"I think he can beat me three times! Hey, so you can beat me two times?" Xia Tong asked in surprise.
"Absolutely." He Qizhou lost his modesty and said, "I think you are still slightly weaker than Gan Tang."
"I believe it!"
Qi Zhou said: "I figured it out later. In fact, Helian Changying might have misunderstood. She thought that the person Pei Zhenglun wanted to confess was Jiang Li! It seems that there must be something wrong with the information Jiang Li had. Northern Zhou was trying to find ways to make him confess.
Jiang Li took this information back."
Xia Tong said: "Well, I thought so too later. It's good, at least they don't know that Jiang Li already knows that he has been exposed."
Qi Zhou asked: "By the way, I think the second princess is very polite to Shen Tinggu, but she is very ordinary to Helianjue, who is also the master of Qinglong Temple and a relative of the emperor. What is the reason for this?"
Xia Tong said: "The Fire Hall, the Earth Hall, and the Water Hall are the three major forces in Qinglong Temple. These three halls are all trusted followers of the emperor. The Fire Hall is the most powerful, the Earth Hall is the largest, the Water Hall is the most secretive, and the Three Halls are the most secretive.
The identity of the Lord is much higher than that of the other two halls. The Jintang is actually the bodyguard of the royal family. There are many factions in it, and each has its backer. If you want to be promoted, you must rely on martial arts and backstage. I heard that Helianjue is the one who seeks refuge in the second hall.
He became the master of this hall only after he was a princess, so it is not surprising that the two princesses treat them very differently."
"Brother Xia, do you know what this Iron Armor Battalion is about? How elite are they compared to the Iron and Stone Guards?"
Xia Tong said: "At least they are comparable. There are very few heavy armored infantry in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. This army only has a few thousand people. It belongs to the Jingji Guards in Zhongjing in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. They were originally worried that Qi cavalry would raid when the capital was empty. They only had
It is difficult for a low single wall to withstand a large army attacking the city, so this team was built.
Also, Huotang would have more than a hundred troops accompanying the army only during wars. It seemed that the Helian family had spent a lot of money in order to eliminate future troubles.
The fall of the Pei family is very unfavorable to us. The Northern Zhou Dynasty has already made preparations for a war. We must inform the court immediately after returning."
"That's true. When we return to Qi, we have to find out who is dealing with the Northern Zhou Dynasty. If it is really the 'general' who trafficked people in Gansu, we will find him out once and for all this time!"
He Qizhou said.
"Just what I wanted!"
…
After this battle, there was no more danger in the Yin Mountains, and the caravan successfully left the mountains. When passing through the small town outside the mountains, the Salt Gang replenished four carts of grain and grass, and Guo Wen hired five carters.
After walking for two more days along the southern foot of Yinshan Mountain, we passed through a small town with a Yan Gang branch in the city. Sikong Lang mobilized three local experts to make up for the ten guards and ten coachmen, and purchased another four carts of grain and grass.
The two gangs bought a few more shovels at the same time, saying that they would be needed after entering the loess area. He Qizhou was curious why so much food and grass was needed? The caravans and horses could not eat them all, and the Salt Gang only used the two original trucks of food and grass.
The carts were just full, and one of them was the hay cart that Xu Muxue was riding in.
Zhai Biao explained to He Qizhou that the caravan was nominally going to Zhongjing, but in fact the rest of the way was heading south. The road was full of deserts and loess hills. Due to drought, almost no grass grew there. To be on the safe side, Sikong Lang decided to bring more people with him.
Some food and grass for the journey back and forth.
Sure enough, after staying in the small town for a night, the caravan turned south and spent three days crossing a desert before arriving at the Loess Plateau with countless hills and ravines. He Qizhou had also seen such terrain when he went west to Suzhou.
It was difficult for even horses, let alone cars, to pass. I don’t know how the caravan opened a road to Southern Qi.
Because Guo Wen was short of money, he did not hire any more guards. The pensions for those who died had already caused him several headaches.
On the way out of Sifang Valley, except for the second brother, no one from the Yan Gang paid much attention to Lianhua Bang. Guo Wen could only pretend not to see that those Pei bandits were hiding in the Lianhua Gang, and they escaped in the face of the battle.
He is from the Lotus Gang, so how can he be so stubborn?
He Qizhou is now the only person in his tent who can do anything. Unfortunately, he has been hiding in the car in Sifang Valley, which makes him feel embarrassed. But now He Qizhou is the only one who can hold up the table for the Lotus Gang and cover it from the wind and rain, so for a while
Still very polite on the road.
After walking for more than half a month from Tongwan City, He Qizhou gradually became familiar with the people in the gang, and he could often chat with Gang Leader Guo. This day, he had just entered the loess hills, and the caravan was walking along the dry ravine.
While marching, He Qizhou looked for an opportunity to ask Guo: "Gang leader, this loess hilly land can't be seen at a glance. Who discovered the road to the south? Will it take a long time to walk?"
