Chapter 18 Lotus
Chapter 18 Lotus
The middle-aged man took the silver and threw it on the stone slab beside him, with a "plop" sound. Then he picked up the silver and said, "When will we start?"
"The morning of the county exam"
"That's the day after tomorrow. You have to take care of my meals for the next few days."
The beggar pointed at his work suit and said, "See clearly? I am a beggar."
The middle-aged man grabbed the beggar's clothes and kept saying, "You have to feed me."
The beggar was afraid that the other party would tear off his only piece of clothing: "Three steamed buns a day."
"not enough."
"enough."
"Five. I need to eat enough so I can have the strength to fight."
"Remember, it's to break the legs."
"Uh-huh."
...
...
On the day of the county examination, Xu Qing left early in the morning. Yesterday, Li Gongyu and the Guo brothers actually received an order from Jiangning Prefecture to jointly inspect the illegal salt with the county's patrol inspectors.
This is clearly an attempt to lure the tiger away from the mountain.
Xu Qing thought: "That guy Zhao Bao is about to take action."
It can be seen from this incident that the Zhao family does have some connections, as they can find people in the government office of Jiangning Prefecture.
It’s a pity that the current officials are not as good as the current managers. If County Magistrate Wu wants to punish them in official matters, they can only accept it.
Xu Qing did not try to stop Li Gongyu from inspecting the smuggled salt.
With his current skills, it didn't matter whether his uncle sent someone to help him or not. He didn't even ask Aunt Zhou to send him off.
After all, now he can go out alone and come and go more freely.
...
...
"I am different from the brothers of Guo Zhuang's wife's family. My uncle is a Dianshi. Zhao Bao wanted to find another scapegoat to punish me before the exam. As long as the scapegoat is a local, he would not dare to agree. Therefore, it is very likely that he found a passerby from other places. He would beat the person and run away without anyone noticing, and the matter would not be linked to the Zhao family."
"Of course, maybe Zhao Bao is really stupid, or there are stupid people under his command who can't resist the temptation of a huge reward."
"No, if Zhao Bao is ruthless and cautious enough, it would be a good idea to find outsiders to attack me first, and then take advantage of the chaos to finish me off. But no matter what, with my current strength, even if Zhao Bao does it himself, he won't be able to get any advantage."
With the Crane Shape Post fully mastered, Xu Qing is already superior to his uncle in terms of pure fighting power.
This has been verified through sparring between uncle and nephew.
...
...
"Brother Bao, what's going on?" Zhao Bao called two thugs from the thug shop. The Zhao family had a stake in this thug shop.
Zhao Bao: "Li Gongyu's nephew is going to take the county exam. If he encounters any trouble before the exam, you can go and help him."
"Brother Bao, this matter is too serious."
"So I want you to go and help. Anyway, it's not you who started the fight. When that kid gets beaten, you can go over and help in the chaos. It happens to be a county exam and the crowd is in chaos. If you accidentally bump into him, that's reasonable..." Zhao Bao said meaningfully.
"understood."
"Go ahead. I won't treat you unfairly later."
"Thank you, Brother Leopard."
Zhao Bao knew that if he directly asked someone to deal with Xu Qing, no one would be willing to do it.
Now he first finds a strong man passing by to attack, and then sends his own people to finish him off. This will definitely be a safe bet.
The price is a bit expensive.
Thirty taels.
He also thought about the conduct of his subordinates, and estimated that they would swallow more than ten taels of silver. These black-hearted bastards, he would definitely deal with them when he found the opportunity.
But he had to spend the money. He wanted to avoid direct contact with the murderer to avoid being blamed.
He called in two thugs and took advantage of the chaos to finish off the enemy, and he didn't leave any room for criticism.
This arrangement is definitely foolproof.
……
On the street, the beggar took a small half of the steamed bun from the middle-aged man's hand and put it into his mouth.
"Stop." The middle-aged man was a little angry.
"You are so stingy. You already have one or two taels of silver. If you want to eat, go buy it yourself. You will be so stuffed that you will die."
"That's the fare for going home."
"Why go home? You might as well continue to be a bandit. Look at you. You have no connections, no money, no land. You are definitely a person with nothing."
"I have a wife waiting for me at home."
"What? Impossible, absolutely impossible." The beggar felt that jealousy was about to make him unrecognizable. He was so handsome, but he didn't have a wife. How could he do that?
"The Lotus Sect was causing chaos, and I was drafted into the army. Then I was captured by the Lotus Sect again. I was confused and became a thief."
"The Lotus Sect. I heard that those guys are all very vicious and evil, and they even eat people."
"You are wrong. Most of them are just like us, ordinary people. They are even better than the officers and soldiers."
"What?"
"The soldiers took our food and asked us to serve as soldiers. The Lotus Sect did not want this and gave us food."
"Where do they get the food?"
“I bought it from the government.”
"what!"
The middle-aged man sighed. After he was captured by the Lotus Sect, he went to transport grain to a government granary. Because the Lotus Sect's bandits all had a lotus seal on their foreheads, it was more appropriate for them, the civilians, to go there, as it would not be so obvious.
Just think of it as the government selling grain to local powerful gentry, and it doesn't count as colluding with bandits.
I even heard that there were local gentry and powerful people who acted as middlemen and provided guarantors.
But the government troops were indeed suppressing the bandits, and the two sides fought to the death.
"Someone is coming out." The beggar pointed to the Li family's courtyard, and a young man came out carrying a book box.
The middle-aged man followed with a wooden stick.
...
...
The middle-aged man followed Xu Qing for half a minute, constantly looking for opportunities.
The other person walked very fast and was very flexible.
There is a county exam today and there are a lot of people on the streets.
When they reached a street corner near the county school examination center, Xu Qing suddenly stopped and looked at the middle-aged man who picked up the stick, with a curious look on his face: "You are following me, are you begging for food?"
Xu Qing looked at the middle-aged man in front of him and initially suspected that he was the murderer hired by Zhao Bao.
But it's also a bit too chilling.
The middle-aged man shook his head.
"Are you hungry?" Xu Qing glanced at the middle-aged man, bought two meat buns for him from the stall next to him, and threw them to him.
"Thank you." The middle-aged man took the meat bun, feeling a little overwhelmed, and kept thanking.
Xu Qing smiled and suddenly asked, "How much did they spend to ask you to beat me?"
"Uh." The middle-aged man was silent for a moment, then said, "Two taels of silver, one tael has already been paid as a deposit."
Xu Qing: "You are an honest man, not suitable for this. I will come to see you after I finish the exam." He patted the middle-aged man's shoulder and whispered to the side: "Big Brother Guo, Second Brother Guo, come out."
At the corner, the Guo brothers each escorted a person out. They were a little surprised, wondering how Xu Qing found them.
On the other hand, they didn't even follow up to investigate the smuggled salt.
This also surprised Xu Qing.
In addition, the beggar who acted as the middleman was also caught by a white servant. Xu Qing naturally left the rest of the matter to the Guo brothers.
He walked to the county school examination hall feeling a little lost, as his opponents were not strong enough.
Also, he is only worth two taels of silver?
The local evil forces are so rude!
Xu Qing was very angry.
(End of this chapter)