Chapter 257 Hidden dangers revealed
When Pei Yuan heard Taoist Zhiwei say this, his breathing almost stopped.

His heart seemed to have fallen into some empty place, feeling hollow and uncomfortable.

A sign of rain and snow!

This Yanggu experienced the Yellow River flooding a few years ago, and the waterway system has been completely destroyed.

Lakes, ponds and swamps are formed in shallow depressions.

Thin rivers formed in the gullies, leading to nowhere.

It can be said that with the destruction of the waterway, a large amount of river water was retained in this area, which was under tremendous pressure.

The large amount of water nourishment has also allowed this place to form a wetland-like ecological environment in a short period of time.

Roads that are fully soaked in groundwater have weak bearing capacity, and heavy ruts will be formed when cars carrying heavy property run over them.

If rain and snow occur again, the whole team will be in a hellish predicament.

By then, how much property can these people take away that they are willing to protect with their lives?

Pei Yuan thought about it and immediately understood what Taoist Zhiwei meant by "Today's journey is difficult, but who knows if tomorrow will be even more difficult."

If Pei Yuan knew that what the Taoist said was something mysterious, he might just be skeptical.

However, Pei Yuan had seen the Taoist's ability to observe celestial phenomena.

Pei Yuan's throat moved a few times, and he asked with an unpleasant expression, "How sure are you, Taoist priest?"

Taoist Zhiwei twirled his beard and shook his head, "It's hard to say."

Pei Yuan asked again, "So is this sign of rain and snow rain or snow?"

Taoist Zhiwei twirled his beard and shook his head, "It's hard to say."

Pei Yuan seemed to understand a little bit, and he thought that Taoist Zhiwei could only give him this much advice.

There are only two reasons.

One reason is.

Zhiwei Taoist indeed cannot accurately predict the weather in the next few days.

another reason is.

His performance along the way was a bit fierce, so Zhiwei Daoren didn't dare to make any nonsense without being able to make an accurate prediction.

Based on Pei Yuan's understanding of Zhiwei Taoist, if Zhiwei Taoist knew the truth, he would have said it out loud to show off.

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and asked again, "Then is there anything else you can teach me, Taoist priest?"

Taoist Zhiwei looked at Pei Yuan and said seriously, "It will be even harder the day after tomorrow, and even harder the day after tomorrow."

Depend on!
Pei Yuan was in a very bad mood.

Although Taoist Zhiwei was unable to give a clear answer, the omen before him alone was enough to give Pei Yuan a headache.

If we turn a blind eye to this matter, there will be big problems later.

In addition to the bad weather, the bandit nicknamed "Little Wu Song" was also a big trouble.

Although he is just a bandit, he is like a cunning fox and a patient wolf.

After suffering losses in two waves of ambushes, "Little Wu Song" immediately gave up the idea of ​​a strong attack and quietly observed the team from the side.

He watched carefully and waited patiently.

When they discovered the deep ruts, they took quick action, destroying the road, digging ditches, and blocking the team's progress.

Thinking of facing such an enemy in such bad weather, Pei Yuan already wanted to retreat.

Pei Yuan was preoccupied with something and had no time to settle Xu Feng's elite servants.

He found Hou Qing and said to him, "These twenty or so are the selected servants that Xu Feng lent me. You will take care of them temporarily. Oh, and include the monk Daigo and the wild monks from the Jingxin Temple. You will serve as my personal guards temporarily."

Hou Qing agreed immediately after hearing this.

Pei Yuan left the people behind and went straight to meet Gu Dayong and Xiao Yan.

Because the team stopped halfway, Gu Dayong and Xiao Yan were talking on the side of the road, and Xu Feng was also there to accompany them.

As Pei Yuan got closer, his pace slowed down.

Gu Dayong and Xiao Yan understood each other and found an excuse to send Xu Feng away.

When Pei Yuan came up to him, Xiao Yan saw that he looked unhappy, so he took the initiative to ask, "What's wrong?"

Pei Yuan did not hide anything and directly told the two of them what Zhiwei the Taoist had said.

Both of them turned pale with anger when they heard this.

Gu Dayong asked, "How is the Taoist's cultivation?"

Pei Yuan had seen the methods of the Taoist priest Zhiwei, and fearing that the two would not take it seriously enough, he said, "He is a noble scholar from Tianying Palace, and his cultivation is unfathomable."

Gu Dayong quickly asked again, "Can you please ask the Taoist priest to drive away the clouds and rain?"

Pei Yuan was stunned, and then he could only answer, "I'm afraid not."

Xiao Yan obviously knew a little bit about the Buddhist ways, and took the initiative to say, "We can add money."

