Shimen Town.
This is an important town outside the border, a place where merchants of the West Wind Kingdom barter with the desert and some nomadic tribes. Some goods transported from inside the border are also unloaded here, and naturally the relevant partners will come to pick up the goods. Only after the goods are safely transported to Shimen Town can the mission be considered completed.
"Take a trip to Shimen Town, wear gold and silver, and drink shark fin soup."
This proverb is enough to illustrate the large transaction volume and high profits of Shimen Town.
Shimen Town is an independent town, in the middle of nowhere. It stands alone in the middle of the Gobi Desert.
Although it belongs to the West Wind Kingdom, it is not under the management and protection of the Kingdom's border army. Merchants from all over the world gather here, supporting the prosperity of this isolated town. All sorts of people, fish and dragons mixed together. It's hard to imagine that the old man sleeping in the corner is a felon of the kingdom, and you certainly would not know that the clever young man playing with an abacus is a rapist — -
Shimen Town has a huge arched gate, simply piled up with three boulders.
It is said that hundreds of years ago, it was the work of the border guard General Lu Jian. Lu Jian, who was in the upper stages of the Free Clouds realm, guarded the border. Faced with the invasion of the desert, he split Qingming Mountain with his blade and took three boulders to build this stone gate. He also said: if the desert enemy dares to take one step past this gate, I will kill them.
The desert cavalry saw the three simple stacked together but still imposing stone gate, hesitated again and again, before the whole army retreated.
Shimen Pass was named after this battle, and some people built a town behind the pass, which is how Shimen Town is now.
Today was not a good day, the autumn wind was particularly biting cold and the sand and dust were particularly thick.
Amidst the wind and dust, a long line of caravans marched towards Shimen Pass with difficulty.
A caravan consisting of dozens of carts, the scale was not big nor small. For the people of Shimen Town who are used to seeing big scenes, it was not considered a big deal.
However, what surprised them was that in this caravan of dozens of carts, they only saw the horses and the goods behind the carts, but did not see any horse drivers, escorts or stewards.
"What's going on? Why can't I see a single living person? "
"Hahaha, I've only seen people selling goods, but I've never seen a merchant horse — — Could it be that after the horses handed over the goods, they can collect money?"
"They must have encountered desert bandits, not a single person in the caravan escaped — — but why didn't the desert bandits steal the goods? Could it be that the dog has changed its habit of eating shit? "
----
The first carriage pulled by a horse entered the Stone Gate Pass, followed by dozens of other carriages.
From the rear of the group, a large black horse dashed out.
There was a young man sitting on the back of the horse. Just like that, he escorted an entire team of carriages over.
The young man had black hair and a dark face, and he looked travel-worn. The original color of the clothes on his body could no longer be seen, and they looked dirty.
A few of the idlers wanted to find out where they had come from, but before they could even get close, they retreated with shocked expressions on their faces.
The stench of blood on the young man's body was so strong that they felt like vomiting.
Li Muyang pulled the reins of the lead horse and led the team into the Shimen Square of Shimen Town.
He glanced around, ignoring the pointers and discussions of others, and shouted in a hoarse voice, "The Guanzhong Wanli Escort Agency is protecting the goods, who is going to receive the goods?"
Among the crowd, a few men wearing fur coats and hats came out.
They were riding on large horses, carrying bows and arrows and sabres on their backs. These people looked like nomads of the grassland.
The bearded man in the lead stared at Li Muyang warily and asked aloud: "Who are you? Where are the escorts of the Wanli Escort Agency? "
"I'm Li Muyang, a friend of the head of the Wanli Escort Agency, Gan Yang — — Who are you?"
"This batch of herbs is what we want." The bearded man said in a low voice: "You're Gan Yang's friend, where is Gan Yang? And the manager and the assistant? Without their documents, how do we hand over? "
Li Muyang reached into his sleeve, pulled out a piece of paper and said: "I'll give you the goods, you give me the money. Once we're done with the goods, both sides will sign on the contract — — This is what I got from the manager. "
The bearded man looked at the contract and asked: "Where are they?"
"Dead." Li Muyang said.
"How did they die?"
"Killed by bandits."
“----”
After listening to Li Muyang's words, everyone began to discuss spiritedly.
Some people sympathized with the Wanli Escort Agency and the escorts, some people condemned the bandits for their atrocities again and again.
The bearded man pondered for a moment, then said: "Let me see the contract."
Li Muyang handed over the contract.
The bearded man took the contract and tore it up with a hiss.
"We're not doing this business." The bearded man said. He looked at Li Muyang with a smile and said: "We're not familiar with each other, we don't have any confidence in doing business, what if the goods are not right? What if the herbs you sent are inferior goods? How about this, we'll send them back the same way you sent them — — "
Li Muyang looked at him expressionlessly, waiting for him to say no.
Sure enough, he still had something else to say.
