Chapter 451: Secrets Within the City Walls

Who among the people he knew would be in Lingxu City? Hong Chenglue?

Li Qingge didn't say anymore, blinking at him: "Good night."

He Lingchuan opened his eyes, just in time to see the sun had passed its zenith, and in another two hours, it would sink below the horizon, and he couldn't help but be slightly startled.

He had returned to the Soul Village, riding on horseback, with magnificent city walls to his front left, but this was not Panlongcheng.

He looked left and right; the entire Broken Blade Squad was there, and accompanying them were more than thirty Great Wind Army soldiers.

Directly in front was a fiery red cloak.

General Hong? Were they following behind General Hong?

He Lingchuan came to his senses and discovered that the city walls his group was passing were truly familiar: this was the Xiji Palace City! Previously, the Panlong Army had taken the Xiji capital in only half a day, but it had taken more than ten days to take the Palace City, until the Monarch and officials inside were trapped until they ran out of ammunition and food, finally surrendering without a fight.

Therefore, He Lingchuan had a deep impression of the appearance of this Palace City, but it was limited to the appearance.

As for the interior, this was his first time entering.

During the siege, more than ten thousand soldiers were squeezed into the Palace City, and it stank everywhere, but fortunately, the filth had long been cleaned up. As far as He Lingchuan could see, the palace complex was connected from beginning to end, well-planned, and beautiful in appearance.

The door panel behind him was also looking around as he walked: "It seems that during our siege, those ten thousand soldiers and Huyanzhao were all squeezed in here, and it wasn't crowded at all; everyone had a place to live."

Willow Strip spat: "Outside, the people's livelihood was withered, inside, the beams were carved and the buildings painted; Xiji deserved to perish!"

He Lingchuan whispered: "Are we still going to return east?"

Willow Strip shrugged. Alo looked left and right: "The news from Panlongcheng hasn't been delivered yet, General Hong brought us here to handle business first."

The group followed General Hong and rushed to the west inner side of the Palace City.

The further west they went, the fewer the buildings, but the more people there were.

These were all commoner craftsmen, who had set up scaffolding inside the Palace City, and more than two hundred people were holding tools, chiseling the walls with a clatter.

A large piece of the wall had already been chiseled away, and from the outside, it was a very large gap.

The group was also confused when they arrived here.

During the siege, the Xiji Palace City was perfectly fine and almost didn't suffer any attacks; why destroy it now?

General Nanke seemed to be acting as a supervisor, and when he saw General Hong, he greeted her: "The craftsmen are complaining that the wall is unusually hard; they chiseled for most of the day and only opened this gap, and I don't know how many chisels and stone hammers have been broken."

He Lingchuan and the others looked at each other in dismay.

The Xiji city wall looked tall and thick, but how could it be this hard?

The craftsmen had been focused on chiseling the wall for most of the day; if it were during wartime, where would there be such a good environment to slowly dig the wall? If they wanted to break through this wall, they would probably have to pile up quite a few lives.

General Hong was also examining the wall: "Are you sure it's here that we should chisel?"

"The classics say that when the Bei City was captured in the past, this was the only gap that was broken through." General Nanke waved his hand and summoned an elderly palace servant. "This fellow also participated in the construction of the Xiji Wang Gong back then, he is a living map."

This palace servant bowed deeply to General Hong: "I... this humble servant is surnamed Chang, I've been in the palace for more than ten years, General, just give your orders!"

General Hong pointed, and the Eunuch Chang nodded repeatedly: "It's here, it's here! The Xiji Palace City was built on the foundation of the old Bei City site, and the palace walls basically follow the old walls of Bei City, widened, thickened, and heightened, becoming what it looks like today."

Bei City? He Lingchuan hadn't heard of it, but Alo whispered: "So this is Bei City?"

He Lingchuan turned his head to look, and the door panel and Willow Strip were equally bewildered.

Fortunately, fortunately, he wasn't the only poor student.

Alo knew they were having a lesson from their expressions and whispered a popular science: "A thousand years ago, a city was built here, called Bei City. Later, it was invaded by foreign tribes and perished. I've heard its legends, but I didn't expect the Xiji Wang Gong to be built on the Bei City ruins."

The door panel hummed: "It seems the feng shui here isn't very good."

Bei City was invaded by foreign tribes and perished.

Xiji built a royal palace on this foundation, was invaded by Panlongcheng, and perished.

Separated by more than a thousand years, history has a cycle.

Eunuch Chang continued: "This is still chiseling on the inside. The outside of the Palace City doesn't fear artillery or magical bombardment, nor does it fear battering rams and siege vehicles."

The door panel said in a muffled voice: "It seems the defensive formation is remarkable."

Eunuch Chang happened to continue: "The most amazing thing is that the city wall doesn't need to be set up with a defensive formation at all to achieve this effect."

The Great Wind Army soldiers were all surprised.

Not opening a formation meant energy saving. Fighting a war is all about consumption; if the city wall itself is hard to this extent, it's very difficult for the opponent.

"I heard that the foreign enemies back then attacked for more than four months, sacrificing two or three thousand lives, before they opened that gap in the city wall." Eunuch Chang said. "The Monarch, uh, the Huyan family took a fancy to this advantage, so they used it as a base to build the Palace City. Although they blocked this gap later, the hardness is not as good as other sections of the old wall."

