The next morning, Qin Dong saw Charlie Cao and his little boy apprentice, Qin Dong's identity and appearance made Charlie Cao quite surprised, originally last night when Charlie Cao heard Faisal say that Qin Dong wanted to see him, he was ready to run away with the little apprentice, but he thought that this was Qin Dong's territory, where could he go? Maybe he would be arrested as soon as he came down the mountain, so he had to follow Faisal to meet Qin Dong this morning, in fact, he also wanted to see what kind of person this person who cleaned up enough horse bandits with two hundred people to have more than two thousand people was, but he didn't expect that it was a young offspring who looked almost exactly the same as the Orientals, and was ridiculously young.

After the two met, they both looked at each other a lot, and Faisal was worried that Charlie Cao would anger Qin Dong because of his rudeness, so he quietly pulled his sleeve in the back, but Charlie Cao ignored it.

After a while, Qin Dong took the lead in saying in Chinese: "If the Taoist chief doesn't dislike it, why don't you go to Constantinople with me, I don't know what the long-term intention is?" ”

Charlie Cao saluted and said with a smile: "It's better to be respectful than to obey!" ”

Qin Dong immediately waved his hand: "Give each the Dao Commander and his little apprentice a horse!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

The caravan then set off eastward under the watchful eye of Faisal and several other bandit leaders, and disappeared from sight a quarter of an hour later.

Charlie Cao and Qin Dong rode side by side, and Qin Dong asked, "Where did the Taoist come from?" ”

"Lord Hui, the poor road is from the Great Wei Kingdom in the East! Looking at the appearance of adults, presumably adults must have elders who also came from the East, right? ”

Qin Dong glanced at Charlie Cao and said with a smile: "What the Taoist chief said is not bad. My father was a merchant from the East, but unfortunately he died of illness a few years ago, so I wonder why he came to such a barren place as the West. The people of the East, where the Great Wei State is located, have always believed that the Central Plains region where they are located is the center of the world since ancient times. It is the Heavenly Empire, why did the Taoist abandon the Heavenly Empire and come here? ”

Charlie Cao replied: "My lord, all those who think that they are the kingdom of the Celestial Empire are arrogant and arrogant, and the frogs at the bottom of the well make the adults laugh!" If you don't come out for a walk, you definitely don't know how big the world is, and you don't know that this western land also has such a glorious civilization. The people of the Central Plains are fighting around on that one-third of an acre of land, but they don't know that there is a broader world waiting for us to explore! ”

These words made Qin Dong a little impressed with Charlie Cao. You must know that the ancients were basically stubborn due to the limitations of their thoughts, and once their thoughts were qualitative, it was difficult to change, but they didn't expect Charlie Cao to have such an open idea. The mind is much more avant-garde than the average ancient.

Qin Dong asked, "Dao Chang and Ling Apprentice are from the direction of Constantinople?" ”

"Definitely! Poor Dao and his apprentices came from the northern steppes all the way south along the Black Sea coast! Charlie Cao replied.

This shocked Qin Dong. You must know that the north of this period is very cold, and the road is extremely difficult to walk, from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the west to pass through the Rouran Kingdom, through the Yumen Pass along the Silk Road, along the way to pass through the Tu. The territory of the Turks, the territories of the Slavs and the Huns, almost through the steppes of northern Asia, reached the shore of the Black Sea.

Qin Dong nodded and said: "I deeply admire the perseverance of Dao Chang and Ling Disciple, you must know that the distance from the Great Wei Kingdom in the East to the Xiongnu Empire is more than ten thousand miles, and the north is icy and snowy all day long. The climate is extremely harsh, and it is rare for the two of them to be able to walk here! ”

Charlie Cao laughed: "It's not worth mentioning." Nothing! ”

The caravan walked for a day, and arrived outside the city of Dirmit in the evening, which is a border city between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Xiongnu Empire, and is a veritable fortress checkpoint, and the city gate is not closed in the evening, just enough to enter the city through Guò, rest in the city for the night, and then set off early tomorrow morning to Edine, one of the largest cities in the western part of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The listless soldiers at the gate of the city hung their heads one by one with their spears, seeing that it was almost dark today, and they had not completed today's task yet, who let the caravan take this road be too few! The captain of the city gate guard, Murat, is a very greedy fellow, he stipulates that the city gate must collect enough gate tax every day, otherwise their soldiers will be punished, in fact, this has nothing to do with their soldiers, whether there is a caravan passing through here is not up to them.

