Weishui originates in Songshan, flows southeast along the eastern foot of Songshan Mountain, flows through Yingchuan, Chenjun and other places to join Yingshui, and continues southward into Huaishui.

Mi County, Xingyang County is located along the Weishui River, its land is the remaining veins of Songshan Mountain, the hills and valleys in the territory are staggered, which is different from the topography of Yingchuan and other places, although it is not suitable for land reclamation, but it provides a certain space for some other behaviors.

For example, some personnel in Nanyang will go north along the mountains after going north through the Sanya Road, so that they can avoid the ears and eyes of the plains, and go all the way north through Suoshui to the south bank of the Yellow River, and then flow to other places.

In short, it is a smuggling route that connects the Nanyang Basin, the Henan Plain, and the Yellow River to other farther afield.

Although the Western Wei Dynasty, which now controls the Nanyang Basin, and the Northern Qi Dynasty, which controls Henan and other places, have been in a state of hostility, the confrontation between the regimes has not completely prohibited the exchange of people and goods, and because of the huge profit margins, related smuggling has become more and more frequent.

Since it is smuggling, it is of course illegal, and from time to time it will be swept and arrested by the Northern Qi garrison. In such a situation, you can only consider yourself unlucky, if you are lucky, you can still break the fortune and avoid disasters, and if you are unlucky, you will be empty.

Li Licheng and his entourage obviously belonged to the category of bad luck, and they set foot on this smuggling road for the first time, and they were directly arrested after making considerable personnel preparations and summing up experience. Compared with the summary of the probability of a practitioner being caught two or three times out of ten, it can be said to be very unlucky.

They were captured by a cavalry team from the Northern Qi Dynasty, which searched the mountains and drove all the smuggling teams they found to an abandoned dock wall near the left, and imprisoned the men and goods.

"It turns out that there are so many people who go back and forth to sell goods to make a profit!"

The first time he was ordered to carry out this kind of task, Li Licheng was depressed and frightened, but when he saw more and more smugglers who were searched by the soldiers, he was still faintly proud in his heart.

There were nearly 100 people in the group, except for the two leaders Li Licheng and Li Tang, who had little experience, and the other entourages also had experience in traveling between the two places. Hearing Li Licheng's feelings, one of them replied in a low voice: "Since the construction of the northern part of the country, there has been a gradual abundance of things, and there are many things that are urgently needed by the northerners. From the city to Yecheng, although the journey over the mountains and rivers is thousands of miles away, if it takes less than two months to go smoothly, the profit can be more than ten times, so there are many greedy people running around the road, and the four seasons are endless."

Hearing that this trade route was so lucrative, Li Licheng couldn't help but smack his tongue secretly. But no matter how much money there is, it has to be enjoyed to be enjoyed, and when he saw more and more smugglers being escorted here, he couldn't help asking, "These thieves have detained us for several days, neither punishing nor killing, and seeing that the crowd on this wall is about to multiply thousands, what are they going to do?"

"Although the thief is violent, his intentions are nothing more than goods. If you really want to blindly kill people and take goods, who will dare to continue to walk in this way?"

Another entourage spoke: "Most of the soldiers who searched for us this time are Han'er soldiers and horses, and they should be soldiers stationed in Henan for a long time. In order to protect their wealth, these soldiers will not do too much harm, and most of them will let people go after a search. If the warlord has any long-term plan, he will even return some of the goods, so that these merchants can bribe them with goods, and they can directly ask for refuge when they come and go here in the future......

In this world, snakes have snake roads, rats have rat roads, princes and generals are indeed magnificent, and the camp soldiers and merchants also have their own survival wisdom. Hearing the explanations of the subordinates, Li Licheng was no longer as nervous as he was when he was arrested.

But often sometimes people are in trouble, and there may be a greater bad luck after bad luck.

Two days later, the Qi army's search in Zuo Near came to an end, and as the men had previously said, the smuggling merchants were released one after another after a few days of imprisonment without any punishment.

But when things went to Li Licheng and his party, it was different, before the merchant team was only casually interrogated a few words and then led out by three or five soldiers, but on this day, hundreds of heavily armed soldiers suddenly poured in to surround Li Licheng and his party.

"Who are you and the leader? Hurry up! If you dare to disobey your orders, you will not be spared!"

A soldier commander who led the team looked at the group and shouted loudly, and a subordinate in the team who had been going back and forth to explore the way before stepped forward and said, "This is the owner of the team, what are the general's instructions?"

The commander looked at the man suspiciously, and then shouted loudly, "When the sky is reversed, it is a disaster!"

This person was stunned when he heard these inexplicable words, and saw that the commander's face suddenly sank, and he was already about to draw his saber, Li Tang in the team hurriedly grabbed Li Licheng, who was about to speak, and took the lead in taking a step, looking at the soldier commander and shouting in response: "The earth is against the object, and the people are against morality and chaos!" The house slave is panicked to protect the master, and the unknown general is superb in learning and discerning, please forgive the general, forgive me!"

"You and other thieves, you are really not ordinary businessmen! The Lord has told me to probe with my words, and to try to find out the hidden truth."

