Sure enough, the dried horse meat and skin made the Mongolian team extremely angry and pursued them. Just marching on the mountain road, the Mongolian cavalry led the horse forward at a slower speed than the grain collection team who often walked. Yu Zhu did not urge the soldiers to hurry, but walked leisurely. When it got dark like this, the Mongolian team was still more than a mile away from the food collection team.
After the sky darkened, the pursuing Mongolian soldiers stopped advancing. One side of this section of the mountain road is a steep and tall mountain, and the other side is a cliff. Under the cliff is the turbulent Wenjing River, which is really not suitable for night travel. Although the Mongolian army had plenty of milk and meat and no need to worry about night blindness, they stopped to camp in order to prevent their horses from being injured on the rugged mountain roads. The food collection team, led by Ouyang Xuan, continued to file in. They walked about two miles before they had to stop because the light from their headlights was already very weak. The headlamp had used up most of its battery during the last night attack and would not be able to be used again after this time. Ouyang Xuan sadly put away the items he brought from the 21st century and carefully packed them in his backpack. In the years to come, when he misses his parents and his life in another world, he will take it out, touch it, look at it, and then meditate quietly.
Yu Zhu arranged for the whole team to camp on the spot, without making any noise or lighting a fire. Ouyang Xuan, like everyone else, slept against the mountain beside the road and his clothes. Although this place is three miles away from the Mongolian soldiers' camp and twenty miles away from Wanjiaping where the bandits are located, in order to prevent night attacks, the entire team was divided into three squads to keep vigil. Some people also proposed a night attack on the Mongols, but the soldiers in the food collection team generally suffered from night blindness. A night attack in this narrow and dangerous place would not be able to deploy the troops to take advantage of the numerical advantage, and it would be easy to fall off the cliff. Not to mention that the Mongols who had just been attacked at night must be prepared, the risk was too great. Besides, they still have to keep Mongolian soldiers to prevent bandit attacks.
At dawn, Ouyang Xuan saw that Yu Zhu was still sleeping, so he sent people to inquire about the situation of the Mongolian army, and went to explore the road while the others took out dry food and water. It was already dark when the two groups of explorers came back, but Yu Zhu, who was always alert, still hadn't woken up. Ouyang Xuan was so anxious that he gently shook Yu Zhu, who was leaning on him. Unexpectedly, he groaned and rolled to the ground. His eyes were still closed, and everyone gathered around him in shock. When Ouyang Xuan saw this, he stepped forward to take a closer look. He felt that his breathing was still stable but his forehead was burning, and he drank two sips of water for his order. Yu Zhu woke up after a while. He tried hard to use his eyes to say something to Ouyang Xuan, but just as he opened his mouth, he fainted again.
At this time, the weather was already bright, and the rear team came to report that the Mongolian soldiers had led their horses towards everyone. At this moment, Ouyang Xuan was in a state of confusion. He could not have imagined that he would be so unlucky when traveling through time. Not to mention that he was traveling through the troubled times of Tianfu in the late Southern Song Dynasty. In the past few days, he had been experiencing a series of bad lucks. His food collection team was being hunted down by the Mongols. Being squeezed out by his superiors at every turn, first Li Shuang was injured and then Yu Zhu fell ill, this heavy responsibility suddenly fell on him, who had only been in the team for a day. The decisions he made and the orders he issued were related to the lives and fortunes of more than 50 people in the team. Seeing the eyes of everyone looking at him, Ouyang Xuan forced himself to calm down. After thinking for a moment, he issued his first order after taking office: "Huang Dagen will lead the fire personnel as the front team, and Cao Ergou will lead the fire personnel as the front team." For the rear team, the two teams brought more shields and daggers, and the whole team accelerated their march..."
Ouyang Xuan asked people to make a simple stretcher with spear poles and ropes, and everyone took turns carrying Yu Zhu forward. At this time, Yu Zhu was waking up and falling asleep, and in a daze, he sometimes cried out that he was cold and sometimes felt hot. Zhu Tiaozi, a new salesman who joined the team, was well-informed and called Yu Zhu's disease "babozi". Ouyang Xuan knew that "babozi" was actually malaria. It was caused by malaria parasites multiplying in the blood and causing red blood cells to rupture. Artemisinin can treat this disease. It's a special medicine. It's just that I don't have any medicine in hand at the moment, and I don't have time to collect herbs. The only way to cure the disease is to get rid of the Mongolian pursuers.
