Chapter 111: Gone the wrong way

The so-called army that Lu Zhu saw was Li Daoan's caravan, because there were too many goods, so the smoke and dust raised were very large, and Lu Zhu's eyes were not good, no wonder it was regarded as an army.

Similarly, because there were too many goods, they walked very slowly along the way, and when the Toude Department was ready to welcome the banquet, they were still more than twenty miles away from the Toude Division.

"I said, huhu, how far is it from the Toude Ministry?" Li Daoan's fat body rode on the horse, wiping his sweat constantly: "My God, it's just May, it's so hot, and it's okay to wait until the dog days?" Why is it so hot this year? ”

"It's not far away, twenty miles away." The young man named Ha Hu replied while fiddling with the whistle given to him by Li Daoan.

"Twenty miles to go!" Li Daoan wailed.

"Master Li, don't scream, it won't be faster if you call again, let's drink some water." The person who spoke was wearing armor, his name was Mu Guicheng, and he was a team leader who was specifically responsible for the safety of the caravan.

"Team Mu is really polite, in front of you, you can't afford to be called an adult." Li Daoan heard Mu Guicheng call him an adult, and hurriedly said modestly. In the Tang Dynasty, the team was leading fifty soldiers, and he was an official on the seventh grade, which was not comparable to Li Daoan, a small third-class official.

Mu Guicheng said: "Where do you speak, your lordship is a celebrity in front of His Royal Highness King Yue, as long as you give your adult time, it's not a matter of time before you soar?" ”

He is also an understanding person, although he is indeed higher than Li Daoan's grade at present, but his official position is his own battlefield to kill the enemy and fight hard, if there is no one behind him, this life is estimated to be like this. But Li Daoan is different, although he is just a small foreign official, but he has already entered Li Zhen's eyes, as long as his luck is not too bad in the future, it is not a simple matter to be promoted? If I can befriend him before he is developed, after he is developed, won't he have a way to be promoted?

"Hey, you can't talk nonsense, do you want to kill me?" Li Daoan didn't care about politely lowering his voice and said, he looked around as he spoke, and felt that no one was looking at him, so he continued to whisper: "Brother Mu, you really almost killed me, do you know, there are people from His Highness in the caravan, if these words fall on His Highness's ears, we are afraid that we will be finished." ”

Mu Guicheng suddenly came to his senses, and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and quickly slapped himself twice, and said apologetically: "Yes, yes, I'm sorry, Brother Li, it's me who has a quick mouth, and I deserve to die." ”

"Forget it, Brother Mu, you have to remember, follow His Highness to do things, do more and talk less, and pay attention in the future."

"Yes, yes, yes, it makes sense, thank you Brother Li for your advice, my brother still has to patrol, so I won't talk to Brother Li and say goodbye." Mu Guicheng thanked him, and he didn't care about getting close to Li Daoantao, so he hurriedly turned his horse's head and went to patrol ahead.

Looking at Mu Guicheng's departing back, Li Daoan snorted: "Whew, it's another guy who speaks without a brain, this kind of person dies the fastest." ”

"Eh, by the way, Hahu, how many people are in your tribe?" Looking at the smokey and dusty team, Li Daoan suddenly remembered one thing, that is, can the entire Toude Department receive such a large caravan as himself?

"This ......" Ha Hu calculated for a moment and said, "There are about a thousand people in our entire tribe, it was the Great Elder Grandpa who told me." ”

“...... Is there only so much? Are there any big tribes near your tribe? Li Daoan said with the last glimmer of hope.

"No, this pasture is not fertile, and the big tribes don't look down on it, and only small tribes like us are willing to come and settle here." Hahu's words directly extinguished Li Daoan's last glimmer of hope.

"It's over, it's over, it's really over this time, our caravan has more than 5,000 people, how can you receive it as a tribe?" Li Daoan suddenly smiled bitterly, he didn't expect that he would be unfavorable, just walked for three days, and encountered such a big difficulty - like the desert, the supply point of the grassland is also fixed, even if it is living by water and grass, there are fixed rules, and the merchants walking on the grassland will firmly remember these routes.

And the reason why Li Daoan chose to walk in this direction is also because he knows that there will be a medium-sized tribe stationed near this time of year to graze, as long as some goods are sold in this tribe and enough water is purchased, he can continue to move forward, and after seven days, he can reach another large tribe, and then the cycle repeats until his goods are sold out.

