Chang Yu explained his doubts and everyone felt very strange. They couldn't guess who used this straw shed for a while, but one thing was certain. This straw shed was not a hidden trap for thieves. Firstly, there was no food stored in it. Secondly, no one had been there for a long time. Mark of.
"I know where the charcoal came from." Wang Fuchen suddenly slapped his head: "It must have been stolen."
Most of the people who burn charcoal go into the mountains to cut trees and dig pits to burn charcoal. It is not enough for hunters who travel through mountains and forests all year round to find places where charcoal is burned.
After all, charcoal is far better than using wood directly for making a fire for heating or boiling water for barbecue. Especially when burning wood in a small thatched shed, the flames are so high that you could be cremated if you are not careful.
This guess may be possible, but it is not important. Since it is not a hidden stake for the rebels, it can be used by himself. Chang Yu ordered everyone to light a fire in the straw shed to bake their clothes and boots. There was little charcoal smoke and there was a straw shed. Covered, the little green smoke coming out is not visible in the distance.
Although Qing Yi is a woman, it is not a big inconvenience. After all, no one will take off all their clothes, just taking off their cotton robes. There is no need to avoid suspicion, but it smells very bad when a few pairs of boots are taken off.
Everyone took turns to be on guard. After resting for more than half an hour in the thatched hut, after eating and drinking, they began to cross the mountains again. They walked for more than an hour. It was already evening, and Kuang Ren climbed up to a high place and watched for a long time before flying over. Reporter: At this time, it is diagonally opposite Longmen Village where Zhang Xian is located. In other words, it took a whole day’s detour to cross the river!
"There is a village in the valley to the west, about seven or eight miles away." Wu Mushan hummed and ran over again and again. Everyone smiled at each other and finally reached a place where there were people.
Chang Yu thought for a while, and if he walked a few miles south over the mountains, he would be parallel to Longmen Village. However, there were hidden spy agents of the bandits everywhere on the mountains and down the mountains, so he could not continue walking straight south and had to take a detour.
"It's going to be dark in Tianma Mountain today. We have to find a place to stay, otherwise it will be so cold at night that we will freeze into popsicles." Everyone understood what Chang Yu said, and he was going to find a village to stay overnight.
However, everyone was very confused: "Xian Zhang told me not to enter the village or the city."
Chang Yu smiled: "Mr. Zhang, the old man, has a lot of experience. He said that he stays up at night and goes out at night. He does not make smoke in the day without lighting a fire at night. He does not enter the city or the village. These are all precious things that have been exchanged for countless lives. Experience, but! When these experiences don’t work, why don’t we do the opposite and give it a try.”
Everyone nodded, and Zhang Xian also said that they had been fighting wits and courage with the thieves for two months, and both sides knew all the tricks. They really had to take the wrong path and find a new way.
"Just listen to the shopkeeper, let's find a village to stay for one night. If we encounter a thief, we will kill him!" Qing Yi obeyed Chang Yu unconditionally. Everyone laughed, and Kuang Ren said: "It's getting cleaner and cleaner."
Everyone agreed and headed towards the village in the valley to the west. They looked at the mountains and ran to death. Your village looked like it was only seven or eight miles away in the valley, but everyone felt that they had gone at least two seven or eight miles, but they became more and more confused. Don't worry, because this place is too remote and separated by several mountains from Longmen Ferry, it is impossible for the rebels to come to this nook and cranny.
But just when everyone relaxed their vigilance, a guard at the front suddenly raised his hand to warn, and everyone hurriedly hid their figures. Wang Fuchen ducked and ran to the guard: "What's wrong, Boss Lu...".
"Smell it." The bodyguard hiding behind the tree looked into the distance. Wang Fuchen sniffed hard, and there was a strong smell of blood. He raised his eyes and glanced into the distance. There was a small mountain col over there, and a few wild dog-like animals could be vaguely seen biting something.
"Could it be a wild beast that preyed on me?" Wang Fuchen muttered.
"It's not like that." Kuang Ren came over at some point and made a gesture behind him, and then two personal guards, one from the south and one from the north, touched the mountain col.
Soon the two guards reached the mountain col, but Kuang Ren found that the two of them were motionless as if someone had tapped their acupuncture points. He felt evil in his heart, so he shot an arrow at one of them, and the man turned around to look. They glanced at each other and made no other moves.
"Damn it, are you possessed?" Kuang Ren cursed. Before he could say anything, Wang Fuchen and Wu Mushan touched him, and soon they became motionless.
Cao Kuangren didn't believe in evil, so he drew his sword from his back and rushed over. He quickly rushed to the edge of the mountain and was about to curse, but he was stunned when he saw it.
The mountain col was not deep, and inside there were six or seven corpses lying in various directions. They died in extremely miserable conditions. Some of them had hideous faces, and some even had half of their heads chewed off by wild beasts.
There was a cry of surprise from behind. Kuang Ren suddenly turned around and found that Qing Yi had arrived. Seeing the tragic scene in front of him, he turned around and ran away again in fright.
"Are they the common people who were massacred by thieves?" Chen Ruxin muttered, and Chang Yu shook his head: "They are all young and strong. If they are not thieves, they are our people."
Over there, Kuang Ren and the others had begun to examine the corpses, and pulled out a small sign and handed it to Chang Yu. This was the waist badge of the officers and soldiers! These people are the most respectable people in Chang Yu's mouth: officers and soldiers are not collected at night!
This should be a group of people who stayed overnight and were ambushed by the bandit army. There was snow on their bodies and there were no footprints around the mountain col, indicating that it should have happened before the snow fell. As for whether this was the scene of the first crime, it is difficult to say judge.
