Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 45
Master Li went to bed late tonight.

There is no way, a few grain merchants came earlier, and everyone was discussing whether to raise the price of grain a little bit, and take the opportunity to make a fortune.Our old Li is not a big landlord, but we still have four to five thousand acres of fertile land. We have stockpiled a lot of grain and opened two rice shops. We are a well-known grain merchant in the city. Let's sell food to eat.Mr. Li's attitude on whether to increase the price is very clear: increase, increase to death!Isn't it just for this day that we have worked so hard to hoard food?Now that the county is surrounded, the external communication is cut off, and there is one less grain to eat. If the price does not increase at this time, when will it increase?If it doesn't increase several times, you will be embarrassed to tell others that you are a grain merchant when you go out!

Troubled times are a terrible purgatory for the poor, but for these unscrupulous businessmen, it is a good opportunity to make a fortune.They knew that in this troubled world, food was the most precious thing, so of course they had to take advantage of the good opportunity of enslavement to increase the price of food so that they could make a lot of money.As for whether those muddy legs can afford it, and whether they will starve to death, what does it matter to them?Everyone decided that the grain shop will be closed tomorrow and will open the day after tomorrow, and the price of grain will increase by [-]%!

After finishing the business matters, it was already midnight. After sending away the guests, Mr. Li was not tired. He seemed to see countless silver and copper coins flowing into his pocket. Stimulated by the silver, he The energy was high, the barking of dogs sounded loudly, followed by curses and screams. The whole house was brightly lit and people were running around, not to mention how lively it was.Mr. Li was so frightened that he shouted in horror: "Someone is coming, someone is coming!"

Sure enough, someone came, but that person was very rude, he didn't even knock on the door, he just kicked the door open, broke in, masked his face with a black scarf, and held a knife in his hand, he was clearly a gangster.The little concubine let out a shriek, and fainted from fright, Master Li was also out of his wits, his eyes that were sunk deeply were wide open now, his chest heaved sharply, I was afraid that he would not be able to catch his breath, so he hung up like this up.The old man smiled at him and said, "Don't be nervous, we only seek money, we don't kill lives, as long as you cooperate honestly, we won't touch a hair of yours."

Master Li let out a very difficult breath, and what he uttered was the first sentence since the two met: "Heroic man, spare your life, good man, spare your life!"

It's a terrible scream...

The baby face hidden behind the black scarf twitched, thinking you are so awesome that you pissed as soon as you met?Really boring!As soon as he lifted the quilt, Master Li screamed again. The bandit was startled by his scream, widened his eyes and shouted, "Scream, scream, what's your name!"

Master Li yelled in horror: "You...what do you want to do?"

The man in black said: "Don't do anything, money is tight, and I want to borrow some money from you to spend... You'd better come down for me!" With all his might, he picked up Master Li from the bed like a chicken. The master screamed loudly, waved his hands wildly, kicked his old legs vigorously, but it didn't work, so he was carried out like this.The old man was frightened this time. He has a lot of fame and fame. He was a big official in the capital. His two sons are also officials in the capital. Even the magistrate is polite when he sees him. He has always been the only one who plays tricks on others. Majestic, when have you tasted the feeling of having a knife on your neck?There was chaos in his mind, and he was completely confused due to excessive fright.The gang of robbers were very satisfied with his performance. The bandit leader seemed to be full of performance art skills. In front of him and a group of swollen servants, he grabbed a chicken and threw it into the sky, then drew his knife, With a swing of the knife, the head of the chicken flew into the air, drawing a line of blood, and the chicken that lost its head shook its bloody neck and kept thrashing, scaring everyone out of their wits.When the knife with a little bit of blood came to Mr. Li's neck, he immediately knelt down and honestly led this group of strong men to his vault. If he moved a little slower, he might lose his head It's not the chicken, it's him.

