wait a minute

Chapter 266
Suyuan Town is not big, with a total population of only [-] people. Most of the houses are earthen houses, and the overall appearance is earthy yellow. If you look around, you can only see a little color at the gate of a large courtyard in the center of the town.

The compound is a house under renovation. It is located near the ruins of the old escort agency. Craftsmen hired for free from the town are painting the walls around the house. pinto horse.

Such a dilapidated house, in terms of style, is not even comparable to a hall of Yunzhou's small sect, but dare to set up camp at a fixed location, it is already considered a strong force for Liangzhou Jianghu people, after all, no matter how beautiful the house is , If you can't keep it, you are also making wedding dresses for others. Generally, horse bandits who don't have a fixed place will want to decorate their appearance.

As the house is about to be completed, Ma Rulong, who has been floating on the Gobi Desert in Liangzhou for half his life, feels a little more comfortable. He will stay in the house every day to monitor the progress of the work.

As the leader of a caravan with more than a hundred swordsmen under him, it seems ridiculous to the people from other places to be so caring about a small house, but the people from other places have no idea what a house means to a horse bandit.

Liangzhou is a pure barren land. Wei Tielu has lost any restraint on the thousands of miles of Gobi Desert. If he wants to survive here, he must be a docile sheep, relying on wool and mutton for the habitat under the feet of meat eaters.

Those who don't want to be sheep can only turn into carnivores, using sharp teeth and sharp mouths to gain a foothold.A few of these people became the bosses of gangs and escort agencies, while most of them became horse bandits wandering around.

Horse bandits are not knights in the rivers and lakes. They kill the court, gangs, and even their colleagues, and they don’t need any reason. Landmarks, or heads were exchanged for a few taels of silver rewarded by the court.

When Ma Rulong was born, he was in the den of horse bandits. He has been in Liangzhou for more than 30 years. He has never stayed in one place for more than half a month. He has robbed countless gold and silver, killed many people, and enjoyed the talents of others in the county. Some luxurious treatment, but so far I don't know what it's like to wake up in my own home in the morning.

Seeing that the house was about to be completed, Ma Rulong even moved the furniture ahead of time, placed a set of tea sets from the county in the living room, and brewed Kung Fu tea brought over from Yunzhou.

Although he tossed and tossed slowly for a long time, it was not enough to drink a sip, and it was far less tasteful than spirits, but the leisure and ease that can only be seen from the county master is something that other horse bandits dare not even think about.

For this reason, Ma Rulong enjoyed it, and even thought about whether to come over in the whole town. He drank tea on the table, and Yao sisters ate other things under the table. It is said that all the elders in the city play like this...

But it is a pity that the horse bandit is a horse bandit after all, and he should not forget the experience of blood and tears if he stops or dies.

At noon, facing the rugged Ma Rulong, wearing an open-chested undershirt, drinking tea behind the tea table, the second child in the gang suddenly ran in and said:

"Master, there is a caravan coming outside. There are around twenty people, and there seem to be female relatives. The escort head inside came in directly. He looks like a ruthless character. We don't dare to stop him."

Ma Rulong blew on the hot tea and said casually:

"No matter how ruthless the character is, can he be as ruthless as Jiang Zhahu? Now that the Hongshan gang has to give me three points, what are you afraid of, you bastard? Just go ahead and say, if you want to buy food and fodder in the town, first pay the tribute money, one One tael of silver per head..."

"Horse gang leader."

Before Ma Rulong finished speaking, a clear voice came from outside the hall.

The caravan thugs who were slanting in the yard all got up and picked up the weapons beside them, while the craftsmen who were working with their heads stopped.

Ma Rulong frowned, raised his eyes and looked out, only to see five people coming in from the compound.

The leader was a young man dressed as an escort, with a bamboo hat on his head, a knife in his hand, and a big white bird standing on his shoulder. His appearance looked familiar.

On the left side of the young bodyguard, there is a young man in brocade and white robes. He is tall, but his chest muscles are too developed. At first glance, he looks like a woman disguised as a man. He is probably a rich lady who came out to play in the county.

And the three in the back, there is an old lady with long hair who is over sixty years old, who looks like an old servant.

The other two, tall and bronze-skinned, looked naive, probably grooms.

The scholar dressed as a scholar next to him looks like a master...

Ma Rulong has been traveling all over the world for many years, it's not that he has never seen the world, and when he saw this battle, he knew that he was a nobleman from a certain county.

Liangzhou is in chaos, but not every place is deserted and Gobi. The major counties and cities in the middle, such as Dingxi City where King Liang is located, are also quite prosperous. No horse bandits dare to run there, and the big The master can't just grab it casually.

Seeing this, Ma Rulong put down his tea bowl and stood up, doing a quack salute:
"This little brother knows Ma?"

Ye Jingtang had forgotten it long ago, but Yang Chao reminded him just now, so he still remembered it; he strode towards the tea table and asked:
"The Red River Escort Bureau in Honghe County, the horse gang leader, do you still remember?"

"Red River Escort..."

Ma Rulong frowned: "No... you!"

bang——

Before Ma Rulong finished speaking, the back of his neck suddenly sank, and then he realized in horror that the young bodyguard who had passed by came to his side at some point, clasped the back of his neck with one hand, and directly pressed the tea maker next to him. On the small iron pot.

