"Although I am not 100% sure, in my opinion, the little brother Zhang Chao will not be worried about his life for the time being, and I am afraid that he is no longer in this Zhangjiakou City at this moment, so you will not be able to find it for two days. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info "Song Qi shook the folding fan, looking calm and relaxed, if he replaced his folding fan with a feather fan, it would definitely make people feel as if Zhuge Liang was coming......

Although his words clearly said that "there is no 100% certainty", judging from the tone of his voice and this confident appearance, Song Qi must have a considerable degree of confidence in this matter, or his statement that "there is no 10% certainty" is itself a way to express modesty.

"Brother Song, don't sell Guanzi, hurry up and make it clear, we are all in a fog by you." Luo Yangxing finally couldn't hold his breath, and signaled Song Qi to hurry up and make it clear, and stop playing Zhuge Liang.

"It's you who don't let me say it well, one will say that I'm telling a joke, and the other will ask me if I should be serious......" Song Qi was obviously very dissatisfied with Luo Yangxing's urging tone, and Luo Yangxing and the others were all speechless.

However, dissatisfaction was dissatisfied, and Song Qi still decided not to continue to sell Guanzi, and told his opinion: "According to Song's estimate, there is a chance that Zhang Chao's little brother has left the city of Zhangjiakou at this time, and now he thinks that he is on the grassland. ”

Seeing that Luo Yangxing's face was full of doubts, and he was about to ask a question again, Song Qi didn't give him a chance to ask questions, so he continued, "If you want to talk about the reason for this matter, you still have to start with the Wang Dengku you want to investigate this time......

With Song Qi's explanation, Luo Yangxing and others finally understood the meaning of his statement that "Zhang Chao has been out of the customs at this time and is on the prairie".

It turned out that Wang Dengku, who Luo Yangxing and his family had come to Zhangjiakou to investigate this time, was doing business with the Mongols on the grassland, although under normal circumstances, they usually transported tea, salt and other goods to Zhangjiakou and traded with the Mongols who came to buy them -- this is also the most fundamental reason for the prosperity of Zhangjiakou. But sometimes, for various reasons, Mongolian customers need him to help, deliver the goods to their doorsteps, and of course, as long as the other party pays a high price, there is nothing wrong with Wang Dengku's side - although there is a high risk involved.

The reason for the risk lies in the fact that although in the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty, all the Mongols on the steppe are Mongols, and there is no essential difference, but in fact, the Mongols on the steppe are not monolithic, but have their own tribes, and there are dozens or hundreds of tribes large and small, and the relationship between them is not necessarily all intimate, on the contrary, there are often mutual successes.

The situation of so many tribes is not exactly the same, naturally there are rich and poor, some like to speak with money, and some like to use force to speak. Therefore, the risk factor of the door-to-door delivery service provided by Wang Dengku is actually quite high, after all, the business done with tribe A tribe B may not necessarily admit it, maybe it happens that tribe B is a person who has no money, and at the same time is a person who likes to use force to solve problems, or tribe B simply has a grudge with tribe A, and does not want tribe A to get this material, all in all, the caravan of the Ming Dynasty here has all kinds of possibilities to be looted, and in terms of the caravan's defense ability, Most of the time they play the role of a fat sheep sent to the door, and there is no reason not to be slaughtered.

Of course, this is the very beginning, when the merchants just started this kind of business and have not yet figured out the way. Wang Dengku, as one of the top businessmen in Zhangjiakou, has done business with the Mongols for so many years, and must have gotten rid of the initial stage of blindly running to the grassland to send goods to others to rob, and has developed a lot of old customers and big customers over the years, and the business has also formed a certain scale, and the tribes of all sizes on the grassland are probably familiar with each other, and at the same time he has also raised a group of family guards, and has a certain ability to defend himself by force, so the goods have been robbed a lot less.

But even so, it is still extremely risky to transport goods outside the customs and on the grassland, just like wearing strong armor, it does not mean that you can let others wave their knives at them and you will definitely not get hurt.

After all, there are too many uncontrollable factors on the grassland, and a small tribe of hundreds of people can cause great trouble to the caravan, and this kind of inconspicuous small tribe like Wang Dengku's bosses can't get all of them, or even if the tribes that have been dotted by merchants see the rich goods and break their promises, it is common for them to break their promises and get fat, even if the guards on the caravan side are effective and finally repel the other party, their side will inevitably pay the price of casualties, and there are a large number of goods dragging down, Nor can they come and go like the raiders - this is still a rare occurrence, of course, and the most common scenario is that all the men of the caravan are killed and all the goods are plundered.

Therefore, even though Wang Dengku and other big merchants have always offered very high prices and extremely generous treatments, except for those who are poor to a certain extent and have the mentality of gambling, few people are willing to accept their employment to play the role of a man or a strong man who transports goods on the grassland, so the problem that merchants face all year round is the shortage of manpower.

"You mean, Zhang Chao was arrested by a businessman like Wang Dengku and went to the grassland to transport goods?" After listening to Song Qi's explanation, Luo Yangxing naturally came to this conclusion.

"Nine times out of ten, that's it." Song Qi also gave an affirmative answer, although he had never seen Zhang Chao, he still said in a natural tone, "Zhang Chao's little brother thinks he is also strong, they like this the most." ”

"Even if that's the case, you can't just pull people away, right?" Luo Yangxing still had some doubts, frowned and asked, "If you hire someone to work, you always have to let the family know about it, make some preparations and then go out, how can you suddenly arrest someone like this, and don't even give a chance to come back and say a word?" ”

"Well." Song Qi pondered for a while and said, "I heard that Wang Dengku has found a new big customer this time, and he is doing a very secret big business......

"You know about this, too?" When Luo Yangxing heard this, he asked again with a shocked face.