Wife, you didn't really drug me, did you?

Chapter 629 Bones exposed in the wilderness, not a rooster crows for a thousand miles.

Zhu Chongba!
Chen Jie squinted his eyes. He really hadn't expected that they would meet under such circumstances.

As Chen Jie was thinking to himself, he bent over. At that moment, Zhu Chongba, who was getting to know people with the chief镖头 (chief镖头 is a term for a bodyguard/escort), suddenly felt as if someone was staring at him from behind. He turned around abruptly but found no one watching him.

At this moment, Chang Yuchun, who was standing beside Zhu Chongba, said, "Take the throne!"

"Cough cough..."

"Oh, big brother, what's wrong?"

Zhu Chongba touched his neck and said, "Why did I feel like something was watching me just now?"

Upon hearing this, Chang Yuchun asked, "Something is watching you, brother. What is it?"

As Chang Yuchun spoke, he turned around to look for something, his tiger-like eyes wide open, truly displaying the might of a dragon and tiger. However, after looking around, he found nothing.

At this moment, Zhu Chongba said to Chang Yuchun, "Fourth brother, don't look around like that."

Chang Yuchun said, "What's the big deal? Besides, this is Haozhou Prefecture. What danger could there be?"

As he said this, Chang Yuchun glanced around but didn't find anything strange. Then the chief镖头 looked at Zhu Chongba with a clear meaning: "Master Zhu, would you like me to introduce you?"

Zhu Chongba looked at the chief镖头 (bodyguard/escort) and said, "镖头, just say it. Anyway, the three of us brothers are here to make a living."

Upon hearing this, the chief镖头 immediately said, "Well, let me introduce you all. These three are my family members who came along on this镖 journey. Please take good care of them. This is me, my nephew-in-law, named Qianli."

"And these two are his brothers, Xu Chun and Chang Da."

After hearing the chief镖头's introduction, Zhu Chongba clasped his hands and said, "The three of us brothers couldn't make ends meet at home, so we followed our uncle into the martial world. We hope that the brothers in the镖局 will take good care of us. Thank you!"

After Zhu Chongba finished speaking, he clasped his hands in a fist salute to the crowd, and Chang Yuchun and Xu Da behind him also clasped their hands in a fist salute.

Chen Jie chuckled to himself upon hearing Zhu Chongba's words. "Using the pseudonym Qianli, isn't the character 'Chong' just a combination of the two characters 'Qianli' and 'Chong'? You really want people to know you, don't you?"

Zhu Chongba and the other two actually all knew how to disguise themselves, but in Chen Jie's eyes, their disguises were petty and easily seen through. They couldn't compare to Chen Jie's disguises at all; Chen Jie's disguises were the real deal.

The face-covering prop is a legendary martial arts artifact. Unless a terrestrial immortal is present, no one can clearly see what's under that face. Moreover, he has specially learned how to disguise his collarbone, which, combined with this face-covering prop, makes him truly indistinguishable even to immortals.

Chen Jie even fumigated his clothes with herbs to mask the smell of people with sensitive noses, such as Huang Wan'er, who could accurately find Chen Jie by his scent. This was a huge flaw for Chen Jie, so he deliberately fumigated his clothes with herbs so that they would only have the scent of herbs, making it difficult for others to accurately identify him by the herbs.

Chen Jie made thorough preparations before disguising himself as a herbal medicine foreman.

Unlike Zhu Chongba, who was so careless, though there's nothing to be proud of about that. Zhu Chongba's carelessness was probably because he was thinking of getting by if he could, and if he couldn't, he would just drop the pretense and reveal that he was going to seek opportunities outside the Great Wall.

After Zhu Chongba finished speaking with his fists clasped, none of his bodyguards had any objections. However, at this moment, the curtain of the carriage was lifted, and Qingzhu stepped out. She looked at the chief bodyguard and said, "Head Bodyguard Zhao."

Zhao Dapeng immediately came over and asked, "What's wrong?"

Qingzhu said, "Chief镖师 Zhao, this escort mission is very important to me. What do you mean by sending a few relatives in?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Dapeng immediately replied, "I had no choice; my family forced them to come. Don't worry, it's just to broaden their horizons; it won't delay our trip."

Zhu Chongba then looked at the young lady disguised as a man, clasped his hands and said, "Young master, rest assured, we are not bad people. Your escort mission will definitely not have any problems."

Qingzhu frowned as she looked at Zhu Chongba. She had a feeling that this person was unreliable and didn't seem like a镖师 (bodyguard/escort), but rather a fierce person.

As the female owner of a pharmacy, she should have disagreed with adding people to the escort mission. Therefore, her actions at this moment were just right and gave people a sense of authenticity. Chen Jie was very satisfied with Qingzhu's performance. This girl was quite decisive and had a lot of the same qualities as his own Ya Ya back then.

