How can there be officers and soldiers here!?

Pu Shiwen was so shocked that he couldn't possess his body, and hurriedly reined in his horse.

But this horse has a temper, and you can't just strangle it if you want to.

Immediately shook his neck and shook his head, and the hoof-raising man stood up with a hiss.

It was about Pu Shiwen's poor riding skills that he was immediately taken off the horse and fell to pieces.

The entourage guards on the side controlled the horses in time to avoid it, otherwise it would be another puddle of Pu's meat mud.

Pu Shiwen hurriedly got up and remounted his horse in a panic, trying to escape in a different direction.

But he heard a sharp sound of breaking the air passing past his ears, and a guard on the side screamed and fell.

At the same time, the sound of shouting sounded on the mountain ridge on the right side of the official road and in the paddy fields on the left, which meant that the place had been surrounded and there was no way to escape.

Pu Shiwen's body trembled, and he didn't dare to move again, and his guards simply rolled the saddle and dismounted, indicating that they would give up resisting and running away.

Zhao Mengqi, who was fifty feet away, shrugged, "I actually shot crooked...... Luckily, I didn't hurt the horse, so I went and brought those guys over. ”

The bow in his hand was left by the assassin in Gusu City before.

Zhao Mengqi's strength can easily draw the bow to the fullest, and it took more than a year of practice to be more accurate, although it is still far inferior to that assassin, but he can barely be regarded as a good shooter.

Just now, he saw that Pu Shiwen's horse was quite a miracle horse, so he cherished it, so he planned to shoot the man on the horse first.

I didn't miss, but I was scared and didn't dare to run anymore.

Soon, Geng Zhi and the guards escorted both men and horses back.

"Ask the little general to spare his life, if he can let the contemptible people live, the contemptible people are willing to let the family take out 100,000 yuan to redeem ......"

Pu Shiwen also had some vision, and saw that Zhao Mengqi was the one who made the decision, so he couldn't wait to redeem his life with money, and in his mind, no one could refuse the temptation of 100,000 yuan.

But before he finished speaking, Geng Zhi kicked him in the crook of his knee, causing him to kneel to the ground, "What little general!?" It's really blind to your dog's eyes, and in front of you is His Royal Highness King Yan! ”

"King Yan? …… How could King Yan be here, he wasn't... Isn't it in Miantingling? ”

Pu Shiwen was stunned, could this Yan King fly, and he actually rushed to the front to intercept it.

Of course, Zhao Mengqi didn't need to explain to him, and asked rhetorically, "Are you Pu Shiwen or Pu Shisi?" ”

At this time, Pu Shiwen realized that Liuqingzhu was kneeling on the side full of dejection, and also realized that it was really King Yan in front of him, "Contempt... Sinner Pu Shiwen, my third brother Pu Shisi is dead......"

"Dead? It's cheaper for him. Zhao Mengqi raised his eyebrows, and then carefully looked at Pu Shiwen.

In the original time and space, it was this guy who was responsible for slaughtering the clan, and he still used extremely cruel torture and killing.

Most of the clans that fell into his hands were cut off and bloodied alive, and they were tortured before they died, and even women and young children were brutally killed.

Moreover, this beast also dug up all the graves of the Quanzhou clan, looted the burial goods, and threw the corpses into the field for the beasts to eat.

Therefore, Zhao Mengqi didn't plan to let him die a good death, and was thinking about what punishment should be used to be worthy of the sin of this dog, so his eyes couldn't help but become very mad.

Pu Shiwen knelt on the ground, although he could only see King Yan's feet, he still really felt the hatred and killing intent like Mount Tai.

Sen Leng and cold air rushed straight to the Tianling Gai from the soles of his feet, Pu Shiwen was terrified, and muttered and begged, "Don't kill me, I don't want to die, I'm willing to exchange all my property for 100,000 guan, no, it's 500,000 guan..."

"Hehe, money for life?" Zhao Mengqi was amused, "It's worthy of being a businessman, thinking that money can buy everything...... However, your Pu family is the head of the merchants, controlling the spice trade, saying that it is a rich and rival country is afraid of being conservative, I heard that your father Pu Shougeng often shows off with others, 'pepper 800 Hu is not enough', as the son of the Pu family, a life is only worth 100,500,000? ”

Pepper was just a very common spice in the kitchens of ordinary people in later generations, but for a long time in history it was a very expensive luxury, often more expensive than gold, and even a symbol of wealth, which could be used directly as money.

