Chapter 17 Toll Station (4)

  Ye Feng saw their obedient appearance, secretly wiping away cold sweat. He thought to himself: These naive guys are really easy to deceive, they can't even see through such a simple concept swap. No wonder time-traveling is so popular now, these people are simply the embodiment of "rich and foolish".

  After those superintendents handed over the money, they set sail one after another, urging the rowers to speed up and quickly leave this place that gave them nightmares.

  At the same time, a small rumor spread among these people. Everyone told each other: if you hate someone, let him go to Xinya. A master who plucks hair from geese and leaves skin on tigers has come to that city, sweeping everything clean, leaving only three feet of sky and seven parts of earth. Even the roof of Lord Harris's house is about to be exposed.

  Niya watched as the officials handed over the money, still with some hesitation in her heart. After all, they represented the noble families behind them. The power of those families was not to be underestimated.

  But Ye Feng's words finally dispelled her doubts.

  "He said: 'Few great nobles will turn against us for a few gold coins. Those nobles who care about these small amounts of money are not destined for greatness.'"

  Moreover, not many of these officials are foolish enough to reveal this matter. If they were really foolish to that extent, their corrupt activities would be exposed and it would cost them their lives. Even if they didn't engage in corruption, after exposing their incompetence, the master would no longer entrust such a lucrative position to them.

  A superior who was handing over the money still said with a hint of resentment, "If you really have the ability, then intercept the next ship. It will be entering the port in just a moment."

  Ou La was studying the style of Ye Feng, with two fingers holding a gold coin, blowing on it lightly at the edge of his mouth, then quickly bringing it to his ear to listen to the trembling sound emitted by the metal. He was amazed to find that he simply adored this sound.

  He listened to what the boss said, raised his head, took a look, and said slowly: "Whose boat is this? Is it from a big background?"

  The captain sneered: "Whether it's a big deal or not, I don't know for the time being. There is only one shield and one long sword embroidered on the flag hanging on the ship."

  Shield and long sword？？？！！！

  Eula and Nia exchanged a glance, both seeing the spark in each other's eyes. Eula slammed her hand on the table and rubbed her fists together, saying: "Damn it, that dog Atalas has finally fallen into my hands."

  Nia heard his dirty words, frowned, but didn't scold him like before. Instead, she turned to the crowd and said: "Everyone, cheer up! Listen to Ora and Ye's orders. Work hard, tonight I'll host a dinner for everyone at the Duke's mansion."

  The spirits of all people were lifted as one, and they thunderously agreed.

  As an old man, Brina was well aware of the nonsense between the Duke and the Prime Minister. He rolled up his sleeves, spat into his palm, rubbed his hands together, and said loudly: "Miss, just watch this. Old Brina will smash that scoundrel's ship to pieces today, and burn it as firewood."

  Ye Feng saw that everyone was furious, like they had been injected with a stimulant. He felt somewhat strange. He vaguely remembered that when he saved Nia and Oula in the Dark Forest, Nia had said something about Ataras, the treacherous minister. He thought to himself: This Ataras guy must have a deep grudge against the Duke.

  He later inquired privately about the specific relationship between the Duke and the Prime Minister, getting more than a dozen versions of the story. There was little connection between the various versions, and the content was extremely confusing.

  Among them, the most fragrant is: The Duke wrote a 14-line poem that deeply moved the young and beautiful wife of the Prime Minister. At that time, the Duke was also in a state of melancholy due to the loss of his partner, and the adulterer **hit it off immediately**. Then the two dry firewood ignited fiercely, and later they were caught red-handed by the Prime Minister who refused to wear a green hat, trapped in the bed of a certain hotel's VIP suite. In short, it was extremely terrible.

  In this version, a bold and pioneering description of the deep artistic exchange between two people in spirit and flesh is made. It is estimated that after several hundred years, its position in literary history will not be inferior to the works of Jin Ping Mei and other classics of that era.

  The conspiracy version is: The prime minister, due to jealousy of the duke's good poetry and handsome appearance, as well as his many romantic conquests. Therefore, on a dark and windy night, he slandered the duke to the emperor, saying that the duke colluded with aliens to invade the earth. Although the duke argued reasonably at the hearing in the Senate.

  Every sentence, every word was like a loud and clear voice, turning into a spear that pierced the enemy's heart. The refutation made all the villains speechless. However, due to the emperor's incompetence, the elders were timid and afraid of trouble, allowing the treacherous officials to dominate the government, doing as they pleased, and in the end, the duke had no choice but to leave the imperial capital in dismay.

  In this version, what made Ye Feng applaud was: the duke, when he was about to leave, looked at the high city wall of the Imperial City and said a very classic line like all villains - I will be back.

  Moreover, there are also versions like the disappointed version, the growth version, the debt version, the duel version and so on. Finally, Ye Feng found that there was even a piggyback version, which made him sigh for a while. These people's tastes are a bit too heavy.

  However, Ye Feng believes that the most credible one is: The Duchess is the daughter of the former Prime Minister Qin Na, and the current Prime Minister climbed up after getting rid of the former Prime Minister Qin Na in the court struggle. So there was a deep feud between them.