But this time there was an oolong, after walking for seven days, after he came to this familiar place, he found that the tribe he was familiar with did not appear, and after asking around, he learned that this tribe was not subordinated to the Tang Dynasty because it did not obey the king, and it had been exterminated by the Tang army as early as half a month ago......

It's embarrassing, you can't just go back, right? It's not that Li Daozong didn't want to go back, the problem is that this time in order to carry more goods, the food supply was only brought for a total of seven days, originally he planned to supply in this tribe, but the people have been wiped out by the Tang army, which means that they have run out of food, and they can't go back at all.

It was also at this time that this guy named Hahu and his companions discovered him (in fact, Lu Zhu found out earlier, but Lu Zhu thought they were an army and ran away early), and learned that they were merchants, so he happily brought them back to his tribe.

It is very happy to see a living person on the grassland, and Li Daoan's mind is also thinking about the future business route, so he didn't think much about it at all, and he didn't think about this problem until just now, but the result made him feel cold.

A thousand people want to be a small tribe, and at most they can supply a caravan of several hundred people. Such a tribe itself does not have many resources, food must be enough, and the most important thing in the grassland is cattle and sheep, even if there is an army of 100,000, it is enough to eat.

The problem is water, and the water in the steppe is very precious, and its status in the minds of the steppe people is no less than that of the oasis in the eyes of the desert people. And a large part of the wars on the grassland are also caused by aquatic weeds, and how much strength occupies how much water is this is the eternal and constant truth on the grassland.

How many water sources can a small tribe of 1,000 people have? It is simply impossible to provide enough drinking water for the caravan, which is the main reason why Li Daoan finished shouting.

"Consul General, I saw you and Team Mu muttering just now, and now you are like this again, what's wrong?" The person who spoke was a man in his thirties, and the most striking thing on his face was the handful of sheep's beard, which he combed neatly, even on the windy and sandy prairie, there was still no trace of messiness.

This person's name is Ding Shan, and he is the account office of the caravan of the Dadu Hufu, and he controls all the money and goods in and out of the caravan. Li Daoan knew that Ding Shan was the highest-ranking person in the caravan, and he was also Li Zhen's die-hard loyalist, and his role was to contain and supervise Li Daoan. He has no opinion on this, after all, this is a lot of wealth, and it is already a trust to let you preside over the affairs of the caravan, as for the money, you don't even think about it, at least for a short time.

"Shopkeeper Ding, we are in trouble......" Li Daoan said the question again, and finally gritted his teeth and said: "This time it was my mistake, I chose a wrong route, and when I go back, I will ask His Highness for the guilt, and all the responsibility will be taken on me, Shopkeeper Ding, you don't have to worry." ”

"No, no, no, how can I blame you? This route was chosen by both of us, and neither of us expected such a thing to happen. Ding Shan hurriedly said: "Besides, I am responsible for the finances of the caravan, and it is also my responsibility if I don't make any money, so don't take it from yourself." ”

"This really can't be done, I'm the consul of the caravan, and I'm responsible for everything in the caravan, and this time I'm going the wrong way, and the responsibility naturally lies with me."

"Hey, I'll be honest with you." Ding Shan was very moved and said his identity: "My mother-in-law is the nurse of His Royal Highness, there is such a relationship, even if I make a mistake, His Highness will not blame me." ”

"Besides, we haven't gone far, at most it's just turning back, as long as the Ministry of Virtue is willing to sell us all their water, we can collect enough drinking water to move forward, it's too early to say responsibility."

"I didn't expect you to have such an identity, Mr. Ding, no wonder Your Highness trusts you so much." Li Daoan glanced at Ding Shan in surprise, but still frowned and said: "But Mr. Ding, what you think is too simple, in this grassland, water is life, and no tribe will sell all its water to others." So I understand your kindness, but whoever is responsible is whoever is responsible, and I can't push the responsibility to you just because you have a higher status, I am the consul general of the caravan, and the responsibility lies with me. ”

"I'm the actual head of the caravan, and I should take on more responsibility."

"Brother Ding, I admit your favor, but ......"

"No, Brother Li, you are wrong......"

“......”