In the ninth month of the lunar calendar, it was already late autumn, but the temperature had already become cold. Shandong during the Little Ice Age was like winter, and the north wind began to rage.

In the howling north wind, a huge convoy was slowly moving out of Jinan City. The convoy looked like a long dragon, with more than 300 ox carts and hundreds of plowing ox carts behind the ox carts. The number of people reached more than 1,000, some led the ox carts forward, some drove the plowing ox behind, and some guards in front and behind the convoy.

In the convoy, a young man rode on a black horse and walked along with the convoy. This man was Zhao Yan, with a serious expression on his face. He asked Zhao Quan on the side: "How many days will it take to rush back to Dengzhou?"

"It is no problem to walk more than fifty miles a day. You can go back in seven days as soon as possible. If you are slower, it may be eight or nine days!" Zhao Quan estimated with a happy face. Looking at Zhao Yan's worried look, he asked strangely: "What are the worries of the young master?"

Zhao Yan looked at the huge convoy and said with some concern: "We have such a big goal, so we are afraid of something going on the road."

"You should train troops faster! Otherwise, you will be worried when you travel the goods." Zhao Yan sighed.

"Young master, don't worry, who has that courage in our team of thousands of people?" Zhao Quan didn't care at all. Judging from his experienced experience, the landlords obviously did not dare to move such a large convoy, and the official troops did not dare to take action. Who dared to eat such a large convoy openly, and was not afraid of being overwhelmed to death.

Zhao Yan nodded and did not continue to say anything. However, the idea of ​​pulling up an army as soon as possible is even stronger. In this era without legal protection, only force is the truth.

"It's so cold this day." Zhao Quan rubbed his hands, let out a breath of white breath, and shouted to the front: "Everyone hurry up, otherwise there will be no place to stay in the night!"

After more than ten days of preparation, the convoy loaded 10,000 stones of grain and 20,000 kilograms of iron, followed by 500 oxen plowing ox and many ready-made farm tools.

The grain does not need to be transported away at one time. After all, Zhao Yan cannot use so much grain now, and there is no place to ship it back at one time. So it is enough to transport some of the grains back. The others are first placed in the Zheng family’s granary and then taken when you need it later.

The ox cart is slow, and it is already fast to walk fifty miles a day, but the ox cart has a relatively large load. At the same time, thousands of young and strong people were organized in Jinan City to assist in the transportation of materials.

A group of people left Jinan City and slowly headed towards Dengzhou. The two riders stumbled out to investigate the movements ahead.

The Zhao family did not have many horses, only more than twenty horses. Four horses were sent to Fujian to find crops such as sweet potatoes. There were only a dozen horses left, and a few of them were inferior horses. Only a few could be considered war horses.

Horse Zheng rose in the Han and Tang dynasties and was defeated in the Song and Ming dynasties. By the Ming dynasty, after the destruction of war, Horse Zheng declined very seriously, and many excellent horse breeds had disappeared from the long river of history.

Without horses, China's territory could hardly expand outward. In this underdeveloped period in ancient times, the mobile surname of horses was obviously crucial to a country.

The official road clerks on the road did not dare to make things difficult for such a huge caravan. Zhao Quan would collect hundreds of taels of silver and send them through the level with a smile.

The first day went smoothly. In the evening, Zhao Yan did not bring people into the county town to spend the night, but instead directed people to camp beside the official road.

This is the first time that Zhao Yan commanded such a large-scale crowd to camp in the wild. It seems a bit awkward and the camping speed is relatively slow.

The camp was chosen in a place close to the water source, and the terrain was relatively dangerous. Zhao Yan and his men were busy with command, divided the people in the convoy into four teams, one team raised fire and made food, one team went to cut wood, one team drove piles and built the camp, and the other team was responsible for the vigilance.

"This stake should be deeper so that the camp will be firmer... Put the horses in front and line them up..." Zhao Yan directed at the top of his throat.

A field camp was in the form of a prototype. The camp was surrounded by vehicles, and temporary horse-repelling and deer antlers were placed in front to prevent enemy cavalry from breaking through to the camp.

Some tents have been set up in the car ring, and Zhao Yan’s servants are even more busy. Fortunately, Zhao Yan has conducted several camping trainings on them before. Although he is still a little unfamiliar, he doesn’t know what to do.

When marching and fighting, it is not enough for someone to have weapons. Marine, fighting, command, logistics, morale, etc. are all crucial parts. Any negligence in any link may make this army terrible.

Although Zhao Yan had never experienced ancient wars, he had a vision beyond this era, understood the key to this, and could train with purpose.

