For two days, Zhang Yan's army under Jinyang City did not move, and there was no intention of attacking.

However, Cao Cao and the others in the city were already anxious, and when they saw that Zhang Yan and the others were only besieged and not attacked, they didn't know what kind of trouble they were going to make.

At the same time, Xu You led the tiger and leopard riders to arrive at Yanmen Pass, and after explaining their intentions to Xiahoudun, Guo Jia and others, they wanted to send out the gold, silver and jewelry.

After Xiahoudun learned from Xu Yu that Jinyang City was in danger, he immediately sent people to negotiate with the Xianbei people.

Xianbei people came in a mighty way, but they were blocked outside the Yanmen Pass, and for several days to attack the Yanmen Pass, paid a painful price, lost nearly 10,000 troops, Xianbei people are also hesitating whether to retreat, but do not want to usher in the messenger sent by Xiahoudun.

The envoy told the Xianbei people that as long as they were willing to retreat, Cao Cao would give them three carts of gold, silver, and jewelry. The Xianbei people originally came to rob the property, and when they heard this, they decisively agreed.

So, the envoy led people to send all the three carts of gold, silver and jewelry to the Xianbei people, and after the Xianbei people got the benefits, they took the initiative to withdraw from the army.

However, on the way back, the Xianbei people burned, killed and looted along the way, and the people of Wuyuan, Yunzhong, and Dingxiang counties were deeply persecuted, and most of the people became slaves of the Xianbei people. In addition, the Xianbei people said that they had withdrawn their troops and returned to Saiwai, but in fact they stayed in Yunzhong County, and wantonly migrated the Xianbei people to Yunzhong and Wuyuan Counties.

Of course, these things are all for later. Xiahoudun didn't know. He saw that after the Xianbei people withdrew from the army. He left his generals to guard Yanmen Pass, and he secretly led the army down the Fenshui River with Guo Jia and Xu Yu and returned to Jinyang City.

It was also at this time that Man Chong came to the Xiongnu with Cao Cao's goddaughter, and explained his intention to the Xiongnu Shan Yu, and hoped to be at peace with the Xiongnu forever. immediately agreed to make an alliance with Cao Cao forever.

After completing the mission, Man Pet left the Huns and happily returned to Jinyang.

However, to the surprise of the full favor, the Xiongnu's Da Yan clan was a very jealous woman, and the envoy sent by Jia Kui was still in the Xiongnu, fanning the flames on the side, saying that the woman was likely to take the position of the Da Yan clan.

In a fit of rage, the Da Yan clan directly broke into Cao Cao's daughter's camp and killed the beauty with a sword. Then invite all the princes and nobles in the Xiongnu to go to see Da Dan Yu together, and ask Da Dan Yu to send troops to Taiyuan. Assist the regent in attacking the traitor Cao Cao.

Da Shan Yu Hu Chuquan is a person who is afraid of guilt, and he can be a big Dan Yu, relying on the clansmen of the Da Shan clan, otherwise, his Da Shan Yu will be humbled by his rather courageous uncle.

When the Da Yan clan and the Xiongnu princes and nobles all gathered in the royal court of Da Danyu, Hu Chuquan had to compromise, ordered to gather a large army, prepared to fight against Cao Cao, and sent the right Xian Wang to lead an army of 20,000 to assist Zhang Yan in dealing with Cao Cao under the city of Jinyang.

The age of Qubei is not a few years older than Hu Chuquan, but the generation is longer than Hu Chuquan, and he is the younger brother of Huchuquan's father Qiang Qu. In addition, Qubei also had a little bit of contact with the royal family of the Han Dynasty, and he had part of the blood of the Liu family.

Because, his great-grandfather is the sixth grandson of Liu Fu, the son of Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Jinbo, the general of Duliao. Liu Jinbo's Northern Expedition to the Xiongnu was captured, and the Xiongnu Shan Yu married his daughter to Liu Jinbo and gave birth to a son, Guili, and Qubei is the grandson of Guili.

Therefore, Qubei is a pro-Han nobleman, and his personal martial arts far surpass Hu Chuquan, and after the death of his predecessor Shan Yu and his nephew Yu Fuluo, Qubei became the most popular candidate for the successor Shan Yu.

However, because Hu Chuquan married the daughter of the most powerful Su Fu clan in the Xiongnu aristocracy, and received the support of the Su Fu clan, the Su Fu clan contacted other nobles and supported Hu Chu Quan as a single Yu, for this reason, Hu Chu Quan was very grateful to the Da Yan clan, and often had a fearful heart.

