Chapter Fifteen: Escaping with One's Life

  This is a county town. The city gate guards are very lax. Two people rode the horses prepared by Qin Cheng, showed Qin Cheng's identity, and easily left the city.

  Out of the city, Li Mingfeng was in a difficult situation. He had never ridden a horse before. If he walked steadily, it would be fine, but how could he keep up with Qin Cheng as they fled for their lives? Li Mingfeng followed Qin Cheng out of a side door of the mansion and onto a quiet little road. After walking for a while, they reached the main road, where the flow of people gradually increased, and both of them let out a sigh of relief.

  Slow down. Holding the reins tightly and clamping his legs on the horseback, Li Mingfeng still felt the thrill of this ancient sport.

  "Brother Qin, we've run so far, it should be fine now." Li Mingfeng really didn't want to continue suffering like this.

  Qin Cheng heard the summons, reined in his horse, and turned to face Li Mingfeng, saying: "Sir, you're too polite to me, it's really embarrassing for me. I'm just a humble external delegate commander, sir can just call me by my name from now on."

  "How can that be, big brother you are older than me, and now you have saved my life, what's wrong with calling you big brother. In the future when we return to Guangzhou, relying on my relationship with Governor Bai Gui of the two provinces, your future prospects will be boundless." Now it's useful to use Qin Cheng, Li Mingfeng doesn't mind giving him some blank checks.

  Qin Cheng never thought that the person he saved would be so formidable. He had originally thought it was just a Daoist priest's son or something who got kidnapped, but after Li Mingfeng said this, he suddenly found himself leaning on the big tree of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, and his heart was instantly filled with joy.

  "Qin Ge, we've run so far, we should be out of the rebel's territory by now." Li Mingfeng's words broke Qin Cheng's dream of promotion.

  "Tell the adults to know, the rebels will lock up the adults, and every hour someone will go to visit the adults. Now the rebels must have known that the adults have run away and will definitely send people to intercept them. This Guangzhou is in the south of this place, I guess the rebels will definitely go to the south first, so we are running north now." At this time, Qin Cheng had a bit of a "dog head military strategist" look.

  Li Mingfeng was taken aback by these words: "Are you saying we're running into the lair of a counter-revolutionary?"

  Qin Cheng saw that Li Mingfeng was somewhat displeased, and hastily explained: "It's not like that, the rebel-built Dacheng State is within Guangxi territory, it's in the west, most of northern Guangdong is still under the imperial court's control."

  Li Mingfeng felt a bit more at ease after hearing this, since he had used the tactic of confusing the enemy, he didn't need to run for his life anymore. Originally, according to Qin Cheng's plan, they were supposed to run for several dozen more miles, until they reached Lechang, which was within the Qing army's sphere of influence. But now, Qin Cheng treated Li Mingfeng as his own lucky charm, and listened to his words as if they were sacred decrees, so he could only ride his horse leisurely towards Lechang, as if on a sightseeing tour.

  After walking for about an hour, they heard the sound of horseshoes faintly behind them. The two turned their heads and were suddenly frightened. From a distance, they saw dozens of horses galloping towards them on the official road, and it was vaguely visible that the people coming had red headscarves on their heads, which clearly indicated that they were the troops of the Tiandihui. It turned out that not all members of the Tiandihui were fools, and after Li Mingfeng escaped, they divided into four routes to pursue him, and did not simply chase south as Qin Cheng thought.

  Seeing this momentum, Li Mingfeng was frightened. If he hadn't escaped, he would still have a few points of face with Sima Ping, and he could think of some way to bluff his way out, maybe even find a way to survive. Now that the situation had thoroughly enraged the other side, although it was unlikely that Sima Ping would kill him, there was absolutely no chance of thinking of another way to escape.

  At this point, there was no turning back, and the two people tacitly whipped their horses a few times.

  The people from the Heavenly Earth Society had already appeared on the official road, and one of them was also a member of the Heavenly Earth Society. Now that they saw their own people, instead of coming over to exchange pleasantries, they hurriedly spurred their horses and ran away, clearly with guilty consciences, and were likely the very people the authorities were looking for.

  With a determined heart, the pursuing soldiers of Da Cheng Guo also spurred on their horses, whipping them fiercely and quickly catching up.

  There's a saying that husband and wife are originally birds in the same forest, but when disaster strikes, they fly separately. Qin Cheng and Li Mingfeng didn't have any emotional ties to begin with, so when they saw the enemy approaching, they didn't even bother about their companion and just urged their horses to escape for their lives.

  The two horses were fine horses selected by Qin Cheng, with a speed that was several points better than the horses of the people in the Great Wall. After half an hour of chasing and fleeing, Li Mingfeng could no longer hear the shouts of the pursuing soldiers behind him.

  It turned out that the pursuing soldiers behind saw Li Mingfeng, although he was not good at horse riding, but relying on his fast horse, he was not slower than them. After chasing for a long time, they saw that they had already entered the territory of the Qing army, and after discussing for half a day, they finally retreated.

  Li Mingfeng ran for another half day, the scorching pain in his legs reminding him that his body had reached its limit. He tightened the reins, flipped over and dismounted, lying down on the ground Li Mingfeng was panting heavily, taking in big gulps of fresh air.

  Looking up at the stars twinkling with beautiful light in the sky, Li Mingfeng suddenly realized that night had already fallen.

  After a short rest, Li Mingfeng led the horse along the official road to the north. At this time, the war was in chaos, and northern Guangdong was at the intersection of the forces of Dacheng State, Tianping Army, and Qing Army. Renhua and Lechang were almost deserted, with nine out of ten houses empty.

  After walking for half a time, I saw a village. The sparse and scattered village with dozens of households had only one courtyard that emitted several faintly dim lights.

  Li Mingfeng walked up to the door and patted the door that was about to fall apart.

  "Who's there?" A clear voice came from the courtyard.

  "I'm in a hurry and it's already dark. I'd like to ask for lodging. Can you help me out, brother? I'll pay the silver according to the inn's price."

  The person inside the door was silent for a few seconds, then lifted the door bolt and opened the door slightly. After taking a look at Li Mingfeng's attire, his expression immediately became respectful: "So you're a gentleman, I apologize for my earlier offense, please don't blame me."

  Li Mingfeng saw that the person at the door was a young man of about twenty years old, who looked very simple and honest. He was carrying a tattered lantern and wearing a single garment with many patches, it's really hard to imagine how he could withstand the cold weather.

  The young man nervously led Li Mingfeng into the courtyard, closed the gate, and took him to stand in front of a house with several layers of lanterns shining through, announced his crime, and quickly went inside to report to the master.

  Just a few seconds after entering, I heard a "yah" sound coming from inside the house. The door was then pulled open and two people came out. Both of them were wearing long robes, one around fifty years old with a square scarf on his head, and the other about thirty years old.

  The two men, upon seeing Li Mingfeng with his square scarf and boots, and blue shirt with jade belt, immediately bowed deeply and said: "Late-born Lin Dehai, Lin Xing-sheng has seen the old master."

  Li Mingfeng was naturally unclear why the two men called themselves "old masters", but he guessed it had something to do with his own "noble" clothes. After helping them up, he thought he could just find a room to rest in, but unexpectedly the two men were overly enthusiastic and insisted on dragging Li Mingfeng into discussing some "scholarly matters".

  Li Mingfeng didn't answer a single sentence, and just kept yawning. The two of them understood Li Mingfeng's impatience and excused themselves, instructing the young man who opened the door to arrange a room for Li Mingfeng to rest in. After another half day of polite conversation, they finally took their leave.