The morning mist had not dissipated, and the Baoqiu water was wrapped in a little cold air and crashed into the mouth of the Heilongtan.

Pei Xiu stepped into the cold river water with one foot. He scooped up half a scoop of water and poured it on his face:

"Divid the water first!"

Thirty shirtless strongmen rushed into the shallows carrying rafts.

Three feet long pine wood is tied into a tripod, and baskets with stones are buried at the bottom, and blue-black mud is splashed when it hits the riverbed.

The mats woven with tree bark spread out layer by layer on the wooden stand, looking like a giant bird hanging its wings from a distance.

When the seventh raft was in place, the turbulent flow was broken into two strands - the main river on the west side roared like thunder, and the water flow in the construction area on the east side was docile, and you could even vaguely see the riverbed with intertwined teeth.

"It's now!" Pei Xiu's bronze whistle pierced the morning mist.

Two hundred strong men shouted horns and stepped into the water deep in the chest, and the wooden stakes carried on their shoulders undulate like the spine of the black dragon in the mist.

The moment the first wooden stake was inserted into the riverbed, a loud "bang" sound was heard.

Liu Hun was the first to swing a 50-pound hard wooden hammer and smashed it hard.

"A hammer to determine Youzhou!"

"The second hammer breaks the thief's courage!"

The sound of the trumpet hit the rock wall of the canyon, alarming countless birds.

...

Yanshan Mountain in July is like a burning brick kiln.

The Wei army flags on Yuyang Pass were as if they were sunburned, and they hung down in a wilted manner and remained motionless.

The Wei soldiers on the city of Guancheng held the gun and hid their bodies in the shadows as much as possible in order to avoid the vicious sun.

A soldier tried his best to stretch his neck and looked under the city wall.

"If you don't watch well, what are you watching?"

Behind him, the sound of Bo Zu's reprimanding came.

The soldiers turned around and looked at the neighbor of the countryman, "Boss, I'm looking at the water."

"What's good about water?" The uncle came over, and then poked his head out, glanced at the city, and said, "Be careful that you are seen by the superiors, and you will be beaten to your military sticks."

He was not malicious, and he took good care of this young fellow villager who had only been here for three months.

It is precisely because of care that I remind you this.

The soldier shrank his neck, looked at the direction of the corner tower, and muttered:

"Not it?"

All officials are hiding in the shade and enjoying it. Just stand under the sun and forget it. If you accidentally get a stick, is there any reason for it?

"Tsk!"

Bo Zu retracted his head and glanced at the recruit. Seeing that the other party was a little dissatisfied, he wanted to say something, but finally sighed:

"Forget it, I can't understand it either. It's okay to be careful anyway."

As an old soldier who has been in the army for nearly twenty years, he would definitely not want to have such new recruits under his command.

If you really want to go to the front, this kind of new recruit has no other function except to die.

But looking at the soldiers around him, most of them were like their younger fellow townsmen. If they did not stand, they would not be in the mood to say anything more.

Youzhou is no longer the Youzhou that Captain Tian was there, at least not in the army.

Since the commander Tian (i.e. Tian Yu) left Youzhou, the camps in Youzhou have been abandoned by one battalion.

Those generals were becoming less and less ruthless when they made money.

Especially those who sit at the checkpoint guard are even more generous.

Whether it is a caravan that wants to go out of the frontier or a Hu person who wants to go out of the frontier or a pass, you have to do some things up and down.

As long as you do the job well, no matter who you are or what you bring, everyone will turn a blind eye.

If you don’t have enough work, you can’t even think about getting in or out of a single hair.

This is actually easy to say. Anyway, the soldiers at the gate can get some benefits.

The general eats meat, and the soldiers under him can also drink some soup.

The key is that there has been no war in Youzhou over the years, and the situation of empty salary in the army is getting worse and worse. In a team of 100 people, officials have the courage to eat fifty, sixty or even seventy or eighty people.

Otherwise, this time the Han Dynasty invaded, there wouldn't be so many civilians in the army.

Looking at his little fellow townsman who was still glancing at the city, the uncle shook his head, forget it, anyway, it wasn't my turn to worry about such things.

"What the hell are you looking at?"

"Water! Boss, don't you notice it. Have you been getting hotter these days? Standing here, you're almost roasted."

The uncle looked up at the sky and wiped his sweat, "It was so hot that day, and it was probably about to rain."

The little fellow villager pointed below, "I'm not talking about this, I mean, the water under the city seems to be getting less and less, no wonder it's so hot."

Yuyang Ancient Pass is built on the west bank of Baoqiu Water. Water vapor comes up on weekdays. Even if it is not cool, it will not be too hot.

But as the water level drops, coupled with the strong sun in the past few days, it feels much hotter than usual.

"Hmm?" Bo Zu heard this and looked down again. "I haven't noticed it yet. The water is indeed much less than usual."

"Yes, you find it strange, right?"

"Not surprising." Bo Zu shook his head, "You are still too young. How many good years have you seen in the years?"

"Either a severe drought or a locust plague, a severe flood or a plague, or a cold plague, it won't make people live a good life at all. This world is difficult!"

"Although it will be less water in at least one month, you don't know that it had been flooded just the autumn of the previous year."

The master said, and then said in a certain direction, "The Hu people could not get through the flood two years ago, and the caravan could not get out. I heard that even the King's envoy was alarmed."

I heard that since the Han army annexed Bingzhou, the entire Wei Dynasty has relied on two or three gates northeast of Youzhou to buy some horses from outside the frontier.

Once there is a problem at the gate and the horses outside the frontier cannot enter, Wang Xiong, the governor of Youzhou, will naturally be anxious.

"So, God is not normal, what can you do?"

Hearing Bo Zu say this, the young fellow villager suddenly remembered the fact that his family had starved to death due to locust plague a few years ago, and he didn't say anything more.

"Aowu~"

The wolf howling sound from not far away caused the two of them to turn in a certain direction together.

"Listen," Bo Zu said again, "The world is in chaos, everything becomes abnormal. Even the wild wolf dares to come out and scream in broad daylight."

"There seems to be a group of wolves at the foot of the mountain these days, and I keep hearing them screaming all the time."

"It's probably the wolves outside the Great Wall that flew over..."

The two of them talked for a while. After leaving, Bo Zu thought about it. In order to avoid being said that his young fellow villager was lazy when he was on duty, he reported that the water level of Baoqiu was lowered.

"There is less water flowing in Baoqiu?"

Cui Zi, the guard general of Guancheng who received the news, thought to himself, what a big deal?

If you have less, just as long as you don’t lack water.

In the past, he wouldn't have cared about such things.

It’s still a good thing if there is less water. Those who are outside the Great Wall may come to trade earlier.

It is a bad thing to have too much water. If the king really had to jump again like the previous year, the king's envoy would have to jump.

But now it's different.

I heard that the checkpoints in the west have been attacked by the Han army and the Hu people in turn, and the war is in full swing.

Although there is no war here, and there are Hu people outside the border to help with the guards, there will be no mistakes if you are careful.

As Wang Xiong's confidant, Cui Zi is not only good at making money if he can stay in this position.

On weekdays, he had to find ways to transport horses to Youzhou or the Great Wei, so he still had the ability.

I saw him wave his hand, "Then send someone out to have a look."

"General, now?"

"Tomorrow, it's getting late today. I'll send someone out to investigate tomorrow morning."

"Here."

At noon the next day, a rumbling thunder came from the horizon.

The heavy rain came as promised as Bo Zu said.

Cui Zi always felt that she had forgotten something.

It was not until the people below came to report that the scout sent did not come back on time that he remembered:

"Didn't come back?"
To be continued...