Song Nan led fifty guards and confirmed that the Tartars were far away from nearly a hundred miles away, and then quietly came out of the camp. Song Nan didn't want to alarm everyone, he didn't want his affairs to spoil the celebratory atmosphere in the army, after experiencing life and death, this short-term joy was a rare enjoyment for the soldiers, so he chose to come out alone to find it.

The night is like water, the undulating mountains are like tame beasts lying in the corners of the corners, and when you look up, it is already a crescent moon like an eyebrow, counting the days, and in the blink of an eye, it is already August again. Unknowingly, he has been fighting fiercely on the battlefield in the northwest for more than a month.

Although the scenery of the mountains and fields under the moonlight is very poetic, but Song Nan has no idea of appreciating it, Ye Fanggu has been missing for eight days, and Yang Qian'er has no news for a day and a night, and the guards sent out have searched all the mountains and valleys near the left, but they have not found the slightest trace, which has to be said to be a little strange.

If Song Nan was not very worried about Ye Fanggu's life and death before, it was because Ye Fanggu was by no means an ordinary woman, a woman with superb martial arts who had worked hard for two years to hide her whereabouts and chase the murderer for revenge, how could it be so easy to happen unfortunately. But the loss of contact for eight days made Song Nan have to re-examine this matter, and in eight days, he was starved to death, and before that, there were Tartars everywhere in this mountain wilderness, and it was difficult to guarantee any accidents.

What's even more worrying is that Yang Ko'er also secretly ran out to look for her, although she grew up in the northwest since she was a child, and she is not a delicate and timid woman, but in fact, she is in greater danger than Ye Fanggu, standing under the vast night, Song Nan actually felt at a loss for the first time and had nowhere to go.

"My lord, the brothers have searched all over the mountains and fields, according to the humble position, let's still look for it from the route where Miss Yang left that day, although the brothers have also searched for it, but after all, Miss Yang has only been gone for a day, and it should be easy to find Miss Yang first." After Wang Yong was injured, Song Nan was followed by Zhao Dapeng, a thousand households in the Jinyi Wei Guard Battalion who was promoted last year, and he arranged the search for the past few days.

Song Nan sighed and nodded: "Just do as you say, Miss Yang is coming down from the Great Wall in the northwest, let's go diagonally from here, everyone's ears are brighter, although they can't see things clearly at night, but sometimes the eyes don't work, and the ears may work." ”

Everyone agreed, and the group identified the direction, separated by more than ten paces, dispersed the formation, and slowly searched in the northwest direction. Although the small peaks here are not high, they are better than many and dense, and soon after going up a mountain, they will go down the mountain, and then another mountain, and they are all deserted places, inaccessible, the wild grass is tangled and the rocks are circling, and they have to rest for a while, and everyone walks and stops for less than an hour, and they are already sweating profusely and panting.

Song Nan frowned and kept silent, her ears were always vigilantly listening to the movements around her, thinking in her heart, with such a terrain, I don't know how Yang Ko'er could walk, even if she was a delicate woman, she might not be able to climb over this piece of mountainous land even if she was given three days. Thinking like this, Song Nan's confidence suddenly increased, Yang Ko'er must be in this mountainous area, she can't go far, unless she ...... Encounter a Tartar or something else.

But it can make the soldiers of the guard battalion everywhere without a trace, if they are not taken away, there are no bones, as soon as he thinks of this, Song Nan suddenly has goosebumps all over his body, there must be wild wolves in such a mountainous place, if you encounter a hungry wolf pack, it is possible that the bones are not found.

Song Nan tried his best not to think badly, pricked up his ears to listen to the movements in the four directions, there was indeed a howl of wild wolves in the mountains and wilderness, and it was very close and dense several times; Every time he heard such a sound, Song Nan would immediately order to approach, once he saw a group of wild wolves biting something in the valley, Song Nan almost screamed, but fortunately, it was just the corpse of a dead tartar dragged by a wild wolf into the mountain, and a group of wolves were biting and fighting. After driving away the wolves, I checked the clothes and decorations, but it was a false alarm.

In this way, the third watch, the fourth watch, and the fifth watch, the continuous search over the mountains and mountains exhausted everyone. At the end of the fifth watch, the sky has gradually brightened, and there is a fish belly white in the east, and the sky is about to dawn. More than a dozen hills near the left have been searched, but nothing has been found.

Song Nan looked at the exhausted appearance of the guards, and knew that he could not search any further, he had to rush back immediately, and he couldn't leave the camp for too long, and he didn't greet the generals before he came out. So he got up and said, "Go back." Go back and rest, and send men to find it. ”

The guards stood up and staggered down the mountain with Song Nan, and one of the guards suddenly pointed to the opposite hill and shouted: "There is a hole in the cliff over there, why didn't we see it last night?" ”

Everyone looked intently, although the faint light was not very real, but vaguely seemed to be a black hole embedded in the opposite cliff, last night I was afraid that the sky was dark, and there were small trees around the cave entrance, only at this angle can we vaguely see that it is a cave entrance.

