Chapter 880

"Okay Master, I'll treat you to dinner. How about the newly opened Quanfu Building? Their signature 'Three Ways to Eat Rabbit' is quite good." "Such an ugly name, what kind of signature dish is that?"

A meal was eaten happily.

After sending Master home, He Lingchuan returned to the City Guard Office and directly summoned the Goshawk to ask: "You have been in Panlongcheng recently, right?"

Woken up by He Lingchuan, the Goshawk's voice was sleepy. It is a raptor that acts during the day, it should be sleeping at this time! "Yes, I've run back and forth several times to deliver letters."

Everywhere else uses carrier pigeons and immortal cranes to deliver letters, only Panlongcheng makes it run errands back and forth bitterly.

"Did you see General Hong?"

"Saw her." The Goshawk twisted its neck, "What message do you have to pass on again?"

"Where has General Hong been for the past month?"

"Returned from the northern front half a month ago, stayed in Panlongcheng for nine days, and went back to the front line."

"Is she okay?" He Lingchuan added, "She wasn't injured, right?"

In the Panlong Secret Realm, General Hong did not appear, but turned her power into armor and lent it to him to deal with the Naraku Heaven avatar and the Three Water True Person. But he could see that this was not within the permission of the Great Fanghu.

No matter how powerful General Hong is, she also resides within the Great Fanghu. How could she openly act against the will of the Great Fanghu without paying any price?

Back then, the Hundred-Faced Nightmare's true body didn't even dodge the two chains of the red giant shadow before it was swallowed.

"General Hong?" The Goshawk tilted its head, "She is a semi-divine body, and she will recover quickly if she is injured. You don't know that."

"So she has been acting as usual?"

"Still killing people like hemp on the front line, very agile."

It seems General Hong is fine. He Lingchuan gave an "oh" and tore off meat to feed it a few small chicken legs.

Four days later, Baicheng Post Station.

On the southern trade route, this is the post station closest to Longchuan Lake, built by the water dock.

More than ten years ago, the Longchuan banditry was rampant, and this place was abandoned until Panlongcheng took over the Xiji territory and rebuilt the Baicheng Post Station.

Even so, caravans would rather take a detour than walk here, so the Baicheng Post Station was temporarily closed.

Only today, the post station is full of guests.

They are all uninvited guests.

More than ten small boats sailed out from Longchuan, with special plate armor on the top and around the boats, which could prevent arrows.

They circled half a circle before stopping at the water dock, and more than a hundred people landed.

The scouts sent out earlier had returned and reported to the two people in the lead: "There is no ambush in the nearby forest, and there are nearly a hundred people inside and outside the post station. Butcher He is sitting outside the post station."

One of them sneered: "Hmph, so bold, why not just shoot him to death with an arrow."

Cutting off someone's wealth is like killing someone's parents. Mentioning this He, everyone in Longchuan felt their teeth itch with hatred.

"Gang Leader Xu, don't be impatient." Another person said, "Even if we kill him, Panlongcheng will send a new commander."

Everyone raised their vigilance, walking forward with subtle emotions. Sure enough, as the scout said, this road was quite peaceful, with no ambush.

Before long, the post station appeared in sight.

The tables and chairs in the post station were moved outdoors, with mountains behind and water in front, good scenery. A person was sitting by the table waving at them, smiling, as if meeting an old friend.

This guy is the Butcher He who everyone in Longchuan talks about? Too young, right?

The two leaders looked at each other, ordered the group of bandits to disperse and guard, and walked toward He Lingchuan with more than ten confidants.

He Lingchuan only had Hu Min and Menban standing behind him, and other guards were several feet away to show sincerity, otherwise the bandit gang opposite would probably not dare to come over.

The two leaders walking opposite, one tall and one short, one fat and one thin.

He Lingchuan knew that the tall and fat one was Tao Lin, the leader of Qianjin Stronghold, and the other dark and thin dwarf was Xu Zeshou, the leader of the Qiuhua Gang.

"Gang Leader Tao, Gang Leader Xu, please sit!" He Lingchuan set up two chairs opposite.

Tao and Xu looked at each other and sat down. The confidants behind them stepped forward a few steps, forming a semi-encirclement of He Lingchuan.

These people were staring like tigers, but He Lingchuan ignored them.

Just sat down, happened to hear a "woo" sound from the side, sharp and ear-piercing.

Tao Lin frowned, Xu Zeshou's body trembled slightly, almost jumping up, but finally squatted down in a horse stance.

It turned out that the cast iron kettle on the stove was boiling.

He Lingchuan took the kettle and smiled: "Oh sorry, this is a cast iron kettle native to Mou Nation, with a reed on the lid, it will whistle when the clear water boils."

Local water boiling uses soup bottles, rich families use porcelain, copper, and tin, but the specialty of eastern Mou Nation is cast iron kettle, round head and short mouth, simple and tough.

The products of eastern Mou Nation don't pay much attention to the novelty of style and the beauty of patterns.

He grabbed two tea cups, which already had tea leaves in them, and with a rush of boiling water and a swirl of tea soup, the mellow aroma drifted out.

But Tao and Xu didn't move.

The tea of the official head, who dares to drink?

Xu Zeshou said coldly: "You asked us to come, what exactly is the matter?"

"I heard that the bayberry wine of Qianjin Stronghold and the pearls of Qiuhua Gang are hot goods outside. I personally like the bayberry wine of Qianjin Stronghold and use it every time I treat guests."

