Xiguan Fort was built, and the surrounding mountains naturally became the object of hunting by the soldiers.

At that time, the Hexi Corridor had the Northern Yuan in the north, Beishi Bali in the west, and Tubo in the south, and the forces of all parties were intertwined, so spy scouts were everywhere. As soon as the Ming army gained a firm foothold in Hexi, it naturally did not dare to slack off.

With each guard fort camp as the center, they began to "encircle and search" in circles to eradicate unnecessary hidden dangers and ensure the safety of the base areas.

Soon, the newly arrived Ming army went up to Yuanyuan Mountain.

Although Yuanyuan Mountain is all Maotong Mountain, the altitude is 15,600 meters high, so the Ming army searched here for several months.

In the end, it was Shi Yuangong's father who discovered the Ming army. He was a patriarch or something like that at the time, and he didn't pay much attention to this matter - after all, from ancient times to the present, there have always been frequent wars in the Hexi region, and cavemen have seen this kind of thing a lot.

In the past, whenever they encountered a search mountain, the cavemen would all retreat to the cave, close the entrance to the cave, endure it for a while, and wait for the wind to pass before coming out to move.

In fact, with those three pearls, even if everyone retreats to the mountains, it will not be a problem to retreat for a year.

So this time, as soon as he saw the Ming army entering the mountain, Shi Yuangong's father, who was the patriarch, immediately gave the order to enter the cave. At that time, there were seventy or eighty troglodytes, and they obeyed the order, cleared the footprints outside, and then retreated into the mountains.

But this time, this one-size-fits-all approach didn't work.

The armies at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty were all fought in actual battles after years of war. Not to mention professional soldiers, even emperors, they are all good at marching and fighting.

For example, Ming Taizong Zhu Di, he often drove in person, and he was on the horse all year round. In order to exterminate the Northern Yuan, the Ming army often went deep into the steppe desert, looking for the main army of the Mongols, hoping to fight a decisive battle with it.

You know, at that time there was no satellite positioning, no directional navigation, not even telescopes. In the vast steppe, where there is not even a commanding lookout point, finding the Mongol army is as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.

Therefore, if you want to discover the enemy, if you want to find the enemy, you need the soldiers to have good eyesight and accurate judgment.

Therefore, the generals and soldiers in the early Ming Dynasty were all elites in the army who had been tempered for thousands of years - if it weren't for the fact that Zhu Qizhen, Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, buried all these imperial elites in the Tumu Fort, the later history of the Ming Dynasty would not have become so passive.

So this time, the cavemen were a little underestimated.

As mentioned earlier, some cavemen are used to living outside. In order to hide their cave, and not to expose their base camp, they set up a village on another hill quite far from the entrance of the cave.

This village is known to outsiders as Hutaizhuang. After the discovery of the Ming army, in order to preserve their strength, the entire Hutaizhuang people also abandoned the village and moved to the cave.

So, when the Ming army went up the mountain, all they found was a village that had been emptied.

In fact, such a situation is not unusual, in the era of war and chaos, the people are most afraid of soldiers. Because for them, the soldiers and bandits are sometimes unclear, anyway, they are all fully armed, and when they see the common people, they will rob indiscriminately - sometimes the disaster of the rogue is worse than the rogue bandits.

At that time, the common people were like frightened birds, and often when they saw a large group of men and horses carrying guns and halberds coming, they immediately packed their bags, took their children to help the elderly, and went directly to the ravine to hide for a few days, and then returned to the village when the soldiers left.

This situation is called fleeing, also known as "evading the army".

In the past, whether it was the Uighurs, Mongols, or Tibetans, the cavemen all escaped their military disasters, and the method was very simple, as long as they hid in the cave, after a while, these people naturally could not afford to leave.

But this time it was different, because the Ming army had already set up camp, and they had also begun to settle in the fields, and it seemed that they were ready to live here forever.

This is very different from the previous situation, the caveman hid in the cave for more than a month, came out to investigate, and found that the Ming army had not left, and the spy was also bumped into by the scouts of the Ming army, and was beaten by a fire gun - fortunately he ran fast, or his pants would have collapsed.

The spies panicked back into the cave and reported to Shi Yuangong that this group of people was different, not only did they not leave, but they also built a house! Looks like they're ready to live on our turf!

When Shi Yuangong heard this, he couldn't help frowning.

Since the Ming army also started the idea of Yuanyuan Mountain, the village on the ground could not go back in the first place.

But Yuanyuan Mountain is a barren place, although there are three pearls in the ground, you can still eat it and rely on it, but the pearls will always burn out one day, and the jade grass that grows by the pearls is limited, which is not enough for dozens of people to eat.

And the pearl is both an advantage and a disadvantage, if they are discovered by those soldiers, not only the whole clan, but even the treasure will be destroyed.

At an extraordinary moment, there should be extraordinary means, and the top priority is to leave Yuanyuan Mountain as soon as possible with the three pearls and fly away.

However, as soon as Shiyuan Gong proposed, it was resolutely opposed by the majority of the people.

——Rather guard the three feet of soil in the mountains, and live in the world! The ancestral precept clearly stated that you can't leave this place, otherwise there will be disaster!

- Yes! When the gods come, those who disobey the teachings of the ancestors will be reduced to ashes!

——It's a big deal to donate money and pay taxes to the military masters, and be a good citizen, as long as you don't leave Yuanyuan Mountain!

- Yes, we are scouts of the gods! The gods want us to stay here and watch the world, so we can't leave no matter what!

Shi Yuangong couldn't help but ask, so what did the gods let us watch here? After watching and seeing, how can you report it to the gods? Where is our hometown?

The people were dumb all at once, this was indeed a problem, they only knew that their task was scouting, but they didn't know anything about what to listen to, how to report to the gods.

What's more, they don't even know who their god is!

The caveman gods had neither idolatry nor sacrificial sites, and the only thing they knew was that the three pearls were a gift from the gods - otherwise, how could there be such treasures in the world!

But being silent does not mean that they are persuaded, and the clansmen still insist on staying in Yuanyuan Mountain.

We are the children of the Church, and our God is enshrined in the Church! We can't go!

The clansmen were all right, and Shiyuan Gong saw that the cave-dwelling crowd was opposed, so he had to temporarily shelve the idea of moving.

After deliberation, the tribesmen decided to observe for a while, but it was not possible, and then try to return to the village.

Despite this, Shi Yuangong still made two preparations, and he asked his people to bring the lead box containing the pearl to prepare.

- If we are discovered, we must first hide the treasures given by the gods.

- What are you doing in such a hurry, anyway, we haven't exposed it yet.

The clansmen said so, but Shi Yuangong insisted on preparing the lead box, and in addition, he also specially arranged two more people who took turns to keep vigil, and once there was a disturbance, he would immediately blow the trumpet to be vigilant!

Shi Yuangong did nothing wrong, because that night, the Ming army sneaked up.