Upon hearing this, Officer Wu immediately wanted to ask the shopkeeper directly if he had ever heard about the gang of water bandits on Guyue Island.
However, Lu Zhizhang waved his hand at him.
Lu Zhizhang then walked to the rice store shelf, pointed to the most crystal clear rice and asked, "How much does this kind of rice cost?"
Seeing Lu Zhizhang take action, he asked how to sell the most expensive rice. The shopkeeper felt elated, "Young master, you have good taste. This is the best pearl white corn in Jiangzhou. It costs five taels of silver per pound."
Upon hearing what the shopkeeper said, Wu Chaguan couldn't help but exclaimed, "It's so expensive! Five taels per catty, why don't you grab it!"
Hearing Wu Chaguan's words, the shopkeeper was not happy, "What did the customer say? In our place, this rice has always been at this price. If you can't afford it, you can look at other rice." If you want to buy something, I may not be able to supply it." Xiu Shuzhu
Although Lu Zhizhang also knew that the rice shop owner was somewhat suspected of raising prices, but now was not the time for him to control this, so Lu Zhizhang only said, "Our family is not used to eating other rice, so we want this pearl white corn."
Hearing Lu Zhizhang's words, the shopkeeper smiled again, "Young Master has a good eye. This is the best rice in Jiangzhou. This is what the Holy Emperor eats. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare sell it at such a high price."
"How much rice do you need, Master?" the shopkeeper continued to ask.
Lu Zhizhang just whispered, "We want two loads."
The shopkeeper was a little unsteady when he bought two loads of it. This was a big deal.
After Lu Zhizhang's words fell, the shopkeeper looked at Lu Zhizhang as if he were the God of Wealth. He immediately bowed and invited Lu Zhizhang to the guest room, "Sir, are you sure you want two loads of pearl white corn? Sir, you are welcome." Please come to the house quickly."
Lu Zhizhang just went in calmly after hearing this. Although Wu Chaiguan didn't know what medicine Lu Zhizhang was selling in the gourd, Wu Chaiguan still followed Lu Zhizhang into the store.
After Lu Zhizhang sat in, the waiter in the store quickly brought some cups of fragrant tea.
Lu Zhizhang only had a brief taste of it. The shopkeeper was about to get close to Lu Zhizhang, but the waiter at the door waved to the shopkeeper at this time. The shopkeeper could only apologize to Lu Zhizhang and said, "Young Master, you guys Wait here for now while I go arrange to buy rice for you."
Lu Zhizhang nodded.
However, when the shopkeeper came forward, Lu Zhizhang immediately motioned to Officer Wu to follow him and secretly listen to what they said.
The shopkeeper didn't go far. In the corridor, when the waiter saw no one around, he immediately said to the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, I just went to the warehouse to see a total of twelve loads of pearl white corn. Their Guyue Island It’s only eleven loads. We sold one load a few days ago, but now there is no inventory in the warehouse. All the inventory is on the shelves.”
There was only thirty or forty kilograms of rice on the shelf. If the customer heard this result, he didn't know whether he would be willing to accept it.
Seeing the embarrassment of the shopkeeper, the waiter immediately whispered, "Shopkeeper, the water bandits from Gu Yue Island never give any money anyway. Why don't we buy two loads for this merchant and exchange the water bandits for two loads of other things?" Rice is also made. Otherwise, our business would be in jeopardy just by supplying them with rice."
However, after hearing what the clerk said, the shopkeeper immediately gave the clerk a slap in the face. The shopkeeper lowered his voice and said sternly, "You idiot! What an idiot! If you are discovered, do you want me to die? If you are caught by that A group of evil spirits found out that we secretly exchanged their food rations, are we still alive? Don't give me these bad ideas!"
After the words fell, the shopkeeper said, "You can make less money, but you can't live without it."
After saying this, the shopkeeper returned to the inner room again. Although the transaction of the thousand taels of silver was ruined, the shopkeeper was also very sad in his heart. However, he did not dare to offend the people on Gu Yue Island, so after weighing the two factors, he decided to choose to keep his life.
So after that, the shopkeeper just walked into the reception room again. At this time, Wu Chaguan also heard the conversation between the shopkeeper and the waiter. Lu Zhizhang already knew what the shopkeeper was going to say, but he was just pretending As if he didn't know anything. x
ь.
When the shopkeeper saw Lu Zhizhang tasting tea, he could only smile and rub his hands and said, "Sir, I'm really sorry, we don't have so much rice in the store anymore. Do you think you could consider buying some other rice?"
Hearing what the shopkeeper said, Lu Zhizhang said, "Why is it gone? Shopkeeper, didn't you just say that there are twelve loads of rice in your warehouse?"
Hearing this, the shopkeeper was just stunned. When did he say this?
Lu Zhizhang glanced at Officer Wu, who immediately understood: "Just now in the corridor, I went out and wanted to tell the shopkeeper that it would be better if there were three loads. I heard that your clerk said that you have twelve loads of rice. ah."
Hearing this, the shopkeeper was even more dumbfounded.
