A group of caravanserais, from Tianshui Prefecture, crossed Dizhou, and slowly marched to Shuoxi, the capital of Xirong.

This year coincides with the triennial Changning Festival in Xirong, and business travelers from all over the world rush to Xirong.

With the growing strength of Xirong and the continuous expansion of its territory, in terms of military strength, Xirong can be among the top three countries in the Western Regions.

The Changning Festival lasts for 28 days, and at the beginning it was celebrated by the people of the royal family and the people.

For seven days before and after, the same sacrificial ceremony is performed every day, taking the meaning of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new;

The next seven days were the pilgrimage days of the Xijon Dynasty and the wealthy families to worship their ancestral god Barrow, and the sacred guidance of the ancestral temple was based on the fame and contribution of each clan, and the clans of each clan were re-ranked in the ancestral temple to be blessed by the gods.

Of course, it is not limited to this, after the ranking, the holy introduction in the temple and the royal family of Xirong each took out some wealth and gave it to each clan according to the ranking in the palace.

The higher you are in the ranks, the more rewards you will receive and the more powerful you will be in Sijon.

After the wealthy families of Xirong worshiped the ancestral gods, it was the turn of the common people and local small clans to come to worship, and these people could not enter the ancestral temple, but could only be outside the temple.

Some of them can't even go up to the ancestral mountain, but they just look at the foot of the mountain and listen to the sound of bells, drums and horns, but their hearts are the most sincere, and many people gather around the ancestral mountain early, just waiting for the blessing of their ancestral god Barrow.

On the last seven days, each family in Xirong celebrates the Changning Festival by themselves, putting up lanterns, receiving the blessings of the god Barrow, praying for good weather and good health for the next three years, which is very similar to the New Year of Dagan.

After that, in order to attract business travelers from all over the world, the Xirong Dynasty would deliberately set aside another half a month for business travelers from various countries to trade some goods, which was only half of the tax charged than before, and set up troops to protect the four borders of Xirong.

At one time, merchants from all over the Western Regions flocked to it, and even merchants from all over Dagan would come to get a piece of the pie.

Out of the sky, the war and disasters continued, although Xirong promised to keep the four realms safe, but the Western Regions are vast and sparsely populated, and there are many rogue horse thieves, taking advantage of this grand event to loot, Xirong's army is helpless.

It's just that people have always died for money, not to mention the danger of this road, and the people and money are empty from time to time, and the number of merchants who go to Xijon every year has not decreased, and the so-called wealth and wealth are sought in danger, and some giant merchants ask more guards to accompany them, and the smaller merchants will fight for a fight, in exchange for several years of wealth.

In addition, in recent years, the rumors of a huge amount of wealth that have often circulated from nowhere have attracted many people to ignore the hardships along the way, hoping that they can also become the darlings of this god's favor and return with a lot of money in the Western Regions.

Larger merchants rush to the Western Regions with some friends every year to avoid robbery.

As for those giant merchants, they are generally reluctant to go the same way with other merchants, and have always traveled alone, and the guards in the brigade are not much better than some armies, just like the six great families of Dagan, few horse thieves dare to plunder, not to mention that these families are more or less inextricably linked with these horse thieves.

However, these merchants are still a minority after all, and the other nearly seventy percent are small merchants, and these people don't have much money to invite martial arts masters to escort them, so they have to contact their colleagues who went to the Western Regions before leaving the customs, and they have enough manpower to go out of the customs.

Those with a good reputation are lucky, or they can join a slightly larger caravan, and their chances of surviving along the way are a few percent.

In this way, although they have to hand over a lot of money, and they are called and drunk along the way, the small merchants are proud to be able to act with these big merchants, and if they hear that there is a big caravan to gather people, almost all the small merchants will try their luck, and the head of the battle will be bloody, attracting the laughter and ridicule of the recruiters.

The caravan in front of him was not a big caravan, but a few small merchants who came together and went to Shuoxi.

At the back of the caravan, four knights slowly followed the caravan around two carriages, which were stuffed with sacks and did not know what to hold.

The two men in the car in front of them were leaning against the wheel of the car, closing their eyes and recuperating, and suddenly the younger one opened his eyes, looked at the sun, yawned, and asked, "Where have you gone?" ”

The knight on the horse next to him hurriedly replied: "The eldest prince, it has been two days since I left Dizhou, and according to this footpath, I will reach the three forks in another day." ”

"Huh?" The young man was stunned and said, "Three forks? How did you choose this path? ”

The knight touched his nose and said: "From Dizhou directly to Xirong, there are many checkpoints along the way, and when it comes to Shuoxi, I'm afraid that there won't be much money left for the merchants to trade." If you take the three forks to the west and enter Xirong from the Chen River Valley, you can save nearly half of the taxes. Yesterday, the Cheng family, who was the leader, convened everyone to discuss, and these people all agreed to take the three-way crossing, and their subordinates did not disturb when they saw that Gongzi was resting. ”

"Oh, got it." The young man closed his eyes again, opened his eyes and said to the elder beside him, "Nearly half of the taxes, how can it be so coincidental. ”

The old man beside him smiled and said, "It's not a coincidence, according to the old man, it's just a jackal to eat." ”

The young man sighed, turned to the knight on the side, and said, "Cousin, you come up and rest, and I'll ride my horse and walk." ”

It's just that the knight next to him didn't seem to hear it, and he dozed off on his horse, and the young man and the elder were all embarrassed, and the elder shouted, "Wu Jing." ”

The knight was startled, turned his head and said, "Uncle, what's the matter?" ”

The elder smiled and said, "Changqing asked you to come to the carriage and sleep." ”

"No, I'm used to it on horses, and I can sleep on horseback." The knight waved his hand and excused himself.

"We are Cang'er merchants, how can we have such good riding skills." The young man laughed.

The knight was stunned for a moment, understood, grinned, beat the horse slightly, approached the carriage, pressed his hands slightly, and the person had already jumped into the carriage, and the carriage did not shake for half a minute.

The elder shook his head, and the young man took the reins of the horse, tapped the wheels, turned over on the horse's back, and said to the remaining three horsemen, "You also rest for a while in the back cart, for the road will not be peaceful after tomorrow." ”

"Yes." The two knights answered, and the rest did not say a word, turned sideways over their horses, and followed the young man.

The young man smiled lightly and said, "Thank you for your hard work." ”

"Hmm." The tone was cold and cold, it was Jiuwei Chu Ying'er.

The speaker was Li Luo, the elder was Shen Xiangdong, and it was Hu Chajing, the general of the shepherd wolf, who called Wu Jing, and the other two horsemen were Li Luo's personal guards Ni Qing and Zhu Zhi.