Rise From the Humble

Dear mother, how come we have become the leaders? ! How come we have become the chicken that kills the chicken to scare the monkeys? !

Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu were so frightened that they collapsed on the ground, cowering in fear. There was no trace of blood on their faces. The cold sweat on their foreheads couldn't stop flowing down, and their fat bodies couldn't stop trembling like chaff. Shivering, as if being electrocuted at the same time.

In the eyes of Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu, the smile on the guard's face next to him was like the smile in prison when giving the prisoner his last meal, which was eerie and terrifying.

A breeze blew by, like a ghost howling. The clear sky seemed to suddenly turn dark, and the surrounding air seemed to turn into a bloody mouth, swallowing the two of them alive.

There is no rain in the clear sky, but the rain is dripping on the two people's crotches!

God knows how Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu got to the county government office, but even they themselves couldn't remember.

When they arrived at the gate of the county government office, their minds went blank. When they crossed the threshold of the county government office like zombies, they stumbled and almost fell to the ground.

"Shopkeeper Lu, please, shopkeeper Tai. Please wait inside for a moment, and the county minister will come after handling official business."

The officer made an inviting gesture and led the two of them to a cell on the left side of the county government office.

"Hey, there's work, there's work..."

Shopkeepers Tai and Lu held their fists tremblingly as they thanked them, their voices trembling.

Shopkeepers Tai and Lu looked up at the squad room in front of them. In their eyes, the squad room seemed to come to life all of a sudden, turning into a black ghost squatting and grinning. The two doors were its bloody mouth. The kind that has no way out!

"please."

The guard stood at the door and made an inviting gesture to watch the two of them enter the squad room.

"Hey..."

Shopkeepers Tai and Lu opened the door of the squad room with trembling hands under the watchful eyes of the guards.

I'm going to die, I'm going to die...

Shopkeepers Tai and Lu were trembling all over, and walked in with the mentality of stepping into the execution ground.

The sun was shining brightly outside, but the room was a little darker. The light difference between the inside and outside was so big that the two of them seemed to be blind the moment they entered.

"Hey, aren't these Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu? They're all here now. Come on, sit here."

As soon as the two entered the door, they heard a familiar voice before they could adjust to the light difference.

"Old Xing?!"

Shopkeepers Tai and Lu immediately recognized the owner of the voice and spoke in surprise.

Lao Xing is another grain merchant in the county, but he is not on the same street as them. Due to the distance, the three have no direct competitive relationship, and their relationship is relatively good.

Is Lao Xing there? !

And what does Lao Xing mean when he says "everyone is gathered together"? ! Does that mean there are other people in this room? !

In an instant, thousands of thoughts and emotions came to the minds of Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu. They hurriedly stretched out their hands to rub their eyes, adapted to the light difference in the room, and looked up to see a group of people sitting in the room. , the one at the front is Lao Xing who just spoke.

Behind Lao Xing, there were more than thirty people sitting, and they all looked familiar. These thirty people were all grain merchants in the county, some from the county, and a few from the town below.

The two of them took a quick glance and found that basically all the grain merchants in Jingnan County were gathered in this room, including the shopkeepers of the three largest grain merchants in the county.

It turns out that all the grain merchants in the county have been invited! It's impossible for the county magistrate to kill them all, right? !

So, in this way, we are not the first sheep or the chicken that was killed to scare the monkeys? !

Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu looked at each other with surprise and a feeling of escaping from death.

"Hehehehe, everyone is here. I, Lao Tai/Lao Lu, are late. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Shopkeepers Tai and Lu clasped their fists at the grain merchants and finally laughed again.

"Hahahaha, Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu, look at how bad you two were just now. If you didn't know better, you would have thought you were going to the execution ground."

Among the grain merchants, there was a shopkeeper named Han, who was an old acquaintance of the two of them, and said with a smile.

"Come on, Old Han, you were no better than the two of them when you came in. When a crow falls on a pig, no one can be blamed."

