After thinking for a while, Li Xuan made up his mind. He tore a few holes in his body and dodged into the jungle.
Cao Man was walking at the front of the barbarian team. He was considered taller among the barbarians, and he walked very impressively with his head held high.
Behind him were the group of human youths with blank expressions on their faces, not knowing where they would be taken.
The other barbarians were scattered around, probably because they were afraid that some of the human youths would fall behind or slip away. Their eyes were wide open, and their beards stood up like hedgehogs. Their ferocious appearance made people shudder.
.
As the team was moving forward, Cao Man suddenly raised his hand to signal those behind him to stop.
He looked coldly at the grass beside the road and growled: "Who is it, come out!"
The other barbarians all picked up their muskets and aimed at the patch of grass. They looked a little nervous, as if there were some ferocious beasts hiding in the grass.
"Don't... don't shoot."
A hand was raised from the grass, and then Li Xuan stood up.
His face was covered with dust and his clothes were in tatters. He looked no different from the human youths in the team.
Cao Man's frown relaxed slightly. He walked to Li Xuan, looked up and down, and asked in a deep voice: "Who are you and why are you here?"
Li Xuan hesitated and remained silent, looking frightened, and secretly glanced at the giant ax in Cao Man's hand.
This performance was so superb that even the experienced Cao Man was fooled.
"I understand, you came here smuggled in too, right?"
Cao Man laughed and said, "You're not doing well over there, so you want to come here to mine and make money?"
Li Xuan nodded: "Yes, I want to make money, please don't send me back."
Cao Man laughed, turned back to the other barbarians and said, "It's quite interesting that this kid can sneak over alone."
The other barbarians also relaxed their vigilance, stuffed their muskets into their waists, looked at Li Xuan for a few times, and then went to look after the young men again.
Cao Man stretched out his hand, pinched Li Xuan's body a few times, and said with a click of his tongue: "I can't tell you are quite strong. Do you want to make money?"
"I think about it, of course I do."
Li Xuan said with a happy face.
"These people are going to mine to make money. Do you want to come with us?"
Cao Man asked Li Xuan.
"Okay, as long as you can make money, you can go anywhere."
Li Xuan said "excited".
"Then let's go."
Cao Man pointed at the group of young people, "Follow us, and I'll make sure you enjoy the hot food, and save enough money to go home and marry a fat wife."
Li Xuan climbed up the road clumsily and got into the group of young people with a happy face.
These young people must have traveled a long distance and are quite tired, but it can still be seen that their bodies are strong and strong, and they are all quite good laborers.
Following the team, Li Xuan chatted with others in a low voice and soon learned something about the situation.
It turns out that these young people are farmers in the Spring and Autumn Empire. Because the times have been bad in the past one or two years and they can no longer maintain their livelihood by farming, they want to come to the barbarian country to mine.
The barbarian country is full of mines and has a shortage of labor. It is in urgent need of miners, and the wages are quite generous.
It's just that the Spring and Autumn Empire prohibited labor from going out and set up many checkpoints on the border, so these young people had no choice but to sneak across the country if they wanted to work.
The group of black men and this group of barbarians just now are gangsters who smuggle labor back and forth across the border between the two countries.
The young people each pay ten silver ingots as a smuggling fee, and they are responsible for taking the people to the barbarian country and introducing them to some well-paying miners' jobs.
It is said that as long as you work hard for three years, you can earn back dozens of gold ingots.
"I have calculated that as long as I work hard for three years, I will be able to save a sum of money. When the time comes, I will return to my hometown in fine clothes. I will first build a big house, then buy a few acres of land, marry a wife, and give birth to a fat baby.
There will be good days.”
A young man walking next to Li Xuan said happily that his face was full of food and tired, but when he talked about the future, his face was filled with happiness.
"Is it really that simple?"
Li Xuan thought to himself that he always felt that these barbarians were not good people.
The team walked for several hours, and when it got dark, the barbarians shouted at them to hide in the jungle.
It was daylight, but it was still dark in the jungle.
The young people lay on the grass in groups of three and two to rest. The barbarians patrolled back and forth. When they heard someone snoring, they would go over and kick them.
"Why can't we walk during the day?"
Li Xuan asked the person next to him in a low voice.
"There are patrols during the day, and the barbarian country does not allow people to sneak across. If we are discovered by the patrol, we will all be sent home."
The man replied.
Li Xuan narrowed his eyes. He remembered that he had indeed seen a heavily armed patrol on the road. It turned out to be to guard against illegal immigrants.
It seems that if you want to work in a barbarian country and make money, you have to go through some risks. If you are unlucky, you may lose everything.
Everyone else was resting, so Li Xuan simply closed his eyes and fell asleep. After training all the way, he had reached the point where he could see in all directions and hear in all directions. Even the smallest movements outside the jungle could not escape his ears.
