After the immortal disappeared

"Okay, Master, I'll treat you to dinner. How about the newly opened Quanfu Restaurant? The signature 'One Rabbit, Three Eats' there is very good."

"With such an ugly name, what kind of signature dish is it?"

A happy meal.

After sending his wife home, He Lingchuan returned to the city guard station and directly called Kestrel for questioning:

"You've been in Panlong City lately, right?"

Kestrel's voice sounded sleepy when he was woken up by He Lingchuan. It is a diurnal bird of prey, so it should be sleeping at this hour! "Yes, I went back and forth a few times to deliver the letter."

Carrier pigeons and cranes are used to deliver letters elsewhere, but only in Panlongcheng where they have to run errands back and forth.

"Have you seen General Red?"

"I saw it." Kestrel twisted his neck, "Do you have any oral news to convey?"

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

"I came back from the northern front line half a month ago. I stayed in Panlong City for nine days and then went back to the front line."

"Is she okay?" He Lingchuan added, "Is she not injured?"

In the Panlong Secret Realm, General Hong did not show up, but turned his power into armor and lent it to him to deal with Narakuten's clone and Sanshui Zhenren. But he could see that this was not within the scope of Dafang Hu's permission.

No matter how powerful the red general is, he still lives in a large square pot. How could she act openly against Dafang Hu's will without paying any price?

Back then, the Hundred-Faced Nightmare himself was swallowed by the giant red shadow without even being able to dodge the two chains.

"General Red?" Kestrel tilted his head, "She is a demigod, and she will recover quickly even if she is injured. It's not like you don't know."

"So she's been acting like normal?"

"He's still killing people on the front lines, he's very strong."

It seems that General Red is fine. He Lingchuan groaned, tore off the meat and fed it a few chicken drumsticks.

…

Four days later, Baicheng Station.

On Nanfang Commercial Road, this is the closest post station to Longchuan Lake, built right next to the water dock.

More than ten years ago, banditry was rampant in Longchuan, and the place was abandoned. It was not until Panlongcheng took over the Xiqiao site that the Baicheng Station was rebuilt.

Even so, the caravan would rather take a detour than go here, so Baicheng Station is not open for the time being.

Only today, the inn is full of guests.

They are all uninvited guests.

Dozens of small boats sailed out from the Taki River. Special plate armor was erected on the top and around the boats to protect them from arrows.

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

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

One of them sneered: "Humph, you are so brave, I might as well shoot him to death with one arrow."

Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents. When the person named He was mentioned, everyone in Longchuan felt itchy with hatred.

"Gang Leader Xu, please be patient." Another person said, "Even if we kill him, Panlong City will send a new leader."

Everyone was on alert and moved forward with subtle emotions. Sure enough, as the scout said, the road was quite peaceful and there were no ambushes.

Not long after, the willows faded and the flowers brightened, and Baicheng Station was clearly in sight.

The tables and chairs in the inn have been moved outdoors, with a beautiful view of mountains and water. There was a man sitting at the table waving to them with a big smile, as if he were meeting old friends again.

Is this guy the Butcher He that everyone talks about in Takigawa? Too young?

The two leaders looked at each other, ordered the bandits to spread their guard, and walked forward with more than a dozen of his followers.

Behind He Lingchuan stood only Hu Min and Men Pan. The other guards were several feet away to show their sincerity, otherwise the gangsters on the opposite side would not dare to come over.

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

He Lingchuan knew that the tall and fat man was Tao Lin, the leader of Qianjin Village, and the other, dark and thin short man, was Xu Zeshou, the leader of the Ball Flower Gang.

"Gang Leader Tao, Gang Leader Xu, please sit down!" Two chairs were placed opposite He Lingchuan.

Tao and Xu looked at each other, shook their clothes and sat down. The cronies behind him took a few steps forward and formed a half-encirclement around He Lingchuan.

These people looked at them eagerly, but He Lingchuan turned a blind eye.

As soon as I sat down, I heard a sharp and ear-piercing "Woo" sound next to me.

Tao Lin frowned, Xu Zeshou's body trembled slightly, and he almost jumped up, but finally squatted down with a horse stance.

It turned out that the cast iron kettle on the stove had boiled.

He Lingchuan took in the two people's reactions and said with a smile while holding up the pot: "Oh, sorry, this is a specialty iron pot from Mou State. There is a reed on the lid, and it will chirp when the water is boiled."

Local people use soup bottles to boil water, and wealthy people use porcelain, copper, and tin. The specialty of the eastern part of Mou State is the cast iron kettle, which has a round head and a short mouth, and is simple and strong.

Products from the eastern part of Mou State don't pay much attention to novel styles and exquisite patterns.

He grabbed two teacups, with tea leaves already placed in them. As soon as the boiling water was brewed and the tea soup was swirled, the warm aroma wafted out.

But Tao and Xu remained motionless.

Who dares to drink the tea of ​​the chief officer and soldier?

Xu Zeshou said coldly: "Why did you invite us here?"

"I heard that the bayberry wine from Qianjinzhai and the pearls from Guihua Gang are both popular products outside. I personally like the bayberry wine from Qianjinzhai and use it every time I entertain guests."

