After all, Chu Muzu didn't drink the bottle of gourd wine. He said he would drink it after the big event was accomplished.
Early the next morning, Yuan Feng led more than thirty people to help renovate Chu Jian's mud house. The walls were reinforced, new thatch was covered, and the courtyard walls and fence gates were also renovated. People in the town saw
They all wondered if these boys had recently learned from a well-known mason. Although they were not very efficient at doing this work, they were extremely attentive and meticulous.
How did they know that civil engineering was an important course taught by Yuan Feng, and the young men treated the Chu Jian family as a fortress to cultivate it?
The man no longer drank to make money, and his son was promising again. Chu Jian's mother seemed to be very happy. She boiled water and made tea to entertain everyone, and from time to time she went to a deserted place to wipe the corners of her eyes.
Finally, Yuan Feng sent ten more sheep, three males and seven females, and gave them to Chu Jian's mother to feed. Chu Jian's family was moved to tears and said nothing about the salt trade.
, well kept.
After preparing for a few days at home, I collected dozens of taels of silver, luggage, dry food, and weapons. They set out on the road of selling smuggled salt. For such a big thing, it was natural that Yuan Feng would personally lead the team and go with them.
There were also three or four older brothers who did not bring long pole weapons because they were too eye-catching. All they brought were long knives and bows and arrows. Of course, they also brought a lot of concealed weapons such as iron slingshots and sharp knives. In addition to each person,
In addition to his own war horses, he also brought a few more horses in case of emergency.
Chu Mu Legs served as the guide. He packed up quickly early in the morning, tied his leggings tightly, and washed his hair. He had not drunk for several days, and he looked quite energetic. The father and son arrived at the gate of the fort and were just about to get on the horse.
, suddenly heard someone shouting: "Brother Wooden Legs, wait a minute." Looking back, he turned out to be the old money-making guy Lin Carpenter.
Lin Carpenter ran over panting, and opened the cloth bag in his hand. Inside was a delicate wooden leg, painted with colors, and covered with shoes. There were leather sleeves and leather straps at the connection points. This set was comparable to Chu wooden legs.
That wooden stake is many times stronger.
"Come on, put it on and try my skills." Carpenter Lin greeted.
"Old Lin, what are you..." Chu Muzu was stunned.
"Let's make an agreement first. We have to calculate the money. The three jugs of wine I owed you earlier will be used to pay off the bill." After Lin Carpenter finished speaking, he couldn't help but help Chu Mu Leg put on the new prosthetic leg. Don't mention it.
After the tube is put down, if you don't move around, you will look like a healthy person.
The onlookers all praised the wooden leg for its good work. Lin Carpenter smiled sheepishly, looked up and saw Chu wooden leg's eyes filled with tears, and said seriously: "Old Chu, we didn't do our job properly before, which made our mother-in-law and children suffer."
Now, Mr. Bao Da is taking you to do big things, but you have to be more careful. This business of selling private salt is unusual. Take care, I will wait for you to come back and have a drink."
As he spoke, he patted Chu Muzui's shoulder. Chumuzui nodded vigorously and put his intact leg in the stirrup. Lin Carpenter helped him support him. He turned over on his horse and gave Lin Carpenter a fist in the air: "
gone!"
The young men also said goodbye to their relatives. In the sound of farewell, the team left Shibali Fort. Looking at these lively young men, someone in the crowd said: "Why don't I feel like I'm going to do business, but more like doing business?"
We are going to fight."
Someone immediately said: "This business of selling salt is almost the same as fighting."
Zhao Ding'an led the rest of his brothers and sent him ten miles away. When he was leaving, Yuan Feng said to him: "Don't forget what you said."
Zhao Ding'an said: "Don't worry, I know it."
The salt sales team headed straight for the mouth of the river. This town is located a hundred miles north of Lanzhou Prefecture and close to the Yellow River. There are ships leading to Ningxia and the Hetao area. It is an important commercial and transportation hub. Usually caravans will stop here.
People stayed here to exchange goods and information, so it was very prosperous. Unlike many places in the northwest, there was a government presence here.
The man who cut off the right leg of Chu Mu's leg sixteen years ago was named Li, and he was the third oldest. The five brothers in his family originally had no names. It was Li Da and Li Er who just called them casually. They changed their names after they became famous as smugglers of salt.
The names are as follows: Dragon, Tiger, Leopard and Biaolang. As their business grew, they could no longer live in the local area. The brothers bought a large house in Lanzhou Prefecture, and also had shops at the mouth of the river. They had hundreds of people armed with hundreds of camels and mules.
Horses are quite powerful.
Whether it is salt, iron, tea or horses, there are people who have a monopoly. If you want to do business, you can either take the goods from others and become a small dealer, or risk being killed to compete. There is no doubt that Yuan Feng chose
It's the latter.
After several days of trekking, we finally arrived at Hekou Town. A few people led their horses into the city. Zhang Tietou thrust a bunch of copper coins into the doorman's hand and said: "Thank you for your hard work, take it to drink tea." Then everything was fine, and the soldiers guarding the door were all ready.
These people completely ignored the looming hilts of knives in their luggage. It's no wonder that the businessman traveling to and from Hekou Town didn't carry a knife.
Although this Hekou Town is a town, its city walls are taller and more imposing than that of Luyang County. The earthen walls are covered with bricks and the flags on them are also bright. It looks like a commercial town. The town is full of inns and shops, and outside the city
The dockside is extremely busy all day long, with coolies loading and unloading goods, horse-drawn carriages and camel teams lining up in long lines, and there is a lot of traffic.
