Early in the morning, when Yang Congyi and the others woke up, holding their rumbling stomachs, a serious question was placed in front of everyone, should they continue to enter the mountain, or go home?

After some fierce debate, everyone reached a consensus, we can't just go back, the fugitives must be pursued, this mountain must be entered, the problem of food can be sent back by a small team of people to solve, get the rations and immediately enter the mountain to meet.

Seeing the team change into civilian clothes and can't wait to go back along the way they came, everyone felt a little comforted in their hearts, as long as they insisted on one day, they would have something to eat.

The county lieutenant He asked them to search from east to west, and the guide took them to Fenghuang Village, that is, they were asked to search west from Fenghuang Village. Last night it was dark, and they ran around, where do they know the southeast and northwest.

Although the day was bright, the sun had not yet come out. Yang Congyi decided to let everyone rest in place first, and wait for the sun to come out and identify the direction before entering the mountain, so as not to go the other way.

The crowd had some opinions about his decision last night, thinking that he should not have asked everyone to leave all the food, otherwise he would not have listened to his hungry rumbling stomach, and had to deal with it with water. But everyone agreed that the order to retreat last night was very timely, otherwise they would fight with the angry villagers, and it would be difficult to defeat them with two fists and four hands, and it would be difficult to guarantee that they would not be beaten to death.

When the sky was revealed, after Yang Congyi identified the southeast and northwest, the problem came again.

The trail of the mountains that leads is divided into several short distances, and it is impossible to know which one ends up west without a local guide. They also can't go separately, otherwise the group that goes back won't be able to find them all, and I don't know how many people will starve by then.

What worries Yang Congyi even more is that after everyone separates, they will become isolated in the mountains, and once they encounter the danger of bandits, others will not be able to come to help at all, and the possibility of being broken by each one will greatly increase, and they will not be able to go back until the last person.

Chen Zhixian's inference was correct, he couldn't be sure, but for the safety of himself and the other twenty-five people, he couldn't help but take precautions, if he went into the mountain to catch quickly, someone would inevitably be in danger, and he didn't want it to be himself or someone he was familiar with.

The bandit who can rob dozens of criminals and escape with his whole body is definitely not an ordinary bandit, not to mention that he has personally learned the kung fu of the Black Iron Bull, the Five Tigers of Tianzhu Mountain, and the Black Iron Bull is one of them, that is to say, in addition to the bandit leader, there are four powerful leaders, and it is impossible for them to be the opponent of the bandits by virtue of their twenty-six people. The fugitives went to Tianzhu Mountain, and they will definitely enter Tianzhu Mountain, which bandits support them, let alone arrest, if they don't touch them in the mountain, they will burn high incense.

After making up his mind, Yang Congyi chose a path covered with thick fallen leaves, and cut down the notches on the trees on the side of the road, leaving a guide for those who returned.

Yang Congyi didn't have confidence in the road ahead, so he asked everyone to change into civilian clothes, put away all the fast hunting clothes, and even collected more than half of the saber, in case they were seen through by the bandits at a glance when they entered the deep mountains. If you are afraid of death or not, it is important to save your life, and the crowd is also stealing and playing tricks, so they naturally understand that there is danger in entering the mountain, and they can hide if they can, so they will not take the task to heart. As soon as Yang Congyi made a slight suggestion, everyone understood, changed their clothes, messed up their hair, and even smeared their bright sabers with dust, but after a while, the whole team no longer looked like they were catching fast.

Yang Congyi looked at this team that seemed to be bandits, and felt a lot more relaxed, the task assigned by Chen Zhixian should be completed. As for Lord Li and County Lieutenant He, he didn't care about it, and ran away from under their noses, so he let them arrest them themselves.

"Yang catches the head." Just as Yang Congyi and the others were slowly passing through the deep forest, there was a shouting sound behind them, and listening to the sound was not a quick catch.

Yang Congyi asked everyone to rest in place, and he went back to see who came from behind.

Hiding behind a big tree, I saw from a distance that there were three villagers chasing them, and there was only Phoenix Village nearby, so I don't know what they were doing at this time.

