Perhaps it was the horse thief's insolent hunting song that stimulated Han Shizhong, and he decided to personally lead people to the south to lure the enemy. Xiao Yanping still said, "Today's affairs are all up to Han Ye." "Whether it was the person who followed Han Shizhong to lure the enemy, or the person who was arranged to move with the brigade to the northern hills, they were all nervous, but at this moment, no one asked much.

"If anything happens, the matter of Hongyu, you can help me watch it." Before leaving, Han Shizhong suddenly leaned over and said to Zhao Xingde, without waiting for Xingde to talk, he straightened his body, put on a shackle, and kicked the horse's belly lightly with both legs, the war horse shook his head dissatisfied, and slowly walked south.

Twelve iron cavalry and five horsemen who could ride and shoot followed behind Han Shizhong, followed by the shepherds who drove hundreds of sheep and a few other cavalry. Luring the enemy and centaurs as if they were really going to break through, no one holding a torch, quietly dived south, and even the birds did not startle the two, and disappeared into the darkness.

Xiao Yanping and Zhao Xingde looked at the south together, listened attentively to the movement in the distance, and only asked about the sound of buzzing insects singing and a few night owls. Xiao Yanping sighed and whispered to Xingde: "Mr. Zhao, you have a very good relationship with Han Ye, brother, I dare to ask, in your opinion, will Han Ye come back?" Zhao Xingde was stunned for a moment, then understood what he meant, pondered for a moment, and said in a deep voice: "I can trust him." Xiao Yanping nodded, sighed again, didn't say anything more, turned around and went to check the preparations of the porter and other merchants over and over again.

Suddenly, a scream broke out in the darkness of the south, and then, several branches with a sharp whistle pierced the silence of the night sky, the sound of arrows breaking through the air, shouting and killing, the sound of gold and iron, the noise of people and horses, the originally dark woods also rose out of several clusters of firelight, the cavalry on both sides did not dare to fight at night, some set off rockets, some lit torches and threw them into the distance, with the help of faint light to identify the terrain and the position of the other party, only to see the light and dark flickering, the shadow of the tree looming.

After a moment of fighting, all of a sudden, hundreds of torches were lit in the south, and they were constantly moving in all directions. Zhao Xingde knew that it was Han Shizhong and others who lit the fire rope, and the sheep with their tails on fire were scurrying around, but in the eyes of the horse thieves in the distance, this was the Song caravan out of formation, and the merchant porter who was difficult to distinguish the direction at night and had no experience in night combat hurriedly lit torches and fled in all directions.

At this time, the large group of horse thieves gathered in the east finally moved, and before the bonfire could be extinguished, the light of the sheathed knives was reflected, and the chaotic sound of horses' hooves rushed densely towards the south, and the sound of horses urging horses was constantly heard in the wind. In the distance on both sides of the northwest, the original sporadic firelight also shook a few times almost instantly, and then dimmed a lot, it was the horse thief who had been wielding the torch saw that the leader had made up his mind, and immediately threw the torch, and rode his horse to the south to block the merchants who chose the road and fled, the more scattered these merchants fled, and the more effort it took to catch them all, which is also the common sense of hunting sheep.

"Let's go!" The head of the Iron Cavalry Army, Xie Yuan, shouted in a low voice. The 78th cavalry was scouting in front, followed by a large group of merchants, dart masters, porters, and village warriors, extinguished the torches, connected them with straw ropes in front and back, and walked towards the hills to the north in the dark. The stars and moon were not shining this night, even the mud puddles in front of them and the dead vines in the mountains could not be seen clearly, and people kept falling to the ground, because they had already strangled their mouths with ropes, and no one made a sound. The sound of hooves and chirping from the south, occasionally one or two screams and sheep cries, Zhao Xingde groped his way forward in the dark, several hot pains, it was a half-human-high withered grass that cut his hands and faces, but he couldn't care about it at all, the only thing hanging in his heart was not to bump into a large number of horse thieves, with the current situation of the caravan people, it really became a yellow sheep to be slaughtered.

The stumbling Song caravan followed the forest path and climbed to the north hill halfway up, and did not encounter the horse thief, Zhao Xingde breathed a sigh of relief, did not notice that he was already covered with sweat on his face, and in a hazy way, he saw that Yu Dayi and Xie Yuan were both busy, and blocked the carriage that they had brought with great difficulty on the way up the mountain, and shouted in a deep voice to order the porter and the village Yong to quickly set up traps and antlers, until most of the fortifications were completed, and only then did they allow the lighting of three bonfires. Under the firelight, Yu Dayi looked around at the people behind him, and saw Zhao Xingde, who was resting by the rocks on the side of the road, his eyes were bloodshot, his face was red as if he was drunk, but his cheeks were sunken, and he couldn't help but be surprised: "Mr. Zhao, what's wrong with you?" ”

Zhao Xingde's mind was confused, and when he heard him ask, he also said, "What's wrong with me?" Touching his forehead with his hand, when he thought about it again, he only felt lightheaded, and hurriedly reached out to support the person next to him, and others gathered around, but Zhao Xingde's eyes were dark, and he fell to the ground and fainted.

I slept very deeply, and I don't know how long it took for Zhao Xingde to wake up and turn around, his eyes had just opened a slit, and only a vague figure could be seen, and there was a surprise cry in his ears: "Mr. Zhao is awake!" "Lord Han, Mr. Zhao is saved!"

