I'm really not doing business

Chapter 768: Ming Against Ming
This civil unrest is different from the previous ones. This time it is a combination of civil unrest and military unrest. At this point, it is actually quite dangerous. However, there is also an inconspicuous force here, that is, Shen Shiqing's identity is a juren. If he really makes trouble, it will really turn the world upside down.

The last person who rebelled because he failed to pass the imperial examination was Huang Chao. This was Shen Shixing's biggest worry before he came to Taizhou. Fortunately, the situation was much better than he thought.

At least Shen Shiqing chose to surrender and was even very cooperative.

"Shen Shixing, you are not a good person either! You just help whoever wins!" Li Hongdao shouted at the top of his lungs when he was taken away.

Shen Shixing looked at Li Hongdao and said with a smile: "That's right, I am like this. I will help whoever wins, and who makes you lose?"

As far as the imperial court as a group is concerned, most of the time, it never cares about good or evil, but only about order or chaos.

Good and evil are abstract concepts in themselves. Their essence is people's moral evaluation of things. Their standards are constantly changing. The changes in the standards of good and evil are caused by three factors: history, culture, and society.

People are always like this. After a period of time, they will doubt the standards of good and evil in the past, just like people in the future will have doubts about the standards of good and evil in the present.

But order and chaos are never abstractions, but concrete realities. The gravity of reality is always strong enough, so strong that any fantasies and ideals that are transcendent and detached from reality will fall to the ground with a bang.

Order and chaos refer to whether people can buy cheap rice, flour, grain and oil, whether they can have a shelter from the wind and rain, whether their children will wake up from the cold and become sick or even die, whether the crops in the fields can have a good harvest to support the family, whether the enemy will kick down the door, pull the children out from under the bed and kill them, etc.

Therefore, Li Hongdao's roar was correct. If he really won, Shen Shixing would have to help him. Because even if Shen Shixing told the truth to the ministers, they might not care, and might even help to cover up the truth. Even if the emperor became suspicious and sent someone to check, it would be easy to deal with.

Being an official in the Ming Dynasty was actually very simple. It can be summed up in ten words: eating and drinking, welcoming and seeing off guests, and welcoming inspections.

The Ming Dynasty had rich experience in preparing for inspections. As long as it could win, it could keep the situation peaceful. In the end, the court would be furious, but it could only be angry for a while. After all, life had to go on, and maintaining overall stability was the common will of the ruling class.

"Then why did you lose?" Shen Shixing said with a smile, "Because you never believed that 10,000 men with one strength can be invincible, a bold statement made by Liu Bowen to Emperor Taizu Gao at the beginning of the country."

"If it weren't for the Ti cavalry, the Sanjiang Camp would have been crushed by me long ago! What abilities do they have? They are just a bunch of unruly people!" Li Hongdao struggled for a while and said angrily.

"Look at you, you're anxious again." Shen Shixing said calmly, "Ten thousand men work together, the most important thing here is that one, do you understand? It's very difficult to work together. The Ming Dynasty is different in everyone's eyes. It's very important to find a common goal that most people agree on."

"Obviously, for everyone in the Sanjiang Camp and the Tax Collectors, you, Li Hongdao, are the target."

Never doubt the power of the people. This power is strong enough to change the world, but never believe that the people are wise enough to use this power correctly instead of becoming accomplices to the evil.

This is why Shen Shixing has always been worried about Shen Shiqing. He is the wisdom that guides the power of all people to be released correctly.

It was not until Shen Shixing captured Shen Shiqing that he felt completely relieved.

The same thing happened with the Luomuying mutiny. Yan Shixuan was the one who came up with the idea and directly killed his immediate superior Wu Shanyan. Nothing happened to Yan Shixuan and he continued to serve as the prefect of Hangzhou.

The will of this world has always been like this, whoever wins will be helped, so many times, people are so obsessed with winning itself, even if it is just a cassock.

"No, I'm very curious, why do you want to target the Tax Inspection Office? Did the Tax Inspection Office provoke you? Why do you want to let your stragglers attack the Tax Inspection Office? Are you crazy?" Shen Shixing asked the question he was curious about.

Li Hongdao was really brave. The Sanjiang Camp was about to be breached, but the Ti cavalry joined the battlefield and changed the situation. This seemed to be a bad move. Li Hongdao was a Jinshi and should not be so stupid.

