Chapter 79: The feeling of heart failure; Pang Huai saves Qin Ying
Pang Huai raised his eyes. He was facing the light, and his face and the faces of the soldiers behind him were covered in shadow.
Qin Ying watched this familiar face, this familiar person who used to share the same ideals with Xie Yan and rode on horseback with the three of them, chatting and laughing. With a silent wave of his hand, thousands of elite soldiers suddenly lined up to intercept them.
He slowly raised the imperial edict in his palm, and the golden light reflected an extremely dazzling light in the sunlight. Perhaps because of his age, Pang Huai's voice was a little hoarse than before. He sat upright on the saddle with his back straight, and his military posture was as strong as a mountain.
He said, "No one is allowed to approach the Four Slag Mountains. Anyone who violates this rule will be punished with the same crime!"
Qin Ying clenched her fists.
Xie Ci sneered, "We also have the imperial decree, but we forgot to bring it with us when we came. We'll deliver it to you shortly."
The emperor was taking advantage, and no one could justify mobilizing troops, except Pang Huai, who already had the imperial edict in his hand before he set off.
But it doesn't matter. The emperor has no reason to stop this matter. Feng Kun, Lin Guofu and others will soon get the imperial edict. Qin Guan Chen Luo will lead the cavalry to arrive in a few hours.
Xie Ci, Li Wang, Chen Ping, Yin Luo, and Zhao Xi, Tao An, Yan Xiangsheng and others on the other side all led dozens of their trusted men to rush to Tangzhou first. They were the first group to arrive the fastest and arrived almost at the same time.
Almost at the same time as the words fell, the people on both sides of Xie Ci and Zhao Xi jumped up, quickly stepped on the heads of the soldiers and armor, abandoned their horses and rushed towards the direction of Sigang Mountain.
Because while Pang Huai was intercepting them, his deputy general Qiu Shixi and his brother Pang Li had already led his troops to turn around and rush towards Sigang Mountain without stopping.
The guards of the fiefdom were horrified and at a loss. In the chaos, many people raised their hands in panic and surrendered. The soldiers and armors quickly surrounded the coal factory in the canyon like two lines of water.
How can that be?
No one drank even a sip of water on the way, just to seize this opportunity.
Xie Ci and Zhao Xi agreed to give up the coal factory and rushed into the canyon like lightning. There were black mountains and white snow-capped mountains on all sides. Gu Guan was held tightly by his waist. She quickly glanced at a large area of bungalows, workshops and ore scrap metal. She turned her head and saw Zhao Xi stop behind a snow hill. He suddenly bent down and went in.
"Where is it! Over there!! That person went in, hurry——"
Her voice was so high that it broke, and dozens of people on her side immediately turned their heads to look in that direction and rushed over like lightning.
Everyone rushed over here, including Pang Huai and Zhou Ang, Jie Chengxu and others who were sent by the emperor earlier. They jumped into the sky, threw away the charcoal factory manager who was shaking his hand like a sieve and said, "Yes, yes, that's where to go in", and rushed into the doorway like lightning.
Next, the real truth will be revealed.
Unexpectedly, after entering, they immediately discovered that this arsenal had a mechanism!
A thick iron door closed in front of him with a "swish". At the last moment, Zhao Xi rolled over and got in. Xie Ci and all the people behind him were stopped behind the iron door. Xie Ci stopped and slapped it hard. The heavy iron door closed with a heavy "bang" and did not move at all.
He turned around abruptly, rushed out, and grabbed the coal factory manager. With a clang of his sword, his blade shone coldly. "Tell me! How do I open this door? Where else can I get in the fastest?!"
The sharp blade pressed against his neck, slicing through the skin and causing a stream of blood to flow. The manager screamed, "There's another door over there! The General Information Room! The General Information Room can open all the doors and mechanisms on the seventh floor of the Arsenal!"
