In the afternoon of the next day, Cui Ming officially arrived at Shangyong. Yuan Sima came forward to welcome him into the city and placed him in Guanyi. After Cui Ming checked in, he counted the tributes in a leisurely manner, and then there was no movement. He neither went to the Kingdom of Fish, nor to the Kingdom of Kui and Qi to inspect the tributes, but just waited for Shen Douke's arrival.
Yuan Sima tried several times, but Cui Ming always talked about him. Even when Prince Qingyu visited him in person, he didn't tell the truth. In turn, Prince Qingyu praised him profusely, saying that he had the style of a famous scholar and the appearance of a wealthy family. Qi, he is worthy of being a noble person from Linzi - even if he is in trouble again, he is still a noble person from Linzi who is in trouble.
Three days later, Shen Douke arrived in Shangyong. In Chu State, the Four Kingdoms were supervised by Yangzhou. As the most powerful figure in Yangzhou after Zhou Yin and Youtu, Shen Douke was responsible for supervising the Four Kingdoms. His arrival was definitely a major event for Yongguo. Prince Qingyu and Prince Wushuang They went out of the city hand in hand and took a group of officials to welcome Shen Douke into the post.
Shen Douke declined the banquet given by the young master Qingyu, shied away from the young master's hunting appointment in pairs, and talked with Cui Ming behind closed doors.
Cui Mingdao: "I deliberately stayed in the realm of Chu and Yong for some time, and secretly sent people to investigate. Everything in Yongrentang is as usual."
"Yongrentang?"
"This is the alchemy hall opened by alchemist Shen Wu, just like Yunji's Yunkai Hall in Yutou City."
"Go on, did you meet him yesterday?"
"Congratulations to Zuo Tu!"
Shen Douke was very excited: "Oh? Shen Wu agreed?"
Cui Ming stroked his beard and smiled: "We're almost halfway done!"
Shen Douke thought: "Half? What conditions does he offer?"
Cui Ming talked eloquently: "I came into the city alone yesterday and sat down with him to talk. I just felt that Shen Wu actually had no loyalty. He wanted to sell him for a price. If Zuo Tu agrees to worship him every month For a sum of money and materials for alchemy, he agreed to put it into Zuo disciple's disciple..."
Shen Douke frowned: "As an alchemy master, why do you still want to offer sacrifices to me? How can this be reasonable? When Yun Ji was under my sect, not only did he not want to offer sacrifices, he also had to hand over a batch of spiritual pills to me every year."
As he said that, he paced back and forth in the room and made quick calculations. He really wanted to recruit Wu Sheng, but Wu Sheng's conditions were really not in compliance with the rules.
The emperor enfeoffed the world, and the princes established the country with fiefdoms, and they had to pay tribute to the emperor every year; the princes also enfeoffed the ministers and officials in the country, either for mountains, forests, rivers, or for towns and cities, and the ministers had to pay tribute to the princes every year; The retainers provide shelter or entrust them with errands, which have their own ways of making money. The retainers must pay half of their income to the doctor. This is the rule.
There has always been a rule that subordinates should make offerings to their superiors. How could there be any reason to receive money in turn?
If there are, they are only a small number of impoverished dead soldiers. The purpose of raising dead soldiers like them is to die. Shen Wu, right? Obviously not! The rules must not be broken. If I agree to Shen Wu, I will have dozens of followers. How will I support him? Who can afford it?
Thinking of this, Shen Douke shook his head: "It's against the rules...is there anything else?"
Cui Ming said hurriedly: "Shen Wu also said that if this Zuo Tu can't agree, he can change it to another one. After he arrives in Yangzhou, he will ask Zuo Tu for help and hand over the alchemy business in Yangzhou to him."
Shen Douke shook his head: "No!"
Cui Mingdao said: "If Zuo Tu is in trouble, he agrees to do the next best thing and ask Zuo Tu for a buyout fee." At that moment, he told Shen Douke what he understood about the buyout fee.
After hearing this, Shen Douke's face turned dark. Without him, the buyout fee was at least five hundred gold. How could he afford it?
"This person is too greedy. How can he get into my door with this kind of character? He needs to be beaten!" Shen Douke made a decision.
"Then..." Cui Ming asked about the next step.
Shen Douke sneered: "Since you don't know how to praise, let's test his elixir!"
