The next morning, the two merchants who stayed at Zhang Laohan's house set off to pack up the goods parked on the cart parked in the yard and prepare to leave.

Because Zhang Laohan drank almost all the wine in a jar with the middle-aged people who accompanied him last night, he was drunk at the end of the wine game, and now he is still lying on the bed and sleeping, and his three sons got up early to help the two merchants sort out the goods on the cart.

Zhang Laohan's grandchildren frolicked around the cart, Zhang Laohan and others patronized and drank last night, and the snacks and dishes moved very little, which made these little guys feast and eat with a round belly, if it wasn't for the older merchant to stop it in time, they would probably be supported.

"Big brother, this is your rice bag." After loading the cart, Zhang Laohan's wife remembered something, and asked her youngest son to bring half a bag of rice from the kitchen and said to the elderly merchant that the rice bag would be placed in the kitchen after cooking dinner last night.

"The children are growing their bodies, let them eat this half bag of rice." The elderly merchant glanced at the children playing in the yard, smiled and waved his hand to Zhang Laohan's wife.

"Thank you, uncle!" Zhang Laohan's wife hesitated for a moment when she heard this, and then said to the children who were making trouble, "It's okay for adults to eat, but just as the older merchant said, the children are growing and should eat better."

"Thank you, uncle." When a few children heard that there was rice to eat, they jumped up and down to thank the old merchant.

The old merchant smiled, took some things from the cart and gave them to the children, so that the children happily ran out to show off to their friends.

Just when the young merchant was about to pull the cart out of the hospital, several people suddenly walked in from outside the door, which made the Zhang family, who was talking and laughing with the two merchants just now, immediately quieted down, and their expressions looked a little cramped.

The old merchant looked up and saw a few soldiers dressed in the clothes of the guard, but the leader was a man wearing a brocade roe deer and a rat, and as soon as he entered the door, he looked the old merchant and the young merchant up and down.

"What do you guys do?" Although he knew the identities of the two merchants, the man with the roe deer still asked the older merchant with a calm face, and his words were a little vigilant.

"Back to this master, we are doing some small business." The older merchant seemed to know that the man with the roe deer was not easy to provoke, so he said with a smile.

"Small business?" Hearing this, a sneer appeared at the corner of the man's mouth, staring at the old merchant and asking, "Why don't you stay in the front and stay in the future, but you want to stay in this village, don't you see that there are guards patrolling the village?" ”

"This master, I happened to get here, and I didn't think about it so much." When the older merchant heard this, he explained with a smile again.

"Hmph, I don't think it's a coincidence, it's intentional." The roe-headed man snorted coldly, stretched out his hand and pointed at the elderly merchant and said to the few guards standing behind him, "Come on, take the two of them back for interrogation to see if they are wanted criminals by the imperial court." ”

The soldiers immediately pounced on the old merchant with great momentum, and the young merchant standing on the side suddenly showed a trace of anxiety on his face when he saw this, and his fists were clenched tightly.

"This master, can you speak further?" The elder merchant's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and then he said to the roe deer man with a smile on his face.

"Tell me something, just say it here." The roe deer-headed man saw that the old merchant had something to say, so he stretched out his hand to stop the soldiers who were about to arrest him.

"This lord, look at this." The old merchant hesitated for a moment, then took out a small cloth bag wrapped in cloth from his bosom and handed it over.

After taking it, the man with the roe head rat reached out and found that the small cloth bag was very light, and after pinching it with his hand, he felt that there seemed to be a small bead inside, so he opened it with some curiosity to see what it was.

"Cat's Eye Gem!" When he saw a small bead in the small cloth bag that emitted a faint green light like a cat's eye, crystal clear and the light it emitted changed from time to time, the roe deer-headed man's eyes couldn't help but light up, and then he was stunned.

If the man with the roe head rat is not mistaken, the small bead that appeared in front of him is the rumored cat's eye gem from Persia, he has seen it once in Fuzhou City, but the one in his hand is far better than the one in Fuzhou City in terms of appearance and quality.

