Chapter 614

“We’ve finally returned to Yangzhou!” A young man sighed feeling very emotional.

“Milord. Let us hurry to Shouchun!” A man with a scarred face replied.

“Forget it. No need to be anxious.” The young man was excited. He wanted to hurry to Shouchun but instead slowed down his pace.

“What is wrong Milord? I am sure the Military Advisor would be happy to hear that we have returned!” A third figure commented.

“Yuanzhi and the others?” The young man asked.

“Lord husband? Why did we stop?” A voice came from the carriage behind the group.

“Get down. We will walk slowly, there is no hurry to return.” The young man said to the dark skinned woman behind him.

“Oh.” The woman did not inquire and obediently got off the carriage.

“Milord. Are we not travelling by ship anymore?” Had they travelled by ship, they could reach Yangzhou faster. Not only that, it would also be less exhausting since it wouldn’t be so bumpy.

“Isn’t travelling on land not much different?” The young man also got off the carriage. The group of four approached one of Yangzhou’s cities, Xinye, on foot.

Xinye which was once part of Jingzhou now belonged to Yangzhou. Originally, there were a lot of traders coming from both Yangzhou and Jingzhou. Yangzhou could give Jingzhou’s merchants status while Jingzhou could give Yangzhou’s merchants wealth. This caused the city to flourish. However, trade was blocked ever since Jingzhou and Yangzhou had a falling out.

Jingzhou’s goods could not reach Yangzhou and Yangzhou’s merchants were barred from going to Jingzhou. As a result, Xinye started to decline. That being said, Xinye was still better off compared to before.

“Come. Let us enter the city!” It was getting dark. The group needed to find a place to sleep. They were then stopped at the gate.

“What’s going on?” The young man furrowed his brows. It was not time for the gates to close yet so why were they being stopped here?

“Milord. They are not letting us in!”

“How dare they not let our Lord in!” The man with the scar stepped forward but then he was stopped by the young man.

“Soldiers, what’s going on? It is not time for the gates to close yet. Why are we not allowed in?” Liu Mang1 asked the two soldiers.

“You want to enter the city?” The two soldiers asked.

“Yes. I am going to Yangzhou to visit relatives. As it is getting late, I want to enter the city to sleep and continue my journey the next day.” Liu Mang explained.

“You want to enter the city? You need to pay the toll!” The soldiers said with a laugh.

“Toll?” Liu Mang thought for a while and then realized that this was one of those unspoken rules of the world. Soldiers who are made to stand guard at the gates all day would naturally be unsatisfied with their low pay. On top of that, there were no additional pay for night shifts in the Yangzhou Army. And so, these soldiers go after merchants for the extra income of ten copper coins.

“Soldiers. We are not merchants. We are just here to visit relatives.” Liu Mang explained. They only have one carriage and two horses. How could they be merchants?

“You are not merchants?” The two soldiers asked.

“Yes, we are not merchants. We are just here to visit relatives.” Liu Mang repeated.

“You are not the ones who decide whether you are merchants or not.” The soldiers replied.

“Then whose decision is it?”

“Of course it is us! If we say you are a merchant then you are a merchant!” The soldiers pointed at Liu Mang.

“Then fine. The toll is ten coppers right? We will give it.” Liu Mang was dissatisfied with the soldiers but simply glared at them while signaling the Guan Hai. Liu Mang then handed the money over

“Ten copper coins? Do you think we are beggers?”

“Then how much do you want?”

“At least this much.” The soldier said and raised five fingers.

“Fifty coins?” It was five times the normal toll but it was not too excessive. It was an amount that could be afforded.

“Fifty coins? Hahaha. It is five thousand coins!”

Five thousand coins was a hundred times the normal toll. It was also half a gold. This for a carriage with two horses. How much would the toll be for actual merchants?

“Five thousand? Why don’t you just go and rob people! I don’t even get that much when I was robbing people!” Zhou Cang commented resentfully.

“Isn’t five thousand coins a little excessive?” Liu Mang argued.

