"I don't think this is appropriate. If Lin Su notices it by then, wouldn't we waste his opportunity to ask for help outside the court in vain?" Although Xue Dongluo didn't understand why her best friend spoke coldly to Su Lin, she carefully After thinking about it, I felt that what Xue Yan said was very reasonable.
It's better to wait and see, sometimes care really leads to chaos.
Fu Honglei asked the two women to reach an agreement, but he was good at force but not good at thinking. He didn't want to waste a precious opportunity for Su Lin because of his mindless words, so he followed Xue Dongluo and the others to observe the representative Su Lin again. Lin's light curtain comes.
Within the light curtain, Su Lin's face became extremely strange, as if he had encountered something extremely incredible. He shouted: "An ax costs three hundred taels, why don't you go and grab it?" .”
One moment Su Lin was still slightly surprised, but the next second Su Lin regained his character of Cheng Yaojin. He weighed the ax carefully and shook it several times with his incomplete right hand.
Don't mention it, it's really heavy. If he hadn't had a certain physical foundation before, he would have been carried away by the ax in just two swings.
"This ax is pretty average!" Su Lin put down the axe, hid his left hand in his sleeve behind his back, and said with a dark face, "How many years have you been running an iron shop here?"
The young boy also said that Cheng Yaojin didn't trust his blacksmithing skills, and hurriedly said: "Back to the general, I have been blacksmithing with my father since I was five years old. I have been blacksmithing for twenty years now. The iron I use is definitely good." "Although you don't come here often, old general, for this blacksmithing skill, if you ask around, there will be no one from every village in this town who will not praise the excellent blacksmithing of my Ant Blacksmith Shop."
"Do you know the consequences of lying?" Su Lin's face was still gloomy. At the same time, he slightly communicated with the white flame runes in the world of Consciousness Sea, adding an invisible aura of restlessness to the tense air.
Under Su Lin's majestic gaze and deliberate mental pressure, the young man knelt down on the ground with a bang. Fine beads of sweat could not help but appear on his forehead. His hands trembled slightly and he said: "Cao Min Jue...there are no lies. Don’t dare to lie to your lord.”
His face was inexplicably pale. Since he had gained spiritual power, this was the first time Su Lin had used his spirit to coerce a mortal.
"Get up and talk!" He waved his hand, his expression slightly gentle. Immediately, he waved to the three young men behind him who had been bribed in advance, summoned them in, and asked in front of the young men:
"He said that there is not a single village in this small town that doesn't praise his Ant Blacksmith shop for its excellent blacksmithing. He Jianpeng, let me ask you, have you ever praised him?"
"This...?" Before the man Su Lin called He Jianpeng could answer, the young man knelt down on the ground again and shouted: "General, little one, isn't that what you mean?"
"Oh? That's not what you mean?" Su Lin narrowed his eyes, and Cheng Yaojin's domineering yet gloomy aura suddenly burst out, "That means you were lying before."
"He Jianpeng, tell him what the crime is for deceiving an official of the third or higher rank of the imperial court?"
The young man named He Jianpeng was originally hired by Su Lin from outside. He was just a low-level ordinary person. How could he be familiar with the "Tang Ming Laws".
Just when he was at a loss, Sulin's spiritual message suddenly came to his mind. Although he didn't know why an inexplicable voice suddenly appeared in his mind, he still read it out by some strange combination:
"According to the "Laws of the Tang and Ming Dynasties", deceiving a court official of the third rank or above is like deceiving the emperor, and he will be punished by beheading. Or he may go to the frontier to serve as a corvee for three years in lieu of his crime."
This law was naturally written by Su Lin casually. Of course, Su Lin was 80% sure that the owner of a small blacksmith shop could not be familiar with or even proficient in some "Laws of the Tang and Ming Dynasties". Therefore, It also gave him the opportunity to exploit loopholes.
After all, the Tang and Ming Empires have used bamboo and silk to record things until now, and the productivity is very low. The few pieces of paper they can produce are just for the nobles to practice writing, and they can never be used to print out regulations in large quantities.
Sure enough, when the little guy heard this, he immediately trembled and cried for mercy: "I don't dare to do it anymore, I don't dare to do it anymore, please... sir, please forgive me, sir."
Seeing the other party's miserable state, Su Lin was slightly moved. He never thought that one day he would do such a thing of bullying. However, in order to complete the task as quickly as possible, Su Lin had to be cruel and continued:
"You said you have been operating here for more than 20 years, so hand over all the taxes and account books for these 20 years, and I will personally check it."
Hearing Su Lin's words, the young man quickly wiped his tears and nose, stood up and walked to the counter, taking out those account books that had been dusty for many years. It seemed that this account book was older than him.
It was said to be a ledger, but in fact it was just a simple accounting using bamboo slips in series. Su Lin took it over and pretended to look through it seriously, frowning and saying:
"I'm afraid you've missed a lot of taxes!"
"Old General, my father is the most loyal businessman of the Tang Ming Empire. He pays thousands of taels in taxes to the empire every year. I remember it clearly on the two bamboo slips at the bottom. Please check it out, Old General."
