Chapter 43 The Eighteen Bends of the Coiling Dragon

After passing Jinan State, the merchant groups mostly took different roads according to where they were going, but when they entered Linhu State, they would gather in Shengle City of Dai State.

There was a no-man's land between Shengle City and Linhu State. The mountain roads here were crisscrossed and the terrain was complicated, which was called Panlong Eighteen Bends. Many ordinary people gathered here, making it the northernmost inhabited area in the Central Plains.

After being blocked in the ravine for a day, the Guangxian merchant group reinforced the mountain road for more than 200 meters, which allowed the merchant group to pass safely.

Hua Kai also raised his loyalty to 93 points in the past few days, and sent the family members who could enter the family list into the [Family Secret Realm Space] trial one by one. His family luck value has been hovering around 150 points, and he couldn't refine the [Mingyue Spear] for his grandfather.

It was March 17th when he arrived at Jinzhou City of Zhongshan State.

Zhongshan State is much stronger than the small states under Qi State. Their capital Jinzhou City is a big city. A population of over 200,000 is considered a big city in this world.

Zhongshan State is mountainous, and the people here like to raise sheep, so there are stalls selling mutton everywhere in and outside Jinzhou City.

The Hua family caravan has no goods to sell in Zhongshan State. Now that they have almost passed the Dongling Mountains, Hua Kai does not want to sell the remaining fine wine. Entering Dai State is not far from Linhu, and the caravan does not need to lose weight now.

Because it is not far from the grassland, the horse market in Jinzhou City is also very large. Hua Kai went around the horse market and bought 6 strong horses. If it were not for his fifth uncle pulling him, he might have bought more. After buying them, he directly upgraded four horses, so that the Hua family has 39 horses. It seems that before reaching the Xiongnu State, 52 people can have one horse per person.

Arriving at Jinzhou City, Hua Kai saw the big cities of this world for the first time. He had seen too many modern big cities in his previous life, and these did not make any impression on him. Many people in the Hua family were very interested in seeing a city outside Guangxian City for the first time. They saw a herbal medicine shop and planned to go in to see what spiritual medicines they could buy, but they looked at their space gold and found that there were only 146 taels left. They decided to wait until they had money after the business trip!

Starting from Jinzhou City in Zhongshan State and continuing to go north, the road gradually began to become flat. It used to be more than 40 miles a day, but now it is easy to walk more than 70 miles a day. In addition to telling stories to everyone, Hua Kai also took people in need to enter the [Family Secret Realm Space] for trials. There were more and more people in the middle and late stages of the Kaiyuan Realm in the Hua family, and everyone saw Hua Kai and respected him more and more.

From Jinzhou City to Guangling City in the northernmost part of Zhongshan State, the Guangxian Merchants Group walked for 9 days. After passing Guangling City, they began to enter the territory of Dai State. Dai State, like Zhongshan State, was a sovereign state, but it was not large in area and had a population of less than 100,000, which was weaker than Jinan State, which belonged to Qi State.

The land here is flat, with dense forests and vast grasslands everywhere. People farm and graze here. This is a society between fixed farming and nomadism. The people are quite tough. Hua Kai saw that many ordinary people here have the strength of the Tempering Body Realm, which is much stronger than the Central Plains.

Even so, when they saw the caravan coming, they became very enthusiastic. Although they also farmed, due to climate reasons, the grain output could not be compared with the Central Plains. Many times, they needed to buy grain and necessary daily necessities from the Southern Kingdom caravan. Hua Kai passed by several villages and sold some ordinary supplies.

Along the way, Hua Kai saw many different folk cultures in many places. Because Daiguo is located in the north of the Dongling Mountains, there are fewer wild beasts here than in Zhongshanguo. The villages outside the city are relatively dense. In winter, they will hide in the city for temporary residence. Therefore, they are good at martial arts. The villages outside the city are built very simply. Hua Kai actually discovered the profession of serfs here.

"Dai originally belonged to Jin. In the past hundred years, Jin has not had a top-level master of the foundation-building realm who can be the king. The subordinate countries have begun to control themselves, and Dai is one of them.

Dai is often attacked by grassland tribes such as Linhu, Donghu, Xiongnu, and Mongolia in the north. Gradually, they themselves have become semi-nomadic. These serfs are prisoners they obtained by defeating the invaders. Of course, Linhu captured more Dai prisoners.

The grassland countries have never stopped fighting with the Central Plains for so many years. When you go to the grassland, you will find out what the law of the jungle is." Wei Baotou saw Hua Jia carefully watching the serfs in the distance and explained to him.

