Chapter 30, Exploring the neighboring county

In the late autumn afternoon, there are many clear, cold and hot air in the north.

The town in the southwest suburbs of Lingzhi County has been very lively in recent days, and many traders have gathered here.

The county guard of Liaoxi County is relatively more enlightened about the civil affairs in the territory, which not only encourages farmers and merchants, but also specifically allows the opening of border cities to communicate with the Hu people. Although Lingzhi County is not the location of the border city, most of the Hu people's goods in the whole Liaoxi County will be exported from Lingzhi County to Xu Wu County, so Xu Wu and Lingzhi counties are gathered here.

Of course, the scale of the town is very different from that of Xihe Bridge and Balibao. Even if three or five Xihe Bridges and Balibao are combined, they cannot catch up with the prosperity and popularity of this place in Lingzhi County.

There is a two-story restaurant outside the intersection. Although there are many guests coming and going in the town, there are not many people visiting the restaurant. Nowadays, people's livelihood is not booming. Even the merchants who come and go are mostly short of money and save money. They only go to some restaurants, teahouses and other small shops.

On the huge second floor, only Zu Zhao and several children sat at the table by the window. Everyone dressed as merchants and did not carry obvious blades. Before dawn, they set out from Xuwu County and arrived in Lingzhi County at noon. After some twists and turns, they came to the town where Uncle Hong and others bought stallion. Running all the way, how many people were tired? They took a break in this restaurant, ordered some regular meals, and inquired about the gossip.

Restaurants and teahouses are often the best channel for information.

At this time, Zu Zhao was slowly taking a sip of tea and staring through the window, staring at the various crowds and dazzling merchants in the town. He can even find one or two blonde Hu people among countless Han people, including the enchanting Hu Ji and the rough Hu merchants. Although the Hu and Han ethnic groups have profound folk conflicts, there are ordinary people in both major ethnic groups who only want to live their separate lives.

The sound of the stairs quickly walking upstairs. A moment later, Zu Ji, dressed in a white long coat, appeared at the end of the stairs.

"Big son," he came to Zu Zhao and others, found an empty seat and sat down. He said with a serious expression, "I just inquired about it with the running hall and the shop downstairs. Ma City is in the west of the town, and you can see it by walking west along the path."

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

"The store said that there are many people coming and going here every spring and autumn in Xilitun every day, and almost all of them are businessmen. There are some regular customers, but more of them are still strangers. It's hard to say if there are any suspicious people. Zu Ji said.

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

"However, the storeman said something, and I don't know if it's important." At this time, Zu Ji hurriedly added.

"What's the matter?"

"The store feels that there are more Hu people appearing in Xilitun this year than in previous years, not only in Xilitun, but also in the county. But most of these Hu people are vendors who buy and sell things.

Zu Zhao's eyebrows twisted a little. He didn't dare to guess too much now, but secretly wrote this down.

"I know." He nodded and said.

"I hope Acheng and others can find out more information." Zu Ji sighed helplessly.

On this trip, the children of the ancestral family were divided into two teams. Zu Zhao led a team of people to Xilitun to explore, and Zu Cheng took the remaining team to visit the remote villages around Lingzhi County. Nowadays, it is not easy to cross the border to explore strange places. Most of the ancients lived in the clan, from the same clan as the whole pavilion to the same surname as the whole village. They will be very wary of the appearance of strange faces, and even stick each other. This is true even in Beiguoting.

Because of this, A Cheng and his party assigned many children to their peers, and there was more or less one to take care of them.

In time, the restaurant served a few dishes ordered earlier. Zu Zhao greeted everyone to eat quickly.

As soon as he picked up the chopsticks, Zu Zhao suddenly caught a glimpse of the shopkeeper serving the food upstairs standing aside. The other party nodded, attentively filled everyone's teacup with water, and asked, "Several guests, don't you want some more wine to eat meat? Our store has been brewing sorghum wine for ten years, which is famous far and wide.

Zu Ji is not a burgler, not to mention doing business in the afternoon. He waved impatiently and said, "No need to."

The clerk was stunned for a moment, but he still smiled and refused to leave.

Zuzu Zhao seemed to have an inspection. He put down his chopsticks and said to the shop assistant, "Do you have anything to say?"

The shopkeeper had long seen that Zu Zhao's appearance was different. He must be the leader of this pedestrian. Hearing the other party's words, he hurriedly came closer and said with a low smile: "I just saw several people incurring about some news. Hey hey, it happens that the villain has indeed heard some strange things recently..."