The soldier commander shouted the clear words of "Spring and Autumn", which was naturally not the knowledge that ordinary businessmen could understand, and when it was found out that this group of people was not honest, he shouted and ordered: "Take it, take it all!" Escorted to the lord himself for interrogation!"

All the Qi soldiers rushed forward, tied up Li Licheng and his party, and then brutally drove them out of the dock wall and escorted them to the military camp near the left.

In the barracks, a tall and sturdy military general in uniform was inspecting the wealth and goods seized by the smuggling caravans in recent days.

"This Li Boshan is really a famous wizard, it is not a short year for Qiang to capture Nanyang, it has always been a poor and barren land before, but after his arrival, the momentum has grown stronger year by year. In previous years, there were also Henan township thieves who lost goods, and now the prosperity of things is chasing after Ye. I'm waiting for the people in Henan to be idle, and I've benefited a lot from this!"

When it comes to the comparison of national strength and people's property, the east has always crushed and overlooked the west. However, with the sudden rise of the Jingzhou Military Government in the Western Wei Dynasty and the current Shannan Dao Daxingtai, the average score in the west has been raised by several levels.

The armies of the Northern Qi also had a potential chain of contempt depending on the area in which they were stationed. The most top-class is naturally the descendants of the Janissaries and Jinyang Lords of Baibao Xianbei and other Ye, and then they have different ranks and treatments according to different combat areas. For example, the men and horses stationed in Beishan and Heluo should be more valued than the Huainan army.

And the one who is at the bottom of this treatment is undoubtedly the garrison in Henan. Since the end of the Battle of Yingchuan, there have been few wars in Henan, and because of Hou Jing's rebellion, a certain number of men and horses must be stationed here to deter the place, which has caused a relatively embarrassing situation for the Henan garrison, and the treatment is also very poor, and there is almost no stable supply of supplies.

But these garrisons are also people, and they also need food and drink, and they also need money to support their wives and children. With the rise of various smuggling routes centered on the northern part of the country, this has become a source of income for them to rely on the mountains and water.

From this point of view, it was not the Northern Qi court that supported these Henan garrisons, but the Shannan Dao Daxingtai of the Western Wei Dynasty, or more precisely, these smugglers who traveled to and from Shannan Dao. If there were no offerings from these smugglers, even if the Northern Qi garrison in Henan was not disbanded, life would inevitably be very poor and hard.

"Lord Qi, that group of merchants who are unusually transporting goods has been detained out of the tent, is it immediately arraigned?"

After the general inspected the harvest, the soldiers outside the tent hurriedly stepped forward to pray, and when the general heard this, he nodded and said, "Bring people up!" Others trade in gold and silver brocades, or treasures of the Southern Continent, but they sell thousands of volumes of books, are they ordinary merchants?"

Hearing the general's order, the soldiers quickly escorted Li Tang into the big tent, the general lowered his eyes, his face suddenly turned to the side, and pointed at Li Tang and exclaimed: "Why are you a thief and a thief so kind? Keep your head up! You—Aren't you Li Changqing?"

Li Tang, who had been hanging his head nervously and thinking about the plan, immediately raised his head when he heard this, and was also stunned when he saw the general's face, and then couldn't help but exclaim: "Feet, it's Dongfang Ande!" I, I'm Changqing, Li Tang!"

This general's name is Dongfang Lao, who was originally a general of Situ Gao Ao Cao, and Li Tang is also a disciple of the Gao family, and defected to the Western Wei Dynasty with Gao Zhongmi. Neither side expected it to be a reunion of old people

I was stunned for a while before I reacted.

Dongfang Lao strode forward to untie Li Tang, looked up and down, and was a little confused with joy in his eyes: "Li Changqing, you are not chasing the second prince of high school in Kansai, why did you appear here?" Could it be that he is a businessman who is trying to stealthily commit misdeeds?"

Although the two sides were acquaintances, Li Tang couldn't tell the plan and the plan, and after hearing this, he hurriedly shook his head and waved his hand: "How dare you, how dare you! The prince is in power, please be merciful and don't fall into it! Can the prince know the prestige of the king of Taiyuan in Wei State? The second year of high school ordered me to follow the command of the king of Taiyuan, but unexpectedly, this famous king was self-conscious and had a bad relationship with the court. I was afraid that it would not last long, and I was afraid that it would not be tolerated by the imperial court, so I looked for an opportunity to escape, carrying a batch of goods accumulated in recent years, and wanted to return to Hebei Township to live in seclusion and make a living......

If they want to sneak into Hebei, the process will inevitably be accompanied by various accidents, and so on is also one of the expected, and they have already thought of a way to deal with it. Therefore, when he heard Dongfang Laozuo's inquiry, Li Tang said it half-truthfully.

Dongfang Lao only hooked the corners of his mouth after hearing this, and he didn't say whether he believed it or not, he hugged Li Tang's shoulder and said with a smile: "Regardless of the hidden circumstances of the past for the time being, it is also a good fate to reunite after a long absence, I should treat old acquaintances with me."