Hua Kai also knew that the Central Plains countries, including Qin, Wei, Yan, and Zhao, often went to war with grassland countries, but no one told him where the captured ordinary people ended up.

From the southern border of Dai State to Shengle City in the northwest, Wei Baotou has been telling the Hua family about the situation of the grassland countries. After Hua Kai heard that trading with many tribes requires a battle with the other party, he finally understood the ferocity of the northern nomadic tribes. Because they have no place to settle down, they have to protect the tribal livestock for survival. Without strong strength, it is impossible.

The battles between the Central Plains countries and the grassland tribes are mainly based on defending the city. Basically, 3 times the defenders can defend the city, and 10 times the troops dare to fight with the other party in the wild. This is also because the grassland lacks precious wood and weapons.

Therefore, it is necessary to trade with the grassland tribes. If you don't sell them things, they can only come to rob.

If you don't leave Huajiabao, you don't know how prosperous the city is, and if you don't leave Qi, you don't know how vast the world is. Why do many noble sons of this world travel to various countries, why do all the masters of the various schools of thought rarely stay in one place for a long time, and if you don't travel to many countries, your vision cannot be improved. How to lead a large family to go further.

The closer you are to Shengle City of Dai State, the more caravans there are on the road. Shengle City is not very big, but seeing the countless merchant groups stationed outside the city, you can know how important this city is.

Dai State stationed more than half of the country's troops here. The walls of Shengle City are as high as 10 meters, which is not much different from ordinary capitals.

As the last city to enter the grassland, there is a big market outside Shengle City, where various commodities are piled together. Hua Kai also saw some merchant groups dressed as Linhu people coming here to purchase things, but the price of goods here is already 3 times higher than that of Guangxian City. Hua Kai also saw many spiritual medicines and strange stones for sale here, but the genuine ones are very rare.

He asked about the prices of several treasures, but none of them was affordable for Hua Kai. He decided that if he made money in the Xiongnu Kingdom this time, he must buy some here. The grassland is vast and sparsely populated, and spiritual medicines and various strange stones are much more common than in the Central Plains. Hua Kai saw people from the Linzi City Merchant Group asking prices at the strange stone and spiritual medicine stalls in the market. These things are generally not used by ordinary families. Most of the funds of the aristocratic families to maintain their prosperity are used here.

After staying in Shengle City for a day, Hua Kai only bought two strong horses, one strong horse only cost 80 silver, which was not too cheap. In addition to the remaining two strong horses in the caravan, Hua Kai upgraded them all in one day, so the caravan had 43 horses and 1 BMW, which was enough for the family's grassland trip.

Seeing that the caravan was short of fodder, Hua Kai went to the grain market to buy some fodder, and bought some meat to eat in the next few days, and then continued on the road with the Han family caravan. Now the Hua family is in the third place in the caravan. The first is the 7th-grade family Han family, and the second is the 9th-grade family Jia family. The third place has been out for such a long time. The Hua family has never fallen behind in such a long time. In addition, Hua Xing rode a BMW several times to help the caravan solve potential crises, which put the Han family in the third place. Although the other families in the caravan envied, they had no objection.

After leaving Shengle City, they gradually approached the legendary Panlong Eighteen Bends.

This is a no-man's land. Many caravans come here and become thieves. So entering Panlong Eighteen Bends is the first test.

The Guangxian merchant group deliberately reduced the distance between the caravans. Hua Xing asked Yu Jun to stay by Hua Kai's side and protect his safety. Who knows if an arrow will suddenly fly out from somewhere and kill Hua Kai.

Panlong Eighteen Bends, Panlong Eighteen Mountains.

The roads leading to Panlong Mountain are only as wide as a carriage. Hua Kai almost got dizzy as the caravan circled along the mountain road. Wei Baotou would take out his map and look at it carefully every time he arrived at a place. This was the time to play the role of the caravan leader and handle.

Hua Kai was still in the learning stage when he went on his first business trip. Wei Hong would tell Hua Kai about the arrangement of the team members, how to deploy personnel, how to gather together quickly when encountering danger, and how to allocate high-level combat to deal with various sneak attacks that might come.

On the first day of Panlong Eighteen Bends, the Guangxian merchant group only walked 30 miles. When the sun set, they stopped in a small village on the roadside. It was rare for there to be a small village here. Hua Kai had not shown up until the housekeeper Hua Fu negotiated with the village.

They paid 20 silver coins to get a yard, which could hold 18 carriages, so they didn't have to live in tents tonight.