Pei Yuan said politely, "It's not about money."

Thinking about what Taoist Zhiwei had hinted that the bad weather would continue for several days, he added, "This time it may be a large-scale rain and snow, and it is not easy to avert the disaster."

Both of them were panicked and pale, "What should we do?"

They had all been out of Beijing for some time, and had often slept in the open air, so they had naturally experienced the severity of winter rain and snow.

Pei Yuan was even more impressed by this.

When he was in Nanzhili, he was plotted against by the imperial court and had nowhere to stay along the way, and it happened to rain.

The weather was extremely cold at the time. What was worse was that Pei Yuan and his companions did not bring any rain gear. The cold rain washed over their bodies, taking away their body heat bit by bit.

The invading coldness chilled people to the bone.

If Pei Yuan and Yue Qingfeng had not joined forces to force their way into the post station and intimidate Wang Chang, they might have died that night.

Even so, almost everyone fell seriously ill afterwards.

Pei Yuan said in a deep voice, "We can only take refuge in Yanggu City nearby, otherwise we will die."

At this moment, we can’t care about the siege of the enemy army.

Pei Yuan and Xiao Yan also thought of the backup plan at the same time in case of crisis.

Gu Dayong was completely unaware and had already started thinking about the feasibility of this plan. "I have never been to Yanggu before. Do you know how far it is from Yanggu County?"

Both shook their heads.

Xiao Yan said, "Send someone out to catch a local and ask him."

Pei Yuan took the initiative and said, "I'll go there myself."

He also suggested to Xiao Yan and Gu Dayong, "You still need to make multiple preparations. It's best to reorganize the team as soon as possible."

Xiao Yan knew that now was not the time to argue, so he simply replied, "I don't need to."

Pei Yuan did not waste any time. After the discussion, he went back to find his horse, rode it, and then went to meet Ding Hong who was parked not far away.

Ding Hong and his fellow Xuzhou riders were in a rather bad state these days. In order to protect their little gains and not reveal their wealth, they got up early and went to bed late every day, fearing that they would have too much contact with other brothers.

Marching is hard work, and this makes it even more tiring.

Although Ding Hong often took them outside to catch up on sleep while exploring the road, when would this kind of life end? Seeing Pei Yuan coming over, the Xuzhou riders finally seemed to have found their backbone, and they came up to complain.

Pei Yuan listened and said calmly, "Why? The money has become a burden?"

Ding Hong has now consciously stood on Pei Yuan's side.

"Not really, it's just that it's hard to face the other brothers. Besides, we are the only ones who got paid, there are many people who didn't."

"Even if there are Qianhu protecting them, Qianhu can't protect them forever."

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and said, "It's simple. If anyone trusts me, they can pack their money in boxes and put them in my team. My people will keep it for them and return it to you when we part ways."

After saying this, Pei Yuan emphasized, "When we divided the money, I didn't care about all that money, so I can't care about them for even a little bit."

Ding Hong immediately told the Xuzhou cavalry what Pei Yuan said.

The Xuzhou cavalrymen were a little hesitant at first, but after hearing the whole story, they felt that it made sense.

They all expressed their willingness to deposit their money with Captain Pei.

After Pei Yuan solved this small problem, he immediately told Ding Hong about going out to catch the spy.

Ding Hong has been exploring the route frequently these days and has roughly figured out some patterns.

He immediately said, "There is a hill nearby with a large pine forest on the mountain. I have seen woodcutters and hunters there before. We can go there and take a look."

After hearing this, Pei Yuan followed Ding Hong's lead to find the pine forest.

When he arrived at the place, Ding Hong was careful and did not dare to rush in. He just guarded the main road under the hill.

Perhaps these people were lucky, for not long after, they caught a hunter who was coming down the mountain.

Ding Hong captured the hunter. Pei Yuan looked at him carefully for a while and saw that he really looked weathered. He then asked him about the geographical conditions nearby.

The hunter seemed to be very afraid of the officers and soldiers, and his words were incoherent and vague.

Pei Yuan scolded him impatiently, "No one wants to covet your family's property. Do you know where Yanggu County is? We are going to Yanggu County."

Perhaps after hearing that no one was interested in his wealth, the hunter's speech became clearer. He pointed in a direction and spoke for a while with gestures.

Pei Yuan followed what the hunter said and drew a simple map on the ground with stones. He compared it with others and asked around, and finally figured out the location of Yanggu County.

Pei Yuan finally captured a local who was familiar with the geography, but he was unwilling to let him go easily.

He threw the stone and said, "Take it away."

