Since ancient times, historical records had always been a very precious heritage. Their value was far greater than gold, silver, and jewelry. Especially for historians who studied history, any newly discovered historical information was a priceless treasure that would make people very excited. Li An had discovered so many bamboo slips on the second floor of the cave. It could be said that he had discovered a huge cultural treasure trove. Its value was so great that it could not be described with words.
Looking at so many bamboo slips, Ang Lee was very excited. So many bamboo slips were the historical records of Gu Shu. These bamboo slips were too precious. However, why would the natural records of Gu Shu appear in this place? This place was too far away from the center of Gu Shu's rule. The important records of Gu Shu should be near Yi Province.
However, to understand this point, it was not too difficult. He only needed to look through all the bamboo slips. There was definitely something that Ang Lee needed on them.
Of course, blindly looking for it would not work. It was better to see the pattern clearly. Ang Lee looked carefully for a moment and found that the bamboo slips were placed in a very orderly manner. They were not placed randomly. The contents of each region were basically the same. Like this, it was relatively easier to find.
Ang Lee looked everywhere and finally found the bamboo slips that he was looking for. These bamboo slips recorded that the owner of the cave was the sixth son of the twelfth ruler of Gu Shu, the Overlord of Luzi. When the Qin General Sima Cuo attacked Gu Shu's border, he brought a group of people and left the capital ahead of time to move the important records. Because the King of Shu was still observing, his movements were a bit slow. In the end, the Qin army moved very quickly and arrived at Gu Shu's capital in a few days. They killed the twelfth ruler of Luzi and his son. Just like this, Gu Shu was completely destroyed and became the Qin's Shu Prefecture. As for the sixth son of the Overlord of Luzi, because he was already far away from the capital, he escaped. He lamented that the difference in strength between him and the Qin army was too great. There was no hope of revenge and reviving the country. Thus, he continued to escape and ran to Mo Family Village. He settled down near Mo Family Village. Because it was too remote, the Qin army did not find them.
After settling down, the sixth son of the Overlord of Luzi wanted to let himself and his descendants be ordinary people. Thus, he changed his surname to Mo and put all the treasures and records that he had brought with him into the treasure cave. After all, a gentleman's wealth is his own ruin. Since he had decided to be an ordinary person, he could not keep these treasures and records. Otherwise, it would affect his descendants sooner or later.
Li An told everyone the information he'd obtained, and he once again gave the order for the supply wagons to pack up all the bamboo slips and take them away. All the bamboo slips had to be sorted and placed properly, and they absolutely couldn't be messed up.
"Assistant Minister Li, are these bamboo slips really that important?"
Chen Zhuang asked.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "Yes, they are very important. The value of these bamboo slips far surpasses the treasures on them. However, to you boorish people, these bamboo slips are no different from trash. After all, none of you can recognize the ancient Shu characters on them."
"Hahaha!"
Everyone was amused.
"Assistant Minister Li, are we going to send all these bamboo slips back to the capital? But if we do that, won't the fact that we got the treasures be leaked? These characters are all recorded, aren't they? "
Chen Long said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Yes, these bamboo slips do record that there are treasures in the cave. But it is also very clear that the treasures are on the upper level. If they were discovered by others, they would have been taken away. When we came here, there were only these bamboo slips left. Can't I say that?"
Obviously, Ang Lee did not intend to give these treasures to the national treasury. Now the national treasury of the Tang Dynasty was not short of money. With such a rich imperial court of the Tang Dynasty, Ang Lee did not need to add more property to it. These treasures were like a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood. These treasures were not very useful. He could keep some for himself and leave the rest for Chen Long, Chen Zhuang, and many soldiers. He could also buy the loyalty of these soldiers. It could be said that it was killing two birds with one stone.
Because of the previous experience, the soldiers didn't leave after taking away all the bamboo slips. Instead, they carefully searched the cave below to see if they could find any abnormalities.
