Old Master Han Gui's house was haunted. No one passed by his house in broad daylight, and the road was deserted. Even Old Master Han's relatives hid far away. They didn't dare to come over to see what was going on, for fear of being tainted by bad luck.
However, the Han Family's house was very lively. More than twenty of Zhou Qingfeng's men entered the city under various pretenses and lived there. On the third day of Han Gui's interrogation, Xu Bing learned about the properties this scumbag occupied in the city. Many of the properties were not known, but the deeds of the properties were in Han Gui's hands. Now they all belonged to Zhou Qingfeng.
These included a restaurant, two restaurants for accommodation, a small grain store, and more than one hundred acres of land outside the city. These were all very practical and profitable businesses. Zhou Qingfeng didn't expect that a mere constable could control so many properties. He was delighted and immediately sent Old Man Sun to investigate these properties.
As a criminal police officer, Xu Bing would never let go of such a good opportunity for social investigation. She left Han Gui's matter to Zhou Qingfeng and personally went with Old Man Sun.
Since ancient times, food was the most important thing for people. Even a fool knew that one would not panic if they had food in their hands. The first thing Xu Bing checked was the grain store. In ancient times, the price of food fluctuated greatly. According to Han Gui, the price of food in Fushun border was extremely high. Even during the grain harvest season, the price of rice was more than one or two taels per stone. If there was a food shortage, the price could soar to more than ten taels per stone.
One stone was about ninety kilograms, which was very expensive. The price of food in Daming was more than half of that at the border. During the grain harvest season, one stone of rice could be as low as two taels per stone. In addition, the price of millet was much cheaper than rice, and it was often the real rations of the people at the bottom of society.
Because of the huge profits from running a grain store, people without some background couldn't get involved in this business. The biggest grain merchant in Fushun was actually the bureaucrat headed by Li Yongfang. As a minor constable, the grain store that Han Gui was in charge of was not big. His customers mainly sold miscellaneous grains to the poor and poor. He did not dare to compete with the real rich and powerful.
Han Gui's grain shop was located in the area where the poor people lived. Xu Bing walked into the narrow alley and passed by the sewage. She saw all kinds of poor people who were suffering and tired. These people were all thin, but their eyes were quite lively. When they saw a beautiful woman like Xu Bing appear, they all came over curiously.
Old Man Sun was more experienced. When he came, he deliberately asked 'Master Han' to accompany him and brought two relatively strong subordinates. But even so, it still couldn't stop the curious and probing gazes. Xu Bing would not easily sympathize with them. She had seen all kinds of scoundrels in the marketplace, and most of them were impoverished people.
When they arrived at the grain shop, there were only two assistants and a shopkeeper. 'Master Han' appeared and snorted a few times, which scared the shopkeeper. Old Man Sun smiled and said that he would be the housekeeper and accountant hired by 'Master Han' from now on. He specially came to the grain shop to take a look. The shopkeeper immediately knew that they were here to check the accounts. He immediately invited Old Man Sun in and took out the recent account books for him to check.
The manager of the grain store was very polite, but his eyes were fixed on Old Man Sun with a fake smile on his face. Old Man Sun had been Uța's housekeeper for more than 30 years. What kind of bullshit hadn't he seen? He chatted with the shopkeeper and directly pushed the account book to Xu Bing. Old Man Sun also wanted to know how capable this woman who suddenly appeared beside Zhou Qingfeng was.
Xu Bing didn't care. She took the account book and opened it. At the same time, she took a pen and paper from the store to record. In the end, Old Man Sun chatted with the shopkeeper for less than half an hour. She made a simple calculation of last month's money and pushed the statistics in front of the shopkeeper. She said, "These accounts are not quite right. There are more than 20 taels less in the account book."
A woman with 'long hair and short knowledge' actually said that his accounts were wrong. The shopkeeper was immediately angry and wanted to refute. But when he glanced at the statistics of Xu Bing, he was speechless. The accounts were calculated using Arabic numerals, but the statistics were calculated using traditional Chinese characters. This was exactly the amount of money he had embezzled last month.
Old Man Sun was a little surprised. He didn't expect that Sister Xu was not only good at interrogating people, but also good at accounting. He took the paper that Xu Bing recorded and looked at it a few times. He also smiled and asked the shopkeeper, "Is this a private matter or a public matter?"
'Master Han' had been unlucky recently, but he still had his prestige. He was sitting at the side drinking tea. When he heard this, he coldly snorted. The shopkeeper knew how powerful his master was. In the past, he bullied Han Gui because he didn't know how to calculate accounts. But now, he met an expert in accounting. He was scared to the point of kneeling and begging for a private matter.
Xu Bing also didn't want to make the matter bigger. She nodded slightly at Old Man Sun. So the latter smiled and said, "It's fine if we settle it privately. We can calculate the accounts again and spit out all the embezzled money. As for you, shopkeeper … "
"Let him continue." Xu Bing said.
Old Man Sun was really surprised. The shopkeeper who was kneeling on the ground raised his head in disbelief. If Han Gui caught this kind of traitorous act, even if he didn't die, he would at least lose a layer of skin. But he never thought that the board would be raised high and then fall down lightly. He turned his head and looked at 'Master Han', who had an 'indifferent' look on his face. Unexpectedly, 'Master Han' also nodded slightly and said, "En."
"This subordinate was blinded by lard. I have let down the master's trust. I am guilty, I am guilty … " The shopkeeper of the grain store kept slapping his own face, causing the two workers in the store to be dumbfounded. But the more he slapped, the happier he was. If slapping his face could solve this problem, he wanted to slap himself until his face looked like a pig's head.
