Struggle in the early Tang Dynasty

Guo Ye's team was not moving fast, it could even be said to be a bit slow.

It was not Sun Tzushan who dragged down the team. He had no problem riding a horse now.

Not to mention the fifty monks, these monks are elites selected from thousands of monks, not only profound in Buddhism, but also somewhat skilled in martial arts.There is no problem riding on horseback.

What really dragged them down were twenty large vehicles.

Of course, these twenty large carts are not the ones that are filled with medicinal materials and silk, and are used to appease the Khitan.

In fact, there were a total of forty carts on the trip.

In addition to the cars provided by the imperial court for the missions, Guo Ye also had twenty cars of private goods.

Among the five carts, granulated gunpowder was loaded.The other fifteen vehicles were equipped with improved Thunderbolt bombs.

He was going to take these two siege weapons to Liaodong as soon as he finished appeasing the Khitan.

But gunpowder is really troublesome to transport. It is afraid of rain and tide, and it can't stand the bumps.Therefore, they did not arrive in Yingzhou until mid-April.

If you go out of Yingzhou and then go north, you will enter Khitan territory.

Khitan has a large territory, bordering Goryeo in the east, Xi State in the west, Yingzhou in the south, and Shiwei in the north.In terms of area, it is about the size of a province.

In such a vast territory, there are only about 20 people in total, which is absolutely sparsely populated.

After driving for a whole day, it is not uncommon to see no one.

It will be evening on this day, and there will be no shops in front of the village or behind.In desperation, Guo Ye and others could only set up tents and prepare to spend the night.

When everything is done and dinner is eaten, it is not dark yet.

Sun Tzu said: "Teacher, let me take a leave of absence, my disciple wants to go out for a while."

"What's better on the grassland? Aren't they all the same?"

"No, have you seen it? Not far ahead, there is a forest. The disciple wants to see if there are any fruits to eat. There are really good ones, and I will bring some back to honor the teacher."

"Fruit?" Guo Ye sighed, and said, "My good boy, you really don't understand anything. It's not yet May, and there is no way there is any ripe fruit. Sour and astringent green fruit Son, do you eat?"

"Uh... even if there are no fruits, it's good to see the scenery. Don't you always say that it's better to travel thousands of miles than to read thousands of books? Let's also see if there are any novel trees here."

"It's possible that there are strange trees... but there is one thing, there may be, that you certainly don't want to see."

"What?"

"Tiger! I can tell you that there are probably tigers in this place. You have to be careful."

Hearing this, Sun Zishan was also a little scared, and said: "Please send me some sergeant guards, teacher."

Guo Ye was quite surprised that Sun Zishan was not intimidated, and said: "It seems that you still have to go. Then..."

Kong Kong'er said: "Don't bother those soldiers, why don't I go with him. If there is a tiger, let's be a tiger-fighting hero."

"Okay, then go and come back quickly."

These two were really obedient, within a quarter of an hour after entering the grove, Kong Konger ran back with his grandson on his back.

Guo Ye frowned, and said, "Why so fast? You really met a tiger? Kong Konger, aren't you quite capable? Just now you want to be a tiger-fighting hero, how can you run away from the tiger?"

"No...not!" Kong Kong'er panted heavily, and said, "What are old... tigers, I'm not afraid! What we met was not a tiger, but... the one hanging on the tree..."

"what?"

Sun Tzushan said tremblingly, "People...people..."

"The... people... ginseng fruit hanging on the tree? What's so scary about that?"

"What kind of ginseng fruit!" Kong Kong'er said with a bitter face, "It's a person! There are people hanging on the tree! Oh my god, I was scared to death."

Guo Ye asked suspiciously: "You mean someone hanged himself? Kong Konger, you have been with me all these years, and it's not like you haven't killed someone before. Why are you afraid of a person who hanged himself?"

"I'm not afraid of a person who hanged himself. The problem is that there are hundreds of dead bodies hanging on trees. Do you think I should be afraid? More importantly, there are no ropes around these people's necks! This is not Haunted?"

Sun Tzu said kindly: "Old...teacher..., do you think this is a meeting held by the hanged ghost? What bad luck! How did I catch up with this matter?"

"What a mess! Hanged ghosts have a meeting, do you really want to come out? Tell you, there are no ghosts in this world!"

Monk Xuanzang was not happy after hearing this, and said: "Amitabha, brother Guo's words are wrong. The so-called six realms of reincarnation, the realm of the human world, and the realm of hungry ghosts are all one of them. If there are people, there will naturally be ghosts."

As soon as Sun Zishan stretched out his hand, he grabbed the monk's sleeve and said, "If you call my master a brother, then you are my uncle. I say uncle, you can save my nephew. Please help me see .Is there a hanged ghost following behind me?"

"Uh... the ghosts we talk about in Buddhism are quite different from the ghosts in Taoism. There are hungry ghosts, but there are no hanged ghosts!"

"Don't care if it's a hungry ghost or a hanged ghost, help me find out, is there any?"

Xuanzang is an upright eminent monk, he doesn't know how to play tricks, said: "This poor monk can't see..."

Guo Ye interrupted him, and said quickly, "I can't see it! I said Zishan, why are you so confused? Including Master Xuanzang, we have a total of 51 eminent monks here! Even if there are ghosts, they dare to run away." Here to play wild? Isn't that boring and crooked?"

Sun Zishan's eyes lit up, and he said, "That's right! Why didn't I think of it? Master, this disciple is afraid, can I sleep in a tent with you tonight?"

Xuanzang didn't bother to explain to him, and said with a wry smile: "No problem. However, the most urgent thing now is that you take me to that forest, and wait for the poor monk to save them. merit."

Guo Ye said: "I'll go too! Hundreds of lives are no small matter, there must be something strange in it."

With the courage of the "professional" Xuanzang, Sun Zishan was no longer afraid, and led them into the grove again.

A group of people watched carefully and found that the dead bodies were male, female, old and young.

These people should not have died at the same time.

Some of the corpses were lifelike, and they should have died not long ago; some of the corpses were smelly, and they should have been dead for a few days.

There are still some, which have been air-dried.Been dead for at least a year.

Xuanzang was about to put these corpses down and let them rest in the ground, but Guo Ye stopped him and said, "Wait a minute! These corpses cannot be moved!"

"Why?"

"First, their limbs are tied to trees, which means that the reason why they are here is not hanging themselves, but man-made. Second, I don't know if you have found the great monk. From a rough look, the number of mummies is only a few dozen. Big Some of the corpses are newly dead. What does this mean?"

Xuanzang scratched his bald head and said, "Brother Guo means..."

"We're not cooperators, so we can't judge for sure. But it can be generally seen that most of the people's death should be within the past month. And not all of them died, basically every day."

"so what?"

"Great monk, you are compassionate, don't you want to find out how they died? Let's stay at the scene and hide in secret. We will see who hung up these corpses tomorrow, and everything will come to light. ?”