Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 218: Son's Gift

Zhu Shenzui personally led the team to the grassland this time. In addition to Hu Lin and the brothers in the original caravan, Zhu Shenzui also added a few more people. These people were all old brothers from Wangjia Village who had followed Zhu Shenzui at the beginning, and they were also the most trustworthy.

In addition, Zhu Shenzui hid a lot of firearms in the cargo he carried. In addition to long and short muskets, there was also a Portuguese cannon specially obtained from the garrison.

This Portuguese cannon is a powerful weapon. It is different from ordinary cannons. It is an iron breech-loading smoothbore cannon. Because it was introduced from the overseas country of Spain, this kind of cannon is also called "eagle cannon" in Europe. Spain was called Portuguese in the Ming Dynasty, so the Ming Dynasty called this kind of cannon a Portuguese cannon.

The Portuguese cannon consists of three parts: the barrel, the barrel belly and the sub-gun. Its shooting method is to load the sub-gun first, then put the sub-gun directly into the barrel belly when firing, and then ignite the sub-gun to fire. After firing, remove the sub-gun, and then replace it with a new loaded sub-gun to fire repeatedly. In this way, there is no need to fire and reload like other cannons, and it has an extremely fast firing speed.

This design actually has the prototype of the later integrated shells for rear-loading cannons. The so-called sub-guns have the same principle as the shells of later generations. However, due to the current manufacturing process and technical reasons, this cannon still has many defects, such as the large tolerance of the gap between the sub-gun and the belly of the cannon, poor sealing, resulting in gunpowder gas leakage, resulting in a shorter range and less power.

But these problems were nothing to Zhu Shenzui's caravan. The purpose of carrying this cannon was not for large-scale combat, but to deal with horse bandits on the grassland.

For these horse bandits, the power and firing rate of this Portuguese cannon were enough. Not to mention twenty or thirty horse bandits, even if there were more, as long as they were prepared in advance, they would not be able to get close to the caravan once the cannon sounded. What's more, Zhu Shenzhui also brought a lot of muskets this time.

The people who operated the Portuguese arquebus were brought by Zhu Shenzhui. A Portuguese arquebus required at least two people to operate it. Zhu Shenzhui brought five people this time, and all five of them were able to operate it skillfully.

Except for Zhu Shenzhui and the five men, no one else knew about the existence of this cannon, not even Hu Lin. The cannon was not large in size, and the barrel, belly and sub-cannon were disassembled and placed together with other goods, so it could not be seen from the outside.

Once a situation occurs, it only takes a short time to assemble the entire gun and make it work.

Apart from these preparations, Zhu Shenzhui did not make any adjustments to the original members of the caravan. It was not because he absolutely trusted the members of the caravan, but because he felt that such adjustments were meaningless.

It was still unknown whether there were any traitors inside the trading company, or among the people led by Ma Shizhou, Hu Lin and others. Besides, they had worked hard in the past so many trips to the grassland, and there had never been any problems. Just because Ma Shizhou's team had been attacked before, they denied the hard work of the caravan brothers and doubted them. This was a huge blow to morale.

Zhu Shenzhui would never do such a thing, not to mention that he would not lose the big picture for the sake of a small one, and would not take a suspicion that could not be confirmed as a fact. Now that he had added more people to the caravan, it made sense for him to lead the team himself from the perspective of safety, and it would not cause resentment among the caravan brothers.

Moreover, Zhu Shenzhui still had some expectations in his heart. He even expected to encounter bandits like Ma Shizhou did. If so, he would not return empty-handed like Ma Shizhou, who not only lost most of the goods but also did not leave any bandits behind.

With his preparations and his own skills, Zhu Shenzhui is confident that he can make these horse bandits get away with it. Once these horse bandits appear, most of them will have to be captured no matter what. Then he will see who is behind this and who is the mastermind behind it.

Be well prepared and set off on time.

After bidding farewell to his family, Zhu Shenzhui led the team towards the border. The team was a little dull along the way, and everyone was very vigilant. Because of what happened before, no one knew whether they would encounter the same situation as Ma Shizhou this time, which was a normal reaction.

On the contrary, Hu Lin seemed quite interested. He even asked Zhu Shenzhui privately whether he would really encounter horse bandits when he went to the grassland this time. He rubbed his hands and said that he didn't encounter them last time. If he did, there was no way he would let these horse bandits get away easily.

This time they have more manpower than Ma Shizhou's, and they have made preparations in advance. With the addition of Zhu Shenzui and others, they can definitely fight these horse bandits head-on and avenge their brothers.

Zhu Shenzhui smiled and said that he was not a worm in the belly of the bandits, so how could he know whether they would show up. But no matter what, whether they show up or not, he would just make preparations. Once the bandits really came, he would not need Hu Lin to take action, because the knife in his hand would not be vegetarian.

All the way north, the situation was smooth on the Ming side, and when they reached the border, they passed the Great Wall smoothly. However, when they passed the border, Zhu Shenzhui noticed that there were several pairs of eyes staring at their caravan. Although they passed the border smoothly as usual, they were more serious about the inspection and questioning than before.

