Chapter 211 "Looking towards Dongshan"

无涯看了看这一洞密密麻麻，摞了三四层的棺材，无所谓道：“来了正好，我们仨还缺一个煮饭的。”
蒋禹清嘴角抽搐着，突然想起前世看过一个小段子，怎么说来着？对了，“只要胆子大，贞子放产假！”显然，这几位就是胆大包天的主。
Jiang Yuqing knew that they hadn't eaten today, so he took out a few packs of instant noodles, a pack of beef jerky, and a pack of pickles from the big bag he was carrying on his back and handed it to them, saying, "Have a meal first!"
Wuya thanked her and took the noodles, arranging for brothers Dashuanzi and Dazhuzi to boil water and cook the noodles. He said to Jiang Yuqing, "This place is secluded enough, no one comes here usually, which is more conducive to hiding our whereabouts."
The locals call this place the Treasure Cave. In fact, it is a place where the nearby South Xinjiang Chi people store their ancestors' coffins. There are six or seven caves like this on the east mountain.
The Chi people are different from us people from the Central Plains, as they do not have the concept of being buried in the ground for peace after death. Many times, they simply find a cave and place the coffin inside to settle matters.
It is said that their ancestors came from the East, and this action seems to have the meaning of "not returning to their homeland without falling on the soil".
This cave has remained the same for generations.
Jiang Yuqing carefully examined the coffins filling the cave, and found various shapes.
From the earliest boat-shaped coffins, to later square coffins, and then to modern cylindrical coffins, they were all present. The time difference is at least several hundred years.
She roughly estimated that there were at least six hundred coffins. Surprisingly, there was no foul smell coming from so many coffins. Jiang Yuqing guessed that this might be related to the ventilation in the cave.
This cave is only a few hundred meters long from front to back, with a tall entrance and clear passage from north to south. In addition, there is a side entrance.
In addition to good ventilation, this cave is also very dry, with no stalactite water dripping down. As a result, even unopened coffins in the cave are well preserved.
As for those that have been opened, most likely they have already been visited by criminals. The coffin covers and boards are everywhere, with only bare bones left inside.
No matter when or where, no matter how backward the place is, as long as there are graves, there will be the presence of tomb raiders.
Obviously, what is placed in this burial chamber is not some high-ranking officials or nobles. Even tomb raiders with a little skill would not bother with it. Most likely, it is the dirty work done by those desperate small-time thieves.
There are chaotic rocks everywhere in this cave, not even a flat spot. These people simply use other people's coffin covers as bed boards to sleep on at night, and now they are using them as dining tables. They really have courage that most people don't have.
While eating by the seashore, I told her about the situation here: "The distance from here to the western region of Fu is very close."
The king of the western region has set up quite a few hidden sentries on the outskirts. We put in a lot of effort to infiltrate, even using the invisibility charm you gave us. We found out that there are two copper mines in the mountains where he is.
Now, he is forging weapons and preparing to rebel.
There is another secret, the current crown prince of South Xinjiang is actually his biological son, born to him and the high priestess of South Xinjiang.
Back then, he and the holy maiden of South Xinjiang, who later became the high priestess, were a couple.
The current Nanjiang king also favors the high priest, and used strong measures to separate them. The Xijiang king was initially resentful, but he was only a commoner at that time, without power or authority, so he had to reluctantly separate from the high priest.
The high priestess just got married to the king of the South, and soon after she found out that she was pregnant. For the sake of the child, she had to bear the burden silently and submit to the king of the South. She planned to attribute this child to the king of the South.
Just right, at that time the Queen of South Xinjiang, due to not conceiving for several years after marriage, her status was challenged. Just when the high priest entered the King's inner courtyard, she happened to be pregnant.
In order to ensure the birth of a son and stabilize her own position, she set her sights on the high priest and showed great concern and care towards her.
The high priest was aware of her plan, so he secretly discussed with Fu and decided to outsmart her by switching the two children.
