Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Luo Yanhuan and his party of five were in a place called Lishugou. Luo Yanhuan, two soldiers, and two old Luo family members, one old and one young; this Lishugou is located to the north of Tangcang Town; and Tangcang Town is in the Qinling Valley on the west side of the Shu Road, not on the thoroughfare.

It has been almost a month since they arrived at the border of Fengzhou, and they also found the Luo family who migrated from Hedong to Tangcang Town, Fengzhou many years ago. An old man and a half-year-old accompanying them were the Luo family sent to send them out of the mountain.

A farmer driving a buffalo came towards him on the road, and the old man of the Luo family at the head of Luo Yanhuan greeted him in a very strong dialect accent: "Brother! Have you heard that Taoist Mai Yi has been here recently?"

Unexpectedly, the farmer had heard of the Maid Taoist, so he shouted in a long voice, "Mai Taoist? Brother, I have to go to Mount Emei to see if he is there."

The old man Luo had no choice but to reply according to Luo Yanhuanjiao's words: "The old man heard in Tangcang Town that he passed by here recently, and someone asked him to show him a photo. Haven't you heard?"

"No, this kind of fairy-like person is hard to find. You can ask him for a look?" the farmer said slowly, with great interest.

Old man Luo said: "Er Xiao has a strange disease. If I can find Taoist Mai Yi, I want him to take a look. Lang doesn't work, I've seen many of them!"

After a while of answering, everyone passed by the farmer. The farmer was holding a pear branch in his hand, and while driving the cattle, he looked back at them a few times. Maybe he thought Luo Yanhuan and other strong men were a bit strange. The land in the Qinling mountainous area is barren, where is it easy to see Luo Yanhuan and other tall and strong Han people among the common people?

Because of this, Luo Yanhuan was almost arrested when he marched to the Qinling Mountains in January. One month later, they are still walking in this mountain alive and kicking.

At that time, he didn't know the way, and he took the "Chencang Road" of the Shu Road. Not long after he left Dasan Pass, he met the patrol scouts of the Shu Army and was arrested immediately. Luo Yanhuan lied that he was a businessman who went to Shannan West Road to buy goods, and bribed some copper coins, so he was lucky enough to escape without being forced to use violence. The accompanying soldiers of Guo Shao proposed to give up the trip, which was too risky; Luo Yanhuan was eager to make contributions and insisted on continuing to go, claiming that the old Luo's family was not far from here, and it would be easy as long as they were supported by the tribe.

But they didn't dare to take the main road anymore, so they detoured towards the valley path to the west, but they didn't know the way. Fortunately, they met a local shabby household begging along the way, so Luo Yanhuan gave him dry food and asked him to be a guide to lead the way. It was not easy to find the boundary of Tangcang Town, and found members of the Luo family in a village; people from this line of Luo family took refuge in the mountains from Hedong.

Luo Yanhuan got help from acquaintances, and the old man who accompanied him had been to Hedong twice. Now that he has roughly figured out the situation in the northern part of Feng County, he dared not stay any longer, and hurried back to avoid wasting all his previous efforts.

The road going north from Tangcang Town was the route they would use to return to Guan, and they really didn't dare to take the Shu road.

This road is very winding, just walking along the valley, but if there is no guide from someone who is familiar with the local area, it is easy to follow the valley and reach a dead end. Valleys are not artificially opened, there is a road ahead, and maybe there are only mountains left after walking; if you go straight over the mountains in the Qinling Mountains, you will probably die of exhaustion in the mountains and forests.

Tangcang Town is located in the north of Fengzhou.

According to the Luo family, there are four main roads extending northward near Fengzhou City, two of which can be passed through: one is the Shu Road along the Jialing River; the other is in the west, leading to Tangcang Town in the mountains on the west side of the Shu Road.

Going north from Tangcang Town, there are three other valley routes. The left one is towards Qinzhou; the two right ones can merge with Jialing River Shu Road, and the meeting point is Huanghua Valley. Luo Yanhuan and the others took the farther one on the right side of Tangcang Town, but instead of going to the Shu Road, they continued to go north at the fork in the road, planning to take a detour to the Weishui River, and then return to Chencang along the Weishui River... The road is more difficult to walk, but generally they will not encounter the patrols and scouts of the Shu army.

These rugged roads in numerous valleys, large and small, are the only way for traffic in the Qinling Mountains. There is no other choice. No one has the ability to climb one mountain after another. This point is completely different from the Yuan Pingyuan that Luo Yanhuan and others are familiar with. Even if you don’t take the main road, there are countless possibilities to take the small road between the crop fields; the only thing you need to pay attention to is the direction.

The road for Luo Yanhuan and his party was rough, but they were not far from the pass, and they arrived at Fengxiang two days later. The guards at Fengxiang Post told them that Guo Shao and others had gone to Sanguan; Luo Yanhuan had to go back south to find Guo Shao at Sanguan.

Guo Shao and others still live in Sanguan, and they have been staying there for more than half a month.

Seeing Luo Yanhuan and listening to him describe the thrilling journey, Guo Shao immediately sighed: "The decisive battle is on the battlefield, but the decisive victory is not on the battlefield. Brother Luo risked his life to find out the terrain of Fengxiangbei.

