The cool breeze blew, Yang Congyi woke up in the early morning and spent an extraordinary night of sleeping peacefully.

The white clouds stretch out on the horizon, welcoming the rising sun in a similar posture throughout the year. In the distance, hundreds of birds flew up to the branches, chirping into the air, calling for the first rays of sunshine.

The first thing every day is to check the terrain, Yang Congyi after moving his waist and hands and feet around the top of the mountain to take a closer look, which way to go, to walk the ridge or the col, to climb the mountain or through the valley, he must make a decision when the others have not woken up, let them know that he is confident, and there will be no danger to his life if he walks with him. No one has more experience than him in the mountains, and if he can't give people a sense of security and unite people's hearts, there will be no one for this team to trust, and he has no confidence in how far a loose team can go in the mountains, whether they can get out safely, let alone others.

Climb high and look into the distance, the mountains are stacked, the eyes are full of vastness, and there is no end in sight.

A towering mountain looms in the fog to the west, and its peak is almost sky-high. Is that the main peak of Tianzhu Mountain? Yang Congyi looked up and looked west. Judging from his experience in climbing mountains these days, it will take at least ten days to get from this lonely mountain to the foot of that high mountain.

Tianzhu Mountain has been a famous mountain and river since ancient times, and in the long history, countless high-ranking hermits have lived in seclusion. The main peak Tianzhu Peak is even more famous, it stands in the sky, a pillar of optimus, majestic and magnificent, the scenery is beautiful, rugged and wonderful, there are many literati and scholars to go to it.

If the bandits choose the nest around the main peak, although it is too public, it is easy to be exposed, but this peak is ten thousand feet high, difficult to climb, easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if the imperial army enters the mountain, it is estimated that it is difficult to advance an inch, and they cannot be hurt in the slightest, and it will be in vain.

However, whether there are these things or not, Yang Congyi can't care about it, how many bandits there are in the mountain has nothing to do with him, as long as he doesn't enter the core area of Tianzhu Mountain and doesn't provoke them, the safety of the team shouldn't be a problem.

There were no people on the road in the past few days, and Yang Congyi didn't know where they were at this time, seeing that the mountains in the west were towering and approaching the center of Tianzhu Mountain, he didn't want everyone to continue westward. In the blink of an eye, I saw a valley extending northward, and I didn't know where to go. Doesn't the river below the mountain flow through this valley? If it is the best river valley, going north along the river valley is the last and best choice.

The red sun was rising, and the glow was draped on Yang Congyi through the woods on the top of the mountain, and then he looked at the mountain that was gradually disappearing, and he turned to meet the dazzling light and returned to the place where everyone rested.

Seeing Yang Congyi appear, someone asked, "Brother Yang, how are we going today?" ”

Yang Congyi sat down, took out the dry food from the package, and replied while eating, "I won't climb the mountain today, and I will walk along the river valley after going down the mountain." ”

When everyone heard that there was no need to climb the mountain, they immediately applauded and celebrated. These days, climbing the mountain is about to break the leg, walking the river valley is exactly what everyone thinks, they really don't want to climb any mountain, they don't feel that they can't climb any mountain, Yang Congyi's words are good news in misfortune for them.

Zhang Biao said, "The river valley is from north to south, we want to go west, we should pass through the river valley, and the direction of following the river valley is wrong, which does not match the task we received, how to complete the task?" ”

Yang Congyi smiled, "It's okay, the river valley is not straight. He County Lieutenant told us to search from east to west, and he also said the general direction, the Tianzhu Mountain Range is wide, the area is huge, we first search along the river valley for a while, and then turn around. ”

Someone came out to help, "yes, it's not the same no matter how you search." We've been walking west these days, and we haven't seen a single fart, and we've searched north along the river valley, and maybe we'll get a catch. ”

Then many people echoed the call and walked along the valley, not knowing how much easier it was than climbing, so they were reluctant to climb the mountain. In fact, if they really walked the valley and then went west, climbing the mountain would definitely be inevitable, but they couldn't think of it that far, and the comfort in front of them was a moment, and where would they care about the future.

Although Zhang Biao disagreed in his heart, Yang Congyi was reasonable, and everyone supported it, so he couldn't refute it anymore, so he could only wait until he got out of the valley.

After resting for the night, everyone was in high spirits, and after coming down the mountain, they saw a small stream flowing in front of the mountain, from north to south. The team swims against the tide and embarks on a new day's arduous journey to search for fugitives.

