The situation was clear, and the merchants knew that the Leo Clan was not safe and that they had to leave as soon as possible and go to other tribes.

Only intercepting the courier can ensure safety. Of course, if there is no movement in the direction of Pingqiu City, Donglin City will definitely send someone to inquire. At that time, it will not be a mere two-person squad, at least a patrol of more than five hundred people.

In the past few days, the city of broken gold has become more crowded than usual. Most of the merchants chose to leave from here and head to the dragons in the north.

This did not attract the attention of the Broken Gold Lord, and similar situations have occurred before, generally speaking, winter is a good time to buy and sell grain. The lion tribe is rich in corn and potatoes, and the cattle, deer, and pig tribes in the north will exchange their own specialties and gold and silver...... I almost forgot that now it's not the Ox Clan, they're called the Dragon Clan.

As long as you pay your taxes honestly, the city of broken gold is a free city.

The Lion King's order was intercepted outside Donglin City, and according to normal circumstances, it would take at least one day before the Donglin City Lord noticed something was wrong and sent a large team of men and horses to Pingqiu City.

From Pingqiu to Broken Gold City, there was still a long way to go, and the merchants had plenty of time to escape.

In the northern wilderness, a half-new city gradually appears on the horizon. As the distance closes, it becomes more realistic and clearer.

This is Fangs City under reconstruction.

Shi Lie and his guards quickly rushed to the square located in the south of the city.

Under normal circumstances, Shi Lie would not pay special attention to such a thing as "caravan transit". Checkpoints have been set up on the outskirts of Fangs City, and both dragon and lion caravans must pay taxes when they enter and leave. Shi Lie is Shi Rui's brother, and he knows very well that His Majesty has always supported businessmen, so he never makes it difficult to operate. As long as the merchants pay their taxes honestly and do not leak or conceal their reports, Shi Lie will not regard them as enemies.

As the supreme commander of Fangfang City, Shi Lie was naturally surrounded by some people with clear minds and good vision. In particular, his adjutant paid special attention to the official incident in Liuyun City, and constantly thought about the Lion King's attitude towards the current use of currency. Although he hadn't received an order from Roaring City, he subconsciously felt that the large-scale caravan crossing was a bit strange. The adjutant didn't think that the merchants were cheating, but from the perspective of the interests of the lion clan, he thought that so many merchants should not be let go at this time.

Today it happens to be the adjutant on duty. He randomly spot-checked the goods of several merchants and found that most of them were grain.

For a long time, grain has been an important item of the lion people's foreign trade. But that was before. Since the Niu clan was named the Dragon Clan, the food production of the Dragon Clan has remained high. It is not clear to what extent, but based on the information gathered from various aspects, it is indeed possible to draw a general conclusion———— the dragon people are not short of food.

The military guarding the border is particularly sensitive to such matters. He sorted out his speculation: what is the purpose of a merchant buying and selling goods in pursuit of profit, to a region where there is no shortage of grain?

The merchants have their own version of this: we have a long-term contract with His Royal Highness the Dragon Regent, who allows us to exchange grain for peat.

After all, the adjutant was not a businessman in the true sense of the word, and he felt at a loss in the face of the unanimous words of hundreds of businessmen. had no choice but to report to Shi Lie, and he made a decision.

By order of the adjutant, all the merchants stood in two rows in the square. Behind them, there were tens of thousands of carts and a huge retinue.

Family, handymen, bodyguards...... Among them, the number of handymen and bodyguards was the largest, exceeding 24,000.

Shi Lie also encountered this situation for the first time. He frowned, and took turns walking past the merchants one by one, interrogating them carefully.

"What's your name? Where to stay? ”

"What did you bring with you?"

"It's so cold, how can you go out to do business and bring your wife and children?"

The businessmen formed a group, and they had already discussed the various situations they might encounter on the way, and formulated a set of detailed response plans.

Nodding his head, smiling, and slapping his beard...... Everyone had a smile on their faces, and they would take out animal skin money bags from their hidden positions and quietly hand them over. Shi Lie was no stranger to this kind of thing, and he was interested in untying the tether of the seal of the money bag, and found that it contained shiny scattered gold and silver.

