Two days later, Fan Xian and his party prepared to leave Qingzhou. This trip needs to go deep into the grassland, and it is naturally inconvenient to take a horse-drawn carriage, except for the cart that pulls the goods, the rest of the merchants are riding horses. In the past two days, Mu Feng'er has naturally established a good relationship with those businessmen, and has decided to go all the way.

Early this morning, when a large number of caravans began to go out of the city in turn, the Qingzhou cavalry, who had returned from going out of the city to fight rabbits, happened to return to the city, and the two teams passed by.

The cavalrymen did not look at the merchants directly, although sometimes the superiors would send these cavalrymen to escort the merchants, but more often than not, the two sides rarely had any dealings. Without the Qing army escort, these merchants may be safer.

Ye Ling'er, who was a little tired, was riding on a horse, and a few lines of green silk leaked out of the helmet, mixed with sweat, and a little sticky. She twitched with her fingers, her eyes subconsciously wandering over the caravan at the city gate.

It's just a glance, but it seems to be attracted by a magnet. Ye Ling'er frowned, and looked at a young merchant standing next to a horse in the caravan with some confusion, the merchant was wearing a cotton coat, ordinary, and didn't look very dazzling, but Ye Ling'er always felt a little strange.

From this angle, I could only see the back of the young businessman, but it was this back that made Ye Ling'er discover the true identity of the other party, her face changed suddenly, and a few complicated feelings flashed in her pupils.

It's Fan Xian.

Why was Ye Ling'er able to discover Fan Xian's figure so lightly? Because Fan Xian was her master and had taught her a year's small methods, and Ye Ling'er had taught the Ye family's coffin to the other party without concealment. The palms intersect, the bodies fight each other, and each other is familiar with each other's movement habits and physical characteristics, and it is a very terrible process.

Ye Ling'er looked at the back in a daze, biting her lip, suppressing her feelings, did not ride a horse forward, whipped down, called the master, and cried.

............ Because she knew that since Fan Xian came to Qingzhou City in disguise and did not come to see her, what he did must not be a private matter, but that the court had an extremely important task, and the Supervision Yuan wanted to make some noise on the grassland.

If it weren't for something extremely important, it would be absolutely impossible for a son of a daughter like Fan Xian to take such a big risk and go deep into the grassland. Today's Ye Ling'er is no longer the flying little girl she was back then, she has matured a lot, so naturally she will not break Fan Xian's identity in front of everyone, but she just looked at the back deeply, and then silently led the horse's head and walked towards the state capital.

After entering the state capital, before she could rest for a while, she spoke: "The Dingzhou General's Mansion ordered the autumn hunt some time ago, and we should also make some moves." ”

A general listened on the sidelines, his heart was cold, and he secretly thought that Miss was getting more and more ruthless now, but she was just attacking overnight, and the people and horses were tired, and explained: "The military order of the General's Mansion is clear, Qingzhou is not within the scope of this autumn hunt. ”

"Then we'll do it ourselves. Ye Ling'er lowered her head, she is not a little girl who comes to play now, but a female general in the army with a lot of experience to consider, plus her identity and background, even if she is the top boss, she must be seriously considered.

No one knew why Ye Ling'er insisted that the Qingzhou Army join the scope of the autumn hunt, because no one knew that Fan Xian, the director of the Supervision Yuan, came to Qingzhou, left Qingzhou, and entered the grassland. Ye Ling'er's mention yì just wanted to use the cavalry of Qingzhou to attract most of the attention of the Hu people and protect the safety of the caravan along the way: "There are a lot of merchants coming this year, and no one knows if the Hu people will suddenly go crazy." ”

"Those nobles of the Hu clan are still counting on the merchants to carry goods in, how can they go crazy. The general thought in his heart, frowned and said, "Don't care about those merchants, if we send troops, I'm afraid it will bring them inconvenience." ”

Ye Ling'er didn't speak, she lowered her head and thought, if the three roads into the grassland were messed up, it should make it easier for Fan Xian to do things, although she didn't know at this time why Fan Xian ventured into the grassland, but she only knew one thing, the master has always been the best at seeking the greatest benefits from the chaos.

