Chapter 165: Twelve Lady's Clues
Hearing Gu Changxiao's voice, Yan Twelve, who was originally unable to sit up, sat up straight and shouted to the outside of the tent:
"Gu, you are outside, right? If you are a man, you must admit it if you did it! Hand over the prince!"
Han Xing sighed helplessly: "Miss Yan, Taoist Xiao Ji is really not here."
Gu Changxiao also said: "The person you are looking for is not here. As for where he is, we are also waiting for news. When your injury is healed, the king will arrange for someone to send you back to Yanzhou."
Yan Twelve Niang spit heavily, "You are such a heartless bunch! It's a pity that the prince was so kind to you before! I won't leave until I find the prince!"
These roars seemed to have exhausted all her strength, and she fell heavily back onto the animal skin mat once again.
At the same time, Jin Sui was looking for clues with a telescope. She didn't care whether Yan Jiu would notice her or not, and took out ten telescopes from the space in a row for the Yan family guards to use.
She, Liuyun, Yanjiu and a dozen guards were riding horses in the wilderness looking for Twelve Niang.
Because just last night, someone found several corpses in the snow, which had been eaten beyond recognition by wolves, and Twelve Niang’s badge was found among the corpses.
When the bloody badge was handed to Yan Jiu, his face turned pale instantly, and his lips trembled slightly. He, who always liked cleanliness, snatched the bloody badge and looked at the word "gold" on it.
Jin Sui was also shocked. She couldn't believe it and asked someone to take her to the pile of corpses. They turned the bodies over one by one for examination. Fortunately, they were all male.
She also guessed from the way these people were dressed that they were horse bandits and had suffered burns before death.
Only a firearm with fish oil could have caused such a burn. She hurriedly told Yan Jiu the news:
"Miss Yan fought with them, using a lot of fish oil and firearms. She either escaped or was captured by the horse bandits and brought back to the village."
No matter which situation it is, Yan Shier Niang must be found as soon as possible. If it is the former, she may be seriously injured and will die if she flees alone in the cold northern border.
If it is the latter, we must find her as soon as possible. The bandits must have tortured her to vent their anger after killing so many people.
Yan Jiu immediately ordered the team to stop advancing and search the area within a radius of 100 miles to find the village of Yan Shier Niang and the horse bandits.
Yan Jiu originally wanted Jin Sui to stay in the team, but she naturally disagreed and asked Liu Yun to go look for clues together.
His heart ached as if it was burning on fire. When he thought about what would happen to Yan Twelve Niang, Jin Sui wished he could burn the world with fish oil.
At the same time, he regretted himself. Why didn't he think of saying goodbye to Twelve Niang before leaving? Otherwise, that simple girl wouldn't have done such a thing.
She went north for the friendship of the Black Feather Army and to save the brothers who had been through life and death with her.
As for Twelve Lady, she really did it for herself...
It was so cold that the breath I exhaled turned into white mist, and the tears that rolled down my cheeks turned into crystal ice beads.
Twelve Lady, please be alright!
Gods above, since you can respond to Ling Jinsui’s request, please allow me, a soul from another world thousands of years later, to come here.
Then please respond to my request! I am willing to reduce my life span by fifty years in exchange for Twelve Lady's safety!
Liuyun had been secretly observing Jinsui, feeling extremely surprised. He had not expected that she would be so ruthless and ruthless when she played the role of the King of Li.
Now for Miss Yan, she is so gentle again. She is really a woman with a changeable temperament.
After searching for three days, there was still no clue. Jinsui comforted himself that no clue was the best clue.
On the fourth day, the weather suddenly changed and it started to snow lightly. Although the snow was light, the wind was very strong, blowing the remaining snow on the ground like a sandstorm, making people lose their way.
A team came to report that they had found a lost Xia soldier.
This was surprising. Could it be that Gu Changxiao's team was also nearby? When the soldier with a pale face from the cold was brought over, Yan Jiu recognized him and said, "It's a Meteor Horse from the border town."
Jin Sui was shocked again. Meteor Horse was a messenger, and he came from the border town, so he could only be from Cheng Yu’s faction.
She rushed to rescue him herself, but although the man was saved, he did not wake up for a long time, and Jinsui did not find any letter on him.
Yan Jiu guessed that he might have fallen on the road. He was obviously lost and even his horse died on the way. If he was found half a day later, he would have been dead for sure.
After picking up Liuyun, the team picked up another courier, and Jinsui handed the person over to Liuyun's care:
"The courier from the border town is your colleague. You are responsible for his safety. Once you catch up with the prince, you two can return to the team."
Liuyun was puzzled by the word "colleague". I am the prince's personal guard, and an old guard who has been by his side since Chang'an. I am Cheng Yu's messenger, so how can I be considered a colleague?
But he still obediently took care of the patient, hoping that he would wake up quickly and ask what letter Cheng Yu asked him to deliver? Was it about the safety of the prince?
