Chapter 172 Shiping merchant gang suppresses the real dragon?
A merchant going to Lucheng? !
Hearing the news, Chen Yulou immediately cheered up.
On the understanding of the mountains, rivers and rivers of southern Yunnan.
Even the Tusi Mansion, which has been in various places for hundreds of years, is not as good as those caravans.
Thousands of years of time.
Forcibly stepped on an ancient tea horse road with both feet.
Two months ago, when they passed Zhelong Mountain in front of Nanjian City for the first time, they lost their direction several times in the vast dense forest. Even with a map, it was of no help. In the end, they followed a business gang and finally arrived successfully.
Now, I heard the news again that a caravan was passing by.
How can Chen Yulou not be surprised?
"Did you see their commercial flag?"
"There is a stone character..."
Yuan Hong scratched his head and recalled it carefully.
“Stone?”
Chen Yulou frowned, then murmured to himself.
"Is it the Shiping Merchant Gang?"
Since Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants withdrew from the historical stage of the Southern Yunnan Caravan.
In the past hundred years, four major business gangs have emerged, namely Shiping, Xizhou, Heqing and Tengyue, also known as the four major caravans.
These people are incredibly powerful and intricately connected.
Not only are they friendly with the chieftains from various places, but each family also has private soldiers. Unless they are crazy, no one wants to provoke them.
Of course, there are ruthless people who rob the caravan.
But I only dare to stare at those small households, or the poor and poor.
The four major business gangs didn’t even know how they died if they dared to take another look.
"Is the team large in size?"
Southern Yunnan is home to various ethnic groups, including those with the surname Shi. Chen Yulou added just in case.
"It's okay."
"There must be a hundred and ten people."
Yuan Hong answered very quickly this time.
Before going down the mountain, I saw the horse team setting off from the village at the foot of the mountain from a distance. It was probably the place where they stayed in the village last night.
Yuan Hong did not dare to stay longer.
After taking a quick look, he hurried back.
"One hundred and ten people, that's right, they should be people from the Shiping Merchant Gang."
Chen Yulou nodded and didn't delay any longer.
"Let's go back to camp, let the brothers bury the pots and cook as soon as possible, catch up with the caravan as much as possible, and leave behind them."
The map hidden by the Zuo family in Nanjian City .
Still a legacy from decades ago.
It's okay in the general direction, but it's a lot worse in details.
The caravan is different. They make a fortune from this. Traveling across mountains and rivers is their ability to make a living.
Often if you skip a few days, you may be able to earn more money, so you are right to follow them.
“…Okay, Master.”
Yuan Hong didn't expect that he would be so decisive, so he hesitated and agreed.
The two of them went one behind the other.
Return quickly the way you came.
Along the way, Yuan Hong hesitated to speak several times, but when he saw his master's figure like smoke, he almost never stopped, so he had no choice but to swallow back the words that came to his lips.
Until we entered the ancient town.
It finally had a chance.
"Master, here are the fruits we just picked."
Picking off a cloth bag, Yuan Hong handed it over carefully.
Looking at the bag of bright red wild fruits, Chen Yulou was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly came back to his senses.
It seems that I did say something before to get it away.
"Okay, let me try it."
Pick a few and throw them into your mouth, bite them gently, and a sweet and sour juice suddenly blooms on the tip of your tongue. It tastes a bit like cherry tomatoes, but it is sweeter. Better than that.
“It tastes good.”
I woke up early to practice and explore the path, so I didn’t eat much.
Now that a few wild fruits were in his stomach, he felt like he had a big appetite.
"They are all on both sides of the valley. If the owner likes it, I will pick some more later."
Seeing this, Yuan Hong couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
said with a grin.
“We’ll talk about it when we get down the mountain.”
Chen Yulou nodded.
While talking, he grabbed a handful of wild fruits from the bag and walked through the ancient town. When he arrived at the camp, people were waking up one after another.
Talking briefly about the situation.
The group of people didn't dare to hesitate and immediately got busy.
Pack your luggage, feed your horses, and make a fire to cook.
The whole camp smelled like fireworks.
In less than half an hour, everyone who had eaten and drank enough was on their way again.
Cross Longtan and go down the mountain along the stream.
Longtan Village is built on the mountain and lives by the water. ,
In the village, Yi and Han people live together. At a glance, there are about thirty or forty households, most of which are two-story stilted buildings.
Because there are caravans passing by all year round, the mountain people are very familiar with the practice of bartering, and they don't have much hostility towards them, so they warmly invite them to come into the village to exchange goods.
but.
Chen Yulou was anxious to catch up with the caravan in front.
In addition to the obvious weapons and food in the team, there is no material in exchange.
I politely declined their offer of free money.
I asked about the team from the morning.
really.
It was the Shiping Merchant Gang as he guessed.
However, the Shiping Merchant Gang is not managed by one household, but by countless Shiping people who walked west, carrying it on their shoulders and carrying it on their backs, creating a behemoth in hundreds of years.
In addition, Shiping goes west because the products sold are different.
