The Three Kingdoms Of The North Are Proud And Heroic

In the late autumn afternoon, the air in the north is filled with a mixture of crispness, cold and heat.

The town in the southwestern suburbs of Lingzhi County has been very lively in recent days, and many traders and traders have gathered here.

The county guards of Liaoxi County were much more liberal in their decrees on civil affairs within their borders, not only encouraging agriculture and commerce, but also specifically allowing the opening of border markets to communicate with the Hu people. Although Lingzhi County is not the location of the border city, most of the Hu people in the entire Liaoxi County will be exported to Xuwu County from the deed of Lingzhi County, so there are many people buying and selling merchants in Xuwu and Lingzhi counties here.

Of course, the scale of the town is very different from Xiheqiao and Balibao, even if there are three or five Xiheqiao and Balibao combined, it cannot catch up with the prosperity and popularity of Lingzhi County.

There is a two-story restaurant outside the intersection, and although there are many customers coming and going in the town, there are not many people who patronize the restaurant. Nowadays, the livelihood of the people is not prosperous, and even the merchants who come and go are mostly struggling to save money, and will only find some small shops such as wine shops and tea sheds to make ends meet.

On the huge second floor, only Zu Zhao and a few children sat at the table by the window, and everyone was dressed as a merchant and did not carry obvious blades. Before dawn, they set off from Xu Wu County, arrived in Lingzhi County at noon, and after a turning point, they came to the town where Uncle Hong and others bought stallions. Running all the way, how many people are sleepy and tired, take a break in this restaurant, order some decent meals, and inquire about the grapevine by the way.

Restaurants and tea shops are often the best channels for information.

At this time, Zu Zhao was slowly taking a sip of tea, and his eyes were staring out the window at the various crowds and the dazzling array of goods in the town. He could even find one or two blond-haired and blue-eyed Hu figures among the countless Han people, including the bewitching Hu Ji and the rugged Hu Shang. Although there are deep civil contradictions between the Hu and Han ethnic groups, there are ordinary people in the two ethnic groups who only seek peace and self-control.

The sound of a quick staircase turning upstairs came from the stairs, and a moment later, Zu Ji, dressed in a white robe, appeared at the top of the stairs.

"The eldest prince," he came to Zu Zhao and the others, found a vacant seat and sat down, and said with a serious expression, "I have just inquired with the downstairs running hall and the shopkeeper, the horse market is just west of the town, and you can see it by walking a little west along the path."

"Well, any other news?" Zu Zhao asked again.

The shopkeeper said that every spring and autumn in Xilitun, there are many people coming and going every day, almost all of them are merchants. There are a few familiar customers, but more of them are new faces. It's hard to say if there are any suspicious people. Zu Ji said.

"So, let's have dinner first, and then we'll go to the horse market." Zu Zhao said without waves, his face was very calm.

"However, the store still said something, and I don't know if it matters." At this time, Zu Ji hurriedly added.

"What?"

"The shopkeeper feels that there seem to be more Hu people in Xilitun this year than in previous years, not only in Xilitun, but also in the county seat. But most of these Hu people are traders, and they all buy and sell things.

Zu Zhao Meiyu twisted slightly, he didn't dare to guess too much now, but secretly wrote down this.

"Got it." He nodded.

"I hope Ah Cheng and they can find out more news." Zu Ji sighed helplessly.

The children of the ancestral family were divided into two groups of people, Zu Zhao brought a team of people to Xilitun to investigate, and Zu Cheng took the remaining team of people to visit the remote villages around Lingzhi County. Nowadays, it is not easy to cross the border to unfamiliar places to explore everywhere, the ancients are mostly clans, as large as the entire pavilion with the same clan, as small as the whole village with the same surname, for the appearance of unfamiliar faces will be very vigilant, and even more will be driven by sticks. This is true even in Beiguoting.

Because of this, Ah Cheng and his party have many children assigned to go with them, and they have more or less one to take care of them.

Before it was time, the restaurant served several dishes ordered earlier. Zu Zhao beckoned everyone to hurry up and eat.

As soon as he picked up the chopsticks, out of the corner of his eye, Zu Zhao suddenly caught a glimpse of the guy who was serving the food upstairs was still standing aside, the other party nodded his head, filled everyone's teacups with water diligently, and asked: "A few guest officers, don't you want some wine for meat?" Our store has made a ten-year sorghum wine, which is famous far and wide.

Zu Ji is not a glutton, not to mention that he has to do business in the afternoon, so he waved his hand impatiently: "No need." The

shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, but he still had a smile on his face and refused to leave.

