This is the first time in Zhang Qing's life that he has taken a boat on the river, and it feels very novel. However, according to Lu Mingyue, because Huicheng Creek, a tributary of the Ting River, was too shallow to carry large boats, they could only take this kind of small flat-bottomed boat with a capacity of ten people. Far less comfortable than the wheeled boats on the Ting River.

But now everyone didn't think about the comfort of the ship, but nervously guarded. Because the best way back to the state capital is to go straight to the Tinghe River along the Huicheng River, and then go down the Tinghe River all the way to Yunzhongfu. However, twenty miles downstream of the mouth of the Huicheng River into the Tinghe River is the Tingyin Mansion, and this is the base camp of the Tinghe Gang. Since Zhong Qi was still alive, they must now know that the account books were in the patrol fleet, so there must be interceptions on the way.

Although they knew the danger, they still had to take the water route, because the land route was more difficult to walk. Not only does it take longer, but there are also many mountain trails that make it easier to be ambushed.

Now they can only pray that they are fast enough to make it impossible for the Tinghe Gang to organize enough manpower, and at the same time, relying on the flag of the patrol envoy, they can go all the way without hindrance and collect taxes. In short, everything has to be in the service of speed.

Half a day was not enough time for them to leave Huicheng Creek, so they found a place to rest under the gentle water after it got dark. At night, the guards took turns to stand guard, not daring to slack off, for fear that the water ghosts of the Tinghe Gang would come to scuttle the boat.

Fortunately, however, there was nothing to do all night, and the next morning we continued to set sail towards the Ting River.

One of the advantages of the flat-bottomed boat they are now riding is that it is fast, so they enter the Ting River before noon. However, even if he had entered the wide waters of the Tinghe River, he did not waste time to change to a more comfortable wheel boat, but continued to increase his vigilance as he approached the Tingyin Mansion.

I don't know if it's because there are too many boats in the nearby waters, so that the Tinghe Gang doesn't dare to blatantly besiege and inspect the fleet, or because of some other reason. They didn't attack in this section of the river, and they didn't even send boats to follow them.

By the time the sun set, the fleet had been more than fifty miles away from Tingyin Mansion, and not only was it not harassed by civilian ships along the way, but it was not even the trouble caused by the bribery of the official checkpoint they had expected. All the checkpoints were opened and released as soon as they saw them, so much so that Bai Huiye wondered if the state lord had miscalculated, and the Tinghe Gang was not as powerful as they expected? Or did Zhong Qi have some accident and didn't bring the news back?

But this is just a casual thought about it, because the things in his hands are related to the life and death of the Tinghe Gang, and the other party will definitely not dare to ignore it, there will definitely be interceptions and killings on the way, but sooner or later.

After three days like this, although the road was calm, the guards were already a little tired, after all, they were vigilant around the clock, even the iron man couldn't stand it.

Bai Huiye and Lu Mingyue discussed urgently, but there was no good way. There are only a few dozen people in their fleet, one is a congenital double heaven, three are the peak of the day after tomorrow, and the rest of the middle and early stages are different, but they are all martial artists, and there are no ordinary people who are too dragging their feet except for the boatmen.

This is also because he was actually only responsible for coming over to find the Tinghe Gang flaw, but he didn't expect to pick up a king fried all of a sudden, although it is a great achievement, but it is also very hot.

In the end, we can only reduce the number of vigilant personnel, let everyone take turns to rest, and at the same time tell them that even if they have made a great contribution this time, they will be indispensable for adding officials to knighthood, so as to stimulate everyone's enthusiasm.

In this way, a group of nine boats passed through three prefectures in a row without entering, and finally came to the front of the widest section of the water of the Ting River. The two sides of the river are three miles apart, almost as long as a lake, and there are several islands in the middle of the river, which are overgrown with reeds, and only a few waterways have been carved out.

"Brother Bai, is it almost there?" Zhang Qing, who was about to vomit on the water, asked with a bitter face, originally thought that living on a boat was a novelty, but now he found that it was so bumpy, and their boat was small and fast, and its resistance to wind and waves was very poor, which made him even more annoying.

