The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In late February, the Gan River rushed northward, while two thousand Qin troops went upstream southward.

Hei Fu rode on his horse, stood by the river and looked at the long team, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

This was the most difficult journey in his past and present lives.

In later generations, it only takes six or seven hours to drive from the north to the south of Jiangxi.

But in this era, it takes at least a month to go, not only because the road is more than a thousand miles long, but also because within this thousand miles, let alone cities, even settlements are rare.

There was no flat road for the army to walk, and the Qin army trudged on the narrow paths trampled by people and animals. Sometimes they had to chop trees and thorns to move forward. Hei Fu specially arranged Gong Ao to lead 500 people to cut trees and clear the way in front, so the distance they walked every day was not long...

"With such a long distance between north and south, how did the Chu State rule Shanggan?" One day, when he was tired of walking, Hei Fu asked his staff member Xu Shu.

Shanggan is the upper reaches of the Gan River. The Chu State granted a county lord there. It is said that the lord only communicated with Shouchun once a year.

Xu Shu smiled and said: "I heard that when King Dao of Chu was in power, he appointed Wu Qi as the prime minister. Wu Qi believed that what Jing had in excess was land, and what it lacked was people. So he moved the nobles of the inner counties of Chu to the Guangxu area in the south of the Yangtze River. That's how many lords were granted. Shanggan Lord was the one who was granted the farthest place."

These lords in the south of the Yangtze River were far away from the border, and the cost of travel was too high, so the King of Chu was too lazy to collect taxes from them. He occasionally sent some local specialties as tribute. Therefore, Shanggan Lord, Fanyang Lord and others had a high degree of independence. Thanks to this feudal system, the Chu State was able to expand its territory so vastly.

Xu Shu said that Shanggan Lord had no more than 500 soldiers under his command, so Hei Fu was not worried about fighting at all. Compared with the weak lords in front, the long road and the increasingly hot weather were their biggest enemies.

At this time, there was a commotion in the marching team. Ji Ying wiped his sweat and came over to say that several soldiers had fainted again...

"Add some light salt water and let his comrades carry them on stretchers. Gong Ao asked someone to reply that there was a suitable place to camp ten miles away."

During the month of stationing in Fanyang, Heifu asked Jiujiang County for a lot of supplies, one of which was salt. Zhao Tuo transported a large ship of salt to Pengze and used mules and horses to join the expeditionary army. Heifu asked people to dissolve the salt in the water, so that when the army marched under the sun, they would not faint and have heatstroke due to excessive sweating and lack of salt.

Even so, more than ten people fell down every day. Those who could carry the responsibility and could not walk, Heifu could only let them stay where they were, set up outposts, and wait for the army to return.

As the sun was setting, they finally arrived at the camping site. It was an open area by the water, with dense green jungles on all sides. Hard old vines hung on the ancient trees, and bursts of animal roars and bird calls could be heard from time to time.

Heifu asked everyone to camp quickly. Although the hot day was about to end, the soldiers did not look forward to the night, because mosquito bites would make them miserable. The mosquitoes in southern Jiangxi were really big and painful. There were also various beetles crawling out of the soil and crawling everywhere. The most dangerous time for Heifu was when he woke up and found a colorful snake on the camp couch...

The Yue people sent by Wu Rui to lead him said that it was a highly poisonous snake after seeing the snake's body, and a bite would definitely kill him.

Heifu shuddered, but the Yue people were very happy to take the snake, skin it and roast it. The Yue people had a rich diet, and snakes, insects, rats and ants could all be considered delicacies.

Just when Heifu asked his personal guards to check the grass near his tent, Xiao Tao came over and said to Heifu seriously: "Sima... someone is watching us in the forest!"

"Where?"

Xiao Tao took Heifu to the edge of the camp and pointed to the woods more than a hundred steps away. There were indeed several figures on the trees there.

Heifu immediately became alert. In the past month, they have been attacked several times by the Yangyue tribe along the Gan River.

Compared with Ganyue, Yangyue is more ignorant and uncivilized, and has great courage. Sometimes when the Qin army passes through their tribe, groups of Yangyue people will appear and roar in an attempt to stop them from advancing. There was even one time when hundreds of Yangyue people, waving simple weapons and shouting loudly, attacked Heifu's pioneering troops.

The Qin army was not polite either. All the Yue tribes that showed hostility were wiped out and their food was plundered. After entering the middle reaches of Ganshui, similar things rarely happened.

Therefore, Heifu thought that those who were spying on the Qin army in the forest must be some scattered Yue people, so he asked Dongmen Bao to take more than a hundred people to check and disperse them.

Dongmen Bao and others were gone for half an hour. When it was dusk, when the earthen stove emitted curling smoke, a group of people came back and shouted outside the tent for Heifu to come out and see what they had caught.

"It turns out that the people who spied on the camp were not Yue people, but some hairy weirdos!" Dongmen Bao was very excited.