Zu Zhao seemed to be observant, he put down his chopsticks, and said to the shopkeeper, "Do you have anything to say?" The

shopkeeper had already seen Zu Zhao's different appearance, he must be the leader of this line, he heard the other party's words, and hurriedly ran closer, lowered his voice and said with a smile: "I saw a few people inquiring about some news, hehe, it just so happened that the villain had heard some strange things recently..."

Let's hear it. The

shopkeeper suddenly looked embarrassed, and said timidly: "Well, it's not that the villain doesn't want to talk more, it's just... Our store is most afraid of getting into trouble, so they tell us villains not to talk a lot... Hehe, guest officer, look..."He said this, deliberately rubbing his hands.

Zu Zhao comprehended, and he took out a piece of broken silver from his waist that was not an ingot and threw it out. The guy in the shop was excited, and hurriedly took it in his hands with both hands, with a smile on his face. Zu Zhao took a sip of tea and said gracefully: "Say it."

The shopkeeper took a bite of the broken silver first, and then said with a smile: "The son is really generous, the villain thanked him first."

He was not verbose, and after he finished gossiping, he immediately changed into a cautious demeanor, and said in a low voice: "Childe is looking for suspicious people in the town recently, and the villain really knows that there are such people." When another guest officer was inquiring downstairs, our store also said that there were many Hu people who came to Lingzhi County to do business this year, and this was indeed the case. Usually, when Hu people cross the border to do business, they will be introduced by Han merchants, otherwise it is easy to have accidents. "

Just as villages everywhere treat strangers, even the Han people are wary of each other, let alone a group of blond, blue-eyed Hu people?

Although Zu Zhao didn't care about business, he still knew some about the rules of doing business with the Hu people.

The shopkeeper continued: "In previous years, there were only a handful of Hu people here, and they were all old acquaintances. But this year is different, a few days ago, I heard that when the nearby Zhang family was having a drink, I was afraid that there were 50 or 60 people here this year. Some of them are also recommended by Han businessmen, but some people, hehe, come across the border without permission.

Hearing this, Zu Zhao was inevitably interested, but on the surface, he was still not surprised, and said, "Is it? The

shopkeeper said matter-of-factly, "Isn't it?" The villain still dares to talk nonsense? I guess the people Childe and the others are looking for should be them. Even if it weren't them, there would be other news coming out of their mouths. "

In any case, the clues provided by the shop guy are also a direction that can be investigated. Zu Zhao bowed slightly, and asked again, "How can I find these people?" Another

smile appeared on the shopkeeper's face, and he said with great interest: "There are not many villains in the county and other places who know about it, but we are very easy to find here in Xilitun." Just to the west, near the horse market, there are a few strange Hu people, there are men and women, hehe, especially there is a Hu girl, which is called a bewitching. I heard that a few rangers in the town had gone to tease, but it didn't work out, and they almost let the family beat them.

Zu Zhao pondered and asked further, "How do you know that these Hu people have no one to recommend?" The

shopkeeper said very seriously: "Of course, we have inquired about these things clearly."

Zu Zhao believed that these restaurant guys liked to listen to the gossip the most, and he didn't have too much hope on the other party, since the other party provided some new clues, he had gained something to some extent. He didn't ask much, and said with a smile: "That's a great job." It's hard work. The

shopkeeper smiled very knowingly: "Where, where, it's a gesture." In the future, if you want to know something, you can come to our store to find the villain, and the villain knows everything and says everything.

Zu Zhao nodded and said, "Very good." After

having lunch in the restaurant, Zu Zhao and the others did not delay any time, settled the bill, and left the restaurant and went directly to the west of the town. The group rode through the downtown area and soon came to the horse market in the west. The horse market here has been going on for a while, and the best horse market season is coming to an end. The open sand is surrounded by wooden fences to form a labyrinthine market, and there are many simple stables of various sizes around the market, some of the large stables are empty, not even a single person is visible, and only a few small stables can still be seen in the stalls where a few horses are being sold.

Good horses, good horses, and stallions have been sold in the past few days, and the rest of the horses are either farm horses that are entrusted to horse dealers by nearby villagers who are in need of money, or some unpleasant mongrels or some unused dwarf horses.

It was early afternoon, and there were not many horse dealers, and even the horse dealers were lazy, leaning against the wooden fence and dozing off, or gossiping together.

The appearance of Zu Zhao and others initially attracted the attention of some people. But seeing these young children dressed up as white-clothed businessmen, there must be unlimited business opportunities, but after careful observation, they found that these people were carrying swords at their waists, and their expressions were all solemn, so they didn't dare to rashly take the initiative to greet the customers. I'm afraid that it will provoke some idle market rangers.

"Aji, Abao, you go to the horse market. Let's go to the back. Zu Zhao commanded quietly.