Three days later, outside the north gate of Xiangcheng.

  The great banner of Zhengwu Escort Agency fluttered in the wind, and carriage after carriage poured out of the city gate like a fish. The escorts rode horses around them. In the last carriage, Zhang Feng sat cross-legged with his eyes closed to meditate, when the curtain suddenly opened, Wang Hu walked up to the carriage with a bow.

  "Zhang Shaoxia has been wronged, you wait on this cargo cart for a while first, and later I will go discuss with the merchant team's manager Qian Guanjia to let you switch to the horse carriage in front."

  "Wang Biao doesn't have to go to so much trouble, I'm fine here too." Zhang Feng shook his head in response.

  "Alright then, if Zhang Xiaoxia has any requests, just let my brothers outside know." Wang Hu saw that Zhang Feng didn't insist and got off the carriage.

  Wang Hu rode his horse to the front of the convoy, inserted the banner flag on the first carriage and shouted loudly: "Departure!" The crowd drove their carriages slowly forward.

  This merchant group is the first-class cloth merchant Qian family in Xiangyang City. Due to internal conflicts, pressure from competitors and insufficient ability of the successor, the Qian family hired the Zhengwu Escort Agency to escort them to open up new trade routes in the north. Qian Guan Jia is the leader of the merchant group and has some reservations about Wang Hu bringing personal companions on the journey, but since they still need to rely on the Zhengwu Escort Agency for protection, he did not openly oppose it.

  Under the escort of Zhengwu Escort Agency, the merchant team quickly left Huguang and entered Henan. In Huguang, Zhengwu Escort Agency could travel easily because they had the name of Qianjia Merchant Team to open the way on the surface, and in the underworld, Zhengwu Escort Agency was also famous for its prestige. But entering Henan Province is different, people here do not give face to Zhengwu Escort Agency, so the escort masters who were arrogant when entering Henan also became tense and serious.

  On this day, the merchant team had just passed through Nanyang Prefecture, and Qian Guan Jia, in order to hurry northward, let the caravan take a shortcut through the mountains. Wang Hu was originally not very willing, but these two roads had been taken before when escorting goods, and nothing too out of the ordinary had happened, plus Qian's generosity this time, so Wang Hu did not oppose it.

  A group of people were hiding behind the trees in a dense forest ten miles ahead, holding sharp weapons and even several hunting bows. They seemed to know that the Qian family's merchant caravan would pass through here and had set up an ambush in advance.

  The Qian family's vanguard had just left the forest when they heard "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" as a dozen or so sharp arrows shot out of the forest. Fortunately, the archer's aim was average, and only one unlucky guard was hit in the arm, but it wasn't serious.

  "Look out, enemy attack!" Wang Hu shouted loudly as he drew his knife and deflected an arrow.

  The escorts of Zhengwu Escort Agency did not panic, having experienced everything on the battlefield in those years. The escorts quickly dismounted and formed a battle array. It was precisely by relying on their experience of killing each other back then that the escorts of Zhengwu Escort Agency were able to stand out among the many escort agencies in Xiangyang City.

  The arrows in the woods didn't last long, and the group of people who had been hiding in advance rushed out directly when the arrows stopped, and the halberdiers quickly came up to meet them, and both sides began a fierce battle.

  At this time, in the rear of the fleet, Zhang Feng, who had been resting along the way, felt that the fleet had suddenly stopped. It was not yet time to stop for dinner and rest, and Zhang Feng was about to get out to ask what was going on when shouts came from outside the window.

  "Hurry up, something's happened ahead, let's go support the escorts."

  At this time, the team behind was all new recruits of Zhengwu Escort Agency. Wang Hu brought them out to train because he wanted to cultivate newcomers. He didn't expect something really happened. The new escorts in the rear were also panicked and heard that someone said they would go to the front to support, so they all rushed to the front.

  Zhang Feng heard the shouting outside the window and hesitated for a moment before not moving. Firstly, Wang Hu had not come to call him for help, and secondly, he also felt the dissatisfaction of the merchant group's manager towards him, and did not want to cause unnecessary trouble for Wang Hu.

  The halberd master from the rear went to support, and Zhang Feng was alone in the car, sitting quietly. Suddenly, some figures appeared on both sides of the road, rapidly approaching the horse-drawn carriage that was loading goods towards the rear.

  "Get to work, set fire to these goods and send a signal for the brothers up ahead to retreat. The Zhongwu Escort Agency is not a group of people to be trifled with." The leader ordered the others.

  Zhang Feng sighed and got out of the car after hearing this.

  "Boss, there's still someone here, a young punk, what should we do?"

  "Get rid of this idiot quickly."

  The men around him hastily brandished their knives and rushed towards Zhang Feng.

  On this side, Wang Hu is leading his men to fight the bandits. These bandits are strange, they charged down with a fierce momentum but gradually fell into a defensive position. At this time, the escorts in the back came over to support Wang Hu and others under the leadership of also Wang Bao.

  "Not good, we've fallen into their trap. The enemy is using a diversion tactic. I'm afraid the goods at the back of the convoy won't be safe. Zhang Shaoye is also there, hopefully he'll be alright."

  Wang Hu saw his own brother rushing over and his face changed color instantly, thinking of something.

  "Quickly drive back the enemy, don't hold back!" King Hu ordered loudly and hastily.