In the Tang Dynasty, there was a super corrupt official named Yuan Zai, and his family occupied three squares of one hundred and nine squares in Chang'an City.

After the fall of Yuan Zai, the most dazzling and shocking thing about his confiscated family property was not the gold and silver treasures, but the 800 stone pepper.

Since then, 'Eight Hundred Stone Pepper' has become a stalk, used to represent the shocking wealth of the world, and frequently appears in literary works such as poetry.

Coincidentally, during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, when Qian Ning, a high-ranking official of Jinyiwei, was confiscated from his property, thousands of stones of pepper were also found.

Being hoarded by the powerful in this way shows that pepper is not only expensive but also easy to realize, just like Moutai in later generations, it is the favorite of corrupt officials......

In the Song Dynasty, thanks to the prosperity of maritime trade, the import of pepper and other spices increased significantly, but it was still expensive.

During the time of Song Zhezong, Guangzhou paid 2,000 catties of sandalwood and 50 catties of pepper to the imperial court every year, but Zhezong felt that this amount was too big, so he reduced the sandalwood to 1,000 catties and the pepper to 20 catties, which shows that pepper is more in demand than sandalwood.

Until the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a pound of pepper can still be sold for more than a dozen taels of silver, Yongle year, the imperial court directly issued pepper as a fortune, 16 yuan per catty, this is due to Zheng He went to the West to bring back a large amount of pepper, and later the ban on the sea led to a reduction in imports, and each pound of pepper in the year of Xuande will be discounted into 50 yuan, which is equivalent to nearly seven stones of rice.

The Song people were extremely fond of spices, which were an indispensable commodity in daily life, but the high prices of spices imported through normal channels were so high that only a few powerful people could afford to consume them, so there was a large-scale smuggling of spices to fill this huge market, making spices such as pepper from a luxury to a 'medium consumer product' with a wider audience.

Originally, in this trade, the state should receive a considerable amount of tax revenue, but because of improper policies and corrupt officials, smuggling was frequent, and a large amount of profits were transferred to the hands of officials and elites.

And the Pu family, who controlled the spice trade, got even more wealth from it.

So Pu Shiwen only took hundreds of thousands of yuan and wanted to buy his life, isn't this a dispatch called Huazi?

When he realized that King Yan was not so easy to fool, he hurriedly remedied, "Your Highness, Your Highness, the sinner is wrong, it's not 500,000 yuan, it's all, all the property of the Pu family!" All the property is dedicated to His Highness, just to spare me a dog's life, whatever you want me to do, from now on I am a servant of His Highness, a dog at His Highness's feet, I can recruit maritime merchants for His Highness, and run the incense trade for His Highness, the sinners are more useful alive than dead, killing me can only dirty His Highness's hands, but keeping me can help His Highness earn a steady stream of money......"

"Huh...... Wouldn't it be better for me to keep your father? Zhao Mengqi disagreed.

Pu Shiwen hurriedly argued, "It's not good, it's not good, my father is unruly, treacherous and greedy, and he has long hidden the heart of rebellion and disobedience, so he has a vain act of murdering His Highness, he values money more than life, how can he really serve His Highness, take 10,000 steps back, even if he is willing to be used by His Highness, but he is old, he can still do things for a few years, or leave the sinners,......"

Tsk, what kind of strange things are these Pu families, they are inhuman and shameless, worse than jackals and beasts.

Zhao Mengqi is very tired, but this Pu family has too much influence among the merchants, so they have to make arrangements before disposing of it, so as not to misunderstand and fear other merchants and dare not come to trade again.

Since this Pu Shiwen is so life-sparing, he still has some use value, so let him live a few more days.

After calculating it in his heart, Zhao Mengqi was noncommittal on his face, and no longer paid attention to Pu Shiwen's pleading, and walked around him to the captured horses by himself.

One of them was black and shiny, like a magnet, which firmly attracted Zhao Mengqi's gaze.

What a beautiful steed!

The horse's head is delicate and light, its short ears are constantly moving around, it looks very alert, and the eyes are particularly large and protruding, which are deep and smart, the neck is beautiful and slender, the shoulders are strong and the waist is short and straight, the light tail is raised high, and the limbs are slender and upright but full of strength.

