Chapter Eighty-Eight: Going Out to Investigate
Zhang Liang now has a deep hatred for Chen Sheng. Since Chen Sheng ruined his good deeds and rescued Ling Suyun from the boat, Zhang Liang was eager to eat Chen Sheng's flesh and sleep on his skin.
Ling Suyun reported the collusion between Zhang Liang and Ling Fengdu to the family, and the head of the Ling family was extremely angry, so he immediately wiped out the Ling Fengdu family, and ordered the major businesses of the Ling family in the country to report to the family and the government immediately if they found Zhang Liang and Ling Fengdu, and there was a lot of reward! The Ling family was powerful, and after escaping that night, Zhang Liang did not dare to move within the empire's sphere of influence, so he had to sneak into Dongou quietly. Fortunately, he was cunning and strange by nature, and transported all the grain and grass purchased in a large amount to the territory of Dongou for proper storage, and did a large number of suspicious soldiers in Jiujiang County, which attracted the attention of Meng Yi and others, thinking that he was transporting the grain to Jiujiang County.
That night, Chen Sheng and Ling Suyun instigated the slaves to make trouble, but Xiang Liang didn't know about it. When he found out that the Praetorian guards were attacking, he smeared oil on the soles of his feet and slipped away. I didn't know Chen Sheng's destructive power. Seeing Chen Sheng's appearance, he just smiled faintly and didn't care.
……
After turning around, Chen Sheng didn't say anything more, and led everyone back to the camp. When he returned to the camp, he was surprised to find that Zhao Tuo had given an order, and tens of thousands of troops were digging up soil in hidden places and filling them into sacks.
The quality of the Qin army is extremely strong. The digging area was surrounded by a veil to prevent the barbarians from discovering the clues. In this way, unless the Qin army officially launched an attack, it would be impossible for the barbarian army to know that the Qin army would use such a vicious trick to deal with them.
Zhao Tuo's siege plan was satisfied. However, the surprise assault tactics of the Praetorian Guards seemed to be useless. The guards who were sent to draw the map brought back the information were far from enough for Chen Shengli to use. So Chen Sheng decided to go and investigate in person to see if he could let the guards show what they had learned in the past few days.
Chen Sheng knew better than the guards how to find useful information. That night, Chen Sheng summoned Sima in the army, carefully inquired about some information about the vicinity of Wuyi Pass, and then early the next morning, Chen Sheng dressed up in disguise and asked Zhao Tuo to send a guide to take him around the surrounding villages.
Dongou is vast and sparsely populated, the people live scattered, and there are few cities formed, even villages and towns are not many, they are all scattered in the mountains one or two. A village with a large population can actually be regarded as a small indigenous kingdom, but it is only nominally dominated by the Dongou Wang.
Chen Sheng's destination was to find out from the mouths of the residents living around this Wuyi Pass whether there were any secret passages or other places that could be provided to the guards for surprise attacks.
However, Zhao Tuo did not want Chen Sheng to take risks. The local indigenous population was very resistant to the imperial army, and there were often incidents of lone soldiers being killed by the natives. He was very worried about Chen Sheng's safety.
Chen Sheng didn't care. But in the end, they couldn't resist Zhao Tuo, Meng Yi and others, and still brought a guard. Chen Shengwan rejected the self-recommended captain Han Dali, and instead brought the big man Fan Xuan.
Seeing Fan Foot's bear-like body, Han Dali stopped talking. Fan is very easy to raise, as long as there is meat to eat every day, he is very satisfied. However, Fan Jian is not something that ordinary people can afford, he can eat a whole sheep and ten catties of bread a day. Chen Sheng believes that in the past, Fan Xuan was at Fan Xu's house in Pei County, and he should not have enough to eat.
Chen Sheng disguised himself as a square langzhong, according to the custom of the Yue people, his hair was scattered, a pair of straw sandals were on his feet, and even he painted a few tattoos with paint, which looked similar to an indigenous person. In fact, Chen Sheng knows that many Yue people are actually not used to wearing shoes.
Fan Jiao carried Chen Sheng's medicine box on his back, holding a bamboo pole in one hand, and a rag on the bamboo pole, on which were written in the Chu script "Holy Hand Rejuvenation" Four large characters that had some traces of light traces, holding a leg of mutton in one hand, while walking, gnawing on it.
The guide turned out to be a native of Poyang, a native of Chu, named Wei Qi. In the past, he was a merchant who went to the square, and often poured some worthless gadgets from the local Chu State to various parts of Fujian and Yue, in exchange for fur medicinal materials and mountain treasures, and then sold them back to the Chu State. I make a lot of money, but it's all hard-earned money. After the fall of the Chu State, Wei Qi still returned to his old business, anyway, this kind of major event has nothing to do with him. Until the imperial army marched south, a guide familiar with the geography of the south was needed to recruit from the people. Wei Qi was moved by the huge profit of 30 gold per month, so he gave up his identity as a fallen father, joined the army as a leading guide, and advanced towards his former food and clothing parents.
Along the way, Wei Qi told Chen Sheng a lot about the customs of Minyue. This place is not open to the people, and the ethics are often undecided. In some places, if the father dies, the son will abandon the mother, saying that he can't live with the ghost's wife, and when the eldest brother dies, the younger brother can marry the sister-in-law...... And I heard that in some places deep in the mountains, cannibalism is still prevalent. Chen Sheng frowned when he heard this. But Fan Jiao smiled and didn't care, and only a bone was left in the leg of mutton in his hand.
Seeing Fan Yuan's appearance, Chen Sheng could only smile faintly. After spending some time with Fan Ao, he also knew that Fan Tars's intelligence should only be a child of about ten years old now. I couldn't say anything about him, so I picked a few leaves and asked Fan Ji to wipe the greasy on his mouth by himself. Let Wei Qi continue.
Wei Qi picked out a lot of interesting details about what he saw and heard as a merchant along the way, and from Wei Qi's words, Chen Sheng also knew that there were almost 20 villages around this Wuyi Pass. Most of these villages rely on hunting in the mountains and fishing in the rivers to survive, and some villagers also grow Fujian tea in the mountains, which used to be specially supplied to the Chu royal family, but after the fall of the Chu State, these tea leaves were sold to passing merchants, and most of these merchants sold tea to Xianyang, the imperial capital of the Qin State.
Chen Sheng nodded secretly. He drank a lot of tea leaves from Wuyi Mountain in later generations. Although Chen Sheng is not an elegant person, as a Chinese, how can there be a reason not to drink tea?
"Yo, Dr. Chen, there is a village in front of you, this village is not close to outsiders, so be careful for a while." Wei Qi pointed to a foothill in front of him and said suddenly.
Chen Sheng nodded. How dare he be careless in these places? If you are accidentally caught and eaten alive by these uncivilized barbarians, wouldn't it be miserable?
"Bang! Boom! Bang ...... "Less than two miles away from the cottage, Chen Sheng suddenly heard a drum sound from inside the cottage. The drum beat was fast and orderly, and I don't know what kind of signal it was transmitting.
"What's going on?" Chen Sheng squinted his eyes at the stockade in front of him, and asked puzzled.