Butler Xu handed over the words on the desk to his servants for framing.
Hearing Xu Youcai's words, he hurriedly came over and said, "I found out that Hutou Village collects grain at a price that is 10% higher than the market price. Several nearby villages have sold grain to Hutou Village."
"Hutou Village?" Xu Youcai frowned and said, "Isn't Xu Hu there? What does he need so much food for? Does he want to rebel?"
When he said the next few words, his voice suddenly turned cold.
Butler Xu, who had been serving him all year round, felt his heart tremble when he heard that his master was extremely dissatisfied with Xu Hu from Hutou Village.
"Master, calm down," Butler Xu advised. "My servants came back to inquire about the news and said that Xu Hu is no longer the head of Hutou Village and that he is dead."
"When did this happen? Who is in charge of Hutou Village now?" Xu Youcai held the bowl with one hand and frowned.
Butler Xu said: "It's still unclear who invited him. The villagers also heard what the bandits on Hutou Village said themselves, and no one saw Xu Hu's body. But this thing seems to be true. Fan Fan said it two months ago. A sum of money was robbed at the foot of Hutou Village. If Xu Hu is still in Hutou Village, he will naturally know the relationship between the Fan family and us, and it is impossible to rob the Fan family's caravan."
"What a useless piece of trash." The tureen in Xu Youcai's hand was placed heavily on the table. The lid shook out of the gap and the tea inside fell out.
Butler Xu next to him took a small step back and stood aside with his hands hanging down.
As the housekeeper of the Xu family, he knows some secret things about the Xu family. Xu Hu is a pawn arranged by the Xu family to Hutou Village. The bandits on the mountain of Hutou Village are actually thugs raised by the Xu family themselves.
Hutou Village is very close to Dongshan Railway Station. Caravans entering and leaving the iron field need to pass by the foot of Hutou Village Mountain. A group of bandits are placed on Hutou Village Mountain. Once they come, they can threaten Dongshan Railway Station and set up cards to collect passing money. Secondly, it can help the Xu family do some things that are inconvenient for the Xu family to come forward. Otherwise, the hundreds of people in Hutou Village would have been wiped out by the Lingqiu garrison. How could they still occupy the mountain in Hutou Village? king.
"We need to maintain a good relationship with the Fan family. The Fan family has the greatest demand for our ironware." Xu Youcai said, "In two days, a batch of goods will go to Hutou Village. You can go with us and see what's happening in Hutou Village. Who is the one who calls the shots? If they don’t obey, you can just bring the caravan guards to kill them and replace them with our people.”
"What if this group of people is too strong?"
Butler Xu had a clear idea in his mind that he could quietly eliminate Xu Hu and his group of bandits. The strength of this group of bandits on Hutou Village must not be underestimated, otherwise the Xu family would not have received the news of the incident in Hutou Village until now.
"If we have the strength, we can cooperate with them and follow the rules set by Xu Hu when he was here." Xu Youcai snorted, "You have been with me for so many years, and you still want me to teach you this matter."
Butler Xu said cautiously: "The mountains and wild grass are filled with vulgar and arrogant people. What if they are unwilling to cooperate with us?"
"I don't want to..." Xu Youcai sneered, "It is already a gift for them to stay in Hutou Village."
………………
In the main hall of the Hutou Village Temple, Yang Yuan rushed back from Dongshan.
Yang Yuan sat in his own seat No. 4 and said: "My subordinates went to see Chen Dafu's iron yard, and also asked the miners at the iron yard. It is a small iron yard. Because it has been idle for too long, the iron-making furnace It’s all collapsed. To restore it to its original state, you’ll need at least one thousand taels of silver, and you’ll have to recruit miners again. Now that the miners in Dongshan are controlled by the Xu family and several major ironworks, it’s not easy to recruit enough manpower.”
"It costs one thousand taels of silver to restore an iron farm. Don't we have the iron farm's paperwork?" Li Shuheng frowned.
