Chapter XXIII: The Massacre
After bidding farewell to Princess Changping, with Gongsun Yang's guidance, it took only three days for the second princess and her party to leave the Qinling Mountains. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info but when they got out of the Qinling Mountains, they soon found that it was almost impossible to walk outside.
Huangfu Qingyun seemed to have been prepared, and he mobilized a lot of men and horses to wait in the various important towns in Zhaozhou north of the Qinling Mountains, waiting for work, ready to wipe them out.
Gu Shiyi had to transform the second princess into a man, and then disperse the people into several teams, scattering them back and forth and walking together. From the Qinling Mountains to the north, they have gone out of Zhongdu and entered Zhaozhou, and then Yongzhou, they have reached the snowy region, they must pass through Yongzhao and Yongzhou, Yongzhou is the place where the Huangfu family has been operating for many years, if Zhaozhou can't get out, it is conceivable that it will be more difficult to pass through Yongzhou.
Although Huangfu Qingyun was not sure what would happen to the two princesses after they arrived at the imperial tomb, he looked at the map, the imperial tomb was in the south of the Qinling Mountains, north of Zhaozhou Yongzhou, and then snowy areas. The other three directions of the Imperial Mausoleum must pass through the sphere of influence of Zhongdu, so Huangfu Qingyun focused on preparing for the north this time, which can be regarded as a crooked attack.
And because the east, west, and south of the Imperial Tomb are all within the sphere of influence of Zhongdu, the only people sent by Huangfu Qingyun to the Imperial Tomb are only a few tracking masters, and in the sphere of influence of Zhongdu, they only need to find out the direction and can send people at any time. However, in Zhaozhou, north of the Qinling Mountains, Huangfu Qingyun mobilized local officers and soldiers, and set up checkpoints in every town to strictly check passers-by.
When Gu 11 and others were ordered to go south, in order to cover up their tracks, there were only 20 people in a group, and they scattered people along the way, and finally Gu 11 and the four of them were in charge of Qinling and Huangling, and they went out of Qinling, which was Zhaozhou. According to the arrangement of Gu Shiyi and Luo Wu, the two villages north of the Qinling Mountains were arranged to receive the manpower.
Due to the temporary change of the route of withdrawal from the Qinling Mountains, when Gu Shiyi and the others reached the edge of the Qinling Mountains, they found that the shortcut road was closer to the west, a little far away from the village that had been arranged, and they needed to continue to walk ten miles to the east.
Fortunately, they took a shortcut, and the people who followed them were still circling in the Qinling Mountains, so they continued eastward in the Qinling Mountains smoothly and arrived at the second stopping point---- Luzhuang.
Luzhuang is located in the Qinling Branch, strictly speaking, its location is still located in the mountains, is the most poor and remote mountain villa in Zhaozhou. Originally, such a small place, if outsiders came, they couldn't hide it from the people in the village, when Gu Shiyi arranged for someone to come to Luzhuang to do something, he deliberately selected a family in Luzhuang who lived on the mountain all the year round, moved them away, and then dressed up as them and lived in Luzhuang.
Gu 11 They chose to enter Luzhuang in the middle of the night when they were on the third watch, and the people who were in charge of waiting in Luzhuang were Luo Qi and Gu 14. Since leaving the imperial tomb, the second princess can lie down on the kang for the first time and sleep beautifully.
Luo Qi often went down the mountain to nearby towns to listen to the news these days, and in the past two days, I don't know why, the search of the city gate has become stricter, especially the boys and girls who are twelve or thirteen years old, and they must be interrogated in detail. What's more, officers and soldiers often go to various villages every day to check whether strangers are passing by.
Luo Qi was a little worried, "I'm just afraid that if we go outside for a day, we will leak our traces." Gu Shiyi and Luo Wu discussed with them for half an hour, and finally decided to set off the next day to continue north, after all, there are many dreams at night, if those masters who are good at tracking also touch Lu Zhuang, I am afraid that it will not be easy to get rid of them.
Gu 13 is good at disguise modification, considering that the children's dress is more eye-catching, Gu 13 simply dressed the second princess as an old and frail old woman, Gu 11 and Luo Wu pretended to be her son and daughter-in-law, Gu 13 pretended to be her granddaughter, and then the family went north to join relatives. The rest of the men were disguised as peasants or merchants, and they walked back and forth, so that no one else would suspect that they were in a group, nor would they come to their aid when something unexpected happened, because they were too far away.
Since Huangfu Qingyun didn't know that the fifth princess and the second princess had been separated, those officers and soldiers followed the instructions above and paid special attention to the people who had two children at the same time, so although the second princess walked slowly along the way, they were not interrogated too much.
However, it is also for this reason that they walked slower than expected, so that the trails behind them have gradually been discovered.
