"Hmph. Paegon Toast pulled his long knife out of the corpse in front of him with a snort, he didn't feel sorry for the loss of his life, the weak had never existed in the mountains, what he hated was that he had to spend time polishing his knife, tidying up the ranks that had been disrupted by the attackers, and retrieving the scattered pack horses and the valuables they carried.

Paigang Tusi did not have a good impression of the merchants, they brought Paigang Tusi and other Yiren Tusi all kinds of goods that were not produced in Yishan, and gave them many additional gifts for the protection they promised, all they needed was some surplus slaves in Yishan, this was a very profitable relationship, and their friendship was limited to this. He doesn't trust these merchants just as he doesn't trust anyone else, a person trusting anything but his weapons in Yishan will end up roughly choosing between death and slavery, and the choice is still in the hands of his enemies, Paigang Toast never makes such a mistake, when the merchants he traded with became rich and expanded the size and strength of the caravan, he bundled these merchants who were likely to threaten him into slavery like harvesting autumn grain.

Now, he had no reason to pity the merchants, and he remembered the first time he fought, when he was only eight years old, and after three days of walking in the mountains, he was instructed to go through a small hole in the wall to find out the guards inside. It was not an easy attack, in order not to arouse the alarm of the attacked, they did not light a fire, did not bake bread, did not use smoke to expel poisonous insects from the mountains, and a few years later, one of his cousins was bitten by poisonous insects while participating in a similar operation, and they had grown up together, and Paegon Toast treated him like his own brother, perhaps because he would not threaten his position, and he was better than his own brother, and that was the last news Paegon Toast heard about him. Paigang Toast did not complain anything about the dangerous operation in which he had participated or the involvement of his cousin in such a dangerous operation when he was young, and the life of the weak had no value in Yishan, which was an iron law that prevailed over all, and he believed in this iron law, and every tribe, every toast and slave in Yishan confirmed the meaning of this iron law with their prosperity and weakness.

Later, he sent his own children to the battlefield at the same age, and those who can't survive will not survive in the future, and the world of Yishan is so harsh.

But compared to today's journey, the attack was as easy as an outing, and they carried only their own equipment and rations, and only had to take care of very few horses, which were all passenger horses, and basically did not carry anything, and they had to keep their horsepower for use in case of emergency, and would rather carry their luggage by manpower. Today, in addition to themselves, they have to take care of a large number of pack horses and the goods they carry. This meant that every night they had to find a place that was spacious enough and close enough to the water source to unload the pack horses from their burdens, to give them water and food, and to check that the horses' backs were not worn down by improperly placed goods, otherwise the horses would flee with their goods without them noticing, and they would have to choose between losing their goods and wasting a whole day looking for horses.

At night, the expedition could have found some relatively safe place to rest in the dense mountain forest, such as the tops of large trees, but now it was impossible to take care of the horses and stack the goods, and they had to rest in a place that was vulnerable to attack no matter how they looked at it, and in order to prepare for an attack that could indeed happen at any time, they had to drag their bodies, which had been exhausted by the day's travel and all kinds of miscellaneous work to take care of the horses, to set up camp and set up sentry.

On the second day they had to go around and grab the horses that were unwilling to continue their journey, and push them to the ground, and tie the goods to them in the same way, and if the horses struggled or the ropes were not strong enough, the salt bales would be scattered all over the place, and all the work would have to start from scratch.

Of course, just because the light of day doesn't mean the other Yiren won't attack them at this time, so in this busy and tired time, they also have to make sure that their swords and bows are within reach, ready to deal with the beasts that rush out of the woods (which are usually not so stupid) or the ill-intentioned Yiren (they are usually so stupid).

When the caravan was put in order, the horses and men were in place, and they were on the road, were they only faced with a steep mountain road?

No fool would think so.

Behind every stout ancient tree may be hidden a Yiren samurai with a poisoned bow and crossbow in his hand, drooling over the caravan's goods, and the most indispensable thing in Yishan is the Yiren samurai with poisonous arrows and greedy hearts, almost as many as the stout ancient trees in Yishan.

Paigang Toast didn't approve much of Hua Lin's wanton felling on his mountain, it was original.

Now he wanted to shave all the hills in his way, so that his nerves would not be so tight.

And he also found other benefits of begging for a living under Hua Lin: he didn't have to worry about anyone conspiring against him except Hua Lin, and to be honest, he didn't worry about Hua Lin plotting against him, the difference in strength between the two sides was so big that he, as a toast, didn't even sleep peacefully when he was on an errand under Hua Lin. At that time, they could still brag and tell jokes while cutting trees in the forest, and anyway, neither the tigers nor the enemy Yiren were Hualin's opponents. Now, when they set up camp, everyone held their breath, for fear that they would not hear a noise not far away and cause the whole team to be taken into slavery.

In his rare spare time, Paikon Toast would seriously consider a question that he had not thought about in the first place, neither because of his intellectual inadequacy nor because he found it meaningless, but simply because of his lack of experience as a businessman.

Now, after experiencing the hardships of the merchants himself, he had to think seriously about how many slaves these merchants, at the risk of being sold into slavery ten times larger than Paigang Tusi's caravan this time, marched on the steep mountain roads with a heavy caravan in order to have a few slaves? He thinks that this benefit is not worth this risk, he is a noble toast, he understands all kinds of black words and cunning tricks among the Yi people, and his subordinates are all Yi warriors who are good at fighting and marching on mountain roads, and it is still so hard, why do those merchants outside the mountains carry out such a difficult journey?