1

The bald beggar sent to the brickyard to report that a group of heavily armed soldiers, about a hundred and ten, had gone out of the city gate and headed south, all on guard, each with their guns in their hands, as if they were going to war.

At present, there is no war in Hunan Province, Zhang Jingyao is sitting in Changsha, being a soil emperor, he is already satisfied, and has no intention of attacking others again. With whom are the soldiers going out to fight? If it is to arrest the "chaotic party" and the like, there is no need for so many people. Could it be that the operation of renovating the cave was detected by them? He Yuan was a little worried, at this time, everyone was participating in the project in the cave, preparing to move the base camp there, and now He Yuan was the only one in the brick factory, he couldn't rest assured, so he came out to listen along the road.

Walking to the welcome teahouse, a little beggar dressed as a tea maid said: "The old bald brother followed the group of soldiers and went forward, and he said that he would leave a mark on the road." ”

"Okay," He Yuan followed the mark left by the bald head, walked all the way, and found that the soldiers' direction of progress did not turn towards the Sanren Gorge, but along the main road, and he was relieved.

After walking for a while, he was getting farther and farther away from the city, and he didn't find any other signs, the mark left by the bald head was very clear, and he kept moving along the road, He Yuan quickened his pace, and soon saw the figure of the bald beggar.

The bald man usually acts as a hostess in the welcome teahouse, so he is dressed as a shopkeeper, and his cat is behind a big tree, probing his brain and looking forward. He Yuan walked a few steps and was about to ask the bald man, when suddenly a series of gunshots were heard in the distance.

The bald man turned around and saw that it was He Yuan, pointed forward, and whispered: "Look at those soldiers, they are attacking the mountain." ”

Looking forward from behind the big tree, two or three miles away, a yellow figure was climbing towards the hill beside the road, shooting guns while climbing, and there was a chaotic shout, which was really attacking the mountain. On the top of the mountain, no one was seen, and no one fought back.

He Yuan carefully looked at the surrounding terrain, and suddenly his heart moved. Asked the bald head: "Look at that mountain, is it the place where Tie Guan Li and they were caught?" ”

"It seems that this is there, and they have collected medicine on the slope of the book, and yes, there is a cave up there."

Look far away. There are some mounds of earth on the hillside, which should be the "new graves" that Tie Guan Li said, a group of soldiers, with guns in hand, climbed up the steep hill and rushed straight there, behind the hillside, there is a steep cliff, the soldiers rushed up the hill and put their guns down the cliff.

He Yuan and the bald man watched for a long time. I didn't understand who the soldiers were attacking, but the gunshots were still coming from a burst of positions, and it was obvious that there was a target for attack, and he asked the bald man: "When they came, were they chasing anyone?" ”

"No, when we got to the bottom of the mountain in front of us, I left the road and kept climbing up the mountain."

What is there on the mountain that is worth such a large number of soldiers to attack? He Yuan was puzzled. After observing for a while, I saw that the soldiers fired a burst of gunfire, and then scattered all over the mountain in a chaotic manner. Search around.

"They're searching the mountains." Bald said.

Suddenly, there was a shout among the soldiers, and many of them ran and shot their guns up the slope. "Horn horn," a string of gunshots rang out. The place where He Yuan and the bald head were hiding was blocked by a mountain peak because of the angle, and they couldn't see what was in the direction of the soldiers' attack. But looking at the situation on the mountain, it seems that the soldiers searching the mountain have discovered an abnormal situation.

"That direction, it seems to be the cave that the stone lock said." The bald man speculated.

There was a mess for a while. The gunfire slowly subsided, and the soldiers made a noise and went down the hill in a hurry, as if they had withdrawn their troops. Sure enough, a large group of soldiers climbed down the hill one after another, and when they returned to the road, the bald man and He Yuan hid behind a big rock next to them, and saw an officer speaking a few words in front of the team, and then the soldiers carried their guns and walked back.

A battle that I didn't understand, and that's the end of it. When they went far along the road, He Yuan said, "Let's go to the mountains and have a look." ”

The two of them came to the place where the "battle" took place just now, up and down the mountain, except for a messy footprint, there was nothing, the two climbed up the mountain, and saw that the seven-leaf evergreen was still there, the green one was very conspicuous, a grave bag, there were some scattered burned paper scraps on the side of the grave, and the caves and stone cliffs in the distance could not see anything unusual.

Behind this slope, there is a cliff, the two of them looked down, the mountain wall is several feet deep, it is impossible to stand people, just now the soldiers are shooting down from here, what are they fighting? He Yuan couldn't help but shake his head.

The two of them climbed into the cave above, looked inside, there was nothing, went into the opening leading to the dark cave and looked, the gag stone that Shi Suo and others said, put it well, everything was normal.

"What the hell." The bald head said scratching his bare scalp.

After looking for a while, I found nothing, far and near, except for the new pile of graves that are very suspicious, the woods, rocks, and caves in other places are all abnormal, this place is far away from people, barren and desolate, He Yuan finally guessed: "If there is a situation, it is mostly related to this cave." ”

"Let's go down to the dark hole and have a look?" The bald man asked.

