"Miss Xiu'er, take a break!"

"Brother Xu, let's go a few miles further, the terrain around this place is not open enough, and it is inconvenient to camp."

"Hehe, Xiu'er is thoughtful, I think you can be a general who leads the army to fight."

"Brother Xu is laughing at me again...... Uncles and brothers, let's work harder, let's camp and rest after this pass, and when we pass by the state city tomorrow, I invite everyone to eat meat and drink wine. ”

"Thank you, Mr. Lu!"

"Xiu'er shopkeeper, rest assured!"

“……”

On Ningshan Post Road, a caravan moved forward slowly, and it was Lu Xiu'er who walked beside the caravan and shouted cheers for everyone. Her current identity is the shopkeeper of the Liangxiang factory, because of her young age, coupled with her liveliness and cuteness, and she is very kind to the craftsmen, many older craftsmen affectionately call her "Xiu'er shopkeeper".

Walking side by side with Lu Xiuer is the chief engineer of the Liangxiang factory and the great scientist Xu Guangqi. In the past two years, Xu Guangqi has been immersed in scientific research in the Liangxiang factory, and has achieved a number of research results, turning the various technical equipment described by Su Hao into real objects.

This time, because the survey camp was going to the border to carry out work, Su Hao wrote a letter to Lu Xiu'er, asking her to arrange for someone to send a batch of weapons and equipment to Ningxia in case of emergency. Sending equipment was originally not needed by a girl like Lu Xiuer to preside over it, but she couldn't rest assured, and secondly, she also missed Su Hao, so she resolutely took over the mission. Since some equipment may still need to be debugged after being sent to the border gates, Xu Guangqi and skilled craftsman Hao Qing also went with the team.

Along the way, Lu Xiuer was busy dealing with various affairs. Whenever she passed by the prefecture and county, Lu Xiuer would definitely buy some wine and meat to entertain the porter and the accompanying craftsmen and guards, for fear that they would feel tired and not fulfill their responsibilities. In fact, in addition to the craftsmen in the factory, the rest of the people who delivered the equipment this time were all found with the help of Dong Tianzhang and Yang Laizhen. The wages were very generous, and there was no reason for these people to be dissatisfied. Seeing how considerate the girl shopkeeper was to everyone, everyone naturally worked harder.

"Bah, the cars and horses in front of you have stopped!"

The caravan was moving forward, when suddenly a group of people appeared on the main road. The leading man, barehead and bearded, looked extremely vicious, mounted on a tall horse, waved the ghost-headed knife in his hand, and shouted loudly at the caravan.

"It's broken, it's broken. I've met a villain again! The guide who was leading the way in front hurriedly stopped, and at the same time beckoned the people behind to stop. The porters who drove the carts were also knowledgeable, and they reined in their cattle so that they would not be frightened. All the people didn't shout and scream, just waited for the shopkeeper to come forward and deal with it.

During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the society was generally relatively wealthy, and there was no national famine, so the social order was relatively stable. However, the bandits and strongmen of the Xiaoji Mountains and forests have never been extinct. In this northwest region, due to the low population density, it is more likely to breed banditry. Along the way, they have encountered several roadblocks and robberies. This is also the reason why Lu Xiuer always has to find some open areas or market towns to park and camp.

"Xiu'er, don't come forward, I'll deal with it." Su Xiaohu, the steward of the caravan, said to Lu Xiu'er, "It's just a few ordinary horse thieves." Scare and scare and run away. ”

Lu Xiu'er said: "If you can not cause trouble, try not to cause trouble, my brother and they are still waiting for these weapons in our car." I'll go talk to them. ”

"Well, okay. I'll go with you. Su Xiaohu agreed.

Lu Xiu'er was in front, Su Xiaohu and Xu Guangqi were behind, and the three of them walked from the middle of the team to the front of the team, and talked to the strongman on the opposite side from a distance of more than a hundred steps.

"Uncle Hero, don't get me wrong, we are going to give support to the soldiers at the border gate, not merchants, please raise your hands and let us go." Lu Xiuer clasped her fists and saluted those strongmen.

"Shout, it's actually a female baby leading the team." The bearded man on the other side laughed, "Come and kiss the uncle, the uncle is going to be happy, so let you go." ”

Lu Xiu'er knew the habits of these strongmen, and she didn't care about the insult in the other party's words, and still said with a smile: "Uncles, you see that our caravan also has guards, and if everyone collides, it is inevitable that everyone will be killed or injured." My car is full of border guards, and even if you take it, it won't be useful. Why don't you raise your hand, my niece is willing to give 50 taels of silver, and invite you uncles to drink. ”

Robbers are also risky to steal things. Lu Xiuer first stated that the convoy was sending things to the military, which contained a threat, warning the other party that his backer was very hard, and asked the other party not to act rashly. And later said that he was willing to pay 50 taels of silver as money to buy the road, which was a kind of courtesy, at least he couldn't let the other party go home empty-handed. If you encounter a robber who is unwilling to touch the mildew of the military, you may accept this condition, accept the money, and let the convoy pass. This result is naturally the best for the team.