"Look, what's that?" A soldier shouted pointing ahead.

The other soldiers turned their heads to look out of the city at the same time, only to see a black line appear in the distance, and as time went by, the black line became clearer and clearer, and one of the soldiers suddenly shouted: "It's a caravan, it's a caravan, I'm sure it's a caravan, oh my God, this caravan is too big, go and call Captain Murat!" ”

One soldier struck a clever blow and turned and ran towards the city, while the others hurriedly put together their armor and weapons to make themselves as powerful as possible, so as not to be looked down upon by the caravan's men.

Dirmit is not only to the three areas, it also has a road to the north, so it is not uncommon for business trips to pass through here, but the goods carried by long-distance caravans are not particularly large, too large caravans are easy to attract people's attention, and after the caravan is huge, it is also a big trouble for logistics and personnel management, in this period is not comparable to later generations, there are hotels and restaurants everywhere, and Europe in this period is often hundreds of miles uninhabited, sometimes caravans go for a few days may not be able to meet humans, often have to camp in the wildOf course, you have to prepare your own food.

Therefore, Dimmit's trade is very developed, after all, this is a border city, which belongs to the distribution center of goods, but all caravans passing through here have to replenish food and other supplies here.

The captain of the city gate, who got the news, quickly rode over, and when he arrived at the city gate, he put his hand on the pergola and observed, roughly estimated the size of the caravan, and immediately waved his hand and shouted: "Quick, everyone enter the city, close the city gate!" ”

The soldiers at the city gate were stunned for a moment, this was not yet time to close the city gate. Why do you have to close the gates now? At Murat's urging, the gates creaked and finally shut, but Murat was delighted. He climbed the city wall with the hilt of his short sword and observed the caravan coming from afar, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the gate had been closed to blackmail the caravan, if the caravan wanted to enter the city, he would use the gate to be closed, if he wanted to open the gate again, he would extort a considerable amount of money from the caravan on the grounds that he had to bear the risk of being blamed by his superiors to open the gate, knowing that the caravan was vulnerable to horse bandits if it stayed overnight outside the city!

The affairs of the caravan were again presided over by Pethius and Gebuus. Since many things were done in secret from Gebuus, Gebuus did not know the specific identity of Qin Dong, he was only related to Qin Dong, the commander of the Xiongnu Empire. And the relationship is still very good, he only wants to have a good relationship with Peteus, so that it will be more convenient to do business in the territory of the Xiongnu Empire in the future, you must know that merchants with official backgrounds abroad are very promising.

When the caravan marched to about five hundred meters from the city gate. Qin Dong found that the city gate had been closed. He immediately rode his horse to Gebuus, who was at the front, and asked, "Master Gebuus, is the gate of Dirmit closed so early every day?" ”

"No, it usually doesn't close until dark, and I don't know why it's closed so early today!" Gebuus didn't know exactly what was going on.

After walking to the city gate, Qin Dong saw some soldiers standing on the city wall, and among those soldiers was an officer wearing delicate chain mail, wearing a black iron cockscomb helmet on his head, and his two arms were exposed. It's a pity that there are no muscles on his shoulders, and they are all fat.

Petus leaned over to Gebuus and whispered, "Master Gebuus." Please! ”

As if he had returned to his own territory, Gebuus immediately patted his chest and said: "No problem, when I arrive in the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire, everything is wrapped up in my Gebuus, Master Peteaus can rest assured!" ”

"Then please!" Pethius rode his horse to the side.

Gebuus stepped forward and looked up to the city wall and shouted, "Is it Captain Murat up there?" I'm Gebuus, Captain, I wonder why the door closes so early today? ”

Murat on the city wall didn't expect an old acquaintance to come, and reluctantly showed a smile and said: "It turned out to be Lord Gebuus, I'm sorry, I just received an order from the consul to close the city gate, you know that we can only carry out the order."

