Section 160 The Trap of Gambling

In this case, this bow and arrow workshop alone will almost bring nearly 100,000 gold coins of pure profit to the Stephen family every year, which can be regarded as a piece of fat. And most importantly, this business is very stable, and it has lasted for hundreds of years, with almost no twists and turns.

For such a business, other families are naturally salivating. They have followed suit, but unfortunately, the quality of the bows and arrows produced is always unsatisfactory. can only occupy the low-end market that the Stephen family does not want, such as civil mercenaries, nobles' private armies, etc., these guys are more slamming the door than one another, and the profits are of course far less lucrative than those purchased by the state.

However, improving the quality of bows and arrows is not so simple, and in the manufacture of bows and arrows, in addition to the craftsmanship of craftsmen, the quality of the treatment of the bow body and the glue used for bonding is the most important. And these two secrets have always been particularly valued by the Stephen family.

Outside Yanjing City, in the Stephen family's manor, there are two heavily guarded places, one for the production of glue for bonding, and the other for the processing of bow bodies. Each step of these two processes is responsible for a special person, and these people can only know one process, and very few people know all the processes, all of which are strictly controlled by the Stephen family. The spies of other families and forces have no way of knowing for sure. So, for about 200 years, the Stephens family has been leading the way in this field. But now, the position of this leader has been broken, and the reason is obviously the thief!

Of course, the Duchess also understands the seriousness of this matter, once all the recipes for making bows and arrows are leaked, then the Stephen family will lose more than just 100,000 gold coins per year. This kind of secret involving the combat effectiveness of the army, once it is leaked abroad, it is tantamount to a big crime of fornicating with the enemy country, even if the Stephen family will not be defeated because of this, but if it is used by political enemies, there will definitely be a lot of trouble. Besides, there are still the interests of the royal family, if His Majesty the Emperor loses hundreds of thousands of gold coins every year because of this leak, he will definitely go crazy!

Thinking of this serious consequence, the Duchess did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly asked her son angrily: "You say, is this true?"

"No, definitely not, I didn't!" The little white face obviously knew that the problem was serious, and would rather die than admit it.

The Duchess looked at him suspiciously, and the guy hurriedly said, "Mother, I'm not a fool, how could I do that kind of thing?"

The Duchess frowned, and finally chose to believe his words, and turned her face to the fat man, "Master, isn't he so stupid?

"I wronged him! Blame me bastard, for the sake of the two vixens you sent, you gave the workshop to this fucking bastard, and he sold it to me in less than a month!" the fat man scolded angrily.

The Duchess blushed at the old man who said it. The old evil covered his mouth and smiled on the side, he understood it, it turned out that the duchess specially prepared two beauties for the lustful fat man in order to make her son motivated.

And the fat man was not finished, he then scolded the guy lying on the ground: "I still dare to talk back, I really don't know whether to live or die." You don't admit it, do you? Okay, I'll convince you!" After speaking, the fat man waved his hand to the big butler.

The big butler immediately walked to the back, and there was not much time, and brought out a middle-aged man who was dressed decently. The fat man continued: "This is one of the heads of the bow and arrow workshop, now please tell everyone what he has seen!"

"I, I saw that the young master had been in the data room where the recipe was stored for quite some time!" the man said tremblingly.

"When was that, and how much time had you spent in there?" the fat man continued.

"It's late in the night, and I don't know exactly how much time, but I guess it's at least two or three hours!" said the man.

"How did you find out?" the fat man asked.

"The villain is in charge of managing the data room, and he knows that the things inside are very important, and he is afraid that something will go wrong, so he often patrols at night, so he found out about it!" the man said with some fear.

"Alas, don't be afraid, you have made meritorious service and are responsible for your work, I will not punish you!" The fat man waved his hand helplessly and said, "Give him a reward of ten gold coins, go down!"

"Yes!" the man hurriedly bowed his head in thanks, then turned and walked out.

The fat man then said to the little white face: "Hear me, you tell me, you don't sleep in the middle of the night, what are you doing in the data room?"

"I, I just want to see the information. The kid still said stiffly: "Since you have handed over such a big family business to me, of course I have to work hard, and I can't waste it, so I will go inside and study it secretly!