Seeing that the roe deer-headed man's eyes showed a greedy look, the corners of the old merchant's mouth couldn't help but flash a sneer, and then he regained a somewhat anxious look, looking a little cramped.

"Where did this thing come from?" Soon, the roe deer-headed man came back to his senses, shook the cat's eye gem in his hand to the old merchant, and asked with a gloomy face.

"Don't hide it from this lord, this cat's eye gem was collected in a town for fifty taels of silver." The old merchant stepped forward quickly, leaned in front of the roe-headed rat-eyed man and whispered, "If this lord likes it, I am willing to endure the pain and cut my love and transfer it to this lord for fifty taels of silver." ”

"Fifty taels?" The roe-headed rat-eyed man suddenly turned happy when he heard this, and then lowered his voice and whispered, "This thing looks bad at first glance, I will give you ten taels of silver at most, will you sell it?" ”

"This master, you add a little more, this cat's eye gem is a priceless treasure, and if you change hands, it will be at least a few thousand taels of silver." The old merchant's face showed a look of embarrassment, and he bargained with the roe-headed man.

"It's just ten taels of silver, otherwise Uncle Ben will throw you into the prison of the guard, and you can weigh it yourself." The roe deer-headed rat-eyed man secretly cursed "hillbilly" in his heart, with the condition of the cat's eye gem in his hand, it could be sold for at least 10,000 taels of silver on the market, and he suppressed the surprise in his heart and deliberately threatened the old merchant with a straight face.

"This ......" The old merchant saw the roe deer's attitude and resolute attitude, hesitated for a moment, nodded helplessly and agreed, "Since this master is related to this cat's eye gem, then I will sell it to this master in the future." ”

"You are not allowed to sue anyone in this matter, otherwise Uncle Ben will definitely let you have a lawsuit." The roe-headed rat-eyed man was overjoyed when he heard this, took out a silver ticket of ten taels from his body and handed it to the elderly merchant, lowered his voice and warned viciously.

"I understand below." The old merchant reluctantly took the silver ticket and nodded helplessly in agreement.

Seeing this, the roe-headed rat-eyed man carefully wrapped the cat's eye gem in his hand and stuffed it into his arms, then waved his hand and led the guards to leave quickly.

Looking at the back of the roe deer-headed rat-eyed man who hurriedly left, the old merchant's eyes were cold, and a sneer flashed at the corner of his mouth.

"Big brother, are you alright?" Waiting for the roe deer man and his party to leave the yard, Zhang Laohan's wife stepped forward and asked with concern, she witnessed the scene of the old merchant being robbed of the cat's eye gem, and knew that the cat's eye bead must be worth a lot, otherwise the roe deer man would not be in such a hurry to leave.

"It's fine." The older merchant smiled disappreciatively, and then asked curiously, "Sister-in-law, was that person an official in your guard just now?" ”

"His name is Yan Zhong, and he is the brother-in-law of our Commander Commander." Zhang Laohan's wife shook her head, and kindly whispered, "This person is a disaster in the township on weekdays, and he has done a lot of evil, and the conflict in our village not long ago was caused by him, you better hurry up and leave, if you are targeted by him, it will be troublesome." ”

"Thank you, sister-in-law." Hearing this, the elderly merchant showed a look of sudden realization on his face, and after arching his hand to Zhang Laohan's wife, he led the young merchant who was pulling the cart away, and the three sons of the Zhang family helped push the cart on the side.

Because the elderly merchant not only left the half bag of rice to the Zhang family, but also gave the leftover small half jar of wine to Zhang Laohan, which made the Zhang family very moved, so they sent the two to the village before leaving, and met many people in the village along the way, which aroused the curiosity of those people, and talked about the two merchants in private.

After leaving Shangma Village, the two merchants hurried along the main road to the next village, and several soldiers from the guard station sneakily followed behind to watch.

It turned out that although Yan Zhong snatched the cat's eye gem of the elderly merchant, he was not at ease with the two merchantmen who suddenly appeared, so he arranged for someone to follow him.

