On the official road.
Dust billows.
A convoy of carriages walked on the official road.
Boom.
Boom.
The wheels of the carriage were bumped by stones from time to time.
This team.
There are three carriages in total.
On each carriage, there was a driver and a government servant wearing a government uniform with a knife.
There are tall trees on both sides of the official road.
Forests of green trees.
These trees all grew tall and dark, making it difficult for the sun to shine through.
A blue curtain on the carriage was pulled back, revealing the face of a young man about twenty years old.
The man was born with handsome features and fair skin. He looked a bit like a rich man and had a scholarly temperament. But there is a sharpness in his eyebrows that can only be found in martial arts people.
The official road of the ancients, to put it bluntly, is a flattened and compacted dirt road.
There was a lot of dust outside the carriage.
Jin An raised his hand to fan the dust outside the curtains of the carriage, and looked at the tall trees outside the carriage with a slightly surprised look on his face.
"Captain Feng, where are we now?"
"We came all the way from Chang County. We rarely see such huge woods on both sides of the official road?"
"I didn't expect there to be such a big forest here."
It's like a bunch of woods suddenly popping up in the plain.
Really eye-catching.
"where?"
"where?"
"I want to see it too, old man."
A big face curiously squeezed over and pushed Jin An's head away. The old Taoist priest looked at the tall trees outside the carriage and shouted in a fuss, "It's really true, little brother."
The old Taoist priest, who had no idea that Jin An wanted to stab someone secretly, shouted at Jin An with a look of surprise on his face, and sprayed a few drops of saliva onto Jin An's face at close range.
Several black lines hung down from Jin An's forehead.
He wanted to stab someone in secret.
At this time, Feng Baotou's voice came from the carriage.
"There used to be a village here called Shenjiapu. Then there was a plague and everyone in the village died. Shenjiapu became a dead village with ten rooms and ten empty rooms."
"This happened for a long time. There is no clear record in the county annals, and Feng doesn't know the specific situation at that time. Later, this abandoned and empty village, because no one lived in it all year round, no one repaired the houses, gradually fell into the wind and rain. It disappeared, and its specific location cannot be found in the old county records.”
"When Feng was a child, he heard from the older generation that when he left Chang County and walked along the official road, if he saw a large forest, that was the former Shenjia Fort."
After listening to Feng Baotou's introduction, Jin An couldn't help but look at it curiously.
It seems that many people did die that year.
These trees absorb a lot of nutrients.
No wonder it can grow so tall.
At this time, the sky was getting dark.
The driver driving the carriage carefully warned the people in the carriage.
He said it was difficult to walk at night, and the view was not good at night, so it was inconvenient to find people. He asked Feng Captou if he wanted to find a place to rest for the night first.
Feng Baotou thought it was reasonable. After asking Jin An and the old Taoist priests for their opinions, he ordered people to find a place to rest for the night.
"Captain Feng told the people in the government office to stay away from the woods. Although the plague has passed for a long time, there is nothing wrong with being careful."
The injury on his chest has not yet healed, and the white bandage can still be seen through the collar of Feng Baotou's face. A look on his face: "Mr. Jin An, did you notice something strange?"
Jin An shook his head.
He said he was just being cautious and careful.
Feng Baotou nodded. He didn't think that Jin An was too careful when he left the county. In this barren mountain, he had to be careful.
So, the convoy was at the foot of a mountain some distance away from the forest, and the three carriages formed a small circle, forming a defensive posture of horns to ward off wild beasts or bandits at night.
Then the yamen servants started to find some dry firewood and hay from the mountains behind them, set fire to boil water, and distribute dry food.
There were more than a dozen people in the three carriages, forming two circles.
In a circle, all ordinary government officials gathered together.
There were only four people in the other, slightly smaller circle, namely Jin An, the old Taoist priest, the injured Feng Baotou, and a forty-year-old rough monk with a few scars on his head.
"Monk Pu Zhi, are you sure that those of your escort brothers are following this official path?"
"If we continue walking, we will leave the boundary of Chang County, but we still haven't found any clues along the way. Is it possible that we temporarily changed the route midway?"
Feng Bao asked the scarred monk.
This scarred monk was one of the escorts who came to the Yamen to report the crime.
Based on mutual introductions during the two days of traveling in the same car, Jin An also learned about the origin of this monk with a scar. Monk Pu Zhi was kicked out of the temple because he repeatedly violated the monk's precepts, each time violating the precepts on alcohol, meat, and sexual intercourse with women.
Monk Pu Zhi grew up in the temple since he was a child. He had no skills and worked as a coolie on the dock, but was driven away by the dock gang.
I worked as a nurse for a landlord's house, but I couldn't bear the humiliation and humiliation of being driven back and forth, so I quit the job after a short time.
Finally became a green forest.
Later, he started a career as a voyeur, which was a fast-paying, wine-and-meat business.
The last time they took over a job for someone, they got into trouble. Several brothers died and others were injured. Monk Pu Zhi was injured last time. So this time, Monk Pu Zhi did not accompany the escort.
But after waiting and waiting, no news came back from the brothers in the escort office. They, the wounded who stayed behind in the escort office, asked around and realized that something had happened.
After the escort team entered the territory of Chang County, they disappeared mysteriously and never left Chang County at all.
In the end, due to the shortage of manpower, it was difficult to find people. Monk Pu Zhi decided to give it a try, thinking that they were also working for the yamen of other counties. He hoped that the Chang County yamen could help them find people for the sake of serving the public. Lost the secret escort, so he went to the Changxian Yamen reporting officer.
Faced with Feng Captou's question, Monk Pu Zhi shook his head.
"Whether it is an escort or an escort, there is a fixed route, and the route will not be changed temporarily."
"It's like we are escorts, we have the taboo of not going into trouble. Whatever path we take is carefully considered, and we will never take detours for no reason. Because it is unexpected, we have to face more unexpected situations along the way. .”
Monk Pu Zhi speaks in a very rough voice.
At first glance, he looks like a monk who doesn't have that many tricks up his sleeve and has a straightforward temperament.
Several people continued to talk around the campfire, but the old Taoist priest was surprisingly quiet.
Since Monk Pu Zhi followed the motorcade, the old Taoist priests who used to talk a lot would become much quieter as long as Monk Pu Zhi is around.
Maybe Taoist priests and monks have been enemies since ancient times?
See each other?
The sun sets, and the vast land is gradually shrouded in night.
Suddenly, there was a commotion among the government officials sitting in a circle. Feng Baotou's face darkened, he stood up and asked what was going on?
But I saw two government officials with painful expressions on their faces, holding their stomachs in their hands and falling to the ground.
