Yang Zhen saw that everyone's expressions became solemn after listening to his words. He knew that they had listened, and he did not want to overly suppress everyone's emotions at the moment, so he immediately made a series of arrangements.

First, Zhang Chen and Li Lu were asked to lead the musketeers and grenadiers respectively, and gather as soon as possible the servants and escorts of the eight families of the Zhangjiakou Shanyou Chamber of Commerce who had knelt down on the west bank of the Laohua River to collect their muskets, bows and arrows.

, waist knives and weapons, and detained them.

Then he asked Xu Changyong to bring Liu Wanzhong and Qingshan's good men and horses, allocate manpower as soon as possible, keep an eye on the captured coachmen, horsemen, and camel workers, and supervise them to pile up mountains of food on the west bank of the Laohua River before it was completely dark.

A large amount of commercial supplies were all transported to the east bank of the Laohua River.

Zhang Chen, Li Lu, Xu Changyong, Liu Wanzhong, and Qingshan Hao were all shrewd people who could tell the truth. As soon as Yang Zhen just said that, they immediately realized that there was a high possibility that this trip would fail.

Therefore, after listening to Yang Zhen's assignment, there was no need for Yang Zhen to mobilize or encourage him, so he immediately received the order and hurriedly split up.

Suddenly, in the dim dusk, the Tuchengzi area on the west bank of the Laohua River became noisy and restless again. The officers and soldiers under Yang Zhen's command were shouting and cursing, the neighing of mules, horses and camels, and the rattling of cart wheels were once again

There was a loud sound.

Seeing that the soldiers he brought with him successfully changed their roles, from the soldiers who had just charged into the battle, they became the overseers of the caravan, supervising and supervising the manpower of the previous caravan, so that the originally collapsed caravan quickly recovered.

Angry and began to move slowly, Yang Zhen finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

This time when he came out of the border area, he had two purposes. One was to intercept the precious supplies from the Zhangjiakou caravan, and the other was to take this opportunity to work together to further screen and recruit a group of horse thieves on the grasslands beyond the Great Wall.

.

Today, these two goals have been basically achieved.

There is no time to count the number of carriages, horses and camel teams gathered on the west bank of the Laohua River, as well as the amount of merchandise and supplies they carry.

But based on his observation and estimation, if he could bring all these things back safely, he wouldn't have to worry about shortages of supplies for a year and a half.

Even if only 70% of the supplies brought back to Songshan were enough for them to live a long winter with enough food and clothing in Songshan City.

Yang Zhen just took a quick look at the large quantities of supplies that this caravan brought outside the Great Wall, and he had some idea in his mind.

The large amounts of supplies they carried were not very valuable. I imagined that there might be piles of gold, silver, pearls and jade but not a trace of them.

Especially the caravans that were stranded on the west bank of the Laohua River and were preparing to go north to Wengniute, Bahrain, and Ujimqin. Yang Zhen took a brief look at them. Most of the bulk materials they carried were cloth, silk, brick tea, and wheat beans.

, boots, medicinal materials, salt and ironware and other common things in the customs.

In addition to the supplies that the caravan brought from the pass to the outside of the Great Wall, the most remaining items may be the carts of various furs that the caravan acquired from Duolun or Haraqin and other tribes along the way.

These things cannot be said to be unimportant, but they are not as important as Yang Zhen originally thought.

So after looking at the details of the goods piled up on the west bank of the Old Flower River, it was the Fan family caravan that had been taken to the east bank of the Old Flower River that he had not taken a closer look at before, which gave him more expectations.

Of course, no matter what, this trip was not a failure. The legendary caravan indeed lived up to its name. Although there were not many types of goods, each type was in huge quantities.

Yang Zhen was not dissatisfied with this. Although gold, silver, pearls and jade were valuable, in the Liaoxi Army in the late Ming Dynasty, which was short of supplies, these things were not very practical. Instead, they were large quantities of cloth, wheat, beans, boots, medicinal materials, ironware, salt, tea, etc.

Maybe more useful.

At this moment, the only thing that made him feel unsatisfactory about this trip was that until now, he still had not seen Yang Shen and his party who had returned from recruiting troops in the Xuan Mansion.

——Will something really happen to them?

Yang Zhen thought so, and his originally relaxed expression became solemn again. He turned his head and looked at Zhang Guogan, Ma Keqing, Li Ma and others who were still guarding near him, but he did not see Ma Zhuang, nor Ma Zhuang.

He didn't see the big black man who had always been by his side.

"Where are Ma Zhuang and Heizhu? Where have they gone? I went to find them two. I have something to arrange for them to do!"

There was chaos in Tuchengzi area before, and Yang Zhen didn't notice where Ma Zhuang and Jiaoli Zhu had gone. They couldn't be found now, so he immediately gave Ma Keqing these instructions.

