Chapter 214

"Haha!"

"Then I, Zhang, shall thank Daoist Gongsun for his auspicious words here."

Seeing that Gongsun Sheng had the air of one whose heavenly secrets must not be revealed and was unwilling to say more,

Zhang Jie did not press for the bottom of the matter, instead laughing it off to skip the topic.

In any case, as long as Gongsun Sheng remained on Liang Shan, he would have enough time and opportunity to interact with him.

Once they became familiar, what secrets would there be that he couldn't know?

Perhaps he could even use Gongsun Sheng to understand a figure who was theoretically even more unfathomable—

—his master, the master of the Purple Void Temple on Erxian Mountain, Luo Zhenren.

If it could be said that Gongsun Sheng might have mastered some Daoist arts like Qi-gazing,

Luo Zhenren would only have mastered them to a degree far more profound than his disciple.

With the other Zhang Jies as his backing, free from illness and disaster, he could at least

live for another two sixty-year cycles; he had enough time and patience to wait.

After all, in the Water Margin World, who else could bring disaster and calamity upon him, Zhang Jie?

It would be more like him going to bring disaster and calamity upon others.

"Heavenly King Chao."

"Professor Wu."

"Mr. Gongsun."

"Brother Bai Sheng."

"Brother Liu Tang."

"Military Advisor Wang."

"Zhang Zhaizhu Zhang."

Following this, Zhang Jie exchanged greetings with Chao Gai and the others one by one, formally getting to know them.

"Gentlemen, I have already ordered a modest banquet to be prepared; I hope you will do me the honor."

When people who had not committed any evil deeds came to join, Zhang Jie naturally had to host them properly.

Not to mention that Wu Yong and the others had also brought the remnants of the Birthday Gift.

This was his, Zhang Jie's, God of Wealth; he certainly couldn't afford to be negligent.

He didn't expect the Birthday Gift to still be worth one hundred thousand strings of cash; after all, the portion belonging to Bai Sheng had been seized by the government because of his reckless showing off,

and on top of that, Chao Gai and the others had expenses and bribes to pay on their way while fleeing for their lives.

If there were fifty or sixty thousand strings of cash left, he would be quite satisfied.

Moreover, most of the Birthday Gift consisted of rare treasures and curiosities; with a group of Liang Shan gentlemen like Chao Gai,

low-level organizational personnel equivalent to village heads, frustrated scholars,

and a Daoist who had just entered the world, what kind of high-quality channels for fencing stolen goods could they possibly find?

According to the prices given by the Hong Kong underworld, if black-market goods could fetch thirty or forty percent of their value, the fence could already be considered to have a conscience.

Some who were completely heartless could drive the price down to twenty percent, or even lower.

Sometimes, the involuntary transfer agents of others' property who bore the majority of the risk earned less than the people fencing the goods.

And he, Zhang Jie, happened to have just such a high-quality channel for fencing stolen goods—Chai Jin's caravan.

Chai Jin's caravan was spread throughout the entire Great Song, and even involved the Great Liao and Western Xia;

fencing tens of thousands of strings of cash in stolen goods was a mere trifle, and he didn't have to fear price suppression at all.

Stolen goods?

What stolen goods? These are treasures that my Chai family has painstakingly collected.

You, Liang Zhongshu, can go talk to the Iron Certificate of Merit bestowed by the Great Song Founding Emperor if you have anything to say!

The Chai family's Iron Certificate of Merit might not have had much efficacy left,

but was Liang Zhongshu's Birthday Gift something that could see the light of day?

A Birthday Gift worth a full one hundred thousand strings of copper cash—

even if Liang Zhongshu served as the Prefect of Great Ming Prefecture until he died, his salary wouldn't amount to that much!

Zhang Jie could only say that when it came to scraping the land,

our Great Song officials were truly gifted and creative.

That County Magistrate of Yuncheng, who for the sake of his official hat suppressed the Liang Shan affair,

and nearly invented the 'Excrement Tax', was like this,

and Liang Zhongshu, who was afraid that scraping the land in Great Ming Prefecture would directly spark a fire, was the same.

There was the Birthday Gift for his father-in-law's birthday, and for other festivals like Qingming, Dragon Boat,

Mid-Autumn, Double Ninth, Spring Festival, and New Year's Eve,

would Liang Zhongshu, a son-in-law who relied entirely on his father-in-law for his position, dare not show some gesture?

If Liang Zhongshu wasn't sensible enough, his father-in-law, Prime Minister Cai Jing, would likely feel this son-in-law wasn't sensible enough.

A single Birthday Gift was worth one hundred thousand strings of cash; it was hard to imagine how much money Liang Zhongshu scraped from Great Ming Prefecture in a year.

