At this time, not only their team was resting at the foot of the mountain, there was also a caravan and the travelers following the caravan.
As for the convoy that they met halfway up the mountain, they had long since disappeared.
Shopkeeper Liang was a sociable person. As soon as dinner was ready, he took his rice bowl and sat down next to Zhou Yunshu with the news he had learned.
"I have inquired, they are going to Fucheng to celebrate the princess's birthday."
"Princess Yuyang?"
"Yes, this year is Princess Yuyang's 40th birthday. Many aristocratic families and caravans rushed to Fucheng to congratulate Princess Yuyang on her birthday!"
Shopkeeper Liang sighed as he spoke: "This Princess Yuyang is really a remarkable person. She is the niece of the current Holy Emperor. The Holy Emperor only has such a niece, so her treatment is not much worse than that of a princess!"
Zhou Yunshu nodded.
Indeed, the older the emperor got, the more he cared about his former relatives, and his only remaining relatives were a niece and nephew born to him by his sister.
The niece, Princess Yuyang, married Yang Bingtian, the magistrate of Luzhou, and had a daughter and a son; the nephew married the Jiang family of Nanzhou, and they had three daughters and one son, nine daughters and three sons, and many children.
Although Princess Yuyang is arrogant and domineering, she is still sensible; Prince Qingping is an arrogant, lawless old man. Except for his sister Princess Yuyang and the current emperor, no one in the entire Zhou Dynasty can control him. of.
Because of this, his backyard was full of chaos, especially after his wife died in childbirth. Until now, there is no one who is the head of the household in the backyard.
Thinking of these two people, Zhou Yunshu couldn't help but think of her brother Zhou Yunqi and her second wife Zhou Yunjia.
The two of them are brothers in the same sect as Yang Yuhao, the son of Princess Yuyang, and their relationship is very good.
Although Zhou Yunqi and Zhou Yunjia were on a study tour with Duan Yanyan when the incident occurred at Zhenbei Palace and could not determine their locations, Zhou Yunshu still sent a letter to Duan Yanyan's palace.
Zhou Yunshu didn't dare to say anything blatantly. She just borrowed the name of a family member of Zhou Yunqi's close classmate and wrote a letter. The content was to report safety and explain their next destination in a way that only two people could understand.
Zhou Yunshu was afraid of making too many mistakes, so she never contacted Zhou Yunqi except for this letter. She only waited for an opportunity to contact Zhou Yunqi after she settled down in Haizhou.
Because both teams at the foot of the mountain planned to settle in Baishi County, they decided to go together.
The caravan agreed so readily because they saw that there were scholars in Zhou Yunshu's team and that they did not give up their children's education even when they were fleeing famine, so they were willing to agree.
On the way to Baishi County, the two teams got along quite happily. They occasionally met refugees on the road, but no one dared to come close to them, even if they had hungry eyes.
They can still distinguish clearly who they can mess with and who they can't mess with.
They couldn't ignore such a large team, so they had to wait and see if there was anyone left.
The night before arriving in Baishi County, the two teams camped and rested together in front of a dry wheat field.
The person in charge of the caravan, Manager Qi, had a good chat with Manager Liang in the past two days. Thinking that they were going to Baishi County tomorrow, Manager Liang and Manager Qi went to Zhou Yunshu's place to chat.
It's just chatting, but it's actually an exchange of news.
After Zhou Yunshu informed Manager Qi about the news about their journey, Manager Qi also shared what he knew.
"Leave Baishi County, pass through Wolong Mountain, and walk almost two cities to get to Fucheng."
"The drought here in Baishi County is more serious, but the situation will be much better once Wolong Mountain enters the territory of the Red Lotus Sect. Apart from paying some protection fees to the Red Lotus Sect, we are relatively safe."
"Is the protection fee high?" Shopkeeper Liang looked at Manager Qi who was accustomed to paying protection fees and asked, "Isn't there anyone from the government taking care of it?"
"The protection fee is one-third of the cargo you are carrying."
Manager Qi looked at his motorcade with a wry smile on his face, "In other words, one-third of my things will be given to the Red Lotus Sect for travel expenses."
"As for the government." Manager Qi sneered, "The Red Lotus Sect has taken a clear path in Luzhou. I heard that Princess Yuyang has a good relationship with Our Lady of the Red Lotus and has taken her to several banquets."
"How many people in the whole Zhou Dynasty dare to question the person who is favored by Princess Yuyang!"
It's just a pain for ordinary people like them, who suck their blood every day.
"What is the origin of Our Lady of Red Lotus? She actually knows Princess Yuyang." Du Laosan was sitting not far from Zhou Yunshu. Hearing this, he looked at Manager Qi and asked curiously.
"I heard that she seems to be a young lady from some down-and-out aristocratic family, and she was an acquaintance of Princess Yuyang." Manager Qi exhaled, "No matter what the acquaintance is, we want to reach Fucheng safely and make friends with the Red Lotus Sect. Protection money is a must.”
"I heard they are looking for the Red Lotus Saint recently?" Shopkeeper Liang remembers the time when the magistrate of Anshan County sent his daughter away.
Oh, by the way, his daughter is on their team now.
Manager Qi curled his lips and said: "Who knows, I heard that this saint may become the goddaughter of Princess Yuyang and Mr. Yang. Now there are people everywhere asking for connections to send their daughters to Wolong Mountain so that their families can reach the sky in one step. .”
After hearing what Steward Qi said, Zhou Yunshu understood why the magistrate of Anshan County gave his daughter to the Honglian envoy. After all, who doesn't want to be relatives of the emperor.
Zhou Yunshu glanced at Yan Shilei and his group who were wiping their bows and arrows over there. They had not said anything about the conflict between Shanxia Village and the Red Lotus Sect, and whether the woman wearing the red robe of the Red Lotus was from Shanxia Village. People are still members of the Red Lotus Sect.
Although there are many doubts now, Zhou Yunshu intuitively understands all the riddles when he arrives at Wolong Mountain.
In order to reach Baishi County as early as possible, the team set off at dawn the next day.
But when they arrived at the gate of Baishi County, they saw not only countless victims, but also the closed city gates and the defenders on the gates who were ready to shoot arrows at the gates at any time.
In addition, there are many corpses piled under the city gate of Baishi County.
The corpses had been piled up for who knows how long. In addition to emitting an unpleasant odor, there were countless mosquitoes and flies flying around.
Black corpse oil flowed through it, and even the meat on it was missing pieces, making people afraid to wonder where the missing meat had gone.
Zhou Yunshu just glanced at it and immediately told the team to change direction and prepare to leave.
Something is wrong, something is wrong everywhere.
Especially the way the refugees were stooped, coughing and wanting to gag, made Zhou Yunshu feel more and more uneasy.
Manager Qi originally planned to discuss with Zhou Yunshu how to enter the city, but before he could say anything, he saw the team behind him changing direction and leaving quickly.
He looked at the refugees who started running this way not far away, and quickly caught up with Zhou Yunshu's team without saying a word.
As Shopkeeper Liang and others hurried forward, they asked Zhou Yunshu, who was sitting on the shaft of the car, "Mr. Zhou, are we leaving like this?"
He felt that there were not as many refugees at the gate of the city as there were at the gate of Anshan County. He might be able to open the city gate!
"If we don't leave, I'm afraid we will all die there."
