Fenghou

Chapter 1284
Dongzhu Wu never dreamed that his nephew Zhou Mi came to the door with his inner guards. For a moment, his face turned pale and he was on the verge of collapse.

The inner guards did not interrogate him immediately, but took him and his nephew Zhou Mi to the warehouse at the Weihe Wharf. The inner guard soldiers opened the warehouse and lifted the oilcloth, and inside were boxes of white silver.

Dongzhu Wu couldn't bear it any longer, and suddenly sat down on the ground with ashes on his face.

"You bastard!"

Zhou Mi exploded, rushed forward and grabbed his uncle's hair and shouted, "You lied to me, you pay me back, you shameless liar!"

"Fool!" Wu Dongzhu was heartbroken, he wished he could kill this nephew, and betrayed himself for fifteen taels of silver.

The soldiers of the inner guard stepped forward to separate them, and Zhong Huan stepped forward and said coldly: "This case has already alarmed His Royal Highness, and His Royal Highness ordered that no matter what, you must recover the thousand loads of sanqi. You still have a chance Opportunity, tell me everything you know without reservation, who provided Sanqi, who bought it, and where are they now?"

Dongzhu Wu took out a booklet from his pocket and handed it to Zhong Huan, "There are records of the seller on it. Who sold it? How much did it sell? There are detailed records."

Chong Huan flipped through the pages and asked again, "Where's the buyer?"

"The buyer's surname is Bu. He claims to be a merchant of medicinal materials in Taiyuan. He left yesterday. He also bought Banlangen and Cortex Phellodendri. He loaded more than a dozen carts with a thousand loads of Sanqi on camels. He left at noon yesterday."

When Zhong Huan heard that Sanqi had been transported away, he became anxious and escorted Wu Dongzhu and Bai Yin back to the inner guard. He found Wang Hao by himself.

After listening to the report, Wang Hao pondered for a moment and said: "We can't think that they will go to Taiyuan because they came from Taiyuan. They may go to northern Shaanxi, Pujin Pass, or Tongguan. Divide into three groups to pursue."

"Beizhi personally led people to the direction of Pujin Pass. They left at noon yesterday. There were [-] camels and carts. If we are fast, we should be able to catch up before Pujin Pass."

"Okay, send a thousand troops, and divide them into three groups to chase after me!"

Three inner guard cavalry units rushed out towards the east of the city, and Zhong Huan led [-] cavalry towards Pujin Pass.

Since Jingzhao City is located on the south bank of the Wei River, this is a question of crossing the Wei River to the north bank. Where will the other party cross the Wei River?

First of all, Jingzhao can cross the Wei River, Lintong County can also cross the river, then Weinan County can cross the river, Zheng County can also cross the river, and Huayin County can cross the Wei River at the latest.

In this way, it is very likely that they will cross the opponent halfway, but this is not important, as long as they arrive at Pujin Pass first, they can intercept them at Pujin Pass.

The other two teams also had the same intention and rushed to the exit of Guanzhong to wait.

Two days later, Zhong Huan led [-] internal guard cavalry to Pujin Pass. Chong Huan was worried that the other party had already passed Pujin Pass, and he would be in big trouble. Taihang Jiuxing, there are many ways to go from Hedong to Hebei.

In particular, the other party did not carry prohibited items. At present, there are only a few items that are officially banned from trade, such as pig iron, gold and silver, grain, salt, weapons, armor, etc. Medicinal materials are not within the scope of the ban.

The reason why the medicinal materials are not in the scope of prohibited products is because the medicinal materials are not easy to identify, especially after the rhizome medicinal materials such as Panax notoginseng are ground into powder, they cannot be distinguished. You can say that it is vetch powder, fern powder, yam Powder, sometimes medicinal materials are also a kind of food.

Although Pujinguan also has a record of a camel caravan passing through the border, it is unlikely in terms of time, as the speed of the other party is not so fast.

Chong Huan waited at Pujin Pass for three days, but still did not find anything suspicious, and the other party was not found at the other control points.

