"Adam, Adam" Boss Qian shouted anxiously when he saw Adam walking down the wall, but he didn't turn back. Looking at Adam's cold appearance of a villain, Boss Qian was really annoyed in his heart. Thinking of the beginning, this Adam was like a horn dog beside Nima, who was extremely flattering and polite to himself, but now Nima turned his face ruthlessly as soon as he died. It's just that he is angry and angry, but he has no choice but to lead people towards the camp in the valley down the mountain.

After returning to the camp, Boss Qian asked someone to discuss what to do next. Qian Laosan's meaning is to go home, sell the goods on the way back, and go to Lizhou to buy large livestock, so that the risk is minimal. Li Kaipeng, the trade representative of the Perak Army, and Qian Bao, the commander of the first company of the caravan, thought that since they had already reached the archery furnace, they would have to reach the grassland in two days, so it was a pity to give up. This Li Kaipeng is Li Shuang's distant nephew, who was sent by Ouyang Xuan to Chongqing Mansion as a messenger and take care of Li Shuang who was sick. After Li Shuang was taken to the mountains, he went to the trading company as an accounting officer, and was later sent to the joint caravan by Zhu Xuanzi. For a while, whether to move forward or go back, everyone argued, especially Qian Laosan and his son Qian Bao's opinions were opposed to each other. In a hurry, Qian Laosan wanted to beat Qian Bao, but Qian Bao blushed and refused to admit defeat, claiming that even if he was beaten, it was right to continue to go to the grassland. While everyone was arguing, Li Gongzi came in and reported the news: there were people of unknown origin peeping outside the camp. In fact, since entering the Arrow Furnace River Valley, there have been people following and following, presumably bandit spies. In this regard, Boss Qian just reminded him to be vigilant, as long as the other party does not attack, he must not use force. The caravan went out just to get rich, and it couldn't make too many enemies under the tree.

Whether to go forward or go back, Boss Qian really hesitated in his heart. However, Qian Bao's words made him make up his mind. Qian Bao told everyone that although it is important to make money, the most important thing in this trip is the war horse. In fact, horses can be bought in Diao, Yanzhou and even Ya and Lizhou, and the prices are much cheaper than those in Handi, but those are pack animals. If you want to buy a large number of war horses, you have to trade with nomadic tribes, and in the past, the arrow furnace was an important trading location. Boss Qian knew very well that the main purpose of the joint caravan set up by the Thunderbolt Army and Qian Jiazhai was to obtain strategic materials such as war horses and copper mines, and he did not buy many mines on this trip, and if he did not buy war horses, even if the profits were more meaningful, they would be greatly reduced. Now that the Qian family has been attached to the Thunderbolt Army, and has also obtained firearms and military protection, the Qian clan is also valued by Ouyang Xuan, but if it cannot bring value to the development of the Thunderbolt Army, the future status of the Qian family is worrying. "Wealth is in danger", the nephew's words thought he understood the above truth. He immediately put down the controversy and decided to continue to the grassland to try his luck.

The archery furnace climbed over a snowy mountain to reach the grassland area, and there was still snow on the top of the mountain in April. It seemed that the distance was not far but it took three days, in addition to the slow progress of the mules and horses over the mountain, but also because of the calm personality of Boss Qian, he always sent sharp soldiers to reconnoiter first, and only let the caravan continue on the road after there was no abnormality. The grassland area is open, the vegetation is more sparse, the air is thin and the temperature is cold, which makes everyone feel new and uncomfortable. What makes people faintly uneasy is that the sneaky bandits who have been following the caravan since the beginning of the arrow furnace are not far away, and are now peeking on the hill not far from the caravan camp.

After nightfall, two figures appeared outside the caravan camp. Li Gongzi, who was on duty at night, immediately led people to quietly greet him, and sneaked closer to find that these two people were the bandits who had been following the caravan. Li Zhuzi whistled and led people to pounce, ready to take down the two in one fell swoop. He took three of his subordinates, and he was full of confidence with two against one. Unexpectedly, these two bandits were full of strength, especially the tall bandits, Li Gongzi and the two were not his opponents, and they were thrown out by him in a few rounds. Fortunately, the sound of the fight attracted the camp guards, and in the face of the bright knives and guns, the two robbers did not run away or resist, allowing the guards to untie the short knives at their waists, and kept muttering something. Many people in the camp were awakened by the noise, and they came out of the tent to see what was going on, and some of them knew the local language, and knew that the tall bandit's mouth was thinking: "I am Zelang, I want to see Uncle Qian." When Qian Bao, the commander of the first company on duty, heard this, he put the two of them in the account of the boss of Qian. He was really curious, what happened to these two bandits coming to the Qian family?

The two robbers talked for a long time in the account of Boss Qian, and did not come out until midnight. Qian escorted them out of the camp, and then gathered and took Ben Lian's men out of the camp and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Soon after the departure of the first company, a sharp iron whistle sounded in the camp, which was the signal for an urgent assembly. Boss Qian and Boss Qian gave orders with a solemn face: use mules, horses, and goods to form a circular defensive array, dig trenches and horse traps on the perimeter, and set up a circle of tripwire with thick ropes to bundle goods. Everyone woke up and saw that Qian Bao didn't know where to go, and they heard such an order, and they knew that there was something wrong. Especially when Boss Qian ordered all the light tiger squat guns he carried to be erected, he all understood that the situation was grim and there was about to be a big battle. You must know that although the bandits are constantly attacking, Boss Qian insists on not using artillery as a big killing weapon, in his words, artillery should be used at the most critical time. It seems that now is the most critical time for the survival of the armed caravan.

When the sun rose on the horizon, a large group of horses appeared at the eastern hills, and these uninvited guests were obviously horse bandits. The armed caravans camped at the hollow bottom of an alpine meadow, with low hills to the west and north to protect them from the cold winds of the night. After overnight excavation, trenches had been dug around the camp, especially two more shallow ditches on the east and south sides. Due to the large number of stones under the turf and the hard soil, the folding sapper shovel could not dig very deep, so many traps were dug in the horses. Boss Qian also ordered the men to build a breast wall in the east and south, and arranged two companies of eight light tiger squat guns behind the wall.

The bandits were particular about where they attacked and when they charged. At this time, the sun rises in the east, and the caravan is facing the sun against the backlight, and the horse bandits are coming from the backlight. Coupled with the charge down from the hill, hundreds of horses took advantage of the terrain, and the impact was extremely terrifying. It's just that what the horse bandits didn't expect was that the armed caravan had already learned of their attack plan and was fully prepared. This gave the horse bandits the right time and place to make a surprise attack with a single blow, and turned it into a sturdy horse planting activity.