Zhu Shenzhu knew this situation very well, because he knew that this was arranged by the Jinyiwei, or he had asked Zhou Anmin to send people to do it. Moreover, when they were at the border, Zhu Shenzhu's people also contacted the Jinyiwei personnel there privately, and they had confirmed that the Jinyiwei had set up spies everywhere. Investigations of all caravans and people entering and leaving the customs were ongoing, and Zhu Shenzhu and his people were no exception. It was also arranged in advance that they could not be treated differently, otherwise it would be too fake to let you pass directly when others were questioning you. The necessary appearance still had to be done, but the person who questioned you at the customs was dressed as a Jinyiwei, and the purpose was to make a show for everyone. Otherwise, if the caravan's goods contained a powerful weapon like the Portuguese, once it was found out, you would be in big trouble even if you had connections.

Apart from the Imperial Guards, Zhu Shenzhui did not find any other problems for the time being, and even the guys in the caravan behaved normally. After leaving the Great Wall, the group continued to head north. From the first day they set foot outside the Great Wall, the caravan was prepared for attacks at any time.

Zhu Shenzhui sent several Mongolian men with the caravan, one man and two horses to patrol around the caravan as scouts. Once there was any unusual movement, or if bandits or unknown tribes were found approaching, they would be informed immediately, and the caravan would have ample time to prepare.

Everyone cheered up and the first day went smoothly, and the second day was no exception. On the third day after entering the grassland, everyone, including Zhu Shenzhui, was even more careful. The caravan members wore leather armor under their robes from the first day they entered the grassland, and placed their weapons and other things in easy-to-reach places.

The attack on Ma Shizhou's caravan happened on the third day. Judging from the time and location, this time period and geographical location were indeed the most appropriate to attack the caravan. So everyone paid special attention on the third day, starting from the sunrise and walking until the sun was about to set in the evening. Everyone was cautious and on guard at all times.

But when it got dark, the caravan camped and rested, and nothing happened. Everything was safe and sound. Even so, Zhu Shenzhui did not relax his vigilance. He still sent out secret guards as a precaution when camping at night. When the fourth day came, everything was normal.

"It's strange, why don't the horse bandits come?" Zhu Shenzhui was very puzzled after being tense for several days. Could it be that the horse bandits saw that there were more people this time than last time, or that they were on high alert and didn't come?

Or was it because they were hurt by the bandits last time and were scared by Ma Shizhou and his men and refused to come? Or maybe they had no intention of attacking them this time?

For a moment, Zhu Shenzui couldn't determine the reason. Regardless of whether the horse bandits came or not, they had to continue their journey.

After packing up the carriages and horses, we continued on the road for the fourth, fifth, sixth days... In the following days, everything was normal, just like the usual trips to the grassland. Except for two days when we ran into a few herdsmen from a small tribe, which gave the team a false alarm, let alone the shadow of horse bandits, we didn't even see a hair.

On the last day, the caravan finally arrived at Ashe Temur's tribe. When they saw the herdsmen outside the tribe, everyone in the caravan finally put their minds at ease.

There was absolutely no chance that the horse bandits would appear again. They were completely safe. After relaxing physically and mentally, everyone felt tired. It was not physical fatigue, but the tension from the journey. After so many days of tension and vigilance, their hearts had been tense. It was natural to feel this way after relaxing all of a sudden.

When they arrived at the tribe, Tana rushed to greet them as soon as they heard the news. When Zhu Shenzui saw Tana running towards him with her son in her arms, a smile appeared on his face. He dismounted and strode towards Tana and the child, hugging his woman and child.

"My man, why did you come here by yourself?" Tana's face was filled with joy. She was happy to see Zhu Shenzhui, but because of what happened before, Tana couldn't help but blame Zhu Shenzhui. What if they also encountered horse bandits? Although she knew that her man was a warrior, many things could happen on the battlefield.

"I miss you and the child..." Zhu Shenzhui smiled and melted Tana's heart with just one sentence. He hugged his woman and looked at his son who was looking at him with big eyes without any fear.

After not seeing him for a few months, the little guy had grown up a lot and was completely different from when Zhu Shenzhui left. With thick black hair, a cute little face, eyes like black stars, and a curious and cute expression, Zhu Shenzhui liked him more and more.

"Son, I am your father! Do you remember me?" Zhu Shenzhui said happily, touching his son's nose.

The little guy waved his lotus-like hands, wrinkled his nose slightly and looked at Zhu Shenzhui, as if he was a little dissatisfied with his father's teasing. Seeing him like this, Zhu Shenzhui was even happier, and reached out to take the little guy from Tana's arms. The little guy was not afraid of him at all, and still stared at his father with his dark eyes, and grinned.

"Look, my son recognized me, he laughed, hahaha! He laughed! Son! Son! I am your father! Hahaha!" Zhu Shenzui couldn't help his joy. He held the child up high, making the child wave his hands and giggle.

Who would have thought that just when he was happy, a stream of warm water suddenly shot out from the little cock of this boy in open-crotch pants towards Zhu Shenzui in front. Zhu Shenzui, who was grinning, had no time to dodge and was drenched all over his head, and even a stream of water went directly into his mouth.

(End of this chapter)