Chapter 17, Northlanders, deterrence plus ten
Leaning against the soft backrest and looking at the scenery on the roadside, Pan Long is in a good mood now.
"This is called travel!" Han Feng sighed, "We lived the days before... compared to this, it was simply miserable!"
"Think about it carefully, we are indeed a bit miserable." Pan Long said, "When we were in the caravan, we were riding horses, and the sun was exposed; after leaving the caravan, it simply turned into walking, and we didn't even have to ride a horse... If we had known, we should have bought a carriage in Lantian City, and it wouldn't matter if we were almost there."
"Fortunately I didn't buy it at that time." Han Feng said.
Pan Long smiled: "Yes, fortunately I didn't buy it."
In fact, their carriage is still unable to go to Yizhou. The Zhongnan Mountain, which divides Yongzhou and Yizhou, is a continuous mountain range. The mountains are of course much smoother than Guimen Mountain, but no matter how smooth it is, it is still steeper mountains.
There are two roads to choose from to cross Zhongnan Mountain. One is to go east, take a boat at Shangluo Pass, go down the Long River, and then go ashore to Luokou Pass, enter Zhongzhou, then go west from Zhongzhou, go up from Tongtian River, and finally arrive at Yizhou; the other is to go directly south, follow Yongyi Avenue, and cross the mountain along the plank road.
The previous road is relatively convenient. Whether it is Longhe or Tongtianjiang, you need the imperial ferry. As long as you are willing to pay, you can be too mediocre along the way and there will be no risk.
The only problem is that it costs money, spends a lot of money.
The latter road is relatively dangerous. This plank road was very reliable back then. No matter how reliable the road is, it still needs continuous maintenance and repair. In recent years, the Daxia Dynasty has not repaired the plank road, resulting in many damages in the northern part of Yizhou. A few years ago, Pan Long's mother Ren Yue returned to her hometown to retreat. Pan Lei and his son went together, and witnessed the oldness of the road with their own eyes on the road.
From then on to now, several years have passed, and year by year, I don’t know what the plank road has been damaged.
If you don’t take a car, with Pan Long and Han Feng’s martial arts, even if the plank road is old and damaged, they can still pass by without any danger. But it is unlikely to drive this car that is larger than an ordinary carriage.
But even if you don’t take the plank road and turn to the waterway, this car will not be able to get on the ferry.
In other words, this carriage that was praised by Pan Long and Han Feng was destined to be unable to cross the mountains and rivers with them, and was destined to be unable to send them to Yizhou together.
The two sighed, but had no choice but to agree to go a long way forward, and wait until they get near Zhongnan Mountain, and then find a way to sell it.
During lunch, Pan Long asked the coachman: "Brother Li, we are going to sell this car around Zhongnan Mountain. Do you have any suggestions?"
The coachman's name is Li Qiang, about twenty-five or six, and he is very strong. His eyes are bright and sharp, and his movements are also very agile. You can tell at a glance that he is a martial arts practitioner. Pan Long estimated that his martial arts skills are not low, at least much better than the robbers they killed before.
Such a person should be a bodyguard in a carriage, so how could he be a coachman?
He did not ask this privacy question rashly, but planned to leave it for the future. When everyone walks on the road for a few more days and gets familiar with each other, he will ask.
When Li Qiang heard Pan Long’s question, he thought for a while and said, “At the foot of Zhongnan Mountain, I’m afraid there will be no buyer who will pay a lot of money in this car. I suggest you find a car shop in Wugong Town. Most passers-by in southwest of Yongzhou must pass by Wugong Town, where you may be able to find a good buyer.”
Pan Long nodded, wrote down the matter, and thanked the other party.
That night, they came to an unknown small village. Pan Long and Han Feng were waiting to enter the village to rest, but Li Qiang advised them not to go in and park their car outside the village and rest in the car.
"Why? No matter how comfortable it is in the car, it is not as comfortable as it is in the bed." Han Feng asked in confusion.
Li Qiang hesitated for a moment and explained: "The ground is not peaceful now. Villages like this often engage in some unsupervised businesses. If we are just ordinary passers-by, as long as we are alert and don't eat their food, we will most likely be in peace with them. But we have a carriage, and this carriage will know at a glance that it is not an ordinary product, and the villagers will definitely become greedy..."
"Can they still dare to rob us?" Han Feng frowned and suddenly became a little angry.
The people of the North quickly came to Jiuzhou for their strong and domineering power. If they don’t cause trouble for others, they should thank others, but they dare to come back and cause trouble for them?
If these villagers really dare to rob, then the group of robbers who sponsored them with money before will be their role model!