The villagers walked very fast on the mountain road, and it didn't take long for them to get closer. Yang Congyi flashed out and suddenly asked, "Who are you?" What to do? ”

The villagers looked at Yang Congyi's costume and were stunned, hesitated for a while, and then replied, "We are from Phoenix Village, and we are here to find Yang Zhutou, are you Yang Zhutou?" ”

Yang Congyi looked at himself, and his heart said that he could recognize this? I couldn't say no, so I said, "I am, what are you looking for?" "Did you arrest the people we sent back?" He thought of the five people who had returned, they would definitely pass through Phoenix Village, and if some of the villagers were resentful, it would be troublesome.

But looking at these villagers, there was no hatred and anger on their faces and eyes, they were calm, completely different from last night's state, and they were relieved.

I only heard the villagers say, "We met them halfway, they took the wrong way and couldn't get out, and someone had already sent them back to Fenghuang Village." Then he knelt down and kowtowed.

Yang Congyi hurriedly grabbed them and said, "Folks, what are you doing, you have something to say." ”

The villager said, "Thank you Yang Zhutou for saving us yesterday, everyone blamed you on impulse, and almost caused a catastrophe and ruined Phoenix Village." If you hadn't stopped us in time, the lives of the whole village would have been lost. ”

Yang Congyi said, "Folks, don't thank me, it's you who woke up in time and figured out the stakes, and it's you who should be thanked." ”

The villager said, "After you left yesterday, everyone found that you had left all your rations, and then remembered that you were going into the mountains to chase the fugitives, you are outsiders, and you will definitely not be able to live in the mountains without food or drink." There is a shortage of food in the village, but we have lived here for generations, and there will always be a way to survive, and then as soon as everyone adds up, we want to bring you some rations. As he spoke, he took off the package he was carrying.

Yang Congyi said, "Don't worry about us, we have a way to solve it." Take it back, now is the time of green and yellow, how can you live without food? ”

The villagers said, "It's true that there is a shortage of food in the village, every household is short, the weather is warm, the leaves and wild vegetables can be eaten, and it is good to boil for two months to harvest the grain." You take these rations first, and it will take a day or two for them to come and go, and if you don't eat, you won't have the strength to climb the mountain. ”

Yang Congyi suddenly remembered the child's cry, and remembered the "Mother, I'm hungry" in the depressing atmosphere during the confrontation with the villagers. So he resolutely thanked him, "Fellow villagers, these things are what we leave for the old people and children in the village, we can go hungry for a day or two, but they can't." You bring these things back, and we have our own way of surviving in the mountains. ”

"There's something to eat!" Someone who was resting in the distance quietly touched them, listened to their conversation, and found the rations sent by the villagers.

As soon as everyone heard that there was something to eat, they rushed to it, and used the last bit of strength in their bodies to grab food and fill their stomachs. A hungry person with his chest close to his back pounces on him when he sees something to eat, and he thinks about whether he can eat it.

Yang Congyi didn't have time to stop it, and everyone rushed up. How can they not let them eat their own things, if they have lost them?

When they set out from Huaining, they brought enough rations to eat for five or six days, but now the villagers have only enough food for them, but it is better than nothing.

After filling his stomach slightly, Yang Congyi asked the villagers, "I want to inquire, can I go to Tianzhu Mountain along this road?" ”

The villagers said, "This road is going to Tianzhu Mountain, recently I heard that there are bandits in the mountains, there are fewer people on this road, the bandits on the mountain are not easy to provoke, they kill people at every turn, they don't care about the people or the people of the government, they are very vicious, the government can't do anything about them, you better change the road." ”

Yang Congyi said, "I heard that the fugitive entered Tianzhu Mountain, we are going to go into the mountain to hunt down the fugitive, since the road is right, then we will not cross." ”

The villager hurriedly said, "The mountains are very dangerous, I advise you not to go, lest you lose your lives." ”

Yang Congyi said with a smile, "Thank you for your concern, we are from the government, and if we get the order to arrest the fugitives, we must go into the mountains." ”

The villagers couldn't persuade them, so they had to say, "There are many bandits in the mountains, and there are many wild beasts, after you get to Hutou Rock, don't go inside, the people who have gone in have not come out in the past few years, I don't know if they were eaten by wild beasts, or killed by bandits, and the bones can't be seen, and now the people in the village don't dare to enter the mountain, you should be careful." ”

Yang Congyi thanked him, "Thank you." Then he said quickly to the crowd, "Brothers, let's go." ”

The villagers admonished, "Yang Zhutou, you must remember, don't cross Hutou Rock!" ”

Yang Congyi waved his hand and said with a smile, "Okay, we'll pay attention." Go back. After saying that, he led the people and walked into the secluded mountains.