This was because Zhou Qingfeng didn't have anyone under him who could replace the shopkeeper. He would continue to use him after beating him up and supervise him more in the future. Xu Bing ordered, "Shopkeeper, from now on, you will be under Old Man Sun's management. The accounts must be clear and clean. If you dare to be embezzled again, I won't forgive you. "
In the past, the embezzled money belonged to Han Gui and Master Han. If he continued to be greedy in the future, he would be stealing from Master Zhou. With Master Zhou's narrow-mindedness, he wouldn't forgive him easily. The shopkeeper kowtowed again and swore that he wouldn't dare to do it again.
But if swearing worked, what was the point of accounting?
Xu Bing could only tire herself and check all the accounts in the store. In the end, the shopkeeper had embezzled more than three hundred taels. Even the two workers were secretly taking advantage of the store.
The two employees were fired and left. Old Man Sun sent someone from his team to take over. Although the shopkeeper was allowed to stay, he was frightened by Xu Bing's speed in checking the accounts. He honestly confessed his problems. Xu Bing interrogated him like a criminal for two days before reporting to Zhou Qingfeng.
"There are more than thirty taels of silver in the store, twelve dans of rice, forty dans of millet, and eighty dans of beans. In addition, the three hundred and fifty-four taels of silver have been transferred to Old Man Sun and put into the public account. The property of the store includes a storefront, a storeroom, and two rooms. It can accommodate five or six people.
In addition, I have a suggestion, which is to use the store to house people. It is currently winter and the price of food is very high. The people at the bottom of the social ladder are living a hard life. On the way to the store, I saw several frozen corpses on the side of the road. Many of them are old and weak women. Although these people are of poor quality, they can be accommodated.
I specifically asked the shopkeeper of the store. In this season, as long as the master is willing to accept them, a lot of people are willing to be slaves. Many poor people are unable to raise their children and are willing to give them away. If we want to expand our power, we must have enough people. But we need to spend more effort on education. "
Xu Bing gave Zhou Qingfeng a detailed report, describing her gains from the past two days of stocking the grain store. But Zhou Qingfeng looked at the food in the store and asked: "How many people can we accommodate with this little food?"
The store has more than one hundred and thirty dans of grain, which is about eleven tons. But if we eat as much as we want, we won't be able to feed many people. Xu Bing took out a data table and said: "Excluding our own needs, if we calculate that one person can eat five hundred grams of grain a day, we still have 210 days until the summer harvest in July. We can probably accommodate about one hundred people. "
One hundred people?
Zhou Qingfeng smiled. This number is really too little. But he still nodded slightly: "We can accommodate them. We can use the village we occupied outside the city and occupy it under Han Gui's name. In addition, Han Gui has restaurants and hotels, which should be able to provide some funds. Han Gui also has more than one hundred mu of land, which can also accommodate some people.
But since we can accommodate them, one hundred people is too little. If we want to take in more, we should take in five hundred as the minimum and one thousand as the maximum. We still have some silver on hand to buy grain, and I will think of a way to get more grain. There are many evildoers in this city. We can rob and kill them. "
"Then our grain shortage will be too big," Xu Bing said.
"The grain shortage is not a big deal. The key is how to use Han Gui's identity. According to the information we have, we can legally take advantage of him. " Zhou Qingfeng was a little distressed as he spoke. "These past few days, the human-faced demon has been pretending to be Han Gui. But because it can't speak, I can clearly feel that Han Gui's power is declining, and his value is decreasing."
Han Gui's success and failure were all due to him.
Han Gui was a local tyrant, so he knew more than Wang Kunpeng and Cai Zhiwei combined. He knew all sorts of despicable and despicable things. After repeated confirmations and cross-comparisons, it was confirmed that Zhou Qingfeng and Xu Bing had found a very valuable gold mine of information, which gave them a good understanding of the whole of Liaodong in a short period of time.
But the biggest value of this local tyrant was his identity as an arrester.
Han Gui also had several open private houses. He had several women as his wives and concubines, and some of them even had children. Zhou Qingfeng couldn't send people to occupy them. He secretly searched at night, but didn't get much money. Finally, when Han Gui couldn't stand it anymore, he revealed where he kept his money — in a silversmith shop in the city.
That silversmith shop was owned by Li Yongfang and Lord Li. The owner was a Shenyang businessman named Wang Kai. According to Han Gui, Zhou Qingfeng had attacked the horse market in Fushun to rob Wong Yuanwai's goods.
"This Wang Kai Wong Yuanwai is also a big shot." In the relationship table constructed by Xu Bing, Wang Kai could be said to have a wide circle of friends. "He has business in Shenyang, Liaoyang, and Fushun. He has friends everywhere, in the government, in the business world, and in the marketplace. "
Zhou Qingfeng sent people to the silversmith shop to get back Han Gui's money, but the silversmith shop refused, saying it was inconvenient to transfer money. They said they would come back in a few days. This was something that would never have happened in the past.
Xu Bing frowned and shook her head. "Don't go get the money for now. Businessmen are always the most sensitive. This Wang Kai Wong Yuanwai is also not a good person. He might be watching Han Gui's movements and thinking of taking the thousand or so taels of silver from Han Gui. "
Han Gui was haunted by the ghosts and got a bad mouth disease, which directly affected his power and status. Now that it was Zhou Qingfeng who was using Han Gui's name, it was not in his interest to let his reputation be ruined. He had to let 'Master Han' regain his prestige, so that it would be convenient for the follow-up work.
"I have to let 'Master Han' regain his prestige, and let the human-faced demon speak," Zhou Qingfeng said.
"What do you have in mind?" Xu Bing asked.
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