The caravan had been walking north for four days, and began to gradually enter the edge of the steppe, just as there must be a gray between white and black, and this became a buffer zone between the two major forces of the Han and the Xiongnu, and neither side could control this place, so it became a paradise for horse thieves and rogues.

The Xiongnu people have only a tribal alliance for a long time, and there is no real sense of the country, and the tribes are constantly fighting between each other, the large annexation force is small, the new ones replace the old ones, and the remnants of the Xiongnu tribes that are scattered often flee to the vicinity of the buffer zone, and make a living by plundering the passing merchants, and some of the murder fugitives in the Han land, the officers and soldiers who committed crimes and fell into the grass, and some of the remnants of the Yellow Turban Army who were wanted by the imperial court are gathered in this area. It's really a mix of dragons and snakes......

Everything in the world, existence is reasonable, such a gray area, but it has become an indispensable place for the Han and the Huns, some intelligence exchanges between the two sides, and many unsightly transactions are completed in these places, so slowly both sides have acquiesced to the existence of this place, due to the frequent turmoil in the interior in recent years, the Huns are also in dispute, but caused this region to become more and more prosperous, a kind of deformed prosperity!

At dusk, the caravan came to a river that stretched from east to west, ready to camp here, the river on the grassland is the same as the weather in this area, fickle, during the dry period of spring, the river is not waist-deep, shallow but knee-deep, the flow rate is slow, like a jade belt across the waist of the grassland mother, but in the rainy season of autumn, the river will rise by leaps and bounds, like ten thousand horses galloping down, revealing its cruel and ruthless side, whether it is a horse or a vehicle is extremely difficult to pass.

Before camping, according to the custom, the leaders of each caravan should gather to discuss tomorrow's itinerary, when Cao Fatzi arrived with sore legs, the rest of the leaders had already arrived, and there was no way to avoid numbness in their legs, talking with Xiao Yi, sitting was more tired than standing, and his butt didn't dare to hit the ground at all, all relying on his two legs to hold up, and he had to pretend to have a lofty expression on his face, which was really tiring legs, tiring, and tiring!

"Huh! Hello leaders, hard work! People are still more than a dozen steps away, Cao Fatman's laughter came first, every person shows a smile, does not laugh or speak, this is his principle of life, as the saying goes, stretch out your hand and do not hit the smiling person, just with this hand will laugh ability, Cao Fatzi is like a fish in water in the business circle.

"Leader Cao is hard!" The level of people can be reflected in all places, among the caravan leaders of each family, Su Shuang, Jia Gongzi, and Hu Ye are sitting on the cargo box, and the rest of the people are all standing aside, seeing Cao Fatzi coming over, the rest of the leaders are all clasping their fists in return, and the three most powerful people are only slightly owed, even if they have said hello.

In any case, as the leader of a caravan with the least number of people and the smallest power, he can get the same courtesy from everyone, which shows that everyone recognizes Cao Fatzi's ability very much, and he is also impressed by his small caravan, after all, in recent days, this wonderful five-person caravan has indeed shown its ability, although there are few personnel, but almost all of them have first-hand skills, except for the 'useless Xiao Yi' who can only eat and sleep!

"Chiefs, it's been four days since we came out, and now we're on the edge of the prairie, I don't know why, fat man, I'm getting more and more unstable, as if something is going to happen!" Fear is contagious, Cao Fat Man kept rubbing his two fat hands while talking, the autumn grassland is not cold, but his exaggerated movements, everyone's hearts immediately rose a chill, and then looked at the surrounding endless prairie, all of them were afraid, as if they also felt some danger.

"What's the panic, more than a dozen of our caravans got together, there are five or six hundred people alone, all with blades, if the average horse thief team wants to fight our idea, he has to weigh it first, and be careful to break off a few of his big teeth!" The leader Su Shuang had the most experience, and immediately spoke to reassure people's hearts, and seeing that everyone's faces finally eased, he continued: "But what Lao Cao said is not unreasonable, there are dangers on this grassland, we must be vigilant, do you have any good solutions?" ”

"What are you afraid of, if there is really an eyeless thief coming, Master Tiger, my knife is not a vegetarian, come one, I'll slaughter one, come two, I'll slaughter a pair!" Among the people, the tiger master was the most cruel and warlike, and he stuck his waist knife on the ground, and the red silk on the handle of the knife suddenly buzzed, and half of his words were about horse thieves, and the other half were for everyone present.

