Above the lobby of the governor's yamen in Changsha City, Xiao Yungui sat under the plaque hanging high in the mirror, looking at the rich businessmen and magnates in Changsha City on both sides with a smile. Xiao Yungui secretly sneered, they were all a group of people, and they could all guess what they were looking for them to do, and they deliberately dressed up shabby, so that they would be poor for a while.

Xiao Yungui coughed lightly, and dozens of brand knife players standing behind the two rows of seats clubbed the steel knives in their hands on the ground together, choking in unison, and all the wealthy businessmen were startled, looking at Xiao Yungui with earthy faces, everyone was worried in their hearts, and they were afraid that the long-haired thief would kill him.

Earlier rumors said that the long-haired thieves entered Hunan, these rich people were as anxious as ants on a hot pot, everyone knows that there has always been a mud-legged rebellion, killing officials and robbing the rich that is unambiguous, some people originally wanted to go out of the city to avoid temporarily, but Hunan Governor Luo Bingzhang swore that Changsha is the provincial capital will be able to defend, and if you go out of the city, there is no official protection, and you will be poisoned. Seeing that Luo Bingzhang recruited village warriors, mobilized reinforcements, and renovated the city defenses, it seemed that he still stayed in the city to be more stable, so these big families chose to stay, and also responded to the government and actively raised donations for money and food.

How do you know that Longhair is really attacking, the official army did not hold it for a day, and the soldiers and horses sent outside the city were defeated so quickly, and they were disguised as routed soldiers by Longhair to attack the city like this, and it was too late when these big families wanted to leave.

Fortunately, after the long-haired thief entered the city, it was calm for two days, and there was no long-haired thief to rob and kill people in the house, and the rich households secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and they didn't want to receive an invitation from the long-haired thief and the king of the West at dusk yesterday, saying that they invited everyone to come to the house for a gathering. These rich tycoons are all well-known figures in Changsha City, all of them are better than monkeys, and when they see the invitation, they know that this knife still can't be avoided. This donation of money and food, there has always been a cultural donation, military donation, cultural donation is like this, politely sent an invitation, saying that it was to go to the banquet is actually to blood donation. The words of military donations are much simpler, directly fabricating charges, sending troops and horses to extort money, and even killing people all over the house, taking money and food.

After receiving the invitation, these people were relieved, whether it was dealing with Lord Futai or the green battalion soldiers who usually came to fight the autumn wind, these big families had their own set of methods to deal with it, as long as it was not like a bandit to kill people and rob money, they all had a way to maneuver, in short, it was difficult to take out money and food from their pockets.

So before the three urges and four invitations came to the banquet, they all changed into old clothes, as long as this long-haired king does not come hard, it is easy to do, and a few scheming people understand that the reason why this long-haired king came to donate must be that he did not dare to come hard, since long-haired has scruples, then it is just a matter of going around with long-haired.

Xiao Yungui looked at the smiling rich people in front of him, picked up his cigarette pouch and took a puff and asked Zeng Shuiyuan, who was standing on the side, "Are all the guests here?" ”

Zeng Shuiyuan looked at the list of worship posts in his hand and said, "There are still three guests who have not arrived. ”

Xiao Yungui frowned and said, "But which three?" ”

Zeng Shuiyuan bowed slightly and said: "Zhu Changlin, the big shopkeeper of Zhu Qian's Warehouse on Taiping Street, Wei Helin, the big shopkeeper of Deyu Firm in Chaoyang Lane, and He Yuanlun, the president of the Baoqing Five Townsmen Association. ”

After the names of these three people were pronounced, all the wealthy families in Changsha whispered, Xiao Yungui didn't know these three people, but seeing the rich families talking below, he also knew that these three people must be not small, or they were very influential among the wealthy businessmen in Changsha.