"Lord Commander, I can't help it! His Royal Highness the Dragon Regent's peat supply contract with me is about to expire. Oh, look at it, it's this one, it stipulates that I must go to Rock City to renew the contract before March next year, and I can't be replaced by others, so I can only go by myself. ”

"Yes! Otherwise, in this cold day, who wants to take this unjust road! ”

"Actually, we all have similar ideas, it's winter, and while the snow is not heavy now, we can go back and forth in half a month at most. On the one hand, the contract can be renewed, and on the other hand, grain can be exchanged for peat. It wasn't really profitable to transport grain from us, but peat from Rock City was really cheap. Grain for peat, one cart for two, by the way, bring a little salt and dried fish, the cost of going back and forth is there, and you can make a good profit. ”

These answers were reasonable and well-founded, and to a large extent dispelled the suspicions of Shi Lie and his adjutants. After walking around like this, checking most of the goods, just when the merchants felt that there was no problem, Shi Lie suddenly smiled and asked, "Since you are out of business far away, why do you want to bring your family with you?" ”

Shi Lie had never studied psychology, but he knew that asking a question suddenly when the other party was unsuspecting often had a special effect. To be sure, he was suspicious of the merchants, and even though they answered without flaws, he still felt uneasy.

The merchant at the head said unhurriedly, "This is because of the invitation of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent. ”

"Invite?" Shi Lie didn't believe in this explanation.

"Yes." The merchant nodded, "We have been working with the dragons all year round to exchange grain for their peat. This started when he didn't change the name of the clan and was still a cow clan. We are all agents of the "Shengxinglong" trading house, and we have been running to the dragon clan a lot over the years, and we are responsible for the distribution of almost all the peat in Rock City. In the autumn of this year, the steward of "Sheng Xinglong" sent us to inform us that His Royal Highness the Prince Regent wanted to thank us for our long-term cooperation and invited our family to Rock City to participate in the celebration presided over by Her Royal Highness the Princess. ”

Shi Lie and the adjutant looked at each other, seeing curiosity in each other's eyes.

This explanation makes sense, and there seems to be no flaw.

I don't know why, Shi Lie still has an unspeakable concern in his heart.

There are too many caravans to the Northern Dragons. Both the goods and the number of people exceeded estimates. What is even more suspicious is that these businessmen are all dragging their families, and the proportion of elderly people and children has exceeded the normal ratio.

The strong foundation of the Leon Clan was the early implementation of monetary reforms. Shi Lie had read the clay stencils in the royal archives, and although he was not an economist, he had a rough idea of the value relationship between gold, tokens, and commodities. Commercial circulation means more taxes, and no one dares to disobey the orders of His Majesty the Lion King. It is no exaggeration to say that in the Leon Clan, the status of merchants is much higher than that of commoners. Even though it was a special period, Shi Lie did not dare to detain all the caravans and forbid them to go to the Dragon Clan based on his suspicions alone.

What's more, the reason "the princess regent of the dragon clan invited to participate in the celebration" is logical, and it is indeed impossible to find fault.

"Wait!" Shi Lie quickly made a decision: "Wait for now, in a week, if everything is normal, I will let you leave Fangs City." ”

Although this is a newly built border fortress, it is not far from the main city of the Leo Clan in the rear. Shi Lie planned to send a messenger there to find out the situation. If it is business as usual in the cities in the rear, then it means that these merchants are not lying. Anyway, it only takes a week to go back and forth, so it can't be delayed for too long.

……

Night.

Fangs was burned to ruins by a fire. Although the fire was large, it could not destroy the foundation of the building. Shi Lie led 200,000 lion troops to rebuild the city defense here, and the main part of the repair and reinforcement was the city wall. The barracks are built on the basis of the original houses, and the roof is covered with wood and marl, and the structure is simple, so under the premise of meeting the stacking of military materials, some empty houses can also be vacated for the temporary rest of the merchants.

The temporary rest area of the caravan was designated by Shi Lie. This is a large area of newly built houses located in the east of Fangfang City. After escaping Roaring City, the team grew in size. In order to leave the lion territory as soon as possible, the merchants prepared enough food and fuel in advance. It's dinner time, and as far as the eye can see, there are sporadic fires everywhere inside and outside the house.

