Chapter 0052 Impossible
The next day, Xiao Rong set out before dawn.
Chenliu is not far from Jinling, only about 700 miles away. The distribution of cities at that time was different from that of later times. The concentrated parts of the cities were very concentrated, and the scattered parts were also very scattered. They walked along the river, all the way to the southeast. If they rode fast horses and did not stop, they would be able to cross the river to Huaiyin City in the evening.
Huaiyin City is only a hundred miles away from Jinling. At noon tomorrow, Xiao Rong will be able to enter the Chenliu Palace.
This meeting had to be held sooner rather than later. It was still dark with no sign of daybreak, so Xiao Rong got up from the bed and carefully checked the things he had brought with him, including the letter he had asked Qu Yunmie to write, the greeting letter he had asked Fuzi to help write, and some miscellaneous things that he thought might be useful.
After checking everything was correct, Xiao Rong came to the gate of the palace. There were already many people waiting there. Qu Yunmie was sitting on a tall horse. From the moment Xiao Rong appeared, his eyes had been following Xiao Rong's figure.
However, Xiao Rong did not notice it. He first greeted Gao Xunzhi and others, telling them not to worry. Then he turned around and wanted to take a look at the accompanying soldiers. As a result, he was frightened by a man with bruises all over his head.
This was still at night, and against the backdrop of the vast darkness, it looked even more frightening.
Xiao Rong tried to identify him for a long time before he remembered that this was Zhang Biezhi whom he had met before. He couldn't help but ask Jian Qiao beside him: "Who is this——"
There were no outsiders around, so Jian Qiao directly exposed Zhang Biezhi's past: "I was afraid that this bastard would cause trouble for Mr. Xiao on the road, so I taught him a lesson in advance. Mr. Xiao, don't worry, these people who will go with you are carefully selected by me. They will only listen to your orders and not this bastard. If he doesn't listen, just beat him up like this."
Xiao Rong: “…………”
Zhang Biezhi was so upset that his nose was about to burst. This time his brother-in-law was determined to teach him a lesson, so in order to prevent his sister from pleading for him, he actually tricked him into an empty tent in the military camp and beat him up. When his sister found out, the matter was already settled, and she had no choice but to apply medicine to him while reminding him not to disobey. His brother-in-law really valued Xiao Rong very much. If he dared to offend Xiao Rong, his brother-in-law might not recognize him when he came back.
Normally, Zhang Biezhi would not believe such words, but Jian Qiao seemed too serious this time, which made him feel unsure. For a moment, he really did not dare to act rashly.
After all, this was Jian Qiao's own business. Although Zhang Biezhi looked a bit pitiful, Xiao Rong felt that he was just an outsider and it was better not to interfere.
So he pretended that he saw nothing, said goodbye to everyone one by one, climbed on the horse, took the reins skillfully, shouted loudly, and left with the others. …
This time there was no carriage, and the round trip would take two days and two nights. If Xiao Rong had the conditions, he would never torture himself like this. The problem was that he didn't have the conditions. It was okay when going there, and it didn't matter if he was delayed a little. But when he came back, it was hard to say. Who knew what the situation would be like at that time? Just like Gao Xunzhi and others said, if something unexpected happened and they needed to escape at full speed, Xiao Rong would rather ride a horse by himself than share a ride with others.
Today was pretty good, the weather was fine, with no wind and no clouds. They rested for half an hour and changed horses, then arrived at this side of the Huai River - the North Yangzhou Wharf - after dusk and before dawn.
The Yangzhou at this time was not the Yangzhou in the ancient poem "Yangzhou in March with fireworks". The Yangzhou in the ancient poem does not have its own name now. It and other places are collectively called Wu County. The Yangzhou at this time covered all the cities in the area where the Huai River estuary met the sea. When the Yong Dynasty unified the north and the south, it had no sense of existence. As soon as the Yong Dynasty moved south, Yangzhou became very embarrassed.
