A veteran of the frontier army, after marrying a wife, fought his way through the northern border.

"First, lead the horse around for a mile to get to know its temperament."

Don't force it; horses are humane, just go with the flow.

Luo Yunxiao did as instructed, pulling on the reins and leading a chestnut horse, a messenger horse, to the open space outside the beacon tower.

After walking several dozen feet, it took me a while to figure out the horse's temperament.

This guy is prone to being temperamental; he'll behave if you're gentle, but he'll be stubborn if you're firm.

After an hour of training, Luo Yunxiao finally learned the basics of horse control.

Although he fell off the horse twice.

However, due to his practice of the Border Defense Technique, he was physically strong.

He didn't get hurt after falling.

Fortunately, Li Ergou and the Liu siblings were still practicing their border defense techniques and hadn't noticed the situation on their side.

Luo Yunxiao has a strong learning ability and quickly mastered the knack of horse riding.

Pull the left rein and the horse will go left.

Pull to the right and you'll turn right.

When it squeezes its legs against the horse's belly, it knows to run.

The key is to understand its nature and get along well with it.

Luo Yunxiao rode his horse for a quarter of an hour near the beacon tower.

Nothing happened that night, and Luo Yunxiao arranged for Li Dakai to be on duty on the third floor for the first half of the night.

Li Ergou was on duty during the second half of the night.

The following afternoon, he instructed everyone: "I'm taking some men to familiarize themselves with the surrounding terrain. When we return in the evening, remember to save some food for me."

Li Dakai paused for a moment, then instructed, "Don't go too far, be careful not to run into Tartar scouts."

For a fleeting moment, a thought crossed his mind.

I wonder if this new squad leader will take the opportunity to run away with his wife.

There are only two horses in total. If the two people really go and never come back, where can we find them?

But then I thought again, no way.

The Tartars are just a few dozen miles away, and they might be sending out scouts to patrol the area.

The squad leader only had one person with him.

A Tartar scout team consists of at least five people; if you encounter one, you're dead.

The Tartars were not as weak as the border troops; they were virtually invincible on horseback.

Those two are really dead...that's fine, at least I'm still the boss.

It's a pity about those two horses...

Luo Yunxiao slung a short knife at his waist, put the three-stone strong bow into a paper bow quiver, and slung it diagonally across his back along with the quiver.

Qin Hongxiu only carried a short knife.

The two rode their horses one after the other, galloping towards the northwest.

Qin Hongxiu suddenly became interested and wanted to have a race with Luo Yunxiao to see who could ride a horse faster.

Luo Yunxiao readily agreed, whipped his horse's rump with the whip to speed it up, leaving Qin Hongxiu behind.

Qin Hongxiu was confident and deliberately delayed chasing after him for a moment.

The result was still much faster than Luo Yunxiao.

Luo Yunxiao readily admitted defeat.

The two raced through the hilly mountain roads.

Along the way, you can see some herder villages and animals such as roe deer, wild deer, and wild rabbits.

Luo Yunxiao's exploration of the surrounding terrain was based on multiple considerations.

The first task was to identify possible Manchu outposts and hidden outposts to fill the blind spots in the beacon towers' field of vision.

When necessary, a joint defense system can even be established with nearby villagers.

Secondly, he wanted to find out about the nearby mineral resources and see if he could find sulfur and saltpeter.

If gunpowder can be produced, it will be another trump card.

Third, and most importantly.

Before he came to the beacon tower to take up his post.

From the actions taken by the military camp over the past two days, and from the tone of the squad leader Zhao Xiao, I sensed something unsettling.

Perhaps something will happen in the near future, and the border troops' food and pay will soon be cut off.

That cunning old fox Wang Kui arranged for me to be stationed at the beacon tower; he had no good intentions.

He was the nephew of Governor Liu Yu, and might have already received some inside information that others didn't know.

He might want to let the soldiers guarding the beacon towers fend for themselves.

He wanted to force himself to abandon the beacon tower and then frame him as a deserter, thus taking revenge on himself.

Luo Yunxiao would never allow such a thing to happen.

Half an hour later, the two arrived at the area between Heishi'ao and Shiwacun.

This place is already twenty miles away from the beacon tower.

The two villages are separated by the Uto River.

Heishiao is located to the west of the river, and Shiwacun is located to the east of the river.

The two villages together have fewer than 100 households.

Several fishermen are fishing upstream.

The mountains are as green as ink, and the waters are as misty as smoke.

It has the scenery of a paradise on earth.

Two miles north of here lies the salt, iron, tea, and horse trade route connecting the Han and non-Han peoples.

At that moment, a pungent, sour, and putrid smell wafted through the air, seemingly mixed with the musty smell of earth.

Based on my past life's experience, there should be a natural sulfur spring nearby.

Although the exact location cannot be confirmed, it is definitely in this area.

"It smells like sulfur."

Qin Hongxiu touched her nose.

"Yes, that's one of the purposes of our trip."

"Weren't we out here to scout the terrain? What are you looking for sulfur for?"

You'll find out later.