Shen Shixing was also very curious whether Li Hongdao had ever regretted bringing trouble upon himself.

Li Hongdao's expression changed several times before he whispered, "They are checking taxes..."

Shen Shixing smiled and shook his head and said, "Cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. Su Chengping and his tax inspectors have cut off some of your financial resources. I understand."

Li Hongdao was filled with hatred. He hated the Tax Inspection Office and the entire set of tax inspection laws established by the emperor even more than he hated Zhang Juzheng's performance evaluation system!

The existence of the Tax Inspection Office has curbed corruption to a great extent, because the Tax Inspection Office investigates corruption by investigating the flow of money. Even the settlement between gambling houses and gamblers will be investigated by the Tax Inspection Office. These local petty corruptions are also within the scope of tax inspection.

"Prefect Yan, have you discovered? The Ming Dynasty is against the Ming Dynasty." Shen Shixing said to Yan Shixuan beside him.

Yan Shixuan immediately said, "I didn't notice it."

"Let me tell you in detail." Shen Shixing said with a desire to share.

Yan Shixuan shook his head like a rattle and said loudly: "I don't want to listen!"

These were obviously rebellious remarks, so Yan Shixuan didn't want to listen to them!
Yan Shixuan was only the prefect of Hangzhou. He was not in a decision-making position in the bureaucratic ruling class. It was okay for the emperor and the ministers to hear some of his words, but he was not qualified to steer the ship, so he did not need to listen to these things. Knowing too much would be detrimental to his promotion.

Shen Shixing is a person in heaven, while Yan Shixuan lives on earth, and every step he takes is very difficult.

Shen Shixing stood with his hands behind his back and said with great emotion: "From small households, handicraft workshops, large government factories, to civil and military officials, to the entire Ming Dynasty, any group can never be a monolithic entity. Where there is affirmative force, there must be opposing force. Every specific individual has a different other side. We can see many paradoxes..."

"Prefect Yan, why are you leaving? I haven't finished what I'm saying yet!"

"I won't listen." Yan Shixuan walked away rudely. When he heard what Shen Shixing said, he immediately waved his hand and said, "I'll go handle the case. The governor can talk to His Majesty."

Yan Shixuan certainly saw this division, but he was powerless. All he could do was to do the job at hand well, quickly stabilize the entire Taizhou Prefecture, restore peace, and make Li Hongdao a topic of conversation after dinner, rather than the key person who deeply affects the governance or chaos of Taizhou.

Shen Shixing finally dealt with the issues in Taizhou, wrote a memorial and sent it to the Ming court.

Three days later, the emperor's edict was delivered to Taizhou by water.

Taizhou also has a seaport, and it is not small in scale. It is crowded with sails and has a prosperous business. In recent years, Taizhou has been applying for a Maritime Customs Office. Having a Maritime Customs Office means that it can go directly to Japan, Luzon, Jiugang and other places. But without a Maritime Customs Office, Taizhou has to go to Ningbo Maritime Customs Office for customs declaration, which is quite troublesome.

Li Hongdao, Shen Shiqing and other criminals were escorted to Beijing. The Ming Emperor praised the Tax Inspection Office for its passive counterattack and even specially inscribed the four characters "The Courage of Ten Thousand Men" and bestowed it on the Tax Inspection Office of Taizhou Prefecture.

Twenty-seven people blocked the attack of five hundred people and even fought back in an orderly manner. In the eyes of the emperor, this was the courage of ten thousand men.

As the governor of Zhejiang, Shen Shixing once again became a fifth-rank doctor. Shen Shixing chose to accept this punishment. The civil unrest occurred in the area where he was the governor, and Shen Shixing did not discover Li Hongdao, the parasite, so he was guilty of negligence.

The emperor issued a strict order to find out where Li Hongdao got his ability and how he dared to be so bold. This is a fact that must be clarified!
They openly defied the emperor's wisdom, resisted the implementation of the imperial decree, and helped the gentry to regain their land. Why did the local officials of Taizhou know about it but fail to report it?

The fuss Li Hongdao put up was a blatant act of treason. There must be a clear answer as to why the Ming Dynasty's correctional forces were ineffective.

