Chapter 7 Hey, are we robbing a prisoner together?
The coldest winter of the year has passed. After enduring the biting cold of the melting snow, the small village at the foot of the mountain broke its silence and people finally started to go up the mountain.
Fortunately, it was time for Gu Guan to leave after he said his goodbyes.
At the time, the news of Xie Ci's escape from prison was widely reported, and the case was concluded on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. However, the seals of various government offices were still sealed and would not be opened until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The Xie family had missed the original date of exile, so the time for their release would be re-selected after the fifteenth day, and the twenty-third day of the first lunar month was confirmed.
The stream was gurgling and spring buds were blooming. Gu Guan rode a slow horse and took a detour from the other side of the hill to return to the hunter's wooden house. Xie Ci was chopping wood in the yard with his upper body naked. The boy's shoulders had begun to grow wider and thicker. With a "snap", a whole log as thick as a leg was split into two halves, and then into four pieces.
Sweat slid down his forehead and neck, stretching his muscles, and then flowed over his narrow waist, soaking his trousers. He immediately looked up when he heard the sound of horse hooves.
Gu Wan's goal was smaller than Xie Ci's, so the job of squatting was given to her. After the fifteenth day, she rode a horse back and forth to Tiekan Temple every day.
This was the first time she came back so early in the morning.
Gu Wan's clear voice was filled with excitement. "It's today! People from the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice came early this morning with exile documents to release someone. I saw some movement in the women's prison!"
"good!"
Xie Ci let out a long breath and immediately stood up: "Then let's go."
Gu Wan: "Hurry up and pack some things, we'll be leaving soon."
Xie Ci nodded, bent down and stacked the chopped firewood neatly on the pile, then covered the turned straw mat back and put the axe back in its place.
In fact, the two of them did not need so much firewood, but the little money Xie Ci and Gu Guan had for their trip and the slow horse were all bought with the big money they found in the cabin. Although Gu Guan collected the body and buried the old man, Xie Ci still chopped and stacked the dead branches and wood that the old man could not chop, and swept the cabin tidy.
After doing all this, he went to the kitchen to scoop up some half-warm medicine and poured it on his body to wash off the sweat. When he came out, Gu Guan had already packed his luggage and prepared the boiled and dried coarse cotton bandages.
Xie Ci's wounds had already scabbed over and partially peeled off, revealing new pink flesh. Scars crisscrossed his body, but he didn't care. Gu Wan still took care of it. Although no medicine was needed, he used cotton bandages to wrap around the few spots where the scabs were still thick, to prevent them from being broken by friction from clothing and rough movements from walking.
After doing all this, Xie Ci put on his bag and took the wooden door of the wooden house with him, which had been locked.
When he arrived at the gate of the courtyard where the horse was tied, Gu Guan was turning the yellow household registration paper in his hand over and over again, and then carefully put it into his inner pocket.
——Although this is a fake certificate, Gu Guan was checked twice and it was not detected.
Xie Ci took the reins, and Gu Wan stepped on the stirrup and climbed on. She turned around and was about to take the bag and hang it on the saddle, but Xie Ci had already done it. Before getting on the horse, he said to her seriously, "After this matter is settled, I will find a way to find you a real woman."
He said it seriously, he would never let her be a nameless and shameful fugitive.
Gu Wan was stunned and couldn't help laughing, "Okay!"
Green grass has already emerged, and a few yellow flowers are blooming on the hillside at the end of the cottage. The wind brings the breath of spring, and the golden warm sun shines on her face, forehead and body. She smiles, as warm as the spring light all over the mountains.
Gu Wan's mood suddenly became very good. She extended her hand to him and said, "Come up quickly."
Xie Ci jumped onto the horse.
…
Gu Guan was indeed in a good mood. One reason was that she did not bring trouble to the Xie family. The second and most important thing was that although the certificate in her hand was a fake, after holding it in her hand and finding that it could be used, most of the uneasiness in her heart disappeared at once.