The wine of Qianjin Stronghold goes without saying, from Yuheng City to Bai Sha Bay, all the way praise; the Qiuhua Gang occupies the water park and produces pearl mussels, as long as they are raised well, they can produce pearls the size of dragon eyes, but the quantity is not large. The old Xiji palace collected a black and white pearl, which is a natural Tai Chi pattern, which was also sold by the Qiuhua Gang.

He Lingchuan then added: "It can be seen that the two gang leaders are experts in doing business. Then, I want to talk to the two about a top-notch deal."

Tao and Xu looked at each other again, not saying a word, wanting to see what medicine he was selling in his gourd.

He Lingchuan took a box from underneath and placed it on the table.

He knew that the two didn't dare to open the box, so he did this step for them.

The box opened slowly, and the two saw two oval tokens lying on the brocade pad.

He Lingchuan took out his own Commander Token and shook it twice, letting them see that the material of the three tokens was the same.

"Yuheng City wants to hire the two gang leaders to be the guards on the Longchuan trade route."

"Do what?" Xu Zeshou was stunned, thinking his ears hadn't been picked for too long, and had auditory hallucinations, Tao Lin also frowned.

"Guard?"

"Not bad." He Lingchuan asked someone to take out the Longchuan map and spread it flat, drawing two circles on it.

The two bandit leaders took a look, and what he circled was the territory of their own gangs on the trade route, commonly known as hunting grounds.

In order to avoid contradictions, the medium and large bandit gangs in Longchuan had long ago divided the entire southern route, and small bandit gangs could only survive in the cracks.

The meeting place He Lingchuan chose, Baicheng Post Station, was the territory of Qianjin Stronghold.

Such power division, the official certainly never admitted. He Lingchuan outlined it very directly: "This is the looting range of Qianjin Stronghold, this is Qiuhua Gang's, right?"

"..." Facing the official family, the two didn't want to answer such an embarrassing question.

He Lingchuan put the two tokens into the two circles respectively: "From now on, your gangs don't have to loot anymore, just set up checkpoints and collect road fees."

Wh, what? The two gang leaders considered themselves well-informed, but were still shocked by this sentence.

The confidants behind them also looked at each other, unbelievable.

Everyone's brains moved fast, desperately digesting this news. Xu Zeshou tentatively asked: "Commander He's meaning, from now on let us hold official tokens and collect, collect road money from passing caravans?"

"Gang Leader Xu summarized it concisely, but this is not called buying road money, this is called road tax."

The two were speechless.

The so-called road tax, isn't it the road fee collected by the official side from caravans? Water bandits often cursed loudly when drinking privately, isn't this the same as what they did? Just because there is no official background, they dare to collect this money, which is called robbery.

Commander He intends to recruit them and let them collect road fees for Yuheng City? This is recruitment?

This is recruitment insurance?

Fantastic!

"The current situation on the trade route, the brothers of the gang lick blood on the knife edge, the passing caravans are frightened, and my Yuheng City army patrolling back and forth is also time-consuming and laborious, and neither side is pleasing." He Lingchuan raised his cup and took a sip of tea, "We have to calculate the cost, the road tax collected is used to fight, and there is not much left in the warehouse; you guys play cat and mouse games with me every day, and you can't earn much money, and the expenses are higher than before. Calculating like this, no one earned it."

"Actually, isn't it just a matter of money? Simply like this, the road tax will be collected by you, everyone doesn't have to kill each other, and harmony makes money, how good is that?"

Tao Lin heard this and finally couldn't help but say: "Why should we collect money for the official side? How much does Yuheng City intend to give us?"

In the past, the old Xiji country also tried to recruit, and recruited several times, but the conditions offered were very stingy, at most willing to give Tao Lin a small official in the county, and so many of his subordinates had to be dispersed and placed in various places.

Water bandits don't read much, but they aren't stupid. This clearly wants to break them into pieces and weaken the team, of course they don't agree.

Seeing history about to repeat itself, the two bandit leaders were still calm, but a few confidants behind them couldn't help but sneer.

Still want to play this hand? Long ago saw through your tricks!

Throwing out a small shrimp, want to catch a giant whale? Thinking quite beautifully, ha.

He Lingchuan pretended not to see their contempt: "The tax collection standard refers to the official, don't collect more and don't collect less, but the money collected—"

He paused, seeing everyone's attention focused, and then continued: "All belong to you."

All, all? Others couldn't believe their ears. Xu Zeshou's heart also jumped twice, and he exchanged a few glances with Tao Lin.

He was calm on the surface, with his hands crossed on his chest, a negotiating posture: "Passing the road can collect a few money, so many brothers have to eat..."

He Lingchuan interrupted him: "A few money? Do you know how cool it is to collect road tax?"

"Everyone knows that killing and setting fire is fast money. But this business can be done once or twice, but if you do it many times, the risk goes up and the income goes down. Not to mention the pension in the gang is getting heavier and heavier, sometimes the money and goods robbed are not enough to distribute, right?"

Speaking of this, the faces of the two bandit leaders dimmed.

Happy Qixi Festival.

Originally wanted to ask for a day off, anyway, you are too lazy to read books today.

Later I thought about it, let's update it, people who don't have a festival shouldn't suffer double strikes.

(End of chapter)