This was the doubt in the emperor's mind. The rebellion was so blatant that the poor and laboring people could not bear it and started to make trouble. Only then did the court realize that this problem was very serious.

"This is not the governor's fault." Yan Shixuan heard that Shen Shixing was demoted three levels again. It was not long since he was reinstated, and he became a laughing stock in the Ming Dynasty again.

No matter what, the hole caused by Li Hongdao cannot be blamed on Shen Shixing.

"It's a crime of negligence." Shen Shixing said without much concern: "Before this incident happened, he was always a good man in my heart. Those writers of the poetry society and newspaper agency tried their best to portray him as a good official. A few days ago, someone even bought him an umbrella for the people, with hundreds of silk strips hanging on it."

Li Hongdao has all four of these reputation-boosting items: the Umbrella of All People, the Virtuous Governance Plate, the Patchwork Clothes and the Benevolent Conduct Stele. This is very deceptive.

Shen Shixing was indeed a little careless, and he was a little too busy. Songjiang Prefecture was not a big place, but there were really a lot of things to do. When he was in Songjiang Prefecture, he really could not manage the affairs of Zhejiang.

Li Hongdao was portrayed by public opinion as a very moral person, benevolent, righteous, propriety, wise and trustworthy. He had no tolerance for evil, resolutely implemented the court's policies and was extremely loyal. There were many such things. For example, Li Hongdao got married and engaged in farming, personally cultivated three acres of land, and built several silkworm rooms to produce raw silk.

To the extent that Shen Shixing ignored who controls the mouthpiece. The more these pen masters brag, the bigger the problem may be.

"This time I submitted a memorial requesting His Majesty to send Hou Yuzhao here as soon as possible, but His Majesty refused. The war in Korea isn't over yet, and Hou Yuzhao can't leave." Shen Shixing sighed again. He had to continue running back and forth.

Shen Shixing needs to give a clear answer to your majesty's doubts, and Shen Shixing himself is also very confused. If the root cause is not found, after he leaves, Taizhou will become like this again, with people pretending to obey but actually disobeying, resisting the implementation of government orders, and making a desperate struggle.

Shen Shixing did not go to find anyone else. He directly interrogated Li Hongdao. It was Yan Shixuan's responsibility to stabilize Taizhou, and Shen Shixing's responsibility was to implement the emperor's will.

The emperor had doubts, and Shen Shixing naturally had to solve them.

"Mr. Shen, you are so arrogant now that you are successful. Today it's me, tomorrow it'll be you!" Li Hongdao was escorted out of the prison and pinned to the ground by two imperial guards. There were twenty imperial guards around Shen Shixing who were responsible for protection. After all, everything Shen Shixing did was damnable.

Li Hongdao was pinned to the ground, still roaring.

"Sit down." Shen Shixing waved his hand, signaling the imperial guards not to hold him down, but to sit down and talk. This nonchalant attitude made Li Hongdao very angry and felt deeply humiliated.

Shen Shixing said with a smile: "I will be arrogant when I succeed, of course. Otherwise, I will be like you and wait until I become a prisoner before being arrogant?"

"You!" Li Hongdao was completely broken down by this sentence.

"Besides, as long as I continue to succeed, I will remain rampant." Shen Shixing added.

Li Hongdao's face flushed, and he finally leaned back in the chair with shackles on, and sighed. Shen Shixing was a man from heaven, and as long as the general direction was not wrong, he could continue to be rampant. Not everyone was qualified to be the emperor's fellow apprentice.

"You are really loyal." Li Hongdao sighed.

"Of course. As long as I am loyal to Your Majesty, I can do whatever I want. Why shouldn't I do it? People only live once. I am eager to be an official. The higher the position I hold, the greater the power I will have!" Shen Shixing answered the question very straightforwardly, just like now, Li Hongdao is a prisoner.

"Tell me about it." Shen Shixing started asking questions only after seeing that Li Hongdao had accepted his fate. Acceptance of fate meant that Li Hongdao was no longer so resistant.

Li Hongdao immediately said: "What? What do you want to know? I never thought of deceiving the governor, it's just that the governor never asked me." "What should I know? If you don't tell me, how can I know what I need to know." Shen Shixing replied quite calmly.

Li Hongdao took a deep breath and said, "Governor, when you must know, the people below will naturally tell you. Conversely, if you don't know, it means that you don't need to know this matter yet, so you don't know."