The bearded man was a little uncomfortable with Li Muyang's calm expression, but he still had to finish what he had to say.
He looked at Li Muyang and said: "You said the escorts and managers of the Wanli Escort Agency were all killed by bandits, who are you? How did you come here? How did you get this batch of goods? "
"I said, I'm Gan Yang's friend."
"Friend? You're not a desert bandit, are you? "The bearded man said coldly.
As soon as he said this, everyone on the square unsheathed their swords, ready to charge forward and kill.
They are all merchants, they rely on the square to make a living, if there were bandits who dared to come here and attack, then they would be robbing their rice bowls and cutting off their source of income. They would not hesitate to fight them to the death.
Li Muyang's expression remained indifferent, not the slightest bit moved by the bearded man's deliberate provocation.
He glanced at the scraps of paper on the ground and said: "It's all to earn a living, why do you have to be like this? In order to deliver this batch of goods, thirty-two escorts of the Wanli Escort Agency died, the manager and six assistants also died — -these were exchanged with their lives. This is also the last time in their lives that they can earn a little bit of money for their family. You give me the money, I'll give you the goods. We're even, isn't that good? "
The bearded man remained unmoved, his voice was cold as he said: "I already said, I can't accept this goods. We desert people value friendship the most, whoever I said I'd trade with, I'll trade with that person, I'll never go back on my word — -what if you're a desert bandit, you killed people and stole goods, then took the goods and money from me? Would I be able to face my partners? Would I be able to face the escorts of the Wanli Escort Agency? "
"What do you want?" Li Muyang looked at him and asked.
"It's what you want." The bearded man said in a cold voice: "First, you can send the goods back. You can transport it from where it came from and send it back the same way. Or you can transport it back to the base camp of your desert bandits. Second, you can give me the goods, we can negotiate a new price — – "
This is extortion.
If he did as he said and transported the medicinal herbs back. Let's not talk about whether he would encounter any danger on the way, or whether he would be able to survive, the losses along the way would most likely be an astronomical figure — -at that time, what profit would there be from this batch of medicinal herbs? Where would the money for the medicinal herbs come from? Where would the money for the escorts come from?
As for what he said about giving him the goods and negotiating a new price, that is simply taking advantage of the situation.
They are certain that Li Muyang would not be able to transport the medicinal herbs back, so he can only sell the goods at Shimen Needle. Besides them, presumably other families would not come to snatch this batch of goods from him — -in this way, he can just give them some money and not pick up a large batch of goods for free? It must be said that medicinal herbs are rare things, if transported to Loulan City in the desert, the value would increase by hundreds of times.
"What if I don't agree to these two conditions?" Li Muyang said aloud.
The bearded man and his many companions around him burst into laughter. He looked at Li Muyang and said: "Then what do you want to do?"
"Why do you all want to force me?" Li Muyang unsheathed the Understand Heaven Sword from his waist and muttered: "Why do you all want to force me? Those desert bandits forced me, so I killed them all. Now you also want to force me — – "
Clang — –
The Understand Heaven Sword was unsheathed, its bright brilliance illuminating the eyes of everyone on Shimen Square.
The bearded man's face darkened, he asked aloud: "You said — -you killed all the desert bandits?"
"Yes." Li Muyang looked at the bearded man and said: "I killed those desert bandits and their clansmen — –"
"You — –" The bearded man obviously did not believe him. Li Muyang is only one person, and he is so young, even if he started training when he was still drinking milk, how much ability can he have?
He is well aware of the abilities of the desert bandits and also the scale of the desert bandits. Even if it's just a group of people, it still requires great power to be able to do it.
"I'm not used to explaining to others — –" Li Muyang raised his sword, looked at the bearded man and said: "Either give me money or die."
“----”
----
Guanzhong. Wanli Escort Agency.
The old escort fell weakly to the ground, clutching a large silver box in his arms, his eyes glazed over and his voice weak as he said: "It's all gone, it's all gone — –"
A shabby little courtyard.
A woman sat on the bed sewing clothes, hearing the footsteps outside, the wrinkles on her face smoothed out and she shouted happily: "Liangzi, Liangzi is back — –"
After a long while, an unfamiliar voice said: "I'm not Liangzi, I'm Liangzi's friend — – he has an escort to give, so he asked me to give you something."
Li Muyang walked over to the bed and placed a bag of gold coins in the woman's hand.
"Liangzi's friend?" The woman looked at Li Muyang with a puzzled expression and asked: "Where's Liangzi? Where did Liangzi go? "
"He went to — – Jiangnan." Li Muyang turned around, his voice hoarse and tears streamed down his face. His figure was tall and straight as he scurried outside, saying: "He said his father went to Jiangnan, said it's the most prosperous and wealthy city — – he wants to escort a long escort team there to take a look."
"Liangzi — –" The woman wailed sorrowfully.
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