A team of two or three hundred horses marched through the mountains, escorted by a few officials in front and behind, heading towards Wang Yuan and the others.

"Retreat!"

Qin raised his head and shouted, and the entire team immediately turned around and walked back.

After turning around for two miles, I finally came to a relatively spacious place. Wang Yuan stood quietly on the side of the road with the caravan porters, waiting for the other party to pass by.

Several officials who were in charge of opening the road saw that Wang Yuan and the others were wearing Confucian scarves, and although they did not stop because of this, they clasped their fists and saluted them from afar.

There is no reciprocal gift, and there is no need for reciprocation.

The huge team in front of him is the official tea team.

Tea households have been planting and making tea for generations, and the output of every ten tea trees needs to be taxed one-tenth, and then sold to the government at a flat price for two taels of dry tea, which is transported by the tea team to the tea and horse division for unified blending.

The tea and horse division in the northwest is located in Hanzhong, Shaanxi, and the tea and horse division in the southwest is located in Banzhou, Sichuan.

The Banju Yang clan belonged to the wealthiest toast, and there was no one, because Banju was the distribution center of the tea and horse trade in the southwest.

Some tea leaves from Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, and even Huguang need to be transported to Banzhou Tea and Horse Division in advance. Merchants can transport grain to the tea and horse division in exchange for tea, and then buy tea to Tibet and other border areas to change horses, and make huge profits back and forth.

This system has great loopholes, and the eunuchs and civil officials are up and down, resulting in the official tea transportation actually having to lose money.

When Yang Yiqing was supervising Ma Zheng in Shaanxi, he carried out reforms in this regard, which also belonged to one of the contents of Hongzhi's reform. That is, from "official transportation" to "commercial purchase", after the wealthy businessmen obtain the qualification of commercial purchase, they can directly go to the tea-producing area, buy tea from the hands of tea households, and then transport it to the tea and horse division to report to the public.

This move ruined the financial resources of countless eunuchs and civil officials, so no matter whether Yang Yiqing opposed Liu Jin or not, he would be pushed to the end by Liu Gonggong. Who hath caused him to commit the wrath of the people?

Zhengde succeeded to the throne, and Liu Jin was in power.

Shaanxi's tea and horse trade is okay, there is Liu Jin's base camp, and some methods are to fill their pockets, so they still use the means of "business buying". The southwest region returned to the old way, all of which adopted the old system of "official transportation", and it was controlled by eunuchs, and even civil officials could not share a few dollars.

The eunuch eats alone, and the civil officials are definitely not happy, and those whose interests are damaged resolutely join the anti-eunuch army!

……

After successfully completing the wrong traffic on the one-way street, the caravan and the students continued to march.

In the sixth month of the lunar calendar, it is the height of summer.

Although the temperature in Guizhou is not high, it often exceeds 30 degrees Celsius. The most uncomfortable thing is the humid heat, the environment is too green, plus it rains every three or five times, and the humidity in Guizhou in the Ming Dynasty is very heavy.

"Poof!"

Walking and walking, a student named Lu Yu suddenly fell to the ground.

"Qin put his head a little wait, someone fainted!" The students shouted.

Qin Hao and the caravan walked in front, and immediately stopped when they heard the words. Because the mountain road was too narrow, he couldn't come back to check, so he could only ask, "But is it sick?" ”

The man next to him replied, "It seems to be a fever." ”

Fever is heat stroke, Wang Yuan led the horse to stand behind, reminded: "Open his clothes, the people in front and behind spread out to breathe, and feed him some cold water, and sprinkle some on his face and chest." ”

There was a rush to rescue, and Wang Yuan also took the opportunity to sit down and rest.

After a long while, Lu Yu finally woke up by pinching people, but his head was dizzy and he couldn't walk the mountain road at all.

Time cannot afford to delay, and you must rush to the city before dark, otherwise you will have to sleep in the wilderness. Before he could rest, he was helped on his horse and lay on his stomach by others, and continued to ride all the way.

It was still sunny in the morning, and it was dark clouds in the afternoon.

Qin quickly finished eating the dry food, and said while drinking water: "You have to hurry up and enter the city before this rain." ”

Wang Yuan immediately quickened his pace and asked, "Are you all right?" ”

Li Ying smiled and said, "What is this road? Forgot how many of us crossed Miao Mountain at the beginning? ”

"I'm dying, hot and tired." The more hazel I wiped the sweat, the more I wiped the sweat, because it was more stuffy before the rain.

Wang Yuan encouraged him and said: "After crossing this ridge, the road should be much easier, and then you will be able to ride a horse and a donkey." ”

Guizhou's official road is really a shame on the official road!

In many places, there are steep paths, and thanks to the strength of the horses and donkeys, they can still walk normally with a full load.

Wang Yuan even encountered some horseless caravans on the way, all relying on manpower to carry goods. Their shelves have two wooden legs, which can be stopped and rested if you are tired of walking, and the wooden legs are exactly the brackets for landing.

Carrying the goods from Kunming all the way to Guiyang, along the way also over the mountains and mountains, the wind and the sun, Wang Yuan can hardly imagine how they persisted.

"Boom!"

As soon as he came down the mountain, there was a thunderous sound.

The mountain wind blew a burst of coolness, and everyone's hearts were also cold, and today it will be 100% rainy!

Most of the students rode on donkeys and horses, but only two were poor children, who trotted behind the team with bookcases on their backs.

As he walked, raindrops began to fall, and Qin immediately ordered to stop advancing, took out the tarpaulin to cover the horses' goods, and the people also burrowed under the tarpaulin to shelter from the rain.

This oilcloth, which is made of cotton cloth and tung oil, is very waterproof, but it burns easily.