Needless to say, the wine in Qianjinzhai has been praised all the way from Yuheng City to Baishawan. The water pond where the Ball Flower Clan is entrenched produces pearl mussels. As long as they are raised well, they can produce pearls as big as longan, but unfortunately there are not many. There is a black and white pearl in the old palace of Xiqiao. It is a natural Tai Chi pattern, and it was also sold by the Qiuhua Gang.

He Lingchuan continued: "It can be seen that both gang leaders are experts in business. Then, I want to negotiate a good deal with you."

Tao and Xu looked at each other again without 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 of them did not dare to open the box, so he took care of this step for them.

The box slowly opened, and the two saw two oval-shaped tokens lying on the brocade mat.

He Lingchuan took out his Grand Commander's Order and shook it twice, letting them see that the three tokens were made of the same material.

"Yuheng City wants to hire two gang leaders to be the guards on our Longchuan Trade Road."

"What are you doing?" Xu Zeshou was stunned, thinking that he was hallucinating because he hadn't removed his ears for too long. Tao Lin also frowned.

"Chief of Guards?"

"Not bad." He Lingchuan asked someone to take out the map of Longchuan, flatten it out, and draw two circles on it.

The two gang leaders took a look and realized that what he had circled was the territory of his gang on the trade road, commonly known as the hunting ground.

In order to avoid conflicts, the large and medium-sized gangs in Takichuan have long divided the entire southern road, and small gangs can only make ends meet in the cracks.

The meeting place chosen by He Lingchuan, Baicheng Station, was the territory of Qianjin Village.

Of course, this division of power is never officially recognized. He Lingchuan outlined it very directly: "This is the looting range of Qianjin Village, and it belongs to the Qiuhua Gang, right?"

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

He Lingchuan put the two tokens into two circles respectively: "From now on, your gang no longer has to rob, just set up checkpoints to collect tolls."

W-what?

The two gang leaders thought they were well-informed, but they were still shocked by these words.

The cronies behind them also looked at each other in disbelief.

Everyone's brains were working very fast, trying their best to digest the news. Xu Zeshou tentatively asked: "What do you mean, Commander He, that from now on we will be allowed to hold official badges and collect and pay for passage from passing caravans?"

"Gang Leader Xu summarized the essence, but this is not called road money, this is called road tax."

The two of them were speechless.

Isn't the so-called road tax the toll that various countries officially collect from caravans?

The water bandits often cursed when they drank in private. What was the difference between this and what they did? Just because they have no official background, if they dare to accept this money, it is called robbery.

Is Commander He planning to recruit them and let them collect tolls for Yuheng City?

Is this recruitment?

Is this recruiting security?

Whimsical!

"The current situation on the trade road is that the gang brothers are licking their swords and the passing caravans are on tenterhooks. My Yuheng city army patrolling back and forth is also time-consuming and laborious, and everyone is not happy." He Lingchuan took a sip of tea and said, "We must know how to do it. Calculating the cost, all the road tax I collected was used for fighting, and there was not much left in the treasury. Sometimes I had to pay it back; you guys play cat and mouse games with me every day, and you can't make a lot of money, and your expenses are still less than It used to be higher. With this calculation, no one will make any money.”

"Actually, isn't it all about money in the final analysis? How about this, the road tax is collected by you, and everyone doesn't have to fight and kill. Wouldn't it be nice to be harmonious and make money?"

When Tao Lin heard this, he finally couldn't help but said: "Why should we collect money for the official? How much does Yuheng City plan to give us?"

In the past, the old country of Xiqiao also tried to recruit people, and they did so several times, but the conditions they offered were extremely stingy. The most they were willing to do was to give Tao Lin a small official in the county. So many of his subordinates had to be dispersed and resettled. throughout.

The water bandits don't read much, but they are not stupid. This obviously meant breaking them up into parts and weakening the team, and of course they didn't agree.

Seeing that history was about to repeat itself, the two bandit leaders remained calm, while the few cronies behind them couldn't help but laugh.

Still want to play this trick? I should have seen through your tricks early!

Just throw out a small shrimp and want to catch a giant whale? It's a beautiful thought.

He Lingchuan pretended not to notice their contempt: "The tax collection standards are based on the official standards. There is no need to charge more or less, but the money collected -"

He paused for a moment, then saw that everyone was paying attention, and then continued: "It's all yours."

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

He looked calm on the surface, with his hands folded in front of his chest, as if he were negotiating: "How much money can I charge for passing by? There are so many brothers who need to eat..."

He Lingchuan interrupted him: "How much? Do you know how nice it is to pay road tax?"

"Everyone knows that murder and arson can make money quickly. But it's okay to do this business once or twice. The more times you do it, the risk goes up and the benefits go down. Not to mention that the gang's pension is getting heavier and heavier, and sometimes the money recovered from robbery Isn’t it enough to spread out?”

Speaking of this, the two bandit leaders turned pale.

Happy Chinese Valentine's Day.

I originally wanted to take a day off, but you guys are too lazy to read today anyway.

After thinking about it, I decided to update it. People who have not celebrated the festival should not be hit by double critical strikes.