Needless to say, several of the Ma family's servants must have gone to find trouble for the Zeng family's mother and daughter, so the Peng family sisters and the captain all agreed with Liu Ziguang's proposal, and they quickly returned along the original route.
When I arrived at the thatched house, I saw several evil slaves showing off their power. The leader of the group, a slant-eyed guy, raised a piece of paper with writing on it in his hand and shouted loudly: "Zeng, don't be disrespectful. It is natural to pay back debts."
, if you can’t get the money, I’ll use your daughter to pay the bill.”
Zeng Cheng stood at the door of the thatched house with an angry look, and angrily shouted: "When did we borrow money from the Ma family? Don't make things out of nothing!"
The guy who took the IOU smiled proudly, raised the paper in Yang's hand and said, "Why is such a pretty little lady so hard of brains? Who lent you the money last month when your mother was sick and was taking medicine to see a doctor? Here it is.
You don’t recognize your own autograph and signature, do you?”
"Mr. Feng, the teacher in the neighboring village, lent me twenty taels of silver to buy medicine. How did he become your Ma family?" Zeng Cheng remembered that last month, his mother was seriously ill and could not afford it. The neighboring fishermen's family was also in great difficulty.
She scraped together more than two taels of silver, which was not enough to get medicine, and the illness could not be delayed. Fortunately, Feng Wencai, a new teacher from the neighboring village, took the initiative to lend her some money. In desperation, she was unwilling to accept help from someone she was not familiar with.
I had no choice but to accept the money, and wrote an IOU on the spot with the pen and ink of my private school, stating that I wanted to borrow twenty taels of silver from Feng Wencai. The piece of paper was clearly his own handwriting, but how did Feng Wencai become Ma Wencai? Smart
Zeng Cheng understood immediately, "It turned out to be a trap deliberately designed by you. There is something wrong with the ink."
The guy holding the IOU grinned: "Yes, Feng Wencai is Ma Wencai, and Ma Wencai is the name of our young master. Today the young master sent me, Ma Fu, to tell you that this debt must be collected now.
You have to give it whether you give it or not. If you have money, give it back, but if you don’t have money, you have to pay it back. Little lady, what should you do?"
The standard of taking advantage of others' danger and taking advantage of them. This ancient version of Yang Bailao's story made Liu Ziguang very unhappy. He suppressed the anger of drawing a knife to kill people and stepped forward and said: "Your name is Ma Fu, isn't it? You are just a second-rate man."
Ten taels of silver? I gave it to you, sir. Go back and tell your young master, don’t bully others just because you have two stinky money.”
Ma Fu glanced sideways at Liu Ziguang and took a look at the other person's worth. He saw that he was dressed as a person of some status, but he was not a local. He was probably a passing ship passenger. At that time, he had some suspicions in his mind.
"Master, I'm sorry. Our young master loaned out this debt as a donkey's profit. Now the principal plus interest... Well, let me do the math. Now the interest plus interest totals eighty taels of silver. You can afford it.
"?" Ma Fu opened his mouth like a lion, trying to scare Liu Ziguang away.
"It was obviously twenty taels of silver, but how long did it take before it turned into eighty taels? Even if it is a loan shark, it doesn't make sense!" Zeng Cheng asked Ma Fu. There were already tears in his eyes.
"Exactly, our Ma family originally started by lending money. No matter how high the interest rate is, it is reasonable. If you don't believe this evil, you can go to Huai'an County to beat the drum and complain, and see how the county magistrate can beat you!"
The Ma family is 100% sure whether to move the government or solve the problem privately. Dealing with two poor and helpless fishermen is not just pinching the snails with three fingers - it's a sure thing.
"It's just money, I gave it to you!" Liu Ziguang stretched out his hand to the second lady and said, "Bring me the silver note." Because Liu Ziguang didn't carry much silver with him, he knew that Peng Jingwei, a little money lover, always carried a lot of gold and silver with him.
So I asked her directly for money. However, to outsiders, it seemed that the second lady was Liu Ziguang's maid. Because the current situation required a unified communication, the second lady still cooperated and took out a banknote and slapped it in Liu Ziguang's hand.
Liu Ziguang took a look at the silver note and put it directly into Ma Fu's hand: "Ma Fu, look at it. It's a hundred taels of silver. Grandpa recognized it! It's a silver note from Rishengchang bank in Anhui. That's the extra money."
There is no need for you to change for twenty taels, and the accounts of your Ma family and Zeng family, mother and daughter, will be wiped off in one go."
Ma Fu was furious. He really dared to go against the Ma family. He took the banknote in his hand but put the IOU away. He glanced at Liu Ziguang sideways and said, "Friend, the strong dragon can't defeat the local snake. I
No matter what path you are in, if you take care of this matter today, I'm afraid you will get into big trouble for yourself. The Ma family in Huaiyin is not a friendly person. I accepted the money as if I had never met you.
Let you go and disperse." The few servants behind also cracked their fist knuckles to intimidate Liu Ziguang and the others.
"I have seen scoundrels, but I have never seen such scoundrels. You lions asked for eighty taels of silver and we tolerated it. But if you take the money and pay back the debt, is it too shameless?" Peng Jingwei couldn't help but jump out and asked.
Ma Fu.
Just as Ma Fu was about to retaliate, Liu Ziguang intervened: "Very well, we don't want the hundred taels anymore. It will all be used as funeral expenses for you." "What funeral expenses?" Before Ma Fu could understand, Liu Ziguang said:
His foot flew away and he fell straight into the mud. His head was covered with mud and his mouth was full of mud. He was in a miserable state. Two servants rushed over to help him. The other two ignorant servants waved their riding whips to hit Liu Ziguang, but Liu Ziguang also kicked him over.
