Liu Ai still underestimated the risks of this northward trip, although he always thought that at most he would give up his life, but he didn't know that what was really unbearable was often not death, but what happened before death.

Before leaving the border, Liu Ai always thought that he had overestimated the difficulty of this northward trip, but when he stepped into Youzhou, he realized that it was not an overestimate, but too underestimated. He needed to find a guide, and it was a joke to lead a few Liangzhou people, including Liu Ai himself, who had never been out of the border, to find a nomadic tribe outside the Saiwai, especially when the nomadic tribe was still at war with their country.

But how easy is it to find a guide? When Liu Ai stayed in the wine shop for more than ten days, he finally heard Xianbei in his mouth. Previously, when he was looking for those traveling merchants who seemed to have had enough of suffering and mentioned the name Kebineng, the expressions of those traveling merchants reminded Liu Ai of his look when he was a child...... Could it be that those who live in border counties must have gone out of the country to seek a living?

No, at least Liu Ai, these people from Liangzhou, have never been out, so it is understandable that the people of Youzhou have never been to Xianbei.

In fact, the potential reason that Liu Ai couldn't imagine was that those outlaws who begged for a living on the border, like Yanbei when he was young, later rushed into Liaodong to join the army, and most of them had died in various parts of the north and were burned into a handful of ashes and buried in the mountains of Ping'an Township, Xiang'an. The lucky ones who survived the tragic war have now become the mainstay of the Han army in the north, where does Liu Ai have the opportunity to meet such a person?

As for those who are still doing this, they are all in exile and do not dare to live in Han for a long time...... Yanbei was born as an outlaw, but he didn't have much compassion for his previous 'peers'. On the contrary, because he knew what the loopholes in the Great Wall were in place, he had sealed all those gaps when he was first in charge of Youzhou, and where there was no city wall, enough Liaodong veterans were left to guard it, so as not to give the outlaws the slightest opportunity to smuggle soldiers and horses.

If the frontier army caught a merchant who wanted to cross the border without permission, he could receive a bounty of 8,000 yuan or the equivalent of cloth, and if the merchant secretly concealed a soldier's armor and crossbow or iron and steel utensils in the goods, the bounty would be doubled, and one of the relatives of the frontier soldier would be exempted from servitude. The unspoken rule in the Yan Clan Frontier Army Center is that when a frontier soldier is exempted from hard labor, he will most likely have the opportunity to be promoted to an official position.

And Yanbei did this, although he gave the border army a high reward, in fact, he could earn nearly 10 million money all year round because of this. Because smuggling is a major crime, which usually involves fornicating with the enemy's country, stealing military funds, smuggling bows and crossbows and other serious crimes, and if it is not done well, it will also involve things such as murder and murder.

The smugglers' families usually have a lot of money, usually tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention that a piece will be taken out if they are confiscated, and it is not surprising that there are two or three million dollars in fines. And what Yanbei paid was just a reward of 8,000 or 16,000 yuan.

This money will be exchanged for grain and grass or paid for the wages of individual craftsmen, in exchange for high-quality armor to supply the south to pacify the battlefields of the world.

"Your Excellency has been, Xianbei?" Liu Ai sent someone to invite the man in the wine shop to his case, and several Liangzhou warriors from the five big and three rough places guarded him, posing as if no one was close to him. He smiled at the weather-covered merchant and asked, "I heard you mention this place below, Xianbei merchants, can you do it?" ”

That merchant Jia has obviously seen the world, just looking at these guards beside Liu Ai, you can know that they are all outlaws who are fighting on the battlefield, and they are full of elite soldiers, not to mention that Liu Ai's service is also extraordinarily noble, and the title is extraordinary. Even if he was a little unhappy to be held hostage, he still maintained humility and bowed his head and said: "If you go back to the nobleman, the villain has been to Xianbei, and the Xianbei war horse is faster than the horse in the Central Plains, but the endurance is not as good as the Central Plains horse, and it can usually be sold at a good price." The copper furnace and iron kettle of the side plug can also be sold at a high price in Xianbei. ”

Hearing the iron cauldron, Liu Ai's eyes lit up, and he had a little more affection for this businessman in his heart. There is no other reason, Yanbei does not allow merchants to sell iron tools to the outside of the Saiwai, and he dares to sell iron kettles, it must be ...... Smuggler Jia. Only outlaws like smuggler Jia dare to go to Xianbei, Liu Ai knows that he has found the right person!

