Because Concubine Rong and others did not want to spend the night in Luming Pass, Yan Liqiang had to lead the team to travel as much distance as possible in the first half of the night, and then prepare to find a place to camp and rest in the second half of the night.
Not long after leaving Luming Pass, the sun completely set and the sky gradually darkened. The horses and carriages in Yan Liqiang's team skillfully lit the lanterns and continued on their way. Before leaving Luming Pass, everyone had already prepared to travel overnight. Everyone had eaten, and the horses had rested for the whole afternoon. After being fed with enough water and grass, they were in high spirits. The group continued to gallop on the official road without stopping.
The weather has been pretty good these days, with bright skies at night and with the horse lanterns in the team, there is no problem traveling.
In the first three hours after leaving Luming Pass, the official road was relatively flat and easy to walk on. However, three hours after leaving Luming Pass, the mountains on both sides of the road became higher and higher, and the terrain became more and more dangerous. As the carriages and horses entered the mountainous area, the so-called official road became bumpy, and there were a lot of gravel on the road. The entire official road was carved out of the mountain wall. Below the mountain wall, there were deep gullies and ravines that were bottomless. A raging river was close to the official road, roaring and rushing like an angry dragon among the mountains, making a huge roar under the feet of Yan Liqiang and others, which was daunting.
It is okay to ride a horse on such an official road, but a four-wheeled carriage simply cannot go too fast on such a road. If the four-wheeled carriage goes too fast and passes through potholes or the wheels hit rocks, the whole carriage will be thrown off the road, and the people sitting inside will not only feel uncomfortable from the bumps and bruises, but the vehicle will also be easily damaged. If you are not careful, the four-wheeled carriage may be overturned and damaged, and then rushed off the road into the ravine below or into the rushing river.
In this situation, the speed of the entire team suddenly slowed down, and they slowly moved through the mountains at a speed not much faster than that of pedestrians walking.
It was already late at night and there were no pedestrians on the road. Walking on such an official road, apart from the sound of horse hooves and wheels, the only sounds of living creatures that could be heard in the entire mountain were the calls of owls, owls, bitterns and other birds that cut through the night sky, and occasionally the shrill cries of tigers, wolves and apes echoing in the valley, which was extremely creepy.
"Why is the official road in Gaoyi County so bumpy? The situation is too bad. How long will this road last?"
Originally, Yan Liqiang thought that such an official road would only be a short section, but he didn't expect it to be endless. It took four or five hours, and they were almost finished in the first half of the night. The situation on the road was still the same. The team he led could only move slowly on such a road. There was not even an inn on the side of the road. He was a little impatient and couldn't help but ask Sima Qingshan next to him.
"The journey for the next few days will be almost the same!" Sima Qingshan replied.
"Is there no one to repair the official road in Gaoyi County?"
Hearing Yan Liqiang's question, Sima Qingshan suddenly perked up and began to talk about it in detail, "Your Excellency may not know the situation in Gaoyi County. Gaoyi County is full of mountains and dense forests, and the population is sparse. Even the population of Gaoyi County is only more than 200,000. The tax silver collected in Gaoyi County in a year is less than one-eighth of that of Luquan County. According to the system of the Han Empire, this official road is in Gaoyi County, so Gaoyi County is naturally responsible for repairing it and keeping it unobstructed and intact. However, because Gaoyi County has no money, the usual repair and maintenance is much worse. In addition, the official roads in Gaoyi County are basically in the mountains. Mountain torrents and falling rocks occur from time to time, which makes them more prone to damage, and the road conditions are even worse. If When the years were bad, Gaoyi County couldn't even get enough money to repair the official roads, and had to ask the Guzhou Governor's Office for allocation. In the whole Guzhou, if you see an official or a runner wearing patched clothes, that person must be from Gaoyi County. In the Guzhou officialdom, Gaoyi County officials were often ridiculed and became a joke. It is said that the governor went to Gaoyi County for an inspection the year before last, and found that most of the officials who came to greet him, including the county magistrate, were wearing patched clothes. As a result, even the governor couldn't stand it. Starting from the year before last, at the end of each year, he would specially ask the governor's office to allocate a sum of money to the officials of Gaoyi County, called new clothing silver, which is unique in the whole Guzhou. "
"Since Guzhou is so poor, how do the people of Guzhou survive?"
"Of course, we live off the mountains and the water. Guzhou is mountainous, and there are many medicinal herbs in the mountains. Some of them are rare and precious. The people of Guzhou almost all rely on the medicinal herbs from the mountains to subsidize their lives. From June to the beginning of winter every year, more people go to the mountains to buy herbs. Many medicine merchants from Guzhou and Jinzhou will come to Gaoyi County to buy medicine, and the main tax silver of the government of Gaoyi County is the customs duties of these medicine merchants!"
"I didn't expect that there would be such a poor county in the Han Empire. It's really unexpected!" Yan Liqiang shook his head and said with emotion.
Sima Qingshan looked at Yan Liqiang with admiration, his eyes sparkling, "The situation in Qiyun County under your rule is naturally a thousand times better than that in Gaoyi County. I heard that the wool monopoly strategy in Gulang Grassland was created by you. With this strategy alone, you can easily make millions of taels of silver every year and monopolize most of the wool profits in the Han Empire. Looking throughout the Han Empire, there is no other county government as profitable and rich as you. Even those counties in the Han Empire that have the benefits of coastal trade are not as good as you in making money!"