After walking along the river valley for a long time, the stream turned around, and everyone was dizzy, unable to distinguish the direction, and did not know where to go when they reached the intersection of the tributaries.

Yang Congyi raised his eyes and looked into the distance, and through the woods on the shore, he saw a stone cliff towering in front of him, so he said, "Everyone work hard, go to the bottom of the cliff and have a look." ”

It was almost noon, and it was time to rest at the bottom of the cliff, and although they were not too tired for half a day, everyone was eager to rest for a while. So he quickened his pace, rushed to the stone cliff and ran and jumped, leaving Yang Congyi and Zhang Biao behind.

Among these fast catchers, Zhang Biao is slightly older, nearly thirty years old, everyone else is around twenty, and the youngest is less than seventeen. Although Yang Congyi is not very old, he can still be regarded as mature and stable in this team, and naturally he cannot be as frivolous as others. The two of them were not in a hurry, and followed behind the team one after the other.

"Tiger!" Suddenly, someone shouted in front of you.

When everyone heard the word tiger, they were shocked and turned around and ran.

Zhang Biao dodged to block the way, and shouted angrily, "Whatever you panic, stop me!" ”

Yang Congyi was also shocked when he heard someone shouting tiger in front of him, and he didn't have time to think about it, so he jumped forward with his gun.

When I rushed to the front, I saw a few catchers standing together, looking back and looking with a puzzled face, why did the others run back, did something terrible happen behind them?

Yang Congyi rushed to them in one step, blocked the unsuspecting catcher behind him, raised his eyes and looked under the stone cliff, except for the stones, there were no living creatures, and he still didn't see the shadow of the tiger when he looked around, what the hell, they were dazzled? He asked urgently, "Where is the tiger?" ”

Several people were taken aback by Yang Congyi's serious and nervous expression, and one pointed to the bottom of the stone cliff and said, "That's not it." ”

Yang Congyi fixed his eyes, took a long breath, and put down his hanging heart, it turned out to be a false alarm. There is no tiger anywhere, but it is just a rock that looks like a tiger's head from a distance.

"It's okay, come here, there's no tiger." Yang Congyi shouted loudly to the back.

Looking at the rock mass that looked like a tiger's head, Yang Congyi suddenly remembered a place name in the mouth of the villagers, Hutou Rock. Could it be that this is Tiger Head Rock?

"Who's fucking yelling and screaming? Who shouted it just now? After Zhang Biao brought someone to learn the reason, he was furious.

When those people saw Zhang Biao angry, no one dared to respond.

There were no people in the deep mountains and old forests for several days, and everyone was frightened and nervous. Fortunately, it is daytime, if it is at night, a tiger shouts out, in the dark forest I don't know how big a mess will be, panic and fear, fall and hurt, get lost and fall behind, there must be not a few, once left alone in the deep mountains, it can only become the food of the beast, when the time comes, not to mention the task, whether you can have the life to go back is difficult to say.

Zhang Biao asked again, "Who is it?" ”

Yang Congyi stepped forward and said, "Zhang Zhutou, they are also unintentional, I think this time it will be forgotten, not as an example." ”

Zhang Biao wanted to pull them out and teach them a lesson, but when he saw Yang Congyi come out to speak, he had to give up because of his face.

Yang Congyi pointed to Hutou Rock, "This should be Hutou Rock, this is what the villagers are talking about, what will happen if you go west, what will happen, what the consequences are, they have already told us." What should we do now, everyone can talk about their thoughts. Sit down, think about it, and talk about it when you're done. ”

Most of the people in the team are people who go with the flow, and how dare they say their thoughts about such a major event about life and death. After waiting for a long time, the people ate and drank on their own, but no one expressed their opinion on this issue.

Yang Congyi called and said, "Feng Lin, what do you think we should do next?" ”

Feng Lin said, "Brother Yang, I don't know, what do you say, we will do it." ”

Yang Congyi said, "I want to listen to the true thoughts in your hearts, and if you have ideas, you can say them." ”

Feng Lin thought for a moment and said, "Since that's the case, then I'll say it, it's not right, don't blame me." ”

Yang Congyi said, "Don't blame, don't hide what everyone says." ”

Feng Lin said, "Actually, we have known for a long time that Master Li doesn't have much hope for us, and he doesn't care if he can catch the fugitive. If that's the case, then why should we chase after it with all our might, even if we don't gain anything, he won't do anything to us. In my opinion, the west is so dangerous that we should not go, there is no need. ”

Everyone nodded frequently in agreement, and felt that what Feng Lin said was reasonable.

