"Butler Xu is a noble man who forgets things a lot. He sent people to intercept and kill me during the day. Why did he forget about it at night?" Liu Heng looked at Butler Xu in front of him playfully.
Butler Xu's heart thumped when he heard this, and he almost fell off his seat. He stammered: "You, you are the head of Hutou Village, Liu, Liu Heng."
"It seems that Butler Xu has remembered who I am." Liu Heng pulled out a stool and sat down.
"You..." Butler Xu looked at Ma Yunjiu, then his eyes fell back on Liu Heng, and said, "Don't mess around, this is the Xu family's village."
Liu Heng raised the corners of his mouth and said with a smile: "Of course I know this is the Zhuangzi of the Xu family, otherwise I wouldn't come."
"What are you going to do?" Butler Xu was panicking, and cold sweat flowed down his face.
The man in front of him was the head of Hutou Village, an executioner who killed without batting an eyelid. During the day, he had asked the horse bandits to intercept and kill the other party. Now that he was here, he was extremely frightened.
He hasn't lived enough and he doesn't want to die.
Liu Heng said with a smile: "Butler Xu may have forgotten that you still owe us Hutou Village the money you haven't paid back!"
"Silver? What kind of silver? I don't owe you any silver." Butler Xu looked confused and shook his head like a rattle.
Seeing that Butler Xu didn't seem to be lying, Liu Heng said: "It seems that Butler Xu needs to be reminded that Chen Dafu defrauded a foreigner of a thousand taels of silver six months ago. How could Butler Xu forget it so quickly?"
"ah!"
With an exclamation, Butler Xu's face turned pale.
He remembered.
At first, he set up a trap with Chen Dafu and jointly defrauded several strangers of one thousand taels of silver, and he divided the six hundred taels among himself. Later, Chen Dafu's death frightened him for a long time, and he did not dare to leave the Xu family's door for half a month. step.
Liu Heng suddenly mentioned this topic today, and his heart suddenly hung in his throat.
He had witnessed Chen Dafu's death with his own eyes. The man died miserably, his eyes rolled, and blood flowed all over the floor.
Liu Heng said with a smile: "It seems that Butler Xu has remembered."
"I, I will pay, silver, I will pay for the silver." Butler Xu had a sad face and regret in his heart.
If he had known that those foreigners were from Hutou Village, he would not have dared to defraud him of the money even if he were killed.
Liu Heng said with a smile: "If you take the silver from Hutou Village, you will naturally have to pay it back. After so long, one thousand taels of silver will have to be doubled several times. Let's do it this way. After counting the interest, we will pay back 20,000 taels of silver." I don’t want any change.”
"Two, twenty thousand taels, I, I don't have that much." Butler Xu was so frightened when he heard the number.
He had taken six hundred taels at the beginning. Only half a year later, it turned into twenty thousand taels in the blink of an eye.
Even if he sells him so much money, he still can't get it out.
"It seems that Butler Xu is not willing to compensate me for the money from Hutou Village!" Liu Heng rubbed his fingers and stared at Butler Xu coldly.
Butler Xu begged: "Master Liu, please be merciful. I really can't afford such a large sum of money."
"If I don't have money to deal with, I will suffer some losses and use this village to pay off the debt." Liu Heng raised his hand and pointed.
"This..." Butler Xu was stunned for a moment, and then said, "Zhuangzi belongs to Mr. Xu, and I am just a servant."
"I'll give Butler Xu an idea." Liu Heng said, "You can go to your master and bring me the house deed, land deed and land deed of this village. Then our account will be settled."
The entire Zhuangzi and the surrounding fields have a lot of good water for irrigating the fields. Although it is not worth twenty thousand taels, there is always seven or eight thousand taels.
After hearing this, Butler Xu stammered: "I, I am just a butler."
"Think carefully, I believe Butler Xu can get what I want." Liu Heng said, "Take them to the North Courtyard and keep them in good custody."
Liu Heng didn't give Butler Xu a chance to refuse.
Two bandits came up, one of them grabbed Butler Xu's arm, lifted him up and took him out of the side hall.
"You want this Zhuangzi?"
After Butler Xu and the servants in the side hall were taken away, Ma Yunjiu asked.
Liu Heng said with a smile: "This village is good. It is not far from Hutou Village. It can be used as a farm for Hutou Village."
There was one thing he had no intention of telling Ma Yunjiu.
Natural disasters will become more and more serious in the future. Good farmland that originally yielded one stone per mu will have its yield reduced to a few bushels or even no grains due to natural disasters. Food prices will become more and more expensive.
With its own farm, even if there is a natural disaster in the future, Hutou Village can rely on its own farm to ensure self-sufficiency.
The Xu family's village had a lot of land and tenants, and it was next to Hutou Village. He had been targeting it for more than a day or two. It was only because Hutou Village had been targeted by the government that he didn't have the energy to take action against this village.
Now Lingqiu County Magistrate and Lingqiu Guards have signed documents with Hutou Village, holding a share of the iron farm, and receiving bonuses every month, which is considered a combination of interests. He believes that as long as he obtains Zhuangzi's land deed, he will be sure to pass it. The government completely took over the Zhuangzi of the Xu family.
As long as they get Zhuangzi's land and field deeds, the Xu family's Zhuangzi will change their surname to Hutou Village.
To do this, Butler Xu is needed, so Liu Heng does not intend to take the life of Butler Xu. This person is more useful alive than dead.
"I don't understand you." Ma Yunjiu shook his head slightly.
It is normal for bandits to break up Zhuangzi and grab a handful, but occupying Zhuangzi for farming is not what bandits should do.
In this regard, he had nothing to say. Since Liu Heng was willing to do it, he would do it. As long as he got a share of Zhuangzi's floating wealth, he would lead the cavalry back to Daliang Mountain.
Bang...bang...
Several shots of firecrackers alerted Liu Heng and Ma Yunjiu in the side hall.
"We encountered resistance, let's go over and take a look." Liu Heng stepped out and walked towards the direction where the sound of the gunfire came from.
Those who resist are the guards in Zhuangzi.
Chen Xunping led a small team to surround the small courtyard guarded by Zhuang Ding, but was discovered by the alert guards in the courtyard.
Many of Zhuangzi's guards were fierce and wanted to resist, so Chen Xunping ordered the gunman to stand on the wall of the courtyard and fire the gun.
Two bodyguards were left in the yard, and the rest of the guards retreated to the room behind the yard.
There were barking dogs, gunshots and noises in Xujiazhuangzi, which alarmed the surrounding villagers.
Many villagers have lights in their homes, and some people even come to their yards or appear at their doorsteps.
When Chen Daqing, who stayed outside the village, found out, he ordered the intelligence team he brought with him: "Everyone go to the door of each house and shout that bandits are attacking the Xu family's village. Anyone who dares to leave the house will kill the whole family."
A dozen members of the spy team disappeared into the night.
"The bandits attacked the Xu family's Zhuangzi. Anyone who dared to leave the house would kill the whole family."
"Bandits attack..."
"...Kill the whole family."
Shouts came and went around Zhuangzi.
"Master, what are you doing?" One of the common people lit an oil lamp, and the person who spoke was a woman.
"There are bandits, I'm going out to see if I can help." The voice was a male, who was getting dressed and was about to get out of bed.
The peasant woman said: "I don't want to die. Didn't you hear what was shouted outside? Blow out the lights quickly. The Xu family has no good things. It would be better if they died cleanly."
Initially, many villagers had lights in their homes, but soon they were all extinguished as shouts were heard outside.