Luo Yanhuan hurriedly said: "The last general is just doing his job!"

Guo Shao stopped talking, hurriedly asked him for details, and then drew five pictures. From large to small, draw as clearly as possible.

After drawing the terrain of the road, Guo Shao thought of helping Luo Yanhuan's villagers again, so he personally received him and rewarded him with a small cloth bag. Old man Luo carried his heavy pocket and was very happy for a moment: "I need to buy a few mules! Thank you General for your reward."

With an extremely friendly smile, Guo Shao asked kindly, "Tangcang Town controls the Shu Road on the west side. It is the hub of the western traffic feeder line. There must be troops stationed there. The old man lives in Tangcang Town. Do you know how many troops there are?"

Old man Luo pondered for a moment, then said: "There are a thousand people, maybe eight hundred? I know that there are many Shu troops stationed in Tangcang Town! There are also other places, except Fengzhou City and Weiwu City. There are many soldiers, and there is an army camp in Huanghua Valley. Last month, my fellow villagers and I walked the Shu Road to sell goods. I can't be wrong from what I saw with my own eyes. There are also several army camps in front of Weiwu City, but I don't know how many people there are. I must tell the general everything I know."

Guo Shao said kindly again: "Old man, can you see if it's okay... I'll send some people back with you to do some business in Tangcang Town, and you can say that you are a joint venture businessman, take care of it, how about it?" After saying that, he turned to look at Luo Yanhuan. Luo Yanhuan understood and nodded slightly.

Guo Shao added another sentence: "In return, I will pay your family one thousand copper coins every month, and the accompanying seller will give it to you on time."

Old man Luo thought for a while: "Success! This old man will take care of it by himself."

Guo Shao rubbed the line of the Shu Road on the blueprint again with his palm, tapped twice with his index finger on Tangcang Town on the left, then moved to the right, and couldn't help but ask again: "Is there a Maling Village on the east side of the Shu Road? How many roads from Maling Village meet the main line of the Shu Road?"

Old man Luo frowned and said, "I've never been there before. I usually take the Chencang Road instead of the valley road on the west side when leaving the Qinling Mountains. But I do know that there is a road in Baijian called Xiegu, which leads to the east."

"Bai Jian? Where is it?" Guo Shao asked hurriedly.

Old man Luo couldn't read, so naturally he wouldn't let him look at the picture to point out the place, so he could only use words: "Baijian is not far to the north of the exit of Xiegu...on Chencang Road (Shu Road), thirty miles away from Fengzhou."

Although Guo Shao could guess the direction he said, he still asked carefully: "Thirty miles away from Fengzhou, is it on Chencang Road in the north of Fengzhou?"

"Yes." Old man Luo nodded without hesitation.

Guo Shao hurriedly measured it again on the map and added a new place: Baijian. And draw a line at a point below Baijian, and write "Slanted Valley".

It was almost the end of the question, and Guo Shao let him leave when he couldn't get anything useful from the old man's mouth. Then Guo Shaoping withdrew the irrelevant people, leaving Zuo You, Jing Niang and a few generals behind, and said: "In the past half a month or so, we have barely figured out the terrain and roads in the north of Fengzhou. What do you guys think?"

Li Chuyun said: "From Sanguan to Fengzhou, there is the Qinling Mountains. The Chencang Road (Shu Road) is the closest and the best way to go. The Shu army should focus on blocking the checkpoints and fortifying the Chencang Road; then use Tangcang Town and Malingzhai to control the flanks on the left and right wings, and control those winding and complicated paths."

Guo Shao didn't talk much, just nodded and said: "General Li has a big picture, which is very reasonable."

Luo Yanhuan hastily said: "Guo Du envoy should pay attention to Huanghua Valley. This place is not well-known, but several roads from Tangcang Town on the west side exit from this place."

Guo Shao also praised: "General Luo is good at seeing subtleties."

Everyone stayed in Sanguan for several days, and finally waited for Jingniang's entourage to return. They were seven or eight days behind Luo Yanhuan.

There are four people in a group, two nuns are Jingniang's followers, and two nuns with bald heads. They all carried a kind of wooden-frame luggage, and the wooden frame stretched upwards to form a tung tarpaulin for shelter, which could protect from the sun and light rain, but saved the hand of holding an umbrella.

These women took the Chencang road directly, passing through Sanguan, and they met Guo Shaojingniang and others.

Guo Shao personally met the two priestesses, one black and strong woman, the other a woman in her early thirties with freckles, Guo Shao knew them all, and Jingniang's attendant who came all the way from the original place; but he had never seen the other two bald-headed nuns.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Guo Shao finally understood the situation. The female Taoist priests and the nuns they brought back were hardly stopped by checkpoints on the Shu Road. The nuns had the certificate of the Shu Kingdom, and since they were women, the sergeants generally would not embarrass them.

It's just that Taihe nunnery is in Qingniling, which has passed Fengzhou and is further south, and the road is relatively long, so the Taoist priests spent more time traveling and staying than Luo Yanhuan and others.

The accompanying nun is the nun of Qingniling Taihe Nunnery, and the presiding nun personally dispatched to see him off. The local people superstitiously think that the nunnery is not auspicious, so the incense in Taihe nunnery has always been poor, and they are already in a situation where they are frugal and cannot make a living.