Fan Yongdou's eldest son Fan San came, Wang Dengku's son Wang Youyi also came, and the Tian family and the Zhai family also sent people.

They came for the iron and the pots.

Yang Yexing came to Lou Fu this time, mainly to discuss the shipyard with Qinchuan, and he didn't bring many mules and carriages, so the goods transported this time were very small, only 80,000 catties of iron and 3,000 iron pots.

After these goods fell into Liu Liangzuo's hands, he immediately sent people to Xuanda to find buyers, because buyers there could pay a higher price.

Fan Sanpao and others heard the wind and rushed from Zhangjiakou Fort one after another, and entered Shouyang City overnight.

Although the number of iron materials and iron pots is not much, and there are not many people at all, these annoying iron materials and iron pot products are better than those of Guangzhou Iron and Guang Pot, and they are several times the profit when they are shipped out of the customs.

On weekdays, they can't get these goods by any means, but now a batch appears out of thin air, and they must not let it go, even if one person divides tens of thousands of catties of iron and hundreds of pots, he can earn thousands of taels of silver when he transports them out.

Several people were introduced into the second hall of the county government, and after sitting for a while, Liu Liangzuo, Zhang Yixiang and others arrived.

"I've seen Lord Liu, Lord Zhang."

Liu Liangzuo is a native of Datong, and the Fan family and other merchants are also engaged in the grain trading of the Datong border army, and they already know each other.

"Please be polite, please take a seat, please take a seat."

Liu Liangzuo arched his hand with a smile.

A few people sat down, and Liu Liangzuo got straight to the point and said: "Everyone, the situation is a little urgent now, the Qin thief is leading his troops to attack Taiyuan City, and it will arrive in Shouyang in a few days, so these iron materials and iron pots must be transported out of Shouyang as soon as tomorrow morning, otherwise they will not be able to leave as soon as the Qin thief arrives." ”

"Huh?"

As soon as they heard this, the faces of Fan Sanpao, Wang Youyi and others changed.

"My lord, can the Qin thieves divide their troops to force Shouyang?"

"Not for the time being, according to the report of the exploration horse, after Qin Chuan came out of Luliang Mountain yesterday, he divided 3,000 soldiers and horses to the south to plunder, and he personally led 5,000 main forces to attack Taiyuan City, and there were still 5,000 soldiers and horses when he returned to the camp at dusk yesterday, and there were no troops, and the 3,000 soldiers and horses were also scattered to attack various villages and towns."

"That'...... Will he take advantage of the night to split his troops, or will he suddenly turn to Shouyang today? ”

"No, Wang Zhong of Taiyuan City slaughtered dozens of Guan Emperor troops, captured his people, and robbed a lot of glass utensils and silver taels, he will definitely fight Taiyuan, but he only has 5,000 troops, if he divides the troops, there will not be enough troops to attack Taiyuan."

"What's more, if there is a noise in his soldiers and horses, the horses outside Taiyuan City will definitely be aware of it, and they will report it quickly, but today there are several reports, only saying that after Qin Chuan rested all night last night, he brought two thousand soldiers and horses out of the camp early this morning and continued to bombard Taiyuan City.

Hearing this, Fan Sanpao, Wang Youyi and others breathed a sigh of relief.

"This general has 20,000 catties of pig iron, 60,000 wrought iron, 2,000 three-foot cauldrons, 500 one-foot-8-inch medium pots and 500 eight-inch small pots, and you can make a price."

Everyone looked at Fan San in unison.

Fan Sanpo pondered for a moment and said: "My lord, let's set it according to the price of Qinchuan, and be fair and fair to everyone, including one hundred catties of pig iron and one tael and five cents, wrought iron one hundred catties and three taels, one or two cauldrons, five cents in the medium pot, and two cents in the small pot, how about it?" ”

"Hmmm......"

Liu Liangzuo stroked his beard, which was not thick, and glanced to the side.

Seeing that Zhang Yixiang and Wang Shiying both bowed slightly, he nodded: "Okay, then according to what Fan Gongzi said, it's just that Ben will get the silver tonight." ”

"No problem, we've brought all the silver."

"Okay, let's discuss how to divide these goods, by the way, we have to drink two glasses, and after a few discussions, we will send someone to count the goods, let's just eat and drink here, and buy and sell and eat and drink."

"Thank you for your hospitality."

"Come, prepare a wine feast."

……

The west city wall of Shouyang City.

Just after the third watch, the two defenders, who had just changed shifts to the head of the city, made a symbolic patrol of a few steps, threw a few torches outside the city, and then shrank under the battlements, and took out from their bosoms a bag of wine that they had secretly brought with them, as well as two legs of mutton wrapped in rags.

After Liu Zongbing and Zhang Zhixian paid a large amount of silver, they were merciful and slaughtered dozens of pigs and sheep for them, and these two legs of mutton were secretly hidden by them, in order to have wine and meat when they went to the city to watch the night.

The two of them were eating vigorously when suddenly there was a sound of footsteps not far away, which startled the two of them like mice, quickly put away the wine and meat, and then stood up and looked at the comer.

It seemed to be a patrol of about a dozen people.

"There is a smell of alcohol from afar, are you two drinking?"

Before the comer arrived, a majestic voice came.

The two defenders were startled, broken, and ran into the military magistrate.

However, the other party's voice was very unfamiliar, unlike the people in their camp.

