Early the next morning, the counties set out one after another, and after crossing the mountains, the men and horses of the counties dispersed in the direction they were responsible for as agreed, and searched and advanced.

Yang Congyi took Huaining to catch fast, and after going down the mountain, he followed an east-west stream and went all the way east along the river valley.

The terrain on both sides of the valley is gentle, and there are a lot of fertile fields to open up, and April is the time when the farming is busy, and the people who hoe and plough the fields are naturally indispensable in the fields.

When the people who were ploughing the fields saw Yang Congyi coming with a mighty team, they were very panicked, standing in the fields at a loss, not daring to continue plowing the fields, nor daring to turn around and leave.

There are a lot of fertile fields here, the people live in peace, and the fields are peaceful, not like there are bandits. So Yang Congyi asked the catcher to stop on the spot, and he stepped forward and said to an old farmer: "Uncle, I want to ask you about something, don't you know if it's convenient?" ”

The old farmer looked at Yang Congyi, and then at the dozens of people not far away, and then asked reluctantly: "What do you ask?" ”

Yang Congyi smiled: "Uncle, don't be afraid, let's inquire about something and leave." I don't know if you've seen anyone enter the mountain lately? ”

"No, no, there are bandits in the mountains, don't dare to go in casually." When the old peasant heard this, he shook his head again and again.

As soon as Yang Congyi heard him mention bandits, he immediately asked, "Uncle, have you seen bandits in the mountains?" ”

The old farmer said: "Why haven't I seen it, harvest grain every year, grab it if you don't give it, it's okay a few years ago, and I've come several times a year in recent years, which makes people uneasy, if I wasn't reluctant to give up these few acres of land, I would have moved out a long time ago." ”

The old farmer looked Yang Congyi up and down again, and then persuaded: "Housheng, the mountains are not a good place to go, in addition to bandits, there are jackals, tigers and leopards, and they will lose their lives if they are not careful." You'd better get out of here. ”

Yang Congyi smiled: "Uncle, do you know what we do? ”

The old farmer said: "Just look at your appearance, the government hasn't been in the mountains for some years, what are you doing here, and you want to fight bandits?" ”

Yang Congyi said: "If you don't fight bandits, once you fight bandits, you can't plant this land." ”

The old peasant didn't seem to believe it: "If you don't fight bandits, then what are so many of you doing in the mountains?" ”

Yang Congyi explained: "At the beginning of the year, dozens of murderers escaped from Huaining Prison, and I heard that they went into the mountains, so we went into the mountains to arrest them. ”

The old farmer shook his head and said, "No, I haven't seen it, I haven't heard of it, I don't know." ”

Seeing that the old farmer didn't seem to be telling a lie, Yang Congyi turned around and asked, "Does the uncle know where the nearest bandit is to you?" ”

"Few people have entered the mountains in recent years, and no one in the village knows where the bandits are. Cat's ear hole, Panlong Village, bluestone cliff, all possible, there were bandits in these places before, and the imperial court came to fight once, and then I didn't know. ”

"Where did the bandits who came to your village to steal food come from?"

"I don't know, the bandits who come every time are different, they will leave after grabbing the grain, and they will not stay in the village for more than an hour."

"Okay, thank you, uncle. Can you tell me how to get around the places you just mentioned? ”

"Go up the river, walk for a day, you can see a big stone cliff, there is an evergreen tree on the stone cliff that does not lose leaves all year round, the whole stone cliff is only one tree, you can recognize it at a glance, that is the bluestone cliff. Cat's ear hole and Panlong Village are not too far from the bluestone cliff, the cat's ear hole is in the north of the bluestone cliff, there are more than ten miles away, in the middle of the mountainside, it is a stone cave that does not know where to go, Panlong Village is in the east, go to the east, on the top of a high mountain, find the highest mountain to reach. None of these places are good places, I think you'd better not look for them, you won't be able to save your life if you lose your life. The old farmer persuaded again.

Yang Congyi thanked him: "Thank you, uncle, we are eating this bowl of rice, no matter how dangerous it is, the murderers run to the mountains, if you don't catch them, you are not in danger." ”

The old peasants are not persuaded either, the government and bandits are not good things, let them go.

Yang Congyi thanked the old farmer and led the people to quickly go up the river.

Going up the stream, there were traces of villagers' activities along the stream at first, and there were no weeds on the path. After walking for half a day, it is difficult to walk, it has been abandoned for many years, and weeds and trees block the way from time to time, and then there is basically no way to go.

I don't know where the bandits who grabbed food in the village came from into the mountains, otherwise they might have chased them directly. As soon as this idea appeared in his mind, Yang Congyi himself rejected it and chased it straight over, it was a long life, what they had to do now to investigate the fugitives, the bandits still tried not to provoke them, so as not to be difficult to move in the mountains when they got to.

There are many poisonous insects and beasts in the mountains and forests, especially in summer, which is the season when snakes are infested, so it is also the most common. Along the way, I met several big snakes blocking the way, and the fast catchers were also skinned, and the snake was naturally not very afraid, and the bold ones went up directly to kill the snake with a few sticks, and the poisonous snake was lost, and the snake that was not poisonous was put away.

There is no oil and water in the Yamen's meals, although there is not much snake meat, but it is also meat, and each person can drink a few sips after cooking a pot of soup.