Yuan Feng and others came to the town and checked into the largest inn. Originally, the waiter saw that they were not good-looking, and refused to accept them because it was full, but Zhang Tietou threw a ten tael of silver on the counter.
At this time, the waiter smiled and said repeatedly: "Yes, yes."
Two guesthouses were opened. After everyone checked in, Zhang Tietou complained: "Brother Feng, you really don't know how expensive firewood and rice are. This Yuelai Inn is the most expensive in Hekou. The guesthouse costs five qian per day.
, the sheep went down after half a night's sleep, and if we stayed for half a month, our capital would be gone, so what business could we do?"
Yuan Feng said: "You must spend what you should spend. There are two taels of silver here. You can use it to get close to the waiter in the shop. Don't deliberately inquire about anything to avoid his suspicion. Just make some insinuations to understand the Li family's local business.
, I don’t need to tell you what to do specifically.”
Zhang Tietou chuckled and said, "I'm good at this, don't worry."
After a tiring journey, everyone took a rest after washing up. In the evening, Zhang Tietou came back and said with a proud look on his face: "I asked all the questions. Li Bao lives in a shop at the mouth of the river. There are more than thirty workers in total, but
There are only eight thugs, and the rest are accountants and coolies. Li Bao goes to Tongrenju in the pub next door every night, so we can just..." He made a sign of cutting a melon.
Yuan Feng said calmly: "Let's see and then talk. When the time comes, everyone will look at my eyes and act. If I nod, I will take action. If you don't nod, you must not move. Do you understand?"
Everyone agreed in a low voice. Only Chu Muzu looked a little excited. After sixteen years, he was about to kill his enemy. How could he not be excited?
After packing their weapons, they left the inn and went to Tongren's Residence next door. They asked for a table in a remote location, ordered a few dishes and a bottle of wine, and ate and drank slowly, waiting for Li Bao's arrival.
The businessmen in Hekou Town were very diligent. They waited until it was completely dark before the tavern started to fill up. The merchants who came in had accents from all over the country, and they were all wearing silks and furs. The tavern was almost full, except for one table.
People and other people also had a tacit understanding not to sit at that table.
After a while, there was a warm greeting at the door: "The third master is here. Please come in and thank the third master for the reward." A guy with an arrogant look walked in swaggering, wearing a black silk robe and a smile on his face.
Dao Scar, followed by four short-handed men with knives on their waists, protected this guy and went directly to the unoccupied table. The guests nearby greeted him one after another, but he ignored them.
"Waiter, the old rules are eight dishes, three bottles of wine, and the bill is settled." A thug shouted.
The waiter is a young man, only fifteen or sixteen years old. He just ran over to pour tea. When he heard this, he said bitterly: "It's a debt again. Third Master, you owe more than fifty taels. If you don't give it to the shop, the waiter will
It has to be shut down.”
Li Bao was slightly angry, groaned and said nothing, and the thug behind him yelled: "The third master came to your place to give you face! If you keep chirping, believe it or not, I will demolish your store."
The waiter in the shop turned red with anger and said: "The third master has too much face, we can't afford it. It's unscrupulous to do such a big business and still default on the debt!"
This time Li Bao was really angry. He slapped the table and shouted: "If you dare to say that I've cheated on you and betrayed you, hit me!"
The four thugs swarmed forward, but were stopped by the shopkeeper who rushed over.
"What, do you want to be beaten too?" the thug threatened.
The shopkeeper knelt down with a plop: "Third Master, you don't care about the faults of small people. My nephew just came from my hometown and doesn't understand the rules. I will always apologize to you for him. If there is a debt, it will be a debt. It is us who are willing to take the credit here, Third Master."
A blessing that no one else can even hope for."
"Hmph, this sentence is like a human saying. Let him slap himself a hundred times, and I will spare him." Li Bao said.
"This..." The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment.
"What kind of bad tea is this! Bah." Li Bao took a sip of tea, sprayed the water on the shopkeeper's face, and cursed: "You just serve the third master with this tea, don't you want a beating?"
The shopkeeper knew that Li Bao was making excuses again, so he said: "Xiao Qiang knows that he is wrong, let him whip himself." He then tugged on his nephew's sleeve and said, "Xiao Qiang, why don't you apologize to the Third Master?"
The waiter's chest was heaving with anger, his fists were clenched, and his eyes were blazing with anger, as if they were about to explode.
At this time, Ye Kai whispered in Yuan Feng's ear: "Look at his hands."
Yuan Feng glanced sideways and saw that the tips of the fists of the waiter's hands were flat! He would never be able to achieve this level without practicing hard kung fu for more than ten years. He smiled slightly and said: "Wait."
After a while, the anger in the waiter's eyes extinguished. He stood there and started slapping himself in the mouth. While slapping, he said, "I deserve to die. I was wrong. I'm sorry, Third Master."
Li Bao was then satisfied and said to the shopkeeper: "Okay, hurry up and serve the food."
The shopkeeper said: "Thank you, Third Master, for your kindness. This meal is mine." After saying that, he went to the kitchen to serve the food himself.
When the whole thing happened, no one of the drinkers nearby came out to dissuade him, and no one even watched the excitement. They just lowered their heads and drank their own wine. It seemed that everyone was used to this kind of thing.
The waiter in the shop didn't do anything, which made Yuan Feng a little disappointed and had to re-judge the situation. Just when he was assessing the opponent's thug's skill, Li Bao's eyes suddenly glanced over and fixed on Chu Mu Zui's face.
"Hey, isn't this Brother Wooden Legs? We meet him everywhere in life."