The Zhen family’s business is very big, and a caravan is about to set off in the past two days.

Just as Liu Bei was in a hurry to go to Changshan County, Zhen Yan ordered the manager to set off in advance.

The manager of the caravan was named Zhang and his name was Zhang Quan. He was an old man in his forties and fifties. He was Zhen Yi's vain Zhang, who brought an old servant from Zhending's mother's house and was kind to the guests.

Before leaving, he paid for Liu Bei's mount as his master ordered. Liu Bei had just played the role of "Ji Zha Hanging Sword", leaving his own mount. The Zhen family did not want to owe favors, so they insisted on giving money, and they could not even refuse.

Liu Bei had no choice but to take Zhang Quan four horseshoe golden cakes as one million yuan.

When Li Su heard about the price of this horse, he was also quite surprised: "Is the horse so expensive now?"

Liu Bei explained: "The Zhen brothers are all believers. They paid according to the price of horses in Luoyang. This year, there is a saying that His Majesty wants to raise another new army in Xiyuan. The capital is extremely short of horses, and the price has soared several times."

Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the top-notch horses were only 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, and last year they were only 600,000 to 700,000 yuan. The rise was too fast.

The only currency in the Han system of circulating was copper coins, that is, Wuzhu of Han. Silver did not have an official circulation price, and gold was used by the court to reward meritorious officials. It was extremely rare and rarely circulated among the people.

The official gold exchange rate has not changed since the early Western Han Dynasty and is forcibly locked at 10,000 yuan per gold.

However, as the amount of copper coins minting has become larger and larger over the past few hundred years, the quality of the coins has become worse and worse. Now the black market exchange rate has reached 17,000 to 18,000.

Therefore, the price of "one million yuan" is actually reduced to only 60 taels of gold.

The rewards customized by the court are mostly made of horse hoof gold/Lintoe gold are mostly 15 taels per cake, but aren’t there only four cakes? (It’s the kind of golden cake dug out from the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun and the tomb of King Jing of Zhongshan)

...

Li Su thoughtfully and calculated the accounts, and the group walked forty miles and arrived at Zhending Ferry by the Hutuo River.

The other side is Changshan County.

There was a county soldier of 500 people guarding the ferry, and the commander was a military Sima. There were also several middle- and low-level military officers such as Qu Junhou and general, who led a team to patrol along the river. These troops were all under the jurisdiction of Zhang Chun, the prime minister of Zhongshan.

When Liu Bei saw this scene, he was a little surprised and couldn't help discussing with Li Su: "There were not so many troops on the banks of the Hutuo River last year. Could it be that the black mountain bandits in Changshan County have become more rampant recently?"

Li Su had no idea about the market conditions in previous years, so he had to analyze it without complaining about good news and bad news: "Maybe Zhang Chun is about to take action, so he feels guilty."

Liu Bei frowned and nodded: "I hope so."

Fortunately, although the alert has been strengthened, there are no outstrips when crossing the river.

Sima, a soldier guarding the ferry, saw the flag of the Zhen family caravan from afar, and did not even check it. He talked to Zhang Quan for a few easy-going words, and then let it go directly. Liu Bei and his party also successfully boarded the ship.

After boarding the boat, it was already dark.

Considering that he had to part ways after crossing the river, Li Su suddenly remembered some questions, and only the locals could answer them, so he found an opportunity to chat with Zhang Quan privately:

"Brother-in-law, I wonder how many villages surnamed Zhao in Zhending County are there? Are there any brave men?"

Unfortunately, Zhang Quan thought for a while and said, "Zhao is a surname of Changshan. There are many villages in the surrounding villages. I can point it to you, but I haven't heard of any warriors."

Li Su was a little disappointed.

As a time traveler, I really decided to pass by, so my original intention was to find Zhao Yun.

Maybe Zhao Yun is too young and has no chance to stand out.

However, in history, Zhao Yun and Liu Bei were already very close. The only thing Li Su had to be wary of was that Liu Bei had developed too fast because of his help. Before he could make a name for himself in Yanzhao, he had already moved to a foreign land. That was possible that he might have missed Zhao Yun.

Therefore, it is not too late to dig Zhao Yun before Liu Bei changed the map.

Seeing that Li Su was disappointed, Zhang Quan didn't think much about it and politely invited him to have dinner together: "Young man, if you want to know what you do, why not eat something together."

As he said that, he handed Li Su a few baked dead noodles cakes and some braised meat.

Dead noodles are hard noodles that have not been fermented. But now wheat is a grain that is eaten by the upper class, so hard noodles are not bad.

To compare, the travel grains Zhang Fei prepared last night were just sorghum and millet noodles (milled noodles).

As for steamed buns and other fermented noodles, they have to wait for Zhuge Liang to invent them when he was invaded by Meng Huo in southern China. Dumplings have to wait for Zhang Ji, Nanyang to write "Treatise on Febrile Diseases".

Li Su took the cake and sniffed it, but didn't smell what kind of meat it was. She took a tentative bite and was surprised by the unexpected deliciousness: "Is this donkey meat?"

Zhang Quan: "What? The little man is not used to donkey meat?"

Li Su: "No, no, no, fresh, delicious, really extraordinary."

Zhang Quan: "I don't dislike it, I will take a few buckets later. Our master's family is mourning. The mistress and the young master are afraid of disputes. He ordered the whole house not to kill sheep. The pork is too fishy and he doesn't want to eat it, so he made these donkey meat. Donkey meat is also the food for peddlers and pawns. There are many caravans in the family, so killing a few lame donkeys for a long time."

It turned out to be a play that was performed to be a filial and honest person.

If a wealthy family kills sheep, outsiders will think that the owner wants to eat meat. If you can't bear this during mourning, that would be too unfilial.

