"I'm inviting you all today just because I want to talk about something!" Lu Chen winked at Liu Jing who was standing aside. Liu Jing directly picked up the wine jar and started pouring wine for several officials from the aristocratic family.
To be honest, the aroma of this wine had already attracted their attention. If they were not wary of Lu Chen, they would have wanted to taste it.
Liu Jing took the wine jar and filled a glass for each of them, then returned to Lu Chen's side, put down the wine jar, and continued to stand beside him.
"Mr. Lu, just say what you have to say!" Xiao Yu looked around, and then, as a representative of the aristocratic family, he said to Lu Chen.
"Okay! Since these people are quick to talk, I won't be nagging! Is it time for these people to pay off their debts?" Lu Chen looked at Zheng Shanguo, Wang Gui and Wei Ting and said with a smile.
"The date of the agreement has not yet come, and County Duke Lu is so urgent. Is he not giving us face?" Upon hearing that Lu Chen directly asked for debt, the three people's expressions suddenly turned cold. Wei Ting looked at Lu Chen and sneered. Said with a cry.
"Face?" After hearing Wei Ting's words, Lu Chen also sneered, "To put it bluntly, you guys really don't have that much face with me, let alone you guys, even if you are from your family At the helm, whether you want to give me face or not depends on my mood!" Lu Chen glanced at Wei Ting with disdain.
"Mr. Lu, please don't be overconfident! If our family can stand for thousands of years without falling, there must be ways you can't imagine!" After being said so rudely by Lu Chen, these people suddenly became angry. Xiao Yu directly warned Lu Chen with a gloomy face.
"To be honest, all your tricks are just children's play in my eyes!" Lu Chen continued with a sneer, "I entertained you with good intentions, but when you came up, you exchanged sarcastic remarks with me. It seems that I won't be able to eat this meal today!" Lu Chen picked up the wine glass, took a sip of wine, and said with a sneer.
"Originally, this meal is not that delicious! We have no idea how to eat this meal of Duke Lu!" Wang Gui, who was standing beside him, crossed his arms and chest and snorted coldly.
"I called you here today just to ask you to pay off the debt, and then we will clear up the two sides. You will take your Yangguan Road, and I will take my own single-plank bridge. Judging from your attitudes, there is no need to discuss this. ?" Lu Chen asked in a low voice while playing with the wine glass, squinting at the officials from the aristocratic families in front of him.
Although Lu Chen's groan was a little low, it sounded threatening to the ears of these people from the aristocratic families.
"Mr. Lu, are you threatening us?" After hearing Lu Chen's threatening words, several people suddenly became even more unhappy, with gloomy faces. Xiao Yu's falcon-like eyes flashed with cold light, staring at Lu Chen. Chen said with a rather cold voice on his face.
"It's not a threat, it's just telling the truth!" Lu Chen waved his hands indifferently to Xiao Yu's eyes, as if he was indeed telling the truth.
"This is the funniest joke I've ever heard!" Looking at Lu Chen's appearance of not paying attention to everyone, looking down on them is equivalent to looking down on the five surnames and seven looks they represent. How could this not be allowed? They were annoyed, and they even felt that it was a mistake to allow Lu Chen to attend the banquet hosted by him.
Xiao Yu looked at Lu Chen with an angry smile and said coldly.
"It seems that we shouldn't come!" At this time, Wei Ting said coldly and glanced at several other people. The meaning was obvious. These people felt that they had nothing to discuss with Lu Chen. It's necessary to go down, get ready to get up and leave.
In fact, in their hearts, attending Lu Chen's banquet at Lu Chen's invitation this time has already given Lu Chen a lot of face. Don't think that the three families of Zheng Wang and Wei San lost a lot of things to Lu Chen in a bet. .
In the eyes of ordinary people, there are a lot of these lands and mines, but compared with the family's heritage, these things are not even a drop in the bucket. And they came this time just because they agreed to Lu Chen outside the Tai Chi Palace. They also held on to a glimmer of hope, hoping that Lu Chen would be able to surrender. However, after arriving and seeing Lu Chen's attitude, they knew that their thought that Lu Chen wanted to surrender was purely a fantasy.
"I admit that the heritage of your family is indeed far beyond my imagination!" Lu Chen, who was originally looking at the wine glass, raised his head and shot straight at Xiao Yu and others sitting opposite him, " But have you never thought about why I don't take your family seriously at all?" Lu Chen smiled slightly and looked at Xiao Yu.
Several people who originally wanted to get up and leave sat down again after hearing Lu Chen's words. Their eyes were all focused on Lu Chen, as if they wanted to see through Lu Chen. At the same time, they also had thoughts in their minds. I was thinking about Lu Chen's words, because since they faced off against Lu Chen, they had suffered at the hands of Lu Chen, but they had never looked squarely at Lu Chen, the Duke of Chang'an County.