She had many concerns when she first arrived, and household registration was a very important part of them.
It was not until she got the yellow household registration paper that she found that it was not so difficult to survive in ancient times. Things would work out in the end, and difficulties might be solved. She couldn't let go of the yellow paper and it was hard for her not to be happy.
She felt that life was still full of hope.
The youthful, confident Gu Wan is back again.
All in all, everything is looking up, isn't it?
…
The two men mounted their horses and took a detour to Tiekan Temple.
I rode my horse to the top of a mountain in the northwest. The sun was shining brightly and the visibility was very high. I could clearly see the prisoners coming and going outside Tiekan Temple, and the dust was rolling.
The soldiers and police officers were already in place. Groups of male and female prisoners were driven into line, identified and counted one by one according to the list, handed over to the escort officer, and driven from the gate to the open space outside the prison gate.
When Xie Ci and Gu Guan reached the top of the mountain and looked down, the handover work was more than half completed. Gu Guan untied the bag and took out two corn cakes, which were the dry food for the two of them on the kang at home. She broke half of it and handed it to Xie Ci.
The two men had a simple lunch, and after noon, the handover was finally completed. The bailiff rode on his horse and whipped it, driving the hundreds of exiled prisoners, stumbling towards the northeast.
Xie Ci pursed his lips tightly and looked back for the last time. He put on his hat and got on the horse with Gu Wan. "Go!" they turned around and headed down the mountain.
Along the way, they will not take the same route as the main force, but they will continue to travel in parallel to the northeast, looking for opportunities.
That's right, it was Gu Wan who first proposed the prisoner rescue, but with Xie Ci's near-death experience and Zhang Ningyuan's desperate efforts to avoid overtly harming the women of the Xie family, Xie Ci did not weigh the pros and cons for too long and quickly decided that he must rescue his family before arriving at the place of exile.
This exile to Tieling was a full 3,000 miles from Zhongdu. It took nearly a year to walk, through spring, summer, autumn, winter, extreme cold and heat, all requiring foot travel. Fortunately, even the women and children of the Xie family were in decent physical condition, not overly frail. This gave Xie Ci and Gu Wan some time to observe and find an opportunity.
At the beginning, the two of them would definitely remain motionless. After all, at the beginning, defense and vigilance would definitely be the strongest, but Jie Jun and Jie Cha were also human beings. Whether they were walking or riding horses, they would have to walk together and would get tired.
All in all, it is definitely not a good time to take action near Gyeonggi Province.
As they walked along, following the winding group of prisoners, the number of people kept decreasing. Xie Ci and Gu Guan were worried, but although the former was worried, he always remained calm. He had to hit the target with one shot, as they would not have a second chance.
…
"If the time is right, we can almost do it."
Gu Guan lay in the grass and whispered to Xie Ci beside him.
Now they were already halfway through their journey, far away from the capital, and were walking on the loess official road between Shuozhou and Daizhou. The wild wind was strong and the summer sun was scorching. After lying in the grass for a while, Gu Guan felt itchy and painful on the soles of his feet. He quickly sat up and pulled off his boots to see that he had indeed formed another blister.
She grimaced in pain.
——Because of insufficient funds, if they continued riding for a longer period of time, they would soon attract attention. The two men had already sold their horses and spent the second half of the journey on foot with the team.
Xie Ci also saw her feet. He sat up, took out a fire starter, blew on it to burn the silver axe, held her feet, carefully pricked the blister at the edge, squeezed out the blood, picked up a little yellow ointment and applied it, then wrapped it with cotton bandages that had been washed and dried last night.
In order to save money and keep up with the group of migrant workers, the two men rarely stayed in inns along the way. Now they were covered in dust and looked quite embarrassed.
