For many days in a row, Cao Cao returned home every night, and the two daughters couldn't stop taking care of him. They were busy during the day, dealing with various affairs.
Wangzhi County collected all the donations and returned the 200 taels of silver that Cao Cao "donated", plus an additional 100 taels. Cao Cao shook his head and sneered, then changed hands and added another 200 taels, for a total of 500 taels of silver and sent it to the magistrate's house. He also spent three hundred taels of silver on the county magistrate, chief registrar, and custodian to fill the vacancy of general magistrate for Huang Wenbing. Even Jiang Jing became a clerk in the county government and found a job for Li Kui. He was so happy that he had the Dutou waist badge all day long and refused to take it off even when he was sleeping.
After finishing the yamen affairs, Cao Cao took Wu Song, Xiang Chong, Li Gun, Ou Peng, Deng Fei, Ma Lin, Tao Zongwang, Meng Kang, and hundreds of capable men, bought a large amount of luggage, and headed to Shi'er. After staying on the mountain for a few days, Xiang Chong and other six generals and their minions were left on the mountain, telling Qin Ming and others to practice diligently.
Then he took Wu Song and Meng Kang to Li Jun's water village. At this time, the water village had begun to take shape. A few people had a drink and stayed there for two days, then they left Meng Kang to help build the ship and took Li Jun with him. Lu Fang returned to Yanggu.
After returning to Yanggu, Cao Cao took care of various businesses. He originally wanted Lu Fang and Guo Sheng to be responsible for the business affairs, but the two of them refused to die. They said in unison: "The previous bankruptcy, it is known that there is no business talent, only I am willing to follow my brother as a pawn, and please look for talents in business."
These two people were obviously prepared. One recommended Yang Lin, the brocade leopard, and the other recommended Hou Jian, the brachiosaurus. Cao Cao knew about Yang Lin. He was a man who was accustomed to the world and knew everything about Hou Jian. Although he was a tailor by background, he was also quite smart, well-trained in dealing with people, and had some insights into business affairs, so they were allowed to take up the business.
Zheng Tianshou complained again that since he got the Zhujiazhuang property, his business has become bigger and bigger now. Some shops are across counties and states, and he can't take care of them by himself. Many shopkeepers often enrich themselves and don't know what to do. Cao Cao didn't say much after hearing this, and directly asked Pei Xuan to select a few useful brothers to take charge of the store business together with Zheng Tianshou. He wanted to use his iron face and majesty to wash away bad habits.
After all that, Mu Hong came to report again, saying that he was bored by drinking all day long, and wanted to open a gambling house so that his younger brother could have a serious job. Cao Cao knew that gambling houses were also places where news gathered, so he immediately agreed and paid the money. He opened a gambling house for Mu Hong and called it "No Block Gambling House".
Known as having no problem winning or losing, and never cheating, his brother was originally a bully. He took over Cao Cao's Yanggu Xianhan and made the casino business prosperous.
After opening a casino, Cao Cao naturally thought of a hotel. He bought land next to the casino and spent money to build a three-story building, named "Hero Building". Once it was built, Zhu Fu and a few of his guys would run it. .
July time passed by in such a hurry, and before he knew it, Cao Cao had sealed the iron barrels of his business inside and outside Yanggu County.
In the yamen, there were three people, Huang Wenbing, Jiang Jing, and Li Kui, and the other officials, big and small, were also familiar with money buying;
Pei Xuan and Zheng Tianshou were in charge of business in nearby prefectures and counties, while Yang Lin and Hou Jian were in charge of the commercial business. In addition, the casinos of the Mu brothers and the restaurants opened by Zhu Fuwei were making money every day;
In terms of combat power, eight generals, Qin Ming, Huang Xin, Deng Fei, Ou Peng, Ma Lin, Xiang Chong, Li Gun and Tao Zongwang, are stationed in Shi'er Mountain. More than 2,000 minions have arrived in Shi'er Mountain. The limit of Ershan’s carrying capacity;
There are also Li Jun, Zhang Heng, Zhang Shun, Tong Wei, Tong Meng, and Meng Kang who run the water village, and there are also hundreds of people who are good at getting on boats and launching boats.
In addition to Niu Gao, Luan Tingyu, Shi Xiu, Fan Rui, Shi Qian, Lu Fang, Guo Sheng, and Xue Yong who had no assigned duties, if Wu Song was added, there would be a total of thirty-three heroes under his command, which can be said to be a wealth of talents.
In August, Fan Rui and Jiang Jing were asked to choose an auspicious day. Cao Cao personally acted as a matchmaker and gave Li Kui 200 taels of silver and 400 acres of land as a betrothal gift. He married Song Baolian back to his family in a sedan chair. Originally they were just wall to wall, so they simply set up running water mats on the long street in front of the door. No matter who came, they would eat meat and drink wine, which caused a stir in the entire Yanggu County.
The new daughter-in-law came in, worshiped heaven and earth, and worshiped Mrs. Li Kui. She was so happy that her eyes shed tears, and she burst into tears. People could be seen in the shadows in front of her eyes. Everyone learned that it was the lucky star of the old Li family that brought double happiness to their door.
In fact, during these days, Cao Cao had long ago invited famous doctors from Fucheng to examine Li Kui's mother. She had been taking various medicines internally and externally, and she had obviously improved today.
Wu Song had taught Li Kui martial arts for a few days before, and Li Kui loved him very much. He also took a special liking to his younger brother. He asked for leave and brought his soldier Yang Zaixing back to Yanggu to celebrate Li Kui's wedding.
