"Uncle, it seems that the people here do not trust the court very much. It is only more than 300 kilometers away from Lin'an and only a few dozen kilometers away from Yangzhou. Why is it so changeable?" Bo Jiao looked at the large area of ​​water in the distance, his eyes were blank and he could not even find the way. He could only send a few waves of scouts to find the way in a fan. Taking advantage of the large army's stay, he began to ask questions to Hong Tao.

"It's your first time here, and I'm also the first time. How can I know why? But this question is not difficult to answer. According to my understanding, there are only two reasons. First, this place is not far from the northern border before the Song Dynasty. It is under the threat of foreign enemies for many years. The court will not invest any resources here, so it develops slowly, and life will be difficult, so there are naturally few people. Second, there are dense water networks, muddy roads, and no fields to see. It is estimated that the flood is relatively serious, which is also an important reason for poverty. The people's life is not good and the court is unwilling to care. It would be strange if they can trust the court. If it were me, it would have been reversed long ago. In this way, the people here are much kinder than me."

The lower half of the map held in Hong Tao's hand was very dense, with small black dots and small circles everywhere, and the drawing was very detailed. However, as soon as he crossed the Yangtze River, the lines on the north began to sparse, and black dots and circles were scattered, and many places were blank. This map was also a military map brought by Kong Pei. It was drawn by intelligence personnel from the Imperial Supervision Department through field exploration and reference to the Song Dynasty map for more than ten years, but it was still not very detailed in the area north of the Changjiang River, especially in the inland areas. The reason is very simple, and it is difficult to explore these areas. Hong Tao looked at it for a long time and only saw that there was a town called Chuzhou in front, and he didn't understand anything else.

"No wonder the Mongols didn't go south from here. We had to go so hard for more than 2,000 people. We had to rely on the canal to solve the logistics problems. The large army came and could not be deployed at all. As we walked, they were all separated. If there was another winter rain, we might as well stop leaving." Kong Pei rode back from the front at this time. The scouts who were exploring the way had already returned for several waves, and it seemed that they had not found any suitable path.

"Hey! I asked, can you stop talking? Look, look, you're down!" Hong Tao understood Kong Pei's complaints very well, but he hated his crow's mouth. Because as soon as he finished speaking, a few drops of water appeared on his map. When he looked up, it was really raining, winter rain.

"If I had this ability, I would have been offered a promise! The messenger shouted and went to camp on the high ground by the lake in front. In addition, I informed the boats in the canal to dock and wait until the rain stopped before leaving." Kong Pei felt very wronged. The rain was really not something he asked for, but it was useless to explain it now. It would be better to do some serious things. Even the cavalry could not advance in such a muddy place in the rain, so he could only find a place to camp first.

The Imperial Army from the tropical region is not afraid of rain, and even the tents are rainproof. They do not use firewood to cook at all, but coal. Regardless of whether the coal is dry or not, they can pour gasoline on a little bit, so how heavy it rains does not affect their food and accommodation. As for the Indian Guards led by Hong Tao, they are even less afraid. A few years ago, they might still sleep in the jungle with leaves, so it is not bad to rain. However, the temperature here makes them a little uncomfortable, but after the fire, this problem is solved.

Hong Tao is not afraid of rain. People who are used to running on the sea have no objection to the rain. But he hates sleeping in a tent and always feels boring if he can't see the sky. And there is nothing to play here except swamps and lakes. Wrong, for Hong Tao, this place is very fun. For a person who is keen on fishing, he doesn't have to worry about playing as long as there is water. A fishing rod, a roll of silk thread, and a fish hook can play for several days.

Hong Tao did not run far away, but found a reed gap on the lake shore west of the camp and hooked it at any time. The bait was also very simple, the canned whale meat brought by the Imperial Army, which tasted nothing. The fish of this era, like most people, were still half-hungry and half-full, and were not picky at all. They basically ate as long as they could eat it.

"Damn, it turns out you are making trouble!" But this time Hong Tao encountered a problem. A fish bit the hook, but he couldn't catch it, and the bait was always eaten up. After several times, the cunning fish underwater finally took the hook, but it was not a fish at all, but a crab with its teeth and claws.

Hong Tao has no appetite for freshwater crabs the size of fists. No matter how delicious food is, it will not be in line with his taste. The freshwater crabs are too small and have little meat, which makes them very troublesome to eat, so Hong Tao does not intend to eat it. But it cannot be put. This thing is the mortal enemy of fishermen. Anyone who catches fishing and encounters crabs in the water will have to die.