Carrying the manager, everyone rushed inside. Xie Ci didn't even bother to bring Gu Wan with him. She jumped onto Xie Yun's back and rushed to the other door like lightning.
Running wildly along the corridor, the flames of pine torches flickered, and when he reached the end, he suddenly saw a huge natural cave. A cold breeze blew through from somewhere, and the air was very fresh, without any feeling of stuffiness. The cave was black and irregular, extending to the left and right for an unknown distance. The black rock walls, brick and stone reservoirs and blast furnace forged iron blocks were all burning with fire. The craftsmen and servants inside were working hard, and they were frightened by Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji who were running for their lives, as well as the group of people who rushed in immediately afterwards, and they all stopped and looked over.
Gu Wan had never understood why a cave in the mountain was used as an arsenal. She immediately understood. Where else could one find such a hidden cave with such excellent natural conditions? If she were in his place, she would have built an arsenal there too!
The changes in Zhongdu happened too quickly and too suddenly. Tang Wang’s two close confidants, Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji, didn’t even receive any news. However, both of them were people who reacted very quickly and could make decisions promptly, otherwise they would not have been entrusted with such an important position.
Almost suddenly, they received the news that soldiers were marching into Tangzhou and heading straight for the Sigan Mountain. The two men, who were originally resting at home outside the coal factory, turned around and rushed out of the door without even putting on their coats, and ran towards the arsenal at the fastest speed.
They rushed into the main information room and closed all the doors leading to the outside, but at this time Xie Ci and his group had already rushed in. Without even glancing at the huge forging hall, they carried the steward along the stone steps and rushed straight to the main information room deep in the third floor.
On the long, ring-cast iron platform, there were levers of different heights. The steward pointed at one of the long green levers and cried bitterly, "This should be it! I really don't know the others. Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji's duty room is at the left corner at the end of the fourth floor—"
He is just the manager of the charcoal factory. The reason why it is called green is because there is a similar one in the charcoal factory.
The steward was completely speechless, so Xie Ci threw him down and said, "Lift up all the door mechanisms and destroy them! Block this news room!"
There was more than one group of people here. As soon as they rushed into the information room, the manager pointed his finger and someone turned around and rushed to the end of the fourth floor like lightning.
Xie Ci immediately got rid of the manager, and Xie Feng stayed behind with a few people, as well as the people from Zhao Xi and Pang Huai. They confronted each other silently and vigilantly, but their goal was the same. After lifting the door lever, they directly found a big axe to chop the lever down, and stuck it with something so that it could not be moved anymore. Then they dragged a lot of heavy things to block the message room tightly. After that, they left one person to guard it respectively, and the others hurriedly chased in that direction.
After Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji rushed into the general information room and pulled more than twenty levers in a row, they turned around and rushed to the duty room like crazy.
They didn't know what had happened to the King of Tang, but this thing was their most important means of blackmail, and they couldn't destroy it. Frightened and anxious, Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji immediately flipped the trigger and rushed back to the guard room. They took out their keys and pressed them simultaneously into a groove in the edge of the gap, opening two secret compartments. They took out a flat pear wood box and a small deerskin bag, respectively, and each of them hugged them in their arms and rushed to the backup exit leading to the other side of the mountain.
Xie Ci, Zhao Xi, Pang Huai and others were all top-notch masters of the time, with sharp ears and eyes. The echoes in the long corridors and stone steps in the mountain were particularly loud, so they instantly locked onto the direction in which Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji were fleeing, and never missed the target.
Until they rushed out of a large cave, perhaps the size of two basketball courts. At the bottom was a dark pool used for quenching iron. However, the people had already fled in panic, and the ironwork was scattered all over the floor. However, they couldn't see the ironwork because they were in mid-air. From the fourth floor, there were two plank corridors that circled along the two walls in mid-air and led to a doorway at the same height on the opposite side.
As soon as they rushed out of the narrow stone corridor, the distance between the two sides was almost the same, so people immediately separated and rushed along the wooden corridor towards the dark doorway. Xie Ci was in the front, but his nostrils suddenly moved and he smelled a hint of gunpowder.
