Fang Yuan and Jing Jie explained in a low voice that the Jinyi guards must take turns on duty tonight, so as not to be taken advantage of.

Jing Jie agreed with his doubts, so he arranged a group of five brocade guards to take turns to be on duty for an hour.

Fang Yuan returned to the room, Xiao Yuan had already laid out the quilt and brought hot water.

After Fang Yuan freshened up, he was so sleepy that he didn't even take off his clothes, so he collapsed on the Hu bed in the room, shrunk against the corner of the wall, leaving half of the space for Xiao Yuan.

Xiao Yuan immediately saw the hint of his move, and the two of them could sleep on a hu bed.

Before, Fang Yuan was resolute that he would not share a room with Xiao Yuan, let alone share a bed, but now he is willing to sleep half of the Hu bed by himself, which is the greatest kindness.

Xiao Yuan happily prepared to go to bed in wide clothes, but heard Fang Yuan's deep voice coming, "There may be a change today, so you don't have to take off your clothes." ”

Xiao Yuan answered softly, and slept next to him in kimono, but his pink face was hot for a while, and he hesitated to get closer and be next to him.

Her body had just moved, and Fang Yuan's voice came again, "I'm tired from the journey, let's rest early!" ”

As soon as these words came out, Xiao Yuan was so frightened that he quickly retracted his body, and no longer dared to approach him, tossing and turning, until he was tired on the second watch, and fell asleep deeply.

The next morning, while Fang Yuan was still asleep, he was woken up by a commotion.

"Something's wrong?"

He got up suddenly, opened the curtain of the window of the room, and looked down the street, at the door of the Hufeng Tavern, there were already one or two hundred people densely surrounded, most of them Mongolian men wearing Mongolian clothes, with fine iron sabers tied around their waists, and strong bows on their shoulders, but the leaders were twenty or thirty Han people in uniform blue costumes.

Xiao Yuan was still meekly sleeping on the Hu bed, with a charming smile on his pink face, obviously still dreaming.

Fang Yuan put on the quilt for her lovingly, got up and tidied up the brocade clothes, and just pushed the door out, but saw Jing Jie coming in a hurry, "Boss, something happened!" ”

Fang Yuan stood by the earthen wall on the second floor, looking into the courtyard, it was Li Zongze and his party from the old department of the Tianxiong Army, and they had a dispute with others.

Li Zongze took out his saber, pointed at the other party and shouted, "Who are you?" The rules of the bazaar, as long as you pay taxes, you can buy and sell, why can't we sell cloth? I didn't pay my taxes, or did I miss a dot? ”

The leader was a man of grace in brocade robes, at least thirty or forty years old, and behind him was a group of Mongolian men dressed in Mongolian leather armor and armed to the teeth.

The leader turned a blind eye to Li Zongze's dangling saber, and said slowly, "I am the eldest son of Fan Sanba Fan of the Jiexiu Fan family, and the foreign trade of Xuanfu and Datong is all decided by the eight Jin merchants, and no one can intervene privately, this is the rule of the bazaar." ”

Fang Yuan secretly realized that the eight Jin merchants were the eight largest Jin merchants who had been active in Datong and Xuanfu border towns for a long time, and the principals of the eight were Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Guest, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, and Huang Yunfa.

These eight Jin merchants, active in Zhangjiakou all the year round, are all profit-seeing, forgetful businessmen, for many years with the Manchu Qing Dynasty outside the Guan, selling grain, cloth, iron and other important strategic materials to the enemy.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty is just a fishing and hunting tribe of hundreds of thousands of people, but it can have a steady stream of grain and iron to fight with the Ming Dynasty for twenty or thirty years, and even the economy of the Ming Dynasty has been dragged down, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty has not been dragged down.

Among them, the Jiexiu Fan family, led by Fan Yongdou, betrayed the country the most thoroughly, not only buying and selling grain and iron tools, but even lending a large amount of silver to the Manchu Qing as military expenses to alleviate the financial crisis of the Manchu Qing.

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, they reciprocated the favor, and the Fan family became the largest imperial merchant in the Jin Dynasty.

This Fan Sanba is the son of Fan Yongdou, the head of the Fan family.

Li Zongze has been in the border town market all the year round, how could he not know the name of the Jiexiu Fan family. This Fan family has already bought off the general soldiers of the two border towns of Daming Xuanfu and Datong as backing, and has hired thousands of brave and warlike Mongolian mercenaries to take care of their homes all year round, and their financial resources and power cannot be underestimated.

In Datong, Xuanfu Erbian Town, and even the first line from northern Jin to the Great Wall, they are all rich businessmen who can walk sideways.

