Chapter 3 Casting Oneself into the Net

  The leader of the Hu merchants had a somewhat stiff smile, just then Li Changguo laughed and said: "Haha! I was just joking, look at how scared you all are."

  The smile on the face of the leader of the Hu merchants became more natural, and the three guards behind him relaxed their grip on the hilts of their knives.

  Li Changguo hesitated for a moment, lowered his voice and said: "According to military law, it is not allowed to enter the fortress. But you are so tired, we can't just watch you suffer, can we? You know I have to report to our Fire Chief, don't you?"

  Although it wasn't explicitly stated, the meaning was clear: they wanted Huo Zhang to agree, and naturally, they had to offer him benefits. The leader of the merchants understood this and hastily pulled out a 10-tael silver ingot, stuffed it into Li Changguo's hand, and warmly smiled: "Please trouble General to pass on the message! There will be heavy thanks afterwards."

  "There shouldn't be any problem, you all just wait, I'll go and spread the word." Li Changguo tossed the silver in his hand, with a smile on his face, and patted Hu Shang's shoulder head warmly, then turned around and gave Fei Lei and the others a glance, before heading towards the barracks.

  The leader of the Hu merchants looked at Li Changguo's back with a disdainful smile, twitching his mouth. However, he didn't see that when Li Changguo turned around, the warm smile on his face instantly disappeared, replaced by a cold and ruthless expression, with a hint of murderous intent.

  Ferré walked up, rushing to the leader of the Hu merchants with a warm smile: "You can rest assured, helping you passing merchants is what we should do. Look at your tired appearance, haven't rested for several days?"

  "Really, really!" The leader of the Hu merchants had a particularly sincere smile on his face, nodding vigorously and saying: "We've been rushing to get here for three days without a good rest, we're so tired that it's unbearable. If you can let us have a good sleep, we'll be eternally grateful."

  "No problem!" Ferre patted his chest to guarantee, then suddenly changed the subject and said with some difficulty: "In theory, your request is reasonable, but you also know that this violates military regulations..." He looked at Hu Shang's leader with a greedy look in his eyes.

  The leader of the Hu merchants slightly cracked a smile and put on a show: "General, you can rest assured that I won't make things difficult for you."

  "If only there were some... it would be much easier!" Ferre rubbed his hands together, the meaning of which was clear: he wanted the leader of the Hu merchants to give him silver.

  The leader of the Hu merchants hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, pulled out a piece of gold and stuffed it into Ferre's hand, laughing: "A little wine money, not enough to show respect, please accept it."

  "Golden treasure!" Ferre was overjoyed, his eyes fixed on the gold and couldn't move away, with a greedy expression.

  "How dare you break military rules and extort passing merchants! I will punish you for your crimes!" Li Changguo strode forward, his face as stern as water, harshly rebuking Fei Lei and the others.

  Regardless of Ferre's reaction, Li Changguo snatched the gold and weighed it in his hand before putting it into his pocket. A smile finally appeared on his face as he said to Hu Shangshou: "We are kind-hearted and generous, we want you to enter the fort to rest."

  "Thank you, General! Thank you, General! The Tang officials are indeed good, showing compassion to us poor traveling merchants!" The leader of the Hu merchants exchanged a glance with his guards and subordinates behind him, then followed Li Changgui.

  Li Changguo's voice was very loud, and he shouted at Fei Lei and the others: "Follow me, I want to have a good talk with you about military discipline."

  Fei Re and others followed Hu Shang with a bitter face, trembling with fear.

  Hu Changkang smiled and greeted them at the gate of the fortress, laughing and saying: "You're too polite! You want to find a place to rest, just say so, how can we not be willing? What's with sending silver?"

  Saying sorry with their mouths, they sized up the leader of the Hu merchants, hoping he would give them more silver. Who would complain about having too much silver?

  "Nice to meet you, Fire Chief!" Hu Shang's leader, with a polite and courteous manner, greeted Kang De and said in his half-fluent Mandarin: "Chief Huo, you're too kind. We just came to rest our feet, how dare we trouble your esteemed presence."

