The time enters July, and at dusk you can often see the big Mars deviating from the middle of the sky, descending from the west, which is the July fire contained in the Book of Songs.

At this time, the day is always high and cool, the clouds are light and the wind is light, and on the road leading from the Central Plains to Saiwai, at this time, scattered caravans began to appear one after another, and occasionally large caravans. Most of the small caravans were scattered merchants, most of whom only sold their goods in the tribes near the dam after crossing the Great Wall, while the large caravans were carried by dozens or hundreds of camel caravans, and they often had to rush further north to the grasslands.

After leaving the military capital pass, although there is still Daning Pass further north, it has entered the sphere of influence of Huaihuang Town along the way.

Near Erlong City, patrols are patrolling this increasingly lively caravan. There are no bandits on the trade routes anymore, and these patrols are more responsible for guiding the way and fighting wolves. The caravan out of the jam is most afraid of the two things, one is bandits, and the other is wolves. It turned out that this area was full of cottages of the Tiger League, and the caravan had to pay a road purchase fee almost every ten or twenty miles, but now, there is no one in Huaihuang Town to buy the road fee anymore. The cities of Huaihuang Town also sent people to strengthen and widen the original business road, and every time they enter the scope of a Huaihuang town, there will be a gatehouse archway on the first road, and there is also a checkpoint on the side of this gatehouse archway.

The combination of the checkpoint and the gatehouse archway is a solid checkpoint. In the distance, a group of men and horses stood in front of them to check the caravan pedestrians in Tongguò.

Sun Ping looked at this level, which he hadn't had when he came last time, and couldn't help frowning secretly.

"It is estimated that there is a card to collect taxes." A steward of the Sun family.

"This is the territory of the Tiger Alliance's Second Dragon City. What kind of tax is collected, it can only be said to be collecting money. Sun Ping shook his head, "Be honest later." Don't get the caravan in trouble. I heard that some time ago, Yi Saburo and the old knife handle of Daqingshan had a big fight, and the old knife handle and his son-in-law united hundreds of cottages and tens of thousands of horses to crusade against Yi Saburo, but the whole army was wiped out, and now all the villages in Daqingshan have been swept away by Yi Saburo. In the future, this northern border plug is what Yi Saburo said, but you can't offend him. ”

Sun Ping waved his hand. The caravan moved on. Last time, Sun Ping went to Erlong City, and also went to Huaihuang to visit Yi Sanlang, and was personally received by Yi Sanlang. After some observation, Sun Ping returned to Shanggu and told the head of the Sun family his opinion, although Huaihuang Town has changed greatly, it is a good side for merchants. Huaihuang is building a large border city. They also don't rob anymore. Although Yi Saburo is young, he treats people very kindly, and his words also reveal foresight. When the head of the Sun family heard this, he was very satisfied and greatly relieved. However, some time ago, the head of the Sun family heard that Yi Saburo and Daqingshan's old knife handle were fighting again, so he continued to wait and see until Yi Saburo was defeated again unexpectedly. It's autumn. The head of the Sun family made up his mind and organized a huge camel caravan. Began to take all the goods that had been organized on the road.

The Tuo team of the Sun family is a very famous big caravan outside the fortress in the whole north, and the Sun family uses a camel team to go out of the fortress, 80 camels are divided into a gang, and 160 camels are a cargo house. There were five camels in a group, a gang of sixteen, one in charge of a line, and a gang of eighteen people, led by a gang leader, and a Turk as a guide, so as to ensure that under no circumstances would they get lost, and that they could find water sources and camping places. In each gang, there are also two people who are familiar with medicine and medicine, and they must bring necessary medicines to ensure the safety of people and animals. The Sun family said that the camel team ran on the grass and called out the plucker. Each camel carries four or five hundred catties, and each group of goods and houses must be led by a small controller, employing three or four guards. For safety reasons, each house is also equipped with 16 fierce dogs, which are tall and mighty, and have always been good helpers against wolves and horse bandits on the trade routes.

This time, the camel team led by Sun Ping had ten cargo houses, a full 1,600 camels, and a large amount of goods of more than 6,000 stones. The chief steward, the petty steward, the guard, the camel worker, the guide, the doctor, etc., together there were more than 400 people, and there were also 160 dogs. This is a huge camel caravan, and among the various caravans out of the fortress, the caravan of the Sun family can be regarded as a very famous one.

These large caravans depart in autumn and do not return until winter.

