Chapter 106: You and I were never meant to be

At the fourth hour of the night, Qing Shui Camp was still covered in an indigo night color. Today was the first day the horse market was open, and before dawn, the guards at the east and south gates were already out in full force, checking the entrants one by one, and were very busy.

The northern wall is the Great Wall, there are no gates, just strengthen the beacon patrol. The east city gate is the foreigners are used to enter and exit the gateway, with urns and secret doors, in order to prevent the infiltration of foreign enemies, in and out of the extremely strict check.

The Clearwater River Meadow is just beyond this east gate.

Horses hooves sweeping, dew drops on the grass leaves fall like rain. Su Yan a group of green cloud shoulder through the sleeve trailing sprinkle, color tone elegant, makeup flower weaving gold brocade surface but through some of the noble, steering the horse stepped in the early morning meadow came.

Thirteen riding horse and man, in decorated with wolf tail and green stone bead string of a positive thing, don’t run away from the topic.” What seventeen nineteen, Ping Shui met, public affairs, personal privacy ask so clear what to do, and do not worship!

Su Yan immediately went back to his words, “Eighty pounds?”

“No, ninety-five.”

“Each step back, eighty-five?”

“It’s already discounted, it’s ninety-five.”

Su Yan a little annoyed, a slap on the desktop, the empty bowl clanging, “95% off also have the nerve to call discount? Come up with some sincerity to the boss, at least a 90% discount! Are you still a man, huh? Be quick, 90% off is 90% off, don’t be so slow!”

Alertan looked at him with a bitter smile, his brow seemed helpless, and he did not speak.

“Ninety pounds of tea per horse, and in the end I’ll subsidize you with a thousand cited salt, it’s a deal.” Su Yan viciously said, “If you still refuse, then we’ll part ways. You and I are not related, and we all rely on me to spend money. If this deal doesn’t work out, don’t say you won’t be a repeat customer in the future, and we’ll only meet as passers-by.”

Jing Hong chasing feel that this is a slap in the face is quite good – originally is a passer-by, and then got up, ready to pull Su Yan to leave.

Alertan couldn’t help but stroke the green bamboo hairband wrapped around his left wrist and sigh in resignation, “Deal.”

Su Yan let out a painful breath.

Altan brought this batch of horses, all good stallions, each horse hundred pounds of tea is really not expensive, 90% discount is considered a low price to sell. As for his subsidized one thousand cited salt, the market value of ten good horses, but is a number of good sounding additions only. And Lingzhou itself is the pool salt production area, salt in the northern desert although the lack of, but here is not valuable.

Taking a look at Altan’s face, he felt a little embarrassed again and smiled dryly, “How about this, sell me all your horses without a single one left, don’t keep the ones that carry the goods, I’ll prepare the cargo horses for you for free on my side, and send a special escort to be responsible for sending these teas and salts to Walar.”

Altan secretly said: this Su Yan, really played a good game! Our horses, even if we pick out some inferior products to be used for transportation, are much better than those thin and bony official horses of your Ming country. Give it to me for free and I don’t want it, spoiling our horse breed.

But the words came out as, “I’d be honored. Why don’t you go with us when we ship the goods? Our tribe is in the foothills of the Altai Mountains, by the Selenge River, with abundant water and grass, and a vast forested field, it’s worth seeing.”

Traveling abroad, Su Yan is still quite interested, but unfortunately, he is now heavily burdened, where he can find the time to go to the grassland, so he politely refused: “In the future, there will be time to talk about it.”

Alertan looked regretful, but did not force the issue, only collected his smile and said with a straight face, “Now may you tell me who you really are?”

Su Yan a little blushing, get up and solemnize his clothes, arching his hand and said, “Su Yan, the word Qinghe, Daming this section of the second grade, the current supervision of the imperial censor, Shaanxi governor imperial censor.”

Altan stared at him in bewilderment, “It is true that he is an official.”

“You once said in the Western City Camp Fortress that you couldn’t trust any of the officials of the Ming Kingdom. Now, can you trust me?”

“…… Depends on what it is. If it does not involve the interests of the two countries, I consider you a trustworthy friend.”

Su Yan laughed up, “Same as each other.”

“There’s one more thing I need to ask you for a favor.” He asked Altan before he left, “The name ‘Woodhallang’, have you ever heard of it?”

Surviving jinyiwei there is a called “Huang Li Ji”, knowledgeable, know the language of the tribes of the North Desert. Su Yan asked him last night, that day in the town of Hengliangzi encountered Tatar cavalry, those people in the mouth of the whimpering and screaming is what?

Huang Li Ji is not good to say directly, they take Su adults as a white skinned beautiful woman, only that the Tartars mentioned “Wu Ha Lang”, to rob the money and food women to offer him.

Su Yan asked Huo, Huo said that during the battle with the Tartars, did not hear this name, should not be a Tartar general.

He had to pin his hopes on Alertan, hoping that this noble young man of Wara, out of his familiarity with the tribes of the Northern Desert, especially the World Enemy Tribe, would be able to tell him the answer.

Sure enough, when Alertan heard this name, his brows furrowed and he showed a look of contempt and disdain: ”How do you know about this person? He is the youngest son of the Tartar Grand Master Tuo Huo Tai, and is a good-for-nothing piece of trash. This person is fond of fishing and hunting, especially greedy for women in the Central Plains, because of the tyrannical nature, often abuses the looted women to death, even among the tribes, the reputation is also very bad.”