Subsequently, everything went as planned. On the same day, the Queen of Southland and the high priest gave birth. The queen's legitimate wife gave birth to a son, while the high priest gave birth to a daughter, who was stillborn."
Jiang Yuqing suddenly realized: "No wonder when I arrived in Wangcheng, the crown prince of Nanchang, knowing that I am the Valley Master of Tianyi Valley, did not ask me to detoxify his poisoned father. I was puzzled at that time, but now I understand the root cause."
"If things go wrong, it's because he, himself, caused it. What can you do? Even if he's been cheated on, he still has to endure it."
"The King of the Western Xinjiang definitely knows that the Crown Prince of the Southern Xinjiang is his own son, but he still actively creates weapons to rebel, instead of going with the flow and helping his son become the king."
Based on the response of the Crown Prince of Southern Xinjiang, it appears that he is also aware that the King of Western Xinjiang is his biological father, yet he still hopes for a military intervention by the Great Xia to suppress the King of Western Xinjiang.
From this point of view, the situation becomes very interesting.
Jiang Yuqing carefully sorted out this melodramatic event that no theater would dare to portray, and boldly speculated to draw the following conclusions:
The crown prince of Nanchang learned about his true identity from an unknown source and contacted the king of Xichang for some undisclosed purposes.
After an emotional reunion, with tears streaming down their faces, the king of Xichang tearfully acknowledged his long-lost son.
According to the belief of King Xijiang Tianzhen, he thought that once they recognized each other, there would be filial piety between father and son. So he joined forces with the Crown Prince of South Xijiang to plot the death of King of South Xijiang. After the plan was successful, the Crown Prince of South Xijiang will welcome him as the new king of South Xijiang.
After the Southern King fell into a coma, the control of the court naturally fell into the hands of the Crown Prince of the Southern Frontier.
He originally had ulterior motives, to put it plainly, he was simply using the Western Frontier King. Now that he has gained absolute power, it is only natural for him to burn bridges after crossing the river.
In the face of absolute power, family ties mean nothing. At most, they are familiar strangers. Father's love and filial piety, what are those?
The King of West Xinjiang finally realized that this so-called son was only using him, so he became extremely angry.
He has always had his eyes on the throne of South Chuan, and now he is even being fooled by his own son, becoming a stepping stone. How can he be willing to give up easily, naturally wanting to reclaim his position.
In the deep mountains of West Chuan, there are copper mines. However, weapons made from copper mines are far inferior to those made of iron, and once they are on the battlefield, they will naturally be at a disadvantage.
Therefore, when he accidentally discovered an iron mine under the enclosure, he immediately had a wicked idea.
Prior to this, he had instructed someone to tie up the Mo family to repair the imperial mausoleum, ostensibly without any intention of secretly producing weapons. Unfortunately, his plans were disrupted by Jiang Yuqing and his spouse's accidental interference.
He later sent someone to Wanjian Manor to try to capture a professional to forge weapons, but the people at Wanjian Manor were even more formidable and they couldn't get close to them at all.
After sorting out the cause and effect, the next thing became much easier.
The Crown Prince of South Chu wanted to use the hands of Da Xia to deal with the King of West Chu, so that they would both be injured and he could take advantage of the situation. But Jiang Yuqing naturally wouldn't comply with his intentions.
She brought a few people and arrived at the South Xinjiang headquarters overnight, and found several generals stationed there. She explained the current situation facing South Xinjiang.
The generals were furious: "Since the South Xinjiang royal family is shameless, we might as well destroy them." Jiang Yuqing also agreed, so they gathered together and discussed a strategy...
A few days later, a scout from the Western Xinjiang Kingdom unexpectedly captured an intruder. This intruder was covered in blood, with a terrified and shocked expression on his face, constantly shouting one sentence: "There are monsters, there are monsters. Help, save me!"
After saying that, he passed away.
