Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 483: Chapter 220: Difficult Journey, Yucheng’s Predicament, and Li Xuanling

To the west of the Beehive, there is a stretch of snowy terrain that is slightly flat.

Six Iron Wheel Cars form a long convoy, struggling slowly towards the west.

At the very front of the convoy are eight people clearing the snow path;

Behind them are two small Iron Wheel Cars, each pulled by two people, with flags hoisted on each car, inscribed with the names ”Beehive” and ”Yang Lu”;

Further back are four large Iron Wheel Cars, loaded with Iron Ore, with over ten people pushing or pulling each one in unison, inching forward slowly.

”Hong Yu, go to the front to pull the car, switch with someone from the back to push!”

Xia Hong was pushing a car from the back when he heard Ma Yong’s shout. Although his expression showed some reluctance, he hurried to the front of the large car, took the chain from someone else, swapped positions with him, and pretended to exert effort pulling the car.

Pushing and pulling the carts require different amounts of effort, so positions need to be frequently switched. To Xia Hong, the weight of these large carts, regardless of pushing or pulling, required him to hold back his strength, which was naturally no burden at all.

The reason for his reluctant expression was mainly because the journey was taking too long!

Today is already April 13th, and counting from the second day of the month, they had been pulling the large carts westward for eleven days.

According to Xia Hong’s own measurements along the way, in these eleven days, they had moved approximately forty-two kilometers towards the west.

Eleven days to move forty-two kilometers sounds outrageous. Had he not walked with the convoy all this way and seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed it, even on penalty of death.

Overall, what dragged the pace down the most were the large carts loaded with Iron Ore.

These large carts are over ten meters long, five meters wide, made entirely of iron, and loaded with five million pounds of Iron Ore. Whenever they encountered a somewhat deep ravine or a slightly bigger obstacle, the entire convoy had to stop to think of a way through.

It’s laughable to say that most of the time, Chen Yingyuan had to disembark, either to use brute force to move the car or to help push with the others.

Then there was the road condition; Long Mountain lies directly west of the Beehive. Ideally, they could travel straight west, but there were many special conditions like slopes, consecutive ravines, small hills that they had to go around.

Especially on April 6th, as they just entered Yang Lu Camp’s territory, they passed by a small lake. Even while still a kilometer away, Chen Yingyuan and Ma Yong approached it as if facing a formidable enemy. To avoid getting too close to that lake, they made a needless detour of four or five extra kilometers.

However, it must be said that this was already the fastest and most suitable path chosen by Chen Yingyuan due to his familiarity with the environment.

Of course, Xia Hong has not wasted time over the past eleven days.

Every time the convoy took a rest during the daytime, he would meticulously document the surroundings and road conditions along the way, detailing everything from the lake that made Chen Yingyuan and Ma Yong so apprehensive to other areas the convoy clearly avoided, noting it all down on the Beast Skin Roll.

Though the process was tedious, it wasn’t a complete waste of time!

Xia Hong touched the Beast Skin Roll in his chest pocket, casting his gaze towards the first small cart ahead, looking at the Yang Lu flag atop it, his eyes flickering slightly.

Three days ago, on April 8th.

They finally met up with the convoy from Yang Lu Camp.

In the last three days, Xia Hong naturally figured out the situation with the Yang Lu convoy.

The leader of Yang Lu is called Peng Bo, a corpulent middle-aged man equipped with a Ghost Head Black Blade, possessing a basic strength of Eight鬃, slightly stronger than Chen Yingyuan.

Their convoy had a slightly larger number of people, numbering thirty, with the leader being Peng Bo’s son Peng Yuan. The remaining twenty-nine people’s strength exceeded thirty thousand pounds, similar to the configuration of Chen Yingyuan’s convoy.

When they met up three days ago, Chen Yingyuan dismounted the car, but only exchanged a few pleasantries with Peng Bo, their conversation not involving alliance matters so Xia Hong didn’t overhear any useful information.