As soon as Shopkeeper Han finished speaking, other grain merchants laughed at him in the same tone.

Ha ha ha ha……

There was a burst of laughter in the room, and the atmosphere suddenly became cheerful.

Except for the seven or eight grain merchants who live next to each other in Xifang of the county, when they first received the notice from the guards about the invitation from the county magistrate, they all thought they had been chosen to be the leading sheep and to scare the monkeys and chickens, so they were in panic all day long. After seeing other grain merchants in the wooden house, they breathed a sigh of relief and cleared away the gloom. It was impossible for the county magistrate to drive away all the grain merchants.

"You said, why did the county magistrate invite us here?"

Shopkeeper Liu of Fushu Grain Shop was a cautious person. He first stood on a chair and looked out the window, then lay at the door and listened for a while. After making sure that no one was outside, he said to everyone.

"Aren't you squatting in the latrine and asking about the smell? Are you asking questions knowingly? What else do you think of this stall, and it's not because of the price of food!" Shopkeeper Han rolled his eyes and said angrily.

"The county magistrate invited us here to lower the price of grain!" Several grain dealers present replied without thinking.

"You said that if the county magistrate comes later and asks us to lower the price of food, what will we do?" Shopkeeper Liu asked.

"How much? Now that food prices are rising three times a day, we can still reduce it by three or five cents per stone on the basis of external food prices. If it drops much more, it won't work! It is becoming more and more difficult for us to purchase food these days. It is difficult to buy food in the south of the Yangtze River. You can only go to Bashu in the west or Shandong in the north to buy food. Not only is the distance long, but the local food has also increased due to the wind. People eat horse chews along the way, plus the freight costs. Big money, and there is no peace of mind on the road. Our manager was robbed yesterday when he came back. A group of bandits who looked like refugees roared over. If it weren’t for the accompanying guards who worked hard, the food that had been transported so hard would not have been saved... The cost If the price is so high, how can we not raise the price?! If the price is lowered and there is no profit, why are we still doing this?!" said a shopkeeper present.

"Don't surrender?! Do you still want to die? The beheadings of shopkeepers Mi and Wang in Taizhou Fucheng are a lesson to the past! In Taiping County, I heard that shopkeeper Zhang from Zhangji Grain Store was also arrested and said he would be arrested at noon tomorrow It's time to ask for execution! Linhai County is the same. Three grain dealers were arrested and sent to prison... We, the county magistrate, are polite before fighting. If we agree to reduce prices, it's okay. If we don't agree, I'm afraid we will learn from the prefect's thunderbolt. Means!" After hearing this, a shopkeeper next to him shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"Hmph! If we advance and retreat together and grit our teeth, I don't believe he can still kill them all! Now the court is obviously unable to rescue them. Without us grain merchants to transport grain, the people in the county will starve to death!" Shopkeeper Wang sneered. He said that he was money-hungry and was unwilling to lower the price, even if the price of one stone of grain was reduced by three or five cents.

"How can we, with our flesh and blood, fight against the government?" The shopkeeper who just spoke said with a wry smile.

"Confrontation, why should we fight? There is no place for me to stay here, I have my own place to stay! If the price is forced to drop, then I will not sell grain in Jingnan. There are many places in Jiangnan where there are disasters. I will just sell it elsewhere." A long, thin shopkeeper with a beard on his chin sneered.

He is one of the three largest grain merchants in the county. His name is Yang Zhen. He is the shopkeeper of Yangji Grain Store and the most influential grain merchant in Jingnan.

"Yes, what Shopkeeper Yang said makes sense. The bustling world is all about profit, and the bustle in the world is all about profit! Why do we work so hard to transport food, other than to make money. If he forces a price reduction, we will also If you don't go against him, you won't get caught and have your head chopped off. If you don't want to keep me here, I will keep you!" Hearing this, many grain merchants' eyes lit up and they agreed.