From the attire, it looks like a Taoist priest from the Great Xia Dynasty. This person must have encountered something terrifying and accidentally ended up here.
The scout searched his belongings and found a small notebook, as well as some scattered silver coins and personal items.
This spy recognizes the Great Xia script and confirms that this person is indeed a wandering old Taoist.
He flipped through the book and found that it not only recorded the origins of many precious medicinal herbs and their medicinal properties but also included information about many rare birds and animals, famous mountains and rivers, and some undiscovered mineral resources.
In the last few pages, it records a mountain called "Wangdongshan, located more than three hundred miles west of the Royal City of Nanzhong in the Southern Border. It is the burial place of the Chi clan. Its rocks are red in color, and scraping it with porcelain pieces also leaves red marks, indicating the presence of rich iron ore!
The spy saw this and didn't dare to delay, quickly packed up their things and ran into the deep mountains, intending to deliver the notebook to the King of Western Xinjiang.
After the spy left, the "corpse" suddenly came back to life.
Huayangzi climbed up from the ground, dusted off their clothes, packed up their belongings, and grumbled: "These youngsters really don't understand anything, they even took away such a small amount of silver. Now I have to go without two meals."
One side scolded Jiang Yuqing again: "This little trickster only took two talismans from her, and I've already run away for almost a hundred miles. Yet she goes and captures me to do hard labor. Truly, Jiang the trickster, showing no respect for the elderly, so outrageous..."
And so the Western Xinjiang king, upon obtaining the "travelogue," rejoiced greatly, exclaiming, "I am truly blessed by heaven!"
Thus, he immediately sent people overnight to the East Mountain.
This group of people is also ruthless. When they arrived at their destination, in order to save time, they directly found a burial cave, poured oil and set fire to it, burning someone else's coffin.
The billowing thick smoke attracted the attention of the Chixi people living at the foot of the mountain. They hurriedly ran up the mountain and saw their ancestors being cremated alongside the arrogant men of the Western Xinjiang Kingdom. In an instant, the eyes of the Chixi people turned red.
When the people rushed up and fought against the people of the Western Xinjiang King, who are the largest ethnic group in southern Xinjiang, especially the You ethnic group.
Hoes, sickles, wooden sticks, and stones are all weapons, regardless of what they are, and they are all used to hit the opponent's head.
There are many people on the side of the Western Xinjiang King, and the Chi clan is not easy to provoke.
If you can't defeat them, send people down the mountain to intimidate them. They live nearby, so the support will come quickly. This battle lasted for a day and a night, and finally the people of the Western Xinjiang King were completely wiped out, and the Chi clan also suffered heavy casualties.
蚩族人从抓来的舌头处了解道，他们之所以要霸占望东山，就是因为这座山里可能有铁矿。
之所以一来就烧棺材洞，就是因为那里适合安营扎寨，而了他们懒得再搭帐篷。
The Yuezhu people led by King Xijiang are the largest ethnic group in Southern Xinjiang, while the Chizu people are the second largest ethnic group in Southern Xinjiang.
The ancestors of these two ethnic groups originally came from the same origin, but due to certain reasons, they have deep conflicts. It is somewhat similar to the sectarian conflicts between the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam in Jiang Yuqing's previous world.
Now that such a thing has happened again, the Chi tribe can be said to harbor deep hatred towards the You tribe and the Southern Xinjiang royal family. The two tribes have formed an inescapable feud.
The Western Xinjiang king, who is far away in the deep mountains, was infuriated upon hearing this news: "They only burned a few coffins, but the people of the Chi tribe have such audacity to dare obstruct me, the king."
Then he sent his "General" to lead "two thousand elite soldiers" to attack the Chi tribe.
The Chi tribe did not back down either and immediately notified all the villages and gathered strong men to form a temporary "Guardian Team of Mount Dongshan". The two sides agreed to meet at the foot of Mount Dongshan, prepared for a decisive battle.