What exactly do you want to do? ”

In the private room on the second floor of a teahouse on West Street in the city, the county lieutenant Ma Gai looked at the person wearing the tiger mask in front of him with a solemn expression, and conveyed the question that the county commander Liu Bi explained to him.

However, the other party felt a little absent-minded, and from time to time he turned his head to look at the shop on the street below with the sign of 'Lu Ye Gongji', and seemed to be indifferent to Ma Gai's questioning.

"Zhou Hu ......"

Ma Gai, who was ignored, gritted his teeth and whispered, "Don't you want to explain this?" ”

Hearing the sound, the man in the tiger mask turned his head and looked at Ma Gai with his face.

After staring at each other for a few breaths, the anger in Ma Gai's heart froze, and the eyes that were originally staring at each other seemed a little erratic for some reason.

"Ah, sorry, a little distracted."

Zhao Yu's hoarse voice deliberately pretended to come out of the mask with a little smile: "What did you just say?" ”

『…… Garlic?'

Although the other party was not angry because of his questioning, which really made Ma Gai breathe a sigh of relief, he would not let the other party fool him by casually, he said with a calm face: "Don't you think your recent behavior has been too unscrupulous?" Before, you made a righteous house, in the name of providing free vegetarian food to people, to attract the people in the city, and take the opportunity to recruit the villagers, now, you asked Chen Zu to negotiate with the county government, in the south of the city to build a workshop in a vacant land, with money to lure the people in the city...... What exactly are you going to do? ”

Speaking of this, he lowered his voice and added: "What 'Kunyang Brotherhood', that's also your person, right?" ”

"Ah, I see."

Zhao Yu held the tea bowl and made a sudden realization.

Immediately, he raised a finger and said with a smile: "Before explaining, I will make a small comment to Lieutenant Ma. It's not 'you', it's not 'you', it's 'us', you are also a member of our side, and you are tentatively proposed to be at the level of 'big boss', the same level as Chen Zu...... I'm sorry, but there is no overly detailed level classification in the village for the time being, and it will slowly improve in the future. ”

“……”

Ma Gai opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

He is a dignified county lieutenant in Kunyang County, how can he care about the 'title' of a cottage? - Anyway, a bunch of bandits actually got some kind of job title, that's ridiculous, right?

Of course, he only dared to slander this in his heart.

He let out a long breath, shook his head and said, "Zhou Hu, Liu Gong is very frightened by this. You and I both know that your 'brotherhood' is not just a small fight like the Black Tiger Yishe, you want to envelop the public opinion of the entire Kunyang, manipulate the public opinion, and make it useful to you...... The imperial court has a charge for this, 'entrapping public opinion and plotting against ......'"

Zhao Yu smiled and said, "You just say bluntly that I want to rebel." ”

"......" Ma Gai was speechless by Zhao Yu's words, but his dignified expression seemed to prove that he seemed to think so.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu smiled and asked, "You two don't really think so, do you?" ”

“…… I do not know. ”

Ma Gai spread his hands and said very frankly: "What you did, and what you want to do, Liu Gong and I can't guess...... Otherwise, Liu Gong would not have repeatedly sent me to the test. ”

"Huh."

Zhao Yu smiled, shook his head and said: "Don't worry, I know that I have a few catties and a few taels, and I won't be arrogant enough to try to make the entire court an enemy, everything I do is nothing more than to integrate into Kunyang in order to survive, you can understand that I want to abandon the dark and turn to the light......"

"Threatening the imperial court officials as an internal response, this can also be regarded as abandoning the darkness and turning to the light?"

Ma Gai glanced at Zhao Yu, but unfortunately, he couldn't see Zhao Yu's expression behind the mask, so he could only rely on guessing.

"Really?" He asked.

"Of course!"

Zhao Yu spread his hands and said: "Putting aside each other's positions, we are indeed doing good deeds, right?" The completion of the Black Tiger Shelter allowed those in the city to be at least fed; Isn't it good that the establishment of the Seongnam Workshop will provide many jobs for the county, and the people of the city will get a stable job, and the security in the county will become better. ”

Ma Gai couldn't refute this, but he also knew that the black tiger thief would not do good deeds in vain, and the other party must have a more secret and ulterior purpose.

"Can you reveal your true purpose?" Ma Gai asked.

"You two are really ......"