Don't think that the last gathering was a plan, but that plan has never been put into action. First, they really didn't get the chance. On the other hand, they also thought about it later. For Lu Chen, a Chang'an County Sir, if the plan is really implemented, it would be a bit too much. Furthermore, the relationship between Li Jiancheng and Lu Chen is obviously deeper than they know. Their bargaining chips are all concentrated on Li Jiancheng, because this matter offends Li Jiancheng , is what they don’t want.
Therefore, the plan to deal with Lu Chen has actually been shelved.
As for the lack of confrontation between Lu Chen and them, in fact, if they think about it carefully, the loss to them is not big, but more of a loss of anger. However, when they were reminded of Lu Chen's words just now, they realized that Lu Chen said You are indeed right. Ever since Lu Chen had a problem with them, they had been talking about how they wanted to treat Lu Chen, but in fact, because of the relationship between the aristocratic family, they had never looked at Lu Chen.
He never even thought about why Lu Chen dared to treat Wang Gui like that when they first met in Tai Chi Hall.
Several people couldn't help but look at Lu Chen, who was sitting across from him, drinking from a glass of wine and eating the dishes in a leisurely manner, and fell into deep thought.
But even if they tried hard, they couldn't figure out what kind of background they had to support Lu Chen, so that the young man in front of them dared to face the five surnames and seven looks at the same time. Of course, they also considered the current royal family, the Li family. But what is going on with the Li family, they know better than Lu Chen. From how the Li family started to how they obtained their current status, they are all witnesses. They are confident that in this regard, they are better than the person opposite who suddenly appeared. young people still have a say.
"Mr. Lu, are you bluffing?" After pondering for a long time, these people couldn't figure out where Lu Chen dared to do this? Just because of his inventions? Scholars like Xiao Yu didn't think that what those craftsmen did could cause any big waves, so Xiao Yu looked directly at Lu Chen and said coldly.
"Bluffing?" Hearing Xiao Yu's words, Lu Chen smiled, "Since you think I am bluffing, then if you look at this, you will know if I am bluffing!" Lu Chen said and took something from his arms. He took out a small pottery vase and handed it to Liu Jing. Liu Jing held the small pottery vase in both hands, placed it in front of Xiao Yu and others, and then returned to his place.
Those people didn't understand why Lu Chen suddenly took out a small pottery vase and put it in front of him. But since it had been delivered to him, Xiao Yu was not polite. He directly picked up the small pottery vase and pulled out the stopper. Suddenly some white color appeared. The lens powder fell on the table as the plug was pulled out.
"This is?!" Xiao Yu's expression changed when he saw those white crystalline powders. He was very familiar with this kind of thing. If the Zheng family in the Five Surnames and Seven Hopes is the family with the most iron ore, then Guan Long Among the eight great families, the Lanling Xiao family can be said to be the family with the most salt ponds.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the salt and iron tax was inherited from the Sui Dynasty and was not levied. In other words, at this time, salt and iron were still sold privately and were not nationalized.
Why could the Xiao family become one of the Eight Great Families of Guanlong and at the same time help Li Yuan raise an army? If there was no salt business that could make huge amounts of money, how would the Xiao family have so much money to support Li Yuan?
So as soon as the white lens powder fell, Xiao Yu could tell what it was. Xiao Yu couldn't wait to confirm the contents of the pottery bottle. With trembling hands, he tilted the mouth of the pottery bottle over. The white crystalline powder from the mouth of the bottle poured out like running water, and soon gathered into a small white sandbag in front of Xiao Yu.
Xiao Yu stretched out his finger and dipped a little, then licked it with his tongue. When the inherent taste of table salt spread in Xiao Yu's mouth, Xiao Yu's face couldn't help but change greatly, because the taste was better than that produced by their Xiao family. The highest-grade table salt is purer and has no bitter taste at all.
Looking at the snow-like table salt, Xiao Yu suddenly felt as if he had been struck by thunder. His expression changed several times in succession. Then he looked up at Lu Chen and gritted his teeth and said, "Is this what County Duke Lu relies on?"
"This?" Looking at Xiao Yu's gritted expression, Lu Chen smiled slightly, "This is just one of them. As far as I know, your Xiao family depends on this. If I send this kind of salt to Sell it in the market, I wonder if your Xiao family can handle it?" Lu Chen said with a smile at Xiao Yu.
"Hmph! Mr. Lu, if you want to scare me with the salt in this pottery bottle, does Mr. Lu think that I am a three-year-old child?" Xiao Yu looked at the salt on the table and then looked at it again. The little clay vase said with a sneer.
