Li Siye slapped the table and asked, "Do you have any drinks?"
Several postmen didn't want to pay attention to him. Only the leader stood behind the platform, fiddled with the chips, put the silver on the scale and weighed it. He counted out three hundred copper coins and strung them with hemp rope. He answered in his mouth.
: "There's only turbid wine, fifty cents per liter, five hundred cents per dou, how much do you want to drink?"
"Fifty dollars, I can't afford to drink. This is a big deception in the store."
The postman walked over and handed the bunch of money to Zhang Yuanli, and counterattacked coldly: "The shop is bullying customers? Is this a shop? This is the official post of the Anxi Protectorate! It is used to convey military information and receive passing officials.
! You are such bastards, unruly people, and business travelers! It is very gracious to the Governor's Palace to take advantage of the convenience of resting in the post station. Are you still thinking of saving money and getting cheaper? It's cheaper for you. What do the court's post horses eat? If you are not convinced
, you can go to the Duhu Mansion to get the paperwork. Once you have the paperwork, I will take care of you! If you don’t have the paperwork, just pay for food and drink obediently, and stop talking so much here!"
Li Siye laughed. This postman had sharp teeth and a sharp mouth. We would settle accounts with him later.
Zhang Yuanli handed the three hundred coins brought up by the postman back to the postman and ordered: "Break the money into six liters of wine, and give three liters to the military commander behind me."
The postman thought that Zhang Yuanli wanted to curry favor with this knife-wielding woman, and said disdainfully: "You have to look at people when you pretend to be generous. These Qiuba are dog-faced ones. They will bite people when they fall in love. Be careful if they take away your property."
Li Siye touched the handle of the knife at his waist again, and said with a ferocious face: "You talk so rudely, believe it or not, I will cut off your ears!"
The postman turned his head angrily, but Zhang Yuanli still handed the money out and said in a deep voice: "No need to say more, just get the wine."
"OK."
The postman turned around and entered the inner room behind the platform. He quickly raised a wine jar with one hand, placed a large bowl in front of Zhang Yuanli and Li Siye respectively, lifted three cups of bamboo into the wine jar, and poured it into the bowl.
.
Li Siye reached out to pick up the bowl and took a sip. He sprayed it into the corner of the wall. This was not a show. He had never drank such bad wine in his life.
"It's sour and astringent. This wine is so damn awful!"
Zhang Yuanli naturally didn't say anything. The postmen glanced at him coldly and endured their resentment.
After all, wine is made from grain. No matter how unpleasant it was, Li Siye still took a few sips, and then caused trouble again due to his drunkenness.
He pointed at the Persian traders and asked: "How much did you spend to stay in this inn?"
The vendors were out and about, always making compromises for fear of getting into trouble. They had to think about such a problem for a long time. After turning their heads and looking at the faces of the postmen, they raised five fingers to Li Siye.
"Master Jun, five hundred dollars is a price we can all afford."
Li Siye spat and said: "Of course you merchants can afford it. As long as you can go back with your head saved after a trip, you will make a profit!"
He drank half of the wine in the bowl, then stood up with a knife in his hand. He looked slightly drunk and asked the postmen: "Which of the posthouses in this station is empty? Take me to have a rest."
Who among the postmen was willing to go with him? He just waved his hands in disgust and said, "Look for it yourself. Push the door to see which room is empty. Go in and rest yourself!"
When Li Siye left, the merchants breathed a sigh of relief and began to talk to each other in low voices. The postman warned the merchants: "That Qiu Ba just now is unreasonable and unreasonable. He may even do anything to kill people and steal wealth. Don't do it."
Contact him and talk to him. If something happens, don't blame me for not warning you."
Several Persian merchants agreed one after another: "Don't worry, military lord, we are also business travelers who often travel on the Silk Road. Naturally, we dare not provoke these vicious people."
Zhang Yuanli sat cross-legged and listened quietly for a long time. He felt that he could not get anything useful from the vendors or the postmen, so he left the thatched hall on the pretext of taking a rest.