  After the ships with noble flags had passed, several merchant ships came over one after another. After seeing how Ye Feng and his men collected taxes, they understood that these big brothers were not to be trifled with. So, without saying a word, they paid up and left in a very straightforward manner. Moreover, Ye Feng did not add any extra taxes for these ordinary merchants, but instead considerately gave them an 80% discount on the inspection fees.

  In his words: We must strictly follow the spirit of the law, and absolutely cannot collect one more cent of tax from taxpayers. We must clearly explain to the masses that what we collect from them is an inspection fee, note: it's a fee! Not a tax.

  This is in no way in conflict with our great and sacred Twelve Tables of Law. And this fee is the earnings for labor that we should receive when providing them with security guarantees.

  Seeing the crowd looking at him with eyes of worship, Ye Feng couldn't help but feel complacent. He patted Oola's back and said: "Follow me, you have something to learn!" In his heart, he cursed: "These stupid fools only know how to collect taxes according to so-called laws, they don't even know about 'random charges and white slips', a common tactic used by grassroots financial officials."

  After Euler showed his domineering aura, everyone found that the Yurii family finally had a good leader again, sweeping away the previous decline and showing its strong side. The people who saw hope finally had a backbone.

  With the feeling of having someone backing them up, everyone's morale soared instantly. They had no intention of managing these merchant ships at all, and they were all thinking of helping the duke take revenge and giving that treacherous prime minister who controlled the government a show of strength, so they hastily dispatched all the merchant ships.

  Among the crowd's eager gaze, the flat-bottomed merchant ship with a shield and sword flag slowly sailed into the river.

  Without Euler's orders, the soldiers had already begun to carry out their tasks automatically. It has to be said that no matter when, humans are quite talented at doing bad things.

  As the bugle sounded, the archers had already strung their bows and shot a round of arrows, regardless of whether there were people on board or not. The first wave of arrows was meant to intimidate, and it succeeded in making the faces of those on the ship turn pale and bloodless.

  "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" The people at the bow of the boat frantically waved a white flag in their hands. Everyone saw this and felt as if they were accepting the prime minister's surrender, bursting into hearty laughter.

  After the boat docked, a middle-aged man jumped off the ship like a rubber ball. He was round and plump, with all his hair gone, so fat that his eyes were squeezed into a thin slit by the fatty flesh on his face, making him look just like an inflated rubber ball; if he lowered his head, he would absolutely not be able to see his toes.

  Everyone was shocked and couldn't believe that someone could grow up to be like this. They couldn't help but sigh, feeling that the world is so big and full of wonders.

  That fatty saw the officers and soldiers on the dock, one by one drawing their bows and unsheathing their knives, with a murderous aura rising up, yet there wasn't a single hint of fear on his face.

  He came to Oola's front with a smile, bowed deeply and said: "I've seen the young master, I didn't expect that in just a few years, the young master has grown so big, truly elegant and extraordinary.

  I heard that the other day you showed off your mighty power, with just one person's strength, you turned the tide. You killed the pirates until they were fleeing in disarray, now on the Dianhai Sea, as soon as someone mentions your great name, everyone knows and is talking about it. If you return to the Imperial Capital now, I don't know how many young girls will be infatuated with you. Master Xiang has always been thinking of you, saying that he wants to marry his most beloved little miss to you."

  Ou La let out a cold hum, not saying anything. His chest was high and proud, his eyes glanced at Ni Ya with a very clear meaning, letting Ni Ya know that he was outstanding when he was young and now he is also quite famous, don't casually give him a burst of anger.

  Without waiting for Orla to speak, the fat man turned around and bowed deeply to Nia again, saying: "This lady with beauty like Athena's goddess and noble temperament must be Miss Nia. Although I haven't seen you before, your name has spread to every corner of the world. If Paris saw you, he would definitely hand over the golden apple to your hands, and Troy wouldn't be destroyed.

  I still remember that at the time of your birth, Egus, the greatest prophet of the Empire, once said that the only man worthy of you is the legendary Sun God Apollo.

  Niya listened to his praise and was touched by her thoughts, and couldn't help but take a sneak peek at Ye Feng.

  At this time, the fatty had already arrived in front of Ye Feng, and upon seeing that there was no emblem of nobility on Ye Feng's body, he hesitated for a moment before warmly grasping his hand with a firm grip, saying: "From your extraordinary appearance alone, I've guessed that you must be the renowned Red Blood Dragon Rider Ye Feng, sir. Your heroic deeds of charging into enemy camps solo and fighting off hordes of bandits have already made my ears grow old, yet they still remain fascinating to hear."

  Finally, the fatty waved his hand at the surrounding soldiers and said enthusiastically: "Everyone has worked hard."

  Ou La looked at the flag on his boat, wanting to make a big deal out of it, but after listening to Bao Zi's non-stop flattery, he was so embarrassed that he couldn't bring himself to say anything, and all he could do was open his mouth several times without uttering a word.

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  It's going to be spent anyway ^_^