Chapter 300

Clear water poached pearls, golden plate braised red shrimp?

This was Liang Qu's first reaction to local specialties.

Cha Qing dared not be slow, lifted the oil-paper bag, went straight to the table, and opened it.

"Subordinate's hometown is in Changgu County, where there is a tea called Yangxian Snow Bud, which grows under the north peak of Junshan Hanging Foot Ridge; its fragrance is elegant, its taste is fresh and mellow, and it is truly good tea; I came specially to offer it for Lord to taste."

Cha Qing unfolded the oil-paper bag, and a faint, fresh fragrance permeated the water vapor.

Liang Qu stepped forward to look; the oil-paper bag was indeed full of tea leaves, not a small amount, about two jin, covered with white frost.

"Yangxian Snow Bud, I have heard of it slightly."

Changgu County is under the jurisdiction of Huaiyin Prefecture, not far from Pingyang County, north of Fengbu County, the neighbor of the neighbor.

Therefore, Liang Qu had an understanding of the so-called Yangxian Snow Bud; it wasn't cheap, a bit expensive, and it was indeed suitable as a local specialty.

"Yo, that's really a coincidence; to tell you the truth, Lord Liang, this tea has been in my grandfather's generation…"

Cha Qing found an opening and took the opportunity to introduce himself, saying that his hometown was near the tea mountain, his grandfather's generation was a small tea merchant, and there was more tea than they could drink every year.

Relying on selling tea, his grandfather had savings, supporting his father's generation to learn martial arts, and both sons achieved martial records, becoming increasingly prosperous.

By the time it reached Cha Qing's generation, he saw an opportunity to come to the River-Dredging Office, working tirelessly to earn a reputation.

Cha Qing chattered on and on, all about his past experiences, occasionally accompanied by a few sighs, talking about the hard work of his parents.

After finishing his own experiences, Cha Qing changed the subject, expressing that it took three generations of accumulation for him to reach his current position, and he greatly admired Lord Liang for starting from scratch and achieving so much at the age of a dance-age youth, which truly made him, a River-Dredging Chief who had passed the age of thirty, feel ashamed, feeling that the past few decades had been lived in vain.

Facing Cha Qing's flattery, Liang Qu occasionally responded, and the atmosphere was quite harmonious.

After chatting for more than a quarter of an hour, Cha Qing felt it was about time.

First meeting, stop when it's enough, and he proposed to leave.

"Lord Liang, please stay."

The figure disappeared from the corner, without making any requests.

"He's got something…"

Liang Qu touched his chin.

He picked up the tea scoop on the table and stirred the tea leaves to reveal the bottom; there was no hidden object as he had imagined, just proper tea leaves.

"Put it away."

Liang Qu put down the tea scoop, called Fan Xing, who had returned from seeing the guest off, to collect the oil-paper bag, and got up to return to his room.

While still walking in the covered walkway, there was another knock at the door.

Fan Xing ran out in a flash and asked through the door.

"Who is it?"

"Fan Zixuan!"

Fine!

Liang Qu stopped his steps, returned to the hall, and welcomed the second subordinate.

Fan Zixuan put down his coir raincoat and walked through the corridor.

Unlike Cha Qing's rich fatness, Fan Zixuan was quite lean, with dark skin, wearing a narrow robe, with mud stuck to his elbows.

As expected, he was here to send "local specialties" just like Cha Qing.

What Fan Zixuan sent was different from what Cha Qing sent; it wasn't tea leaves, but a "Flying Dragon."

This Flying Dragon was of course not a real flying dragon, but a hazel grouse, which, like the treasure fish in the water, was a rare land beast.

The one in front of him weighed four or five jin, estimated to be worth more than a dozen taels of silver, almost equivalent to Fan Zixuan's monthly salary!

"This, this is too extravagant!"

"Not extravagant, not extravagant; when I heard that I was to be transferred under Lord Liang, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep for whole nights.

Who is Lord Liang? In Yixing Town, who doesn't know him? Even in the county, more than half of the people know him; he is a hero, a righteous man!

I have admired heroic figures with the same character as Lord Liang since I was a child, thinking that Lord Liang must be tired of eating treasure fish in the River-Dredging Office, so I wore a coir raincoat and braved the rain overnight to go into the mountains and forests to shoot a Flying Dragon with a bow, rushing all the way here without stopping, just to send it to Lord Liang to stew a pot of fresh soup!"

Fan Zixuan was enthusiastic and full of sincerity.

"Hey, this…"

Fan Zixuan's reputation sounded more cultured than Cha Qing's, but he was not as smooth as Cha Qing in doing things.

Liang Qu silently noted his impression.

It wasn't that he disliked it.

Everyone has different personalities, but when dispatching people to do things, one should know who is suitable for what.

