Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 248 Cast Iron

At night, the streets and alleys of Yanshi County are dark, with only Nanshi still brightly lit.

Nanshi is not a big market, far behind the markets in Chang'an and Luoyang, but it still has all kinds of goods.

A big man named Diao Geng sat in the private room of the restaurant and looked out the window for a long time. He didn't see Gao Chong coming as promised. Under the willow tree at the corner of the street, there was only a child standing there looking at him. It was probably him. The person sent by Gao Chong to contact him.

Diao Geng patiently drank wine and roamed the long street to make sure that the child was not being followed.

Finally, after finishing the pot of wine, he knocked the wine glass on the table and said, "Shopkeeper, let's settle the bill."

"Okay! Sir, one roast goose, one pot of side dishes, five Hu biscuits, three pots of pine mash spring, plus the take-out steamed buns, it's one hundred and seven cents."

A bunch of shiny copper coins were thrown on the table, but Diao Geng did not bargain, and patiently counted out seven more brand-new copper coins.

When the waiter saw that he looked ferocious and ordered a lot of things, he was worried that he was a diner, but he didn't expect him to be so easy to serve. He smiled apologetically and bowed to send him away. Then he looked at the copper coin in the candlelight and put it away happily.

After leaving the wine shop, a gust of cold wind blew, and Diao Geng opened his clothes to let out the smell of wine.

He walked to the willow tree, lifted up the child's collar like a cat, and walked into the darkness.

"Who asked you to come?"

"Gao, Gao County Cheng." Pen'er responded.

"Where is he?" Diao Geng asked.

"It's right in the county town."

"Why isn't he in the pawn shop?"

Diao Geng had already heard about Guo Wanjin's conviction and Gao Chong's escape, so he went to the pawnshop to pawn an iron lock, with a note about meeting Gao Chong hidden in the keyhole.

"I don't know." Pen'er said, "Give me money and I will take you to find him."

Diao Geng didn't ask the price, took out five copper coins and handed them over, saying, "Is that enough?"

Pen'er took it and rubbed it, overjoyed.

"Let's go, I'll take you there."

The two of them didn't need a lantern. They walked through the dark streets and narrow alleys at night, and the stench kept filling their nostrils along the way.

"Such a rotten place." Diao Geng said, "But I stayed in such rotten places before I was in my twenties. Can't you tell?"

"I can tell."

"Broken kid."

There was only one oil lamp in the shabby house, which was very dark. Gao Chong was sitting by the oil lamp, with a look of decadence on his face, and two men stood behind him.

"Why is the county magistrate hiding here?" Diao Geng stepped forward, took out a wine bag from his arms and handed it over, "The freshly heated pine mash spring is better than cold wine, which is not good for the stomach."

"Lao Diao is more particular now." Gao Chong's voice was hoarse and weak.

"The county magistrate hasn't eaten for several days, right?"

Diao Geng asked with a smile, took out a steamed bun from his bag and handed it over.

He felt that this place was not very comfortable, and he almost wanted to invite Gao Chong to Luo Yan Tower for a chat, but then he remembered that Gao Chong was already a fugitive.

"This time, I came out with my brother. He was carrying iron stones behind. I went to Yanshi first to collect some. After selling this batch of goods, I will buy some new year's goods and go back. There are many people on Iron Mountain and there are not many people to eat. There are many, the county magistrate has prepared the food we need, is it useless?"

Gao Chong remained silent and leaned back a little, his face that could not be seen clearly became even more hidden in the darkness.

"Be prepared."

"I almost forgot," Diao Geng said, "Gao County Cheng, you are no longer an official, so you can't help but give us this batch of grain and light goods, right?"

Gao Chong regained some of his arrogance and said in a hoarse voice: "Although I am not an official, no one can touch the power behind me."

"Yes, something happened. I think your brother should come again." Diao Geng was relieved about this and said: "I'm not worried about you defaulting on your debt, but we must have food before the Chinese New Year. This is what we agreed before. We can't I won’t give it until spring, right?”

Gao Chong was speechless.

When Diao Geng saw the silent atmosphere, he knew that Gao Chong had no idea.

He arrived in Yanshi County yesterday. As soon as he entered the city, he found out that Guo Wanjin had been convicted and Gao Chong was implicated in the matter and fled in fear of being convicted. I thought there were other ways based on noble ability.

