The return of the son-in-law

Everyone in Shen County did not expect that Guo Zhanan and his party would come here in disguise, and there would inevitably be another wave of chaos.The originally arranged accommodation was unavailable, so I had to go to the largest inn in Shen County to ask for a few rooms. Except for Guo Zhanan who lived alone in the upper room because of his status as a wealthy businessman, the other 20 people lived in two rooms in pairs. Around Guo Zhanan's room.

Jiang Wanfu, the county magistrate of Shen County, was a dark-skinned middle-aged man with two lumps of flesh on his cheeks, which made people feel very frustrated.He received a letter from Fei Ge during the day, and knew that the person in front of him was Xuzhou's general judge. He could not afford to offend a man of the court in the past year, so he quickly put on a smiling face, but it was uglier than crying : "Master Guo is here, because the letter says not to make too much publicity, that's why we're not welcome. Please forgive me, Lord Guo."

Guo Zhan'an nodded and said, "Magistrate Jiang is being polite, didn't it say in today's letter that I would come to Shen County disguised as a businessman?"

Jiang Wanfu also thought that Guo Zhan'an was asking the teacher to inquire about the crime, and replied truthfully: "The letter only said that Mr. Guo did not want to make public, and did not mention that Mr. Guo would come here pretending to be a businessman. I didn't think carefully."

Guo Zhan'an just asked casually, seeing Jiang Wanfu's trembling look, he said, "You don't have to take it too seriously, but those Tatars, are you here today?"

Jiang Wanfu said: "No, they just came to Shen county to purchase yesterday, and they purchased a lot of things this time, and they will come back about two or three days later."

"There are more things? How much more?"

Jiang Wanfu made some estimates and said, "It looks like there are [-]% more, I am a little worried if there are more Tatars wandering in Shen County."

Guo Zhan'an has a different opinion: "Nowadays there are heavy guards everywhere in Xuzhou. If there are really a large number of Tatars wandering around Shen County, it is impossible for the troops stationed outside Shen County to remain silent."

As soon as Jiang Wanfu mentioned this, hatred welled up in his heart: "My lord, you can't count on the army here in Shen County. I went there in person a few days ago and wanted to ask the centurion over there to investigate these things for us. As for the movement of the Tatar people, they promised verbally, but there was no movement at all! Just yesterday, the centurion actually sent someone over, asking me to prepare fifty catties of beef and fifty altars of liquor in the next two days. Our Shen County is not rich, and this winter is so cold, I am afraid that the time for farming in spring will be delayed tomorrow, and every household is saving food and clothing, fearing that we will not survive this winter, so what should I do now!"

Guo Zhan'an was startled. He knew that there were good and bad in the army, and it was not uncommon for military ruffians like this centurion to take advantages and do nothing. But he never expected that without the restraint of his superiors, this centurion would be so bold. Dare to openly reach out and ask for something!

Jiang Wanfu saw that Guo Zhanan's expression was not good, and he knew that he took this matter to heart, and said: "Master Guo, there is one more thing, I dare not tell others, I can only ask you to help us in Shen County " As he spoke, he lowered his voice, and said cautiously: "The centurion and his subordinates took a fancy to some girls from our Shen county, and insisted on bringing them back to the barracks. Guarding with a knife, I'm afraid these girls have already..."

"Presumptuous!" Guo Zhanan was furious, "The Northwest Army Camp is full of these bastards! Tatars have invaded the dynasty for many years, these people don't want to be loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and expel Tatars, they only think about these vile deeds!"

Seeing this, Jiang Wanfu felt that he was finally looking forward to a savior: "My lord, I am a soft-spoken person, please think about it for Shen County."

Guo Zhan'an held back his breath and said, "Don't worry, I won't just ignore this matter. The northwest is an important frontier of the dynasty. We must select the best soldiers to guard the northwest."

This sentence is like a reassurance, Jiang Wanfu thinks about what those military ruffians have done these days, and thinks about their "good life" in the future, and he feels very happy.

After the episode passed, the two returned to the topic.

"Shen County is too far away from the border. Even if the soldiers near Shen County don't do their duty with all their heart, the possibility of the Tatars coming all the way from the border to Shen County and avoiding all the patrolling soldiers is too small. This group of Tatars can escape Thanks to everyone’s luck in arriving at Shen County, it’s unlikely that there will be a second batch. But, “Guo Zhan’an was halfway through his analysis, and then changed the subject, “Although it’s unlikely, nothing is absolute, and we have to do it well. Get ready, if there are twice as many Tatars, our plan will have to be adjusted."