He looked embarrassed and said, "Did you both hear it?"
"What did you hear? I only heard your man say that your family has twelve tons of rice. I saw you were sneaking around, and I just thought you were afraid that people would listen to you, so I came back again. I just said Tell my young master that you won’t buy rice for us. Why is it like this now? Do you look down on our young master, or do you think we don’t have the strength?”
Wu Chaguan's barrage of accusations only made the shopkeeper dumbfounded. He immediately explained, "It's not like that! It's not like that! Master, please listen to my explanation!"
Seeing that the effect was in place, Lu Zhizhang only gave Wu Chaguan a wink. Wu Chaguan knew what he meant, so he immediately accepted it and said, "Okay, explain it to us. I want to hear what you have to say."
Seeing that Officer Wu finally gave him a chance to speak, the shopkeeper said bitterly, "Sir, it's not that I don't want to sell rice to you two. It's just that we really don't have any other rice on hand. What you said Twelve loads of rice have already been ordered by the guests, but even if I want to give you two loads, I can’t come up with it.”
Lu Zhizhang was obviously not satisfied with the shopkeeper's vague answer, so he just said, "This guest is quite generous. I just don't know who is so generous."
Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper was quite complaining.
"How generous! Huh! They are just relying on their strength in numbers to bully small businessmen like us."
Upon hearing what the shopkeeper said, Lu Zhizhang immediately said, "Why are they acting like this? Aren't they becoming bandits and bullies?"
When the shopkeeper heard this, he immediately responded, "Aren't they just bandits and bullies?"
Lu Zhizhang then asked, "Then who are they?"
When the shopkeeper heard Lu Zhizhang ask about that person, he suddenly became extremely vigilant. He looked around subconsciously, and then lowered his voice and said to Lu Zhizhang, "Young Master is from outside, right? He probably has never heard of Gu. A water bandit from Tsukishima, right?”
Hearing this, Lu Zhizhang only said, "It is true that I have never heard of water bandits, but I have heard of Guyue Island. I remember that there was a Buddhist temple there more than ten years ago. When I was a child, my mother took me there to burn incense and make my vows."
"What? Has Gu Yue Island become a place where those water bandits are now entrenched?" Lu Zhizhang asked in surprise.
"Yes, yes, that's the place. Unfortunately, the Buddhist temple took in a group of strongmen a few years ago. I heard that all the original monks in the temple were killed, so the strongmen took over the temple and became king. Hey, you two, how can you Don't talk nonsense, you can't afford to offend those people." The shopkeeper said with a look of fear on his face.
"We are just asking," Lu Zhizhang said.
"Gu Yue Island is so close to Gu Yue Town. I'm afraid you guys in Gu Yue Town will have a hard time, right?" Lu Zhizhang then added.
"That's right." The shopkeeper sighed again, "They not only rob goods, but also often kill people and steal goods. They do all kinds of evil. We small businessmen are all victims."
"Then why didn't you report the case to the government?" Lu Zhizhang asked.
"Government? Those who are officials, who dares to provoke those water bandits? It's useless for us to report the crime." The shopkeeper shook his head.
Lu Zhizhang and Zhao Yanzhen couldn't help being speechless after hearing this.
The shopkeeper's mouth was already dry from talking. He took some tea to moisten his throat. Then he just considered asking Lu Zhizhang to buy some other rice and finish the business.
It's done.
Unexpectedly, Lu Zhizhang then said to the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, do you want to stop giving free rice to that guy from Gu Yue Island?"
The shopkeeper just thought Lu Zhizhang was joking, and he immediately said, "Of course I do, I only dreamed about it."
If he didn't need to send rice to Gu Yuedao, he wouldn't have to set such a high price for all the rice in the store in order to share the losses equally.
People in the town scolded the price of rice every day, saying that the price of his rice was higher than the price in the capital. He had to be questioned by the government from time to time, but what could he do? He was a businessman just to do business. Seeking wealth, not great wealth, he must be able to earn a living.
But even if Gu Yue Island didn't pay for the rice harvest, what he wanted to eat had to be Jiangzhou's pearly white corn. This rice was already expensive and difficult to transport by road. The guys from Guyue Island refused to give him the money. It was not like he had never thought of running away before, but the robbers from Guyue Island were really cruel. In order to detain them, their wives and children were taken to the island. He was really You have to do it even if you can't continue to trade at a loss.
"Then what if I can help you stop sending rice to the people of Gu Yue Island!" Lu Zhizhang suddenly spoke again when the shopkeeper was stunned.
After hearing this, the shopkeeper immediately waved his hands and smiled calmly, "Sir, don't be ridiculous. Can you handle things that even the government can't handle?"
After hearing what the shopkeeper said, Wu Chaguan was about to jump out and say that he was from the government and was here to take care of this matter.
But before he was about to speak, Lu Zhizhang waved his hand to signal him to stop talking.
Lu Zhizhang continued to ask humbly, "Shopkeeper, why do you say this? Are the people from Gu Yue Island really that strong?"