Zhao Yu shook his head helplessly and said, "Okay, it's not something ulterior anyway." You just told that Liu Gong who was afraid of the inside, everything I did was just to make my Black Tiger people gain a more stable foothold in Kunyang and not be wiped out...... In order to achieve the goal, I am committed to binding the interests of my Black Tiger and Kunyang County, and in the future, moving the Black Tiger will move Kunyang, and moving Kunyang will move the Black Tiger, that's all. ”

『…… Is that all?'

There was a disagreeing look on Ma Gai's face.

He didn't dare to imagine what kind of situation his entire Kunyang would be like after being tied up by the black tiger thief, but unfortunately, he was not qualified to bargain with the person in front of him.

Nodding, Ma Gai stood up and said, "I understand, I will tell Liu Gong truthfully." ”

After that, he was about to turn around and leave, but saw Zhao Yu smile and said, "Wait." …… Ah Jing. ”

"Yes."

Hearing Zhao Yu's gesture, Jing Nu, who was standing on the side, took a wooden box from the table next to her, held it in both hands and handed it to Ma Gai.

"What do you mean?"

Ma Gai's face sank slightly, and he looked at Zhao Yu with a little unhappiness in his eyes.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu said with a smile: "Don't get me wrong, it's just a wedding gift in advance, after all, you are also Zhou's subordinate." ”

Ma Gai didn't care about the 'subordinate', he cared more about another word: "Wedding gift? ”

He immediately thought of something, and whispered in annoyance, "Isn't that all your doing?!" ”

What is he angry about?

It's nothing more than the 'Wang Girl'.

Some time ago, the rumors of the county commander Liu Bi, the county lieutenant Ma Gai and the Wang family were all over the city, Ma Gai's family was fine, his wife just complained that he didn't discuss it with her in advance, but Liu Bi, who was afraid of it, had a lot of trouble with his fierce wife.

After this incident spread, the whole city was thinking: Ah, it seems that Liu Gong is out of play, and the daughter of the Wang family is still in the Ma family after all.

Not to mention anything else, even the Wang family is currently waiting for Ma Gai to come to the door to propose marriage, so that Ma Gai has not dared to pass by that street recently.

"This is also for the sake of the overall situation, the cottage will remember your sacrifice."

Zhao Yu stood up, patted Ma Gai's shoulder, and then stuffed the wooden box into Ma Gai's hand.

"Sacrifice...... What?'

Hearing this, Ma Gai couldn't cry or laugh, shook his head and left.

After Ma Gai left, Jing Nu took off the mask on her face and asked with a bit of innocence: "Lieutenant Ma is a very upright person, why does the young master want to play tricks on him?" ”

"Maybe it's too idle."

Zhao Yu also took off the mask on his face and took a sip of the tea bowl.

Indeed, he has been too idle lately.

On the side of the cottage, under the management of Guo Da, Chu Jiao, Chen Mo, Wang Qing, Chu Yan and others, everything is neat and tidy, and the defense of the cottage is being consolidated step by step; On the county side, Chen Zu, Chen Cai, and Ma Hong are also gradually infiltrating in a down-to-earth manner.

As the current leader of the Black Tiger Clan, Zhao Yu does not need to do it himself, which makes him gradually idle, and in addition to paying attention to the progress of the cottage and the county every day, he only has to wait for news.

A few days ago, Xu Fen recovered from his injuries and followed Chen Mo and others back to Kunyang, when Zhao Yu instructed him to do something and let Xu Fen go to Yuncheng to see if he could find the whereabouts of the Zhou family.

Originally, Zhao Yu planned to look for his relatives after replacing Yang Tong, but unfortunately there was a threat of Zhang Jing in Kunyang at that time, so Zhao Yu had to abscond to Luyang with the Zhai people and hide in Luyang for a few months.

Now that he has returned to Kunyang, he finally has enough time and space to find his relatives.

And among them, he thinks that the most likely to find is his grandfather, grandmother and two uncles, after all, according to Ding Lu, he Luyang Township Marquis Mansion at that time there were Zheng Luo and other loyal guards who survived by luck, these guards were killed in the Township Mansion, and immediately ran to Yuncheng to deliver a letter to the old couple, so when Liang Chengjun later found Yuncheng, Zhao Yu's grandfather and grandmother had long been missing.

As for Zhao Yu's two uncles, Zhou Yun and Zhou Fu, they are also nowhere to be found now, and Zhao Yu has not received any bad news about the brothers so far.

On the bright side, the Zhou family is probably hiding, but they don't know where to hide and whether it is safe.

In addition, Zhao Yu is also waiting for Zhang Jing's news, to see if General Zhang Jingzhang can clear his grievances for the Luyang Zhao family, and whether he can find out the real culprit who framed him Zhao that day.