"Hehe, it's fast, we can change to a big ship tomorrow, and it won't be so bumpy. It is estimated that you will be able to arrive at the state capital in the afternoon of the next day, and it will be good to hold on for another night. Bai Kapaya replied with a smile.

After this journey, less than two days further forward is the state capital, where they are considered safe, a group of guards do not know who to avoid tracking, but they think that the other party will not dare to chase near the state capital, so most of them are relieved. Only Bai Huiye, Lu Mingyue and Zhang Qing knew in their hearts that this was the last chance for the Tinghe Gang. At the same time, it had been six days since they left Huinan, which was enough for the other side to gather troops, and there were many waterways in the reeds, which was a good place for a raid, so it was almost certain that there would be a fierce battle tomorrow.

However, Bai Huiye was not too worried at this time, in fact, he judged that the enemy would wait for him in this place when he was in the middle of the road, so the day before yesterday he found a way to contact the state lord in some secret way, Liu Liang said that he would send someone to answer, and he estimated that the other party would arrive at the fleet early tomorrow morning. So the fleet was ordered to camp at an abandoned crossing in front of the lake, and wait for reinforcements to arrive. As long as reinforcements arrived, he didn't believe that the rabble of water gangs could withstand the elite division.

He only told Lu Mingyue and Zhang Qing about this matter yesterday, because he was afraid that if there was a traitor in the fleet, he would leak the news to the Tinghe Gang and let them attack in advance.

However, Zhang Qing has had a faint sense of uneasiness in his heart since the morning, but Bai Huiye, who was born in an arithmetic family, looks optimistic, and he can't say anything, it can only be attributed to the mental tension caused by not resting well under the continuous pressure in the past few days. So I went back to my cabin early to rest, hoping to refresh myself and prepare for tomorrow's battle.

The weather was not good that night, the sky was cloudy, but the rain did not fall for a long time. In order to prevent the strong wind at midnight, the boatman specially docked the boat close to the shore.

Just when Zhang Qing was sleeping, a palpitation came, making him open his eyes suddenly. This time I felt the same as the last time I was divined by Shira, but I didn't feel like I was being calculated by fate. And this panic continued, and he couldn't go back to sleep, so he had to climb out of the cabin to get some air.

He came to the outside of the cabin, and every ship lit this air death lantern, and he looked up at the sky, and it was still like a black cloud, and he couldn't see the stars and moon at all. Due to Bai Kaguya's care, his ship was surrounded by a fleet of ships, which was considered to be in the middle, so no guards were arranged to keep vigil.

Zhang Qing then walked to the side of the boat, wanting to breathe, and by the way, to see if the sentry post on the boat outside was lazy.

He looked at the shore first, and the guards basically stood in the dark and stared at the shore, and occasionally someone walked back and forth two steps to move their bodies. He looked closer to the side of the river, and it didn't matter, and a cool breath ran down his spine and into his head.

At first, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and the guards stayed in their place, but then he noticed that one of them had tilted his head. Ordinary people may think that the guards are lazy and quietly take a nap, but as a former official physician with practicing qualifications, he can be very responsible to guarantee that the neck of a living person will never turn at this angle!

He then quickly observed the other guards, the keen eyesight brought by the top exercises allowed him to clearly see the guards' every move, but the key was here, although all the guards near the center of the river were sitting and standing, they couldn't even see the chest heaving caused by breathing.

"Enemy attack!" Zhang Qing, who understood that something was wrong, shouted with all his strength.

Almost as soon as he made a sound, he saw several figures suddenly rise up from the three boats in the middle of the river and pounce on him, and several hidden weapons were thrown at him at the same time. Zhang Qing reacted very quickly, and when he saw the figure, he rolled on a lazy donkey, dodged the flying hidden weapon by the way, and rushed into the cabin with a low body. He is not timid to avoid war, but the knife is still in the cabin, and Zhang Qing's combat power without a knife is at least seventy percent lower.

When he came out with the knife on his back, he saw that Bai Kaguya had appeared on the ship he was on, knocking several people who jumped over into the air with a few moves, and at the same time beckoning the guards to start resisting.