At dawn, Huang Dagen took people to Huojing City. First, he gave some valuable mountain products to the salt supervision officials in the city. After successfully exchanging the official documents for buying salt, he went to the designated store and bought 200 kilograms of official salt. This fire

The official of the Well Salt Supervision was a cunning and shrewd person. He knew that salt buyers would buy some private salt in addition to official salt.

Salt is usually divided equally between the government and the private sector, so it is normal for him to accept bribes from salt buyers and private salt dealers, and he will not take care of private salt sales outside the city. It's just that he doesn't know the amount of private salt Ouyang Xuan purchased this time.

It's huge. If he were held accountable, this would be enough for him to be guilty of dereliction of duty and be implicated, beheading his head and ransacking his home.

At this time, Zhu Tiaozi, who was outside the city, was leading his people to various salt-making workshops to buy salt. Due to the extremely corrupt official administration, the salt supervisor in charge of supervision had already been fed well by private salt dealers. The salt supervisor in Huojing City

The officials did not come out to investigate, so they turned a blind eye and even colluded with private salt dealers. Before noon, the people on the hillside outside the city

In the temporary camp of the trade team, people delivering salt came in an endless stream after hearing the news. Among them were private salt dealers and bold salt-making households. The bustling trading only stopped at sunset, and the reason for the stop was not the weather.

It was too late, but the money of the trading team had been exhausted. At this time, the salt purchased had reached more than 5,000 jins, plus 200 jins of official salt, the total was about 6,000 jins.

The large amount of salt purchased this time not only made Dong Hu and other mountain residents dance with excitement, but also made Ouyang Xuan full of joy. After all, this was a huge fortune. Being able to purchase so much salt was inseparable.

The careful calculations of Zhu Tiaozi and others, such as this time

The salt purchased was all coarse salt and no refined salt, just because coarse salt was a quarter cheaper. Of course, the more important reason is that after the war, the supply of Qiongzhou salt far exceeded the sales volume, and the price dropped instead.

. From a supply perspective, because of the serious economic damage, Qiongzhou

The government relied more on salt tax revenue, so it increased salt mining, so that Qiongzhou's salt output did not drop much under full protection. From a sales perspective, the sharp decrease in population in western Sichuan and the rampant banditry led to the blockage of trade routes.

, causing salt consumption and sales to be hindered

, in addition, the price of salt in Qiongzhou has soared, and ordinary people cannot afford it, so the sales volume has dropped a lot. The price of official salt in Huojing has dropped from 300 cents per pound before the Mongolian invasion to about 100 cents.

The price of private salt is between one-third and half of the official salt.

It was already the eighth day after we packed up the salt and set off from Liuliba. The mountainside path from Huojing to Hengyuan was sparsely populated. The road was not only overgrown with weeds but also had small potholes and large depressions from time to time. In order to prevent enemy attacks

, Huang Dagen, who has always been cautious, adopted a vigilant marching formation again. The forward speed was much slower than the usual marching speed, and it was much slower than the official marching speed.

The road was much slower. Although the trade team only had a hundred people and more than 20 mules and horses, they pulled out a half-mile-long queue on the narrow path. At the front of the queue was Dong Hu, who led 20 capable people.

, responsible for reconnaissance and clearing the road; Wang Youfu led 20 people to guard the last formation of the queue, while Ouyang Xuan and Huang Dagen led the others.

The rest of the people and the goods were walking in the middle. Due to the large amount of goods purchased this time, in order to prevent the more than 20 mules and horses carrying the goods from being crushed, except for the people led by Wang Youfu and Dong Hu to warn, the 60 people walking in the middle

They all carried dozens of kilograms of salt according to their physical strength. The most weighed eighty kilograms and the least one weighed forty kilograms. These weights are very important for people who have been working for many years.

The mountain people working on the high slopes and steep slopes can also cope with it. Huang Dagen did not carry any cargo because he had to direct the battle. Ouyang Xuan carried thirty kilograms of salt. He originally planned to carry more, but Zhu Tiaozi, who distributed the cargo, would agree.

Ouyang Xuan tried the weight of the package assigned to him and thought about the distance of more than a hundred miles, so he said nothing.

