I

  Chapter 681 678 [Fly separately when disaster is imminent]

  The main roads of fleeing north and rushing westward have all strengthened their vigilance and checked all business travellers.

  Whether it was Li Huchong who fled to Hami, Qinghai, or Hetao Grassland, he must have been quickly searched out. He had a forearm that was broken at the elbow, so it was so easy to recognize.

  According to Li Huchong's original plan, the best solution after the incident is to flee north or west. But Yu Xian's sudden surrender completely disrupted his deployment, so he immediately activated a backup plan, walking directly from Zhongnan Mountain to Hanzhong Basin.

   This is a dead end. After arriving in Hanzhong, it is impossible to escape directly to Qinghai.

   Either go to Hubei, or go to Sichuan, or return to Shaanxi. The shortest route from Hanzhong to Qinghai is from Chencang Road to the north, and the exit of Chencang Road happens to be Qinzhou (Tianshui), where Jiang Liang's army is stationed.

   Therefore, after Li Huchong arrived in the Hanzhong Basin, he could only find a place to hide first, and then look for opportunities to escape after the government relaxes.

  Li Huchong's villa at the foot of the mountain is not far from the valley road.

  This channel was only a mountain trail in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and it was officially opened as a post road in the Yuan Dynasty. It was further expanded in the Ming Dynasty and can already be used by business travelers.

  Among the mountains, a team of more than forty people passed through various valleys in the Qinling Mountains, heading from northwest to southeast.

   There are men and women, in addition to the servant girls, there are even two of Li Huchong's confidant inspectors.

  Li Huchong's money has long been melted into gold pancakes, which are small and easy to carry. These gold cakes are hidden among the real goods, and there will be no problems under normal circumstances. Because there are very few business travelers traveling along the valley road, and there is only one checkpoint called Qianyou Pass in the middle, they are very strict on the business travelers going north (smuggling may be possible), and they are much more lax on the business travelers going south.

After passing through two valleys in a row, Yang Bin woke up early in the morning. With a gloomy face, he found Li Huchong and said, "Uncle, two house slaves are missing. A man and a woman may have run away together. I counted the gold just now and found that it was missing. A piece of golden cake."

  Li Huchong said angrily: "Every evening, don't you have to collect and count the gold?"

  Yang Bin explained: "I was too tired yesterday, and I was negligent in the counting in the evening."

  Li Huchong really wanted to scold him angrily, but he still endured it. At this time, there should be no more conflicts.

  Yang Bin said: "Uncle, when we first left, some slaves sneaked away, and they must have reported to the officials. Now two more slaves have escaped. I am afraid that the officers and soldiers will catch up before we reach Jiayou Pass!"

"These two fugitive slaves will not report to the officials. They stole the gold, so they must hide it and spend it on their own," Li Huchong thought. The officers and soldiers are traveling lightly, and they will definitely catch up with us halfway. We need to find a place to hide!"

  In the Qinling Mountains, there is nothing else, there are many hiding places.

  They also brought a lot of grain and salt, and it was no problem to hide in the mountains for a year.

  Continuing on the road for a while, Li Huchong ordered the mules to be led up the mountain. He even walks at the end himself, dealing with footprints and trampled weeds.

   After walking hard for a day in the mountains, I found some broken houses.

  Those houses were originally built by villagers in the valley along the post road. In order to avoid bandits and officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, they abandoned their homes and moved to the mountains to build them. The Datong new dynasty took back Shaanxi. When the mountain people came out to buy salt, they gradually learned about the new policy, so they moved back one after another. After all, the land in the valley is more fertile.

   There was no one in the house, Li Huchong ordered to clean it up, and gathered all the gold and supplies to prevent anyone from running away with their belongings.

  How could it not run?

  These slaves of the former Qin Dynasty’s mansion, the Datong New Dynasty gave them registration and distribution of land, so they could have farmed the land honestly. They feel that farming is too hard, and they feel that they can't learn it, so they continue to be Li Huchong's slaves because they like to relax and hate work. Now how can they be willing to follow Li Huchong to escape hardships and endure hardships?

  There were two domestic slaves that day, who were sent by Li Huchong to collect firewood, and when they picked it up, they ran away.

   Li Huchong, who heard the news, was immediately devastated.

   Once upon a time, facing the flattery and service of many servants, he really regarded himself as a prince. That feeling of ecstasy caused a battle-tested general to experience a precipitous drop in IQ, thinking that he could control everything, and the servants were loyal to him.

  At night, the pregnant little beauty secretly took out two gold cakes from under the bed.

  She tiptoed out of the house and got into the nearby woods. Yang Bin had been waiting for a long time.

  The little beauty asked: "Brother, do we really want to run?"

Yang Bin said: "If you don't run, you can't stay here, and there are too many people, so you will be chased by officers and soldiers sooner or later. It won't be so conspicuous if we only leave as brothers and sisters. Don't worry, I have made a full set of paperwork. Couples who go south to visit their relatives can easily get past Qianyou pass."

   "But... a couple of days and a hundred days of grace, I'm already pregnant with the master's child." The little beauty is actually somewhat attached to Li Huchong.

  Yang Bin said angrily, "You really think of him as your husband?"

  The little beauty was in a dilemma. Under her brother's urging, she decided to leave.

  The brothers and sisters hadn't walked a few steps before they saw a figure looming in the darkness ahead.