Thinking of this, Chen Jiejing observed the situation. At this time, the chief镖头 (chief镖头) also knew that it was against the rules to suddenly add people during the escort process. However, since the city lord had already approached him, how could he dare to refuse? Would he still be able to live a normal life?

He doesn't even dare to back out of the escort mission now, since the city lord specifically requested that he accompany the escort out of the pass. If he loses his employer, wouldn't that be a sign of incompetence?

With no other choice, he could only look at Qingzhu and say, "Well, it was indeed my oversight in this matter. In that case, I will reduce the escort fee by 20% for you, young master. Please forgive me."

At this moment, Qingzhu's eyes caught Chen Jie's attention. Seeing Chen Jie subtly tap his fingers twice, she already knew what her master was thinking. So she said, "That's enough. There's no turning back now. I hope the chief镖头 will keep his promise and not cause any more trouble."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Dapeng said, "Rest assured, since our Tianshun Escort Agency has accepted your escort mission, we will do our utmost and will not be half-hearted. Please rest assured."

Qingzhu said, "Well, since that's the case, it seems we can't leave tonight, so why don't we stay here?"

Zhao Dapeng said, "No, we can still walk ten miles before dark. There's a big inn there. We can stay there tonight and leave before dawn the next day. If we stay in the city, it will take a while before Haozhou City opens. We'll save a lot of walking."

Qingzhu said, "These镖头 (bodyguards/escorts) are experts, so we'll leave it all to their arrangements."

Zhao Dapeng nodded slightly upon hearing this and said, "Yes, in that case, let's set off with the slingshot!"

when!
A gong rang out, followed immediately by a shout: "He Wu!"

The group followed the caravan out of the city. On the way, Zhu Chongba and his two companions rode behind the caravan. Zhu Chongba looked at the caravan and said, "Something about this caravan feels off."

Chang Yuchun said, "Something's not right. What's wrong?"

Zhu Chongba said, "I always feel like there's a pair of eyes watching me? And those eyes seem to be gloating a little?"

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, Chang Yuchun and Xu Da were both taken aback. Xu Da said, "The identity of the person has been investigated. He is a medicinal herb merchant from Huanggang Prefecture. We have checked with the spies from Huanggang Prefecture, and they all match up."

"And I just took a look around. Most of these people are manual laborers, you can see the calluses on their hands. The head of the medicine team is right, and they all smell of herbs. The only one who might be a little suspicious is that young master, who is obviously a woman disguised as a man. The rest of them are all fine."

Zhu Chongba nodded and said, "I checked it too, and there's nothing wrong. Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive?"

Upon hearing this, Chang Yuchun looked at Zhu Chongba and said, "Brother, if all else fails, I'll kill them all. If they all obediently accept their fate, then it's real; otherwise, it's fake." Zhu Chongba looked at him and said, "Fourth brother, this is indiscriminate killing. That won't do!"

Chang Yuchun said, "If we keep suspecting each other like this, it would be better to just kill them with one blow."

Hearing this, Zhu Chongba fell silent. After a long while, he said, "Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's just be more careful on the road."

Meanwhile, in the crowd, Chen Jie looked at the three people behind him and thought to himself, "With these three suckers around, I can finally have some peace and quiet."

As he spoke, he sat on the carriage shaft, closed his eyes, and began to doze off. This action made Zhu Chongba and the others even less suspicious of him. Who with a guilty conscience could be so calm?

And so the group traveled on and on, stopping and starting, and ten days passed in this way.

These past ten days, we've traveled from Haozhou, through Xinyang and Kaifeng, then on to Anyang and Handan, and are about to reach Xingtai.

This group had a carriage, and the bodyguards were all skilled in martial arts. Moreover, the empty carriages traveled quickly, and soon they reached Hebei Province, which was still part of the Great Qian Dynasty's territory.

Hebei and the Dadu area are still firmly controlled by the Daqian Dynasty. Although the Daqian Dynasty has killed the commander of the Baoxiang Army, Boluo Temur, the Daqian Dynasty still has a breath left because of the Living Buddha. Moreover, the Living Buddha has once again brought the Eight Guards of the Kipchak Army to the forefront in Dadu.

They combined local armed forces with troops from the capital, totaling over 100,000 men, to protect Dadu (Beijing).

One by one, the disciples of the Living Buddha of the Eight Guards of Kipchak were brought to the forefront, and now the First Guard of the Capital has become the Living Buddha's eldest disciple, Damoba.

This was the second-stage Molten God that Chen Jie once found difficult to deal with.

After the convoy entered Hebei province, it felt incredibly desolate, with very few villages and hardly any pedestrians.

