The land bordering dozens of miles outside Xuanhua City has always been the only way for caravans to pass through. Countless caravans from outside Xuanhua City, like fish swimming through a stream or returning birds to the forest, all want to come here to stay for a while until they are dispatched in the city. The soldiers on duty who arrived opened the warehouse for the goods in the carriages and inspected them before allowing them to be released, for fear of causing trouble, violating the law, or letting thieves with evil intentions into the city. After all, the reason why Xuanhua City is today's grand event is because of the reputation of Bafang Street. Therefore, the city lord of Xuanhua City naturally knows it well. He has been here for many years, so he may not have to do anything big to add some glory to his official list. , but keeping Bafang Street safe and sound at all times is considered a top priority, so a lot of thought was spent on the boundary outside Xuanhua City, which was called Shili Slope, and was tightly guarded and inspected extremely strictly.
After all, in recent years, Xuanhua City has become very famous. Every day, hundreds or even thousands of caravans come to the twenty-mile slope. Everyone knows that Bafang Street in Xuanhua City is in the sky. It is a prosperous land that can be ranked down there. Whether it is an ordinary object or something rare, such as jade beast clothing, incense and dye, no matter what it is, the price here is much higher than elsewhere. High prices, of course, are like thousands of canals returning to the river, and thousands of rivers returning to the sea. They come to Xuanhua City year-round to get a high price when people in Bafang Street often go out.
It's true. Many merchants who have gone to Xuanhua City to do business over the years have used this opportunity to get in touch with the wealthy families in Bafang Street. Every time they go there, they are sure to earn a very generous sum of money. In a few years, Kung Fu is actually outside Xuanhua City, and it is barely worthy of the title of a wealthy family. Although it is still not comparable to the people in Bafang Street, at least it is money-free. It is enough to put it outside Xuanhua City. For the price of killing dozens of ordinary civilians, he also raised several beautiful concubines and built a small courtyard with all the necessary internal organs. He was able to ride in cars and sedans all day long, which was very nourishing.
The past two years are not as good as before. After all, they are making satin silk clothes, or the jade and fragrant materials business. The big merchants originally had a lot of money, so when they collect goods, they often have many carts and tents. There are so many. If you are lucky enough to get a good reputation in Bafang Street, naturally the goods will be sold out every time you come. But after all, the number of residents in Bafang Street rarely increases or decreases, so those small merchants who are not originally well-off. Jia, in addition to taking the wrong approach, if you want to make a lot of money from some jade and fragrant clothes, you can only live by that kind of misty luck. In fact, if you are desperate, you can only sell it to Xuanhua at a lower price. Although people in the city may not earn a few taels of silver, they can still recover their capital.
Not long ago today, a group of ragged Jianghu people came and brought three or five carts of items such as Cuju riding whips. The soldiers who went to inspect them had a look of astonishment on their faces. After struggling for a long time, they finally found the first carriage in the tent. After counting all the belongings, I was already sweating on my forehead. I was still muttering about these merchants in my heart. I really didn’t know what kind of lard was used to blind my mind. I brought some junk items that were not considered valuable in the market and went to Bafang Street. There was a lot of luck outside, but there was nothing he could do. He glared hard at the gang of people who were always sitting lazily aside, feeling very annoyed. "If the military master is tired, you can rest for a while. Poor people like us don't have anything to honor the military commander. It would be great to have a few cups of wine." The leader of the gangsters had a face shaped like a guillotine and had a strange appearance. His chin was raised, his face was extremely long and narrow, and his figure was very thin. He stood up from the side and approached the soldier. He nodded and handed over a shabby wine gourd, smiling apologetically.
The caravans who have made several trips to the twenty-mile slope boundary all know the unwritten rules here. If you are eager to enter the city, you must first show filial piety and respect the soldiers on duty here, especially those caravans who often carry dozens of carriages. If a wealthy businessman wants to enter the city early, he must not wait until these soldiers check the car tents one by one. If this is the case, the wealthy people in Bafang Street will be annoyed by the delay, and future business will be difficult. Do as much as you want, so even if you don't hesitate to offer a hundred taels of silver, these soldiers on duty will be open-minded and let them go as soon as possible.
Mostly because they benefited from each other, there has never been any news about this unwritten rule. The soldier was thinking the same thing today, but looking at the rags of these ten Jianghu men, one by one, the soldier must have He cursed his bad luck secretly, but he still had the energy to pick up the dilapidated wine gourd. He waved his hand impatiently and moved forward to the second car tent.
"Master Jun also asked me to accept this gourd from the villain. Everyone who drinks the wine in our gourd will say something good about it. Compared with ordinary drinks, the portion is more abundant. After drinking it, Mr. Guanbao Jun will be all over his body." Feel comfortable, and the sadness is gone.”
