Chapter 1159 A strange combination of circumstances

In order to avoid being discovered by her family, Ma Yuling didn't even dare to take a servant with her when she left. After she came out, she realized that things were not as simple as she thought. Although she was not the kind of purdah lady who never left the house or walked out.

, but after all, there are not many opportunities to travel far away alone, and I never thought about how difficult it would be to carry several large bags of luggage alone for a long distance.

When she was leaving, she felt that she couldn't bear to part with this piece of clothing. She had to take that piece of clothing with her, as well as the rouge, pink hairpin, earrings, and bracelets. Don't leave anything behind. Jiang Dongmei stuffed fifty taels of silver and half a copper coin into her pocket before she left.

In the bag, the weight was about the same as adding two bricks. Originally, she was afraid that she would need money when she went out, but these messy things have now become a burden that she wants to throw away.

Both mother and daughter really lack social experience. Letting Ma Yuling, a little girl, travel alone with so many things would be a suicide. If it weren't for Haihan, he had wiped out the bandit forces in Fushan County in the past few months.

It has to be clean, I'm afraid that Ma Yuling will be snatched away soon after she leaves Majiazhuang, including her belongings.

Although she had only walked for half a day and it was a relatively flat road, Ma Yuling's physical strength had been exhausted. When she sat on the roadside and finished eating her food, she found that the bottle of water she had brought with her when she went out was almost finished.

But I don’t know where there is a water source nearby to replenish it. Seeing that the weather is gloomy, it will snow again soon, but Ma Yuling has no idea whether she can reach her scheduled destination, Guxian Town, before dark.

No confidence at all.

Ma Yuling originally planned to get to Dengzhou in two to three days, but now it seems that she is afraid that she will have to travel for six or seven days. She plans to go to her eldest brother's house to avoid the limelight and also use this opportunity to express herself to her family.

She was determined not to marry until her father agreed to her request before returning to Majiazhuang. But based on her actual journey, her family might have chased her out of Majiazhuang and intercepted her before she even reached Dengzhou.

She believes that her mother will definitely keep secrets for her, but this kind of confidentiality must be time-limited. At most, she can have a day or so for herself to run away. If she cannot run far enough during this safe period, she will stay in

I was stopped by my family members when I went home, so my run away from home would become a joke.

The real situation will always be worse than expected. Ma Yuling estimated that she would have one day to run away, but in fact her sneaky actions only bought herself half a day. She sat on the roadside to rest, thinking hard about what to do.

When the trip down was completed, her father, Ma Dongqiang, was already packing his bags in the village, preparing to set out to catch her and take her home.

There is only one official road to go from near Fushan County to the west to Guxian Town. After passing Guxian Town, you can choose to go to the north official road or take a shortcut to the west when going to Dengzhou City.

It was a country road. If Ma Yuling wanted to avoid being chased by her family on the way, she had to at least get to the west of Guxian Town before then. But she felt that in her current situation, she would have to go at least until noon tomorrow to reach Guxian Town.

——Maybe he will never reach Guxian Town, and he will be intercepted by his family before that.

If you want to escape smoothly, you have to either throw away these heavy luggage and travel lightly, or you can only change the planned escape route and go somewhere else to hide from the limelight for a few days, and then decide whether to go to Dengzhou City or return to Majiazhuang.

.But the problem is that not many people know her in Fushan County, but there are many people who know her father. If someone discovers her identity, most of them will go to Majiazhuang to report to her family and ask her family to take her back. She wants to remain anonymous outside.

Hiding for a few days is really not an easy thing for her to do.

Ma Yuling thought for a long time and decided to see if there were any villages or towns nearby that could provide some drinking water. She stopped at a three-way intersection. One was the way she came, one was heading west to Guxian Town, and the other was heading west.

Turning south towards the mountainous area. In Ma Yuling's memory, there seemed to be no big villages or towns in the south, but this road was built wider than the official road, and judging from the signs of groundbreaking here, it should have been built not long ago.

A new road.

Ma Yuling also heard that the local bandits have been completely wiped out, so she is not worried that this road leads to a bandit den. Before the Denglai Rebellion broke out, she had been to Dengzhou with her father and brother, and she also went to Dengzhou in ancient times.

