Wu Dongzhu never dreamed that his nephew Zhou Mi would come to the door with his guards. For a moment, his face turned pale and he was about to collapse.
The internal guards did not interrogate him immediately, but took him and his nephew Zhou Mi to the Weihe Wharf warehouse. The internal guards opened the warehouse and lifted the oilcloth. Inside were boxes of white silver.
Wu Dongzhu couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed on the ground, his face filled with ashen.
"You bastard!"
Zhou Mi exploded, rushed up to grab his uncle's hair and shouted, "You lied to me, you pay me back, you shameless liar!"
"Idiot!" Dongzhu Wu was heartbroken. He wanted to kill his nephew with a knife and betrayed himself for fifteen taels of silver.
The inner guard soldiers stepped forward to separate them. Zhong Huan stepped forward and said coldly: "This case has alarmed His Highness King Yong. His Highness King Yong has issued an order to recover these thousand loads of Sanqi no matter what. You still have a chance."
Opportunity, tell everything you know without reservation, who provided Sanqi, who bought it, and where are they now?"
Dongzhu Wu took out a booklet from his arms and handed it to Zhong Huan, "There are seller records on it. Who sold it? How much was sold? There are detailed records."
Zhong Huan flipped through it and asked again: "Where is the buyer?"
"The buyer's surname is Bu, and he claims to be a medicinal herb merchant from Taiyuan. He left yesterday. He also bought isatis root and cork, loaded with more than a dozen carts, and a thousand loads of Panax notoginseng carried on camels. He left at noon yesterday."
When Zhong Huan heard that Panax notoginseng had been transported away, he became anxious and immediately escorted Wu Dongzhu and Bai Yin back to the inner guard. He found Wang Hao himself.
After listening to the report, Wang Hao pondered for a moment and said: "Just because they came from Taiyuan, we cannot think that they will definitely go to Taiyuan. They may go to Northern Shaanxi, they may go to Pujin Pass, and they may go to Tongguan. They must go
The troops were divided into three groups to pursue him."
"The humble minister personally led people to the direction of Pujin Pass. They left at noon yesterday, with 300 camels and carts. If we are fast, we should be able to catch up before Pujin Pass."
"Okay, send a thousand troops and divide them into three groups to chase me!"
Three inner guard cavalry detachments rushed out and ran towards the east of the city. Zhong Huan led four hundred cavalry towards Pujin Pass.
Since Jingzhao City is located on the south bank of the Wei River, this involves crossing the Wei River to the north bank. Where will the other party cross the Wei River?
First, Jingzhao can cross the Wei River, Lintong County can also cross the river, then Weinan County can cross the river, Zheng County can also cross the river, and at the latest it will cross the Wei River in Huayin County.
In this way, they will probably pass each other halfway, but this is not important. As long as they get to Pujin Pass first, they can intercept them at Pujin Pass.
The other two teams had the same intention and rushed to the Guanzhong exit first to wait.
Two days later, Zhong Huan led 400 inner guard cavalry to Pujin Pass. Zhong Huan was very worried that the opponent had already passed Pujin Pass, which would be a big trouble. Taihang Jiuxing, there are many roads from Hedong to Hebei.
In particular, the other party did not carry any prohibited items. At present, there are only a few materials that are officially prohibited from trade, such as pig iron, gold and silver, grain, salt, weapons, armor, etc. Medicinal materials are not prohibited.
The reason why medicinal materials are not prohibited is because medicinal materials are not easy to identify, especially rhizome-shaped medicinal materials such as Panax notoginseng, which cannot be distinguished after they are ground into powder. You can say it is field pea powder, fern powder, or yam.
Powder and sometimes medicinal materials are also a type of food.
Although there are also records of camel caravans crossing Pujin Pass, it is unlikely based on the time since the other party was not that fast.
Zhong Huan waited at Pujin Pass for three days, but still did not find anything suspicious, and the other party was not found at other control points.
Commander Huang Wei said to Zhong Huan: "Commander, is it possible that the other party has discovered that we are intercepting them, so they simply squatted down in a certain county and waited for a month or two. After we left,
They will pass again."
