Chapter 44: There will be a lot of trouble in this journey
The morning of February 17th.
It's rare that it doesn't rain, it's gloomy.
There is so much water vapor between heaven and earth that even the air is moist. When you inhale it, your lungs will feel sticky and moist, which is depressing.
Early in the morning, Chu Tang said goodbye to Xu Wei and others, followed Fang Kai and his party, and embarked on a journey to Guijun County.
For this trip, Fang Kai spent a lot of money to match each person with a horse.
Chu Tang also got a white horse. It was tall and elegant, with strong limbs and a well-proportioned body. It looked very impressive.
As a police officer, due to business needs, Chu Tang can ride a horse. His riding skills are not very good, but he is skillful and safe, and there is no problem in running.
However, Shi County was barren and the county government could not afford to raise many horses.
A horse usually costs a lot of money to eat and drink; once it starts running, it will eat and drink even more, and it will cost even more.
Therefore, not everyone can ride on the horses in the county government for a walk, and they can only be used in emergencies.
Throughout the year, Chu Tang could only ride a few times.
Riding a horse all the way this time was a new experience.
Young and young, with a long sword hanging from his waist and riding a white horse, facing the sharp spring breeze, Chu Tang felt a sense of heroism in his heart, and he had the spirit of a young man in the world.
Going to the rivers and lakes, the water is long and the road is long, the storm is dark, and the future is unpredictable, but there is a horse under the crotch and a weapon in the hand, how can it not make people feel soaring, wishing to ride the horse and laugh away.
Of course, thoughts are thoughts and reality is reality.
Even though Chu Tang was full of pride and chivalry, as a policeman escorting prisoners, he could not let himself go as much as he wanted. He had to be careful in everything and focused on guarding the prisoners.
The county seat of Guijun is to the north of Shixian County, with Pingxian County in the middle, about four hundred miles away.
If one person rides hard, day and night, and when the horse is tired, he goes to the inn set up by the court and replaces another horse. If he keeps running, he can go back and forth in one day and night.
Last time Shi County captured Li San, he sent someone to report to the county government, and Fang Kai rushed to Shi County to deal with it. This was the back and forth.
However, this time to escort the prisoners, they could not run wildly.
One is because there are so many people. After all, they are not people and horses that have been trained for a long time. Their movements cannot be unified. Some even have better riding skills and some worse. As we race along, some people might fall behind, which would be too dangerous.
Another reason is to take care of prisoners.
The prisoner is a man in his forties, with a beard and a rough look.
However, at this time, he was chained to his lute bones, and his hands and feet were tied with high-grade thieves' ropes. His face looked decayed, his whole body was weak, and he was unable to move.
He was also a man and a horse, but instead of sitting, he was lying on the horse's back, and he and the horse were tied together with a rope.
The horse in front used a long rope to pull the prisoner's horse forward at a neither fast nor slow speed.
Fang Kai said that they would first go to Ping County to rest at the county government office. And he has already sent people to report to the county government and let people from the county government come to take care of him. At that time, the two parties will meet at the county government office in Ping County, and then go to the county government office together.
It can be seen that Fang Kai attaches great importance to this prisoner and is extremely cautious in this business for fear of making a mistake.
Among this group of people, there was also an acquaintance of Chu Tang - Shi Zhifeng, the leader of the Shi County Police Squad A.
When he saw Shi Zhifeng at the beginning of the journey, Chu Tang was quite surprised because he had never heard that he was going with him.
After asking, it became clear that Fang Kai did not invite Shi Zhifeng, who was also a warrior in the third realm, but it was the latter who found Fang Kai, took the initiative to invite him, and recommended himself, so he was accepted.
Shi Zhifeng's purpose was very simple. He did not mention the conditions for joining the county government. Instead, he hoped to go to the county government's treasury to observe a four-realm exercise.
Fang Kai thought about it and felt that Shi Zhifeng was not particularly old and still had some hope of impacting the four realms. Out of consideration for developing talents for Gui County's police officers, the author agreed to this request.