"My brother has already reached Songshan Mountain. Isn't Gao County Prime Minister going to let him go back?"

"No." Gao Chong subconsciously wanted to glance at the person behind him, but held it back and said, "The court didn't find our ship. You can just load it onto the ship. I will give you the food that day."

Diao Geng was a little suspicious and said: "The county magistrate Gao won't defraud us on behalf of the government, right?"

"Do you think I look like this?" Gao Chong said, "I'm just waiting for your cargo to go with the ship."

"Well, I'll ask my brother to go to the same place. He can arrive in five or six days."

"it is good."

Diao Geng then stood up and left.

Gao Chong held the bun and gnawed it, looking at the small candle lamp in front of him, thoughtfully, with a faint light of confidence in his eyes.

One of the people standing behind him was Xue Bai, who asked: "You said you don't know the people in Tieshan, but I think you are very familiar with them."

"I don't know who owns Tieshan." Gao Chong said, "These two brothers are the ones who transport the goods. They don't transport it every time, so I didn't know who would transport it this time before he came."

Xue Bai asked: "How much do you know about them?"

"These two brothers, the older one is called Diao Bing and the one just now is called Diao Geng. They are both desperadoes and have had lives under their hands." Gao Chong said: "My sworn brother used to travel around and had some friendship with Diao Bing. Yes. Once, Diao Bing was arrested in Yanshi County, and my adopted brother asked me to let him go. We had a drink together and they helped lead the way."

Xue Bai thought that Gao Chong often hid some lies in the truth and did not believe them all, so he asked again: "How many people do they usually bring?"

"More than a hundred people."

Those who do this kind of business are desperadoes, and there must be no shortage of weapons. In other words, the force of these people cannot be underestimated. Xue Bai is afraid that he does not have enough force to take them.

"Why did you arbitrarily agree to give him food during the day's transaction?"

"The food has been prepared. There are 30,000 shi in the warehouse that I collected." Gao Chong said, "Just give them five thousand shi at a time." Xue Bai asked, "If Lu Linghao asks, I will say you told me. ?”

"The county captain has his own way."

"Five thousand stones of grain, is this batch of iron stones paid for, or is it connected with the previous ones?"

Gao Chong smiled bitterly and didn't answer. Seeing that Xue Bai didn't stop him, he carefully finished the steamed bun in his hand, took a sip of wine and said, "I have some humble opinions. It's up to you whether you listen or not."

"explain."

"I don't know who you want to support, but if he can rely on you, he must not be too powerful. Oh, I don't mean to underestimate you, but you are still young after all. In short, the person behind you has been there for many years. Staying in the Ten Kings' Mansion, there will definitely be insufficient manpower. It would be useless to have so much iron and stone. I'm afraid there won't even be an iron forge to make weapons. Why not keep food to win people's hearts and make contributions? To do big things, you must plan for it slowly."

Xue Bai let him guess and said, "You mean, I can't swallow the loot you dropped in one breath?"

"Sooner or later, you can swallow it, but fat people can't eat it in one bite." Gao Chong looked very sincere.

Xue Bai ignored his sincerity and said lightly: "Change him to another place to imprison him."

A sack was placed directly on Gao Chong's head.

……

Du Jin has already purchased a secret small house in Yanshi County today, so he doesn't have to worry about having no place to keep him.

The house is in Dongchengfang, not too far from Xue Bai's residence.

"Did you send someone to follow Diao Geng?"

"Yes, I did." Du Jin said, "But since we can trade, why follow him anymore? If it turns out to be self-defeating, it will arouse his vigilance."

Xue Bai said: "I want to find out the relationship between Tieshan and Gao Chong. Is it a team or an ordinary business relationship? Or is it true that as Gao Chong said, there is some friendship between the two parties?"

"The punishment was not enough, he didn't tell the truth, right?"

"A smart person like Gao Chong will not give up playing tricks until he dies. Even if most of what he says is true, it is inevitable that he will occasionally mix in one or two lies." Xue Bai said: "For example, this time , If they are just doing business, then they have to pay with one hand and deliver the goods with the other. But if they are a group, I am afraid that a fight will inevitably happen."

"This is his best chance to escape. Do you think he will take advantage of it?"

"Yes, instead of believing him, we should find out for ourselves."

~~

Gao Chong was actually right in what he said. Xue Bai didn't have an iron foundry capable of making weapons, and he didn't even have enough manpower. It seemed useless to ask for too much iron and stone.

