Lu Ming

Chapter 683 Returning to the North (eight)

"Wild dog? Spy? Being followed?"

Perhaps the peaceful journey for a period of time made shopkeeper Wu forget the dangers of the world.

He was gnawing on a set of salted vegetable pancakes when he suddenly heard someone trailing behind him, he was shocked, his hands trembled, and he almost dropped the pancakes into the furnace.

In front of shopkeeper Wu was a short, round-bellied iron briquette stove that is common in later generations.

As soon as this kind of stove came out, it quickly occupied the middle and low-end market of Ming Dynasty with its long-lasting combustion and low fuel price.

From this as a starting point, briquette factories have sprung up all over the place.In addition, merchants now wholesale white iron sheets from Tianjin and ship them to blacksmiths in Beijing to hand-make coal stoves.

Since the development of the honeycomb coal industry chain, in the north where there is no shortage of coal, coal stoves are not only used for home use, but also a necessary tool for caravans. Only a little kerosene and two briquettes are needed to make caravans walking in the ice and snow, Drink a sip of hot water and bake a hot dry food when hitting the roadside.

There is no more convenient and quicker means of heating than this.

Shopkeeper Wu is an old Jianghu after all. After the moment of panic just now, he quickly realized that he had lost his composure, so he lowered his face and regained his composure.

Looking up at the surroundings, I found that the guys who gathered together to eat dry food did not pay attention to this side.Shopkeeper Wu lowered his voice at this moment, stared at Wu Qian and asked, "Which troop? When will we catch up?"

"I don't know which way people are going."

Wu Qian also lowered his voice: "It should be that we left Dingxing County, and we stayed behind."

"Damn it."

Shopkeeper Wu also started as a clerk step by step in the past. When he was young, he encountered many horse bandits and robbers in the desert outside the mouth.Now as soon as his IQ was in place, he immediately put the pickled vegetable pancakes into his pocket, then stood up and yelled: "Pack up your belongings, get up and go!"

The well-trained guys got up immediately when they heard the order from the big shopkeeper, stuffed dry food into their mouths, and at the same time took care of the mules and horses and picked up the broken items.It took only 5 minutes for the team to adjust from the peak state to the road state.

After half an hour.

In the convoy that was moving forward steadily, shopkeeper Wu and Wu Xiucai huddled together in the No. 13 rear car hood, holding a Western retractable brass telescope, trying to watch through the small glass window.

In the circular lens, the endless North China Plain first appeared.Under the gray sky, the wilderness is deserted.Whether it is the deserted wild land or the sparse farmland beside the road, they are all covered in white, and it is impossible to tell why.

The next moment, shopkeeper Wu twisted the lens barrel and pulled the lens in, and a black band suddenly appeared in front of his eyes: Juma River.

The Juma River flows slowly in winter.White snowdrifts drifted on the driftwood, dotting the lifeless black surface of the river.

At this moment, two cyan dots appeared in the sight of shopkeeper Wu.

He tried to adjust the Westerner's monocular again, and this time, he could see clearly: on the other side of the river, at the side and rear of the convoy, there were two travelers on horseback, traveling at a leisurely pace.

Silently, after half an hour of careful observation, shopkeeper Wu passed the mirror tube in his hand to the young master with a blank expression, and then sighed: "Oh, if it is the binocular iron mirror in the hands of the Cao family, it should be the eyebrows and beards. You can see it clearly!"

Wu Fazheng didn't know why, so he opened the lens tube and casually said, "Uncle Nine, I saw the iron tube telescope on the boat."

"That's the one."

Shopkeeper Wu shook his head regretfully: "I can't make up my mind about something that is a military country. Last year, shopkeeper Huo of Lingqiu spent a lot of money to 'buy' it, but it turned out that the goods hadn't shipped out of Tianjin. The incident happened and they were uprooted."

Speaking of this, shopkeeper Wu seemed to have thought of something bad, and the muscles on his face twitched.

Immediately, he lifted a corner of the rear curtain and hooked his hands.

After a while, Wu Qian's strong body forced himself into the carriage.

At this time, I can't manage so much.At the same time as Wu Qian came in, the shopkeeper Wu said in a deep voice, "I have no luggage, and I'm not in a hurry, but I'm hanging at the back of the convoy. That's right, it's for us."

"Well, I just don't know which company's spies it is." Wu Qian knew the shopkeeper would have such observations, so he quickly asked: "Boss shopkeeper, what do you want brothers to do?"

After pondering for a while, shopkeeper Wu made a quick decision: "It's hard to deal with the river across the river right now. We'll talk about it when we leave Huzhuang tomorrow."

"understood."

The direction of travel of the Yixinlong caravan at this moment is not to go straight to Yi County in the northwest, but to go up the Juma River first.

This is because there is a DC lake near Baiyangdian Lake, which belongs to wetland terrain.This kind of wetland is a marsh in spring and summer, but it is a deadly trap in winter.

Therefore, the caravan had to go up the Hebei River today, and when they settled down at the camp at Huzhuang, they could just bypass the wetlands and go west to Yi County early tomorrow morning.

Fortunately, Huzhuang and Yi County are on a parallel line, so the caravan is not considered a detour today.

