August is over, the time quietly came to the early autumn, the cool breeze blows, dissipates the heat, but also blows the restlessness, the idlers hiding at home, began to walk into the market in twos and threes, the world seems to be alive again.

At this time, Duanmu Ci and his party, who had been in the Great Banner Country for almost twenty days, left the Purple Flag City lightly, and they did not go west to the Longwei Kingdom, but turned straight to the east, preparing to return home and preside over the development of the northern trade route.

"Squire, do you think that this banner monarch is sick, their subordinates thought that they really wanted us to pay for the military at the beginning! Sitting on the horse, Shi Lin held the reins in one hand, controlled the speed of the horse, made himself parallel to Duanmu Ci, and said with a fluttering eyebrow.

"Hey, don't underestimate these gifts, if you calculate them according to the market price, the goods that are only given to the Great Banner Country are worth 200,000 Huaxia coins when they are transported to Zhongshan Country, not to mention this remote Great Banner Country, there are no more than 250,000, don't even think about it. Counselor Wang Yikun, who was half a horse behind, said with a smile.

"No matter how valuable they are, these things are useless for sending troops, right? In that case, why did these ten days of bargaining come about?" Shi Lin was a little puzzled.

"Haha, you don't want to think about how far we are from the Great Banner Country, how can we transport ordnance and materials? And the goal is so obvious, you say that the Zhongshan Congress will let it go?" Wang Yikun said with a smile.

"Ah, are you saying that from the very beginning, the Great Banner Nation had no hope of getting military spending from us!" Shi Lin suddenly realized.

"I can't say the same thing, I can only say that they don't expect much, and if we have a way to solve the transportation problem, they will still be quite happy. Duanmu Ci continued, "The main reason is to cry out for poverty and send us a signal that they are very difficult, otherwise they won't say anything, as soon as we come, they will rush to send troops, what is this? It doesn't look good on the face! As for those gifts, they are really useless to the army, but they are not for the army in the first place..."

What the squire said is extremely true, I'm afraid that at this moment, those treasure mirrors, carved glasses, soaps, etc. have already been placed in the warehouses of the major giants in Purple Flag City. Wang Yikun continued.

"These nobles are really not a thing!" Shi Lin snorted and scolded.

"Huh... You kid be careful when you speak, don't bluff!" Duanmu Ci said with a dark face.

Shi Lin shrunk his neck, and then he thought that most of the few people present could be said to be nobles, didn't he fire a map cannon!

"By the way, Shilang, their banner country is called poor, although they have a hypocritical side, but according to their subordinates, their treasury is indeed not very rich, will this affect their troops?

"Lack of money is certain, but after all, the big flag country has a big family and a thick foundation, no matter how short of money, it will not be short of military spending, and there will always be crowding... Moreover, Shi Lin, you have to remember that they did not send troops to solve problems for us, they were more for themselves, if they did not have the need to send troops themselves, let us say that no matter how much money they bribed, it would be useless. Duanmu Ci said seriously.

"Oh!" Shi Lin nodded.

"Shilang, why did we give up going to Longwei Kingdom?" At this time, Wang Yikun interjected, "Because of geographical reasons, it is unlikely that the Great Banner Country will cooperate with Zhongshan Country and jointly divide the interests of the South, so it can only choose to cooperate with the South, but correspondingly, it is much more likely that Longwei Country will choose to cooperate with Zhongshan Kingdom... If the Dragon Tail Country really intervenes and restrains the Great Banner Country at that time, what should it be?"

"Isn't the Four Kingdoms melee bad?" Duanmu Ci glanced at Wang Yikun inexplicably and said.

"Uh..."Wang Yikun was speechless.

"The Longwei country is located in the west, across the river from the Hexi sect, plus the west is barren, the land is vast and sparsely populated, the west of Nuoda only has the Longwei country and the southwest of the Wanhai country, it can be said that the Longwei country is a country to resist the invasion of the entire Hexi, so, for the Hedong countries, their policy has always been to be a cold sidestander, as long as there is no trend of a certain country to unify Hedong, they will never participate, this time is the same, they are unlikely to make an exception. In addition, the Longwei Kingdom is too far away from the main area of Hedong, and the whip is beyond the reach of the whip commander! The labor expedition may not have many benefits, but the foreseeable risks abound, presumably the Long family will not be so unwise..."

"But what if they go south?" Wang Yikun asked.

To the south of Longwei Country is the Wanhai Kingdom, and the Wanhai Kingdom is an ally of the Lin Kingdom and has always been a major blood bank of the Lin Group of the Lin Kingdom.

Longwei country and Wanhai country, the two countries take Baiqiu Mountain as their national boundary, because the border area is a whole mountain range, resulting in inconvenient transportation between the two countries, Shannan and Shanbei are almost two different worlds, Longwei country has many plains and Gobi, and Wanhai country has many forests and lakes, one side is yellow, and the other is green, and therefore, Longwei country has been envious and jealous of Wanhai country for a long time.

They have a motive to invade the Gulf Sea State.

But in the same way, Baiqiu Mountain has also become the biggest obstacle for the Longwei Kingdom to invade the Wanhai Kingdom, and the Longwei Kingdom has been defeated in the rolling mountains and rugged mountain roads many times in history.

Baiqiu Mountain can be said to be a holy mountain in the hearts of the people of Wanhai, and it is also an evil mountain in the hearts of the people of Longwei.

"If the Longwei Kingdom really goes south..."Duanmu Ci was silent for a while, although the failure as usual is more likely, but if you are not afraid of 10,000, you are afraid of what if, it is precisely because the Longwei Kingdom has never succeeded in going south, so the vigilance of the Wanhai Kingdom to the north is decreasing year by year, and it is very dangerous to rely too much on and trust the natural defense line of Baiqiu Mountain, after all, natural danger is not omnipotent, otherwise how did so many Shu Kingdoms in Chinese history perish?

"Presumably, by then, the Southern Pathfinder Team has successfully reached the southeast coast of the river!" Duanmu Ci muttered, in fact, he didn't think that the Longwei Congress would enter the war, let alone that the Longwei Congress would go south.

After the southern pathfinder team, which Duanmu had placed high hopes on, left two ships, they had already set off from Qinhuang Town again at this time.

From August 17 to September 10, a voyage of nearly a month and 30 days, the pathfinder team bypassed Qinhuangjiao and headed for an unknown area in the distance.

"Remember, watch your course, don't stray from the coastline. Pei Xiu, the deputy captain of the pathfinder team, stood on the deck of the flagship, and took the trouble to tell the navigator next to him again, for fear that there would be a mistake, and when the time comes, the vast sea will really call the sky and the earth ineffective.

"Deputy Pei, don't worry, you belong to the province. Captain Zhao Kaidi, the chief navigator, swore an oath. [.]