At dawn, Huang Dagen took people to Huojing City. First, he gave some valuable mountain goods to the salt supervision officials in the city. After successfully exchanging the official documents for buying salt, he went to the designated store to buy 200 kilograms of official salt. The Huojing Salt Supervisor official is a cunning and shrewd person. He knows that salt buyers buy some private salt in addition to the official salt. Generally, the government and private salt are divided equally, so he accepts bribes from the salt buyers and private salt dealers. I have become accustomed to it and will not care about private salt sales outside the city. It's just that he didn't know that Ouyang Xuan's private salt purchase was huge. If he was held accountable, it would be enough for him to commit malfeasance and be implicated in having his head executed and his property confiscated.
At this time, Zhu Tiaozi, who was outside the city, was leading his people to various salt-making workshops to buy salt. Due to the extremely corrupt officialdom, the salt supervisors responsible for supervision have long been fed by private salt dealers. The salt supervision officials in Huojing City did not come out to investigate, so they turned a blind eye and even colluded with private salt dealers. Before noon, at the temporary camp of the trade team on the hillside outside the city, salt delivery people came in an endless stream after hearing the news. Among them were private salt dealers and bold salt-making households. The bustling trade only stopped at sunset. The reason for the stop was not that it was getting late, but that the trading team had run out of money. At this time, more than 5,000 kilograms of salt had been purchased, plus 200 kilograms of official salt, a total of about six thousand kilograms. Thousand pounds.
The amount of salt purchased this time not only made Dong Hu and other mountain people dance with excitement, but also made Ouyang Xuan full of joy. After all, this was a huge fortune. The ability to purchase so much salt was inseparable from the careful budgeting of Zhu Tiaozi and others. For example, the salt purchased this time was all coarse salt and no refined salt, because crude salt was a quarter cheaper. Of course, the more important reason is that after the war, the supply of Qiongzhou salt far exceeded the sales volume, and the price actually dropped. From a supply perspective, due to the serious economic damage, the Qiongzhou government relied more on salt tax revenue, so it increased salt mining, so that Qiongzhou's salt production did not drop much despite full protection. From a sales point of view, due to the sharp decrease in population in western Sichuan and the blockage of trade roads due to rampant banditry, the consumption and sales of salt have been hindered. In addition, the price of salt outside Qiongzhou has become so expensive that ordinary people cannot afford it, so sales volume has dropped. A lot. The price of official salt in Huojing dropped from 300 Wen per pound before the Mongolian invasion to about 100 Wen, while the price of private salt was between one-third and half of the official salt price.
It was already the eighth day after leaving Liuliba when we packed up the salt and set off. The mountainside path from Huojing to Yokohara is sparsely populated. The road is not only overgrown with weeds but also has small potholes from time to time. In order to prepare for enemy attacks, Huang Dagen, who had always been cautious, adopted a vigilant marching formation. The forward speed was much slower than the usual marching speed, and much slower than taking the official road. Although the trading team only had a hundred people and more than 20 mules and horses, they pulled out a queue that was half a mile long on the narrow path. At the front of the queue was Dong Hu, who led 20 capable people, who were responsible for reconnaissance and road clearing; Wang Youfu led 20 people at the end of the queue, and Ouyang Xuan and Huang Dagen walked in the middle with the rest of the people and goods. . Due to the large amount of goods purchased this time, in order to prevent the more than 20 mules and horses carrying the goods from being crushed, in addition to the people on guard led by Wang Youfu and Dong Hu, the 60 people walking in the middle each carried a certain number of mules according to their physical strength. Ten kilograms of salt can weigh as much as eighty kilograms and as little as forty kilograms. These weights can be handled by mountain people who work on high slopes and steep slopes for many years. Huang Dagen did not carry the cargo because he had to direct the battle. Ouyang Xuan carried thirty kilograms of salt. He originally planned to carry more, but Zhu Tiaozi, who distributed the goods, would agree. Ouyang Xuan tried the weight of the package assigned to him and thought about walking more than a hundred miles, so he said nothing.
