Besides, Li Rufeng and his party of four entered Luotian County and were thinking about how to find Feng Yanlang's whereabouts. Suddenly, there was a commotion in the street, and two flag officers were seen riding tall horses in front, shouting: "Get out of the way, get out of the way..." A guard behind them sounded a gong to clear the way, and the people gave way.
A large group of people came over in a mighty manner. In the middle of the team, there were several large carts and boxes. I heard someone on the roadside say: "It's time to serve tea again." The four of them were confused and confused as to what "serving tea" meant.
"Sister Yan, let's go quickly!" Zeng Jinyi was anxious to find Feng Yanlang and then find his father's remains. So the four of them turned around a few streets and finally squeezed out of the city from the south.
After walking for about 10 kilometers, we came to the foot of a mountain. Suddenly I heard the call of men and horses, and a cavalry of more than a hundred people roared past. I saw that those people were all big men with beards, their clothes were tied up randomly, they were holding various weapons in their hands, and they had fierce looks on their faces. Some of those people looked at them viciously, which made Zeng Jinyi's scalp numb.
Li Rufeng kept feeling that something was wrong, and after walking forward for half a stick of incense, he suddenly stopped. Fang Lingyan also shouted: "Not good". The two stopped at the same time and looked at each other.
"What?" Jing Yunpeng obviously hadn't realized anything yet.
"The group of people just now were horse thieves, going for that batch of goods." Li Rufeng said.
"Horse thief? Cargo? What cargo?" Jing Yunpeng hasn't figured it out yet.
"It's those big boxes we saw in the city." Fang Lingyan added.
"Yunpeng, you and Jinyi go first. Wait for us at Jiangshanyue in Hankou. Your senior sister Fang and I will go see what those horse thieves are up to." Li Rufeng said to Jing Yunpeng.
Disciples of the Five Sacred Mountains have always been deeply taught by chivalrous people. When encountering such a thing, they will probably take action.
"But..." Jing Yunpeng wanted to say that he and Zeng Jinyi were not used to being on the road, but he was afraid that Li Rufeng and Fang Lingyan would think too much, so he had to stop. An idea struck and he said, "But when will you come back? Sister Jinyi is very anxious."
These words brought everyone back to reality. How could Zeng Jinyi still find Zeng Xuanying?
Zeng Jinyi looked into everyone's eyes and understood the thoughts of her brothers and sisters. However, she still wanted to find her father, whether he was alive or dead.
"It's okay, Sister Yan, I can leave alone first."
This made the three of them feel very embarrassed. Fang Lingyan thought for a while and then said to Li Rufeng: "How about I go with them and wait for you at Jiangshanyue. No matter what you find out, we will definitely arrive at Hankou tomorrow evening to meet you.
"Well, that's fine. The three of you haven't traveled much, so we have someone to take care of you together."
"We're fine. It's just that, senior brother, you must be careful in everything! If something serious happens, you must let us know."
"It's okay, it's not my first time drifting in the world." Li Rufeng looked free and easy. Fang Lingyan knew that Li Rufeng had experience in walking alone in the world. However, the Five Sacred Mountains are now falling apart after all. In extraordinary times, there are more extraordinary things, and she can't help but feel a little worried about Li Rufeng.
The four of them decided to go their separate ways and left.
Li Rufeng turned back and followed the horse thief's trail carefully. After walking for more than twenty miles, we reached the foot of a mountain and saw two corpses at the intersection, both wearing guard uniforms. When I got closer, I saw that a small river was in a mess. There were corpses of guards and horse thieves, but the carts were gone. Li Rufeng searched everywhere and found an extended rut, so he followed the rut to explore the way forward. He followed the rut for about half a stick of incense and entered the mountain. The rut disappeared, but a series of traces were left behind. Traces of soil retreading caused by intentional covering of footprints. Li Rufeng snorted and walked away in search of the trace. Unknowingly, he was already up the mountain. Strangely, sixty feet away from the foot of the mountain, the path up the mountain suddenly turned left, and the traces suddenly disappeared. Li Rufeng looked carefully and found nothing unusual on the road except for a pavilion on the right for pedestrians to rest. Could it be that these horse thieves wiped out all the ruts? There is no way there will be no trace at all. Li Rufeng thought for a while, not knowing what to do. He thought about it until he reached the top of the mountain.
Along the way up the mountain, Li Rufeng didn't encounter anything. He just found a natural statue of Guanyin on the stone wall in the southeast of Shandong. What was different from other places was that this statue of Guanyin was sitting with his back, and there was a message of greeting on both sides of the statue. "Ask the master why he turned his back, and advise everyone to turn back as soon as possible." People secretly marveled.
After walking another 4 miles, we reached the top of the mountain and saw an ancient temple hidden in the lush forest. This ancient temple seems to have been built a long time ago. Although it is not big, it is quite impressive. The four characters "Guanyin Mountain Temple" are clearly written on the main entrance of the temple.
Li Rufeng walked in and saw a Buddha statue standing in the main hall, but it was modeled after the reverse-backed Guanyin statue on the mountainside. Li Rufeng walked through the hall and walked around the temple, but there was no one there. Could it be that this is a temple that does not receive incense? Li Rufeng vaguely felt that this was inextricably linked to the killing of the officers and soldiers and the robbery of the goods.
