CHAPTER 49: CHAPTER 48: THIS TRAVEL MONEY IS ENOUGH TO GET YOU TO THE CAPITAL CITY

Just then, three sharp sounds suddenly echoed through the valley! They instantly pierced through the night’s silence, startling everyone in the camp.

Pan Chen looked up at the sky and shouted harshly.

"Signal arrow?! Who fired it?!!" Not only did they hear it, but Ruan Mian also heard the sharp sound.

It was like a flare, shooting straight into the sky.

Shortly after, Pan Chen quickly lifted the tent and said to Ruan Mian, "Miss Ruan, someone has fired a signal. Just in case, we have to leave immediately."

Before Ruan Mian could speak, Pan Chen was already urgently summoning the surrounding soldiers: "Leave everything behind, go grab the grain and salary and go!!"

They had been trained in the barracks and were well-disciplined.

With Pan Chen’s order, everyone left the tent at an extremely fast pace.

Shaoxi pulled Ruan Mian aside and said, "Miss Ruan, this signal arrow was originally used for signaling in military camps. We don’t know who it might attract, should we also..."

"No rush, Shaoxi, you and Ruan Qing go rally the people in the team first, have the government officers keep an eye on them, I’ll be there shortly. We are exiled people of the court, unlike them who are escaping from the military camp, so no matter who it attracts, we don’t need to panic."

"Okay." Shaoxi felt relieved and left the tent with Ruan Qing.

At this moment, Li Ming had already fainted, unable to bear the torture, and Ruan Mian lowered her eyes, looking around.

Pan Chen and his group, with determination to meet their end, had taken a lot of things during their escape from the border, though not much, some warm animal skin blankets, freshly caught game, as well as flint and candles, were all moved into the space by Ruan Mian.

Leaving nothing inside the tent.

Later she went to Pan Chen’s main tent and found a token he had left behind.

On it was engraved the totem of the border army.

Beside the token was a small wooden box, pulling it open, a small medicine bottle emitted a pungent smell from inside.

Her intuition told her this was more likely a poison of some sort.

When she searched the last tent she hadn’t set foot in, she found there were still a dozen men inside!

They were tied together, their mouths securely gagged, leaving no room for struggle.

Seeing Ruan Mian, they all widened their eyes in unison!

Ruan Mian released one of them and asked, "Who are you all?"

The man immediately knelt down without a word, trembling as he spoke, "Miss! Please save us!!"

"We are originally civilians from Wuzhou, but... but now Wuzhou has fallen, and we were captured by those lords to do hard labor."

They were all emaciated, clearly not having eaten much.

But now that Pan Chen and his people had left, staying here was pointless.

So she quickly untied the ropes for this group of people: "That band of lords has left, you all can go back now too."

The moment the words left her mouth, someone in the group cried out, "Go back... how do we go back? Wuzhou has already fallen, the entire city has been massacred! Where do we have homes to return to?!"

As soon as these words were said, a sense of despair swept over those present, their gazes turning grim.

Wuzhou, Wuzhou... Ruan Mian couldn’t help but recall in the original book, a border city was massacred.

And the real reason for the massacre wasn’t because they couldn’t defeat the enemy’s army, but because they were used by King Yan, who deliberately retreated the military camp, yielding the city to the enemy for massacre.

After the massacre, this excuse was used to blend his privately raised army into the reinforcements, triggering war at the border, putting considerable pressure on the court!

These innocent border civilians all became pawns in King Yan’s rebellion plan, leaving them destitute, homeless...

Most likely, this city was the hometown of these people, Wuzhou.

Now they were already homeless and facing natural disasters, even if they were released, there was likely little hope for survival.

Ruan Mian thought for a moment, then turned and went outside the tent, touched the Jade Bracelet, and took out some dry food from the space to put into a bag.

Returning again, she handed the bag to them and pointed them to a clear path.

"If you have nowhere to go, you can head to the market on East Street of Capital City and find a man named Qi Congyang. He is hiring extensively recently, and since you’re from Wuzhou, you surely know how to ride horses."

"You have an innate advantage. I’ll give you some Silver to buy some fine Western Region horses, which are strong and capable of long journeys. As long as you do as I say, you will surely establish yourselves in Capital City, with no worries for food and clothing."

With that, she took out a silver note worth five hundred taels from her pouch.

The men were amazed!

"Miss! We’re already exceedingly grateful for the dry food, there’s no way we can rightly accept this silver note?"

"I’m not giving it to you for free. Consider it a loan, and by next spring, I’ll come to your Horse Transport Gang to get back my principal and interest. How about it?"

The men looked at each other, and as they hesitated, Ruan Mian could tell they were honest, straightforward people, so giving them the silver note wasn’t a loss.

In the original book, the snow disaster of this year would impact Capital City’s transportation trade, and the canals would freeze. By then, the Horse Transport Gang would be the only carrier able to transport grain and trade goods.

That Qi Congyang was the Prime Minister’s old classmate, but in the original book Qi Nanfeng and Fifth Princess used the space to steal his gang’s horses, monopolizing Capital City’s transportation.

During this opportunity, the Fifth Princess seized the chance to aid the court, transporting grain and grass stored in space to the disaster victims in Hui City, thus making contributions and gathering much support in the court.

This time with space in her own hands, and these people bringing horses to assist Qi Congyang, the Princess’s side naturally couldn’t win over anyone’s support.

Moreover, Qi Nanfeng is still on his way to exile!

While thinking, the men knelt in front of her in unison.

"We will never forget Miss’s life-saving grace! We will surely do as Miss says. If we can truly establish ourselves in Capital City, by next spring, we will definitely prepare enough interest, and Miss won’t suffer this loss of five hundred taels for nothing!"

"May I ask how to address Miss? Where is your residence? So we can..."

"By next spring, I’ll come to Capital City to find you. You all should hurry and leave now. No matter what you see outside, don’t get involved. Leave from the back mountain and head south to Hui City."

"This journey fund is enough to get you to Capital City."

She didn’t hold out complete hope, just giving them a path to survival, but the final life choices were still up to them.

After sending them off, suddenly sorrowful crying and wailing sounded from the tidal flat.

Ruan Mian restrained her gaze and hurried toward that direction.

Only to see a group of soldiers wearing Inspector’s Official Clothes had arrived at the site, the government officers in the team were negotiating with them, and people filled the space outside the tents.

It seemed that people in the team had all gathered together.