For the rest of the day, the convoy traveled at full speed. By nightfall, everyone finally arrived in Yixian County.

The county seat of Yixian County is located outside the Taihang Mountain Pass and is the only way to the Feihuxing Ancient Road.

Although it has a long history, Yixian County was undoubtedly a remote and barren seventh-tier county in the Ming Dynasty in this era, commonly known as Laopoxiao.

But even if they are young and old, the convoy cannot enter the city at this time. Fortunately, the only non-agricultural income of the old and young in the county is receiving merchants traveling to and from the mountain road, so there are still several large car shops in Guanxiang, which are enough to accommodate the convoy.

After all the fuss and all the night watch matters were carefully arranged, shopkeeper Wu Da and Captain Wu Qian took the opportunity to inspect the big kang room where the guys lived. After entering the room and announcing that the renovations would start tomorrow, shopkeeper Wu did not forget to leave before leaving.

I remind everyone to scald your feet with hot water before going to bed.

After that, the two returned to the small courtyard they rented.

All the side rooms were full of people, but in the main room, Master Wu had already laid out several home-cooked dishes on the table, plus a small pot of boiled rice wine, waiting for the shopkeeper and the others.

After closing the door, the three of them began to fill their bellies with food.

This rare meal of wine and food is not easy to eat because the three core people must discuss the next move of the team tonight.

The current dilemma is: there is too little information, so it is difficult for the person in charge to make a choice.

If it is certain that there is a large-scale bandit that cannot be resisted nearby, the caravan's choice is the simplest: wait for rescue from home, or simply hide in Yi County and lie down until after the new year...

.No gang can maintain a state of war readiness for a long time. It takes a lot of resources and energy to stay on the alert, and a loose group like the gang will not be able to last until that time.

However, the above conclusions are based on only two spies and are not supported by more intelligence. Therefore, this inference is very unreliable and there are many possibilities. What if it is a small group that has fled here?

Where are the gangsters?

In the end, after much discussion, the three of them came to the conclusion that the caravan should hurry up and set off.

After all, it is ridiculous and unreasonable for a large caravan with more than a hundred people to be frightened by two spies. There is no way to explain it to the headquarters.

Now that they have decided to leave, they need to make sufficient preparations. Facing the possibility of gangsters outside the city, the three Wus discussed in detail until midnight before finally settling on the matter.

Early on the next morning, Wu Fazheng's old personal servant, Uncle Ping, was called into the house from the side room.

In the house, the trio solemnly gave Uncle Ping a task: to set off first and go to Yuzhou to call someone to pick him up.

This is a complete response. In any case, even if someone from Yuzhou makes a wasted trip, it is better than being alone in an emergency.

Besides, as far as the total value of this caravan is concerned, if something goes wrong, people from the labor base will come to take care of it, so there is nothing wrong with it.

Being able to be assigned by the clan to be responsible for daily protection work beside Master Wu, Uncle Ping is far from being as simple and ordinary as he seems.

In fact, Uncle Ping was Wu Qian's predecessor, and he served as the clan's guard leader in his early years. Now, mainly because of his age, he was assigned to work as an idler beside Young Master Wu.

After asking for the reason, Uncle Ping nodded and agreed to the matter without saying anything.

For today's Uncle Ping, this task is not difficult.

He is an inconspicuous old man in his early forties. He only needs to prepare a few daily groceries, and he can pretend to be a traveling merchant, sneak into an odd-hour caravan, and go to Yuzhou in advance through the Taihang Mountains.

If there are big bandits nearby who are planning to make a "big deal", they will turn a blind eye to the scattered merchants to avoid causing panic, leaking information, and affecting the overall situation.

In addition, unlike what most people think, the actual journey through the Taihang Mountains is relatively safe.

Shanxi is known as having mountains and rivers both inside and outside. The key reason is that the north-south Taihang Mountains separate Shanxi from the Hebei Plain.

There are eight mountain trails connecting the two places from north to south, which are the famous Taihang Eighth Routes. Among them, Huailai leads to the capital Junduxing, Yuzhou leads to Feihuxing Puyinxing, and

Jingxing from Taiyuan to Shijiazhuang is the three most important post roads.

These three roads have been battlegrounds for military strategists since ancient times. In the early Ming Dynasty, the army left the fortress, and in the late Ming Dynasty, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties entered the customs via Mongolia to plunder, including Li Zicheng's entry into Beijing, and even countless battles involving the north in history. The three mountain trails are all on

played an important role in it.

Such an important strategic passage has always had military garrison in it in all dynasties.

The Ming Dynasty also built passes and stationed soldiers and horses on these important roads. The famous Zijin Pass is located at the junction of Feihuxing and Puyinxing. It is a famous natural danger and caravans will also pass by it later.

This is why the mountain road is safe: there are officers and soldiers stationed at key nodes, and patrols are carried out on weekdays, so it is impossible to allow large groups of bandits to roam.

As for the three or five thieves... businessmen these days are not vegetarians. They gather in groups when going out. With fewer people, it is not certain who will rob whom.

In addition, it is actually very difficult to rob on one of the most steep mountain roads in the world. There are cliffs and cliffs on both sides of the sheep's intestines, and it is difficult to find a place to ambush... You can't fly down from the cliff.

The real threat to the merchants was the various natural dangers brought by the two-hundred-mile mountain road. Fortunately, Uncle Ping traveled between the two places in his early years and was familiar with the road conditions, which was the best choice to complete the task.

After accepting the task, Uncle Ping immediately selected a few goods that fit the status of a retail investor, then ordered someone to bring a donkey, put a wooden frame on the donkey, and tied the several goods tightly.