  "Please!" Kant bowed and invited him in, treating the leader of the Hu merchants like a guest, with courtesy and enthusiasm.

  There is truth in the saying that if you take from others' hands, your own will be short, and if you eat from others' mouths, your own will be soft.

  "Please!" Hu Shang's leader was also polite and entered the barracks with Kang De.

  Hu Shang and his men, accompanied by Li Changguo, entered the fort together. As soon as they entered the fort, Fei Re closed the gate of the fort and stood guard with Liu Hao behind it.

  The garrison soldiers inside the fortress wore helmets and armor, holding horizontal knives, surrounding the Hu merchants, waiting in a tight array, as if facing a great enemy.

  "You, you are going to rob and murder us?" The leader of the Hu merchants' face changed greatly, loudly accusing: "We will report you to the Anxi Governor's office."

  "Little Bourne, if I'm not mistaken, you're planning to sneak into the fort and catch us off guard, aren't you?" Kond gazed at Hu Shang's leader with a hint of a smile.

  "What are you talking about? I'm a serious businessman, I would never do such a thing." Hu Shang hurriedly defended himself, but the three guards and his subordinates were about to draw their swords when they were stopped by the garrison soldiers who held knives to their necks, not daring to move.

  "Is that so?" Kant said with a sarcastic smile, disdainfully saying: "Little Bourgeois, you're still stubborn! You think you've done a perfect job, but you're exposing your flaws everywhere. Li Shichang, it's you who discovered the flaws, teach them well how to lie."

  Li Changguo nodded and took a step forward, sizing up the leader of the Hu merchants, and smiled: "Do you know how many weaknesses you have? Your weaknesses are too numerous."

  Here is the translation:

  At this point, Li Changguo paused for a moment, shook his head and said: "A true merchant would not think of entering the fort, at most just replenishing some water. Although you didn't say it explicitly, your intention was clear as day. You want to enter the fort, I suspect you have ulterior motives. That's why I suddenly revealed that you are from Boluo, and your guard's eyes flashed with a fierce light, although it was only for an instant, but it couldn't escape my notice."

  "If that's all, I would have just been suspicious. I deliberately asked you for silver, and as soon as you handed it over, it was ten taels. Tell me, is ten taels of silver a small amount? Even the most honest merchants would only give some loose change, even our Tang Dynasty merchant caravans would only give some scattered coins. Only someone with ulterior motives would think that money can move people's hearts, thinking that giving some silver could deceive us."

  "I went to the fort and reported to Huo Long, saying that Fei Lei and his men would continue to probe you, but you actually took out all the gold. The Silk Road is profitable, but after running around for a year or two, how many tens of taels of gold can be earned? This is no different from telling us that you have ulterior motives."

  Kang De took over, saying: "There's another point, you walk with a strong and steady pace, quite measured. Only those who have undergone rigorous training will walk like this. We are from the military, so we are very familiar with this kind of measurement and can recognize it easily. As soon as Li Shilang saw you arrive, he became suspicious, and after some probing, their weaknesses were revealed more and more."

  "Useless thing!"

  Three guards rushed up to the leader of the Hu merchants and shouted: "You were supposed to put on a show, but you're so useless! You've ruined the great affair of the Tubo Empire, what's the point of keeping you?"

  One guard was about to cut down the leader of the Muslim merchants, when Li Changguo grabbed his neck and lifted him up like a small chicken. With his left foot, he kicked over another guard, and with one punch, another guard fell to the ground.

  Li Changguo's hands moved like lightning, his fists came out like the wind, and his legs were as heavy as a mountain. The three bodyguards hadn't even reacted before Li Changguo had knocked them to the ground.

  Kant and his men didn't slack off either, quickly taking down the rest of the subordinates. More than twenty little Brutes were taken captive.

  Lao Yin is running naked, begging for some clothes: collect, recommend, click!