With different caravans as units, the cattle, horses, and livestock pulling carts were centrally managed. Shi Lie sent 2,000 more soldiers on the outskirts of the camp, the number of patrols doubled than usual, and a large number of archers were stationed at a distance from the camp, which was tightly enclosed, and temporary checkpoints were set up at various intersections, and anyone who wanted to be required to report and get permission to leave.

Yaohui is the director of the "Shengxinglong" branch in Roaring City. In his forties, he is in the prime of life, very manly-looking, with a smile on his rugged face at all times, and he feels very comfortable and easy to get along with in both appearance and behavior.

A strong man in a black cotton robe sat at the door of the big house, holding a large piece of dough in his left hand and chewing hard. The cake is torn open in the middle, and the red bacon is sandwiched inside. He held a bowl of very thick cornmeal batter in his right hand, probably because it was too hot when it had just been cooked, and the strong man was blowing on the mush, turning a large bowl and sucking it in small bites, and he was sweating profusely from eating.

He had a sword diagonally on his back, and a round shield next to him against the wall. On the pillar by the door hung a pot full of feathered arrows, and a bow of crudely made but not to be underestimated.

With the big house as the core, there are hundreds of sturdy men with similar equipment scattered around. They gathered carts full of goods to form irregular walls. There are three or five people loitering around the entrance at any one time. seems to be chatting and bragging, but the vigilant eyes are always watching the periphery of the "car wall".

Yaohui walked over with a few guards, and the strong man glanced up at him, making a faint "hmm" sound from his nostrils. Tilting his head slightly, motioned for him to enter.

It was a large room, with three fires, one large, two small, and three fires. Two small fires were near the wall, surrounded by women and children. They use simple kitchen utensils to bake cakes on the fire, and the thinly sliced cured meat is constantly turned in the pot, exuding a rich fragrance and releasing a pleasant "sizzle" sound under the action of hot oil beads. Standing in a pot simmering on an iron tripod hanging from the fire, Yaohui could see the shredded radishes floating in the soup, as well as the pieces of meat and bones that were constantly hidden in the boiling soup.

The children were not idle either. They pulled out the baked potatoes one by one from the ashes that were still warm, scraped off the charred part of the surface with wood chips, put the scraped potatoes into the bowl prepared in advance, then cut them in the middle with a knife, scooped out the bright red chili sauce from the tin can with a knife or spoon, and carefully and slowly smeared it with the expectation and beautiful yearning for food.

Yaohui walked directly to the fire in the middle of the room and sat cross-legged. The light was not bright, and the flickering light of the fire cast shadows on the faces of everyone sitting nearby. There are more than 30 people in total, all of whom are wealthy lion businessmen.

Among the many businessmen, Yude seems very young and quite unusual. Mainly because of his age, as well as the wealth he has. At the age of thirty-two, he became the supreme leader of the family, and it is even more rare that in the past ten years or so, he has increased the wealth of the entire family several times, and has become the brightest star in the entire lion business community.

He was very discerning, and was the first to propose to cooperate with "Sheng Xinglong", and became the spokesperson of the product with the largest sales volume of dragon peat in the territory of the lion clan.

He hadn't shaved his face for several days, and Yude's cheeks were full of beards. He turned to the side and gave a gesture to the woman sitting in the distance, who nodded knowingly, picked up a few items of food from the large plate in front of the fire, and filled a large bowl of broth, and brought it to Yaohui with small steps.

The taste of the meat pastry is very good, mainly because the texture is fluffy, which is by no means comparable to the dry and hard pastry that the guards are eating outside. In the cold environment, it is difficult for the dough to rise, so the women must first light a fire in the house and bake the dough at the temperature of the peat. Fresh pastries are not available in large quantities and can only be enjoyed by those who have status. The guards' food is of inferior quality, but at least it is guaranteed to be hot, not cold.

The radish stew tasted very good, and Yaohui was very satisfied with it. Between the rise and fall of the meatloaf and the soup bowl, he noticed that Yude was looking at him with complicated eyes. In fact, everyone knows each other, but no one said anything for a while.

Yude was very patient, and waited until Yaohui was full of food and drink, and his face showed a very comfortable and satisfied face, and then he asked sullenly, "What should we do next?" Is it just waiting? ”

By the standards of the Age of Civilization, Yude and his family wielded a great deal of wealth and belonged to the elite within the Leon Clan.