At dawn, dozens of zhang away from the official road ten miles away from Xinyang Prefecture City, there is a depression, the terrain is rugged, potholes, overgrown with weeds, shrubs and thorns are mixed in, and the trees are deep, even if the pedestrians who occasionally pass by on the official road pay attention to it, they can't see the scene inside, and who will deliberately look at it.

Li Tingyu led four hundred subordinates, and was sleeping upside down inside, snoring loudly, if it wasn't far from the official road, Wang Huan, who couldn't sleep with his ears covered, was really worried that he would be noticed.

Last night, the soldiers of Sichuan, who were accustomed to the mountain roads and had amazing physical endurance, ran nearly two hundred miles in six hours, and rushed from Gwangju to Xinyang Prefecture when the rooster crowed.

Even compared to Wei Wu's soldiers, this level of physical fitness is not bad.

Wang Huan endured the thunderous snoring around him, and thought that last night, he was desperate for his life, and he could barely keep up with the marching speed of the white pole soldiers in the first hour, and from the second hour, he was like a dead dog, paralyzed on the back of a strong soldier, sticking out his tongue and being carried all the way, he also saw that his group of dead little monks, such as Chen Ergou and Xu Goudan, only lasted for half an hour longer than himself, and then he was also carried on the back of others like goods until dawn.

"Are these guys still human? I'm not much faster than this group of humanoids when I ride an electric car and walk at night. Wang Huan couldn't sleep, so he simply sat up, beat his legs and waist, recovered his sore body, and thought while pounding.

"Huh? The senator woke up so quickly? Someone whispered in the shadow of a tree on the side, and with the sound wafted a burst of rice, the aroma of rice cooked in an iron pot with water, which was an irresistible temptation to the hungry.

Wang Huan looked at it when he heard it, but saw that it was Li Yanzheng squatting under a ridge not far away, cooking rice in an iron pot.

"The porridge is cooked, let's drink a bowl of it." Li Yan said with a smile.

Wang Huan jumped up, ran over in a few steps, grabbed a handful of soil with both hands, and threw it under the pot, exclaiming: "!" How good it is for you to burn the fire and smoke, and be seen by the Tartars! ”

Li Yan was stunned at first, but after Wang Huan sprinkled a few handfuls of soil and figured out what he was going to do, he hurriedly grabbed Wang Huan's hand and shouted urgently: "Senator!" Don't, don't sprinkle it, you won't be able to drink this porridge if you sprinkle it again! ”

He grabbed Wang Huan with both hands, but Wang Huan was still struggling, a pair of feet were still stretched out to reach the pot, wanting to kick the pot over, Li Yan was so frightened that he hurriedly dragged him away a few steps, knowing that Wang Huan was really in a hurry, he hurriedly shouted again: "The senator is in a hurry!" My cooking method is not smoking! Tartars can't see. ”

As soon as these words came out, Wang Huan, who was so panicked that his head was also smoking, calmed down and no longer writhed violently, Li Yan saw that he was quiet, so he let go of him with palpitations, first scooped out the soil in the pot with a wooden spoon, and then explained to Wang Huan carefully.

"You see, Senator, before I cook, I dug a hole under this ridge, and then I dug another hole above the hole above the ridge, and the two holes were connected, and three shallow pits were dug out of the holes above, and the pits were used to disperse smoke, and the pits were covered with wet leaves and branches, and from the holes under the ridge they made firewood, and the smoke dispersed along the three shallow pits, and was disturbed and absorbed by the moisture, and only a small amount of smoke came out, and when it was blown by the wind, even if the Tartars looked outside the woods, they could not see any smoke coming out." Li Yandao.

While listening, Wang Huan took a closer look at the earthen stove under the pot, and found that it was indeed as Li Yan said, the fire in the cave was blazing, and there was not even a little smoke on it, only a faint white mist floating from between the leaves, but this bit of white smoke could not be gathered and formed at all, and it dispersed as soon as it floated out.

"Legend has it that this is the method of Zhuge Wuhou, generation after generation in the residents of Sichuan, the imperial court set up a mine in the stone pillar to mine silver, the mine supervisor is a race man-eating beast, the people hide in the mountains and forests, in order to prevent the mine supervisor from searching and finding, this method is used to cook hot rice." Li Yan saw Wang Huan's face surprised, and couldn't help but look proud, and said as if showing off.

