During the day, he was on the road, and when he camped at night, Li Xia not only had to arrange a lot of business, but also had to exercise, wash up, learn foreign languages with Han Qiaoer, etc. In fact, he couldn't tell too many stories.
On the third day of the journey, Gao Mingyue sat in the carriage and listened to Han Qiaoer quickly finish telling the story of last night, pouting her little mouth slightly unhappily.
"That's all. He didn't say what happened to Mu Wanqing."
Han Qiaoer whispered: "I should tell you tonight."
Saying this, they began to look forward to it, and even the journey became more interesting...
However, not long after leaving that day, the team had arrived at Shouzhou, which is the bank of the Huaihe River.
Shouzhou was called "Shou Chun" in ancient times. It was the ancient battlefield of the Battle of Feishui, and later became Shouxian County, Huainan City, Anhui Province.
Today there are two Shouzhous in the world, one is from Mongolia and the other is from Song Dynasty, facing each other across the Huaihe River.
The administrative seat of Shouzhou to the north of the Huaihe River is Xiacaicheng, and the administrative seat of Shouzhou to the south of the Huaihe River is Anfeng City.
In the first year of Jiaxi, the Battle of Anfeng between Mongolia and Song Dynasty took place here. Eighteen years have passed...
"In the Battle of Anfeng, our Song army suffered heavy casualties. The following year, Mongolia invaded the south again, and their troops arrived in Luzhou. Huaiyou was short of soldiers, so I joined the army. That year I was as old as you."
Nie Zhongyou was rare and somewhat emotional, looking at Anfeng City in the distance, he said this to Li Xia.
Li Xia had no intention of paying attention to Nie Zhongyou's emotions. He looked at the terrain of the Huaihe River and Bagong Mountain in the distance and said, "There may be trouble after crossing the river."
Nie Zhongyou said: "Are you afraid that someone will deal with us? Yuan Jie? Zhang family?"
"Yes." Li Xia said: "It seems that Yuan Jie is trying to curry favor with the Zhang family in the north. He will definitely send someone to spread the news to the north."
Nie Zhongyou said: "But I have a warrant from Prime Minister Jia Shu, so Yuan Jie may not dare to offend him."
"So Yuan Jie wants to avoid offending both sides. He will send someone to deliver the message and seize the opportunity. It is best to wait until we cross the Huaihe River before anything happens."
These words did not make Nie Zhongyou flinch. He said calmly: "The soldiers will stop us, and the water will flood us."
Li Xia raised his finger again and pointed to a pass and asked, "Is that where the Anfeng Army is stationed?"
"What's wrong?"
"Shall we go get some ships and horses, and get some information?"
Nie Zhongyou said: "It is inevitable that there are spies from the north in Anfeng's army. If we show our flag, there is no guarantee that we will not be targeted."
Li Xia said: "Then I want it in the name of the Zhang family. We have a prisoner of the Zhang family, don't we?"
…
People may not believe it when you say it. At the border between two countries, the name of the enemy country is sometimes more useful.
The smuggling trade between the Song and Jin Dynasties has a long history. The Jin Dynasty was replaced by the Great Mongolia. The powerful people in the north were still the powerful people in the north. The Zhang family also had many interests with Huainan.
Han Chengxu showed off his style and led his people over. After a while, he found a Song Army general. As expected, seven ferries came, bought five bad horses, and found out some news.
Just yesterday, two men riding fast horses from Luzhou crossed the Huaihe River and went north. I don't know what they were going to do.
After hearing this, Nie Zhongyou knew that there would be trouble ahead, so he could only ask everyone to cross the river quickly.
This time, they were much more cautious than when they were on the Yangtze River, fearing that someone would have their necks slit like Jiang Xing's before they knew it.
Li Xia and Nie Zhongyou were on the same boat. They frowned and asked, "Did you say that someone would meet us when we arrived in Huaibei?"
"Yes." Nie Zhongyou did not hide anything from him, and whispered: "When we arrive in Ruyin County, Yingzhou, someone will contact us, give us new identities, and take us to Kaifeng."
“How far is Ruyin County?”
"More than two hundred miles."
"We have to go for another two or three days...Who is contacting us?"
"A detailed work installed in the Yingzhou residence during the Song Dynasty."
"Who are the Di family?" Li Xia asked again.
Seeing his confusion, Nie Zhongyou was patient and explained.
“After Mongolia destroyed the Jin Dynasty, they established the ‘Han Army Ten Thousand Households’ in the Central Plains, and appointed strong men from all over the country to command the soldiers and people in Qiangu. The authoritarian side was called a ‘Shihou’. For example, the Zhang family headed by Zhang Rou was a great Shihou.
