Fenzhou guerrilla Luyang was very happy about running this long journey. Jiexiu's Shanxi merchants were very capable. They could actually mobilize the Fenzhou official army to Pingzhou, Taiyuan Prefecture to suppress the thieves. Fan Chengyang even took out 20,000 taels of silver to let the Fenzhou official army run errands for them, just to make up for the deficit of several of their generals embezzling the food and wages of soldiers. Luyang knew that there were bandits in Jingxing Mountains in the eastern part of Pingzhou, Shanxi, but the largest bandits there were only 200 to rob scattered merchants. The bandits here might be okay to rob the scattered merchants, and they didn't have the courage to rob this convoy of robbers.

But shortly after the Fenzhou official army joined the Jiexiu caravan, Fan Yongdou, the leader of the caravan, suddenly fell ill in the inn, so that the entire caravan remained in Pingyao and could not move. Fortunately, Pingyao City was not far from Jiexiu, and Fan Chengyang personally ran to Jiexiu to escort the silver cart after receiving the news. The amount of this batch of silver coins was not small, and although it would not ruin the eight families, they would also seriously hurt their vitality. In fact, by drinking and chatting with the guerrilla Luyang, Fan Yongdou heard that more than 2,000 auxiliary soldiers of the Ponu Army had transported the Ming wounded soldiers, he went from Datong to Wanquandusi, saying that he was going to transport the materials purchased by the Ponu City Xuanwei envoy.

Fan Yongdou's shrewdness is not only reflected in business, but also familiar with the movements of the court and the Po Nu Army. As the most terrifying opponent of the Shanxi merchants, Fan Yongdou dared not underestimate the unusual aspects of the Po Nu Army. A few years ago, Shanxi merchants gathered Shanxi bandits and Shaanxi bandits to prepare to plunder Qu Guozheng, the shopkeeper of the Batong Currency Store. Unexpectedly, Qu Guozheng was not caught, and Shanxi bandits were wiped out by the Po Nu Army, and he also plundered a large number of Shaanxi refugees to enrich the strength of the Po Nu Army.

Fan Chengyang also knew that the Ponu Army spent money to hire border troops in the Ming Dynasty that were short of military pay to transport supplies to Ponu City. The auxiliary soldiers of the Ponu Army were only guarded and accepted in Killanggou outside the pass, and the subsequent transportation was completed by Mongolian slaves. Since the Ponu Army's auxiliary soldiers no longer sold coolies, the group of Ponu Army's auxiliary soldiers who entered the pass were likely to come from the batch of silver carts of Shanxi merchants. The more they thought about it, the more frightened Fan Yongdou took a cold shower on the cold night in early spring, and he had to wash out the high fever. Fan Yongdou knew very well that calculating and cold can cure it, which was far better than going to Zhending Mansion to kill his life.

Received an urgent report from Fan Yongdou's illness, the heads of the Fan family in Jiexiu thought that Fan Yongdou was smart and capable, but they did not expect that such a big mistake had happened when he arrived in Pingyao. When Fan Chengyang rushed to Pingyao, Fan Yongdou was already blushing. In desperation, Fan Chengyang arranged for his servants to send Fan Yongdou back to Jiexiu, and commanded the caravan to set off quickly. Fan Chengyang knew that more than 7,000 people spent a lot of money every day. If he delayed this, Lin Qian, the shopkeeper of the Sanjiang Freight Store, who was waiting in Zhending Mansion, would have other ideas. According to Huang Yunfa's shopkeeper in Zhending Mansion, Lin Qian had already stockpiled 700,000 stones of rice in Zhending Mansion, and subsequent grain was being transported there in a steady stream.

Nowadays, the most profitable products in the Ming Dynasty were not only silk, medicinal materials and sulfur that were purchased by the grassland jackals, but also food was most scarce. Although Fan Chengyang and the others also knew that the supplies purchased by the grassland jackals were very profitable, they did not dare to easily interfere in the grassland jackals' transactions. Originally, the grassland jackals Zhang Ping'an had been keeping a close eye on the eight Shanxi merchants in Jiexiu. If they didn't know how to raise the price of the grassland jackals' transactions, their fate would be completely liquidated just like the Cao Gang.

Fortunately, the Ponu Army did not need food. Last year, Shanxi merchants made a lot of money on food, and the Xuanwei envoys in Ponucheng, North and South Xuanwei envoys ignored them. This year, Ponucheng hoarded grain early in the Nanzhili Xuanwei envoys in Nanzhili, and was also preparing to make a fortune on food. It is said that the Xuanwei envoys in Ponucheng only reselled the grain hoarded last year and earned more than 2 million silver. In particular, Duke Wei and a group of nobles in Nanjing, and the subordinates of Ponuhou, raised the price of Nanzhili from one stone, one tael and five cents of silver to two taels and one stone.

As the drought in the north intensifies, it is a foregone conclusion that the northern rice will be sold for four taels of silver and one stone. Fan Chengyang predicts that when the autumn tax is reached, the grain price in the north may be higher. If the silver was not delivered at the time of negotiation with Lin Gan, as a merchant, Lin Gan would not wait for them specifically. After all, so much food is put on his hands, it is equivalent to turning the money that can move into money that cannot be moved, and no one will sleep well. After all, Lin Gan is still very trustworthy and takes the lead in putting the grain in Zhending Mansion. They did not even pay the money for the Shanxi merchants.

