Under normal circumstances, leo officials and nobles would not come to this place. After all, there is nothing here, bare and rocky, and even weeds that act as firewood are few, and the poor will not go to great lengths to climb high mountains just to save a few peat dollars.

The tree on the top of the hill has no leaves, and the surface is covered with fragments of black cloth, separated by a long distance, which at first glance does look like that, but the actual use is a signal secretly agreed with the branch of the "Shengxinglong" trading house in the city.

The strong man cut down the "tree" in three and two strokes, carefully stuffed it into the middle of the stone crevice, and covered the surface with snow so that it could be used for the next time.

The "message tree" was a practice in the age of civilization. As long as it was daytime, the people in Donglin City would wait and see in this direction every half hour. As long as this "tree" remains, it means safety. At night, the danger and safety signals change to "darkness" and "fire". As soon as a fire rises on the mountain, the people of the city must immediately withdraw.

In the city, a man from a trading house held a telescope and looked in the direction of the mountain for nearly half a minute, making sure that there was no familiar tree in his field of vision. He quickly put away his lookout tools, ran into the inner hall quickly, found the steward who presided over the firm, leaned over, lowered his voice, and said excitedly and nervously: "Boss, the tree on the mountain has fallen. ”

The steward was a person with a peaceful personality, and he smiled and nodded: "Inform the others and implement the third plan." ”

A few minutes later, the "Shengxinglong" trading house located in the west of Donglin City was suddenly enveloped in flames, and thick smoke billowed from the entire sky, and all kinds of screams and cries for help were mixed, breaking the peace of winter.

"It's on fire, put out the fire!"

"Oh my God, my goods, all our goods are in there."

"Be merciful, whoever it is, please help us."

"It's over, so many losses, I can't afford to pay for it at all, it's all over."

The fire was swift, and wild flames burst out of the storeroom, as if a wild beast was licking everything it could touch with its tongue. The fire was terrifying, the terrible heat made it difficult to approach, and it felt like a large furnace that was frantically consuming the energy in it.

The surrounding houses were affected, and the cold north wind howled, pushing flames over the walls and igniting new areas.

Hurry up and put out the fire!

Without urgency, people rushed to cry and cry for help, looking for containers, fetching water from nearby wells, and pouring flames in a panic.

The city guards of Donglin City were dispatched, and the city lord arrived first with a patrol. Fires are not uncommon, and each city has a well-developed set of responses. It's just that today's situation is more special, and the fire started in the peat warehouse of the "Shengxinglong" trading house, which is very difficult to extinguish.

In the midst of the fire and chaos, some new rumors quietly arose along with the cries.

"I can't live this day. This fire is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster! The city lord came to us last week and said that we should prepare 200,000 catties of peat as soon as possible. Originally, it was a normal business to open the door for business, but as you know, no one dares to accept tokens now. We had to use gold and silver to trade. These words angered the lord of the castle at that time......"

"I'm willing to bet that someone set the fire on purpose! The peat storage warehouses are inspected daily, and large vats filled with water are specially stocked at the four corners. Even if a fire accidentally falls, it is impossible to burn so big all at once. ”

"If you want to say that the source of this thing has to be attributed to the lion king. He used to say that when he issued tokens, they were equivalent to gold and silver and were freely convertible. What now? He was not willing to give up gold and silver at all, and even the exchange of grain was completely banned. Not only that, but also ordered us to open shops and do business, so that the civilians below can buy whatever they want. Tell me what this is! In the end, we are all a pile of scrap iron in our hands, and the benefits are all owned by the lion king, so what should we do? ”

"No wonder the warehouse of "Shengxinglong" caught fire for no reason. I remember that they openly boycotted the token very early on. This kind of practice has really become a thorn in His Majesty's side. ”

"Don't talk about them. Your Majesty doesn't even pay attention to a big business house with a dragon background like "Sheng Xinglong", what are we? If you want me to say, dispose of the goods in our hands as soon as possible and hide them as soon as possible. I have a feeling that His Majesty will not stop there, "Sheng Xinglong" is just a warning, and he will definitely deal with us next. ”

As long as there is a basis for facts, the credibility of rumors increases exponentially. Looking at the "Sheng Xinglong" steward who was paralyzed on the ground and crying, the people around him, especially the businessmen who rushed from the neighborhood to hear the news, couldn't help but think of themselves, coupled with the reasonable analysis from those around them who sounded like the head of the way, but couldn't name the speaker, they gasped one after another, became frightened, and quickly left from the crowd with a little thought, with indescribable panic and nervousness.

