Chapter 171 Fold in Half

"My lord, this should be the mountain road map of Dajiang Mountain in the back. Look, follow the official road and continue north, and then turn on the fork road to reach the location of this mountain depression on the map."

"And this kind of drawing is the habit of drawing in the army. I have seen similar pictures in the army before."

"However, the marked mountain road is a bit strange. The crooked second half is definitely not a detour? And it seems that the second half has deliberately enlarged the scale of the terrain? What kind of drawing is this?"

A local Xuan Qingwei studied the map for a while and understood it, but there were also some strange things.

Shen Hao took back the map and asked Wang Yiming to contact the Jingxi Army immediately. He wanted to check that Xu Tianwu, and then try to see if he could trace the thread of Xiushan Village from the line of the Jingxi Army in reverse.

The news from the Jingxi Army came back very quickly. In the morning, they went to assist in the investigation of the documents, and in the afternoon they sent people to bring all the documents about Xu Tianwu directly. In the words of the Jingxi Army's reply letter: when it comes to the plague, the Jingxi Army dare not be sloppy.

"Xu Tianwu joined the army 31 years ago. He served in the Kunduo Pass, and also participated in the cleaning ranger team? Are you going the way of a scout?"

"The scout is very long. This is considered a sharp-edged soldier in the army, right?"

"Fifteen years ago, I was discharged from the army due to injury, and then returned to the farmland. There is a son and a wife in the family. Oh? They are not natives of Jingxi? The ancestral home is unclear? They used to be refugees?"

Searching forward, Shen Hao found Xu Tianwu's name in a list of veterans, and the reason for his retirement written on it was "the leg injury is not suitable for continued military service". However, seventeen people have been discharged from the army just because Xu Tianwu is listed on this page, and eight of them have the same establishment: Jingxi Army Zuojun, Eleven Guards, Ding Ziqi, Group A Scouting Team . And they were all wounded.

Generally speaking, this kind of collective injury and discharge is very common in the frontier army, especially the sweeping rangers, because even if there is no war, the barbarians still need to be cleared on a small scale, and sometimes accidents will happen if they are not careful.

"Can these people who retired with Xu Tianwu still be found?"

"Yes. They are all retired elite scouts. There will be records in the army, and they will be recruited into the boot camp to help in special occasions. But does Master Shen need to contact them?"

"Well, I want to meet them."

"Okay, I'll send someone to contact you right now."

Along with these documents came a hundred households officer of the Jingxi Army's document storehouse.

However, Shen Hao will not be idle for three days. He arranged a group of people to enter Dajiang Mountain towards the map route found from Xu's house. He wanted to first touch the red dot marked on this map. where.

But in just two days, the team of spies who entered the mountain had to return to Wanhekou, and told Shen Hao that there was a problem with the map. After entering Dajiang Mountain, the route in the second half was all wrong. The cliff was impossible to walk through, and one of the spies was almost broken by a hidden animal trap.

"Trap?" Shen Hao not only did not feel discouraged, but raised his brows with interest.

Using fake pictures to hide others, this actually shows that the Xu family is hiding something on purpose. Shen Hao looked at the map repeatedly, and he felt that the answer to the mystery should be on this map.

On the third day, the Hundred Household Officer of the Jingxi Army led three aging old men to meet Shen Hao as scheduled. Although the three old men are not young, they are in their sixties or nearly seventy, but they still have an aura, like old wolves. They are old, but they still make people dare not underestimate them. It is estimated that the young They are always tough characters.

"Master Shen, these three people are the former colleagues of Xu Tianwu who is still alive." He introduced Shen Hao and said: "This is Master Shen from the Hundred Households of the Black Flag Camp of Xuanqingwei. I have asked you here this time to ask questions. You guys, just say what you have and don’t hide it.”

The three nodded, and Shen Hao asked the guard to sit down.

"Three, Xu Tianwu was discharged with you back then. I read the roster and you all retired because of injuries. Can you tell me what happened then?"

The three of them were silent for a while, as if they were remembering, with resentment on their faces.

"What else can I do? When I was cleaning, I saw a small stockade of the Rat Tribe. It was not big, with only a few dozen people. Our scout team was going to kill them by ourselves. But who knew that there was a hard stubble inside. Rat's head in a long robe, a spray of poison will kill most of us. Xu Shichang led us to make a few detours before running away, and then the large army followed and wiped out the village.

But the poison can't be undone, my eyes, Xu Shi's long legs, one of them hurt their lungs and the other hurt their hands. Doesn't this just mean retiring from the military? "

"Rat head in robes?" Shen Hao had never been in the army, nor had he gone out to clean up the barbarians, so he didn't know anything about the barbarians at all. However, Baihu of the Jingxi Army smiled and explained to Shen Hao that the so-called "robe rat head" is actually a barbarian wizard, a kind of monk who is different from our way, and is good at various insidious spells.

So Shen Hao understands.

"Then did you still keep in touch after that?"

"There is no contact, the distance is too far, and there is too much work at home. If we weren't called by the army this time, we probably wouldn't be able to see each other this time."

Shen Hao was a little disappointed. He thought that if there was still contact between these people, he might be able to ask about the daily life of the Xu family, but now it seems that he doesn't expect it.

"By the way, you were all in the scout team back then, so you should have learned drawing, right? Xu Tianwu also knows how to do it?"

"Yes! I know everything. Those who don't know how to draw can't join the scout team. Xu Shichang is also a master at drawing pictures. He even invented a method of folding in half. Even if the picture is lost, the enemy will not be able to understand it."

Fold in half? Shen Hao's heart moved, and he took out the map found from Xu's house and handed it to the three of them: "Can you understand this map?"

The three of them put their heads together, and after a short while they separated, they looked at each other with a tacit smile and said, "I don't understand this, it's the handwriting of our army's scouts, and it seems that this is what Xu Shichang is best at." How about the half-fold method, hehe, does anyone still know this?"

"This may be drawn by Xu Tianwu. Can you understand it? I think there is something wrong with the second half of this picture." Shen Hao guided along the words.

"Haha, my lord, I said that this map is drawn in half. People who don't understand it can't understand it, and it is easy to be misled. You need to fold another piece of paper in this way, and fold this part of the map bit by bit. Cover, then fold in half"

One of the veterans began to explain triumphantly, and in a few words, others could understand what was going on with this half-folding method. Although it was simple, it could be called a whimsical idea.

After refactoring, a part of the road map that was originally inexplicable on the map has completely changed its appearance, and this is the original appearance of the map.