If Zhang Jing finds the real culprit, then he will save a lot of effort.

Based on these two aspects, Zhao Yu really has nothing to do recently.

Not...... Not right either.

Although there is nothing to do, the development and penetration of the Black Tiger Crowd is still inseparable from Zhao Yu to provide a general direction.

For example, the Brotherhood Workshop, which has just been established.

According to Zhao Yu's instructions, Chen Cai had already handed over the matter of the Black Tiger Yishe to Ma Hong, and he himself became the steward of the Brotherhood, responsible for the establishment of the Brotherhood and the operation of the workshop.

Running a workshop is much more difficult than running a house, because the house doesn't need to think about profits, but the workshop needs to think about profits, otherwise it will lose the entire Black Tiger Village, and it won't be able to support so many employees.

So, how exactly do you make a profit?

Maybe there will be people, it's not simple, can't you make money by producing something and selling it?

In fact, this is not the case.

First of all, we have to consider the 'market'.

In view of Kunyang's proximity to Nanyang County, when thinking of the 'market', Zhao Yu's mind immediately thought of Wang Shangde's Wancheng Military Market, which is a big market that has fattened merchants from Luyang, Yexian and several other counties in recent years.

But how to catch the Wancheng Military Market, this is a problem.

Zhao Yu can't come forward to negotiate with Wang Shangde in person, right?

In addition, the choice of materials in the workshop is also a problem.

If you want to trade with the military market, then the most profitable thing is nothing more than alcohol.

In the past two years, the businessmen who have been doing the wine business with the military market have made a lot of money, and the time for the wine merchants to transport wine to Wancheng is not as fast as the consumption of the Wancheng army, can this business not be profitable? It's just that no matter how much land these wine merchants make, they don't make as much land as Wang Shangde.

Just looking at this, it seems that starting a liquor business is a good choice?

However, it is a pity that in the past two years, the trend of food shortage in the country has become more and more urgent.

According to a grapevine, the imperial court has issued a 'ban on making wine' in Hebei, Shandong, Xuzhou and other places, strictly prohibiting the grain from brewing, although Kunyang has not yet received the order of the imperial court, but Zhao Yu still feels that this matter is not groundless, the reason is that in the past two years, the Jiangnan chaos is very, it is said that there is a county lieutenant surnamed Zhao in Xiapi who killed the county order and dedicated the city to the rebels.

In short, the matter of sake brewing is probably not possible for the time being.

Of course, ignoring the decree of the imperial court and brewing wine privately, it is not impossible, anyway, Kunyang County now has the final say, the problem is that the risk is disproportionate to the benefit, not only to spend a lot of money to buy grain and wine in other counties, but also to prevent someone from reporting it, attracting the attention of the county - if it attracts the attention of Yingchuan County because of private winemaking, it is really stupid.

All in all, Zhao Yu also had a headache about this matter, until he noticed that there were also shops of the 'Luye Freemasonry' in the city.

Yes, Kunyang is the county of Ye County, and there are naturally shops opened by merchants under the name of Luye Freemasonry in the city.

When talking to Ma Gai just now, Ma Gai thought that Zhao Yu looked out the window from time to time to pretend to be garlic, but in fact it was not, at that time Zhao Yu was thinking about it, it seemed that he could let the Brotherhood and the Luye Freemasons merchants in the city get on the line.

Thinking about it like this, he suddenly became enlightened.

The Kunyang Brotherhood did not have the conditions to carry goods, but the Luye Freemasonry under the jurisdiction of Lu Kuang was the strongest merchant union in the nearby counties, and only another Luye Freemason in Ruyang could be compared to it.

In other words, the Kunyang Brotherhood only needs to act as a supplier.

As for whether the supplier will be deducted by the Luye Freemasons as a channel...... Hehe, there is the shadow of the Black Tiger behind the Kunyang Brotherhood, and those Luye Freemason merchants in the city do not have the courage to do so.

"Well, that's a good idea!"

The more Zhao Yu thought about it, the more he felt that it was feasible, and immediately sent someone to summon Chen Cai.

By the time Chen Cai arrived from the south of the city, Zhao Yu had already written a leaflet and handed it to Chen Cai.

However, Chen Cai was illiterate, and his eyes widened as he looked at the contents of the leaflet, scratching his ears and cheeks, so he was not embarrassed.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu shook his head, he once again realized that if he wanted to grow in the Black Tiger Village, he must first improve the cultural level of these leaders in the village, otherwise he couldn't even understand the words, how could he do good things?