The hungry people began to want to have dinner after camping in a busy manner. Zhao Yan had used the meal and took people around to patrol.

The servants under his command had to come out to guard the police at night. Zhao Yan's attitude of setting an example allowed him to convince the public, and the servants under him were not lazy.

The first night passed peacefully, and the second time we set off on the road as usual, the oxen were pulling the cart and shaking their tails slowly along the road.

Although the hired coachmen were puzzled by Zhao Yan's failure to enter the county town to spend a stay, Zhao Yan paid a generous salary and did not discuss it much.

He encountered some refugees one after another. Zhao Yan took out his food and asked Zhao Quan to take his people to gather the refugees and returned to Dengzhou with the convoy.

On the sixth day, the convoy walked into Laizhou Prefecture, and the number of refugees encountered on the road began to increase, and many refugees came from Dengzhou.

Zhao Yan also took out the food one by one to gather them together, and the number of people in the convoy increased sharply, from the initial one thousand to more than three thousand.

On the seventh day, he had already arrived in Dengzhou.

"Report..." The explorer galloped back, and the servant turned over and dismounted and reported: "Report to the young master, a group of thieves were found in front of him, with a number of about five or six thousand people, and was coming in our direction."

"What!" Zhao Quan was immediately shocked and asked the servant: "You didn't see it."

"The young one read that right. They used the banner of the word "Zhang" written on it." The clerk replied hurriedly.

"No, the refugees in Dengzhou have formed such a large-scale bandit." Zhao Quan looked at Zhao Yan, "Young Master..."

"Form a formation and distribute weapons." Zhao Yan ordered in a deep voice, and flipped directly from the horse.

"Form a formation, form a formation... surrounded the car." Several people shouted loudly. The convoy stopped abruptly and under command, they quickly unloaded the car from the ox and formed a large circle.

The weapons were quickly released, and the weapons were very messy. The Zhao family's servants all used long spears, while the coachman and the convoys who gathered refugees were holding various weapons, some holding hoes, some holding rakes, and more were holding cut wooden guns.

"what happened?"

"I heard it was a thief coming."

"Oh my god, why don't you run away!"

The crowd in the convoy began to storm, and many people were scared to the point of being disgusted, and their hands and feet were weak and wanted to escape, running around like headless flies.

When Zhao Yan saw that something was wrong, he pulled out his waist knife and slashed at a driver who had turned over the truck. With a puff, his head flew up.

"Whoever moves around again is still like this, kill me!" Zhao Yan held the head and shouted loudly with a scary expression. The rough voice he usually trained played a huge role at this time.

Everyone in the convoy looked over and saw the bloody head, so scared that they dared not move. Zhao Yan's servants held the spear in their hands and pointed it at those who wanted to escape.

Zhao Yan made a quick decision and jumped into the car. He shouted under the gaze of everyone: "Listen to me, the number of thieves in front of us is not more than us, and they are just a group of hungry people. We are all full and have the strength to eat. If we fight to the death, we will win."

"You are not only fighting for me, Zhao, but also fighting for yourself. Do you think you can escape the thieves? Then you will be ensnared by them and will also become rioters. As long as the court sends troops to suppress them, you will lose your head." Zhao Yan said with a gloomy face and threatened them with a blow.

"At the same time, I, Zhao, don't let everyone fight for nothing. Anyone who kills a thief will be rewarded with five taels of silver, and those who kill two thieves will be rewarded with one acre of fertile land. Those who die in the battle will be rewarded with three hundred taels of silver. The Zhao family, the old man in the family, helps him raise him, and sends three dou of rice a month to support them for the rest of their lives. If a man is a man, he will take up weapons and fight with the thieves. If anyone retreats in the face of battle, he will be like this, and he will be killed immediately." Zhao Yan said as he threw his head on the ground.

"I'm going to die in battle and I'm going to give you three hundred taels of silver. Everyone is hesitating! Kill two people, you can get ten taels of silver and one acre of fertile land! If you do it, kill him." Zhao Quan raised the knife in his hand and incited him loudly.

"Don't kill him."

"Yes, kill the damn..."

There must be brave men under heavy rewards, and money can make the devil push! Hearing such a generous reward promise, he immediately had a great morale formation, whether it was the refugees or the coachman in the formation, all of them were holding weapons and ready to beat their hands. Although there was still a trace of fear in their hearts, they had no way out.

On one side is heaven and on the other side is hell, and naturally choose the path to heaven.

A gust of dust came from the distance of the official road, and a group of chaotic teams were coming towards the convoy...

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Chapter completed!