Li Yunyun left. She ate the whole can of food and drank half a catty of wine. In a daze, she left with a backpack of more than 40 catties of gifts.
Among the gifts, there was a pair of binoculars, a pistol, and 200 bullets. The rest were seeds. As for the canned food, Li Yunyun didn't think it was important.
After solving the problem of one or two tribes, Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan continued their journey. They were relieved. Both sides had agreed to build the harmful factories further away and build a canning factory at the same time. When the situation stabilized, a large number of people would migrate to various parts of the Tang Empire for tourism purposes.
"Pick up the pace and move forward," Zhang Xiaobao ordered. The team immediately sped up.
This made things difficult for Xiao Bei and the others. They couldn't be carried by others all the time. The others were also tired. Usually, they would walk for two hours and be carried for an hour before they could catch up with the rest of the group.
Although they said they were in a hurry, there was no road at all. They couldn't even see a winding path. There were only mountains and forests around them. Occasionally, they would come across a small valley. They had to take a detour and find a good place to set up camp.
The people who walked in the front had the hardest time. Little Bei and the others didn't have to run to the front. When they started walking, there was already a road. All kinds of poisonous insects had been cleaned up.
"The scenery is beautiful. It's really good. But I still want to stay in a big city. It's wet and humid. It's even worse than when I was in Lu Zhou."
Little Bei wore a pair of thick leather boots. When the team stopped to rest, he walked forward and chose a place where he could see the situation at the foot of the mountain. He complained to the people next to him.
Little Yuan and the others found a flat place to lie down. After all, they were still young. It was very tiring to follow the speed of the adults. If it weren't for their good nutrition and exercise, they would have been carried forward.
Compared to the nine of them, Xu Yilong, the grandson of Xu Jian, who had been following them, was much worse. He was older than Little Bei and the others and came from a good family. He couldn't be compared to Little Bei and the others.
Ever since he met Xiaobei and the others before coming to Yizhou Prefecture, he had never left. Occasionally, Xiaobei and the others would go out to play children's games while he stayed with the group.
Although he was old, his physical strength could not keep up. He was very grateful that Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan did not play this kind of rapid march when they first met him. Instead, they gradually increased their speed and at the same time increased their intensity. This gave him a chance to adapt. Although he was not much different from a dead dog now, he could still breathe.
"I can't take it anymore. I feel that I've lost a lot of weight. If I walk for a few more days, I'll definitely die." Xu Yilong said to Xiaohai who was lying beside her.
Xiaohai closed her eyes and relaxed her body. Weiwei opened her mouth and adjusted her breathing. Obviously, she was giving a psychological suggestion to recover her strength quickly. She had no time to pay attention to Xu Yilong.
Xiao Bei looked at the scenery for a while and asked someone to spread a blanket. She directly lay down and stretched out her arms. This way, she would feel comfortable breathing and use her body weight to compress her lungs.
Xiaoyuan curled up on his side, like a baby in his mother's belly.
The big boys and small boys hugged together. Zhang Gang and Zhang Qiang had one leg stretched out horizontally and the other leg stretched out horizontally. Anyway, each had their own most comfortable resting position.
The others in the group were also resting. Only the cook was busy. Zhang Xiaobao did not show his cooking skills at the moment. He was waiting for the logistics staff to stew the dishes.
The dishes were local wild vegetables, mushrooms, and the meat of the wild animals that were hunted. The staple food was the same, bamboo rice cooked with rice. This could save the time of washing the dishes.
It was not that the stew was delicious. If it was in the northeast, it was okay to eat stew in winter. It was warm and would not get cold easily. In this place, the feeling of eating stew was much worse than cooking, but stew was the most convenient.
There were many wild animals on the mountain. The people who opened the path and the people who were in charge of scouting in front killed them. Crossbows were very useful at this time. No one used guns, otherwise, they would scare the animals away.
After half an hour, the meat was stewed. The cook ate first. When he was half full, he lay down to rest. The others took turns to eat. The meal would probably take another half an hour.
Xiao Bei and the others were woken up. They took the split bamboo tube and ate a big mouthful of rice first. Then, they scooped out some vegetables from the pot and put them in the empty space where they had just eaten. They stirred the vegetables with the newly made bamboo chopsticks and ate two mouthfuls of the vegetables, leaving more space for them to scoop out more vegetables.
"Why are the mushrooms so smooth? The taste is not good." Xu Yilong scooped a piece of meat with two small mushrooms. She ate one and muttered.
