In the hall of the mansion, after seeing Xiao Yungui and Zeng Shuiyuan transferred into the inner hall, the wealthy businessmen and gentry began to discuss again.

Tang Yinong, a wealthy gentleman in Changsha, was originally Zhu Changlin's old employer, and sat next to Zhu Changlin, leaned over and asked in a low voice: "Yutian (Zhu Changlin's expression), these long hairs don't look as unbearable as rumored, this West King looks rude, but his conversation is rough and fine, he is a character." ”

Zhu Changlin smoked the hookah, only heard a gurgling sound, frowned, and said: "This is exactly the terrible thing about this person, he walked beautifully in the first two steps, lured me to wait for the market to open, and then proposed to collect taxes, so that everyone felt that it was a logical thing." What's even more rare is that he does everything as usual, this is the way to first settle the inside outside, I guess he is afraid of the official army counterattack, if the city is not quiet, he will not be able to defend against the enemy with peace of mind. ”

Wei Helin played with the snuffbox in his hand and snorted: "I didn't expect that there would be such a character in a group of mud legs, no wonder he was able to break through Changsha, this person is indeed not to be underestimated." ”

Tang Yinong said thoughtfully: "He still hasn't said one more thing, but he doesn't know what it is." Yutian, you might as well have a guess, let me wait for a preparation. ”

Zhu Changlin spat out a cigarette and coughed lightly: "Looking at the actions of the King of the West, he must first deploy everything and then launch it, Zuihou is nothing more than donating money and food, but I can't imagine what method he will use to force me to wait." ”

Tang Yinong said with a bitter face: "What?!" Still donating? Didn't he collect our land tax and business tax? ”

Zhu Changlin smiled slightly: "The owner, didn't this king of the West say that everything is business as usual?" The government also collected our taxes, and in the end, didn't they ask us to donate money and grain for military salaries? The previous king of the West only said two things: opening the market and collecting taxes, and didn't say a word that he didn't want us to donate. ”

Tang Yinong said hatefully: "What a ruthless long-haired thief, the money, food, and wealth I am waiting for are not falling from the sky, they are all hard-earned, why should I give them out?!" If you don't give it, you don't have to ask for money. ”

Zhu Changlin said lightly: "The owner, I advise you to follow the general trend later, how can this long-haired West King be easy to deal with?" I'm afraid that after a while, I will fall into his trap unconsciously. The money is endless, or the life is important. ”

Tang Yinong's eyes widened and he was speechless, but Wei Helin let out a heavy hey, leaned back and closed his eyes to recuperate.

At this moment, there was a noisy and noisy sound outside the palace, and two long-haired generals entered the palace with several Taiping soldiers and stood under the hall, the two people were short and fat, and the shorter one whispered a few words to the long-haired swordsman who guarded the office, and the swordsman hurried in.

Seeing this, Zhu Changlin and the others all sat up straight and looked out, seeing that something seemed to be something happened to this jiashi, and after a while, the swordsman came out and said a few words to the two long-haired generals, and the two hurried out of the gate of the mansion.

Zhu Changlin and the others were still waiting to see what was going on, but they heard a coughing sound, and saw Xiao Yungui and Zeng Shuiyuan walking out.

Xiao Yungui went straight to the hall and said in a deep voice: "I'm sorry, this king has something important to do, please wait for a while." Then he shouted, "Bring the people!" ”

I saw that the two long-haired generals of Shicai came to the hall with more than ten Taiping soldiers escorting seven or eight Qing prisoners, and these Qing prisoners were all dressed in tattered clothes, their bodies were dirty, their faces were withered, and they all looked weak.

After the two long-haired generals stepped forward to pay their respects, they reported loudly: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, the heads of several Qing Demon captives are here." ”

Several Qing soldiers looked very frightened, and without waiting for the Taiping army to scold, they knelt on the ground and kowtowed a few times, Xiao Yungui frowned and said, "Why do you want to see this king?" ”…,

One of the Qing soldiers was quite bold, straightened up slightly and said: "Lord Xi, the little ones really can't stand it, they have to repair the city wall and carry stones every day, but the rations they eat are gruel, the brothers recommended a few of us to ask the West Prince, let me wait and go home, I will never dare to be an official army in the future." This person speaks with a local Hunan accent, but he speaks weakly, and it seems that these Qing prisoners have indeed been miserable in the past three days.

Xiao Yungui sighed, and pretended to scold: "Zeng Shuiyuan, He Bin, Zhou Zhaoyao, didn't this king order that the rations for these captives should be full?" How did it become a thin drink?! What are you guys going on?! ”

The two Taiping generals were He Bin and Zhou Zhaoyao, the two were ordered to supervise the prisoners to work, and they had long known that the upper authorities had begun to reduce the prisoners' rations, but they didn't expect Xiao Yungui to ask at this time, and the two of them opened their mouths wide and couldn't speak.

Zeng Shuiyuan bowed slightly and said with a difficult face: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, this has nothing to do with Brother He and Brother Zhou, just because when the city was broken, the Qing Demon Governor Luo Bingzhang and Weng Tongjue set fire to the official warehouse in the city, and there was nothing to be gained. ”

Xiao Yungui patted his head and said, "Why did this king forget about this?" Then scolded loudly: "This Luo Bingzhang and Weng Tongjue are really not fucking things, they actually set fire to the grain, this is to watch the soldiers and civilians in the city starve to death!" ”

Zhu Changlin and the others were all shocked in their hearts, they all secretly thought, and they really began to talk about money and food, and even began to secretly scold Luo Bingzhang and Weng Tongjue in their hearts for not being human, since the city is broken, you will leave the grain to Changmao, you are good to refuse to obey the reputation of thieves for yourself to win a broken city and burn grain, and leave such a big hole for these people to fill!