Zhong Huan frowned and sighed: "This must be the case. I'm worried that they will leave from Lantian Pass and then take a detour to the north after arriving in Dengzhou. Then there is really no way."
"If that is the case, there is nothing we can do. King Yong will not blame us."
Zhong Huan shook his head, "I also know that King Yong will not blame him, but... I feel aggrieved!"
The generals next to him all looked sad. This was the first time that the dignified inner guard had been tricked. He was indeed very cowardly.
At this time, a caravan of mules came from the opposite side, with about one hundred and fifty animals. Each mule was carrying a heavy load, which looked like a grain bag. In addition to more than twenty muleteers, there were also four merchants.
follow.
This is a very common caravan. Yongwang Mansion implements low commercial taxes and zero checkpoints, which greatly promotes the development of commerce. Every day, several mule and donkey teams pass through Pujin Pass, traveling between Hedong and Guanzhong.
This was obviously not the medicinal material they were looking for, because the quantity was wrong. More than 150 mules could not carry a thousand dan Sanqi.
But for some reason, Zhong Huan always felt that something was not right about this caravan. At this time, a soldier muttered, "Can you still make money selling grain?"
This sentence was like a flash of lightning. Zhong Huan immediately realized something was wrong. The price of grain in Hedong was exactly the same as that in Guanzhong. There was basically no price difference. Selling grain was unprofitable at all, let alone hiring mule drivers.
That will definitely result in a loss.
"Have a look!"
Everyone followed Zhong Huan and walked towards the gate of Guancheng.
You need to declare contraband when crossing Kamajin Checkpoint, that is, fill out a form to declare that you are not trafficking in contraband, and then you can cross the river along the pontoon bridge.
Zhong Huan rushed to the foot of Guancheng. The other party had already filled out the form and was queuing up to cross the Yellow River.
Zhong Huan took a look at the form, and it was clearly written on it: black bean flour. Black bean flour is the cheapest of all grains. It is basically used as feed and costs a few cents per pound.
Zhong Huan immediately knew something was wrong. As for black bean flour, the total value of all the goods carried by more than two hundred mules was only more than one hundred guan. Even if it could be sold, the profit would only be a dozen guan at most. But hire these mules.
It's so unreasonable to ask for more than 200 guan from the mule driver, not to mention the round trip expenses.
Zhong Huan waved his hand, and hundreds of internal guards who had been preparing for a long time surrounded more than two hundred mules.
The mule drivers suddenly became a little panicked, and a trace of panic flashed in the eyes of several merchants. The leading merchant pretended to be calm and stepped forward and asked: "His Royal Highness King Yong does not allow checkpoints to be set up to intercept merchants. What are you doing?"
Zhong Huan ignored him and used a dagger to poke a hole in a bag of goods. The inside was full of yellow powder. Zhong Huan tasted it and found that it had a strong medicinal smell.
He sneered and asked, "Is this black bean powder?"
The businessman sighed and said: "This is actually medicinal material, gastrodia powder, which is relatively expensive. We are afraid of being targeted by thieves, so we deliberately pretend to be black bean powder. It is not easy to do business. Please understand, general."
You are right. Many businessmen hide their real goods and pass them off as cheap goods. This is not to evade taxes, but because they are afraid of being targeted by thieves. This is why they keep their wealth secret.
Zhong Huan has been waiting for three days, how could he be fooled by his few words? Besides, wasn't the bill of goods issued by Dongzhu Wu pretending to be Gastrodia elata?
He immediately ordered his men, "Go find the military doctor!"
They couldn't identify Sanqi, so they brought a military doctor. The faces of several businessmen suddenly became ugly.
After a while, the military doctor hurried over, and Zhong Huan said a few words to him. He twisted some powder from the sack, put it under his nose and smelled it, then put it in his mouth and tasted it, and said to Zhong Huan: "It's Panax notoginseng."
!”
Several merchants turned around and ran away. The inner guard soldiers swooped up, threw them to the ground, and quickly tied them up. The twenty or so muleteers knelt down and kowtowed in fear, "We are muleteers from Zheng County, hired by them."