“Excessive? Let me tell you if you are even one coin short, you can sleep outside the city walls!” The soldiers seemed very confident as they saw that Liu Mang had one carriage and two horses. On top of that, Liu Mang came from the South. In other words, he isn’t a local or an influential merchant. In other words, Liu Mang was just a passerby. There was no better person to scam.

“You!” Zhou Cang wanted to attack but he was stopped.

“Fine. Five thousand? We will pay!” Liu Mang handed over the money.  The soldiers then looked at each other before letting him pass.

The soldiers were very happy to receive the money but after looking at it for a while, they felt regret. They should have asked for more.

Once Liu Mang the others had left the two soldiers greedily discussed with each other. “This group only has four people but they are quite rich.”

“What? Do you want to help yourself to their money?”

“Help myself to their money? I don’t have such ability.” They may not know how much money the group has but those horses weren’t cheap.

“Then what do you mean?”

“Haha. How much are horses right now?” The soldier smiled.

“Forty gold!” The other soldier still knew the market value of the horses.

“Those are for inferior horses that can only be used to pull things. These ones are worth hundreds of gold. Hey, hold this place for me for a while. I will come back soon!”

“What are you doing? Do you really want to take their horses?”

“I am not going to do anything. Even if these horses were given to me, I will just end up getting burned.” The horses were worth too much. If a small officer like him were to obtain it, people would just go after him. Instead, he decided to inform his superior.

“Is that true?” The soldier reported to a middle aged man with high rank. Though he was already at middle age, he had a kind of frivolous expression that made him seem younger.

“Yes, how could I dare lie to the General? Those horses are all of top quality. Even seeing it would make people envious.” The soldier reported.

This greedy superior was a greedy general that guards the South Gate. As a result, horses were something he could not demand for. Horses were good things that can save lives. It is a pity that he did not manage to obtain any good horses. Naturally, he was moved when his subordinate told him that a good horse has appeared.

“Do you know where they are?” Not only was this general lacking horses. Even his superior did not have any horses. If the soldier’s words were true, they would need to share the horses with their boss Wei Yan.

“They have entered the city and are probably staying at an inn.”

“Good. Go and watch them. I will come soon.”

Zhou Cang commented once they had entered the city. “Milord, you are being too good to them. Five thousand coins to enter the city. Why don’t they just rob people! If you ask me, we should have just killed such greedy people then and there.

“Be patient.” Liu Mang placated the others. Killing them would be easy but then they would not be able to find out their backers.

If a young man entering the city to visit relatives needed half a gold, how about others? Wouldn’t they need to pay more? In actual fact, Liu Mang was overthinking things. He was simply being overcharged as he was an unfamiliar face and had little people. The actual merchants wouldn’t need to pay as much especially since some of them were backed by nobles.

“It is getting late. Let us find a place to stay first.”

They were later greeted at the inn. “How many are staying?”

“There are four of us. Please arrange three rooms for us.” Liu Mang said.

“Alright! Three rooms! Please, come in.”

Just as Liu Mang was about to hand over the horses to the stable boy at the backyard, something flew out from the dark.

“Milord! Be careful! There are hidden weapons!” Zhou Cang said and stepped forward. Liu Mang did not stop him. Who could harm him with Zhou Cang in front?

After looking carefully, the ‘hidden weapons’ were not weapons but people who were groaning in pain.

“What’s going on?” Liu Mang asked as he looked at the man.

“Liu Wu! You better pay us or get lost! How can you stay here without paying?” Someone that looked like a housekeeper was speaking disdainfully with the man on the ground. The housekeeper had a few young waiters behind him.

“How pitiful! His vast wealth had vanished.” The young waiter shook his head.

“What happened?” Liu Mang asked with interest.

“Sir. This person is Liu Wu. He is a rich merchant from Shangyong but then he lost all of his wealth.”

“Lost his money? How could the prices at Shangyong be higher than Yangzhou?” Liu Mang furrowed his brows. Yangzhou was encouraging more merchants to invest. Not only was there less tax but they could even obtain titles, allowing them to be on equal footing with others instead of remaining a lowly merchant.