Because Yangzhou is right on the Huai River, unlike other cities that are bounded by the Huai River, Yangzhou is centered on the Huai River.
Once the North and the South were divided, Yangzhou in the north was called North Yangzhou, and Yangzhou in the south was called South Yangzhou. Both sides were heavily guarded. The Shen family army was stationed on the South Yangzhou side, keeping an eye on the movements on the Huai River every day. On the North Yangzhou side, there were also 80,000 troops arranged by Qu Yunmie. Qu Yunmie claimed that these 80,000 people were 150,000, but only 50,000 of them were actually able to fight. The remaining 30,000 were all logistics personnel, as well as the elderly, weak and sick who could not fight.
From this we can see how much Qu Yunmie despises Nanyong's military strength.
The sky gradually darkened. Xiao Rong had hardly spoken to Qu Yunmie along the way. Looking at the calm Huai River, Xiao Rong dismounted from his horse.
None of them were wearing armor and no one knew them, so they didn't have to be too careful when speaking.
Qu Yunmie also dismounted and asked Xiao Rong, "When will you be back?"
Xiao Rong looked back at the gradually darkening river surface. The other side of the river was hidden in the fog and nothing could be seen. After a moment of silence, he turned his head back and said, "Seven days at most."
Qu Yunmie: "If I still can't see you in seven days, I will leave."
Xiao Rong chuckled: "Yes, but at the same time, I hope that the king can trust me more in these seven days and don't act rashly."
Qu Yunmie: “…OK.”
He agreed reluctantly, so Xiao Rong didn't find anything wrong with it. He bowed to Qu Yunmie, then smiled casually, turned around and led the horse to cross the river. When Xiao Rong moved, the soldiers selected by Jian Qiao also followed.
Xiao Rong is a scholar after all. He is a complete outsider in the military camp and cannot notice the slightest disturbance. But Zhang Biezhi is different. He will be able to become the leader of a force for a short period of time in the future, which proves that he also has talent in marching and fighting.
With his bruised face, he looked at the atmosphere between Qu Yunmie and Xiao Rong and always felt that something was wrong.
He suspected that there were Qu Yunmie's followers among these soldiers, and that they would tip off Qu Yunmie at any time and anywhere.
Just as Zhang Biezhi was thinking about who was the spy planted by Qu Yunmie, he saw Qu Yunmie's gaze on the twenty soldiers. Then the twenty people paused slightly behind Xiao Rong. After a very brief eye contact, Qu Yunmie nodded at them, and then they caught up with Xiao Rong again.
Zhang Biezhi: “…………”
It turns out that these twenty are all of them!
No wonder his brother-in-law said that these people only listened to Xiao Rong and not him. It would be strange if Qu Yunmie’s personal soldiers would listen to him!
Zhang Biezhi was shocked. He knew that Xiao Rong was valued, but he didn't know that Xiao Rong was so valued. Not only did the King of Zhenbei come here to meet him in person, but even the guards arranged for him were all Qu Yunmie's personal soldiers.
You have to know that guards and personal soldiers are different. Guards can be appointed as long as they have some qualifications, and they don't necessarily need to be able to fight, but personal soldiers have been with Qu Yunmie through life and death every time. They may be personal soldiers today and deputy generals tomorrow.
This group of people are loyal and fearless, and each of them is a subordinate that Qu Yunmie trusts. But now they are all sent out to do the work of guarding...
Suddenly, Zhang Biezhi's resentment was relieved a lot. Perhaps his brother-in-law was right. This was really a good job.
It's good to be stupid. Everyone can see that this trip is full of dangers, but Zhang Biezhi can't see it. Now that he knows that he has the same status as Qu Yunmie's personal soldiers, and that he is officially the leader of this group of personal soldiers, he is immediately happy. When he boarded the ship, he even had a mentality similar to that of a primary school student on an outing.
Immediately afterwards, he vomited all over the place.
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