Fan Chengyang was anxious and was a little impatient when urging the caravan, but as soon as the convoy entered Jingxing Mountain Road, Fan Chengyang couldn't help but feel distressed when he saw the dangerous terrain. From then on, Fan Chengyang no longer dared to urge the caravan to move forward quickly, but carefully sent officers and soldiers to report every 20 miles. When the caravan walked to Baishigou, the scout came to report and found a bandit robbers in front of him. Fenzhou guerrilla Luyang was a little confused at that time. He did not expect that such a huge guard caravan would have bandits who dared to come to rob the road.

When he learned from the scout that there were seven or eight hundred bandits who had robbed the road, Luyang became confident again. The government army could not fight against the Mongols, and he was sure to build rebels and bandits. He led a thousand officers and soldiers to the front of the caravan and saw the bandits guarding the cliffs on both sides of the official road, blocking the caravan's way forward. The government army was quite capable of not accepting the bandits at night. They caught a minion and found out after torture that it was a joint robbery by five families. They asked for not much money to pass by, only 100,000 taels of silver. As long as they were willing to pay for money, they walked casually.

When Luyang heard the bandits' challenge, he suddenly became angry. He only dared to scoop the tiger beard of the official army. He did not make too much preparation and sent his servants to take five hundred combat soldiers to rush directly to the bandits' garrison hill. The bandits' weapons were complicated and there were no long-range weapons at all. They could only push rocks from the mountain to block the official army from going up the mountain. The most powerful warriors in the official army were the servants raised by the generals. They usually insisted on training and their weapons and equipment were the best. When Luyang used servants to launch the attack first, they first suppressed the bandits on the mountain with bows and arrows, and then raised their shields and rushed to the top of the mountain under the cover of the warriors.

The servants of Luyang attacked the northern mountain peak. In just two incense sticks, the servants of Luyang rushed to the top of the mountain with 500 soldiers. After a fierce attack, the servants with excellent combat skills cut off two bandit leaders and completely destroyed the bandit's defense line. The bandits on the ridge on the south side saw that the brothers on the opposite side had not even arrived for a moment, and were surrounded by the official army and killed them all. They were so scared that they no longer asked for money to pass by and fled directly into the deep mountains. Seeing that the officers and soldiers performed so well, they generously took out 2,000 taels of silver to reward the official army, and rewarded them with great rewards.

At first, Fan Chengyang was also afraid that these bandits were dressed in the Slave Army. If they were the Slave Army, seven or eight hundred troops would be enough to defeat the 3,000 officers. It seemed that the grassland jackal wolf Zhang Ping'an had no energy to deal with the yamen for the time being, and the gang of robbers who had broken swords wanted to rob. At this time, Fan Chengyang felt relieved and continued to drive the caravan to move forward quickly. Relatively speaking, although the officers and soldiers still found many traces of bandits at night, facing the officers and soldiers' drive, the bandits no longer had the courage to fight against the caravan.

After walking with great fear, Fan Chengyang was almost scared to death. It was not until the caravan walked out of the rugged mountain road and came to a gentle valley that everyone's tense mood gradually became more comfortable. Looking at this open valley, Fan Chengyang also ordered a rest. This place was already the boundary of Zhending Prefecture, only sixty miles from Jingxing County. As long as you reach Jingxing, there was basically no big danger to the road to Zhending Prefecture. Fan Chengyang looked at the sky approaching noon, and while asking Luyang School to investigate the surrounding conditions at night, he asked everyone to set up a fire to cook.

About an hour later, the scouts who went out to investigate came to report one after another, and no movement was found within a radius of ten miles. Luyang and Fan Chengyang both calmed down and concentrated on resting. The nervous mood of running around for many days suddenly improved a lot. Fenzhou guerrilla Luyang divided the official army into two parts, mainly stationed on the east and west of the caravan. In Luyang's view, as long as the two ends of the official road were guarded, the safety of the entire caravan could be basically guaranteed.

Just as the Jin Shang silver chariot was resting, Tian Peng, the commander of the mountain troops of the Pou Nu Army fifteen miles away from the north, was carefully observing the Jin Shang caravan with a telescope. Following Tian Peng was also Zhao Sidao, deputy general staff of the Pou Nu Army's General Staff. He made great contributions because he had unique plans on the two sides when he returned to Ningxia Guard. After the battle, Zhao Sidao was awarded the third-class gold medal award, and promoted the second-class general to deputy general staff of the General Staff.

Zhao Sidao, with Qian Zong Dong Heliang, discussed some details of the final battle by Tian Peng. Zhao Sidao, although he was not old, was considered an old staff officer. He admired Tian Peng's combat planning very much and looked up at the mountain troops trained by Tian Peng. The 2,600 battle soldiers who were ambushed by the mountain troops were actually on the hills around the caravan. They were wearing mountain troops' spring camouflage uniforms and lay among the rocks. When the official army scouted the Pegasus to investigate, they were stunned to see the slave army ten feet away from their feet.

Seeing that all Jiexiu caravans entered the ambush circle of the Slave Army, Dong Heliang, who had discussed the details with Zhao Sidao, immediately said goodbye to Tian Peng. Tian Peng calmly waved goodbye to Dong Heliang: "Brother Dong, be careful!"
Chapter completed!