In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 814 Li Qiao's Excitement

Soaring through the sky and looking down at the magnificent scenery below was a first for Li Qiao!

This struck him as incredibly novel, and his face was filled with excitement. He even started shouting and yelling without any regard for his image.

"Wow! Yang Zheng, look, that river down there is so beautiful!"

"Hey! That little hill looks pretty good too!"

"That forest is so dense!"

"..."

Listening to Li Qiao's constant shouting, Yang Zheng felt utterly helpless. In his eyes, Li Qiao, a top-tier martial artist from the Nine Provinces, should be a mature and composed person. Who would have thought...

He would shout and yell like a child, making it impossible for him to think things through. He could only half-heartedly deal with Li Qiao.

…………

…………

As it turned out, Chen Dao had somewhat underestimated the speed of the Crimson Flame Chicken.

Chen Dao, Chen Cheng, Yang Zheng, and Li Qiao set off in the morning and arrived in Youzhou in the afternoon!

The reason for such high speed is simple: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line!

The Crimson Flame Chicken, flying in the air, doesn't need to take the long and winding roads like it does on the ground to reach Youzhou. Instead, it takes a straight line, crossing mountains and rivers, and arrives directly in Youzhou!

"Giggle!"

After arriving in Youzhou, Chi Yan Yi and Chi Yan Er found a deserted corner and slowly landed on the ground.

"Interesting, so interesting!"

Li Qiao, who had just landed on the back of the Crimson Flame II, still couldn't hide his excitement. This aerial journey had been extremely novel to him, and he couldn't wait to experience it again.

Chen Dao then approached the two Crimson Flame Chickens and whispered instructions to Crimson Flame One and Crimson Flame Two.

Although Chen Dao is now a second-rank martial artist and one of the top experts in the Nine Provinces, he has not relaxed his attention to his own safety; on the contrary, he has paid even more attention to it.

This time when Chen Dao came to Youzhou, he not only brought Chen Cheng and Xiao Yuan with him, but also Chi Yan Yi and Chi Yan Er, who were also part of the force protecting Chen Dao's safety!

Chi Yan Yi and Chi Yan Er, who transported the four people to Youzhou, will not immediately return to Chenjia Village. Instead, they will hover above Chen Dao to provide support, allowing them to land at any time to protect Chen Dao or carry him away from danger.

With Chen Cheng, Xiao Yuan, two Crimson Flame Chickens, and Yang Zheng and Li Qiao following him, Chen Dao has such a luxurious lineup protecting him that he can rest easy.

After the two Crimson Flame Chickens took to the sky, Chen Dao looked at Yang Zheng and asked, "Commander Yang, shall we camp out in the wild for the night, or find another place?"

"Mr. Chen, please don't call me Yang Shuai anymore!"

Yang Zheng said, "This is Youzhou after all, so you can just call me Brother Yang, young friend."

"Very well! Then I'll call you Brother Yang."

Chen Dao nodded, then repeated his question: "It's getting late. Should we camp here for the night, or find somewhere else?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Zheng pondered for a moment and said, "Let's find a village."

Although the people present were all martial artists and were not afraid of attacks from wild beasts, the accommodation conditions in the wild were still somewhat poor. Rather than sleeping in the wild, it would be better to find a village to stay in for the night.

"Alright!"

Chen Dao glanced around at the surroundings. To avoid being noticed by others, Chi Yan Yi and Chi Yan Er deliberately chose a secluded and deserted place to land, about 3 miles away from the official road.

So the four of them carried their own bundles and spent about fifteen minutes getting to the official road.

After traveling eastward along the official road for another quarter of an hour, a village appeared before the four of them.

"Jingming Village, this place should be within the territory of Lingyou County, where Youzhou Prefecture is located!"

Yang Zheng looked at the wooden sign erected at the village entrance and said that soldiers like Yang Zheng are extremely sensitive to geography. Even though Jingming Village is just an inconspicuous little village, and even though he had only seen Jingming Village once on a map of Youzhou, Yang Zheng still remembered the location of the village.

Based on this, they deduced their location: "This place is about three hundred li away from Youzhou City, where the Lu family is located. At our pace, if we set off tomorrow morning, we should be able to reach Youzhou City before sunset!"

Traveling 300 li a day is impossible for ordinary people, but for the four high-level martial artists present, it is an extremely simple matter.

"Let's go into the village and take a look!"

After determining his location, Yang Zheng took the lead and entered Jingming Village.

Jingming Village is no different from the villages in Liangzhou and Qingzhou. The low houses, uneven dirt roads, and desolate population, combined with the afternoon sun, give people a sense of decay.

After walking along the main road of Jingming Village for a while, several figures came into view.

Several elderly farmers, who appeared to have just returned from working in the fields, looked at Chen Dao and his group of four with wary expressions and asked, "Who are you?"

As they spoke, the farmers gripped their hoes tightly, ready to attack the four men at any moment.

"Don't worry, old man, we're not bad people!"

Yang Zheng didn't think they posed a threat to him, even though they were just a few old farmers carrying farm tools. However, since they were asking for lodging, Yang Zheng naturally couldn't be rude. Instead, he politely said, "We just want to stay the night. Is it convenient in the village?"

Seemingly sensing that Yang Zheng and his group didn't seem like bad people, the old farmers relaxed their guard a little.

After exchanging glances, an older farmer who looked more authoritative said, "I am Jing Cong, the village chief of Jingming Village. Where are you from?"

"From Liangzhou."

"So you're from Liangzhou!"

A look of realization flashed across Village Chief Jing Cong's face. Two years ago, many people from Liangzhou fled to Youzhou to escape famine. Therefore, although Jing Cong rarely left the village, he had seen many people from Liangzhou and was not unfamiliar with them.

"A couple of years ago, quite a few people from Liangzhou fled to our Youzhou to escape famine."

Jing Cong sighed and said, "I don't know what's going on lately, but there are far fewer people from Liangzhou fleeing the famine."

In those days, villages were often isolated from news, so even Jing Cong, who was the village chief, had very limited access to information about the outside world.

All he knew was that due to the cold disaster and war, many people from Liangzhou had fled to other states. As for the current situation in Liangzhou, Jing Cong had no idea.

After all, with Yang Zheng overthrowing Liangzhou and bringing it under the rule of the imperial court, the number of people fleeing famine in Liangzhou decreased. Without these people fleeing famine, Jing Cong completely lost his source of information from Liangzhou.

"Perhaps the people of Liangzhou are living a good life, so no one is fleeing the famine anymore!"

Yang Zheng said with a smile.