However, since the great prince has great eyes and hands, it is difficult to pretend to be one of them in the north. After crossing the river, we can use the name of the Yingchuan Di family. I have a token, and I will say to the outside world that my backer is Di Cong, who guards Yingchuan.
The younger brother of General Di Shun."
Li Xia nodded and said: "With this identity as a cover, it doesn't matter if we encounter ordinary Mongolian troops. But the problem is that the Zhang family knows that we have saved Gao Changshou and killed Zhang Rongzhi, so they will not let it go..."
If Zhang Rongzhi had not been eliminated, the peaceful journey from Luzhou to Huaihe River would obviously not have been possible.
But Li Xia was quite worried about the journey from Huaihe River to Ruyin County. When crossing the river, he always held his hand on the hilt of his sword and stared at the other side of the river.
However, the team successfully crossed the Huaihe River without any accidents.
"Is it possible that you are worrying too much?" Nie Zhongyou asked.
"Maybe." Li Xia said, "I'm thinking about abandoning the goods and traveling lightly to Ruyin County."
"We are a caravan disguised as the Di family. If we lose our goods and walk around Mongolia with weapons, it will easily arouse people's suspicion."
Li Xia said: "It depends on how we choose."
Lin Zi also came over and whispered: "Maybe Yuan Jie didn't send the message to the Zhang family. He is a Song minister after all. Can he really collude with foreign enemies? The two people who crossed the river yesterday may not have gone to send the message. What's more, even if they were to send the message,
The Zhang family can't send people to catch us so quickly, right?"
"What do you think of Muru?"
Gao Changshou thought for a while and said: "The Zhang family may be in danger, but without the identity of the caravan to protect them, walking in Huaibei will definitely be in danger."
"Then let's do this for now." Nie Zhongyou said, "Let's continue on our way."
…
A group of people left the river bank.
After walking onto the main road, we encountered a group of Mongolian troops who were searching us. They were all Han Chinese.
It was Han Chengxu who went up and gave a large bribe and gave his name to the Di family, and he passed smoothly.
Seeing the calm situation, Li Xia felt that she was too suspicious.
In the evening, a group of people stopped by the roadside to eat dry food.
When Han Qiaoer ran up to Li Xia with a bag of eggs and handed it to him, someone finally couldn't help but muttered about it.
"He ate well and drank well along the way, but we are worse than a death row prisoner..."
"Mom, he eats eggs every day, and we eat solid food..."
Li Xia turned around and saw that the ones speaking were two Imperial Guardsmen pretending to be caravan guards.
Speaking of which, Nie Zhongyou, Lin Zi and the others knew about what Li Xia had done along the way, and Gao Changshou and the others were grateful, but these forbidden troops did not know much about it.
Most of the time they just stayed in the inn, and at most they went to kill some people on Nie Zhongyou's orders. I don't know what Li Xia had done, so it was normal to complain about his treatment.
When Han Qiaoer heard this, he immediately lowered his head and pursed his lips, secretly unhappy.
Li Xia smiled and whispered: "It doesn't matter."
It was Nie Ping who stood up over there.
"What are you talking about? You get your share of credit for your efforts. When has brother ever wronged anyone? If you don't understand what brother Li did, just shut up. Who are you being so arrogant about?"
"Haha." Lin Zi came to watch the fun, but when he saw Nie Ping making a show, he started to cheer and said with a smile: "What's wrong with eating a few eggs? It's not like you guys laid the eggs, so you're just blabbering here."
"No, then everyone eats the same dry food. He is the only one who eats well every day. Why?"
"Your mother!" Nie Ping yelled: "Why are you talking nonsense to me here? If you were half as capable as Brother Li, I would lay eggs for you myself..."
Li Xia sat under the tree and listened, not taking it seriously, and said to Han Qiao'er: "Okay, someone has come forward for us, don't be angry anymore, don't keep your mouth shut."
"Well, will Brother Li still tell stories at night?"
"I have to travel all night tonight, so go and eat more."
"Oh fine……"
This is just a small matter. We have been together for so long and our relationship is not bad. Although we have some complaints, they are just complaints.
Li Xia didn't expect that Nie Ping would stand up for him. It's hard to say how familiar the two were.
He smiled bitterly, stood up, took two eggs and walked over there.
At this time, Li Xia was still walking, and Nie Ping was still shouting, "I can't lay eggs, and you don't have Brother Li's book..."
Before the word "thing" could be uttered, suddenly, several crossbow arrows shot through the air, and one of them pierced Nie Ping's neck.
The big man just fell down, and blood splashed on Lin Zi's face, which was still smiling playfully.
"ah!"
Screams rang out, and in an instant, three people here, including Nie Ping, were killed, and four or five others were injured.
At the same time, the enemy had emerged from the dark forest on the opposite side.