Li Qiang smiled bitterly and said, "I know that you two have good martial arts skills. If you fight, most of these ordinary villagers are not your opponents. But as the saying goes, people are in the world, and they will be calm for a while, and take a step back and the sea is vast. If you don't have any disputes with them, your wife can spend the night in a peaceful manner, at least you can have a good sleep."
Pan Long frowned and asked, "If we don't enter the village, they won't come to provoke us?"
"According to the rules on the road, if we don't enter the village, we just make the words clear. If they dare to come, it's a bad rule. Unless they can kill us all, as long as we run away, whether we go to the city to report to the officials or go to the Green Forest to find the local mountain kings, they will inevitably be severely punished."
"...In other words, if we don't enter the village, they will have to kill all of us if we do it?" Pan Long asked.
Li Qiang was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect Pan Long to think from this perspective and didn't know how to answer for a while.
Han Feng smiled, and murderous aura gradually rose in his smile: "In other words, if we don't enter the village tonight and they come to kill us again, we can naturally kill in, and no one in the whole village will be left?"
Li Qiang blinked and stared at them blankly, a little at a loss.
He never expected that these two little guys who looked just half-aged children would have such a murderous aura.
"I have been in the martial arts world for several years. The first time I have seen someone considering problems like you..." He muttered a few words and couldn't help asking, "How do your elders in your family teach you?"
"We are from the North." Pan Long replied calmly, "The rule of the North is that if you come to make friends with me, if you have a glass of wine, you will have a half cup of yours; but if you come to be enemies with me, even if your family is a chicken or a dog, I will kill them clean and not give them any chance to avenge them!"
Li Qiang suddenly realized and looked at the two of them with a little awe immediately.
"I have heard that the people of Northern China have fierce personalities. Even children can ride horses, shoot arrows, and kill people with swords. I always thought it was nonsense at the time, but now I know that the people who tell me these things are not joking at all!"
He sighed and said, "Don't do it first, wait for me to go to the village and talk to them."
"What's there to talk about? Be prepared tonight and wait for them to come!" Han Feng sneered, "After buying this carriage, we were not very rich. When we killed them all at night, a village will search carefully and find some money."
Li Qiang shook his head repeatedly: "Not appropriate! Not appropriate! It's better to let me talk to them first. Don't worry, most of the people in the world are willing to reason and can reason."
As he said that, he hurriedly got out of the car and rushed into the village.
Looking at his voice as he went away, Pan Long said: "He was frightened."
Han Feng shook his head repeatedly: "Why are such a big man so brave? He just kills people with a knife. What's so scary? He's still exploring the world!"
(No, I think... his reaction may be relatively normal. On the contrary, our thoughts may be a bit unnatural.)
Pan Long muttered in his heart, but he didn't say it out loud.
"It is also a good thing to be able to fight less," he said. "It is also very troublesome to kill people in the entire village."
Han Feng has always been convinced of him. Since he said so, he naturally has no objection.
In just a while, Li Qiang came back. When he went there, he was empty-handed, but when he came back, he was carrying a bag. And behind him, there were five or six strong men accompanying him.
Pan Long and Han Feng saw that the strong men had a look of bad looks on their faces, and were secretly alert. However, they did not follow them out of the village, but walked into the house next to the entrance of the village, pulled out the horses that were tied with solid hardwood, arranged at the entrance of the village, and soon formed a line of defense.
The two of them were puzzled and didn't understand what they meant.
When Li Qiang returned to the car, Han Feng hurriedly asked what was going on.
Li Qiang sighed and said, "I introduced your origin to them, and then they were frightened. They hurriedly sent some pancakes and bacon for us to eat on the way."
"Old Li! What I asked is why they blocked the door!" Han Feng interrupted him and said unhappily.
Li Qiang looked at him quietly: "If it were you, a few people came to the door of the house and said they were going to kill your whole family, what would you do?"
"Of course, I'll kill him first!" Han Feng replied immediately.
Li Qiang sighed and covered his face with his hands.
"I'm so stupid, so stupid!"
Han Feng had to ask again, Pan Long had already fully understood and stopped him.
"Okay, I'll explain it to you." He said, "The residents in the village are really engaged in robber business. So when they heard that we were going to kill the robber's family, they were so scared that they didn't say that they sent dry food, but hurriedly blocked the entrance to the village to prevent us from attacking in the middle of the night."
Han Feng widened his eyes: "Why do we have to attack them in the middle of the night? They are just robbers, not just robbers. As long as they don't mess with us, I care what he does at home? I'm not a policeman in Daxia!"
"You think so, but they dare not think so." Pan Long sighed, "It seems that just as Brother Qiang said, we northerners are really famous. Just a few words can scare the amateur robbers in this village and block the door."
Chapter completed!