Although the mountain road was difficult to navigate, everyone moved quickly under the pursuers. Before noon, everyone approached Wanjiaping where the bandits were located. After passing the bend ahead, they reached Wanjiaping. At this time, Huang Dagen came to report that the front team could not advance because bandits stood on the mountain tower next to the mountain road and fired arrows to obstruct them. Ouyang Xuan followed Huang Dagen to check the situation. After turning the corner, the terrain ahead suddenly became clear, and a wide area of more than ten acres appeared. The two roads going forward along the river and going up the mountain to the right meet in this wide area to form a T-shaped intersection. The road going forward along the Wenjing River continues to Goujiaping, Liuliba and other places deep in the mountains, while the road going up the mountain to the right is Leading to Wanjiazhai, five miles up the mountain is Wanjiazhai. The so-called Wanjiaping is not a flat land, but a collective name for more than ten gently sloping lands, the largest of which is about a few hundred acres and is the location of Wanjiazhai. Although Wanjiaping is located in a mountainous area, if the weather is good, the food it produces can be eaten by thousands of families, hence the name Wanjiaping. However, due to frequent wars, not only the productivity of the plains below the mountains has been seriously damaged, but the production on the mountains has also shrunk due to lack of materials. Now only some slopes are still cultivated. Ouyang Xuan looked to the right. There was a large gentle slope on the mountainside. He could vaguely see Wanjiazhai. It looked like it could accommodate no less than a thousand people. The slopes around the village were full of crops. There were also scattered shacks on the slopes above the mountainside. and crops. There are several wooden fortresses and watchtowers at strategic points on the path to the village. People can be seen standing on two watchtowers nearby. The bandit's secret sentry must have known in advance that the officers and soldiers and Mongolian soldiers had entered the mountain, so he stood on the watchtower on the road leading to Wanjiazhai early. The arrow fired at the front team led by Huang Dagen came from a watchtower about half a mile away from the intersection. It's just that although the bandits were condescending and the range of their bows and arrows was increased by more than half, the distance was too far and the bow power was extremely weak, so the arrows they shot at the intersection were weak and no one was hurt.
When everyone was lining up, a thin man squeezed beside him. Ouyang Xuan turned around and saw that it was Yang Xiucai, a new member of the team. Yang Xiucai raised his thin, yellow, pointed face and said, "Sir, I have a plan to stop the Tatar soldiers from chasing me." Seeing the confused looks on Ouyang Xuan and others' faces, he turned his mouse-like little Yan said again: "We can throw the horse meat and horse skin on the path leading to Wanjiaping Mountain Village. The Tatar soldiers will chase after them in anger..." As soon as this was said, everyone cheered softly. After being encouraged by everyone, Yang Xiucai added that the horse hide should be ground into fine pieces to make it useless, and the bandits would not pick it up... Yang Xiucai's clever plan made Ouyang Xuan lament in his heart that people really can't be judged by their appearance. According to Yang Xiucai himself, the reason why he was punished and sent to the army was not only for disobeying his boss, but also because his boss didn't like his ugly appearance, so he often found trouble and took the opportunity to punish him. But he often avoided it cleverly. This time, he finally caught his fault and drove him to the food collection team.
Everyone followed the plan, slowly walked through the open space, and entered the mountain road along the river. When the bandits saw that the grain collection team continued walking into the mountains instead of going to Wanjiazhai, they did not pursue them. After the whole team was completely out of the arrow range, Fire Chief Chen Hu led two soldiers back and rushed towards the mountain road to Wanjiazhai. When the bandits saw several officers and soldiers holding shields rushing up the path leading to the mountain stronghold, they changed their slack posture and fired arrows violently. Rapid gongs and drums also sounded from various fortresses and watchtowers. After scattering the finely chopped horsehide and horsemeat, Chen Hu and the others rolled and crawled back, looking extremely miserable. Fortunately, when the three of them ran back, the arrows no longer fired violently on the mountain, and the arrows became sparse and weak again. It seems that just as Ouyang Xuan predicted before entering the mountain, the bandits have no interest in robbing the officers and soldiers, and they have an attitude of not disturbing the river.
After passing the open area at the intersection, the mountain road suddenly narrowed again, but it was much wider than the road when we first entered the mountain. Ouyang Xuan left Cao Ergou and two fast-footed soldiers to observe the movements of the Mongols, while the rest of the group accelerated their pace towards the mountains. On the one hand, he was afraid that the Mongols would fall into the trap and attack Wanjiaping. On the other hand, Ouyang Xuan wanted to rush to Liuliba, which was forty miles away, before dark. He wanted to find a mountain settlement as soon as possible to treat Yu Zhu. .