Zu Zhao did not slow down and said softly, "Really? Let's talk about it."

The shopkeeper suddenly looked embarrassed and said shyly, "Well, it's not that the villain doesn't want to talk too much, but... Our store is the most afraid of causing trouble, so he told us villains not to talk much... Hey hey, guest, look..." He said this and deliberately rubbed his hands.

Zu Zhao understood, and he took out a piece of silver that was not an ingot from his waist and threw it out. The shopkeeper was thrilled and quickly took his hands with his hands and smiled. Zu Zhao picked up a sip of tea and said graceful, "Say it."

The shopkeeper first took a bite of the broken silver, and then said with a smile, "The young man is really a big deal. The villain thanked him first."

He was not wordy. After gossiping, he immediately put on a cautious look and said in a low voice, "The prince is looking for suspicious people in the town recently. The villain really knows that there are such people. When another guest official inquired downstairs, our store also said that there were a lot of people who came to Lingzhi County to do business this year, and there was indeed this matter. Usually, when Hu people cross the border to do business, they will be introduced by Chinese merchants, otherwise it is easy to have accidents.

Just like villages around treat strangers, even Han people are on guard, not to mention a group of blonde beards?

Although Zu Zhao ignores business matters, he still knows some rules about doing business with Hu people.

The shop assistant continued: "In the past, there have been only a handful of barbarians here, and they are also some old acquaintances. However, this year is different. A few days ago, when I heard Zhang's family nearby saying that Hu people were afraid that there were 50 or 60 people this year. Some are also recommended by Chinese businessmen, but some people, hey, come across the border secretly.

Hearing this, Zu Zhao was interested, but on the surface, he was still not surprised and said, "Really?"

The store clerk said, "Isn't it? How dare you talk nonsense? I guess the person the prince and others are looking for should be them. Even if it's not them, they can find out other news from their mouths.

Anyway, the clue provided by the shopkeeper is at least a direction that can be investigated. Zu Zhao nodded slightly and asked, "How can I find these people?"

Another smile appeared on the shopkeeper's face and said with great interest, "I don't know much about the villains in the county and other places, but it's easy to find in Xilitun. There are a few strange Hu people living near Ma City in the west, there are men and women, hey hey, especially a Hu woman, which is called a charming. I heard that several rangers in the town had gone to flirt, but they almost got hit by others.

Zu Zhao thought about it and asked further, "How do you know that these Hu people are not recommended?"

The clerk said seriously, "Of course, these are all clearly inquired by us."

Zu Zhao believes that these restaurant staff like to listen to gossip. He did not send much hope on the other party. Since the other party provided some new clues, he also gained something. He didn't ask much and said with a smile, "Well, it's really busy. Thank you for your hard work."

The shop assistant smiled knowingly, "Where, no, raise your hand. What else does the prince want to know in the future? You can come to our store to find a villain. The villain knows everything.

Zu Zhao nodded and said, "Very good."

After having lunch in the restaurant, Zu Zhao and the crowd did not delay. After paying the bill, he left the restaurant and went straight to the west of the town. The group rode through the downtown and soon came to the horse market in the west. The horse market here has lasted for a long time, and the best horse market season is coming to an end, and now there are quite a few people walking cold. The empty sand is surrounded by wooden fences into a maze-like market. There are many simple horse sheds of different sizes around the market. Some large horse sheds are empty, and even a shadow is missing. Only a few horses for sale can be seen in a few pony sheds.

Good horses, good horses and stallions have been sold in the past few days. The rest of the horses are either short of the nearby villagers and entrusted to the horse merchants to sell them on their behalf, or some unsalable hybrid horses, or some unused pony horses.

In the afternoon, there were not many horse vendors, and even horse merchants were lazy, either leaning under the wooden fence to sleep, or gathered together in twos and threes to gossip.

The appearance of Zu Zhao and others initially attracted the attention of some people. However, seeing these young children dressed as white merchants one by one, there must be unlimited business opportunities, but after careful observation, they found that these people were all strict, so they did not dare to take the initiative to welcome customers. I'm afraid it will provoke some idle market rangers.

"Aji, Bao, you can go to Malaysia. Let's go back." Zu Zhao ordered quietly.

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[Ask for collection, red tickets, and rewards according to the routine! Hey hey! Recommend "Deception", an old film, which can be said to be a mountain-level movie with high IQ crimes!]