…
Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuzhi are smart and capable. They have been working in the arsenal for nearly ten years. They have been supervising the construction since the very beginning. The two know what they are doing and know that they will be staying there for a long time. Over the years, they have prepared many ways to save their lives and escape.
It was also these two people who made this trip to the arsenal branch dangerous and full of unpredictability.
Gunpowder has actually existed since ancient times and has been used in military and mining. The former is generally used for fixed-point operations such as blowing up city gates. It even has a professional term called "explosion". In fact, if you are not a firearms expert, ordinary people who travel through time will definitely not be able to make hot weapons. Everyone who can think of it has already thought of it.
This corridor pool was a key location specifically chosen by Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji as a strategic interception point for escapees. Torches were unnecessary; a line of cracks overhead let in light. To prevent collapse, wooden pillars had been used to shore up the walls. However, the stone walls and wooden pillars at the edges were drilled with densely packed holes, each about a foot wide. These were filled with balls of gunpowder wrapped in oil paper, connected at fixed points by black fuses that were replaced regularly. Once Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji passed through, they could be immediately ignited.
Xie Ci smelled the scent of gunpowder and was horrified. He shouted, "Everyone, retreat! Quickly—"
There were small-scale fights and mutual suppression along the way. The tall and thin young man in black was Zhao Xi. He was very skilled and as light as a swallow, almost not touching the ground. Xie Ci drove at full speed and kept pace with him. They were walking on the same side of the corridor. They were already halfway through. Almost at the moment they smelled the smell of gunpowder, Xie Ci turned around and shouted. The people behind him were all startled and retreated immediately, but the doorway was too small and they could not retreat for a while.
Gu Guan was sitting relatively near the front. She looked up instantly, her soft, pretty face and a pair of obsidian eyes reflecting the skylight. There were many people there, but the two of them saw each other at the first moment.
Gu Wan suddenly opened his eyes wide, stopped in his tracks, and grabbed Qin Ying with his backhand. Xie Ci rushed towards them like lightning, but at this moment, "Bang——"
A loud bang!
The entire water pond cave and the mountain were shaking. The wooden stakes, wooden pillars and stone walls were all blown away. The thousand-layer crisp ceiling with cracks on it came down with a loud bang. In an instant, the sky was bright, and the water pond cave collapsed and tilted to this and that.
The huge impact force knocked Gu Guan and Qin Ying apart. Qin Ying rushed to the other side, while Gu Guan and Xie Ci watched helplessly as a huge wooden pillar and rock smashed into each other's upper body and head. Their eyes were bloodshot, and their feet were empty in the chaos, and they could no longer see each other.
At the critical moment, Gu Guan pulled out the long iron chain buckled on his belt!
This long rope, which was originally inspired by the rescue of Xie Ci at Yinglie Hill in Suzhou, was finally made into a thin rope with fine iron and silver. With a handle, it was almost like a long whip, and there was a blunt hook on the top. Suddenly, something unexpected happened, and she was so scared that she quickly pulled the iron chain with her backhand, leaned back hard, and swung it hard!
Luckily, the wooden pillar was not coming directly towards her upper body. She leaned back hard and the pillar narrowly avoided her belly and thighs. She grabbed something with her hook and held her head to block the flying stones and wood chips and the sparks. The long rope swung her backwards, brushed the water surface, and flew into the hall inside the pool!
With a loud bang, a huge stone slab fell down, the sky suddenly disappeared, and the back collapsed with a rumbling sound, separating half of the hall and a small pool of water into a large dark space. She fell on an unknown iron object, which hurt her so much that tears came out of her eyes.
She rolled on the ground for more than a dozen times, curled up in pain and unable to straighten her back for a long time, but Gu Wan didn't care about that at all. She crawled and rolled to her feet, "Thank you! Thank you——"
She was shocked.
