Luo Yanhuan and his group of five people were in a place called Lishugou. Luo Yanhuan, two pro-soldiers, plus an old man and a young man from the Luo family; The location of this pear tree ditch is north of Tangcang Town; Tangcang Town is in the Qinling ravine on the west side of Shu Road, not on the thoroughfare.

It has been almost a month since they arrived at the boundary of Fengzhou, and they have also found the Luo family who migrated from Hedong to Tangcang Town in Fengzhou many years ago, and an old man and a half-grown son who accompanied them were the Luo family who were sent to send them out of the mountain.

A farmer driving a buffalo came on the road, and the old man of the Luo family in front of Luo Yanhuan and his party greeted him in an extremely thick dialect: "Brother! Have you heard of Mai Dao people hitting here recently? ”

Unexpectedly, the farmer had actually heard of the Mai Daoist, so he shouted in a long voice: "Mai Daoist? Brother has to go to Mount Emei to see if it's okay. ”

Old man Luo had no choice but to reply according to Luo Yanhuan's words: "Lao Er heard in Tangcang Town that he recently passed over here, and someone even asked him to show him, haven't you heard?" ”

"No, this kind of fairy-like person, one meal here, one meal there, it's not easy to find. Are you looking for him? The farmer spoke slowly, with great interest.

Old man Luo said: "The second boy has a strange disease, if you can find Mai Dao, I want him to show it." Lang Zhong doesn't work, I've seen a lot of it! ”

After a while, everyone passed by the farmer, who was holding a pear branch in his hand, and while driving the cattle, he looked back at them a few times, probably thinking that Luo Yanhuan and other strong men were a little strange. The land in the mountainous area of the Qinling Mountains is barren, where is it easy to see tall and strong men such as Luo Yanhuan among the people?

Because of this, Luo Yanhuan was almost arrested when he advanced to Qinling in January, and today a month later, they are still walking around in this mountain, not only lucky, but also because the border towns of the Shu army are relatively lax in their defenses.

At that time, he didn't know the way, and he took the Shu Road "Chen Cang Road" road, and soon after he came out of the Dasan Pass, he met the Shu army inspection scouts and was immediately caught. Luo Yanhuan lied that he was a businessman who went to Shannan West Road to buy goods, and bribed some copper coins, so he was lucky to get rid of it and was not forced to be rude. Guo Shao's personal soldiers, who accompanied him, proposed to abandon the trip, which was too risky; Luo Yanhuan was eager to make meritorious contributions, insisted on continuing to walk, and claimed that the people of the old Luo family were not far from here, and it would be easy to get the clansmen to pick them up.

However, they didn't dare to take the road anymore, so they took a detour to the valley path to the west, but they didn't know the way, but fortunately they met a local shabby who was begging along the way, so Luo Yanhuan gave him dry food and asked him to be a guide to lead the way. It was not easy to find the boundary of Tangcang Town, and found the Luo family in a village; The people of the Luo family took refuge in the mountains from Hedong, and when they encountered peace, they still had occasional contacts with Luo Yanhuan's hometown in Hedong.

Luo Yanhuan received help from acquaintances, and the old man who accompanied him had been to Hedong twice. At this time, he probably figured out the situation in the northern part of Fengxian County, and he didn't dare to stay longer, so he hurried back to avoid wasting his previous achievements.

The road from Tangcang Town to the north is the route for them to return to Guanzhong, and they really dare not take the Shu Road Road.

The road is very winding, that is, it follows the valley, but if you are not guided by someone who knows the local area, it is easy to follow the valley to a dead end. The valley is not artificially opened, there is a road ahead, and perhaps only the mountains are left as you walk; The mountains of the Qinling Mountains, if you go straight over the mountains and mountains, it is estimated that you will die of exhaustion in the mountains and forests.

The location of Tangcang Town is in the north of Fengzhou.

According to the Luo family, there are four main roads extending north near Fengzhou City, and the middle two can be cleared: one of them is the Shu Road along the Jialing River; The other one is in the west, which is to Tangcang Town in the mountains on the west side of Shu Road.

There are three valley routes to the north of Tangcang Town, the left is towards Qinzhou; The two on the right can converge on the Shu Road of the Jialing River, and the confluence point is in the Huanghua Valley. Luo Yanhuan and the others walked on the farther one on the right side of Tangcang Town, but they did not go to Shu Road, but continued north at the fork in the road, preparing to take the small road to detour to Weishui, and then return to Chencang along Weishui...... The road is more difficult to walk, but generally you will not encounter Shu army inspections and scouts.

These large and small valleys and rugged roads are the only way to get through the Qinling Mountains, and there is no other choice, no one has the ability to climb one mountain after another. This is completely different from the Central Plains Plain that Luo Yanhuan and others are familiar with, even if you don't take the big road in the Central Plains, there are countless possibilities to take the path between the crops; The only thing to pay attention to is the direction.

Luo Yanhuan and his entourage had a rugged road, but they were not far from Guanzhong, and they arrived at Fengxiang two days later. The soldiers left behind at the Fengxiang Post House told them that Guo Shao and the others had gone to Sanguan; Luo Yanhuan had no choice but to turn back and go south to find Guo Shao in Sanguan.

Guo Shao and the others are still living in Sanguan, and they have been staying there for more than half a month.

Seeing Luo Yanhuan and listening to his account of the thrilling journey, Guo Shao immediately sighed: "The decisive battle is above the battle array, but the decisive victory is not in the battle array." Brother Luo disregarded his life to find out the terrain of Fengxiang North, and I will definitely make a contribution to you in the future. ”

Luo Yanhuan hurriedly said: "The last general is just doing what is within his bounds!" ”

Guo Shao didn't say anything more, hurriedly asked him for details, and then made five drawings. The range is from large to small, and try to draw it as clearly as possible.

