Seventy-six
On the eighth day of the exploration in Mianzhou, You Shu still failed to see the military advisor again, and was forced to interrupt his search for clues from him.
But these days were not without gains. You Shu disguised himself and went around to investigate, and he finally got a general idea of Huzhou's situation.
Including the city guards, Liu Tiezhu has about □□ million men, but they only have 50,000 men this time, which is definitely not an advantage in numbers. You Shu was a little worried. Although the book described the plot here mostly to show Xiao Weixin's various bravery, he was still worried. There were cases in history where the few defeated the many. However, from his inspections these days, Liu Tiezhu's men were not vegetarians.
He drew what he had observed about the patrols and defense situations in the city on paper. The paper was as thin as a cicada's wing, and even when folded it was not even one tenth as thick as normal paper. He stuffed the drawing under the kingfisher's feathers, watched it gradually fly away, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Logically speaking, he has completed his mission now, and he just needs to find a suitable opportunity to leave tonight. However, You Shu is more cautious and careful than others. He always feels that there is something strange in this city, so he plans to stay for a few more days to see.
At lunch time, he went downstairs to the hall to eat, maybe he could learn something from the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper lived up to expectations. He sighed while watching the desolate and empty inn: "If this continues, I will really have to close my shop..."
"I heard there was a war?" You Shu asked casually. It started to drizzle outside the window and the weather became a little cooler. He planned to go back to his room after dinner and have a good sleep.
The shopkeeper sighed, "Yes, yesterday the military advisor led his men to fight with the emperor's men in Qizhou. There were many casualties on both sides, and it's unclear who will win or lose."
You Shu silently clenched his chopsticks and asked, "Who exactly is that military advisor?"
"I don't know." The shopkeeper shook his head. "I only heard that he approached the leader himself. No one knows where he came from."
The waiter chewed some peanuts and yelled, "It is said that the military advisor brought quite a few people with him. Liu Tiezhu didn't have that many people under him originally, but now more than half of them are the military advisor's men."
You Shu frowned, "Where did the military advisor get the manpower?"
This matter seemed a bit strange no matter how you looked at it. You Shu was absent-minded while eating. A gust of wind blew in from the lobby door, carrying drizzle with it. You Shu smelled that strange fragrance again and couldn't help asking, "Why is there always a fragrance in the city?"
"Fragrance? Is there?" The shopkeeper was a little confused. "Maybe there is... We've been here for so long that we can hardly smell it."
The waiter also said at this time: "This smell has been wafting for several months. At first, everyone was confused, but later they got used to it."
"It's strange, but the more I smell this fragrance, the more refreshed I feel. If I don't smell it for a day, I feel a little uncomfortable."
You Shu frowned again.
Unable to get more useful information from the shopkeeper, You Shu went upstairs to rest after dinner. He heard that the city gates had been closed because of the war, and it would be troublesome for him to leave the city in a few days.
You Shu thought about these things and slowly fell asleep.
He didn't know what was going on, but he actually had a dream. In the dream, he was in a large sea of flowers, and his nose and chest were filled with those strange fragrances. He felt light and his soul seemed to be able to fly out of his body. There were even many bizarre pictures flashing in front of his eyes. It was like a dream and it was very unreal.
You Shu suddenly opened his eyes. The rain outside had stopped. He sat up from the bed and wiped the sweat off his head. The beautiful and strange scene in the dream seemed to still be in front of him. He got out of bed, poured a glass of water, and turned to look out the window. It was about three or four in the afternoon.
Unable to sleep anymore, he just fetched some water to wipe the sweat off his body, changed into clean clothes and went out again.
It was very cool outside as it had just rained. You Shu was walking on the long street, surrounded by all kinds of frightened passers-by. He heard them talking about how King Ling had already taken over Qizhou and severely damaged the leader's troops, so it was only a matter of time before they would fight their way here.
You Shu couldn't help but feel relieved, it seemed that the original owner's plot line was still there, and his prince could still win.
He strolled around the street and gradually walked towards a sparsely populated area, which was a relatively desolate area in the west of the city. It used to be a prison, but later the prisons were moved away and this place was used for the execution of serious criminals by beheadings. Normally, no one would come here.
It was cloudy again today. As You Shu walked in this place, he felt as if there were gusts of cold wind all around him. If he had not been born a shadow guard and had seen a lot of killings, he would have been scared to death if he had not been a little timid.
The further You Shu walked, the more eerie he felt. Suddenly, several guards with big knives jumped out from the roadside and stared at him fiercely: "What are you doing!?"