After all, this condition is much simpler than Chu Tang's. I even agreed to the higher request. What else can I say about the lower one?
With the addition of Shi Zhifeng, the number of police officers involved in the escort reached nine.
Fang Kai and his original four men, plus the two detectives from Bai County who joined in, as well as Chu Tang and Shi Zhifeng from Shi County, there were exactly nine people.
They are all warriors of the third realm or above.
Among them, Xu Zhifeng was cultivated in the fourth realm, and the others, except Chu Tang, were all cultivated in the third realm.
If we also include Chu Tang, a fourth-level warrior who pretends to be a pig and eats a tiger, there are two fourth-level warriors plus seven third-level warriors.
This kind of power is not a small force in the world, and there is no problem at all in the territory of a county.
Of course, on the surface, these people were a fourth-level warrior and eight third-level warriors. Even Fang Kai didn't see Chu Tang's true cultivation.
Therefore, Fang Kai still acted cautiously, fearing that something unexpected would happen.
He divided the group into two lines, four in front and four in the back. He was in the middle to guard the prisoners next to him.
For the sake of safety, they did not take small roads, but took official roads, and did not travel overnight. They planned to station at the nearest post station in the evening and rest for a night before continuing on the road.
In addition to just walking slowly on horseback, according to calculations, it will take at least two days and nights to reach Pingxian County, and then another two or three days to reach the county seat. It must be said that it is indeed a bit slow.
Chu Tang and Shi Zhifeng followed at the back of the team.
The two people in front of them were police officers from Bai County, one named Wu Yi and the other named Xu Feng.
Both of them were around thirty years old, in the prime of life, full of energy, and still had room for advancement, so they did not hesitate to take the risk and join the escort team to achieve the goal of jumping from the county government office to the county government office.
Everyone only exchanged a few words during Fang Kai's introduction, but there was no deep friendship.
During this trip, the only person Chu Tang was familiar with was Shi Zhifeng, and the only one he could trust was him.
After being robbed in the county jail and seeing Chu Tang's martial arts skills in the three realms, Shi Zhifeng now has a much different view of Chu Tang. He no longer sneers at Chu Tang when they meet, and he no longer thinks that Chu Tang became the boss through backdoor connections.
But the relationship between the two was not very good before, and now they get along a bit awkwardly. Shi Zhifeng couldn't show off how familiar they were, so they were mostly silent on the road.
Chu Tang was very interested at first, looking around and admiring the surrounding scenery.
It was his first time traveling far away and he was curious about everything.
It's just that the further north you go, there are more mountains and more water, and there are only a few small villages here and there, but there are few people.
The further we walked, the more eccentric we walked, and the fewer people there were. It took us a long time to meet a few people walking together on the road.
Among these people, there are traders and pawns who are in a hurry.
What surprised Chu Tang was that he met the person escorting the escort for the first time. There were more than ten or twenty of them, guarding two or three large and small carriages walking on the road.
These people were more nervous and cautious than Chu Tang's group. Whenever they met pedestrians, they all became alert, holding their hands on their weapons, and looked like they would fight desperately at the slightest sign of trouble.
Fortunately, everyone has their own tasks, so they don't interfere with each other and walk on the main road in separate directions.
The so-called avenues are all dirt roads, but there are just too many people walking on them. The officials use corvees to smooth them out from time to time so that two carriages can pass at the same time.
It's spring now, with continuous rain and sunshine, and the roads are already muddy, making it extremely difficult to walk.
After walking for a long time, the white horse under Chu Tang's crotch turned into a mud horse. Most of his body was covered with a thick layer of mud, and the scenery when he set off was long gone.
And after most of the day's jolting, he no longer had the original interest in being curious about everything. He only felt sad. He had never been in a body that had been riding a horse for a long time, and his buttocks and buttocks had been numb for a long time, which was very bitter.
