The Taihang Mountains are lush and green, with a winding path in the middle that winds up the mountain, with no end in sight.

When they first entered the mountain, Yuwen Ran was still in a good mood. Holding the horse whip, he turned his head and introduced to Gu Yanyue: "Terrain like Taihang Mountain is prone to encounter bandits coming out to rob..."

Before he finished saying the word "robbery", he heard a sharp horn sound among the green mountains.

Seeing this, Gu Yanyue couldn't help but complain in her heart that Yu Wenran was really good at being a jinx.

A large flag slowly rose on the top of the mountain, and bandits of all sizes showed their heads from behind the grass and trees. They were wearing homemade earthen armor, and their longbows and short swords were aimed at the people below the mountain.

A silver light flashed on the top of the mountain. Gu Yanyue squinted her eyes and looked over. It was too ridiculous that the robbers had come to the present emperor.

But when she turned her head, she found that Yuwen Ran was not smiling. Not only was he not smiling, his expression was very ugly.

A bandit on a high place was seen waving a simple flag and shouting at Yuwen Ran and others below the mountain: "Who are you? Tell me your name!"

Yuwen Ran: "Prepare to meet the enemy——"

The arrow in the bandit leader's hand was shot out almost at the same time as Yuwen Ran spoke, and hit the flag in the hands of the army with great force. A bird screamed and soared into the sky, and the sharp sound echoed throughout the valley.

The whole valley was in an uproar.

The bandits arrived so suddenly that the advance guard was unprepared. To make the crossing easier, they didn't even have horses. Almost every bandit had a horse, and they beat drums and gongs, shouting "Surround us!" Dust flew everywhere from their horses' bellies as they formed a circle around Yuwen Ran and his group.

Faced with a group of fierce bandits, the poorly equipped advance troops had no ability to resist at all. Perhaps in order to show off their power, the leading bandit kidnapped Gu Yanyue and Yuwen Ran and took them back to the mountain stronghold after robbing the supplies.

The robbery happened so quickly that Gu Yanyue had no time to react. When she came to her senses, she and Yu Wenran were tied up and taken into the mountain stronghold together.

Although Gu Yanyue heard from Yuwen Ran that the bandit culture in this area was prevalent, with groups of bandits more numerous than rabbits, and they could not be completely eradicated no matter how hard they tried, they were like weeds, "if wildfires cannot burn them all, they will grow again with the spring breeze."

But she hadn't expected the bandits to be so numerous, much less the regular army to be defeated. Aren't the bandits usually portrayed in TV dramas as numerous but limited in combat effectiveness, being annihilated by regular troops in any number? Why is the reality so different?

In TV dramas, except for the protagonist, most of the kidnapped people seem to end up being silenced.

Gu Yanyue didn't want to face the King of Hell at such a young age. She squatted on the ground and carefully studied the door lock. She found that it couldn't be opened from the inside. Even the windows were nailed shut. She came to her senses and sighed: "A Ran, what should we do now?"

Gu Yanyue was wearing men's clothes, and because she had been traveling with the army for several days, she was very dirty. She didn't look like a woman from head to toe, so the bandits didn't recognize her as a woman.

Yu Wenran raised his hand and rubbed the top of Gu Yanyue's head, not taking it seriously. He had never taken bandits seriously before, but this time he was too careless and fell into their hands. "I still have some drugs on me. When they come in to deliver the food, I will use them on them."

Gu Yanyue nodded vigorously.

Yuwen Ran continued, "When that time comes, you will leave first. I will calculate the time and wait for you to find the army, and then I will leave."

Gu Yanyue was startled, her heart sinking. "Aren't you leaving with me?"

Yu Wenran shook his head. "If the two of us leave together, we'll be too conspicuous. It's not safe."

Gu Yanyue pursed her lips slightly and argued, "If we have to leave, you should go first. You are the commander of the army and the emperor. You are also good at martial arts. The probability of successfully escaping is greater than mine. It won't be too late to lead people back to rescue me after you get out."

"Ayue, have you ever thought about what would happen to the remaining bandit if they woke up and found that one of them had escaped?" Yuwen Ran asked. "Personally, you are my wife. No matter what, I don't want you to be in danger, and I don't want you to stay here alone."

Gu Yanyue's expression was slightly tense. The more she listened to Yu Wenran, the more she felt that the danger faced by the person who stayed behind was not small. "Shouldn't it be better for the two of them to escape together?"

Yuwen Ran looked at her quietly and lowered his voice: "Ayue, be obedient. As long as you escape successfully, I am sure I can escape too."

Gu Yanyue couldn't persuade Yuwen Ran, and seeing Yuwen Ran's confident look, she could only agree.

When the guard came in carrying a food box, Gu Yanyue responded with a smile and greeted him crisply, "Brother, I want to ask if your village chief has captured us to kill us?"

Gu Yanyue looked thin and weak in the armor, like a boy who was temporarily recruited to serve as a soldier to make up the numbers.

The guard relaxed and was about to reply to the young man in front of him, but Yu Wenran stepped forward, pulled Gu Yanyue behind him, and then sprinkled the sleeping pills in his hand over to him.

The guard lay down without a word.

The "culprit" behind him patted his chest and said repeatedly: "I'm scared to death, I'm scared to death."

Gu Yanyue looked frightened, but her hands were not hesitant. She quickly took a bunch of keys from the guard's waist, left a word "be careful" to Yu Wenran, walked out of the room and left.

Gu Yanyue carefully groped her way out, leaving some marks on the road to help Yu Wenran reduce the time spent exploring the route when he escaped later.

But as the saying goes, when a person is unlucky, even drinking cold water will cause his teeth to get stuck. After Gu Yanyue finally managed to get out of the mountain stronghold, he ran into a group of muscular bandits riding back on horseback from outside.

A small thug pointed at Gu Yanyue and said, "Boss! Look, there's a woman over there!"

Gu Yanyue just stopped as she was about to take a step back. It was bad enough that she was unlucky, but her identity was discovered by the man next to her at a glance. How bad was her Mercury retrograde!

When the man who was called the boss heard that there was a woman, he laughed out loud and rushed in the direction the man next to him was pointing.

When I ran in, I saw that it was indeed a woman, and she looked pretty good.

The eldest brother was itching to do something. He stroked his beard and raised his hand, saying to the brothers behind him: "Brothers! Take this woman back to the village!"

There was a burst of cheers afterwards, and soon after Gu Yanyue left the stronghold, it was taken back by the returning boss, and this time he took it back in the identity of a girl.

The eldest brother was quite chivalrous and kind to women. This time, he was reluctant to even let Gu Yanyue into the dungeon. He respectfully "invited" her to live in the upper room of the mountain stronghold.