The rock that Wei Yunlan climbed was the top rock among several large rocks stacked on top of each other.
Standing at this position, you are nearly two people tall from the ground.
Ningshuang and Tingxue stood below and said cautiously, "Miss, be careful."
Wei Yunlan nodded, and when he came down, he moved down step by step along the path he had just climbed up.
When he reached the last step, his feet slipped slightly and he slid down.
Before Ningshuang and Tingxue could go forward to support her, two dark shadows passed by. They were Heiyun and Qi Xu.
The dog and the man just happened to pull Wei Yunlan's sleeves on both sides.
Seeing that Wei Yunlan had stood firm, Qi Xu immediately let go of his hand.
On the other side, Heiyun slowly spit out the sleeve that was in his mouth and glared at Qi Xu angrily.
It seemed as if she was angry that he had taken the lead.
"Oh, Miss, you scared me to death." Tingxue and Ningshuang hurried over and smoothed out the wrinkles on Wei Yunlan's clothes.
Then he asked with concern, "Miss, you climbed so high, what are you looking at?"
When asked this, Qi Xu also glanced over with some curiosity.
The mountains in Yandu Gorge are steep and rocky. It is rarely visited by people and few people go near it.
"Look at this mountain valley. Where does it lead to?"
Tingxue and Ningshuang blinked in confusion.
Qi Xu looked thoughtfully in the direction Wei Yunlan had just looked from the top of the mountain. The canyon sandwiched between the steep mountain walls had no end in sight.
At this time, Wei Yunlan asked, "Mr. Xiao, have the people from your Tianshu Pavilion ever set foot on the other side of Yandu Gorge?"
"No." Qi Xu replied: "Outside Yandu Gorge, it no longer belongs to Dayong's territory. Tianshu Pavilion has never set foot outside Dayong."
When he mentioned the word "Dayong", there seemed to be a different emotion in his tone, which made Wei Yunlan look at him with some confusion.
He had a vague feeling that this "Guard Xiao" seemed very different from the other guards of Tianshu Pavilion.
Perhaps her previous guess was not entirely accurate.
This "Guard Xiao" might have a bigger background...
"Miss Wei seems to be very interested in the other side of Yandu Gorge?"
The clear and deep voice brought Wei Yunlan back to his senses.
If someone else asked this question, she might not give a direct answer. But cooperating with Tianshu Pavilion was already part of Wei Yunlan's plan. Hearing this, he nodded and admitted, "Yes, I have seen in old books that there are many countries outside Yandu Gorge, but they are separated from us by the dangerous Yandu Gorge and a large Gobi Desert."
In fact, these were not what Wei Yunlan saw in books, but were the inspiration he got from listening to the conversation between Xue Linglong and Chen Feng in his previous life.
Xue Linglong once mentioned a road called "Silk Road" and said many times that if the Jinyang Marquisate could also open up a Silk Road, earn money from the Western countries, or trade some scarce things between the two places, it would make a lot of wealth. Becoming rich enough to rival a country is just around the corner.
In fact, Chen Feng was really persuaded by Xue Linglong.
He used the connections left by the late old marquis to form a large caravan of over a hundred people. Unfortunately, half of the caravan was lost in Yandu Gorge before it could find the western countries, and half was lost again when entering the Gobi Desert. In the end, only a dozen people returned to the capital.
Because of this incident, the Jinyang Marquis' Mansion paid a large sum of money. It was also for this reason that they later took the risk and participated in the transfer of military equipment.
Wei Yunlan had never expected to be able to accomplish what the Jinyang Marquisate had failed to do. It was only after she developed the ability to get close to animals and the black cloud appeared that she considered this possibility.
Perhaps, she can lead people to walk this path...
If they can find the legendary Western countries and establish trade routes with them, then no matter what happens in Dayong in the future, the Wei family and the Xu family will be invincible.
…
Going east from Yandu Gorge and passing through Huangzhou, you will reach Beiguan.
When they arrived in Huangzhou, the Wei family realized that the depression they had seen in Xingzhou was nothing at all.
This place is located in the northernmost part of Dayong's territory and can be considered the real north. The grain production here is not as abundant as in the south. In addition, the recent climate has been changeable, with drought and water shortage, and the grain production is even less than in previous years.
Unfortunately, the war in the north was getting intense, grain taxes were getting higher every year, and the people were living in misery.
As soon as they entered Huangzhou, the Wei family saw a group of women and children, carrying bamboo baskets, squatting on the roadside and digging wild vegetables.
The carriage was getting closer. Sui He, the driver, glanced to the side and said in surprise: "What they are digging are not wild vegetables, but weeds..."
This is the wild grass that can be seen everywhere in the provincial capitals near the capital.
Not to mention humans, even wild animals are not willing to eat it.
But those women squatting on the roadside digging weeds, every time they dug up a bunch of weeds, they carefully put them into the basket as if they were holding some rare treasure.
The route taken by the Wei family was to a more remote location in the northern end of Huangzhou. Apart from nearby villagers, few people passed by, let alone a convoy like the Wei family's.
Hearing the sound of horse hooves, the children who were digging grass stood up and looked over curiously.
When the women squatting by the road saw this, they hurriedly grabbed their children, fearing that they would rush forward and bump into the nobleman in the carriage and be punished by him.
Wei Yunlan lifted a corner of the car curtain.
The women and children who had been squatting just now all stood up. One could clearly see that they all looked pale and thin. Even the children's cheeks were a little sunken.
Cheng Yue'e looked out along the curtain that Wei Yunlan had opened, hugged Jiarong tightly, and sighed, "I didn't expect that the people in the north live in such a miserable way."
The carriages were running very fast and soon passed the entrance to the village in front. At this moment, the first carriage was bumped by the bumpy ground and its wheels were stuck by the collapsed stones.
The team stopped suddenly.
A head poked out cautiously from the yard of the house at the entrance of the village.
He didn't dare to go forward. After taking a few glances, he turned around and ran towards the village in a panic.
After a while, a square-faced man wearing a patched shirt arrived at the village entrance with more than 20 people.
He saw two people squatting beside the carriage repairing the wheel, and that neither the people riding on the horses nor sitting in the carriage showed any intention of getting off, so he breathed a sigh of relief.
As soon as they saw these nobles sitting in the carriages and being escorted by guards, they knew they had no plans for their little village.
I saw people on horseback looking towards the entrance of the village.
The square-faced man quickly asked the people behind him to put down their weapons, stepped forward awkwardly, and bowed to the people in the Wei family team, "It was all a misunderstanding, we thought it was someone else who came to steal food..."
"We were really scared by the robbery a few days ago. Our village is okay and can barely survive the winter. I heard that some places have no food now..."
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