"Fart!" The fat man fainted when he heard this, and couldn't help but scold: "Why don't you study above board, and you have to sneak around at night?"

"Wasn't I afraid of being seen by others and thinking that I didn't know how to learn, that's why I chose such a quiet time!" said the little white face pretending to be aggrieved.

"Ha!" the fat man couldn't help but laugh when he heard this, "I must admit that you bastard can't do anything else, but Flim Tongue is absolutely first-class." But don't think you can fool me with your mouth alone!" he waved his hand again.

The big butler immediately understood, and immediately turned around and walked backwards again, and in a short time, another middle-aged man was brought out.

"You don't know this one, do you?" the fat man sneered, "Let me tell you, he is one of the heads of the archery workshop of the Augustus family, and he is also a nail that I planted more than ten years ago!

"Yes!" That man was a little scared when he faced so many big people for the first time, so he said tremblingly: "A few days ago, the person in charge of the bow and arrow workshop of the Augustus family suddenly called us to a meeting, and at the meeting, he came up with a complete set of bow and arrow manufacturing technology, which is much more clever than the technology we have mastered. At that time, the person in charge told us very proudly, saying that as long as the craft is thorough, then our bow and arrow will definitely not be worse than the workshop made by the Stephen family! The villain felt that it was not too much, so he had an extra heart, and secretly wrote down the part I was responsible for, and I wanted to report it earlier, but you also know that the workshop that just got the formula is very busy, and I didn't have a chance to come out at all, and I didn't find a time to report to you until yesterday!"

"You're doing a good job!" the fat man then said: "Your identity has been exposed, you don't have to go back, continue to work in your own workshop in the future, and I will reward you again!

"Thank you, master!" the man hurriedly bowed in thanks, then turned to leave.

The fat man then gritted his teeth and scolded: "His recipe is exactly the same as the family's formula, I knew about the leak at the time! So I quickly investigated, first knowing the fact that your kid had quietly stayed in the data room, and then found out that you lost 50,000 gold coins outside, but you can still spend a lot of money, just the day before yesterday, at a banquet, you took out 3,000 gold coins on the spot." Bastard, tell me now, where did you get all your money?"

Hearing this, even the Duchess directly affirmed her son's crime from her heart. After all, as the mother of Little White Face, no one knows Little White Face's surname and financial status better than her. If you want to ask this guy to drink and play with women, he has no problem staying up all night, but if you want to ask him to study, even if he uses a whip, it will be difficult to pull it, and it will be possible for such a thing to study those boring processes in the data room in the middle of the night?

As for the financial situation, she knows the bottom of it better, her son usually doesn't earn a penny, it's all her mother's money, can she not know her son's old bottom? Don't say 50,000, even 500 gold coins he can't always have in his hand, he will definitely spend it quickly, and he will give hundreds of hundreds of dollars back, just afraid that he will spend it all, to say that he can take out 3000 gold coins on the spot, it is simply impossible, there must be a cat in it!

So the Duchess immediately pulled her face down, and scolded angrily: "Little bastard, don't tell the truth now, do you want to cause me to die with you? This matter is very important, and it may even endanger the security of the country, and it may be remedied if you speak out now, otherwise you will die!"

As soon as he heard this, Xiaobai's face was also frightened, and he hurriedly cried: "Mother, I was wrong, I told the truth, they forced me to do it!"

"Don't fucking bullshit, who the hell are they? What's going on? Tell me all clearly!" the fat man roared.

"Yes, that's it!" Little White Face had no choice but to confess everything he had done.

It turned out that a few months ago, this kid met a few noble children from other places at a banquet, they behaved chicly, made generous moves, and would greet each other, and always get all kinds of good things, so that this kid admired Dawei. Eventually, several like-minded people got together and gambled and played with women all day long.

Under the temptation of these people, this kid's gambling ** was completely stimulated. It doesn't matter if you lose it all, they let this kid play white strips very much, and under the stimulation of the flip **, he was out of control, and he lost tens of thousands of dollars in one go. By the time the last few people asked him for an account, the kid was stupid on the spot.

(To be continued)