"Since that's the case, I will accept this Flying Dragon, but the price is really too high, and I feel bad about it; you must accept these ten taels of silver."

Unlike accepting everything as Cha Qing did, Liang Qu forced ten taels of silver onto Fan Zixuan.

It is actually a very normal custom for subordinates to send gifts to superiors, local officials to send to capital officials, colleagues to send to each other, and classmates or fellow villagers to send to each other.

There is no need to fear it like a snake or scorpion, fearing that people will catch a handle.

On the contrary, not accepting it might be seen by Fan Zixuan as looking down on him, giving rise to other thoughts.

It's just that more than ten taels of silver is too valuable, and Fan Zixuan is not someone with family assets like Cha Qing; Liang Qu took a little less, taking advantage of a few taels of silver, just to make a gesture.

"Lord Liang is really… since that's the case, subordinate accepts it."

Fan Zixuan was not stupid; he left with a beaming smile, feeling that his night of hard work hadn't been in vain.

Two came in an hour; Liang Qu guessed there were more to come, so he didn't return to the bedroom, told Zhang Da Niang to take the Flying Dragon to stew soup, and told Fan Xing to take some Yangxian Snow Bud to taste.

The emerald tea strips unfolded their leaves in the boiling water, precipitating a pale yellow fragrant tea, and the whole hall was filled with the fragrance of tea.

Liang Qu took a small sip; the taste was indeed not bad, better than the tea leaves originally prepared at home for guests.

It probably didn't match the five or six taels per jin that Cha Qing said.

The fragrance of tea permeated.

Half an hour later, the iron ring on the main gate was knocked again.

"Who is it."

"Yan Qingshan, Yan Chongwen, Zhu Chunqiao, Ji Youdong have come to pay respects to the Lord!"

Well, all three River-Dredging Chiefs have arrived!

Fan Xing opened the door, the four passed through the shadow wall, saw Liang Qu on the left side of the hall, and bowed in unison.

"Subordinate, pays respects to Lord Liang!"

"Xinglai, pour tea." Liang Qu ordered, then looked at the four familiar people, "No need to be restrained, sit."

Yan Qingshan and the others heard this, and according to the order of Yan Qingshan as the leader and the others in sequence, they found seats and sat down.

The four didn't dare to sit fully, only touching the edge of the chairs, bending their knees, and seeing Fan Xing coming to pour tea, they hurriedly thanked him and took the tea cups.

It's awkward to say.

Liang Qu flatly rejected the letter of intent submitted by the four, thinking there would be no intersection, but after tossing and turning, they came back to serve as subordinates.

If one says that thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, and Liang Qu was slapped in the face by the four, that doesn't match up.

Liang Qu is the superior, and the four are subordinates.

I don't know if Ran Zhongshi heard the wind and deliberately transferred them to tease himself.

The hall was silent, occasionally with the sound of drinking tea.

Liang Qu didn't know what to say, so he simply tasted the tea.

After a while, Yan Qingshan looked at Yan Chongwen and the others, and seeing the three signaling with their eyes, he put down the tea cup awkwardly,

"Lord Liang, our four brothers are naturally happy to be under your command, but we are also very fearful, so we pooled some silver to buy a gift; I hope Lord Liang will not dislike it."

After speaking, Yan Chongwen handed a small box to Yan Qingshan, who took it and sent it to Liang Qu in small steps.

Liang Qu opened the box and saw a thumb ring lying inside.

The thumb ring was wide and heavy, glowing with a blue-gray iron light, engraved with cloud and tiger patterns.

"I heard that Lord Liang is a master archer and made great contributions with a profound iron bow during the clearing of the Ghost Mother Sect; the brothers thought about it and sent Lord Liang a thumb ring."

Liang Qu didn't know what material the thumb ring was, but for four people to pool money, it must be extraordinary.

He originally wanted to subsidize the price back like he did with Fan Zixuan, but looking at the four people who didn't understand anything, he was afraid they wouldn't understand the meaning.

Repeatedly refusing would inevitably lead to suspicion of bullying honest people.

It's not easy for honest people to mix in society.

After thinking about it.

"You have heart; I will accept the item; I just happen to be missing a thumb ring for pulling the bow."

Yan Qingshan was overjoyed when he heard this, thinking that his younger brother was indeed smart; sending a thumb ring was not wrong at all!

"No problem, no problem; as long as Lord Liang likes it, our four brothers will definitely be loyal and do our best in the future!"

The others followed suit, and the chatting atmosphere suddenly relaxed.

Liang Qu played with the thumb ring and was about to ask about the material when the gate of the Liang residence was knocked again, very urgently.

Without waiting for Fan Xing to open the door, Li Libo's voice penetrated the rain screen.

"Water Brother, it's not good, there's a flood in Huazhu County!"