On the fifth day, they finally found clues to the bandit camp by chance encountering a shepherdess trapped in a snowstorm.
The Yan family gave her two bags of wheat in exchange for her being a guide to take them to the tribe where the "Han" people lived.
Yan Jiu originally firmly disagreed with Jin Sui going with him, but when Jin Sui took out the crossbow and fish oil firearm, Yan Jiu had nothing to say.
At the same time, Liuyun also insisted on going. He went not to kill the bandits and save Yan Shier Niang, but to keep Taoist Xiao Ji alive.
Jinsui found that when talking to a child like Liuyun, he could not beat around the bush and had to give direct orders.
Just like Gu Changxiao's orders were to protect Taoist Xiao Ji's safety and to 'listen to Taoist Xiao Ji', he would carry out this task.
When these two tasks conflict, he will resolutely carry out the first one.
The shepherdess was anxious to take the wheat home to share with her family, and the path she took them actually led directly into the village.
The bandits were all shocked. The brothers who were on guard outside didn't see anyone coming at all, but the enemy was already in the backyard.
Facing the Yan family's questioning, they were very angry: "We don't even have a ewe in our village, where can we find women? You lost your women and came to us to ask for them?"
"Get out! No, leave the food and silver behind and get out of here!"
Jin Sui was so anxious that he had no time to talk nonsense with them. He threw two firearms to intimidate them: "Hand over the people! Otherwise, I will burn down your entire village!"
Yan Jiu was relatively calm and advised her: "Don't use fire. If Twelve Lady is imprisoned in a tunnel or something like that, she might be hurt by mistake!"
If fire couldn't be used, they used anesthetics and cold arrows. In short, the two sides started fighting. Except for a few bandits who escaped, all the people were captured by the Yan family guards and knelt in front of Yan Jiu for interrogation.
Jinsui led his men to search the village inside and out while shouting Shi Er Niang's name.
Finally, it was determined that this was a temporary settlement for the bandits, so there were no women or children. A dozen of them had indeed gone out "hunting" a few days ago, but had not returned.
Jinsui asked people to push the corpses over to them for identification. The murderous bandit actually vomited when he saw the corpses that had been eaten by wolves.
What a useless thing! After vomiting, he was much more honest when answering Yan Jiu's questions, and his eyes changed drastically when looking at Jin Sui. This is not a beautiful woman, but a tiger woman! Seeing such a horrible corpse, she didn't change her expression! At the same time, the way he looked at them was the same as looking at a dead person.
It was true that Twelve Niang was not captured in this mountain stronghold. Yan Jiu ordered all the bandits to be killed and hung in the woods outside the stronghold to deter any escaping bandits.
Jinsui turned the mountain village into a sea of fire as he wished and successfully wiped out a bandit's hideout.
But the clues to find Twelve Niang were cut off again. Jin Sui hired the shepherdess with food again, hoping that she would help lead the team to the shepherds' tribe to investigate.
The shepherdess agreed to it and ran away. She was very familiar with the surrounding area and hid quietly so that she could not be found.
Yan Jiu analyzed: "The reason why she is willing to lead the way to find the bandits is because the bandits are Han Chinese, and the people of Northern Xinjiang are very willing to see the Han Chinese kill each other.
But she was unwilling to bring dangerous Han Chinese like us to the nomadic tribes in northern Xinjiang."
"But we're just looking for someone, we're not going to hurt them!"
"But what the shepherdess saw was that we killed the vicious bandits and burned down their village."
"What should we do? The clues are gone. How can we find Twelve Lady?"
Yan Jiu looked at the map and pondered, and finally left dozens of people to investigate in the vicinity. Any news would be sent to the post station where he had stayed before, and the shopkeeper would have a way to contact Yan Jiu.
The others continued to move forward, trying to get to the next post station as quickly as possible regardless of the wind and snow, as perhaps there might be clues about Twelve Niang there.
The journey became much faster afterwards. During the day, Yan Jiu and Jin Sui did not take the carriage, but rode on horseback despite the cold wind.
Seven days later, the team arrived at the first city in the northern border, called "Yunzhong". Although it was called a city, it actually didn't even have a city wall.
In Jinsui's opinion, it was just a larger tribe. The people in the northern border lived in felt tents. They did build some wooden houses but they were used to store goods.
There are markets, lakes, rivers, and roads. To the people of Northern Xinjiang, this is a city! They even named it Yunzhong City.
Jinsui couldn't help but think, what should I name my new city after it's built? I can't call it Border City again, right? It's not as good as the name of the city in Northern Xinjiang.
Let’s call it with four characters. Four characters sound domineering and nice, like Shangri-La and Urumqi, which sound nice!
How about calling it 'Li Da Wuxian'? I wonder if Gu Changxiao would agree...
Three days ago, Jin Sui and his party arrived at another post station and were very disappointed to find no clues about Twelve Niang. But they learned that Gu Changxiao's team passed by five days ago.
