Cave inside.

Everyone happily reached into the cauldron, twisted up some snowflake salt to taste, and suddenly their eyes lit up, and one couldn't help but say: "Young master, it's so salty, there is no strange taste, it's better than all the salt we've eaten before, we're rich." ”

"Hahaha." The crowd laughed excitedly.

"It's time to get rich, a bunch of money fans."

Qin Huaidao scolded with a smile, hurriedly made a silent action, saw that there was no one outside the cave, and lowered his voice and admonished: "Remember, this craft is mastered by a few of you, you are not allowed to go out, let alone let outsiders know, everyone takes turns to process, you must remember one point, the charcoal must be replaced to make three pots to ensure that it is clean." ”

"Don't worry, young master, this is a fortune in our house."

"That's right, whoever dares to leak secrets is an enemy of his brothers and will be killed."

Su Dingfang also clenched his fists and said solemnly: "Dingfang must be optimistic about the secret, and he will never live up to the trust of the young master." ”

"Do a good job, I will share 10% of the profits from the salt produced here among everyone, but if anyone leaks secrets, you should understand the rules of the house." Qin Huaidao warned.

"Whoa!" Everyone clenched their fists and solemnly promised.

"Let's get to work, Dingfang, come over here."

Qin Huaidao believed in everyone's loyalty, motioned to Su Dingfang to come to the entrance of the cave, to see if anyone was coming, and said in a low voice: "Dingfang, when the first batch of salt is refined, I will return to Chang'an, everything will be handed over to you here, if you don't understand this time, please feel free to ask me, in addition, in addition to the profit dividends just mentioned, I will give you another hundred pieces of silver every month as a reward, what do you think?" ”

"There is no need to give it separately, there will be a lot of dividends, and I can follow the young master to do things, and I am already satisfied."

"There are no rules."

Qin Huaidao interrupted, looked at the people who were busy in the cave behind him, and continued: "Everyone contributes the same, and the dividends must be fair, but you are still in charge of everything here, you can't help but give it, you also need silver to support your family Hukou, this salt mine can be mined in half a year at most, and return to Chang'an after half a year, with other arrangements." ”

"Young Master Xie, promise to complete the task." Su Dingfang is not stupid, he understands that the salt mine is a test, and if he passes, he is a confidant, and he officially enters the inner circle, and if he doesn't pass, he will have nothing.

Ten days later.

Stimulated by the high reward of silver, the miners worked day and night, Qin Huaidao harvested nearly 6,000 catties of snowflake salt, but a hundred carts came, and they were not satisfied, Qin Huaidao planned to wait for another ten days, and make up enough 10,000 to set off again, and a team member who went out to investigate hurriedly came over, and there was blood on his body.

"What's wrong?" Qin Huaidao asked in a deep voice.

"Young master, more than thirty suspicious-looking people were found in the south, with knives and bows and arrows, as if they were here to investigate, and the brothers went up to interrogate and were attacked, and cut down several of them, and the others fled."

Qin Huaidao groaned: "If you dare to hold swords and arrows, you can escape in your hands, which means that they are familiar with the jungle, there are only three kinds of people, one is Orion, Orion is impossible to attack, and the other is the ...... of officers and soldiers."

"Young master, they don't wear official uniforms or battle armor, and they don't behave like officers and soldiers." The messenger interrupted.

"Then there is only one last kind left, bandits, it seems that the news here has leaked, and someone has moved his mind." Qin Huaidao sneered and looked at Su Dingfang.

"Please command, young master." Su Dingfang hugged his fists.

"You take a team of people to Lizhou, be careful on the road, if I guess correctly, I'm afraid I've been targeted by bandits along the way, ride my white hooves to go, fast, don't be polite when you encounter obstacles, kill is, tell the transport team staying in Lizhou, let them drive over overnight, put on a posture of pulling goods, let the bandits think that we are ready to withdraw, force them to do it, I want to see who is so blind." Qin Huaidao said coldly.

"Obey the order, do you want to notify the officers and soldiers of Lizhou to assist?" Su Dingfang proposed.

"No, it's just bandits." Qin Huaidao waved his hand, there were fifty guards around him, all of them were one as ten, and one hundred transport teams were also from the forbidden army, with rich experience in the battlefield, and the individual combat effectiveness was good, and if they were used properly, one or two thousand bandits were not a problem.

There may be bandits nearby, but it is impossible for the scale to exceed one or two thousand, otherwise they will be targeted by the imperial court.

Su Dingfang also thought of this and hurried away.

The news was suppressed, and the miners, unaware, continued to mine.

At dusk.

Su Dingfang came in a hurry with the transport team, Qin Huaidao had already climbed the big pit, and he was a little surprised when he looked at the convoy that came over smoothly, could he have guessed wrong?

