Luo Yanhuan and his group of five were at a place called Lishugou. Luo Yanhuan had two personal soldiers and two members of the Luo family, one old and one young. Lishugou was located to the north of Tangcang Town. Tangcang Town was in the valley of the Qinling Mountains on the west side of the Shu Road and was not on the main road.
They had been in Fengzhou for nearly a month, and had found the Luo family members who had migrated from Hedong to Tangcang Town, Fengzhou many years ago. An old man and a boy who accompanied them were the Luo family members sent to escort them out of the mountains.
A farmer driving a buffalo came towards them on the road. The old man from the Luo family in front of Luo Yanhuan and his party greeted him in a very thick dialect: "Brother, I heard recently that the Taoist priest in hemp clothes is not passing by here."
Unexpectedly, the farmer had heard of the Taoist in Sackcloth Clothes, so he shouted in a long voice: Taoist in Sackcloth Clothes, brother, we have to go to Mount Emei to see if he is there.
Old Man Luo had no choice but to reply according to Luo Yanhuan's instructions: I heard in Tangcang Town that he passed by here recently, and someone even asked him to read his fortune. Didn't you hear about it
No, this kind of god-like person is here and there, it's hard to find him. You can ask him to tell your fortune. The farmer spoke slowly, looking very interested.
Old man Luo said: "My second son has a strange disease. If I can find a Taoist priest in hemp clothes, I want him to take a look. Doctors are useless. I have seen many doctors.
After a conversation, the group passed by the farmer. The farmer was holding a pear tree branch in his hand. While driving the cattle, he looked back at them a few times. He might think that Luo Yanhuan and other strong men were a bit strange. The land in the Qinling Mountains is barren, and it is not easy to see tall and strong men like Luo Yanhuan among the people.
Because of this, Luo Yanhuan was nearly captured when he entered Qinling Mountains a month ago. Today, a month later, they are still alive and well and walking around in the mountains. It is not only because of their good luck, but also because the Shu army's border towns are lax in their defenses.
At that time, he didn't know the way and took the main road of Shu Road and Chencang Road. Not long after leaving Dasan Pass, he met the Shu army patrol scouts and was immediately arrested. Luo Yanhuan lied that he was a merchant going to Shannan West Road to purchase goods, and bribed some copper coins, so he was lucky enough to escape without being forced to use force. Guo Shao's personal soldiers who were accompanying him suggested giving up the trip because the risk was too great; Luo Yanhuan was eager to make a contribution and insisted on continuing to walk, claiming that the people of the old Luo family were not far away, and it would be easy as long as they got support from the clansmen.
However, they did not dare to take the main road anymore, so they took a detour to the valley path in the west, but they did not know the way. Fortunately, they met a local poor beggar along the way, so Luo Yanhuan gave him dry food and asked him to be a guide. After much difficulty, they found the boundary of Tangcang Town and found the Luo family in a village; this branch of the Luo family had fled to the mountains from Hedong, and when peace came, they occasionally visited Luo Yanhuan's hometown in Hedong.
Luo Yanhuan received help from an acquaintance, and the old man who accompanied him had been to Hedong twice. Now he had a general understanding of the situation in the northern part of Feng County, and he did not dare to stay any longer, and hurried back to avoid wasting his previous efforts.
The road heading north from Tangcang Town is their route back to Guanzhong, and they really don't dare to take the Shu Road.
This road is very roundabout, just following the valley, but if there is no one familiar with the local area to lead you, it is easy to follow the valley to a dead end. The valley is not opened up by humans, there is a road ahead, and maybe there will only be mountains left after walking; the mountains in the Qinling Mountains, if you go straight over the mountains, you will probably die of exhaustion in the mountains.
Tangcang Town is located in the north of Fengzhou.
According to the Luo family, there are four main roads extending northward near Fengzhou City, and the two in the middle can lead to Guanzhong: one is the Shu Road along the Jialing River; the other is in the west, leading to Tangcang Town in the mountainous area on the west side of the Shu Road.
There are three valley routes going north from Tangcang Town. The left one is towards Qinzhou; the two on the right can join the Jialing River Shu Road, and the joining point is Huanghua Valley. Luo Yanhuan and others took the farther one on the right side of Tangcang Town, but they did not go to the Shu Road. Instead, they continued north at the fork in the road, preparing to take a small road to the Wei River, and then return to Chencang along the Wei River. The road is more difficult to take, but generally they will not encounter Shu army inspectors and scouts.
These numerous valleys and rugged roads are the only way to travel in the Qinling Mountains. There is no other choice. No one has the ability to climb one mountain after another. This is completely different from the Central Plains that Luo Yanhuan and others are familiar with. In the Central Plains, even if you don't take the main road, there are countless possibilities to take the small roads between the farmlands; the only thing you need to pay attention to is the direction.
The road was rough, but not far from Guanzhong, and they arrived in Fengxiang two days later. The guards left behind at Fengxiang Posthouse told them that Guo Shao and others had gone to Sanguan; Luo Yanhuan had no choice but to turn back and head south to Sanguan to find Guo Shao.
Guo Shao and others still live in Sanguan, where they have been staying for more than half a month.
When Guo Shao saw Luo Yanhuan and heard him describe the thrilling journey, he sighed: The decisive battle is on the battlefield, but the victory is not on the battlefield. Brother Luo risked his life to figure out the terrain of Fengxiang North. I will definitely commend you for your contribution in the future.