This may sound a bit like official language, but in fact, the two people were talking about the chronic diseases in officialdom, how Li Hongdao deceived his superiors and concealed the truth from his subordinates, and how everyone tacitly kept it from Shen Shixing unless he really needed to know.

Shen Shixing picked up the teacup, blew on it, took a sip, put it down, and said with a smile: "I know what you said."

"The contradiction theory tells me that contradictions exist in all things. Among these complex contradictions, there must be a main contradiction. The Taizhou bureaucrats are so united in opposing the imperial decree. There must be some interests unknown to the imperial court. Moreover, these interests are big enough for everyone to share the spoils. That's why they dare to be so bold."

"After analyzing it this way, it is maritime trade."

Li Hongdao stood up suddenly and looked at Shen Shixing in disbelief. His breathing became rapid. Li Hongdao really didn't say anything!

Shen Shixing stretched out his hand and said with a smile: "Sit down, sit down, sit down. Look at you, you are anxious again. I urge you to read more books on weekdays. The method of contradiction is very good. As long as you grasp the main thread, you can figure out many problems. You see, I use it very well."

"Sit down and listen to me slowly."

"Taizhou has been applying for the Maritime Customs Office, but it has not been established yet. Moreover, after His Majesty's southern tour, it is impossible for the court to approve it in a short period of time. So how do Taizhou's merchants do maritime trade business?"

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

"Let me guess, is it a counter-trading? You trade silver onshore and exchange it directly overseas, so you want to provoke the Taizhou Tax Office. Because you are afraid of something happening, you simply take the risk and take advantage of the civil unrest to do it once and for all."

It is like a settlement between a gambler and a gambling house. Although the thirty taels of silver were not traded, taxes still need to be paid. Silver is traded directly on shore, and directly exchanged for goods overseas.

Li Hongdao sat down slowly, sneered and said, "You underestimated Fu Tai. Fu Tai is powerful, it is true, but what can you do if you know it? You can't find it out. It's useless to torture me, because I don't know it either."

Li Hongdao knew about this, but he didn't know how it worked exactly. However, he still got every bit of benefit he deserved.

"That's it. The prefect of Taizhou, the governor of a place, has so much power but such a small salary. Why should he be loyal to the king's order, even if the position was given by His Majesty." Shen Shixing said in amazement: "I have more power than you, but I am smaller than a mouse."

"That's you. You want to be the Prime Minister, but I don't. What you pursue is to leave your name in history, and the Spring and Autumn Annals will judge merits and demerits. As for me, I can't even leave a single word in history. What I want is for my descendants to be rich and prosperous." Li Hongdao was silent for a moment and chose to tell the truth. He had been completely seen through, so there was no need to be stubborn.

Shen Shixing guessed everything that Li Hongdao knew, and it was indeed what Li Hongdao really thought.

"Your family has also left Ming Dynasty." Shen Shixing smiled. Seeing that Li Hongdao was so desperate, he knew that his family had left Ming Dynasty long ago.

The Ming Dynasty cannot support opening up the sea only when it is profitable.

The Ming Dynasty received the benefits of opening up the seas, but it also had to bear all the disadvantages. The assets had been transferred overseas. This was the new dilemma in anti-corruption after the Ming Dynasty opened up the seas.

Li Hongdao has already earned enough money, huge sums of it, which have already been spent out to sea. His family can enjoy wealth and prosperity for almost generations to come. This is the fundamental motivation for Li Hongdao to do this.

The imperial court captured Li Hongdao but was unable to recover the losses.

"To realize the cross-trading and transfer of goods, there must be a business gang, so the Taizhou Gang must be an entity. Yes, I may not find any clues, but it doesn't matter. I will arrest all the merchants in Taizhou and pass them through the customs one by one. I can't do anything overseas, but I can still make the decision in the heart of the Ming Dynasty."

Shen Shixing thought for a moment and said, "Do you think your family can be rich and prosperous forever?"

Shen Shixing knew very well that Li Hongdao didn't care about the business community in Taizhou. They could die however they wanted, but he, Li Hongdao, was doomed to die anyway, so Shen Shixing changed the topic to Li Hongdao's family.

"I think so." Li Hongdao answered very clearly.

