For Ma Chao, the Li Jing people are mysterious, Yang Fu said that the Li Jing people are brave and good at fighting, they are natural warriors, and no one dares to challenge the Li Jing people within a radius of dozens of miles.

However, the Lijing people are sparsely populated, and it is good to be able to find 2,000 people in the huge Lijing City. Most of the young and strong Lijing people are away from home, returning home only twice a year, once in summer and once in winter, and after a simple rest, once they have a new mission, they will embark on the journey again.

The Lijing people don't know how to farm, they can't hunt, they can only fight, so they are poor. But in order to support their families, they found a way out in this land, that is, to be mercenaries, and whoever has money, they do things for whomever they want.

From more than 100 people at the beginning, the Lijing people have developed to nearly 2,000 people today, and I have to say how difficult their development process is. Because of poverty, very few women are willing to marry here, and most of the women obtained by the Lijing people are captured from the battlefield, and women are not only the property of the Lijing people, but also their tools for inheritance. However, due to the scarcity of women, the status of women is quite high among the Lijing people.

If Li Jing gave birth to a daughter, then this daughter was equivalent to a tool for them to make money, and after agreeing with other clansmen, they would marry off their daughter, so as to obtain a lot of income.

All of this qiē, Ma Chao obtained information from Yang Fu, and Yang Fu looked at it in a book that recorded the ethnic customs of Liangzhou, but in fact, they had never seen what the Lijing people were like. And the Lijing man I saw today. It was also the first time they had met.

Just from the point of view of appearance. There are still some differences between the Li and the Han people, and they are also different from the Qiang and Hu people, they are tall, strong, their hair and beard are a little dark brown, their complexion is fairer, their eye sockets are deep, and their eyes are shining with a blue light.

In a word. This is a person who is different from all races in Liangzhou, and it is a relatively independent race.

In addition, the Lijing people have always been law-abiding and never rebelled against the imperial court, perhaps because they were grateful to the Han Dynasty for giving them a place to live.

Moreover, they are keen to arrest wanted criminals who have been rewarded by the imperial court, and after cutting off their heads, they will take these heads to the government to exchange for reward money. In addition, these Lijing people do not have horses, and they use the money they get more to make ends meet, because it is not every year that they have the good fortune to catch fugitives. Or they are hired by people in exchange for commissions, and they have to use what they have. to buy food that can be stored.

The night was deep, but Ma Chao couldn't sleep, the ruined Cheng dù of Lijing City was beyond his imagination, looking at it, this was only a small town at best, but this palm-sized place has become a pure land among horse thieves, no one dares to come here to find trouble, and no one will be willing to give their lives for a ruined city.

It is said that the Lijing people once had the experience of fighting a thousand horse thieves with 100 infantry, killing hundreds of horse thieves, even the leader of the horse thieves was killed, and the rest fled in wolves.

From then on, the horse thieves no longer dared to underestimate the Lijing people, and whenever they passed through the city, they hid far away.

"Lord, aren't you resting?" Wang Shuang saw that Ma Chao was not sleeping, so he took the initiative to come over and ask.

"I can't sleep, you go to sleep first!" Ma Chao said casually.

Wang Shuang nodded, leaned against a tree and closed his eyes, and after a while, there was a sound of snoring.

After a while, there was a lot of snoring, and Ma Chao couldn't sleep anymore, he walked lightly outside, wanting to walk around the city.

At the same time, in a forest outside Lijing City, several sneaky black shadows appeared, and one of them pointed to Lijing City and said, "Big brother, they have all entered Lijing City, I can see it clearly." ”

The man who was called the eldest brother glanced at Lijing City and said, "Bad luck! It's really bad luck that they are hiding in the city of those wild species! ”

"Big brother, seeing that this city is so ruined, if you launch an attack, you can take it in a moment, and that group of people is only more than twenty people, there is nothing to be afraid of, I only need to lead a hundred people, and I can take all the heads of that group to give to the eldest brother, and as for the property they carry, they will be dedicated to the eldest brother!" The dark shadow who spoke first said.

The man known as Big Brother said, "No! This is Lijing City, and you must not do it here! ”

"It doesn't matter what kind of city he is in or what city he belongs to, in short, the goods carried by that group are in this city, as long as the gate of this city is breached, we will kill the general and go in, and we will leave after robbing the property......

"Nonsense! This is the territory of the Lijing people, and it must not be provoked! Otherwise, we won't be able to eat and walk around! ”

As soon as the words fell, the eldest brother left the woods, leaving the dark shadow with a little doubt.

"Big brother has never been afraid of the sky and the earth, why did he get here and be afraid?"