"Weird people?" Heifu was a little surprised. He threw down the diary of the Southern Expedition he was writing and followed him out.

"Those weirdos were black and hairy, huge in size, and extremely powerful. Two people died before they were killed and brought back."

A group of soldiers had already surrounded Heifu's tent. They were all amazed. When they saw Sima coming, they all made way.

When Heifu went over to take a look, he was immediately happy.

The thing lying on the ground was covered with long black hair, but its face was hairless. After death, its mouth opened wide, revealing sharp canine teeth. Its shoulders were wide and round, and its neck and limbs were unusually strong...

This was not a weirdo, but an orangutan!

And it was a very huge orangutan, nearly two meters tall...

At this time, Xu Shu and the guide Gan Yue who led the way also came over. After taking a look, they couldn't help but say in surprise: "Isn't this the Gan Giant?"

"Gan Giant?" This name is new.

Xu Shu explained: "Sima, this Gan River originates from Shanggan. There are many Gan Giants in the area, with human faces and long arms, black bodies and hair. Because of this person, the river is named after him..."

Hei Fu suddenly realized that the original meaning of "Gan" was like this? However, he didn't expect that there were close relatives of gorillas in Jiangxi two thousand years ago, and they might have gradually become extinct in later generations.

This episode passed quickly. Dongmen Bao tried to skin and eat the "Gan Giant" and served Heifu a bowl of meat, but Heifu refused. He would rather eat livestock than strange game. What if he got sick?

He inspected the camp and saw that the soldiers were settled. Then he returned to his tent and added the story of the Gan Giant to his marching diary under the oil lamp of Sima Quanquan...

After stopping writing, Heifu was a little worried. The days of jungle marching caused serious physical loss of soldiers, and the weather was getting hotter day by day. If they stayed in southern Jiangxi after summer, the hot climate and the diseases that followed would cause a large number of casualties.

"The war must be ended before summer!"

...

Fortunately, Shanggan Jun cooperated with Heifu very well. When the Qin army arrived at Shanggan Xiaoyi in mid-March after a difficult journey of one and a half months, it turned out to be an empty city.

"Shanggan Jun learned from the Yue people who went south that the general's army was coming, so he fled south with the people of the town." The few people who were left didn't want to leave here, so they hid. After being captured by the Qin army, they told Heifu the truth in the local dialect that was extremely difficult to understand.

"Escape?" Heifu's men looked at each other in bewilderment. In everyone's opinion, Shanggan was already the edge of the world. Where could Shanggan Jun escape to?

Xu Shu reminded Heifu: "There is a Limen Pass a hundred miles south of Shanggan. That is the southernmost part of Chu!"

So, after resting for several days in Shanggan City, Heifu had to take half of the army and rush to Limen Pass in person.

Limen Pass is located in Dayuling in later generations. The terrain here is rugged and dangerous. There is only a stone path winding up for more than ten miles of mountains.

When they arrived at this small stone pass that can only be called a "checkpoint" panting, Heifu did not see a single person, just like Shanggan. The King of Chu was dead, and the territory of Chu was lost. Those Chu people who did not want to be ruled by Qin knew that they could not resist, so they gave up even this place.

Hei Fu climbed to the top of the two-meter-high pass, which was also the highest point of Dayu Mountain. Looking south, he saw only tropical rainforests that were older and denser than the forests along the way. Towering trees, winding vines, and lush flowers and plants intertwined into a green maze, an endless sea of forests.

"Where else can they escape to?" Hei Fu looked at Xu Shu.

Xu Shu did not expect that the last feudal lord of Chu could run so fast. He bowed and said: "South of Limen is no longer the territory of Chu, but the place where the Nanyue tribes are located..."

"It is said that there is a small town called Chuting on the coast of the South China Sea. It is the place where Chu merchants trade rhinoceros horns, elephant tusks, and jade beads with the Nanyue people. Shang Ganjun may want to escape there."

Yes, Hei Fu knew clearly in his heart that to the south of this pass and this mountain is Guangdong.

Shanggan Jun could run to Chu Ting, but Heifu did not intend to chase him. His southern expedition would end here.

At this time, Ji Ying, who was investigating on the other side of the pass, shouted: "Sima, there are words here!"

When Heifu and the others went to the other side of the pass, they found that the insect-bird script of Chu was indeed written in dark red blood on the black wall of the pass.

The Qin soldiers could not understand it, but they had been fighting against Chu for so long and had been dealing with the bamboo slips of Chu people for a long time. Heifu could roughly guess what it meant.

This is a sentence that has been very popular in Chu since the demise of Chu was doomed. It is said that it was said by a noble scholar Nan Gong of Chu.

In Huaibei, Huainan, Edi, and Jiangdong, people are whispering, shouting, and silently reciting this sentence in their hearts.

Now, Heifu saw it again.

It is like an unwilling curse.

It was like a mysterious prophecy.

Hei Fu shook his head and read it out.

"Even if there are only three households in Chu, Chu will be the one to destroy Qin?"