Luo Yanhuan said hurriedly: I am just doing my job.
Guo Shao said no more, and hurriedly asked for details, then drew five maps, trying to draw them as clearly as possible from large to small.
After drawing the road, Guo Shao thought of the villagers who helped Luo Yanhuan, so he personally received them and gave them a small cloth bag as a reward. Old Luo was very happy when he carried the heavy bag: "I can buy a few mules with this. Thank you for the reward, General."
Guo Shao smiled very friendly and asked: Tangcang Town controls the Shu Road in the west and is a hub for the western transportation branch line. There must be troops stationed there. Old man lives in Tangcang Town, do you know how many troops are stationed there
Old Man Luo thought for a moment and said: There are a thousand people, maybe eight hundred. I know that there are many Shu troops stationed in Tangcang Town and there are also many soldiers in other places. In addition to Fengzhou City and Weiwu City, there are many soldiers. There is a military camp in Huanghua Valley. Last month, I went to the Shu Road with my fellow villagers to sell goods. I saw it with my own eyes. There are also several military camps in front of Weiwu City, but I am not sure how many troops there are. I will tell the general everything I know.
Guo Shao said kindly: "Old man, how about I send a few people to go back with you to Tangcang Town to do some business? You can say that you are business partners and look after them." Then he turned to look at Luo Yanhuan. Luo Yanhuan understood and nodded slightly.
Guo Shao added: In return, I will pay your family one thousand copper coins every month, which will be given to you on time by the peddler.
Old Man Luo thought for a while and decided that Old Man Cheng should take care of it alone.
Guo Shao stroked the Shu Road lines on the drawing with his palm again, tapped the left side of Tangcang Town twice with his index finger, and couldn't help but say: On the east side of the Shu Road, there is a Ma Lingzhai. There are several roads over there that meet the main line of the Shu Road.
Old Man Luo frowned and said: I have never been there. Usually, when leaving Qinling Mountains, people do not take the valley road on the west side, but take the Chencang Road. But I do know that there is a road called Xiegu in Baijian, and the road on the east seems to go to Maling Village.
Guo Shao asked hurriedly where Baijian was.
Old man Luo was illiterate, so naturally he would not let him point out the place by looking at the map. He could only explain in words: Baijian is not far to the north of the exit of Xiegu, on the Chencang Road and Shu Road, about thirty miles away from Fengzhou.
Although Guo Shao could guess the direction he was talking about, he still asked carefully: It is thirty miles away from Fengzhou, on the Chencang Road north of Fengzhou.
Yes. Old Man Luo nodded without hesitation.
Guo Shaomang measured the map again and added a new place: Baijian. He also drew a line at a point below Baijian and wrote Xiegu.
After asking almost all the questions, Guo Shao could not get any more useful information from the old man, so he let him go. Then Guo Shao dismissed the irrelevant people, leaving Zuo You, Jing Niang and a few generals behind, and said: "In the past half month, we have almost figured out the terrain and roads in the north of Fengzhou. What do you think?"
Li Chuyun said: From Sanguan to Fengzhou, there is Qinling in the middle, and Chencang Road is the shortest and best way to go. The Shu army should focus on blocking the checkpoints and defending Chencang Road; then control the flanks with Tangcang Town and Malingzhai on the left and right wings, and control those winding and complex paths.
Guo Shao didn't say much, just nodded and said: General Li has a sense of the overall situation, which makes a lot of sense.
Luo Yanhuan rushed to say: "Envoy Guo should pay attention to Huanghua Valley. This place is unknown, but several roads from Tangcang Town on the west side exit here."
Guo Shao also praised: General Luo is good at observing the details.
They stayed in Sanguan for several days and finally waited for Jingniang's followers to return, but they were seven or eight days later than Luo Yanhuan.
There were four people in the group, two female Taoist priests who were Jingniang's followers, and two bald nuns. They all carried a kind of wooden bag with a tung oil cloth stretched upward to form a shade, which could block the sun and light rain, saving the hands from holding an umbrella.
These women went directly to Chencang Road, and when they passed Sanguan, they ran into Guo Shaojing's mother and others.
Guo Shao met the two Taoist priests in person as usual. One was a dark and strong woman, the other was a woman in her early thirties with freckles on her face. Guo Shao knew both of them. They were the followers of Beijing girls who came all the way from the Central Plains. However, he had never seen the other two bald nuns before. One was middle-aged and the other seemed to be in her teens. They were both very thin.
After a while of greetings, Guo Shao finally understood the situation. The female Taoist priests and the nuns they brought back were rarely detained at checkpoints on the Shu Road. The nuns had ordination certificates from Shu, and since they were women, the soldiers generally did not make things difficult for them.
However, Taihe Temple is located in Qingniling, which is further south than Fengzhou, and the journey is quite long, so the Taoist nun spent more time on the journey than Luo Yanhuan and others.
The nun who accompanied him was the nun from Taihe Temple in Qingniling, and the nun was sent by the abbot to see him off. The locals were superstitious and thought nunneries were unlucky, so the incense business at Taihe Temple had always been very poor. They were already in a situation where they could not make a living even if they were very frugal, and they were about to dismiss the nuns. Last year, Jingniang passed by on the Shu Road and stayed overnight in the nunnery. It happened that she had just received a large sum of money from Lady Huarui of Shu, so she generously donated money to help the abbot of Taihe Temple. The Buddhists and Taoists put aside their prejudices and formed a friendship, which was really strange.