Xiao Bei turned his head to look and said to Xu Yilong, "Poor people can't eat good things. This is a very delicious beef liver mushroom. It can be picked and eaten directly. Some mushrooms will be poisoned if eaten directly. It needs to be dried first. You eat the meat and leave the mushrooms to us."
"The taste is not good, but the taste is good." Xu Yilong immediately corrected her mistake. She did not doubt Xiao Bei's words at all. He was an expert in eating. He could eat a lot of rare things since he was young. It would be a lie to say that she was not envious.
She ate the other mushroom with the fastest speed and swallowed two mouthfuls of rice. Xu Yilong scooped some vegetables again and looked at them. She showed a troubled expression.
Xiao Yuan looked and handed half of his bamboo tube over. "Give it to me. It's just snake meat. Look at how scared you are. Look carefully when you scoop it later. Don't scoop it up if you don't eat it."
Xu Yilong happily gave a small piece of snake meat to Xiao Yuan. Xiao Yuan chewed it slowly and nodded repeatedly. She praised, "It's delicious. When it comes to stewing dishes, snake meat is more fragrant. It's much better than rabbit meat. It's very nutritious."
When Xu Yilong heard that it was very nutritious, she began to regret it. When she was almost done eating, she wondered, "You guys seem to be able to eat anything. Don't you have your own preferences?"
"No matter what, you're raised by a rich family and you have preferences. Look at the situation now. If it weren't for the fact that I could cook it, I would eat it even if it was raw. It's better than starving to death. It's a pity that we can't eat the snake's gall. I'm afraid that there are parasites. Unless it's made into snake gall wine with strong alcohol, I can't drink it. "
Xiao Yuan despised Xu Yilong and lowered her head to eat the last two mouthfuls of rice. She then scooped two spoonfuls of soup and gulped it down. She touched her stomach. "I'm 60% full. Okay, let's continue the journey later."
Xu Yilong looked at Xiao Yuan's rice and then looked at his own. He found that the little guy could eat more than him. He was almost full now. After he ate the last mouthful and drank some soup, he estimated that he would be very full.
Moreover, he was very envious of the little guys. When they were tired from the journey, they could recover immediately after a little rest. When they were growing, they really could not compare.
After the meal, the team continued their journey. No one was injured until they started to set up camp at night. The people who were in charge of protecting the surrounding area cleaned up all the snakes and poisonous insects.
As for the legendary terrifying wolf pack, they only saw a shadow and then disappeared from sight. They probably also found out that the crowd was more powerful than them.
The meal at night was better than at noon. There were two stir-fried dishes and a soup, and there were also pancakes.
*****
Five days later, the team entered the border of India. They started to set up camp at noon because they had just crossed an unknown river. The river was very wide and the current was not fast. It was also not very deep. The deepest part was less than four meters. Xiao Bei said it himself.
Xu Yilong, who did not know how to swim, was dragged to the shore by the little guys. He felt that he had an illusion before. The team led by Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan were not elites who were familiar with the mountainous terrain. Although the speed of walking on the mountainous terrain was fast and very stable, compared to swimming, it was really a far cry.
Previously, when the current was fast, they formed a line. This time, when the current was slow, they all went down to swim. The logistics personnel even had all kinds of tools. They actually put the pot on the water, put something in the pot, and pushed it across the river.
There was also the infantry cannon that weighed more than four hundred kilograms. How could more than twenty people carry it over? Some people went back and forth a few times, and all the things they carried were transported over. This was clearly the navy. They were wearing clothes and were not affected by the river water.
When he was dragged over by Xiao Bei and the others, he felt that he could also try to swim, so he let them let go first. As a result, his body sank directly. It was too scary.
And when he was dragged over, Xiao Bei let the other eight little guys drag him temporarily while he caught a fish. He thought that it was just like catching a chicken on land. It was too easy.
"Xiao Bei, how did you practice to be so good at swimming?" After changing clothes, Xu Yilong, who started to wash the clothes before, asked Xiao Bei who was also washing clothes.
When she heard Xu Yilong's words, she tilted her head and thought for a while. Then, she shook her head. "I don't know. I forgot. It's just like that. I heard from them that my brother put me in the water at that time. At first, I looked up and floated happily. Later, when I was a little older, I swam next to my brother and listened to him sing while lying on the water. But I don't remember."