Yang Congyi was noncommittal after hearing this, and asked again, "Whoever has a different idea, can continue." ”

Zhang Biao said, "Did the fugitive escape?" Since we are ordered to hunt down fugitives, should we bring them back? How can we not pursue fugitives just because Master Li doesn't value us? We are quick to arrest, and our duty is to collect the murderers and thieves, and if we do not arrest the fugitives, we will always be a scourge. Don't forget, there are more than 20 people who have committed a lot of bloody cases in Taihu County, and you may not know about the other cases they have done, but who of you doesn't know about the Xiaosongpo bloody case? Brother Yang, as the first eyewitness to the bloody case, witnessed the process of the bloody case, and the rest of you have also seen those bloody corpses, if it wasn't for Brother Yang to save two lives in time, a group of twelve people would definitely be destroyed and wiped out. Besides, these more than 20 people are all from Taihu County, once they escape the pursuit of the government, they will have to return to Taihu County sooner or later, and if they want to be evil, we still have to arrest them. My suggestion is to keep searching westward, and it is best to find them, and even if you can't find them, it will not be in vain for everyone's hard work. What do you say? ”

Humane, "Brother Biao is reasonable, we have come all the way, we can't go back without even finding a single hair of the fugitive, if that is too cost-effective, it is better not to go into the mountain." ”

Another humane, "What is a good deal?" Further west, is it worth losing your life? You fucking want to die, don't drag everyone to die together. ”

The man said, "What do you mean by dragging everyone to death together?" We're here to catch fugitives, not to play. If you are afraid of death, don't eat the bowl of rice from the government, and you can take off your clothes when you go back. ”

The other person was unwilling to fall behind, and said to each other, "You can control it widely, you don't care if Lao Tzu eats this bowl of rice, you want to die and you go by yourself, anyway, Lao Tzu will not go." ”

It was originally a discussion with a harmonious atmosphere, but it was twisted into a quarrel by a few words from these two people, and the others were also ready to move, and there was a tendency to get more and more noisy. Yang Congyi had to stop it and said loudly, "Okay, don't make any noise." Everyone's ideas are nothing more than two kinds, continue to search the west and stop here, everyone has a reason, but we have limited manpower, and we can't separate and let everyone do their own thing. In my opinion, we will camp here, we can search to the west, or to the north, once we find the situation, we must return here in time to explain, we must not act without authorization, the fugitives may have joined the bandits in Tianzhu Mountain, and we can't fight them on their territory. ”

Seeing that everyone was silent, Yang Congyi thought that everyone agreed with his idea, so he said, "Since we don't object, it's so decided, we will camp in Hutouyan." From tomorrow, Zhang Zhutou and Feng Lin will each lead two teams, all the way to the west and all the way to the north, regardless of whether they find clues or not, they must return here before dark. Let's rest for a while and set up camp in the afternoon. ”

Although everyone had their own concerns, after resting for a while, they still listened to Yang Congyi's arrangement, climbed the high cliff on the Hutou Rock to find out the situation, leveled the ground of the ground, cut down the trees and broke the branches, and found the rattan rope to find the rattan rope, and everyone acted separately.

Yang Congyi is very concerned about the problem of eating, the rations he brought are not much, he can't last a few days, the four teams have to go out to search the mountains, he and the other team must get enough food to survive, this is the top priority, he is not worried about letting others do it, so he didn't go to search the mountains.

The weather is getting warmer, the animals should come out slowly, and in this deep mountain there is no one to live, and it should not be difficult to hunt. After observing the surroundings, Yang Congyi saw a deep pool in the upper reaches of the stream, and was pleased to find that there were many fish swimming in the shallow water on the bank, which was not small, and he thought that he would come up to bask in the sun while the weather was warm. With these fish, everyone will not have to go hungry, which is a gift from heaven and definitely good news for them.

After everyone learned that there were fish nearby, they were energetic to do their work, and sure enough, it was right to camp here, and the problem of food was basically solved, and the rations were insufficient, and if they went elsewhere, they did not know how long they would have to starve.

In less than half a day, everyone set up a simple shack under the Hutou Rock against the rock wall, and a thick layer of hay was spread on the ground.

For many days after that, a team of men and horses went west, and a team of men and horses went north, leaving early and returning late, constantly searching for clues of fugitives in two directions within a radius of dozens of miles from Hutou Rock.