Chapter 52: The Migrant Worker Turns Violent

  "The adults are really too generous, that white tiger skin is a rare item, let alone one hundred and two, even if the price is multiplied several times it can be sold out, but after listening to a song of Qiang flute, it was sold at the original price, not making a single penny, and the Qiang girl's silver was not enough to pay for it, but she was allowed to take away the white tiger skin, I couldn't bear to part with it."

  Lu Haoshan smiled calmly and shook his head: "It's not that being generous means you don't make money, but rather this official made a big profit today. Think about it, those 100 taels of silver can be said to have been spent without spending a single penny, yet two good relationships were formed. Gold has value, but the value of these good relationships cannot be measured."

  For Niu Bao, two or three taels of silver a month was already a lot, and the county magistrate's annual salary was only around 40 taels. As a small constable, his income was naturally not high. A white tiger skin could be resold for several hundred taels, which was a huge sum for Niu Bao. It wasn't that he was stingy, but it was just the way things were. With his monthly salary and those gray incomes, it would take at least ten or eight years to save up that much. For Lu Hengshan, with tens of thousands of taels in hand, as long as he used his brain a bit, the silver would flow in like water, and he wouldn't have to worry about food and drink. At the very least, before his identity was exposed, he didn't need to worry about money. That little silver wasn't even worth mentioning. To be honest, if it were really a matter of escaping with his life, then so much silver would also be impossible to take away.

  Now it can be said that with just one article, I got to know two characters, a master and a beauty, and indeed made a big profit.

  Niu Bao saw that Lu Hao Shan's mood was not bad, and carefully said: "Sir, that Qiang tribe woman is easy to talk about, a heavenly beauty, it's not just that you won't lose money on her, even if you give it to her for free, it's worth it to get a smile from such a beautiful person. But as for that tiger skin seller who deserted his post, isn't he being treated too well? Who knows whether the white tiger skin was stolen or not? Giving him a way out is already being generous, and sir personally buying it from him, without even deducting one penny, truly doesn't understand the rules."

  One hundred taels is not a small amount, and no one would complain about having too much silver. Niu Bao still resents Lu Haoshan on behalf of the cow at this moment.

  If it were me, I wouldn't have spent a single penny to get the white tiger skin, and I would have made a profit by selling it. The God of Wealth has already knocked on my door, but I missed this great opportunity, and now I'm suffering from not making money, what a waste!

  "Is that so?" Lu Haoshan shook his head and said, "With a physique like his and that spirit, one look and you can tell he's an expert, even a fugitive. I reckon you and Zhang Wu combined couldn't even take down one of his hands, how could you capture him? It's better to have fewer troubles than more. Besides, the world is unpredictable, today I help him buy tiger skin, who knows if tomorrow he won't help me risk my life?"

  "Yes, yes, you are right." Niu Bao felt a chill in his heart and hastily replied.

  What a close call! I was just thinking about the silver, didn't expect that burly man's skills to be a problem. That aura of his must have been stained with countless fresh blood. My own skills are well-known to myself, scaring those honest villagers is still possible, but actually fighting these fierce and brave characters would be suicidal. Niubao thought to himself as he cast a respectful glance at the county magistrate, thinking that he was indeed worthy of being the county magistrate, so calm and comprehensive in his thinking.

  The beautiful woman has left, and Lu Haoshan is also unwilling to stay any longer. He turns his head to tell Niu Bao: "Let's go, let's go somewhere else."

  "Yes, sir."

  Just as Lu Haoshan and Niu Bao left the pavilion, a burly man strode into the Baiyuan Medicine Shop in Jiangyou County Town. He walked straight to the counter, where the shopkeeper saw him coming and was about to greet him, but his smile faded when he saw who it was, and he sat back down, fiddling with an exquisite tea cup.

  It's not that he didn't want to do business, but this man had come several times before. Although he said he was buying medicine, what he wanted to buy was the expensive wild ginseng. When doing business, one naturally has to satisfy the customer's needs. The problem is whether the shopkeeper can meet the needs of this burly man, but the burly man cannot meet the shopkeeper's requirements because he couldn't take out the silver. He thought he could owe it first and pay when he had the silver, but the shopkeeper wouldn't agree, so naturally he was "invited" to leave.

  "Shopkeeper, I want old mountain ginseng," said the robust man in a loud voice.

  "This customer, our store is small and we don't allow credit, please..."; Before the shopkeeper could finish speaking, "slap" - a large gold ingot was slapped onto the counter by the burly man, who coldly said: "Now it's okay, right?"

  Gold? As soon as the shopkeeper saw that bright yellow gold, his eyes lit up. He snatched the gold and tossed it a few times, carefully examining its quality. After confirming that the gold was genuine, Zhang's old face suddenly broke into a smile. "Alright, alright! Ah Fa, hurry up and get that old ginseng from the wooden box on the right side of the warehouse!"

  In a prosperous era, antiques are valuable; in a chaotic era, gold is king. This ingot of gold was enough to change the shopkeeper's attitude: In these times, anyone who can produce an entire ingot of gold is a big shot; no, anyone with money is a big shot.

  The old ginseng on the right side of the warehouse? That fellow named A Fa was stunned for a moment, quickly came back to his senses, responded with a sound, and went to fetch the old ginseng in a flash.

  Soon, the old ginseng was brought out. The burly man hit a wooden box and saw the huge old ginseng lying in the wooden box. He felt relieved, closed the lid, took the few pieces of silver that the shopkeeper had found and changed back, casually stuffed them into his pocket, and without saying another word, he picked up the ginseng and left. In a moment, he disappeared into the street crowd.

  After the tall and majestic figure disappeared from view, the shopkeeper immediately turned serious and asked, "Did you take the wrong ginseng?"