Master Li's small treasury was hidden extremely well. When a wall slowly split open on both sides, revealing a gap that could allow one person to enter, Yang Menglong stuck out his tongue.My mother, there is such a mechanism. It seems that the wisdom of the ancients cannot be underestimated!He casually threw Master Li aside and walked in.Then, his tongue stuck out again:

In the small treasury, there are neatly stacked white silver ingots and yellow gold bars, at least a few thousand taels!
Yang Menglong grinned, my dear, this old man is really rich!Even if he took out one-tenth of it, it would be several hundred taels. How difficult is it to inspire the fighting spirit of the defenders?However, he is not willing to take even a tenth of this. Could it be that he is so sure that Jiannu will come in and he can save his life and property, so he is reluctant to spend this money?Well, if you want to be an iron cock, don't blame me for tearing off your fur and flesh!Without further ado, he took out his pocket and stuffed it with gold and silver. When the bag was full, he handed it out, and then put another pocket outside, and filled it again. There were four big bags!He was quite interesting, at least he left a little bit of silver for Mr. Li, at least seven or eighty taels, enough for them to make do for more than ten days.Of course, if he knew that this old man still had several thousand shi of grain withheld and refused to sell it, he might not have left a dime for Mr. Li.

After finishing the installation, Yang Menglong retreated, and the wall closed again.He gestured: "Let's go!"

The four strong men picked up the bags full of silver with some difficulty, and strode out.At this time, Mr. Li suddenly realized what he was doing. He rushed forward desperately and hugged Yang Menglong's legs. He burst into tears and cried out pathetically: "Hero, hero, this is my life savings. You can't just leave like this." ! If you insist on taking away my property, then take my life first!"

Yang Menglong snorted, and said, "You said that!" With a swipe, he drew out the knife, and slashed at Master Li's neck!Master Li never dreamed that he would cut as soon as he said it, his body became stiff due to excessive panic, he only felt his neck was cold, obviously his head had fallen off, his eyes darkened, and he lost consciousness.Yang Menglong was startled when he saw this dead old man foaming at the mouth, his complexion was pale, and his breath was unrestrained. He squatted down and tried his breath.He muttered: "I thought you really wanted money, but I didn't expect that just touching your neck lightly with the back of a knife would scare you half to death... The old people nowadays, their psychological quality is getting worse and worse It's gone!" Breaking away the dead old man's hand, slipped out, climbed up the wall with those Yebushou, then jumped up and disappeared.

The Li family's mansion was in chaos, the cries of children, the groans of servants, and the cries of wives and wives, one after another, creating a mess.The butler woke up after being shaken violently. Seeing that Mr. Li was unconscious and couldn't wake up no matter how hard he shook, he broke out in a cold sweat from fright, pushed away the two concubines who were crying on Mr. Li, and tried Try Master Li's breath, it's okay, he still has breath.He shouted: "Don't cry, go to the doctor quickly, and report to the police immediately! Those people can't run very far!"

The people who had been in a mess finally had a direction, and they stopped running around blindly. They carried Mr. Li to the bed, and those who made soup and medicine boiled soup and medicine, and those who pinched people, and those who were bolder opened the door and ran out. I want to report the crime and invite a doctor.As a result, as soon as they went out, a team of yamen came over and blocked them: "What are you doing out in the middle of the night? I don't know if there is a curfew now? Go back quickly, or I will arrest you as slaves later!"

The servants burst into tears, it was the first time they found out that these servants are so cute and amiable!Looking at the ferocious faces of the yamen servants, and the whistle stick that made their heads bleed when they came down, their motherless children were as happy as seeing their father, and the housekeeper stumbled out clutching his bloody head , Shouting: "My lord, my lord, what a coincidence that you came here! Just now a group of strongmen ransacked our lord's treasury and robbed thousands of taels of silver! My lord, you have to decide for us, they Just ran, they must not have gone very far, go after them, go and chase them back!"

The team of cadres looked at each other, and the dark-faced man in the lead looked unconvinced: "You mean, Mr. Li's treasury was ransacked and thousands of taels of silver were taken away?"

