A knife in love

Chapter 56

Liu Kang still looked half-dead, and said in a soft voice: "Don't mention whether you are old or not, I have long been a grassroots citizen without official or job. Please come in these gentlemen."

A military officer opened the door of the store, and saw the Taishan Five Elders, headed by Ding Yu, walking in cautiously one by one.As soon as Ding Yu saw Liu Kang, he immediately stood up with his hands crossed, and said in his mouth: "Ding Yu, a small man, bring He Yin, Kang Yan, Wang Liang, and Huang Jin to meet the elder of the pavilion." He waved his hands and said: "There is no need to be too polite. I have been an official for many years, and I have long been a grassroots. If you do this big gift again, and give a book to Jin Yiwei, the emperor will blame it, and the old man's life's reputation will be over."

Ding Yu's knees were already half-bent at this time. Hearing what Liu Kang said, he hesitated to stand up, but he didn't dare for a while, so he could only half stand and half stand, which looked rather funny.A maid beside Liu Kang couldn't help laughing out loud.

Ding Yu blushed, feeling extremely embarrassed.Liu Kang said: "Mr. Ding please hurry up. It's been more than [-] years since I left. I respected my teacher and made contributions to the court. It's a pity that I died young. It's sad to think about it."

Ding Yu took the opportunity to straighten up, and said respectfully: "Before my teacher passed away, I still talked about the cabinet... Master Liu's great kindness to me Taishan School, he once told Xiaomin that as long as Master Liu has something to do, the Taishan School should do his best. Do your best to do the work of a dog and a horse."

Liu Kang said with a smile: "This is a joke. The old man only wants to eat for a few more days, so how dare he ask Mr. Ding to do anything for him? It's just that I heard that Yong'an City has been quite uneasy these days. I don't know if your faction is involved. ?”

Ding Yu glanced at Tang He and Yu Changyuan sideways, thinking: "You guys will sue the wicked first!" But he said: "Xiaomin is just entrusted by others, and wants to ask the owner of Wuhu Villa for a piece of money. Something. This thing was borrowed from that person by Master Yu, but he never returned it. Xiaomin owed that person a favor and wanted to help him get it back..."

Liu Kang nodded and said: "There is nothing wrong with helping a friend out." After speaking, he turned to Tang He and said, "Old Mr. Tang, who is the owner of Villa Yu?"

Before Tang He could answer, Yu Changyuan had already come out from the crowd, respectfully saluted and said: "Old Master Haojiao learned that the villain is Yu Changyuan, but he dare not be the owner of the villa."

Liu Kang looked at Yu Changyuan intently, and said with a smile: "Master Yu, since you have borrowed something from others, it must be of no use to you after so many years, so you should return it to him."

Yu Changyuan fell to his knees with a "plop", and swore to the sky: "If I, Yu Changyuan, take other people's things, I will be punished by heaven and earth, divided into five horses, and I will not be able to leave Yong'an City alive!"

Liu Kang waved his hand to signal him to stand up, and said, "Since Master Yu has sworn such a poisonous oath, he must not lie. Mr. Ding, I'm afraid you and Master Yu may have some misunderstandings."

Ding Yu thought: This old thief is shameless, cursing and swearing is tantamount to farting to him, how can he believe it?But even though he thought so in his heart, he didn't dare to say "no" on the surface, and immediately bowed and said: "Master Liu is right, that person must have made a mistake."

Liu Kang said: "The old man might as well be a peacemaker. I advise you not to create quarrels because of misunderstandings. You must know that if you kill someone in private, according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, you will be beheaded."

Yu Changyuan was eager for this, and hurriedly said: "This was originally a misunderstanding. I think Mr. Ding was deceived by someone. The villain is really a blessing from his previous life. It is really ashamed to be a villain. It is." After saying that, he gave Ding Yu a big gift.

Ding Yu was not angry, but he knew that he would never offend Liu Kang, so he could only hold back his anger, and reluctantly bowed his hands to Yu Changyuan.

Seeing that Tang Hewu was standing aside indignantly, Liu Kang just glared at Ding Yu viciously, and immediately said to Tang He, "Mr. Tang, do you have anything to say?"

Tang He said: "Elder Ge came forward to make peace, how dare the villain have any objections? Just remembering that the dog died for no reason in Yong'an City, I feel a little sad."

Liu Kang showed a sad look on his face, and said: "It turns out that Mr. Tang has encountered misfortune, no wonder the old man is so sad and angry, that is understandable..."

Ding Yu said: "It's easy to teach Master Liu to know that our five brothers did have some misunderstandings with Mr. Tang's bodyguard, and it was Xiaomin's fault that he accidentally injured Mr. Tang's life. It's just that the villain's apprentice Peng Jin was also killed by Mr. Tang. The bodyguard broke his arms and legs, and he has become a useless person. It is worse than death. In addition, one of my fourth junior apprentices was killed by a friend of old bodyguard Tang on the long street. How can this account be calculated? "

As he spoke, he gave Yue Tieya a bitter look.Yue Tieya didn't care, and blinked at Ding Yu with a smirk.