The Fan family is menacing this time, there are fifty Mongolian mercenaries in the tavern, and I don't know how many are outside the tavern, and there are less than ten people in his own group, and the difference in strength is too great.

Although Li Zongze is unruly and unruly, he is not a fool, and the confrontation with the wealthy Fan family is clearly an egg hitting a stone, thinking that the hero will not suffer the loss in front of him, so he softened, "Okay, Fan Gongzi, we don't know the rules of the market, leave immediately, and never come again." ”

Fan Sanba had a sneer on his face, and looked at him obliquely, "Secretly doing business in our Fan family's territory, and also alarming my eldest prince Fan to come in person after hundreds of miles of travel, and want to leave after explaining such a sentence?" Hey! ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the Mongolian mercenaries behind him rushed forward, surrounded Li Zongze and several people, drew their sabers, and shouted.

Li Zongze knew that there was a big deal today, so he asked rhetorically, "Fan Gongzi just say it!" How to solve this problem? ”

Fan Sanba said leisurely, "Today, I will teach you some rules, the rules of our Fan family." You have bought and sold cloth in this bazaar more than once, twice! All the goods were confiscated this time, and a fine of 1,000 taels of silver was sent to ransom them. ”

Li Zongze and his entourage were originally engaged in the trade of licking blood on the knife edge, and this time the goods were confiscated, at least three or four thousand taels of silver were lost, these are all the blood-earned silver of the same village fathers and old villagers to do business, and the villagers in the village are still waiting for this trip to make money and go back to live a good life.

The Fan family not only had to confiscate the goods, but also withheld people to pay a ransom, which was tantamount to forcing Li Zongze and his party to a dead end.

Is it tolerable or unbearable!

Li Zongze can be regarded as having seen a big scene in Liaodong, so he drew his saber and rushed forward, wanting to capture Fan Sanba, who was the leader, as a hostage, and wait for an opportunity to get out.

Before he could rush to Fan Sanba, an eight-foot-tall Mongolian strong man behind Fan Sanba rushed out, lifted his big saber and slashed at Li Zongze's door.

Li Zongze parried a knife, but the other party was infinitely powerful, and he shot down his saber with a single sword, and was also shattered, and blood flowed down his wrist.

Li Zongze was already a man in the army, his strength was not weak, and his figure was quite burly, but he was thrown out far away by a strong Mongolian man holding his collar like catching a chicken, and fell heavily to the ground, and he had no strength to fight.

Fan Sanba's face was full of mocking sneers, and he said coldly, "You are also worthy of coming to the Fan family's territory to spread wild, come here!" Tie me up! ”

More than a dozen Mongols rushed up and tied up Li Zongze and his party, but anyone who was disobedient and wanted to resist was directly knocked out with the hilt of a knife. The reason why they still have a few lives is not because the Fan family is merciful, but because they want to save their lives to collect the ransom.

Jing Jie saw that his brother Li Zongze, who was a friend of life and death, was arrested, and pulled out the thunderbolt fire gun he carried with him, and he wanted to fight hard with the people of the Fan family, but was stopped by Fang Yuan, "Third child, don't be impulsive!" ”

Jing Jie said angrily, "The Fan family is simply too deceitful, I fought with them!" ”

Fang Yuan pressed the firecracker in his hand and whispered, "Immediately order the Jinyi Guard to load the ammunition of the Thunderbolt Firecracker, the two firecrackers are fully loaded, and wait for my order." ”

The brocade guards that Fang Yuan brought this time were all equipped with the first batch of thunderbolts with bayonets sold to Fang Yuan by the Franco Chamber of Commerce, a total of fifty.

The Fan family and the Mongolian mercenaries are overwhelming, Jing Jie saw that Fang Yuan still dared to risk his life, and said movingly, "Boss, Li Zongze is my brother, I lost my life to do my brother's duty, it has nothing to do with you, boss, so don't take risks yourself." ”

Fang Yuan patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, "You can't see your brother lose his life, and neither can I!" Scold! Besides, who said we'd have an accident? I think it's this eldest son of the Fan family who will have an accident! ”

Jing Jie looked at him in amazement, he really didn't understand that in this environment of great disparity between strength and weakness and extreme disadvantage, Fang Yuan could have any way to turn defeat into victory.

Fang Yuan's gaze fell on Fan Sanba in the courtyard, and he laughed and said, "Haha, today I really gained knowledge, when a traitor still has to engage in monopoly, throughout the ages, only the Fan family is the only family, even Qin Hui is ashamed of himself!" ”

As soon as he said this, it clearly reached the ears of everyone present.

In the past ten years, there has never been a dare to provoke the Fan family in Datong border town, and everyone's stunned eyes fell on Fang Yuan.