"What? You're saying that Dula was shot dead and the steppe army retreated?"
Old General Jiang was marching at full speed, stared wide-eyed at the messenger in front of him. This messenger had been personally dispatched by Li Xiongxin from the front.
However, while he was rushing to catch up, he was also building roads and bridges and clearing out the annoying bandits blocking the way, and in the end, he still had to march as fast as possible.
They're almost there, and they're saying the enemy has been driven away, and even their leader has been killed.
What kind of nonsense is this?!
Despite this, Old General Jiang still led his troops forward, but he left 30,000 troops behind to carefully eliminate the bandits who were hiding in the mountains and fighting guerrilla warfare against them.
Now that the war is over, they don't need to rush. It's a good time to wipe out these despicable bandits completely.
As for himself, he continued to lead the main force forward to support Hulan City.
Judging from the letter, Hulan City had been mostly burned down by the grassland army, leaving only a ring of city walls, greatly reducing its defensive capabilities.
To prevent the nomadic tribes from the grasslands from returning, he had to get there as soon as possible to take command.
He had also previously considered replacing Li Xiongxin and his troops.
After all, the main reason for the loss of Hulan City was the presence of a traitor within Li Xiongxin's ranks, and it is still uncertain whether there are any other traitors among Li Xiongxin's forces.
Therefore, to be on the safe side, it would be best to replace the entire army.
At the same time, Zhao Fengxue led his assassins back to the capital.
This battle, which started strong but ended weakly, shocked the court and the public. Sun Ruonan's Xun Feather Cloth and Purple Gold Battle Bow also came into the sights of all forces, and all forces began to investigate them.
The power of these forces was terrifying. They quickly confirmed the identity of the forger of the Xun Feather Cloth and the Purple Gold Battle Bow: it was none other than Wang Hao!
Although they did not find concrete evidence, Wang Hao was the prime suspect.
After all, this style of armor has never appeared before, and there are no records of it, so it can only have been created in the present era.
As it happens, Wang Hao himself is a Grandmaster, and the Shameless Greatsword he forged is the best proof of that. If this guy were to take action, he could indeed create divine armor and weapons of such quality.
Unfortunately, the investigation ran out of leads at this point.
The location Wang Hao chose for the construction was already secluded, and he even surrounded the room with several layers of sheepskin to minimize the noise.
Even after it was built, they would only take secluded alleys to deliver gifts to the Sun residence. These powerful forces wouldn't have the ability to find them even if they wanted to!
However, this also drew their attention back to Sun Ruonan's Xun Feather Cloth.
All factions can sense that the current imperial court is in turmoil, and chaos is about to descend once again. In such a chaotic world, the value of a peerless general is unimaginable.
Take, for example, the founding fathers of the Great Ming Dynasty. Without their unparalleled military prowess, how could they have helped Great Emperor Hongwu conquer such a vast empire?
That set of Xun Feather Cloth is equivalent to an unparalleled warrior, an unparalleled warrior who is Bubai from the Innate, so naturally some people covet it.
After all, the Xun Feather Cloth could withstand siege crossbows head-on without being damaged, making it far more terrifying than Grandmaster- level expert. At least Grandmaster- level expert would never be able to directly confront the attack of a siege crossbow.
This was clearly not the limit of the Xun Feather Cloth; they even doubted that this divine armor could withstand the impact of the Hongyi Cannons.
Meanwhile, a large number of other forces coveted it and wanted to acquire it to research the technology for forging such divine armor and weapons, so as to mass-produce them.
Even Emperor Mingde was tempted by this. If they could use this divine armor and weapons to assemble and heal elite troops, they would have more confidence in dealing with the Confucian School.
Actually, he was also frightened by Confucian School. Although he had seen through Confucian School's plans from the Yang Jingzhong incident, plans are plans, but they have not been fully implemented yet.
This time, the grassland army truly came to our doorstep, and even managed to acquire the forbidden weapon, the Red Barbarian Cannon.
If it weren't for the sudden appearance of this Xun Feather Cloth, those grassland armies would probably have marched all the way to the capital, or even breached it.
Faced with an elite army of 100,000, especially cavalry from the grasslands, even the intervention of the ancient ancestor would be futile.
Not to mention the Confucian School masters lurking nearby, it could be said that the Da Ming imperial family had once teetered on the brink of death.
This sense of crisis made Emperor Mingde eager to strengthen his power, and the Xun Feather Cloth became the catalyst for this.
With the resources of the Da Ming royal family, they wouldn't need many sets; just ten thousand sets would be enough to dominate the world.
Of course, Emperor Mingde was still a man of pride. His own men had just narrowly escaped defeating the foreign army, and it would be too much for him to be so eager to demand their precious armor and weapons.
So he had Cao Haisheng subtly convey his message to Zhao Fengxue, hoping that Zhao Fengxue would voluntarily contribute that set of divine armor and weapons.
Unfortunately, when faced with Cao Haisheng, who had personally summoned him, Zhao Fengxue pretended to be stupid and refused to take the bait, clearly unwilling to hand him over.
