When the artillery was hoisted to the cliff platform, Adam felt something unusual but didn't take it seriously. In his opinion, the dozen or so people who climbed to the cliff platform could only overlook the situation in the village and would not pose a real threat to the village. That place was far away from the stronghold and beyond the range of arrows, and bows and arrows could not reach the stronghold at all. As for the hundreds of people brought by Zelang, there is nothing to fear. He still has 200 adult men under his command, which is more than enough to defend the stronghold. Although the caravan was in trouble and easily defeated the cavalry that outnumbered itself, it was just because the horse bandit tribe was stupid and crazy. As long as Zelang and the caravan dare to attack the stronghold, they will definitely suffer a bloody blow. While Li Ganzi and others were busy hoisting artillery ammunition onto the platform, Zelang and Qian Bao had already led two companies of the armed caravan and the prisoners in formation in front of the stronghold. These prisoners were actually unarmed, and they were brought here just to build momentum. They were quite obedient under Zelang's management.
Li Ganzi and others did not hesitate after setting up the cannon, and immediately launched the bombardment. As soon as the four artillery pieces opened fire, the village became a mess. Not to mention that the villagers were thrown into chaos by the bombardment from the sky. Even Adang was stunned by the bombardment and kept kneeling down to the Buddha to ask for blessings. Although the houses in the village are all made of stone, the roofs are made of wood and mud mixed with grass, which cannot withstand the condescending bombardment. In the first round of shelling, a solid bullet accidentally landed on the top of the highest tower, blowing the two archers to pieces.
After the agreed three rounds of bombardment, Li Ganzi ordered the bombardment to stop. This was not to save ammunition, but because Zelang didn't want to hurt the villagers, nor did he want his father's hard-earned family property to be blown up. He walked out of the formation and shouted in native language to the village. The main idea was that A Dang conspired to usurp power and made God angry, causing the whole village to suffer a disaster of weapons. He also promised that whoever gets Adam's head will get a house, five horses and a female slave.
Not long after Zelang shouted, the village gate opened. Someone came out carrying Adang's head, and the rest of the villagers also walked out of the village gate one after another and knelt down in front of Zelang. Zelang stepped forward to take the head after a moment. He carried the head and said nothing, but slowly walked into the village. The villagers behind him also stood up and followed him silently. The caravan suffered zero casualties in this battle, the villagers only suffered a few casualties, and the village was basically intact. But the villagers were really frightened by the shelling, and their eyes shrank with fear. Upon seeing this, Qian Bao took his people back to the camp at the foot of the mountain to recover.
After another two days, Zelang brought people to the camp to visit Boss Qian. In just two days, he purged Adang's confidants, re-appointed his father's original confidants, and quickly took control of the village. Thinking that in just a few days, he not only regained the position of Dajian Lutou from a desperate horse bandit, but also annexed a grassland tribe, he couldn't help but burst into tears. This was all due to the caravan. What a gift. As soon as he entered Boss Qian's tent, he knelt down and kowtowed several times. He came to see Boss Qian this time to discuss future business cooperation, and he wanted to express his gratitude before talking.
It was said to be a negotiation but it seemed that Boss Qian was speaking unilaterally, and Zelang nodded unilaterally. On the one hand, Zelang wanted to repay his kindness, and on the other hand, it was Boss Qian who was talking about business, and the cooperation conditions he proposed were extremely reasonable. But Zelang blindly agreed, but it was difficult for him to negotiate, so he simply kept silent and stopped talking, which made Zelang anxious. In desperation, Zelang had to come up with two ideas: first, the Qian family caravan would be tax-free within his sphere of influence, and could carry out business, mining and other economic activities without restrictions; second, the caravan would enjoy the same privileges in Fan District. As a member of the Lang family, Zelang will send troops to help if he is attacked by hostile forces.
In Boss Qian's opinion, these two items were not business cooperation at all, but more like a political alliance agreement, but it was inconvenient to veto his proposal. A business cooperation agreement was immediately proposed. One was to set up a trading station in Dajianlu's village and purchase goods at local market prices. This clause is extremely beneficial to the caravan. You must know that in the past, the caravan had to pay a high price to purchase goods in Fan District. Second, Zelang acted as the general agent of the caravan in Fan District, purchasing strategic resources such as horses, fire, saltpeter, and mercury, and selling tea, silk, porcelain and other goods brought by the caravan. Boss Qian has already inquired about it. Although there are iron, coal, lead and other minerals here, the transportation is extremely inconvenient and lacks mining value. There is also no copper mine that the Pili Army urgently needs. Fortunately, there are minerals such as fire salt, mercury and other minerals. The third is that the caravan provides funds and technology, Zelang provides labor, and both parties cooperate in mining gold. There are many gold mines in Fan District, and there is gold sand in the river. If you are lucky, you can even mine natural nugget gold. Zelang did not consider the cooperation conditions proposed by Boss Qian and agreed immediately.
There was some dispute between the two sides over the distribution of the spoils - Zelang wanted to give more, but Boss Qian was more modest. The final result was that the caravan obtained 400 war horses, most of the hundreds of prisoners of war on the grassland were given to Zelang, and the caravan obtained 30 prisoners of war. In fact, Boss Qian does not want prisoners of war. After all, the language barrier and living customs are different. But Zelang reminded him that the horses he brought back needed horsemen, and the training of cavalry also required people who were proficient in equestrian skills. This made Boss Qian suddenly enlightened and agreed without hesitation. Although the lack of four hundred war horses will seriously affect the strength of the tribe, Zelang has a countermeasure - buy. The caravan donated one-third of the goods to Dajian Lu. These in-demand goods could easily buy 200 war horses on the grassland. Zelang also reciprocated and gave back a thousand taels of gold. Some of the accumulated ones were collected by Adang Rentou in recent years. Zelang values the hundreds of prisoners of war even more. With these labors, not only can the grassland tribes grow again, but they can also develop and expand the agriculture and animal husbandry of Dajianlu. There is land suitable for farming and grazing in the river valley and nearby ravines, and it can be cultivated as long as you have labor.
The armed caravan stayed for another month before embarking on the return journey. On the one hand, this is because Zelang has sent people to nearby areas to buy fire salt and mercury. On the other hand, boss Qian wants to stay longer and use force to deter Zelang to consolidate his power. On the way back, the caravan was not in a hurry, but stopped and stopped along the way. This was mainly to sell the remaining two-thirds of the goods and to purchase mules and horses. There are a lot of pastures in the mountains here. Although you can't buy war horses, you can also buy a lot of pack animals. The return journey was smooth sailing. In addition to the large number of livestock to reduce the burden on the people, it was also because Zelang sent people as guides. Moreover, the caravan's record of easily wiping out the horse bandits frightened the bandits along the way, and even made the chiefs and chiefs of various tribes along the way. The leader's attitude became much more polite.
When the armed caravan arrived in Lizhou, it was already the end of June. As soon as they arrived at the border of Lizhou, a messenger sent by Mr. Qian came over. He waited here for the return of the caravan in the middle of the month. The messenger told Boss Qian not to return to Qianjiazhai for the time being because Western Sichuan, including Qiongzhou, was occupied by the Mongols again.
