Chapter 311 "Looking Towards Dongshan"

Wuya glanced at the dense and piled coffin in the hole and said indifferently, "It's perfect timing. The three of us are still in need of a cook."
Jiang Yuqing's mouth twitched as he suddenly remembered a joke he had heard in his previous life. What was it again? Oh yeah, "As long as you have courage, Sadako will go on maternity leave!" Clearly, these three are fearless and brave individuals.
Jiang Yuqing knew that they hadn't eaten yet today, so he reached into the big bag on his back and took out a few packets of instant noodle cakes, a packet of beef jerky, and a packet of pickles, and handed them to him, saying, "Have a meal first!"
Thanking her, Wu Ya accepted the noodles and asked Da Shuan Zi and Da Zhu Zi to go and boil water for the noodles. He said to Jiang Yuqing, "This place is hidden enough, and there are usually no people around, which is more advantageous for us to conceal our whereabouts."
Locals call this place the Treasure Cave. In fact, it is where the nearby Southern Chigu people store their ancestors' coffins. There are six or seven similar caves on the hills to the east.

The Chi tribe people are different from us Central Plains people, as they do not have the concept of "rest in peace" after death. Many times, they just find a cave and place the coffin in it to be done with it.
It is said that their ancestors came from the East, so this seems to have the meaning of "not returning to their hometown and not being buried in the soil".