Zhao Fengxue's attitude on this point was quite firm, leaving no room for negotiation.
Just kidding. Putting aside the powerful performance of the Xun Feather Cloth, its manufacturing cost alone is astonishing.
You should know that the Cloth was made with ten million taels of gold!
Only a fool would give away something so precious.
However, Zhao Fengxue didn't completely push things to the extreme. She gave away the pair of Red Gold arm armor that Wang Hao had left behind, which was enough to allow Cao Haisheng to barely get by.
However, this incident created a rift between them, and Emperor Mingde also harbored some dissatisfaction towards it.
After all, as a hegemonic emperor, he believed that if the ruler commanded his subjects to die, the subjects had no choice but to die.
I ordered you to hand over your divine weapon and armor, but you tried to fool me with this rubbish! Do you really think I have no temper?!
However, Zhao Fengxue and the others had just made great contributions, and at this time they could not do anything to harm meritorious officials, otherwise it would chill people's hearts. Therefore, they had to plan carefully.
Regardless of the dynamics of the various forces outside, Zhao Fengxue was troubled by something.
"Father-in-law, wouldn't it be difficult to get so Duobao out of here?"
Inside the Great Yuan Treasury, Sun Ruonan stared blankly at the open chest filled with jewels, then looked around at the nearly ten thousand similar large chests, and didn't know what to say.
Although most of these large boxes were filled with weapons and armor, there were also more than two thousand boxes of jewels and jade.
Such a quantity might be enough to get out of a regular city, but it wouldn't work in the capital. First of all, it would be impossible to get past the city gates, especially during this sensitive period.
With so many things happening lately, including the invasion of a large army of nomadic tribes from the grasslands, the capital is under considerable martial law. As a result, it is almost impossible to transport all these treasures out.
"These things definitely need to be transported out of the city. I suppose Wang Hao left this information with us so that we could figure out a way to get them out of the city."
Zhao Fengxue patted a large box of jewelry beside her, her tone resolute.
He had actually wanted to come and see the treasure after learning from Tie Niu, but the invasion of the alien race forced him to postpone it. Only after the situation calmed down did he bring his family to come and see it.
The sheer quantity of these treasures took him by surprise. The jewels and jade alone were worth at least 100 million taels of gold, and the 10,000 sets of armor and weapons were priceless, enough to arm an Invincible army.
If it were before the falling out with the Da Ming imperial family, he might have kept only these jewels and jades, and offered up the armor and weapons that were of little use to them.
However, due to the Xun Feather Cloth Robe, a rift has now appeared between them and Emperor Mingde, and even the Da Ming imperial family. It is only a matter of time before they completely turn against each other.
Since that's the case, everything here should belong to me.
"We definitely can't go anywhere on the surface. We need to dig a Earthly Dao to the river outside the city as soon as possible, and then sink all these treasures to the bottom of the river to hide them temporarily."
Zhao Fengxue quickly made a decision. She glanced at her son and daughter-in-law, as well as Tie Niu and Tao Taohong, who had been standing silently behind her, and said in a deep voice, "From now on, you will stay here for the time being and dig a tunnel. There is an underground river nearby with water and plenty of fish, enough to be self-sufficient."
Excavating a treasure trove so deep underground is no easy task. Not to mention breaking through the hard rock layers, the groundwater alone is a major challenge.
Otherwise, it would be flooded before it could be dug up.
Fortunately, this treasure trove is located next to a fast-flowing underground river. All the seeping water flows away through this underground river, which seems to originate from a river on the surface. There are plenty of fish and shrimp in the river, enough to sustain them for a while.
This period also provided a good opportunity for Ruonan to hide here and avoid the limelight, since too many people were eyeing that Xun Feather Cloth, even the Emperor had his eye on it.
Under these circumstances, hiding Ruonan here is the safest option. Not only will Ruonan herself be safe, but Zhao Fengxue will also find some peace of mind.
After all, without finding the Xun Feather Cloth, those forces, including the Emperor, wouldn't do anything to him, thus ensuring his safety to the greatest extent possible.
Sun Ruonan, Zhao Dachui, and even Taohong all wore bitter expressions, as they really didn't want to be trapped here for a long time, even with such a treasure to accompany them.
Moreover, this appears to be a royal tomb from the Sengoku period, which makes it even more eerie. What if some unclean spirit were to jump out?
But some people were very excited, such as Tie Niu, who had been silent all along, and he even secretly glanced at Taohong beside him.
Now they have another chance to spend time together!
"Don't worry, Master, I, Tie Niu, will dig a tunnel as soon as possible. I'll go and unload those supplies right now!"
Tie Niu patted his chest and assured him, then excitedly ran back to the passage he had come from, ready to unload the supplies he had prepared earlier.
After all, they had decided to dig a tunnel before coming down, so Zhao Fengxue secretly obtained a batch of living supplies and digging tools in advance. After bringing them down, she would seal off the Earthly Dao, so that no one would know what was going on here.