The boundless sea of forests, the rain that does not stop day and night. And the hysteria that permeates the valley.

This is probably the truest portrayal of the southwest mountains and forests, here is both the Ming Dynasty, the same is not the Ming Dynasty, from a legal point of view, whether it is the three Xuan Six Consolation or the Lao Military and Civilian Propaganda Department or the Jiaozhi Cheng Xuan Political Envoy Division, are the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but everyone knows that this is not the Ming Dynasty.

In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, this is a land of barbarians. Perhaps, it is precisely because of the climate here that the Chinese people regard it as a daunting path.

In this dense, barely dayless rainforest, between the trees, countless vines are entwined, and the lush green leaves cover the sky, making it difficult to even see the colors of the sky. According to the solar terms, it is the northern summer sun, which turns into pillars of light under the cutting of branches and leaves, like sharp arrows falling from the sky, straight into this humid rainforest, and the moist ground is filled with the pungent smell of plants.

No matter how far you go, the view is the same.

Green, in addition to green, is still green. The fallen leaves and dead branches accumulated over thousands of years in the rainforest smell of decay and deterioration, the thick branches and leaves also absorb the footsteps of fellow travelers, the shrubs and miscellaneous trees under the trees cover the road, and the moss overgrows the trees lying on the ground. The scenery in the mountains and forests only seems unfathomable.

And in this unfathomable mountain forest, an army in rags is marching along the so-called road in this mountain forest, and the elephant is slowly walking in the army, and around the elephant is full of soldiers dragging heavy steps.

"I can't walk!"

Lin Zishi whispered, he wanted to stop, but he knew that in this mountain forest, if he stopped, what would it mean, it was likely to be death.

After all, this is the land of mountain barbarians, and those mountain barbarians may be in awe of the Celestial Empire's army, but they may not necessarily take away the lone Celestial Empire soldiers as slaves.

"If you can't walk, you have to move forward!"

Lin Qingshan, who was full of beards, had wrinkled face, and beads of sweat were constantly flowing.

"Back then, when we came out of the village, only our grandfather was left, but he couldn't walk, and you had to walk when you were young......"

While the two of them were supporting each other, someone on the side complained.

"In these days, Lao Tzu is fed up, just walking around in the woods, when will it be a head."

"But no, if you continue like this, you won't be able to reach the end next year......"

Although sitting on the back of the elephant, Li Dingguo still felt the anxiety of the soldiers, not to mention them, even he himself was also a little anxious, half a month ago when he passed by the cottage, the head of the cottage told him that there was already a toe here, but why can't he see the sea or the fields?

Jiaozhi, it stands to reason that it is not like Laos, it is a barbarian land, and this is not also a province of the Ming Dynasty, at least not like now, you can't even see a figure.

"Let's rest for a while."

In this mountain forest, many times you can't even tell the direction, and it doesn't make any sense to go on and on.

With Li Dingguo's order, his already exhausted soldiers sat down and rested. In the past six months, nearly 60,000 troops under the command of Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan have left Dingnan City, although among the 60,000 troops, there are only 30,000 soldiers who can fight, and the other 30,000 are mostly old and weak women and children, but they still go all the way along the dense rainforest all the way to the east, their goal is the sea!

When will you see the sea?

The men were talking to themselves, and many of them were even imagining what the sea would look like, many of them had lived in the southwest for generations, and had never been out of the mountains of the southwest, and now they were traveling eastward and eastward with the king of Jin, and then back to the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, there are also some Cantonese people in this army, they are Cantonese people who followed the king of Jin in Guangdong back then, they are eager to return to their hometown, so many of them, it seems that it is the first time that they see the hope of going home, and they are going home!

The will to go home sustains everyone in this army, whether they are from Yunnan, Guangxi or Guangdong, for them, home is the Ming Dynasty, and they are now marching in the direction of home.

And in this army, there are also tens of thousands of local soldiers recruited outside, although their home is not in the Ming Dynasty, but it does not prevent them from being full of all kinds of illusions about the Ming Dynasty, they imagine the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, imagine everything there, they are also eager to "return to the Ming Dynasty", they are also Ming people.

In the rainforest, several short horses galloped between the forest roads, the cavalry on horseback was dressed completely different from the cavalry in the southwest of Jiaozhi, but the Ming style military uniform, the speed of these cavalry was not fast, and occasionally stopped vigilantly to look around, and the leader was a moderate figure, not fat or thin, looking at the appearance of an extremely ordinary man, but his expression was a little gloomy, and there was a little cold in those small eyes.

Just when he stopped to observe the surroundings, there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves, and I saw that the rider was a few feet away from the horse, and as soon as he opened his mouth, there was a string of local languages outside, and the vanguard's rangers were all outside the mountains, but their captain was a Han.

Listening to the return of his subordinates, Zhou Chenglin's brows furrowed, and the panting rider reacted at this time, and quickly changed his words and said in stiff Chinese.

