"Keep going."
An San waved his hand, and the group left the tree with the knife marks and continued to walk forward. This walk took a long time. They didn't have a deep understanding of the environment of Cangzhou surrounded by mountains on three sides. In the past two days, they suddenly understood what the mountains that could surround such a large city were like.
In the evening, they hid in a cave and ate dry food. After a tiring day, no one spoke, but just chewed the cold and hard buns silently and drank a sip of water from time to time.
There was a secret guard sitting in the innermost part. After he finished eating, he leaned back and prepared to close his eyes to rest. But the moment his head was close to the mountain wall, his expression became alert and his head turned so that his ears could be close to the mountain wall.
Everyone was puzzled by the unusual behavior. But they knew from their long-standing understanding that An Qi must have discovered something. They didn't dare to speak or chew, and even controlled their breathing to be long and shallow, for fear of disturbing An Qi.
In the silence, An Qi's expression became more and more solemn. After listening for a while, he turned his head away.
"I think I know what they heard."
"Sound, what sound?" Someone didn't react.
"You mean the sound that Anwu and Zhang Quan heard on the platform on the cliff?" Ansan asked.
"Yes!" An Qi nodded confidently, "It's that kind of clinking sound." He just listened very carefully. Although the sound was separated by the thick mountain wall, the "clinking" sound was still clearly audible.
Everyone heard his words, and without waiting for An San to shout, they spontaneously leaned against the mountain wall and put their ears close to it, trying to see if they could hear anything.
"镪... 镪..." Fuzzy sounds came one after another. Just as Zhang Quan and An Wu had heard, it sounded like something hitting an object.
"This sound came from the cliff, which means there is someone ahead, but it's still quite far away. It's already dark now, and it's not safe to continue on. Tomorrow morning, we will continue to look for him along this road!"
"Yes!" Everyone was in high spirits. The hard search over the past two days was about to yield results, and all the previous fatigue seemed to have disappeared.
At dawn the next day, they erased all traces in the cave and followed the sound.
The further we walked, the clearer the sound became. Originally, we had to lie on the mountain wall to hear it, but later, we could faintly hear it just by listening carefully.
When passing a corner, An San suddenly waved his hand to signal everyone to stop, and then made another gesture. After seeing this, everyone immediately climbed up trees or hid in the bushes. Almost in an instant, there was no one left on the trail.
After a while, two voices came closer and closer.
Another person patted him on the shoulder and said, "Be content, it's just two dead. We can look for more. I heard that someone almost escaped from there not long ago, and Lao Zhu, who was in charge of guarding, was almost beaten to death by his superiors."
"It's so easy for you to say! It's become difficult to find someone since the prefect was changed. Those people always go up the mountain in groups, and there are very few people who are alone. Where can I find someone?" The person who spoke had a depressed look on his face. It was okay before, but now it was simply making things difficult for him!
"Well, we can always find one. At worst, after a while... it will come. Won't there be more people by then?"
They lowered their voices to tell the key information, causing the people eavesdropping beside them to sigh silently. But it didn't matter, as long as the crimes of these people were exposed, no matter who they were, they would have to suffer the consequences.
The two of them came out to chat for a while while eating breakfast. After talking about their unhappiness, they walked back and disappeared around the corner.
An San and his men did not act rashly, but continued to hide there. They did not come out until the footsteps completely disappeared.
An San said: "You should have heard what they said just now. Whether it's someone dead or someone they're looking for, they didn't hide it at all. It's obvious that these people are the culprits of so many disappearances in Cangzhou. Find a chance to go in later. If you can find evidence, that would be the best. If you can't, that's fine too. The most important thing is not to alert the enemy!"
The others nodded in agreement, then found the right opportunity to sneak in.
They found the supervisor here. At about the same time, another group of people found the bottom of the cliff they had agreed on. Standing in the distance, they could see the red cloth hanging on the platform. The bottom of the cliff was not like what they had imagined, overgrown with weeds and deserted. There were piles of stones piled up here in a mess, and the mountain wall on one side had been dug in many places, looking bumpy.
There must be something wrong here! Before they could be happy or discuss what to do, they heard a loud noise outside. They quickly hid in a pile of rocks nearby, being careful not to make any noise.
With a "crack" sound, the whip cracked, followed by a wail. A sharp voice sneered and said, "Run, keep running. Let's see who will run away first or I will beat you to death first."
"Please spare my life, sir, please spare my life! I will never run away again!" the man wailed. The whip had barbs on it, and even a light scratch on the body would leave a bloody mark, let alone a heavy whip. It would be fine if the skin was torn apart, but when he started working, the sweat would flow down his body, and that would be a real pleasure. Even the most hardworking man would scream out in pain at this time.
The man was so arrogant that he said to the others, "Did you see that? If you dare to run away, this is what will happen to you!"
The others all shook their heads and said nothing. The man smiled with satisfaction, "Then hurry up and get to work. You wasted half a day yesterday. You are not allowed to eat lunch today. Let's get started!"
As soon as the voice fell, the group of people took hammers and chisels and started working. For a while, the empty bottom of the cliff was echoed with the sound of "clacking"...
(End of this chapter)