The Red Mansions Across the Four Seas

Chapter 600

From the morning to noon of the next day, out of the four groups of spies sent out, three groups came back.Only the group Jiao Li, Liu Fushan and Mi Tianci did not come back.

Those who came back had different opinions.

Mi Tianbao's group didn't get any news.Two of Alamu's subordinates, one said that the volunteer army was three hundred miles to the north, and the other said it was two hundred miles to the south.

After questioning them carefully, it turned out that they were also hearsay and speculation, and the information was of no value at all.

Now, all we have to do is wait for Joli to come back.

In this regard, Baochai and others are both looking forward to and worrying.

At this time, Jiao Li, Liu Fushan and Mi Tianci were in Mushroom Valley, about 280 miles northeast of Woniugang.

The name here is Mushroom Valley, but it is actually not the same concept as the valleys in general mountainous areas.It got its name just because it is located in a low and sunken area on the grassland, and it is rich in mushrooms.

Mi Tianci used to work as a cobbler with a family here before, and got along very well. With the attitude of giving it a try, Mi Tianci brought Jiao Li and Liu Fushan here.

The family was very happy about Mi Tianci's arrival and received them very warmly.After Gioli served two bottles of spirits, the head of the household became even more enthusiastic.

In the evening, Joli and the others stayed at this house. The head of the household took advantage of the night to go out and inquire from house to house, and finally got a clue from an old man.

I came back and told Jolly, and Jolly went to inquire carefully again.

It turned out that the old man went out to hunt hares yesterday, and once encountered a soldier and horse, which looked like 800 people, and the clothes and weapons he carried were exactly the style of a volunteer army.

On the grassland here, it is impossible for others to dress like this. Jiaoli concluded that that team was the Beihai Volunteer Army.

Early this morning, the old man led Gioli and the others to the place where he met the team of soldiers and horses.

There has been no snow in the past few days, and the traces of soldiers and horses are still there.Jiaoli carefully examined the horseshoe prints and concluded that they were left by the Beihai Volunteers.

The horseshoes of the Beihai Volunteer Army are different from other horseshoes. They have their own special marks, which can be distinguished from the horseshoe prints.

Now, the three of Jiao Li are walking along these traces. As long as there is no snow in the near future, they will always find the Beihai Volunteers.

After walking until two o'clock in the afternoon, I finally saw a team coming from the front.The speed is not fast, and the team is not very neat.

Jiao Li and the others hurriedly dodged into a few seabuckthorn groves nearby, observing carefully.

When the team walked in, it turned out to be the Beihai Volunteer Army.

Only then did Jiaoli and the others come out, and it turned out that this team was exactly Shiliu's troops from the third brigade.

"Commander Jiao, why are you here?"

Shi Liu was naturally taken aback.

"Thank God, we finally found you. We're here to deliver the ammunition to you."

"Send ammunition? That's great, it just so happens that the ammunition is all gone. Now we're going to fight the Mogs."

"Where is Chief Min?"

"It should be in Tulongliangzi, where we are going to fight the Mogu people. At this time, many Mogu people have already rushed there. Where are the ammunition?"

"At Wo Niu Gang, because I don't know where you are, I had to wait there first and come out to find out the news."

"Woniugang, it's very far away. It's three hundred miles away from Tulongliangzi. It will take at least three or four days to get there. In addition, it will take five or six days for you to go back to deliver the letter. I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up with the decisive battle."

"How far is it from Tulong Liangzi?"

"There are also two hundred and fifty or sixty miles."

"How did you end up here?"

"Our regiment is harassing the enemy's rear, restraining the enemy's soldiers and horses, and preventing them from rushing to Tulongliangzi. Today we just fought a battle with the Mogu people."

"Your group?"

Jiao Li looked at the team, and Shi Liu immediately understood what he meant.

"There is no more ammunition, so we can only compete with the Mogu people for bows and sabers. The bows and arrows are captured, not as good as ours before. The Mogu people are also quite capable, and our losses in this battle are relatively large. Although we won, we also broke More than 300 people were lost, and the battle was miserable. At present, Chief Min doesn’t have much ammunition.”

"Tianci, have you traveled the road from Woniugang to Tulongliangzi?"

"I haven't walked by it, but I know the general direction. My brother Tianbao walked by."

"Okay, Commander Shi, I'll go back immediately. After I go back, I will march day and night, and send the ammunition to Tulongliangzi as soon as possible."

"Military Chief Jiao, why don't I go with you, replenish the ammunition there, and then rush to Tulongliangzi, and you will go there later."

"That's good, I've replenished the ammunition, and you're a new force. Let's go! We'll be on our way overnight."

Shi Liu left 30 people behind, and proceeded according to the same route, and rushed back to Tulongliangzi to report to Jia Min, while the rest of the people rushed to Woniugang with Jiao Li.

Because the march with the baggage cart was slow, Shi Liu decided to abandon the cart and unload the horse, and the peasants mounted the horse, and marched lightly with only bows and arrows and the necessary food to speed up the march.

Jiao Li and the others have been out for four days, and there is still no news.

At this time, whether to continue to wait at Wo Niu Gang or to leave has become the focus of debate here.

Baochai believes that we should continue to wait.

Chang'an and General Qu Shen thought that they should set off and look for Jia Min and the others while walking.

There are two reasons for them. One is that they have not returned for such a long time. The Gioliji people may have died, and they may never be able to wait here for their return.

Second, it has been such a long time, and Jia Min's situation may become more and more difficult.It may be too late when we hear the news in the future.

