Ma Fen stood on the street on the south bank of Yangqu, and like countless people who were waiting eagerly, they were all looking at the high-rising suspension bridge.
Although the outer city of Luoyang does not have city walls, three of its sides are also divided. Outside the West City is the Emperor's Back Garden, including Shanglin Garden, Guangcheng Garden, Pingle Garden, Xianyang Garden, Xiyuan, Hongde Garden, etc., Baima Garden
The temple is located on the street between Xianyang Garden and Xiyuan Garden.
The south is an ordinary residential area. Although there are also official institutions such as Taixue, Lingtai, and Mingtang, ordinary people in Luoyang basically live in the south of the city. Therefore, if they want to go to the markets on the east and west sides of the city, they have to pass through both sides.
For example, if you want to go to the West City, you have to pass through the Luoshui Suspension Bridge, and if you want to go to the East City, you have to go through the Yangqu Suspension Bridge.
Every morning at chen o'clock, it is the time when the suspension bridge falls.
With a loud creaking sound, the huge suspension bridge connecting Nancheng and Dongcheng slowly lowered. Countless people who were going to buy food in the Su City of Dongshi lined up and walked to the bridge one after another and entered Dongshi.
The outer perimeter of the East Market was surrounded by a wooden fence, and a wanted notice was posted on the fence. When Ma Fen saw Hou Xu's name appearing inside, his pupils shrank slightly.
The bounty written under the notice was too much. In order to find Hou Xu, Zhang gave up one million yuan. For any Eastern Han people, this was a huge sum of money that could not be reached in a lifetime.
The moment of greed was only fleeting, because Ma Fen knew that as the original Yellow Turban general of Sili, he belonged to Ma Yuanyi, the commander of Dafangqu, and belonged to a group of people who could not be pardoned by the court. Even if he reported Hou Xu
, he might not be able to get the reward, and he would have to be taken to the execution ground.
Moreover, after Hou Xu took them back to Luoyang, he let them disperse and hide among the refugees, adopting the single-line communication method used when Zhang Jiao ordered them to be internal responders. Ma Fen himself also followed the instructions of another Yellow Turban general.
I can't find anyone myself.
Following the flow of people into the Dongshi, Ma Fen had stayed in Luoyang for some years. He was familiar with the roads and went all the way north, passing through the crowded Sushi and arriving at the Horse Market outside the Middle East Gate.
As soon as you get close to the mule and horse slaughterhouse, you can smell the pungent smell of horse manure. Horses of various breeds snort in the wooden fences that are divided into rooms. Hanging tags made of bark are hung on the railings.
A carving knife was used to carve the place of origin, male and female, and age of the horse on it. The horse dealer stood aside and told everyone passing by about the advantages of his horse.
During the war years, the selling price of horses also skyrocketed like the price of food, especially for those wealthy and powerful families. Whether it was used to form a force that could resist bandits or bandits, or used as a means of transportation to build docks in the mountains with food and money.
Castles and horses are the best choices.
Ma Fen had no interest in the horses here because he had no money to buy them. The Sili Yellow Turbans were exterminated before the uprising even started, and they had to go underground. Survival was a problem, not to mention other unnecessary consumption.
After wandering around the market for a long time, Ma Fen finally found the person he was looking for in an inconspicuous corner - a skinny old man with a sloppy beard and the smell of alcohol, lying on a mat in the innermost corner of the market.
There was a jar of wine beside him. Although he was covered in straw shavings, he still smelled of pleasure.
"Does this horse have an owner?"
Ma Fen asked loudly, patting the back of a horse.
There are dozens of donkeys, mules, and horses scattered in the yard. Even if they are horses, they are just worthless horses, so the location is not very good. This also shows that the owner of this yard is just an ordinary horse dealer. There is nothing.
Too much strength.
But everyone in the market knows that although Old Man Sun likes gambling, which has led to his business never being very big, when it comes to connections, who in the entire Dongmenma City doesn't know that he is well-informed and well-informed?
After all, if you stay in this industry for sixty years, you can become a leader in this industry. So if there is a big business, many people are willing to come to him.
Old man Sun was lying on the mat, dangling his legs. When he heard the shouting outside, he got up from the mat and trotted over. He grinned, showing his big yellow teeth like corn, nodded and said: "This guest, I have taken a fancy to him."
Which horse?"
Ma Fen asked calmly: "Are these the only horses you have here?"
"Does the customer want good products?"
Old Man Sun's eyes were shining. Seeing that the person in front of him was dressed in ordinary clothes, he didn't expect that big business was coming to his door.
Although it was a time of war, all powerful people wanted horses. But it was a pity that the horses in Luoyang could not go out. There was chaos everywhere outside, and long-distance business could not be done. It was a huge loss to the horse market. Old Man Sun had not had it for a long time.
Have you received any decent big orders?
"I want five hundred horses."
Five hundred horses?
Old Man Sun was secretly happy in his heart, but said with a bitter look on his face: "This..."
"What, is it difficult?"
"It's not that it's difficult. I have to collect these five hundred Central Plains horses. It will take some time. Moreover, the price of horses is rising very fast. This deposit..."
"I don't want Central Plains horses, I want grassland horses."
"Maybe the guests are entertaining the little old man."
Old Man Sun's face changed slightly.