Cui Ming wiped the cold sweat from his forehead as he watched Shen Dou Ke walk away.
Early the next morning, Shen Douke and Cui Ming rushed to Sikong's treasury. The elixirs, spiritual materials and rice from Yongguo Maogong were piled on the car, and they were shipped to Yangzhou only after Shen Douke nodded.
Cui Ming has already counted the quantity. There is no need to check it again at this moment. What needs to be reviewed is the quality. After entering the warehouse, several retainers brought by Shen Douke immediately began to review and compare. Young Master Qingyu, Yuan Sima and Lu Sikong carefully accompanied them.
The first thing to produce results is rice. This is easier to check, while spiritual materials are more difficult. However, among the customers Shen Douke brought, there are people who are good at weapon refining. After comparing the market conditions in Yangzhou Fang City, and checking each piece, he concluded that He came to the conclusion that the total price of more than twenty kinds and eighty kilograms of spiritual materials handed over by Yongguo slightly exceeded the prescribed total amount of tribute.
It would not be difficult for Shen Dou Ke to manipulate this level. He could just find faults at will. Therefore, Young Master Qingyu was a little worried about this. He did not understand the purpose of Shen Dou Ke's personal review, so he also did a good job. We have made preparations for "if there are any deficiencies in the inspection, we will resubmit them separately".
But Shen Douke obviously had no intention of causing trouble with the spiritual materials. He approved it with a stroke of his pen, and the young master, Sima, and Sima all breathed a sigh of relief.
Just when they thought that this review would pass smoothly, Lingdan's inspection team was particularly careful.
The retainer who inspected the elixir took out an elixir furnace, opened a bottle of black ginseng pills, put one of the black ginseng pills into the furnace, lit a fire underneath, and at the same time inserted a long jasper ruler into the furnace.
None of the monarchs and ministers of the Yong Kingdom had ever seen such an inspection method. Lu Sikong stepped forward and asked, "Shen Zuotu, what does this mean?"
Shen Douke smiled and said: "My disciple is good at refining elixirs. This jade ruler is a high-grade magic weapon that can be used to check the effect and quality of the elixir. Today, he will verify it. I invite you all to take a look at it."
The doorman explained: "Young master, you two Sikong, my magic weapon is called Moyu Lingdan Ruler. I bought it from Linzi with a lot of money. It was made by Panshi, the master craftsman of the Academy. It looks like jasper to you, but it is not actually a magic pill. The original color of the ruler is black. Because I have tried the elixir before, it turned into a green color. The elixir I tried was the elixir that was used during the Putai meeting last year. If it is verified today, the color of the ruler has changed. , it can be proved that the effect of the elixir is different from that of the sample elixir. The better the elixir is, the darker the color of the elixir is. The worse the elixir is, the lighter the color of the elixir is."
Shen Douke added: "There is another one. If the old elixir that is about to expire is used as a tribute, this jade ruler can also detect it."
The doorman nodded: "Exactly, there is usually no worry about the failure of medium-grade and above elixirs. They can be taken after being stored for more than ten years, decades, or even a hundred years. However, low-grade elixirs cannot last for five or six years. It will be ineffective immediately.”
Opening a furnace to test elixirs is not refining elixirs. It does not take half an hour or an hour. It only takes a cup of tea and the fragrance of the elixirs is refined and the work is done without compromising the efficacy of the elixirs. After the alchemist inspected the jade ruler, he shook his head slightly to Shen Douke. Everyone looked at the alchemy ruler, but there was no change in the color of the jade.
The monarchs and ministers of the Yong Kingdom took a deep breath, and just smiled when they heard Shen Douke say again: "Test again."
The doorman took back the verified black ginseng pills from the elixir furnace and put it back into the elixir bottle. He opened a new bottle of elixir, took out one and put it into the elixir furnace. The monarchs and ministers of the Yong Kingdom immediately gathered around them, each one bending over and pouting. Buttocks, carefully observing the color changes of the jade ruler.
After drinking tea, the sound of "huh" breathing was heard, and the monarchs and ministers of Yongguo stood up straight with smiles on their faces.
"Test again!" Shen Douke looked very unhappy.
The doorman takes the elixir and puts it into the furnace...
The monarchs and ministers of the Yong Kingdom leaned over and stuck their butts out...
After a cup of tea, "call"...
"Test again..."
Bend over, stick your butt out...
"call......"
"Test again..."
