Chapter 867: Alternative Amnesty

"Okay, Master, I'll treat you to a meal. How about the newly opened Quanfulou? The signature dish there, 'One Rabbit, Three Ways to Eat', is pretty good."

"What kind of signature dish is this with such an ugly name?"

The meal was a happy one.

After sending the Master home, He Lingchuan returned to the city guard station and directly summoned Hong Xun to ask:

"You have been in Panlong City recently, right?"

When awakened by He Lingchuan, Hong Xun's voice was sleepy. It is a bird of prey that moves during the day, and it should be sleeping at this time! "Yes, I've been delivering letters several times."

Other places use pigeons and cranes to deliver letters, only Panlong City makes it run back and forth painfully.

"Have you seen General Hong?"

"Yes." Hongshun twisted his neck, "What message do you want to pass on?"

"Where has General Hong been in the past month?"

"She came back from the northern front half a month ago, stayed in Panlong City for nine days, and then went back to the front."

"Is she okay?" He Lingchuan added, "She's not injured?"

In the Panlong Secret Realm, General Hong did not show up, but turned her power into armor and lent it to him to deal with Narakutian's clone and Sanshui Zhenren. But he could see that this was not within the scope of the Dafanghu's permission.

No matter how powerful General Hong is, she lives in the Dafanghu. How could she act openly against the will of the Dafanghu without any cost?

Back then, the Hundred-Faced Nightmare itself could not even dodge the two chains of the red giant shadow, and was swallowed by it.

"General Hong?" Hongshun tilted his head, "She is a demigod, and she will recover quickly if she is injured. You know that."

"So she has been acting as usual?"

"Still killing people like crazy on the front line, very agile."

It seems that General Hong is fine. He Lingchuan said, "Oh!" and tore some chicken legs to feed it.

...

Four days later, Baicheng Post Station.

On the southern trade route, this is the post station closest to the water of Longchuan Lake, built next to the water dock.

More than ten years ago, Longchuan was plagued by bandits, and this place was abandoned. It was not until Panlong City took over the Xiqie territory that Baicheng Post Station was rebuilt.

Even so, the caravan would rather take a detour than go here, so Baicheng Post Station is temporarily closed.

Only today, the post station is full of guests.

All are uninvited guests.

Dozens of small boats sailed out of Longchuan, with special plate armor on the top and around the boats to protect against arrows.

They circled half a circle before docking at the water dock, and more than a hundred people landed.

The scouts sent out in front have returned and reported to the two people in front: "There is no ambush in the nearby woods, and there are nearly a hundred people inside and outside the post station. He the Butcher is sitting outside the post station."

One of them sneered: "Humph, he is so brave, why not just shoot him to death with an arrow."

Destroying someone's financial resources is like killing his parents. When it comes to this He, everyone in Takigawa hates him to the core.

"Boss Xu, please be patient." Another person said, "Even if we kill him, Panlong City will send a new leader."

Everyone was alert and walked forward with subtle emotions. As the scout said, the road was quite peaceful and there were no ambushes.

After a while, the situation became clear and the Baicheng Post Station was in sight.

The tables and chairs in the post station were moved outdoors, with mountains behind and water in front. There was a man sitting at the table waving at them, smiling, as if he was meeting an old friend again.

Is this guy the He the Butcher that everyone in Takigawa is afraid of? Too young, right?

The two leaders looked at each other, ordered the bandits to disperse and be on guard, and walked forward with more than ten confidants.

Only Hu Min and Menban stood behind He Lingchuan, and the other guards were several feet away to show their sincerity, otherwise the bandits on the opposite side would not dare to come over.

The two leaders walking opposite were one tall and one short, one fat and one thin.

He Lingchuan knew that the tall and fat one was Tao Lin, the leader of Qianjin Village, and the other dark and thin short man was Xu Zeshou, the leader of Qiuhua Gang.

"Boss Tao, Boss Xu, please sit down!" Two chairs were placed opposite He Lingchuan.

Tao and Xu looked at each other, shook their clothes and sat down. The confidants behind them stepped forward a few steps and formed a semi-encirclement of He Lingchuan.

These people were staring at him, but He Lingchuan ignored them.

Just as he sat down, he heard a "woo" sound from the side, sharp and piercing.

Tao Lin frowned, Xu Zeshou's body trembled slightly, and he almost jumped up, but finally squatted in a horse stance.

It turned out that the cast iron kettle on the stove was boiling.

He Lingchuan saw the reactions of the two people, and smiled while holding the kettle: "Oh, sorry, this is a special iron kettle from Mou country. There is a reed on the lid of the kettle, and it will chirp when the water boils."

Local people use soup pots to boil water, and the rich people use porcelain, copper, and tin. The special product of the eastern part of Mou country is cast iron kettles, which are round-headed and short-mouthed, simple and tough.

The goods in the eastern part of Mou country are not very particular about the novelty of style and the exquisiteness of patterns.

He grabbed two tea cups with tea leaves already in them. When the boiling water was poured and the tea soup was swirled, the warm aroma floated out.

But Tao and Xu did not move.

Who dares to drink the tea of ​​the chief of officers and soldiers?

Xu Zeshou said coldly: "Why did you invite us here?"

