Chapter 30: Investigating the neighboring county

  In late autumn afternoons, the air in the north holds many a crispness, with cold and warmth interwoven.

  In the town of Zhēnzi in the southwest suburbs of Lìngzhī County, there has been a lot of excitement in recent days, with many traveling merchants and peddlers gathering here.

  The governor of Liaoxi County issued a decree that was much more enlightened than the others, not only encouraging agriculture and commerce, but also allowing the establishment of border markets to trade with the Hu people. Although Lingshi County is not the location of the border market, most of the goods from the Hu people in Liaoxi County are exported through Lingshi County, so this place has gathered merchants from Xuwu and Lingshi counties to buy and sell.

  The scale of the town is far different from Xihua Bridge and Bali Bao, even if three or five Xihua Bridges and Bali Baos are combined, they cannot match the prosperity and popularity of Lingbi County.

  There is a two-story tavern outside the crossroads, and although many guests come and go in the town, not many people visit the tavern. Nowadays, the livelihood of the common people is not prosperous, and even the merchants who come and go are mostly frugal and thrifty, only going to some small shops like wine houses and tea sheds to barely fill their stomachs.

  The large second floor only had Zu Zhao and a few apprentices sitting at the window table, everyone was dressed as traveling merchants, and they didn't carry any obvious weapons. Before dawn, they set off from Xuwu County and arrived in Lingzhi County at noon, after another detour, they came to this town where Hong Shu and others bought horses. After a long journey, many people were tired and hungry, so they took a short rest at the wine tower, ordered some ordinary meals, and casually asked about rumors.

  Wine houses and tea houses are often the best channels for news.

  At this time, Zu Zhao was slowly sipping a mouthful of tea, his eyes gazing out the window at the colorful crowds and bustling goods in the town. He could even pick out one or two blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners among the countless Han people, including seductive foreign women and rough-looking foreign merchants. Although there were deep-seated contradictions between the Hu and Han ethnic groups, both major nationalities had ordinary common folk who just wanted to live a peaceful life.

  The sound of footsteps quickly coming up the stairs, a moment later, Zuji appeared at the stairway entrance wearing a white long gown.

  "Big brother," he came to the front of Zu Chao and others, found an empty seat and sat down, with a serious expression said, "Just asked the waiter downstairs and the owner, the horse market is on the west side of the town, walking along the small road to the west for a while can be seen."

  "Hmm, is there any other news?" Zu Zhao asked again.

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

  "So, let's eat first and then go for a walk in the horse market." Zu Zhao said calmly, his face was very calm.

  However, the shopkeeper did say a few things, I don't know if it's important or not. At this time, Zuji hastily added.

  "What's wrong?"

  "The shopkeeper felt that the number of barbarians appearing in Xili Village this year seemed to be more than in previous years, not only in Xili Village but also in the county town. However, most of these barbarians were merchants who came to buy and sell goods."

  Zu Zhaowei's eyebrows slightly furrowed, he didn't dare to guess too much now, but quietly took note of this point.

  "Got it." He nodded and said.

  "I hope Ah Cheng and them can gather more information." Zu Ji let out a somewhat helpless sigh.

  The ancestral family members were divided into two teams, with Zu Zhao leading one team to Xili Village for reconnaissance and Zu Cheng leading the remaining team to investigate in the remote villages around Lingzhi County. It was no easy task to cross borders and explore unfamiliar territories, as ancient people often lived in clans, with entire pavilions sharing the same surname, and even entire villages sharing the same surname. The appearance of strangers would be met with great vigilance, and some might even be driven away with sticks. This was also true for Beiguo Pavilion.

  It's precisely because of this that Ah Cheng and his group were assigned many children of fellow travelers, so there would be someone to take care of them.

  The dishes they had ordered earlier were served one after another. Zu Zhao urged everyone to hurry up and eat.

  As soon as he picked up his chopsticks, Zu Zhao suddenly caught a glimpse of the shop assistant who was serving dishes upstairs still standing beside him. The man bowed and politely refilled everyone's teacups with water, asking: "Gentlemen, would you like some more wine to go with your meat? Our store has a specially brewed ten-year-old high-gluten liquor that is famous far and wide."

  Zu Ji was not a drunkard, let alone he had something important to attend to in the afternoon, so he waved his hand impatiently and said, "No need."

  The shop assistant was stunned for a moment, but still had a smile on his face and hesitated to leave.

  Zu Zhaoshi seemed to have noticed something, he put down his chopsticks and said to the shop assistant: "Do you have anything to say?"

  The shopkeeper had long seen that Zu Chao's appearance was different from the others, and he must be the leader of this group. Hearing the other party speak, he hastily ran to the front, lowered his voice and smiled slyly: "Just now I saw a few people inquiring about some news, hehe, coincidentally, I recently heard some strange things..."