Go to the right virtuous king, and Shan Yuting to fight against the court, the Huns sit in the north and face south, and the left hand side is exactly where the sun rises, so the left is respected. Due to the large number of Xiongnu and the vast territory, Shan Yu could not manage it at all, so he divided the Xiongnu into three, namely the left Xianwang department, the right Xianwang department, and Shan Yuting.

King Zuo Xian and King Right Xian are the right-hand men of Shan Yu, and there are generally clans of Shan Yu to serve, among them, basically every Shan Yu will be selected from Zuo Xianwang, so Zuo Xianwang is also considered to be the successor of the next Shan Yu.

However, these are the positions of the Xiongnu during the strong period, when the Xiongnu split into two branches in the north and south, the Northern Xiongnu moved westward, the Southern Xiongnu attached to the Han, the Southern Xiongnu alone ruled the population of hundreds of thousands of people, plus to live in the unique territory divided by the Han Dynasty, but also to face the harassment of the Xianbei people, another nomadic people on the grassland, there are often wars broke out, to Huchuquan at this time, the Shili of the Southern Xiongnu has been very pitiful, and the total population of the Xiongnu is only less than 300,000 people.

Therefore, at this time, the Zuoxian King was basically not very established, only two parts, Shan Yuting and Youxian Wang, of which the Right Xianwang Department ruled over a population of 100,000, in the west of Meiji County, Xihe County, where Shan Yuting was located, a small place called Guluo City, which belonged to Pingding County.

The king of Youxian, Qubei, and his people lived in the area of the city of Guluo.

Today's Xiongnu people have already changed their nomadic life, and followed the Han people to learn to plant and farm.

Shan Yuting's envoy came to Guluo City, went to Bei to take the initiative to greet him, learned Shan Yuting's order from the mouth of the envoy, and ordered 20,000 Hun cavalry to go to Bei, with dry food and mare's milk wine, and embarked on a journey, all the way to the southeast, towards Jinyang City.

……

Under the city of Jinyang, in the camp of the Han army, Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, Gan Ning and others transported a basket of saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal and other materials into the barracks located in the rear army.

Zhang Yan was directing his henchmen to match explosives in the barracks, and after seeing the things brought back by Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, Gan Ning and others, he frowned and asked, "Why is it so little?" ”

Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, and Gan Ning all had a look of embarrassment on their faces. Xu Chu said hesitantly: "Regent." We've done our best to find it. But these things are really hard to find, especially sulfur, we have searched almost all within a hundred miles, and there is only so much we can find. ”

After hearing this, Zhang Yan fell into deep thought, but he ignored the problem of mineral distribution, there are many saltpeters in the northwest, and charcoal can be found everywhere. But this brimstone is pitiful.

When he was in Puyang before, Zhang Yan's sulfur was also purchased from merchants, but now that the two armies are fighting, where do you ask him to find merchants? If you send someone to Puyang to purchase, you will have to toss for many days back and forth, and you may not be able to buy it.

This time, Zhang Yan also made a difficulty, saltpeter and charcoal were everywhere, but the sulfur was pitiful. At present, he is really a bit embarrassed by the sigh of no rice.

Zhang Yan said: "Give you two more days, and you won't find sulfur within a radius of 100 miles." Expand the scope of searching, or look for merchants, to see if the merchants have such goods for sale, in short, at all costs, to find brimstone, the more the better! ”

"Whoa!" Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, and Gan Ning responded, and each went out of the camp, and the three of them discussed with each other, and decided to go their separate ways, specifically to find sulfur, while saltpeter and charcoal were handed over to their subordinates to find.

Zhang Liao is a native of Bingzhou, he knows that there are often merchants from the Western Regions in the area of Yanmen Mayi, and the merchants of the Western Regions will always bring some strange things to sell in Mayi, he wants to try his luck, go to Mayi to try it, let the dead horse be a live horse doctor, in case he encounters someone who sells this kind of thing, he will buy them all, and then bring them back.

For this reason, Zhang Liao told Jia Xu his thoughts, and borrowed a thousand gold from Jia Xu from the treasury, and with this thousand gold, and five hundred cavalry, he went out of Taiyuan Sanguan and went to Mayi.

Xu Chu and Gan Ning stayed near Taiyuan County to search, and did not let go of any clues, and asked the locals with sulfur to see if anyone had seen this sulfur and knew where it was sold.

After the three of them acted separately, Zhang Liao went out of the three passes of Taiyuan, which was the avenue of Pingchuan, rode his horse and galloped wildly, and went straight to Mayi.