He walked to the highest point of the mountain behind the temple and thought about it, but he couldn't find the problem. Feeling annoyed, he raised his head and looked down the mountain, and suddenly found that there was something strange about the mountain. The shape of the mountain was " "D" shape.
I saw that there are several places on the mountainside that are concave inward. Especially in the direction from which I just came up the mountain, there is one place that seems to be a deep stream. The sides of the deep stream are very steep and lush with trees. It is difficult to see what is inside from the outside. . And that's not far from where the rut just disappeared. Li Rufeng also thought that the temple didn't look like it was uninhabited, which was obviously unreasonable.
My intuition told me that there must be someone in that deep stream. Li Rufeng decided to go there first to find out before making any calculations. After getting off the high platform, Li Rufeng stood up and ran towards the deep stream on the mountainside. In just one cup of tea, Li Rufeng reached the cliff on the west side of the deep stream. He looked carefully and found that the road was surrounded by bushes and there was nothing special about it. After thinking about it for a long time, Li Rufeng decided to go down to the stream to find out what was going on. Then he jumped and followed the vines and shrubs on the cliff to the bottom of the valley. I saw a piece of flat land below, which was actually wider than the mouth of the stream, but it was not clear. The bright light from above sprinkled down bit by bit, shining on a piece of moist soil, with a small stream running through the middle. There were obvious signs of human activity next to the creek.
Li Rufeng was overjoyed and walked upstream along the stream. Not long after walking, the stream became narrower and narrower, and the ground became drier and smoother. It looked like people were passing by frequently. Li Rufeng unconsciously became cautious, taking one step at a time. Not far away, I suddenly saw what seemed to be a door on the opposite cliff.
Li Rufeng used Qinggong to cross the stream and arrived in front of the door. A closer look revealed that it was indeed a stone door. It's strange that there is a stone gate in such a deep gorge. It must be inhabited by people. Li Rufeng was even more certain that the robbed goods must be related to this. Li Rufeng didn't dare to open the door rashly, and listened for a while with his ear against the door panel, but heard nothing, so he prepared to open the door and go in, but was unable to open it. Just as he was about to give up, he glanced at the cliff and found that it was covered with uneven stones. Maybe the switch was set on it. Thinking in his mind, Li Rufeng started pressing and twisting on the stones, and finally pressed the switch a few feet away from the door, and the door opened slowly. What appeared in front of him was a staircase facing the stone gate. Li Rufeng polished the fire seal he carried with him and walked up the staircase. After walking for less than half a cup of tea, he found another dead end, above his head. There are hard stone slabs all over.
Li Rufeng thought for a while and realized that it turned out that this was leading to the ground, so the stone slab above the head was the door that opened upwards, but he had to find the mechanism. He touched it casually for a long time, but there was no reaction. Li Rufeng used his inner strength to strike upward again, but the stone slab did not move at all. Although he knew that he might be able to find out how the goods disappeared if he went out from here, he was stuck here, and Li Rufeng felt a little discouraged. He calmed down, carefully analyzed the situation inside and outside the mountain, and suddenly realized that this place might be under the pavilion near where the rut disappeared. In this case, I couldn't find the mechanism to open the door for a while, so I turned around and went back. After those people brought the things in, they must have hidden them somewhere inside.
Li Rufeng returned to the stream and continued walking. Not far away, he found a waterfall. The water in the stream flowed down from a height of three feet. Behind the water curtain is suddenly a cave, which can be entered by winding along the path beside the stream. I saw that the hole was about 7 feet high and 3 feet wide. Li Rufeng wondered how those people transported the entire truckload of goods down from the secret passage and then in through such a narrow opening. All the goods inside must have been moved out. Then, the goods in the box should not be very heavy, and those large carts should have been pushed somewhere and hidden. He cautiously entered the hole and heard a faint sound, as if a group of people were laughing loudly inside.
Li Rufeng steadied his steps and moved forward gently against the cave wall. Slowly, he felt stronger lights and shadows flickering, and he could even see many figures on the opposite side. He knew in his heart that he had arrived at a lobby in the cave.
The cave is relatively simple, and the cave walls are all hewn. There are no bricks and stones, and there are no partitions. The people inside probably didn't expect anyone to come in at all. There were no guards posted at the pavilion above or by the stream below, let alone the cave.
Li Rufeng clung to the cave wall and listened to their loud discussion. He actually wanted to take a batch of tea to Hankou in batches and smuggle it to the West by water. It turned out that the robbed goods were the local tribute tea that Li Rufeng was looking for, which was a fine treasure. But precisely because of this, the bandits did not dare to sell them in the Ming Dynasty and could only smuggle them to the West. It should be noted that at this time, the East China Sea during the Ming Dynasty was not peaceful. From time to time, small groups of Japanese pirates would come ashore to plunder, and many of them were in collusion with the Chinese bandits.
After understanding these circumstances, the matter is basically clear. Now we only need to report it to the local government, and the government will lead people to search the place to solve the case. Although Li Rufeng was a member of the martial arts community, he felt very good about being a spy this time. He thought that he would go back to the county to report the situation to the local government, so that he could catch up with Fang Lingyan and others earlier. Of course, he has a deeper purpose. If this tribute tea has something to do with the palace, then he may get a chance.