Yan Liqiang was about to say something when he suddenly felt a slight movement in his heart. He felt a sense of alarm, as if he was being spied on. The feeling flashed by and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Yan Liqiang frowned and looked around. To the right of the official road was a steep mountain wall, hundreds of meters high. To the left of the official road was a deep ravine, and below was the raging river. This was a dangerous road. Although the surroundings were pitch black, Yan Liqiang did not see any human figures. The feeling of being spied on just now was too slight and the time was very short. There was no constant anxiety and vigilance brought by being spied on by someone hiding in the dark. This made Yan Liqiang still confused. If it was a human, if he was the target, he would never just look at him. Could it be that a beast hiding in the mountains and forests who wanted to hunt just looked at him, and then looked away, and he felt it, or it was some petty thief who cut off the road...
Seeing Yan Liqiang's face suddenly become serious and he was observing the surroundings without saying anything, Sima Qingshan also became alert and turned his head to look around.
"Are there any thieves in this mountain?" Yan Liqiang asked Sima Qingshan.
"Yes, but not many. At most, they work in groups of two or three, robbing lone travelers. In the past, a few larger groups of thieves were wiped out by the rangers hired by the Guzhou and Jinzhou medicine merchants."
Yan Liqiang nodded. Most petty thieves would probably not even have time to hide when they saw the team he was leading, let alone dare to show their heads.
The feeling of being spied on disappeared for a full two minutes. Just when Yan Liqiang thought it would never happen again, suddenly, a warning sign arose in his heart again - something was wrong!
Yan Liqiang tilted his head and looked at the hillside on the right. With a gleam in his eyes, he jumped off Caiyun Zhuiyue's horse with the meteorite spear in his hand, stepped on the steep and straight mountain wall on the right, roared, stepped on the steep mountain wall with both feet, and rushed towards the middle of the team.
Seeing Yan Liqiang leap up with a loud roar and rush towards the back, the whole team was shocked and everyone reacted at once.
With a loud bang...
Just when Yan Liqiang had rushed out more than ten feet away, there was a loud noise suddenly from the top of the mountain wall, and several huge rocks rolled down from the highest point of the mountain wall with tremendous force. Below the huge rocks was the middle position of Yan Liqiang's team, which was also the area where Concubine Rong and her companions were riding in the carriage.
When the people in the team looked up, they saw several rocks as big as cows weighing thousands of pounds rolling down from great heights, and everyone's face changed.
Hearing the noise on the mountain road, the guard driving the carriage waved the whip violently, trying to make the horse rush forward, but just when Concubine Rong's carriage rushed forward a few meters, the wheels made a click and suddenly sank into a half-foot deep pothole on the road. The carriage moved twice, but the wheels remained motionless.
Hearing the sudden noise outside, Concubine Rong lifted the curtain inside the carriage and saw under the light of the lantern, a stone about the size of the carriage rolled down the hillside, right in front of her. With the power and impact of the stone, if it hit the carriage, the carriage and the people in it would definitely be smashed to pieces, with no chance of survival...
Elder Liu had already jumped up from the carriage, roared, and smashed several rocks as big as bull heads in the air. However, when he faced the largest rock rushing down from behind, he saw that the wheels of the carriage were stuck in a pothole and a huge rock was rushing towards Concubine Rong and her carriage. Elder Liu's face changed. At this time, it was too late to let Concubine Rong and her carriage get off...
At the same time when Concubine Rong saw the boulder, Elder Liu, who had rushed to the front of the boulder and tried to stop it from rolling down, had already vomited a mouthful of blood and flew backwards, but the momentum of the boulder's falling did not slow down at all.
Am I going to die, right here on this mountain road... At this moment, Concubine Rong's mind went blank, and her whole body was completely stiff. Time seemed to slow down at this moment, and the shadow of the boulder that rolled down had already covered Concubine Rong and her companions' carriage.
At this moment, Yan Liqiang's figure suddenly appeared in front of Concubine Rong, blocking the carriage. Looking at the huge rock rolling down with great force, Yan Liqiang roared and stabbed out with the spear in his hand.
The spear in Yan Liqiang's hand did not pierce the boulder, but the mountain wall below the boulder. Then Yan Liqiang fiercely poked it with the tip of the spear, and the spear shaft of the meteorite spear was bent almost to 90 degrees at that moment. Then it bounced violently, and the rolling boulder slid on the tip of Yan Liqiang's spear, and then it was picked up with a whoosh, changed its direction, and flew past the roof of the carriage that Concubine Rong and the others were riding in, and rolled into the river below, making a loud bang, splashing the water in the river high up...
Yan Liqiang grabbed the carriage of Concubine Rong and the others, and lifted the entire carriage out of the pothole with just one hand, "Elder Liu, escort the Queen and the two princes and leave quickly..."
Elder Liu, with blood on the corner of his mouth, leaped over and stood directly on the back of the rhinoceros horse pulling the carriage, escorting the vehicle carrying Concubine Rong and the others forward.
Another huge rock rolled down, but was also picked up by Yan Liqiang with his spear. Then Yan Liqiang roared again, jumped up, stepped on the steep mountain wall, and rushed up directly, his figure was as fast as lightning...
Yan Liqiang rushed to the top of the more than 100-meter-high cliff in the blink of an eye. Looking up, he saw three men in black holding iron bars, working together to pry a huge rock above. The three men did not expect that the people below could rush up so quickly. They were frightened and froze. One of them did not even think about it. His ferocious face trembled and he smashed the iron bar in his hand towards Yan Liqiang fiercely...
(End of this chapter)