You put me in charge of the prison and turned all the female prisoners into female military goddesse

"People live there?!"

The female prisoners gasped in astonishment.

"Yes, people live there."

As Lu Jing spoke, he stroked his chin, deep in thought.

"Let's go."

Seeing this, Wen Lanxiang quickly urged the other female prisoners to leave, knowing that Lu Jing was thinking of a solution.

At this point, the best thing to do is not to disturb him.

As expected, Lu Jing, who was deep in thought, did not notice the female prisoners leaving.

hiss……

Unable to come up with a good solution, Lu Jing then took out the brown paper map from his pocket and looked at it again.

The cave is in the right location; there are three paths around it.

The closest one is the dry ditch they used to move things back and forth.

But the road was narrow, only allowing two mules to pass at a time, so moving in and out would be too inefficient if we were to actually live there.

He traced another dotted line on the map with his finger. That road was longer, but it had woods and water sources along the way, and passed two abandoned charcoal kilns. The road was wide enough for vehicles to pass through.

It's possible to enter, but what if we encounter an enemy encirclement and annihilation? Is there any way to retreat?

If there are no other routes, there is no way to escape after being attacked.

Lu Jing doesn't like the feeling of not having a backup plan.

I've been thinking for a long time, but I can't come up with a good solution.

Lu Jing decided he didn't want to come and went back to sleep.

The next morning, after he finished washing up, he sat on the veranda and continued studying the map.

Suddenly I heard someone shout from behind me.

"Lord Lu!"

"Could you please make some noise when you walk?"

Lu Jing turned around, frowning, and saw Ji Tangtang squatting under the pillar, his hands wrapped around his knees, a strand of hair sticking up in his sleep, like a blade of grass stuck in his hair.

Ji Tangtang didn't respond to his question, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the map in his hand: "You're looking at that cave again. You said you were going to hide people there yesterday. You don't actually intend to do that, do you?"

"Of course, but the road needs to be repaired before we can move there."

Lu Jing rolled up the map and stuffed it back into his arms, then stood up and patted the dirt off his knees.

"It's too slow to travel back and forth along that dry ditch. I'd like to try going around to the east."

Ji Tangtang immediately stood up: "I'll go with you."

Aren't you going to sleep?

"Once I'm awake, I can't fall back asleep. Besides, didn't you say that special forces soldiers need to be ready to go on missions at any time? I'm practicing being ready to deploy at any time. You should praise me."

Lu Jing looked at her for two seconds, couldn't help but laugh, turned around and went back into the house to get a short knife and a water pouch:

"Let's go, go early and come back early. Don't let Mu Jiangli know you ran away, or she'll say you're disloyal again."

"She's just a chatterbox, I'm used to it."

The two of them went out through the southwest corner gate without disturbing anyone. The gray-blue sky on the horizon was slowly turning into a warm yellow.

Following the dotted line on the map, we passed two harvested wheat fields and then through a small grove of willows; the road had indeed widened considerably.

The tire tracks on the ground are still there. Although grass has grown, it is clear that vehicles could indeed travel on them before.

Lu Jing squatted down and pinched a handful of soil. The soil was solid, not loose or loose, so the mule cart wouldn't get stuck.

"This road is good."

Ji Tangtang also squatted down and grabbed a handful of soil, rubbing it like Lu Jing did.

"It's just a bit farther, about half the distance of the journey through Qian Gou."

"It doesn't matter if it's far, as long as it's passable by car."

Lu Jing stood up and looked ahead: "I'll find someone to clear the grass and fill in the pits later, so we won't have to carry things back and forth by mule in the middle of the night."

"Then we'll need to get a few more cars."

Ji Tangtang tilted his head and thought for a moment

"Fang Shengtian has some; we can borrow two old cars from him later."

As Lu Jing spoke, he suddenly stopped and his gaze fell on a low slope in front of him.

There were several half-collapsed domed kilns built of adobe bricks, their openings dark and gaping, like skulls with their eyes gouged out.

Ji Tangtang followed his gaze and asked, "What's that?"

"A charcoal kiln," Lu Jing said. "Qi Xiaomei mentioned to me before that there were abandoned charcoal kilns in these mountains, but I didn't take it seriously. I didn't expect it to be right by this roadside."

