The next morning, the secret guard secretly went down the mountain and immediately rushed to the state capital to report the news he had received last night to Pei Che.
Pei Che was not as surprised as he had imagined when he heard the news. After all, it took him a long time to determine the location of Yangshupo. However, he was still somewhat happy that Zhang Quan had found the clues in just a few days.
"Count the people and set up an ambush outside Yangshupo. When it's almost dawn, bypass the village and enter the mountain from the side."
"yes!"
After the secret guard left, Pei Che also left the government office and returned to their residence here. At that time, Jiang Miao was counting the things sent from the capital.
Some were sent by the Duke's Mansion, and some were sent by the Feng Family. These two places would send a cart of things every month, as if they were afraid that they would not be used to living in Cangzhou. Occasionally, Pei Che's brothers would also send a cart of things, all of which were fashionable things in Liangjing. Jiang Miao thought that they were probably afraid that Pei Che would be away for too long and would not be able to keep up with the trend when he returned to Liangjing.
Of the three who stayed in the capital, Han Qin was always more interested in doing business. After passing the imperial examination to satisfy his family, he went to the Ministry of Personnel to cross out his name from the official list for this year. Anyway, unless his father was really angry, he would not take the initiative to leave Liangjing.
Su Jin wanted to go to places other than Liangjing like Pei Che did. But when he was assigned to be an official, the princess suddenly fell ill and was sick for more than half a month. Su Jin was worried about her and finally stayed in Liangjing.
He Chen's ambition has always been to inherit his father's business. Before he took the exam, he got a recommendation to run errands at the Censorate to familiarize himself with the business. After the exam, he naturally filled the vacancy and entered the Censorate.
"Why are you back now?" Jiang Miao glanced at Pei Che in surprise, but his hands did not stop moving, and he was still actively moving things down. He was not very happy when he first counted the things, but later he realized the joy of modern people opening blind boxes, and the feeling of nervousness and anticipation was simply fascinating.
Pei Che stepped forward and took the thing from his hand, saying, "There's news over there."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Miao asked Chan Yi and Wen Jing to lead the others to move the things down, and he clapped his hands and followed Pei Che back to the room.
"Is there really something wrong with Yangshupo? Zhang Quan is really good, you know what! What did he discover?" Jiang Miao asked impatiently.
Pei Che pulled him to sit down, poured a cup of tea and placed it in front of him, signaling him to cool down first. After being in the sun for so long, his face was already covered with sweat.
Jiang Miao picked up the cup and drank it all, then said, "Can you tell me now?"
Pei Che said, "Zhang Quan said there is a cliff behind Yangshupo, and there is a cave hidden in the cliff, which is big enough for young people to crawl into. Follow the cave in, and it will take about half a cup of tea to reach the end. There is a flat land at the end, about an acre wide, and there is a bottomless cliff below. From the top, you can hear strange noises coming from the cliff below."
Jiang Miao immediately became interested. There are so many scenes that can be formed by the three words deep mountains, cliffs, and strange noises. He quickly asked, "What strange noise?"
"A clattering sound?" Pei Che tried to imitate it. This should be the sound made by the secret guard this morning.
"Is that the sound of knocking something?" Jiang Miao said, tapping the table lightly with the bottom of the cup, but the sound was far from the "clacking sound".
"Zhang Quan only heard a constant noise below, but he didn't know what the sound was. But he concluded that the sound was definitely made by a person." Pei Che said.
"Such noises are being made at the bottom of the cliff. Are they digging for treasure?" Jiang Miao said casually.
Pei Che's eyes flashed: "It's not impossible."
The two of them guessed for a while and then gave up. After all, the truth would depend on the results of the investigation tomorrow.
The reason why the place is called Yangshupo is because there are many poplar roots there, and because the mountain there is very high, and Yangshupo is built on the hillside. It is said that it was originally called Yangshugang, but the villagers thought that the name sounded like the place was high up, and there were few people marrying into the poor place, so how could they bear to hear this name? So they all agreed to call it Yangshupo, which didn't sound so high.
This self-deceiving method made the young girls and wives who married into the village feel that they were deceived, but since they were already married, what else could they do? Fortunately, Yangshupo was not bad except that it was located at a higher position and the road was a little difficult to walk on. Because it was originally on the mountain, it was very convenient to pick mountain products. Relying on this mountain, the whole family could have enough food all year round.
When they were picking mountain products, their footprints covered almost the entire mountain, but there was one place that almost no one had ever been to. Even children like Tian Bao had never thought of going down to the bottom of the valley to find out what was going on, because they had grown up listening to a story.
It is said that during the wars of the previous dynasty, a group of bandits came to Yangshupo. They burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of evil, bullying men and women along the way, and they were no exception when they arrived at Yangshupo.
The villagers were miserable, but they had no choice but to let them drive them around. They lived like this for almost three months, living a life worse than cattle and horses. Suddenly one day, a group of people dressed as soldiers quietly went up the mountain, tied up the hands and feet of all the bandits and arrested them. The villagers were overjoyed. After asking around, they found out that it was a half-grown boy in the village who ran away when no one was paying attention. He was lucky enough to meet a group of soldiers just after he got on the official road, and they brought them back.