He is not afraid of many wild beasts, but he is afraid that there are no wild beasts in the mountains, and only with wild beasts can the problem of rations be solved, otherwise everyone will be hungry every day, and sooner or later there will be chaos.

As for the bandits in the mountains, Yang Congyi will not take the initiative to provoke them, more things are better than less, and he has no intention of chasing the fugitives. In his plan, once they found a suitable place for everyone to settle in the mountains, they would not continue to go deeper, stay there for ten days and half a month, and then go back to their lives, no one would know what they had done in the mountains, whether they had done their best to hunt for fugitives.

In his plan, he first needed to find a place that could accommodate thirty people. As a native of Taihu County, although he is not far from Tianzhu Mountain, he has never been to this famous mountain and river. It is rumored that there are many caves in Tianzhu Mountain, and if you can find one, you will be able to settle down.

They climbed the mountain for another whole day, and there was no sign of anyone else except themselves, as if they were the only ones in the mountain. The dense trees absorb the warmth of the spring sun, but also block the light that shines down, and in the gloomy silence and no one in the mountains and forests, if it were not for the courage of the people, they would not have dared to continue to move forward.

Before the sun set, Yang Congyi decided not to go any further, he had to find a safe place to stay, and he couldn't just find a place to rest like last night, he asked everyone to look for it separately. Near the village, there are few wild beasts, but the inaccessible mountains are the territory of wild beasts, among which there are many fierce beasts such as tigers and wolves, so they have to be guarded against.

It didn't take long for someone to find a good place to settle under a mountain cliff, only to see that there was a large protruding rock mass more than two zhang high from the ground, more than ten zhang long, but I don't know how wide, it seemed to have flat ground from the bottom of the cliff.

Someone then took out the climbing rope, the place was not high, and it didn't take much effort to climb the rock mass as soon as it was captured. When he climbed up the rock mass, he looked back and smiled, "It's a good place, it's very spacious up there, everyone should come up." ”

Everyone was scrambling to climb up, Yang Congyi said, "Don't worry, everyone, I'll go up first to see the situation." With that, he climbed up the protruding rock mass along the rope that had been lowered.

The top is very flat, it is a strange platform, the outside is high and the inside is low, it is only one zhang wide under the cliff, and then it is three or four zhang wide at this time, the place is indeed very spacious, not to mention thirty people, even one hundred people can sit down.

Looking up, the whole mountain seems to be upside down, forming a shield for this platform, which looks scary, and if debris falls on it, it will definitely hit the platform. However, there is not much gravel on the platform, and there are many relatively flat stones next to the mountain.

The terrain here is quite high, standing on the edge of the cliff, the mountains and forests below the cliff can be seen, but looking up, the mountains are undulating, and I don't know where they extend.

Blowing the wind, climbing high and looking into the distance, there is a different taste. But Yang Congyi has no intention of looking at the scenery, the terrain here is high, and it is on the tuyere, and the night in early spring will not be good. He shouted down, "It's windy up there, let's go get more firewood." ”

In the deep mountains and old forests, dead branches and dead trees are everywhere, it is not difficult to collect firewood, and a large pile is piled up on the platform in a short time, and it cannot be burned for a day and a night.

Then everyone climbed onto the platform one after another, standing on the edge of the cliff blowing the mountain wind, and the tiredness of the body disappeared a lot, and some people roared on a whim, venting the depression in their chests to the empty mountain.

As the red glow on the horizon gradually disappeared, the sky slowly became darker, and the mountain wind blew, Yang Congyi obviously felt that the temperature here was much lower than last night.

The fire was blazing, and the people sat side by side with their backs to the cliff, and the fire lit up, and they ate up what little dry food they had left.

After a day of climbing mountain roads and drilling into the mountains and forests, once they stopped, the first thing they had to do was rest. There was no hunger, and there was a fiery bonfire, and it was the time to sleep and rest, and everyone was tired, silent, and fell asleep against the stone wall.

This place is very safe, the whole platform is empty except for them, more than two zhang high down is the ground, up dozens of zhang high is the stone wall, no wild beast can come to this platform. Therefore, Yang Congyi no longer has to worry about the safety of everyone, and he can rest for one night.