But the village many miles away is very likely the scene of the crime!
This sounded the alarm to Chang Yu, thieves were indeed everywhere!
"Shopkeeper, there are nine out of ten thieves in that village. Let's avoid them." Kuang Ren whispered, "Chang Yu's face looks extremely ugly to you, and the murderous aura in his eyes has already overflowed." He was worried that Chang Yu would impulsively go to massacre the village, but that could easily expose the target. They were not here to investigate and kill people.
Chang Yu's eyes fell on the corpses and said to himself: "If I leave today, I don't know when I can avenge you." Then he said to Kuang Ren: "Dig a hole and bury it. Qingyi and I will go to the village to ask for help." Drink with saliva".
"It's the shopkeeper!" Kuang Ren wanted to stop him, but Chang Yu glared at him so he didn't dare to speak.
Then Chang Yu and Qing Yi took off their white cloths and walked towards the village one after another. Wang Fuchen and Wu Mushan were about to follow but Chen Suole called back: "Dig a hole!"
"But the two shopkeepers..." Wang Fuchen frowned, and Chen Suole glared at him: "Dig a hole, dig it bigger."
The two of them did not dare to talk anymore, and dug the earth with their knives together with a few guards. Kuang Ren looked around, pointed at the cliff head next to him, nodded to Chen Suole, turned around and ran up.
Although it is a mountain village, it is not small. There are about a dozen families. Chang Yu and Qing Yi walked straight towards the village without making any cover up. It was already evening and twilight was beginning to fall.
There is a house at the edge of the village with a small yard and a stone wall as high as one person. Through the cracks in the two simple wooden doors, a middle-aged man can be seen tying straw in the yard. Chang Yu pushed the door forward and the man frowned: "Who is it?"
"Ask for directions and a drink of water," Chang Yu replied.
The man hesitated and opened the door, and was very surprised to see a boy and a girl dressed as Taoists: "The poor Taoist and his junior sister went into the mountains to visit friends and lost their way. They asked a fellow villager for directions and asked for a drink of hot water."
Oh oh oh, the middle-aged man is a typical mountain man. He is dressed in shabby clothes, has a weathered face, and has a somewhat dull manner: "There is water, there is water." He shouted into the house: "Gouzi, Gouzi, get some for the Taoist priest." Hot water, the Taoist priest came into the house to talk, and the house was warm."
"Okay, okay, thank you, fellow man." Chang Yu and Qing Yi walked into the house and saw a big wooden lump burning in the middle of the hall. A pot was hanging on it to boil water. A child of seven or eight years old was scooping water. A woman came from The man in the back room stuck his head out and nodded shyly towards Chang Yu and the other two.
The house was bare and there were no stools in the house. There were a few stones beside the fire. Chang Yu and Qing Yi sat down. The man was carrying water and asked, "Where did the two Taoist priests come from to visit their friends?"
"The poor man came from Sanyuan Palace in Hengshan Mountain. He went to Qingfeng Temple in Hancheng, but lost his way in the mountains." Chang Yu said casually. The man said "Oh" and saw that their clothes were torn in many places: "We are here I haven’t heard of a Taoist temple, so it seems you are really lost.”
Chang Yu stretched out his hand to warm the fire, nodded and looked around the room. His eyes fell on the child, and found that the child was looking at him curiously, his eyes flashing very cleverly.
"Two Taoist priests, please drink some hot water to warm yourself up first. I'll get you some food." The man was very enthusiastic. He turned around and left the main room. Chang Yu thanked the child and asked the child: "What's your name?" ?”
"My name is Gouzi." The child bit his lip and smiled, pointing to the sword behind Qing Yi: "Is that a peach wood sword that can catch ghosts?"
"This is a real guy. He can not only catch ghosts but also defend himself." Chang Yu said as he took out a piece of silver from his arms and handed it to him. Gouzi took it and said, "What is this?"
Children in the mountains have never seen silver. Just when Chang Yu was about to say something, your wife saw it from the back room and hurried over: "Oh, this can't be done..."
"It's not a problem, just use it as food money." Chang Yu smiled and said, "The woman accepted it with great gratitude." She turned around and left the house, saying that she was going to help make food. This played into Chang Yu's hands, and he picked up the dog. The child sat down next to him and wanted to talk to the child: "I want to ask you the way. Have you ever heard of Qingfeng Temple?"
"No." Gouzi shook his head: "I have never heard of a Taoist temple in this mountain, nor a monk temple."
"No way, I asked in the previous village, and they said it's nearby, and there are a lot of people coming." Chang Yu frowned, Gouzi tilted his head: "A lot of people have been to the village, but there really haven't been any." Listen to Qingfeng Guan, and they are not Taoist priests."
"Is that a monk?" Chang Yu asked, Gouzi shook his head: "They have hair, they are not monks" and then mysteriously said: "They are rebels..."
"Young man, what are you talking about?" The woman suddenly appeared at the door and glared at the child, then smiled apologetically at Chang Yu: "Taoist priest, don't listen to the children's nonsense. I don't know which salesman you heard the nonsense from."
Chang Yu smiled: "Whether they are rebels or soldiers, they have nothing to do with us monks..."
"You are also rebels, must I. I have seen..." Gouzi opened his mouth to speak, but was slapped by the woman: "Keep talking nonsense..." Qingyi stretched out his hand and pulled Gouzi: "Aunt, you can't be beaten..."
While he was talking, he heard a clang outside, and the courtyard door was kicked open. The man led a few big men and rushed in. One of them shouted: "Where are those two Taoist priests?"