After drawing the topography of the road, Guo Shao remembered the villagers who helped Luo Yanhuan, so he personally received him and rewarded him with a small cloth bag. Old man Luo carried a heavy bag, and was very happy for a while: "I have to buy a few mules!" Thank you for the reward. ”

Guo Shao smiled with an extremely friendly smile and asked kindly: "Tangcang Town controls Shu Road on the west side, it is the hub of the western transportation branch, and there must be a garrison, the old man lives in Tangcang Town, do you know how many garrisons there are?" ”

Old man Luo pondered for a moment and said, "There are a thousand people, maybe eight hundred?" Lao Er knows that there are a lot of Shu troops stationed in Tangcang Town! There are also other places, in addition to Fengzhou City and Weiwu City, there are many soldiers, there is a military village in Huanghua Valley, last month I and my fellow villagers walked the Shu Road to sell goods, and I couldn't go wrong with my own eyes. There are also several military villages in front of Weiwu City, but it is not clear how many people there are. Lao Er must tell the general everything he knows. ”

Guo Shao said kindly: "Old man, do you think it's okay...... I'll send a few people back with you to do some business in Tangcang Town, and you can say that you are a partner in selling goods, take care of it, how about it? After that, he turned his head to look at Luo Yanhuan. Luo Yanhuan understood and nodded slightly.

Guo Shao added: "In return, I will pay your family 1,000 copper dollars a month, and the accompanying sellers will give it to you on time." ”

Old man Luo thought for a while: "Done!" Lao Er is alone. ”

Guo Shao rubbed the lines of Shu Road on the drawing with his palm, knocked his index finger twice on the left side of Tangcang Town, and couldn't help but say again: "On the east side of Shu Road, there is a Maling Village?" How many roads meet the trunk line of Shu Road on the other side of Malingzhai? ”

Old man Luo frowned and said: "Lao Er has never been there, usually out of Qinling Mountains instead of taking the valley road on the west side, just take Chencang Road." But I know one thing, there is a road called Xiegu in Baijian, and the road to the east seems to go to Malingzhai. ”

"White stream? Where? Guo Shao asked hurriedly.

Old man Luo was illiterate, so he naturally wouldn't let him look at the map and point to the place, so he had to use words: "Baijian is not far north of the exit of the valley...... On Chencang Road (Shu Road), it is thirty miles away from Fengzhou. ”

Although Guo Shao could guess the direction he was talking about, he still asked carefully: "Thirty miles away from Fengzhou, on the Chencang Road in the north of Fengzhou?" ”

"yes." Old man Luo nodded without hesitation.

Guo Shao hurriedly measured it on the map again, and added a new place: Baijian. And draw a line at a point below the white stream, writing "Slope Valley".

After asking about it, he couldn't get anything useful from the old man's mouth, so Guo Shao asked him to leave. Then Guo Shaoping retreated from irrelevant people, leaving Zuo You, Jing Niang and a few generals, and said: "In the past half a month, we have not been able to figure out the terrain and roads north of Fengzhou, what do you say?" ”

Li Chuyun said: "From Sanguan to Fengzhou, the middle is Qinling, and Chencang Road (Shu Road) is the closest, and the road is the best." The Shu army should focus on blocking the checkpoints and fortifying Chencang Road layer by layer; Then on the left and right wings, Tangcang Town and Malingzhai controlled the flanks to control those winding and complicated paths. ”

Guo Shao didn't say much, just nodded and said: "General Li has a view of the overall situation, which is very reasonable." ”

Luo Yanhuan hurriedly said: "Guo Duzhi should pay attention to the Huanghua Valley. The name of this place is unknown, but several roads from the town of Tangcang on the west side exit from this place. ”

Guo Shao also praised: "General Luo is good at perceiving subtleties. ”

Everyone continued to stay in Sanguan for several days, and finally waited for Jingniang's entourage to return. They were seven or eight days behind Luo Yanhuan.

There are four people in the group, two female Taoists are Jing Niang's entourage, and there are two bald nuns. They all carried a kind of wooden frame on their backs, and the wooden frame was raised to form a sheltered tung tarpaulin cloth, which could protect from the sun and light rain, but saved the hand of the umbrella.

These women walked directly on Chencang Road, and when they passed through Sanguan, they ran into Guo Shaojingniang and others.

Guo Shao still met in person, two women, a black and rough woman, and the other woman in her early thirties with freckles on her face, Guo Shao knew them, and Jingniang's entourage who came all the way from the Central Plains; The other two bald nuns had never seen them, one middle-aged and the other seemed to be in their teens, and they were both very thin.

After greeting for a while, Guo Shao understood the situation. The female Taoist priest and the nun brought back were almost not stranded by the checkpoint on the Shu Road, and the nun had the degree of the Shu country, plus it was a woman, and the sergeant generally did not embarrass them.

It's just that Taihe'an is in Qingniling, which has already passed through Fengzhou and is further south, and the road is relatively far, so Daogu spent longer than Luo Yanhuan and others.

The nun who accompanied her was the nun of Qingniling Taihe Nunnery, who presided over the nun who personally sent her off. The local people are superstitious that the nunnery is not very auspicious, so the incense of the Taihe Nunnery has been very poor, and it has been in a situation where it is impossible to make a living by all kinds of frugality, and it seems that it is about to dismiss the nuns; Last year, Jingniang passed from Shu Road and stayed overnight in the nunnery, just as she got a lot of money from Mrs. Hua Rui of Shu, so she generously helped Taihe Nunnery to host; It is a bit strange that Buddhism and Taoism have abandoned their preconceptions and formed a friendship.