Wang Huan retreated to the shore, Li Tingyu hurriedly followed, opened his mouth and asked quietly, "How is it?" ”

Wang Huan watched more than a dozen inspectors standing lazily on the bow of the boat and chatting, but no one checked it, and replied softly: "Okay, the fat man has collected the money, he shouldn't embarrass us, tell everyone to wait." ”

Li Tingyu's face was pale, and he was worried that if he had been delayed here for a long time, the Qing soldiers would catch up, and he was also angry that the people of the Inspection Department were fake tigers, he was originally a calm and resolute character, but at this time he was also anxious, walking around on the wooden raft, constantly looking towards the lower reaches of the Huai River, and finally simply stomped his feet, jumped on the boat, out of sight and out of mind.

Wang Huan waited on the wooden row alone in a daze, but his heart was very calm, he calculated the time, the Cao fleet used as bait, if everything went well, should be able to buy them a day's time, and when the pursuers found out that they had hit the plan, and then turned around and chased back, it is estimated that they are still eating on Hongze Lake at this moment, and there is still a lot of time left for him. In this era when there was no telephone telegraph, the transmission of information was very slow, and he did not have to rush at all.

Time slowly passed in boredom, and after half an hour, the fat man who had accepted the bribe slowly walked down from the water village, led a group of patrol soldiers to step on the gangplank, and got on the boat to check.

Wang Huan nodded and followed behind, with a smile on his face, he flattered the fat man with a smile on his face all the time, and after a hasty look at each ship, he waved his hand and forgot it.

"Switch and release!" The fat inspector stamped a seal on the road guide and threw it to Wang Huan.

When the patrol soldiers finally disembarked, they carried away two more boxes of good Songjiang cloth, and without a single receipt, they loosened the cable of the boat. Wang Huan didn't care at all, these cloths were also stolen goods of water thieves anyway, and it was a pity that they were easy to get rid of.

When the fleet took advantage of the last afterglow of the sky to enter the river, Wang Huan stood at the bow of the boat and let out a long breath.

"It seems that the officials of the Qing Dynasty, when it comes to corruption and bribery, are not inferior to the officials of the Ming Dynasty." Wang Huan sighed.

"The world is as black as a crow, which dynasty and generation are the same, seeking officials for thousands of miles just for money, even those who are famous and famous, not to mention the market officials." Li Tingyu just stared at the patrol soldier Ding with a dark face and said nothing, and only then did he leave Shuiguan and recover a little normal look, and stood at the bow of the boat again to talk to Wang Huan.

"My lord, the more greedy they are, the safer we are, the people who collect money are not terrible, and it is only troublesome if they don't collect money."

"I know this, gold in troubled times is the most assured, these years, who doesn't want to get more silver in their own pockets, troubled times, money and self-defense." Li Tingyu also sighed and said: "It's just you, throwing silver out is like throwing something, you have great talent in your chest, and you don't have financial support, what will you fight for in the future?" I also told you that the stone pillars are barren and the people are poor, which is not comparable to the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River. ”

"Hehe, this adult doesn't have to worry, when you get to the place, you can look at me." Wang Huan swore an oath.

Li Tingyu glared at him, shook his head and sighed, feeling sorry for Wang Huan in his heart, feeling that this young man was talented and witty, and he would be trapped in a corner of Sichuan in the future, and there was no stage to display his talents, which was really a waste of talent. However, since he had already mentioned it once, he categorically refused, and he couldn't persuade him again, so he had to wait until he reached the stone pillar and let General Qin persuade him.

The northwest wind blew for a day, and the good luck of Wang Huan and others also came to an end, and when it was dark, the wind stopped, and everyone had to row with oars, and went to a small market on a river, anchored and stopped the boat, and cooked for a night.

As soon as the next day dawned, the fleet set sail, the wind direction was a little oblique, but it was not a headwind, the boat boss who was born as a thief was experienced, constantly changed the direction of the sails, tried his best to eat the wind, there were many people on the boat, Li Tingyu gave an order, all picked up the wooden oars and artemisia, rowed and supported Artemisia, and hurried all the way forward, but the boat against the current, without the tailwind, walked much slower, and at the end of the day, it was only a distance of fifty miles, and the first day of the tailwind was a lot worse.

On the third and fourth days, the wind direction is still not good, or even no wind at all, which can make Wang Huan and Li Tingyu anxious to bubble, the most taboo thing for people who run away is that they can't run fast, although they have passed a few inspections along the way, relying on heavy bribes and road guides regardless of the cost, they passed the customs safely, but the worries hanging in the hearts of the two are getting heavier and heavier, and the two of them are worried.

Wang Huan and Li Tingyu gathered a few officers together to discuss, everyone felt very slow about the speed of the waterway, although the pursuers behind were also very slow to chase by boat, so they didn't have to care, but the chasing soldiers on land were very worrying, the official road from Huai'an to Xinyang was nearly two thousand miles, all the way was the territory of the Qing army, the cavalry could travel two hundred miles a day, and they could catch up with the front of the fleet in five days.

Abandon the boat and go ashore? Someone suggested that a larger city could be hired or bought as a caravan. This proposal was immediately rejected, because there were too many uncertainties on the shore, there were many inspections, there were many bandits and bandits, and the goal of the team of 400 people was too large, compared to a ship with a dozen people, it was easy to arouse local suspicion.

So in desperation, Wang Huan still suggested continuing to take the waterway, Li Tingyu weighed it and agreed, because there was really no other way.

The river meanders, bends and turns, and makes everyone's hearts hang uneasy, Li Tingyu's fixed job every day is to stand at the bow of the boat, look at the waterway in front of him and frown and calculate the speed, and compare it with his finger on the map, estimating how much distance he can walk today, and then he will be silent for a while and start scolding the sky.

Wang Huan was also irritable for a day or two at the beginning, but then calmed down, anyway, he did his best to obey the destiny of heaven, the sky is not windy or the opposite blows, no one can do anything, you scold all the gods and Buddhas all over the world, it is useless, it is better to be quiet down and take a good look at the book, listen to Li Yan and Zubian talk about the customs and geography of the mountains and rivers in this era, understand and understand the details of the war in the cold weapon era that cannot be learned in books, and lay the foundation for better integration into the world at the end of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

The book in his hand is a military book that Li Tingyu never leaves his hand, it is the book of Qi Jiguang, the god of war in the Ming Dynasty, "The Actual Record of Military Training", this book has a wide influence among the generals in the late Ming Dynasty, Li Tingyu got it in Liu Liangzuo's army, regarded it as a treasure, and took it out to study it carefully whenever he had time, and was deeply impressed by the method of military training in the book. Wang Huan's major is history and mining, he doesn't know anything about military affairs, all the military knowledge before crossing only comes from the three months of military training in the university, and the cold weapon combat is even more unheard of, for his future goals, he has to temporarily cram, and he must make up for military knowledge, Li Tingyu gave him this book, and by the way, he will tell him about his combat experience when he has time, and he has the intention to cultivate this young man.

The book is traditional, Wang Huan, who is accustomed to reading simplified characters, has a big head, but after a few days of getting older, he slowly got used to it, and the cumbersome fonts subtly correspond to the simplified characters in his mind, and when the whole book is finished, Wang Huan feels that he has been able to control the ancient texts without punctuation, and he also has a preliminary feeling for the training techniques in ancient times.