It was no wonder he was unpopular in Great Ming Prefecture; as the top official who theoretically held absolute power,

he couldn't even make a unilateral decision to promote Yang Zhi to a low-to-mid-level military officer position.

"It is exactly what I wish, I dare not ask for it!"

Feeling the importance that Zhang Jie, this Liang Shan Zhang Zhaizhu, placed on them, Chao Gai was overjoyed.

The more Zhang Jie valued them, the safer they, these wanted criminals seeking refuge, would be.

Zhang Jie didn't waste words, taking the lead to guide Chao Gai and the others to the hall specifically for hosting guests.

To express the importance he placed on Chao Gai and the others,

Zhang Jie also had Du Qian and other leaders remaining on Liang Shan come to accompany them in drinking.

"Drink, drink, drink!"

"Good brother!"

Chao Gai and the several leaders were all people of heroic nature,

and after a few bowls of wine went down, with the wine heating their ears, they began to call each other brothers.

And once men have had enough to drink, most of them start to lose control of their mouths and begin to brag.

Liu Tang and Bai Sheng began to excitedly recount their proudest achievement—the clever seizure of the Birthday Gift.

During the conversation, Zhang Jie also learned the ins and outs of their "clever seizure of the Birthday Gift."

That fellow Yang Zhi still chose to lead over ten soldiers to carry the Birthday Gift along the small paths,

avoiding the large greenwood forces along the way like Erlong Mountain and Peach Blossom Mountain.

However, unlike the original story,

Yang Zhi this time kept in mind the advice Zhang Jie gave him when seeing him off in Bianliang City,

and along the way, he no longer beat or scolded the soldiers, but instead showed concern for their well-being,

and promised that after delivering the Birthday Gift, he would request rewards for them from Liang Zhongshu.

The soldiers were overjoyed at this, and there wasn't much resentment in their hearts,

so the team escorting the Birthday Gift was much more harmonious, and their speed increased significantly.

Even the two bailiffs and the old steward, who initially didn't look favorably upon Yang Zhi, this "thief-conscript," changed their views of him,

feeling that although Yang Zhi had fallen on hard times,

he was after all from a prominent family like the Yangs, and his way of dealing with people was still acceptable.

But this time, the trouble was ruined precisely by Yang Zhi's concern for the soldiers:

The day Chao Gai and the others seized the Birthday Gift was a scorching sunny day,

and the sunlight shining on their bodies felt as if they were being roasted on a fire.

The soldiers carrying the heavy loads were sweating like rain as they hurried along,

and their whole bodies looked as if they had been fished out of water.

It was only because these soldiers were carefully selected strong men that no one suffered from heatstroke.

Yang Zhi, feeling pity for the hardship of his soldiers, paid out of his own pocket to buy a barrel of wine to help them cool off.

As it turned out, the wine seller he bought the wine from was none other than Bai Sheng, who had been waiting for them there.

Once the barrel of wine laced with powerful knockout drugs went down,

Yang Zhi and his party felt their muscles go limp and their minds grow hazy,

and they could only watch helplessly as Chao Gai and the others packed up the dozen loads of the Birthday Gift and took them away.

And Zhang Jie's involvement didn't stop there: the reason Yang Zhi was so off-guard

was because he had dug away the Ruan brothers in advance, causing Chao Gai and the others to be short three strong men,

which greatly lowered Yang Zhi's vigilance against Chao Gai and the others,

leading him to directly buy the laced wine from "Daylight Rat" Bai Sheng...

What more could Zhang Jie say about this?

He could only say that this fellow Yang Zhi was indeed an old unlucky egg:

Going to Jiangnan to escort the Flower and Stone Gift, out of ten ships, the one he was on sank,

losing the rare flowers and strange stones specifically built for Emperor Huizong's Genyue Garden.

After falling on hard times, he had to sell his ancestral treasure sword to make ends meet,

only to encounter that reckless rogue Niu Er,

getting involved in a homicide case and being tattooed and exiled to Great Ming Prefecture as a thief-conscript.

After finally gaining the appreciation of the Great Ming Prefecture Prefect Liang Zhongshu,

who promoted him to a commander and entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of escorting the Birthday Gift,

he ended up having the Birthday Gift seized by Chao Gai and the others regardless of whether he scolded the soldiers or showed them concern,

cutting off his last chance to turn his life around within the system.

Yang Zhi was simply an observational sample of unlucky humans in the Great Song!

'However, I'm afraid I will see Yang Zhi again.'

Zhang Jie tapped the edge of the table with his index finger, pondering in his heart.

Having lost the Birthday Gift, Yang Zhi had completely lost hope of turning his life around within the system,

and would likely be wanted by the government, leaving him no choice but to become a bandit or join a greenwood force.

And when it came to the most prominent greenwood force in Qingzhou right now,

it naturally had to be Liang Shan under his, Zhang Jie's, command.