Chapter 268 269. Encountered robbers again
Because they were taking time off to return to Kyoto, Lei Li and Zhou Yi could not stay for long. After a few days, they reluctantly left the Changning Marquis Mansion and continued to help the emperor incorporate the escort agency.
At present, the escort agencies in four prefectures are under the control of the imperial court, namely Beijing, Zhongchuan, Xiling and Baihui, and the remaining six prefectures include Wensheng.
Among them, the nomadic tribe grassland that has been renamed Qingyuan Prefecture City is the most difficult, because some of the nomadic tribes are still dissatisfied with the Dayu Dynasty and have been trying to attack the Dayu Dynasty government.
There are the most bandits on the grassland among all the prefectures and cities. Merchants passing through are easily robbed. There are even bandits who specialize in robbing and killing merchants from the Dayou Dynasty.
"Nomads are all skilled riders and fighters, and bandits are especially adept at riding horses and familiar with the terrain. After their raids, they scatter and flee in all directions of the grassland."
Zhou Yi analyzed, "That's why it's very difficult to catch them. Even if we catch a few, the goods are scattered, so we can only recover part of them or none at all."
"As for the nomadic tribes, they are constantly searching for water and pastures year-round to graze their livestock. They also live in tents that can be moved at any time, making it difficult to locate the bandits' bases."
The escort agency's business is to deliver goods and messages for people. If a customer's belongings are stolen or lost, the escort agency needs to pay a certain amount of compensation based on the value of the goods.
However, the numerous bandits on the grasslands resulted in a high probability of goods being lost, and the casualty rate of escorts was also the highest among the ten major cities.
"This means that the escort agency can only operate on a small scale and cannot connect the entire grassland. Connecting to other prefectures is even more difficult."
Zhou Yi frowned, "Also, due to the higher risk, the transportation fee is also relatively high. This is also an important reason for restricting the expansion of the escort agency in Qingyuan Prefecture."
The difficulty of governing Qingyuan Prefecture City is the highest among all the prefecture cities.
In the first few years after surrendering, many of the prefects sent by the Dayou court were killed, and they became the short-lived prefects that were feared by the court.
Finally, the emperor sent a famous military general and a civil servant known for his resourcefulness, and dispatched additional troops to protect the prefect, and only then were they able to suppress the rebellious nomads in Qingyuan Prefecture, turning the defense from open attacks to hidden attacks.
However, with Meng Yao's qualifications, it was far from enough to be promoted four levels in a row, from a seventh-rank county magistrate to a sixth-rank magistrate in Qingyuan Prefecture.
Xu Xingzhe, who had much greater achievements and more experience than him, was only promoted two levels, from the magistrate of Qingmi County to the sixth-rank Tongpan.
——But later his affair with the human traffickers was exposed, and he was demoted two levels and demoted to a minor official in Qingyuan Prefecture.
"We need to come up with a good way to solve the bandit problem so that the escort agency can run smoothly."
Lei Li frowned in thought.
It was the most difficult to set up and operate an escort agency in Qingyuan Prefecture, so the couple chose Qingyuan as their last stop.
After visiting the baby in Beijing, we left and cut the Gordian knot. We took a year to resolve the remaining five prefectures. Overall, it went smoothly.
The most critical Zhongchuan headquarters, the most complex Baihui branch escort agency and the most strict Beijing branch escort agency, including the Xiling escort agency which serves as a transportation hub, are all under the control of the court. As the general trend, other prefectures will naturally submit to the power.
So at this time, Lei Li, Zhou Yi and his party were riding horses on their way from Dongyuan to Qingyuan Prefecture.
There is only one relatively safe official road between Dongyuan and Qingyuan. There are soldiers stationed every 20 kilometers on the road, so they can respond quickly to banditry incidents.
But when Lei Li and Zhou Yi entered this official road, they were ambushed by bandits.
"Alas--"
“Wooooooooooooooo——”
Dozens of bandits were shouting, cracking whips, waving long swords or scimitars, and riding tall horses as they rushed over from all directions of the grassland.
Between the disheveled hair and the beard was a weather-beaten, dark face and a pair of sharp, greedy eyes like those of a wild wolf.
"Kill these Daiyou people!"
“Kill them!”
"Don't kill them all, haha! See if there are any girls or boys in there who can give me some fun!"
Lei Li and his group had been on alert since they sensed something was wrong.
As soon as they saw these bandits suddenly appearing from nowhere, Lei Li, Zhou Yi and the Kyoto guards immediately responded.
"Enemy attack!"
"Attention all—"
"Enemy attack—there is an enemy attack—"
The one hundred elite Kyoto guards were all highly skilled in martial arts and could fight ten enemies at once. Facing these dozens of bandits, they all remained calm and fearless.
Some of the Jingwei took up weapons to fight the enemy, while others protected the Marquis of Changning and other officials.
"The bandit problem in Qingyuan City is indeed serious."
Lei Li narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the attacking bandits calmly.
These people seemed to see that they had a lot of goods, so they wanted to plunder them. The waving of their scimitars and whips was more of a threat, but when they saw that they were well-trained, they became a little confused.
Lei Li also saw a few bandits who took advantage of the situation and ran away as soon as they saw that the situation was not going well.