Jiang Wanfu nodded and said: "There are more than 200 yamen servants in Shen County, and more than [-] strong men. As long as there is something useful for us, sir, just ask."

Guo Zhan'an nodded and said: "The most important thing for us right now is to find out how many Tatars are in this group, and how many of them are old, weak, women and children. How about this, let other shops in Shen County store all the goods these few days Half, if any Tatar people ask, they will say that this winter is not easy, so I will not sell it. I have my own way to attract these Tatar people to me. As for my stall, I will open it in the busiest place. place!"

How could Jiang Wanfu refuse to agree, Guo Zhanan agreed to everything he told him.

The next day, Guo Zhanan's stall was successfully set up.In order to seek authenticity, even the common people in Shen County hid it from each other. In less than half a day, many people gathered in front of the stall.

Guo Zhanan sat on the second floor of the opposite restaurant by the window and watched, while Hao Yun pretended to be the shopkeeper and led the others standing in front of the stall to bargain with everyone, and there was also a man pretending to be a yamen servant standing in the car and yelling, Hot and bustling looks like that.

But there were no Tatars on the first day, so it was impossible for them to sell all the goods they brought. They just took out a small part for show, and closed the stalls in the afternoon.

Hao Yun counted the money received today into the account and handed it over to Guo Zhanan. The latter smiled and gave the money back to the former, saying: "It's hard work for you to come out with me to do errands in winter. You can take the money." Buy some hot wine and cooked vegetables to share with others to warm up your body."

Hao Yun understood Guo Zhan'an's temper. He said that because he really didn't care about the money.Hao Yun didn't refuse, accepted the money, and said with a smile: "Then I will thank you sir for them. It's just that we didn't bring much goods, and I guess it will be gone in four or five days at most. My lord, do you want me to send a message to ask Xuzhou to send some more things?"

Guo Zhanan shook his head and said, "No need, they will definitely come to Shen County to purchase again in four or five days. This is my purpose, so I don't need to do anything more, so as not to expose my identity. Also, you should change your address, my lord Come on, my lord, what should I do if I slipped my mouth?"

Hao Yun followed the good advice, quickly said "Master", and then asked: "Then tomorrow we should sell it according to today's quantity?"

Guo Zhanan nodded and said, "Just follow today's order."

Hao Yun agreed, and went down to buy wine and vegetables without mentioning it.

After two days of this, seeing that the goods they brought were about to run out, several Tatars appeared in front of their stall.

The people of Shen County avoided the Tatars, especially when they found out that besides a few Tatar women, there were two strong men dressed in Tatars behind them, so they put down the things they had picked up and left in a hurry.

Hao Yun's heart tightened, and he deliberately put on a look of dissatisfaction on his face: "Guests, what do you want to buy? These are all very good, why don't you take a look."

With a push of his hand, the originally put down goods came in front of the Tatars—obviously, the shopkeeper was dissatisfied because the business had run away.

The Tatars were very angry. One of the strong men raised his eyebrows and clenched his fists, obviously wanting to fight.Fortunately, another strong man stopped him in time, and whispered in his ear for a while, and the previous strong man calmed down.

The Tatar women who came to purchase were much more experienced, and they didn't care about Hao Yun's provocation and hostility at all. They just lowered their heads and picked what they wanted, and from time to time they bargained with a few guys in unfluent Mandarin.

Hao Yun got Guo Zhan'an's instruction in advance, and refused to give up. He even said sarcastic remarks when the Tatar women hesitated: "If you can't afford it, don't buy it. Anyway, these are all selected by our boss. We have traveled thousands of miles to the Northwest to do business, so we can’t even discount our travel expenses back home. Let me tell you, these are our last shipments, including dried meat, cotton-padded clothes, cotton-padded shoes, fur, ginseng pills, medicinal wine They are all of the best quality, and they will be gone when they are sold out. They are all at this price, and you want to get cheaper? You should go to another place and ask!"

The Tatar women were indeed persuaded. Indeed, the goods sold at Hao Yun's stall were much cheaper than other places, and things like dried meat, cotton clothes, and cotton shoes were all needed by their tribe.It's just that the silver on hand was obtained from plundering business travel in the past, but now it is getting less and less, and it is about to be spent, so it is natural to save as much as possible.