In the final glimpse, the huge rock was smashing down on Xie Ci's head! Behind him, there were huge pillars and stone walls collapsing, making it almost impossible to avoid them. He even blocked the stone chips and sparks that flew towards her and Qin Ying, and he didn't have time to protect himself with his hands.
Her heart felt like it was being squeezed tightly as she limped forward. There was dust and debris from the burning sulfur. No one responded. It was quiet. There were several corpses on the ground. She crawled and rolled forward and looked around, but she didn't recognize any of them.
She rushed to the edge of the pool, "Thank you, thank you, where are you? Please promise me!"
The pool was in disarray, the water level had dropped a lot, and most of it was filled with wooden pillars and fallen rocks. She jumped in and climbed to the front of the huge stone slab. The mess of stones and wood blocked it from behind. She pushed hard, but it didn't move at all.
But the corresponding position of Xie Ci at that time was right here, right below this, and it was smashed full. She couldn't push it. In the faint light of the sky, she looked down and saw the blood-red blush slowly spreading on the edge of the stone slab.
"Thank you, thank you!"
She was frantic, tears streaming down her face. "Aren't you going to marry me? Aren't you going to re-hold the wedding? Come out now!"
Sometimes people are very clever, dying at any moment. But Gu Wan didn't believe it at all. She pushed the stone slab like crazy, desperately trying to get to the back. The man who was always there and could be seen guarding her side whenever she turned around was gone, leaving her alone in this dark cave. Her heart was stabbed by a huge paralysis, and her whole body trembled. "Thank you, thank you——"
The cold feeling penetrated her heart from the water, her hands and feet became weak, and she could hardly walk. Gu Wan never thought that one day she would be like this. She was caught off guard. She never thought that Xie Ci would die and leave her. "Come out, answer me quickly, where are you——"
She fell into the water, scraping off a large piece of skin from her palm. Blood spurted out, and she crawled and rolled to her feet, tears streaming down her face.
"Thank you! Thank you—"
…
On the other side, the water level dropped because the bottom of the pool was worn away.
There is an underground river under the bottom of the pool. It used to have a large amount of water, but now it has shrunk. The water level on the river surface is very low and small, occupying only one-fifth of the huge river channel. The top was suddenly pierced with a bang, and the water splashed down along with a large number of wooden stakes and stones. However, the wooden stakes and stones instantly blocked the hole, and the water flowed down from the cracks and kept leaking out.
Xie Ci was surrounded by many people, both his own and others. Half of the people he brought were already here. Those who hadn't had time to retreat to the wooden corridor but hadn't been shaken away were all here. Most of them were injured, but there were still some who had survived. Xie Feng had a broken leg, and Xie Ci pulled out an irregular piece of wood from the water hole to fix his leg bone. He said in a deep voice, "You go out first and take the wounded away from here immediately!"
At the end of the underground river, you can faintly see light and shadow, and there is an exit over there.
Xie Ci was also injured, some scrapes, and one side of his jaw was burning. He was in danger at the time, but he was very skilled and had good luck. He fell into the pond, dodging and leaping, narrowly avoiding large rocks, wooden stakes and stone pillars, but was almost unscathed. He quickly tore off the hem of his clothes to bandage the wounds of those around him. He groped around one by one, but Gu Wan was nowhere to be found. In the pitch-black underground, he immediately became anxious: "Wan Wan, Wan Wan!"
He shouted, and everyone stood up suddenly, but there was only a small space for people to stay, and they all gathered in groups according to their camps. Gu Wan was not there.
Xie Ci shouted loudly, and the echoes were loud, but the owner of the crisp voice was silent. He suddenly turned around and saw water rushing down from the gap in the bottom of the pool. From time to time, broken limbs and pieces of clothes fell from the water between the stone slabs and wooden pillars. In several places, the water was a light blood red, and it always was.
One of the directions was exactly where Gu Guan was at that time.