I don't know how long it took, but the sound of horse hooves disturbed Li Xuan's rest.
Although he closed his eyes, combined with the movements he heard, scenes and scenes still appeared in his mind.
On the Furnace Ancient Road, a patrol consisting of ten barbarians is marching slowly. At the front are two scouts, who are responsible for detecting movements in the distance. Behind them are six strong warriors, who ride like donkeys.
An ordinary chestnut horse, and finally an alchemist and a Confucian scholar. Although they are not as majestic as humans, they are still somewhat intimidating.
There are as many as thirty such patrol teams on the border, and they patrol the Furnace Trail twice a day to prevent the intensification of smuggling.
However, although the barbarian country manages this very strictly, there are policies and countermeasures. For these patrols, it is better to do less than to do more. Even if they do encounter a smuggling team, they will sometimes turn a blind eye.
Close one eye.
When they arrived outside the jungle where Li Xuan and others were hiding, the two scouts at the front stopped. The two silver wolves following them twitched their noses and waggled their tails anxiously.
"Wow!", there was a soft sound in the jungle, and Cao Man walked out with a smile on his face and greeted him warmly.
"Is it your eighth team's turn today? It's been really hard work."
Cao Man walked onto the road and gave a very warm hug to one of the leading scouts.
"How many pigs are there on this trip?"
The scout peered into the jungle. Although it was dark inside, his scout's precise hearing could tell from the deep breathing that there were many people hiding inside.
"There have been relatively few people recently, only about thirty or so."
As Cao Man spoke, he took out a small purse and secretly put it into the scout's hand.
The scout weighed the money bag, stuffed it into his arms with satisfaction, and then lowered his voice and said, "Have you dealt with those dead pigs a few days ago?"
"It's all buried, don't worry, no one will find it."
Cao Man said.
"That's good, don't cause trouble for us. It will be bad for everyone if things get serious."
The scout said, waving to his companions behind him and continuing to move forward as if nothing had happened.
When they were far away, Cao Man spat and returned to the jungle.
Li Xuan was far away and could only occasionally hear a few vague words. Although he could not hear the specific content, he knew that there was a shady deal between these barbarians and the patrol team.
"Everywhere is so dark."
Li Xuan thought to himself.
In the Spring and Autumn Empire, as long as you have money and power, you can dominate the world with one hand. For example, Xiao Du, if he wanted to kill someone, it was just a matter of words.
Similarly, in barbarian countries, this kind of thing is not uncommon.
This world is no different from a jungle where the jungle is full of predators. If you don’t want to be swallowed up by others, you must become stronger and stronger than anyone else.
The team rested throughout the day, and in the evening everyone woke up, ate dry food for a while, and then continued on their way under the moonlight.
When they were approaching Furnace Town, under the leadership of the barbarians, the team left the Furnace Ancient Road and turned onto a path full of thorns.
Li Xuan originally wanted to take the opportunity to escape, but he changed his mind when he heard a barbarian say that his destination this time was not far from Liming Town.
The master barbarian craftsman Ding Tiechui he is looking for is in Liming Town. Following the team can save him a lot of trouble. In this case, let's just perform the show for a few more days.
The team stayed up day and night, marching among the barren mountains for two days in a row. Occasionally they encountered patrols, and the barbarians were always able to use money to avert danger.
In the evening of the third day, when the team was about to set off, Li Xuan suddenly heard someone screaming.
He turned around and saw a young man lying on the ground, shouting in fear, and there was a small green snake hanging on his thigh.
"Venomous snake!"
Everyone was startled. The timid ones backed away, while the bolder ones picked up branches and tried to kill the poisonous snake.
"Shut up."
Cao Man came out and roared, and everyone immediately stopped talking, but they still couldn't take their eyes off the poisonous snake.
Cao Man walked over and stretched out his hand to grab the poisonous snake. The snake seemed to feel the danger, let go of the young man's thigh, jumped up, and bit Cao Man's wrist.
Cao Man shook his hand and pinched the seven inches of the poisonous snake with two fingers like lightning. The poisonous snake opened its mouth wide but could not bite.
"Oh shit."
Cao Man swore a curse word, and with a force of his fingers, the poisonous snake was pinched in two.
He threw the snake carcass on the ground, stepped on it, and crushed it into a pulp.
Cao Man killed the poisonous snake, walked up to the groaning young man with a cold face, squatted down and grabbed his pants and pulled them. With a "click", the pants were torn into two pieces, revealing his black and blue thighs.
Everyone gathered around and saw two small wounds bleeding out black pus and blood. The area around the wounds was pitch black, and a black line was slowly climbing up along the blood veins. It was obvious that the poisoning was deep.
The young man lay on the grass, moaning "ouch, ouch, ouch", but his voice became weaker and weaker, and his face gradually turned pale.
Cao Man raised his eyebrows and said coldly: "Leave one person to take care of him, and the others will leave quickly."