Luo Yunxiao led the horse, and the two of them visited Shiwa Village. They saw several women selling groceries at a stall at the entrance of the village.

It was called a stall, but it was really just a felt mat laid on the ground.

The items piled on top were animal pelts, hats, clothes, jewelry, and some local mountain products and specialties.

"Auntie, do you have a sulfur spring here?"

The woman looked Luo Yunxiao up and down, then began to organize the goods on her stall without saying a word.

Her eyes looked a little flustered.

"Auntie, where is the sulfur spring?"

Qin Hongxiu was a little angry. Why are you ignoring me when I ask you a question?

Luo Yunxiao reached out to stop her, and looking at the items on the woman's stall, he made up his mind.

"How much are these hats and clothes? I want six outfits."

"One set costs five qian, and six sets cost a total of three taels of silver."

The woman spoke Mandarin, though her accent was a little off, but it was understandable.

It's obviously overpriced.

Although the style is that of a Hu (non-Han) style winter coat, the actual price is half.

Luo Yunxiao smiled and took out three taels of silver from his pocket to give to the woman.

"This is too expensive! You can't deliberately raise prices just because we are Han Chinese!"

"I'll give you a maximum of three coins for one set."

Qin Hongxiu reached out to stop Luo Yunxiao and began to bargain with the woman.

The woman relaxed at this moment and negotiated the price with Qin Hongxiu, finally agreeing to sell the set for three coins.

Luo Yunxiao smiled slightly and gave Qin Hongxiu a thumbs up.

Having a wife is great; she won't let her husband suffer any losses or be taken advantage of.

After handing the woman one tael and eight mace, Luo Yunxiao packed six sets of clothes and hats and placed them on the saddle.

If you're going to raid trade routes in the dark, wearing the uniforms of the Great Northern Army won't do.

The curved sword, the Hu people's clothing, even the mutton smell on their bodies, and their broken Mandarin were all indispensable.

This place is located at the border between the Han and non-Han peoples.

Many villagers have Hu (non-Han) ancestry, belonging to the Wuhuan, a branch of the Xianbei, or exiled tribes.

They were few in number and weak in combat power, and were not accepted by the main force.

The two villages in front of us have long traded with the Han people and belong to the mixed Hu villages.

This is also why Luo Yunxiao dared to come here.

"Auntie, are there any bandits roaming around here harassing the villagers?"

Luo Yunxiao asked.

He felt that the woman had looked at him like he was a thief.

This indicates that the nearby villages are not peaceful.

"Yes! There's a gang of black wolves that hangs out in the White Wolf Mountain area."

They recently robbed the neighboring village of Heishiao and even killed someone. They're really ruthless!

The Wuhuan cavalry would occasionally come to rob us of our grain!

The woman's face showed hatred when she mentioned the Black Wolf Gang and the Wuhuan cavalry.

"I see. It just so happens that we are the ones who suppress bandits."

"At first I thought you were Gongsun Zan's soldiers and bandits."

You soldiers and bandits are ruthless too!

Luo Yunxiao was speechless.

"Don't worry, auntie, we are good people. Good people don't steal from other good people."

Do you know where the sulfur spring is?

"If you keep going north for a mile, past the rocky slope and then west, you'll reach the sulfur spring, which we call the Stinky Spring."

It can treat skin diseases.

The woman said to Luo Yunxiao, "Now that we have money as a bond..."

The initial resistance has disappeared.

Luo Yunxiao thanked the woman and followed Qin Hongxiu to the location of the sulfur spring.

There are three sulfur springs here.

A white mist shrouded the water's surface.

The closer you get to the spring, the stronger the smell of rotten eggs becomes.

And it's so bad it hurts my eyes.

The white smoke gushing from the spring is actually water vapor.

This phenomenon occurs when the temperature of the sulfur spring water is very high and the air temperature is very low.

I didn't see any white smoke from about a mile away; it was all blocked by the nearby mountains.

Qin Hongxiu had no choice but to take out a handkerchief and cover her mouth and nose.

When they were ten zhang away, the warhorses beneath them began to snort and become agitated, pawing the ground incessantly.

Horses have a very keen sense of smell and cannot tolerate the pungent smell of sulfur springs.

Luo Yunxiao reined in his horse and dismounted with Qin Hongxiu to approach on foot.

"Bear with it for a moment, each of you get a few pieces of sulfur to take back, they'll be very useful."

"It's only because of my husband that I wouldn't do this job if it were anyone else."

Qin Hongxiu's eyes welled up with tears from the fumes, and she was covered in snot and tears.

Luo Yunxiao handed Qin Hongxiu a piece of linen and used a short knife to pry open some sulfur blocks on the shore and put them away.

Just as the two were about to leave, Luo Yunxiao's scout intuition suddenly kicked in.

A small group of cavalry was advancing towards this location, about 100 zhang to the north.

"What's wrong?"

Qin Hongxiu noticed that Luo Yunxiao's expression was strange.

"They seem to be Tartar scouts, three of them in total, heading this way."

"How do you know? I didn't see any trace of the Tartars."