At noon, Xiao Yao could already see the snow-capped mountains in the distance. It's just that after another afternoon, I still see the towering snow-capped mountains in the distance, which still seem to be so far away.

Looking at the mountain and running a dead horse, Xiao Yao understood the meaning of this sentence more deeply.

At dusk, the group came to a small town close to the snow-capped mountains, and according to other coachmen, this is the starting point of the ancient tea horse road leading to Gaozang, and it is also the distribution center of the various horse gangs in the Yao District.

All kinds of goods exchanged from the Gaozang region will be bought and sold here for the first time, and the caravans from the Miao Xinjiang will also sell some of the goods brought from the various Miao areas here. It's just that key goods, such as fine Tibetan horses and excellent tea, will not be traded here. The main things bought and sold here are salt, iron, various herbs, and other things with relatively low profits or scattered goods.

Therefore, many merchants have set up purchasing points in this small city, specializing in purchasing all kinds of goods, sorting them out and shipping them to all parts of the country. It is precisely because of this that the small town is becoming more and more prosperous. Especially in summer, many snow-capped mountains are opened, and the Guò Tea Horse Road has the largest number of caravans, and it is also the most prosperous time of the year in the town.

Moreover, this small city is also an extremely important border town, where there are heavy troops of the Yao Tusi.

There are only two or three thousand people in the small city, but in the summer, the number of horse gangs will be more than two thousand, so Tusi sent an army of 1,000 people to garrison here, which is managed by the city lord's mansion, mainly to maintain law and order.

There are also these troops patrolling the road from the small town to the snowy mountains, but once they enter the snowy mountains, the Tusi army is no longer in charge.

A large number of goods were traded here, some of which were valuable, so each caravan had its own guard.

The caravans that come and go to and from the ancient tea horse road are different from the caravans in Miaojiang, and the caravans walking in Miaojiang will also have guards, but they are often few in number, because the Tusi of the villages in various areas of Miaojiang will send people to maintain local law and order, and out of this town, it is a deserted snow-capped mountain, and robbers and horse bandits are rampant, so the number of guards in each caravan is obviously much more than that in other places.

As a result, a special dart shop was born in the small town to provide escort services. Some horse gangs from within Miao Jiang will hire these guards here.

The martial spirit of the town is very strong, and there will be conflicts from time to time, so it is necessary to have a large army here to effectively maintain law and order.

And the dart shop in the small city, only a few are independent dart shops, and the big ones are all with the background of the main factions in Miaojiang, the largest dart shop here is of course the Poison Dragon Sect, and the other larger dart shop belongs to the Wuyi faction.

Xiao Yao's horse gang mainly buys and sells tea, salt and iron, so when he is in Miaojiang, the entire horse team has about twenty coachmen, but there are only four special guards, and when he arrives in this small city, he needs to hire a guard from a dart shop.

The low stone walls simply enclosed the town, and along the walls there was an arrow tower every short distance, on which stood the guards of soldiers and archers, intimidating the caravans entering the town to obey the rules of the place and not dare to do anything wrong.

When the group entered the town, it was already dusk, and there were few inns in the town, not to mention that the people of the horse gang almost did not invest in the shop, and they all set up their own tents.

In the center of the town there are four empty squares, which are dedicated to the tents of the various caravans. Each vacant lot is surrounded by an army patrol tower, and there are wells and other living facilities around it.

The horse gang chose a vacant land that was not yet occupied and began to set up a tent, while Xiao Yao dismounted and walked around, moving his muscles and bones.

Next to the area where the caravan is stationed is often a more prosperous place in the small city, many restaurants, teahouses and restaurants will be open until late at night, the middle-aged man in white just sits quietly in his carriage, Xiao Yao doesn't want to make a branch here, just hopes that he can enter the mountain tomorrow.

The horsemen quickly set up their tents, and some of them began to buy supplies at the town's shop pù, the last supply point before entering the snow, so that all kinds of things they might need on the road had to be bought here.

Xiao Yao soon saw the leader of the horse gang enter a dart game, and soon walked out with the four dart masters. Obviously, the leader and the dart master here are very familiar with each other, talking and laughing along the way, the dart master briefly checked the whole team of goods, and began to discuss the next route with the leader in a tent.

Xiao Yao was not interested in their conversation, but now he has excellent hearing, so he can hear it clearly.

On the contrary, the middle-aged man in white asked a coachman to help him watch the carriage, so he went to a tavern on the side of the street, bought wine and food, and sat there to taste it slowly.

Inadvertently, Xiao Yao saw that in another place not far from the caravan, there were also several tents, with a gorgeous appearance, obviously much better than the tent on his side, and some people in black came out of it from time to time.

Well?! Xiao Yao actually saw the ghost-faced real person of the Wuyi faction, and it seemed that it was the residence of the Wuliu faction and the Wuyi faction.

I couldn't figure out why they lived in tents, so I thought quickly in my heart as I carefully looked at every tent in the square.

