshan restrained his contempt, nodded, and asked the spy: "Doesn't you even see where Liu Mingqi is during the day?"

"Reporting to General Guoshan, of course we can see it." The spy leader said: "The one in the middle of the team was guarded by a group of elite guards with tall horses, Liu Mingqi and others... There are women among them."

Guoshan Zuozhi didn't care about women, so he continued to ask: "So when you set up a camp, don't you remember the location?"

The spy leader said: "They are changing every day, and they will not use a fixed place as Liu Mingqi's tent area. Moreover, everyone uses tents of the same color. After the sky gets dark, we can't tell it."

Hiroya Uemura said with a slight head: "It seems that there are masters in the guards!"

"How can a prince go on a tour, how can there be no capable people?" Kuroyama Zuozhi frowned, "Hongya, are we going to give up this trip?"

Although he is cruel and easy to kill, he is definitely not a fool, otherwise he would not have been one of Toyokawa Matsuyuki's five major guard generals.

The current situation is obviously not possible. If you forcefully attack at night, you may not succeed.

Since success cannot be guaranteed, there is no need to do such a thing.

Hiro Uemura also looked at the distance with regret, and nodded heavily after a moment: "There is no way, let's retreat! Who knows that they added two thousand people in the middle? Otherwise we can give it a try... Now, there is no need! If you can't kill Liu Mingqi, it will be useless even if you destroy the entire convoy."

"Hey, what a pity! The deposit of 100,000 taels of silver has to be sent back to them at this time!" Zuo Zhi of Guoshan looked regretful.

There are many mountains of gold and silver in Japan, but 100,000 taels of silver are not a small amount for them.

"Silver is second-hand. Military Advisor Takeda mainly thinks that Liu Mingqi is a major obstacle for us, so he agreed." Hiroya Uemura also looked regretful, "The genius of Dakang is our enemy. I am really unwilling to not kill him."

Neither of them mentioned whether there would be any punishment for retreating like this, because Takeda Hidezen said before assigning the task that if you don’t do anything, don’t force it, otherwise it will cause a big deal if you get alert to them.

Compared to the upcoming Jiangnan strategy, Liu Mingqi is simply insignificant!

...

The boy didn't know that he had escaped.

Although the Japanese definitely cannot kill him, because since the death of Prince Minghao eleven years ago, the emperor made special regulations that if this situation occurs again, everyone will give up all supplies and protect important people from retreating, and will not be dispersed. No matter how serious the death or injury is, they will not be divided.

But if they use fire attack to rush for a while, if they detonate the bitter and sour during the night battle, they will have something to do.

Casualties are second to death. The key is that this batch of chorionic acid was extracted after several months of hard work by Wu Yeshuang and Liu Mingyou. It is the most important weapon to blow up the reef this time.

If it all detonates, would you just watch the fire burning for 800 miles to the Ghost Pass?

If crude oil is really so powerful, people would not invent all kinds of cruel weapons. Wouldn't it be better to throw crude oil directly from the plane and then detonate it with a bomb?

After leaving the Gyeonggi area, the road is much easier.

The Gate of Ghost is only 600 miles away from the Imperial Palace. If it is summer, you can definitely reach it after three days and three nights.

But now there are so many things, and when it comes to early spring and cold winter, the speed is naturally slow.

Liu Mingqi and the others walked eleven days, and on the 15th day of the Lantern Festival of the New Year, they arrived at the northern pier of the Ghost Gate, Tongjiang Town.

Zheng Ruwen, the governor of Xiangcheng Prefecture, waited early in Tongjiang Town.

The last time Liu Mingqi and the others came by the water, first got off the boat at the North Pier, and then went to Tongjiang Town.

Now that you are taking the land route, you will naturally have to do the opposite.

The lively town of Tongjiang Town, which you could see far away, was silent at this time, and the shops were all closed. Only a group of people stood in the open space and chatted. When they saw the team coming over, there was an unconcealed hatred and dissatisfaction in their eyes.

