West of Fu Shun City, Lin Family Inn.
This inn was originally founded by a Lin family merchant. It had a good location, a lot of people, and business was booming. In the end, it was taken over by Han Gui. Zhou Qingfeng set up his command center here because it was convenient for transportation, food, and lodging.
It was the tenth day since the Human-Faced Demon impersonated Han Gui, and the third day since he took over Han Gui's position. The west of the city was barely under Zhou Qingfeng's control. Zhou Qingfeng's people were stationed at every corner of the city to monitor it. Han Gui's original subordinates were all cleaned up. Even Han Gui himself was killed after he was squeezed dry of all his value, and his body was buried outside the city.
Han Gui's power was uprooted by Zhou Qingfeng. Tonight was the time to clear up the accounts and divide the assets. Zhou Qingfeng spread out a stack of accounts in front of the puppet bird, Flat Hair, and said, "Take a look."
Flat Hair flipped through a few pages with his claws, then tilted his head and looked at Zhou Qingfeng. "You're so crafty. Don't tell me you're making fake accounts?"
Zhou Qingfeng sneered. "You're much stronger than me. Don't tell me you want to take it all for yourself?"
Tsk … Flat Hair rolled his eyes, then flipped through it casually. "You know I don't know how to read accounts. Don't try to fool me with this. Just tell me how much money I can get. "
Zhou Qingfeng pulled the accounts in front of him and pointed at the last form. "We've destroyed fifteen families in total. We've killed more than twenty people. There are still thirty people under our control. Most of them are women and children. I don't have the heart to kill them all. We'll take them as servants for now and send them to work in the villages we control. "
Flat Hair shook his head. "I don't want people."
That was to be expected …
"If you don't want it, I won't compensate you."
"Whatever. People aren't worth much right now. "
"Next, there are properties, shops, and fields. There are a total of thirty-one households with more than two hundred mu of land. Han Gui personally contributed seven households with more than a hundred mu of land. There were good and bad businesses. The expensive ones were worth five or six hundred taels of silver, while the cheap ones could be sold for twenty or thirty taels of silver. I plan to sell some of the less valuable ones, and I should be able to raise about five hundred taels of silver. "
"I don't want the property either. I'll sell it all in cash."
"If we're talking about cash, Han Gui's personal property isn't included, because it was me who took it. It will take some time to convert the rest into cash, so I can only give you about a thousand taels for now. I can give you the money right now. "
There was a box next to Zhou Qingfeng, which was filled with ingots of snowflake silver. This was taken from Wang Kai's silversmith shop during the day. It was the entire savings of Han Gui's faction, more than three thousand taels of silver. An ingot was fifty taels of silver, and a box was a thousand taels of silver. Zhou Qingfeng pushed a box to Flat Hair.
Seeing the silver, Flat Hair's eyes began to shine. The puppet bird happily flew to the box, grabbed an ingot of silver, and started cackling. Zhou Qingfeng found it interesting, and continued, "You should also get half of Han Gui's and his men's savings, about one thousand and seven hundred taels of silver."
Another two boxes were pushed in front of Flat Hair, which made him squawk in delight and fly around the house. Finally, he landed on Zhou Qingfeng's shoulder and shouted, "You're a good boy, I like it."
Zhou Qingfeng's income was mainly from real properties and fields, and he left less than eight hundred taels of silver, which was not much. He said to Flat Hair, "Han Gui's identity will appear from time to time, and you'll need to come and help. The subsequent income won't be small, and the business of making money has just begun. "
Earning nearly three thousand taels of silver in one go, Flat Hair was very satisfied with the income. Especially in the past few days, it had used the identity of Han Gui to show off, and it was in high spirits, so it naturally agreed to Zhou Qingfeng's request.
After going back and forth several times, Flat Hair flapped its wings and left with the money it had earned. Watching the puppet bird fly away with a full load, Xu Bing approached Zhou Qingfeng and asked, "We've given all the silver to that bird, and we're also short of liquid funds."
"Flat Hair's existence is too important to us, so we naturally have to satisfy him." Zhou Qingfeng looked at the remaining eight hundred taels of silver, "Sell some of the assets we don't need as soon as possible, and at the same time, we should strengthen our control over our current territory, and prepare for the next step of expanding our income."
"Did Wang Kai, the rich businessman from Shenyang, agree to cooperate with you?" Xu Bing asked.
Zhou Qingfeng shook his head, "No news, that profiteer is not so easy to deal with, and I even have to prevent him from biting me. Others may not have the motive to investigate us, but Wang Kai definitely has. Our local government runners said that someone has been trying to spy on us for the past two days, trying to figure out the reason behind this incident. This must be because some forces feel that something is wrong. "
"How are you going to deal with it?"
"Soldiers with arms, water with an earth weir, naturally, we do what we're good at. Since we want to investigate the entire Liaodong, we need more powerful forces. How can these twenty people be enough? "
The grand plan had just begun, and there was still a lot to do.
The next day. Several streets west of Fushun City had put up recruitment signs. Food and accommodation were provided, and one would be paid five taels of silver a month. There were no restrictions on men and women. In order to expand their influence and take care of illiterate poor people, some people were hired to go to the streets to advertise.
