Several Tiger Flag soldiers were busy weighing money, and Zhang Sancha picked up his pipe and started smoking.
Ingots of silver were moved around and weighed.
When the last wooden box passed the scale, the soldier who weighed the silver returned to Zhang Sancha and said: "The deputy commander is upright, the amount of silver is correct, and there is no shady silver."
After saying that, he stood aside.
"Since the money is no problem, I won't bother Mr. Cao. Take the money and let's go." Zhang Sancha stood up from his seat and walked out with a pipe in his mouth.
The Master of the Cao family hurriedly stood up from the bench and carefully accompanied Zhang Sancha and others to see them off.
Boxes of money were moved out of Cao's house.
Zhang Sancha got on his horse, turned around and said to Master Cao: "Master Cao, there's no need to send it off, come on!"
He spurred his horse on his hip and left with his soldiers.
Standing on the stone steps outside the Cao family's door, Mr. Cao's family watched Zhang Sancha and others go away before retracting his gaze.
"Master, these bandits are nothing. They are clearly the money of several companies. Why should our family pay for them?" Butler Cao said bitterly.
The master of the Cao family snorted and said: "I work for you as a knife and for meat. You won't be able to see it today. If I didn't give you money, they would really dare to ransack my house."
"A group of bandits who have no reputation, sooner or later the imperial army will wipe them out." Butler Cao cursed.
The master of the Cao family said with a heartbroken face: "What's the use of saying this? Even if the imperial army recaptures Datong City, I will still lose 20,000 taels of silver, that's 20,000 taels!"
For a large family like the Cao family, it would be very difficult to come up with 20,000 taels of silver at once.
Although the Cao family's wealth is more than 20,000 taels, more of it consists of land deeds and house deeds. As long as they can buy fields, they will exchange their silver for fields. Only the silver that cannot be spent will be cast into large silver ingots and Store the silver melon.
"This amount of money should not be paid by our family. How about we arrange for someone to notify other families and ask them to make up for this amount of money." Butler Cao reassured.
He would never be able to earn so much money in his lifetime.
Although he was only a servant of the Cao family, he felt the same way about the Cao family's loss of 20,000 taels of silver.
The Master of the Cao family showed a stern look on his face and said, "You are right. They took the initiative to ask me to discuss using money to buy Zhong's peace. Now that the bandits have come to ask for the money, they must also pay for it."
"Don't worry, sir, I will go door to door to ask them for money." Butler Cao solemnly agreed.
Mr. Cao nodded and said: "Yes, go now to avoid delaying it for a long time and they will not admit the debt. Bring more servants. The city is in chaos. Don't let others rob you. Go and handle it."
"Don't worry, sir, I'll take care of it for you." Butler Cao agreed and turned back to the yard to prepare for going to other squire's homes to ask for money.
The Master of the Cao family was returning to the yard with the help of his servants.
But when he saw the miserable condition of the two doors of his house, he said angrily: "Find the two best carpenters to repair the doors of our house."
"I understand, little one." The servant next to him responded respectfully.
Only then did the Master of the Cao family walk towards the yard with satisfaction.
Not long after, Butler Cao left Cao's house through the side door with ten servants and servants. They were accompanied by one or two horse-drawn carts.
There were no pedestrians on the street, nor were the small merchants and hawkers who usually did business. All the street stalls were gone. Butler Cao and others walked on the road, feeling desolate.
There were not many pedestrians on the street. Butler Cao and his servants were extremely conspicuous on the street. They could be seen from a long distance away. More importantly, although there were no pedestrians on the street, there were soldiers with the Tiger Flag. Search the streets for officers and soldiers in the city.
"Everyone in front, stop!"
Butler Cao and others were on their way when they heard someone behind them calling them to stop.
If someone dared to shout like this on ordinary days, he would have been rude a long time ago, but he knew that today was different from the past. The government in Datong City no longer had the final say, but a group of bandits.
Turning around, he found that it was the rioters in the city who were calling him.
"Masters, what's the matter with calling me here?" Butler Cao smiled in front of the Tiger Flag soldiers.
The captain of the Tiger-Character Banner soldiers asked: "Which family are you servants from? Don't you know how to clean the streets? The idlers can't wait to take to the streets."
"The younger one is from the Cao family. I went out to do some errands. Please ask the military master for your accommodation." Butler Cao poured out a few taels of silver from his sleeves and stuffed it into the other party's hand.
The captain put his hands back and said with a cold face, "What are you going to do? Put the money away."
"Please, Master Jun, be accommodating." Butler Cao thought it was too little, so he poured out a piece of broken silver from his sleeve and handed it over.
The team leader pushed away Butler Cao's hand and said immediately: "You guys went out privately and are temporarily detained. From now on, all of you will follow me. If you resist, you will be killed on the spot."
When he said the next two sentences, his body was filled with murderous intent.
Butler Cao looked stunned.
Unexpectedly, Qiu Babai didn't even want to give him any money.
"Let's go." The team leader saw that Butler Cao was the leader and pushed him with his hand.
Butler Cao's face became unsightly.
This person came out of Cao's house to help his master go to other houses to ask for money. Unexpectedly, he was detained by bandits in the city as soon as he walked out of the house.
Faced with the guns pointed at them by the bandits, Butler Cao and the servants of the Cao family did not dare to resist at all, and were escorted away honestly.
The master of the Cao family waited at home for the housekeeper to get the money back. He waited until dark but no one came back, let alone the money.
He wasn't worried that the housekeeper would take the money and run away.
The housekeeper has been with him for many years. He has been a slave of the Cao family since the previous generation. Later, he married a maid of the Cao family and gave birth to a son who was also a slave of the young master of the Cao family.
Now that the other party's whole family is at Cao's house, he doesn't believe that his housekeeper will become a runaway slave.
The night passed.
It was bright outside, and the Cao family man sat up from the bed.
when! when! when!
There was a gentle knock on the door.
"What's the matter?" Mr. Cao asked in a calm tone.
The person outside the door replied: "Master Qi, the housekeeper and the servants who went out yesterday are back."
"What? You're back. Bring the housekeeper to see me quickly." When the Cao family master heard the news that he was back, he asked the maid waiting outside the door to help him wash up.
After a short time, the housekeeper was taken outside the bedroom door.
The Master of the Cao family rinsed his mouth, cleaned his face with a silk cloth, handed the silk cloth for wiping his face to the maid, and then said to the housekeeper outside the bedroom: "What did you do yesterday? Why didn't you come back all night?"
"Yesterday, not long after I took the people out, they were arrested by the bandits. They were locked up all night and were released at dawn." Cao Jiayu said with a cry.
