"The oil lamp you had in your hand yesterday is indeed a good thing, can you let me take a good look?" Zheng He made a pot of tea, poured a cup diligently and handed it to the iron tower.

The tower is secretly funny, it seems that this guy is not dead yet! I had to lie to him and say, "I sold it." ”

"Sold?" Zheng He was suddenly anxious, "How much did it cost?" ”

"One Hundred ...... One thousand gold coins. The tower suddenly realized that he really couldn't lie.

"A thousand gold coins sold this treasure cheaply, why didn't you sell it to me?" Zheng He gritted his teeth and said, at this moment, he wanted to strangle the iron tower, and at the same time hated himself, why didn't he strike first?

"I also know that it is cheap, but I have also made a lot of money, and I can't be too greedy." The head of the tower was big, and he quickly changed the topic, "Where are we going next?" ”

"To the Kingdom of Heaven (present-day Saudi Arabia)." Zheng He took a few deep breaths in succession, and his mood finally calmed down, "The people there have strong personalities, brave and good at fighting, and even the invincible Mongolian cavalry suffered their losses back then. ”

"Really?" Tieta said with interest, "Then I really want to see it." ”

The treasure ship sailed along the coastline, and at a glance the land was a withered yellow, and the desert was more desolate than Baghdad.

"Let's go! Take me to find some treasures. As soon as the treasure ship docked, Zheng He pulled the iron tower and went ashore mysteriously, not even bringing his own soldiers. Luckily for the two, there was a market not far from the port, and it was very bustling with people, which is rare in the desert.

"Brother, you also know that antiques are hard to come by, and this time you are probably going to be disappointed." The tower persuaded bitterly.

"Uncle has silver in his pocket, and he will never be disappointed, and I won't buy anything else without antiques?" Zheng He patted the bulging purse and said proudly.

"That's right." Iron Tower smiled wryly, and went on a shopping spree when he was in a bad mood, this buddy's hobby is really different.

"Actually, I said that I was fooling you when I bought antiques, who blames you for being so unrighteous?" Zheng He laughed, "I'm only going to buy one thing this time." ”

"If I'm not mistaken, it must be a war horse."

"Yes, Tianfang's war horses are famous all over the world, and I plan to buy dozens of them to bring back to Huaxia."

"Good! I also wanted to see how it differed from Mongolian horses. "Tieta knows that the advantages and disadvantages of war horses are the key to cavalry warfare, and it is enough to prove the excellent quality of the heavenly war horses, if they are brought back to China and the second and third generation of war horses are cultivated through crossbreeding, then the threat from the north will be greatly reduced. Although the Mongols have driven out of the Central Plains, but their wolf ambitions to invade the Ming Dynasty have never been broken, the Central Plains does not produce good horses, and the cavalry has also become the short board of the Han dynasty in the past dynasties. The more he thought about it, the more beautiful it became, and finally he couldn't help but laugh.

"What makes you so happy?" Zheng He asked puzzled.

Tie Ta shared his thoughts and plates, and Zheng He praised repeatedly: "Well, it's worth a try!" Originally, I was only going to buy twenty or thirty horses, but now I have changed my mind and bought at least a thousand. Immediately stopped a passer-by and asked, "Where is the horse trading market?" ”

The man pointed to the end of the street, "There it is, but the market is closed today, and you may have to run for nothing." ”

"There are so many people in the market, why is it closed? Isn't this watching silver turn into water? ”

"Today is the 10th day of the Lunar New Year, and there are auctions every 5th and 10th of the month, which is much more fun than buying and selling horses. Needless to say, I'm in a hurry to see the excitement! The man hurried away.

"The auction doesn't say anything clearly, really." Tie Ta complained in his heart, and walked along the street with Zheng He.

The scale of this horse market is quite large, with a long stray horse stake, but only a few skinny horses are dozing off, and the boss doesn't know where to go, Zheng He can't help but be disappointed.

"Look, it's out." At this moment, there was an earth-shattering cheer from the side, and the two of them walked in search of the sound, turned the corner of the wall and passed through a fence, and a spacious racecourse appeared in front of them, and they saw a large group of people in a circle, all of them smiling and excited.

Tie Ta and Zheng He were both tall and tall, although they stood in the back row, they could still see clearly, only to see more than a dozen heavily armed soldiers with spears separating a large open space, a group of ragged captives standing there expressionlessly, there were men, women, old and young, who were tied with thick ropes and their right hands were connected in a string, like poor grasshoppers.

"Boy, don't blame the military master for not reminding you. Spirit points! Maybe you can find a good buyer, and then you will be developed. A bearded soldier raised his foot and kicked a young man out, and the young man staggered and fell to the ground, red blood flowing from his leg, presumably already injured, and the wound had just been accidentally broken.

