Qiu Yizi quickly rolled off the horse and gently helped Zheng Rong up. Seeing that he had already fainted, he pinched his philtrum with his fingers and called softly, "Godfather! Godfather!"
Zheng Rong gradually woke up, looked at Qiu Yi with his cloudy eyes, moved his mouth twice, and then fainted again.
Zhongli Kuang was quite knowledgeable in medicine, so he hurried over, grabbed Zheng Rong's drooping right hand and placed it on his knee, and gently felt his pulse. After a long while, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Although the pulse of the prince is weak, it is steady and long, and there is nothing serious. Perhaps it is because of the fatigue of the past few days, which has damaged his vitality. As long as you take good care of yourself, you will recover in less than half a month."
After hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Qiu Yizhi was relieved. He looked up and saw that the merchants who were waiting outside the pass had seen his group rushing out from the pass. They didn't know the details and thought they were bandits coming down from the mountains, so they all abandoned their horses and carriages and fled in all directions. So he ordered people to collect the abandoned horses and carriages, and selected the most sturdy and comfortable carriage among them, and helped Zheng Rong into the carriage to rest. The rest of the carriages were for the injured soldiers who couldn't ride horses.
He also found a wooden sign and carved the words "All losses can be doubled for compensation at the Palace of Prince Youyan" on it with a knife, and stuck it into the ground. Then he mounted his horse and led his troops forward without stopping.
At this moment, Wen Lingjiao flashed by, bowed to Qiu Yizi, and said, "Thanks to your care, I was able to escape from the capital safely. Although I want to repay you, I am unable to do so. Why don't we say goodbye now and meet again if we are destined to do so!"
Qiu Yizi was startled when she heard this. She really didn't expect Wen Lingjiao to leave at this critical moment. She was very reluctant to let her go. She sighed secretly a few times and then said, "Miss Wen, since you have something important to do, please do as you please!" She added, "From now on, please take care of yourself and don't do anything evil again!"
After hearing this, Wen Lingjiao pursed her lips and nodded, then bowed. Then she and He'er each rode on a horse and galloped towards the south.
While Qiu Yizhi was still feeling sentimental, Yiran came forward and said, "What? Are you reluctant to leave? Why don't you just follow him like this?"
After hearing her sour words, Qiu Yizi scolded, "What time is it, and you are still saying such things. Why don't you get on your horse and follow me back to Youyan?" After that, he mounted his horse, led the army, collected some food and rice, and hurried forward along the official road.
The group walked for more than an hour and covered more than thirty miles, and then the official road forked to the north.
Qiu Yizi had taken this fork in the road before. If he continued along the main road, he would need to pass through Linzhou and Qingzhou to reach Anhe Town. The journey was long, but easier to walk. If he went north, he would need to cross the Qingzhou mountains, and there would be attacks from bandits along the way, but he could walk nearly two hundred miles less.
Qiu Yizhi thought about it for a while, but still couldn't make up his mind, so he explained the situation of the two roads to Zhongli Kuang in detail and asked: "Of these two roads, Yizhi originally wanted to go to Qingzhou. However, with my adoptive father's current health, I'm afraid he can't stand the bumpy mountain road anymore."
Zhongli Kuang bit his lip and pondered for a while, then he sighed, took out a copper coin from his sleeve, prayed silently for a few words, and threw it upward. The copper coin drew an unbeautiful arc in the air, fell on the car board, and began to spin non-stop. When it was about to exhaust the patience of the onlookers, it finally lost all power and lay flat, but face up.
Zhongli Kuang looked at it and said, "Let's take the Qingzhou trail!"
After hearing this, Qiu Yizhi gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words: "This is destiny. Success or failure depends on this!" After that, he ordered the people behind him, "Let's take the Qingzhou trail to the north! Hurry up and keep up, don't fall behind!"
How could the more than 100 people behind him know that Qiu Yizhi's decision to take the Qingzhou trail was based on a copper coin that was only slightly heavier than a feather? However, the person who led them out of the desperate situation was this young man in his early twenties, and the strategy and decision-making he showed in the past few days had deeply impressed them.
So after hearing Qiu Yizi's call, all the soldiers shouted in unison: "Yes, sir!" Then they turned their horses' heads and headed towards Gyeongju along the path.
The road in Gyeongju was indeed very difficult to travel. Although the road under the group of horses was called an official road, it was actually just a rugged path that passed through the mountains and valleys and was only wide enough for a carriage to pass. The road surface was also bumpy due to years of disrepair. It was ok to ride on horseback, but the wheels of the carriages often sank into the pits, and every time this happened, they had to be lifted out by manpower before they could continue to move forward.
Although the road was extremely difficult, no one dared to delay for even a second, because they all knew in their hearts that the imperial court's pursuers would come from behind at any time, and by then they would be outnumbered and would have no way out but death; and every extra step they took would bring them one step closer to escaping!
The group walked non-stop, and even had no time to cook at noon. They only took out dry food and water and swallowed it hastily on the horse's back, which was considered lunch. They walked like this for a whole day and only advanced a hundred miles.