............ In the past two or three days, there were suddenly many outsiders in the Dingzhou base camp behind Qingzhou. Some of these people were officials of various ministries of the imperial court, claiming to have come to check the situation, some were merchants from all over the country, and some were coolies who came to the West to pan for gold while the war was about to end.

The identities of these people were very messy, so they didn't attract anyone's attention, but they were faintly divided into many groups, and in each group, there was a leader. Just as Fan Xian and his party left Qingzhou and began to move towards the grassland king's tent to find the person called Songzhi Xianling, these leading figures quietly entered the Great General's Mansion.

Today, there is something important in the General's Mansion, and all the idle people and others have been driven out of the mansion. Looking at the dozen or so people in different costumes in the hall, General Li Hongcheng couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "Fan Xian's handwriting this time is really big. ”

These people who entered Dingzhou City were all officials and secret agents of the Supervision Yuan, and at this time, in the General's Mansion, they were the leaders of all parts, but only one person was qualified to sit on the chair under the hall. This person is middle-aged, Hua has not yet been born, but his eyes are a little tired, it seems that the past three years in a foreign country have indeed been extremely hard.

This person looked at Li Hongcheng and saluted, and said, "The courtyard thinks that if you want to empty the Jiān in Dingzhou City, you must use thunder means. ”

Li Hongcheng looked at this person, frowned and said: "But why can't I let you come in person, Deng Ziyue, you are not in the capital, and you suddenly arrived in Dingzhou, what should you do with the affairs of the imperial court in the north?"

Li Hongcheng has a noble status, but he is also more polite to this middle-aged man, because he knows that the other party is the head of the Supervision Yuan's secret spy in Northern Qi, and a more important identity is the leader of the Qi Nian team, one of Fan Xian's most powerful cronies now.

Yes, this official of the Supervision Yuan who led the matter of Dingzhou except Jiān was Deng Ziyue, who had been sent to Northern Qi by Fan Xian for more than two years, and he didn't know what was wrong with this operation, so he asked Fan Xian to transfer this person back.

"If you don't come back, how can you catch those people? Deng Ziyue thought in his heart, but he didn't say it to Shizi, because this matter not only involved the war between Xihu and Daqing, but also involved the powerful forces of the other side.

Fan Xian transferred him to the south, so he was not prepared to let him return to Shangjing again, what he wanted to use was his infiltration of the Northern Qi Jinyi Guard in Shangjing in the past three years, as well as his familiarity with the Northern Qi side Cheng Dù.

"After this is done, the lower officials will not return to Beijing. Deng Ziyue respectfully saluted Li Hongcheng.

Li Hongcheng looked into his eyes and said slowly, "How can the West Battalion cooperate?"

............ "Deng Ziyue should have been in Dingzhou for three days. Fan Xian half-closed his eyes, sitting on the back of the horse, as if he was not worried about being thrown off by the horse at all, yawned, and said: "According to the agreed time, we must be faster, otherwise they will make a move in Dingzhou City, which will anger those people on the grassland, I am afraid that something will be wrong." ”

He had been preparing for this matter for four months, and if it weren't for the anger in his heart that had accumulated so strongly, Fan Xian might not have used such a brutal method. But he also knew in his heart that the other party's entry into the grassland was far before him, and the infiltration in Dingzhou City had been carried out for more than a year, and he was already much slower in time, if he couldn't drag the other party's main general on the grassland, he was afraid that something would go wrong.

Mu Feng'er glanced at the adult, then glanced forward at the long caravan, frowned and said: "These people are walking too slowly, and all the tribes along the way will stop, if you really want to go to the king's tent, I don't know what time it is." ”

Originally, according to the predetermined plan, Fan Xian's caravan should have been separated from these merchants' large army yesterday, and there was a fork in the grassland yesterday, Hu Ge should have sent his cronies to meet there, and then Fan Xian and his party took a shortcut and arrived at the target.

