in2ebook Chapter 122 Bargaining
Chapter 122 Bargaining
White flour steamed buns and rice.
Green vegetable, radish and tofu soup.
When Heijiao saw these things, he couldn't help but start drooling, and his stomach, which had just been fed by a few big pancakes, began to beat the drums of war again.
But when Aunt Liu brought out a large plate of fragrant grilled fish and a large pot of pork stewed with vermicelli, Heijiao felt that his mouth was almost watering.
meat!
That's meat!
Heijiao could no longer remember the last time he ate meat. Was it the rat meat he ate a month ago, or the chicken bones he picked up half a month ago?
Not only can we afford white flour and rice here at the boss's place, we can even eat meat?
Even when his boss put a large piece of pork into his bowl, Heijiao still felt it was a little unreal.
He thanked them, took a big mouthful of rice, and carefully took a small bite of meat. When he felt the soft and glutinous gravy overflowing in his mouth, he found it difficult to swallow.
A few hot tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes, dripping into the bowl.
Heijiao lowered his head, afraid that others would see his embarrassment.
At the dinner table, everyone silently watched the eight-foot-tall man choke up several times, but no one could say anything to comfort him.
Life in this world is difficult, don't they know that?
Before following the boss, they were so poor that they could not even afford to eat, and they worked hard all day long. However, the boss's appearance made everyone's life better. Now, even if they eat meat for every meal, they don't find it strange. Of course, they are still extremely grateful to the boss in their hearts.
Compared to them, life in Black Horn is even more difficult.
He had fled all the way from Yuzhou and had nearly starved to death on the road several times. Today he had encountered a horrific natural disaster and he even thought he was going to die. Who would have thought that by following this boss, he could actually have a bite of meat.
"Don't be so pretentious. If you have the energy, dig a few more baskets of coal." Just when everyone was feeling sad, Chen Changfan said something indifferent, interrupting the somewhat sentimental atmosphere.
Hei Jiao wiped his face and said seriously: "My boss gives me food, so he is my benefactor. I will do whatever he asks me to do!"
The atmosphere was relaxed and everyone finished their lunch chatting and laughing.
With Hei Jiao's presence, all the food was eaten up, and even the soup was drunk up by this black man, which made Chen Changfan roll his eyes.
After eating and drinking, everyone started to get busy spontaneously.
Old Wei went to stand guard, Hu the bricklayer continued to work, and Chen Changfan took the jack of all trades (who was good at nothing) Old Man Liu and Heijiao and followed a crevice into the cave where the vein was located.
The two men watched Chen Changfan waving the hoe and digging out pieces of black stones, and they were suddenly curious.
"Boss, what kind of stone is this? What are we digging it for?"
Old Man Liu asked, and Heijiao was also a little confused.
People of this era had no experience in using coal, so it was normal that they did not recognize coal mines.
"This stone is called coal. You can also understand it as a kind of charcoal buried underground." Chen Changfan explained in words they could understand.
"Coal? Can this stone be used to make fire?" Old man Liu asked again.
"If the boss says it's possible, then it's possible. Why are you talking so much nonsense?" Heijiao picked up the hoe and started digging.
Seeing that Heijiao had already started working, Old Man Liu also hurriedly picked up the hoe, but his digging speed was much slower than Heijiao's.
"This thing produces a lot of smoke and dust, cover your mouth and nose with a towel." Chen Changfan said as he handed over two towels.
……
Dongjing Village is a relatively prosperous village in Qingshan County. After being hit by hail, the village was littered with broken houses and tiles. Many walls and gates of houses were damaged by hail. What's worse is that many villagers were killed or injured. There was a shortage of manpower at the time, and even the doors of their houses were difficult to repair. The village protection team that was usually responsible for patrolling was directly dispersed by the hail.
That afternoon, many masked swordsmen riding horses suddenly came to the village.
After these people entered the village, they were like wolves and sheep, killing and looting everywhere. Most of the more than 200 people in the village were slaughtered, and all the food and money were looted.
Li Zheng was filled with grief and indignation, and took the villagers to the county town to sue the officials, but he accidentally ran into several Li Zhengs from the neighboring village, who had been crying and shouting at the government office for a long time.
It turned out that several gangs of horse bandits roaming around Qingshan County took advantage of the village's lax defense after the natural disaster and directly rushed into the village to rob. It is said that they killed more than 200 people.
The horse bandits were rampant, but the government did nothing. For a time, people were in an uproar and demanded that the government immediately take action to suppress the bandits.
After all, they donated money to suppress bandits a few days ago, but the bandits only appeared more and more. How could the people not be angry?
Finally, County Magistrate Cheng Weimin had no choice but to show up, but he immediately shifted the blame to Chen Changfan: "The matter of suppressing the bandits should be led by the bandit-eliminating captain Chen Changfan. Why don't you go find him to argue with him?"
"My Lord County Magistrate has put a huge blame on me. You fought for me to become a lieutenant to eliminate bandits, but you didn't send me a single soldier. How can I fight against bandits? Should I use this blame you put on me, or should I use your empty words?"
A figure riding a pony slowly walked out from the crowd. It was Chen Changfan who had specially come down the mountain to the city.
He had previously heard Hei Jiao's account of the horse bandit rebellion.
This time I came down the mountain to suppress the bandits.
To suppress bandits, we need to recruit local militia, which also requires a lot of money.
Of course, these militiamen can be used for their own purposes, but the money has to be paid by the official Cheng.
"The county government is already short-staffed, so where would we find soldiers for you to command? If you feel that's not enough, you can always recruit local militia and form your own team."
Cheng Weimin naturally couldn't assign the yamen's constable to Chen Changfan. He wished Chen Changfan would go out alone to suppress the bandits and then be hacked to death by the horse bandits.
"How can recruited militiamen be as useful as well-trained yamen runners? One yamen runner is probably only worth ten militiamen. And doesn't recruiting militiamen cost money? My Lord Cheng."
"Of course there is money available to suppress the bandits. I will allocate it to you," Cheng Weimin was obviously well prepared and signaled his lawyer to bring out the purse.
"Our dynasty has regulations on the specifications of bandit suppression teams. A bandit suppression team should ideally consist of ten local warriors. Each warrior receives ten taels of silver per month, which comes to a total of one hundred taels of silver per month. This doesn't even include the military merits for killing bandits and the pensions for those killed in action. Everything costs money!"
As he spoke, he took out a silver note worth one hundred taels and handed it to Chen Changfan in a pretentious manner.
Cheng Weimin spoke in a high-sounding manner, and it was obvious that he intended to use the one hundred taels to get rid of Chen Changfan, and then get rid of this mess.
"Master Cheng, I heard that the donation for the bandit suppression is worth tens of thousands of taels, and you only gave me a hundred taels. Do you want me to die quickly?"
"Like I said earlier, besides recruiting militiamen, there are still many expenses. Anyway, this is all the money I have. It's up to you whether you want it or not."
Cheng Weimin just acted like a rogue, and Chen Changfan really couldn't do anything to him.
"Five hundred taels! Without five hundred taels, we can't form a bandit suppression team."
"One hundred and fifty taels, the imperial court is short of money."
"Five hundred taels, not a cent less."
"Two hundred taels! This hundred taels is my advance payment."
Chen Changfan knew that Cheng Weimin was bargaining, and wasn't he the same?
The only difference is that the former asked for the silver in his hand, while Chen Changfan asked for the team.
A team that can truly suppress bandits.