“He thought so as well and end up offending Xinye’s Guo Family.” This Guo Family was a noble in Xinye. When Xinye became Yangzhou’s territory, it became even more stable. Liu Qi also appeased the Guo Family, making them stronger. There were also several people from the Guo Family working as officials.

Liu Wu got himself into trouble because he had thought that merchants were the master in Yangzhou. He thought that he did not need to lower his head to nobles. He opposed the Guo Family several times without any backers. Initially, the Guo Family ignored him as they have only recently joined Yangzhou. However, after Xinye’s Governor disappear, the Guo Family finally bared their fangs.

Liu Wu’s property started to get seized.

The Guo Family probed the situation. They checked Yangzhou’s reaction towards the merchants. Seeing that Yangzhou did not react at all, they finally reverted to their usual behavior.

The Guo Family were nobles while Liu Wu was just a merchant. It was easy to eat up Liu Wu’s property.

“Shouldn’t Liu Wu be a government merchant? Why can the Guo Family act this way towards Liu Wu?” Those who bring their entire property to Yangzhou become government merchants.

“Government merchant? Haha. That is only in name. The positions of government merchants were all already occupied by the Guo Family! There is nothing left for Liu Wu!” There was a quota for the number of government merchants. This is to encourage merchants to quickly come and invest in Yangzhou. However, the quota at Xinye along with the rights to tax free and other benefits were already taken by the Guo Family. The Guo Family exploits the benefits to cheat other merchants. The merchants could only suffer miserably as they had already brought all their property here. They could not go back.

“The Guo Family?” Liu Mang said to himself and remembered the name.

“Milord. Should we help?” Zhou Cang asked if they should help Liu Wu. Liu Mang waved his hand. It was better to avoid unnecessary trouble.

“Boy. Please bring our horses to the stable and feed them with the best fodder. We will pay for it.” Liu Mang said to the stable boy. The stable boy beamed happily and was about to leave when someone shouted.

“There is no need to go through the trouble!” A loud casual voice came from behind Liu Mang. “Let this General take care of your horses for you!”

“Hm?” Liu Mang turned around and saw the gatekeeper from earlier standing beside a man on a horse. The man on the horse seemed like a military officer.

“The Guo Family is here.” The stable boy said cautiously. Liu Mang furrowed his brows at this.

“Who are you?” Liu Mang asked the military officer on the horse.

“I am the General of the garrison at Xinye, Guo Yi!” The General introduced himself.

“So it is General Guo. Does the General have a reason to be looking for us?” Liu Mang asked.

“Where do you all come from?” Guo Yi asked back.

“General, we come from Jingzhou!”

“You come to visit family?”

“Yes.”

“What does your family do?” Guo Yi asked again.

“My uncle has settled at Shouchun. After receiving this news, we set out to look for him.”

“Oh, that is good!” Guo Yi nodded.

“General. What do you mean?”

“Nothing. It is just that my family has lost a few horses so I came looking for it. Didn’t I already find it?” Guo Yi said. He asked so many questions to probe Liu Mang. Had Liu Mang come from anywhere else, there may be cause to worry. However, if Liu Mang came from Jingzhou, then there was nothing to worry about. This is because Jingzhou was currently the enemy. His old boss and his new boss were now sworn enemies. Also, Jingzhou’s navy was already wiped out by Yangzhou so Jingzhou pose no threat at all. Besides that, the man’s relative did not seem to have a high position in Yangzhou.

“Bullshit! These are our horses!” Guan Hai burst into rage. “We were even sitting on it earlier!”

“You said you sat on the horses?” Guo Yi asked with a smile.

“Yes! We entered the city with it!” Guan Hai explained.

“That is wonderful! I had lost horses and you sat on it! Now you are caught red handed! What do you have to say for yourself?” Guo Yi smiled treacherously. “Men! Arrest them!”

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Lol the author tried to keep his name out for so long (as though the readers wouldn’t know) then he forgot and wrote down Liu Mang’s name. So I will just try sticking everyone’s names.

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