In the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu, Shao Yun followed Guo Jian and Chang Sheng to build Zhigu City. In the twenty-ninth year of Hongwu, Zhigu City was completed, Chang Sheng was ordered to return to Beijing, and Guo Jian took over as the commander of Zhigu Zhongwei. After receiving a message from Kuang Yi, the chief of the guards of the loyal Marquis Song Zhong, Guo Jian immediately sent someone to send the news to the Beijing Division, and at the same time ordered Shao Yun, Tan Yuan and others to sail north, and all the civilian ships and official ships below Tongzhou were driven to Zhigu, cutting off the Yan army's road to the east along the river, and also eliminating the possibility of the Yan army using the canal, resulting in the Yan army having to dig the canal in the second year of Jianwen.

In the second year of Jianwen, the imperial court re-established the Beiping Metropolitan Division and appointed Guo Jian as a servant. And Shao Yun and Tan Yuan were gradually promoted to Tianjin's left and right guards. Although there was no major war in Zhigu in the past two years, before the battle of Tongzhou, the Yan army would often send people to harass, sneak attacks, robbing ships, and burning ships were commonplace, and in the accumulated battles, the two also grew up rapidly, and their use and training of arquebuses, infantry, and tiger squat guns were unique, and Tan Yuan also proposed some improvements to arquebuses and tiger squat cannons, which were commended by the imperial court.

Shao Yun has been away from Zhigu for a few days, of course he will not know the conversation between his boss Guo Jian and his colleague Tan Yuan in Zhigu City, nor will he know that Tan Yuan is worried about him, he doesn't even realize the danger of this trip, and it is strange that no one reminded him, as for Tan Yuan, it is limited to knowledge, and it will be too late after he knows.

At this time, Shao Yun lived in an inn in Zunhua, and his current identity was the young shopkeeper of the Liaodong business name "Yu Fuji", under the pseudonym Yu Fengyun. After entering the city, Shao Yun found that Zunhua City was different from what he imagined, the city was orderly, and there were many shops, which was much more prosperous than Zhigu City. It is not uncommon to see Mongolians dressed in robes, waists, and hair disheveled, doing business with shopkeepers in Mongolian, who are also proficient in Mongolian, and the two sides talk about business in good harmony and sometimes laugh. Shao Yun inquired and learned that most of the owners of these shops were the families of the Wuliangha cavalry under King Yan, and these Mongols came from outside the mouth, and came here to sell some horses, cattle and sheep, in exchange for ironware, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea and other items. Shao Yun asked the road steward of the caravan to know that this situation had appeared since the rebellion of King Yan last year, but after the turn of the year, the scale became larger and larger, and the Mongols liked canned food, snacks and other items in Liaodong very much, so they often came to trade.

Shao Yun is very strange, so why didn't the Mongols go to Quang Ninh to trade? The road steward smiled and said in a low voice: "The young master doesn't know, now the horse thieves are rampant outside the gate, if the Mongols are alone, there is a chance that their heads will be chopped off, I heard that they were all done by the Jurchens in Liaodong, they were summoned by the Liaodong Metropolitan Division, and exchanged the heads of the Mongols for a reward of silver, and now there are no big battles near Guangning and Daning, and there are continuous small battles, how dare the Mongols go to Guangning?" Want to die? ”

"Of course, we don't want to go to Quang Ninh, once it is found out, it will be an enemy, not only will the goods be confiscated, but also a knife will be issued to each guy, so that they can cut off the head of a Mongolian and come back, so that they can atone for the crime!" The road steward stroked his beard and said in a low voice.

"No, wouldn't that be a death for the guy?" Shao Yun was a little puzzled.

"Hehe, the young master thinks too much," the road steward looked around and said with a smile: "Since the Mongolian head can be exchanged for silver, then just buy a head for the guy." ”

"So, there are two roads from Liaodong, one is the sea route, the sea route is risky, once the wind comes, it is the situation of the ship sinking the goods, but you can save some money, although you have to pay some in Zhigu ashore, of course, it is much less than that of Guangning."