"I heard that the bayberry wine from Qianjin Village and the pearls from Qiuhua Gang are both in great demand outside. I personally like the bayberry wine from Qianjin Village very much and use it every time I entertain guests."

The wine from Qianjin Village is well received from Yuheng City to Baisha Bay; the water where the Qiuhua Gang is entrenched produces pearl oysters, which can produce pearls as big as longan if they are well raised, but unfortunately there are not many of them. There is a black and white pearl in the old palace of Xiqi, which is a natural Tai Chi pattern, and it was also sold by the Qiuhua Gang.

He Lingchuan continued: "It can be seen that both gang leaders are experts in business. Then, I want to negotiate a good deal with you."

Tao and Xu looked at each other again without saying a word, wanting to see what medicine he was selling in his gourd.

He Lingchuan took a box from underneath and placed it on the table.

He knew that the two of them did not dare to open the box, so he took care of this step for them.

The box slowly opened, and the two saw two oval tokens lying on the brocade mat.

He Lingchuan took out his Grand Commander's Order and shook it twice, letting them see that the three tokens were made of the same material.

"Yuheng City wants to hire two gang leaders to be the guards on our Longchuan Trade Road."

"What are you doing?" Xu Zeshou was stunned, thinking that he was hallucinating because he hadn't removed his ears for too long. Tao Lin also frowned.

"Chief of Guards?"

"Not bad." He Lingchuan asked someone to take out the map of Longchuan, flatten it out, and draw two circles on it.

The two gang leaders took a look and realized that what he had circled was the territory of his gang on the trade road, commonly known as the hunting ground.

In order to avoid conflicts, the medium and large-scale gangs in Takichuan have long divided the entire southern road, and small gangs can only make ends meet in the cracks.

The meeting place chosen by He Lingchuan, Baicheng Station, is the territory of Qianjin Village.

Of course, this division of power is never officially recognized. He Lingchuan outlined it very directly: "This is the robbery range of Qianjin Village, and it belongs to the Qiuhua Gang, right?"

"..." Facing the official family, the two of them didn't want to answer such an embarrassing question.

He Lingchuan put the two tokens into two circles respectively: "From now on, your gang no longer has to rob, just set up checkpoints to collect tolls."

W-what?

The two gang leaders thought they were well-informed, but they were still shocked by these words.

The cronies behind them also looked at each other in disbelief.

Everyone's brains were working very fast, trying their best to digest the news. Xu Zeshou asked tentatively: "What do you mean, Commander He, that from now on we will be allowed to hold official badges and collect and pay for passage from passing caravans?"

"Gang Leader Xu summarized the essence, but this is not called road money, this is called road tax."

The two of them were speechless.

Isn't the so-called road tax the toll that various countries officially collect from caravans?

The water bandits often cursed when they drank in private. What was the difference between this and what they did? Just because they have no official background, if they dare to accept this money, it is called robbery.

Is Commander He planning to recruit them and let them collect tolls for Yuheng City?

Is this recruitment?

Is this recruiting security?

Whimsical!

"The current situation on the trade road is that the gang brothers are licking their swords and the passing caravans are on tenterhooks. My Yuheng City army patrolling back and forth is also time-consuming and laborious, and everyone is not happy." He Lingchuan took a sip of tea and said, "We must know how to do it. Calculating the cost, all the road tax I collected was used to fight, and there was not much left in the treasury. Sometimes I had to pay it back; you guys play cat and mouse games with me every day, and you can't make a lot of money, and your expenses are still less than It used to be high. With this plan, no one will make any money.”

"Actually, in the final analysis, isn't it just about money? How about this, you will collect the road tax, and we don't have to fight and kill each other. Wouldn't it be nice to be harmonious and make money?"

When Tao Lin heard this, he finally couldn't help but said: "Why should we collect money for the official? How much does Yuheng City plan to give us?"

In the past, the old country of Xiqiao also tried to recruit people, and they did so several times, but the conditions they offered were extremely stingy. The most they were willing to do was to give Tao Lin a small official in the county. So many of his subordinates had to be dispersed and resettled. throughout.

The water bandits don't read much, but they are not stupid. This obviously meant breaking them up into parts and weakening the team, and of course they didn't agree.

Seeing that history was about to repeat itself, the two bandit leaders remained calm, while the few cronies behind them couldn't help but laugh.

Still want to play this trick? I should have seen through your tricks!

Just throw out a small shrimp and want to catch a giant whale? It's a beautiful thought.

He Lingchuan pretended not to see their contempt: "The tax collection standards are based on the official standards. There is no need to charge more or less, but the money collected -"

He paused for a moment, then saw that everyone was paying attention, and then continued: "It's all yours."

All, all? Others couldn't believe their ears. Xu Zeshou's heart skipped a beat, and he exchanged glances with Tao Lin.

He looked calm on the surface, with his hands folded in front of his chest, as if he were negotiating: "How much money can I charge for passing by? There are so many brothers who need to eat..."

He Lingchuan interrupted him: "How much? Do you know how nice it is to pay the road tax?"

"Everyone knows that murder and arson can make money quickly. But it's okay to do this business once or twice. The more times you do it, the risk goes up and the benefits go down. Not to mention that the gang's pension is getting heavier and heavier, and sometimes the money recovered from robbery Isn’t it enough to spread out?”

Speaking of this, the two bandit leaders turned pale.