Out of the Chongqing Mansion, the messenger sent last time was already waiting for Ouyang Xuan at the door. This messenger's name is Li Kaipeng, who has been Li Shuang's nephew for many years and has followed him for many years. Ouyang Xuan sent him as a messenger not only because of his cleverness, but also because he stayed in Chongqing Mansion to take care of Li Shuang after sending the letter. After Li Shuang injured himself, he was dismissed from the Qingfu Xiang Army by Pan, although he had a pension, but it was extremely meager. When Huang Dagen and Dong Hu went to Fucheng to deliver the letter, they saw that Li Shuang's food and accommodation conditions were extremely poor, and they informed Ouyang Xuan as soon as they returned to Liuliba. After Ouyang Xuan and the others discussed, they asked Li Kaipeng to bring enough money and materials to fund Li Shuang's living needs.

Li Shuang's new residence is small but clean, and it can be seen that Li Kaipeng is also extremely attentive. I haven't seen him for more than a month, Li Shuang is in good spirits, but he still can't get out of bed and walk. He was very excited to see Ouyang Xuan and the others, and he was even more embarrassed when he talked about the past. When Ouyang Xuan told Li Shuang about the development of Liuliba in recent times, Li Shuang suddenly said: "Brother Xuan, I have some old people in this Chongqing Mansion, and I recently learned from them that you and others have also made great contributions, and I am very relieved. It's just that the situation in this Cockscomb Mountain is very good, and it has attracted the eyes of people with ulterior motives. I heard that there are treacherous people who have repeatedly bribed Pan and coveted your official position, but they have not succeeded because the mountain bandits have not been destroyed and the road has not been opened, so you have to be careful! ”。

Li Shuang's heartfelt words not only made Huang Dagen and the others entourage angry, but also shocked Ouyang Xuan's heart, no wonder this Pan Tong never mentioned the reward, it turned out that he wanted to wait for the peach of Liuliba to ripen and then sell it for a good price! However, although he was angry in his heart, Ouyang Xuan was not afraid that Pan would send someone to seize his position. He looked around and said, "You can't follow the chaos!" It's not that I'm greedy for official positions, but if I let the villain's conspiracy succeed, the Thunderbolt army and the people in the mountains will suffer again. However, I can wait for a few people to know about this matter, and we can't spread it around." After listening to Ouyang Xuan's words, everyone said, "That's how it should be."

Later, Ouyang Xuan mentioned to Li Shuang that after the road was clear, he would take him to the mountains to seek development. Li Shuang was moved by Ouyang Xuan's sincerity, and said in a choked voice: "Thanks to Brother Xuan'er for not disliking me as a crippled person, after Yu recovers, he will do his best to help Brother Xuan achieve great things together with all the brothers, even if he is full of brains."

After saying goodbye to Li Shuang, Ouyang Xuan took people back to the camp of the trade team. Due to the large number of people on this trip, in order to save the cost of accommodation, the trade team found an open space to rest next to the wharf outside the West Gate City. Of course, the more important reason is that the number of mountain goods brought this time is quite large, and it is not suitable to move into the city to camp. One is because his wealth is not exposed, for fear of attracting people's eyes and attracting covetousness; The second is that if all of them are sold in Chongqing, the price will be lowered by profiteers because the quantity of shipments is too large.