Zhao Mengqi involuntarily approached and found that the horse's shoulders were about the same height as his shoulders, that is, one meter six, which was definitely the tallest horse he had ever seen.

In an instant, an inexplicable possessiveness welled up from his heart, and he hadn't felt like this for a long, long time.

He couldn't help but reach out and stroke Ma'er's slightly concave face, "Little beauty, how about following me in the future?" ”

The horse did not avoid his petting, but rubbed it obediently, and stuck out his tongue to lick his palm.

"Do you mean yes?" Zhao Mengqi smiled heartily, "Then I'll give you a name, huh...... Before dawn is the darkest, just as your darkness is the end of the night... How about I let you spend the night? ”

The horse sniffled and snorted, but unfortunately suffered the loss of not being able to speak, and could only be 'accepted' by the broken name.

Zhao Mengqi's mood became very beautiful, and he looked at the other twenty or so horses, most of which were similar to the appearance of the night, but they were not so tall and powerful.

"These are all big horses?"

Seeing that King Yan was in a happy mood, Pu Shiwen suddenly thought that he had a life, and hurriedly explained, "Most of them are big eating horses, and some are Tianzhu horses. The night was only shipped last year, and it took six thousand to buy it, and the others also cost one or two thousand, and the Pu family has more than three hundred horses, if Your Highness likes it, all of them are dedicated to you, and the villain can buy more for you in the future. ”

"Oh? It's a big horse. Zhao Mengqi thought for a moment and asked, "These are all shipped directly from the Great Food?" ”

Pu Shiwen hesitated, and Zhao Mengqi smiled contemptuously, "What, you still want to keep it secret?" Is there no one else who knows about it but you? ”

"No, no, no, Your Highness has misunderstood." Pu Shiwen hurriedly defended, "The villain is just straightening out his thinking. ”

Zhao Mengqi glanced at him, "I'll give you a chance, let's talk about it in detail." ”

Pu Shiwen didn't dare to play tricks, and said honestly, "The horses that eat and sell out are usually transported from Ganmei, and the horse ships used are larger than those of commercial ships, and the bottom bilge is weighed with frankincense and other materials, and hundreds of horses are loaded on it, which are transported to Tianzhu Julan first, and then to Gulifo." ”

"Gulifo has become the largest horse trading market, sold to all parts of Tianzhu, before generally no longer continue to the east, after all, it is not profitable to transport to the Great Song Dynasty, it is better to transport spices, not at all, but very little."

"Later, the Champa and Jiaozhi people often fought, they used to ride elephants to fight, but accidentally found that riding horses is more suitable for fighting, so from 80 years ago, the Champa people went to Qiongzhou Jiyang Army to secretly buy horses, but within a few years the imperial court found out, our Great Song Dynasty was already short of horses, how could they still be sold to them, so the imperial court issued an edict, 'Chinese horses are not allowed to go out of the outside world'."

"The people of Champa have already tasted the sweetness of cavalry, since the Great Song Dynasty can't buy horses, they try to buy them from maritime merchants at a high price, and then some people continue to transport horses from Tianzhu Guli Buddha to sell."

"My ancestors of the Pu family have lived in Champa for several generations, and now they still maintain a relationship with Champa, so it is naturally not difficult to buy a horse."

After listening to this, Zhao Mengqi understood that Gan Mei was about a place in Iran or Oman in the later generations, Guri Buddha should be in southern India, and Zhancheng was at the southern tip of the Indochina Peninsula, which is equivalent to dividing the journey of more than 100,000 miles into three sections, of which there should be many small sections, but it coincides with the segmented transportation he thought before.

However, there are still very few horses that can be transported in this way, and I am afraid that there are only a few hundred horses in a year, and in the face of Mongolia, which has hundreds of thousands of war horses, it is not enough to see at all.

However, it would be nice to use it as a stallion and to improve the native horses.

In fact, since the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty has used horses in Central Asia and the Great Food Region to improve horse breeds, but unfortunately the damn gelding habit has not continued the good horse genes.

Now that Zhao Mengqi wants to do this, he can't help but feel a little temporary, after all, it will take a long time, but it is better than doing nothing.

If you really want to expand the scale of horse purchase, it is estimated that you must first establish a 'Zheng He fleet'.

Some people died, but not completely......