This cave has remained the same for generations.
Jiang Yuqing carefully scans the full range of coffins in the cave and discovers various shapes and styles.
From the earliest boat-shaped coffins to later square coffins and even modern cylindrical coffins, there is a time difference of at least several hundred years.
She roughly estimated that there were more than six hundred coffins. Surprisingly, there was no foul smell coming from so many coffins, and Jiang Yuqing speculated that it was probably due to the good ventilation in this cave.
This karst cave is only a few hundred meters long from front to back, with a tall and spacious entrance, and there is also a side entrance.
In addition to good ventilation conditions, this cave is also very dry, without stalactite water dripping. As a result, even unopened coffins in the cave are well-preserved.
As for those that have been opened, it is highly likely that they have been visited by criminals. Coffin lids and boards are everywhere, and inside, there are only bare, white bones left.
No matter the era or dynasty, wherever there are tombs, there will always be tomb raiders lurking.
Inside this coffin chamber, it definitely won't have any high-ranking officials or aristocrats. Only the most skilled tomb raiders wouldn't bother with such dirty work, it's usually done by desperate small-time thieves.
In this cave, there are scattered rocks everywhere. There isn't even a flat area. These individuals simply took someone else's coffin lid to use as a bed to sleep on at night, and now they have used it as a table to cook on. Ordinary people really don't have such courage.
As we ate by the shore, I talked to her about the situation here: "This place is very close to the western border of the Kingdom of Fu."
The King of the western border has set up many secret sentinels around it. It took us a lot of effort to sneak in, even using the invisibility charm you gave us, and we found out that there are two copper mines in the mountains where he is hiding.
Now, he is forging weapons and preparing to rebel.
There is another secret, the current Crown Prince of Southern Chu is actually his own son, born to him and the High Priestess of Southern Chu.
Back then, he and the Holy Maiden of Southern Chu, who later became the High Priestess, were a couple.
The current king of South Xinjiang also liked the high priest, so he resorted to strong means to separate them. The king of West Xinjiang was initially resentful, but at that time he was just a bastard with no power or influence, so he had to endure the pain and separate from the high priest.
The High Priestess just married the King of the South Wilderness and found out that she was pregnant. For the sake of the child, she had to endure the burden and accepted the King of the South Wilderness. She planned to pass off this child as the King of the South Wilderness's.
Just right, the primary concubine of the Southern Border King was facing a challenge to her status as she had been married for several years without bearing a child. At the time when the High Priest entered the king's harem, 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 exceptional warmth and attentiveness towards her.
The High Priest, knowing her plans, secretly discussed with Fu and decided to turn the tables by swapping the two children.
As a result, everything went according to plan. The Southern Border Princess and the High Priest both gave birth on the same day. The legitimate wife of the Southern Border King gave birth to a son, while the High Priest gave birth to a stillborn daughter."
Jiang Yuqing suddenly realized, "No wonder when I arrived at the Wang City, the South Region Crown Prince, knowing that I am the Valley Master of Tianyi Valley, did not ask me to cure his poisoned father. I found it strange at that time, but now I understand the root cause."
"If he doesn't handle it well, then he's the one who caused this poison." What is this called? Even if the green hat is self-inflicted, he still has to stand by it.
"The King of West Xinjiang definitely knows that the Crown Prince of South Xinjiang is his own son, but he is actively creating weapons to rebel instead of supporting his son to become the king with no effort."
From the reaction of the Crown Prince of Southern Xinjiang, he should also be aware that the Western Xinjiang King is his real father, but he still hopes that Da Xia will send troops to suppress the Western Xinjiang King.
From this point of view, the situation becomes very interesting.
Jiang Yuqing carefully reviewed this dog-blood incident that was too outrageous to be staged, and boldly speculated, drawing the following conclusions:
The Crown Prince of Nanjiang learned about his identity from an unknown source and contacted the Crown Prince of Xijiang for some undisclosed purpose.
After a scene of tearful reunion between father and son, West Xinjiang Wang tearfully acknowledged his son.
Naively, West Xinjiang Wang believed that after recognizing each other, they would have a loving father-son relationship. So he joined forces with the Crown Prince of South Xinjiang Wang to plot the death of the King of South Xinjiang. After succeeding, the Crown Prince of South Xinjiang will welcome him as the new king of South Xinjiang.
After the Southern King fell into a coma, the political power naturally fell into the hands of the Crown Prince of the Southern Frontier.
He had impure motives from the beginning, essentially using the Western Frontier King for his own purposes. Now that he has absolute power, it is only natural for him to burn bridges after crossing the river.
In the face of absolute power, family affection counts as nothing. At best, they are familiar strangers. What is fatherly love and filial piety?
At this moment, the Western Xinjiang King realized that this so-called son was only using him, and he was extremely furious.
He has always coveted the throne of Southern Xinjiang, and now he's being toyed with by his own son and used as a stepping stone. How could he be willing to let it go? Naturally, he wants to reclaim his position.
Although there are copper mines in the deep mountains of Western Xinjiang, weapons made of copper are far inferior to those made of iron. Once they enter the battlefield, they will naturally suffer a big loss.
Therefore, when he accidentally discovered an iron mine under the enclosed land, he immediately came up with an evil plan.
Previously, he had people capture members of the Mohist school, ostensibly to repair the imperial mausoleum, but in reality he had no intention of secretly building weapons. Unfortunately, Jiang Yuqing and her husband stumbled upon his plot by accident.
Later, he sent someone to Wanjian Villa again, wanting to kidnap a professional to forge weapons. Unexpectedly, the people at Wanjian Villa were even more powerful, and they couldn't get close at all.
After sorting out the cause and effect, the next thing became much easier.
The crown prince of Nanchang wants to use Daxia's help to deal with the Western Frontier King, and once they both suffer losses, he will reap the benefits.
She, along with a few people, arrived at the main camp of Nanchang overnight and found several stationed generals. She explained the current situation facing Nanchang.
A few generals were also furious: "Since the Southern Border Royal Family has no face, let's just destroy them." Jiang Yuqing also meant the same, so the few people gathered together to discuss a plan...
A few days later, the scout of the West Xinjiang King Bu unexpectedly captured an intruder on the periphery. This intruder was covered in blood, with a terrified and blank expression, and kept shouting a phrase: "There are demons, there are demons. Help, save me!"
After saying that, he passed away.
From his appearance, he looked like a Daoist from the Great Xia. This person must have encountered something terrifying and accidentally ended up here.
The spy searched his pack and found a small notebook, as well as some scattered silver coins and personal belongings.
This spy recognizes the Great Xia script and confirms that this person is indeed a wandering old Taoist.
He flipped through this book and found that it not only recorded the origins of many precious herbs and their medicinal properties, but also contained information about many rare birds and exotic beasts, as well as famous mountains and rivers, and some undiscovered mineral resources.
On the last few pages, it was recorded that there is a mountain called "Mount Wangdong," which is more than three hundred miles west of the southern kingdom's capital city. It is the burial site of the Chi tribe, and its rocks are reddish. When scraped with porcelain tiles, the scrapes are also red, indicating the presence of rich iron ore!
The spy, upon seeing this, didn't dare to delay and hurriedly packed up his things to flee into the deep mountains. He intended to deliver the notebook to the King of West Xinjiang.
After the spy left, the "corpse" suddenly came back to life.
Huayangzi got up from the ground, dusted off his clothes, packed up his belongings, and muttered complaints: "These young people really don't understand anything. They even took away such a small amount of silver. It makes me have to skip two meals of wine."
One side scolded Jiang Yuqing again: "This little thief only took two talismans from her, but I have already run nearly a hundred miles away. Now, she has brought me back to do hard labor. Truly a Jiang thief, showing no respect for the elderly, too outrageous..."
And so, the Western Xinjiang King, upon receiving that "travelogue", felt like he had obtained a treasure and laughed heartily, saying, "Truly, the heavens have assisted me!"
Thus, he immediately sent people overnight to the East Mountain.
These people were ruthless. Upon arriving at the location, to save time, they directly found a cave with coffins and poured oil to set it on fire, burning the coffins of the local people.
The billowing thick smoke caught the attention of the Chixiang tribe people living below the mountain. They immediately rushed up the hill and witnessed their ancestors being burned and the arrogant soldiers of the West Xinjiang Kingdom. The eyes of the Chixiang tribe people turned red in an instant.
Immediately rushed up to fight with the people of the Western Xinjiang King, who is the largest ethnic group in the southern Xinjiang, the You ethnic group.
Hoes, sickles, wooden sticks, and stones are all weapons. Regardless of what they are, they are used to strike 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 win, send people to the mountains to create disturbances. They live nearby, so support comes quickly. The battle lasted for a day and a night, and finally ended with the Western Xinjiang King's people being completely wiped out, and the Chi clan also suffered heavy casualties.
The reason why the Chi people want to occupy Mount Wangdong is because there may be iron mines in the mountain.
The reason why they burned the coffin cave as soon as they arrived is because it was suitable for setting up camp, and they didn't want to bother setting up tents.
Xijiang King leads the You ethnic group, which is the largest ethnic group in southern Xinjiang, while the Chi ethnic group is the second largest ethnic group in southern Xinjiang.
The ancestors of these two ethnic groups originally had the same origin, but due to certain reasons, they had deep contradictions. It is somewhat similar to the strife between the Shia and Sunni sects of Islam in the previous life of Jiang Yuqing.
Now such a thing has happened again, and the Chi tribe is considered to bear deep hatred towards the You tribe and the Southern Xinjiang royal family. The two tribes have formed an everlasting grudge.
The King of Western Xinjiang, who is distant in the deep mountains, heard this news and was furious: "It's just a few coffins burned. The Chi tribe has such audacity to dare to hinder the great cause of this king."
So, he sent his "general" with "two thousand elite soldiers" to attack the Chi tribe.
The Chi tribe, not willing to back down, immediately notified villages and towns, mobilized able-bodied men, and formed a temporary "East Mountain Guard team". Both sides agreed to meet at the foot of East Mountain, prepared for a decisive battle to the death.