His heart almost stopped beating! He rushed back desperately. Xie Yun and Xie Feng rushed up from behind, but he threw them away. "Wan Wan, Wan Wan!"
Xie Ci went back directly from the bottom of the pool, jumped up, grabbed the half-hanging wooden pillar and crawled out of the gap. Facing the gushing cold blood, he rushed back desperately. Just as he went up the gap upstream, the stones and wooden pillars fell down with a "click" and blocked the gap. Xie Yun, Xie Zi and others were so frightened that their hearts almost stopped and they screamed. Regardless of their injuries, the two of them hurriedly looked for another gap to climb up.
But all this has been left behind by Xie Ci. The turbid and cold water blocked out the noise and made everything blurry. All the moves he had practiced for many years were thrown out of his mind at this moment. He just relied on instinct to move left and right, and finally he came out of the water with a "splash".
There was a big hole above his head, and half of the pool cave had collapsed and was in a mess. Almost as soon as he came out of the water, he heard Gu Guan calling him. He almost immediately turned around and rushed to the crevice. What Gu Guan couldn't push open, he pushed hard, dragged the wooden pillar away, and pushed open a large piece of the stone slab. He dug several times in a row and dug a hole.
"Wanwan, Wanwan!"
Gu Guan had already heard the sound, and she crawled and rolled over here. Both of them had mud and blood on their hands, and they were wet and messy.
Suddenly, the sky was bright and the gap was opened. The two men suddenly saw each other, and a living person was standing in front of them. Xie Ci's wet black armor was tightly attached to his body, and his muscles were bulging and strong to the extreme.
The two of them pounced on each other almost at the same time, it was really scary.
The two hugged each other and kissed each other hard.
Their lips pressed tightly together, they breathed hard and hugged each other tightly.
You really don’t know until you experience it. It’s so scary.
Gu Wan leaned back and closed her eyes tightly. Oh my god, she covered her heart with her hands. It was so unbearable.
Xie Ci knew he had frightened her, and he was frightened too. He kept saying, "I'm fine, I'm fine. I fell underground, and there's a huge river down there. I'm fine, we're all fine."
His arm muscles were still stretched, and he bent slightly, carefully wrapped his arms around her, and gently patted her back.
The most powerful body, the most cautious movements and strength.
"It's all right, it's all right."
Gu Guan wiped her tears and cold sweat and gasped for a while, but she recovered quickly.
Xie Ci was fine, and her rationality returned all of a sudden. She hugged his neck tightly. Xie Ci embraced her, lifted her up horizontally, waded through the water and stepped out of the pool, standing at the position under the corridor.
There was a female corpse at my feet that had been smashed into two pieces. The broken parts were bloody and mangled, but I didn't recognize it.
Both of them were fine. After calming down a little, they didn't care about anything else. "Second sister-in-law, second sister-in-law! Wanwan, have you seen second sister-in-law?"
Xie Ci shouted urgently.
Qin Ying is also missing.
Gu Wan was also anxious, "Second sister-in-law is going to that direction!" She pointed hurriedly, and the two of them didn't even bother to bandage the wounds on their hands, and rushed over there in a hurry.
…
Qin Ying is fine.
She escaped danger even earlier than Gu Guan and the others.
It was Pang Huai who saved her.
She was in a very critical situation at that time, but at the moment when the stones, wooden pillars and corridors were shaken off and crashed down, a tall and thin black figure from the opposite corridor rushed over here like lightning, grabbed her and pulled her with all his strength, flipped her over and covered her underneath, and the stones in the air hit his back heavily. He groaned and used the force to rush to the northeast corner where the collapse was the least and closest.
This moment was very similar to the time when they first met, on the suburban post road after the continuous spring rain. She saw injustice and helped others, but the tricks in the capital were too complicated. She was tricked by a gangster and had a knockout drug sprinkled all over her face. When she fell to the second floor with bated breath, a tall and thin figure in gray clothes and a bamboo hat jumped over and caught her in time.
