Volume 1: Little Yuanba Chapter 25: The Head of Household is Qian
"I don't want to go astray when I join the escort team. From now on, our business will be indispensable without the blessing of force." Li Dan held the back of his head with his hands and leaned back on the chair:
"Before, I was too restricted when I lived in the mansion. There were people taking care of everything, and it was very annoying to have people telling me what to do.
Now they want to separate the family and drive us out, okay! Now I can go back to the world and be free."
He turned to them and assured them: "Don't worry, Sanlang has a lot of good ideas in his head. After we make the truck, we can also make a car, so that the rich people in the world will pay for it."
Take your time, it's not difficult to make money, there are plenty of opportunities!" These words made the couple smile.
"Hey, Master, when did you come back? Where is Aunt Song?" Li Dan suddenly remembered.
Only then did Su Siniang remember the business, clapped her hands and said, "As you said, Ruobin is at Liuhe Nunnery.
She didn't bring any money with her when she went out, so she had to pawn her hairpin rings and jewelry. Thinking that she was familiar with Jingzhen Guan and because few people knew her outside the city, she ran to the east first.
Unexpectedly, those Kun Taoists were all very snobbish and refused to take her in after hearing about her family's situation.
Aunt Song had no choice but to drag herself back to the city. Fortunately, the sister-in-law of Liuhe Temple was kind enough to accept her, otherwise she would have planned to go to the Chenghuang Temple to join the refugees, and the beggars would be crowded together!"
Han An sighed after hearing this, and Li Dan gritted his teeth and frowned. Yueying asked anxiously: "Then, where is she? She is pregnant, and only two or three people in the family know about it."
"Don't worry, girl, I've finally seen her.
At first she was afraid and refused to go with me, but I told her that Li Sanlang asked me to look for you. I also said that my man went to the county government to rescue you, Yueying.
Only then did she believe her, and she kowtowed to me, which I couldn't bear.
But it’s really not appropriate for her to come out like this in broad daylight, so I made an agreement with Liuhe’an that we hire a car to go there in the evening and pick her up quietly at home without anyone noticing.”
Su Siniang shook her head proudly: "Master, do you think this is good?"
Han An nodded quickly. Li Dan said, "That's it. You take Yueying with you in the evening. She will feel more at ease when she sees Yueying."
After saying that, he stood up to leave. Han An wanted to keep him for dinner. Li Dan told him that he had to discuss the dry food with Liu Yuansheng and would have dinner at his house. He also asked him to discuss the stock purchase and car building with Chen Gang and his son as soon as possible.
.
"After this vehicle is built, we won't need to carry too much dry food due to its speed and transport capacity. Anyway, we can get supplies at any time."
Li Dan said that he would let Yue Ying live here with peace of mind and wait for the manor to be repaired before hiding out of the city together.
When he was going out, Yang Dayi came back and greeted him hurriedly: "Li Sanlang, where are you going?"
Li Dan pulled him aside and told him that he was going to take the civilian husband to Wannian: "I feel that this mine disaster is coming very violently, and it will spread here without warning.
Raozhou and Guangxin Prefecture are close together, who can guarantee that bandits will not escape?
It’s not necessarily safe on this journey, so I want to train these people as soon as possible in the ten days before leaving.
I will let everyone practice their muscles and muscles from the beginning of the day every day. From now on, I want to teach them how to form formations to protect themselves and how to retreat. I will come to ask you for advice after I have been busy for two days."
"Okay, okay, I will definitely help you. How about I go with you on this business trip?"
Seeing Yang Dayi gearing up, Li Dan couldn't help but smile: "You ask Mr. Han's opinion first. I'll go do some things and come back later."
Yang Da thought that he was busy leaving, so he had to send him off with fists in his arms, and then went in to discuss with Han An.
Li Dan first went to Liu Da to discuss the matter of dry food, and asked him to buy ten stones of rice and noodles for later use, as well as pickles, dried meat, sausages, etc. He asked him to go to Su Siniang to get twenty taels of silver for later use, and then returned to the gate of the West Market. The candy shop was the place where he made an appointment with Song Xiaoniu.