"Humph! It's so majestic, let's come out to do business, but we're not here to kill people, there's a way to save it, don't have nothing to do with a knife, be careful of hurting yourself! Jia Gongzi, who was dressed in white, had a blue face, and he pushed back hard, as if his stomach was full of anger, as for who made him angry, only God knows.

"Oh, I don't know what Mr. Jia has to say? Speaking out also opened my eyes! The tiger master skillfully played with the knife, but his eyes did not leave Jia Gongzi's handsome little face, and while watching, the corners of his mouth showed a hint of a deep smile.

"In my opinion, we can stretch the team as long as possible and form a long snake formation, so that we can echo from end to end, and we can help each other, and the horse thieves will not want to surround us all if they have the ability, even if the situation is extremely unfavorable, at least they can run away from a large number of people!" Jia Gongzi's method of 'one word long snake formation' is actually 'gecko tail cutting', using some people to take risks and protect most of them, although it is not a foolproof strategy, but it is also a way in a crisis-ridden situation.

"Is there a better way? If not, that's all there is to it! Su Shuang began to ask everyone's opinions, obviously he also approved of Jia Gongzi's method, it is better to die alone than to die together!

Everyone immediately began to discuss, some people thought that this was unfounded, purely asking for trouble, such a big caravan passed by, those little horse thieves came to send them to death, but most people still felt that they should be careful, but they couldn't come up with any specific solutions, just where to be in a hurry, and finally everyone's eyes were all on Cao Fatzi again, you kid provoked the topic, you have to come up with a solution!

"In the fat man's humble opinion, running is not the way, we have a lot of vehicles, and we can run past those horse thieves who come and go like the wind! It will only be eaten by people bite by bite, ...... for now, we should choose a better campsite, this grassland river is winding and rugged, why don't we find a corner to camp? In that way, the camp can be surrounded by water on three sides, and everyone only needs to concentrate on defending one side, and then we will gather all the vehicles of each family, connect them end to end, and form a defense line on the periphery, and all the people and horses will hide inside, so that even if a large number of horse bandits are coming, as long as they can't break through the defense line, everyone will be safe! Cao Fatzi seemed to have a draft in his heart, and immediately put forward a feasible suggestion.

"Then what if the horse bandits block us in the loop? They can't rush in, but we can't rush out either? As soon as the suggestion came out, some attentive people immediately raised questions.

"Don't be afraid, the food and grass we carry are sufficient, even if we eat for ten days and half a month, it will not be a problem, and the camp is backed by a big river, so there is no need to worry about drinking water, it will be consumed with them!" Cao Fatzi waved his big hand, looking like he had already thought about it, "Those horse thieves have always come and gone like the wind, just like the wolves on this grassland, what they pay attention to is that they miss a blow and immediately flee thousands of miles, they never carry too much dry food on them, if we can survive for ten days, they can't even withstand two days." ”

"Good, good way! Just do what the fat man says! Hearing Cao Fatzi's idea, everyone applauded unanimously, in the past, each caravan was camped separately, and it was easy to be broken by people one by one, but now together, there are many people with great strength, and their courage will naturally be strong.

"Then let's split up! Each family is preparing more branches and stacks of firewood, in case there is really a horse thief attacking, it can be used for lighting up during the night battle! Seeing that everyone agreed with his opinion, after Cao Fatzi made the final addition, he turned around and left, he had other things to do, at least he had to go back and report.

"I didn't expect this fat man to arrange troops, there are rules and laws, I am more powerful than the tiger master!" Among the people, the tiger master has been a soldier on the battlefield, so he naturally immediately understood the cleverness of Cao Fatzi's arrangement, using the river as a barrier and the vehicle as a wall, not only can he stop the cavalry from charging, but his own people can also stand on the car and assassinate the enemy condescendingly, and it is much more convenient to observe the enemy's movements, which is definitely a regular way of playing in the army.

Jia Gongzi is silent, in the family he has always been known for his intelligence, the rest of the brothers and sisters are far worse than him, otherwise it would not be his turn to lead the team into the grassland, you know, there are a lot of brothers and brothers in the family; But now he had to admit that this fat man's method was much more clever than what he had been pondering in his heart, and when he thought that his wisdom was not as good as that of a dead fat man who was a trader, Jia Gongzi's heart was as depressed as eating a fly.

"He has a master behind him!" Silent for a while, Su Shuang said with great certainty, his eyes on people have always been vicious, although this Cao Fat Man is a business talent, but when it comes to marching and fighting, arranging troops, it is definitely not his strong point, there must be a master behind him to give him guidance, but his small caravan is a total of five people, which one will be the master? ?