Jiao Zifu's smuggling business was booming. All kinds of weapons, armor, bows and arrows, caltrop cannons, leather cannons, and crossbow arrows from the military arsenal were shipped to the eastern suburbs of Baigou Town.
There is a main road here, which turns east and passes Jiapiqiao to reach the official road. Following the official road to the northeast, you will reach the territory of the Jin Kingdom.
There is a post station on the border official road, which is the famous Baigou Post Station, which was established during the reign of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin.
Su Dongpo's younger brother, Su Zhe, once served as a Song envoy to the Liao Kingdom. He stopped in Yanjing via the Baigou River and wrote the famous poem "Crossing the Sanggan River," which includes the following: "Hand in hand, we crossed the Sanggan River on horseback, and once the flags returned, there was no way back. The Hu people couldn't bear to see us off, and long-term peace and harmony depended on the Central Plains. Year after year, we saw each other off across the Sanggan River, and when I want to talk about the Baigou River, I feel a sense of melancholy."
So here comes the problem. Because of the Huining Alliance, neither side was allowed to station troops on the border. The postal service became a barrier to prevent smuggling on both sides of the border.
But Li Xiuhua, the postal envoy, was a die-hard Song Dynasty loyalist. He would turn a blind eye to your smuggling of horses from Jin into Song territory, but he would also deny you the chance to smuggle a single blade of grass from Song to Jin.
Jiao Zifu and Shuhu Ximeng tried several times to bribe him to open the official road so that smuggled goods could go directly to the Kingdom of Jin, but they were sternly rejected by the postal envoy and had to give up.
Li Xiuhua became a thorn in the side of Jiao Zifu and Shuhu Ximeng. Because the postal service came under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, Jiao Zifu was powerless. Shuhu Ximeng even attempted to assassinate him several times, but was afraid of alerting the imperial court. Fortunately, the postal envoy had been appointed, otherwise these smuggled weapons would have already entered Jin territory.
Due to the excessive amount of smuggled goods, private roads could not handle them, and official roads were blocked by the postal system. Shuhu Ximeng had no choice but to build a massive warehouse in Baigou Town to store the goods smuggled from Jiao Zifu. This way, if war broke out, Xiongzhou would be the first to bear the brunt of the attack. The Jin soldiers could easily enter Xiongzhou and directly obtain military equipment from the warehouse.
The warehouse is built on the mountainside and is large in scale. It used to be a natural stone cave with guards at the entrance.
Shuqi Mountain, southwest of Baigou Town, is high and densely forested, rarely visited by people. However, there is a road here, which, although long abandoned, leads to Baigou Town.
This is exactly where Jiao Zifu and Shuhu Ximeng conducted their transaction.
In the woods and mountains on either side of the road, pairs of eyes were watching. These men wore yamen runner uniforms and held sabers. The difference was that they lacked the sloppiness of yamen runners and instead had the neatness and efficiency of soldiers. They were the troops stationed in the southern suburbs of Xiongzhou, transferred by Zhan Yunpeng.
There were about two to three hundred yamen runners, all under the command of County Magistrate Fang Rucheng. However, Zhan Yunpeng was not among them.
The situation at the Military Equipment Supervisory Office had been a bit tense recently. Supervisor Mu Nanfeng hadn't dared to ship anything out until today, when he finally loaded seven carriages of weapons for Jiao Zifu.
This time the number of people was so large that Jiao Zifu was not too reassured. He personally brought more than 30 men to Shuqi Mountain to trade with Shuhu Ximeng.
The moonlight, like water, washes away the world's dust. The evening breeze, intoxicating, captivates the wildflowers blooming along the roadside. This beautiful night conceals a sinister transaction.
The sound of horse hooves echoed. Jiao Mang, on horseback, led a mighty convoy approaching from the south to the north. Behind the convoy was a carriage carrying a sedan chair, and inside the sedan chair was Jiao Zifu.
When they arrived at the trading location, Shuhu Ximeng and the others had not arrived yet.