Shen Shixing smiled brightly and said, "You are wrong. I have found them. Are you surprised?"

Li Hongdao's expression changed drastically!
Shen Shixing stood up, shook his sleeves, and said calmly: "Hey, I won't tell you how I found it. After you enter Beijing, you will be reunited with your family."

"Governor, Governor! If you ask, I will tell you everything I know! Governor!" Li Hongdao suddenly knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, hoping that Shen Shixing would stay. He could cooperate with the investigation as long as Shen Shixing said good things for him.

Shen Shixing just wanted to speak well of Su Chengping, the tax inspector, and he didn't bother to pay attention to Li Hongdao, as this man was no longer of any use to him.

Li Hongdao knew very well that Shen Shixing had no reason to lie to him, because it was only after Li Hongdao had given up everything that the governor of Songjiang told him that his family had also been arrested.

In fact, it was very simple. Li Hongdao thought he was flawless, but in fact, the Ming Dynasty had been paying close attention to the movements of his family. Shen Shixing notified the governors of various overseas governorates, asking them to cooperate with the Ming court in handling the case. Finally, Li Hongdao's family was found in Luzon.

Li Hongdao's family changed their names and moved to Manila, Luzon, which is the richest place overseas. In Manila, Li Hongdao's family can enjoy a life that is no less than that in the hinterland, and at the same time avoid the vast net of the Ming Dynasty. What Li Hongdao did not expect was that the vast net of the Ming Dynasty had already extended to Luzon.

In the twelfth month of the fourteenth year of the Wanli reign, Beijing was covered in snow. The snow was so heavy that it collapsed the houses in the suburbs. These houses were older than the emperor and had not been repaired for a long time. The Wucheng Bingmasi placed these people in official residences and waited until the winter was over before taking any further action.

The snow in the north is always like this, falling heavily, and hanging on the branches like pear blossoms in full bloom. If you stand on the bell and drum tower of Zhengya and look out at this time, you will see that the snow covers everything, so white that it is dazzling, with only a few footprints left by pedestrians walking hurriedly.

Zhu Yijun likes snow very much because he is a farmer now and he knows what the heavy snow every winter means to agriculture.

In the imperial study of Tonghe Palace, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, wearing a cloak, continued to review the memorials on the table, while Feng Bao kept handing the memorials approved by His Majesty to the waiting eunuchs to send to Wenyuan Pavilion.

"The criticism of Ling Yunyi continues." Zhu Yijun finished reviewing another memorial. The fact that Ling Yunyi asked Hwarang to identify the middleman aroused the fear of the literati.

Out of fear of the collapse of order, the Hwarang who used to be ordered around at will were servants. Now, these servants who used to be obedient can drag the former masters into hell on earth with just a wave of their fingers, never to be able to turn over.

Feng Bao sighed and said, "It's the same with Lingbu Tang. Since His Majesty has issued a stern admonition, he should just pretend. The censors also want to avoid people and not be so obvious. But Lingbu Tang not only did not restrain himself, but also went even further, making it bloody, and even wrote it in such detail and sent it to the court in Beijing."

The master was kind-hearted and could not bear to see such bloody suffering. There was a lack of officials in Korea, and no supervision. Governor Ling ordered the people below not to talk nonsense, and the matter was thus swept away.

But Ling Yunyi didn't do that. No one else said it, but he himself said that he would write down all these matters, no matter how big or small, in a memorial and send it to the court in Beijing.

Zhu Yijun said with emotion: "Minister Ling has good intentions. He told me that he wants all the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty to know clearly that if the Ming Dynasty falls, everyone will end up like this. So how the Ming Dynasty can survive is the problem that all the meat eaters should consider."

Ling Yunyi's original words in the memorial were: The people of Qin had no time to mourn themselves, but later generations mourned them; if later generations mourned them but did not learn from them, they would also cause later generations to mourn later generations; the country was overthrown and the sky collapsed and the earth broke apart, they were busy like dogs that had lost their homes and anxious like fish that had escaped the net. It was the six kingdoms that destroyed them; it was Qin that destroyed the State of Qin.

"Minister Ling is just asking for trouble," Feng Bao said in a low voice.

The more the carnivores don't want to see, the more Ling Yunyi will tear it apart, crush it, and expose the scars for the carnivores to see. Ling Yunyi is rubbing salt into the hearts of not only the North Koreans, but even into the heart of Lord Ming.