A heavy rain fell until it was dark, and finally the rain gradually decreased. But the rain converged and flowed down the mountain road, drowning Wang Yuan's ankles.

The oilcloth is really useless, and they are all drenched into soup chicken.

Everyone gathered on the ramp to eat, and Wang Yuan asked, "Qin Boss, are you okay?" ”

"It's okay, I've already wrapped two layers of oiled paper in a long time ago." Qin smashed his head frantically against the flint, but he couldn't light it, and the fire folds and fire wool he hid on his body were all soaked with water.

Wang Yuan had some hidden in his bookcase, but he couldn't find any dry firewood, and the smoke from the bonfire was billowing - although it couldn't keep warm for the time being, the mosquito repellent effect was immediate.

The sun in the morning, the rain in the afternoon, and the sleeping at night directly caused a porter and two students to fall ill, and the scholar of Yue Zhen also fell ill.

It's less than a quarter of the way through!

The next day, the two sick students, as well as Yue Zhen's scholar, were thrown in Anshun City to recuperate. They are not alone, there are several Guizhou scholars in the inn, all of whom are sick halfway and stop to rest, and they can still learn from illness if they have nothing to do.

Fortunately, Wang Yuan, Li Ying, Yue Zhen and Zou Mu are all more bearable.

Although Zou Mu had a cold, he did not have a fever, and he went all the way with a runny nose.

After Zhenning, it is Guan Suoling.

According to legend, Zhuge Liang marched south that year, and Guan Suo once led his troops to camp here.

When the team passed through Suoling, the number of people was reduced again, and an unlucky egg peed and was bitten by a poisonous snake. Qin turned his head to see the appearance of the poisonous snake, and his face changed drastically in fright, and then he swung his knife to cut off the two toes of the man, and threw him to the front of Chacheng to slowly recuperate.

On the 20th of the resumption of the trip, he passed through Pu'an Prefecture and was about to walk out of the boundary of Guizhou.

Wang Yuan is already about to go crazy, no matter how rugged Guiyang is, it is also the provincial capital, which belongs to the flattest place in the whole Guizhou.

From Anshun Prefecture to the junction of Yunnan and Guizhou, there are all rolling mountains, and three-quarters of the day is spent on foot. Not only are people tired, but even horses are losing weight!

When a student walked to Pu'an Prefecture, he heard that the most difficult section had just begun, so he was so frightened that he returned to Guiyang halfway, and refused to take another step forward.

There are Pingyi Wei on the border of Yunnan, and there are Pingyi Thousand Households on the border of Guizhou. But not only did they fail to wipe out the barbarians, but they were flattened by the thief woman Miru ten years ago, and the commander of the guard post and the thousand households were killed cleanly.

At that time, there were countless defeated soldiers, and many of them fled into the mountains and became bandits on the Yunnan-Guizhou border.

The Pingyi Wei of Yunnan came to suppress it, and the bandits fled to Guizhou. Guizhou's Pingyi Thousand Households came to suppress them, and they fled to Yunnan. Anyway, the distance is not far, and it is out of the province after one or two mountains, and it is also the necessary place for the Yunnan-Guizhou tea and horse trade road, and it is easy to jump back and forth.

Well, Wang Yuan has met bandits.

A gang of sixty or seventy bandits, led by a man who was even wearing leather armor.

Qin Jiangtou seemed to be an old acquaintance with the bandits, he asked his subordinates to send silver to the bandits, and hugged his fists and said: "Second Brother Zhang has worked hard, be careful, please smile." ”

"It's easy to say," the bandit leader named Second Brother Zhang weighed the silver in his hand, but he didn't let go of the official road, "Qin Wu, you and I have known each other for almost eight years, and I can't let you go today." You and your people, and your goods, all come back to the cottage with me. If you are willing to fall into the grass, kill all those creatures, and let you sit in the fourth place in the village. ”

Qin leaned his head to grasp the hilt of the knife and sneered, "No negotiation? ”

"There's no need to discuss," Second Brother Zhang shook his head and said, "Just half a month ago, Brother Dang of 'Zhensanshan' was arrested by the official army. Unless the officials and soldiers release them, the king of heaven and Lao Tzu don't even want to pass through this road. ”

Qin was so angry that he couldn't do it: "'Zhen Sanshan' has been arrested, you guys are going to rob the prison, what kind of heroes are you to intercept the merchants!" ”

Second Brother Zhang smiled: "Lao Tzu is not stupid. The Pingyi Guard has 5,000 soldiers and horses, at least six or seven hundred of whom can fight, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Lao Tzu is a military household who escaped from there, how can he kill back with hundreds of bandits. As long as the official road is blocked, this year's spring tea will not be transported, and the eunuchs will be held accountable, and they will scare the royal commander to death. If he doesn't let people go for a day, I won't be able to get through the official road for a day! ”

"Let's negotiate, give you half of the goods, and you let us go." Qin turned his head and said depressedly.

Second Brother Zhang shook his head and said, "No." Give you two ways to choose: first, bring people and goods up the mountain together, and everyone will be brothers in the future, with big scales and big bowls of meat; Second, people can go and leave the goods behind. There are also these scholars, they must go back to the cottage with me, Xiucai will kidnap the ticket and go back, and he can force Pingyi Wei to release people! ”

"Are you trying to force me to death?"

Qin pointed his head at Li Ying: "That's the third son of General Li's family in Guizhou, if something goes wrong here, how can I still live in Guiyang in the future?" ”

"The son of the chief soldier?" Second Brother Zhang was not surprised, "I heard that Mr. Li is busy suppressing bandits, and he hasn't suppressed Lisuo for two years, so he definitely doesn't have time to come here." This Li Sangongzi is worth a lot of money, maybe he can get back Brother Pang. Come on, bring them all back to the village! ”