Chapter 292: Offering Oneself Up
Chapter 292: Offering Oneself Up
Seeing him have a plan in mind, originally taking her to avoid, but now directly going forward, presumably there indeed wasn’t any danger, thus Jing Wan also just relaxed.
Although changing the route, towards Jing Wan who was completely unfamiliar with the roads, there actually wasn’t any difference.
And so, another day passed just like that. Jing Wan saw the big boat Li Hong Yuan mentioned. Compared to their previous government boat, it wasn’t lacking in the slightest. Just looking at it from its shape, it already further surpassed the previous. As for the things inside, that further didn’t need to be mentioned. Li Hong Yuan had said that the majority of the things they brought were all moved, and this really was the case.
From this bit, it was more than enough to tell, the manpower in Li Hong Yuan’s hand definitely exceeded expectations, and moreover, even under the eyelids of numerous people.
Of course, the large vessel’s position right now wasn’t the originally planned position, and also wasn’t at any dock.
To want to go up wasn’t anything difficult, because this wasn’t just a single large boat, but rather an entire fleet of ships.
The entire fleet of ships was just a bunch of idly strolling private boats, the kind that was enough to make the merchant ships gnash their teeth in anger. They painstakingly had their entire boat filled with goods, hating that they can’t stuff it until there was nowhere to stand, yet you leisurely drag out your boats to idly stroll around in, the typical style of some family’s wealthy young master. Even when not doing anything at all, all able to enjoy everything to the fullest, so how can others not hate?
That’s why, along the way, this fleet of boats didn’t let others’ eyes burn in rage any less, practically hating that they can’t directly have the boat burned.
What others were thinking naturally wasn’t within Li Hong Yuan’s scope of consideration. After boarding the boat, they continued upwards along the canal. About four hours later, they reached the scheduled destination. The river surface in this area was indeed very wide. From the looks of it, in a certain place nearby, there should just happened to be another tributary converging. However, aside from the main river course, most the surrounding areas were all covered by water plants, and further away was a large reed pond. Truthfully speaking, this place truly occupied the geographical advantage.
Just, with it like this, how will they find they other party’s whereabouts? Probably aside from the up and downstream of the main river course, any direction was all possible.
Just when Jing Wan was puzzling over this, she just saw An Yi bring out a falcon. Its size wasn’t considered big, with gold beak and claws, sleek black feathers, yet appearing very lofty, standing on An Yi’s arm, swiveling its head from time to time. An Yi fed it a piece of raw meat, and afterwards, lightly shook his arm. Extending its wings, it just flew away.
Jing Wan saw it circle once overhead, and then just resolutely flew in a certain direction. Afterwards, the entire fleet of ships just headed in that direction.
Jing Wan was quite amazed from watching. She couldn’t really tell what breed this falcon was, but did learn for the first time that falcons also had this kind of functionality.
Li Hong Yuan was standing right by Jing Wan’s side. Seeing her interested, he just gave her a small introduction. The professional things, Jing Wan for the most part didn’t understand, but the portion she comprehended, in summary was just two words———carrier falcon. They required a considerably long training period, and moreover, the probability of success was very low. However, as long as one succeeds in training, it’ll be very useful, being quick in speed, and for the most part, silent in taking off and landing. And the most important bit was that it understood how to conceal itself. From the sounds of it, already just high-end, elegant, and classy. This one above them has followed Li Hong Yuan for three years already.
Pigeons orient themselves by responding to the magnetic field, so falcons should more or less be the same principle, right? But she has never heard of this before, how come all feel a bit unscientific.
Alright, many things were already unscientific to begin with, for instance, her existence.
“I only ever knew about carrier pigeons.” Jing Wan said.
“Carrier pigeons are indeed more commonly used, but using that isn’t very safe.”
(T/N: I recall reading somewhere that carrier pigeons, because they fly at a lower altitude, were quite easy to shoot out of the sky, or would become prey to bigger birds, so falcon mail is much secure in comparison.)
Indeed, just the things Li Hong Yuan did, for the most part, all went through secret channels. For carrier pigeons to be flying about around Jin Qinwang Manor all day long, to want to not attract attention would all be hard.
Her husband said, this falcon’s speed was very fast, but because Jing Wan deliberately took note of, from beginning to end, there all exist a fist-sized shadow in the sky above. This was matching with their speed?
Along the way, the river course gradually became narrow. Seeing that the largest ship already can’t continue forward, Li Hong Yuan unhesitantly ordered to switch boats. Moreover, with this switch, they just all switched into the smallest few boats. But, this way, there seemingly wasn’t enough to use. However, Jing Wan discovered that she’d thought too much. Turns out, below each vessel, there was a secret hold built in, and the inside was completely stacked with small boat, practically just considered emergency lifeboats.
Truthfully speaking, Jing Wan more or less was somewhat astonished. Humans, as expected, in any era, all can’t be underestimated. Perhaps, some day an industrial revolution will just appear.
The small boat was very small, approximately just the ‘floating leaf boat’ kind. On each one, for the most part, can only hold six to eight people.
(T/N: The phrase 一叶扁舟 literally translates as ‘one leaf small boat’ is generally used to refer to this kind of small boat pictured below.)
Li Hong Yuan didn’t take Jing Wan onto another ship, but rather directly got on the small boat, standing on the boat hand in hand. Behind them, aside from the two rowing the boat, was just An Yi and Li Su Yan.
That’s right, Li Su Yan has also been following them the whole way, including the fifty some black clad guards he brought along.
Clearly towards the outside one has concealed nicely, yet had everything all exposed under the eyelids of that emperor’s hound, is this really okay? Jing Wan even suspected whether or not this Li Su Yan was also someone under this man’s banner, yet Li Hong Yuan’s reply was no, very certain, without the slightest hesitation. Then, why? Li Hong Yuan just smiled and didn’t speak, only saying that Li Su Yan, this person, was somewhat interesting, not saying anything else. Jing Wan just rolled her eyes at him, but didn’t continue asking.
The small boat Li Hong Yuan and Jing Wan were on was situated in the middle. The right and left, as well as the rear, all got occupied by other small boats, and the few relatively bigger boats, compared with the small boat, were situated in the most outer circle. Grandiosely advancing in such a way, truthfully speaking, with just this formation of theirs, if the water bandits’ stronghold was nearby, it wouldn’t make sense for them to not be noticed.
This was precisely and clearly telling the other party that they have visitors, and moreover, know at a glance that these visitors definitely weren’t simple.
An hour later, Jing Wan and them actually entered onto a lake surface. Although not very big, but this wasn’t the main point. The main point was that on the water surface, there were big and small boats. There were small boats like theirs, just appearing to be quite inferior, and also quite a few peng boats. The one that looked the ‘most extravagant’ was also just one with a ‘house’ built on top.
(T/N: Peng boats are like big row boats I guess, I just added a picture because I don’t know what to call these things. The word 蓬 translates to a type of plant.)
The people on those boats, although not as skilled as the people Li Hong Yuan brought, but all held a weapon in hand, facing them sternly.
Before they can see clearly the situation on Li Hong Yuan’s side, this side had already used the telescope to have the other party studied fully.
As they got closer, perhaps finally seeing clear the most conspicuous two’s appearance, they successively revealed a shocked expression. Once they got even closer, when separated by merely a few feet, Li Hong Yuan finally lifted his hand, and the feet of boats stopped. Li Hong Yuan indifferently looked at the other party, “Rather still have some guts.”
“Jin Qinwang!?”