Xue Bai had his own ideas about this.

That night, he drew several paintings, and the next day he went to the county office to find Lu Linghao.

"what is this?"

Lu Linghao took the drawing and looked at it horizontally and vertically, but couldn't recognize it for a moment.

"plow."

"Pear?" Lu Linghao said, "It doesn't look like it, it doesn't look like it."

Xue Bai said: "It's an iron plow, also called a tread plow."

Of course, it's not that there are no plows now. It can be seen that Lu Linghao, a county official, doesn't care about farming at all.

But he is good at smoothing things over for himself. He stroked his beard and said with a smile: "So, I think it looks familiar to me. The county captain's painting skills need to be improved."

Xue Bai said: "It is divided into two parts, the wooden frame and the iron share. The wooden frame is shaped like a spoon, and a crossbar is added as a place for the hand to catch. There is a short handle on the left and right of the frame handle as a place for the feet. The mouth of the share Made of iron, it can be used to turn over mud and plow fields.”

Lu Linghao flipped through it twice more before he understood it and said, "So that's it. What's the effect of plowing the land?"

"Although it is not as labor-saving as oxen, it can be used in mountainous areas that cannot be plowed by oxen, and can even be used in rocky and tree-rooted areas. In other words, with the iron plow, more fields can be cultivated in the north and south of Yanshi County."

"Okay. Xue Lang has this wonderful thing. If you report it to the court, it can benefit thousands of people."

Xue Bai said: "In addition, we will forge in Yanshi County, organize wasteland reclamation, and lease it to the people, okay?"

Lu Linghao was stunned and did not answer immediately. He flipped through the drawings in his hand and saw that in addition to the plow, there were also a lot of messy farm tools, some of which were improved, and some of which he had seen before.

"How to forge it? This year's taxes were not collected in full, so in the end we shamelessly asked the gentry to donate. Where can we come up with such a large sum of money?"

After saying that, Lu Linghao sighed and mentioned Xue Bai.

"The county captain is young, has just entered the official career, and is full of enthusiasm for his work. This is a good thing. However, when governing a party, the first priority is the word 'wide'. We should not restrict the people too much. Why do the people want us to teach them to farm? Just like flowers and plants, they should not be too frequent. Serve..."

Xue Bai interrupted his chatter and said: "By the way, I interrogated Sun Yuan, the original head of the Hucao. He said that there were 30,000 shi of grain in the county warehouse with unknown origins. Does the county magistrate know about this?"

"Nonsense." Lu Linghao immediately denied it, with a serious expression on his face, and said: "The grain collected is not enough, how can there be an extra 30,000 shi in the county warehouse? The county has just done an inventory, and there is absolutely no such thing."

From this point of view, someone must have lied between Lu Linghao and Gao Chong.

Xue Bai did not reveal the matter for the time being, and said in a deep voice: "Let's do it this way. I will figure out a way to pay for the forging of farm tools. The county magistrate will send the officials and officials to help me, okay?"

When Shi Cao was in charge of beams, boats, chariots, houses, and all kinds of craftsmanship, iron tools must be forged in the name of the county office. It was the easiest way to go through Shi Cao's hands.

Lu Linghao didn't want to delegate power easily. He was already a little annoyed with Xue Bai.

As the county magistrate, he thought he had done a good job, taking care of the interests of all parties, and treating the newly appointed county captain with kindness.

But what about Xue Bai? Blindly looking for trouble, meaningless things happen one after another. Before, he said he had no choice but to follow the saint's secret order. Now he can't be the saint who told him to forge farm tools.

"Well, the county captain's duty is to catch thieves. Now Gao Chongshang is on the run. Why bother if you are not in a hurry to search and arrest him and just rush back and forth all day long?"

"Making meritorious service and building reputation are also good things for the county magistrate, aren't they?"

"How did you do with the raid on the Guo family?"

"There is a lot of property and it is still being counted. The county magistrate can rest assured that the promise made before will be fulfilled."

Lu Linghao first guaranteed his own interests, then waved his hand helplessly and sighed: "The warehouses and warehouses in the county cannot be touched. As long as they are beneficial to the people, I will naturally support you."

This is the third time Xue Bai has reached out to seize power in recent days. Lu Linghao believes that this should be the last time, otherwise he would be too greedy...

(End of this chapter)