  Next to him, Qian Guanjia, who was under Ding's protection at home, seemed to have understood something and furrowed his brow. The guards who followed him also went to help drive away the enemy.

  The bodyguard heard Wang Hu's order and started to charge fiercely, instantly cutting down four or five people in front of him. The original task of the robbers was to block the bodyguard for a while, but now they had even less intention of fighting back, retreating continuously until they all escaped without a trace. Wang Bao raised his knife and wanted to chase after them, but Wang Hu stopped him with a raised hand.

  "Leave a team of people to guard, the others follow me to take a look at the back." Wang Hu led his men to hurry towards the back of the convoy, and Qian Guanjia also led the guards to follow.

  "Brother, are you saying there are enemies behind us too?" Wang Bao asked in doubt.

  Wang Hu looked at his brother who had muscles but no brains and felt helpless.

  Wang Bao saw his brother ignoring him and pouted, muttering: "I don't know if that little Zhang kid is dead or not."

  "Shut up!" Wang Hu glared at him fiercely and quickened his pace.

  Before long, the group of people felt that the convoy was behind them and found Zhang Feng standing by the road waiting for them. Wang Hu hurriedly rushed forward.

  "Zhang Shaoxia, are you okay? Who are these people?"

  "Ah, your brother just left when this group of people rushed out from the woods to burn our goods. I owed a favor to the noble escort agency, so I sent them away."

  Originally, there was a pile of people groaning on the ground beside Zhang Feng's feet.

  Wang Hu was overjoyed when he heard Zhang Feng's answer, feeling that this favor was well worth it. He waved his hand to signal his men to tie them up. At this time, Qian Guanjia also rushed over with his men and was shocked by the scene in front of him. After learning about the cause and effect of the matter from Wang Hu, he hurriedly ran over to express his gratitude to Zhang Feng.

  "What do you plan to do with these people?" Zhang Feng asked.

  "Kill all the rest except the leader and throw them into the chaotic burial ground!" Qian Guan Jia said with a hateful face. If these thieves really succeeded, although the Qian family would not be severely injured, they would still feel a headache, and as the manager of the merchant team, he had made such a big mistake that the master's house could not forgive him easily. Therefore, Qian Guan Jia hated this group of robbers to death and wished they were all dead.

  "This... whatever, deal with it yourself." Zhang Feng felt a bit ruthless but didn't stop him.

  Qian Guanjia saw Zhang Feng's benevolence and coldly smiled, saying: "Zhang Shaoxia, you are kind-hearted and cannot bear to kill them, but you must know that if you didn't have martial arts skills, you would have already died at their hands just now."

  Zhang Feng was taken aback and recalled the ferocious look on the bandit's face as he charged at him with a knife earlier, and for a moment, he was speechless.

  "This is the way of the world, being kind to your enemies is cruel to yourself. Zhang Xiaoxiao should go back to the carriage and think about it carefully." Qian Guan led Zhang Feng to the front to reassign a horse-drawn carriage.

  Wang Hu also managed to pry some words out of the bandit leader's mouth, and it turned out that this group of thieves were mountain bandits from nearby. A few days ago, a few generous people came to ask them to do this deal, and the leader, being greedy, agreed without much thought.

  Qian Guanjia flew into a rage: "It must be those damned Ma family, they've been trying to steal our business from us recently!"

  "That's strange, how did they know we were going to take this road." Qian Guanjia asked Wang Hu in doubt again, Wang Hu sighed and pointed at the bodyguard beside Qian Guanjia before turning around and leaving.

  Qian Guanjia's face turned gloomy as he glanced at Qian Tong, whose face had already turned pale with fear. He spoke in a cold voice: "Qian Tong, where have I wronged you? Where has the Qian family wronged you? How could you betray your own family?"

  Qian Tong fell to the ground with a thud and wailed: "Housekeeper, I was wrong! I shouldn't have been greedy for money. I really was wrong! Please spare my life, sir..."

  While scolding himself, Qian Guan's family coldly glanced at him and turned away.

  Qian Tong thought that Qian Guanjia had bypassed him and was about to get up, but Qian Guanjia's icy voice came from the front: "Buried alive." The door guard directly tied up Qian Tong and took him away for disposal along with the body of Wang Hu's killed leader.

  Zhang Feng sat in the new car, contemplating whether he was too soft-hearted. At this time, Wang Hu walked in and saw Zhang Feng like that, saying: "Young Master Zhang, I'll call you 'old brother' for now, do you think these people should die or not?"

  Zhang Feng didn't know how to respond, so he remained silent. Wang Hu also didn't expect Zhang Feng to answer and continued to talk to himself: "If I had to say it, they should die. Think about it, if they succeeded, first of all, Qian Guanjia would be punished for his incompetence or even expelled from the Qian family, which is no different from being dead. Secondly, our Zhengwu Escort Agency would not receive any reward due to the failure of the escort mission, and we need money to comfort the families of our fallen brothers and to support the living ones. Therefore, they must die, because only if they die can we live."

  "Zhang, think carefully." Wang Hu patted Zhang Feng's shoulder and got off the bus.

  Zhang Feng listened to Wang Hu's words and thought of what Qian Guanjia had said before, he found that both of them made sense. It wasn't whether this group of people should die or not, but they must die.

  "I can no longer be so soft-hearted, especially when it comes to foreigners. If I don't take action, it would be disrespecting the Han people who died at their hands." Zhang Feng secretly made up his mind...

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