When doing business, it is always up first and then down. Seeing that the time is almost up, Hao Yun said again: "Okay, okay, count your luck, it happens that our boss wants to sell out the goods and go home quickly, so let's just make it cheaper for you. Here, how about these jerky packs, which are five copper coins cheaper per catty? There are also these ginseng pills, children can’t eat them, but old people can take one every day, and their energy will improve.”

Of course, the Tatar women agreed, and purchased a lot of dried meat, cotton clothes and cotton shoes, but furs, ginseng balls and the like just glanced at them and gave up.

Hao Yun asked everyone to pack the purchases for them, and said bitterly: "Tsk, Tatar people are poor, they can't even afford ginseng balls, but they bought all the jerky."

The faces of the Tatars were all red and white, and they lowered their heads unwilling to meet Hao Yun's gaze. Obviously they were very angry after hearing Hao Yun's words, and they were moved and ashamed because of the plight they were living under the fence.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, someone quickly sprinkled some colorless and odorless liquid on the dried meat, mixed with some white powder, which quickly dissolved into the dried meat.

At sunset, Guo Zhanan was leaning against the window and looking at the Huoshaoyun in the sky, when he heard an unusual sound coming from afar.I saw a group of Tatars walking over excitedly, surrounded by the people of Shen County who were watching the excitement but did not dare to go forward.

Hao Yun also noticed this, he glanced in the direction of Guo Zhanan, Guo Zhanan nodded to him, Hao Yun understood, just pretended not to know, and continued to greet the customers in front of the stall.

"This is it!" One of the Tatars found Hao Yun, said a few words to another Tatar, and then walked up to Hao Yun first, angrily said: "You liar! If you dare to harm my people, take your life!" !"

Hao Yun stepped back again and again, and asked: "It's unreasonable for you to live like this. I don't know the names of your people. How did you harm him?"

This Tatar man doesn't know much official language, so of course he couldn't argue with Hao Yun, so he muttered a few more words in his mouth, but these were all Tatar, and Hao Yun and the others couldn't understand them.

I can't understand the words, but I can understand the fist!

Relying on his flexible stature and being blocked by a lot of boxes and tables, Hao Yun stepped back while dodging, and did not forget to yell loudly, attracting more onlookers.

Perhaps there were more and more people watching, and everyone felt that the strength gathered on their side was much greater than that of the Tatars. Those who were originally just watching from the sidelines all participated in this dispute.They didn't care who was right and who was wrong, and when they saw a businessman from the dynasty on one side and a strong man from Tatar on the other, they subconsciously helped Hao Yun scold the strong man from Tatar.

Seeing that a dispute was about to inevitably happen, suddenly a group of yamen servants surrounded the most quarreling ones from the outer circle, making a gesture of trying to get them.

One of the yamen servants hadn't touched the strong Tatar man with his hand, the strong man looked nervous, and hit the yamen servant with a backhand palm.

"The Tartar savages have killed!"

Among the crowd, it is unknown who led the shout, and the scene was in chaos.

Many people desperately squeezed out, but they used to squeeze into the innermost part to watch the excitement, but now there are three floors outside, three floors outside, how can they squeeze out?

Some people took advantage of the chaos to rob, and secretly reached out to take the goods on the stalls, or the purses of the people next to them, but they were not skilled enough, and they were chased and beaten after they were discovered.

Among the crowd, the Tatars were particularly obvious because of their attire.At first they looked at the scene and didn't know what to do, then the leader shouted, and all the Tatars ran towards one place, making it clear that they wanted to leave Shen county.

Guo Zhan'an waited for so many days, how could he let them get what they wanted?With an order, many yamen servants who had been ambushing around appeared together, holding net bags, lasso ropes, etc. in their hands, and threw them at the group of Tatars.

Hao Yun came out of the prison in Shen County, and hurried back to the county government office—now that Guo Zhanan didn't need to conceal his identity, he lived in an empty courtyard in the backyard of the county government office, so that he could discuss matters with Jiang Wanfu conveniently.

"My lord, all six Tatars have been arrested, what should we do next?"

Guo Zhan'an said: "Let people spread the news. If these Tatars don't go back, they will definitely send people to look for it immediately."

Hao Yun agreed, and asked again: "Will the stall continue to stand?"

"Put it away," Guo Zhanan said casually, "I hid so well before, now it's time for them to think about how to find me."