Looking at the majestic and dangerous pass in front of him, the middle-aged man wiped the sweat from his forehead. Although it was cold and windy, after walking on such a rugged and winding mountain road for two or three hours, his back was still soaked with sweat.
"It's really not a human path!" The middle-aged man cursed secretly in his heart. In terms of road conditions, it's not too bad, but the road is winding and winding, with uphill and downhill slopes. It would be a nightmare for a large-scale army to operate here. But the intention of the higher-ups is already obvious. They must make up their minds here, otherwise I wouldn't have been running back and forth over the past few months.
There are not many people walking on this road, most of them are short-distance merchants and tourists. Long-distance merchants going to Hanzhong Prefecture would rather go south to Bashan via Xikang, and then enter Hanzhong Prefecture from Bashan. The road conditions are much better, and they are like horse-drawn carriages. Such transportation tools can also be used, but on this road, the only tools that can be used to carry goods are probably mules and donkeys and horses. Mules are the best choice.
Although he had an honest and sincere look on his face, and the baggage he was carrying was filled with precious medicinal materials from Jinzhou. The route came from Jinzhou and the destination was Hanzhong. Everything was perfect, but the strong man still kept his head down as much as possible. Keep your head up to avoid attracting anyone's attention. The guy who just passed by could tell with his own intuition that he was definitely Tan Ma from Guan Guan. Although he had made many disguises, it still seemed too much for someone like me who had been wallowing in the world for a long time. A little more tender. A pair of eyes wandered around, although they pretended to cover it up, they could not hide it from themselves. Their eyes moved around, and their final targets were pointed at the waists and hands of passers-by. This was obviously to check and determine the identity of the other person, but this method was too rough. A little simpler.
There was a smile on the face of the middle-aged man that was difficult to detect. After all, these guys from the Taiping Cult did not come from a professional background. Compared to people in other fields, they looked much immature. However, there is no need to spend too much energy on this road. It only requires a combination of light and dark and setting up a few checkpoints. It is absolutely impossible for any large-scale organized troops to sneak in, and civilians are not allowed to stay in Guanzhong, so It also makes all attempts to combine the inside and the outside come to nothing. It is indeed a natural hazard.
After climbing over the small hill in front of us, there was a pass in front of us. The strong man stopped, pulled off a sheep belly towel from his waist, wiped his face twice, and then turned his attention to the extremely dangerous pass in front of him. , a white stone horizontal line above the single city gate hole is engraved with three large seal characters that are already somewhat blurred - Jianmen Pass.
This is the Jianmen Pass, which is known as the most dangerous place in the world. There are thousands of walls standing on both sides, as if they were cut by axes from the sky. Looking at it, you can see the vastness of the mountains and the abrupt peaks, which really makes people sigh. If we talk about the steepness of the pass, I am afraid that the Jiayuguan Pass, which is known as the first pass in the world, will be inferior by three points. However, due to the difference in importance of the location, the title of the first pass in the world is attached to Jiayuguan Pass. , "Jianmen is dangerous in the world, Kuimen is the most powerful in the world", these two sentences are vivid portrayals of the two great passes in the western part of the empire. If you want to conquer this level from the outside, a strong man cannot imagine who can do this.
"Old Biao, why aren't you leaving?" A passenger passing by asked kindly: "Don't rest here, or you may arouse the suspicion of the customs officers. If you want to take a rest, you should go into the customs and find a shop."
"Okay." The middle-aged man responded with a smile, and then took another step forward.
The inspection before customs is not very strict, but it is obviously much stricter than the previous times. In the past, it was just to check whether there were any contraband such as weapons, but now all the luggage has to be opened and checked one by one. Of course, it is stuffed. It is much more convenient to pay two gold coins. In this regard, the middle-aged man is obviously familiar with the road, and his familiarity is even envied by the business travelers around him who have passed the customs together.
"Master Jun, what's going on today? What's going on? Why do you need to open the package for inspection? These are all precious medicinal materials. What's the point of being targeted by bad guys?" The middle-aged man was cautious. His appearance attracted a burst of good-natured teasing from the soldiers responsible for the inspection: "Come on, Boss Zhang, what you have is just not enough to fill in the teeth of the bandits? Besides, where do the bad guys come from in the areas controlled by our holy religion?" ? What you said is obviously slandering the reputation of our holy religion. How about we ask our leader to talk to you about the losses you have to compensate for slandering our reputation?"
The strong man quickly shrank his neck and said with a look of fear on his face: "No, please don't. Once Mr. Chen comes, it will be difficult for us to escape. I am running a small business and I can't stand the big trouble. I'm not talking too much. Okay, military." Master, is everything okay? Can I go?"
"Go away, haha, Boss Zhang, how dare you want to make a lot of money? I think you will only have to run on this road for the rest of your life." Several soldiers shouted with a smile, "Are you afraid? You have to hurry up, maybe after a while when the wind gets quieter, we will be closed down here, and maybe you will have to celebrate the New Year here."
