Zhao Ziliang rode on horseback and listened quietly to Qin Zipeng's introduction to Liu Dan, Dugujun and others.
Regarding the negotiations with the checkpoints and town officials along the way, Zhao Ziliang need not worry.
As the caravan manager, Qin Zipeng has been here many times, almost twice a year.
He has considerable experience in dealing with checkpoints and town officials and knows them well.
A lot of people usually don't have any problems.
Zhao Ziliang went to the West this time mainly to see the customs, social and people's livelihood, and economic conditions in the West.
He also secretly inspected the military deployment, military strength, and political environment of the following places in the West.
By the way, he also checked the terrain of mountains, rivers, and rivers in various places.
Although there have been changes in the East over the past few years, The factory's spies kept sending back topographic maps of various parts of Europe, but after all, these were only things on paper, and there would definitely be differences between what they saw during field trips.
Mercenary Gu Tong continued: "There is nothing to worry about in the passes and towns along the way.
As long as you pay taxes and do a few things, it will be no problem to pass the customs.
The most important thing to worry about is the bandits in various places along the way.
In the past few years, the Western Qin Dynasty The war with the Eastern Roman Empire, coupled with the civil strife in the Eastern Roman Empire in recent years, caused Anatonia to There are varying numbers of bandits in many parts of the district.
The number of these bandit dens varies from thousands to dozens of people.
Some are stragglers who have been broken up, some are groups of escaped slaves, and some are composed of fugitives.
Most are Byzantines, but there are also Armenians, Greeks, Thracians, and Goths in previous years.
The Western Qin Dynasty vigorously suppressed bandits in Persia and the Middle East.
Many Persian bandits and Dashi bandits fled to Cilicia and the Taurus Mountains.
The power of these bandits is not small now in the Amanos Mountains.
There was a group of fierce bandits, the leader of which was called Gaetia, a Goth.
This guy was quite brave and was said to be able to carry a thousand pounds.
He is so brave that even hundreds of people can do nothing to him.
He has five hundred men under his command.
He has committed many crimes over the years.
He even dared to steal taxes, money, military pay, and food from the governments of the two countries.
When he was the most powerful, he even attacked surrounding areas.
Town, within the next ten days, this is the person we have to worry about.
If we are targeted by his people, we will be in big trouble."
Another mercenary Arut said: "It is precisely because there have been many bandits in this area in recent years.
The Eastern Roman Empire was unable to conquer them due to the political chaos.
Many caravans no longer travel by land.
They usually take the sea route, but the sea route It’s not very safe either.
There are seas everywhere in the Mediterranean.
When thieves come out, large caravans generally choose to take the land route.
After all, there are many guards, and bandits have to consider their own strength if they want to rob.
Small caravans have insufficient guards and have few people and goods.
Most of them choose to take the sea route, close to the coastal areas.
Navigating in the sea is safer.”
At this time, several people appeared on the mountainside in the distance.
It was Gaethea and several of his men who had been hiding in the hotel room in Alexandretta a few days ago.
Looking at the long caravan slowly passing by at the foot of the mountain, Gatea frowned.
Even though this guy looked tall and thick and looked like a complete barbarian, he was actually a thoughtful person.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," a subordinate next to him couldn't help shouting: "A large caravan of more than two hundred people is really spectacular.
The guards are all knights.
You see, these horses are tall, strong, and have strong limbs.
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They are all good horses.
This caravan is really wealthy.
They even use such good horses for the guards.
Their goods must be very expensive."
Another subordinate looked a little solemn and said: "Why do I look at these guards as if they have an army?
I'm afraid they are not a big piece of fat, but a piece of meat and bones."
Kil, the Alan man who was nearby to inquire about the news, said: "This is not surprising.
I heard that the army of the Western Qin State implements a retirement system.
People in the army will retire when they reach the age.
Many of those retired Western Qin soldiers choose to join the escort agency.
The caravan travels from various places.
It seems that most of the guards of this caravan are retired Western Qin soldiers.
If you want to attack this caravan, I'm afraid it will be difficult to lead.
What are your plans?"
Gatea looked at the large caravan passing down the mountain, his eyes flickering.
The goods carried by this large caravan were indeed priceless.
This was already revealed yesterday.
The carriages were filled with precious silks, brocades, tea, etc.
Exquisite porcelain, as well as various new products from the Tang Dynasty and the Western Qin Dynasty, each piece will drive the nobles crazy when brought to Constantinople or Rome.
In recent years, many large caravans have chosen to take the northern route.
Go to the Khazar Protectorate in Western Qin , and then take a boat to Constantinople.
Although that route is much farther, it is safer.
Although this southern route is shorter, it is not very safe.
It is not often that you have the opportunity to encounter such a large scale.
The big caravan missed this opportunity and I don’t know when we will encounter it again.
At this time, there are hundreds of strong men on the mountain waiting to open their mouths to eat, and there are also many old and weak women waiting to be fed.