Commander Huang Wei said to Zhong Huan: "Commander, is there such a possibility? The other party has already discovered that we are intercepting them, so they simply squat down in a certain county town and wait for a month or two. After we leave, They pass again."

Chong Huan frowned, and sighed: "It must be the case. I was worried that they left Lantianguan, and after arriving in Dengzhou, they would go north by detour. Then there is really no other way."

"If that's the case, there's nothing we can do. King Yong won't blame us."

Chong Huan shook his head, "I also know that King Yong won't blame me, but I feel aggrieved!"

The generals next to him all looked sad, and this was the first time that the dignified inner guard was being tricked, and it was really useless.

At this time, a caravan of mules came across, about [-] mules. Each mule was carrying a heavy load. It looked like a bag of grain. In addition to more than [-] mule drivers, there were also four merchants. follow.

This is a very common caravan. Yongwang Mansion implements low business tax and zero checkpoints, which greatly promotes the development of commerce. Every day, several mule and donkey teams pass through Pujin Pass, traveling between Hedong and Guanzhong.

This is obviously not the medicinal material they are looking for, because the quantity is wrong, and more than [-] mules cannot carry a thousand loads of notoginseng.

But for some reason, Zhong Huan always felt that there was something wrong with this caravan. At this time, a soldier muttered, selling food can still make money?

This sentence was like a flash of lightning, Zhong Huan immediately realized what was wrong?The price of grain in Hedong is exactly the same as that in Guanzhong. There is basically no price difference. It is not profitable to sell grain, let alone hire mule drivers, which will definitely lose money.

"Look at it!"

The crowd followed Zhe Zhonghuan to the gate of Guancheng.

To cross Pujin Pass, you need to declare contraband, that is, fill out a form to declare that you have not trafficked contraband, and then you can cross the river along the pontoon bridge.

When Zhong Huan arrived at Guancheng, the other party had already filled out the form and was queuing to cross the Yellow River.

Zhong Huan glanced at the form, and it was written clearly that black bean flour, black bean flour is the cheapest of all grains, and it is basically used as feed, costing a few cents a catty.

Chong Huan immediately knew something was wrong. In terms of black bean powder, the total value of all the goods carried by these two hundred mules is only more than one hundred yuan. It costs more than two hundred guan with the mule driver, not to mention the round-trip travel expenses, which is too unreasonable.

Zhong Huan waved his hand, and hundreds of inner guard soldiers who had been preparing for a long time surrounded more than two hundred mules.

The mule drivers suddenly panicked, and a trace of panic flashed in the eyes of several businessmen. The leading businessman pretended to be calm and asked, "His Royal Highness Yong does not allow you to set up checkpoints to intercept businessmen. What are you doing?"

Zhong Huan ignored him, and used a dagger to pierce a hole in a bag of goods, which was filled with yellow powder. After tasting it, Zhong Huan found a strong medicinal smell.

He sneered and asked, "Is this black bean flour?"

The businessman sighed and said, "This is actually medicinal material, Gastrodia elata powder, which is more expensive. We are afraid of being targeted by thieves, so we deliberately pretend to be black bean powder. It is not easy to do business. Please understand, general."

There is nothing wrong with saying that, many merchants hide real goods and pretend to be cheap goods. It is not tax evasion, but because they are afraid of being targeted by thieves. This is the reason why their wealth is not revealed.

Chong Huan has been waiting for three days, how could he be fooled by a few words from him, besides, isn't the invoice issued by Dongzhu Wu just pretending to be Gastrodia elata?

He immediately ordered his subordinates, "Go get the military doctor!"

They couldn't identify Sanqi, so they brought a military doctor, and the faces of several businessmen suddenly became ugly.

After a while, the military doctor came in a hurry, and Zhonghuan said a few words to him. He twisted some medicinal powder from the sack, smelled it under his nose, tasted it in his mouth, and said to Zhonghuan: "It's notoginseng. !"

Several merchants turned around and ran away, but the internal guard soldiers flew up, threw them to the ground, and quickly tied them up. Twenty or so mule drivers knelt down and kowtowed in fright, "We are mule drivers in Zheng County, hired by them. , has nothing to do with them!"

(End of this chapter)