Chapter 85: Prince Chun Suffers

"Qiu Sheng, how long will it take to get to Yan County?"

On the wide dirt official road, a team was slowly moving forward. Read М

There were twenty guards in front of the team, and twenty guards in the back. The middle one was wearing a gorgeous brocade robe and was slightly fat. It was Prince Chun.

After the captive offering ceremony, he was urged by Zhao Heng to set off the next day.

Although he was not happy to eat this hard work, he could not disobey the order.

After eight days of trekking, the further north he went, the more desolate it became.

These two days, he just wanted to get to Yancheng as soon as possible. As the capital of Yan County, it would at least look like a place.

"Your Highness, after the village ahead is Yan County." A young servant in blue riding on a horse, accompanied Prince Chun and pointed to the village ahead.

It was already August, and the weather was still hot.

Since the last post station, Prince Chun had already been sweating profusely.

Thirsty and tired.

Wiping the sweat off his face, he said, "Let's take a break in front."

After walking for a while, there was indeed a village next to the official road.

There was a teahouse at the entrance of the village, with five or six people drinking tea inside.

"My dear, would you like a bowl of the newly brewed mung bean tea to relieve the heat?"

When Prince Chun and his entourage arrived, the old man in the teahouse immediately came up to ask.

"One bowl per person." Prince Chun got off his horse and asked the guards to get off their horses and take a short break.

"Oh, I'm really going to get rich meeting a noble today." The old man happily carried the teapot and poured tea for Prince Chun.

It was Qiu Sheng's turn. Qiu Sheng suddenly covered his stomach and came to Prince Chun, "Your Highness, my stomach hurts."

"You are the one who has too many things to do." Prince Chun gulped down the mung bean tea, shook his head, motioned him to go, and then asked the old man, "How long will it take to get to Yancheng from here?"

"It will take three or four days to walk, but only one day to ride a horse." The old man poured tea and replied to Prince Chun.

Hearing this, Prince Chun nodded.

After drinking tea, he sat on a chair to rest, and the guards also sat together in twos and threes.

A quarter of an hour later, Prince Chun suddenly felt a strong sense of sleepiness, and his eyelids closed involuntarily.

...

Weaponry Department.

A "whoosh" sound broke through the air, and a crossbow arrow penetrated deeply into the wooden stake.

Relative to the wooden stake, Zhao Xu still maintained a shooting posture.

"Haha, it's really good." Zhao Xu looked at the pulley crossbow in his hand.

After handing the blueprint to Wang Ying, after several days of research and development, the first pulley crossbow met Zhao Xu's satisfactory requirements.

"Your Highness, this is an ordinary crossbow arrow, which only penetrated one inch into the wooden stake, while the pulley crossbow penetrated more than two." Wang Ying pulled out two crossbow arrows and walked towards Zhao Xu with a smile.

"The most important thing is that Your Highness only pulled it with one arm, and you don't need to put the crossbow on the ground and step on it like before, and pull it with both arms." Chang Wei was more excited than Zhao Xu.

As a general, he naturally understood that the army needed multiple arms to cooperate in combat, rather than a single cavalry infantry.

Zhao Xu nodded. The crossbow is not inferior to the bow and arrow in terms of range, and is more powerful than the bow and arrow.

In modern times, it is recorded that the range of the Shenbi crossbow of the Song Dynasty can reach 240 steps, while in ancient times, one step was 2 meters, equivalent to about 280 meters.

The pulling force of this crossbow is divided into three levels, namely 90 jin, 120 jin and 150 jin, while the bow and arrow have a pulling force of 120 jin, which is enough to show that the strong crossbow is more difficult to pull, which is also the reason for its greater power.

But now, the pulleys are installed on both ends of the crossbow, which is different, saving at least a quarter of the force.

In other words, the crossbow with a pulling force of 150 jin can now be pulled by him.

This can save a lot of energy for the crossbowmen.

"Let the crossbow craftsman produce as soon as possible." Zhao Xu ordered after handing the crossbow to Wang Ying.

It is not that the craftsman took eight days to make a crossbow, but that the craftsman kept adjusting the pulley group during these eight days.

It was not until now that the fire was mastered.

Now, after the technology is mature, the following manufacturing is much simpler.

The three were talking excitedly when a guard from the Armour Department came over.