Walking on the small road was indeed not smooth. Shortly after the trade team set off, Wang Youfu, who was in charge of breaking up the rear, discovered that an unidentified person was following from a distance, and Dong Hu, who was clearing the way in front, also discovered someone hiding in the woods on the mountain ridge and peeping. Close

After receiving the warning, Huang Dagen whispered and ordered everyone to pretend not to know. While continuing on their way, they secretly prepared for battle. After walking for another half a day, when

When they reached a small basin in the mountains surrounded by dense bamboo forests, the bandits took action. This place is located just at the junction of Huojing and Dayi counties. After passing through this small basin and climbing over a few hills, the trail will enter.

Once you reach the plain area in front of Longmen Mountain, the road will become wider and smoother, and the view will be broader. It seems that the bandits chose this place to rob, but they made a careful plan.

A group of dark bandits armed with swords and spears emerged from the dense forest on the hillside, shouting loudly and rushing towards the trade team. It was roughly estimated that the number was at least three hundred, and the momentum was somewhat terrifying. But Ouyang Xuan was not panicked, except

Trust Huang Dagen

In addition to his commanding ability, he also saw that this group of bandits was worse than the Wanjiaping bandits. Although they were powerful, their formation was disorganized. Most of the weapons they held were swords and guns, not a few bows, not even many wooden shields, and quite a few

Some of the bandits still held wooden sticks...

Under the command of Huang Dagen, the front team led by Dong Hu and the rear team led by Wang Youfu quickly moved closer to the middle. The people walking in the middle also unloaded their burdens and quickly arranged into a defensive formation - the whole team formed a circle

, with a folding shield in front and a spear in the back, followed by grenadiers and a small number of crossbowmen, tightly surrounding the mules, horses, packworkers and cargo.

There were dozens of bandits running very fast, but when they rushed to the front of the formation, they saw the hedgehog formation suddenly standing up. They couldn't help but froze, and their pace couldn't help but slow down. Unexpectedly, they were rushed from behind.

A large group of bandits pushed forward, and in an instant

More than a dozen people were stabbed by spears and screamed in agony. This was something that had never happened in previous robberies. The previous caravans dispersed as soon as they saw this formation. Even if there was resistance, the leaders and the rest were killed.

He knelt down and begged for mercy. How could he dare to resist?

The bandits who were stabbed on the ground with their spears let out a shrill wail, which frightened the bandits who came behind them. They couldn't help but retreat ten meters and surrounded the trade team from a distance. Just when the bandits were all cowering away, the group of bandits suddenly

There is a man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks

Jumping up and down, he shouted: "Brothers, rush in. In addition to salt, there is also a lot of gold, silver and silk. I saw it with my own eyes when the salt was being sold..." Ouyang Xuan took a closer look and vaguely remembered this noisy bandit.

He was one of yesterday's private salt dealers.

The bandits were encouraged to move again. Just when the bandits, led by several fierce bandits, tried to rush forward, Huang Dagen decisively ordered the grenadiers to throw grenades. The bandits looked at these iron lumps falling from the sky.

,only

They took a few steps to avoid being hit, but most of them stood there blankly. There were even a few stupid gangsters who wanted to step forward to pick them up in order to see what was going on, but unexpectedly, these iron lumps suddenly made a loud noise like thunder on the ground.

.

The grenadiers threw only more than thirty grenades in all directions in this round, but they caused a large area of ​​bandits to fall to the ground. After the bandits who were not hit by the explosion woke up from their stupor, they ran away crying and howling. In the blink of an eye,

Huang Dagen fled cleanly. Huang Dagen did not give any orders to pursue him. He only asked people to search the battlefield for any usable supplies when the smoke cleared. To say that these bandits were also very poor, they did not find anything valuable or a good knife at all.

There are not many good spears.

After briefly clearing the battlefield, Ouyang Xuan ordered to hurry up and hurry up. The trading team had no time or obligation to take care of the dozens of injured bandits who were wailing all over the ground. As for whether the escaped bandits would come back to rescue them, this was not the case.
Chapter completed!