Wu Song was a man of coarse and fine temperament. He said to Cao Cao: "Tieniu is a rough and straightforward man. If he gets drunk, there will be trouble in the bridal chamber today. Brother, please find someone else to protect him from drinking with me."
Cao Cao was so worried that he quickly found Niu Gao and asked Niu An to accompany Li Kui's wife. Niu Gao and Wu Song acted as besties, and Li Kui was not allowed to drink during the whole process.
Li Kui has always died when he sees wine, but today is his big day. My mother reminded me first, and Baolian gave me some private instructions. Now Cao Cao gave me another order, and the three most important people in my life all spoke, and they shut up. If you don't drink at all, the best man will do it for you.
On this day, Qin Ming's group, Li Jun's group, more than a dozen heroes and dozens of useful subordinates came to congratulate each other. It was a rare gathering of Cao Cao's heroes.
Li Ying, Hu Cheng and other familiar heroes were also present. Liangshan Chao Gai and Song Jiang did not dare to go out lightly, but Wu Yong and Lin Chong brought Liu Tang and other people to congratulate him. Li Kui's colleagues in the Yamen also came to congratulate him in casual clothes.
People from all walks of life are eager to have a good time, but when they see the groom refusing to drink, what's the point? He became more and more enthusiastic, and before the toast was even halfway done, Niu Gao got drunk first.
Wu Song showed off his elder brother's style, took off his shirt, carried a big bag, and poured down bowls of wine like water. He drank thirty or forty bowls in a row, all of which were only half a pound. They were not necessarily as big as those of the famous hero Xiao Feng. The last sip of wine spurted out like a fountain, and he was as drunk as a jade mountain that was about to collapse. Cao Cao was afraid that he would have sex, so he quickly asked someone to take him down to sleep.
Seeing that Wu Song had been defeated, Cao Cao pulled Luan Tingyu and said: "Youdao is a father and son fighting against tigers as brothers. Brothers Tieniu and you and I fight tigers together, that is the fate of brothers. How can you, the elder brother, sit back and watch your brother being killed?" Bully?"
Luan Tingyu wanted to give the black guy a few mouthfuls to avenge the tiger. Hearing this, he felt a sense of loyalty and stood in front of Li Kui. Within two tables, he was so drunk that he cried loudly and shouted: "That tiger is me." I can kill a tiger with one stab, so six are nothing?" Shi Xiu held him down.
Cao Cao had no choice but to go in person. Fortunately, no matter which faction he belonged to, everyone respected him very much. Seeing that he came out to block the wine, they just went through the motions and drank seven or eight bowls of wine one after another, and finally sent Li Kui into the bridal chamber. .
There was also a group of bachelors led by Ruan Xiaoqi. Their eyes were red from drinking and they were making a big fuss about going to the wedding room. Mr. Song and his wife looked over at the wall. They were really bluffing. Cao Cao saw that everyone was making a fuss under the influence of alcohol. Feeling a little unhappy, Fan Rui stepped forward and asked Li Gun Xiangchong to help him put the tables and benches in the room. He walked around for a while, recited a few curses, stamped his feet, and a layer of white smoke appeared on the ground. , then smiled and said: "Whoever can walk across the table without touching the chairs can make trouble as he pleases."
Ruan Xiaoqi, Liu Tang and others were overjoyed and walked inside. Unexpectedly, they twisted around and returned to the door again. Everyone saw the interesting thing and tried to walk one after another. However, no matter how they walked, they clearly saw that they had walked through the road, but they came out of the entrance again with one step. Everyone was so excited about playing that they actually forgot about the wedding.
Here Wu Yong quietly squeezed next to Cao Cao and stuffed an envelope. Cao Cao opened it and saw that it was a letter written by Wang Zhixian to Liang Shan: "The small land in the county cannot bear the king's conquest. I would like to offer fifty thousand guan of copper coins and one thousand taels of silver." , Just talk about your inner feelings. On the day when the official takes office, he will send it once a year, and I dare not violate it. "
Cao Cao chuckled and said: "Haha, he collected more than 60,000 guan of copper coins, greedy more than 10,000 guan of ink, more than 6,000 taels of silver, and greedy more than 5,000 ink. Even if he repays the money of the officials, it is still a big windfall, but he is not greedy enough. If you still want to come here every year, isn’t this just a yearly coin?”
Wu Yong observed his words and said: "The most hateful thing is to allow such greedy people to become officials. If they are Huang Tongpan, Chiang Kai-shek, Tieniu and the like, then the country will be peaceful and the people will be safe."
Cao Cao glanced at his face and smiled to himself: "This scholar also wants to be an official." He said: "What the scholar said is that when the opportunity is right, the scholar should also wear official robes and live in the hall for the world to see. What should an official do?"
Wu Yong was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately bowed deeply: "Brother's way of employing people is unparalleled in modern times and ancient times. If you understand the master like this, you will have no regrets even if you die."
Cao Cao quickly pulled him up and said, "No need to say such things, we are a family."
"Yes, yes." Wu Yong nodded quickly, then looked around and whispered: "Since returning to Liangshan, Brother Gongming and Brother Chao Gai have had unpleasant quarrels several times..."
There are different teachings: officials and merchants are deployed internally and soldiers are deployed externally. Mount Tai is as light as a hair. The hero smiles before stretching out his hand, and the counselor's heart is full of courage.