When the Xianbei people came to attack Yanmen Pass, the people of Mayi retreated into Yanmen Pass, and many foreign merchants stayed in the local area.

However, when the Xianbei people came to Yanmen Pass, those merchants were afraid of being implicated in the war, so they led caravans south one after another to temporarily avoid chaos in Guangwu County.

Guangwu County, because of the arrival of these foreign merchants, suddenly became a temporary trading station, foreign merchants peddled rare treasures from the Western Regions to the people in the interior, and purchased pottery, tea, and silk to be transported back to the Western Regions to sell.

After a day's long journey, Zhang Liao heard that the merchants of the Western Regions had arrived in Guangwu County, so he changed his route to Guangwu County.

However, at this time, Zhang Liao and others, in order not to attract the attention of others, were wearing a strong suit, and in the eyes of outsiders, it was an unidentified team, but few people cared about this idle matter.

Zhang Liao came to Guangwu County with five hundred cavalry, but Zhang Liao did not let the five hundred cavalry enter the city, but entered the city alone, so that the goal was much smaller, and he could fully integrate into the market and concentrate on finding sulfur.

After he entered the city, he wandered around the market for a long time, and saw that the treasures sold by the merchants of the Western Regions were not what he wanted, but he did not see anyone selling sulfur, so he took the initiative to find a merchant from the Western Regions and asked, "Do you know where to sell this?" ”

The merchant of the Western Regions glanced at the sulfur in Zhang Liao's hand and asked, "What do you want this for?" ”

"Yes, if you know where it's sold, could you please tell me?" Zhang Liao said politely.

The merchant of the Western Regions said in a less sophisticated Chinese dialect: "How much do you want?" What do you think about the price? ”

"The price is easy to say, I want as much as you want!" Zhang Liao said briskly.

Seeing that Zhang Liao was very happy, the merchant of the Western Regions took out a heavy big bag from under the car, and then opened the bag, lit it up directly in front of Zhang Liao, and said, "Are these enough?" ”

Zhang Liao glanced at it and felt that it was not too much, so he asked, "Is there anything else?" ”

The merchant of the Western Regions suddenly saw a light in his eyes, and asked, "Negotiate the price first!" ”

"You say, how do you sell it?"

The merchant of the Western Regions tentatively said to Zhang Liao: "How about this bag, one gold?" ”

"Deal!" Zhang Liao did not make a counteroffer, and directly agreed to the asking price of the merchants in the Western Regions, and then asked, "How many do you have?" ”

The merchant of the Western Regions couldn't suppress the joy in his heart, this bag was only one gold, which was more than what he sold, and he made a steady profit. Because, these sulfurs, which can be found everywhere in the Western Regions, are simply worthless things. Most of them, the merchants, carry this with them, because it is easier to ignite and use as a fire.

Seeing that Zhang Liao's bid was very high, the merchant immediately asked: "You wait, I'll go and go back, you help me look at these goods first!" ”

Then the merchants ran out and gathered with the rest of the merchants from the Western Regions to discuss, saying that they would buy all the sulfur they had brought with them for a hundred dollars, and the merchants were naturally very happy and promised to hand over all the sulfur in their hands.

So the merchant returned to Zhang Liao's side and said to him, "My name is Barbarab, and I can get you almost three carts of sulfur, almost more than five hundred bales, that is, you have to give me more than five hundred gold." But this is not a place for trading, after a stick of incense, you wait for me in the grove outside the city, how about we pay with one hand and deliver with the other? ”

Zhang Liao agreed to Barbarab's request, turned around and left, and waited for Barab outside the city.

After a stick of incense, Barbarab really took a few people, pushed a cart to the grove, and then took out the money to those people, and after sending away, Barbarab and Zhang Liao made a transaction, the two of them paid the money with one hand and delivered the goods with the other, and Zhang Liao bought the three carts of sulfur very smoothly.

Barbarab got more than 500 gold, and his heart was happy, and this transaction was more than he had earned in a few years. At the same time, Barbarab also saw a business opportunity and asked, "If you still need these things, just look for me, I have a lot more." ”

Zhang Liao also considered that the sulfur was difficult to find, so he said to Barbarab: "I am a merchant from Chang'an, my name is Zhang Liao, if you still have these things in the future, bring these things to Chang'an to find me, I will want as much as you want." ”

Barab was overjoyed, and immediately said, "One word is certain." ”

After the two separated, Zhang Liao called his cavalry, and one of them quickly returned to Jinyang City with a bag of sulfur...... (To be continued......)