However, Ma Keqing did not act upon the order as usual, but immediately bowed and replied to Yang Zhen: "Sir, when we encircled us before, many people in the caravan fled to the west. Ma Zhuang and Jiaoli Zhu were the two

He ran over and told me that they were going to the west and had a look, saying that Yang Shen and Yang's men might be somewhere in the west!"

When Ma Keqing said this, he paused for a moment, looked at Yang Zhen's face, and then said: "They said that if the adults asked about them before they came back, they would be called humble and said so! At that time, the two of them said they were leaving.

Just leave, even your humble position can’t stop you! Your Excellency was busy arranging important things just now, and your humble position doesn’t dare to say anything! So——”

Ma Keqing said this hesitantly, not knowing how to continue talking, when he heard Yang Zhen interrupt him and said: "It doesn't matter! I came to them, and I originally planned to arrange them to do this, since they have already gone

, then let’s wait and see!”

After Yang Zhen finished speaking, he led several of the accompanying guards to find a broken wall on the platform where Tuchengzi was located, climbed up and continued to look west.

Zhang Guogan, who was following him, saw Yang Zhen acting like this and knew that he was concerned about the safety of Yang Shen and his men, so he said: "Master, why not do this? I will lead a team of people to the west to pick them up! Even if I can't pick up Yang Shen and the others, I can

Help Ma Zhuang and the others!"

Yang Zhen heard Zhang Guogan say this, thought for a moment, was silent for a moment, then nodded and said: "That's fine. But don't go too far, it's best to go back quickly. I think in another hour, there will be such a car, horse and camel team

Everyone has crossed the river, and we have to cross the river overnight and return to the east!"

Zhang Guogan bowed in agreement, and then led a group of musketeers whom Zhang Chen had left with Yang Zhen to defend himself. They mounted their horses and rushed down Tuchengzi, quickly heading west along the grassland on the south bank of the Yinjin River.

The night on the grassland in early June was not as dark as expected, and the moon was actually rising almost as soon as the sun set.

There is no obstruction on the prairie, and there are no clouds covering the moon in the clear night sky. The brightness of the first quarter moon is amazing.

The captured caravan buddies, coachmen, horsemen, and camel handlers were all very honest. The more they understood the situation on the grassland, the less they dared to leave the group at night and escape into the depths of the grassland.

This place is either close to Guanli along the Great Wall, one or two thousand miles away from Zhangjiakou and other places, or they managed to escape by taking advantage of the darkness. What situation will they face?

The owner of the caravan disappeared, and the shopkeepers and court officials who led the caravan were singled out and executed on the spot. They, the clerks or long-term workers hired by the caravan, even if they fled deep into the grassland, they would not be able to avoid violent death or death in the end.

The fate of being taken into slavery.

Perhaps because of this, under the supervision and command of Zhang Chen, Li Lu, Xu Changyong, Liu Wanzhong, and Qingshan Haoshuo, they all cooperated very well, and one after another they packed the goods and began to go to Laohua.

Departure from the east bank of the river.

I have to say that keeping these prisoners is a very wise move.

As the saying goes, crafts have specializations. The large number of coachmen, horsemen, camel workers in the caravan, and even the butchers, tanners and cooks who specialize in killing cattle and sheep, tanning leather, their existence is of great use.

With the help of these people, it was much easier for the troops under Yang Zhen's command. In the end, it was just equivalent to replacing the managers, shopkeepers and guards of the original caravan's various trades. Nothing else seemed to have changed.

Those who died and escaped were temporarily filled by Yang Zhen's troops, and the entire caravan soon began to operate normally again.

By around midnight, the mess on the west bank of the Laohua River had almost been cleared up. A large number of carriages, horses and camels had already crossed the river in the dark. According to Yang Zhen's order, Zu Keyong and others had also crossed the river on the east bank of the Laohua River.

We began to lead the team and set off southward along the river.

"Sir! Things here in Tuchengzi are almost done. Should we cross the river and leave? This place is bounded by Haraqin to the west, Wengniute to the north, and Aohan tribe to the east. It is really not a place where we can stay for a long time!

"What if those caravan guards or horsemen and camel workers who escaped ran to report to Haraqin and attracted Haraqin's cavalry, the consequences would be difficult to predict!"

Li Ma, who had been ordered to follow Yang Zhen and was responsible for protecting Yang Zhen's safety, saw that the night was getting darker and most of the carriages, horses and camels on the west bank of the Laohua River had crossed the river, but Yang Zhen himself was still staying at a broken wall in Tuchengzi.

Looking around on the ruins, I finally couldn't help but persuade him to leave as soon as possible.

At the very least, you should cross the river first and go to the east bank of the Laohua River. Once there, you will be separated from Kalaqin by the Laohua River, which will be more or less safer.

Li Ma knew what Yang Zhen was waiting for, so after making the suggestion, he originally thought that Yang Zhen would hesitate, and he also prepared more words to persuade Yang Zhen to save the results in front of him.

But what he didn't expect was that as soon as he finished speaking, he heard Yang Zhen standing on the high place where the ruins were, and then he said loudly:
Chapter completed!