, Ma Fu over there can no longer stand up, Liu Ziguang is stronger, and his ribs may have been broken by the kick.
Liu Ziguang has been taking the polite route recently. He doesn't carry a sword, but just tucks a long dagger in his boots. Now he is pulling out the dagger, walking up to lift one of Ma Fu's legs, preparing to pick his hamstring.
"No." Peng Jinrong hurriedly stopped Liu Ziguang. This place is no better than an iron factory. If you commit serious crimes at will, you will definitely be in trouble. Besides, even if you kill these people, it will only bring more trouble to the Zeng family and her daughter.
Liu Ziguang also realized this. He made a few vicious gestures on Ma Fu's feet with a dagger, then found the IOU from his arms, and then threw him into the mud. "You can also bear the funeral expenses."
I can't afford it. In addition to paying off the debts of the Zeng family and her daughter, I'll leave the rest to you carers. If you let me know that you still dare to come to trouble, I will definitely destroy your Ma family." Suddenly he saw the clothes on his body.
Ni Dian recalled what happened just now when their clothes were splashed with dirt, and he forced all the Ma family's servants to roll in the mud a lot before letting them go.
Ma Fu was in so much pain that he couldn't speak. As soon as the servants put him on the horse, he was pulled off by Liu Ziguang. "You guys with no skills are not allowed to ride horses. You can lead the horses away!" Several servants who looked like mud monkeys had no choice but to
After carrying the horse on his back and leading the horse to stagger away, a brave servant asked: "May I ask who these people are? Let's go back and explain to the young master."
"Go back and tell you, young master, that we are members of the Peng family of the Liguo Iron Works. If we want to regain our position, we will accompany you regardless of whether it is Xuzhou Prefecture or Huaiyin County." The second young lady would never miss an opportunity to speak on such an occasion.
The servants left in despair. Zeng Cheng hurriedly came over to express his thanks and said a blessing to Liu Ziguang. Liu Ziguang repeatedly waved his hand and said that it was necessary to draw a sword to help when the road was rough. He returned the IOU to Zeng Cheng.
At this time, even Mrs. Zeng, who had been in the house, came out to say thank you. It turned out that she had just recovered from a serious illness and could not see the wind, so she did not leave the house easily. I saw that Mrs. Zeng's face was pale, and her face looked very much like her daughter's. They were both exquisite.
Her delicate facial features, but the vicissitudes of time have left many traces, and her temples are already a little gray. She said a long blessing to Liu Ziguang and the others. Liu Ziguang hurriedly returned the gift, and Peng Jingwei lay behind her and said in her sister's ear: "Look, once
Madam's posture is so elegant and her manners are perfect, even the royal wife of the imperial court can only be like this."
After this incident, the distance between the two parties suddenly became closer. Zeng Cheng made a pot of tea simmered with snow water to entertain them. They sat and talked, talking about Ma Wencai, who was really a tyrant in Huaiyin County. His father relied on him in the early years.
He made his fortune from loan sharking, and now runs several casinos, and also occupies a good piece of water in Hongze Lake. It must have been when Ma Wencai went to the lake to play, he fell in love with Zeng Cheng, and later asked someone to send him a betrothal gift, and directly told Ma
The Ma family wanted to buy a concubine, but of course Mrs. Zeng refused. The Ma family was unwilling to do such a low-tech thing as snatching a bride, so they used a little trick. When the Zeng family was in urgent need of money, they sent a teacher to pretend to be a concubine.
A teacher from a neighboring village, whose pseudonym was Feng Wencai, lent Zeng Cheng twenty taels of silver. He then removed two dots from the character "Feng" and changed it into the character "horse". Naturally, he became the Zeng family's creditor. If he didn't have money to repay the debt, he would take someone away. Anyone who dared to disobey would be punished.
There are ways to fight even if you refuse to accept the lawsuit. The court in Huaiyin County is almost run by the Ma family, and you win the lawsuit rather than lose.
Fortunately, Liu Ziguang and the others have a good background. Maybe the Ma family will betray the National Railway Works to save face, and they will not harass them again for a while. The Zeng family mother and daughter did not want to repay the favor, so they invited Liu Ziguang and his party to have another dinner. Forget it.
I agreed once I had enough time to travel.
Zeng Cheng sent Liu Ziguang and his entourage a long way away and stood on the hillside for a long time watching them off. They didn't mention it when they returned to the ship.
When they came back, there were no longer four people, but they were followed by a dozen attendants carrying sedans. There were no people in the two small sedans. They were filled with rice, white noodles, soybean oil, pork, Huai salt, and several bottles of soy sauce and vinegar.
, two pieces of fine cloth, it is still very troublesome to buy these things when I live in a small fishing village. I can only buy a few coins for a few coins when the salesman passes through the villages and towns. I can't even think of a whole piece of cloth, I can only sew.
Mending and wearing old clothes. It is difficult for ordinary people to eat meat, oil and meat. Liu Ziguang took these from the boat, as well as several boxes of fine rouge, gouache and osmanthus oil. They are all top-grade for the Peng sisters' own use. Generally speaking,
You can't buy such good cosmetics in small cities, so they brought them specially for Zeng Cheng. Since they don't accept cash, they should try to give them some practical daily necessities. Liu Ziguang and the two sisters thought so.
The group of people walked to a place still a mile away from the residence of Zeng's mother and daughter. They saw a wisp of light smoke rising across the hillside. The captain said happily that the Zeng's wife had already started cooking for us. But
When everyone crossed the hillside, they only saw the burned-down thatched house and the mother and daughter sitting on the ground crying.
It turned out that it was not smoke, but the remaining smoke after the mother and daughter's only shelter was burned.