I stayed in Xian Town for one night. It is at least ten miles away from this place to Guxian Town, and the newly built avenue in the south shows that there is obviously a population settlement nearby, and someone has organized road construction to connect it to the official road.

Then this place should be much closer than Guxian Town. Maybe you can try your luck there and find an inn to hide and live for ten and a half months. It is better than being escorted home by your father and brother after arriving in Dengzhou.

The more Ma Yuling thought about it, the more feasible it became. She stood up immediately, put her big and small bags on her back, and slowly headed south. More than an hour later, Ma Dongqiang and his entourage drove through here, and did not hesitate for too long at the three-way intersection.

, took a brief look at the new road to the south, and then continued westward.

Ma Yuling, who had no idea about this, was very excited at this time, because she had seen that there was indeed a village on the hillside in front of the road. The wooden village wall built on the outside surrounded the village, and the buildings inside were still

The terrain was built one after another, and it seemed that the scale was no less than that of Majiazhuang, where she lived. The road from north to south led to the entrance of the village. At this time, the snow finally began to fall in the sky, and Ma Yuling struggled

Dragging my luggage, I gritted my teeth and walked the last part of the journey.

Outside the village, there were several young men with eyebrow-high sticks. They seemed to be responsible for keeping watch outside. They stopped her from a distance: "Little girl, what are you doing here? Are you looking for someone?"

Ma Yuling said: "The little girl is going out to visit relatives and wants to take shelter from the snow. I wonder if there is an inn here?"

Several junior students looked at each other and couldn't help laughing. One of them asked: "Little girl, do you know where this is? You'd better go home early. This place does not accept passers-by."

Ma Yuling didn't understand what she meant, but seeing that these people were talking quite friendly and they didn't look like bad people, she boldly said: "My little girl's home is a bit far from here. I can't get back today. Please do me a favor."

, how about helping the little girl find a place to stay here to avoid the wind and snow?"

When several junior students heard this, they felt it was hard to drive the little girl out, but the rules in this place were strict, and they did not dare to make the decision without permission. Then one of them said: "Then you wait here, and I will ask for instructions when I go in."

Ma Yuling didn't think there was anything wrong with the other party's actions. During the chaos in Dengzhou in the first two years, all the villages behaved like this to prevent traitors from sneaking into the village. There was a period in Majiazhuang where it was even more strict than here.

If outsiders want to enter the village, they must not only show the way, but also have someone from the village as a guarantee. Although there are no more rebels and bandits in Fushan County now, it is not a fault for people to be cautious.

After a while, the young man brought out another person. He looked like he was only in his twenties, but he was not dressed like an ordinary ordinary person. He was wearing a gray cardigan, straight trousers, and black mid-calf cloth boots on his calves.

He also wore leggings, a small gray hat with a brim on his head, and a leather belt about an inch wide around his waist. The clothes this man wore were not like the wide robes and big sleeves of Ming people, but they were quite stylish.

In order to be docile and because he is tall and strong, wearing this outfit makes him look energetic.

"Master Sun, this is the little girl!" The young man who brought him out was quite polite. Even though they were about the same age, he called the person in gray "Master Sun", which showed the difference in their status.

The man in gray clothes surnamed Sun looked Ma Yuling up and down and asked calmly: "Where did the girl come from and where are you going?"

Ma Yuling heard that the other party's accent was that of a native of Dengzhou, and she felt a little relieved at the moment. However, she was afraid of revealing her identity and did not dare to tell her true origin, so she immediately made up the following: "The little girl's surname is Lin, and she is from Qixia County, Dengzhou.

Madam, I am going home after visiting relatives in Fushan County. Seeing that it is getting late and snowing again, I want to come to Guizhuang to borrow a place to avoid the wind and snow."

Qixia County is located in the southwest of Fushan County. There are tens of miles of continuous mountainous areas between the two places. From here to the county seat of Qixia County, there is at least seventy or eighty miles. There is nothing wrong with what Ma Yuling said.

"It turns out to be Miss Lin." The big man in gray nodded and said, "Do you have any fire starters or weapons on you? If you have any, take them out first and let us keep them for you and return them when you leave here.

for you."

Ma Yuling shook her head in denial. Originally, her mother Jiang Dongmei tried to put a self-defense knife in the bag for her, but Ma Yuling felt that the luggage was too heavy and the knife was useless in her opinion, so she didn't leave without it.