50 taels of silver is a huge amount of money at the price of the year, and compared to the materials transported by the convoy, it is worth paying this price to buy the road.

"50 taels of silver? It's a good deal. ”

Sure enough, as soon as Lu Xiu'er said this, some people in the bandit team were moved. These people are also from ordinary people, some of them fall into the grass because of poor land harvest and lack of livelihood, and some are because they are lazy and do this kind of business without capital, most of them heard that this is a convoy to the border pass, and they are a little afraid, so they have persuaded their leaders to accept Lu Xiu'er's conditions.

"What do you know?" The bearded man was the leader of the robbers, who had gone up the mountain to commit murder in his early years. As a habitual bandit, he is far more daring than his minions.

"She said there was ordnance in the car, and you believed it? Naturally, the ordnance will be escorted by the army, so how can the caravan send it. I see that the ruts in this cart are very deep, and there must be gold and silver on the cart, and we will not have to do this business again for the rest of our lives. The leader of the robbers said to the people.

"I'm going to scare them!"

Hearing that the convoy might be carrying gold and silver, there were greedy people in the bandit ranks. A strongman with a leprosy head drove his horse out of the procession, drew his sword in hand, and asked the leader for instructions.

"Go ahead, don't hurt anyone yet." The leader commanded.

There are many strongmen who rob on horseback in the Northwest region, and the people generally call them horse thieves. Because they are equipped with horses, they are able to maneuver on a large scale, and if they succeed, they can easily escape, and the government often has no way to deal with them. Lu Xiu'er What they encountered this time was such a group of horse thieves, roughly speaking, there were more than 30 people on the other side, each of whom had a horse under his crotch, and the steel knife in his hand was shining, obviously a very powerful gang.

"Don't mess around!"

Lu Xiuer and the others saw that the strongman was preparing to attack, and hurriedly came out to drink. Su Xiaohu stepped forward, came from behind with a flintlock pistol, and threatened the strongman: "Don't try to get closer, be careful that the gun has no eyes!" ”

"They've got firecrackers!" The strongmen were a little surprised. The Ming Law stipulates that civilians are not allowed to own firearms, although in reality some officials and wealthy businessmen will also let their guards with a few firearms to defend themselves, but in general, the appearance of firearms in the caravan means that their origin is indeed not small.

"What are you afraid of, it's just a firecracker, maybe it was borrowed from some soldier to be scary." The leader of the robbers said disdainfully, "I know at a glance that these people don't know how to use firearms, and we are less than a hundred paces apart, and before they can light the fire, our horses will rush to us, how can they have a chance to use firearms." ”

"Hmph, watch me go and grab that kid's firecracker." When the dysentery heard the leader say this, he estimated the distance, and felt that he could indeed rush in front of the other party before he lit the fire, and when the ghost head knife waved, how could the other party have a chance to shoot?

"Drive!" I saw that his legs were clamped between the horse's belly, the war horse was well-trained, and as soon as he kicked his hind legs, he rushed out and rushed towards Lu Xiuer and the others.

"Ahh Lu Xiu'er screamed and hurriedly covered her eyes with her hands. It's not that she's afraid of the strongman on the other side, but she knows that this person is more than lucky.

"Slam!"

The flintlock pistol in Su Xiaohu's hand rang out, and the flintlock pistol that had been repeatedly improved by Xu Guangqi, Hao Qing and others was extremely reliable and extremely lethal. Su Xiaohu usually went to the factory to help the craftsman school the gun when he was fine, and he practiced his marksmanship very accurately. At the galloping horse thief, he raised his hand and shot it, and a red flower bloomed on the chest of the dysentery head. The force of the impact caused him to roll over and fall from his horse to the ground, standing straight and motionless. The warhorse, which had lost its master, screamed and ran to the field next to it.

"Killed, killed!"

"Du Lao Er was killed!"

"Oh my god, what kind of fire gun is this, why is it so powerful!"

The strongmen were all startled at once, and everyone couldn't help but urge their horses back a dozen paces, until the leader who was left alone in front turned his head and glared at them angrily, and everyone realized that they had committed a taboo.

"Big brother, it's a real guy on the other side, we haven't seen that firecracker, the idea is too hard." Someone came to the leader's side and said stupidly, which can be regarded as a cover for his gaffe.

"Did you see him lighting the flame just now?" The leader asked his subordinates.

"Nope!" Everyone shook their heads together, in fact, they didn't look at the process of Su Xiaohu's shooting, but they just felt that there was no such action in their impression.

"This is evil, what kind of game is he taking?" The bandit leader was amazed. There are a lot of things like flintlock guns, and the military department has also purchased some of them, but for ordinary people, this kind of artifact is still very unfamiliar.

"Listen to the strongman on the other side, I don't want to do it, not because we are afraid of you, but because we don't want to hurt the harmony of both sides. This brother ignored our warnings and tried to attack us, and we had to punish us lightly. Now we ask you once again to get out of the way, and if you are willing to let go, the 50 taels of silver that we promised will remain unchanged, and we can add another 50 taels as a bereavement for the deceased, and I hope you will think twice. ”

Xu Guangqi stepped forward and said loudly to the horse thief. (To be continued......)