The saying that people who are near ink are black and those who are near vermilion are red. Although this sentence is not absolutely correct, it can already represent most phenomena and people.
The soldiers under Zhu Can, the cannibal demon king, may not necessarily have eaten people, but all his generals have eaten people, because at that time, all those who were unwilling to eat human flesh were killed by Zhu Can.
Therefore, the thief general named Wang Xiaoer who was stationed at Devil's Pass had eaten human flesh, and he also drank heavily while eating human flesh.
As soon as Wang Xiaoer heard this name, he knew that he was born in poverty, which was different from the big guys like Zhu Can and Xiao Xian who were officials before the troubled times and were part of the exploiting class.
"As long as one is born in poverty, there must be a tragic story before becoming a thief, especially before cannibalism. But no matter how tragic the story is, Wang Xiaoer no longer deserves any sympathy. Since the prince likes to tell this story
We should follow the example of those who committed the most heinous crimes and cut them to pieces, so if today's plan goes well, this Wang Xiaoer will be captured alive as much as possible."
A large caravan with more than thirty trucks was moving forward along the mountain road. In the distance, a military stronghold built on the mountain and blocked by the mountain pass could be seen in the distance.
Zhu Can has been fighting for so many years, and he has lived a long life as a bereaved dog. He has been plundering everywhere, and he has long been tired of the days of having a meal but not having a meal. With the example of Wang Junlin in Fanyang County and other counties under his rule, all the people in the world
The road thieves have made a lot of progress in the past few years. They have begun to develop people's livelihood and consider giving the people a way to survive. They have begun to develop agriculture and grow food on their own territory. They have also realized the importance of commerce and try not to rob caravans as much as possible.
Zhu Can is already the most notorious man-eating demon king in the world. Under such circumstances, he can still control an army of more than 100,000 and occupy two counties. Naturally, he is still somewhat outstanding. At least he will not continue to be stupid.
Therefore, in the past two years, Zhu Can has led his subordinates to vigorously develop agriculture, encourage commerce, expand domestic demand, and increase tax revenue.
It's just that his reputation is too bad. There are businessmen who dare to do business in his territory, but there have always been not many.
Therefore, when Zhu Jiajun, who was in Devil's Gate, saw a caravan coming towards Guancheng from afar, he was not surprised at all. He just had some expectations in his heart, wondering whether there would be good things in the caravan, such as fine wine.
As the saying goes, what is done by the superiors will be effective by the subordinates. Wang Xiaoer, the commander of Devil's Gate, was addicted to alcohol and often took his generals to drink. As time went by, all his generals fell in love with wine.
"Zhang Wazi, do you think there will be alcohol in the caravan?" On the wall, there was a group of thin soldiers patrolling weakly. When they saw the caravan appear, their eyes lit up and their spirits increased.
Feeling a little more energetic than before, one of the tall and thin men asked expectantly.
The soldier named Zhang Wazi had a dirty face. It looked like he had not washed his face for several days. The other soldiers were not much better than him. He shook his head and said: "In these troubled times, there is not enough food for people to eat. So, use food to make wine."
The wine that comes out is as little as a donkey’s fart.”
"Donkey farts are more abundant than food." Another soldier echoed: "Oh! That's right, we have had four caravans here in the past few months. When have you ever seen wine?"
"I heard that there was a lot of fine wine in Fanyang County under the rule of King Poison, and the world-famous patron wine was invented by King Poison back then. If you can drink a sip of patron wine, it will be worth it even if you die on the battlefield another day."
The tall man stuck out his tongue and licked his lips and said.
Others immediately echoed loudly, and there was a messy scene on top of the city.
At this moment, someone suddenly exclaimed and pointed to a valley on the right side of the caravan: "Look, there are bandits coming and want to rob this caravan."
"Look in that direction, it should be the gang of horse thieves in Death Valley." A soldier shouted.
"Hurry and report to the general. Do you want to send someone to rescue this caravan? After all, they are doing business in our territory. The king has told us to treat the caravan better." One of the leaders of the group shouted, and a soldier
Then he ran down to find the guard Wang Xiaoer to report.
At this time, the caravan also discovered the sudden appearance of the bandits and ran towards Devil's Pass with all their strength. However, they were driving trucks, so how could they outrun the horse thieves on horseback?
Guard Wang Xiaoer was more straightforward. When he learned that there was a caravan outside the pass and the horse thieves in Death Valley were robbing, he immediately sent a cavalry of 3,000 people to rush out of the pass.
It's just that the horse thief was too fast. By the time the 3,000-man Zhu Jiajun cavalry rushed over, half of the caravan's goods had already been robbed by the horse thief.