There was still some distance away, and there were already a few people at the checkpoint to greet them.

"Oh, isn't this Sun in charge, wow, the Sun family's camel team is amazing, there must be ten houses here, right?" The person who came was also Sun Ping's old acquaintance, Duan Zhi'an of Erlong City.

Sun Ping stepped forward with a smile, "Brother Duan's clothes have changed again, I feel a lot more energetic, could it be that he has been promoted?" ”

Duan Zhi'an stretched out his hand to dust off his body, and said with some pride: "I have been promoted to an inspection, nothing is nothing, if it is compared with the official position of the imperial court, it is about the ninth grade, and the sesame petty official is not worth mentioning." ”

"What is this patrol duty?"

"Patrol is a new position established by our Huaihuang Town, the full name is the inspection department inspection, I am responsible for the Erlongshan Inspection Division, No, this checkpoint behind me is the Erlongshan Inspection Division. All passing caravans and pedestrians have to be checked and registered here. Brother Sun, come on, come on, I'll help you register in person. As Duan Zhi'an spoke, he pulled Sun Ping over.

Sun Ping was involuntarily dragged away, thinking in his heart, it is estimated that there will be another blood now. Now Yi Saburo dominates the first line of Yanshan Yinshan, and here is already his family's dominance, and one person can say it. This set up a customs card, it is estimated that it is to collect money like the imperial court, which is similar to the original toll, but it is more court-like.

Duan Zhi'an pulled Sun Ping to a table in front of the pass, and asked for a form from his subordinates and handed it to Sun Ping.

"Brother Sun, just fill in this form."

Sun Ping picked up the table and saw that there were many grids on the white paper, and then there were words written in the front grid, and there were spaces in the back. He swept it roughly, roughly writing the name of the caravan, the name of the steward, the number of people and animals in the caravan, and the number of goods. He was amazed at how detailed the form was, and at the same time he was thinking about how to fill it out.

Duan Zhiping said while pouring him a cup of tea. "Actually, filling out this form is also very helpful to Brother Sun."

"Oh, what do you mean by that?"

"Brother Sun may not know, but now we have built various cities in Huaihuang. But it's very lively. Especially in Huaihuang Sanlian City, it is even more lively over there. I heard that Yi Shuai also built a trading market, mainly for you big business groups. If you provide them with a list of goods, they will immediately help you put the goods list on the exchange, and then the caravans from all over the world can bid directly if they need your goods. I don't know the specifics, anyway, I heard that the Wang family caravan came from Taiyuan, Hedong, and they had goods for ten houses. It was directly placed on the exchange, and it was sold out in only ten days, and they didn't even get out of the dam at all. ”

"Taiyuan Wang family caravan, the caravan of Wang Dexi's shopkeeper?" In fact, there will be no second Taiyuan royal caravan that can handle ten houses. It's going to be that one. But Sun Ping was still surprised and couldn't believe it. You know, the farther north they are, the higher the profits from the goods. He couldn't understand that the Wang family would sell the goods in Huaihuang. This is not only a matter of selling goods, but also the caravans that go to the grassland, selling the goods brought by the Central Plains to the tribes in the depths of the grassland, and then bringing back all kinds of leather goods and livestock from the grassland. This back and forth is two transactions. If it is in Huaihuang, it will be sold out. First, it will definitely be difficult to sell at a good price, and second, can Huaihuang buy grassland goods back?

He frowned secretly, could it be that the goods of the Wang family's caravan were robbed by Huai Huang? Think about it and think it's unlikely, the Taiyuan Wang family, that is one of the top wealthy families in Shandong, although their family is not as prominent as before in the new dynasty, but it is still a top lord, since Yi Saburo was recruited by the imperial court, he did not dare to buy the goods of the Wang family.

"It's their house, I can't tell you the specifics, but I heard that Wang Dexi's shopkeeper made a lot of money, and he couldn't close his mouth with a smile, and when he went back, it was said that he took a full 5,000 horses back to Taiyuan, and when he heard that he left, he also said that he would organize the goods to go back to the dam immediately."

Hearing this, Sun Ping was also a little confused, but think about his ten houses of goods this time, there are goods from the two major families of Qinghe Zhang and Cui in it, this Zhang family and the Cui family are both Hebei families, especially this Cui family, that is the emperor's maiden family, Yi Saburo always dare not rob the queen's things. Thinking of this, Sun Ping finally filled in the list carefully, anyway, even if these things are not filled, if they want to check, they can figure it out.