It didn't take long for another discovery to be made. However, they didn't find a new treasure cave. Instead, they found a groove with a jade object inside. Li An took a closer look and found that it was an official seal. It represented the identity of the owner of this treasure cave.
"I'll keep this jade tablet. It seems that there are no more treasures inside. Let's leave quickly!"
Ang Lee had been in the treasure cave for a long time. His body was already a little cold. It was better to quickly go up and get some fresh air. Otherwise, he would really freeze. The soldiers were also very cold. After all, it was the second layer of the cave. The temperature inside was very low.
After walking out of the cave and bathing in the warm sunlight, Ang Lee felt very comfortable. This feeling was wonderful. The harvest of this treasure hunt was very big, which made Ang Lee very satisfied.
"Assistant Minister Li, will there be other treasure caves in this Mo Valley? If there are a few more treasure caves, then we will make a fortune again."
Chen Long said excitedly.
Ang Lee said with a smile: "You are really greedy. However, the chances of there being another treasure cave should not be high. After all, Gu Shu is not a big country. This cave has already found a lot of treasures, so there should not be any more. However, if you are interested, you can search in this valley for a few more days. In any case, for three to five days, we will not be able to go anywhere."
Although they also felt that it was impossible for there to be another treasure cave, Chen Long and the soldiers were still unwilling to give up. This was because these treasures were too tempting. If they could find another batch, then they would have made a lot of money. Therefore, in the next few days, there were hundreds of soldiers searching in the Mo Valley every day. Ang Lee had already spread the word that whoever found the treasure cave would be rewarded with a large amount of treasures. Everyone who participated would receive a lot of rewards. In front of such a huge reward, naturally, everyone was willing to try their luck. Even if they did not find anything, they would not lose anything. Anyway, they were idle.
These days, Ang Lee was very leisurely. Every day, he would go hunting nearby and then come back to cook delicious food for Zhao Yefu to taste. After a few days of familiarization, Zhao Yefu's cooking skills could be considered to have improved a little. The food that he cooked could be considered to be edible. This made Ang Lee very satisfied. He felt that his teaching was not in vain.
At the same time, Duan Chu and more than a thousand fugitives were met with a disaster. These bad guys were forced deep into the mountains. Originally, they planned to leave as soon as the storm passed and return to their hometown. Unfortunately, the soldiers did not have the slightest intention to relax. At the foot of the mountain, every pass was full of soldiers and soldiers. It seemed that they had the intention to wipe them out in one fell swoop. This made Duan Chu and the others extremely annoyed. If they were in their own lair, even if they were besieged by the soldiers for a year or two, they would not be nervous. After all, their lair had plenty of food, which was enough to fight a war of attrition with the soldiers. But here, they were seriously short of food. They did not have much food in their hands. In just a few days, their food was used up. In order to fill their stomachs, they had to kill the horses they were sitting on. A thousand brothers needed a lot of food every day. Almost every day, they had to kill a lot of horses. If they had no horses, they would have to walk back to their hometown. The worst thing was, no one knew when the soldiers would relax their encirclement. If they were delayed for a few days, their horses would be eaten up.
In the face of such a difficult situation, Duan Chu's heart was somewhat uneasy. What he was most worried about was that these desperadoes would have a mental breakdown and then he would vent his anger. If that happened, his life would be in danger. For these desperadoes, doing such a thing was not strange at all. They were completely capable of doing such a thing.
Recently, Duan Chu could tell from the food that the two team leaders had prepared for him and the way they spoke to him. Due to the lack of food, the two team leaders had only prepared half a jin of horse meat for Duan Chu every day. The rest of the food was water. Regardless of whether it was enough or not, that was all they had. If it was not enough, they would starve. Anyway, the brothers only had that much food.
In addition, before, the two leaders were polite to Duan Chu, but recently, their attitude became bad. They even glared at him, which made him a little scared. He was worried that these guys would change their attitude towards him.