This horse thief had superb riding skills and came and went like the wind. The 3,000-strong Zhu family army seemed to be a little wary of this horse thief. Apparently they knew this horse thief very well, so they did not pursue him.
Then, amidst the cries of gratitude from hundreds of people in this caravan, they were led into Devil's Pass by the 3,000-strong Zhu Jiajun.
Zhu Jiajun was not wary of this caravan, but it was because the caravan only had about five hundred people in total, and there were tens of thousands of them in Devil's Pass, so there was no need to worry at all.
Besides, it is normal for this caravan to have so many talents. After all, if the caravan has fewer people and fewer guards these days, it will not be able to go very far and all of them will die.
In addition, perhaps because the horse thieves were only interested in hijacking goods, there were no deaths in this caravan, and only a few people seemed to be injured.
………
………
More than 20 miles away, in a hidden valley, Xu Shiji led 30,000 Wagang Camp cavalry to rest and recuperate. 30,000 infantrymen escorted trebuchets, giant crossbows and other ordnance, and the food and grass were still behind.
At this time, all the soldiers in the valley were silently feeding their horses or eating, and no one was making any noise or moving around.
Xu Shiji looked at this scene and sighed in his heart. He thought that it was no wonder that the Far East Army was invincible in the world. It was so organized and disciplined that it was so poor in combat effectiveness. Of course, this had nothing to do with the fact that the deputy commander of the Military Justice Department, the purple-faced devil Chen Xiaoxiao, was accompanying them in Wagang.
There is also a big relationship in the camp.
At this moment, a flying eagle flew from the direction of Devil's Pass. After circling several times over the heads of the 30,000 cavalrymen in Wagang Camp, it fell from the sky and landed on the shoulders of a Military Intelligence Bureau official not far from Xu Shiji.
The Military Intelligence Bureau official quickly took out the note from the small copper tube on Feiying's leg, opened it, and then strode towards Xu Shiji.
"For General Xu, General Chen has successfully entered Devil's Pass with 500 experts from the special forces." The official from the Military Intelligence Agency cupped his fists and saluted Xu Shiji. As he spoke, he handed the note in his hand to Xu Shiji.
After Xu Shiji read the contents on the note, he nodded and said, "The plan went so smoothly thanks to the gang of horse thieves in Death Valley."
Next to him, Xie Yingden said with some emotion: "When I was in the Central Plains, I heard that there was a group of horse thieves in Death Valley. They only numbered two or three thousand people. They were extremely fierce. I never thought that these two or three thousand people were members of our Far East Army."
The official from the Military Intelligence Office looked around and whispered: "To be honest with the two generals, the person in charge of Death Valley is the death soldier sent by Snake Island. This matter was personally handled by the man and prince from Snake Island."
It was arranged, and our Military Intelligence Office only received the news after the prince’s order arrived, and got in touch with Death Valley.”
Xu Shiji and Xie Yingden looked at each other, and they both saw horror in each other's eyes. The latter hesitated slightly and asked: "Master Wen, do you know how many dead soldiers the prince and those on Snake Island sent to scatter all over the world?"
The Military Intelligence Agency official surnamed Wen shook his head and said, "Sorry, I really don't know about this."
Xu Shiji nodded, stopped talking about the matter, and ordered: "Please, Master Wen, send a message to Death Valley, and all of them will be given to us to rob and kill the Zhu family soldiers and horses who may leave the city."
Wen, an official from the Military Intelligence Office, knew that Xu Shiji and others were eager to make contributions. He immediately nodded, took out a pencil and hard paper produced in Fanyang County, quickly wrote a sentence, carefully rolled it up and stuffed it into the bag on his shoulder and Feiying's leg.
Put it in a small copper tube and cover it with a small lid.
Then, he took out two pieces of dried meat from his backpack and fed it to the eagle, and took out some water to let it drink a few sips. Then he waved his right arm, and the eagle soared into the sky, let out a cry, and headed towards Death Valley.
Fly away.
…………
…………
In Devil's Pass, Cheng Yaojin and his party knelt in front of Wang Xiaoer, trembling.
Next to him, there were soldiers from the Zhu Jiajun inspecting the goods of the caravan.
Soon, some soldiers made sounds of great surprise.
"General, it's wine. This car is full of wine!"
When Wang Xiaoer heard this, he was overjoyed at first, but soon a look of caution appeared on his face. He stared at Cheng Yaojin and other caravan members and asked, "Where are you from?"
Cheng Yaojin had already gone through a special outfit. He looked like a businessman no matter how he looked. Moreover, what this guy was best at was actually acting. Even Wang Junlin and Xu Shiji admired his ability to talk to people and tell ghosts.
