On March 6, Zhou Bai and his caravan had left the county for a day and a night, and were only half way to Pingcang County.
The gentle and colorful mid-spring sunny day quietly changed during this long journey. Night fell, the wind howled particularly sharply, and the clouds were heavy.
The weather is getting warmer at this time. The tribes on the grassland tried their best to survive last year's cold winter. The cattle and sheep have all run out of fat. The herdsmen have run out of salt in their tents. In addition, they have accumulated furs throughout the winter. At this time, they are in urgent need of food and water. Daxu Mutual Market.
The powerful men and frontier generals in Cangbei County made a lot of money, but their supplies could not satisfy the huge market in the grassland, so they could only give up part of their profits to the south of Cangshan Mountain.
Pingcang County is an important material transfer station. Even caravans from other neighboring states and counties come here. A large number of trading markets are set up in the flat area at the foot of Cangshan Mountain.
Seeing their colleagues dumping goods in the market, the caravan also wanted to rush to Pingcang County as soon as possible, so it discussed with Zhou Bai to travel overnight.
As a friend of the young master of the Qi family, this status is enough for Zhou Bai to have some say. After all, another important task of the caravan is to escort him.
It was not a bad idea to travel overnight, as this was a common occurrence in the process of doing business, but considering the existence of the black calamity, Zhou Bai insisted that he could only proceed along the official road.
Bei'an County belongs to the northern border area, and military transportation is very important, so the post stations along the official road are extremely dense, and each post station is stationed with a small number of post soldiers.
Coupled with the caravan's own guards, even if there is a large-scale bandit robbery, they can temporarily deal with it.
Just walking, Zhou Bai looked at the dark night in front of him and felt something was wrong. A sense of crisis came to his mind for no reason, and he subconsciously used the Xiaocheng Qi Watching Technique.
Zhou Bai has not forgotten why he is so eager to upgrade the level of qi-watching technique, which is to detect the movement of tribulation qi in advance.
Looking into the uninhabited wilderness with quiet black eyes, he saw a black air mixed with blood appearing more than ten miles away. This was not the black cloud at night, but the calamity air that Zhou Bai had glimpsed due to the influence of luck.
Is it for him, or for the caravan? Or being implicated.
Zhou Bai opened the Book of Fortune, and the dark energy he had been wary of suddenly broke into the fortune silently.
However, the floating luck from Canglan water veins is dissipating, and most of the luck has to protect the growing natal life. Therefore, this black calamity energy can actually scatter Zhou Bai's luck into pieces.
You must know that not long after he was the head of the crime, he had the attention of the court, and he was able to be destroyed by unknown calamity. This calamity probably did not come from ordinary bandits.
Zhou Bai made a quick decision and immediately summoned the caravan manager.
The chief steward of the caravan is called Qi Hong, a son of the Qi family. He has been the deputy shopkeeper in the Qi family county for more than ten years. This time, he was also transferred from the county to the person in charge of any shop in Pingcang County.
Qi Hong was a little confused. He was called to Zhou Bai and listened to his serious questions.
"Shopkeeper Hong, now tell me whether Qi Hua wants you to be on the safe side. Is my safety the most important thing?"
"Yes, of course, your safety is the most important thing on this trip." Qi Hong didn't know why, but still answered seriously.
Zhou Bai pointed at the dark and spacious official road and said sternly: "Well, I don't care whether you believe it or not, there is a large group of unknown enemies ahead, and the target is us. You must immediately order the entire caravan to be on guard!"
"This, this, an unknown enemy?"
"Then I will immediately order the caravan to stop and rest." Qi Hong was full of doubts, but he ordered the caravan to stop and rest in a responsible manner.
Zhou Bai shook his head and said: "Not enough, now listen to me, you can report all losses to your young master, you know?!"
Qi Hong gritted his teeth, compared it in his mind, and came up with the answer.
How could he offend the young master's friends with this little loss of time? Moreover, when it came to doing business in Pingcang County, he needed the support of their Zhou family.
"Come here, follow Mr. Zhou's instructions. All orders will be executed immediately!" Qi Hong made up his mind and immediately summoned the caravan leader and guard captain.
"First, send your horse back immediately, call the stations and patrol stations along the way, and ask for troops to support you."
"Second, immediately gather the caravan guards, assign soldiers and armor, and form a defensive formation with the large vehicles outside. The rest who cannot fight should evacuate back three miles away along the official road in the dark, and after an hour light the torches. As reinforcements."
"Finally." After saying the first two points, Zhou Bai looked around and paused.
"Send someone straight to the county town. If we don't report that you are safe tomorrow morning, ask Qi Hua to collect our bodies and take revenge."
Seeing Zhou Bai's scary words, even though the leaders didn't think any bandit was so bold as to attack the Qi family's caravan on the official road, they all followed the order.
"I will not drag my lord down!" Chen Zhongbang accompanied the evacuation of non-combatants with a solemn expression.
Zhou Bai was worried and told him to save his life first in times of crisis, so he assigned two guards to go over.
"Move, hurry, hurry, bandits are coming. Push the cart outside and form a circle!"
"The first and second teams are guarding behind the cart with swords and shields. The third and fourth teams come to collect bows and arrows and stay inside. The fifth team protects Mr. Zhou and the most important salt cart!"
Along with the hurried shouting, the caravan guards moved one by one. They were worthy of being from the Qi family, and they acted in an orderly manner even when unexpected changes occurred.
While Zhou Bai was checking the defense loopholes everywhere in an old-fashioned way, he felt a little emotional in his heart. He could only say that the legacy of Uncle Xingwu still existed.
Even though the Qi family changed their careers from the previous generation to literature in order to honor their family name, their military connections were not completely lost.
In order to survive in his previous life, Zhou Bai also learned the art of war and led clan soldiers.
Of course he could tell from his perspective that there were many veterans among these guards, perhaps retired frontier troops, or simply elites poached by the Qi family.
Before a stick of incense was available, nearly a hundred guards formed a circle around the large baggage vehicle. There were many pieces of iron and cloth on it, which were just used to strengthen the defense.
At this time, the experienced caravan guards also noticed something was wrong. They lay on the ground and heard the vibrating sound of horse hooves.
"Master Zhou, the shopkeeper, there are cavalry coming, at least thirty or more." This made everyone look at each other, and they felt that Zhou Bai had a lot of mystery in him.
But with only thirty cavalry, although they can cause trouble to the caravan, they won't form a car formation to fight.
Is it because Zhou Bai doesn't understand their strength?
Forget it, it would be best if a few fewer guards could die. He was all the old servants raised by the Qi family, and one of them would die. Qi Hong didn't think Zhou Bai was making a fuss if he thought about it this way.
After a while, the vibration caused by the sound of horse hooves became louder and louder, and the guard captain panted and came to report again.
"There are more than thirty cavalry, there should be more than two hundred cavalry behind them, one in front and one behind."
When the news came out, there was an immediate uproar. Even these old servants became nervous. The number bonus of cavalry was not that of infantry.
They all looked at the small circle in the center of the car formation. Since they had predicted it, they must be able to save this crisis, right?