Seeing her like this, Xie Ci felt very uncomfortable. Furthermore, as the distance increased, he became increasingly worried about his mother, sister-in-law, and nephew. He wanted to act quickly. However, there were clearly people in the court who were wary of him. Feng Linde, the son of Yan Lang, a close confidant of Xie's father's rival, Shangshu Zuo Pushe, had demoted himself to the position of Chief Commander of the Jie Army. Throughout the journey, the enemy had not let up much, and they hadn't found a good opportunity.
But Gu Wan began to get anxious, because in the original owner's memory, there were continuous heavy rains, and a small dam broke upstream. Many livestock died and were washed down with the water, polluting the drinking water source. The hiking team was forced to change their route and head further north towards Shuozhou.
It was here that the twelve-year-old Xie Mingming, the eldest grandson of the Xie family and the nephew of Xie Ci, was kicked into the river by a yamen runner while trying to secretly fetch clean drinking water for his family. He suffered from alternating hot and cold sensations and died on the road because there was no medicine to treat him.
Xie's eldest sister-in-law has gone crazy.
She kept urging him for several days in a row. Xie Ci observed the sky and saw dark clouds circling, which made him increasingly anxious.
Fortunately, at this time, a piece of major good news finally came out!
The emperor felt unwell again during the morning court session, fainted and fell off the dragon throne, hitting his head and bleeding. He did not wake up until the last letter was delivered by carrier pigeon.
After receiving the letter from the carrier pigeon, Feng Linde's face changed drastically. He immediately handed over the exile task to his adjutant without even saying a word, and immediately rushed back to Zhongdu on horseback day and night.
Compared with such a major event, neither Xie Ci nor the Xie family members who were exiled were worth mentioning.
The opportunity has finally come!
Gu Guan clapped his hands, thinking that the emperor fell ill at the right time. He hoped that he would be in a coma for a longer time.
"I'll go inform A Niang and the others!"
As soon as Feng Linde left, although the adjutant was still on high alert, Jie Jun's spirit immediately dropped a level. Xie Ci decided to take action without hesitation.
He observed for a moment and decided to notify the Xie family first so that they could be ready to cooperate with the outside forces at any time. Recently, the refugee groups have been setting up camp by the surging Fen River, so they have the conditions for this.
Gu Wan took the shirt that Xie Ci took off and handed him the wax-sealed bamboo tube. Thunder rumbled and heavy rain was about to fall. She whispered, "Be careful!"
Xie Ci nodded, took a deep breath, and then swam into the river.
The wind was very strong and the waves were rolling. This was a wild river with unknown hydrological conditions, and Gu Guan waited anxiously.
Under the river, Xie Ci was like a swimming fish, kicking the water and swimming quickly towards the Tuliu camp.
Amid the rolling waves, he lay at the bottom of the water, breathing only on a reed, and finally waited for the three sisters-in-law of the Xie family and a few older children to come and fetch water.
The water was even more muddy than yesterday. Xie Ersao couldn't help but frown. She took a few wooden bowls and walked upstream and downstream for a while, looking for a place that was a little clearer.
Suddenly, she found a piece of reed, and then a hand stretched out from the bottom of the river. She saw a blurry face under the water, and a small bamboo tube was stuffed into the hand.
Xie Ersao opened her eyes wide, looked around quickly, covered them with a wooden bowl, and quickly put the bamboo tube into her arms.
…
Gu Wan waited for more than an hour, and she was getting very anxious before she finally waited for Xie Ci to come back.
By this time, the sky was almost completely dark, with dark clouds rolling in and a storm looming. He broke through the surface of the water and jumped out, his face full of joy: "I gave the bamboo tube to my second sister-in-law!"
"real!"
Gu Wan was also very happy. Xie Ersao was the best person for them to deliver the message. That was great!
"So what should we do next?"
Xie Ci quickly put on his clothes, and the two of them ran hand in hand. From a distance, they could hear the neighing of horses, the lowing of cattle, and the scurrying of sheep and lambs on the official road, startled by the thunder. This place was close to Guanmen, and the people were rough and unsophisticated. There were many cattle and horse traders, and the roads were full of herds of cattle and horses, and the towns and villages were full of large and small families.