But there is no problem with the cheap animals such as pigs and donkeys, and they are all for food for servants. Although it will make the slaves bear the name of "unrighteousness", it will not affect the master's filial piety and integrity.

After traveling through time, you can also eat donkey meat and firewood, which makes people feel much happier.

"The donkey meat fired in Zhongshan County is authentic, and the braised meat is also filled with cloves. Hejian County probably won't be able to make this taste."

This is actually a misunderstanding of Li Su. Whether to put lilacs on braised donkey meat has nothing to do with the region. It can only be said that the Zhen family is rich and generous - lilacs are high-end spices used by the upper class to prevent bad breath. Ministers always report to court and take a piece of cake as elegant.

If it were a poor person, no matter whether you were Zhongshan or Hejian, you would not be willing to do this.

...

After the group finished their meal, the fleet also arrived at the south bank of the Hutuo River.

Zhang Quan generously gave Liu Bei a few bags of hot roasted and braised donkey meat.

"Thank you for your kindness, I'm going to leave here!"

Liu Bei bowed his hand immediately, and the group waved the whip to the west.

Zhending County was closed, and the group bypassed the county and walked west for twenty miles. The night became darker and darker before reaching a village named Zhao that Zhang Quan introduced before.

This village is close to the border between Zhending County and Jingxing County. Jingxing County in front is the Taihang Mountains, which is the sphere of influence of the Black Mountain bandits.

From here, you can reach Yecheng by the Zhangshui River by walking along the edge of Taihang Mountain for another two days, about 300 miles away.

"Brother, the road that Mr. Zhang pointed out is indeed correct. Let's go to the village to spend the night, which is better than sleeping in the wild." Guan Yu, who was in charge of exploring the way, suggested returning to the horse.

It is early February now, and it is still very cold in the north at night.

"Okay, maybe you will meet the Black Mountain bandit tomorrow. You can maintain enough energy to fight the enemy. You will set off before dawn tomorrow."

Liu Bei was also a man of knowledgeable military affairs. His principle was to try to choose the edge of the thief area to camp, and then rush over in one go, reducing the days of spending nights in the hinterland of the thief army.

The group of people rushed to the entrance of the village, but the hospitality villagers were not greeted.

Well, it’s just a slut, it’s actually quite hospitable, it’s just the kind of hospitality that the people of Yanan are.

"No! The Black Mountain Bandit is here!"

The village soon heard a lot of chaos. From a distance, many old and weak women were hiding in several large courtyards in the village, while the men were trembling among the scattered earthen walls at the entrance of the village.

The folks in the mountains in the north are fierce, and there are hunters in every village, so in addition to bamboo guns and iron hoes, there are also people who have hunted bows and arrows.

Guan Yu narrowed his eyes and said, "Brother, be careful, these villagers have bows and arrows! It's better to wait for a certain talisman to come forward and shout."

Zhang Fei also volunteered: "Brother, I'd better go, my voice is bigger than my second brother."

"Be careful with Yide." Liu Bei passed the talisman to Zhang Fei with advice.

Zhang Feichuo was on guard and rode his horse to approach. He was about to leave an arrow. He was outside the enemy's range and shouted loudly: "We are soldiers from Zhongshan County, not Black Mountain bandits, there is a talisman here! This time we came to investigate the thief's relationship. Don't be surprised if you are good people!"

There was a large field of wheat around the village, and the newly sprouted winter wheat was covered with thin auspicious snow that had not melted.

After being roared, the winter snow fell down within three hundred steps in the radius, revealing wheat seedlings.

Taking advantage of the faint fire, you can see the colors around you, all from white to green, as if spring returns to the earth in an instant.

Liu Bei and Guan Yu were used to it.

Li Su, who was beside her, felt dizzy for a while: "Wori Ri! If you march to the depths of Taihang Mountain tomorrow and let Zhang Fei roar like this, it would be a disaster!"

Li Su was like this, so the Yanan people in the village were naturally trembling without surprise, and their bamboo guns and hoes fell all over the ground.

Some of the hunters who were already on guard against the hunting bow were directly broken because of nervousness, and flew on their arms and pulled out blood marks, and fell to the ground with pain.

It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. Even if the villagers still think that Zhang Fei is a black bandit, they dare not resist.

The range of this sound wave attack is farther than that of a bow and arrow, so it is useless to use a bow.

Zhang Fei rode his horse smoothly to the entrance of the village. An elder in the village came to talk to him, probably the village chief.

Zhang Fei respected the elderly and took the initiative to pass the talisman to the other party to see. The other party was half-believing and half-doubted, and breathed a sigh of relief, allowing the group to enter the village.

"I came far away to investigate the relationship between the thief. I thanked the villagers for the village. Please use hot soup." After settling down, the village chief carefully cooked a pot of hot water and added some salted vegetables. Even if it was soup, he respectfully invited Liu Bei and others to drink it.

Liu Bei was just a county magistrate, and he was called an envoy and was somewhat ineligible.

But the people in the countryside do not understand the officialdom and call the envoy when they see the official. This is also a kind of flattery, so Liu Bei did not care about them.

While drinking the hot soup, Liu Bei also took out a few donkey meat and invited the village chief to eat in a friendly manner: "Is the father-in-law named Zhao? How long is the journey to Zhao County?"

When Village Chief Zhao saw that there was a meat pie, he was a little frightened and said his heart more and more heartily: "I am surnamed Zhao, and I am not far from Zhao County. I will walk south for another 40 or 50 miles to the south tomorrow."

Li Su took a quick look and interrupted and asked if there was anyone named Zhao Yun in the village, but unfortunately there was no one.

Liu Bei asked again: "When you just entered the village, you were so cautious, but the love between the bandits in the Black Mountains has been repeated? Is it more rampant than in previous years?"

——
Chapter completed!