Chapter 709: Liu Zheng's Method

This night of camping in the wild, with over one hundred thousand people, was truly heart-stopping.

When they woke up the next day, the atmosphere of the entire troop was still filled with pessimism and despair.

This was only the first day!

They hadn't even reached the depths of these great mountains yet, and they had already lost nine people! And one of them was even a personal guard of Vice Minister Liu; how could this be allowed?

Gu Guan and the others also became tense.

Clearly, this time, it was vastly different from the dozen or so years he had spent traveling through Wangchuan.

Last night's sneak attack seemed to be a serious warning given to them by these "Mountain People."

Gu Guan had arranged two personal guards for Liu Zheng to make up for the absence of Pei Qianyun, but Liu Zheng refused. With one hundred thousand people, these jailers were needed for management, and as long as he remained within the troop, as long as these one hundred thousand prisoners did not revolt, it would not be so easy for others to threaten him.

It was just that...

He was indeed somewhat unaccustomed to the feeling of not having that silly fellow Pei Qianyun by his side.

The main force continued on its way.

This time, their pace was significantly slower than yesterday.

What was surprising was that nothing happened throughout the entire day. Aside from two groups of wild boars and a brown bear that suddenly appeared, causing a brief moment of chaos, the rest was just the mountain paths becoming narrower and more rugged. The increasingly dense forest posed a great obstacle to the pace of these people.

Along the way, Liu Zheng was not without worry.

Qianyun, where did you go?

Were you captured?

Could you be in danger?

Even he, who had full confidence in Pei Qianyun, was truly panicking a little now.

But he knew that at a time like this, the overall situation was paramount; the more people you sent to search for Pei Qianyun, the more likely you would fall into the enemy's trap.

The further they went inside.

The greater the pressure in Liu Zheng's heart became.

Where exactly was the enemy?

Who exactly was the enemy?

Night fell once again.

They continued to set up camp. It was just that today, Gu Guan, having learned from the experience of the previous night, did not set up camp in the mountain forest, but instead found a relatively open area at dusk and began building simple defensive works early on, using wood and thorns.

By nightfall, three hundred jailers took turns standing guard.

They also prepared some thorny plants on some of the essential paths.

They had thought that this time, with full preparations, they would not be sneak-attacked again.

Who would have thought.

In the middle of the night.

Screams rose once more, and everyone in the camp was startled awake again. The reaction of Gu Guan's three hundred jailers could be considered extremely fast, but they still failed to catch even a shadow of the opponent after more than a dozen people were snatched away.

Shock!

Fear!

Terror!

Once again, it began to spread among these one hundred thousand prisoners. It was too terrifying, truly too terrifying! If they could, they would rather die than suffer such torture! High levels of fear and fright caused many people's spirits to begin to collapse, even leading to mutinies and suicides!

The situation was once somewhat uncontrollable.

Gu Guan gritted his teeth hard and executed a few more in public before the scene finally stabilized. But even so, it could not stop the prisoners' high psychological and mental tension, which was on the verge of collapse.

Regarding this, Liu Zheng frowned deeply.

If things went on like this, it wouldn't work!

Absolutely not!

A Method must be found!

He called Gu Guan and the others over.

"My Lord..."

"Vice Minister Liu need not worry, this bunch of scum has already been brought under our control!"

"My Lord can just sleep and rest..."

Outside, it was still noisy, but Gu Guan and the others were the ones trying to soothe Liu Zheng first.

Liu Zheng chuckled and shook his head: "Brother Gu, this absolutely cannot go on. If we force ourselves to continue like this, I fear that before the enemy does us much harm, our own side will fall into chaos first."

"This..."

Gu Guan and the others looked at each other in dismay.

How could they not understand this principle? It was just that having escorted prisoners for many years, they had become accustomed to this kind of "natural attrition" of prisoners. The imperial court had given them authorization for a certain attrition rate.

But this time...

It was different...

The harsh environment, the cold and bitter weather, coupled with the mental pressure—if this matter was not dealt with as soon as possible, it would indeed easily lead to a large-scale mutiny. These were one hundred thousand prisoners!

"The Lord's meaning is..."

Gu Guan also squatted down, warming himself by the fire as he asked.

Liu Zheng said indifferently: "First, we must figure out what exactly it is that is snatching our people!"

What causes panic among the prisoners—that is the key point!

Some say it's mountain ghosts, some say it's demons, some say it's wild men... with so many different opinions, that is why people are so afraid.

Fear comes from the unknown.

Only by catching one of them and figuring out what kind of thing is playing tricks, and showing it to these prisoners, can we minimize their fear!

"Does Your Excellency mean to capture one?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Guan slapped his thigh hard.

Liu Zheng chuckled, "We must capture one! Get it figured out, and then, find a Method to deal with them!"

The crowd looked at each other in dismay.

Capture one.

This was said easily enough, but how to capture one? Those things—to this day, they hadn't even seen them once!

Liu Zheng smiled, "Since these ghostly things are so slippery, why not consider other Methods? Let's try a counter-tracking!"

Counter-tracking?

The whole group was completely bewildered.

Gu Guan was the first to react, slapping his thigh again, "Does Your Excellency mean to find their lair?"

Liu Zheng nodded.

The others listened, feeling incredibly excited.

Because it seemed these ghostly things shouldn't be far from them. If they wanted to keep harassing this troop, they certainly had to maintain a certain proximity! And what about those people they had abducted? Where did they go? In such a short time, they surely wouldn't have taken them too far away.

In this way.

They could think of some Methods on their side.

Take the initiative to strike!

Gu Guan's eyes lit up, and he immediately called an old man in from outside. This old man was a jailer under his command, and Gu Guan introduced him to Liu Zheng as Lao Hutou, who had lived in the mountains since he was a child and was very familiar with the flowers and plants of these mountains.

Liu Zheng's eyes lit up upon hearing this; he was a talent.

Lao Hutou came over, first greeted Liu Zheng, and then said, "Reporting to Your Excellency, in these past few days, I have observed that in this Wangchuan Mountain, there is a wild herb with a very heavy odor and high yield called Stone Bean Orchid. This herb has a very heavy smell, equivalent to the stench of a dead rat. If this herb is crushed and smeared on a person's body, it cannot be washed off for several days."

Upon hearing this, although the crowd felt disgusted, they became excited along with it.

If they had this item, would they still fear that counter-tracking wouldn't succeed?

Liu Zheng's eyes lit up even more, "Good! Send men to prepare immediately. This time, we shall fish for this bunch of stinking fish!"

The crowd laughed along with him.

Following Vice Minister Liu, sure enough, there are always more Methods than difficulties!