Bring it. As for fire starters, she had no intention of camping in the wild, so she didn't bring any of these unused items.

The other party only asked a few questions and did not actually search her luggage. She asked a young man to carry her luggage for her and took her into the village.

Ma Yuling quickly noticed that the houses in this village were all exactly the same in appearance and size, and there were also new houses under construction. These houses had adobe walls and gabled roofs, and they seemed to have just been built.

There are no old people or children as far as the eye can see in the village. They are almost all young people. Many people are wearing the same style of clothes as the man in gray who leads the way, which looks quite strange.

Although Ma Yuling thought the clothes of these people were a bit weird, she didn't realize what it meant until she was taken to an open area and watched hundreds of uniformly dressed people in gray lined up neatly in this place.

During the phalanx drill, I suddenly realized that this place was not a village, but a military camp!

After discovering the truth, Ma Yuling's expression immediately changed. Although she didn't know the true identities of these people, she had also heard that the military camp was definitely not a place where women could come and go at will. Ma Yuling's mind suddenly showed up with what she had heard.

There are some rumors that during the Denglai Rebellion, the rebels and the Ming army who came to quell the rebellion did a lot of evil in the local area. Relatives of the Ma family were also persecuted during this period.

An example of this. Anyone who is a soldier is not a good person in Miss Ma's eyes. The other party brought her in like this, I'm afraid they don't have any good intentions.

Ma Yuling was panicking, but she didn't dare to ask out loud, for fear that the other party would see through her guilty conscience. But in her mind, she was thinking about why she was so confused and refused to go out of official ways, so she came to this damn place to seek shelter. Now.

Even if I want to leave, I am afraid that the other party will not let me go easily. I wonder if the other party will let me go for the sake of my father, Ma Daguan, if I reveal my identity.

But then she thought about it, if these unidentified soldiers knew that her family was well off, they might use her own safety as a condition to blackmail her family into giving up a sum of money to redeem her identity. It would be better not to rush to reveal your identity first, and wait and see what the situation is like.

.

"Sun Zhen, who is this girl you are bringing? Is it your family or a fellow villager?"

When Ma Yuling was distracted, the big man in gray who was leading the way suddenly stopped, and she almost ran into the wall of flesh. When she came back to her senses, she noticed that someone had stopped the big man leading the way.

Ma Yuling couldn't see the situation in front of her, so she tilted her body and poked her head out from the side of the big man. She saw that the person in front of her who asked the question was also a young man in gray, but the fabric of his clothes was obviously much higher quality.

, is not cotton but a material that looks thick and stiff. In addition to the cardigan, he is also wearing a gray coat, leather boots that cover his calves, and a pair of black leather gloves on his hands.

What best reveals this person's identity are the several cold-eyed armed guards behind him.

When Ma Yuling stuck her head out, she found that the other person's eyes were fixed on her face. She stuck out her tongue and quickly retracted her head, thinking that this might be the end of her life. She would be raped by this big boss.

She was caught. She had heard from her uncle Jiang Sheng before that the rules in the army were very strict and she was afraid that she would not be able to escape punishment. She wondered if she would be given a military stick for breaking the rules later.

Sun Zhen stood up straight and saluted a military salute, and then responded: "Report to the leader, this Miss Lin is returning to Qixia County via this place to visit relatives, and wants to stay for one night to escape the snow and wind. Seeing her pity, my subordinates wanted to take her in.

, let her live with Mother Zhao and Sister-in-law Liu in the kitchen, and then send her away when the weather improves."

"A little girl is traveling far away with so much luggage? Qixia County is dozens of miles away from here, and there is no one to send you off?" The young officer seemed to have discovered some blind spots immediately: "Sun Zhen, have you checked her luggage?

"

Sun Zhen scratched his head and said, "This little girl's luggage... it's not easy for my subordinates to go through it, right?"

But the young officer did not intend to let this matter go: "Just let the female soldiers come to check. Someone, please inform Squad Leader Feng of the medical class to come here immediately."

A moment later, a female soldier also dressed in gray came, took several pieces of Ma Yuling's luggage aside and began to search. Although Ma Yuling wanted to stop the other party's rude behavior, she stopped because of fear.

I couldn't say a word, tears were rolling back and forth in my eyes, and I didn't know how to deal with the current situation.
Chapter completed!