Yang Yuan said: "Chen Dafu's iron yard needs to be pushed back to reconstruction. This thousand taels of silver is used to rebuild the iron yard. The documents are not worth much silver, but without the documents, we are not qualified to open the iron yard in Dongshan. "
"But one thousand taels of silver is too much." Li Shuheng did not expect that it would cost so much money to rebuild an iron field.
Yang Yuan added: "Even if we want to spend this thousand taels of silver, we may not be able to spend it."
Li Shuheng was stunned for a moment and asked, "What do you mean?"
Yang Yuan said: "The Dongshan Iron Works is mainly controlled by the Xu family and a few large iron work owners. Some small iron work owners can barely survive by joining forces. As long as outsiders open an iron work and set up furnaces in Dongshan, they will be attacked by Dongshan." The owners of the large and small iron yards have joined forces to suppress it. According to the news heard by my subordinates, several groups of foreign iron yard owners have been forced to leave Dongshan by the local iron yard owners in Lingqiu."
Zhao Yutu twirled his beard and said: "It seems that the iron farm owners in Lingqiu have united. No matter how they fight internally, as long as external forces enter Dongshan, they will join forces to deal with them first."
Chen Xunping, who was sitting in the seat above him, said dissatisfiedly: "You mean we won't open this iron yard? The document we got from Chen Dafu was wasted like this."
Zhao Yutu said: "We can find other ways to make money. We don't have to rely on the idea of forging an iron farm. Offending all the iron farm owners at once will not be good for us. Our armor and the ore for refining gunpowder come from those iron farms. Bought from the Lord’s hand.”
Chen Xunping said: "Without our own iron field, we are easily choked by others when it comes to armor and gunpowder. Don't forget, without gunpowder, our firecrackers are just fire sticks."
After Yang Yuan finished talking about the situation in Dongshan, several people present started arguing.
Liu Heng, who was sitting at the top, knocked on the armrest of the seat with his hand.
Hearing the voice, the argument stopped and everyone looked at him.
Liu Heng said: "If you want to eat the meat in the basin, you must be qualified to sit down and eat the meat. Who are we? We are bandits. If we can't eat meat, then lift the table. No one can eat it. Use You don’t need to reason with anyone, only the big fist is the reason.”
"The boss is right. My subordinates have been living too comfortably these days. They often come into contact with the villagers and forget that they are a bandit." Zhao Yutu stood up from his seat nervously.
"Sit down, no one blames you." Liu Heng waved for him to sit down.
Zhao Yutu sat down with an embarrassed look.
"Let's do this." Liu Heng said, "The intelligence team continues to inquire about the situation of the Dongshan iron yard. There are so many iron yard owners in Dongshan. It is impossible that there will be no conflicts in private. Try to figure out the relationship between these iron yard owners."
Yang Yuan stood up and responded: "Yes, I will hand it over to the intelligence team and let them carefully inquire about everything about Dongshan."
Liu Heng nodded and asked, "How are things going at the craftsman's house?"
Yang Yuan shook his head slightly and said: "After contacting us in private, there are not many craftsmen who are willing to leave. Only some craftsmen who really can't survive are willing to take the risk and work with us."
Liu Heng said: "If you can't recruit them, try to bribe the officials in the Qing Military Department. Don't be afraid of spending money. They have plenty of ways to do things that we can't handle."
Yang Yuandao: "My subordinates have asked people to bribe the officials of the Qing Military Hall, but buying a craftsman's household requires fifty taels of silver. Some craftsmen's family has seven or eight people, even if others don't need fifty taels of silver." If there are too many, the Qing Military Office will not release him without a hundred taels."
"As long as the Qing Military Department dares to sell it, we will buy it." Liu Heng said that after the craftsmen arrived, they would be arranged directly in Zhaojiayu. Many craftsmen are capable. people, we cannot treat them badly. "
"Report!"
A bandit who delivered the order came to the main hall of the mountain temple and knelt on one knee in front of Liu Heng.