When I walked in, I saw Mavericks sitting inside. "To be brief, what did you gain this morning?" He sat down and drank herbal tea while asking.
"Li Biao found a tooth man named Sun. He just took me to see a small courtyard in Xianren. I thought it was good. It is very similar to what you asked for, Sanlang, but..."
"Just what?"
"The courtyards open to the east, not the south, and there is no screen wall in front of the door..."
"What do you want that thing for? It's not like when my father was still alive, he pretended to be a high-end mansion? It's just a small house and a small house like this!"
Li Dan waved his hand casually: "Let's go, take me to have a look, and call the tooth. I don't have time to choose slowly. If it suits me, order it today!" After saying that, the two of them will pay for it.
Song Xiaoniu went to call the Ya people, and the three of them hurried to Xianrenli. This place was already on the edge of the North City, and one street further ahead belonged to the South City.
The south city of Yugan has an irregular trapezoidal shape due to the lake and rivers, while the north city is relatively square. It is said that the north city was earlier and the south city was later expanded.
This Xianrenli is next to the county school. Many of the people renting houses are businessmen or Confucian students who are affiliated with the school. The houses are relatively old and the courtyards are small.
The place the Sun Ya people pointed to has two large rooms on the north side, three wing rooms next to the kitchen on the west side, and two and a half rooms on the south side.
The yard is not big. There is a camphor tree in the northeast corner, and there are stone tables and stone benches under the tree. Looking inside the house, it is empty. Maybe it is because it has been uninhabited for a long time, and the gray and white walls have fallen off.
"What does the owner of this house do and why is he selling it?" Li Dan asked.
Unexpectedly, Sun Yaren sighed sadly: "This family's original surname is Gu. They run a small coal mine in the mountains and have considerable savings. They bought this yard more than ten years ago.
Unexpectedly, the court suddenly said that mining was not allowed, and Mr. Gu almost faced a lawsuit because of this.
After careful consideration, he was finally acquitted, but he was disheartened and decided to go back to his hometown in Fujian to farm. This house was managed by one of his friends, Mr. Ye, and he only mortgaged it but did not rent it."
He looked at Li Dan and said, "Look, Sanlang, this courtyard is quite quiet in the middle of the alley. To the north is Tianshuijing, and beyond that is Xishikou.
Three hundred steps further from our place is Xichenggen, which is the deepest and most secluded place in the county.
To put it bluntly, the destruction of the previous dynasty and the destruction of the city by the current dynasty did not affect this place, what a treasure!"
"Oh? Then Mr. Gu, who only mortgages but does not rent, is he planning to make a comeback?" Li Dan joked with a wry smile.
He knew in his heart the reason why the so-called city was broken twice and there was no war here. Outside the west city wall was Xinjiang.
It is difficult to reach the city wall from the river, and eighty steps away from the wall is a soft and difficult-to-walk swamp, making it impossible to camp or attack;
It is far away from the north of the city, so any attack cannot affect it. In the south, it is blocked by the natural barriers of Dongshan Mountain and Lake Biwa.
Li Dan thought that the reason why he was on business trip this time was because of the mining chaos. He didn't expect that the owner of this family was also a mine owner, which was quite fate.
Asked again, he was told that the full price of the yard sale was sixty-five taels. The two parties argued for a while, and finally the deal was settled for sixty-five taels.
But in the end, Li Dan spent a total of sixty-eight taels because he needed help from the Sunya people to find someone to open a side door so that the donkey cart could directly enter the half of the converted livestock shed.
The remaining six taels are the tooth money (10%) that the family should have collected, and the other fifty taels of tax paid to the government for the deed fee, which is one or two taels of silver. These are all unavoidable.
"May I ask if the head of the household should write the son's name?" Sun Yazi asked.
Li Dan thought about it, shook his head and told him, "Just write about Li Qian's family."
"You really want to go with me?"
After breaking up with Sun Yazi, Li Dan talked with Song Xiaoniu about asking Gu Da and Yang Yi to recruit people while walking.
Looking at Mavericks who nodded vigorously, he shook his head helplessly: "Then you just follow and become a governor."
"What does a town governor do?"
"Protect me and maintain military discipline."
"Okay, I can do this!" Song Xiaoniu said firmly.