Messaging takes time. Although the distance between Roaring City and Donglin City is not far, it is winter after all, and the snow has slowed down, and the messenger is not as fast as the bald eagle in any case. By the time the herald team endured the severe cold and entered Donglin City, kneeling in front of the city lord to present the lion king's edict, the "Shengxinglong" fire was already yesterday, and many people had already left Donglin City and headed north.

Donglin City, Pingqiu City, Juding City, Broken Gold City...... From south to north, fires broke out in every city, and the burned trading houses were "prosperous". In fact, they have been prepared for a long time, and there are not many goods that have really been burned, and the key is to teach the merchants of various cities a lesson with the living reality, so that they can understand that the contradiction between power and capital is so cold, and it is not too much to describe it as "you live and die".

Businessmen have their own connections. When the "Shengxinglong" stewards and their partners leave the city, they will send someone to send a letter to a familiar customer. The content is basically unchanged, all accusing the lion king of the currency system of cunning and plundering, and spitting on the lion king for robbing gold and silver with scrap iron tokens. At the end of the letter, he earnestly advised the other party: There is no future for continuing to stay in the lion clan, and the lion king who recognizes money and people will never let us go. If you don't leave now, you won't have a chance to leave in the future.

These words are by no means groundless frame-ups, and no matter how loyal the merchants are to the lion king, they must consider their own interests. A lot of the goods were hidden, either scattered or dug for burial. Others secretly built warehouses in remote suburbs and smuggled goods such as cloth through.

The number of caravans on the main road increased dramatically, most of them going to Rock City in the north, and a few went to the Tiger Clan to trade. This situation is extremely rare in the cold winter season, but the merchants can no longer control so much, they only want to sell their goods as soon as possible. Although the Dragon Regent and the Tiger King are both enemies, they still have credit. Especially the dragons, their newly minted coins are exceptionally beautiful, and more importantly, the silver content is sufficient, not to mention the conventional "water detection method", even if the coins are hinged open with special tools, they can see the white and dazzling precious metals.

All the Leo cities are in chaos. The most immediate change is that civilians are unable to buy fuel. "Sheng Xinglong" dumped peat at low prices for many years, successfully destroying the original fuel supply system. Starting from the cutting of wood, to the burning of charcoal, as well as transportation and sales...... The Leon's traditional firewood supply process was far less cheap than the peat from the Dragons, barely sustaining itself for a short time before it completely collapsed and then disappeared. After that, the "Zumu Boss" became more and more famous, and he became a wealthy merchant with branches in all tribes, and was one of the important merchants that the Lion King ordered to be arrested this time.

No one knows where Zumu is, and the most intuitive feeling of the leon civilians is cold and panic. From the beginning of this commercial wave, "Shengxinglong" refused to accept tokens. But they are good people, and they are willing to accept the equivalent exchange of grain, cloth, jerky, and the like for peat. This is equivalent to opening a back door to civilians everywhere. Out of the consideration of the ruling level, coupled with the relatively calm situation at that time, the lion king did not be ruthless to the merchants, and the city lords everywhere were silent about it.

The messenger finally arrived in Donglin City.

Without a minute's delay, the city lord immediately ordered the arrest of all merchants, the confiscation of their property, the confiscation of all goods, the inventory and classification of goods, and the priority distribution to the city guards to stabilize the morale of the army, and then assemble and send them to Roaring City.

Not many merchants were caught, only about one-third of the registered business owners in the city.

The rest ran away. They are smart and would rather leave their property in the city than leave. On the other hand, these people who stayed, they have been in a wait-and-see and hesitation for a long time, thinking that they have been following the trend, and if everyone refuses to accept tokens, then I don't want to, and I will follow everyone when they open the door to do business (barter). They are reluctant to leave the city, believing that the lion king will not be cruel to them. After all, I am a lion and abide by the law.