Very.
At this time, Cheng Yaojin stepped forward respectfully, said to Wang Xiaoer with some fear and some flattery: "This general, we are from Shangqiu, Central Plains."
Wang Xiaoer snorted coldly and said: "Now that the world is in short supply of food, how can you have so much wine?"
Cheng Yaojin quickly and cautiously said: "General, the Central Plains is now the territory of the Far Eastern Army. The Far Eastern Army is not short of food, and this wine is not brewed in the Central Plains. It is the patron wine shipped from Fanyang County."
"What, it's patron wine."
"It turns out to be the legendary patron wine."
"I heard that Luoyang and Chang'an also had Kaoshan wine workshops before, but the most authentic Kaoshan wine is produced in Fanyang County."
"Now everyone is going to be drunk."
For a time, the Zhu Family Army soldiers were talking about each other. Their eyes were shining as they looked at these dozens of trucks. Some of them were already licking their lips, looking impatient. If Wang Xiaoer hadn't been ruthless, he would have been extremely powerful among his soldiers.
, someone has already come forward to grab the wine.
Wang Xiaoer's eyes lit up just now, and he even licked his lips involuntarily, but he still had a vigilant look on his face and continued to ask: "Why do you want to transport wine to our territory?"
Cheng Yaojin was startled for a moment, and said matter-of-factly: "I heard that there is almost no wine left in King Zhu's territory. If we businessmen want to make a lot of money, we need rare goods to live in. I think wine will definitely be in King Zhu's territory."
We can sell it for a good price, but we don’t want to have half of it snatched away by that nasty horse thief before we even get there. If the general hadn’t sent someone to rescue just now, all our goods would have been snatched away, and we would have died a terrible death.”
After Wang Xiaoer heard this, he thought for a moment and felt that Cheng Yaojin's logic was correct and there was nothing wrong with it. Most of the vigilance on his face dissipated and he turned to smile ferociously: "Don't be afraid, our king has already ordered
, I won’t steal your goods, but you just said that we saved your lives, how are you going to repay us!"
By the end, Wang Xiaoer's threat was already very obvious.
Chen Yaojin's face became more and more frightened, his legs were trembling, but his eyes showed a proper sense of reluctance, and he said cautiously: "General, I am willing to send a hundred jars of wine to the general to thank him for his kindness.
We are waiting for the grace of rescue.”
Wang Xiaoer shook his head and said with a cruel smile: "One hundred jars of wine is too little."
"Then one hundred and fifty jars of wine," Cheng Yaojin gritted his teeth and said with a look of pain on his face: "General, there can't be any more. Half of the villain's wine was robbed, and the business has already lost money this time."
Wang Xiaoer remembered Zhu Can's order to encourage trade and not to intercept caravans. He hesitated and said: "Except for the 150 jars of wine you sent to thank us, sell all the remaining wine to us! You
Make a price now."
Cheng Yaojin was startled for a moment and said hesitantly: "A jar of wine costs half a tael of silver or ten Fanyang coins."
As the Far East Army has become the largest production base in the world, especially the Fanyang Chamber of Commerce, which has gradually pushed the Far East Qianxi around the world, the Fanyang coins designed by Nie Xiaoyu personally have no one to imitate, so they have become the same as gold and silver.
, has become a hard currency, and this alone earns the Far East Army huge profits every year.
Upon hearing that the bid was so high, the last doubt in Wang Xiaoer's mind disappeared.
"The price is so high, do you want to die?" Wang Xiaoer did not speak this time, but a general next to him shouted loudly.
With a thud, Cheng Yaojin was so frightened that he knelt down and repeatedly begged for mercy: "General, have mercy on me. I just made a bid from a villain. The general can counter-offer. The price is easy to negotiate!"
Wang Xiaoer said calmly: "Our king has given orders. We are now considered officers and soldiers and will not rob the caravan like the Death Valley horse thief. The price is one Fanyang coin for a jar of wine!"
Cheng Yaojin's face suddenly turned ugly and he collapsed directly to the ground. The price was so low that it was almost the same as giving it away for free.
Soon, soldiers counted the number of wine jars and gave Cheng Yaojin a bag of money. Then the soldiers of Zhu Jiajun happily moved all the wine away.
Finally, Cheng Yaojin and his party were taken to a large natural lava cave. There was an iron gate at the entrance of the lava cave, which was clearly a place for prisoners.
"It's getting dark now. Our general is a good man. He will let you stay one night and go back out of the customs tomorrow, but you can only stay here." An officer shouted casually, and he couldn't wait to have the iron gate be opened directly.