"Such a hole can't reach the world and the ground, how can Miss Yang climb up? I'm afraid it's just a hole drilled by a coyote. A pro-guard said.

"That's not necessarily, wild wolves are rampant between the mountains and fields, and the cave is the place to hide, maybe Miss Yang is hiding inside." Another pro-guard.

Song Nan squinted at the entrance of the cave and said, "You guys rest in place, I'll take a look myself." ”

Where were all the guards willing to let Song Nan go alone, they all followed him down to the valley, stood under the cliff and looked up, the entrance of the cave was not visible at all under the shade of several dense dwarf trees, no wonder Zhao Dapeng said that he took people to search back and forth from this valley a few times and did not find this cave.

Song Nan carefully inspected with a torch under the mountain wall, and suddenly shouted in surprise, everyone hurriedly asked what happened, Song Nan pointed to a few broken stones and said, "Look, these stones must have fallen from the cliff." ”

Everyone stared at the few big stones on the ground in a daze, not knowing what the basis of the general's words was.

"This valley is a channel through which the rain flows on rainy days, and you can see all this fine sand, which is washed and deposited here by the rain, so most of the stones in the valley are buried in the loess, why are these stones floating on the ground? Apparently falling from the cliff face. ”

"But this does not mean that it is caused by man, this cliff top falling rocks is also a common time, I remember when I was a child, I once went up the mountain to graze cattle, a big stone fell in front of me for no reason, and later found that it was not man-made at all, but it was loose, and the mountain wind blew the branches up and scraped it down." Zhao Dapeng said.

Song Nan pointed to a few broken branches next to him and said: "How to explain this, this is the branches and leaves of pine trees, in addition to the wild grass in this valley, it is thorns, pine trees will not grow in the valley where the water flows, and look at the pine needles are still very green, obviously not withered and falling, it must be caused by human trampling." ”

Everyone stared at each other and said in their hearts: "Even if it is artificial, what does this mean?" During this time, there were Tartar soldiers stationed all over the mountains, and it was only six or seven days before that the soldiers and horses of Urus withdrew from twenty miles away. ”

Song Nan didn't have time to explain more, the pine needles were still green, even if they could withstand the sun's exposure, they would not be able to withstand the scorching for many days in this summer day, and they would inevitably shrink and change color, and if they didn't, they would become dehydrated, which could only show that it had happened recently.

Song Nan took off the robe on his body, tightened his belt, spit and foamed at the palm of his hand. The eye looks carefully on the mountain wall for a place to climb.

Looking at Song Nan's posture, Zhao Dapeng hurriedly said: "What are you going to do?" Do you just climb it with your bare hands? ”

Song Nan said: "I saw it on the cliff over there just now, this cave is lower from the bottom, and it is even more difficult to climb down from the top, and it is a waste of time to take a detour to the top of the mountain." I desperately want to know what's in the cave, so that's the only way to do it. ”

"Don't, don't, it's a shame if you fall." Zhao Dapeng hurriedly blocked.

Song Nan chirped: "Can you say something nice?" Why did I fall? Bring me the rope. If you find it, you can also hang people down. ”

Zhao Dapeng and the guards persuaded hard, Song Nan turned a deaf ear, hung a circle of ropes on his shoulders and reached out to clasp a protruding stone, and climbed up along the mountain wall like a gecko with a kick, the guards thought that they did not have the ability to climb this steep cliff and could only stare dryly, or a flag officer was clever, and reminded: "We can't do it like this, it's better to cut some long grass and spread it underneath, spread a thick layer, in case a big person falls down, it will not die." ”

Zhao Dapeng scolded: "Can't you say something good? Having said that, he immediately ordered, and the guards pulled out the embroidered spring knives and cut down the officials in the valley indiscriminately, cutting a large pile of thatch, and spreading it loosely on the ground to prevent Song Nan from falling down.

Song Nan didn't know anything about what was happening below, he concentrated on climbing up, in later life, he was a person who liked to survive and explore in the wild, and he didn't know how many thrilling things such as mountaineering, rock climbing, surfing, and parachuting had been done. Although the cliff is steep, there is no lack of foothold, Song Nan's hands and feet are numb, but with superhuman perseverance, he still climbs more than ten zhang high step by step.

In the dim morning light, Song Nan looked up at a small piece of dwarf pine trees growing next to the entrance of the cave, and his heart was overjoyed, the branches and leaves of the dwarf pine trees were obviously irregular, and there were broken gaps below, which was obviously a heavy object falling and the pine branches were broken and falling, that is, it was very likely that there were people in the cave.