This was still the hardest section? He Lingchuan took a cold breath.

No wonder General Hong previously let the Panlong Army surround but not attack, preferring to spend precious time fighting a war of attrition; she must have known this history beforehand.

Otherwise, the Great Wind Army would have had to use lives to test the hardness of the Bei City ruins.

General Hong said with disdain: "What if the city wall is strong? Didn't I take the Xiji Wang Gong without spending a single soldier?"

The city was strong and the artillery sharp, but the owner of the Wang Gong was cowardly, and finally surrendered the city himself.

What determines the victory or defeat of a war has never been as simple as external conditions.

Eunuch Chang accompanied with a smile: "Yes, yes, General Hong is wise and martial!"

While they were talking, several craftsmen on the scaffolding called out: "There's something, there's something stuck in the wall!"

A flash before everyone's eyes, and General Hong was already standing on the scaffolding two zhang off the ground, right beside the craftsman.

The craftsman was startled and leaned backward.

General Hong grabbed his shoulder with one hand and plunged her other hand directly into the wall, digging.

Gray powder and mud chunks fell down with a rustle.

Her hand seemed to be more useful than a chisel.

General Nanke and the others also surrounded the bottom to watch, seeing something exposed in the wall, thick and hard, but not like a stone.

At least the shape didn't look like it.

General Hong stopped and blew a breath.

A demon wind blew past, and the floating dust on the wall was blown away, revealing the true appearance of the thing underneath.

General Nanke said in a lost voice: "This, this... are these bones?"

The thing in the wall only exposed half, the color was like jade, but it still had a metallic luster in the sunlight. When iron tools hit it, it made a clanging sound, like hitting a bell or chime, with lingering echoes.

But no one would mistake this shape.

That was a bone, exposed at least three feet outside, and it was unknown how long it was inside the wall.

The door panel muttered: "This is not a human bone."

There is no bone in a person's body that is this long.

Another craftsman pointed to the palace wall above: "There's one there too."

Everyone looked up, and sure enough, they found bones with a jade-white luster four feet above.

The outer wall added by Xiji had long been opened, and the craftsmen were now digging the old wall of Bei City.

In other words, the ancient city wall of Bei City was built with piles of white bones?

Willow Strip shuddered, and He Lingchuan remembered a legend from his hometown.

General Hong was wearing a mask, so others couldn't see her expression, but her voice was calm: "This is the secret of the hardness of the ancient Bei City wall."

In other words, the hardness of the wall depended on these white bones? She took out a dagger and chiseled twice on the bone.

Sure enough, it couldn't be chiseled.

General Hong took out a small bottle and poured the liquid inside onto the bone.

Only a few light sounds of "chi chi" were heard, white smoke rose from the bone, and Willow Strip and He Lingchuan, who had sensitive senses of smell, even smelled a strange sour smell.

General Hong continued to pour the acid, and soon foam flowed down from the bone, but nothing happened when it fell onto the mud wall.

Soon, a small hole was eroded into the bone.

General Hong took a crane-beak pick and reached into the small hole to dig.

On the crane-beak of the pick, there seemed to be some black substance.

General Hong observed carefully, and He Lingchuan suspected she even smelled it.

Afterward, she jumped down from the scaffolding and said with regret: "The activity is lost, it can't be used anymore. This wall doesn't need to be dug anymore."

General Nanke was still looking at the bones in the wall: "What exactly is this thing?"

"Divine remains." General Hong clapped her hands. "In ancient times, many gods fell into the human world. These are their remains."

The listeners were shocked.

The ancient Bei City actually used the bones of gods to build walls?

That's right, where there is war, there will be corpses. The Great War of World Destruction back then was so tragic, it's not strange that the remains of gods fell into the human world.

The craftsmen here were mostly locals of Xiji, and after hearing her words, they immediately retreated, not daring to chisel the wall anymore.

Some even prostrated themselves on the ground, praying in a low voice, begging the gods to forgive their disrespect.

"Their graveyard is probably nearby, the Bei City people just took materials on the spot." Who doesn't want a strong city wall? "The Bei City people could easily obtain their remains, either they died violently here back then and weren't buried, or the seal of the graveyard had been destroyed, or it had expired."

General Hong turned to ask Eunuch Chang: "Do you know where the Divine Tomb is?"

Eunuch Chang had also been dumbfounded just now, and at this moment he shook his head hurriedly: "No, the ancient books don't mention a Divine Tomb at all, General."

"What a pity, the activity of these bones built into the wall is lost, except for being a bit hard, they are no different from rocks." General Hong asked him, "Think carefully, is there any place in the Palace City where flowers and grass are green all year round, not fearing the severe cold or scorching heat?"

"Flowers and grass green all year round?" Eunuch Chang didn't even think and said, "Ah, there really is such a place, when the whole capital is covered in white snow, it's still full of flowers and grass! The orchids that the Queen liked most before were raised there and could bloom for years without fading, and didn't even need much careful cultivation. Oh, it's in the West Garden of the Wang Gong, only four hundred steps away from here."

"Lead the way."

Eunuch Chang's measurement was very accurate, saying four hundred steps was four hundred steps, with almost no deviation.

The group had already walked into a royal garden, where there were exotic flowers and rare herbs everywhere, arranged in a scattered and orderly manner, and almost no withered grass or yellow leaves could be seen.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 452 =====