It was not until the afternoon that the soldiers of the guard saw that the two merchants were selling goods in the villages and towns along the way, and there was nothing unusual during the period, so they got up and returned.

"Lord Wang, they seem to have left." On the way to the next village, the young merchant who was pulling the cart saw that the soldiers of the guard post were not following him anymore, so he whispered to the old merchant who was walking aside.

The older merchant nodded when he heard the words and did not reply, and walked forward expressionlessly, he was none other than Li Yuntian, who was interviewed privately by Weifu, the dignified King of Zhongwu.

The reason why Li Yuntian personally went out was that he was angered by the incident in Shangma Village, and secondly, it was to deter the military and political yamen in other places from making it difficult for those people who wanted to move to Xiaoliuqiu Island.

Soon after, when they came to a secluded hillside, two big men dressed as merchants waited on the side of the road, and when they saw Li Yuntian, they first bowed to him, and then took the cart loaded with goods from the young merchant and continued to move on.

Behind the hillside, more than a dozen guards were waiting there with their horses, Li Yuntian tore off the beard on his face, changed his clothes, turned over on his horse, and rode away surrounded by the guards.

If you look closely, you will find that the expression on Li Yuntian's face is extremely cold, he has already obtained what he wants in Shangma Village, and the next thing is to strike a thunderous blow at those officials who dare to disobey the orders of the imperial court.

At night, in Jianning City, in the wing room of the backyard of a magnificent house.

A richly dressed middle-aged man was admiring the cat's eye gem that emitted a faint green glow in his hand in front of him with great interest, and Yan Zhong stood aside and looked at the middle-aged man with a smile.

This middle-aged man is Yang Yu, the commander of Jianning's right guard, Yan Zhong wanted to take it after forcibly buying the cat's eye gem from Li Yuntian, but after thinking about it, there were other people present at the time, and it would be bad if Yang Yu knew about it.

Therefore, Yan Zhong borrowed flowers to offer Buddha and sent this cat's eye gem to Yang Yu.

"Where did this good stuff come from?" After playing with the cat's eye gem for a while, Yang Yu asked Yan Zhong with some curiosity, as far as he knew, this cat's eye gem was the best, not to mention that even Fuzhou Mansion did not have a treasure of this kind on the boundary of Jianning Mansion.

"A country merchant who didn't know where to collect the stolen goods was discovered by me and bought them back for a hundred taels of silver." Yan Zhong smiled and told Yang Yu the general story of the matter, but he increased the price of buying cat's eye gemstones tenfold.

"A hundred taels of silver? It's like picking it up for nothing, and then you go to the account office and get a thousand taels of silver. Yang Yu immediately laughed when he heard this, it seems that Yan Zhong's luck is really good, for the sake of Yan Zhong's careful filial piety to him, he decided to give Yan Zhong a reward, after all, Yan Zhong is his own person, so as not to chill the hearts of his subordinates.

"Thank you, brother-in-law." Yan Zhong couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly thanked him, although he felt extremely sorry for the priceless cat's eye gem given to Yang Yu, he could earn nearly a thousand taels of silver in the middle of a hand, which was also a huge gain.

"Have you checked the details of those two merchants, there won't be any trouble, right?" Yang Yu put the cat's eye gem in front of his eyes and stared at it carefully, and asked unhurriedly, because this cat's eye gem was so precious, he was a little relieved.

"Brother-in-law, don't worry, I've already found out, it's two ordinary merchants walking the streets, I sent someone to follow them for a day and didn't find anything abnormal." Yan Zhong replied seriously when he heard this, if the two merchants had any problems, they would definitely leave Shangma Village and leave, but they were still selling the goods on the carts in the villages and towns along the way, so it can be seen that they were two small business vendors.

"That's good!" Yang Yu nodded when he heard this, and continued to play with the cat's eye gem in his hand with great interest, although Yan Zhong was a little greedy but he was still relatively safe in doing things, he was more at ease with it, but he didn't know that Yan Zhong had already provoked someone who must not be provoked!