With the help of a light carriage and fast horses, Yan Liqiang left the capital area in just one day, and then headed west towards Ganzhou.
The route Yan Liqiang chose was the same one he took when he escorted Sun Bingchen to the capital. On the way back this time, they passed through states and counties. Yan Liqiang was not escorting anyone, nor was he escorting a bodyguard, but it was much more relaxed than when he escorted Sun Bingchen back.
On September 7, Yan Liqiang and his two companions left the Imperial Capital and, after more than half a month's journey, had traveled thousands of kilometers away from the Imperial Capital and arrived in Luzhou, known as the Imperial Wine Capital.
In the evening, when the sun was about to set, Yan Liqiang rode on the rhino horse and Hu Haihe drove the cart. The horse and cart were moving slowly on the official road in Luzhou. After walking for nearly an hour, when it was getting slightly dark, they came to a three-way intersection unknowingly. Hu Haihe was about to drive the cart to the right, but was stopped by Yan Liqiang.
"Haihe River, take the one on the left..." Yan Liqiang said, raising his eyes and looking at the sun that had completely disappeared in the sky, his glasses slightly narrowed.
"Oh..." Hu Haihe thought he had misheard, so he stopped the carriage and looked at Yan Liqiang in surprise, "Sir, if we take the road on the right, we can stay in Rong County tonight and arrive in Baishui County tomorrow. This is the road to Ganzhou. The adults took this road at the beginning. The road on the right seems to be... going to Kunzhou!"
"Listen to me and take this route!" Yan Liqiang didn't explain anything. He just pulled the reins and let Wuyun Gaixue go to the road on the left. Hu Haihe wanted to say something, but when he saw Yan Liqiang's bright eyes looking at him, he was startled for a moment and suddenly thought of the scene when Yan Liqiang escorted Sun Bingchen and fought against the Black Wind Bandits. At that time, Yan Liqiang was able to plan and kill decisively, leaving an indelible impression in the hearts of the guards.
I remember that when Yan Liqiang was about to ambush the Black Wind Bandits that day, his eyes were as bright as this.
Hu Haihe said nothing, and his expression, which had been somewhat relaxed just now, suddenly became solemn. He pursed his lips tightly, said nothing, drove the carriage, and followed Yan Liqiang onto the official road on the left. After seeing Yan Liqiang urging the Wuyun Gaixue to run suddenly, Hu Haihe also shook the whip, making the whip make a loud bang in the air, urging the rhinoceros horse pulling the carriage to run quickly.
"Ah, what happened?" Yu Qing's voice came from the carriage.
"Nothing, we have to travel a long way, just sit in the carriage!" Yan Liqiang, who was riding on Wuyun Gaixue, responded.
"Hmm!" A voice came from the carriage, and then no other sound came.
The wheels rumbled and the hooves sounded like thunder. In the blink of an eye, a horse and a cart were galloping on the official road. The dark clouds and snow and the rhino horse pulling the cart began to roar like started engines. This is the advantage of the rhino horse over ordinary horses. If it were ordinary horses, after a whole day of traveling, by this time, they would not have much strength to run. However, the two rhino horses were still strong.
After the two of them had been running for more than 30 kilometers on the official road, it was already dark, and there were few people on the road. If they walked further, they would enter a mountain forest. Although Luzhou was a prosperous state in the Han Empire and not as chaotic as those border states, it was still a large state with bandits and robbers. It was not a quiet place, so after dark, people on the road and businessmen would not easily walk through the mountains and forests, even if they were on the official road. Who knows if they would be unlucky and run into a few bad guys.
After the horse and carriage entered the official road in the forest, pedestrians on the road almost disappeared. There were hillsides on both sides of the official road, and on the hillsides, there were dense trees and pine forests everywhere. There was no light at all. The cry of night owls and who knew whether it was wild wolves or wild dogs came from the forest, echoing in the mountains, which was extremely creepy.
After running for a few more miles on the official road in the mountains, Yan Liqiang suddenly stopped the carriage, and Hu Haihe also stopped the carriage.