Yang Congyi hunted in the mountains before, and there was no less contact with snakes, poisonous or not poisonous, and he could basically tell the difference, he still didn't dare to be careless, these catchers chased and beat when they saw snakes is not a good thing, one was accidentally bitten by a poisonous snake, although it was not to lose his life, but once someone was incapacitated, it added to the burden of others, so he reminded the catchers not to chase snakes, poisonous snakes blocked the way, just drive away. There are always people who are bold and don't listen, and Yang Congyi is also helpless.

That night, they slept by the river, and the catchers peeled and chopped five or six big snakes, and boiled a pot of fragrant snake soup, which attracted everyone's mouth, and Yang Congyi was no exception.

After a day of walking through the mountains, forests and valleys, I was very tired, but as soon as the fragrance of snake soup wafted out, everyone came to the spirit and sat around, waiting to eat two pieces of meat and drink a few mouthfuls of soup. The fragrance is too tempting, and before the soup is cooked, someone wants to reach out to scoop up the meat, and several times it is stopped by the palm of the spoon, and the people who hook it have a stomach riot.

In order to be able to eat meat and drink soup as soon as possible, the catchers kept adding firewood, the fire was boiled for half an hour, and the spoon was quickly sprinkled with salt, when the first taste, confirmed that it could be eaten, everyone did not wait for him to put the spoon of scooping soup into the pot, directly put the bowl in his hand into the pot to fish, the back of the catch quickly saw that someone was fishing, immediately squeezed up, for a while you fought for me, pushed around, the soup pot became very chaotic in a flash, if it was not for the spoon to catch the fast desperate stop, the pot was going to be knocked over, and a sip could not be drunk.

But the result is not much better, the spoon catches the first bite of the first taste is the last bite he drank, and when everyone disperses, the pot is empty, not to mention a piece of meat, not even a mouthful of soup left, angry he scolded, but everyone laughed, just bowed their heads to eat meat and drink soup, by him scolded, the broth into the stomach is the most real, what is the big deal to be scolded a few words.

Although Yang Congyi was also attracted by the fragrance of snake soup, he would not take the bowl over to fight, he couldn't do this kind of thing, so the snake soup naturally didn't have his share.

After everyone drank the snake soup, they returned to the tent and quieted down, and he began to meditate and practice. No matter where he is, meditation and practice is a compulsory course for him every day, and he has never delayed, after all, he is also a cultivator, and the most important thing is that since he practiced, he has hardly been sick, and his physical strength is getting better and better.

After resting for the night, the next day they packed up their tents, and the people continued their search upstream along the river.

According to the villagers, you should be able to reach the bluestone cliff today. I don't know if there are bandits entrenched there, Yang Congyi didn't dare to be careless, and ordered everyone to be quiet and try to keep quiet, if there are bandits, it will be difficult to alarm them first.

The catchers also know how powerful it is, and they are no longer as unscrupulous as yesterday, and the team is much quieter.

All the way through the stream, around the deep pool, climbed the cliff, thirsty to drink the stream, hungry to eat dry food, after hard work, finally in the west, when the sun is in the west, I see a bare stone cliff.

I saw that the stone cliff was hundreds of zhang high, like an axe split, standing upright in the river valley, except for a low tree with a thick green trunk and bowl mouth growing on the stone cliff, the whole stone cliff was on the waterfront side, and no other plants grew.

This should be the bluestone cliff.

Not far from the valley is the edge of a rocky cliff, covered with dense trees, which can be climbed, but the terrain is also steep, and it is not very easy to climb up.

The situation above the stone cliff was unknown, and it was inconvenient to move easily, so Yang Congyi asked the crowd to rest in a hidden place for the time being.

Then he found two hunters who were good at climbing, and told them to climb up from the edge of the cliff, secretly check the situation, and if there were bandits living on the cliff, do not alarm them, and return the same way, if not, search carefully.

After a short rest and preparation, they quietly dived from the river valley to the dense forest on the edge of the cliff and disappeared.

Yang Congyi didn't believe that luck would be so good, and he would find any clues about the fugitives in the bluestone cliff, but as long as there was a place where there were bandits, he should go and see, after all, the fugitives could be confirmed to be released by the bandits of Tianzhu Mountain who broke into the prison at night. The relationship between the fugitives and the bandits in the mountains is certainly not simple, and when the fugitives enter the mountains, it is only possible to go up the mountain to join the gang and enter the bandits' den, otherwise they can't go to farming and hunting, and the bandits should not be bored enough to rescue the felons and let them go to Tianzhu Mountain to farm.

There are really many bandit gangs in Tianzhu Mountain, and the government knows nothing about the situation in the mountains. Although he caught a small boss last time, the leader was not very conspicuous in the mountain, and his Wolf Head Mountain Spider Cave was still on the periphery of Tianzhu Mountain, with small power and low status, and his knowledge was really limited. In the core area of Tianzhu Mountain, there are many peaks, each peak has a camp, and there are leaders stationed there, Tianzhu Peak is the base camp of bandits, and it is easy not to enter.

I think which robbers in Taihu County should not be big enough to go to Tianzhu Peak, and if there are bandits in the mountains to take them in, it would be good to join the gang and be a pawn. There are so many secret caves in the mountains, peaks and valleys, who knows who will take them in and where they will join in? The imperial court didn't want to make a big move, so it had to investigate the bandits' dens one by one, and only this stupid way could they find some clues.

If they really ran to the innermost part of Tianzhu Mountain, they could only give up, and they would definitely not be able to rely on the power of the Yamen to catch fast.

I hope those fugitives don't swarm into the innermost place, otherwise this time they will be empty of bamboo baskets and water in the mountains.