Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 97 Plan ahead
Lao Jia sat behind the table, chewing beef.

"It's unbelievable that you actually eat beef here. I can count the number of times I ate beef on my fingers."

"If a cow falls to its death, it's a waste if you don't eat it. You can't bury it."

"Hey, the problem is, if such a strong cow is said to fall to its death, who would believe it? In fact, no one is a fool. Farming cattle are precious, and the imperial court prohibits private slaughtering of farming cattle. The slaughter of farming cattle must be reported to the government. Only sick cows that are too old to plow the land can be slaughtered, and after slaughtering the cows, the cowhide, beef tendons, horns and bones are all treasures, and ordinary people can't own them. The government sent people to kill them, and they gave some money to take the cows away after the slaughter. "

"Cowhide can be used to make armor, horns can be used to make horns, tendons can be used to make bows, and beef bones can be used to make knife handles. The cows are all treasures. Beef will also be bought and eaten at a high price by those powerful nobles. Ordinary people have no chance to eat it. Yes, if you can't eat it, you can eat it. Even some wealthy businessmen, if they don't have any status, it's hard to eat beef, but the more they can't eat it, the more people want to eat it, so there are always some bold people They will take advantage of loopholes, for example, if a good cow is reported to have fallen to death, and then spend some money to bribe the people in the yamen, the cow will not be slaughtered by the government, but will be slaughtered by them, although the cowhide, horns and tendons have to be sold to the government , but the beef can be kept and sold at a high price to those rich people who want to eat beef, but have money but are not qualified to eat it."

"You are quite clear about these things." Luo Cheng laughed.

"That's right, I think I've done it like this before. I paid more money, got a cow and said it fell to death, and then the brothers slaughtered it together and ate beef happily. Actually, I really didn't think beef was so delicious before. , I don’t think it’s any different from horse meat. But because he can’t usually eat it, he’s willing to spend a lot of money.” Lao Jia tore off a large piece of beef and threw it into his mouth.The beef is stewed very well, and some spices are added for seasoning, so the shredded beef is easy to tear and delicious. When you tear it lightly, the strips of meat will be separated along the texture and thrown into your mouth. But it's not firewood or old, and the taste is very good, without any fishy smell.

"To be honest, have you killed a cow before, or how can you make beef so delicious?"

"With your heart, you can make delicious food with your heart."

Luo Cheng smiled and said, Luo Cheng did not fall to death the cow, but someone reported to the yamen to kill the cow, and wanted to pay some money to kill it himself to get the meat. After a big change of blood, Luo Cheng immediately realized that there was something tricky in it, and arrested the man to cheat a few times, and the man confessed in fright.

That person is specialized in doing this. To put it bluntly, he is a butcher who privately butchers farm cattle and sells beef. He relies on his good relationship with the county government to quickly report that a cow falls to death, dies of old age, dies of illness, etc. Then the cattle were killed and sold.His business is doing well, not only the rich people in Zhangqiu County buy beef from him, and even sell it to the nine counties of Qi County.

This time it was in Luo Cheng's hands.

The man's crime was found out, and many police officers in the yamen were implicated, adding to their crimes.

The butcher who slaughtered the farm cattle privately was imprisoned, and the dead cattle naturally became stolen goods.

The cow died and could not be brought back to life, so Luo Cheng spent a little money to buy the beef to supplement the food for the brothers in the township group.

After Lao Jia heard this, he immediately ran over to eat and drink.

"Is there any beef left, get some for me too, and I'll give extra meals to the brothers in the regiment!"

"A cow weighs only a few hundred catties. If it is killed and skinned and boned to get the meat, there are only three hundred catties left. This is still a big cow, or it is not so much. Although there is a lot of meat, the brothers in my regiment There are two hundred and three, more than half of it per catty per person, and you have to give some to the county magistrate, the county magistrate, Zuo Shi and the others, right?"

"Stop talking nonsense, will you?"

"There's really nothing left."

"If you don't have one, you have to give it." Old Jia said arrogantly. "Don't worry, I'll give you the money, but most of my brothers have never eaten beef. It can't be that the brothers in your township regiment all eat beef, but my brothers in the county army regiment still can't eat meat?"

"I'll give you ten catties, if it's too much, I won't have it."

"What is ten catties enough? How about my five hundred brothers, can one person drink a mouthful of soup?"

Luo Cheng smiled, "It's really enough to drink soup. Although there is not much beef, I still have a bull's head, a whole skeleton, oxtail and feet left here. These stewed soups are enough to drink."

"You eat meat and we drink soup? No way!"

"In this way, if I give you fifty catties of beef, one brother can have one or two."

Lao Jia thought about it, "That's pretty much the same, but I also want the skeleton of a cow."

"That won't work. I'll give you fifty catties of beef. I have to keep the skeleton. At most, I'll give you the head, tail, and feet."

Finally Lao Jia agreed with satisfaction.

"Hey, why do I feel that you are much richer than me now? I heard that the members of your Changbai Township have three meals a day, and sometimes there are extra meals?"

"The training intensity is high, and they are all a group of half-sized kids. Isn't there an old saying that half-sized kids eat me to death. What about my more than 200 half-sized kids, how do I train and do things if I don't feed them enough?"

"Actually, it's about right." Lao Jia hinted at Luo Cheng.

"Brother Jia, it's almost impossible. Don't be too optimistic. Look at our Zhangqiu County. Although the county has only been built for less than 30 years, you can see that there are gaps in several places. Surround them with a fence. And although we say to the outside world that there is a group of five hundred county soldiers who are constantly stationed inside and outside the city, and there is a township regiment in each township, but in fact, how many of these people are really capable?"

"Zhishilang Wang Bodang is still on the run, and Yong Saburo Wang Bodang, you know this person is actually deeper than Wang Boshui. Now they are most likely still hiding in Changbai Mountain, we are here at the foot of the mountain, maybe when These people will kill and come down the mountain at night, and then we will not capsize in the gutter!" Luo Cheng reminded Lao Jia.

Jia Runbo threw away the gnawed beef bone, "What you said makes sense. If the damn Wang Bo and Wang Yong are not caught, we won't be able to sleep well all day."

"Brother, tell me what can be done?"

"Is there any good way? Now the two kings are hiding in the deep mountains and old forests. They are frightened rabbits, more vigilant than thieves. It is too difficult to go into the mountains to get him."

"But there are only those who can be thieves for a thousand days, but not those who can guard against thieves for a thousand days. If we don't get rid of them, our days will be difficult."

"Then we can only strengthen our vigilance. In addition, train the brothers more. When it comes to the critical moment, only these brothers are the most reliable."

(End of this chapter)