He instructed Chen Caidao: "This is a leaflet, you go to the city to find a few people who can write, ask them to copy 100 copies, and send it to the large and small shops in the city, especially those with the sign of 'Lu Ye Gongji', and it must be delivered." ”

"Yes."

Chen Cai nodded hurriedly, but couldn't help but ask, "But, chief, what is this for?" ”

Zhao Yu didn't hide it, holding the tea bowl and said: "Just tell them that the work of my brotherhood undertakes the processing of goods, such as making cowhide into armor, or making wooden shields and arrows, as long as someone places an order and gives a deposit, then we will do ......."

"Oh."

Chen Cai suddenly realized, and immediately, he asked worriedly, "Chief, do you want to cooperate with the Luye Freemasons in the city?" But will they work with us? They hate us the most......"

Zhao Yu said lightly: "As long as it is profitable, the businessmen will not care whether they hate or not, as long as they find that the cost of buying the same goods directly from Kunyang is lower than that of buying goods from Runan and Xiangyang, they will cooperate with us, and they will rush to cooperate with us." ”

Seeing that Zhao Yu was so confident, Chen Cai naturally didn't dare to question anything, and hurriedly nodded in response.

After Chen Cai left, Jing Nu tilted her head and asked curiously, "Young master, how do you know that the prices in Runan and Xiangyang are higher?" ”

Zhao Yu reached out and pinched Jingnu's nose, and when the latter wrinkled his nose and pretended to be dissatisfied, he explained with a smile: "How did you become stupid? The big customer of the Luye Freemasonry is Wancheng Military City, they transport goods from Runan and Xiangyang to Wannan, and they need to pass through our main village, in a sense, the pricing power is in my hands, so the cost of purchasing goods from Kunyang is bound to be low. ”

"Uh-oh."

Jing Nu suddenly realized, and then whispered: "Even if they know that behind the brotherhood is the Black Tiger Village? ”

Zhao Yu blinked his eyes and said with a smile: "They are more and more willing." …… It not only reduces the cost, but also improves the relationship with my Black Tiger Village, killing two birds with one stone, if you are one of those businessmen, will you refuse? ”

Jingnu tilted her head and thought about it, then shook her head: "No." ”

After that, she praised from the bottom of her heart: "The young master is really smart. ”

"That's nature." Zhao Yu raised his eyebrows, and immediately beckoned: "As a reward, let me hug me." ”

“……”

Jingnu's face immediately turned red, and she glanced at the door like a thief.

On that day, Chen Cai found a few scholars in the city who set up stalls on the streets and made a living by helping people write letters, and asked these people to copy the leaflets written by Zhao Yu himself, and then he instructed his subordinates to deliver these leaflets to large and small shops in the city.

Even those shops with the sign of 'Lu Ye Gongji' also received a leaflet, such as one of the shops with a 'Huang Shi Bu Zhuang' plaque.

Huang's cloth village is the property of the Huang family in Ye County, and the shopkeeper's surname is Huang, and he is also a member of the Huang family.

A moment ago, when Chen Cai's men came to deliver the leaflets, the shopkeeper Huang, who was napping in the store, was really startled, thinking that someone was coming to make trouble.

In the market, the news moved the fastest, and of course the shopkeeper Huang knew that these people were the people of the Black Tiger Yishe, although these people now claimed to be the people of the 'Kunyang Brotherhood'.

But there is no evidence, even the head catchers of the county government can't help the people of the Black Tiger Yishe, and the businessmen like the Huang shopkeeper naturally dare not touch the mold.

Pretend not to know, anyway, the sky is falling and there is a county government on top.

However, the leaflet he received still surprised the shopkeeper Huang, who saw him rubbing his beard and muttering with a strange expression: "Strange...... Is this a deal with us? ”

As he spoke, he instructed a fellow beside him: "Little Liu, you hurry up and take this thing back to Ye County to see the uncle and the second master, ride a donkey, hurry up." ”

The guy seemed to have guessed something, and said with wide eyes: "Shopkeeper, behind the brotherhood, there is a black tiger thief." ”

"You think I don't know?"

Shopkeeper Huang glanced at the talkative guy, raised his hand and patted the latter's head, and scolded angrily: "If you are told to go, you will go, less nonsense." ”

"Yes, yes......"

The guy quickly shoved the leaflet into his arms and ran out of the store.

Looking at his departing back, the yellow shopkeeper stroked his beard and thought about it.

That night, Huang Shao, the second son of the Huang family in Yexian County, came to Kunyang County with several entourages.