"Your Highness, outside the Armour Department, the gatekeeper said he wants to see you for something important." The guard said.

"Gatekeeper?" Zhao Xu frowned.

The gatekeeper is the general who guards the city gate, but generally speaking, the gatekeeper will not look for him directly.

After exchanging a glance with Chang Wei, the two came to the gate of the Armour Department.

The gatekeeper brought two soldiers, and the soldiers were looking at a young man who looked like a servant.

"Your Highness Prince of Yan, I am Qiu Sheng, the servant of Prince Chun. Please save me, Prince Chun, he... was captured by bandits." The young man cried and shouted.

"Prince Chun?" Zhao Xu was a little confused.

He knew this person, he was the youngest brother of Zhao Heng in the imperial capital.

Because he liked to eat, drink and have fun, he got along well with Zhao Heng, and the two had a good relationship.

However, his uncle lived in the capital for a long time and almost never went out.

Now a servant suddenly came to him and said that Prince Chun was arrested, so he was naturally speechless.

But after being confused, he immediately calmed down.

"What evidence do you have to prove that you are Prince Chun's servant?" Zhao Xu asked.

Because of the lack of information in ancient times, some daring people dared to pretend to be royal relatives to cheat for food and drink.

He naturally had to be careful.

Qiu Sheng took off the package on his body, "Your Highness, please look."

"Imperial edict?" Zhao Xu was shocked, he couldn't not recognize this.

But to be on the safe side, he still took a look.

The content inside was that Zhao Heng asked him to cooperate with Prince Chun to purchase military supplies.

After putting the imperial edict back, Zhao Xu frowned, it seemed that this matter did not seem to be false.

"Where was Prince Chun kidnapped?" Zhao Xu asked.

If King Chun dies in his own territory, Zhao Heng will definitely punish him.

An old prince was killed by bandits in the territory of a young prince, and the royal family lost all face.

"It's in Muyu Village, Yuanyang County." Qiu Sheng said while crying.

"Who the hell is so bold?" Chang Wei also realized the seriousness of the problem.

However, he glanced at Qiu Sheng and asked doubtfully: "His Royal Highness King Chun was kidnapped, how come you weren't caught?"

"The child had a stomachache at the time, so he went to the river to relieve himself. In the reflection of the river, he saw someone holding a knife behind his back. He jumped into the river at that time. When he came out of the water, he secretly returned to the tea shop and found that A group of gangsters are kidnapping His Highness," Qiu Sheng explained hurriedly.

Chang Wei looked at Zhao Xu, "Your Highness, we cannot rush to send out the army at this time. We should send out spies to the local area to inquire, otherwise we will scare the gangsters and they will kill people."

Zhao Xu and Chang Wei had similar ideas. Bandits usually only kidnap people for money, so it would be inappropriate to rashly mobilize an army.

Let Tsui Hark and others go to inquire first.

Then let the soldiers pretend to be caravans and go here to wait for opportunities.

Thinking of this, he immediately returned to the palace to make arrangements, and asked people to place Qiu Sheng there.

…

In the dark and humid room, King Chun was about to cry but had no tears.

At this time, a knife was placed on his neck. Opposite him, three extremely vicious gangsters were looking at him fiercely.

"Are you the prince? I am still the king of heaven." The gangster slapped King Chun on the face, "Write quickly and ask your family to send you one hundred thousand taels of silver, otherwise I will kill you."

"I, I am really the prince." King Chun shouted.

He now regrets that when he went to Yanjun, he and his guards traveled in casual clothes in order to have fun on the road.

And everything that can prove his identity is in Qiu Sheng's hands.

The gangsters only thought he was a wealthy businessman and wanted to extort money.

"I'll write, I'll write." King Chun had an idea in his mind, picked up the pen and wrote a name, "Send someone to the trading house to ask for the name, and someone will definitely give you money."

The leader of the gangster looked at it and nodded, "Sure enough, he is a wealthy businessman who went to Yancheng."

After that, he came out of the woodshed with the note and asked someone to go to Yancheng.

"Hehe, the boss is still wise, and we finally secured a big house. After finishing this job, we can go south and live happily for the rest of our lives." said a gangster.

The man known as the big boss smiled proudly.

If Zhang Kang were here, he would definitely recognize that this person was none other than the missing Song Ya.