   "Gu...uncle?" Yang Bin was so frightened that he trembled all over.

  Li Huchong sneered and said: "I have been fighting for more than ten years, and I was very alert when I was fleeing. I really thought I could steal gold from under my nose? The dog entered the Yang family. If it weren't for you, I would still be a lord!"

  Yang Bin knelt down with a thud: "Uncle, please forgive me. My nephew was deceived by lard. As long as my uncle spares my nephew, I will definitely be loyal to my uncle from now on. I will never..."

"fart!"

  Li Huchong finally regretted it. Since he had not been depraved for a long time, the money he had been greedy for in the past two years was only more than ten thousand taels. All kinds of enjoyment cost more than three thousand taels, and the rest of the silver was hidden in two places, and now only half of it can be taken away.

  All turned into gold, only about a hundred catties.

  For this little gold, he even lost his title and official position, and may even lose his life. Why bother?

  He blamed all the resentment on the Yang family. If the Yang family hadn't dragged him into the water, he would still be a glorious Sir. He has an official salary, a title salary, land income, and salt store income, so he can live affluently. Even if the main wife is a tigress and he is not allowed to take a concubine, he can still keep a concubine quietly. As long as he is not too greedy, no one will investigate him.

   Immediately afterwards, he blamed Yu Xian again.

   It is not resentment that Yu Xian surrendered himself, but resentment that Yu Xian is not strict. Li Huchong didn't even think about smuggling food and ironware. After all, it was a matter of losing his head.

   It's just that, after learning about the smuggling of grain and ironware, Yu Xian struggled and blamed himself, while Li Huchong chose to give up on himself. Anyway, if you are going to lose your head if you are checked, then you will smash the can and smash it. Li Huchong also intensifies his enjoyment.

  Not only was he in Zhongnan Mountain, but he also raised all the beauties from the Yang family. In another villa, she raised the beauties sent by the Li family, and supported the Li family to check and balance the Yang family. The rest of the gold was also hidden there.

   "It's you who hurt me, it's you who hurt me!" Li Huchong's tone became more and more resentful.

  He felt that he had too little to lose everything. But he didn't want to think about it, he had only been greedy for two or three years, and he had already collected more than 10,000 taels. Moreover, the money is not average, the illegal income is increasing every year, and if he is allowed to be greedy for a few more years, the money will definitely exceed one hundred thousand taels.

  If there is no investigation for ten years, the amount of embezzlement may reach hundreds of thousands of taels!

  Yang Bin trembled and knelt down: "Uncle, please forgive me, uncle, please forgive me!"

  The little beauty also knelt down and cried: "My husband, please forgive me. For the sake of the children, please let our brothers and sisters go."

"child?"

  Li Huchong was a little nervous, and said with a smirk, "Whose **** is the child in your belly, don't you know?"

  The little beauty called out to Qu and said, "I'm wronged, my concubine is absolutely loyal to her husband, and I have never violated women's morals."

  Li Huchong didn't speak anymore, but stood still and meditated.

  He also felt that it would not be a problem to continue to lead people on the run, because the goal of too many people is too big. He was reluctant to part with gold before, and he couldn't carry that much by himself, so he took his servants to go with him.

  Now, life is more important than gold!

   Clang!

  Li Huchong drew his knife out of its sheath, and walked over lamely.

  Yang Bin was so frightened that he couldn't take care of his sister anymore, so he got up and turned around to run for his life.

   Li Huchong was inconvenient in his legs and feet, knowing that it would be difficult to catch up, so he raised his arm and threw the waist knife, stabbing it hard into Yang Bin's back.

  The little beauty was so frightened that she nearly fainted, and then she had a severe pain in her abdomen. She had been on the road for days and climbed the mountains, and when she was frightened again at this time, she already showed signs of miscarriage.

  Li Huchong went over to step on Yang Bin's body, ignored the other party's wailing and begging for mercy, drew out his waist knife and chopped off again, directly cutting off his head at the neck. When I went to the little beauty again, I found that she was clutching her stomach and trembling, hesitated again and again, and finally didn't have the heart to do it.

   Miscarriage in the high mountains, and there are no doctors here, even if you don't kill it, it is estimated that it will be very difficult to survive.

  Fend for herself, she will be lucky if she survives.

  Li Huchong went back to the house, woke up the beauty, and said in a deep voice, "Take your son and follow me immediately!"

  He took out two gold cakes, and threw other gold cakes on the ground randomly, waiting for the servants to pick them up tomorrow. As long as the servants took the gold, they would do everything possible to avoid the government instead of reporting their whereabouts to the government.

  He was missing half of his arm, and his legs and feet were inconvenient. It was impossible to kill all the servants.

   "Husband, what...what's wrong?" the big beauty said in horror.

  Li Huchong said: "Don't ask too many questions, take your son and follow me!"

  He has lost everything now, he can't even bring more gold, only the baby beside him is worth remembering. He was afraid that he would not be able to support his son by himself, so he brought the child's mother with him.

  The next day, the servants woke up and soon felt something was wrong.

  First, Yang Bin's body was found in the woods, and the aborted little beauty was gone. They went to Li Huchong's room again and found gold pancakes all over the floor, so they began to scuffle and scramble, divide up the gold and escape in all directions.

   (Thanks to the leader of Ziyi Zi for the reward.)

   (It’s cold in the spring, everyone remember to keep warm, my wife and children are hospitalized together.)

  (end of this chapter)