"Sir, we've already apprehended most of the bandits. Are we going to pursue the remaining few who have escaped?"
"No."
Lei Li waved his hand, his sharp eyes gazing at the vast grassland like an eagle circling above it, and said, "Don't chase after desperate bandits. Be careful of ambushes. Rest here for a while. I want to interrogate those bandits."
"yes."
Not all of those bandits had integrity. They hated the Dayu people to the point of refusing to surrender even at death. After some coercion and inducement, Lei Li also found out their origins and the purpose of attacking them.
People die for money and birds die for food.
The bandits were targeting their goods.
Before Lei Li and his party entered Qingyuan Prefecture, Dongyuan's escort agency happened to receive an order from a large sea merchant from Baihui.
The merchant had just returned from the sea and wanted to send a batch of seafood to Qingyuan to make a fortune, but he did not have enough manpower, and he heard that Qingyuan was full of dangers, so he spent a lot of money to hire escorts to deliver the goods.
A large caravan like his has a lot of goods and valuables, which are very valuable, so there are many escorts and guards traveling with it, and the small gangs of bandits in Qingyuan City will generally not be provoked.
But the big bandits are not afraid of them, and they even like such large caravans. They can live a comfortable life for half a year by robbing them once, and the loss of manpower is not worth mentioning.
After all, these days, the most expensive thing is human life, and the thing that is least in short supply is also human life.
The Dongyuan Escort Agency originally did not want to accept commissions from sea merchants, but Lei Li wanted to test the severity of the bandit problem in Qingyuan City, so he had an idea.
He disguised himself as a big businessman, asked officials to disguise themselves as family members or workers, and the Kyoto guards to disguise themselves as coachmen and the like. Together with the original bodyguards and merchants, there was a large team of more than 300 people.
The convoy entered Qingyuan in a mighty manner, and each carriage was full.
"These bandits have been observing us for several days. They heard the discussion among the team members and knew that we were transporting high-value seafood. That's why they decided to strike tonight."
Lei Li said, "We had been walking for a day, so our team was relatively relaxed. The grasslands are more dangerous at night because there are wolves and other carnivores on the grasslands, so bandits don't dare to act recklessly."
He sneered as he spoke, "We have a large caravan of hundreds of people, and they dare to rob it with only a few dozen people. They are really brave."
"Nomadic tribesmen are generally taller than the Dayou people. They have full beards, ride horses, and wield knives and whips, looking ferocious and menacing."
Zhou Yi shook his head and said, "Ordinary people who had never seen such a scene would be so frightened that they would forget to protect the goods. Once they got the goods, they would immediately take the horses, carriages, and goods and run away."
"If they fail to capture the caravan one day, they can harass it from time to time, breaking down the caravan's psychological defenses and affecting its morale, making it easier to plunder."
These bandits were fighting a guerrilla war, playing a cat-and-mouse game. Even a well-trained army would feel tired and even exhausted if they were harassed from time to time and had to be on guard day and night.
These bandits have no moral principles.
When harassing people, they would use bows and arrows to secretly injure them, verbally insult and attack them, suddenly make strange noises at night, deliberately lure wolves to the route that caravans must take, and join forces with other bandits to rob them.
If they really cannot succeed, they will set fire to the goods. They cannot grab them themselves, but they also cannot let the merchants get any benefit.
This was their usual tactic, but they saw that Lei Li and his group were unfamiliar and did not seem to have any rules. Because Lei Li acted like a cautious but inexperienced rookie, they came to rob him with confidence.
"It's also because they are too greedy and blinded by money."
Lei Li snorted coldly, "As soon as they heard that our shipment contained precious sea pearls and corals, as well as ginseng, deer antlers, silk brocade, and other things, they couldn't wait to grab them."
Qingyuan is far away from the sea.
Some nomads do not know that there is an ocean in the world, and do not know how vast and beautiful the ocean is. However, those nomads who know about it yearn for the ocean very much, and some even travel thousands of miles to Baihui to see the ocean.
The rampant banditry prevented many merchants from coming to Qingyuan Prefecture, so the demand for seafood was in short supply. They were more expensive and easier to sell in Qingyuan than in other places, especially pearls and corals.
"It's your own fault."
Zhou Yi also shook his head.
The next day they continued to move towards Qingyuan. When they passed by the Dayouchao garrison, they handed over the captured bandits to the garrison. After the garrison soldiers thanked them, they immediately killed the bandits in front of the military camp.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi frowned slightly.
They didn't think the garrison's actions were wrong, but they felt a little uncomfortable with the bloody scenes.
Seeing them like this, the centurion explained with a cold and stern face,
"These grassland bandits have blood on their hands. They have killed many merchants and soldiers from our Dayou Dynasty. Therefore, the prefect has ordered that the bandits be killed immediately after they are caught to prevent future troubles."
"……so."
Lei Li frowned slightly again.
The original intention of this law was good, but it was inevitable that some people would take advantage of the situation and label innocent people as bandits and then kill them, resulting in many false cases and wrongful convictions.
However, he did not say anything, nor did he reveal his identity as Marquis of Changning. Instead, he continued to lead the team forward until they arrived at the main city of Qingyuan Prefecture.
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