"The road in Guangning is a bloody road, in short, it is a road paved with the heads of the Mongols," Speaking of this, the road steward lowered his voice again: "Not only can the guys exchange the heads of the Mongols, but the goods are also the same, so now there are many businesses in Guangning that openly buy the heads of the Mongols, and then hand them over to the officers and soldiers of Guangning, as long as they see the seal of Guangning Wei, Shanhaiguan will let them go, otherwise they will be the same as Guangning, and they will send knives to the grassland to fight with the Mongols." ”

"Hiss-----" Shao Yun couldn't help but gasp, pointed out the window, and stammered: "Then these goods ......"

The road steward coughed lightly, shook his head, and nodded.

......

Looking at the back of the road manager, Shao Yun didn't understand whether this road manager was a real businessman or a subordinate of the Intelligence Department. Along the way, Shao Yun found that he was very talkative, and in terms of his conversation, he was very much like a businessman, because as long as he talked about the goods, prices, and specialties of various places, the road manager would talk non-stop. In the end, he also figured out that since the Intelligence Department let him act with this firm, then this firm must be trustworthy, and even if it is not trusted, there is no better way for him.

However, Shao Yun smiled bitterly, if he didn't understand, forget it, anyway, he just had to wait for the arrangement of the Intelligence Department, meet with Zhang Fu, and persuade him to surrender. Shao Yun looked back at the window, and he didn't know if he hadn't seen him for more than a year, whether his former classmates were still in style, and Jin Se, and he didn't know what was going on.

Zhang Fu arrived in Zunhua on March 13, and like Shao Yun, he was taken aback. He thought that Zunhua was a situation where the Mongols were rampant and domineering, and the people were not able to make a living, and on the way he thought hard about the difficult situation described by his mother, but he did not expect that the Mongol army was not in the city at all, but the city instead set up a mutual market, cattle and sheep outside the city, and even horses were traded here, and the Han people's ironware, silk, cotton, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar tea and other goods were also very popular. Looking at the hot trading scene, and thinking back to Beiping City, where there are attacks and assassinations every day, and the market is depressed, Zhang Fu has a wry feeling. He even thought that the imperial court should send people to attack Zunhua, and once the market here was dispersed, the blow to the prince and Mongolia should be very great.

It wasn't until he met Jiang Yu, the commander of Zunhuawei, that he understood the ins and outs of the matter. According to Jiang Yu, in fact, before the prince raised troops, Beiping began to exchange markets with the Mongols, but at that time in the vicinity of Kaiping, now there are also mutual markets in Kaiping, but there are not many Han people, things are not complete, now the largest mutual market in Zunhua, the Mongolians drove cattle, sheep, horses through the Xifeng Pass, to Zunhua to exchange for goods, and then return to the north. As the weather warms up, the mutual market is becoming more and more hot.

When asked why the Liaodong army did not come to harass him, Jiang Yu replied: "That should be the credit of the Mongolian cavalry, since the Mongolian army was stationed nearby, the Liaodong rangers almost never returned, and slowly did not come." ”

"However, last month, Liaodong sent 5,000 cavalry over to fight the Mongols, and after withdrawing, they did not come again."

Last month? Zhang Fu secretly said in his heart: Maybe it was the news that leaked the Mongols, but not necessarily, there are many soldiers of the Wuliangha tribe under the prince, and the Liaodong Army should not be able to see it.

Zhang Fu hesitated for a moment and said, "General Jiang, is it safe over there at Xifengkou?" Will the Mongols sneak into the city? ”

"This," Jiang Yu also hesitated for a rare moment, and said in a low voice: "Originally, this is all a secret, but since you are here, you will know sooner or later." ”

"The Xifengkou Pass is now guarded by General Zheng Heng, but there are 3,000 Mongol troops in the pass, and it is said that the south gate is guarded."

"Huh?" Zhang Fu was shocked: "What if the Mongol army at the south gate unites with the Mongols outside the pass and breaks through the pass?" Isn't the prince suffering from the enemy on his back? ”

"Hehe," Jiang Yu laughed for the first time: "Now that our army is embarrassed, the imperial army is pressing, and the Mongols are not so stupid, they will not enter the customs without 100,000 certainty." ”

"But it's always too dangerous."

"I don't know about this, but I think the prince must have it in his heart."

"Okay."

At this moment, the guards outside the door came to report: "General Zhang, the king of Gaoyang County ordered you to go to Xifengkou Pass immediately, and there is something important to discuss." ”

Zhang Fu opened the military order and looked at it, immediately said goodbye to Jiang Yu, and rushed to Xifengkou Pass with the guards.