Jiao Mang stopped his horse and waited. The horses in the carriage hummed with heat, their hooves constantly lifting, trying in vain to shoo away mosquitoes and flies.
The curtain of the carriage at the back was lifted, and Jiao Zifu stuck his head out and looked around.
Jiao Mang dismounted and rushed over: "Master, why haven't Shuhu, Ximeng and the others arrived yet?"
"Mang'er, I don't know why. I just feel uneasy. The sooner the deal is done, the better."
Jiao Mang disagreed in his heart. He always felt that his uncle was becoming more and more cautious.
"Uncle Zhong, the entire Xiongzhou is yours now. What are you afraid of? Fang Rucheng has been hiding in the government office all day and dared not come out. That so-called judicial officer has been killed again. Why are you becoming more timid as you get older?"
Jiao Zifu forced a smile, Jiao Mang's words reassuring him somewhat. In his youth, Jiao Zifu had spent countless hours in brothels, ruining his penis. Childless himself, he had taken his brother's child, Jiao Mang, to live with him.
Jiao Mang had been following Jiao Zifu in his evil deeds since he was little, and he had always been lawless. After Jiao Zifu became the ruler of Xiongzhou, Jiao Mang became even more like a crab in the river, walking sideways.
This guy is uneducated and unskilled. He usually leads a group of scoundrels to bully the good and molest decent women. He is good at everything.
Everyone was waiting anxiously, but Shuhu Ximeng didn't show up.
Jiao Zifu and the others were not the only ones anxious. Fang Rucheng and the others in the woods on either side were even more nervous. Could something have gone wrong? Shuhu Ximeng and the others hadn't appeared yet.
Finally, the sound of horse hooves could be heard from the north. A group of dozens of people were coming from the north and heading south. They were none other than Shuhu Ximeng's men.
"Uncle Zhong, they are coming." Jiao Mang pointed to the north with great joy.
Jiao Zifu was a little annoyed: "Quietly, keep your voice down..."
Jiao Mang was even more dissatisfied with his caution. He waved his hands vigorously, and Shu Hu Ximeng and his men slowly came over.
Jiao Zifu also hurriedly got out of the car to greet him: "Oh, Master Shuhu, you are finally here."
Shuhu Ximeng felt the same way as Jiao Zifu: something was amiss lately. This feeling had intensified after Zhuo Tuo Tangren and Shi Dunzhu disappeared, but he couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.
Logically speaking, Zhuo Tuo and the others would never betray the Great Jin Kingdom, and he had personally witnessed Zhan Yunpeng's death. However, he was as cautious as Jiao Zifu, so he hadn't dared to make any moves recently.
It was not until they felt that the wind had loosened a little that they chose to trade today.
When Shuhu Ximeng got off the horse, he was most concerned about the cargo. He walked into the carriage to examine the cargo.
The cargo on the wagons was covered with tarpaulin, and the wagons were filled with cargo. Jiao Zifu rushed over and lifted the tarpaulin for him. He saw that the wagons were filled with bows, arrows, caltrops, leather cannons, long swords and spears. All of them were prohibited items.
Shuhu Ximeng dusted off his hands with satisfaction: "Well, the goods are good this time..."
Fang Rucheng was secretly horrified. If so many contraband materials fell into the hands of the Jin thieves...
"Kill!..." Suddenly, countless yamen runners rushed out from both sides of the woods, and hundreds of yamen runners rushed over from both sides of the road and surrounded the group of people.
The change happened so suddenly that everyone stood there like frightened hens, not daring to move.
Two or three hundred yamen runners, swords in hand, surrounded the forty or fifty men. The terrible thing was that these men didn't look like ordinary yamen runners; they were actually using tactical moves from the battlefield.
Fang Rucheng slowly approached from behind and said, "Put down your weapons! You won't be killed if you surrender!"
Jiao Mang drew his sword to meet the enemy, but Jiao Zifu staggered and fainted. Jiao Mang took a step back in fear, and his grooms knelt on the ground with their heads in their hands.
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