Chapter 281

Liaodong Town, Yafu Pass.

This is one of the three major passes in Liaodong Town, and it was originally the only way for Jurchens, Hezhe people, and Elunchun people outside the pass to enter and exit the pass.

They brought furs, medicinal materials, mountain treasures, wood, horses, etc., from outside the pass in exchange for grain, salt, tea, and ironware from inside the pass.

This was once the most prosperous town on the Liaodong border, but since the Great Zhou and the Jurchens went to war, Yafu Pass was completely closed to the outside of the pass.

The Yafu Pass town also declined a lot because of this, but this decline was only to a certain extent and didn't make it completely defeated due to the war.

Although the specialties outside the pass couldn't enter the pass, there were many other channels to take a long detour to enter the town, and many merchants from the south still gathered here to purchase various rare treasures from outside the pass.

Not to mention foreign goods such as wild ginseng from Korea, swords from Japan, and coal from Russia.

In the center of the town, there was a Hongbei Restaurant, which was a place where merchants from the south and north gathered.

Due to the special nature of the border town, in addition to doing basic restaurant business, the restaurant owner also did miscellaneous things such as inquiring about news, reselling goods, and acting as an intermediary for merchants.

According to the Liaodong Town scouts who went deep into the outside of the pass for more than two hundred li to investigate, in the past half month, in the severe cold weather, the Jurchen tribes were cut off from their retreat, and their livelihood became increasingly difficult, and the tribes joined forces, fearing that there might be actions.

All the remaining military grain in the military fort was burned on the spot, so as not to be looted by Jurchen fast cavalry on the way back; anyway, Liaodong Town now had plenty of grain and supplies, and it didn't lack this little bit.

"Boss, do you have that kind of rope I want?"

Liang Chengzong discussed relevant details with his subordinates and witnessed the huge power of the Frankish cannon's three-shot rapid fire outside Ningyuan City with his own eyes.

Half a month ago, he saw with his own eyes that this young man followed the Liaodong Town Regional Commander Liang and led troops into Yafu Pass, with hundreds of musketeers guarding him.

And the effect of this series of practices was obvious.

The restaurant owner greeted diligently: "Supervisor Jia, today is New Year's Eve, all dishes in the shop are 20% off, would you like to try them?"

The shop owner saw Jia Cong coming over, greeted him diligently, and took out a bundle of hemp rope as thick as a thumb.

And after abandoning the five major military forts, Liang Chengzong also strictly ordered the border town passes to guard strictly.

This also made the flow of people in this restaurant more and more prosperous, and the restaurant's business was at least three tiers better than other restaurants in the town.

Since the day Jia Cong proposed the strategy of withdrawing troops from the military station, strengthening the walls and clearing the fields, so that the Jurchens had no grain to loot.

Within a range of four hundred li east and west of the border, all missing gaps were strengthened and cleared, or heavy troops were sent to guard them, so that the Jurchen tribes had no opportunity to take advantage of.

The shop owner naturally wouldn't neglect such a figure.

"So it's Supervisor Jia, the rope you want was just delivered yesterday. According to the size you set, it's a total of one hundred paces long, made of high-quality silk hemp, guaranteed to be strong."

The shop owner knew that this young man was an important figure in the Liaodong army.

The various passes of the border town were all waiting in battle formation, and Jia Cong customized this hundred-meter hemp rope, which was used for the calculation of firearm attacks.

Various signs indicated that the Jurchen tribes in desperate situations might make a desperate move, and there might be a major war in the near future.

Early the next morning, a military order was issued to withdraw all troops from the five major military forts in Liaodong Town.

Jia Cong smiled: "That's fine, boss, if you have fresh dishes, just serve some; my two brothers and I will spend the New Year in your shop."

This afternoon, a young master with an extremely handsome appearance brought two men into the restaurant.

Jia Cong smiled at the two Zhou soldiers beside him: "I am also spending the New Year outside for the first time; Zhigui, Xiao Si, you are probably the same as me."

That day, Guo Zhigui and Jiang Xiao Si burned the grain cart, dodged the pursuit of the Jurchen fast cavalry, and successfully escaped back to Yafu Pass.

And when Gu Yankui went west to inspect Jizhou Town and Xuanfu Town, Liang Chengzong, because Jia Cong was familiar with firearms, begged Gu Yankui to leave him temporarily as a Liaodong firearm consultant.

Responsible for the daily training of the firearm battalion and the formation and drill of the Liaodong artillery battalion.