Xiao Yungui asked in a low voice, "What is the origin of these three people?" ”

Zeng Shuiyuan whispered the backs of the three people he heard to Xiao Yungui. These three people are indeed very famous in Changsha City, the Taiping Street Zhu Qian Warehouse shopkeeper Zhu Changlin, born in Changsha Ansha Town, Heping Village, a well-off family scholarly family, after repeated failures, the family situation is over, he came to Changsha to join the rich gentry Tang Yinong as a bookkeeper, a few years later he opened a grocery store on Taiping Street, and started a business. …,

In the twenty-fourth year of Daoguang, the harvest in central Hunan was large, the price of grain was as cheap as 1,000 yuan and three stones, the price of grain fell sharply, ordinary people were afraid of throwing it away, only Zhu Changlin borrowed money to absorb a large number of grains, who knew that the second year of the drought in Changsha, Dongting Lake was flooded, and the price of grain rose sharply for a time, and each stone rose to 5,000 yuan, and since then Zhu Changlin has become one of the richest households in Changsha.

In the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth years of Daoguang, the same situation happened again, all of them were the first year of Gufeng, the next year's catastrophe, Zhu Changlin still relied on natural disasters and made a lot of money, but this time the disaster was much more serious, the heavy rain from March to June, even the next three months, Hunan capital was flooded, the lakeside wall collapsed more, Changsha, Shanhua gathered hundreds of thousands of victims, Ningxiang Yinglu was starving, Anhua Doumi was eight or nine hundred wen, and men and women were sold only to get the capital of rice; To Yongshun a piece of rice is worth 3,600 Wen, the officials and landlords have a flour ball for a woman, and there are 400 money to buy a woman, a woman and a son, this is the famous Hunan "Daoguang Jiyou famine". The Zhu family made a lot of money by relying on the famine, and faintly became one of the few huge riches in Changsha City, but the Zhu family had a good conscience, so he adopted the method of work for relief, and summoned the displaced people to build the Zhu family's mansion, which built his own mansion and provided a large number of relief to the victims, which was quite well-known in the local area.

And Wei Helin is a native of Daxian Town, Dongxiang, Changsha, Hunan, the Wei family has been rich for generations, and the ancestral heritage produces more than 4,000 stones, Wei Helin and Zhu Changlin started by operating grain, tea and salt, and opened the "Deyu Salt" and "Deyu Tea House", the scale is no less than the "Zhu Qian", and he is also a kind and charitable person, and he is also quite famous in Changsha City.

And this Baoqing five belong to the hometown association of He Yuanlun is also a figure, the Qing Dynasty merchants are used to distinguish the subordinate by geographical relations, the caravan composed of Hunan merchants is called the Hunan merchant gang or the Hunan gang, the Hunan gang in the three towns of Wuhan The business camp is very large, and its shili even exceeds the Hui Gang. In the three towns of Wuhan, the Hunan Gang is known as the Five Governments and Eighteen Gangs. The five prefectures refer to Changsha Mansion, Hengzhou Mansion, Baoqing Mansion, Changde Mansion, and Chenzhou Mansion, and the Eighteen Gangs refer to the small gangs in each prefecture.

And this He Yuanlun is the Baoqing Mansion people's clan, and the Baoqing Gang led by him has a huge commercial business in the Hankou wharves of the three towns of Wuhan, and it is the bull ear of the Hunan merchant gang here. In the early years of Xianfeng, in order to strengthen the cohesion of Hunan people in Hankou, the merchants of Baoqing Mansion in Hankou built the "Baoqing Five Fellow Townsmen Association" hall on Baoqing Street in Hankou.

After listening to the origin of the three people, Xiao Yungui nodded secretly, it seemed that these three people did have some influence, so he said slowly: "Since there are still three people who have not arrived, I will send someone to urge them." Then his face sank, and he snorted coldly and shouted: "This king is not used to waiting for people!" ”

His voice was not small, and this sound of breaking off his voice startled the people below, and everyone secretly thought that these three people were going to be unlucky. Xiao Yungui didn't know that Zhu Changlin and Wei Helin later became the richest people in Changsha.