Miaoyu's point of view is that there is no goal at all now, and if she walks blindly, she is likely to get farther and farther away from Jia Min and the others, and run counter to it.

Both sides have good reasons, and neither can convince the other.In the end, in desperation, a compromise was reached.If Gioli doesn't come tonight, we'll leave for Red Hill tomorrow.Get there and ask around again.

A few people stayed at Wo Niu Gang, waiting for Jiao Li to come back. If Jiao Li didn't come back after three days, he would be regarded as dead and left alone.

Soon, another night passed, and there was still no movement from Joli.

After dinner in the morning, he ordered to pull out the camp and prepare to rush to Hongshan.

"Miss Xue, you are ready to go."

Needless to say to Liu Cheng, Baochai had already seen that the team was ready.The soldiers and horses in Chang'an have already started to set off.

"Miss Xue, there is a troop of soldiers coming from the northeast."

"Who is coming?"

"I haven't seen it clearly yet, someone is watching there."

"Explore again, and report back quickly."

"Yes!"

"We can't leave for the time being, let's prepare to fight."

Chang'an also got a spy report, stopped marching, and prepared to meet the enemy.

As soon as the battle was opened here, a few riders came galloping.

"Commander Jiao Quartermaster is back and found the volunteers. They are our soldiers. Commander Shi is here."

From a long distance, the spy shouted loudly, his voice changed, and he was extremely excited.

When Baochai, Miaoyu, Liu Cheng and others heard this, they could hardly believe it. They didn't believe it until they came up to them and saw themselves clearly.

In an instant, these people burst into tears.

When we met at this time, we were naturally very affectionate.However, there was no time to say more, so they hurriedly exchanged information.

Chang'an and Qu Shen will come over, so everyone discusses the next action plan together.

Since Jiaoli and Shiliu reunited, they did not camp for a day and two nights at all, but when they were tired from walking, they stopped for a while, fed some fodder to the horses, rested their feet, and people also took the opportunity to rest and eat a cold steamed bun , and then keep marching.

Before making peace with Joli, they hadn't slept for two days and one night, and fought a fierce battle with the Mogs.At this time, both men and horses were exhausted.

So Shi Liubu stayed in Woniugang, left the ammunition, and rested here for a day before leaving.

Chang'an led the troops of the headquarters and set off immediately, rushing to Tulongliangzi as soon as possible to reinforce Jia Min.

Baochai, as before, escorted ammunition and other heavy vehicles, marched day and night, and rushed to Tulongliangzi as soon as possible.

The long and difficult night finally passed, and it was dawn.

On the vast snowfield, a team is trekking hard.From a distance, it looks like a river flowing slowly.

This is Baochai's supply team.

These people have been walking for a day and a night since they set off yesterday morning.Except for stopping twice in the middle to feed the horses, each staying for an hour and a half, they have been marching.

Since Chang'an's team was in front and had already stepped on the road, the vehicle moved forward, saving some effort.

Chang'an's team marched lightly, leaving the vehicles and some luggage behind, and followed Baochai's convoy.So Chang'an and the others have now thrown away the supply team.

Although there are horses, although they are all wearing cotton-padded clothes, cotton-padded shoes, and cotton-padded hats brought from Beihai, they are still very cold on nights in the twelfth lunar month.

In the middle of the night, I couldn't ride any horses, so I had to lead the horses and exercise my body to withstand the severe cold.

Gioli came back from the front.

"Miss Xue, there is a river ahead, you can rest here."

"Okay, just rest here for two hours."

When the team stopped, Jiaoli led people to dig ice to get water, while Liu Cheng led people to cut seabuckthorn trees.

There are almost no other trees on the grassland here, only this kind of seabuckthorn forest can be seen almost everywhere.

The seabuckthorn trees were all wet, and a charcoal fire was used underneath, and it took a lot of effort to ignite the fire.

After five piles of seabuckthorn trees were lit, people gathered around the fire and began to warm themselves by the fire.

Since the fire was so big, it was already difficult to get close to it, so we had to wait until the fire was not much burned before getting close to the fire and starting to bake steamed buns.

There are two steamed buns per person, one is baked and eaten, and the other is baked soft, hidden on the body, and eaten at noon.

You can't bury the pot to make food along the way, and the dishes are naturally avoided.As for tea and hot water, don't even think about it.I couldn't bear the thirst, so I grabbed a handful of snow and swallowed it, thinking of drinking water.

"Joli, how much jerky do you have left?"

Baochai asked while nibbling on the steamed buns that Yinger had just baked for her.

"There are still some, which were originally prepared for Chief Min and the others."

"Take some out and share it with everyone. It will give you some strength for walking. Even the civilians will give it. As for Chief Min, they fight, horses and so on, and there will always be injuries."

"Okay, eat some meat, it's better to be a little salty."

"Let me go, Chief Quartermaster Jiao take a rest."

Liu Cheng got up and left.

"Joli has worked hard."

"Miss Xue, you're being polite. When I was on the road yesterday, I slept in the car for a while, and that's fine. Girls have never suffered like this before."

"Yeah, it's quite bitter. However, this is our own family's business. So many soldiers can follow us without complaint. What can our own family members say? No matter how hard or tired you are, you have to persevere."

"It will be fine after this battle is over. Once the Mogu people are defeated, the general situation of the world will be settled."

While talking, there was a commotion behind, it turned out that Shi Liu led the people to catch up.

After meeting each other and exchanging a few pleasantries, Shi Liu didn't stop, and the team overtook the baggage team and rushed forward.

When the rest time came, Baochai's team also set off and continued their difficult march.

(End of this chapter)