He walked over and bent down to look inside the nearest charcoal kiln.

The cave dwelling was small, with a thick layer of wood ash inside, and the walls were as hard as stone after being baked by fire.

Although the vaulted ceiling above had a few cracks, the overall structure was still intact and there was no danger of it collapsing.

Ji Tangtang peeked out from behind and asked, "Is it habitable?"

"It's too small for people to live in, but it can be used for storage or as a sentry post."

Lu Jing reached out and tapped the wall of the kiln. The echo was dull and solid. "Later, we'll get some wood to support the arched roof and clear out the ash. At least we can store three cartloads of grain."

"Three carts," Ji Tangtang clicked his tongue, "Then we can stop along the way from here to the cave, instead of walking all the way in one go."

"Um."

Lu Jing straightened up, glanced at the kilns again, got a general idea of ​​what was going on, and then turned around.

"Let's go back and have dinner."

The sun had already risen on the way back.

Dewdrops clung to the blades of grass on both sides of the road, glistening in the sunlight.

Ji Tangtang walked ahead, occasionally kicking a pebble on the road while humming an unknown tune.

Lu Jing followed behind, already having roughly outlined what he needed to do next in his mind:

Clear the road, repair the kiln, borrow a vehicle, and make another trip to the mountain cave to mark the location of the kiln.

When they returned to the side courtyard, breakfast had just been set on the table. Mu Jiangli was squatting under the eaves, drinking porridge, when she looked up and saw Ji Tangtang walking in from outside. She almost dropped the bowl.

"When did you go out? I was wondering why I hadn't seen you this morning. I thought you were fast asleep."

"I went out to scout out the location," Ji Tangtang said smugly, raising his chin. "I've found a new route for Lord Lu."

"You scouted the location? You're lucky you didn't get lost!"

Mu Jiangli rolled her eyes and turned to Lu Jing: "Lord Lu, you're just wasting your time taking her to scout the place. She can't even tell east from west."

Ji Tangtang immediately exploded: "Who can't tell east from west? I recognize the sun!"

"What good is it for you to recognize the sun? The sun doesn't guide you."

"The sun is my compass!"

"So what do you do at night? When there's no sun, do you just stay put?"

The two started arguing across the bowl and chopsticks.

Ye Qingqing came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of pickled vegetables, and didn't stop walking as she passed between the two of them.

He placed the plate on the table and said to Lu Jing, "Sir, the porridge is in the pot. Please help yourself."

Lu Jing responded, went over and ladled out a bowl of porridge for himself, then stood by the table listening to Ji Tangtang and Mu Jiangli argue.

They argued back and forth, neither giving an inch. Meanwhile, Liu Zhezhi, who had finished eating, was squatting by the well washing the dishes.

Wen Lanxiang came out of the house and walked straight to Lu Jing's side, asking in a low voice, "Is that road passable?"

"It's passable," Lu Jing said, taking a sip of porridge. "It's wider than the dry ditch, and vehicles can drive through it. There are also a few abandoned charcoal kilns along the way that we can use as rest stops."

Wen Lanxiang nodded.

"We need to borrow a vehicle, find someone to clear the road, and repair the kiln. We can't do all these jobs ourselves."

"I know."

Lu Jing put down the bowl: "I'll go find Fang Shengtian to borrow a car. We'll clear the grass on the road ourselves, and after we're done, we'll run to the cave to mark the location of the kiln."

Wen Lanxiang didn't ask any more questions. She walked to the table, sat down, pushed the pickled vegetable dish towards the center, and quietly began to drink her porridge.

The arguing continued.

Ji Tangtang was already red in the face from arguing, but Mu Jiangli remained calm and collected, occasionally taking a bite of the sesame seed cake to annoy her.

Lu Jing was too lazy to listen to their argument, so he turned around and walked to the backyard, where he sat down on the side of the corridor.

"Lord Lu."

At some point, Wen Lanxiang came up from behind and draped a jacket over Lu Jing's shoulders.

"Thank you," Lu Jing smiled, then patted the seat next to him, "Have a seat."

"grown ups."

After sitting down, Wen Lanxiang hesitated for a moment, then said, "My lord, may I ask you for a favor?"

"explain."

"that is……"

Wen Lanxiang hesitated for a moment, then said, "Will you marry me?"