Chapter 99: Tracking

The few people who were excited just now fell silent.

The lake is gone, which means there is drought here.

Su Yin and her party found a shady place where the sun couldn’t reach them.

After putting down all their luggage, Butcher Yang and Zhou Youcai and his son drove their cattle, horses, and mules to graze in the dry lake.

The women tidied the resting area, while others built a fire to cook.

Everyone had a clear division of labor and started to get busy.

The Zhang family stopped to rest when they saw Su Yin and the others, and they were all so happy that their feet felt strong.

“I can take a breather.” The third daughter-in-law thumped her legs again.

The Zhang family also drove their animals to the grassland while everyone else was busy.

A group of people from Nan Jing also arrived later.

After Su Yin had breakfast, she prepared to keep watch while the others took a rest, changing guards every hour.

It was a good place to rest here, but in order to avoid long nights and many dreams, Su Yin did not plan to stay for a long time. They rested for two and a half hours and set off in the afternoon.

Everyone took the time to sleep.

At the same time, at the soldiers’ camp in Hui’an Prefecture, Pai Gow was placed on the table, and wine bottles, melon husks, and peels were scattered on the ground.

Some people were already drunk on the table, while others were also intoxicated.

There was even more chaos in the backyard, where men and women were mixed, falling to the ground one by one and falling asleep.

The night watchman on the tower woke up, looked at his companions beside him, poked his companions with his elbow, and asked, “Have Li Jiu and the others come back?”

He was too sleepy to fall asleep last night and didn’t know if they had returned to the city.

His companion muttered dissatisfiedly, “They’ve already returned to the city by this time.”

After saying that, he turned around and continued to sleep.

Are you back?

Why don’t you have any impression at all? Did you sleep so deeply last night?

The city guard got down from the tower and went to the camp. He had long been accustomed to the chaos in the camp.

He turned around and didn’t see Li Jiu’s group.

That group of people must have benefited and went directly to Xiangcui Tower.

When I think of this, I feel unbalanced.

Yesterday’s group of people seemed to be fat sheep, but it was a pity that it was not his turn, otherwise he would have had a share.

I hope that the newcomers today will be like the fat sheep yesterday.

He walked towards the hut at the back, passed by Wanhe, and looked at Wanhe with only a few horses tied up; his mind suddenly woke up, and he realized something was wrong.

Li Jiu and the others didn’t come back, not even all night.

He did not dare to delay, did not bother to urinate, and hurried to the main room in the backyard, enduring the danger of the general getting angry and knocking on the door.

Sure enough, the angry voice of the commander-in-chief came from inside.

“Damn it, who disturbed people’s dreams so early in the morning.”

“Sir, something big happened.”

Before the door was opened, the person outside the door reported hurriedly, “Li Jiu and his party haven’t returned all night.”

If you don’t return home all night, there are two possibilities.

The first possibility is that Li Jiu and his group escaped and took away the belongings they took from the fat sheep.

The second possibility is that they were killed by those fat sheep.

He preferred to believe it was the first.

The chance of the second one was too small. It’s not that he looked down on the fat sheep, but those people were foraging in the fields.

The horses could rush over and defeat them in two or three strokes. Killing them would be as easy as chopping vegetables.

The door was opened, and a bearded man walked out, his upper body exposed and fierce eyes glaring, “What did you just say?”

The soldier guarding the city felt a little timid, “Well, that Li Jiu and the others didn’t come back last night.”

“Impossible.”

Li Jiu was his confidant, and it was unthinkable that he would escape.

“Sir, there are no horses of theirs in the camp.”

The commander-in-chief’s expression turned gloomy, “Take a few people to look for them, and come back before the sun goes down to report.”

“Yes.”

The soldier left immediately, gathering a few brothers and riding away towards Anping County.

This group of people rode in a hurry, occasionally passing a few scattered refugees, but they did not stop.

If it were in the past, they would definitely have robbed them.

They rode for about half an hour but found no trace of Li Jiu and his party, nor any signs of fighting on the road.

It shouldn’t be; those fat sheep wouldn’t have gone that far.

“Do you still want to go forward?”

“Keep going! If you haven’t found anything by noon, we’ll turn back.”

A group of three quickly passed by an intersection, but soon they returned because they didn’t see any horse hoof prints ahead.

When the three of them returned to the intersection, one of them got off his horse, walked to the path, and squatted down to check.

“There are horse hoof prints here.”

This path led to an abandoned village. Naturally, they didn’t know that this was a diversion tactic left by Nan Jingzhi.

In order to prevent the pursuers from following them, if they could delay for a while, it would ensure their safety.

“Let’s go in.”

The three of them quickly headed towards the abandoned village at the end of the mountain road.

An hour later, the three of them returned from the village and walked towards the original official road angrily. It was already past noon.

After walking for about an hour, they finally realized something was wrong.

It wasn’t that there was something left on the ground, but the smell of blood in the air that caught their attention.

The three of them got off their horses and started searching.

Sure enough, they found bloodstains in the grass.

“There are bloodstains here.”

“There are bloodstains here too.”

“Brother Shan, there are traces of dragging here, as if someone was dragged into the forest.”

They followed the trace into the forest.

Soon they saw twenty corpses behind a huge rock. Who else could these people be if they weren’t Li Jiu and his group?

The three of them looked at the twenty corpses in shock and couldn’t help but feel relieved that they hadn’t gone hunting yesterday.

“Brother Shan, Li Jiu and the others are all dead.”

It’s incredible.

“Let’s go back and report this.”

As soon as he got on the horse, he thought of something. “Wait, my stomach hurts a little. Just give me a moment.”

He dismounted in a hurry and quickly returned to the place where the twenty corpses were dumped.

He rummaged through Li Jiu’s body, searching even through his shoes and socks, but there was still not a single coin to be found.

Grass!

The group had plucked the geese clean, leaving him with nothing.

He knew that Li Jiu had a habit of stuffing money into his shoes and socks, thinking they wouldn’t find it, but he didn’t expect that the group would even discover that.

This doesn’t look like a bunch of newbies.

That group is difficult to deal with. If he goes back so early, given the general’s character, he would definitely hunt down those fat sheep.

And people like them would have to go out and confront them.

Looking at the state of the bodies like Li Jiu, he didn’t think those people were so easy to handle, and maybe he would end up in their hands too.

Therefore, he didn’t panic anymore and just planned to return slowly, stalling for time.

He hoped that the group would move quickly and avoid being caught up, so he could explain the situation to the Commander-in-Chief.

Meanwhile, in the dry lake basin, Su Yin and her party had packed their luggage and were ready to set off.

In the grass on one side of the valley, several skinny men with scarlet eyes were staring at them, particularly fixating on the young children in the team.