  Zu Chao's expression didn't change, he smiled lightly and said: "Is that so? Tell me about it."

  The shop assistant looked embarrassed and hesitantly said: "This, it's not that we don't want to talk too much, but... our boss is most afraid of getting into trouble, so he repeatedly warns us little people not to talk too much... Hehe, sir, you see..." He said this, deliberately rubbing his hands together.

  Zu Zhao nodded slightly, and from his waist he pulled out a piece of irregular silver and tossed it out. The shop assistant was startled, hastily holding out both hands to catch it, a smile spreading across his face. Zu Zhao lifted the tea cup to take a small sip, then said calmly, "Speak."

  The shopkeeper first took a bite of the silver ingot, then smiled and said: "Young master is really generous, I thank you in advance."

  He didn't beat around the bush, and after finishing his idle chatter, he immediately put on a cautious expression, lowered his voice and said: "Young master wants to find some suspicious people in the nearby town, I happen to know of such people. Just now another guest was asking about it downstairs, our shopkeeper also mentioned that many Huren have come to do business in Linzhi County this year, which is indeed true. Usually when Huren cross the border to do business, they are introduced by Han merchants, otherwise it's easy to get into trouble."

  Just as villages everywhere are wary of outsiders, the Han people were already on their guard against one another, let alone a group of blond-haired and blue-eyed foreigners.

  Zu Zhaung knew some rules about doing business with foreigners although he didn't care about business matters.

  The shopkeeper continued: "In the past, the number of Hui people who came to our place could be counted on one's fingers, and they were all old acquaintances. However, this year is different. A few days ago, I heard that Zhang from next door said that this year there might be 50 or 60 Hui people coming. Some of them were indeed introduced by Han merchants, but some, heh heh, secretly sneaked across the border."

  Upon hearing this, Zu Chao couldn't help but feel somewhat interested, however on the surface he remained calm and collected, saying: "Is that so?"

  "The shopkeeper nodded and said, 'Isn't that right? How dare those lowly people speak nonsense? I think the person you gentlemen are looking for should be among them. Even if it's not them, we can still get more information from their mouths.'"

  Anyway, the clue provided by the shop assistant is still a direction that can be investigated. Zu Zhao nodded slightly and asked, "How can we find these people?"

  The shop assistant's face showed another kind of smile, and he said with great interest: "In the county town and other places, not many people know about it, but in our Xili Tun, it's easy to find. Just near the horse market in the west, there live several strange Hu people, both men and women. Hehe, especially a Hu woman, who is called enchanting. It's said that several wandering scholars in the town have gone to flirt with her, but they didn't succeed and almost got beaten up."

  Zu Zhaowu seemed to be thinking deeply and asked further: "How did you know that these few barbarians had no one to introduce them?"

  The shop assistant said seriously: "Of course, we've got all these figured out."

  Zu Zhaizi believed that the wine house's partner liked to listen to gossip, and he didn't have much hope for the other party. Since the other party provided some new clues, it was still a gain. He didn't ask more questions, smiled and said: "So, it's really busy. Thanks."

  The shop assistant smiled knowingly and said, "No need to be polite, it's just a small effort. If you want to know anything else in the future, feel free to come find me at this store, I'll tell you everything I know."

  "Very good."

  After lunch at the wine house, Zu Chao and the others didn't linger, settled the bill and left the wine house directly heading west of the town. The group rode their horses through the bustling streets and soon arrived at the horse market in the west. The horse market here had been going on for a while, and the best season was nearing its end, with a somewhat deserted scene. On the empty sandy ground, wooden fences were used to enclose a maze-like market, with many large and small simple stables around the market. Some of the larger stables were empty, without even a shadow of a person, leaving only a few smaller stables where several horses for sale could still be seen.

  Good horses, fine horses and stud horses were all sold out in the past few days. The remaining horses are either farm horses from nearby villages that were temporarily pawned to horse merchants for sale due to financial difficulties, or some inferior mixed-breed horses, or some unused dwarf horses.

  It was just after noon, and there were not many horse traders coming and going. Even the horse merchants all had a lazy look on their faces, either leaning against the wooden fence dozing off or chatting idly in twos and threes.

  The appearance of Zu Zhao and others initially attracted some attention. Seeing these young men dressed in white clothes, they must be unlimited business opportunities. However, after careful observation, it was discovered that these people had swords at their waists, and their expressions were all stern. As a result, they did not dare to take the initiative to welcome them and attract customers. They were afraid of provoking some idle city rascals.

  "Aji, Abao, you two go take a stroll around Horse Market. We'll head to the back." Zu Zhao instructed calmly.

  As usual, please collect, red tickets and rewards! Hehe! Recommend "Deception", an old movie, can be said to be a high-IQ crime film!