"Han Shizhong?" Zhao Xingde thought in a daze, "Didn't he go to lure the enemy?" By the way, he also asked me to take care of Li Hongyu, but I already have Ruoxue. He opened his mouth, and someone brought the bladder to his mouth, and poured a very bitter potion into his mouth little by little. cough-cough-cough-" Zhao Xingde barely drank two sips, then coughed violently, and after a while, he finally woke up completely, turned his head and looked around, only to see that he was still lying on the mountain road, with a sheepskin mattress under him, Han Shizhong, Xiao Yanping, Yu Dayi and others were all looking at him.

Zhao Xingde came to his senses and asked, "Have all the horse thieves retreated?" "Yes!" Xiao Yanping said with a smile: "Thanks to Lord Han's clever calculation and sacrificing himself to lure the enemy, the leader of the horse thieves saw that we had already occupied the geographical advantage, and felt that he couldn't get any bargains, so he never attacked, Lord Han sent detectives to patrol around, maybe the horse thieves have retreated." Han Shizhong also nodded, but his face was not very good-looking.

Later, I learned that Dong Wei, the head of the iron cavalry who went with Han Shizhong to lure the enemy, was killed in battle, and when several horse thieves attacked Han Shizhong, Dong Wei lost his life in order to cover his back. Dong Wei, like Han Shizhong, is the son of a military family who has been in the army for generations, his hometown is Guanzhong, and he grew up in the forbidden army camp in Bianliang, and he only wants to die on the same day in the same year.

For fear of being eaten by birds and beasts, the corpses of the fallen Iron Cavalry were wrapped in leather blankets and carried by carriages. Another carriage carried dozens of heads, this trip to Han Shizhong's business was reported as a border patrol errand, these comrades of the iron cavalry and horse thieves died in the battle, the court should have a pension, and those horse thieves heads are evidence of battle and meritorious service. The heavy goods that the merchants had left behind, the sheep they used to lure the enemy, and the clothes of the sheep were all taken away by the horse thieves, but they did not take the corpses of their comrades, leaving them to the wilderness. After the horse thief retreated, Han Shizhong carefully examined the body of the horse thief and found a lot of wolf head tattoos, he was going to go back to inquire about which bandit's mark, and then personally took the iron cavalry to avenge this great revenge.

"I don't know what filth was smeared on the thief's stab at you." Han Shizhong said to Zhao Xingde, "Fortunately, Langzhong's antidote works, and I have thanked him twice on your behalf." Zhao Xingde nodded, and said in a hoarse voice: "There is Brother Lao Han." ”

This time the catastrophe did not die, after that, whether it was marching or going down to the village, the caravan and the soldiers were all cautious, Xiaoxing stayed overnight for dozens of days, and finally passed through the border area of the Liao and Song dynasties, and arrived at the boundary of Hejian Province.

Zhao Xingde's body was originally quite strong, and his mood gradually improved with the injury, at this time it was close in recent years, and there was a sound of firecrackers in the deserted village and wild shop on the road, and the wharves and post stations in Hejian Mansion were crowded with traders from all over the country, rushing to bring the last batch of northern goods back to the Central Plains. The fields of the farmers are stacked with high stacks, and even the poorest tenants are ready to buy New Year's goods at this time, and the faces of the pedestrians on the road are also filled with the joy of the New Year. Zhao Xingde looked around, only to feel that the peaceful scene of prosperity was like a world away from the unpredictable border.

When I passed by a ferry, I saw a flat-bottomed riverboat moored on the shore, and many farmers lined up with empty burdens, and a few men on the boat were weighing a foul-smelling filth and shoveling it into the farmer's burden.

"What's going on?" Zhao Xingde frowned, there is a special sale of human and animal manure in Hejian Mansion City, but this foul smell and filth are actually full of boats, and it is not as common as you see.

Han Shizhong shook his head, he also didn't know anything, but Xiao Yanping said: "This is guano from the overseas archipelago, which is used to compensate for the soil fertility, and it is the most effective." ”

"Guano?" Zhao Xingde said.

"Exactly." Xiao Yanping nodded, "In order to resist the Khitan cavalry, Hebei Prefecture and County are not allowed to cut down trees arbitrarily. In order to keep out the cold, the farmer had to turn over the grass pole that should be turned into the field as fertilizer as firewood and grass, and the paddy fields in Hebei Province are the most labor-intensive, if you do not add bird droppings to raise the soil back and forth, it will not take twenty or thirty years, and the land will not be able to grow crops. ”

"The world is so big, it's really amazing." Han Shizhong said with an incredulous expression, "I didn't expect bird droppings to be sold for money." ”

"Han Ye is a nobleman, he has been in Beijing for a long time, and I don't know if it is natural. Where the birds of the overseas archipelago live, bird droppings are piled up for everyone to take for themselves. It's just that if it is transported to the Central Plains, the freight is too expensive, and it is not cost-effective, but the southeast coastal area and the prefectures and counties of Hebei are accustomed to using guano to raise fields, which is extremely effective, and medium fields can also be supplemented into high-quality fields. ”

"The end of the year is approaching, and the poor people have not yet repaid their debts, how can they have spare money to buy these things?"

"This is all paid by the rich and landlords, so that the tenants can pick it up and use it, and the land is more fertile, so that the rent will be increased in the next year." Xiao Yanping explained.

"I see." Han Shizhong suddenly realized, "Sure enough, there is no business or treachery, those of us who are soldiers eat food, that is not to fight with blood and sweat of our heads, you can make money by finding a desert island casually." ”

"Where does Master Han speak, because the freight is not cheap, and the guano business is actually not very profitable, but it is better to be stable and flow for a long time." Since escaping, Xiao Yanping's attitude towards Han Shizhong has become more respectful, and there is a flame-like ornament on the bow of the riverboat selling bird droppings, Xiao Yanping occasionally glances at that place, and his eyes become a little wandering.