These bandits had committed many crimes, and the prison was full of people because of the war. After discussing, the officers and soldiers took them to the edge of the cliff and pushed them down one by one. The screams shook the earth, but the people of Yangshupo were as happy as if it was New Year's Day. Anyone who saw their enemies being executed would be as happy as they were.
But not long after, someone encountered evil spirits. He said that he passed by the area at night and heard someone wailing and saw a white shadow passing by. The man fell ill the next day and died not long after.
Once the story spread, some people said that those who were killed by the bandits were still angry and turned into ghosts waiting to take their lives. The story became more and more outrageous, and gradually, that place became a forbidden area. Every generation would warn their descendants not to set foot there.
This is why, when Zhang Quan heard the "squeaky" sound, Tian Bao threatened him with the wronged spirits seeking his life. And even after hearing the strange sound for so long, he never agreed with his friends to go down and check it out.
Zhang Quan didn't know about this, but even if he knew, he would still go. After a tough night, when it was almost dawn, he immediately went out, came to a low wall in the yard, climbed up the tree next to it and jumped out.
"Brothers, let's go. I'll take you there right away." Zhang Quan said, his face full of excitement. He always felt that he was closer to his father.
"Thank you, little brother." said An San who met him.
A group of people traveled through the mountains, forests and vegetation in the dim light of the day. The road was not easy to walk on, and there were snakes, insects, rats and ants hiding around. If they were not vigilant, they would soon get hurt. This is why they did not travel at night.
After walking for a while, Zhang Quan led them to the cliff. Because Zhang Quan had told An San before that the cave entrance was narrow, there was a particularly thin person among the people who came with him today.
Zhang Quan was the first to climb into the cave, and the man followed closely behind him, entering the cave more easily than Zhang Quan.
The An San and his companions who stayed outside were investigating nearby to see if there was anything unusual here. In addition, they also continued along the cliff to see if there was a road leading to the bottom of the cliff.
After the sun came out, there was movement in the cave. After the thin Anwu crawled out, he told Ansan that he could really hear the strange sound he mentioned, and he initially determined that it should be the sound of some kind of iron hitting the stone.
The news was confirmed, and Zhang Quan could not intervene in the following matters. An San sent the disappointed Zhang Quan back to Tian Laoer's home, and then rushed back to meet up with the others.
They had just discovered that there was no way to go down to the bottom of the cliff. In fact, because the mountain was too big, except for the place Zhang Quan mentioned, the bottom of the cliff could not be seen anywhere else.
Could it be that Anwu should go in again and then climb down along the platform? But this is too dangerous. If something happens to one person, there will be no one to help. For a moment, everyone fell into deep thought.
An Wu looked at everyone and said, "Let me go down. I just saw that there are many plants on the cliff. As long as I hold on to them and climb carefully, I will definitely be able to get down to the bottom of the cliff."
An San said, "No. Not to mention whether the grass and trees growing on the cliff can support you, the distance from the bottom of the cliff is several hundred feet. Can you guarantee that you will not run out of energy and fall down at such a long distance?"
An Wu was not convinced and was about to argue, but An San said, "Even if you get down there, you don't know what it looks like. If someone happens to find you, it might alert the enemy and ruin the prince's plan."
After bringing up Pei Che, An Wu naturally had nothing to say. Everyone thought for a while and finally came up with two solutions. One was to climb up the mountain, and after reaching the top, you could naturally see the bottom of the cliff. The other was to go down the mountain first, and then walk around the foot of the mountain and you would naturally know.
Finally, they decided to use the second method. With the first method, it would be useless even if they could see the bottom of the cliff. It was so high that they couldn't get down. Anwu climbed into the hole again and hung a piece of red cloth in a conspicuous place so that they would not be blind when looking for a place later.
A few people were afraid that they would run into villagers if they went down the mountain now, so they stayed on the mountain until sunset before taking a detour down the mountain. After leaving the village, they quickened their pace and headed down the mountain.
The mountain was too big, so they split into two groups and set out from opposite places. Whichever side saw the red cloth first would send someone to notify them to meet up.
These mountains were so continuous that they walked for a whole day but seemed to be still in the same place. There was no trace of the red cloth at all, let alone the bottom of the cliff.
After walking for another day, someone suddenly looked around and called out, "Boss, this place looks familiar. I think I've been here before."
An San frowned when he heard this and said, "What do you mean?"
The man scratched his head and said, "It just feels familiar, as if I have walked here before."
"Could it be... a ghost wall?!" someone speculated.
The person who spoke was immediately glared at by An San: "What nonsense are you talking about? Besides him, does anyone else think he looks familiar?"
It was very quiet downstairs. Just as An San was about to speak, he heard the guy who just said he was familiar speak again.
"It's not a ghost story, but I have really been here!" He stared at a certain place excitedly. Everyone looked in the direction he was looking and saw a tree there with what seemed to be a knife mark on it.
"I carved it there. Before we entered Cangzhou, the leader asked me to catch rabbits, so I followed one here. When I was catching the rabbit, I happened to be near here. I saw a snake on the tree, so I threw my knife over and killed the snake. That's when the scar was left on the tree."
An San went over to check the knife marks and found traces of serrations on the edge, and concluded that it was indeed left by the knives they were carrying.
So, are we close to the road we came from? Thinking of the heavy rain that washed away the mountain road when we first started, An San couldn't help but sigh.
(End of this chapter)