Liaodong Town had three major passes; the other two passes had dangerous terrain and were easy to defend and difficult to attack, only Yafu Pass had the flattest terrain, which was convenient for the deployment of large cavalry.

Therefore, it was the place where the Jurchens were most likely to invade; the several major battles between the Great Zhou and the Jurchens in the past were also carried out near Yafu Pass.

So, this time Liang Chengzong configured all eight Frankish cannons at Yafu Pass, and most of the porcelain grenades and musketeers were also configured here.

As soon as Jia Cong arrived at Yafu Pass, Guo Zhigui got the information and took Jiang Xiao Si to find him.

Meeting familiar people in a foreign land a thousand miles away was naturally a pleasant thing.

The three were sitting down to eat, and at this time three people came in from outside.

The leader was in his thirties, wearing a black fur cloak, with an ordinary appearance, a conspicuous black mole under his forehead, and a striking gemstone ring on his hand.

These days, Jia Cong had seen many such figures in Yafu Pass, and they were generally merchants from the south who came to purchase northern goods.

But as soon as he saw this person's appearance, it immediately caught Jia Cong's attention.

Behind that person followed two other people; one was an accompanying servant, holding something in his hand, wrapped in burlap.

The other was a woman, tall, with snow-white and crystal-clear skin, exquisite features, and a sense of the sea in her eyes; her appearance didn't look like someone from the Central Plains.

Her head was wrapped in layers of headscarves, but the hair exposed at the temples was brownish-yellow, flashing with a strange dark gold in the sun.

Hanging on her waist was also a long blade with a strange style; the blade was slender and curved, the handle had no guard, and the pure copper blade head was curved, carved into the shape of an eagle head.

Jia Cong himself was also a person who practiced the blade; as soon as he saw the woman's posture of holding the handle, he knew that the blade was definitely not any decoration.

The strangest place was that the woman wore a leather vest with strange patterns carved on it, and a strange bird with a snow-white body and black spots stopped on it.

As the woman walked, the strange bird stopped on her shoulder without moving, its posture was arrogant, and a pair of pale golden bird eyes seemed to be sizing up the people in the shop.

And the people in the shop seemed to be used to the woman's strange shape; I think it wasn't the first time she had come.

Jia Cong recognized that the strange bird was a gyrfalcon unique to Liaodong; being able to be tamed so miraculously, it could be seen that this woman was a master of taming eagles.

But Jia Cong's attention was more focused on the person wearing the black fur cloak.

I saw him walk to a table and sit down; that table had already been sat by two people, looking like they had made an appointment with this man in advance.

"Boss Chen, have you brought the goods I want?"

That person wearing the black fur cloak smiled and asked the servant beside him to put the thing in his hand on the table.

Then he untied the burlap wrapping the thing, revealing a roll of gorgeous and brilliant cloth, seemingly flashing a layer of light, and many people in the shop let out exclamations.

Such rich and gorgeous cloth was indeed rare in the rough and simple land of Liaodong.

The buyer of the goods showed a satisfied look in his eyes: "I don't know how much Boss Chen wants for it?"

"Ten taels!"

"Good, Boss Chen is straightforward, ten taels is ten taels, I want all the goods you have!"

"Boss Zhao, wait a moment, I said ten taels per foot; this roll of cloth is ten feet in total, which is one hundred taels!"

As soon as Jia Cong saw this bolt of cloth, he recognized it; when he was in Jinling, he had seen it, and the forehead ornament on Zhen Ying Lian's head was made of this kind of cloth, Japanese satin!

This kind of rare cloth, even in a big port like Jinling, was rare, but it appeared in this remote and rough border town.

According to Zhen Ying Lian, the Zhou Suqing who had disappeared had hoarded a lot of this precious cloth at home.

Jia Cong had seen the portrait of Zhou Suqing at the Yingtian Prefecture government office in Jinling back then.

So although he hadn't seen Zhou Suqing himself, he knew his appearance.

So as soon as this person entered the shop, Jia Cong discovered that his appearance was very similar to Zhou Suqing's portrait, especially the position of the black mole, which was exactly the same as the one on the portrait.

He began to pay attention to every move of this person.

Liu Hai searched for this person everywhere along the way north, but there was no clue.

Jia Cong didn't quite believe that there would be such a coincidence at first.

But when this person took out that bolt of rare Japanese satin, Jia Cong confirmed his guess by eight or nine points!

(End of chapter)