It's just that they can't get close to it.

Not to mention that Liu Mingqi had brought thousands of people, Zheng Ruwen also sent the five thousand troops to the surrounding area early.

Who dares to act rashly in such a tight defense?

Liu Mingqi just looked at them, then rode her horse through the bottleneck road and entered the North Pier.

When Liu Mingqi came to the past few years ago, although it was approaching the dry season, the northern pier was still very lively, with ships and carriages coming and going everywhere.

It is now the dry season, but some ships docked in the dock, but even a single carriage can't be seen.

In the huge warehouse area, except for a few people sitting at the door bragging and fucking, there are no more men carrying around.

However, the North Pier was not vacant either.

Most of the warehouses close to the dock have been temporarily converted into accommodation areas and material accumulation areas.

This is the temporary diversion area of ​​the Grand Canal under the supervision of Gu Chenyan.

The dry season does not mean that there are no ships to pass, nor does it mean that there is no water flowing through it.

In fact, there are still a lot of water flowing now, but they just can't support those big ships.

Otherwise, Gu Chenyan would not have to rebuild rivers in both the North Pier and the South Pier, allowing the water to pass through, leaving more than twenty miles in the middle.

Because after the flood in July and August, the construction was already underway. Now, when you look out from the North Pier, it is empty and not even much moss grows.

With a thousand miles of eyes, I could see more clearly this time.

The dense reefs are simply endless.

Forget this, Liu Mingqi was mentally prepared.

But when he saw the situation under the reef, he couldn't help but curse.

"Grass!"

Liu Mingjing also cursed with the young man.

This guy sighed faster than Liu Mingqi, "Mingqi, do you want to clear such a reef group? Don't dream!"

Logically speaking, although Liu Mingjing likes to eat, drink and have fun, he is definitely not a person who is easy to give up.

The reason why he directly asked Liu Mingqi to give up was because the situation he saw was too amazing.

Liu Mingqi was also very amazed.

I saw those reefs that had originally emerged from the water or did not emerge from the water, the top one was about one or two meters, which was about the thickness of a pig's hooves.

But the thicker the lower it gets. It is almost three or four meters away, and it can be as big as an elephant's legs, with a diameter of probably twenty centimeters.

Looking down, the diameter of about seven or eight meters instantly became larger again, at least twice as thicker.

Fifteen meters below... these reefs have solidified into one piece, and they are like the ground of the riverbed, which is a whole piece higher than the bottom of the dry riverbed in front!

It's really...

Disturbing!

Liu Mingqi took a breath and couldn't help but feel glad.

Fortunately, the lowest depth here is visually estimated to be more than ten meters.

If it was only a few meters, even if Liu Mingqi blew up the reef above, as long as it was not in the flood season, there might be accidents.

yes.

A cargo ship with a draft of 1,000 tons is only two meters, and a cargo ship with a draft of 3,000 tons is only three.5 meters.

One thousand tons seem very common now, that is, two million kilograms.

But in ancient times, two million jin was 16,700 stones. The length of an inland ship with a load capacity was thirty to fifty meters and a width of eight to twelve meters. Think about the ancient inland ships. Is this size large enough?

In fact, the most important ships on the Grand Canal are not at the level of 1,000 tons, but after conversion, there are not many ships of about 500 to 800 tons, and there are not many ships of 1,000 tons, and even fewer than three thousand tons.

So the deepest part is only three or five meters, even four meters, does it mean that as long as Liu Mingqi can blow up the dense reefs with the thickness of elephant legs, everything will be fine?

Wrong!

Because the flow of water is not constant.

Generally speaking, the river water volume gradually begins to warm up in February, gradually increases in March and April, and in the three months of June, July and Eighth, it is the time when the water flow is most abundant. Then it starts to decrease in September, and decreases sharply in October. By late November, many river sections are basically no longer accessible.
To be continued...