There was nothing to say next.Both the convoy and the figures in the rear were bowing their heads and hurrying on their way.

In the afternoon, the convoy successfully entered the famous gate of Hu Zhuang beside the official road.

And the two riding shadows following in the distance quietly disappeared after observing the caravan entering the village.

Due to the lack of information, the few insiders in the team were not able to make any judgments.In order to avoid panic, in addition to arranging more people to stay on duty at night, shopkeeper Wu made everything loose on the outside and tight on the inside, and everything seemed to be safe.

Early in the morning of the second day, the convoy set off from Huzhuang on time, aiming at Yi County, which is [-] miles west.

As the saying goes, good spirits do not work bad spirits.

Just after the convoy had traveled five miles, the two knights who were lingering suddenly appeared again, and followed them all the way behind them.

But this time, without the barrier of Juma River, the team can finally do something.

After a few brief discussions, Wu Qian and another guard called Lao Fu stayed in the middle of the official path.

Not long after, with the sound of "da da" horseshoes, Wu Qian finally blocked the two horsemen following him on the official road.

None of the cold-blooded knife-and-dagger hedges of Westerns.After all, there was no regulation in the Ming Dynasty. Riders without luggage were capital crimes and could be killed in the street.

Wu Qian was a defensive caravan guard.Even if he was sure that the other party was a scout sent by a certain force, it was impossible to provoke a conflict and kill the scout, and it would intensify the conflict between the two sides.

For caravans, peace is the most important thing at any time, and negotiation is the most important thing.

Looking at the two "travelers" wearing felt hats, sheepskin jackets, and wrinkled faces twenty steps away, Wu Qian lifted the reins and led the horse to take two steps forward slowly.

Next, according to the rules of the rivers and lakes, he first clasped his fists to salute, then reported his family, and finally took out two 50 silver ingots: "Meeting each other on the left and right is a fate, and a mere gift is not a respect. I invite the two brothers to drink a bowl of water and wine. "

This is the temptation.The other party's next reaction will reveal some information.

Of course, the best ending is that these two also report to their own mountain gates, and then the two parties will bargain to return the price.In the end, the caravan spent a little more money to buy the gangsters away, and everyone has nothing to do with each other since then.

However, things in the world are always difficult.

After Wu Qian threw out the regular routine, the two horsemen on the opposite side took a few breaths in silence, and they all reined in their horses, turned back and walked away.
Wu Qian, who was silently looking at the back of the other party, had an extremely ugly expression on his face.

Since Wu Da shopkeeper led the motorcade to break up with Wu Qian, he walked two miles forward and ordered to stop and hit the tip.

After a while, Wu Qian caught up.

Shopkeeper Wu, who deliberately lit the stove to warm up in a secluded place, quickly learned the result of the negotiation just now.

Shopkeeper Wu's face also collapsed.

The spies who were able to reject such a large amount of silver must not be because of their noble morals.The only explanation is that behind these two people, there are a large group of gangsters waiting for the opportunity, so they dare not make mistakes.

Although the two sides have not exchanged information from the beginning to the end, judging from the results, the worst information has been revealed: the gangsters are indeed eyeing Yixinlong's caravan, and they do not intend to negotiate peace, and they want to see the truth.

However, this is not the worst news.

After the analysis of the two bosses, the old Fu who played the role of the transparent person in silence all the time first tore off the cloth scarf on his face, and then said slowly: "It should be two groups of people, and they merged!"

"Ah!" Young Master Wu who was listening was shocked.

The reason why Wu Qian took this middle-aged and elderly guard named Lao Fu to deal with spies was because Lao Fu had been with gangsters in his early years.On weekdays, Lao Fu's role in the firm was originally responsible for collecting intelligence.

Now is the time for the old Fu to show his value: "These two, one is Gu Laocheng, who is the family member of the Taihang thief Gu Ming. I know him, but he doesn't know me.

"The other cheek has a yellow beard. If my guess is correct, this person's name is Huang Gou'er, and he belongs to Xuanhua Majie's group."

"Xuanhua Ma Jie?" Captain Wu Qian whispered when he heard the words: "Now we know the real master. Ma Jie has a grudge against us. Five or six years ago, our cavalry team slaughtered Ma Jie's two elder brothers out of mouth. "

"It's a mess!"

Shopkeeper Wu felt upset, and slammed a small butcher knife into the ground under his feet: "How did the Xuanhua horse thief hook up with the Taihang bandit?"

Old Fu is not omnipotent, he heard the words and said: "This is not clear."

Suppressing his irritability, Shopkeeper Wu stood up: "Go, go, let's go to Yi County today."

Now we can only take one step at a time.After all, the rest of the intelligence is inference.With such a large caravan, they couldn't be frightened away by two spies.

Shopkeeper Wu knew that no matter what, he had to rush to Yi County first, and he couldn't delay halfway.The caravan is still at least 30 miles away from Yi County, so they must hurry up today.

As for the possible attack by bandits. In fact, experienced people in the caravan knew that if there was a battle, it would definitely happen after Yi County.

Yi County is at the foot of Taihang Mountain.After passing through Yi County, the terrain changed from flat to rugged, and gradually became more hilly and forested, which is where bandits haunt.

(End of this chapter)