If they don’t do anything, Everyone in the village will be hungry Realistic problems made Gaetia hesitate, mainly because the strength of this caravan was too strong.
With nearly two hundred guards from the army, their combat effectiveness would not be much weaker.
He had five hundred people under his command.
With five hundred people versus two hundred people, even if there is an advantage, the gap is not too big.
After all, the opponent is from the army, and the opponent has horses.
As a cavalry, he has only a dozen horses with 500 people under his command, so there is no advantage at all.
Even if it succeeds by luck, I'm afraid there won't be a few people left in the end.
After thinking for a while, Gatea ordered: "Now they have just left the Sunset Checkpoint and have not completely walked out of the border.
We will wait until they pass the Karls Fortress.
Kil, you continue to stare at them.
The others follow me first." go back" "Yes, boss" Because each carriage was full of goods, the caravan was not moving very fast.
It did not arrive at Karls Fortress until the afternoon.
Although there were many bandits on this trade road, business travelers still kept coming and going.
People were waiting for customs clearance in front of Karls Fortress.
Huddle together.
In the fortress, Centurion Mario was lying on a chair in armor, with his feet raised on the table, holding a silver goblet full of wine in his hand and watching several scantily clad female slaves dancing seductively.
Dancing, he looked drunk, with a lustful light in his eyes.
At this time, a captain walked in quickly and whispered a few words in Mario's ear.
Mario suddenly became energetic and asked: "Really?"
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“Right in front of the fortress” Mario immediately stood up and waved to the dancing slave girls and drove them out.
After everyone left, he immediately asked: "How many people are there in this caravan?
How much do you estimate the goods are worth?"
While walking outside to observe the situation in front of the fortress, while talking, the captain said: "There are two hundred guards, and they all have horses.
The value of the goods cannot be estimated because I have not seen the specific objects, but please think about it, sir.
The goods guarded by two hundred people must be of astonishing value.
It has been several years since such a large caravan has passed here.
Should we detain them and arrest them all for any crime?
Swallow all the goods."
Arriving at the fortress wall, Mario observed the situation in front of the fortress and shook his head: "No, there is a fierce fighting in Constantinople now.
It would be better for us to cause less trouble on this border.
It would be bad to attract the attention of the superiors. , Forty miles to the south is the Tower of Alexandria, where thousands of troops from the Western Qin Dynasty are stationed.
If the news is leaked, the consequences will be serious."
The captain said: "Sir, can we just let them go like this?"
Mario thought for a moment, and suddenly a sneer appeared on his face: "How could I let the things that I, Mario, like, let go of so easily?
Go ahead, give them a blow first, and then let them in.
Once they pass the jurisdiction of our fortress, we will find a way to deal with them."
"Yes, sir, I understand."
At this time, a figure quietly retreated from the wall outside and quickly disappeared.
Half an hour later, the captain who left came back excitedly with a small bag and said to Mario: "Sir, that caravan is called the Qin family caravan.
I have let them enter.
This is from the caravan merchant.
"They're extorting money from there."
After saying that, he put the bag in his hand on the table.
Mario reached out to lift up the bag, opened the tightly tied bag and looked inside.
He reached out and grabbed a handful of gold coins, with a greedy smile on his face: "This caravan is indeed rich, and that batch of goods must be priceless, otherwise they wouldn't I will give you so much money” After saying that, Mario looked up at his captain, counted out ten gold coins and handed them to him, "Take it, this is yours."
The captain was flattered, stretched out his trembling hand to take the gold coin, and immediately said: "Thank you, sir."
After collecting the gold coins, the captain asked: "Sir, how are you going to get this batch of goods?"
Mario's eyes flashed with a strange light, "Didn't we capture a few smuggling ships?"
"Yes, those boats are parked at the beach now, and the boatmen who smuggled in are still imprisoned.
Sir, what do you mean?"
Mario said: "It is the monsoon period now, and our boat speed will not be slower than the caravan.
Leave twenty people to guard the fortress, and the others will carry swords, bows and arrows with me to take the boat to Delt.
We are in Delt Stop them especially” The ten captains were stunned for a moment and looked happy, but then he frowned and said: "Sir, we only have eighty people.
Even if we are fully armed, there is still a big gap in strength compared to them."
Mario said: "Don't worry about this.
Since I dared to have the idea of this caravan, I have already thought of this.
Manpower is not a problem.
What we should consider is not leaking the news.
If we want a caravan of more than 200 people, we should not worry about it."
It’s very difficult to run away from anyone, so we have to plan carefully.”
The captain immediately said: "Your Excellency, you are right.
We should keep the secret before taking action.
Even after setting off, we cannot let the soldiers know what we are going to do.
We just need to let them obey the order.
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Once we take action, we must not leave anything behind."
"live mouth" Mario nodded: "Well, you go ahead and prepare food for a hundred people for five days, so that the boatmen can also have enough to eat and drink.
No matter who inquires, they are not allowed to reveal a word."
"Yes, my lord":