"No, is this Hongze Lake?" Just as he was about to tie the troublemaker up with reed leaves and put it on his feet, Hong Tao suddenly found that there was a vague word H on the crab shell. He rinsed it with water and looked carefully. Yes, it was an H-shaped word. This crab is very famous in later generations, and the Hongze Lake hairy crab is also the characteristic of authentic wild Hongze Lake hairy crabs, and it is not breeded.

In winter, crabs were all drilled into the mud, but the crabs here did not live in winter like this. They were all hidden under the lodged reed leaves. Hong Tao tried to use a fish hook to make fun of the gaps in the water and grass. Sure enough, he caught another one. Now Hong Tao had some fun, and he didn't sit in the same place to fish. He took a fishing rod and walked along the lake shore, and found places with many reed leaves to hook. Soon he caught more than ten crabs. Each one was tied up with reed leaves and threw it on the ground. When he walked, he used a string of reeds and four strings.

"Come on, two, I'll add some more dishes to our supper!" When Hong Tao returned to the camp, the smoke from the cooking stove was curling, and these crabs became his food to serve.

"Your Majesty is indeed not an ordinary person. He even eats these uneasy things." Although Kong Pei is a navy man, he is not interested in crabs at all. If he can, he will not eat them. He always thinks this thing looks like a bug.

"If you like to eat, don't eat it, you can eat it with enough whale meat. You can eat it openly." Hong Tao would not force others to eat crabs with him. It would be better if he didn't eat it. It was all his own.

"Cleaning this thing, cut it into four pieces, and stir-fry it with chili peppers. This is called spicy crab! Remember how to cook it. When you retire from service, you will open a restaurant in Jinhe City, which specializes in spicy crabs. Don't forget that there is a bunch of me in it, dry stock!" He handed the crab to the soldier in charge of food, and Hong Tao had not forgotten to get himself an extra pension money for his elderly care.

"Take out the map, I roughly know where this place is...Did you see this Hongze Lake? We are just east of it. This map is inaccurate. Chuzhou should be in our northeast direction, so we went astray." Eating is secondary. Through these crabs, Hong Tao discovered a mistake on the map.

"No, the small lake in the picture shouldn't be so big?" Bo Jiao was very serious and specially brought a compass for navigation. He measured the size of the small lake on the map, then looked at the size of the lake in front of him, and raised questions.

"Don't count it, this map must have been drawn for a long time, or there is no one in this area at all, and it was drawn according to the data of the original Song Dynasty map. No wonder, no matter how powerful the people from the Supervision Department are, it is difficult to come to such places to explore. There are fewer people, and there are more people, it will attract the attention of the Song Dynasty court. I guess, this lake may have been so big, but later I don't know if it was the water from the Huai River or the water from the Yellow River, and the small lake became a big lake. I just thought about it carefully. The reason why this area is full of swamps is probably because the Yellow River seizes the Huai River and the sea. The entire area should be yellow-floating areas, so no one farms, and it is white when planting it. Once the Yellow River floods, all fields will be useless." After confirming a place, Hong Tao had a rough map look in his mind, and he remembered more situations.

According to the original idea, further forward, it should be Chuzhou on the Huai River, which should be near Huai'an in the later generations. But it is obviously wrong now, because the Yellow River did not inject the Bohai Bay from the Daqing River to the north, but instead diverted the route to the south to seize the estuary of the Huai River and poured the Yellow Sea from the south of Lianyungang. In history, this is called taking the Huai River into the sea. As for when the Yellow River was diverted, Hong Tao didn't know. He had never paid attention to this matter. If he hadn't passed by here on the north side of the land this time, he wouldn't have remembered it.

"These traitors who have been killed by thousands of swords are not good at drawing a map! If they follow their map, we will pass by the west of Chuzhou. If this is put in wartime, it will be a serious crime to go to the military court. When I go back, I have to talk about this matter with the charity. If you don't know, don't draw it. If you draw it, you must be accurate. This is not a scam!" Bo Jiao looked on the map as Hong Tao said. Sure enough, the junction of the Yellow River and the Huai River is right in front of me. If you walk in this direction, you will not be able to find the ferry at all. He is a soldier and is very sensitive to such things. If you go through the wrong path on the battlefield for dozens of miles, it may be a tragedy and you can't bear it.

"Let's just pull it down. The Song Dynasty should draw the map itself in the future. The Imperial Supervision Department can't send people to wander around the Song Dynasty for nothing. I really don't take me as the Prime Minister seriously, right?" Bo Jiao understood Bo's attitude towards this matter, but Hong Tao firmly could not agree with his handling method. He naturally regarded the Jinhe Empire and the Song Empire as a country. This idea can be done, but I can't talk about it now. I will talk about it later.
Chapter completed!