After another day of walking, the sky in the distance began to become hazy.
Ma Dali came over and reminded loudly, "We are about to leave Laigu and enter Misty County. Everyone, please cherish the sunshine above your head."
Everyone in the fortress nodded.
Mist County, also commonly known as Mist Wetland.
In ancient times, this was once a vast ocean. Later, the water receded and turned into a huge swamp.
This swamp is shrouded in thick mist all year round, so it is also called the foggy wetland.
"Drive!"
The drivers couldn't wait to wave their whips, urging the convoy to move forward.
The Laigu County behind him was sunny and beautiful, but it felt suffocating and depressing. Everyone wanted to leave immediately.
Ma Dalong continued to spread the news.
"Attention ladies and children of the fortress. The misty wetland ahead is full of unfathomable swamps and mud pits. After getting off the car, you are only allowed to stay on the post road. It is strictly forbidden to wander around. Otherwise, you may fall into it if you are not careful.
Once you enter a swamp, you can never climb out, do you understand?"
"I know." Everyone nodded in response.
"Ma Qianchang," someone asked curiously, "What should the female relatives do if they want to relieve themselves?"
"Don't worry, everyone." Ma Dali was not surprised: "We have already made a plan. When we get to the parking place, we will build a batch of temporary toilets for the female family members to use."
The convoy rolled forward, but soon after entering the Misty County area, it stopped.
"Someone, someone, someone! The car is stuck." Someone shouted from the front.
Ren Ning drove his horse up and immediately understood what happened.
After all, the post road under our feet was built on a swamp, and there were no heavy machinery to help compress the roadbed in ancient times. The caravans traveling from east to west, dragging heavy cargo, had already compressed the post road into a "W" shape.
The carriage in front of it just happened to be stuck in the deep ruts on both sides. No matter how hard the two horses tried, they could not drag the carriage half way.
Hold!
One of the caravan guards spit out thick phlegm.
"This motherless Sheriff of the Mist is merciless when it comes to tolls, customs duties and city entrance taxes, but he never knows how to send anyone to repair this damn road."
If you scold me, come down and push the cart.
Guarding a caravan is not an easy job. When they encounter robbers and bandits, they have to step up. When encountering a situation like this, they have to get down and push the car.
A dozen guards raised their buttocks and pushed hard for a long time. However, the car was loaded with heavy Panlong stones and could not move at all.
"Old Ma, how long will it take to get to the parking spot?" Ren Ning asked Ma Dalong, who was most familiar with the situation.
"It depends on luck." Ma Dali raised his head and glanced ahead, "It can take at least an hour, or at most half a night."
After all, Mist County is a swamp. When the road was first built, some places similar to highway service areas were specially built on the roadside to provide parking for passing caravans to rest.
But there are not many such places, and more importantly, other caravans may move in first and occupy the "service area". Therefore, it is not easy for the caravan to find a place to rest in Misty County.
If they encounter the following situation, the convoy will have to continue moving forward in the dark.
"Take a few people to the front to have a look." Ren Ning ordered Ma Dali and waved back, "Everyone else will come down and help push the cart."
The fortress soldiers were divided into two groups, each performing their duties.
Nearly a hundred people pushed forward and pushed. After a long time, the heavy car was finally pulled out of the deep ruts. Everyone turned into mud monkeys.
Ren Ning wiped the mud off his face, looked back at the long motorcade, and suddenly his head felt a little bigger.
"Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your hard work." Gu Fugui brought some food and came over to express condolences to everyone.
Ren Ning snorted and stared at the old housekeeper angrily.
He now has some doubts that this is what the Gu family caravan had in mind.
On the surface, I asked the fortress soldiers to protect the caravan. In fact, I asked them to help push the car when passing through this misty wetland.
In ancient times, wealth and honor were also personal qualities.
Ren Ning looked over grimly, and he explained that there were no silver 300 vehicles. "How could it be possible? Didn't I encounter bandits and robbers when passing by the Luoxia Mountains..."
After some explanation, Ren Ning let him go.
The Gu family caravan takes this trade route every year and is familiar with the road conditions in Misty County, so it is well prepared.
The servants who drove the cart quickly removed some large tree poles from several cars behind them, put them into the deep ruts on the road, and then tried to drive the car over again.
The effect is good. Most cars can drive through smoothly if you are careful.
But there are always some cars slipping from the tree poles into the ruts, which may cause the driver to overturn his horse or even break several axles.
The axle was broken and had to be repaired. But overall, it went smoothly.
It's just that the road was really bad. Before the convoy had walked a few miles, the wood brought with it ran out, but another car in front got stuck in the ruts.
The slaves of the caravan were not surprised. They carried hoes, picks and other tools and went back to dig up the previously buried wood for later use.
Ren Ning was a little speechless.
The road is already rotten, and if you use a hoe to loosen the soil, won't it make it even worse?
The misty wetland in front of us was very foggy and humid. After going back and forth several times, the entire road probably turned into a mud pond.
He looked at the heavy car eerily.
The car is carrying heavy and solid stones. How about unloading the stones and filling them into the road as a roadbed?
Of course, this is just his idea and it will never happen.
The stones on the cart are much more valuable if they are transported to the east or south of Yunchui than to be filled under the feet and used as roadbed.
"This broken road..." Gu Fugui cursed and came over to comfort Ren Ning.
"Commander, don't worry. This short stretch of road is the most difficult to walk in the entire Misty County. After these two days, the road ahead will be easier to walk."
However, three days later, looking at the road ahead, Lei Er was exhausted and kicked the old guy into the ruts.
"This road he brewed is also a good one?"
Gu Fugui crawled out with a sneer on his face, "This has nothing to do with us. It should be because it has rained in the past few days."
As soon as he said it was raining, the thick fog in front of him turned into water and started to drizzle.
The spring rain was very cold. The convoy was unable to move, and everyone in the fortress was preparing to go back to rest.
Someone came back from the front on horseback to report the news.
"Hurry up. There is a large caravan coming up ahead. The caravan moves forward quickly. If it doesn't move, both sides will be stuck here."
The post road was originally quite well built, so at least it wouldn't be a problem for two carriages to travel together.
But now the entire road is divided into at least three parts by ruts. It is not easy to pass by without traffic.
Everyone had no choice but to pull the cart.
In this way, the entire convoy headed east almost relying on human power. It stopped to rest at night, and everyone was as tired as a dead dog.
It was either raining or fogging every day, and the sky had not been sunny for a long time. Coupled with the miasma and the large temperature changes at night, the children in the fortress soon developed various uncomfortable symptoms.
Fortunately, the team brought enough medicinal materials and the two doctors accompanying the team worked hard to treat him, so nothing happened.
Ren Ning checked his team and told some jokes to the children in the car from time to time, making them laugh.
He looked deeply ahead.
If he hadn't collected money from others in advance, and now he was blocked behind the caravan, Ren Ning would have really wanted to quit, leave the caravan and lead the group eastward by himself.
Ma Dali knew he was guilty, so he explained with a grimace.
"Four years ago, when the spirit was sent back to his hometown, although the road in Mist County is also bad, it is not so exaggerated. Maybe the damn Mist County Sheriff has never sent anyone to maintain this road since he took office."
After walking for almost ten days, we finally arrived at Wuliang City, the capital of Misty County.
Approaching the capital of a county, the road was finally quite decent. However, there was an uproar ahead, and there was even the sound of weapons clashing.