Iron Age

Needless to say, the servants of the Ma family must have gone to trouble the mother and daughter of the Zeng family, so the sisters of the Peng family and the captain agreed very much with Liu Ziguang's proposal, and they hurried back along the same road.

When I arrived in front of the thatched cottage, I saw a few evil slaves playing awe-inspiring prestige. The squint-eyed guy at the head raised a piece of paper with writing in his hand and yelled loudly: "Your surname Zeng, don't be ignorant of flattery, it's only natural to pay your debts." , if you can’t come up with the money, use your daughter to offset the debt.”

Zeng Cheng stood at the door of the thatched cottage with frowning eyebrows, and angrily said: "When did we borrow money from the Ma family, you don't want to make something out of nothing!"

The guy who took the IOU smiled triumphantly, raised the paper in Yang's hand and said, "Why is such a pretty lady so hard-headed? Who lent you the money for the doctor's medicine when your mother fell ill last month?" Your own autographed painting is guaranteed to be recognized by you."

"Mr. Feng, a teacher in the neighboring village, lent me 20 taels of silver to buy medicine. How did it become your Ma family?" Zeng Cheng remembered that last month, his mother was seriously ill.The fishermen in the neighborhood were also in great difficulty. They could only collect more than two taels of silver, which was not enough to buy medicine. The illness could not be delayed. Fortunately, Feng Wencai, a new teacher from the neighboring village, took the initiative to lend her the silver. Accepting the help from someone she didn't know well, she had no choice but to accept the money. On the spot, she wrote down an IOU with the pen and ink of a private school, stating that Feng Wencai borrowed 20 taels of silver. The paper was clearly in her own handwriting, but why did Feng Wencai Become Ma Wencai?The clever Zeng Cheng immediately understood, "It turned out to be a trap deliberately designed by you, and there is something wrong with the ink."

The guy holding the IOU grinned: "That's right, Feng Wencai is Ma Wencai, and Ma Wencai is the name of our young master. Today, the young master sent me, Ma Fu, just to tell you that this debt must be recovered today. If you give, you have to give, if you don’t give, you have to give, if you have money, you have to pay for it, if you don’t have money, you have to pay it back. Little lady, what should you do?"

The standard take advantage of others’ danger, take advantage of the fire to rob, this kind of ancient version of Yang Bailao’s story made Liu Ziguang very unhappy, he resisted the anger of killing people with a knife, stepped forward and said: “Your name is Ma Fu, isn’t it just a 20-year-old man? Two silver coins, I will give it to you, sir, go back and tell your young masters, don’t bully others just because you have two filthy coins.”

Ma Fu squinted at Liu Ziguang, and gave him a few pounds. Seeing that he was dressed as a person of some status, but he was not a local, he should be a passing boat passenger. At that time, he thought about it.

"My lord, I'm sorry, our young master let go of this debt as the interest of the donkey, and now the principal with interest... Well, let me do the math, now the total interest is 80 taels of silver, can you afford it?" ?” Ma Fu opened his mouth like a lion, trying to scare Liu Ziguang away.

"It's clearly 20 taels of silver, how long has it taken to become 80 taels? Even usury doesn't make sense!" Zeng Cheng asked Ma Fu.There were already tears in his eyes.

"Cut, our Ma family started their business by lending money. It's reasonable to have high interest rates. If you don't believe in this evil, you can go to Huai'an County to beat drums and complain about grievances. Let's see how the county magistrate beats you!" The Ma family is [-]% sure whether to move the government or resolve it in private. To deal with two helpless poor fishermen, it is not like pinching the snail with three fingers-----safety.

"Isn't it money? I'll give it!" Liu Ziguang stretched out his hand to the second lady, "Bring a bank note." Because Liu Ziguang didn't have much money on him, he knew that Peng Jingwei, a little money fanatic, always carried a lot of gold and silver. So I asked her directly for money, but to outsiders, it seemed that Second Miss was Liu Ziguang's maid, because the current situation needs to be consistent with the outside world, Second Miss was very cooperative and took out a bank note and slapped it in Liu Ziguang's hand.

Liu Ziguang took a look at the bank note, and put it directly into Ma Fu's hand: "Ma Fu, look carefully, it's 100 taels of silver, grandpa recognized it! The bank note of Anhui Rishengchang bank, the extra 20 taels You don't need change anymore, and the accounts of your Ma family and Zeng family's mother and daughter will be cancelled."

Ma Fu was furious. He really dared to fight against the Ma family. He took the bank note in his hand but put away the IOU. He squinted at Liu Ziguang and said, "My friend, Qianglong is still not overpowering the snake. No matter which path you are on, if you take care of this matter today, I am afraid that you will cause yourself a big trouble. The Ma family in Huaiyin is not friendly, so I accept the banknotes with a smile. Let you go, let's go." The servants in the back also slapped their fists and knuckles.Deterring Liu Ziguang and the others.

"I've seen rascals before, but I've never seen such rascals. You lions want 80 taels of silver and we can bear it, but it's too shameless for you to take the money and not settle the account?" Peng Jingwei couldn't help but jumped out and questioned Ma. blessing.

