"What's going on?" Gong Shufeng was a little confused.
The news he had learned before was that although Princess Guangping openly rebelled, Shenzhou's transportation was not cut off. At least land and water trade was still going on. This was why he chose to go by boat.
But that river lock doesn't look like this.
Gongshu Jin shook his head.
This was Qi Country, completely different from the environment he was familiar with.
However, their "identities" are both innocent civilians, and they still carry government passes. As long as they don't encounter rebels, they should not get into any trouble.
Half an hour later, the captain brought bad news.
"What? This ship can't continue going south?" Gong Shufeng frowned.
"It's not possible at the moment." The ship owner corrected, "I heard that Huiyang Mansion is arresting the rebels. Every ship going south needs to be carefully searched to ensure that there are no problems before it can be released."
"Then just let them search!" Gong Shufeng expressed confusion, "It only takes half an hour at most to board the ship, right?"
The captain showed the same look as Mr. Mo before.
That look seems to say whether you really don't know or you don't know.
This made Gong Shufeng subconsciously take half a step back.
"Fool, what they want is money." Another businessman on the same ship said directly, "Where are you from? You don't even know this."
"Inspection takes time, especially when there are so many ships queuing up." The ship owner coughed twice. "If the goods carried by some ships are seasonal, they will be more eager to clear customs. At this time, money is very important. ”
At this point, even Gong Shufeng completely understood what the other party meant.
Whoever pays more has the chance to get a faster inspection.
The cargo carried by this ship does not require an extra period of time, so the ship owner plans to trade time for additional expenses.
Gongshu Jin said with a pale face, "Then how long does it take to wait normally?"
"It won't be long. I asked. If everything goes well, it will probably take about ten days." The captain replied, "Of course, you will have to bear the food and drink expenses during this period."
Gong Shufeng's heart sank.
Within half a month, this greatly exceeded the planned plan. Jinxia City has mastered the new method of making weapons, is accumulating a lot of experience every day, and is getting stronger every day. The longer the plan is delayed, the wider the gap between the public losers and the Jinxia Machinery will be. What's more, if this goes well, who knows if Huiyang City will come up with something new in the next period of time
After returning to their residence, the two brothers leaned against each other.
"How much money do we have left?"
"Ten taels at most." Gong Shujin took out his money bag and counted it, "It's definitely not enough to let the cargo ship pass customs."
Normally, they would bring enough money with them when they go out, and it would be no problem to shell out a hundred taels of gold leaves. However, as civilians whose families were in trouble, it was obviously impossible for them to take so much cash with them and flee to Jinxia City.
More importantly, even if they had the money, it would be difficult for them to let Huiyang City release the ship without hiding it from the ship owner. The two of them had been warned as early as when they were in Yuan City that Jinxia City's anti-informant force was quite powerful, and even professional spies rarely managed to lurk down. This forced the two of them to strictly guard their identities. The disguise began from the moment they left Shangyuan. The ship owner was also an untrustworthy stranger to them.
"What should I do?" Gong Shufeng asked.
Waiting is never acceptable.
They have a mission and must rush to Jinxia City as soon as possible.
"If we can know which ship passed through first," Gongshu Jin said mid-sentence, and quickly rejected the idea, "No, unless we can get through the relationship with Huiyang Mansion, we can't ask about the real situation."
"How about taking the land route instead?"
"The border between Liushen and Liushen is blocked. If you want to rely on caravans to travel through it, you will also need a certain amount of expenses."
This expense is either money or relationships.
Gong Shufeng discovered for the first time that when a person falls into the bottom class, it becomes extremely difficult to even go to other places.
"Maybe we have another option."
The younger brother suddenly said.
"What choice?"
Gong Shufeng noticed that the other party's eyes fell on the refugees on the shore.
"No way"
"It's just that we can't." Gongshu Jin whispered, "We can blend into the refugee group and walk over with our feet. Don't those people say we don't look like the bottom class? In this way, no one should be able to single out It’s our problem.”
"But only with my feet"
"We don't need to walk all the way from Huiyang City to Jinxia. You have heard from others that as soon as we enter Shenzhou, we can immediately transfer to a carriage or ice boat and reach Jinxia within a day. The distance we have to walk, It's just the official road from Huiyang City to the border of Liuzhou." Gong Shujin closed his eyes and thought carefully, "The two points are more than 130 miles apart in a straight line. The actual distance should be about 200. Let's speed up the pace and it will take up to four days. Being able to complete this journey is better than waiting for half a month anyway."
Gong Shufeng took a deep breath.
This is undoubtedly a difficult choice.
But the two of them carry the hope of their families, and rational thinking has already pointed out the answer.
"Just do as you say."
Two days later, the two brothers were walking in the open countryside.
Leaving Huiyang City did not encounter many obstacles. The official pass played its due role. It seemed that as long as they were not "rebels" as the ship owner called them, the city guards did not care where they were going.
The plan to blend into the refugee group was also very smooth. No one questioned their identities, and no one minded their uninvited arrival. In other words, when this group of people couldn't even save their own lives, they had no time to take care of other things.
The reason for choosing to go with the refugee group is also very simple. There may be robbers and robbers on the road. A dozen people are easily robbed, but a few hundred people are different. Because it is safer to move with a large group of people, the two chose to chase the refugee group in front of them quickly during the day, slow down at night, and sleep with the nearest refugee group. The time on the road can be shortened as much as possible.
However, in just these two days, Gongshufeng and Gongshujin had a deeper understanding of what the real bottom people were.
They are hopelessly numb, and when they see food, they have a frightening look in their eyes.
Every time the camping trip ends and the crowd starts their journey again, some of them will remain in the same place forever, no longer breathing.
As for the crying at night, it never stopped.
Sometimes it is the cry of a baby, but more often it is the suppressed sobs of adults.
After two days of traveling, the two brothers communicated much less.
Especially for Gong Shujin, the symptoms of seasickness did not slow down much after getting off the ship, but instead became more serious. Whenever he heard crying at night, Gong Shufeng could see his brother covering his mouth and retching.
The only thing he could do was to squeeze out a little of the clean water left in the water bag and hand it to the other person's mouth.
After all, they had no chance to boil water on the road.
Just as night fell on the third day, a burst of rapid horse hooves broke the tranquility of the countryside.