The square is a hundred zhang square, and is divided into four parts, southeast, northwest, and northwest, with a watchtower in the center and at the four corners around it. The area where Xiao Yao is located is a piece to the west, and the people of the Wuyi Sect are in the south.

A few men in black, under the leadership of the ghost-faced real man, actually started to inspect the tents one by one with a few guards, and listened to the coachman next to him say that under normal circumstances, these troops would not send people to inspect the goods of the various horse gangs, and would only occasionally check the hygiene of each area.

Xiao Yao realized that they must be looking for someone.

The group entered each tent only to look at it and came out, never seeing what they were inspecting. If the Wuyi Sect and the Wuliu Sect merged, the person they were looking for would definitely be themselves, but they didn't see the old man and Wei Decai.

Fortunately, they didn't have any direct contact with the ghost face, and now that they have changed their appearance, they shouldn't recognize them.

Xiao Yao was vigilant about the movements around him, and he had already calculated the best route to escape in case of danger.

At this time, if you leave suddenly, it will only attract their attention even more, so it is better to go to the nearby shops with other drivers to buy some things.

There is no fence around the square, and you can enter and exit from any direction, so Xiao Yao grabbed a familiar coachman and went to a small shop not far away to buy some dry food and jerky, which are the most popular in the snowy mountains.

Then the two of them went to the tavern where the middle-aged man in white was, and asked for two jars of soju and some snacks.

Not long after Xiao Yao and the two sat down, they saw a coachman running over and whispering a few words to the middle-aged man in white, who hurriedly settled the account and followed the coachman back to the square.

Xiao Yuanyuan saw that Ghost Face and people were standing in front of the middle-aged carriage, probably about to enter the inspection, but was stopped by the coachman.

Soon, the middle-aged man in white returned to the carriage. Xiao Yao and the others packed their food and walked towards the square, wanting to see what was going on.

Ghost Face insisted on inspecting the middle-aged man's vehicle, but was rejected by the middle-aged man in white.

In this way, the two sides do not know each other. Xiao Yao thought in his heart, and was guessing the identity of the man in white, when he heard the ghost face say, "We have been ordered by the city lord to search for an important fugitive, and every tent and carriage must be checked, and we also hope that Brother Tai will cooperate." ”

This ghost face obviously didn't want to exacerbate the conflict, so he moved out of the city lord's mansion and acted under the official banner, and his tone was very kind.

However, the middle-aged man in white didn't seem to buy it at all, and he was still dissatisfied, "There is no one in my car, let alone a fugitive, you can go and check elsewhere." I'm going to rest, you guys get out of here, don't make a noise here. ”

Although the middle-aged man's tone was calm, his words were very tough, and he had no room for maneuver at all, and directly refused the inspection of Ghost Face and others.

Such a strong attitude surprised Xiao Yao a little, and he waited with interest to watch the show. This person obviously didn't take these guards and Ghost Face and others seriously, and Ghost Face, as an important leader of the Witch Clothes Sect, how could he swallow this breath.

However, the ghost's answer was completely beyond Xiao Yao's expectations. I thought the two sides would directly start a fight.

Hey, miscalculated.

Immediately afterwards, I heard the ghost-faced real person say, "Brother Tai, I am the left protector of the Witch Clothes Sect, this time I am assisting the City Lord's Mansion to find the fugitives, and I also ask Brother Tai to be accommodating, just let us see the situation in the car here." ”

Although the tone was still calm, there was a faint threat to move out of the witch faction and try to force the other party to make concessions.

However, after Xiao Yao heard what the middle-aged man in white said, he suddenly felt extremely comfortable and admired.

"I haven't heard of any witch clothes sects, and I don't know any ghost-faced real people, so I won't give you this face, let's go, don't disturb my rest again." The middle-aged man in white didn't raise his head, and said directly.

Ah, that's cool! Looking at the ghost-faced real pig's liver-colored face opposite, my heart was dark.

The clay man still has three points of fire, not to mention the ghost-faced real person of the witch clothes faction who is used to being powerful. But it seemed that he had some considerations, forcibly held back his anger, took out a black token, and said coldly, "This is the search token of the City Lord's Mansion, if you don't agree, we all have to check it." If you are in this snowy mountain city, you must abide by the rules here! ”

The middle-aged man in white began to be a little impatient, and shook his sleeves and snorted coldly, "I haven't heard of any city lord's mansion rules, in my place, I am the rule!" ”

After that, he got into the carriage directly, continued to drink and eat meat, and no longer paid attention to a few people.

Sure enough, it's a domineering side leak! Xiao Yao hid not far away, and saw the ghost-faced real person eating deflated in front of the middle-aged man in white several times, and secretly exclaimed that it was cool.

The white-clothed man's answer not only directly stimulated the people of the Witch Clothes Sect, but also directly angered the soldiers of the City Lord's Mansion. The group immediately surrounded the entire carriage. One of the black-clothed men of the Witch Clothes Sect even reached out directly to pull the white-clothed man out of the carriage and beat him violently.