Liu Kang pondered for a while, and said: "Since both sides have suffered casualties, why not both apologize and make amends, so we can't fight again?"

Tang He and Ding Yu hurriedly said, "I absolutely dare not do this."

Liu Kang said to Tang He: "I heard that when the Xingyuan Escort Bureau travels from the southern provinces, it never passes through the territory of Shandong, but only detours through Henan and Hebei. I wonder if this is true or not?"

Tang He was taken aback, he didn't expect that Liu Kang even knew about this, so he nodded and said: "Ge Lao is right. The villain has always wanted to set up a branch office in Shandong, so that there is no need to go around when transporting food and silver for the imperial court. It's just that someone is obstructing it, and the villain is a law-abiding person. He doesn't want to make a big move, so he can only swallow his anger..."

Ding Yu said: "Old Escort Tang's words are wrong. I have lived in Tai'an for a long time, but I also heard that the Gui Escort Bureau is quite powerful and tried to annex several major Escort Bureaus in Shandong. The Yangwei Escort Bureau in Jimo rejected the request of the Gui Escort Bureau. A month later, the escort vehicles of the Yangwei Escort Bureau were robbed successively in Shandong, Henan, Hebei, and Zhejiang, and 30 people were killed by the bodyguards and trainers. Old Tang’s bodyguard shook the rivers and lakes, so who knows who did it?"

Tang He sneered and said: "I have to ask Mr. Ding about this. Your faction is the largest gang in Shandong, and I heard that it has contacts with many green forest figures in Shandong. Others are Qingfengzhai in Henan, Dulong Gang in Zhejiang, I heard that there is also friendship with your faction. If Mr. Ding wants to know who hijacked the escort vehicle of the Yangwei Escort Bureau, you might as well ask the leaders of these gangs."

Hearing that the two men were fighting each other, Liu Kang smiled slightly and said: "So it's just these trivial things, it's not difficult." After saying that, he said to Tang He: "The governor of Shandong is my student, I can write a book for him. Ask him to allow the Xingyuan Escort Bureau to open branches in Qingzhou, Jinan, Jimo, Yantai and other places. If the escort car of the Xingyuan Escort Bureau escorts items for the imperial court, it can report to the Shandong Governor's Yamen, and the governor's Yamen will send soldiers to accompany the escort car Send it out of Shandong. Is Mr. Tang satisfied?"

Tang He was overjoyed, the forces of the Xingyuan Escort Bureau had been unable to enter Shandong, and lost a lot of money every year.If according to what Liu Kang said, branch offices will be set up in various parts of Shandong in the future, and the Xingyuan Escort Bureau will become the largest Escort Bureau in Shandong, and the annual income from Shandong will be very rich.What's more, in the future, items from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other affluent places in the south of the Yangtze River can be directly passed through Shandong. Although it is limited to the items consigned by the imperial court, how will outsiders know that there are private goods in it?In this way, manpower and travel are saved, and Xingyuan Escort can earn at least 10 taels of silver every year.Thinking of this, Tang He hurriedly said: "But according to the old man's order."

Ding Yu felt resentful when he heard that Liu Kang had given Tang He such a great benefit.But I heard Liu Kang say: "Mr. Ding, you have lived in Tai'an for a long time, so it may be inconvenient to come here."

Ding Yu said: "Master Liu really understands the feelings of the people, and even the common people know the sufferings clearly. The Taishan faction has lived in Tai'an since the end of the Tang Dynasty. It's just that in the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial court feared that the people would rebel and listed Mount Tai as a forbidden area. The faction had to withdraw from Tai'an. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, our faction returned to Tai'an. However, the local officials said that Mount Tai was the holy mountain where the emperor enshrined Zen, and the common people were not allowed to live on the mountain. Our faction had no choice but to pay heavy taxes to the Tai'an government, only one piece of land tax every year. You have to pay 3000 taels of silver. Our faction is all honest and responsible people, and in order to pay the 3000 taels of silver, they are overwhelmed every year..."

"This is easy to handle." Liu Kang said: "I asked the governor of Shandong to post a post to the Tai'an Mansion, exempting the land tax of 3000 taels of silver from the Taishan School, and also handing over the Chaotian Palace on Mount Tai to your school. I don't know Mr. Ding how about?"

Ding Yu was surprised and delighted, Taishan faction also has a lot of land in Tai'an, the annual land tax is more than 3000 taels of silver?If the imperial court waived this tax, not only would the Taishan faction earn an extra 3000 taels of silver every year, but the surrounding civilians would also put their land under the name of the Taishan faction, so that most of the land tax would be exempted. Just pay the rent.For this item alone, the Taishan School will have an annual income of no less than 1 taels of silver.And if the Chaotian Palace is handed over to the Taishan faction, then Taishan will be completely controlled by the Taishan faction, which is more worthy of the name as the "Taishan faction".This is exactly what the heads of the Taishan School of the past have dreamed of. Ding Yu was overjoyed and said: "Master Liu is thoughtful, and the villain is very grateful!"

(End of this chapter)