"Drive, drive, drive!"
Two fast horses galloped past a convoy with a tiger flag.
When the riders on horseback passed by the convoy, they kept their eyes on the convoy.
"Captain, there seems to be something wrong with these people. This is the third wave of fast horses passing by our convoy." A guard in the convoy said.
"You are overthinking. There is only one official road, and other people will naturally follow this path. And whoever dares to mess with our tiger-character flag doesn't know that behind the tiger-character flag is Hutou Village." The age of being called the captain Not big, he is a squad leader named Wang Miao among the bandits in Hutou Village.
The goods being escorted this time were refined iron requested by the Tian family in Zhangjiakou. The Mule and Horse Company received the order from the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce and sent a small team to escort the refined iron to Zhangjiakou.
Since the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce cooperated with the mule and horse dealers, the business of the mule and horse dealers in Xujiazhuang has been getting better and better. Many caravans who came to Lingqiu to buy iron no longer brought the iron back themselves, but handed it over to the mule and horse dealers for transportation. They only had to pay more Pay part of the shipping fee, and you don’t have to worry about other things.
The fees charged by the mule and horse dealers were not low, but after taking into account the cost of the caravan's own guards and the money given to the bandit villages along the way, the fees were not high.
The most convenient thing is to buy fine iron from the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce and redeem the tickets. You don't have to worry about the rest, and you don't have to follow the convoy all the way back.
The most important business of the mule and horse trade goes to Zhangjiakou. Not only the Fan family buys iron from the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce, but also the Tian family, the Wang family, the Huang family, the Liang family, and several Shanxi merchants like the Fan family buy refined iron from Lingqiu.
The convoy guard reminded: "Captain, we should be more cautious. Further ahead is Daliang Mountain. I heard that there are bandits on the mountain."
Wang Miao said with a smile: "Don't worry, I have led the convoy on this road several times. Even if there are bandits who rob the convoy halfway, a small team of us can deal with them."
The guard was right. Although their team only had more than thirty people, if they really wanted to take action, there were no bandits with more than a hundred people, so they were no match for their team.
Besides, this is not the first time that their team has taken this road in Daliang Mountain. There has been no problem in the past. The small groups of bandits have also been dealt with, and everything has been safe and sound.
There were a total of about forty people in the convoy, a team of thirty-six people, two teams of gunmen, a team of spearmen, and the driver.
The driver who drove the carriage was hired by the mule and horse company. Unlike the small team that escorted the convoy, he belonged to the bandits on the Hutou Village Mountain and had to be trained every day.
The convoy went all the way along the official road towards Daliang Mountain.
………………
"Master Liang Er, Tan Ma sent back the news that the Tiger Flag caravan will arrive at our ambush place in another hour." It was Huang Laizi who spoke.
As early as the tiger-character flag caravan passed through the town in front of Daliang Mountain, there was news that bandits from Daliang Mountain were sent out to explore the horses and bring back the tiger-character flag.
Liang Er asked: "How many people are there on the other side?"
"There are five large cars and about forty people. Except for the driver, the rest are the convoy guards, and most of them are gunners." Huang Laizi said.
Liang Er said: "This time when the four of us cooperate, we must capture the tiger-character flag's caravan. Not only do we need the goods, but we also don't want to let any of the people escape. We also want to make the people behind the tiger-character flag understand that in the future, we want to take over the caravan from Daliang Mountain." If you pass by, you must pay tribute to us."
"Master Liang Er is right, if we don't let the people of Tiger Flag surrender this time, no one will take us seriously in the future." Shi Yunhu agreed.
Since Tan Ma learned that the Tiger Flag caravan would pass through Daliang Mountain, the news came back to the mountain. The four cottages, which had been gearing up for a long time, under the leadership of their respective leaders, brought a total of 200 people to ambush on the way.
Master Pan looked at Shi Yunhu and said, "Master Shi, where is your cavalry? Each family brings its strongest team, why don't you bring the cavalry."
"Master Shi Da, where is your cavalry?" After being reminded by others, Liang Er also noticed that Shi Yunhu did not bring his cavalry.
In the same Daliang Mountain, several cottages knew each other's details. They all knew that Shi Yunhu's strongest force was his cavalry. The reason why Shi Yunhu was able to stand firm in Daliang Mountain was because of the presence of the cavalry, which made several other cottages The boss is worried.
"I left the cavalry on the mountain. We were ambushing them halfway. The cavalry was of little use, so I didn't take them down the mountain." Shi Yunhu explained.
Huang Laizi echoed: "This kind of ambush is really not suitable for sending a horse team over. It will be easily discovered by the people with the Tiger Flag."
Liang Er nodded, agreeing with Shi Yunhu's statement.
This time Erliangshan was led by Liang Er, who brought fifty bandits from Erliangshan down the mountain.
"Report!"
The detective sent by Shi Yunhu came to report, "Several leaders and people from the Tiger Flag have arrived ten miles away and will be here in less than half an hour."
Shi Yunhu turned to look at Liang Er and said, "Master Liang Er, you can ask all Tanma to withdraw."
Liang Er nodded and said to several other people: "Headmasters, please withdraw all your scouts!"
Among the several cottages in Daliang Mountain, Erliang Mountain is the strongest. Although the second master came from Erliang Mountain this time, the other three masters are still dominated by Liang Er.
The Tanma retreated, and the bandit team of about 200 people was divided into two teams, each lying in wait for the arrival of the Tiger Flag.
About a quarter of an hour later, a convoy came slowly from a distance.
"Captain, it's a little too quiet here." A guard walking beside Wang Miao said.
Wang Miao smiled and said, "Are you scared?"
"I'm not afraid..." the guard said, "Captain Zhang and the others fought off the bandits in Daliang Mountain last time. I'm worried that the bandits on the mountain will hate our Tiger Flag. This time they will gather more bandits and plunder our Tiger Flag." Convoy of word flags.”
Wang Miao patted him on the shoulder and said, "The reputation of our Hutou Village has spread throughout Datong. Now among the people on the mountain top, no one dares to take action even if they know that our tiger-character flag convoy is passing by. Even if there are some unsighted guys, with our There’s no need to worry about the guy in your hand.”
The guard hesitated for a moment, then felt relieved after thinking that the Tiger Flag convoy had walked through Datong so many times and had indeed not encountered any decent bandits.
As the two people talked, the convoy came to a hillside.
When we reached halfway up the mountain, we heard the sound of gongs on the hillside, and then we saw bows and arrows shooting from behind the hillside.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack, hide quickly!" Wang Miao, who was walking in front, realized something was wrong and hid behind the convoy.
Facing bows and arrows, even though he was wearing cotton armor, he couldn't resist them, so he could only use a cart to resist them.
The driver who was driving the cart was not slow to respond. He ignored the animals and turned over to hide behind the cart.
Except for one unlucky guard who was shot by a bow and arrow, the several guards walking in front of the convoy all hid behind the carriage body like Wang Miao.
However, the animals pulling the cart were not so lucky.
Two animals in the two carts in front were shot by bows and arrows. One was shot dead on the spot, and the other started to go crazy after being shot. After running a few steps up the hillside, it was shot by the second round. Killed by arrows shot from the bow.
"The opponent has at least five archers, everyone, be careful." Wang Miao shouted to the others.
The cart is loaded with iron ingots and some other iron tools, and the sides are heightened with wooden boards so that bows and arrows cannot penetrate it. As long as they are hidden behind the cart, there is nothing the archers on the hillside can do.
