In mid-April, the armed caravan set out south. The Yifan area we went to was a bitterly cold place. From March to October every year, the mountains were closed due to heavy snow, so the time for doing business was actually only more than half a year.
Mr. Qian attaches great importance to his first business venture after its establishment. This time, he and Qian Laosan led three companies of the caravan to Fan District, while Qian Laoer led one company to stay at Qianjiazhai.
On the Perak Army side, in addition to the military backbone who served as the platoon leader of the armed caravan squad, only a few personnel from trading companies were sent to accompany them.
This arrangement by the top brass of the Pili Army reflects their full trust in the Qian family. In Ouyang Xuan’s words,
"Don't trust those who are suspicious, and trust those who are employed." Since we have chosen cooperation, we must fully delegate power. Of course, in order to ensure the safety of this trip, Ouyang Xuan added four light tiger squatting cannons and a large number of old-fashioned grenades to the armed caravan. The standard firepower equipment directly matched the Pili Army field camp, and was even much stronger than the teaching company.
In this way, the combat power of these three companies was not to mention that the bandits did not dare to provoke them, and they were even able to protect themselves against the government troops and chieftain troops along the way.
The joint caravan not only took away all the mules and horses in Qianjiazhai, but also rented many ponies at a high price from another private salt merchant in Qiongzhou.
The caravan of 300 people and more than 200 mules and horses meandered along the mountain road, which was a full mile long. It was very spectacular.
After training by Cao Ergou and Dong Hu, and with the elite members of the Perak Army serving as the backbone, the marching queue advanced and retreated in an orderly manner.
Without mules, horses, and cargo, the team would look more like an army than a caravan. The caravan on this trip carried a wide variety of goods, all of which were in high demand in Tibetan areas. Among the bulk goods, salt, iron farm tools, porcelain, and silk were the largest.
Boss Qian planned to go to Yazhou first to sell some of the salt and iron farm tools carried by the caravan, and then buy a large amount of tea locally to go to Diaozhou and Yanzhou in Fan District, where he would also buy the mules and horses that the Perak Army urgently needed. This is what Ouyang Xuan specifically told him to do, if possible, go deep into the grassland to buy horses.
There are many forest pastures in Diao and Yan states, with a large number of cattle and horses, but the horses here can only be used as livestock, and war horses can only be purchased on the grasslands.
Li Ganzi was originally the squad leader of the Eighth Squadron of the Reconnaissance Company of the Internal Guard Battalion. This time he accompanied him as the platoon leader of the First Company of the Armed Caravan. In addition to security duties, he and his companions also had to collect intelligence.
Along the way, Li Ganzi silently wrote down everything he saw. Important information was also written down in crooked handwriting and placed in his clothes.
Li Ganzi was extremely clever. After attending night school for a period of time in literacy classes, although he was not very fluent in writing, he could still roughly remember the situation. This was also due to Ouyang Xuan's promotion of simplified Chinese characters.
This simplified Chinese character is much less difficult to write than traditional Chinese characters. It is very suitable for literacy class education and has even won the support of Lu Dezhi, an old scholar.
Based on the principle of pragmatism, Ouyang Xuan also vigorously promoted the use of Arabic numerals to record numbers. This symbol is much more convenient than square Chinese characters and is now widely used under the rule of the Perak Army.
Perak Army reconnaissance and intelligence personnel especially like to simplify characters and Arabic numerals, which are not only fast to record information but also difficult for the enemy to understand.
After passing Baizhang County and Mingshan County in Yazhou, there is Yazhou City, and further ahead is Lizhou and Diao and Yanzhou. Although these states belong to the Chengdu Prefecture, they are all places where Han, Yi and Fan live together.
Baizhang and Mingshan counties are dominated by Han people, who mostly live in valley flats and shallow mountains, while Yi people mostly live in high mountains and dense forests.
When we arrived at Yazhou City, we were divided into Han and Yi people. The Han people lived in the city, and the Yi people mostly lived in villages in the countryside. Lizhou is already dominated by Yi and Tibetan people, with Han people in the minority. In Diao and Yanzhou, Yi and Tibetan people live together, and Han people are already very few.