Thus, four major branches were formed: Tea Gang, Salt Gang, Tobacco Gang and Department Store Gang. These people are collectively called Shiping Merchant Gang.
According to the people in the village, that team was engaged in the tea business.
They collected and sold wild mountain tea in various parts of southern Yunnan and returned to Zhenyue, which is the ancestral home of the Shiping Merchant Gang. They processed it into tea cakes, and then peddled them to toasts from various places along the Tea Horse Road. .
It is worth mentioning.
The world-famous Pu'er tea was cultivated by people from the Shiping merchant gang.
It has also made Zhenyue the core producing area of the six major Pu'er tea mountains.
Thank you to the people of Longtan Village.
Chen Yulou and his party hurriedly followed the road they pointed to and headed east.
Follow the map route.
From Longtanzhai to Lucheng, you need to go around a long route, which takes about three to five days.
However.
Just follow what these guys say.
The itinerary is estimated to be shortened by half at least.
After more than two hours of galloping, we finally caught up with the caravan.
The horseshoes on the mountain road are like thunder.
The front team had already noticed it.
Especially seeing that they had strong soldiers and horses, and were full of banditry, they stopped setting up their defenses early. Each one of them looked like they were facing a formidable enemy, holding knives and guns, thinking of using the natural dangers in the mountains to stop them.
Seeing this situation, how could Chen Yulou not understand.
This was clearly a bandit who thought they were robbing goods.
Immediately waved the team to stop.
Then ride forward in person.
He is dressed in a green shirt, and because of his high position, his Qi nourishes his body, and he has an outstanding temperament.
He also has the ability to spit out lotus flowers.
In less than a moment, he had already gained the trust of the tea gang.
This tea gang does belong to Shiping.
I heard they said the shopkeeper’s surname was Che.
Chen Yulou immediately understood that Cheshun Tea House was a large merchant that had been famous in southern Yunnan since the Qing Dynasty.
It is said that the man who founded Cheshunhao was both civil and military.
The following year, I went to Beijing to take the exam and obtained a Gongsheng degree. In order to repay the favor of the imperial court, I specially presented Cheshunhao’s homemade tea. It is said that Emperor Daoguang was so happy after drinking it that he gave him a gold-lettered plaque and sealed it at the same time. He served as a tribute to Jinshi and gave him official clothes and hats.
Asked.
Sure enough, the person who handed over to him nodded repeatedly.
The little bit of caution that was left was gone.
"Brother Chen is planning to go to Lucheng?"
Che Hancheng is the leader in charge of this tea gang.
He is also an old man from the Che family today.
He led his people to open up this mountain road. It used to take at least five or six days to walk to Lucheng. When he was young, he would be very skilled and courageous, and he would dare to go into the mountains with a few porters.
To know.
The barbarians in Tuzhai have always been hostile to outsiders. A few people dare to cross the vast mountains. How many people can match this courage?
The key is that he actually did it in the end.
Not only find a shortcut.
He also opened up various mountain villages along the way.
Because of this, the mountain people in this area almost only recognize the Cheshunhao sign.
"To be precise, it's Xianren Lake."
When he asked, Chen Yulou smiled.
“Our brothers were in Nanjian City before and heard people say that the scenery in the lake is the best in the world and that there are immortal ruins, so we wanted to go and have a look.”
"The scenery of Xianren Lake is really good."
Che Hancheng, who is in his fifties, is holding a snuff bottle in his hand and playing with it.
"However, the lake has not been peaceful in the past few years. Brother Chen, if you go, it is best to take a look at the situation before deciding whether to go into the water."
"It has not been peaceful?"
< br>Capture this word keenly.
Chen Yulou's eyes were stern, but a strange look flashed past him, and he just said curiously.
"Some people from the Shiping Gang also went that way. I heard that in the past few years, there were often lightning and thunder on the lake, and the waves were like mountains. Some people sailed across the lake and saw an ancient city, and there were even people living in it."
"Of course..."
Two puffs of smoke drifted from Che Hancheng's nose.
He made a pretense and waved his hands.
"Although this matter has caused quite a stir, no one knows whether it is true or not. Anyway, Brother Chen, just listen to me."
"Thank you, the head of the car, for reminding me."
Chen Yulou is the same. He smiled and shook his head.
But there was a bit of surprise in my heart.
In the ancient city of Xianren Lake, this rumor did not just happen overnight, it has existed since ancient times.
If I remember correctly.
Later generations of scientific expedition teams went to the lake and indeed found many ruins, which are said to date back to the ancient Dian Kingdom.
It’s just...
Their trip to Fuxian Lake was not for the ancient city under the lake.
But he ran towards the dragon.
I don’t know if this is good or bad?
Because the tea gang members were also in a hurry to go to Lucheng to collect tea, the group rested for a while and continued on the road without further delay.
And with them leading the way.
The time was indeed shortened by more than half.
On the third day, two converging teams, consisting of nearly 200 people, crossed the mountain. The front suddenly became clear. Yuanjiang, Yuxi River and Naxi River were the confluence of several major rivers. land.
An ancient city also appeared in everyone's sight.