But I didn't expect that no one answered at the fork in the road, but one of Hu Ge's absolute cronies was empty, and secretly entered the account at night to apologize and tell the reason.

The other two roads on the grassland are being invaded by the Qingzhou army, Hu Ge, as the number one master under the account of King Zuoxian, happens to lead his subordinates here, and is naturally transferred to support, it is impossible to leave most of them and come to pick up the Qingguo Supervision Yuan.

Fan Xian didn't know what Ye Ling'er meant, and he didn't expect that his female apprentice wanted to share his worries, but he brought more trouble to himself.

"Since that person has never shown his form, even if we reach the king's tent, it is impossible to see each other. Mu Feng'er looked at Fan Xian and reminded: "The other party will not make this kind of mistake, knowing that it is a caravan from Qingguo, he will not show his appearance in front of us." ”

The horses walked slowly, and the hooves trampled on the autumn grass without fragrance.

"The Dingzhou side is ready. Mu Feng'er reminded again, because in his opinion, even if there are so-called masters in the tent of King Huren, as long as the Jiān in Dingzhou City is wiped out, the other party can't afford to set off too much wind and waves, so why take the risk?

Fan Xian's thumb moved lightly on the reins, and after a moment, he said: "I must know who that person is, this is a very important point, if the other party is the person I guessed, I must change the means, just wipe out the whole city of Dingzhou, and it will not play a fundamental role." ”

He had never heard of the name Songzhi Xianling, and he didn't know what the foreign name meant in Hu, but almost subconsciously, he thought that the person with this name was a woman, which was an unreasonable inference, a bit mysterious, and unreasonable.

Fan Xian became more and more convinced of his judgment, and became more and more angry.

There are a few white birds in the distance, flying rapidly on the knee-long autumn grassland, Fan Xian raised his eyes and looked at it, faintly seeing the back of the grassland farther away, there is a large desert, and in the farther part of the desert, what is it?

"To the east of the desert is the North Sea. Mu Feng'er looked at the adult's slightly frowning brows, knew what he was thinking, and said softly: "On the other side of the mighty Beihai, it is Northern Qi." ”

"I've been to the North Sea. Fan Xian looked over there, as if to see the reeds in the North Sea, and said quietly: "This desert stretches for thousands of miles, it is said that no one can live through guò, and although the North Sea is beautiful, it is endless, if you cross it, it will be even more difficult, I have been thinking about this problem...... If you want to go from Northern Qi to Xihu, how should you go?"

"First we entered the country in the south, then we swept through Dingshu from the northwest of Kyoto, and then we entered the grassland in Qingzhou, and we arrived at where we are now. Mu Feng'er obviously put a lot of effort into Kyoto, and said: "It will take a long time, but it is very convenient, and it is more feasible than forcibly crossing the North Sea and walking through the desert." ”

"But the Xihu King and those two virtuous kings will definitely not trust a person from the Central Plains who came from Qingguo. Fan Xian said with an indifferent face: "It is extremely difficult to win the trust of the seemingly enthusiastic, but actually suspicious Hu people, so I am curious about how they do it." ”

In the next dozen years, the caravan marched towards the depths of the grassland, everywhere is a scenery of autumn grass, occasionally seeing nomadic people, hundreds of cattle and sheep, like white clouds, floating on the slightly undulating meadow, beautiful and peaceful.

This place is no longer the place where Xihu and the Qing army fought, so it gradually revealed some of the feeling of paradise.

On the way, two large tribes passed, and the merchants of Qingguo sold a lot of goods, and the whole caravan seemed much lighter and faster. But there was still no merchant who had sold his goods, and went back the way he came, because the most valuable goods were lighter, and if he wanted to sell them for a large price, he had to go to the king's tent of the Hu people.