Hua Kai saw that there were not many old people and women in the village, and there was no child. The villagers were very strong. Hua Kai used the [Eye of Truth] to check that there was no one below the Body Tempering Realm, and two villagers had even reached the Qi Dynamic Realm.

At night, Hua Xing came back and arranged half of the people to guard the night. He, Yu Jun, the fifth uncle, and the housekeeper Hua Fu all needed two people to take turns. The night guard in the village was more intense than the patrol in the wild.

"Master, you don't know, what good people can settle down here? They look like docile and good people now, but they may suddenly become bandits when they pick up weapons. How can ordinary people live in Panlong Eighteen Bends? Not only are there a large number of wild beasts here, but we also have to beware of people with different thoughts." Wei Hong explained to Hua Kai when he saw his confusion.

"Then why do we have to spend money to live here? Isn't it enough to just camp outside?" Hua Kai asked.

"If you live here, you have to beware of the people in this village. If you leave the village, you don't know what you have to beware of. There are wild beasts everywhere in Panlong Eighteen Bends. It is at least safer near the village. The village leader has seen my strength today and I believe he will not easily attack us. You, the head of the family, should have a good rest at night!" Hua Fu said.

Hua Kai is only 13 years old and needs more sleep than adults, and his physical strength is also worse than that of adults. So everyone in the caravan has been taking care of Hua Kai. But what they don't know is that Hua Kai has a special god-level mental method [Big Dream Visualization Method], which can make him energetic after sleeping for 2 hours a day.

Nothing happened that night. The next day, Hua Kai heard that a Guangxian family caravan was visited by a strongman last night. One person in the caravan died and a lot of goods were lost. Thanks to the Han family for help, the strongman left.

The robbers also look at the target. If they don't have strong strength, just like the Huajiabao last year, which only had two Qidong Realm people, they would be walking on thin ice when passing Panlong Eighteen Bends. The 52 people accompanying the Huajia caravan this year are basically all above Kaiyuan Realm, and there are only 18 trucks of goods, which is not the target the robbers are looking for.

Following the Han family caravan, the Hua family did have a lot less trouble. In the following days, they often heard news that the caravan was attacked. Most of the goods of the Tai family in Guang County were robbed, and the Qidong Realm family heads who accompanied them almost died. When they entered Panlong Eighteen Bends, some caravan leaders found the Hua family, hoping to get the Hua family's protection at night.

Finally, Hua Kai discussed with his grandfather and agreed that the Tai family and other four caravans would camp and stay in hotels closer to him at night, so that the Hua family could help them when they encountered danger.

This is what the Han family hoped for. Although the Han family did not know that the Hua family had two Qi training masters, Hua Xing, who was in the Qi training realm, could deter most thieves. The 12 caravans in Guang County were stationed near the 4 caravans with Qi training masters, so the situation was finally better on the fourth day.

On the fifth day, the Guang County caravan continued to set off early in the morning. It had been a month since everyone left home. After passing Panlong Eighteen Bends, it was the grassland. According to Wei Baotou's estimate, it would take about 3 days to leave Panlong Eighteen Bends. The Han family caravan also walked very fast today. It walked 40 miles of mountain roads in the morning, rested for only three hours at noon, and walked another 20 miles in the afternoon. In the evening, everyone came to a place called Qinglong Village.

Just by listening to the name, you know that this village is not a good one. The area of ​​this village is more than 200 acres, and the village wall is 6 meters high. Hua Kai entered Qinglong Village and found that the population here was more than 500 people. This place belongs to the most central area of ​​Panlong Eighteen Bends. There are more than 500 people here and they can't farm or graze. You can tell what they rely on to live.

Hua Kai entered the village and looked at the fierce-looking villagers. After checking their attributes, he found that there were several masters in the Qi training realm. Perhaps the entire Guangxian merchant group was no match for Qinglong Village.

The Hua family caravan paid 50 silver coins to enter Qinglong Village, which was enough for the caravan to stay in an ordinary place for a week. After entering Qinglong Village, the Hua family was assigned to a broken wooden house, which was obviously uninhabited for a long time.

The four families including the Tai family also lived near the Hua family. They came to Hua Kai's main account as soon as it got dark to discuss patrolling at night.

The Hua family divided all the people from the five families into two groups, one led by Grandpa Hua Xing and Fifth Uncle Hua Zichen, and the other led by Yu Jun and housekeeper Hua Fu. At this time, there were not many caravans that could come to Qinglong Village. They were all heading to the Xiongnu Kingdom or even farther places. Most of the valuable items they brought were refined salt, silk, tea, etc. Everyone had to be very careful.