The Fan family is a well-known Shanxi merchant in Zhangjiakou, with assets of more than one million taels. The family has great influence in the Xuanfu, and its influence in Datong is slightly weaker, but it is only relative to the Xuanfu.
Although the man in the silk robe, Fan Yongkui, was not from the eldest member of the Fan family, he was still a member of the Fan family and a brother of Fan Yongdou. Wherever he went, others would politely call him Master Fan Qi.
Given his status, he naturally looked down upon a low-class bandit. If the convoy had not been stopped and couldn't leave, he would not have even bothered to get out of the car to meet these bandits.
"It turns out to be the convoy of the Fan family in Zhangjiakou." Jia Liu smiled, but then his face darkened and he said, "I don't care whether you are the Fan family in Zhangjiakou or the Fan family in Beijiakou. If you want to go through this road, please pay the safe money." , otherwise the goods will stay and people will get out."
"You, do you know what will happen if you offend the Fan family?" Fan Yongkui blushed. No one had ever spoken to him in such vulgar language since he was a child.
Jia Liu sneered and said: "Why the hell are you using the name of the Fan family to scare me? I'm not afraid, Sancha, check the goods."
"Okay!" Zhang Sancha responded, calling a dozen spearmen and heading towards the Fan family's motorcade.
"Let's see who dares!" Fan Yongkui shouted.
The guards who were originally guarding the Fan family's cart all stood up and confronted the people brought by Zhang Sancha.
"More than people, right?" Jia Liu put the thumb and index finger of his right hand in his mouth and whistled.
With the sound of whistles, forty or fifty people ran out of the woods from Hutou Village, most of them holding spears, and a dozen of them held firecrackers.
As soon as these people came out, they surrounded the Fan family's motorcade.
More than a dozen fire gunmen lit the match ropes on the fire guns, and pointed the guns at the people in the Fan family's caravan.
"Hero, hero, don't do it, don't do it, let us discuss it." The middle-aged man next to Fan Yongkui repeatedly handed over his hands and begged for mercy, looking humble.
At this time, Fan Yongkui's face was bloodless, and several fire guns were aimed at him at the same time.
The middle-aged man pulled the trembling Fan Yongkui back a few steps and whispered: "Master Qi, your life is precious, there is no need to risk your life for this little money."
"Xu, didn't the Xu family say that the bandits from Hutou Village wouldn't rob our convoy as long as their command flag was there?" Fan Yongkui stuttered a little, and his legs were shaking badly.
This is the first time he has been on an errand in Lingqiu. In the past, in the Xuanfu territory, not to mention bandits, even the tax cards set up by the government did not dare to do this to him.
But now facing several dark guns, he was really scared.
The middle-aged man was the manager of the Fan family's caravan, and he said: "Master Qi, whatever the Xu family says is of no use now. See what these bandits want. If we don't pay the money for safety, don't even think about getting there. We may not even be alive." Leave it all here."
"You mean, it's him, they dare to kill me? I'm Fan, from the Fan family." Fan Yongkui stuttered more and more.
The middle-aged man smiled bitterly, "What time of year is this? You are mentioning the Fan family. If they were really afraid of the Fan family, they would not stop the convoy to ask you for money for safety."
He had no choice but to continue to persuade: "Master Qi, let's hand over the peace money first, leave Hutou Village first, and then settle the accounts with the Xu family later. In short, our Fan family cannot suffer this loss."
"Yes, yes, yes, we can't suffer this loss." Fan Yongkui nodded in agreement, and then said, "Shopkeeper Wang, I will leave this matter to you. After we leave Hutou Village, we must send someone to question Xu Family, compensate our Fan family for their losses."
Shopkeeper Wang was the shopkeeper of Fan's Shop in Zhangjiakou. Fan Yongdou was worried about Fan Yongkui, so he specially sent him to be the caravan manager to assist Fan Yongkui in managing the caravan.
"Don't worry, Master Qi. I'll handle the matter. You go back to the car and rest first." Shopkeeper Wang saw that Fan Yongkui was so frightened that it was useless to stay. He called two guards to help him back to the carriage.
After making arrangements for Fan Yongkui, shopkeeper Wang returned to the fence and said with a smile: "Don't worry, good man, we will pay you the money for safety. We will pay it now. Please let me know how much money you have."
"Bring me the list of documents." It was so hot that Tian Jialiu didn't bother to talk nonsense with him. The list of documents contained the goods transported by the caravan this time.
Although Fan Yongkui is nominally the top manager of the caravan, in fact it is Shopkeeper Wang who does everything, so things like the purchase list and documents all belong to Shopkeeper Wang.
Shopkeeper Wang reached into his arms and took out a list of documents and handed it to Jia Liu.
Jia Liu took it and looked at it for a few times, and said sarcastically: "Hey, there's quite a lot of goods. Didn't you say that the car is full of iron ingots? Why are most of them ironware?"
Shopkeeper Wang smiled apologetically and said: "There are iron ingots, but this thing is stupid and heavy. It is not as easy to carry as the made iron tools."
At this point, Shopkeeper Wang was suddenly startled, and then he realized that the bandit in front of him was actually literate and could understand what was written on the inventory document.
Many military generals were illiterate, but the bandit in front of him was actually literate and could read the list of documents.
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, shopkeeper Wang said again: "Good man, please see how much money we have to pay to get through."
"Your Fan family caravan is rich enough. You can buy nearly ten thousand taels of silver at a time." Jia Liu handed it to the people around him and said, "Calculate how much silver they should pay for safety."
Seeing this scene, Shopkeeper Wang was startled again. Apart from the guy in front of him who seemed to be the bandit leader, there were actually other bandits who were literate and could do arithmetic.
He glanced secretly at the other bandits around him, and had a strange thought in his mind.
Could it be that all the bandits in front of me are literate?
However, this idea was quickly dismissed by him. There were very few literate people these days. Maybe this group of bandits only had two literate people.
It didn't take long before the bandit who took the list of documents said: "Totaling the silver for all kinds of goods, we need to pay three hundred and twenty-five two and three cents of silver."
Jia Liu nodded, then looked at Shopkeeper Wang and said, "The amount of Ping'an silver we charge is one in thirty. If you are not sure, you can do the math yourself. Our Hutou Village is also about credibility and will never charge an extra copper. Before You gave forty taels, now you only need to pay another two hundred, eighty-five taels and three cents of silver, and your convoy can pass."
Shopkeeper Wang has been a shopkeeper for many years. Although he is not as skilled as the accounting clerk, he can calculate with this mental calculation. The silver for one draw in thirty is indeed three hundred and twenty-five two and three cents.
"Wait a minute, good man, I'll have someone prepare it." Shopkeeper Wang bowed his hand to Jia Liu and went back to report to Fan Yongkui. He had to inform Fan Yongkui that he was spending hundreds of taels of silver at a time.
When shopkeeper Wang came back, he had a cloth bag in his hand and handed it to Jia Liu.
Jia Liuchao winked at the person next to him, and the person took the silver from Shopkeeper Wang.
After opening the cloth bag and checking that there was nothing wrong with the money, Jia Liu asked someone to move the fence in the middle of the road and let the Fan family's motorcade pass.
Zhang Sancha, who had checked the goods on the Fan family's cart, looked at the direction of the caravan and said, "Forget about the iron pots, there are actually a lot of iron arrows on the cart. What does a businessman do with these? Sell them to them. Who is going? To rebel?"
Jia Liu touched his chin, looking thoughtful.