The cool and moist spring breeze blows on my face, the willow branches on the water surface sway gently, and a clean masculine scent falls to the ground in a few breaths, but this period of time is as long as the winding green dirt road.
The two men fell to the ground, and he immediately let go. The tall and thin young man, with the straight posture of a military man, stood motionless in the breeze and drizzle.
She finally wanted to lift his hat, but he quickly stepped back and held it down.
Those green years have passed for many years, but because of this familiar scene, they surged back and overlapped with this moment.
The same person, yet different. He flew to a corner of the hall in the pool, and followed the large stairs at the end all the way up to the third floor. After escaping danger, he let her go, a trace of blood flowing from the corner of his lips, and he reached out to wipe it away.
Strange yet familiar, after Pang Huai saved her, he didn't even look at her. He lowered his head and wiped his lips, stood sideways for a moment, suddenly turned around, and rushed up the stone steps.
——The doorway that Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuzhi entered had collapsed and was blocked, but the corridors and stairs of the arsenal were all interconnected. When it collapsed just now, many people fell to the ground, either unharmed or with minor injuries. Those who were not blocked had already rushed up through this door.
Pang Huai let her go, turned around and chased after her.
Qin Ying was so overwhelmed with emotion that she rushed forward and chased him for a few steps, shouting at his back, "Pang Huai, why—"
She shouted very loudly. Pang Huai paused for a moment. He didn't say anything and continued to chase forward without stopping!
Qin Ying stared at his back in a daze. He quickly disappeared from her sight, but she did not continue to chase him. She stood for a moment, closed her eyes, and hurriedly turned around and rushed back.
Rushing out of the bottom of the grand staircase, I just happened to see Xie Ci and Gu Wan, who rushed over here, "Second sister-in-law!" "Second sister-in-law, are you okay?"
Qin Ying felt relieved when she saw them. She breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm fine. Where are Xie Yun and the others?"
"There were quite a few injured, but they probably weren't dead. I sent all the injured ones out."
Qin Ying nodded, pulled her lips into a smile, and then stopped smiling for a while. Her expression was a little complicated, "It was Pang Huai who saved me."
He was indeed trying his best to chase Zhai Neng and Liu Xiuji to seize the accounts. Qin Ying could see that their paths were very different. He had abandoned Xie Xinzhong and Xie Yan's deaths and chose to be loyal to the emperor and serve him, but at the critical moment he risked turning back to save her first.
But no matter what, they are no longer on the same path.
Qin Ying had mixed emotions.
But Xie Ci and Pang Huai didn't have such a deep past. When they heard the name, they felt disgusted and snorted coldly: "You bastard who helps the tyrant!"
When he came back from the Armoury that day, he appeared calm and even smiled, but in fact he was not really that unmoved.
How could Xie Ci remain unmoved?
His disgust and hatred for the old emperor had simply reached its peak! If Feng Kun could kill him immediately, he would be delighted, even if it might drastically change the situation and not necessarily in his favor.
Xie Ci now almost wanted to tear off the old emperor's skin immediately. The longer he knew Pang Huai, the more angry and disgusted he was towards him for aiding and abetting the evil.
He spat, "Let's chase!"
Since everything is fine, let’s chase him right away!
Qin Ying came back to her senses and nodded to Gu Wan. At this time, Xie Yun, Xie Zi and others finally jumped into the water. Without even changing their clothes, they immediately rushed up the stone steps and caught up.
The author has something to say:
Wanwan and Xie Ci were both terrified. If you haven't experienced it, you don't know how precious it is. As for Pang Huai, I won't spoil it for you. I think we'll have the results tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Here I come~ I want to be earlier every day, but no matter how hard I try, it’s almost one o’clock. Ah, I give you a big kiss! See you tomorrow, babies~ (/≧▽≦)/
Finally, I also want to thank "Mantian" for throwing mines, pen refills, pen refills! .
.
And all the big babies who watered Wenwen, muajiujiujiu~
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