Walking on a small road is indeed not smooth. Not long after the trade team set off, Wang Youfu, who was in charge of breaking up the rear, discovered that an unidentified person was following him from a distance. Dong Hu, who was clearing the way in front, also discovered someone hiding in the woods on the mountain ridge and peeping. After receiving the warning, Huang Dagen whispered and ordered everyone to pretend not to know, and while continuing on their way, they secretly prepared for battle. After walking for half a day, when they reached a small basin in the mountains surrounded by dense bamboo forest, the bandits took action. This place is just at the junction of Huojing and Dayi counties. After passing through this small basin and climbing over a few hills, the trail enters the plain area in front of Longmen Mountain. The road will become wider and smoother, and the view will be better. open. It seems that the bandits chose this place to rob, but they made a careful plan.
A group of dark bandits armed with broadswords and spears emerged from the dense forest on the hillside, shouting loudly and rushing towards the trade team. It was roughly estimated that there were at least 300 people in total, and the momentum was quite terrifying. But Ouyang Xuan was not panicked. In addition to trusting Huang Dagen's commanding ability, he also saw that these bandits were worse than the Wanjiaping bandits. Although they were powerful, their formation was disorganized, and most of the weapons they held were swords and guns, and there were only a few bows. , there are not even many wooden shields, and quite a few bandits still hold wooden clubs...
Under the command of Huang Dagen, the front team led by Dong Hu and the rear team led by Wang Youfu quickly moved closer to the middle. The people walking in the middle also unloaded their burdens and quickly arranged into a defensive formation - the whole team formed a circle. , with folded shields in front and spears in the back, followed by grenadiers and a small number of crossbowmen, tightly surrounding the mules, packworkers and cargo.
There were dozens of bandits running as fast as they could, but when they rushed to the front of the formation, they couldn't help but froze when they saw the hedgehog formation suddenly standing up, and their pace couldn't help but slow down. Unexpectedly, they were rushed from behind. A large group of bandits pushed forward, and in an instant, more than a dozen people were stabbed with spears, screaming in agony. This was something that had never happened before in robberies. The previous caravans dispersed as soon as they saw this formation. Even if there was resistance, the leaders were killed and the rest knelt down to beg for mercy. How could they still dare to resist?
The bandit who was stabbed on the ground by the spear let out a shrill wail, which frightened the bandits who arrived behind. They couldn't help but retreat ten meters in a row, surrounding the trade team from a distance. Just when all the bandits were cowering, a man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks jumped up and down and said: "Brothers, rush in. In addition to salt, there is a lot of gold, silver and silk in there. I saw it with my own eyes when the salt was being sold. "..." Ouyang Xuan took a closer look and vaguely remembered that this bandit was one of yesterday's private salt dealers.
The bandits were encouraged to move again. Just when the bandits, led by several fierce bandits, tried to rush forward, Huang Dagen decisively ordered the grenadiers to throw the grenades. The bandits looked at these iron lumps falling from the sky and just took a few steps to avoid being hit. Most of them stood there blankly. There were even a few stupid bandits who wanted to step forward to pick them up in order to see what was going on. Unexpectedly, In a blink of an eye, these iron lumps were like thunder on the ground, making a huge sound.
The grenadiers threw only more than thirty grenades in all directions in this round, but they caused a large area of bandits to fall to the ground. After the bandits who were not hit by the bomb woke up from their stupor, they ran away crying and howling, and they escaped completely in the blink of an eye. Huang Dagen did not order the pursuit, but when the smoke cleared, he had people search the battlefield for usable supplies. To say that these bandits were also very poor, they did not find anything valuable at all, and they only had few good knives and spears.
After briefly clearing the battlefield, Ouyang Xuan ordered to hurry up and hurry up. The trading team had neither time nor obligation to take care of the dozens of wounded bandits who were wailing all over the ground. As for whether the escaped bandits would come back to rescue them, this was not a question that Ouyang Xuan considered.
