Chapter 530 Gray Transaction!

After listening to Zhang Ye's introduction, Dabalagan realized that the strange-looking thing in his hand was the clairvoyance of the Fengwu Army. A look of surprise immediately appeared on his face. He quickly used it according to the method Zhang Ye taught him. The next second, when he saw the scenery in the distance, he laughed out loud with joy...

At this time, Zhang Ye also said at the right time:
"This clairvoyance is unique in the entire Luobi territory. I can guarantee that not even the Khan has it. Congratulations, Lord Dabalagan, on your treasure!"

After he finished speaking, Dabalagan, who was already very happy, grinned to his ears, and couldn't let go of the telescope in his hand. He looked left and right, as if everything in his yard was brand new in his eyes. After playing with it for a whole cup of tea, Dabalagan reluctantly put the telescope back into the rosewood box, turned his attention back to Zhang Ye and said:
"I really like the gift you sent me. For the sake of this gift, I will definitely do my best to help you with anything you ask me to do!"

Zhang Ye praised:

"Lord Dabalagan, you are really straightforward! In that case, I won't hide anything anymore. I want to know Bujiha's movements!"

After hearing this, Dabalagan became somewhat alert and asked back:

"Why do you ask?"

Facing Dabalagan's questioning, Zhang Ye replied calmly;
"Sir, during this period we have purchased more than a thousand pack horses from the various Luobi tribes and are preparing to transport them back to Liaoyang for sale!
At this point, Zhang Ye raised his head, glanced at Dabalagan, and said to him in a meaningful voice:
“The goods you gave me last time are among them…”

Hearing what Zhang Ye said, Dabalagan, who was just in high spirits, changed his expression instantly, looked at Zhang Ye fiercely and said:
"Didn't I tell you to transport it back quickly? Why are you still keeping it in our hands? Do you want to be killed by hungry wolves?"

Facing Dabalagan's undisguised threat, Zhang Ye calmly explained:

"Lord Dabalagan, those are 300 horses, not 30 or even 3. How can you ask me to send so many horses away quietly?"

Before Zhang Ye finished speaking, Dabalagan waved his hand and said anxiously:

"That's your business and has nothing to do with me. I don't care what method you use. Send them out quietly immediately!"

Looking at the somewhat out-of-control Dabalagan, Zhang Ye smiled and shook his head and said:

"Lord Dabalagan, this is not the first time we have done business. I understand your feelings. You should also understand that if there is a chance, we would certainly like to ship the goods back to Liaoyang now. This is the safest way. No one would keep such hot goods in their hands!"

“But now that Bujiha is watching the east so strictly, if we rashly cross the border and transport goods back, we will most likely be discovered by Bujiha. So my plan is this: mix the three hundred horses among the one thousand pack horses, and then avoid Bujiha’s main patrol route. Then we can complete this business smoothly…”

After listening to Zhang Ye's words, Dabalagan's face became uncertain. Seeing this, Zhang Ye continued to persuade him:

"Lord Dabalagan, you'd better make a decision as soon as possible. Although the place where we hide the horses is hidden, no one can predict what will happen if we continue like this. Not only will we be in trouble, but we may also implicate the big shots!"

Upon hearing this, Dabalagan suddenly raised his head, staring at Zhang Ye with his small eyes, and a fierce look appeared on his face. He said:
"Are you threatening me?"

Zhang Ye bowed and said:

"Lord Dabalagan, you worry too much. This is Luobei and you are a great noble here. I am a weak merchant, how dare I threaten you? If I make you unhappy, I am afraid I will not survive tonight. I am just giving you a reminder!"

After saying this, Dabalagan fell silent again. After a moment, he looked at Zhang Ye and said coldly:
"Bujiha is heading west now to carry out the mission assigned by the Khan. Without the Aibag tribe, now is your best chance to transport the goods out. Get out of here quickly. I don't want to see you, a dirty and despicable two-legged sheep, anymore!"