…
The stars hang over the plains, the night sky is bright, and Chihe Station is hidden in this primitive wilderness. It is only separated from the dangerous and dark world outside by an earth wall. In the middle of the night, the sound of howling wolves can be heard one after another surrounding the station.
Li Siye lit an oil lamp in the post house. Zhang Yuanli took out a copper oil pot from his pocket and filled the lamp with oil. The two of them sat cross-legged in front of an earthen table. On the Datong shop behind them, two passing businessmen snored.
Voice.
"This Chihe Post is the most famous for robbing customers among all the posts in Anxi. You can calculate that with the accommodation fee of 500 yuan per head, there will be two groups of caravans with more than 20 people staying here tonight.
The daily income is 10,000 yuan, deducting their daily expenses of raising horses, wages and station maintenance, more than 5,000 yuan..."
"No," Zhang Yuanli interrupted to correct him: "After deducting all these expenses, it only costs three thousand, no, it only costs two thousand."
"Based on three thousand dollars, how much is their annual income? Of course, they won't have customers every day. After all, they are on the trade road. Even if they had customers for four months of the previous year, their annual income would be
More than eight million dollars."
Zhang Yuanli gritted his teeth and said angrily: "These people actually used the post station built by the Anxi Protectorate to make a lot of money! Even the business taxes of the four towns in Anxi are not collected as harshly as they do!"
Li Siye shook his head and said: "Don't rush to conclusions yet. Our estimate is not the truth. Moreover, most of the stations on the Qiuci route have not offered such high prices. If you want to get accurate figures, you have to put the fattest ones
Just kill a fish and weigh how much fat there is."
"General Li, you are right. We will go back tomorrow, mobilize soldiers from the Duhu Mansion, and arrest all these people for interrogation!"
"Ha," Li Siye said with a smile: "There are only a few postmen, do you still need to go back to mobilize troops? After all, Li Yuanfang and I are on the same level. Tomorrow, just watch my eyes and act."
"Who is Li Yuanfang?"
"You don't need to know about a lieutenant general."
The two of them finished speaking in a low voice, blew out the oil lamp, and each groped to lie down on the bunk to sleep.
At dawn on the second day, the caravans had already pulled out the camels and horses from the stables, carefully inspected the goods, packed their backpacks and packed them in preparation for the road.
Li Siye also took Hei Pang out. After listening to the postman's science education yesterday, the merchants hid far away, for fear of getting into the big trouble before them.
However, Li Siye led the horse towards the thatched hall. The postman was still standing on the steps, waiting for the new scapegoat merchants to take the bait.
He put his hand on the handle of the knife at his waist, raised his head and said domineeringly: "Go and ask your postmaster. I want to join your team and make a lot of money with you."
"Who are you joining? Are you crazy? Yesterday, your room and board expenses were waived. You shouldn't have burnt incense and thanked you so much that you quickly got out of here and hit the road. Why did you slap your face on it?"
Li Siye ignored him and instead stood there clasping his fingers and talking to himself: "Your post station is located on the mountain road at the source of the Chihe River. It is a place that merchants must pass through when they go west. You can make tens of thousands of dollars every day. If I
If we can seize this place, wouldn't we become the richest man in the four towns of Anxi in a short time?"
The atmosphere suddenly solidified, and the postman's sneer was fixed on his face. He suddenly raised his head and shouted to the top of the thatched hall: "Boss!"
"What's the matter!" The postmaster's fat hands and feet were lying on the railing, but he was pulled back by a woman: "You damn devil, come back!"
"Someone is jealous when they see us getting rich, and they want to seize your property! Now they are coming to kill you!"
The postmaster was standing on the edge of the railing with his shiny arms and a protruding belly. Without the fatness of Chihe Post, it is probably impossible to raise such a fat man. No wonder the people of the Tang Dynasty regarded plumpness as beauty. In this era
Being plump means health and good nutrition. Eating fat and having a big belly is actually showing off your wealth!
The postmaster stared at Li Siye who was standing downstairs with his triangular eyes, his face uncertain. He could smell the dangerous aura of this drunken and lazy woman, so there was no need to treat him as a joke or a lunatic.