Xiao Yungui turned around and said to several Qing army prisoners with a sad face: "This is not easy to do, let you go for fear of leaking the king's military aircraft, and let you go, there is no money and food to dismiss, you are robbers to harm the township, how is this good?" This king has promised all the squires in the city to maintain law and order in the city. ”

Zhu Changlin and the others secretly scolded Xiao Yungui for being shameless, he was the biggest bandit leader, and he still had the face to say this. But after thinking about it, what Xiao Yungui said also makes sense, if these green battalion soldiers and regimental training in the city are really released, these people are all scoundrels in the city on weekdays, and they must be ganged up to fight the autumn wind, and they are all Changsha children of the villagers, don't you want to watch them starve to death?

The Qing soldiers kowtowed like garlic and begged, Xiao Yungui paced back and forth a few steps, looked at Zhu Changlin and said, "Boss Zhu, you are the number one benevolent man in the city, what do you think about this matter?" Let them go, these people have nothing to eat, they will definitely come to the door to make noise to you, this king will send troops to arrest them, and there is no food to feed them, is it really going to kill them? ”

As soon as these words came out, the Qing army captives cried loudly, kowtowing and begging for mercy, and several gloomy squires secretly said in their hearts that it would be good to kill them, and they only hoped that Xiao Yungui would do it quickly and kill them cleanly.

Xiao Yungui saw that Zhu Changlin's face was unbearable, and then said: "Most of these people are children of Hunan, and you are all villagers in the township, this king really doesn't want to kill them, it hurts the hearts of the people, they are helpless to be soldiers and eat food, and they all blame Luo Bingzhang and Weng Tongjue These dog officials are too unkind, right?" ”

At this time, even Zhu Changlin began to scold Luo Bingzhang and other officials in his heart, Xiao Yungui sighed to the rich businessmen and giants: "This king really has no choice, whether to kill or stay depends on your words, this king doesn't want to leave trouble, in the future, the city is not quiet, and he is sending troops out to kill people, and it takes a lot of effort." ”…,

Before the words fell, several Qing soldiers cried and kowtowed to the rich businessmen and giants in the hall, and begged for mercy again and again. "Master Tang, save the villain, my third aunt's second uncle is the cousin of the seventh aunt in the house."

Xiao Yungui laughed secretly, in order to survive, these Qing soldiers moved out all the relatives who usually couldn't beat with eight poles. Zhu Changlin and the others really couldn't sit still at this time, and scolded Xiao Yungui in their hearts for being shameless, using such a bad trick, and scolding Luo Bingzhang for being mad, and not hesitating to make this desperate plan for the sake of his official reputation.

After pleading, Zhu Changlin sighed, got up and arched his hand: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, since there is a shortage of money and food in the army, I can't bear to watch the homeless people in the city and these chief brothers starving, so how about I pledge 5,000 taels of silver as salary?" ”

Xiao Yungui touched his nose, this Zhu Changlin is really calculating, he only donates money, and when the time comes, he still has to buy food from his Zhu Qian, and the loss will be smaller, and he smiled quietly at the moment: "This Boss Zhu has pledged to donate, what do you say?" ”

Everyone sighed, some people took the lead in pledging, so they had to donate money one after another, only He Yuanlun sat still, Xiao Yungui stepped forward and said: "He Lao Hero is in charge of the Baoqing Gang, and he is rich and powerful, he won't just look at the excitement, he will make everyone laugh at the juniors." ”

He Yuanlun couldn't stand Xiao Yungui's words, and slapped the table and said angrily: "The old man also donated five thousand taels, and any more will be gone!" ”

More than ten people in the hall got together, and also donated 70,000 or 80,000 taels of silver, Xiao Yungui knew that these were just a drop in the bucket for a group of wealthy businessmen, and everyone in the hall was worth hundreds of thousands, but he still had a back hand and did not break it, smiled and hugged his fists and saluted: "Thank you for donating money, it's just that this donation of silver is good, but what is most lacking at the moment is rice grain." ”

Everyone was still in pain for donating silver, and when they heard this, they were all frightened, Wei Helin hurriedly said: "Lord Xi, I really can't donate food, don't deceive people too much!" ”

Xiao Yungui touched his nose and said with a smile: "Everyone is also hard-earned money and food, and this king doesn't want much, so let's do it, this king has always liked to play chess." With a wave of his hand, he said, "Take it." ”

I saw a few swordsmen come out with a chessboard, Xiao Yungui pointed to the chessboard and said: "This chess chessboard except for the Chu River and Han realm, there are still sixty-four grids, and this king doesn't want much grain, as long as the storage position makes up the grain, put one grain of rice in the first grid, put two grains in the second grid, put four grains in the third grid, and so on, and put it full." ”

When everyone heard this, their hearts were overjoyed, and they began to talk about it. Xiao Yungui also knew that this trick and calculating person would understand it after thinking about it for a while, and he didn't want everyone to have more time to think about it, so he stepped forward and said: "Everyone, make a decision quickly, otherwise this king will regret it later!" Seeing that everyone was still hesitating, he shouted at the moment: "Have you decided?!" ”

Everyone thought about it roughly, just took rice grains to fill it, and there were probably only a dozen bags of rice, which was really painless, but Zhu Changlin and the others always felt that something was wrong, and they wanted to calculate a few more squares, but they didn't have an abacus in their hands, and they were interrupted by Xiao Yungui's loud shouting, and they really couldn't count it, so they hesitated for a moment and everyone had to agree together.

Xiao Yungui touched his nose and smiled: "Okay, this king is here waiting for you to get grain to fill." ”