呲~
"what--"

Ma Rulong let out a scream, but immediately suppressed it again, suppressing the severe pain and saying urgently:
"I remember! I remember! I robbed the hero's dart three years ago, and it was only ten taels of silver. At that time, I wanted this eagle and the hero didn't give it. I didn't want to do it and left... Small pay! Pay ten times..."

"I don't even want a thousand times of Hong Shan's compensation, so you just think about it if you accompany me for ten times?"

Ye Jingtang lifted Ma Rulong up and pressed it on the tea table:
"Besides, the money can be compensated, how will Hong's life be calculated?"

"It was he who struck first. He killed my three brothers, and I came here to take revenge... I know I was wrong. I robbed the way first, so I should kill him! But I really can't kill him. Killing a hero will cause trouble for the upper body. I have offended me before." I can afford to..."

Ye Jingtang didn't kill him directly, but wanted to ask about Liangzhou's current situation. Seeing what Ma Rulong said, he asked:
"What trouble will I get into?"

"I paid homage to the hilltop of the Black Flag Gang this year, and it is already the mouth of the Black Flag Gang. I settled down here and collected some tolls. My life is nothing, but killing a member of the Black Flag Gang is not a hero... ..."

Ye Jingtang knew that the Black Flag Gang had a background in Prince Liang's Mansion, and helped Prince Liang's business to earn extra money. No one dared to provoke them in Liangzhou, but he was obviously not afraid.

Ye Jingtang ignored this and continued to ask:
"Going from here to Honghe Town, you have to pass through the Desolate Bone Beach. What forces are there on the road? Where do they usually appear?"

Ma Rulong quickly replied: "Didn't the imperial court start to do business with Beiliang last year? From outside the pass to Yunzhou, the Huanggutan route was the closest, but there were too many horse bandits, so the Black Flag Gang moved their lair there and recruited many horse gangs." Staring along the route, I'm one of them, the road is peaceful now..."

Ye Jingtang was quite surprised, guessing in his heart that this was secretly ordered by the King of Liang, so that the horse bandits would rob the Northern Liang court's caravan and tarnish the court's face.

Ma Rulong knows how many things he has done to lose his head. He may live if he meets a gang, but he will never survive if he meets a bodyguard. Therefore, after finishing speaking, he continued to speak:
"The hero is spared, I can really pay for it, I have something good, the hero will definitely like it..."

Seeing this, Ye Jingtang became interested and asked:

"what?"

Ma Rulong raised his hands and stood up slowly, then moved the tea table away, raised the floor, and took out a small package from underneath.

After the package was opened, there were several pieces of iron inside, with cloud patterns on the surface, and it was not ordinary iron just by looking at the texture.

Dongfang Liren has been standing by the door watching, his eyes narrowed slightly when he saw the iron block:
"Scale steel?"

Holding the package in both hands, Ma Rulong nodded quickly:
"This girl knows the goods. It is scale steel. It is forbidden by the imperial court. It is impossible to get it in Jianghu. It is very valuable..."

Ye Jingtang didn't know much about these materials, so he turned around and asked:

"Is this thing very precious?"

Dongfang Liren frowned and responded:

"Kirin armor is made of scale steel. Only a small amount of it is produced in Yazhou and is mostly used to make heavy armor and high-quality weapons. After the founding of the Great Wei Dynasty, the mines were collected by the court. In order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy, this material will not flow to the outside world at all. "

Ye Jingtang knew that the strength of the unicorn armor was only inferior to the sky-high priced armor worn by Prince Yan, and the heavy cavalry basically walked sideways on the battlefield.

"Where did you get this thing?"

Ma Rulong quickly said: "It's stolen. I help the Black Flag Gang to watch the gate here. Once a caravan of the Black Flag Gang passed by and rested here. I accidentally found a lot hidden under the carriage, so I took a few pieces. Dare to shoot. If the hero needs it, save my life, and I will find a way to get you more..."

Hearing this, Ye Jingtang knew that he had discovered a major event. After Ma Rulong finished speaking, he took the iron block and handed the person over to She Long and Shang Jianli. outside the hospital.

After Dongfang Liren went out, his face turned cold:
"This black flag gang is really bold and smuggled scale steel to Beiliang. Do they want to turn the world upside down?"

Ye Jingtang understands why Dongfang Liren are so annoyed—scale-patterned steel can forge invulnerable heavy armor. If a large number of them flow into the Beiliang Frontier Army, they can gather hundreds of heavy cavalry equipped with armor and riding gear for them, sometimes enough to affect The victory or defeat of a war is blatant collaborating with the enemy and traitorous country.

Ye Jingtang thought for a while and said, "Behind the Black Flag Gang is Prince Liang's Mansion. Could it be that King Liang is secretly funding the enemy?"

Meng Jiao followed behind her all the time, and said to this:
"The king of Liang didn't have scale steel. All the heavy armor was cast by the court and distributed to the Liangzhou frontier army. The origin of the scale steel is controlled by the Yazhou frontier army..."

Ye Jingtang frowned and felt that something was wrong - the Yazhou army was the empress' private army, and its commander was Wang Yin, Duke of Zhenguo, who was also Wang Chihu's own father, empress and stupid uncle. When the matter of the Wang family's collusion with the enemy's country came, Dawei might have to change the world on the spot.

Dongfang Liren obviously realized the seriousness of the problem, so it was not good to discuss it, so he turned and walked out of the town:

"Until this matter is investigated, it must not be announced to the outside world."

Ye Jingtang nodded, and quickly followed out...

……

(End of this chapter)