In this terrible winter season, where money couldn't buy food, there was actually a job with food and accommodation? This was simply too shocking. The starving people in the city were facing the fate of freezing to death at any time, so when they saw this kind of recruitment notice, they all came to apply.
Men, women, old and young in ragged clothes quickly crowded the recruitment site. The crowd was squeezing and shouting, afraid that if they were a step slower, they wouldn't be able to find such a good job — as for what this job was for? When they were about to die, who cared!
They had to kill and commit arson.
"Line up, line up." The whip cracked in the air, and two local government runners with iron rulers in their hands came out to maintain order. A woman stood behind the recruitment site, hands on her waist, and loudly scolded, "Whip those who don't listen, our chief … the boss never wants people who don't follow the rules."
Under the threat of the whip, a long line formed far away.
Several men who were squeezing and fighting for a job were whipped far away, and the lucky one in the first line was a woman holding a child. The woman's face was sallow, and her hands and feet were thin, and she didn't look young. The baby in her arms was crying loudly, but his cries were weak, like a kitten's. It looked like he was about to die.
Someone at the back of the line shouted, "Why is the woman with the child blocking the way? She can't do anything, and she's just unlucky. Drive her away, don't get in the way. "
The woman holding the child was shivering, and her lips were blue. She couldn't open her mouth to speak, but her tears flowed silently. Hearing that someone was going to drive her away, she was about to kneel down and beg.
The person in charge of the recruitment site was Sun Ren, a loyal follower of Zhou Qingfeng. She was also a woman who struggled to survive, and the woman in front of her was just like her. She immediately went up to help her up, "Sister, don't kneel. Our boss is a good person, and he will take care of you. There is a porridge shop in the yard behind me. Go in and eat, and give some to the child. "
The recruitment site was in front of a yard that Han Gui got after confiscating people's property. There were a few cooks in the yard, and they were making porridge. The steam was rising, and it looked warm. The woman with the child was almost in tears, and she thanked them profusely as she walked into the yard. Sun Ren easily accepted the first hire. He turned around and shouted, "Who was the one who said he wanted to drive that woman away? Throw her out. "
The people in the line quickly looked at a strong man, who immediately shouted with dissatisfaction, "I said it, so what? You are so noisy, and I can tell that you are not a woman. I want to see your boss. "
Zhou Qingfeng had formed a big family with his subordinates, and Sun Ren was the eldest sister in the family. She was old, and she was strict and kind to her brothers and sisters, so she had a high prestige. The two bailiffs next to her regarded her as an elder sister, and when they heard someone scolding her, they took out their iron rulers and pounced on him, beating him to death.
The man who was beaten blocked a few times at first, but then he had no choice but to run for his life, and ran out of the recruitment site. Although the recruitment team was in an uproar, the matter seemed to be over. However, the man who was beaten stopped after running two streets, and came to a teahouse by the side of the road with a sad face.
In the teahouse, Wang Kai, Wong Yuanwai, and his housekeeper were sitting and drinking. Seeing the man come in with his face covered in blood, the two of them were inexplicably surprised. The strong man bowed and said, "Master, that group of recruiters is too unreasonable. I went to apply for a job, but they actually beat me out.
The person in charge of the recruitment was actually a servant woman. They didn't want a strong young man like me, and the first person they hired was a woman with a child. It's really ridiculous. "
The strong man was obviously a spy. Hearing what he said, Wong Yuanwai and the housekeeper looked at each other, also puzzled. The housekeeper asked the spy he sent to explain the cause and effect, and the spy naturally didn't say that he was expelled because of his provocation. He made up an excuse, saying that the recruitment didn't hire strong people.
"Is there such a thing?" Wong Yuanwai was really puzzled. "Who doesn't hire people who can work? But this one actually specially recruits people who can't work, and even specifically recruits the old, weak, women, and children. "
The housekeeper was also puzzled, and hurriedly sent people to other recruitment sites to check the situation. Not long after, news came back. The person behind Han Gui really only wanted the weak poor, and was suspicious of the strong, and repeatedly questioned them.
"Master, this kid Zhou is really not easy to deal with. We wanted to send some people to investigate his background, but he actually used such a ruthless method. "The housekeeper repeatedly sighed in admiration.
Wong Yuanwai also didn't expect things to turn out like this. He said happily, "We naturally send people who can work. In order to avoid our investigation, this kid is quite clever. But this matter is easy to handle. If he wants weak and thin people, we also have them. Housekeeper, go to the manor outside the city and find a few poor families. Won't they still mix in sand? "
The housekeeper immediately went to make arrangements, and after a while, came back to report, "Master, I found a few of our own poor families. Those recruiters really can't tell them apart, and they all mixed in. Also, I specially paid attention to those who have already been recruited, and promised them money to spread the news. As long as that kid Zhou appears, we will definitely be able to catch him. "
Wong Yuanwai and the housekeeper immediately laughed, and a thin man suddenly stood up from another table beside them. This person walked over, ignoring the obstruction of the two cultivator bodyguards behind Wang Kai. Like a swimming fish, he swam over. He even patted Wang Kai's shoulder and said, "Wong Yuanwai, this is a good move. I am here on orders to take Zhou Qingfeng's life. From now on, we will have to interact more. "
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