There were two types of horses in the Han Dynasty, one was the Central Plains horse and the other was the grassland horse.
Most of the Central Plains horses are produced in Yizhou and Sili. For example, there were several horse gardens in Yizhou in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there were also pastures in the two counties of Hanoi and Hedong in Sili.
The horses produced in these two areas are relatively small, but have excellent endurance, and are mostly used for work. For example, the horses used to transport goods along the trade route on the Ancient Tea Horse Road in Yunnan and Sichuan in later generations were the Central Plains horses produced in Yunnan and Sichuan.
The origin of grassland horses is in the four prefectures of Yongliang and Youzhou, close to the grassland border. This kind of horse has been running and galloping for a long time, so it has amazing explosive power and can run extremely fast. It has become the main source of war horses.
In the horse market, for the same horse, the prices of Central Plains horses and grassland horses are very different.
Because the Central Plains horse is what ordinary people know as a horse, the price of a horse ranges from several thousand to more than ten thousand yuan. An old horse less than two years old can even be bought for only one or two thousand yuan.
The price of a war horse, depending on age, sex, and breed, can range from tens of thousands of dollars to more expensive ones, ranging from one to two million dollars.
The price of a bloody horse like Red Rabbit is more likely to be more than 5 million yuan.
Five hundred horses are easy to get, and five hundred war horses. Even if Old Man Sun abandons his old face and finds a way to get the goods, he will have to put in millions of money in advance just for the cost. What's more, the court has been tightening the investigation recently, so how many horses can be said?
A few hundred horses would literally kill him.
However, Ma Fen didn't listen to him at all. He glanced around him coldly and said with a smile: "Mr. Sun, maybe he forgot that you swore that you had it a few days ago."
"There were still a few days ago?"
Old Man Sun thought about this sentence carefully, and suddenly his expression changed with horror. Most of the alcohol was gone, and he said in horror: "You are..."
It has been almost half a year since this happened. When it was discovered that the big customer who came to order horses was Ma Yuanyi, the rebel thief who was killed by the imperial carriage, Old Man Sun was very scared at first and was even ready to run away with his whole family.
But after a month or two of worry, no one from the court came to arrest him, and the Yellow Turban people didn't look for him again. The matter seemed to have calmed down, and Old Man Sun himself had almost forgotten about it.
Unexpectedly, after so long, they still came to the door.
"Mr. Sun, you should remember that we gave you a deposit of two million yuan at the beginning. How can you go back on your word when doing business?"
Ma Fen had a fierce look in his eyes and asked aggressively.
Old Man Sun murmured: "It was your people who didn't come to pick up the horse later. How can you say that I broke my promise? Moreover, after I paid you the deposit, you suddenly broke the contract. This is your problem. According to the rules, the deposit
There is no retreat.”
“It’s easy to talk about the deposit.”
Ma Fen threatened in a low voice: "You sold 500 war horses to us, and there is a contract as proof. What do you think the court will do to you if it finds out?"
Old Man Sun's face changed suddenly: "I was also deceived by you. If I had known you earlier...how could I have sold the horse to you? And even if you went to report me, you would die, so why should everyone fight to the death?"
"How could I die?"
Ma Fen grinned: "My identity is innocent. I can't find anything to do with them. I just happened to pick up a contract and reported it to the court. I have merit or demerit. What do you think?"
Old Man Sun's face looked gloomy and he began to tremble all over.
After a moment, he smiled bitterly and said: "What do you want? I love gambling. I have lost most of the money. Now I only have three or four hundred thousand left. I will give it all to you. If it is not enough,
You see how much the things here can be used to pay off debts."
"I don't want money."
Ma Fen said calmly.
"Then what do you want?"
Old man Sun was trembling like chaff in a sieve. Will it cost him his life if he doesn't want money?
"I want ten horses."
"Ten horses?"
"yes."
"War horse?"
"Five war horses and five slave horses."
"Okay, this is easy to handle."
Old Man Sun breathed a sigh of relief and said: "I can still get ten horses, so it's settled. The guests can come and pick them up tomorrow."
Ma Fen stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed and said coldly: "Old sir, you are a smart man. I hope you don't do stupid things, otherwise the third house on Duliu Lane in De'an will be yours."
The whole family cannot be saved."
Hearing these words, Old Man Sun sweated like rain and nodded repeatedly: "I understand, I understand, that contract?"
"I'll give it to you tomorrow."
After saying that, Ma Fen turned and left.
Watching his retreating figure, Old Man Sun felt uneasy.
In fact, at first he thought about reporting to the police to see if he could get a chance to make meritorious deeds.
But people are afraid of death when they get old. Selling weapons and equipment to rebels is the same as a capital crime of treason. According to the consequences of being implicated, the three tribes will be annihilated.
Old man Sun didn't dare to bet whether the government would spare his life.
What's more, the price of five ordinary war horses and five ordinary slave horses is about 200,000 yuan. Two hundred thousand yuan can buy one's own life. This is not an excessive request.
Moreover, now that he still controls the fate of his own family, old man Sun is even more afraid to think carefully when he thinks of his children and grandchildren.
Now he just prays that Ma Fen will keep his word, and after the horse is given to him, he will return the contract to him, and there will be no more relations between the two parties.