Gebuus was a little anxious when he heard this, once the gate was closed, it would not be easy to open it again, not that the gate itself was difficult to open, but that the opening of the gate required an order from above.

He hurriedly said, "Captain Murat, you closed the city gate, how can we get in?" It is very dangerous to stay outside the city at night, and I wonder how we can open the gates and let us in. ”

Murat pretended to be embarrassed: "Master Gebuus, I think you also know that it is not easy to open the city gates, if you are willing to pay ten times more city gate taxes, I can go and tell the archon on your behalf, and ask him to order the city gates to be opened for a while, and let you in!" ”

As soon as Murat's words fell, not only Gebuus and his men under the city walls gasped, but even the soldiers under Murat gasped, these people thought in their hearts, this guy is too black-hearted, right? Just open a city gate and ask people to raise the city gate tax by ten times, this is simply a money grab!

It is important to know that the gate tax of the caravan is different from the gate tax of pedestrians, and the tax collected on the caravan is basically added to the gate tax, which means that the gate tax levied on the caravan is not only the gate tax, but also the tax of the merchants. If such a huge caravan is increased to ten times the tax, I am afraid that this trip will not only not make money, but also lose money!

Gebuus took a deep breath and shouted: "Captain Murat, you are too ruthless, what are you, I know in my heart, what kind of person I am, you also know in your heart, isn't it just for a little money, but your eating appearance is too ugly, are you ready to get this vote, are you ready to do it in the future?" It's like doing business, you have to look at the long term, and you can make a lot of money in the long run, so let's say a real price, if I think it's feasible, we will make a deal! ”

Qin Dong, Peteus and the others were dumbfounded, and Gebuus and Murat on the city wall actually talked about the city gate tax to be paid in order to open the city gate, which made Qin Dong understand the business experience of Europeans.

It took him more than half an hour to triple the price of the gate tax, which meant that they had to pay twice as much as usual to enter the city, and Gebuus turned to look at Peteus, asking if he would agree to pay the tax at three times the price and enter the city.

Petheus thought about it and nodded lightly in agreement, he has every right to call the shots in this kind of matter, as long as it is not related to the safety of the entire caravan, it will be up to him to negotiate with Gebuus, only the matter that endangers the safety of the entire caravan will be decided by Qin Dong, a little more money is nothing, this time the purpose of their trip to Constantinople is not to make money, pretending to be a caravan is just for convenience, on the other hand, it is to hide their identity.

After the two sides reached an agreement, Murat immediately ordered the city gate to be opened, and the caravan slowly drove into the city. ”

Murat smiled and took the two bags of gold coins, opened them, looked at them and said with a smile: "Thank you Master Gebuus for taking care of me, you must take care of me more if you have business in the future!" ”

"You vampire, I'm never going to be here again!" Gebuus said indignantly, turned and followed the caravan away.

After the two caravans entered the city, Gebuus led the way in front, because the caravan was huge and there were many vehicles, it was obvious that the small carriage and horse shop could not accommodate so many people and carriages, so Gebuus took them to the largest carriage and carriage shop here, but unfortunately, the largest carriage and horse shop could not accommodate so many people and carriages because of other caravans, so he had no choice but to continue to search, and finally found a carriage and horse shop without caravan accommodation, in order to ensure the safety of the goods, After discussion, Gebuus and Peteaus took over the entire carriage and horse shop, and anyway, there were many of them, and this carriage and horse shop was just enough to accommodate many of them.

"My lord, everything is arranged, you can eat something first!" Su He came to report the situation, and he was mainly responsible for the security and defense of the caravan.

Qin Dong nodded and observed the surrounding situation, and said, "I want to arrange people to take turns to be on duty tonight, I always feel that this carriage and horse shop is a bit weird!" ”

Su He was stunned for a moment and asked, "Did the adults find anything unusual?" ”

"That's not true, the other carriage and horse shops in the city are occupied, but this one is the only one that no one lives, don't you think it's a little strange?" Qin Dong voiced his doubts.

When Su He heard Qin Dong say this, he also felt that it was a little abnormal, and this shop was not very remote, so it stands to reason that there would not be no business travelers to come to stay, but this carriage and horse shop did not have a single guest, which could not help but make Qin Dong suspicious. (To be continued......)