Yan Liqiang jumped off the horse, opened the carriage without saying a word, took out the bow bag and quiver from the carriage, put them on his back, then closed the door of the carriage, pointed to a pine forest a few hundred meters ahead, and said to Hu Haihe, "You drive the carriage first and wait for me there, just by the pine forest. Don't make any noise, I'll be there in a while. If you are in danger, blow the whistle, I can hear you!"
Hu Haihe nodded, took the reins from Wuyun Gaixue, tied Wuyun Gaixue to the carriage frame, and with a light gong, he drove the carriage, taking Wuyun Gaixue with him, to a pine forest beside the official road a few hundred meters ahead.
Only after seeing Hu Haihe enter the pine forest and turn off the lantern did Yan Liqiang turn around, run back two hundred meters, then enter the pine forest next to him, climb to the top of a small hill more than fifty meters high on the side of the road, open the bow bag, take out the twenty-stone horn python bow given to him by the emperor, and deftly draw three arrows from the quiver with one hand at the same time.
Yan Liqiang's posture of taking out arrows was very strange, because he took out three arrows at a time, one arrow was clamped between the index finger and the middle finger, another arrow was clamped between the middle finger and the ring finger, and another arrow was clamped between the ring finger and the little finger. The three arrows did not touch each other, just like three long fingers growing out from between his fingers. There was an indescribable sense of fit. Then Yan Liqiang closed his eyes and waited quietly.
Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, the sound of thunderous hooves rang out on the official road below. Three people dressed as merchants, two of them riding two rhinoceros horses, carrying a merchant's bag, and one driving an ordinary horse-drawn carriage with a long carriage for transporting goods. The carriage also had some sacks and ropes that seemed to be left after the goods were emptied. They rushed over on the official road at lightning speed.
Just as the three men passed by Yan Liqiang on the hillside, Yan Liqiang's eyes suddenly opened, his eyes were like lightning, and a trace of murderous intent flashed across them. The three arrows on his fingers were instantly placed on the bowstring at the same time. The 20-stone horn python bow was only pulled a little, and as soon as he let go, with a whoosh, the three arrows left the bowstring and flew out at the same time...
At a distance of less than a hundred meters, almost at the moment when Yan Liqiang loosened his hand, three blood flowers splattered from the chests of the three people on the official road below at the same time in the darkness. After a short and miserable groan, they fell from the two rhinoceros horses and the carriage to the road...
The two rhinoceros horses that had lost their riders and the carriage they were driving rushed forward for dozens of meters due to inertia, and suddenly stopped on the road.
Yan Liqiang rushed down the hillside carrying a bow and arrow and a quiver. In the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of the three men who looked like traveling merchants who were shot to death. Yan Liqiang bent down and touched the face of a traveling merchant. In a flash, the big beard on the merchant's face was suddenly removed by Yan Liqiang.
This face without the beard seemed familiar. It had appeared behind Yan Liqiang a few days ago. The only difference was that this time, the face was that of a bodyguard, and his complexion was darker!
After searching the man's chest again, Yan Liqiang found a bronze waist badge from the man - a criminal arrest waist badge directly under the Ministry of Justice!
"Fuck!" Yan Liqiang cursed. Although he had some guesses before, he still didn't expect that the people who kept changing people and keeping him on his tail since he left Dijing City were actually people from the Ministry of Justice. There was no doubt that they were definitely the minions sent by Gu Chunyi. As for why they were keeping him on his tail and were anxious to track his whereabouts, it was certainly not for any good thing.
Yan Liqiang quickly searched the other two people and found two criminal badges from the Ministry of Justice. He put away the badges and threw the three bodies into the ditch beside the official road. Then Yan Liqiang ran directly to the woods where Hu Haihe was hiding.
Putting the bow and arrows and quiver in the carriage, Yan Liqiang jumped onto the dark cloud and said, "Let's go!" Hu Haihe drove the carriage out of the pine forest without saying a word...
(End of this chapter)