Facing Dabalagan's insults, Zhang Ye, who had already gotten what he wanted, was not angry at all and quickly said:
"I'm sorry to have made you angry, Master Dabalagan. Please calm down and I'll leave now. I'll come back to give you treasures later!"

After saying that, Zhang Ye turned around and left respectfully. An incense stick later, he returned to the residence of Dadongsheng Company in the Luobi Royal Court and went back to his job of buying and selling sheepskins. When night fell and the day’s work was over, Zhang Ye observed his surroundings vigilantly, then returned to his tent and began to write furiously under the dim light...

The deputy manager of Dadongsheng Trading Company in the royal court of Luobi is just Zhang Ye's public identity, while Zhang Ye's real identity is an intelligence officer of the Royal Court of Luobi, code-named Qianbai.

Previously, because the overall strategic focus of the Fengwu Army was not on the Luobi people, the manpower and material resources allocated to the work of the Coordination Office in Luobi were also very limited. However, all this changed greatly a month ago. After being warned by Ye Mingsheng, Huo San began to increase his investment in Luobi and required the intelligence personnel in the Luobi royal court to collect as much intelligence as possible on the Luobi high-level officials and the movements of the Luobi army.

In recent years, as the cultural trends of the Great Zhou spread among the upper-class nobles of Robe, more and more Robe nobles liked to use the goods from the Great Zhou. After the traditional southward looting failed to achieve results, the only way left for the Robe people was trade. Unfortunately, the Robe people did not have many goods that could be sold at a high price. Apart from sheepskin and mutton, they were all livestock.

In the horse business, which is relatively more profitable and attracts the most attention, the Luobei people are only allowed to sell pack horses to the Great Zhou merchants for their own safety. They strictly control the important strategic materials of war horses and do not allow anyone to sell them. If anyone dares to violate this, the end will be very miserable. This is also the reason why Dabalagan turned his face against him during the day!
Although Luo Bi's punishment was very cruel and severe, a great man once said in a famous book that a businessman would take risks for a 50% profit, and would trample on all laws in the world for a 100% profit. If he had a 300% profit, he would commit any crime, even at the risk of being hanged. And the number of Luo Bi's war horses shipped to Da Zhou was more than three times...
On the one hand, there is a huge demand for the goods of the Great Zhou, and on the other hand, there are huge profits from selling war horses, which makes some Luobei dignitaries start to take risks!
And Dabalagan is Zhang Ye's target. Compared with the Tuva tribe's envoy to the Robe royal court, Dabalagan has another identity that few people know about, that is, the white glove of Robe Prince Bodu. As for the goods they just mentioned, they actually refer to the three hundred Robe war horses!
Although Dabalagan never revealed the source of these war horses, Zhang Ye had already investigated and found out that they came from the 30,000 Luobei cavalry under Commander Bodu. Three months ago, there was a heavy snowstorm on the grassland, and countless livestock were frozen to death.

It was at that time that Bodu reported more war horses that had frozen to death, and secretly intercepted these horses and sold them to himself. Otherwise, how could Dabalagan, an envoy of the Tuva tribe, get such excellent war horses? You know, although there are many horses on the grassland, those that can reach the level of war horses are also very precious, and each horse has been carefully cultivated by herdsmen for several years.

The reason why Bodu dared to risk the world's condemnation and secretly sell the warhorse to the Dadongsheng Trading Company was because Luobi Khan was very old and would not last long. The Luobi people always admired the strong, so the competition for the Khan's throne was very fierce and cruel. Therefore, at this critical moment, Bodu needed a lot of money to help himself win over his subordinates and make friends with all parties to help him compete for the Khan's throne...
It was precisely because of such gray channels that the cavalry of the Fengwu Army made great progress in a short period of time, forming a scale of more than 10,000 people and greatly increasing its war potential.

Although there was an unpleasant quarrel between him and Dabalagan today, Zhang Ye was not worried that Dabalagan would overreact. After all, his bid was the highest and the luxury goods he could provide for Bodu were also the best, so Dabalagan had no choice but to come back and cooperate with him.