"Captain, I found the rice field in front, he, what they said, we don't understand, but, but the scholars in the village can write Chinese characters......"

can write Chinese characters, even if it is a foreign mountain barbarian, as long as they can write, what is written must be Chinese characters, only Siam and other places write Sanskrit, and Jiaozhi here is a Chinese territory, they read the Four Books and Five Classics, and the writing is naturally Chinese characters.

"Zhou Shan, you lead the way in front, and we'll go over now."

Zhou Chenglin immediately commanded, as the captain of these native soldiers, he has always given orders in Chinese, not in native language, after all, these people are now the Ming army, and they must learn to speak Chinese. He even gave these native soldiers Chinese names. Of course, the surname Zhou was used, but when it came to naming him, he didn't bother to think about it, just used some of the simplest characters to facilitate their writing and identification.

About half an hour later, Zhou Chenglin came to the village in the mouth of his subordinates, which is different from the village he saw before, although the village surrounded by rice fields also has bamboo buildings, but there are some brick buildings in them, which look somewhat similar to the houses in Yunnan.

After a while, although the language in the village's Jiaozhi mouth was jerky and difficult to understand, Zhou Chenglin still understood some, there is a lot of Chinese in the Jiaozhi dialect, but the arrangement is different, although the communication between the two sides is difficult, but after seeing the village has read Mr. Shu, the communication between the two is immediately easier, although the gentleman who is over fifty years old is still a child, but he speaks a Chinese dialect with a Jiaozhi accent, and Chinese characters are naturally not a problem.

"Back to the general's words, this is Shenghua Mansion, in Yiju, and to the south is the ...... of Zhancheng State"

Ruan Quanshan looked at the general of the Celestial Empire in front of him in awe, for him in Tiannan, it was the first time to see the general of the Celestial Empire, although he didn't know their intentions, but the record in the history books about the Ming army when he occupied Jiaozhi still made him feel extremely nervous, but in addition to being nervous, he secretly thought to himself that if the Celestial Empire re-entered Jiaozhi, it would not be a bad thing, at least with the Celestial Empire, then the Zheng Ruan family would not be as quarreled as they are now, so that the people of the world would be displaced.

"To the south is the Champa state? How many miles away is the Champa from this time? Do you know how to get there? ”

As soon as he heard about the Champa Kingdom, Zhou Chenglin's whole person suddenly became excited, the Champa Kingdom was the goal of the army's eastward journey this time, as long as they reached the Champang, they could return to Daming by boat from there.

"The general wants to go to the city of Zhancheng?"

In addition to being surprised, Ruan Quanshan remembered what he had heard about in Yizhou County School before.

"Hey, look at the little old man's confusion, now that the Zhancheng Kingdom has surrendered its land to the Celestial Empire, it is natural for the Celestial Empire general to go to the Zhancheng Kingdom."

I don't know why, when he heard that the destination of the Celestial Empire general in front of him was Zhancheng, Ruan Quanshan's heart was relieved at the same time, but he was a little lost, the reason for the loss was because in his opinion, if the Celestial Empire had no intention of interfering with Jiaozhi, then the conflict between the Zheng and Ruan families could not stop, this conflict has lasted for more than 30 years, and even three of his five sons have been recruited and died on the battlefield, if it continues, his grandson may even die on the battlefield......

Thinking of his grandson, Ruan Quanshan immediately walked towards his grandson, who was waiting for him, he was already seventeen years old, and he could also speak and write Chinese, if not......

"General, this is not less than hundreds of miles to occupy the city, this land in the south of the sky is not richer than the Celestial Empire, if there is no one to guide the way, the general does not know how many detours he will take, the eldest grandson of the little old man, he is seventeen years old this year, he has been yearning for the enlightenment of the Heavenly Empire, he can speak the official language and write Chinese characters, if the general agrees, the little old man is willing to let the eldest grandson lead the way to the city for the general, I don't know what the general thinks?"

When Grandpa's words reached Ruan Anzhi's ears, he looked at Grandpa in surprise and puzzlement, although countless questions surged in his heart, he didn't dare to question Grandpa's decision in front of outsiders.

Celestial

What does the Celestial Empire look like?

When reading the Four Books and Five Classics, the Celestial Empire is tall and even sacred in the hearts of young people, and it is also unattainable. And now Grandpa's decision made Ruan Anzhi suddenly realize that maybe, he could go to the Celestial Empire.

Although the Celestial Empire is also invaded by barbarians now, the news from the county school seems that the Ming Dynasty is about to drive the barbarians out.

Just as Nguyen Anzhi was thinking nonsense there, he heard the general ask him.

"Are you willing to wait with me to go to Daming?"

To Daming?

There was no need to hesitate at all, Ruan Anzhi nodded again and again, and replied in a slightly stiff official dialect, looking at this young man who was a little excited because he went to Daming, Zhou Chenglin rarely squeezed out a smile.

"Don't be so excited, let's go to Zhancheng first, and then return to Daming from Zhancheng!"