Jin Sui was surprised: "Why are they moving so slowly? The army should be faster than us!"
From the initial difference of more than ten days, to now only five days. Jin Sui couldn't help but worry, could someone be sick?
Did they take the medicine I left behind? Yan Jiu had another suspicion: "Maybe they are waiting for that meteor horse."
The messenger was still in a daze and never woke up. Liuyun fed him medicine and liquid food every day.
Jinsui once suspected that the letter was in his clothes or scalp, so he asked Liuyun to search him from head to toe, but still found nothing.
After arriving at Yunzhong City, Jin Sui specifically asked around and found out that Gu Changxiao had never passed by here.
Yan Jiu guessed that he went directly to the Northern Frontier King's Court, so he didn't rest in Yunzhong City. The reason why Yan Jiu wanted to stop here was naturally to find Twelve Niang.
The large army camped outside the city, and Yan Jiu only brought a dozen people into the city. When the group entered a felt tent with the word "goods" hung on it, the shopkeeper inside immediately came to greet Yan Jiu.
Jin Sui only then realized that a lot of the trade in Yunzhong City was done by the Yanzhou nobles. In order to prevent Jin Sui from misunderstanding, Yan Jiu made a special explanation: "We will not do business with people from the Northern Frontier for strategic materials."
Jin Sui nodded and said, "I am not a narrow-minded person. It is a good thing that I can exchange ordinary goods for war horses, animal skins and other supplies from the people of Northern Frontier."
"Besides, I also want to do some business with the people of Northern Frontier. Since the head of the family happens to have a channel, we can cooperate."
Yan Jiulang laughed. This was the first time he laughed after discovering Twelve Mother’s badge.
"Miss Ji, you really have a sharp vision and can see far into the future.
In order to restrict the development of Yan, the imperial court has imposed many restrictions on trade from the Central Plains and Jiangnan to Yan. If the trade with the northern border is cut off, there will be even more refugees in Yan."
"I wonder what kind of business Miss Yan wants to start in Northern Xinjiang? If it's a Rouge House or a restaurant, I'm afraid it will be difficult."
Jin Sui shook his head: "It's neither of these two. Let's talk about it after we find Twelve Lady."
Yunzhong City is equivalent to Yanzhou in Daxia. Both are the largest cities on the border, but there is a big gap in population. Especially in winter when business is cut off, the city is quite deserted.
But when they learned that the head of the Yan family had arrived, nearly a hundred shopkeepers came to visit in just half a day. They were all arranged by the Yan nobles.
Yan Jiu was well-known for his generosity. He gave generous gifts to everyone who came to him, and at the same time assigned them the task of finding Twelve Niang. Whether they found the person or the clues, the Yan family would promise a generous reward.
In this way, the team temporarily lived in Yunzhong City. Jinsui had her own felt tent. In order to make the glassware appear reasonable, she borrowed an earthen kiln and pretended to burn it.
In addition, she would bring Liuyun, wear the clothes of people from the northern border, cover her face, and wander around the city.
Liuyun asked her: "Why are we wandering around like this? Why don't we go find the prince first?"
He was very anxious about Yan Jiu's decision to stay and not leave. If he delayed any further, he would not be able to catch up with the prince.
Jin Sui was naturally anxious. What if Gu Changxiao arrived at the royal court and the group was killed by the King of Northern Frontier? But she couldn't leave like this if she couldn't find Twelve Niang!
"We should take this opportunity to find out the topography of the Northern Frontier, and also the situation of the various forces and tribes in the Northern Frontier. If the prince wants to counterattack the Northern Frontier in the future, this will be the intelligence!"
Three days passed in a flash. When Jin Sui was about to go out, he saw a shopkeeper hurriedly coming to report: "Master Yan, there is news!"
"At the foot of the snowy mountains east of the city, a herdsman found the girl you are looking for."
Yan Jiu stood up instantly: "Where is the exact location?"
The shopkeeper hurriedly said that he could lead the way himself. Yan Jiu immediately counted the manpower and went with him, and Jin Sui naturally followed as well.
For some reason, she always felt that the shopkeeper was too enthusiastic. Although it was for the bounty, he was still too enthusiastic, as if he was afraid that Yan Jiu would not trust him.
Jin Sui quietly packed up the fish oil firearms, crossbows, and anesthetic weapons, and followed Yan Jiu.
She did not raise any questions because she knew Yan Jiu was extremely anxious and would not let go of any clue.
And she, too! The worst that could happen was that she was cheated once.
They rode their horses at full speed and arrived at the foot of the snow-capped mountains in an hour. However, there was no tribe here, and not even a shepherd was seen.
Jin Sui asked hurriedly: "Where is the person?"
The shopkeeper suddenly rode his horse towards the woods at the foot of the mountain, shouting, "I have brought the people with me! Release my family!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