For this reason, Duan Chu was cautious every day. He was afraid that if he was not happy, he would offend these desperadoes. Before, the reason why he was able to be tough was because he could bring enough benefits to these guys. But now, they were surrounded by the army, and these guys were about to lose their lives. The promise that he could give was not worth anything. So, his backing immediately disappeared. He could only pray that the army would withdraw quickly. As long as he could return to Nanzhao, he would not be afraid of these desperadoes.
However, the army would not withdraw until they caught all of them. In addition, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties, the army would not rashly enter the mountains. Anyway, there was a lack of food in the mountains. With so many desperadoes entering the mountains, sooner or later they would starve to death. When these guys were too hungry to walk, the army's opportunity would naturally come.
In a simple wooden house, the two leaders sat together and drank. They were in a very bad mood. Although they still had wine to drink, they didn't have much left. At most, they could only drink a few more meals. At that time, they could only choose to drink water.
"I really didn't expect that we would be forced to this point. Are we destined to die in a foreign land?"
One of the leaders said unwillingly.
"It's all Duan Chu's fault. If it wasn't for Duan Chu, would we be in this situation today?"
The other leader said.
At this moment, they hated Duan Chu to death. They felt that it was because Duan Chu didn't make things clear that they had fallen into such a situation. If they didn't come here, they would have been able to eat and drink well in their hometown, and their lives would have been very comfortable.
"Now that we are running out of food, if the army doesn't withdraw, we brothers will really be trapped here."
"What can we do? There are so many soldiers, and they have excellent weapons. Even if we rush out, we have no chance of winning."
"It's better to hand over Duan Chu and solve the current problem."
"If we hand over Duan Chu, the soldiers will let us go. Don't forget, this person is the favorite of the Emperor of the Tang dynasty. If we assassinate this person, even if we hand over Duan Chu, the soldiers will not let us go!"
"Then what should we do? We can't just wait here to die! We don't have many horses left. "
"It seems that we can only abandon some of our brothers and let them go down the mountain and surrender! These brothers are ordinary brothers. I believe the soldiers will not make things too difficult for them. Besides, even if they are killed, it will not affect us much. We need to protect the core brothers. "
"That's a good idea. At present, our horse meat can only last for half a month. If we drive away the useless brothers, the horse meat can last for a few more months. If there are fewer people, it will be more convenient for us to move in the mountains. It is not impossible to sneak back to Nanzhao."
"Okay! Let's do it. But, after this, we must move. We can't let the soldiers find us. "
"How many brothers do we drive away? How many are we going to leave? "
"Drive away most of them. Leave 200 people behind. There are only 200 core brothers. In this way, our horse meat is enough to eat and drink for three to five months. It is enough to kill these soldiers. You know, the soldiers are now short of food. If they feed our surrendered brothers, the shortage of food will be more serious."
The two leaders discussed a solution to the current crisis. They wanted to drive away the unimportant brothers so that the core brothers could last longer.
This was a good idea for them. After all, their strength was there for all to see. If they wanted to fight against twenty thousand soldiers, it would be like striking a stone with an egg. They had no hope of winning. Therefore, it would be better to let these food-eating brothers go down the mountain and surrender. This would also reduce their burden.
Soon, nearly a thousand fugitives successively descended the mountain and surrendered. The two leaders and two hundred brothers escorted Duan Chu away from the original hiding place and ran to a secluded valley fifty miles away, where they hid there.
"What, more than a thousand people went down the mountain to surrender? These guys finally can't stand it anymore. Is Duan Chu here?"
Ang Lee asked.
Chen Long shook his head and said, "No, not only did Duan Chu not come down, but there are more than 200 people still hiding in the mountain. These people are the core of this group."
Ang Lee said with a smile, "These guys are quite smart. They left the core people on the mountain and drove the unimportant ones down the mountain. In this way, they can stay on the mountain for a few more days."
"What is Assistant Minister Li going to do? Continue to seal the mountain?"
Chen Zhuang asked.
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