The first to be discovered by Huangfu Qingyun's manpower was the traces of Luzhuang and another village, after they retreated with the second princess, the original Zhuang household had moved after all, and all of a sudden the villagers in these two villages were missing, Gu Eleven They in order to cover up the traces, they burned the place when they left, which naturally attracted the attention of the government, plus the tracking master who had been circling in the Qinling Mountains had gone out of the mountain, and according to the traces left by these two places, they groped and chased north, because the travel speed was much faster than Gu Eleven, so they gradually narrowed the distance between themใ
Qingyang Town is located near the junction of Yongzhou and the Snow Domain, and Gu Shiyi will arrange the final foothold outside the Snow Region in Qingyang Town. According to the plan, they took a short rest in Qingyang Town, and then entered the mountains from here, bypassing Yincheng, the last city between Yongzhou and the snowy region, and winding their way into the Helan Mountains.
Qingyang Town is not very prosperous, but after all, it is on the north-south traffic artery, and there are many outsiders in the town to stay overnight.
The people who were in charge of tracking under Huangfu Qingyun were really good, through the tracking along the way, they actually deduced that the second princess and they would definitely pass through Qingyang Town, and then enter the mountain, Wu Bailun, who was sent by Huangfu Qingyun to be in charge of this matter, was also ruthless, he was worried that people would fly away in the palm of his hand, so he had already passed the book and asked Yincheng near Qingyang Town to send soldiers to seal all the main roads to the north in Qingyang Town, including the road into the mountain.
When Gu Shiyi and the others wanted to enter the mountain the next day, they found that the situation had become serious, and unless they forced their way through, they could only be trapped in Qingyang Town. But if it is hard-hitting, there will be casualties, and the whereabouts will be exposed. Therefore, they stayed in Qingyang Town for the time being, hoping that after the search of the officers and soldiers had passed, they would naturally withdraw, and it would not be too late to enter the mountains at that time.
For the sake of safety, Gu Shiyi still took the second princess to live in the tunnel to prevent the sudden search. Wu Bolun is the brother of Huangfu Xueyi's husband, the Wu family has been in the army for generations, Wu Bolun has been serving in Zhaozhou, this time he was transferred by Huangfu Qingyun, and he was directly responsible for the two princesses, who wanted to see people in life and corpses in death, so he chased them all the way to Qingyang Town, and he was ruthless.
He thought that if he let the group that took away the second princess slip away from under his nose, he would not have the face to see the people of the Huangfu family in the future, so he simply did not do anything, and asked people to first block all the roads from Qingyang Town to the north or into the mountains, and then took advantage of the dead of night to lead his subordinates to pretend to be bandits, enter Qingyang Town, and slaughter all the people in the town.
Since the second princess lived in Qingyang Town, Luo Twelve, who was in charge of the stronghold of Qingyang Town, went outside every day to inquire about the news, he expected that in the next two days, there would be officers and soldiers to search for strangers, so let everyone hide under the tunnel early, originally Luo Twelve planned to dig a tunnel from under the house to the mountain, but because the distance was too far, he had not had time to dig through.
When Wu Bolun led people to Qingyang Town, his methods were very cruel, first he sent people to guard the road outside the town, and then personally led his subordinates to search door to door, each family tied up the people who could be found, and asked if they found any suspicious people in the town. Then, whatever the answer, they were killed and the house burned.
For a time, the entire Qingyang Town was full of fire, shining like day. Luo Twelve heard the strange sound, sneaked out to listen to the news, and almost collided head-on with Wu Bailun's people, he was worried that if he also hid in the tunnel, it would arouse the suspicion of Wu Bailun's people, which would provoke a deeper search, revealing the hiding place of the second princess.
Luo Twelve's heart was crossed, and when he returned to his residence, he moved more food and water to the tunnel, and then carefully covered up the traces, and told Gu Shiyi that they would stay in the tunnel for three days before coming out to inquire about the news.
Luo Twelve took the people who lived here and pretended to be killed and burned without knowing it. The fire in Qingyang Town burned for two days and two nights. After Wu Bailun burned down this place, he was not in a hurry to retreat, but according to the report of the people who acted that night, he carefully sorted out the people of Qingyang Town again.
What puzzled him the most was that after the slaughter in Qingyang Town, there was no trace of the second princess and their stay, and this town seemed to have nothing to do with the second princess and her party perfectly.
Wu Bolun was very annoyed, and his hope for the last meritorious service was about to be dashed, thinking that the second princess and her party would not have come to Qingyang Town yet? Because according to the inference, Qingyang Town would be the place they had to pass through. Therefore, Wu Bailun decided to stay outside Qingyang Town for a few more days.
Besides, Gu Shiyi and them, who were hiding in the tunnel, couldn't wait for Luo Twelve, and after three days, they finally couldn't help but go out of the tunnel and inquire about the news.
Where did I think of going out of the tunnel, I found that the entire Qingyang Town had become a Shura field, and there was no one in the field, and outside Qingyang Town, there were still officers and soldiers stationed, who seemed to be waiting for something.
Gu Eleven had no choice but to continue to stay in the tunnel. After waiting for a few more days, Wu Bolun still didn't wait for any suspicious people, he decided to evacuate Qingyang Town, but before leaving, he once again ordered people to search for clues in the ruins and rubbles of Qingyang Town.
This time Wu Bolun had a powerful helper, he borrowed a few hunting dogs from the official government of Yincheng, and planned to let the hunting dogs check the ruins of Qingyang Town, if there was still no gain, he could only withdraw his troops.