Chapter 192: Circling the City

As mentioned last time, the elder official proposed the third way out for his people, that is, to take the special forces to take a shortcut, which can bypass Zhangling City and enter the original territory of Wu without entering the city.

Of course, due to Liu Hou leading the Northern Expedition, these places already belonged to the territory of Shu, or in fact, the Sanzhi Zone.

When Guo Changsheng heard this, he was very interested in this mentions, if they really didn't have to enter the city to get around that smuggling trail, this was the most ideal result, but if there was any other way, they didn't want to risk entering the city to face the two thousand defenders.

So, he said, "Well, if you can really take us around the city, I can guarantee that I will not kill you, and I will give you a large bounty." However, if you dare to play any tricks, if there is no such path you just lie to us and say that there is, you know the consequences. ”

"Know, know, know the little one, uncle, please rest assured, the little one has lived in Zhangling City for decades, and the little ones here are very familiar with the roads. Locals here know that there is a trail around the city, so if you don't believe it, you can ask a few locals. That's one of the reasons why we have a customs here.

For only by setting up a customs gate here can we stop the caravans that try to take the path around the city, otherwise those people will go around the city by the path, and we will not be able to collect their taxes by the tax card that we have set up at the city gate.

There is a fork in the road from here to the direction of the city, and you can enter the trail around the city from the fork on the right, but because it is a country road, the road is narrow, so it is not easy to walk, and the carriage cannot pass through guò, if you have a large number of goods to be transported, it will be troublesome, if it is a person, it is good to say, walking and riding horses are no problem. The elder servant hurriedly explained.

Hearing his explanation, Guo Changsheng breathed a sigh of relief, and Guo Changsheng felt that his explanation was still credible, especially the reason why he said that the tax customs were set up here.

Besides, there is no other way to do it too well, and it is too dangerous to enter the city now. Even if they couldn't get around the city by taking the country road, they weren't afraid of being caught by the Wei army.

It's a big deal to escape into the mountains and forests, for the march in the mountains and forests, they have received a lot of training in this area, their survivability and combat effectiveness in the mountains and forests are not known to be many times stronger than the Wei army, and there is no need to worry about the Wei army chasing into the mountains and forests to cut off their retreat.

However, at this time, Guo Changsheng made a mistake, he did not take into account the problem of Sima Yi's family, these family members are old, weak, sick and disabled, and have not undergone any training for survival in the wild.

In the end, Guo Changsheng and the older officials reached an agreement that the officials would lead the way around the city, but there was a small disagreement on the number of people who led the way. The meaning of the elder official is that he can lead the way alone, and the other officials remain at the customs to continue to collect taxes.

Of course Guo Changsheng disagreed, what if the others waited for them to leave and ran to report the news? The elder official also said that if all the officials were gone and no one collected taxes, I am afraid that the city would soon know that something had happened here, and it would be even more difficult to deal with it at that time.

Guo Changsheng thought about it, if no one collects taxes here, those merchants will soon pour into the city in large numbers, and then people will definitely talk about the strange things that happened here, so that the matter will soon reach the ears of the county magistrate, and the officials of the entire tax customs will disappear collectively, and it will be strange if the county officials are not crazy at that time.

In this way, it is inevitable that he will send troops to pursue his people, in this case, it is better to choose to believe them once, and bet that these servants will really keep their promises.

So, Guo Changsheng asked those officials to swear that if they returned to the city to report and leak their whereabouts, they would definitely not die.

Those officials were forced to swear a poisonous oath one by one, so Guo Changsheng took the elderly officials and led the joint caravan to continue to set off. The group walked about two miles in the direction of Zhangling County, and sure enough, they saw a fork in the road.

The big road that goes straight is the official road leading to Zhangling County, and there is a winding sheep intestine path on the right, and there is no end in sight all the way. You don't have to think about walking a carriage on this road, but it's okay to walk slowly on a horse.

Guo Changsheng ordered all those who infiltrated the caravan to separate from the caravan, and asked the caravan to free up some horses and donkeys as much as possible, barely enough for ten animals. After all, the caravan still had to leave some of the cattle to pull the carts, and it would be unreasonable to sell all the cattle to them.

Then the two sides parted, and the caravan continued to Zhangling City, while they walked through the sheep intestine path. The reason why the caravan was freed up was to ride for Sima Yi's family.

Most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, but can not withstand the torture of long-distance travel, although these days are sitting in the carriage, but the caravan carriage is not Liu Hou's new four-wheeled carriage with shock absorbing springs, these old carriages are very bumpy, these days have been a few people have been turned out of trouble.

If they can't do it at this time, or take the mountain and forest paths, they will definitely not be able to hold on, if one or two die of illness on the road, it will be difficult to explain when they go back, so Guo Changsheng did everything possible to get ten livestock for them to ride.

Although Sima Yi's family has more than a dozen people, some of them are very small children, and there are many female dependents who are very light, and many of them can share a horse with two people, so ten animals are barely enough.

Of course, this refers to the case of walking slowly, and if you run fast and for a long time, these animals will definitely not be able to do it. As for the special forces, of course, they could only walk, and they came out into ten people to act as grooms, pulling the reins of these animals to walk, and the rest were on both sides to guard the surroundings.

Before leaving, Guo Changsheng ordered everyone to tie their leggings before starting to walk. The leggings were Liu Hou told Zuo Ci, Zuo Ci and then as a "fairy law" to the Shu army, he said that this method can make people walk long distances without swollen feet, and then the army people tried it, and it was really effective, so it was popularized in the Shu army.

The reason why Liu Hou knew about leggings was because he watched a lot of anti-Japanese dramas, in which our soldiers all wore leggings. Liu Hou felt strange, so he took a look at it and learned that this small piece of cloth has a very magical effect, not to mention anything else, just saying that the leggings have the effect of preventing the calf pain caused by the accumulation of blood veins, so that the calf is not sore and tired when climbing.

In addition, when marching in the mountains, it can also prevent mountain insects and locusts from crawling in and biting along the trouser tube at any time, and effectively prevent thorn branches from piercing and worrying. Therefore, the leggings have now become the standard configuration of the Shu army, and those who know the leggings will know which country these soldiers are from as soon as they look at the leggings.

The special forces had not worn leggings before for fear that this obvious feature would reveal their identities, but now it doesn't matter, because they have reached the border between Wei and Shu, and have entered the sparsely populated mountain trails.

Guo Changsheng and his entourage escaped from the sheep intestine path, but they did not all go, but left two special forces waiting at the fork in the road. As for what they're doing here, we'll talk about it tomorrow.