As the leader of the team, Luo Kaixian was preoccupied, and Jia Ren, a businessman who accompanied the team, was also not so peaceful. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Jia Ren's mount is a moon-white horse with light brown patterns, called Qinghai Cheng at the time, and his shoulder height is nearly 1.7 meters, although it is not as good as Luo Kaixian's mount Duke, but it is also a rare horse. If it weren't for the fact that the horse's left hind leg had been damaged, it wouldn't have been owned by a merchant.

You must know that the war horses owned by the commanders of the Zhao and Song border armies are no more than that, and better horses can only be found in the forbidden army or the emperor's imperial garden.

Jia Ren raised his eyes and looked at the tall horses ridden by the soldiers who were walking on the same road in front and back, his heart was not as calm as it looked like on the outside, his heart was a merchant with envy, worry, and indelible greed.

Needless to say, greed, although it is not obvious on the face, Jia Ren's words are more like a big businessman who values the interests of the future and has a far-sighted vision, but the desire to pursue wealth as a businessman is engraved on the bones, as for the envy of the other party's strong strength, what he is worried about is whether the other party will be swallowed up by those big family valves in Song Di who eat people and do not spit out bones, and he himself is in vain.

Dealing with a person like Luo Kaixian who didn't know the details of the army was really an adventure that Jia Ren had to force to do, an adventure to break the deadlock in his own business.

The Jia family with the surname "Jia" was a small family that had been a merchant for a living, and in this era it was the last stream that was despised by the scholars, and in the late Tang Dynasty, the ancestors of the Jia family relied on the hard work of traveling in all directions to be able to settle down on the south bank of the Yellow River, and until the death of Song Li in Zhou, Jia Ren's ancestors were able to have a place in the business district of Bianliang City because they chose the right side and were appreciated by the Taiyuan royal family.

However, as a business circle in this era, or a chamber of commerce, to be honest, it is just a loose organization composed of businessmen from all parties, and those who can enjoy the appeal in the chamber of commerce may have the support of the millennium clan behind it, or have their words in the court to help stand on their feet, and the so-called chamber of commerce takes honesty as the main purpose of its business, and secretly makes it inevitable to fall into each other. Although the Song court is also constantly establishing legislation suitable for commercial development, compared with many wealthy families, it is actually no different from rootless duckweed.

Nowadays, Zhao and Song have entered a period of stability, and since the emperor Zhirenzong, the emperor has been in power, he has lost the pragmatism of his father and uncle, and in recent years, he has begun to appreciate his merits. The so-called upward and downward effect, how will the officials under Renzong change? I can't say that the country is in hand, but if I sit in a row and share the fruits, it is not very different.

In such a situation, the Jia family, a family that is not up or down, is beginning to be a little embarrassed, being squeezed out by the big households, the door lords and the spokesmen of the interests of the bureaucracy, and under the class division of Shinong, industry and commerce, it is even more not accepted by the bottom.

Jia Ren, who is the leader of the Jia family's caravan, has been following the elders of his family for the first time since he was seventeen years old, and he has not known how many back and forth he has walked on this road, and has seen many stories of people dying for money, birds dying for food, and also seeing many people who are not greedy and hurt themselves, so although he is looking for a new way out for the family, he tries his best to control his various selfish thoughts - he is not like the group of people in Bianliang who have returned from Lingzhou from a long distance.

And fortunately, as he foresaw, he couldn't go to Lingzhou, but the team of Lingzhou people who were suddenly seen from Yinzhou were by no means idle in his eyes, except for some Tang style mixed with foreign customs, which was obviously fierce, novel and powerful.

As for the fierce people, as far as he knew, like the guards in his caravan, whether it was the fierce soldiers in the Song army or the warriors of the Khitans in the north, all the fierce people were a little vulgar without exception. But in front of him, even if he doesn't understand military affairs, he can distinguish the toughness exuded from the bones of the other party's team, that kind of toughness is not the unique rough and brusque courage of the grassland Hu people, but an indescribable feeling, with the invincibility after walking thousands of miles, and the majesty overlooking the world.

The so-called novelty is that the robes on the other party's body are simple and solemn, the body is bulging, and the hands and feet show that everyone has a set of inner armor, and even every move, such as neat and capable every move, such as the polished weapon armor and even the shiny leather on the boots, such as the demeanor when they talk to each other...... All of this is very different from what is common to Jia, although most of them have an oriental face.