Before his words fell, two rich gentlemen in their thirties outside the lobby strode in, different from others, both of them were dressed brightly and abnormally, one wore a blue Hunan embroidered brocade robe, a jade belt with flowers around his waist, a Hetian jade pendant on it, a small bowled hat on his head, a jade jade inlay in the middle, and a silver hookah in his hand. The other person has a light blue Suzhou embroidered silk robe, a gold jade belt around his waist, a splendid sachet, and a bowled hat, but in the center is a red agate, and a blue and white jade snuff box in his hand.

The two came together, and the rich gentleman in Tsing Yi stepped forward and smiled slightly: "No, Zhu Qian, Zhu Changlin, has seen the prince." ”

But the blue-clothed rich gentleman only bowed his hand slightly, and said with a straight face: "I have seen the prince in Xia Wei Helin." There was no respect in his tone. …,

Xiao Yungui smiled slightly, got up and saluted, and then pointed to the first two empty seats on the left and said, "Please sit down." ”

Zhu Changlin thanked him again before sitting down, but Wei Helin turned around and sat down without saying a word. It can be seen that Zhu Changlin is more tactful, but Wei Helin seems to be very unwilling to deal with Xiao Yungui, the long-haired West King. Xiao Yungui secretly sneered in his heart, but his face remained silent, and he looked at the two of them a few times before sitting down.

As soon as he sat down, a loud and old voice outside the hall shouted, "Which one is the long-haired West King?" Three urgings and four invitations, the old man just doesn't want to come, and he will kill the old man if there is a kind! ”

Xiao Yungui frowned, although the Taiping army knew the title of this long hair, and many ordinary people also shouted it like this behind their backs, even if they heard it, the Taiping army would not be too careful, but this person openly announced it, and there was no respect.

I saw two swordsmen in the lobby with an old man over sixty years old, and only put down the old man when he arrived in the hall, this person had white hair, wore a melon skin hat, wore a white arrow sleeve shirt, stepped down on white bloomers, tied a blackboard belt around his waist, and was in good spirits, heroic, not like a rich businessman but more like a gang boss on the rivers and lakes.

Seeing the old man's wild words, all the swordsmen shouted angrily: "Bold! Dozens of people are all elite swordsmen, and the shouting naturally contains a solemn murderous aura, the old man was stunned when he heard this, but he still snorted contemptuously: "The old man He Yuanlun didn't plan to get out alive when he came, so let's draw out any way, and the old man will follow!" ”

Xiao Yungui saw that this He Yuanlun gang had a heavier habit and an old-fashioned appearance, and knew that he was different, such a character in the rivers and lakes was always soft and not hard, so he got up and smiled at the moment: "What did the old hero He say?" Today, this king is feasting, how can he say that he is dead or alive? Please take a seat! ”

He Yuanlun glanced at Xiao Yungui a few times, and said slightly: "Seeing that you still have some courtesy in this later life, the old man will sit down and listen to what you say!" ”

Xiao Yungui smiled secretly, sure enough, this old man has a hot temper, but he is a soft guy, as long as he is polite and thoughtful, he will not be too ugly.

Seeing that the guests arrived, Xiao Yungui got up and walked off the table, came to the center of the hall and arched his hands on both sides and smiled: "This king raised troops to crusade against the Hunu Qing Demon, and conquered Changsha City three days ago. ”

He Yuanlun snorted and said, "You didn't invite me, you forced me here!" ”

Xiao Yungui smiled and said: "He Lao Hero, the old man is virtuous, so he naturally wants someone to carry him, if it is not for this, please do not move when you are afraid, I respect the elderly hero like He Lao Hero the most, and I dare not slack off." ”

He Yuanlun waved his hand and said: "Listen to what you are talking about in this later life, forget about me coming, if you have something to say, say it quickly." ”

Xiao Yungui touched his nose and smiled secretly in his heart, this old man is not difficult to deal with, and said loudly at the moment: "I invite you to come over today, because there are three things I want to discuss with you." When the rich gentry heard this, their hearts were all in shock, wasn't it for money and food that this long-haired king invited him here? Could there be anything more difficult to do?