The two prefectures of Diaoyan are Jimi Prefectures, and the officials are local Yifan chiefs, who only superficially obey the imperial rule.
More than ten years ago, the Mongols invaded Dali and tried to invade Chengdu. However, Yu Xing sent Yu Xing, the prefect of Jiading Prefecture, to lead his troops and Bozhou soldiers to defeat them.
The Yi and Tibetan tribes in these states rebelled and surrendered to Wu Chang. At this time, most of them surrendered to the Mongols. However, when they saw that the Mongols were repelled by the Song army, they surrendered to the imperial court again.
Yu Xing did not punish these capricious outsiders, and he did not even reprimand the chief who acted as the leader. Instead, he tried his best to win over them.
This allowed the chieftains of various ministries to see through the internal strength of the imperial court and pay less attention to the government's orders. They only ostensibly surrendered to the imperial court in order to buy the salt and iron tea from Han.
The influence of the imperial court declined, and the Mongols also returned north. Without external pressure, the various ministries fell into endless internal fighting, causing bandits to spread and business roads to be blocked.
It's just that although these Yi and Tibetan tribes do not obey the government's orders and are extremely xenophobic, in general they are not too repulsive to caravans.
Because the arrival of the caravan means buying travel money and luxury goods for the chieftains, and for ordinary people it is the production of daily necessities. Therefore, except for some minor troubles in the early stage of the armed caravan, the overall trip went smoothly.
Of course, the reasons behind this also include the fact that Boss Qian paid tribute and gifts to various chieftains along the way, and also includes the fact that the combat power of the armed caravan is no less than that of the regular army.
The so-called minor trouble is actually an attack by bandits. Since passing through Yazhou City, the armed caravan has encountered bandits almost every day. Most of these bandits are just following and spying. Only two groups of bandits have launched sneak attacks due to their familiar terrain and large numbers of people. However, they all jumped into action as soon as the grenades went off. The beasts are scattered.
This made Boss Qian full of confidence and at the same time, he admired Ouyang Xuan even more deeply. He has been in business for more than 20 years, and has also been tortured by bandits for more than 20 years. When he encounters small groups of bandits, it is easy to say that he loses a small amount of money at most.
If you are unlucky and encounter a large group of bandits, it is not uncommon for your men to be killed and taken as slaves, not to mention losing all your goods. Over the years, forty or fifty of his men have been killed and taken captive.
The caravan was mainly still the same people, but after being transformed by the Perak Army, it had a completely new look, and its combat effectiveness had increased several times. This made the bandits along the way invincible, and also dispelled the idea of buying and selling by the chieftains along the way.
Of course, the increase in combat power is not only due to the sufficient firearms, but more importantly, the dozens of squad and platoon leaders.
Ouyang Xuan once told him that qualified grassroots officers are the core of a team and can transform a group of ragtag soldiers into powerful elites. At that time, he was still half-convinced.
Now the facts prove the saying spread among the Perak Army
"What Brother Xuan said is correct." Boss Qian's previous business trips only reached Lizhou most of the time, and reached Diao and Yanzhou only rarely. Only rarely did he go further.
Beyond Diaoyanzhou is the road leading to the alpine grassland. The nearest grassland is only ten days away from Diaoyanzhou.
The road becomes more difficult and dangerous as you go forward, the population becomes sparse, and the bandits become more and more ferocious and desperate. Of course, the profits from trade are also extremely high, especially salt, tea, and ironware are very popular.
Salt is a necessity for humans and animals. It goes without saying that it is important to humans. It is also needed for the growth of cattle and horses. Because of the dietary structure, tea is a necessity on the grassland.
There is basically no smelting industry on the alpine grasslands. Not to mention the lack of daily ironware, there is even a shortage of iron pots for cooking.
However, the bitter cold here is not a barren land. It is rich in valuable medicinal materials, furs, meats, and horses, which are in great need of the Thunderbolt Army.
Therefore, Boss Qian did not stop after arriving in Lizhou. He planned to go to the grassland to buy horses this time.