  "Ai Fa hastily said: 'Shopkeeper, how could that be? Our Baiyuan Medicine Store only has one old ginseng, it can be said to be the treasure of our store. I was a bit surprised when you said you wanted to take it just now, but when you said to take the wooden box on the right side, this little person finally breathed a sigh of relief, heh heh.'"

  Every pharmacy has its own tricks, and the Baiyuan Pharmacy is no exception. The store has a precious old ginseng that is its treasure, but in order to make money, the owner took out a fake ginseng early in the morning and made it look like the real thing by connecting the roots. He put the real ginseng on the left side of the wooden box in the warehouse, and the fake one on the right side. When the owner said he wanted to take out the old ginseng and specifically pointed to the one on the right, Ah Fa immediately understood that the owner was trying to cheat the customer by selling him the fake ginseng.

  That burly man needed ginseng, it's a fact that the pharmacy had ginseng, and the gold he brought was no problem either. The only variable was the shopkeeper's mind, who had both great eloquence and exceptional eyesight. He took one glance at the burly man and saw that he was an outsider, probably a vagrant, and possibly even a deserter. So, driven by greed, he decided to use fake ginseng to cheat him out of his gold. After all, the county yamen's Captain Cao was his distant relative, so whatever happened would definitely be in his favor, and he had always shown respect during holidays.

  As soon as that man stepped out of the door, this matter was settled. Even if a problem was discovered later, it could be blamed on him for stealing and replacing the beam, making nearly 100 taels in one go. The shopkeeper was overjoyed, patted Ah Fa's shoulder and said: "Not bad, you're quite clever, your monthly pay will be doubled this month."

  "Thank you, boss. Thank you, boss." Ah Fa hastily said with a flattering tone: "Boss, this tea is weak, I'll get some new tea leaves for you."

  "Go ahead."

  .........

  Doing business, whether it's honest or deceitful, is all about profit. Some people like to make a steady stream of money, while others hope to get rich overnight. Either way, transactions are a daily part of doing business, and with so many deals happening every day, the county government can't possibly send someone to supervise every single one. The county government also doesn't have enough manpower to do that. These past few days, everyone in the county government has been busy to the point of exhaustion.

  A year's tax work all piled up at once, can't be busy?

  Lu Haoshan walked around the county town for a while, and when it was almost dark, he returned to the county government office. As soon as he arrived at the county government office, he saw that the house was lit with candles, and from time to time, he heard Zhou Dayuan's voice scolding, urging his subordinates to speed up their actions, not to delay the tax collection work, and to get the accounts out as soon as possible.

  "Why is it so troublesome? Isn't this tax collected every year?" Lu Haoshan said with some puzzlement.

  "The adults," Niu Bao said in a low voice, "from the beginning to the end of the year, not only may the land have changed, but also the population of each household may have changed. These need to be verified one by one. Right, even if there is no problem with the land and population, then there is the issue of the land's grade, and the tax rate is different too. Those common people are very particular about this, if they collect too much, they will make a big fuss."

  It turned out that way, Lu Haoshan nodded, in ancient times there was no computer, many things had to rely on manual statistics, the efficiency was naturally not high.

  Lu Haoshan nodded and stopped talking, going straight to the cafeteria for a meal. After Chen Zi's death, Lu Haoshan hadn't eaten home-cooked meals for several days. He didn't have yamen runners deliver food to his living quarters to eat alone, but instead went to the cafeteria. This way, he could meet and chat with more people from the yamen, and win them over at the same time.

  After dinner, Liu Jinzhu also returned with news and Lu Haoshan listened to his report while taking a bath.

  "Shan Ge, I heard from Cao Hu that recently Jiang County has had a lot of refugees coming in from other places. Many people have brought their whole families with them. It seems the times are not very peaceful."

  "It's strange if it can be peaceful, Liaodong's military strength is weak, the Ming dynasty has been losing for years, and the taxes are getting heavier every year. Now they want to add the Liaoyang tax, isn't that rubbing salt in the wound? Besides, bandits are rising everywhere." Lu Haoshan said without surprise: "It's okay if refugees come, as long as they don't make trouble in my Jiangyou."

  Liu Jinzhu nodded, saying with some emotion: "That's right, the taste of an empty stomach is unbearable. Whoever has a way to survive would want to leave their hometown?"

  "Alright, no more sentimentality. You're not starving yet, so keep an eye on those refugees and don't let them cause any trouble. By the way, see if there are any talented individuals among them. We're in need of some capable people to help us out right now. Although the Jiangyou County government is harmonious for the time being, we can't rely on them for everything after all." For some reason, Lu Haoshan's eyes flashed with the image of that burly man, and his heart stirred as he immediately gave orders.

  "Yes, Brother Shan, I know."

  Lu Haoshan was afraid that the refugees would cause trouble, but he didn't expect it to become a reality so soon. That night, Lu Haoshan was sleeping soundly when he was suddenly awakened by the loud clanging of gongs: "Come quickly, someone has been killed, someone has been killed!"

  "Come quick, someone's been killed!"

  "Hurry up, dong dong dong"

  The earth-shaking gong sound and the shrill cry echoed in the night sky of Jiangyou County, Lu Haoshan put on a coat to get out of bed and see what was going on. After getting out of bed, he stopped a bookkeeper and asked him, only to find out that some refugees had taken advantage of the darkness to commit murder and arson at Baiyuan Pharmacy in the city. Fortunately, the night watchman saw it and Cao Hu has already led the capture team to catch the murderer.

  Lu Haoshan heard this and couldn't help but feel a surge of anger: It's really frightening, they're coming to their own territory to cause trouble.