After preparing the goods, Uncle Ping changed into a homespun cotton-padded jacket that matched his status, put on a half-used felt hat, and wrapped a coarse cloth sand towel around his face.

Finally, he led the donkey alone, walked out of the big cart shop, and disappeared into the city gate into the county town.

The disappearance of Uncle Ping is just the beginning. The three people discussed last night's response to Uncle Ping's case.

In the next two days, Shopkeeper Wu quietly entered and exited the county several times.

Yixian County is the first stop on the Wu family's business route after leaving Yuzhou, so naturally there are local merchants who deal with it all year round for them to contact.

After reaching an agreement with his next employer, shopkeeper Wu immediately sold two trucks of relatively low-value goods. At the same time, he also purchased some goods locally.

The goods purchased and purchased were all exchanged quietly and in scattered ways after dark, in order to keep it confidential.

During this period, from time to time, one or two mounted guards quietly left the county area and disappeared without a trace.

By the time these tasks were completed, it was already the third day of repairs for the team in Yixian County.

On the morning of the fourth day, the Yi Xinlong caravan, which was all ready, set off on its way back at the very moment of dawn.

There are still thirteen carriages, and there are still about a hundred people.

Naturally, a caravan of this size could not be hidden from anyone as it set off. At this moment, inside and outside the county, and above and below the city, countless pairs of eyes were watching the caravan as it slowly walked along the official road in the north of the city.

Huh? Why go north?... Something's wrong. Shouldn't we go west?

The location of Yixian County is just outside the Taihang Mountain Pass and parallel to Puyinxing Post Road.

Normally, a caravan starting from Yixian County should head due west and enter the mountains after walking twenty or thirty miles.

The hilly, mountainous and forested terrain with a sharply rising altitude of 20 to 30 miles is recognized as a dangerous area.

Next, if nothing goes wrong, the caravan will continue to go west along the Puyinxing Mountain Trail for hundreds of miles, and will encounter the famous Zijin Pass natural barrier in the Taihang Mountains.

Starting from Zijingguan, turn to the north, and the road below is Feihuxing. Walk along Feihuxing for another hundred miles, and when you exit Feihukou, you will reach the terminal station, Yuzhou.

Today's caravan's northbound trip indeed exceeded some people's expectations: if you go north from Yixian County without entering the mountains, the next post road that passes through Taihang will be the military capital Xingxing near the northwest of the capital.

How far is it from Yixian County to Beijing?

The answer is one hundred and sixty miles.

In other words, the caravan gave up the dangerous thirty-mile road into the mountains and replaced it with the relatively safe official road of one hundred and sixty miles.

"It seems that they don't dare to enter the mountain anymore." Some people looked at the caravan from beginning to end, and at this moment, they showed relief.

However, things are not that simple.

The one hundred and sixty-mile journey from Yixian County to the capital, unless we make a big detour to the east, will still have to pass through the foothills of the Taihang Mountains in many sections.

In fact, the north of the county is the remnant of Taihang, and you have to go through the mountains within a short distance.

Finally, things have reached this point. To a certain extent, everyone is already using their name cards... In this barbaric and cruel era, is there really a safe road?

However, in the end, Yixinlong Motorcade left the county town and headed north without hesitation.

Shortly after the convoy set off, several seemingly invisible figures also disappeared. Other figures - here specifically referring to the riding duo who had previously followed the caravan, once again appeared on the official road like ghosts.

He followed up swaggeringly.

————————————————————————

The tail that appeared behind him was something the shopkeeper had expected.

At this moment, shopkeeper Wu was riding a rogue horse, paying no attention to the tail behind him, and just kept shouting at the team to speed up.

Most of the people in the caravan received the order to change the route before setting off. At this moment, people more or less felt a certain tension. However, the rules of the big trading house were strict, and even though the clerks were suspicious, they could only

Keep your doubts in your stomach.

After a few days of repairs, the entire fleet was restored to full health and the team moved quickly.

Although the road underfoot became more and more ups and downs, and the surrounding scenery changed from plains to hills, pine forests and rocky mountains, at about noon, the team still ran a distance of nearly thirteen or four miles and arrived at Shiju Ridge.

Shicuiling is a Taihang branch that is more than 20 miles long and belongs to karst landform.

As the caravan walked along, clusters of sharp black stone peaks gradually appeared on the left hand side. They were like an inverted triangle of iron nails and continued to extend forward... This is also the Shiju Ridge.

That’s why it got its name.

Shopkeeper Wu, who was sitting on the horse, put up a pergola with his hands, looked at the group of stone ridges on the left, and then at the nameless river on the right.

Finally, he turned his head and glanced at the two small black dots in the distance behind him, then rode his horse to the head of the team and shouted: "The pine forest ahead is sharp, be careful to get water from the river to drink for your horses!"

The sweaty guys were immediately relieved when they heard this. Panting heavily, they drove the cart into the pine forest ahead.

Needless to say, the men were already very skilled in the next steps: fetching water from the river to drink for the horses, making a fire and cooking and roasting dry food.

The wild pine forest where everyone is staying is backed by a rocky ridge and is not large enough to hide the convoy.

But just as the convoy entered the pine forest, shopkeeper Wu, who had driven his horse into the forest first, had already joined Wu Qian, the leader of the convoy, who had been waiting in the forest.

After meeting, shopkeeper Wu ignored several other guards behind Wu Qian and grabbed Wu Qian's forearm with an anxious look on his face: "Is that possible?"
To be continued...