Wang Huan couldn't help nodding, this kind of smokeless stove is similar to the method of later generations, he has also seen his peers use it when he was exploring ore veins in the field, just now he was in a hurry, worried that the smoke would be discovered by passers-by, and he acted in a panic without taking a closer look, but he was a little embarrassed.

However, when he heard the second half of Li Yan's words, Wang Huan's eyes widened, and he suddenly raised his head and asked urgently, "Silver mine?" The stone pillar has already mined silver ore? ”

Li Yan said with a smile: "Where there is a silver mine, it is just a trick of the mine supervisor to collect money, they falsely claim that there is a mine under the house, and force the owner to pay the silver money and ask for bribes, otherwise they will bulldoze the house to build a mine, in fact, there is no ore vein underground." ”

When Wang Huan heard this, his heart was relieved, and he secretly said that it was dangerous, if the Ming Dynasty mine supervisor dug the mine in front of him, and he went again at this time, wouldn't it be that the bamboo basket was empty, and nothing could be dug up.

Li Yan saw that he was lying down against a tree on all fours, scooped a bowl of porridge with a smile and handed it over, and said: "Since the senator is awake, let's drink a bowl of porridge first, eat something, and recover quickly." ”

Wang Huan stretched out his hand to pick it up, but before he could receive it, a pair of big hands stretched out in the oblique thorn, snatched the wooden bowl away, and a rough voice shouted: "It's so fragrant, it's so fragrant!" Who's cooking? It smells so good! ”

The wooden bowl was in the hand of a giant palm, as small as a teacup, I saw that Li Tingyu's eyes had not yet opened, he closed his eyes and tilted his head, drank the hot porridge in the bowl, and then smashed his mouth twice, opened his eyes in a daze, and asked with sleepy eyes: "This rice tastes bad, why does it smell like mud?" ”

Li Yan and Wang Huan glanced at each other, grabbed a bowl and scooped rice, and persuaded diligently: "My lord, have another bowl!" ”

The night rush, for the iron-like white pole soldiers, although they persevered, but they were also enough to choke, and they rested until the afternoon of the same day, when everyone woke up one after another, and then set up a smokeless stove to burn the fire to eat, Wang Huan took advantage of this time, quickly lay down and closed his eyes and took a nap, and before he had a dream, he was called up again, saying that Lord Li was looking for him to discuss important matters.

Wang Huan rubbed his eyes and found Li Tingyu, this big man and Li Yan, Zu Bian and a few thousand general officers were frowning at the map, thinking about something, when he saw Wang Huan coming, seeing him looking like he was sleepless and yawning, Li Tingyu couldn't help frowning even deeper: "Wang Huan, the young man is full of vitality, he has been resting for most of the day, you still look like this, what do you look like?" ”

Wang Huan said in his heart: "Big brother, your snoring is better than the elephant galloping, I haven't closed my eyes all the time, right?" ”

Of course, this reason is inconvenient to put forward with confidence, otherwise it will attract the reprimand of not getting along with ordinary soldiers, so Wang Huan admitted his mistake and said: "What my lord said is that Wang Huan is lazy, and he must pay attention in the future." ”

Li Tingyu snorted a few times dissatisfiedly, and hurriedly pulled him over, and said in a bagala: "From Xinyang to Xiangyang, across the Dabie Mountain, we want to cross from here, there are two roads, how should we go?" ”

He pointed to the map and said: "If you choose from whether the road is smooth or not, you will be elected Nanyang Road, this road is good, wide and flat, and it is just 400 miles from Xinyang to Nanyang, and 300 miles from Nanyang to Xiangyang, adding up to 700 miles." With a flick of his finger, he pointed to another ink line on the map: "The other road is from Xinyang to Xiangyang through the Dabie Mountain Trail through Lishan County, the whole journey is 620 miles, the distance is a little shorter, but you must pass through the thirteen passes of Dabie Mountain, the road is rugged, and the difficulty is a little greater." ”

Wang Huan stared at the map for a while, and said without thinking: "Go to the three levels of enlightenment!" ”