Su Yan asked again, “This Woodhallang, where has he been hanging out lately?”

Altan replied, “That I am not so sure of. I left my tribe two months ago, bypassed the Tartar territories, and entered the territory of Ming last month without inquiring about his whereabouts.”

Su Yan thanked him and got up to leave.

Altan escorted Suyan out of the tent and couldn’t help but ask, “How long will you stay at Clearwater Camp?”

Su Yan laughed, “Longer than you. After completing the sale formalities with the government and the money and goods are settled, you should move back, right?”

Nodding his head, Altan added, “I will stay a few more days to visit the spectacle of the Horse Market, and then I will leave after it is over.”

“I hope to make a trip back to the capital at the end of the year.” Su Yan looked out in the direction where the capital was located, his heart sighing a little.

He knew that cleaning up horse politics is a big project, to establish a normal operation, benign development of the official pastoral system, before and after the absence of a few years, it is difficult to achieve full success.

Even if he first set up the framework, put the system in place, and then select the appropriate officials to take over the work, looking at the current momentum of this mess, it will take at least one and a half years.

He wants to go back to the capital.

Once upon a time, the capital became his second “home” after he came to this era, and became a place where he would think and dream. Of course, not because of a small courtyard that has been smashed, but because of the people in the capital that he is attached to.

“The capital of the Ming State …… ” Altan squinted his eyes and looked at the distant mountains, imagining that prosperous and misty capital of the son of heaven, with a faraway look, “‘The calendar shows the destiny of the heavens, the river and the mountains are strong and the emperor’s capital. Qiankun encompasses ten thousand countries, and the sun and the moon shine on the living beings’, I wonder what kind of a capital city it is.”

“It is said that in the past, the gold master Wanyan Liang, listened to Liu Yong a ‘three autumn osmanthus, ten miles of lotus flowers’ of the ‘tide of the sea’, and then up to whip across the river of the will to mention the poem: ‘10,000 miles of the car book a mixed, Jiangnan is not a different border seal, raise the troops of millions of West Lake, the first peak of the Wu Mountain! ‘ He vowed to enter the Central Plains and take the rich and magnificent mountains and rivers for himself.”

Su Yan said half jokingly, half warningly, “Nowadays, even a young man peddling horses in Valar can recite poems describing our capital city, your ministry will not also have the idea of knocking on the queue, right?”

Altan turned around and said, “Brother Su is joking, I just admire the culture of the Central Plains and have no other intention. Besides, how can a horse trader like me worry about family and national affairs?”

Su Yan said, believe you have a ghost, on your body dress and momentum, less said is a nobleman, may also be able to occupy a seat in the decision-making layer of Varrat.

The face did not move, “It’s just a joke, don’t take it seriously. Farewell, no need to see you off.”

Su Yan rolled onto his horse and whipped away surrounded by his guards. Altan looked at his distant back, stroked the ribbon on his arm, and sighed in his heart: why are you an official of the Ming Kingdom.

–

Huo Sheng is afraid that after Yan Chengxue walks out of the tent, he will meet the Wala people who have been tormented by him and will be retaliated against by the other side, and he is busy following him out and looking around.

He soon spotted Yan Chengxue, standing on a grassy slope near his tent, staring somewhere with his arms folded.

“What’s wrong?” Haw asked as he walked over.

Yan Chengxue said, “Just now, I saw a strange man.”

“Weirdo?”

“Yes, wearing a long black robe full of fluttering ribbons, with his eyebrows hidden under the hood where they cannot be seen clearly, he exudes an evil aura.” Yan Chengxue pursed her lips and said, “Probably sensing my gaze, he looked back at me. That glance somehow sent chills down my spine.”

Haw thought for a moment and said, “Probably a shaman.”

“Shaman?”

“Witches of the steppe. It is said to be able to communicate with spirits, and there are some divine spells. The tribes of the Northern Desert mostly believe in shamanism, and when the nobles are traveling, there are often shamans from the tribes who secretly protect them. It seems that I guessed correctly, this Alertan is by no means an ordinary horse trader, coming to my Qing Shui camp, and I don’t know exactly what his intentions are.”

Yan Chengxue was silent for a moment, then suddenly reached into Huo’s arms to feel around.

Huo was slightly shocked, “What are you doing?”

Yan Chengxue touched a concealed weapon pouch, “You really did hide the Xuan Iron Flying Needles on your body, is it the poison hardened batch?”

Huo said, “After all, how can I rest assured when I unload my armor and come alone. Even if I’m not afraid to fight that Altan again, I always have to think about your safety.”

Yan Chengxue said softly, “Look, Alertan sent Su Yan out, no one is in the tent at this time, if we stir this flying needle in his tea pot, can we get rid of the hidden danger before it happens?”

“Imperial Minister Su is afraid he won’t agree.” Huo said.

Yan Chengxue withdrew her hand, a cold smile swept across the corner of her mouth, “So what? When I find a chance to get my hands on him, and he has the ability, he will go and help that barbarian to live and die.”

As they spoke, a brocade guard sped over and greeted them, “Please get on your horses, two adults, Lord Su ordered to return to the city.”