The price was negotiated so. Li Rui asked twenty Wuhuan cavalry to take off their armor and remove their swords and stay here as hostages, while Qi Yongle asked everyone to put away their weapons and make way for the road, allowing this army to pass through the mountain pass.

After the army passed through the mountain pass, it walked forward for more than ten miles before Qi Yongle sent people to chase after him and sent the twenty Wuhuan cavalry who served as hostages. There was also a convoy of cars coming together, with sacks of millet and wheat. One bag and two hukou, a total of 200 bags, and dozens of trucks were loaded. The person responsible for delivering the food was a thin middle-aged man. He smiled and said to Li Rui: "General, there are 400 hu of grain in total, please accept it with a smile! If you have any other requests, please come forward and we will try to satisfy it."

The implication is that as long as you don't attack us, everything will be easy.

We just want to survive.

Li Rui opened the bag and checked it bags, and found that the grain was quite mixed. There were more than 60 bags of wheat in the two hundred bags of grain, and more than 30 bags of black beans, and the remaining one hundred bags were millet. Sima Fan looked at the wheat and beans, with a long face. He pressed the hilt of the sword and wanted to have an attack, but Li Rui went to take a step forward and said to the middle-aged man with a smile: "The wheat and beans are good. I have taken it. You can transport these millet back."

As soon as this was said, not only the middle-aged man was surprised, but Sima Fan's eyes were even wide open, and he suspected that there was something wrong with his ears. Wheat and beans were very unpalatable. Even if Li Rui wanted to be a good person, he should still take the millet and let them transport the wheat beans back, right? He actually took the initiative to take the wheat beans that were difficult to swallow and let others transport the millet back. Isn't this a joke!

Sima Fan shouted: "Li Rui, are you suffering from a fever and burning your brain? Such a small amount of food is not enough for a few meals. You can only collect half of the food. Will this food bite people? Just collect half of it, but you still only collect wheat beans, don't have millet, you..."

Li Rui glared at him: "Shut up! Don't talk about the dishes I cooked for a while, don't even think of licking the pot!"

Sima Fan blushed and was so angry that he couldn't speak.

The middle-aged man also reacted and said to Li Rui: "General, this is not something you can do! You only have a few hundred hu of food and are already very tolerant, and now you only collect half of it. This... we can't rest assured!"

Li Rui said: "It's better to be worried than starve to death than to starve to death? You are not full. If I take away all the four hundred hu of grain, you are afraid you will starve to death? I can't do such an immoral matter." He asked someone to carry two vine baskets and put them in front of the middle-aged man, saying: "I bought these two hundred hu of grain, but the army was away and could not bring a large amount of wealth soap with the army. They could only pay the bill with only two hundred kilograms of coarse salt. Please don't dislike it."

The middle-aged man opened the oil paper covering the vine basket with his trembling hands. Sure enough, they were two large baskets of salt. The appearance was not very good, but he did not deliberately mix sand into it, clean. He took one and put it into his mouth. The pure salty taste made him feel urge to cry, and he kept saying: "Two hundred hu of grain is not worth so much, not worth so much!"

Li Rui said: "I can only take out the salt now, so you can accept it... Live well, the world will not be so chaotic forever. When peace comes, you can return to your hometown in Xiangcheng to live a normal life!"

The middle-aged man's chest was so excited that he couldn't suppress himself. He bowed deeply and said, "The general is really a kind and righteous person. I am the kindness of salt. I remember it in my family. I wish the general step by step and everything goes well!"

Li Rui waved his hand and said, "Don't talk about these things, go back quickly. I have to continue on the road and can't talk to you anymore."

The members of the Qi clan saluted together: "Greatly send the general!"

Li Rui returned a gift to them, and asked someone to bring the two hundred hu of wheat beans, follow the army, and continue moving forward.

The Qi clan members stood by the roadside, watched him walk a long way before excitedly carrying the two baskets of salt onto the ox cart and quickly transported them back to the fort. This is salt! The most lacking in the mountains is salt. It is still tolerated that lack of oil, but it is painful. The taste is not much better than death! Most of them have not eaten a grain of salt for a long time. These two baskets of salt seem extremely precious in their eyes, and they don’t even change it to a mountain of gold!

When Qi Yongle saw that they had half of the food and two baskets of salt were brought back, he was surprised. After figuring out the whole story, the old man sighed: "That Captain Li is really a kind and righteous person. There are really too few such good people!"

The middle-aged man said, "Class leader, we took advantage of them this time!"

That's right? I originally planned to buy peace with 400 hu of grain, but they only received half of it and gave back two or three hundred kilograms of salt! In this mountainous area, salt is priceless. If you can get these two or three hundred kilograms of salt, they have definitely gained more than two hundred hu of wheat beans. They have taken a big advantage.