Seeing this itinerary, Qiu Yizhi was a little anxious, so he rode a few more miles ahead alone to make a stop. Suddenly, a section of the road ahead, which was not very wide to begin with, was blocked by countless branches and rocks, making it impossible to pass. Qiu Yizhi became more panicked, and suddenly heard a voice shouting in a hoarse voice: "I opened this road, I planted this tree..."
This voice seemed familiar to Qiu Yizhi. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a voice flashing out from the pile of rocks in front of him. He looked closely and found that it was none other than the fat black bandit who robbed him here a few days ago. So he interrupted him and said loudly, "Do you still recognize me?"
The fat black man was stunned when he heard this, and swallowed the words he was about to say. He held the axe in his hand and looked forward. He finally recognized Qiu Yizi's face and immediately changed his expression to a flattering one: "Oh! The flood really washed away the Dragon King Temple. Isn't this the brother of the hero Yuchi? Why did you pass by here again when you were a kid?"
Qiu Yizi heard that his words were straightforward and had no ill intentions, so he rode his horse forward slowly and said, "You have not only rushed into the Dragon King Temple, you are probably going to pull out the Dragon King's whiskers! Hurry up and help me clean up these useless things!"
The fat black man said with embarrassment: "It took our entire village a month to block this road. If you want to go through, we can just open a road. Why do we have to move everyone away?"
Just as Qiu Yizhi was about to explain the matter to him, Yuchi Lianghong had already caught up on horseback, shouting, "Brother, why did you take so long?"
Qiu Yizhi listened and replied: "There are a few acquaintances of yours here, and I am asking them to clear this road!"
Yuchi Lianghong was a man who had experienced many ups and downs in the martial arts world. When Qiu Yi stopped talking, he guessed that someone from the martial arts world had intercepted him along the way, so he put on the style of a martial arts leader, rode forward and said, "Which friend from the martial arts world is this? May I come forward to meet you?"
The fat black man looked up and saw that the person sitting on the horse was the one he admired so much. He quickly put aside the two axes in his hands, bowed and saluted, saying: "So it is really the hero Yuchi! I am sorry for not welcoming you in person. I deserve to die!"
Yuchi Lianghong had a good memory, and said to the man, "Hei Ling Shen, as the saying goes, 'A man should be looked at with new eyes after three days of absence'. How come you haven't improved at all? You were cutting off the paths here a month ago, how come you are still here a month later? Only this dirt hill has been slightly raised by you."
The bandit nicknamed "Black Spirit" heard his words and said shyly: "What can I do? I have no money or land, and I can't read a word. I am doing these evil businesses here. If the hero Yuchi has pity on me and helps me, I will benefit a lot!"
Qiu Yizi quickly took over the conversation and said, "What you said is reasonable. My brother Yuchi and I are here to escort a nobleman to the north, and we just happened to pass by your place. Why don't you clear this road quickly? If you serve well, maybe you will get a good reward in the future!"
The Black Spirit God didn't quite believe Qiu Yizi's words, and turned his head to stare at Yuchi Lianghong.
Yuchi Lianghong said, "Why are you looking at me? You don't trust my brother, so you don't trust me, Yuchi Lianghong? Why don't you go and ask around, when have I ever broken my promise?"
When the Black Spirit God heard what he said, a complex expression of fear and surprise appeared on his dark face. He said a few words in a row, then turned around and called his twenty or thirty brothers to throw away the crude weapons in their hands and come over to clear the road.
When the group was halfway through their work, a large group of people and horses came up and saw that although the road was passable, the carriages that Zheng Rong and Zhong Likuang were riding in could not pass. So they dismounted and helped to throw aside the branches and rocks that were randomly piled on the road.
This lasted for about half an hour until the road was finally cleared.
Qiu Yizhi led his men and horses to slowly pass through this obstacle, and then said to the Black Spirit God: "We have all passed this place, you quickly order people to block the road again!"
After hearing this, the Black Spirit God bent down, smiled apologetically and said "I dare not".
Seeing that he looked burly but extremely frightened, Qiu Yizi found it funny and asked, "Do you know who was in the carriage that just passed by?" Qiu Yizi looked at the bewildered face of the Black Spirit God and answered himself, "To be honest, it was Prince Youyan himself!"
After hearing this, the Black Spirit God took a deep breath and said, "Didn't the prince get captured by the new emperor? A few days ago, there were heroes in the martial arts world saying that they were going to rob the execution ground! How did they end up here?"
Qiu Yi smiled and said, "You are well-informed. The prince is destined to be here, and good people will be blessed by heaven. It's not surprising that he escaped from the capital. But you helped the Prince of Youyan escape, so you are a wanted criminal of the court. Do you know that?"
The Black Spirit God said nonchalantly: "What I did was murder and arson. I have already been convicted by the imperial court. What's the big deal?"
"Humph! What do you know?" Qiu Yizhi sneered, "When you were caught by the government as a robber, you were just stabbed in the head. But now you have committed the crime of treason. Not only will you be executed by slow slicing, but I'm afraid your entire family will be implicated! Your whole family, young and old, will be doomed!"
The Black Spirit God was speechless after what Qiu Yizi said. He opened his mouth wide and said after a long time: "What should I do? Please, Master Yuchi, save me!" (To be continued)