"I'm sorry." You Shu took two steps back and said in a frightened tone, "I just got lost and don't know where to go."
The guards holding knives looked at each other and said viciously: "This is not a place for you to come, get out!"
You Shu hurriedly took two steps back, turned around and walked away quickly, but hid when he turned a corner, climbed onto the roof, and peeked down through the tall grass on the roof.
He had always thought that this place was deserted, but it turned out not to be. From this angle, there were many guards wearing the same clothes below, and it was impossible to tell who they were. They were in a hurry, carrying a large box and walking out of the city. It was unknown what they were going to do.
You Shulue thought for a moment and followed them. He wanted to see what this group of people were going to do.
The city gate had been closed, and the group of people went out from a small side door in the west of the city. There were people guarding the door. You Shu waited for them to leave and then quietly shot a few silver needles. The two guards fell down, and he took the opportunity to chase them out from the side door.
The soldiers carrying the box walked very quickly. You Shu followed behind and judged from the depth of their footprints that the box should be empty.
What are you going to do with an empty box
You Shu couldn't figure it out, so he could only continue to follow them. Their route went west, winding through many uninhabited paths and passing a mass grave. The road became more and more desolate. Unless someone was mentally ill, a normal person would never take this road.
About an hour later, You Shu saw the group of guards disappear after turning a corner, and immediately chased after them. There he saw a large military base with several guards guarding the observation tower and many armored soldiers patrolling back and forth.
You Shu roughly counted and found that this small place was guarded by nearly two to three thousand people, and no one knew what they were doing.
The men carrying the boxes never came out after entering through the gate. You Shu looked at the dozen guards on duty on the platform, thought about it and decided not to act rashly. He waited patiently in the bushes for the night to come.
As time passed, the sunset gradually sank, and the sky was blood red, which always reminded people of bad things. You Shu waited until the sun had completely set and the sky had darkened before he dared to approach the camp carefully. He slipped along the corner of the wall, covered the mouth of a lone guard and dragged him into the haystack. He broke his neck, quickly changed his clothes, and left the man somewhere far away so that he would not be discovered.
He sneaked in by disguising himself as a soldier. He was always concerned about the people carrying boxes, but after walking around the camp, he did not find any place to put the boxes. He took a look at this place and became more and more certain that the military advisor must be doing something behind Liu Tiezhu's back, otherwise there was no way to explain why he would secretly build a camp here.
The night provided him with good cover. You Shu found his way out of the back door of the camp, pried open the lock and walked out when no one was paying attention. There was a path leading down the mountain. He carefully moved down little by little without the help of a torch. With the occasional moonlight, he could see that there was a dark abyss under his feet. If he took a wrong step, he might be killed.
You Shu's forehead was covered with sweat, and his whole body was tense, for fear of missing a step. It took him a long time to slowly find the mountain, and when his feet landed on solid ground, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, everything is safe and sound.
You Shu turned around, took a few steps forward, and then froze.
Although it was night, torches were lit everywhere, illuminating the area so that he could see clearly what was in front of him.
In front of him were vast expanses of flowers that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was all bright red, and many branches were laden with fruits. The bright red seemed to sting one's eyes even at night.
You Shu's breath was filled with the rich fragrance of flowers. He felt dizzy and weak all over, as if paralyzed. Suddenly, he felt his whole body begin to float, and he couldn't help wanting to take another deep breath of the fragrance.
Just when he was about to lose himself, You Shu stabbed his palm hard with the sleeve arrow. Blood spurted out from his palm. As the pain came, his mind gradually became clear.
You Shu was sweating profusely as he looked at the endless flowers in front of him, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.
The ancients might not know what this thing is, because science and technology were not well developed and they rarely saw it. But as a modern person, You Shu had seen it when he was taking a safety education class in college. The teachers had repeatedly reminded him that if he saw someone planting this plant on a large scale, he must call the police.
I thought its name was poppy.
You Shu finally understood where those scents in the city that made people feel numb and refreshed came from.
He took a few steps forward, carefully cut off one of the plants with a dagger, then took off his coat, wrapped it up and stuffed it into his arms. He originally wanted to stay in the city to investigate more, but after seeing this thing, he changed his mind.
Go back and tell Xiao Weixin immediately.
Just as You Shu hid his things, he heard a roar from behind him: "Who!?"
What followed was a series of uniform footsteps, and judging from the sound, there were at least dozens of people.
You Shu's heart skipped a beat, and he ran forward without stopping. The poppy bushes had paralyzed his nerves, and he had failed to hide his tracks and was exposed.
Fortunately, it was still dark and he should be able to escape.