Seeing that the hunter was getting even more frightened, Pei Yuan comforted him, "Don't worry, we will let you go after we enter Yanggu County, and we will give you a reward then."

As he spoke, he gestured to Ding Hong.

Ding Hong immediately grabbed the hunter without question and threw him onto the horse's back.

After returning, the team corrected its direction and headed towards Yanggu County first.

Perhaps because of the temporary change of route, the journey was surprisingly smooth and there were no gullies or the like.

When they met in the evening, the three of them unanimously analyzed that it might be because they gave up going north that "Little Wu Song" miscalculated.

Although he knew that any further delay would only allow that "Little Wu Song" to be better prepared and destroy more roads to the north, he could only try to have the best of it for now.

Set up camp at night and get up early the next day.

Fortunately, Zhiwei Taoist's prediction did not come true. Although the sky was gloomy, there was no rain or snow.

The team followed the hunter's instructions again. This time, before the rear camp had completely set out, the Xuzhou cavalry in the front hurriedly reported that the road ahead was blocked again.

Moreover, the gullies on the road are extremely deep, and there are many of them visible to the naked eye.

Gu Dayong asked in bewilderment, "Didn't we say yesterday that we would go to Yanggu, which was beyond the expectations of 'Little Wu Song'? How come the road ahead is destroyed again?"

Pei Yuan listened and suddenly thought of something. His face suddenly turned ugly and he murmured, "Little Wusong, Little Wusong..."

Xiao Yan, who is also a fan of "Water Margin", also reacted and blurted out, "That little Wu Song might be from Yanggu!"

Pei Yuan has already reached the same conclusion.

Water Margin is very popular and has been spread everywhere.

For Yanggu, one of the story scenes, it is easier to resonate with the grassroots.

Therefore, the leader of the bandits who fled to Juye was called Xiao Wusong, which is very telling.

Pei Yuan quickly gave orders, "Let Chen Toutie interrogate the hunter immediately, and let Ding Hong go back quickly to check the way we came yesterday."

Gu Dayong and Xiao Yan both realized the meaning of the second half of Pei Yuan's words, and fear appeared on their faces.

If, if...

It didn't take long before the "if" that everyone dared not say in their hearts was confirmed.

The road behind had indeed been cut off.

Ding Hong climbed over the ravine without giving up, and continued to look for him, but he was almost shot by a group of bandits with bows.

Hearing this, Xiao Yan said angrily, "How dare they come out!"

Pei Yuan said in a deep voice, "We didn't dare to do that at first, but now we have the ravine blocking us and bows and arrows in our hands. They are just trying to stop us from evacuating easily, and there is no need to fight hard. What are we afraid of now?"

Xiao Yan suddenly became anxious, "What should I do?"

Pei Yuan's heart was also a little confused.

He urged again, "Where's Chen Toutie? Has the interrogation been completed?"

Pei Yuan had just finished speaking when Chen Toutie came in hurriedly and said to Pei Yuan, "Captain, this is bad!"

Pei Yuan shouted, "Speak!"

Chen Toutie replied, "According to what I have learned from the interrogation, the 'Big Tiger' and 'Starry Sky' are already rushing towards this side at full speed. The hunter spy heard that the two big leaders asked 'Little Wu Song' to hold us back for at least two days."

The three of them realized at the same time what this meant.

Xiao Yan's face changed and he said, "That means the main forces of Big Tiger and Starry Sky are only two days away from here?"

Pei Yuan's expression was also very ugly. He corrected himself and said, "The man was captured yesterday. Now there is only one day left."

Xiao Yan suddenly looked at the empty space ahead in a daze.

The main force of the bandits consists of at least 20,000 people!

One day!
Not to mention finding a new road to Yanggu County, I'm afraid even the blocked road in front of us won't be filled in time.

Gu Dayong was the most flustered, and kept saying, "What should I do now? What should I do now?"

The more dangerous the time, the calmer Pei Yuan became.

He thought about it briefly and said decisively, "Let's go! We can't wait to die here!"

Gu Dayong almost lost his composure and shouted, "Where's the money? Where's our money?!"

Pei Yuan simply ignored Gu Dayong. He urgently returned to his team and told his men to prepare to abandon the baggage and evacuate directly.

Hearing Pei Yuan speak so urgently, everyone became a little nervous.

Fortunately, they did not see any panic on Pei Yuan's face, and they were able to stabilize the morale of the army for the time being.

Pei Yuan came to the silver box where his belongings were kept, opened it himself, and revealed ingots of silver.

He looked at it silently for a while, then looked up at the sky.

The expression on his face gradually became cold.

(End of this chapter)

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