"Young master." Su Dingfang stepped forward and saluted: "The coming and going are smooth, I have never encountered any obstacles, and I have not seen anyone with suspicious deeds following me." ”

"The intelligence can't be wrong, tell me what you think." Qin Huaidao asked in a deep voice.

"Could it be that they weren't ready, or didn't know who we were beforehand, so they came up to check and saw our methods, or now that they know about us, they don't dare to do it again?"

Qin Huaidao frowned and thought about it, feeling that Su Dingfang's analysis was not unreasonable, but he was a little uneasy, and he had an idea and said: "

No matter what the bandits want, try it and you will know, the car is full of debris, covered up, disguised as salt and pulled back to Lizhou, let's lure the snake out of the hole. ”

"Understood." Su Dingfang smiled knowingly.

"A hundred people scattered out to guard around, putting on a posture of guarding against people peeping, so that the bandits thought that we were really going to leave with salt, and also to avoid being seen by the bandits the truth, expose the plan, and send a hundred people from under the pit to load the car for camouflage."

"Obey." Su Dingfang hurried to safety.

At the sound of an order, a hundred coachmen drew their knives, scattered the surrounding guards, and put on a posture as if they were facing a great enemy.

A hundred miners climbed up and threw the bark, branches and other debris left over from the felling of the trees into the cart, and covered them with tarpaulin, which looked bulging.

After all this was done, the miners returned to the pit and the convoy slowly left.

Qin Huaidao didn't move, and took a team of people to guard the scaffolding position, this is the only passage, in case the bandits are not fooled and come over, it will be very troublesome.

……

Su Dingfang rode a horse and walked in front of the transport team, looking around vigilantly, deliberately walking very fast, with an expression of fear of being hijacked, and the person who drove the car also deliberately put on a nervous expression, and the weapon was placed in the position of the hand, just bandits, a rabble, what kind of formation have people from the forbidden army not seen? Make nothing of.

Out of the valley and onto the official road.

"Speed up." Su Dingfang shouted deliberately.

"Whoa!" Everyone cooperated.

The convoy sped forward, looking worried and scared.

Not long after, a group of people suddenly rushed out of the hillside in front of them, all of them fierce and vicious, howling and screaming, like a group of hyenas foraging for food from the mountain forest.

Seeing this scene, Su Dingfang laughed instead, and succeeded in confusion, if he was really not fooled and attacked the big pit instead, the matter would be tricky, he raised his right hand and shouted: "Stop moving forward and prepare to fight!" ”

Everyone was mentally prepared, they stopped their horses, picked up their weapons and quickly jumped out of the carriage, found a place to hide, and observed whether there were archers hidden around, and the rich combat experience was vividly expressed at this moment.

Su Dingfang immediately stopped and said tentatively: "Who is coming?" ”

A strong man stepped forward, resisted a mountain axe on his shoulder, and shouted in an urn: "I drove this road, if you want to cross this road, leave to buy road money, the brothers don't ask much, people get out, the car stays, otherwise no one will stay." ”

"If you have something to discuss, which mountain are you good at?" Su Dingfang continued to probe.

"Don't give me a grin, you are just a group of drivers who pull goods, you can't work hard for your host, and if you don't want to die, get out of here." The strong man said impatiently.

Su Dingfang saw that he was treated as an ordinary driver pulling goods, and couldn't help but secretly rejoice, the more careless the enemy, the lighter the enemy, the greater the chance of victory on his side, and he didn't bother to talk nonsense, the horse lance stood up, and a chilling killing intent erupted.

"Yo, I'm still a tempered person, I like it." The strong man sneered.

A sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man next to the strong man reminded: "Don't talk nonsense, fight quickly." ”

"Brothers, get rich, kill!" The strong man yelled knowingly.

"Kill!"

The bandits roared and swarmed up, with no formation to speak of.

"A rabble." Su Dingfang snorted disdainfully, and glanced at it roughly, there were three hundred people, if he was really an ordinary driver pulling goods on his side, let alone three hundred bandits, even a hundred bandits would be scared to death, his heart moved, and he shouted: "The first team will rush to kill me, and the second team will scatter, surrounded in a circle, and shoot freely." ”

What about three times as many people? It's just a bunch of chickens and dogs.

The first team quickly rushed up when they heard the order, and quickly formed a triangular attack formation, while the second team scattered all around, surrounded in a circle, drew their bows one after another, ordered to forbid, and acted like the wind.

The bandits were shocked when they saw this scene, where is this coachman, obviously a well-trained elite of a hundred battles, and suddenly he was a little panicked.

"Kill-" Su Dingfang would not be accustomed to bandits, and rushed forward with a roar.