"Send a report in the name of Zhu Zhongxing. He can't bear this scolding." Zhu Yijun modified Ling Yunyi's article. The subject matter did not change. It still discussed the misery of the slaves of a conquered country.

The Ming Dynasty was established two hundred years ago. Although wars were frequent, most of them were fought in the border areas and not in the heartland of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty had long forgotten what it was like to be a slave of a conquered nation, and the heartland had been peaceful and prosperous for a long time. The fall of North Korea this time does have practical significance as a warning.

In any case, the ruling class must use all the means at their disposal to keep the Ming Dynasty going. Otherwise, Korea today will be the Ming Dynasty tomorrow.

When the nest is destroyed, no eggs can remain intact.

"I obey the order." Feng Bao obeyed the leader's order.

"Has Li Hongdao been taken to the capital?" Zhu Yijun picked up the next memorial and inquired about the progress of the mutiny in Sanjiang Camp in Zhejiang. Shen Shiqing, the instructor of Donghu Academy, and Fang Rongxing, the commander of Sanjiang Camp, were also arrested and brought to the capital as the other party. Before the case was concluded, they were all suspects.

"He was in the prison, he untied his belt and tried to commit suicide, but was stopped by the imperial guards. He was taken to the Northern Pacification Office, and his life was no longer his." Feng Bao said with his head bowed.

Zhu Yijun frowned and asked, "Where are Li Hongdao's family members? Where are they?"

"He has already disembarked at the Mizhou Maritime Customs. The heavy snow has blocked the road, and he is being detained at the Mizhou Maritime Customs. Wang Yi'e has assigned two captains of the coastal defense force to watch him, so he can't escape." Feng Bao answered this question. The snow at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month was a bit too heavy.

"Shen Shiqing and Fang Rongxing can be detained, but don't be too harsh on them. They will have to go back to Zhejiang after the case is tried." Zhu Yijun instructed Feng Bao to do his job. Some people don't want Shen Shiqing and Fang Rongxing to go back alive. If they both go back alive, it will be a complete victory, a huge win.

As Shen Shixing said, Ming Dynasty opposed Ming Dynasty, if one side wins, someone will naturally lose.

The treatment of Shen Shiqing, Fang Rongxing and Li Hongdao was very different. For example, Shen Shiqing and Fang Rongxing were both in single rooms, and there were even stoves. As for the single rooms where Li Yashi was locked up every day, except that he could not leave the Beizhenfusi at will, they were still very comfortable.

Zhu Yijun suspected that Li Yashi deliberately used the coal from the Northern Pacification Office in order to keep warm in winter instead of burning his own coal. For this reason, Zhu Yijun issued an edict requiring Li Yashi to live in the Northern Pacification Office and pay for the coal, even if he went to jail.

Li Yashi was so angry that he made up two more jokes and added 20 days to his sentence. He would not be released until the Chinese New Year.

"Shen Shiqing is a scholar with a cruel heart. Fang Rongxing arrested more than 40 gentry families, but Fang Rongxing didn't dare to kill them, so Shen Shiqing did." Zhu Yijun looked at the case file and could only say that Shen Shiqing was quite like Ling Yunyi.

More than 40 families of gentry were captured in the Sanjiang Camp, with over 1,500 people. Shen Shiqing spared no one except the children and beheaded them all in the Sanjiang Camp. He was really cruel.

"That's what these gentry deserve." Feng Bao frowned and said, "None of these forty families are innocent. Every one of them is from the Taizhou business group. They all participated in the Taizhou counter-trading. They also raised those desperate criminals. Each of them raised a bandit group. Shen Shiqing had no choice but to do this."

Shen Shiqing gave the order to kill, but Fang Rongxing was hesitant. Shen Shiqing simply took Fang Rongxing's hand and pressed it down, and gave the order together.

At that time, Shen Shiqing had no idea whether he could survive. Li Hongdao's offensive was fierce, and Li Hongdao did not take the lives of those gentry seriously at all. Shen Shiqing initially wanted to negotiate with the prisoners, but after that failed, he could only kill these culprits. If he killed one, he would not lose, and if he killed two, he would make a profit.

They are all cruel.

(End of this chapter)