C557 A caravan seeking refuge (1/2)
”I will speak, we will speak. Prime Minister, please be merciful and don't kill us … This is the Grand Master who is by Maylor's side, we all call him Acidic Scholar, I think she is surnamed Tian … ”
”It's him. He was the one who suggested the idea of Maylor looting the village. He said that looting the village would restore the army's morale … Prime Minister, please spare my life, I am the one in charge of the horse material in the rear camp, I have never killed anyone, I really don't know how to kill!
The despairing duo kowtowed as if they were pounding garlic, recounting the origins of these heads one by one.
Hearing that, Luo Huo was so angry, he immediately stomped on his head hard onto the ground, followed by spitting at him, ”Men, go back to the village, chop those corpses into pieces and feed them to the dogs!”
”Prime Minister, give these to my brothers from the Discipline Hall. Even if I, Luo Huo, chase you to the Beijing, I will chop you into pieces!”
Amidst Luo Huo's angry roar, Xiao Letian finally knew what had happened after Maylor fled.
Sitting on the horse from a young age, one would not even need to run for a day and a night. The biggest weakness of the new army was that they did not have any riders, maybe Xiao Letian had already positioned his troops well from the very beginning, making them a Marine Corps with extremely strong fighting capabilities.
In the future, Xiao Letian's area of influence would be under the control of the battleship cannons. The new army would not make any big detours and would only use the battleships to control the ports on the shore and in the river.
Because these places were where the wealth of China was concentrated, the coastal areas along the river was destined to be Xiao Letian's sphere of influence.
Because of this, the new troop's cavalry training did not have any strict requirements, so Maylor and the others had the advantage in this pursuit. As the battlefield grew further and further away and the sounds of fighting could no longer be heard, Maylor and the rest finally relaxed.
”General, there is a village up ahead. Let's hide for a while and get something to eat. Even if we can persevere, we must rest our warhorses …” A guard said while gasping for breath.
Maylor looked at the horse that had white smoke coming out from its nose and mouth, and knew that he had no other choice. ”You four go check if there's any danger first …”
”Ah!” The four men charged into the village, and not long after, they started shouting, ”The village is empty, there's no one here …” ”Wait, there are a few fish that slipped through the net …”
After a series of clanging sounds, the personal guard loudly shouted, ”General, let's enter the village. It's already safe …”
The village was extremely quiet. The villagers had already fled, leaving not a single grain of rice behind.
Maylor's stomach was growling right now, seeing the empty rice jar in front of him, he kicked it. Maylor bumped into a big toe, it was so painful that he hugged it and jumped back and forth.
”General, it's here …” ”We caught a caravan, damn it, they hid it pretty well …” A roar came from the neighboring courtyard. Only now did Maylor know that he walked into the wrong courtyard.
After entering the yard next door, there was a body with its head separated from its body lying at the entrance. Blood splashed onto half of the yard wall, and beside the corpse, there were four thin and weak looking young men kneeling on the ground.
”Good boy, look …” White fox skin, bear skin, wolf skin, there were also dried mushrooms, dried lamb meat, agate jade … ”As expected of the merchant group of the Four Seas Trading Company, they even dared to talk back?”
”Forget about these inedible things first. Let's find some food and horse material s. We still have to get on our way even if we have to take a bite out of it.” After saying that, Maylor pointed at the youngest boy who was only seventeen or eighteen years old, ”Come over, this grandpa has something to ask you!”
The shop assistant who had been so scared that his face had turned pale white, kneeled down and asked, ”What's your name? Why were they hiding here? Who were these goods prepared for? ”If you answer honestly, perhaps I'll spare your life …”
”I … I … I …” My name is Niu Zi, and this is from Four Seas Trading Company... It's all foreign orders to our shopkeeper... He didn't expect that on the way back, he would run into a war … ”We have nowhere else to go, so we can only hide here …”
At this moment, a personal guard came in from the back room with a flowery cloth wrapped around his skin. ”General, there's a cookie and a bit of wine here, and there's yellow mutton strips on the truck. Let's just eat a few bites …” The back room has horse material s, they can be fed well in a while! ”
Maylor then said as he placed the piece of mutton into his mouth, ”Ox, tell me, how much are these goods worth?” ”What's the most valuable thing …”
”Give me some water... ”Just tell me honestly, and I'll spare your life. What do you think?”
”I'll say, I'll say … ”The total price of these five carts of goods is one hundred thousand ocean, the most valuable of which is a Jade Buddha Xiuyan. The caravan did everything they could to bring him in from outside the pass, proper old Jade Xiuyan …”
”Oh!” Maylor was so shocked that the cookie in his hand fell to the ground, ”Is what you said true? Old jade from Xiuyan outside the pass? ” How could Maylor not be excited? As a Manchu, he was extremely clear about the treasures inside the pass. Ginseng, mink skin, Semen Orientale, Hai Dongqing, Xiuyan and the production of jade stones.
Especially after the Manchu had entered the pass, they had protected the land outside of the Dragon Rising Mountain Pass. They had not allowed the people to develop it privately at all, and had created a shortage of markets for people.
This was not to say that the Manchu had economic wits, they were actually protecting the outside of the pass, giving them a way out. In the future, the Chinese would really have another Zhu Yuanzhang, and if they couldn't beat him, they could go back and live their own lives outside of the pass.