When they returned to the campsite, Wang Youfu, Zhu Zhuozi and Dong Hu had already returned from selling goods, and the three of them reported the sales to Ouyang Xuan with happy faces. Although they only sold half of the mountain goods, they made a huge profit, and their income far exceeded everyone's expectations. The price was sold at a good price, in addition to Zhu Zhuozi's well-versed trading methods, but also because Du Daquan, who accompanied him, has been a doctor and pharmacist for generations, and he is quite familiar with the traditional Chinese medicine he carried, and he resolved the price reduction of profiteers in just a few words. Of course, the good price of this batch of mountain goods also benefited from the mountain bandits in Wanjiaping. These 10,000 Pingshan bandits used force or forcibly levied "taxes" in the mountains to plunder mountain goods, or monopolized the trade in daily necessities such as salt, and purchased mountain goods at extremely low prices, and then sold them to criminal and evil traders who were engaged in the sale of stolen goods in September and October every year. This time, the Thunderbolt Army sold the mountain goods in advance in June, and the price was much lower, so naturally the supply exceeded demand. You must know that fur, honey, precious Chinese medicine and other mountain goods are not only sold well in Chongqing, but can also be sold down the river to Jiading Mansion, Chongqing Mansion and even Lin'an Mansion in the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. So when he learned from Li Xuanzi that only half of the mountain goods could be exchanged for 2,000 catties of salt, Dong Hu, who accompanied him, was so surprised that he couldn't speak. It can be seen that the salt in the Cockscomb Mountain is ridiculously expensive.

Chongqing Mansion to Qiongzhou is 80 miles away, and it can be reached in one day. In order to avoid the scorching heat of June, the caravan still set off early the next day before dawn. In order to reduce the physical load of everyone, Zhu Zhuozi hired more than 20 mules and horses and accompanying pack workers in the city's chariot and horse shop all the way to Qiongzhou. In addition to being used to carry goods and baggage, he also prepared a tall mule and horse for Ouyang Xuan to ride, but Ouyang Xuan refused, and he insisted on walking with everyone.

The official road from Chongqing Mansion to Qiongzhou is the most important road in western Sichuan, not only to Jiading Mansion, but also the most important road to Yazhou and even Jiezhou and Yiren, not like the secondary official road to Yongkang Village and other places. Therefore, although the Shu land is dilapidated, the government still strives to maintain the passage of the road, and regularly sends troops to clean up and arrest bandits along the way. Ouyang Xuan heard that Mongolian rangers had also appeared on this official road last month, but they did not appear again after the official army heard the news and drove them away. The merchant team was under the banner of the Chongqing Mansion Army, and the people accompanying them were all strong men with swords, guns and shields, so the journey was quite smooth, and they arrived at Qiongzhou City before sunset.

It is said that this Qiongzhou has been a prosperous place in Xishu since ancient times, and it is also an important place for finance and taxation, in addition to producing grain and rice, it also has the benefits of salt and iron. In Qiongzhou, there are not only money supervisors who cast iron money, but also the only well salt output in western Sichuan. Since the Western Han Dynasty, there are big clans in the boundary of Qiongzhou to take the rich brine underground, and use pottery pipes and bamboo pipes to lead natural gas to boil salt and become a strong and powerful wealth, especially in Huojing County under the rule, the brine and natural gas are extremely rich, which is not only the most important finance and tax of the Qiongzhou government, but also the food and clothing of the villagers. Before the Mongol invasion, the population was large and the economy was extremely developed, which was not inferior to the Chongqing Mansion known as the "Shu of Shu", but because of the repeated looting by the Mongols, the prosperity was gone. Due to the economic decline of the entire western Sichuan, the government relied more on the subway and the taxes of the salt industry, so although the population and grain production were far inferior to the past, the production of salt and iron did not decline much.

After finding an open space outside Qiongzhou City to set up camp, although people were already tired and sleepy after walking all day, Ouyang Xuan saw that it was still early, so he summoned everyone to hold the lantern and make arrangements for tomorrow's affairs. During the discussion, Zhu Zhuozi suggested that he should buy salt in Huojing County, which is 80 miles away from Qiongzhou City, where the salt industry is more developed and there is a lot of private salt, so he only needs to exchange all the proceeds from the sale of goods into "Jiaozi" that can be used in Huojing. At that moment, everyone agreed that Huang Dagen would go to the salt industry supervisor in charge of the government to exchange for an official document early tomorrow morning; Zhu Zhuozi and Du Daquan went to various businesses in the city to sell goods, while Wang Youfu and Dong Hu took people to the designated merchants to exchange for Jiaozi.