"In that case, do you have the idea of going to Xianbei in the near future?"

"Recently? Now that the snow is closing the road......" Before he finished speaking, he heard Liu Ai snort from his nose, and his own Liangzhou warriors sandwiched Shang Jia left and right, put a box of gold cakes exposed to the gap on the left, and put a little unsheathed saber on the right. Liu Ai lowered his head to look at Shang Jia, pointed to the left and right and said with a smile: "At present, the road is closed by heavy snow, and it is very difficult to go to Xianbei, but if Your Excellency sets off, there will be unexpected gains." ”

After laughing, Liu Ai lowered his face and pointed to the saber next to him and said: "If you are timid and afraid, I am afraid that even if you nest at home, there will still be disasters coming to the door, what do you think?" ”

Shang Jia was trembling on the ground, and in his heart he scolded Liu Ai, a group of outsiders who were full of Liangzhou official dialect, but he still had to maintain respect on his face, and slowly stretched out his hand to grab the wooden box, glanced at the number, and then raised his head and smiled: "Your nobleman is angry, although the road is closed by heavy snow, it is not that you can't go." If the nobleman is not in time, the villain will prepare a little and set off the next day. ”

The situation is stronger than people, he is just a regular businessman, not those outlaws with dozens or even hundreds of private armed forces, how can he dare to fight against Liu Ai, who accompanied more than a dozen elite warriors in Liangzhou? Look at the iron armor jacket that people are wearing, and the sound of iron armor pieces colliding everywhere in the jacket when you walk, even if you ride a bow, you may not be able to break the armor.

When Shang Jia left with two Liangzhou warriors, Liu Ai smiled disdainfully and contentedly: "Shang Jia is profit-seeking, the most philistine!" ”

In this way, Liu Ai has set off from Shanggu County before the year, and the businessmen who have the knowledge to lead the way, through the border defense is extremely easy, although the heavy snow closes the road, there is only no danger, a line of more than 20 days, before the beginning of spring, the scenery in front of him gradually appeared from the endless ice and snow, and then the cattle and sheep tribe that connects the sky and the earth, which makes people's hearts relaxed.

"This is Xianbei in the east, and the Han merchants who have come from afar, take out your Guan Plate." Liu Ai was thrilled by the Xianbei rider's jerky Chinese, and as soon as Shang Jia took out the customs clearance papers, he stepped forward and said, "I want to see your tribe lord, Miga!" ”

In Shang Jia's frightened expression, Liu Ai was pushed and shoved by a group of Xianbei warriors to the largest felt tent in the tribe, and the sturdy and heroic Xianbei leader asked with a smile: "You Han man, you want to see the Xianbei Eastern Lord, what do you want to do?" ”

"I would like to ask Your Excellency to send me to Central Xianbei to find Lord Kebineng, I have business to do with him."

When the Xianbei leader heard the business, his eyes lit up and he asked, "Since you have business to do with him, why don't you have business to do with the Eastern Xianbei?" ”

The left and right warriors retreated to the edge of the tent, and Liu Ai said thoughtfully: "I want to ask the central lord to attack Youzhou, and wait for my emperor to ...... himself."

"Micah died last year, and if you want to do business with him, I'm afraid there's only one way to meet him. I am the master of Xianbei in the east, and I will return to the law. Cheng Lugui waved his hand slightly, and the left and right warriors held Liu Ai in custody, "My brother is Su Li, the king of the Han Dynasty, and we are serving His Royal Highness King Zhao, Kebineng?" What a thing is that! ”

That merchant is really a businessman, and the Han Dynasty and the Suli tribe only forbade armor and iron weapons. And the dizzy Liu Ai only knew how stupid he was when he heard the name Cheng Lugui.

Until last year, there were still two eastern Xianbei on the grassland, Micah and Chenglugui, who were both called tribal lords by the tribesmen, and he was a little unlucky to enter the tribe of Chenglugui.