Chapter 51 - 51 Crossing the Swamp
51 Crossing the Swamp
Luo Ping retreated. Qingfeng sheathed her sword and returned to Bai Wutong, who now knew her better. “You’re standing up for her and the child, aren’t you?” she asked, glancing at Li Niang.
Qingfeng didn’t deny it.
Bai Wutong sighed. “Don’t attack others so easily next time. Her husband is even worse than her mother-in-law. If it weren’t for the child, she wouldn’t have any intention of resisting. If you kill her mother-in-law, it will only make her situation worse.”
Qingfeng focused on the sword as if he was considering killing Luo Ping as well.
Bai Wutong saw through her thoughts. “If you kill her husband, she will hate you to death.”
Qingfeng looked up. “So what?”
Bai Wutong understood what she meant. In any case, it was fine as long as Li Niang and the child were doing well. She was not afraid of Luo Ping.
The commander of the Dark Guards Team was actually so naive. Bai Wutong had no choice but to break it down and explain to her, “If she hates you, she will try her best to kill you. Or she will follow her husband’s footsteps and leave the poor child behind. Moreover, how can she live well in this chaotic world as just a weak woman with a child and no one to rely on?”
Qingfeng’s eyes darkened as if she had understood.
There were also other refugees who followed them up the mountain. When they saw Qingfeng kill the old woman, everyone was terrified and numb.
They had seen too many dead people along the way.
Their own hands were not necessarily clean.
Besides, if not for Bai Wutong and the others being vigilant, none of them would have survived.
The child’s father felt that the old woman had asked for it since she attacked others first. He brought his wife and child to Bai Wutong and said gratefully, “Thank you for saving my life.”
Seeing this, the other refugees hurriedly thanked them. “Thank you for saving our lives, benefactors.” They were not people who did not know what was good for them.
The flood was still rising. This part of the road was completely submerged. There was no telling how long it would take for the water to subside.
Bai Wutong asked Lin Yue to take out a map and look at it. “There’s no other paths nearby?” The main road was flooded, and the other paths were too far from their location.
Lin Yue shook his head. “This is the most detailed map my master has prepared for me. If there aren’t any on the map, there probably is really no more.”
Without a road that could allow the carriages to move, they could only take the mountain road.
If they wanted to take the mountain road, they would have to abandon all the large items like the carriage frame.
It would be useless after they circled this flooded mountain path.
Bai Wutong could not do anything secretive in the carriage anymore.
However, there was nothing they could do if they stayed here. It was a waste of food and time. They might even encounter bandits and a large number of refugees.
Bai Wutong thought for a moment and pointed at the map. She made a prompt decision. “Bring all the food and necessary clothes and abandon the things that you can’t bring. We’ll take the mountain path to Jiangyuan City.”
Qingfeng glanced at the mountain path Bai Wutong was pointing at. “There’s a bandit hideout here.”
Bai Wutong frowned and asked, “Are there many people?”
Qingfeng said, “Last year’s intelligence count was more than 1,000 people.”
There were more than 1,000 people, which was really a lot. Their team only had 500 people.
If they had a carriage to carry their things, and since their manpower were highly skilled, Bai Wutong would not be afraid.
However, apart from the horses and livestock, all the rations and bags had to be carried by hand.
Afraid that they would be caught off guard by the bandits, Bai Wutong looked at the map again. “What about this road?”
Qingfeng glanced at it. “There weren’t any bandit hideouts last year.” She couldn’t be sure this year.
This was because the drought that day was too serious. There would be more people who would choose to be bandits in order to survive.
There were no bandits on this path last year, which meant that the terrain was not suitable for bandits to hide. Bai Wutong thought for a moment and said, “Let’s take this path.” Even if there were bandits, there should be fewer of them.
After deciding to take the mountain path, everyone packed their luggage overnight. When the sky was completely bright, they immediately set off.
The mountain path was extremely difficult to walk on. It was muddy and slippery. The children who could be tied to the bodies were firmly tied to their parents. Those who could not be tied to the bodies were tied with safety ropes and looked after by two adults.
Bai Wutong was not stronger than Qingfeng in terms of martial arts. Stinky was tied to the front of Qingfeng’s chest. He looked around with his big eyes and was extremely curious about the sparrows that flew past the tree. From time to time, he would let out silver-bell-like laughter to comfort everyone’s tired hearts.
Everyone walked on the rugged mountain path for a few hours. On the way, they even picked many mushrooms. They planned to make mushroom pickled fish soup when they rested later.
When they finally walked down the mountain, they realized that the wilderness around the road had turned into a potholed swamp because of the rain.
If they wanted to cross, the difficulty was probably comparable to the Red Army’s long march.
When Bai Wutong saw this scene, she felt that she had made a mistake. She looked at Lin Yue. “This place was originally a swamp?”
Lin Yue shook his head. “The terrain in Jiangyuan City is flat. After the storm, many areas are had become swamps.”
In other words, it didn’t matter which way they went.
Bai Wutong said to Lin Yue and the others, “Alright then, go and get everyone to tie the ropes around their bodies. Be careful when you’re on the path. Use your sticks to probe and be wary of stepping into the swamp. Don’t fall behind either. If you don’t need help, whistle.”
“Alright, Madam.”
The swamp path was even more difficult to walk on than the mountain path. Every step required a stick to scout the way, and the range of steps had to be small and steady when moving.
The team slowly moved in the swamp. Because of Bai Wutong’s comprehensive preparations, other than encountering two huge pythons as an additional meal, everything else was fine.
After walking for about an afternoon, the team clearly slowed down because walking through the swamp was too exhausting.
Bai Wutong looked ahead and found a swamp river formed by water. Across the swamp river was land with bushes.
Lin Yue said, “After crossing this swamp river, we can probably go ashore.”
Bai Wutong thought for a moment and said, “Rest here for a while and eat something to recover our strength. Let’s prepare to cross the river.”
The swamp river rose and fell. Bai Wutong discovered the narrowest spot on the river. There was still grass in the middle to step on. After eating, she let the team move upstream towards the swamp river.
Although it looked close, it was actually quite far. It took another hour to reach the swamp river.
Since they wanted to cross the river from here, the refugees who came from all directions naturally wanted to cross the river from here as well.
Lin Yue and Chu Tianbao led the way while Qingfeng and Zhao Pengfei covered the back.
The team twisted the rope into a rope and moved forward one by one.
When they reached the place where the water in the swamp river was moving the fastest, there was no grass left for them to step on. The water level was also directly over an adult’s calves. Fortunately, the food was all hung on the horses.
Just as everyone in the team was walking into the water, two women rushed out of the bend into the fast-flowing water, shouting for help. They rushed towards them along with the torrent just like bowling.
Bai Wutong hurriedly shouted to everyone, “Stand firm! Don’t let go of the rope!”