"Really? Why do I see that there is no high temperature tax, engraving tax, sewage tax and shop operation tax on it? There are also door opening tax, lamp lighting tax and ventilation tax that are not recorded on the bamboo slips."
"This..." At this point, Su Lin saw that the boy was stammering again and couldn't even speak clearly.
As Su Lin said this, he looked at the ax that he threw aside in the room, intentionally or unintentionally. If the young man didn't understand Su Lin's intention, he would really be sorry that his father had raised him in vain for so many years.
When he was hesitating whether to give the other party an ax made of fine iron for free, a muddy, old and slightly excited voice came down from upstairs:
"Old General Cheng, how can you have time to visit the store when you are busy with military affairs? You don't know the rules, please calm down. I made this ax according to your figure and standards. A famous weapon deserves a hero. This ax Apart from you, who else in the entire town is qualified to use it.
"Well, hurry up and give the old general a cup of tea. You haven't asked the old general to sit down after you've been here for so long. You're so ignorant!"
There was a patter of footsteps on the wooden ladder, and then an old man with a very decrepit appearance and most of his teeth was missing walked down step by step with difficulty.
"Old General Cheng, if you don't want to look at the account book later, let Quanzi make you a cup of tea first to apologize."
The toothless old man with a pale face vigorously moved the ax and handed it to the boy next to Su Lin. At the same time, he busily wiped the seat next to him so that Su Lin could sit.
When the other party lowered his stance like this, Su Lin, who was already a little guilty, couldn't be too presumptuous.
However, the waiter in the shop, whom the old man called Dogzi, was still standing there stupidly, with no intention of making tea.
When the toothless old man saw that the child was still staring at the axe, his eyes still lingering, his face became more and more anxious, his old face turned red and he coughed violently twice:
"I'm not dead yet. Do you want to piss me off to death? When the guests come, why don't you go and watch the tea?"
"But, Dad, didn't you say that your family was completely destitute just to treat you? Wasn't that ax used as... a coffin book for you?"
As he said this, the boy's tears were even more intense than when Su Lin scared him before.
Seeing this, Su Lin finally understood why he had repeatedly reminded the young man that the other party did not give him the ax. It turned out that there were other reasons for this.
He just said that his eagerness just now, in order to save people in a hurry, almost caused an old man to lose his foundation in his old age.
He mobilized the sleeping sapling in the world of the sea of consciousness, slowly awakened the origin of the "Mr. There was an extremely dense black mass.
It was this object that was constantly devouring the old man's vitality and hindering his normal breathing.
If this black object is allowed to continue to grow, Toothless Old Man may not survive tonight.
"Old man, when I was young, I studied medicine with a master in the mountains for two years. I'm not using your ax in vain. Sit down and I'll help you take a look."
Su Lin waved the boy out and closed the door, then sat down in the seat vacated by the old man and motioned for the toothless old man to sit next to him.
But the old man was trembling, and he didn't know whether it was fear or a stroke. He just kept coughing, but made no intention of sitting down.
Su Lin no longer forced himself. He knew that the Tang Ming Empire was very hierarchical, and ordinary people were not qualified to sit on equal terms with generals, unless someone in their family had passed the exam or had achieved third-level or higher military exploits on the battlefield.
Hearing the question from Cheng Yaojin, dressed as Su Lin, the old man suppressed his cough and said: "Young man, just stand. This broken body has already reached the age of burial. How dare you trouble the old general to ask questions?" .”
"Stretch your hand over here!" Su Lin said directly in a commanding tone, with a bit of impatience mixed in.
He knew that if Cheng Yaojin was too polite to these ordinary businessmen, these people would feel very uncomfortable, because they had already recognized the inferiority of the business class in their bones.
Although Su Lin entered this situation by mistake from the real world, it was beyond his personal ability to change this class status quo within a day or two.
It would be more direct to use a commanding tone.
Sure enough, after seeing Su Lin's calm expression turn serious again, the toothless old man just said that he had angered the general again, and he was afraid that the general would ask him to pay the tax again, so he had to obediently extend his hand.
Su Lin closed his eyes and pretended to feel the old man's pulse. During this process, he slowly flowed a trace of white flame energy along the old man's blood to his chest. Just waiting for his mental power to activate, he could make the flames Burn the black mass.
After about half a cup of tea, he opened his eyes and told the old man what he had already seen with his "Doctor Xunmu" ability.
Then, Su Lin asked: "Old man, have you been to any unclean places recently?"
He saw the black object and asked casually, but he didn't expect to get something unexpected.
The toothless old man's eyes were like memories, and he seemed to remember nothing after thinking for a long time. He just kept coughing and shaking his head.
However, at this time, the boy in the shop, who was the child of Old Toothless, came over carrying hot tea and tea sets.
After hearing Su Lin's question, he remembered his previous experience. Although he didn't like the old general very much, but it was related to his father's safety, he still said:
"Recently, a lot of water has been used for iron smelting. For some unknown reason, the water in the lower reaches of the Zimu River in the town has been seriously polluted in the past two days. I have been to the upper reaches of the Zimu River to transport water several times. It seems that the water is taken from After coming back, my dad suddenly started coughing."
"Please add it to your collection, comment, and recommend it. If you have a ticket, please vote for it. Your recommendation will make Ant more motivated!"