"Which battalion are you from?" One of the defenders had the courage to ask.

"Humph! The Ming military law strictly prohibits drinking alcohol at night, can you two be guilty? ”

The man did not answer them, but led a dozen or so soldiers and walked straight to them.

It was impossible to see each other's faces clearly in the night, but when they heard this, the two defenders were already pale with fright.

If the caller had been a well-enforced magistrate, they would not have escaped military law.

"Ahem, for the sake of the big guys living and dying together, I won't pursue the two of you this time, but ......"

The officer at the head stretched out two fingers and twisted them.

The two defenders breathed a sigh of relief, and then obediently took out two pieces of silver from each of their pockets.

When handing over the money, the two took the opportunity to look at each other a few times, but no matter how they looked at it, they had never seen this officer at all.

The officer took the silver and frowned: "Four coins of silver, what about sending it to Hanako?" Go, and search their bodies, and search their money, and wine and meat, and let them go. ”

"Yes."

When the ten soldiers behind the officer heard this, they rushed over without saying a word.

"Huh...... Adults, the small ones only have this bit of silver, or wait for the payment of the silver before ......"

The two defenders pleaded bitterly, but before they could speak, a large hand suddenly reached out from behind them, covering their mouths at the same time, and each of them stabbed a sharp knife into their backs, revealing a small section of the tip of their left chest.

The two defenders jerked a few times, a muffled snort from their mouths, and soon went limp.

"Hurry up, be quick."

Among the ten soldiers, a small old man said to the others with big yellow teeth.

"Yes."

The others quickly took out two bundles of rope that they had brought with them, tied the two corpses, and hung them down the city wall.

Immediately afterwards, two more people wrapped the rope in rags and nimbly slid along the rope out of the city walls.

In the corner, the two cut two ropes, tied two stones to the corpse, and gently pushed the corpse into the moat.

Immediately afterward, the two of them went into the water and swam across the moat and ran wildly in the direction of the west.

After running for two miles, a muffled voice suddenly came from the grove in front of him: "What are you doing?" ”

"Selling discs."

"Here's two Penglaidu."

"Okay."

The two of them deserved to be refreshed, and the speed of their feet did not slow down in the slightest, and they rushed straight into the grove.

Before long, several fast horses came out of the grove and continued on their way west.

……

Shouyang City is more than 150 miles away from Taiyuan, and in the past two days, this distance has been filled with a large number of Ming army exploration horses, some of them were sent by Liu Liangzuo, there were also Wang Zhong's people, and there were also Yuci, Yangqu, Mengxian and other prefectures and counties sent to explore horses.

Most of the many tanma do not know each other, and there is no unified code, and they recognize each other by clothing, accent and waist tags.

Since yesterday night, there has been another Ming army dressed as a horse, like a net, advancing all the way from Taiyuan to Shouyang.

All the Ming army detectives encountered along the way were either deceived by this group of people dressed up by the Ming army, and then killed by surprise, or were forcibly besieged and killed.

Even if there is a fast runner, they will be knocked off the horse by the opponent's bird.

In this way, this group of people is also like a sickle, killing all the way from Taiyuan City to Shouyang City.

Behind them, a cavalry of two thousand men wrapped in horseshoes, led by a general with a hideous scar on his face.

He is Liu Youzhu, on the order of Qin Chuan, he quietly rushed to Shouyang, preparing to intercept and kill Liu Liangzuo, and also to recover 100,000 taels of silver.

When it was only twenty or thirty miles away from Shouyang City, several cavalrymen shouting "sell plates" suddenly appeared in front.

Soon, the cavalrymen who sold the plates were brought to Liu Youzhu and gave a military salute, and one of them said respectfully: "General Liu, the old Huang Ye ordered me to come and deliver the news, a group of merchants came to Shouyang City, and they entered the city tonight." ”

"Old Huang Ye spent some silver, and found out from the people in the county government that this group of merchants came from Zhangjiakou Fort, including the Fan family, the Wang family, the Tian family and the Zhai family, and the guards of the four families added up to about 1,300 people, as well as more than 200 coachmen and a small number of domestic servants."

"After the four merchants entered the city, they went directly to the county office, and the old Huang Ye estimated that they were looking for Liu Liangzuo to buy iron materials and iron pots."

"Old Huang Ye also estimates that they will start shipping north early tomorrow morning, or even early in the morning."

"There are also 100,000 taels of silver, Liu Liangzuo and the others will never leave the silver in the city, and it is likely to be shipped north with the Fan family and other merchants to other states and counties for temporary storage, or it may be transported to the area of Zhending Mansion in the east alone, because that area is the safest."

"Old Huang Ye said that he would take his brothers to keep an eye on that batch of silver, and once Liu Liangzuo sent someone to transport it out of the city, he would wait for an opportunity to follow him out."

After hearing this, Liu Youzhu nodded, and then thought for a moment with a slight frown.

"Old Seven, you lead five hundred brothers to set up an ambush from the south to the east of Shouyang City overnight, in case those dog officials transport the silver to Zhending."

"The rest of the people, follow me around to the north of Shouyang City to set up an ambush, tomorrow morning, let's kill the group of profiteers in Zhangjiakou Fort first."

"The general said that in the future, if you encounter the Fan family, the Wang family, the Tian family, the Zhai family, the Jin family, the Liang family, and the Huang family in Zhangjiakou Fort, even if you kill them, you won't leave any of them."

"Kill!"