The two men stood on the hill, looking at the running beasts and the scolding bailiffs, and couldn't help but look at each other.
That night, the two men sneaked into an inn where a horse merchant was staying in a big town.
The rainstorm poured down for most of the night and finally stopped before dawn. The guard shed was silent, and people were either fast asleep or lying down.
Gu Wan opened the gate of the animal shed.
She had inquired about it and found out that this horse merchant was extremely wealthy, yet he often beat and scolded his servants and animals. He was rich but unkind, so her sister would just rob the rich to help the poor.
Originally, Gu Wan had planned to find a rich but unkind person to solve his financial problems when his money was completely gone.
Weren’t there many such chivalrous thieves in ancient times?
A living person can't be suffocated to death by urine, so she did it anyway.
Anyone who can become a horse trader in the north has killed people, so it is not unfair.
It was a dark night with a strong wind and a drizzle. Gu Wan was ready to go and quickly went into the stable.
Xie Ci followed him in. If he had to choose between the two, he would sacrifice his life to save his mother, sister-in-law, nephews and brothers. However, this was the first time he had ever stolen something.
When Xie Ci's father was alive, he taught him that a general should restrain his subordinates, never disturb the people, and not take anything from them.
So even if he had never done anything like bullying others or eating without paying in the past, even if it happened once or twice, if he ran away from home and had no money in his pocket, he would just hide in a cave in the mountains.
He was somewhat uneasy.
Gu Wan noticed it and whispered, "Saving people is more important. Let's use it first. When you become rich, you can pay him back." At most, he can charge a little more interest.
Xie Ci couldn't help but nodded, and then the two of them ran to the caravan's flag leaning against the yard wall, and Gu Guan opened it and took a serious look at it.
After they finished this, they couldn't help but smile at each other.
An ox-horn lantern was hung on the doorpost of the wooden gate, and a dim light shone on Xie Ci's face. His facial features, as gorgeous as roses, instantly became radiant because of his smile.
The boy was young and immature, with a frosted forehead and thick black eyebrows, which added to his heroic spirit.
Finally, there is always a way out. With hope, his mood and expression improved visibly.
The two men took note of the horse dealer, tied the horses' mouths separately, then opened the fence gate and pulled the lead horse out. Xie Ci turned over and rode on it to control it. Gu Guan drove the horses in the animal shed out like a stream of water. She rode on the last horse, drove the horses one after another, and drove them in a direction and hid them first.
It's just a coincidence.
Just as the two men tied up their horses and hid them, returning to the town under the cover of darkness, intending to follow up on the situation at daybreak to ensure everything was safe, they suddenly heard the dull sound of horse hooves.
Looking across the path, there was an animal shed about thirty or forty feet away from the post station. The wind lamp was quietly taken down and the animal shed was opened silently. The other party even did more than them. The horses' hooves were tied with straw, and the horses landed with very little sound. There were also more than a dozen beef cattle.
“…”
Gu Wan thanked him and looked at each other in bewilderment.
Gu Wan: "... Could it be that someone else is trying to kidnap the prisoner?"
But it’s not surprising, after all, there are so many people in the group of refugees.
The two of them just thought they were robbing a prisoner together. Gu Wan said happily, "Well, that's great. Maybe we can even borrow each other's strength!"
Get twice the result with half the effort!
It makes me happy just thinking about it!
The author has something to say:
Not so soon, but it will be soon, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Let’s explain the original book together with the plot.
Good afternoon, my dears! A huge kiss to you all~ Haha, see you tomorrow! Love you~ (/≧▽≦)/
Finally, I would like to thank the baby who cast the bomb, pen refill, pen refill!
Duoduo threw 1 mine
Guanguan threw 1 mine
.
And the big babies who irrigated Wenwen with nutrient solution, chirp chirp~
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