After another day of walking, the sky in the distance began to become hazy.
Ma Dali came over and reminded loudly, "We are about to leave Laigu and enter Misty County. Everyone, please cherish the sunshine above your head."
Everyone in the fortress nodded.
Mist County, also commonly known as Mist Marsh.
In ancient times, this was once a vast ocean. Later, the water receded and turned into a huge swamp.
This swamp is shrouded in thick mist all year round, so it is also called the foggy wetland.
"Drive!"
All the coachmen waved their whips eagerly, urging the convoy to move forward.
The Laigu County behind him was sunny and beautiful, but it felt suffocating and depressing. Everyone wanted to leave immediately.
Ma Dalong continued to spread the news.
"Attention ladies and children of the fortress. The misty wetland ahead is full of unfathomable swamps and mud pits. After getting off the car, you are only allowed to stay on the post road. It is strictly forbidden to wander around. Otherwise, you may get trapped if you are not careful. Once you go into a swamp, you can never get out, do you understand?"
"I know." Everyone nodded in response.
"Ma Qianchang," someone asked curiously, "What should the female relatives do if they want to relieve themselves?"
"Don't worry, everyone." Ma Dali was not surprised: "We have already planned. When we get to the parking place, we will build a batch of temporary toilets for the female family members to use."
The convoy rolled forward, but it stopped shortly after entering the Misty County area.
"Someone, someone, someone! The car is stuck." Someone shouted from the front.
Ren Ning drove his horse up and immediately understood what happened.
After all, the post road under our feet was built on a swamp, and in ancient times there were no heavy machinery to help compress the roadbed. The caravans traveling from east to west, dragging heavy goods, had long compressed the post road into a "W" shape.
The carriage in front happened to be stuck in the deep ruts on both sides. No matter how hard the two horses tried, they couldn't drag the car half way.
Hold!
One of the caravan guards spat out thick phlegm.
"This motherless Sheriff of the Mist is merciless when it comes to tolls, customs duties and city entrance taxes, but he never knows how to send people to repair this damn road."
If you scold me, come down and push the cart.
Being a caravan guard is not an easy job. When they encounter robbers and bandits, they have to fight against them. When you encounter this situation, you have to get out and push the cart.
More than two dozen guards raised their buttocks and pushed hard for a long time. However, the car was carrying a heavy panlong stone and could not move at all.
"Old Ma, how long will it take to get to the parking spot?" Ren Ning asked Ma Dalong, who was most familiar with the situation.
"It depends on luck." Ma Dali raised his head and glanced ahead, "It can take at least an hour, or at most half a night."
There are swamps everywhere in Mist County. When the road was first built, some places similar to highway service areas were specially built on the roadside to provide parking for passing caravans to rest.
But there are not many such places, and more importantly, other caravans may move in first and occupy the "service area". Therefore, it is not easy for the team to find a place to rest in Misty County.
If they encounter the following situation, the team will have to continue moving forward in the dark.
But there is no need to worry about meeting bandits at night, because except for a few small towns in the entire Misty County, it is impossible for people to live anywhere else.
"Take a few people to the front to have a look." Ren Ning ordered Ma Dali and waved back, "Everyone else will come down and help push the cart."
The fortress soldiers were divided into two groups, each performing their duties.
Nearly a hundred people were pulling and pushing. After a long time, the heavy car was finally pulled out of the deep ruts. And everyone became mud monkeys.
Ren Ning wiped the mud off his face, looked back at the long motorcade, and suddenly his head felt a little bigger.
"Thank you for your hard work, everyone." Gu Fugui brought some food and came over to express condolences to everyone.
Ren Ning snorted and stared at the old housekeeper angrily.
He now has some doubts. This is what the Gu family caravan had in mind.
On the surface, they asked the fortress soldiers to protect the caravan. In fact, I asked these strong soldiers to help push the cart when passing through this misty wetland.
Ancient wealth and honor are also personal essences.
Ren Ning looked over grimly, and he explained that there was no silver in this place. "How could that be possible? Didn't I encounter bandits and robbers when passing through the Luoxia Mountains..."
After some explanation, Ren Ning let him go.
The Gu family caravan takes this trade route every year and is familiar with the road conditions in Misty County, so it is well prepared.
The servants who drove the cart quickly removed some large tree poles from several cars behind them, put them into the deep ruts on the road, and then tried to drive the car over.
The effect is good. Most cars can be driven through smoothly if you are careful.
But there are always some cars slipping from the tree poles into the ruts, which can even overturn the driver's horse. In severe cases, even the axle may break.
If the axle is broken, it must be repaired. But overall, it went quite smoothly.
It's just that this road is really bad. The convoy had not walked a few miles when the wood brought with it was used up. However, another car in front got stuck in the ruts.
The servants of the caravan were not surprised. Carrying hoes, picks and other tools, they went back to dig up the previously buried wood for later use.
Ren Ning was speechless.
The road is already rotten. If you use a hoe to dig up the soil, won't it become even worse?
Moreover, the misty wetland in front of us was very foggy and humid. After going back and forth several times, the entire road was probably turned into a muddy pond.
He looked grimly at the heavy car.
The cart was loaded with heavy and solid stones. How about unloading the stones and filling them into the road as a roadbed?
Of course, this is just his idea and it will never happen.
It is much more valuable to transport the stones on the cart to the east or south of Yunchui than to fill them under your feet and use them as roadbed.
"This broken road..." Gu Fugui cursed and came over to comfort Ren Ning.
"Commander, don't worry. This short stretch of road in the entire Misty County is the most difficult to walk. After these two days, the road ahead will be easier to walk."
However, three days later, I looked at the road ahead which was still muddy. The exhausted Lei Er kicked the old guy into the rut.
"Is this road made by him easy to travel?"
Gu Fugui crawled out with a sneer on his face, "This has nothing to do with us. It should be because it has rained in the past few days."
As soon as he said it was raining, the thick fog in front of him turned into water and started to fall thinly.
Spring rain is very cold. The convoy couldn't move again, and everyone in the fortress was preparing to go back to rest.
Someone came back from the front on horseback to report the news.
"Hurry up. A large caravan is coming from ahead. The caravan moves forward quickly. If it doesn't move, both sides will be stuck here."
The post road was originally quite well built, so at least it wouldn't be a problem for two carriages to travel together.
But now the entire road is divided into at least three parts by ruts. It's not easy to pass by without a car.
Everyone had no choice but to pull the cart.
In this way, the entire convoy was pulled eastward almost by human power. When we parked our cars to rest at night, everyone was so tired that they were as tired as dead dogs.
This is nothing.
It rains or fogs every day, coupled with the miasma and the temperature changes greatly at night. The children in the fortress soon developed various symptoms of discomfort.
Fortunately, the team brought enough medicinal materials and the two doctors accompanying the team worked hard to treat him, so nothing happened.
Ren Ning checked his team and told some jokes to the children in the car from time to time, making them laugh.
He looked deeply ahead.
If he hadn't collected money from others in advance, and now he was blocked behind the caravan, Ren Ning would have really wanted to quit, leave the caravan, and lead the group eastward by himself.
Ma Dali knew he was guilty, so he explained with a grimace.
"Four years ago, when the souls were sent back to their hometown, although the roads in Mist County were also bad, they were not so exaggerated. Maybe the damn Mist County Sheriff has never sent anyone to maintain this road since he took office."
After walking for almost ten days, we finally arrived at Wuliang City, the capital of Misty County.
Approaching the capital of a county, the road finally looks a lot better. However, there was an uproar in the front, and there was even the sound of weapons clashing.