Along the way, Fan Xian paid close attention to the attitude of the Hu people towards his caravan, because it involved very important things in the world after the world, and he found with some self-deprecation that the Hu people's gaze at the merchants of the Central Plains was still a little unkind, and even contained bitter hatred.

The blood debt of thousands of years cannot be washed away with precious stones and tea.

But the head priests and nobles of the tribe have a much better attitude towards the merchants of the Central Plains. After Mu Feng'er's inquiry, I learned from the mouths of those old business houses that this change in attitude only started more than a year ago.

It seems that the Xihu Wangshu finally understood the importance of trade, and issued a message to the tribes, strictly prohibiting them from disturbing the caravans entering the grassland, and even in some dangerous areas, they were also responsible for dispatching the clans to escort these caravans.

A year ago, there was a poor small tribe that could not resist the temptation of the Central Plains caravan, secretly attacked, robbed a lot of goods, provoked the anger of the king, and directly sent troops to suppress it, or slaughtered it, and a small tribe did not survive alone.

It is also a bloody example, so that everyone on the grassland, clear about the determination of the king's tent, but also fundamentally, to ensure the safety of the Central Plains caravan, since then, although the grassland can still usher in some unkind eyes, but the Central Plains merchants, no longer ushered in any dangerous sword.

This is a long-term arrangement, and Fan Xian secretly admires it. He knew that although today's caravans only sell some luxury goods, but no merchants do not live, as long as the trade routes on the grassland are ensured, who knows whether the merchants of Qingguo and Dongyi and Northern Qi will secretly ignore the ban of Qingguo and secretly import living and military materials to the grassland because of interests.

In the long run, the border ban will be relaxed, and the power of the Hu people will become stronger day by day.

............ Looking at the crescent moon sea under the lonely mountain, the small desert next to the sea, and a large area of verdant grassland, Fan Xian was also a little dazed by such a beautiful scenery, where the king's tent was located, it was really different from ordinary places, and there was a unique pattern between heaven and earth.

Especially those green grasslands, which made Fan Xian feel very weird, this is autumn, why is the grass still green?

On the side of the lonely mountain, countless cattle and sheep are scattered on the wide grassland.

The girls of the Hu tribe are washing clay pots and utensils on the shore of the crescent sea, preparing to welcome guests from the Central Plains.

It was quiet, and the sky dome here seemed to be much lower than other places, and even touched the ground of the grassland.

Fan Xian dismounted, glanced at an ordinary Supervision Yuan official behind him, smiled, turned his head, looked at the beautiful scene in front of him, and couldn't help but shake his head.

Xihu Erlang led this line of hard-working Central Plains merchants to the tent on the shore of the Crescent Sea, let them rest for a while, and said very sincerely, in some time, the king will personally set up a banquet to entertain these distinguished guests.

This caravan should be regarded as the largest group of caravans in the whole autumn, so the royal tent was very attentive to the hospitality.

But Fan Xian's heart always felt a little strange, the attitude of the Xihu people seemed to be a little too good, could it be that the Songzhi Immortal Order really had such a far-reaching impact on the royal tent?

After a little bit of food, Fan Xian rubbed his stomach, walked out of the tent, walked to the meadow by the crescent sea, and squinted at the surrounding scenery. His current identity is a merchant, except that he can't be snooped in the vicinity of the king's tent, Xihu does not prohibit these Central Plains merchants from wandering around - no one knows him on the grassland, so there is no need to worry about safety at all, and his mood is naturally lighter.

"The sky is blue, the wild ......"

Before he could say six words, he was disturbed by a cheer next to him, Fan Xian looked back, and saw a young man walking quickly to his side, hurriedly shouting hello.

"I only said six words, what's the matter?" Fan Xian smiled and looked at this young man who looked like a native of the Central Plains, but his eyes subconsciously glanced at the king's tent not far away, he saw this young man coming out of the king's tent on the meadow before.