"Don't go, according to Shi Suo, it's very complicated inside, it's easy to get lost, if you want to explore the cave, you need more people, everyone is ready, do everything to be safe, you can go in." Let's go back. ”

"There's an arrow over there," said the bald man, and ran into a bush of grass, and brought out a bamboo arrow, which was very rudimentary, with no iron arrows or feathered tails, but the tip was sharpened, and if it were to be struck by a man, it would be fatal.

After taking the bamboo arrow, the two went down the mountain and returned to the Yingbin teahouse by the way, and the tea maid inside said: "Just now, those soldiers came, drank a meal of tea in a noisy, and left without giving money." ”

"Did you hear what they said?"

The tea maid said proudly: "I deliberately flattered them, and those Qiu Ba people coaxed and said: Lao Tzu went into the mountains to suppress bandits, and he worked hard. I asked them, what's the matter, are there bandits in the mountains? They said that the bandits are coming to Changsha City, and you don't know anything about it in the teahouse, if we don't protect you, the bandits will be kidnapped sooner or later. I deliberately asked again, boss, have the bandits been caught? Where? This group of guys said that they had already run away, and the bandits saw the officers and soldiers, and they were beaten to the ground. ”

He Yuan nodded, praised the tea maid a few words, left the teahouse, and ran to the cave of Sanrenxia.

In the cave, under the arrangement of Thor and others, the project is in full swing, divided into several groups such as masonry, carpentry, ironwork, etc., to build iron tools, sawn wood to make furniture, open mountains and rocks, and divert water, all in good order, He Yuan found Jiang Yuniang, she was weaving a rattan chair with A Ning and Dafeng, He Yuan said about the soldiers just now, Jiang Yuniang said: "I just heard the old money of the mining union say that in the past two days, there are indeed bandits there, there is a group of food transporters, robbed, and a sheep herder, The sheep were snatched away and people were wounded. What's more, two military vehicles transporting supplies were also robbed. It seems that it was precisely because the military vehicles were robbed that the officers and soldiers in the city were alarmed to go out. ”

"These bandits even dare to rob military vehicles, attracting soldiers to go out to suppress the bandits, who are they?"

Ordinary bandits and grass bandits, when they see the government troops, most of them stay away, and some collude with the officials to secretly sit on the ground and share the spoils in order to seek local protection. Those who dare to openly confront the official army, unless the power is too great, the government can't help it, or a wandering thief, a shot to change places, but the bandits on this mountain city don't look like thieves, is it because they are so strong that they don't even pay attention to the garrison? Dafeng took the bamboo arrow in He Yuan's hand and said in surprise: "I know this bamboo arrow, when we were trapped in that cave, we were almost shot by such an arrow. ”

He Yuan said with some worry: "If we go out to transport goods, we have to take that road, judging from the current situation, these bandits are unscrupulous and indiscriminate in robbery, and they are a threat to us." ”

"Next time to transport the goods, send more escorts, and I will go too." Jiang Yuniang took the bamboo arrow in Dafeng's hand and looked at it and said.

2

The goods of the willow weaving society, in order to hide the eyes and ears of Manager Ma and others, were quietly transported into the swamp outside the city. On this day, it was time to transport goods out, because of the large number of goods, Jiang Sheng organized ten carriages, and the escort team was also formed, in addition to Jiang Yuniang, Shi Suo, Dafeng, Duan Laosan and a few beggars, but also joined the city Da Jiang, Xiao Niu and other workers who could pull out, everyone carried rifles, forming a small team.

Shi Suo also brought Da Hei, he patted the Hanyang-made rifle in his hand, "Look, what kind of bandits dare to come to fight our idea?" ”

It was difficult to get into the car in the swamp, everyone carried the goods to the side of the road to load, the goods were not loaded, the big black suddenly screamed a few times, and the little clever ran to Jiang Yuniang and said: "Someone passed by the road just now, and he glanced at us a few times." How do I see how I don't look like a good person. ”

Jiang Yuniang followed the little clever and walked out of the grass quickly, and when she came to the road, she vaguely saw two pedestrians in front of her, who had walked out of a mile or two, and her steps were hurried, and she walked very quickly. Jiang Yuniang said: "The road is facing the sky, go to one side, we don't have the right to inquire about others, just be careful on the road." ”

Ten carriages, on the road, formed a long convoy, turned a corner, and saw an old ox cart in front of it, walking slowly forward, the cowbell jingled, and on the wheel sat a charioteer, holding a whip in his arms, drooping his head, and was napping.

The carriage was fast, and soon caught up with the ox cart, Jiang Sheng sat on the first car, and saw that in the carriage of the ox cart in front of him, half a cart of straw was loaded, and a person was lying in the straw pile, wearing a black cloth old cotton jacket and cotton pants, like a peasant, who was sleeping heavily, and heard a burst of snoring.

Jiang Sheng was suspicious, the old cow drove slowly, which was normal, but at this time in the middle of winter, sleeping in the car was very susceptible to cold, not to mention the strong wind in the wild, how could the people in the car sleep so sweetly? (To be continued.) )