Occasionally, you can see pedestrians, but they are all poorly dressed, looking disheveled and like beggars.

Seeing this, Zhao Dapeng felt a chill and said, "All bodyguards, get ready. Things aren't going to be peaceful in Hebei."

Upon hearing this, all the bodyguards tensed up. Chang Yuchun, riding his horse and seeing such a desolate scene, couldn't help but ask, "This place wasn't this desolate a year ago. How did it become like this now?"

Zhu Chongba said, "It seems the intelligence was true. The Great Qian's bunch of Mulan dogs are desperate and are now persecuting Han people on a large scale. No wonder we saw so many refugees in Henan. They must have all come from here!"

Upon hearing Zhu Chongba's words, Xu Da sighed, "This truly reflects the poem: 'White bones exposed in the wilderness, a thousand miles without the crowing of a rooster!'"

"Yes, the people here have probably suffered terribly. Look at the tragedy. If you ask me, they should all be killed by those Mulan people to appease our hatred."

As the two were talking, Zhu Chongba said, "Alright, stop complaining. Everyone be careful. There are Mulan cavalry patrolling nearby."

Upon hearing this, Chang Yuchun snorted coldly and said, "Hmph, it's fine if they don't come. If they dare to come, we can use them to practice our spears."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Chongba said, "Our principle is to avoid taking action if possible, and to avoid exposing ourselves if possible."

"I know, I know, that's what I'm saying. They won't mess with Lao Chang, and Lao Chang won't mess with them for no reason."

Zhu Chongba looked at Chang Yuchun and felt a little regretful. He should have brought Tang He along, but he felt it was unreliable to entrust such an important task as guarding the house to Chang Yuchun.

Helpless, Zhu Chongba could only shake off his irritation and follow the group through Hebei Road. What he saw along the way was truly a scene of desolation. With great chaos on the horizon, the first to suffer would be the northern region, where the Mulan tribe's power was strongest.

In many places here, Han people were subjected to brutal persecution, and even a scorched-earth policy was implemented, destroying Han villages to prevent them from becoming an ally of the rebels in the south.

Thus, the group passed through the execution platform, arrived in Baoding, bypassed Dadu, and headed straight for Zhangjiakou. In Zhangjiakou, they spent money to dismiss some local bandits who had established themselves as mountain kings, and then headed straight for Shanhaiguan.

Of course, at that time, Shanhaiguan was not called Shanhaiguan, but Yuguan. It was not extensively renovated as it was in later times. It was just a small pass, but the inside and outside of the pass were distinguished by this small pass.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon arriving here. The journey had been fraught with danger but ultimately safe, and no large-scale battles had taken place.

Just as everyone was secretly relieved, the ground suddenly began to shake. Then, a caravan appeared on the horizon not far away, heading straight for Shanhaiguan. Upon seeing the caravan, everyone immediately felt something was wrong.

That's right, they encountered the Mulan bandit gang, which was feared by the Han people.

Seeing that the caravan was approaching with ill intent, the horses quickly drew near and blocked the road. At that moment, it was revealed that the leader of the caravan was a young man dressed as a monk, but the people around him treated him with great respect.

Just then, someone shouted: "Han Chinese caravan ahead, Yuguan Pass is closed. No one is allowed to leave. Put down your goods and leave now. We will spare your lives. If you dare to linger, you will be killed without mercy!"

Upon hearing the shout, Chang Yuchun looked at Xu Da and asked Zhu Chongba, "What do we do now?"

Zhu Chongba said, "What else can we do? We've come this far, can we give up halfway?"

However, at this moment, Zhu Chongba looked at Zhao Dapeng and said, "Go and ask the master if they still want to go forward. With Yuguan closed, the inner and outer passes are different. Even if they buy ginseng, they can't transport it back. Why don't we just disperse here?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Dapeng immediately inquired about the host's thoughts.

Upon hearing this, Qingzhu looked at Zhao Dapeng and asked, "Does the head镖师 (escort/escort leader) intend to abandon this mission?"

"no……"

“Since that’s not the case, then deliver us to Erdaogou as agreed. The rest is none of your concern, head镖头. I can go from outside the pass to inside it.”

Hearing this, Zhao Dapeng looked at Qingzhu and said, "Alright, if you say so, then so be it."

Then Zhao Dapeng went straight back to Zhu Chongba and repeated what he had said. Upon hearing this, Zhu Chongba smiled and said, "That's quite the spirit. Since that's the case..."

"Second brother, fourth brother, prepare to charge! Since they won't give way, let's fight our way out of the pass!"

"Yes!"

Hearing this, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun also became heroic. They were men of great courage, and seeing the tragic scene along the way, they were already holding back their anger. Now they just let it out!

(End of this chapter)