Chu Tang had to use the Shenzhao Jingzhen Qi on his horse to nourish and repair the fatigue of his body.
Shi Zhifeng noticed that Chu Tang was restless and couldn't help but said: "Chu Tang, you need to practice your equestrian skills. You look awkward, I feel awkward too!"
Chu Tang rolled his eyes and said, "Are you embarrassed to say this? All the horses in the county government are owned by you, Class A. When will it be our turn to use Class D? Where can I go to practice equestrian skills!"
Shi Zhifeng sneered. Their Class A had a prominent position among the county police officers. They always occupied resources first and used the unused scraps for other classes. Chu Tang's Ding class is at the bottom and doesn't have many chances.
"Then you can buy a horse of your own!" Shi Zhifeng changed the subject, "A man should own a BMW of his own! Look at my little black horse, how cool it is! If you ride it out for a walk at any time, your equestrian skills will naturally improve. ”
Chu Tang became even more angry and said, "With my monthly salary of three to five taels, do you think you can afford to raise a horse?"
Shi Zhifeng was even speechless.
There are many kinds of horses, some of which can only be used to carry things and do hard work.
Horses that can ride long distances are difficult to raise and breed, and most of them are not cheap. The inferior ones cost dozens of taels of silver; the better ones are even more expensive, and hundreds of taels and thousands of taels are not enough.
Even if you buy a cheaper horse for tens of taels, raising a horse still costs money!
Building stables, food and grass, saddles, horseshoes, and even daily brushing, all together, one horse can feed an ordinary family!
To be honest, if Shi Zhifeng had no gray income, he probably wouldn't be able to raise a horse.
Thinking of this, Chu Tang couldn't help but look at him strangely.
Shi Zhifeng noticed Chu Tang's eyes and seemed to realize something. He suddenly felt embarrassed and couldn't say anything else.
The two of them were silent.
Fortunately, evening soon arrived, and Fang Kai asked everyone to go to the nearest inn to rest for the night.
The inn is located in a town at the junction of Shixian and Pingxian counties, with food, drink, accommodation, and stables for feeding.
There were two postmen stationed at the post, and under their greetings, everyone quickly settled down.
After dinner, Fang Kaikai arranged to stay on duty overnight, taking turns guarding the prisoners.
Two shifts a night, two people per shift.
Fang Kai is a big boss, so naturally he doesn't have to stay on night duty. And the men he brought were injured and it was difficult to arrange them.
The task fell on the detectives who joined Shixian and Baixian.
After some discussion, everyone decided that Wu Yi and Xu Feng from Bai County would watch the first half of the night, and Chu Tang and Shi Zhifeng from Shi County would watch the second half of the night.
Fang Kai was really cautious this time. Two people shared a room, and all the rooms they requested were connected together.
He took the middle room, next to the prisoners' room, which was right next to him. He could react immediately to the slightest disturbance.
His arrangement made everyone nervous.
"This is the rhythm for fear that someone will rob someone!" Chu Tang couldn't help but mutter.
The first half of the night was silent.
Chu Tang and Shi Zhifeng were woken up in the middle of the night to change shifts.
They arrived at the prisoner's room.
The prisoners were lying on the bed, lifeless or moaning in pain, but no one paid attention to them.
After Wu Yi and Xu Feng left, the windows and doors were closed tightly.
Indoors, Chu Tang sat down on the bench by the window and looked left and right.
Shi Zhifeng also sat down behind the door, holding a long knife in his hand and closing his eyes to rest.
Neither of them spoke.
At this time, it started to rain again, pattering on the tiles, making a loud splash.
There was silence outside, with only the sound of wind and rain covering the world.
Until the end of Yin Shi, it will be dawn.
Suddenly, Chu Tang, who had been sitting quietly, immediately perked up his ears, opened his eyes wide, and became alert.
He heard something strange!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Various sounds broke through the air.
In the courtyard of the post house, outside the wing, and even on the roof, there were sounds that were different from the sound of wind and rain.
somebody is coming!
…………
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