The young man couldn't get up with a muffled snort, and his face was extremely embarrassed. The soldiers laughed, and the crowd laughed happily, and the ugliness of human nature was unmistakable at this moment, in their eyes these captives were not their own kind, but pigs and sheep about to be sent to the slaughterhouse.

"After doing it for a long time, it turned out to be a slave trade." Zheng He understood.

Iron Tower frowned, "It's cruel, what's the difference between this and buying and selling livestock?" ”

"The slave trade has a very long history here, and over time everyone has become accustomed to it." Zheng He explained, "In the barren desert, there were frequent wars between nations and tribes, and in addition to robbing each other of water and money, they also plundered each other's populations and sold captives to the rich. ”

"Your Excellency General has arrived, salute!" Surrounded by soldiers, a tall, fierce-looking officer stepped out, wearing a black blindfold over his left eye, which added to the ferocity.

Everyone's enthusiasm was ignited instantly, and the crowd was in an uproar, "General, let's start quickly!" We can't wait. ”

"I'll leave that beautiful slave girl." ……

The general scanned the crowd majestically with his only remaining right eye, and pressed down with both hands to signal quiet, "This is the prisoner we captured by the bandits yesterday, the goods are very good, everyone can buy them with confidence." ”

Two soldiers brought over a chair of the Taishi with a tiger skin, and the general sat down with a big sigh and ordered: "Let's begin!" ”

The bearded man dragged a captive roughly, broke his mouth like an animal and let the people in the audience look at his teeth, "This one is in the prime of life, with great strength and can work." Starting bid: 5 gold coins. "This guy is very eloquent, and he probably does this errand a lot.

"Six!" Someone immediately added a gold coin.

"Eight!" Someone has raised the price again.

"I'll make nine!"

"Twelve!"

The outcry came and went.

Seeing the high interest of the buyers, the general was also very happy, this harvest is really good, tomorrow catch more prisoners and come back, this month's military salary will be settled.

"Is there any price increase?" The bearded man looked at the crowd and waited deliberately for a long time before announcing unhurriedly, "Twelve gold coins, he is yours." ”

The buyer paid the money and walked away with the rope in the captive's hand, as happy as a camel.

The trade was lively, and the captives were quickly snatched up, leaving only the wounded man lying on the ground. The bearded man grabbed him by the chest and dragged him off the ground, but as soon as he let go, he fell limply again.

"Do you want to play dead?" The bearded man sneered and kicked down hard.

"Ah......h

Tie Ta looked at him with pity, eighteen or nineteen years old, with good facial features, thick eyebrows and big eyes, a very good young man, but it was a pity that he was unkempt at the moment, and he was injured again, it was really indescribably pitiful.

"The last one, although there is a little problem, but it is young and strong, and you can work when you buy it back. Starting bid: 3 gold coins. "The bearded man sells hard.

The crowd burst into boos, "Three gold coins to buy a waste, a fool to buy him!" ”

"Yes! I'd rather spend a little more money than buy one that I can work on when I go back. ”

The general seemed to anticipate this result, so he did not insist any longer, "Escort him back first, and take him to sacrifice the flag when he goes out tomorrow, so as not to waste food." ”

When the young man heard this, his eyes were full of despair.

"Buy him! It's pathetic. Eiffel Tower said.

Zheng He had already had this intention, and happily took out the money to buy him.

"You really have a vision, you can buy a strong guy for three gold coins, and you make a lot of money." The bearded man laughed.

Zheng He didn't bother to pay attention to him and turned around and left, it was simply a shame to talk to this kind of person.

"Please let me go! I will definitely return these three gold coins to you. On the way back, the young man begged bitterly.

Zheng He looked at the tower and smiled, the person was bought by this boss, and how to deal with it has to listen to his opinion.

"That's not going to work!" Tie Ta flatly refused, his injuries were so serious, and if he didn't heal this leg, it would be useless.

"I can't imagine that this buffalo seems to be loyal, but his heart is so vicious, he really knows people and faces, but he doesn't know his heart!" The young man stared at the tower's back with resentment, limping behind. "It seems that I can only resign myself to fate, but it is better to fall into his hands than in the hands of the one-eyed dragon, at least he will not kill me, and I will find a way to escape when my injuries are healed." Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel refreshed, and the pain of the wound seemed to have been reduced a lot.

The distance from the bazaar to the port was not far, and the young man looked at these mighty treasure ships, and his eyes lit up, and his heart was amazed and envious, and he could not imagine that there were such powerful warships in the world. But he soon became depressed again, he was a landlubber, and it would be difficult for him to escape in the future.