Guo Wen patiently replied: "Actually, there are quite a few roads to the south. Some people have known about it for a long time, and some have only been discovered recently. Every time the river changes its course, or the mound collapses, or it is washed away by heavy rains, or even artificially blocked.
Some passages will disappear, and some roads will reappear. The passage we are taking now is usually maintained by three of our gangs, so it is still easy to walk. You can reach Zhennanguan in seven or eight days at most.
, but most of the time only one car and one horse can pass through, so these passages are almost worthless in military terms."
He Qizhou continued to ask: "Gang leader, I think you are so tired from running the Lotus Gang, why don't you close the door and stop it? The second princess doesn't seem to have given us much help."
Guo Wen sighed and said: "I think about this every day. To be honest, it is for the sake of helping the disciples, for the sake of becoming famous in the world, etc. These are all false, mainly because they have never been
My father took over the gang and really didn’t want to end it in his own hands!
It is a last resort to seek refuge with the second princess. It is just to use her name to prevent the court from coming to trouble us. What more can I pray for?
We have been looked down upon by the underworld, and even less so by the Salt Gang. In fact, it is the Salt Gang that is inextricably linked to the imperial court. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are the Sixth Hall of Qinglong Temple!
"
"As the war intensifies, your business will become more and more difficult to run. What if all the goods are swallowed up?" He Qizhou asked.
Guo Wen whispered: "So, didn't I go out to sell the goods myself? If I can finish this trip, I will still get tens of thousands of taels of silver, enough to last for a while, let's see again! By the way,
I want to say hello to you first, I don’t have much cash around me, and the other half I promised you will have to wait until the transaction is completed before I give it to you.”
"Gang Leader Guo, you're welcome. I've already won a lot in boxing. As long as we and my wife can pass safely, you've already done a lot of help, so there's no need to give me any more money. By the way, do you know about the south side deal?
Who are these people? Will they sell me as soon as they change hands?"
Guo asked: "How is this possible? Those who work in our industry are nothing more than trustworthy! Besides, the officials in the south are also corrupt. You may have to buy fake household registrations several times. No matter how much money you have, it won't be enough. Don't do this with me."
You're welcome. As for the people we trade with, there are actually several. The two largest ones are Xinglongji and Bailiju. Most of the small merchants follow them to do business. I want to ask Xinglongji to help. Their reputation
It’s always the best, you can rest assured.”
He Qizhou thought to himself that Guo Wen had a fierce face, but he actually had a good heart. Sikong Lang, on the other hand, seemed open-minded and generous, but he couldn't see through what the other person was thinking.
"Gang Leader Guo, I see that Brother Sikong has added so much food and grass this time. What is his intention? Will the three new people they have brought in include people from the imperial court?" He Qizhou actually felt that the three people were not
As profound as it is, I mainly want to know the answer to the first question.
"I don't know, and I don't want to care about it. You don't want to care about their salt gang. Those three people look familiar. They shouldn't be from the imperial court." Guo asked.
For the next few days, every day seemed to be repeating the journey of the previous day. Sometimes I walked on the top of a hundred-foot-high hill, and sometimes I walked to the bottom of a hundred-foot-deep ditch. I kept going up and down, turning left and right. He Qizhou made an estimate, and found that the straight line would
The distance traveled was only two to three hundred miles at most, but the actual distance covered was nearly a thousand miles. We walked so many extra miles just to find a road that could be used by cars and horses.
When camping on the seventh day, Sikong Lang called everyone together again and talked about what should be paid attention to tomorrow: "Everyone, it should be the first time for some of you to walk this route. Tomorrow we will walk a total of nearly eighty miles.
, of which fifty miles were spent walking in a deep ravine, with mountains of one hundred to two hundred feet high on both sides..."
"Second brother, don't we walk this way every day?" Zhai Biao asked.
Sikong Lang said:
"Don't interrupt. Most of the time, the bottom of this deep ravine is only a few feet wide, and the peak is only a few dozen feet wide. The mountains in the south are the Qi border, and the ones in the north are our surroundings. In other words, we will always walk on
Along the border, there will be beacons every few miles on the tops of the mountains on both sides, as well as piles of boulders and clods of earth. There will also be reconnaissance patrols on the mountains from time to time.
What I want to tell you is that we should go our own way, and we must not provoke the soldiers on both sides and make them think that we are spies or the army. If someone on the top of the mountain asks questions, I will answer them. Do you understand?
"
Zhai Biao asked: "We looked like a caravan at first glance. Don't both sides want something from us?"
Sikong Lang said: "Now is an emergency period. As long as one person on the mountain becomes suspicious, he can easily dump the debris from the top of the mountain and block the road. By then, if we are not killed, we will be trapped in the ditch.
Even if people can walk out, the goods are all gone, so don’t be careless. After walking through this fifty-mile deep ditch, there will be a branch road. We will take the north road and enter Zhennanguan. When we get to Zhennanguan, we will decide to go to the other side of the pass tomorrow.
Regarding the transaction, Gang Leader Guo, I have something to discuss with you."