Just as Ma Fu was about to retort, Liu Ziguang intervened: "Very well, we don't want the 100 taels anymore, it's all for your funeral expenses." "What funeral expenses?" Before Ma Fu could understand, he was kicked by Liu Ziguang The kick flew, and he fell straight into the mud, his head was full of mud, and he was in a state of embarrassment. Two servants hurried over to help him, and the other two servants who didn't know what to do swung their whips to beat Liu Ziguang, but Liu Ziguang also kicked him over. Over there, Ma Fu couldn't stand up anymore, and Liu Ziguang's strength was relatively strong, and his ribs were probably broken by the kick.

Liu Ziguang recently took the gentle route, he didn't wear a sword, he just tucked a long dagger in his boots, and now he was pulling out the dagger, walking up and lifting Ma Fu's leg, ready to pick his hamstring.

"No." Peng Jingrong hastily stopped Liu Ziguang, this place is not like the iron factory, there will definitely be troubles if serious crimes are committed at will, and even if these people are killed, it will only bring more troubles to the mother and daughter of the Zeng family.

Liu Ziguang also realized this, and viciously swiped a few times at Ma Fu's feet with a dagger, then found the IOU from his arms, and then threw him into the mud, "You will also benefit from so much funeral expenses I'm sorry, apart from paying off the debts to the mother and daughter of the Zeng family, let the rest go to the doctor. If you let me know that you still dare to come to trouble, I will definitely wipe out your Ma family." Suddenly saw the body There was some mud, and he remembered the matter of being splashed with dirty clothes by their horses just now, and threatened all the servants of the Ma family to roll in the mud for a lot before letting them go.

Ma Fu was already speechless in pain, and just as he was put on the horse by his servants, he was ripped off by Liu Ziguang. Carrying Ma Fu on his back, he led the horse and staggered away. A more courageous servant asked: "Dare to ask who are some of them, so we can explain to the young master when we go back."

"Go back and tell your young master that we are from the Peng family of the Liguo Iron Works. If we want to find a place, we will accompany you no matter whether it is Xuzhou Prefecture or Huaiyin County." Second Miss never missed the opportunity to speak on such an occasion.

The servants left in desperation, Zeng Cheng hurried over to thank him, and wished Liu Ziguang a blessing, Liu Ziguang repeatedly waved his hands and said that it is right to draw his sword to help when the road is injustice.Return the IOU to Zeng Cheng.

At this time, even Mrs. Zeng who had been in the house came out to thank her. It turned out that she had just recovered from a serious illness and couldn't see the wind, so she couldn't leave the house easily. I saw Mrs. Zeng's face was pale, and her face was very similar to her daughter's. The finely cut facial features are just a lot of traces left by the vicissitudes of time, and the temples have turned gray. She wished Liu Ziguang and the others a blessing.Liu Ziguang hastily bowed his hand to return the salute, while Peng Jingwei leaned behind her sister's ear and said, "Look at Mrs. Zeng's posture is so elegant and graceful, even a court wife is nothing more than that."

After this incident, the distance between the two sides suddenly narrowed. Zeng Cheng made a pot of simmering tea to entertain them, sat and talked, and talked about Ma Wencai, who was really a bully in Huaiyin County. He made his fortune through usury, and now he runs several casinos, and also occupies a good water area of ​​Hongze Lake. It should be that when Ma Wencai went to play in the lake, he fell in love with Zeng Cheng. The family wanted to buy a concubine, but of course Mrs. Zeng refused.The Ma family was unwilling to do such low-tech things as snatching marriages, so they used a small trick. When Zeng's family was in urgent need of money, they sent a teacher to pretend to be a teacher in a neighboring village, and lent him to Zeng under the pseudonym Feng Wencai. Orange 20 taels of silver, and then remove two dots from the Feng character and change it to the horse character, and it is logical to become the creditor of the Zeng family. It was opened by the Ma family, and the lawsuit won or lost.

Fortunately, Liu Ziguang and the others have a great background, maybe the Ma family will show off the face of the National Iron and Steel Works, and will not harass them again for a while.The mother and daughter of the Zeng family had nothing to repay, so they invited Liu Ziguang and his party to have dinner again. After calculating the travel time, they agreed.

Zeng Cheng sent Liu Ziguang and his party far away and stood on the hillside watching them off for a long time.Several people returned to the boat without mentioning it.

When they came again, there were not four of them, but more than a dozen entourages carrying sedan chairs behind them. There were no people in the two small sedan chairs, and they were full of rice, white flour, soybean oil, pork, Huai salt, and several bottles of soy sauce and vinegar. , two bolts of fine cloth, it is very troublesome to buy these things in a small fishing village, and only when the peddlers pass by from village to town can they sell a few copper coins. Mend old clothes.It is also difficult for ordinary people to eat meat oil and meat. Liu Ziguang took these from the boat, as well as a few boxes of high-quality rouge powder and sweet-scented osmanthus oil, all of which were top-grade Peng sisters for their own use.Ordinary small cities couldn't buy such good cosmetics at all, so they were specially bought for Zeng Cheng.Since they don't accept money, try to send some practical daily necessities.Liu Ziguang and the two sisters thought so.

The group of people walked a mile away from the Zeng family's mother and daughter's residence, and saw a wisp of smoke rising across the hillside. The captain said happily that the Zeng family's wife had already started cooking for us. But When everyone crossed the hillside, they only saw the burnt thatched hut and the mother and daughter sitting on the ground crying.

It turned out that it was not cooking smoke, but the remaining smoke after the only shelter of the mother and daughter was burned.