The remaining dozen or so people in the arena were also making witty remarks one after another, but a tall and burly man never responded. Instead, he took off two sabers behind him that were wide enough for a person, and rubbed his cuffs hard against them. After a while, he looked at the soldier again, his expression was very disdainful.
And sure enough, after the soldier reluctantly took the gourd, he raised his eyebrows slightly, and immediately pulled the cork away from the front of the gourd. He immediately smiled widely, but then quickly restrained it, and pointed at the thin man with a knife-striped face. With a wink, he put the gourd back on his waist, pretended to be indifferent, and walked towards another caravan.
"It's such a good wine. Why don't you take it out for your brothers to try on the way?" The caravan slowly headed towards Xuanhua City. The man sat cross-legged in front of the car tent and asked the lean man with a sharp face abruptly. , seemed very surprised that all the generous men along the way would hide their secrets.
"Foreigners, you know nothing about the rules." The man sneered, "Do you really think that the gourd is filled with good wine from the previous year? Besides, thanks to the blessings of Bafang Street over the years, these soldiers have also developed an appetite. As I grew older, I heard people say that many soldiers’ families were not much poorer than those of the wealthy people in Xuanhua City because of the benefits they received from Shilipo. Do you think you can get by with just a gourd of wine?”
"It's full of silver, but it's a pity that this soldier seems to think highly of us," the man continued, but the slyness on his face was not concealed at all, and he bared his teeth and smiled at the man, " Looking down from the gourd opening on the upper floor, it is full of money, but in fact it is just a few scattered coins, but underneath there are all the stubborn rocks on the roadside. After being deceived, I got the benefits without spending a lot of money. , it seems to me that these things are already very familiar to me. You still need to learn a little bit when you first enter the world. You will definitely use some of them when you go to various cities in the future."
The man seemed to understand after hearing this, frowning slightly, but then he still said suspiciously, "Then if someone breaks the gourd in front of you, wouldn't it be exposed? I guess you will suffer a lot of trouble, and if you ask that soldier I will keep this in mind, and I will probably find it difficult to move even the next time I come to Xuanhua City."
The man curled his lips in disgust, but he still answered, "You are not very experienced in the world, and you are too honest. You are so big, but you don't know how to think about it. Even if you have these two sabers, No matter how much heavier he is, he won't be able to become the master who founded the sect in the world. This soldier outside Xuanhua City has always had to obey the orders of the commander in chief, let alone carry all the money in his pocket. Thoughts, if one were to show filial piety and money in person like that group of people, most of it would be taken away by the lieutenant. But if it was put in a gourd, even if the lieutenant in the town saw it, he would probably not go and question him. As long as my clothes are in tatters and I don’t have much to show for it, then the pawn checking the carriage account can naturally take the gourd home and collect the benefits for himself.”
"It's a pity that the soldiers are only one foot tall, but our methods are ten feet high. I have to endure the loss of being dumb. Besides, I came to Xuanhua City just to do a favor and kill the old brother in the city. If you come out, you will have a good time playing in the world for a few years, and you will definitely never return to Xuanhua City, so why bother always worrying about it."
After the man said this, he followed the dozen or so people in the car tent who were dressed the same as the beggars in the market and whistled, "We are walking too slowly. Is it because I don't want to whip the horse twice, or I have never seen Xuanhua City." In such a prosperous land, do you think you are too shy to enter the city?"
Immediately behind him, there were several people yelling at each other, and two of them even stretched out their palms and withdrew the other four fingers. Only the remaining little finger gestured at the man to the ground two or three times, and then they rushed straight to the vast reeds outside Xuanhua City. Go away.
But the man was not annoyed, and his grin became more and more cheerful. He stretched out his bulging arms from his sleeves, whipped the horse twice, turned his head and laughed and cursed.
"Let's make an agreement first. Anyone who has no ability but wants to show off his strength and drives the carriage into the ditch will be compensated according to the price."
The horse's footsteps took off, rushing into the reeds like a gust of mountain wind.
The man with a very strong body was still sitting firmly, but his expression was hard to tell. He looked at the lean man beside him, and then looked back at the laughing crowd. Everyone was wearing tattered clothes, and most of the swords on their waists were unsheathed, but It just happened to be extremely heroic. Then the man's expression calmed down again, and he slowly placed the two sabers across his knees and wiped the corners of his clothes.
In the Bafang Street Tavern, Wei Huzhou smacked his lips and tasted the head of the wine that was newly put into the jar yesterday. He still felt that this thing was really not for people to drink. He quickly spat out a few mouthfuls, and even if he was about to pick up the wine jar and leave, he didn't know. How come he didn't step out of the tavern, but slowly sat down at an unoccupied table, raised his fingers and counted again, and in the end he turned his face fiercely, cursed a few times, and then didn't care about it. The shopkeeper gritted his teeth and lay down on the edge of the table, dozing off as if no one was around.