Large-scale looting began.

The wolf-like city guards cordoned off the entire neighborhood, smashing open doors with weapons such as hammers and taking everything they thought was valuable.

No matter how much the merchants cried and pleaded, it could not change the cruel truth in the slightest.

"You damned scoundrels, open the warehouse at once and hand over all the goods."

"People who do business are liars. ...... of yards Lao Tzu had been to White Deer City before, and a good cotton cloth was at most a silver token over there. You're good, the same quality or even worse than that cotton will have to sell for three silver tokens here, or even four. ”

"These guys are vampires, what are you doing with so much about them. His Majesty has an order to raid all warehouses. Also, send two squads to his house, there must be more goods there. ”

The soldiers will not be reasonable, they only know how to carry out orders.

The lord of the castle usually had a good relationship with the merchants, and that was because the merchants could bring in taxes, which would inflate their pockets and make the city prosperous. "Rejection of tokens" is a terrible act in the eyes of the castle lord, who is on the same side as the lion king on this issue. Previously, they were helpless against the chaos in the city, and especially hated the "barter" trading model. That means that taxes cannot be measured by normal means.

arrested, confiscated, sealed...... All of these things are reasonable in the eyes of the city lord and can also fundamentally solve the token problem. More importantly, the Lion King repeatedly emphasized in his secret decree that while raiding the merchants, he must calm the morale of the army and send reinforcements to Roaring City as soon as possible.

Hold on to the goods and not let the seized businessmen kill them.

The merchant who prevented the soldiers from raiding his house had his head cut off on the spot.

The foul language and accusations against the soldiers were even more intolerable, and the officers who led the raid did not waste time arguing with words, and directly ordered the other party's entire family to be arrested, and the male members were executed in public, and the female members were tied up and handed over to the lord of the castle.

"Sheng Xinglong" burned, and many businessmen fled in advance after receiving the news.

Although these things were infuriating, judging from the current harvest, the Donglin City Lord was also quite satisfied. He did a rough calculation, and he could use the confiscated goods to offset the military salary, and sent 10,000 men to Roaring City.

……

In the Leon Clan's territory, on the road to the north, a team of two-man messengers is galloping on horseback.

The messengers from Roaring City were exhausted from the long journey. As is customary, the Donglin City Lord sent two messengers to relay the Lion King's order to the next station, which was Pingqiu City to the north.

The snow is not too thick, and the horses are not struggling to run.

As soon as they turned the corner of the road, the two messengers suddenly felt a terrible feeling of their bodies hanging in the air, and they immediately saw a huge crater appear in the ground, accompanied by the neighing of horses and the exclamation of human voices, and the pit camouflaged by dead branches and snow collapsed, and the men and horses fell heavily.

More than a dozen men rushed out of the woods on the left and right, armed with bows and crossbows, and fired at the messengers who had fallen into the pit. Sharp arrows pierced through flesh and tore through internal organs. In less than three minutes, the messenger and the horse were shot alive, and the corpses were densely covered with hundreds of arrows.

The ambushers had a tacit division of labor and quickly dug up the earth and filled it. Looking at the weather, there must be snow tonight, and as long as the snow falls, there will be no trace on the ground. Everything will have to wait until next spring to be discovered.

Wealthy businessmen are not as simple as ordinary people think. Everyone has their own sources, even if there is no fire in "Shengxinglong", some wealthy businessmen in Donglin City have already begun to look for a way out. Having been in a certain place for a long time, I have memorized the habitual practices of the rulers of my region. Although the wealthy merchants left Donglin City, they arranged manpower in the city, and reported to them a series of things such as messengers in the capital, raiding homes, and sealing shops as soon as possible.

The merchant who left the city ahead of time knew very well that the lion king intended to ...... to himself No, it should be all the business people in the entire lion clan.

The merchants did not have an army, but they raised groups of obedient thugs. To put it simply, it's a small guard. These people can't beat the regular army, but it's not difficult to do things like messing around in private, intercepting messengers, delaying messaging, buying time for themselves, and so on.