Compared with Amizhou, Nanjian City and Duyun Cave that we saw along the way, Lucheng is definitely a rare big city.
The city wall, which is several feet high, is like a green siege of green mountains. You can see it from a distance while riding on horseback. There are countless private houses lined up in rows. There are both Chinese-style halls and Tantric pagodas in the city.
It is indeed one of the important cities on the Tea Horse Road.
Lucheng absorbs the styles of various ethnic groups.
But it blends very well.
There is no sense of abruptness or disharmony at all.
Most of the people coming and going at the city gate are merchant caravans, but they are completely different from Nanjian. Everyone enters and exits in an orderly manner, and there is no sign of blocking the robbery.
“Lucheng is fine here.”
“The tax revenue collected from us business gangs every year is enough to support us, so Yu Xiaomin doesn’t have much to impose.”
It seemed that Chen Yulou and his party were surprised.
Che Hancheng explained.
These days, salt, tea, and iron are the focus of taxation.
The Shiping Caravan does this kind of business.
The taxes paid to the cities along the route every year are astronomical.
He said it so easily, but his heart was bleeding.
But there is no way.
When doing business on other people’s territory, you have to abide by their rules.
This is a matter of course.
No matter how distressed I am, I have no choice.
"That's it."
Chen Yulou nodded.
Then he seemed to think of something again.
"Oh, by the way, handlebar, thank you for taking care of me all the way. How about I treat you all to a drink of thin wine today?"
"Brother Chen, you're welcome."
< br>
Che Hancheng shook his head.
"I'm afraid this trip won't work. We still have to go to the lower states and counties to collect tea. Time is tight and we probably have to leave soon."
"So urgent?"
Chen Yulou, who was still looking at the ancient city on the other side of the river, looked in disbelief.
The Cheshunhao caravan almost never rested along the way.
I thought I would have to stay overnight when I arrived in Lucheng.
“Summer tea only lasts for a month or two. When the rainy season comes, we can’t go into the mountains to pick it, so it can only rot on the trees.”
Che Hancheng shook his head.
Although there is Four Seasons Tea in southern Yunnan.
But in fact, only spring tea and summer tea can be sold at a reasonable price. Autumn and winter tea are too old, and there is almost no market except for making loose tea cakes and selling them to the mountain people.
He also wanted to take a rest.
But my family is pressing hard.
Since May, more than a dozen caravans have to travel throughout southern Yunnan, and there is no room for sloppiness.
"Let's have a drink of tea..."
"It's really unnecessary. I know Brother Chen's intentions. They are all Han people. It's not easy to go out. If there is a chance, Che will sit down and not be drunk." No return!”
"Then... listen to the driver."
Now that he has said this, Chen Yulou can't say anything more.
I can only watch the group of people go around Lucheng.
Go south along the Yuxi River.
Although it has only been a few days, Chen Yulou has seen how hard the Shiping Merchant Gang works in doing business. He is worthy of being able to replace Shanxi merchants and Hui merchants in just a hundred years.
There is a ruthlessness in his bones.
I left in May and came back in August.
I often wander outside for several months.
The key is that this is just the tea gang, there are also salt gangs, cigarette gangs and goods gangs.
In the past few hundred years, I have traveled throughout southern Yunnan step by step.
"Shopkeeper, are you still going into the city?"
Seeing him standing by the river with his horse in his arms, just silently watching the water rolling down, looking worried, Miss Hong couldn't help but chase after him, her eyes There was a flash of worry.
“No need.”
“Send a few brothers to supply supplies, and the rest will rest on the spot.
“In addition, go to the pier to see if there is anyone going to Fairy Lake. of ships. ”
Chen Yulou shook his head.
It is less than a hundred miles from the ancient city to Xianren Lake.
Compared with the rugged mountain road, this boat trip is much simpler.
"Okay."
Miss Hong took the order and left.
We found a few people to go into the city, and the rest rested where they were. In less than half an hour, the guys came back.
At the dock, Miss Hong has also found a boat.
It is also a three-story, nine-masted zygote ship.
Drive the horse to the bottom level.
They entered the second floor to rest.
When the sails were raised, the big ship carried the team through the vast blue river.
Running around for several days.
Everyone has gone to the cabin to rest.
Only Chen Yulou was alone, standing on the bow of the deck with his hands behind his hands.
Holding a phalanx in his hand.
Astonishingly, it was the dragon slough found from Jiaolong Cave Mansion.
These days, he has been thinking about it. Since it is a dragon shed, it must contain dragon energy. Dragons in the world will go crazy if they hear it.
The Fuxian Lake they went to on this trip.
According to Bamo's description, combined with the black dragon suppressed under the ancient building's curtain wall, it is most likely that it has reached the time limit for turning into a dragon.
In the past few years, the lake has been making waves and flooding in all directions. Maybe it is trying to escape the water.
so.
Is there a possibility.
Use the beast control technique of Qingmu Kung Fu to subdue it, and then use this dragon slough as a guide to help it transform into a dragon.
Then...
Isn’t there a dragon and a phoenix around me? !
(End of this chapter)