The servants rushed to answer:

"Yes, there are dozens of them, and they beat us all up!"

"Look, they've smashed my head off with a club, and my arm, oh, my arm must be broken!"

"They packed it in sacks, four full sacks!"

The yamen servants watched with interest the servants scrambling to file complaints, and they were not in a hurry.But the housekeeper was in a hurry, so anxious that he couldn't help it: "You guys should go after him, otherwise the gang of robbers will run away!"

The black-faced man asked slowly: "Why should we chase him?"

The butler opened his mouth so wide that he could stuff a duck egg into it. It was probably the first time he had heard an official say such a fucking word, and he was taken aback.However, the housekeeper is a housekeeper after all, and he has a very strong psychological endurance. He quickly recovered from the shock of the rolling thunder, and struggled to shout: "You are officials, and it is your duty to protect the environment and the people. You..."

The black-faced man still said slowly and tepidly: "Didn't your master say that raising a group of dogs is better than raising us? Yes, we are incompetent and useless. We admit this. So, I'm sorry, let you master Send his dogs to chase those bandits, and we won’t accompany them.”

Only then did the housekeeper remember that his master seemed to have said such words last night. He suddenly felt like crying, "Sir, you said it too harshly, didn't you?"Don't you know that these government officials will also go to the city wall to fight against the slaves?This is good. Your map cannon not only offended the officers and soldiers guarding the city, but also offended all the government officials. What should you do now?He tried his best to force out a smile and said: "Master, don't get me wrong, our master is not talking about you! Our master..."

The black-faced man's voice suddenly raised eight tunes, and he shouted sharply: "I don't care who he is talking about, anyway, I don't like it! Listen to me, it's the curfew period, and no one is allowed to talk about it without our consent." Take to the streets, and anyone who violates the order will be shot to death!"

The housekeeper was completely dumbfounded, and shouted urgently: "But..."

The black-faced man drew out his knife with a swipe: "But what? Do you have to force us to do it?"

Several yamen servants flashed their whistle sticks with a shout, and shouted in unison: "Go back!"

The housekeeper and the servants were so yelled that they trembled, their legs became weak, and they rolled and crawled away.The black-faced man was satisfied at this point, took back the deadly knife, and said: "Close the door, and don't run around in the street again, or you will be dead and not buried!" After speaking, he waved his hand and walked away with a few of his men.The steward shouted anxiously: "My lord, my lord, we have been robbed, you can't just ignore me, my lord!" Shouting so loudly, those clerks didn't even turn around, leaving it to the gang. The handsome back view of the unfortunate guy.

For the first time, the housekeeper discovered that the dogs raised by the master did not seem to be as good as these servants and the soldiers standing on the city wall against the cold wind...

At the same time, bursts of crying and wailing came from Shopkeeper Zhang’s house. Dozens of masked men in black broke into their house, beating people they saw, snatching things they saw, and smashing things they couldn’t carry. It's like a devil has entered the village!Fortunately, this group of robbers still has principles. They don't beat children, they don't bully women and the elderly, and they can be considered measured. It hurts to be beaten by them, but it won't hurt the bones, let alone anything Life is in danger.Shopkeeper Zhang didn't have such good luck, he was not too old, and he didn't have any illnesses, so he was not eligible to enjoy these preferential treatments. He was beaten up violently, and two of his front teeth were knocked out.After those guys seriously injured his body, they severely injured his heart, and took away most of the property he had accumulated in half his life!

The level of arrogance of this group of robbers is outrageous. After looting Li's and Zhang's houses consecutively, they actually patronized shopkeeper Hu's house in the early hours of the morning!The next thing is simple, go over the wall, beat people, and then sweep away the cash, leaving only the handsome backs of shopkeeper Hu.And the attitude of the yacha is similar, they all use the curfew as an excuse to block the victims at home, even if they are so anxious that they hit the wall and don't let go... On this night, the wailing of the iron roosters resounded through the sky before dawn !
(End of this chapter)