The information he obtained from Dabalagan today will be an important piece of information related to the overall strategy of the Fengwu Army. He must pass it back to Yijing as quickly as possible!

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Ma Family Courtyard in Dai County.

Facing the tablet of Ma family's ancestors in the ancestral hall, Ma Hongde burned incense with a serious and meticulous expression, knelt three times and kowtowed nine times, praying that the spirits of Ma family's ancestors would bless them.

After kneeling in the ancestral hall for a whole incense stick of time, Ma Hongde slowly stood up with the help of his clan members and asked his younger brother Ma Hongye:

"How's it going?"

Ma Hongye nodded and said:
"Brother, everything is ready. Everything will start on time tomorrow. We will teach Ye Mingsheng a lesson this time. He wants to cut off our Ma family's financial resources, but he doesn't even consider his own weight!"

After listening to his brother's answer, Ma Hongde patted his brother's shoulder without saying anything, turned around and returned to his study. He had done everything he could. The next thing was to see whether God would still take care of him, Ma Hongde, as before!

Back in the study, Ma Hongde sat on his pearwood chair, brewed a pot of hot tea, took out his favorite "Han Feizi" from the bookshelf and began to read it. Although all the plans were going smoothly, Ma Hongde felt a little uneasy in his heart. He could only hope to try to eliminate the uneasiness in his most familiar environment and calm his heart down again...

Although Ma Hongde's idea was good, unfortunately his peaceful time only lasted for half an hour. There was a noise outside his study. Ma Hongde frowned slightly. When he was about to ask what happened outside, the servant came in and reported to Ma Hongde in a panic:

"Many people from the Fourth Master's Coordination Office have come and surrounded our mansion. The Fifth Master is leading his servants to hold out against them!"

Ma Hongde's face changed slightly when he heard this, but soon returned to normal, and then he explained to the servants:
"Go back and tell Hongye to stay restrained and not to conflict with the Coordination Office. I'll change my clothes and go there right away!"

"Yes!"

After instructing the servants, Ma Hongde looked for clothes in the closet. After changing into a grey robe, he seemed to have thought of something and touched a small wooden box that was very delicately crafted from a hidden place in the closet. When he opened the box, he saw two small grey pills lying there quietly.

Looking at the two small pills, Ma Hongde's expression suddenly became very complicated. After a long silence, a wry smile appeared on his face. He closed the small wooden box and put it in his arms, then he sorted out his mood and walked out of the study.

Half an incense stick later, accompanied by his servants, Ma Hongde arrived at the gate of his own courtyard, only to see dozens of plainclothes officers from the Operations Department of the Coordination Office standing there, and behind them were soldiers of the Fengwu Army armed with live ammunition, there seemed to be hundreds of them...
Seeing Ma Hongde appear, Ma Hongye hurried over and whispered in his ear:

"Fourth brother, these people are here with ill intentions. In addition to the hundreds of people in front of us, there are also hundreds of them around the yard. The total number adds up to more than a thousand people. Should we fight them now?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Hongde shook his head at Ma Hongye. Even though his family was wealthy and had many martial artists and servants at home, as the head of the Ma family, Ma Hongde knew very well that this group of people could fight against the bandit gangs, but if they met the battle-hardened Fengwu Army, they would definitely be like an egg hitting a rock and would be vulnerable!
Therefore, Ma Hongde calmly walked to the center of the confrontation between the two sides, bowed to the Fengwu Army on the opposite side and said with a smile:

"I am Ma Hongde, the current head of the Ma family. I wonder what the officials from the General Coordination Office and the other military officers are doing in our Ma family?"

Soon after Ma Hongde finished speaking, Jiang Le came out, looked Ma Hongde up and down and said:

"Are you Ma Hongde, the fourth master of the Ma family?"

"Fourth Master" and the like are just honorifics given by friends in the underworld. I am not worthy of it!" Ma Hongde said with a smile:

After getting a positive answer from Ma Hongde, Jiang Le nodded and said:
"Since you are Ma Hongde, then come with us! Our master wants to see you..."

(End of this chapter)