The Military Governor in Dream of the Red Chamber

"Old man Sun, have you gone mad?" Wang Baisheng exclaimed.

He couldn't believe that this usually cowardly old man could be so bold; it was as if he had become a completely different person.

Zhao Zheng didn't hesitate and followed suit second. He plunged a knife into one man's heart, and after pulling it out, he looked at the still somewhat stunned crowd and said coldly, "Everyone has a part in what happened today. Anyone who says anything more is courting death."

Upon hearing this, Wang Baisheng quickly realized what was going on.

That's right. As long as everyone has the blood of the Sun family, they're all in the same boat.

As long as no one speaks out, and all the members of the Sun family caravan are executed, how will the Sun family know that they were the ones who committed the murders?

"Everyone has to kill one person," Wang Baisheng shouted. "You sick cat, daring to beat me to it..."

As Wang Baisheng was speaking, he saw Ding Heihu rush past, and he hurriedly followed.

Running up to the terrified caravan members, Wang Baisheng snatched the knife from Sun Tiechong's hand and immediately slashed at one of them.

The caravan members were quickly executed, and Wu Jiangsheng and Zhou Shitou were summoned and each killed one person.

"Take a few men and bury the body," Jia Chen said to Jia Mao.

Jia Mao nodded and immediately told the group to leave.

As long as they don't say anything, the Sun family won't think much of it even if they later discover that the caravan has disappeared.

After all, the Chahar tribe's southward journey coincided with the departure of their caravan, so it was possible that they encountered some mishap.

Besides these, they also had to face robbery by bandits, and even a powerful merchant caravan like the Sun family could not guarantee their safety.

Everyone split up and took everything they could carry; anything they couldn't, they burned.

Back at Qianshandun, the eastern sky was already turning white.

Liu Cheng and Sun Tiechong reported their findings to Jia Chen.

The 23 heads of the Chahar tribe were seized, a truly great victory.

It should be noted that in recent years, border towns have rarely cut off more than 10 heads of the northern barbarians. This is mainly because the northern barbarians come and go like the wind, and the border troops dare not attack. Even getting one or two heads is a major achievement and is considered a great victory.

Many more were cases of killing innocent people and claiming credit for their crimes.

Jia Chen immediately instructed Sun Tiechong to perform some anti-corrosion and dehydration treatments on the severed heads.

It's the end of July now. Although the weather has cooled down a bit, if this head isn't treated, it will rot very quickly.

Since Jia Chen and his men didn't have lime, they used wood ash and salt to dehydrate and preserve the heads.

The salt was found in the caravan's cargo.

Salt was a very precious commodity for the border troops, and they couldn't afford to use much of it under normal circumstances.

However, compared to these heads and military achievements, I'm not so reluctant to part with them now.

Also, we found a lot of salt with the caravan, so we don't need salt now.

There were over one hundred taels of silver and ten taels of gold.

There wasn't much gold or silver, which didn't surprise Jia Chen.

The Sun family's caravan was clearly headed towards the Later Jin, as they would only bring back gold, silver, furs, ginseng, and other valuables if they returned from there.

They've just set off; they can't possibly be carrying much gold or silver.

The caravan's goods mainly consisted of tea, salt, pots and pans, as well as spirits and gunpowder.

Jia Chen examined the gunpowder carefully and found that its quality was far superior to that of the gunpowder on his own platform.

The gunpowder used on the platform was powdered gunpowder, which was of inferior quality.

The gunpowder used by the caravan was granular, of superior quality, and more powerful.

The fact that the gunpowder supplied to the enemy was better than that in the army filled Jia Chen with sorrow, but that was the reality.

The 55 horses were all top-quality warhorses, far exceeding the horses used by the Da Hong Dynasty army.

There are more than 500 cattle and sheep, which belong to Emubu. Jia Chen has no intention of keeping them for the time being.

Besides these, there were also swords, bows and arrows, leather armor, and other items left behind after killing the northern barbarians.

Of course, after Ding Heihu and his men's fortress was breached, their weapons and pots and pans were also collected and taken away by the Northern barbarians.

Even the broken bowls and pots of the soldiers would be sought-after items on the grasslands.

Now all of these have fallen into Jia Chen's hands.

Jia Chen didn't care too much about swords and spears.

What concerned him most were the gunpowder and three-barreled guns on the various watchtowers.

Nine three-barreled guns, and over one hundred pounds of inferior gunpowder.

Even the worst quality gunpowder is still gunpowder, which Jia Chen desperately needs.

Including the gunpowder from the caravan, Jia Chen now has about 600 jin of gunpowder.

If the northern barbarians retaliate, Jia Chen has no good solutions; they can only strengthen their defenses.

Gunpowder can play a significant role in defense.

With this gunpowder, Jia Chen felt a little more confident.

Jia Chen had some ideas on how to use the gunpowder, and he needed to put them into action immediately. Regardless of whether the Northern Barbarians would come or not, he had to prepare for the worst.

Of course, the addition of Ding Heihu and his men increased their numbers, which gave them even more confidence.

"Hey, come on, let's drink and eat!" Wang Baisheng placed a bowl of wine in front of Jia Chen and handed him a roasted lamb leg.

Jia Chen smiled and accepted the wine and lamb leg.

Since they had won a great victory and were drinking, Jia Chen couldn't stop Wang Baisheng and the others from drinking to celebrate.

However, this was only for one day, and it was stipulated that no one could get drunk. People would drink in shifts, and those on guard duty would naturally have to stay sober.

Beef and mutton are plentiful.

This made everyone extremely happy. You see, these low-ranking soldiers often didn't even have enough to eat, and they hadn't tasted meat in who knows how long.

Jia Chen didn't drink the wine. Instead, he held up the wine and gestured for Zhao Zheng to take some wine and food as they walked towards Emubu.

"Taiji, all the people from the Da Hong Dynasty caravan we saw earlier have disappeared. Could it be that they left?" one of Omubu's guards asked.

"Impossible, right? Their vehicles and goods are all here. Does that mean they don't want them anymore?" another guard said.

"Shut up!" Omubu snapped.

Although his subordinates did not speak Chinese, there were still some people on the other side who understood it.

Omubu certainly noticed this, as he did not see a single person from the caravan.

He had already guessed one of the outcomes.

Whether it was to seize the goods or for some other reason, the entire caravan should have been killed.

Thinking of this, Omubu couldn't help but worry about his safety.

Putting aside the fact that they had cattle and sheep, these soldiers could kill to cover up the caravan's goods, so they could naturally kill the three of them as well.

And perhaps they were afraid that the fact that they killed the caravan members would be leaked?

Killing someone to silence them is the best way to prevent information from leaking out.

After much thought, Emubu felt somewhat apprehensive.

At this moment, he saw Jia Chen and Zhao Zheng coming towards him, and he quickly suppressed his unease and stood up.

"Omubu Taiji, come, drink!" Jia Chen handed a bowl of wine to Omubu.

"Thank you, Chief Jia." Emubu accepted the wine with a smile, his face showing no sign of anything amiss. "Then I won't stand on ceremony, good wine~~"

Without any hesitation, Emubu took a big gulp.

That's certainly true when it comes to good wine.

This kind of liquor is rare on the grasslands; it can only be obtained through trade with the Great Hong Dynasty.

Otherwise, they would head south to plunder.

Therefore, these spirits were only available to people of the upper class on a regular basis.

The liquor from the Sun family caravan was of superior quality, even stronger than what he usually drank.