"Let's agree, first of all, you can't violate military laws as a governor, you know? Otherwise, the crime will be increased!" Li Dan stretched out his finger and shook it viciously in front of him.
"I, I will follow you closely and I won't violate military law!" Maverick shouted.
"Go to Sai Kuixing, find a man named Yang Lianjiao, and ask him how he served as a pacifier in the army."
After Li Dan said this, before he heard Mavericks say the word "good", he felt a figure flash in front of him.
It is said that "the expert will know if there is anything when he reaches out his hand", this is absolutely true.
Ordinary people walk by swinging their arms and legs unconsciously.
This is not the case for people who practice martial arts. They use Zhongyuan Qi to control the strength of the waist, abdomen and hips, so the range of arm swing or the amount of force exerted is second to none.
The arm swing may not be large, but the span of each step and the frequency of steps are very different from ordinary people after years of training.
There is another type that does not strike the ground with the heels like normal walking, but with the soles of the feet, generating abundant pedaling power. The pace is fast and light. After standing still, it seems the same, but the actual heartbeat and pulse have already exceeded normal.
Li Dan was drafted into the army in his previous life, and now he is learning boxing from Ma Jiu, so he is already able to identify people with this kind of skill.
In fact, there were many people studying martial arts in this era, but Li Dan knew that there was banditry outside the city and that there was mining chaos in the south, so he was more wary.
Suddenly I saw a martial arts practitioner at the entrance of Xishi, and I couldn't help but attract his attention.
"What are Sanlang looking at?" Maverick saw that he looked wrong and asked quickly.
"Those three people thought they were a little weird," Li Dan said.
Song Xiaoniu followed his hint and looked over: "The one wearing a green floral turban?"
"There are two people beside him, one with a blue tie-dye turban and one with a black linen turban. Of these three, at least the one with the green turban is a martial arts practitioner, don't you think?"
Song Xiaoniu glanced at them again: "Well, there are a lot of people practicing martial arts. It's not surprising to see one or two in the city. Isn't it the same for me?" After he finished speaking, he laughed.
But Li Dan shook his head: "These three are muttering. They neither look at the goods nor linger on the women. They keep scanning the surroundings. Are they trying to prevent business? I don't think they are good people!"
Just as he was talking, he saw the man in green turban wiping his sweat with the lapel of his clothes, leaving the two of them at the gate of the West Market and walking towards the west.
"You go to the city to find Gu Da and ask him to find some brothers to take these two first. I'll follow that kid and see what he's going to do."
After finishing speaking, Li Dan had already walked out before Xiao Niu could speak. He was wearing a light-colored round-necked Songjiang cloth robe, tied around his waist with a diamond-shaped sweat scarf, and looked like a young man.
The two people looked around nervously, but did not reassure him. This further strengthened Li Dan's judgment.
After walking a certain distance, Li Dan suddenly stepped on his toes and quickened his pace, getting closer and closer to the green turban.
Seeing that he had reached a T-junction, he caught up with the man and was only a pole away from him. However, he turned around and walked up to the stall diagonally across from him, and asked the stall owner with a smile:
"How much does the longest rolling pin cost? Give me two."
After saying that, while the stall owner reached for the rolling pin, he glanced back as if nothing had happened.
Memorizing the silhouette of that person, confirming my thoughts, I put the four pieces of money I took out into the money basket, took the rolling pin and pinned it on my back.
After wandering for a while, I saw that the man was about twenty paces away from me. I stared at the green turban, and suddenly my feet quickened and I followed him.
Just like this, he moved left and right, near and far. Seeing that he was under the city wall in front of him, the man suddenly stopped. Li Dan ducked behind a wooden house.
Looking over quietly, the man looked up under the city wall for a long time, then looked left and right, and then turned south.
Li Dan took a look and saw that a hundred steps away in that direction there should be an east-west alleyway perpendicular to the city wall. He raised his breath and walked over quickly, intending to stop the opponent head-on.
There was no one on the street, except for the faint "scratching" sound of the toes of boots hitting the dirt road.
Li Dan came to the corner and waited for a while but didn't see the man appear. He couldn't help but feel suspicious.