Another person said: "You came to Liangzhou from other places, there are some things you haven't heard, this Lijing people are not easy to mess with, how many of us are there?" There were only two hundred, and when there was a group of people like us who crisscrossed Xiliang, there were thousands of people, relying on the strength of the crowd, to attack Lijing City, but they were defeated by a hundred Lijing people, and even the leader lost his life. From then on, no one dared to fight the idea of the Lijing people anymore, and they all stayed away from the Lijing people. If you've fought against the Lijing, you know what the Lijing are all about. And on the trade routes in this area, as long as there are caravans escorted by the Lijing people, they can generally pass through safely and soundly, why, because the Lijing people are so powerful, they are all brave and good at fighting, and they all take one as ten. ”

After hearing these words, the man was stunned for a moment and asked, "What you said is true?" ”

"Of course it's true, if you don't believe me, you can ask the other brothers. Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you, the leader who died in the hands of the Lijing people is our eldest brother's grandfather, our eldest brother and the Lijing people have a blood feud, but even so, I don't dare to touch the Lijing people. ”

"I see, it seems that we can only wait until daylight tomorrow, and when that group of people leaves Lijing City, we will do it again!"

What happened outside the city, Ma Chao in the city would not know at all, and he would not know that he and his group had already been targeted by horse thieves.

Ma Chao and the others were well-equipped and well-trained, but the two carts of gold, silver and jewelry they carried were too eye-catching. During an inadvertent trip, two carts of gold, silver and jewelry were inadvertently exposed, and I didn't want to be taken by the horse thief.

This group of horse thieves is a horse thief from Heli Mountain, crisscrossing Zhangye and Jiuquan, specializing in attacking caravans coming and going in the Hexi Corridor, and it is also a larger group of horse thieves in Hexi, forming two different factions with the horse thieves from Nanshan.

After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liangzhou has been in turmoil, many Liangzhou people have been forced to move west, the horse thieves in the Hexi Corridor have always been the most rampant, the Han army is powerless to encircle and suppress, can only let it become stronger and bigger. The leader of the horse thieves in Heli Mountain is surnamed Jiang, called Jiang Chao, and he has been here for generations. In addition, the surname Jiang is also a big surname in Liangzhou, it is said that Jiang Chao's grandfather was a captain of Huqiang before he was a Kou in Heli Mountain, but because of persecution, he fled to Heli Mountain and fell into the grass for Kou, and since then he has become a horse thief, and his power has gradually increased, but later he was defeated because of the attack on Lijing, and the troops gradually dispersed. Coupled with the encirclement and suppression of the government, the horse thieves in Heli Mountain fell to a low point all of a sudden, and they breathed until Jiang Chaoshi, because Jiang Chao was brave and unmatched, which gradually stabilized the hearts of the people, with the help of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and several rebellions in Liangzhou, he gradually gained a firm foothold in Heli Mountain, and gradually recovered his grandfather's former great momentum.

In addition, Jiang Chao is also very good at taking advantage of the relationship, he was originally a lineage of the Jiang family in Jicheng, when the Liangzhou Rebellion, he personally disguised himself to enter Jicheng, persuaded the Jiang surname to move to Heli Mountain, and absorbed his brother Jiang Yu and Jiang Yue, two people who can fight and fight, and expanded its power even more.

However, Jiang Chao has always been at odds with the horse thief Li in Nanshan, and the two often fight, but no one can help anyone. The Li and Jiang horse thieves became the two most powerful horse thieves in the Hexi Corridor, and also established cottages, both claiming to be kings.

Therefore, if the caravan passing through the Hexi Corridor wants not to be robbed, it must pay protection money, and if it is handed over to the Li horse thief, then it will be attacked by the Jiang horse thief, and vice versa. Therefore, caravans generally have to pay two protection fees so that they will not be attacked.

Of course, there is another way, that is, to hire the Lijing people as escorts, because as long as there are Lijing people, these two horse thieves will not dare to act rashly, and the caravan can smoothly cross the horse thieves' sphere of influence.

Therefore, it also gave birth to the boom of the mercenary business of the Lijing people, and the orders for receiving jobs were far away.

Ma Chao walked around the city, strolling leisurely, and suddenly found that in addition to them, there were other caravans in the city, he looked around, roughly counted, such a small city, actually accommodated fifteen or sixteen caravans, everyone slept leisurely, and did not seem to worry about foreign intrusion.

However, in Ma Chao's heart, there was a faint worry, so many caravans gathered here, but the Lijing people in the city were rarely seen, in case a bold horse thief suddenly attacked, wouldn't the caravans in this city be all killed? (To be continued......)