After filling out the list and handing it in, one of Duan Zhiping's subordinates quickly filled out another list and handed it to Sun Ping.

Sun Ping took a look, but it was a toll sheet, which was clearly written in detail, the name of the toll was the toll, and the standard of the toll was not calculated according to the person or the value of the goods, but according to the means of transporting the goods. Sun Shang's ten houses and camel caravans, 1,600 camels, each camel full of goods, about one camel to transport four stones, so a camel charges four yuan, a total of 6,400 yuan, in addition, there is no other cost. It's only six and four, which makes Sun Ping a little surprised. In the past, even if they only had a dozen truckloads of goods, they had to pay at least ten times for the road, not to mention the annual routine.

Regarding Sun Ping's doubts, Duan Zhi'an said with a smile, "That's right, this number is all stipulated above, one stone and one penny, no matter if you are a cart, a donkey, a horse or a cow, you will come according to this number." Your camel is calculated at four stones per camel, and one stone is exactly four dollars per camel. If you pay money here once, you can manage a hundred miles. There are still 400 miles from here to Huaihuang, and you have to pass through three inspection stations along the way, and you have to pay three times. In addition, if your caravan is going to the city, you will have to pay a separate city fee. ”

Sun Ping nodded, he didn't care about the fact that he had to collect money three times along the way, how could he care about the small amount of money paid for six yuan and four thousand yuan in a hundred miles. What's more, he also saw that Huaihuang Town, this trade road, was widened and leveled and maintained, which made it much easier for them to walk on the camel road, and there were no bandits on the road, so they didn't have to buy road money again, and they saved a lot of money.

"Brother Sun, seeing that the time is not early, do you want to resupply here and eat something like that. Next to our inspection department is a restaurant, where you can eat and stay. ”

There are many functions of the store, including inns, restaurants, warehouses, and even tooth shops and trading houses, which are most suitable for such caravans. Sun Ping looked at the sky, nodded and let the caravan rest for a while, eat here and replenish some supplies. In addition, Sun Ping also intended to stop here first, and sent a few of his right-hand men to Huaihuang Town to see what was going on with the exchange over there.

Sun Ping's caravan had already brought dry food such as corn, parfait, yams, pickles, and dried meat when they set out, but now that there were supplies on the road, there was no need to eat these things.

The caravan spent the night in Didian, and only began to set off again the next day, and Sun Ping slowed down after a slow road, and did not finish the hundred miles for a long time, and arrived at the second inspection department checkpoint. A few people sent to Huaihuang hurried back, bringing back a news that surprised Sun Ping, the Wang family caravan did sell all the goods of the ten houses in Huaihuang, and then bought a large number of horses and salt back to Hedong, it is said that they made a lot of money, no less than the money they earned in the depths of the grassland in the past. This news made Sun Ping extremely surprised, and the man also brought back a piece of news, "There are many caravans of the steppe tribes that have gone south to Huaihuang, and there are even Turkic merchants who have come from the court of the Turkic Khan of Baidaochuan in the west, they have brought a lot of goods, and they are now placing orders for sale in that exchange, and all kinds of goods are selling very quickly." Also, the excellent snow salt and ice salt that came out of Huaihuang Town are now being robbed, and I heard that there is no market for them. ”

When Sun Ping heard this, he was a little anxious. Although he was going to leave the fortress with this caravan this time, the head of the Sun family also gave him a task, that is, when he passed through Huaihuang, he bought a batch of Huaihuang snow salt and ice salt from Huaihuang Town, and bought as much as he could, and it was best to sign a long-term contract with Huaihuang Town. The last time Sun Ping bought back the batch of salt, the head of the Sun family was very surprised after seeing it, and took it out and put it in his shop for trial sale, and it was sold out at once, and many rich people also inquired about this salt and wanted to buy it.

"The camel team speeds up, let's go to Huaifa!" Sun Ping is now a little impatient to see the market in Huaihuang City, especially the exchange, and is more and more interested in it. He wanted to know how amazing this deal really was!

After autumn, Huaihuang Town finally began to be lively, and countless caravans began to go up the dam every day and poured into Huaihuang! Ling Yun stood on the gate tower of Huaihuang City, looking at the open and flat grassland, the caravans gathered like ant colonies, and the smiles on his face became more and more vigorous! (To be continued......)