"Oh? I understand, thank you military masters." The middle-aged man smiled, nodded and left the city gate. He casually glanced at the tower above the city gate. A line of patrol soldiers patrolled past from south to north. The security on the observation post above the city tower has been obviously strengthened. The two observation posts in the last two times have been increased to three. It seems that the situation in the south has changed, and it has also directly affected this side.
After entering the pass, a curved but fairly spacious road winds its way to the front. You can vaguely see the tower on the east side. Although Jianmen Pass is famous, the pass is actually not very big. There is a main street from west to east. There may be a few cross streets in the upper part, but they are all very narrow and short. There is a small military camp under the tower on both sides, and the military camp on the west is slightly larger. In the middle of the main street, a small bluebird flag is hung in front of the house, where is the head of the garrison. Place of residence.
Glancing at the bluebird flag fluttering in the wind in the distance, the middle-aged man twitched his mouth, shook his head, and walked into a side street. At the intersection of the street, a shop with "Old Name Panji Pharmacy" came into view. He walked into the pharmacy carelessly, "Is Boss Zhou here? I have good Jinzhou original medicine here, are you interested?"
When the obese man who was busy behind the counter saw the man, a trace of unnoticed excitement flashed in his eyes, and he greeted him with a tacky smile on his face: "Boss Zhang, are you here? Haha, you are indeed a good brother, If you have any good goods, you have to take care of your brothers first. Don't worry, as long as the goods are good, the price is easy to negotiate, but you have to be the brother and you can't lose money, right? Come on, come on, let's talk inside. Niu Er, come on, greet these two guests. .”
The honest and dull young man hurriedly greeted the two medicine-buying customers, and took the goods from Boss Zhang who had just come in.
"Haha, don't worry, there is no problem with the product. It is absolutely authentic from Jinzhou. It just depends on whether Boss Zhou is sincere." The middle-aged man was not polite and stepped into the inner hall.
Entering the inner hall, the two of them were still polite to each other, while expertly checking the quality of the medicinal materials. Boss Zhou even broke off a piece and put it in his mouth to chew, as if he wanted to check something.
It wasn't until they reached the warehouse behind the inner hall that the voices of the two gradually became quieter, and the cheesy smiles on their faces disappeared.
There were rows of containers in the warehouse, and the strong smell of various medicinal materials filled the air. The two came to the middle row of containers. Boss Zhou stretched out his hand to open the third drawer from the bottom on the right, reached in, and fumbled around for a while. After a tremor, a secret door quietly opened on the wall behind.
"How's the situation?" The middle-aged man who was sitting down had completely lost the humble and timid look he had when he entered the customs, and his energetic aura slowly came out.
Boss Zhou, who was sitting on the small kang, still looked like a businessman. "There are no big changes in Guanli. The number of garrison troops and commanders have not been adjusted. However, the situation has become tighter in recent times. Inspections and patrols are better than before." It’s much more frequent, but traffic has not been cut off for the time being, but it’s probably just for the next few days.”
"Well, I noticed it when I entered the customs. Probably the changes in the situation in the south have made them feel nervous." The middle-aged man nodded, "How is that matter going? The higher-ups attach great importance to this matter. Even Li The adults have personally taken care of it and requested that the purpose must be achieved."
"Well, there is progress, but it's not enough to achieve immediate results. I haven't dared to say that yet, but the two guys are already a little tempted. If they work harder, maybe they can be 50% sure." The drug store owner Fore Ji A trace of sweat broke out, feeling both excited and frightened. Even the top management paid attention to this matter, which showed that his work was effective, but the responsibility was even heavier, so he did not dare to make any random assertions.
"Five achievements are enough. We can't delay it any longer. We need to step up the process." The middle-aged man said flatly, "You don't have to worry about the rest."
"Is a 50% certainty enough?" the drug store owner asked back, with a confused look on his face.
"Well, there are other arrangements for the other 50%." The words of the strong man Zijian still could not relieve the other party's doubts. He thought about it and said: "At that time, our troops will also enter. If all the southern checkpoints are breached, what do you think? , what will they think? If you can grasp this, the work will be much easier. As mentioned above, no matter what the cost, no matter what the other party asks, you can agree to it, and the sooner the better."
"Well, I understand." The drug store owner suddenly realized, "Then it's not a big problem. It's just that you have to choose the right time."
"Well, you decide the timing yourself. The sooner the better, but you can't do it too hastily, otherwise it will be counterproductive. If you want to strive for success, we probably won't be able to bring you the news from the outside after the border is closed again. You can only rely on you to get it from them. I'll get it later." The middle-aged man warned cautiously.
"Well, that's no problem. The relationship between me and them has been sorted out. You can't hide the news from me." The drug store owner is still quite confident in this regard. The money spent in the past few years has not been in vain. From top to bottom Who doesn't know him, Boss Zhou
"Well, that's good. I'm leaving, so you can take care of yourself." The middle-aged man nodded, and the humble and cautious look began to appear on his face again.