Qi Yongle said: "We have recorded this kindness, and we will try to repay one or two if we have the chance in the future."

Qi Yongle was very satisfied, but Sima Fan was not satisfied. He felt that he was losing a lot. When he was camping, he complained to Li Rui: "You are so generous. You only receive 200 hu of grain for 400 hu of grain, but it is still a very unpalatable wheat and beans! That's all, you also gave them four hu of salt! Do you know what the price of salt is now? Four hu of salt, buying four hu of millet is more than enough, but you only use it to exchange for two hundred hu of wheat beans, you..."

Li Rui said: "I am happy!"

Sima Fan said: "You suffered a great loss!"

Li Rui said: "I am happy to suffer losses! This is the supplies that the major general is preparing to provide me with. Please take less care of!"

Sima Fan was so angry that he couldn't speak.

This is indeed the supplies Beigong Jing prepared for Li Rui. Beigong Jing said that the long-distance marching consumed a lot of energy and needed to replenish salt in time. It would be impossible not to bring more salt. As the way along, the possibility of not dealing with the forts along the way was basically zero. Those forts that were like oasis in the civilized desert were cut off due to the business roads and were also very short of salt. When they encountered the armed forces of the forts, they could use salt to buy them, which was often more effective than using a knife. So Beigong Jing prepared enough salt for Li Rui to eat for two thousand people and horses for one month, and a considerable part of them were asked to use Li Rui to settle the obstacles that he might encounter along the way.

The careful Beigong Jing took everything into consideration.

In other words, these salts are Li Rui's personal property. He can use them as much as he likes. Sima Fan is really not qualified to point fingers at him.

What Sima Fan did not expect was that this kind of sucker-like act of scattering coins had unexpected results. There were many ordinary people who entered the mountainous areas to escape war. They built forts with money and built forts with no money. Even Muzhai did not have the ability to build them, so they lived in caves. All the forces of all sizes were far away, but they did not stay away from each other. After all, people were social animals and needed communication. These poor people hiding in the mountains were no exception. Every once in a while, they would choose a place to go to the market to communicate with each other. Some villages and forts with good relationships were frequent, and even intermarried with each other. The news of Li Rui's transaction with the Qi clan quickly spread. Everyone knows that such a big tyrant came to the mountain, very rich... Well, it was very salty. You can exchange a little bit of food for a lot of white, without any sand salt!

The mountains are bustling now.

There is really a shortage of salt in the mountains. Many people have not even eaten a bite of salt for two or three years. Now there are officers and soldiers who come to the mountains to deliver salt, so what are you waiting for? They immediately took action. Those with sufficient food brought with them, and those with few food brought with them the animal skins and herbs they had accumulated. If they didn’t even have this, they picked a load of wild vegetables, chopped a few bundles of firewood, ran to the Jin army's marching route, and asked for a transaction when the army came. At the beginning, the Jin army was still very nervous, afraid of attacks, but soon everyone went away.

After that, we were settled, and we divided up a group of smart people to bargain with these mountain people and went all the way to purchase them. When we were camping, we couldn’t finish the wild vegetables, grains, and so on. Everyone felt that it was so good to follow Li Rui. Not to mention the more food they ate along the way, it was not surprising that we could eat fresh wild vegetables every day, and we didn’t even have to cut firewood. As long as they stopped to camp, a large number of mountain people would come to trade with them immediately. A little salt would be exchanged for a load of dry firewood!

Even the work of carrying water and feeding horses was outsourced. Some of these dirty and tiring tasks were rushed to do, just treat them to a hot meal and give them some salt to pay for their wages.

When he was near the territory of Nanyang, a fortress owner even invited Li Rui to visit his fortress. Everyone advised Li Rui not to go. These fortress owners were not good birds. Maybe they had secretly defected to the Hu people and went to his fortress as guests. Maybe they would be chopped by a knife and axe. But Li Rui didn't take it seriously and took more than a dozen people. He also borrowed other people's millstones to grind a lot of flour to make delicious pasta, and sat on the ground with the people in the fortress and ate it voraciously. When the army left the camp, the fortress owner sent it all the way, reluctant to leave... The things made by this guy were really delicious!

With this skill of spreading coins and cooking good food, Li Rui forced himself to turn the marches in the mountainous areas that were full of dangers into a tourist outing. He did not have any conflicts with the local snakes throughout the whole process. On the contrary, there were several forts and villages asking him to help deal with the disputes between them. Sima Fan was stunned, and even Jia You called him a ghost. After all, this area is famous for its poor mountains and rivers, and shrews and unlucky people. Even in peacetime, officers and soldiers were worried about entering the mountains. In this era of chaos, they could actually travel through the mountainous areas so easily. What is this not to see a ghost?

However, as Nanyang's territory gets closer, such good days are over.
Chapter completed!