"What's your name? How did you get caught by the officers and soldiers? Did you do something bad? Zheng He asked.

"Master, you are wronged! I'm a good person and haven't done anything bad. The young man exclaimed excitedly, "My name is Hassan, and I rode a horse a few days ago...... No, they caught me walking home. Hassan's eyes dodged, and he hesitated.

Iron Tower knew that he was lying at a glance, but he didn't bother to expose him, and let him go after healing his injuries, regardless of whether what he said was true or not.

"Let me see your injuries." He touched Hassan's leg, but fortunately the bone was not broken, and when he rolled up his pants, he saw that a wooden thorn had pierced deep into his calf, and the wound had festered. Tie Ta pulled out the wooden thorns with a clamp and applied gold sore medicine to him, "It's no big deal, you can eat something and rest for a while before leaving." ”

Ding Erniu brought over a plate with steamed buns, ham, and fruits, and then gave him a brand new set of clothes.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Hassan couldn't believe it, "I'm a slave you paid for, will you let me go?" ”

Tie Ta said lightly: "I bought you just to save your life, and I have no other meaning." ”

Hassan was moved to tears, he had never shed a single tear in the hands of that group of fierce officers and soldiers, but at this moment the tears flowed down uncontrollably, and he said ashamedly: "I'm sorry, I lied just now and secretly scolded you." ”

"Let's not talk about the past, besides, I'm used to it." "You're not the first person to misunderstand me, and I'm not the last. ”

Hassan devoured all the food, and then burped and said: "Lord Zheng, King of the Iron Tower, you are all good people, then there is no need for me to hide from you, in fact, I was looking for a treasure, and I was accidentally caught by that group of officers and soldiers on the way." Some of the captives auctioned today are my fellow villagers, and they are all honest peasants who became robbers because they couldn't stand the government's heavy taxes and taxes. I was also quite unlucky, and when I passed there, I begged them for a drink, and asked for directions by the way, and I happened to meet the officers and soldiers who came to suppress the bandits. The officers and men were like wolves, and they would not reason with us ordinary people, so I hurriedly fled, and in my hurry accidentally fell down the hillside and injured my leg. Then the one-eyed dragon rode after me, and with a whip knocked me to the ground, and as for what happened next, if I didn't say it, you should have known. ”

"Alas! Who in this world wants to be a robber? It's just that the officials forced the people to rebel, and it was really as black as a crow in the world. Zheng He let out a long sigh.

"Hassan, just now you said you were looking for treasure, you didn't lie to me, right?" Tie Ta held his stomach and laughed, he often had this kind of dream of treasure hunting when he was a child, every time he accidentally broke into a mysterious cave, and then found a book of martial arts secrets such as "Eighteen Palms of the Dragon" or "One Yang Finger", and finally he became a young knight with a mastery of learning, but unfortunately this dream has not been realized until now, is Hassan daydreaming like himself?

"I would never dare to deceive my benefactor." Hassan swore that "my grandfather used to be the chief of the Saudi tribe, and by chance he got a treasure map, and it is said that there is so much gold in the treasure that it will not be spent for several lifetimes, and for some reason the news was known to the other tribes, so they came to attack us, and my grandfather gave the treasure map to my father to let him escape." Later, when the tribe perished, this treasure map became an heirloom for my family, and my father told me not to tell anyone about it lightly, lest I be killed. He searched for it all his life, and did not find the treasure until the day he died, and watching him leave with regret, I swore that his wish would be fulfilled. ”

"I'm sure you'll make it." The tower sent its blessings.

"Tower King, it's hard to find the treasure with my own strength, if you can help me, we'll be half of us after I find it." Hassan thought twice and finally made an important decision.

"No problem! You show me the treasure map. "Tie Ta agreed without thinking about it, although he is not interested in money, but bringing this half of the treasure back to Huaxia can help more people, why not?

Hassan picked up the fruit knife on the table and cut open his jacket and pulled out a palm-sized sheepskin from the mezzanine, with no words on it, only a few simple drawings: a large field of poplar trees growing on rolling sand dunes, a spring flowing from a cliff and a pool of rippling blue water.

"Do you understand?" Tie Ta asked, this thing is the same as the Book of Heaven, it is estimated that some of them have been found.

Hassan said in frustration: "No one in our family can understand, so we haven't been able to find the treasure for so many years, what about you?" ”

Tie Ta smiled wryly, "I don't understand it either." ”

"It's man-made, and I believe that there is no difficulty that can be difficult for you." Zheng He raised his glass, "I wish you all success!" ”