As for being powerful, this one is the most obvious. Most of the members of the opposing team are tall and powerful guys with long arms and strong arms, and occasionally a few thin guys are also sharp and shrewd, and they are all hung with long knives that you can know at a glance that they are made by Seiko, in addition to the two spears hanging on horseback, and more importantly, everyone has different off-hand weapons hanging on their bodies, bows and arrows and the like are commonplace, and there are all kinds of flying knives, spears, and axes; There were women in the opposing team, but even the most idiot could tell that the blades they were carrying were bloody...... Can such a team not be strong?

If it weren't for the fact that they were all wearing some leather robes to cover up, and the number of them was too small, Jia Ren would probably suspect that this was an army preparing to attack at the first time!

Fortunately, as a businessman, Jia Ren is well-informed, and as a resident of Bianliang, there are many opportunities to meet foreign envoys, and the number of formal envoys in the team should be at least a multiple of the current team.

After eliminating the surprise in his heart, Jia Ren's eyes paid more attention to the actions of Luo Kaixian's team.

Like the general caravan holding the flag of a certain state and a certain place, Luo Kaixian's team also has two flags in front of it, one is with the word "Lingzhou", and the other is a big "Luo" word, the difference is that most of the caravan flags are triangular green flags, and theirs are very similar to the square red and black flags used in the army.

If the style of the flag is only a small difference, the way this team travels is very different from that of a caravan. Ordinary caravans travel, and they will also send scouts in the early stage, but most of them are to investigate the road conditions, of course, they will also check whether there are bandits, or to avoid or discuss countermeasures in time, and the whole journey is almost as careful as possible. But this team is completely different, the spies in front are sent out several miles away, and they communicate with each other with brass trumpets or ringing drums, this unscrupulous approach is almost like telling the mountain bandits that may exist on the left and right - Lao Tzu wants to pass by, and they are all in order!

Jia Ren's heart couldn't help but rise.

This section of the road from Bianliang to Hexi, is not a poor mountain and bad water full of bandits, but it is not a smooth road, since the end of last year, because of the new opening of Yinzhou, the mountain bandits along the way began to increase.

These mountain bandits have their own ways and means, the more people occupy the mountains as kings, the few people pretend to be merchants looking for opportunities, some are greedy for money and do not want their lives, and some are extremely vicious and want money and death, and the chaos for a while is very good.

For a lot of small business businessmen, for safety, most of them choose to travel in a joint team, if it is a small number of bandits, it is not impossible to spend some money to buy road money, but from Bianliang to Yinzhou round trip goods, remove the loss of cars and horses and miscellaneous expenses have consumed one-third of the profits, if you buy more road money, the profit will be light and thin, if you are unlucky to meet a newly opened mountain or which uncle is unhappy, folding the book is also a common thing.

For a big merchant like Jia Ren, long-distance business is also not an easy task, because the perennial trade route, the mountains everywhere are familiar, the annual offerings are negotiated and quotas, each trip will be hung in the team on behalf of their own name flag, the number of mountain bandits will not come to intercept, as for the domestic caravan executioners, but in order to deal with the small thieves, want them to deal with the ubiquitous mountain bandits, the first thing to consider is their funeral expenses - that can not be easily distributed, and once the life is lost, What is lost may not be a simple money, but also the hearts of the family, and more likely the life of the family.

Jia Ren, who didn't want to risk fighting with the mountain bandits, lifted the reins of his mount, urged the mount to gallop quickly, and caught up with Luo Kaixian in front of him from the middle of the team, "General, General Luo...... Contemptible people have something to say! ”

Glancing at Jia Ren, who was so anxious that his face turned red, and then looked left and right at the mountain road, Luo Kai first took the reins of the duke to the side, stopped, and waited until the other party leaned over before he answered: "I don't know what is important for Brother Shengxing?" ”

Looking at Luo Kaixian's calm expression, Jia Ren was anxious, but he didn't dare to speak easily, he lowered his head and pondered for a while, before he raised his head and said: "General, there is a chaotic stone mountain about ten miles ahead, and the chaotic stone mountain is about a hundred miles to the south, and there is a group of mountain bandits newly entrenched in it, who often rob past business travelers, I don't know how the general will deal with it?" ”

"Mountain bandits?" Luo Kai raised his eyebrows first, and still asked with a wooden face: "Brother Shengxing, do you know the number of the other party?" How? Why didn't the Suizhou Song army go to purge them? ”

Luo really didn't take the so-called mountain bandits and road bandits in his eyes, the horse bandits who were overturned by him along the way were already innumerable, even when his men crossed the Transcaucasian mountains at least, he never avoided the mountain bandits and horse bandits, so he did not believe that the so-called eastern bandits could be much stronger than the horse thieves in West and Central Asia.