"How do you lie on the water? Is it like this?" Xu Yilong stretched out both arms with palms facing down.
Xiao Bei shook his head, "No, it's like this."
Xiao Bei retracted his arms and put his hands under his neck. Weiwei raised her head.
Xu Yilong followed suit, and her face changed immediately, "Why didn't you sink? Does anyone dare to lie in the water like this? "
"You just need to move your feet a little. Of course, your feet will sink if you don't move. You're so stupid. Think about it, lying on the water and listening to brother sing is so blissful." Xiao Bei felt that he could not scold Xu Yilong anymore. Her IQ was too low.
Xu Yilong nodded and admitted that she was stupid and could not speak reason. The only thing she knew was that some people really could not be looked at with common sense. She was talented and could not be jealous.
"Then why do all the people in your family know how to swim?" Xu Yilong stopped talking about Xiao Bei and changed the topic to other people.
"It's a request. I heard from my sister that brother doesn't want anyone to have an accident in the water. You will know if you go to Sanshui County. Every once in a while, there will be people patrolling the river or the river. They are afraid that other people's children will fall and drown. So when the children in Sanshui County say that they want to go out to play, the adults are relieved when they know that they are going to the river. It's not like other places where the children say that they want to go to the river to play and the adults don't let them. "
After Xiao Bei finished speaking, he continued to rub his clothes. He looked very serious.
Xu Yilong said understandingly, "If it were me, I would also be willing to let the children play by the river in Sanshui County. It's safe and stable."
Everyone changed their clothes and began to bathe in batches. Xiao Bei felt very uncomfortable because he could not bathe for a few days. He set up his tent here and did not plan to move forward again today.
The cooks who had bathed first began to set up pots and ran upstream to catch fish with nets.
Zhang Xiaobao had good news. They could already use telegrams to directly contact the army on this road. The army hoped that they could cooperate and prevent any side from providing food supplies to the reinforcements of Duo Shi who were forced to retreat in the northwest.
"That's right. Previously, the Duo Eater army didn't dare to cross the river and was defeated instead. After they gathered by the river, they were surrounded. Our people actually opened up a gap for them to call for reinforcements. Now, not only did we capture the Duo Eater in the encirclement, we also forced the enemy reinforcements to not dare to fight or retreat."
Zhang Xiaobao said happily after reading the telegram.
The smile on Wang Juan's face also increased. "Of course they don't dare to retreat. If they retreat again, they will give up the area where they are going to harvest the food. It seems that we will have to continue to force our way to the northwest. We will run to the north bank of the Naga River and choose a key area to patrol along the river. We will not let any supplies from the Indian side pass through. At the same time, we will stop the Duo Shi people from escaping to cross the river when we attack this line."
With that said, Wang Juan opened the map and pointed at the river basin. This time, they could be considered to have completed the strategic deployment with their attacking troops. No matter what, it was impossible to determine a perfect strategy before this. The battle situation could change at any time. Controlling a supply line that might appear and blocking the Duo Shi people's path of retreat was a very important strategic arrangement.
If their troops did not come, they would not have been able to control this line. The Duo Shi people were fighting across borders. They had arranged for manpower in the Indian territory. Originally, it was to attack the Tibetan Lhasa City from this side. Now, it was changed to defense to contain their troops. Otherwise, their troops would continue to head northwest. After crossing the Indian River, they would directly attack the Duo Shi people's territory diagonally.
Wang Juan still thought highly of this opponent. She said, "As expected of the country that once defeated our Tang army. Their strategic deployment is pretty good. The history book said that they made a small country betray us and caused us to suffer a crushing defeat.
This time, they also know how to contact India and help them resupply. But we are here. Our troops are too conservative. Why should we control the Naga River? Send a telegram back and tell them that we will march parallel to them to the northwest. We will resupply the horses there.
Let them only push forward when the logistics can keep up. The Duo Shi people will not know about this. We will control the airspace. The speed of the other people on the land is not as fast as us. "
Someone immediately went to send the report.
Zhang Xiaobao came over to look at the map. He stretched out his hand to measure the distance and said hesitantly, "It's too far. We have to cross the Naga River first, then continue to head northwest and cross the Indian River. Just the journey alone will take more than two months. And that is under the condition that we have sufficient animal power."
"You can use a few years for an economic attack. Is two months too long for a military attack?" Wang Juan said as she rolled her eyes at Zhang Xiaobao.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