As a businessman, how could Jia Ren understand the secret? Seeing Luo Kaixian's casual demeanor, he suddenly became anxious, "General, there are more than 1,000 bandits in the Troubled Stone Mountain, and it is rumored that the first few people are from the Shatuo clan of the former Han Dynasty (Liu Zhiyuan and later Han), and their subordinates are brave and good at fighting...... The general's subordinates are brave, but they are few and weak...... As for why the Suizhou garrison didn't kill them, the contemptible businessman ......"

After listening to most of the time, Luo Kai waved his hand first, stopped Jia Ren's words, lowered his head slightly and said solemnly and seriously: "Don't worry, the prevailing brother, the businessman is in heavy news, the brother should hear the power of a certain army, and now he is following a certain army, and seeing the reality of a certain army is better than hearsay!" ”

Jia Ren settled down, and still persuaded worriedly: "General, the bandits are numerous, and the general himself can lead his subordinates to win it, but the soldiers are fierce and dangerous, and the general's soldiers will inevitably be damaged......"

"Ha ......" Luo Kaixian smiled, "Brother Shengxing is too worried, I will protect the safety of your subordinates!" Besides, the bandits, the rabble, if they don't come, if they attack, the general's sons and daughters need a few heads to show their might! ”

Just one sentence completely cut off Jia Ren's hesitation.

……

A sentence appeased Jia Ren, although he said it a little arrogantly, Luo Kaixian didn't really think that his side was invincible - so there were too many examples of overturning boats in the gutter that he heard and saw, and he didn't want to become one of them.

What's more, Jia Ren's words reminded him that he really wanted to see the appearance of the Dongfang Mountain Bandits at this time, but he didn't know if they were "doing the right thing for heaven" as described in "Water Margin......

Of course, these are just a reverie in Luo's heart, but after arranging for Jia Ren to return to the team, he immediately gave his subordinates an order to be on guard, and the scouts of the front team began to travel in armor, while he himself shifted his gaze to the place where there might be an ambush, and let go of the mental induction and began to investigate around.

For Luo Kaixian's subordinates, Alki and his own soldiers, a vigilant order is a signal to be ready to fight at any time. For the guys who have been selected and trained by the pro-soldier team layer by layer, the road alone is really boring, and it is rare to have some changes, which really makes them overjoyed.

So Jia Ren and his men saw this strange side: some of the silent fellows around them pulled their spare horses to their sides, and arranged their armor and weapons on horseback, and some of them even turned out all their bows and arrows, as if they were afraid that they would not be able to catch their prey.

All of this greatly exceeded the expectations of Jia Ren and others, and everyone under Jia Ren was also a veteran who had followed him for many years, and he had his own views on things. According to what they know, even the most powerful elite of the forbidden army is too lazy to pay attention to local security as long as they have no orders or interests, and if it is not suppressed by the upper officials, the local county government or the state government and its subordinate army will be even more self-respecting for thieves, for no other reason, the suppression of bandits may affect their own interests, not to mention that the suppression of bandits also needs to fight, and the loss is not only weapons and armor, but more likely human lives.

As members of the caravan, they traveled thousands of miles just for money, not for the sake of righteousness and courage to shovel mountains and build roads, so they were destined to be unable to recognize the concept of Luo Kaixian's subordinates - they were at most witnesses.

At least for the time being.

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P.S. I'm sorry everyone, because of the delay in trivial matters at home, I haven't been able to post a new chapter for many days. Today's Mid-Autumn Festival, two temporary festivals, I wish all book friends a family reunion and a happy holiday!

Thank you for the WeChat red envelopes of "Shenxiu" and "Shannan Dongdao"!