Chapter 190 Watching the Fun
Niu Niu pricked up her ears to listen, stretched her head, and rolled her big eyes around, looking like a jumping kitten.
"Okay, it's none of your business. Just lie down in the room and have a good rest. Don't run around." Zhang Yunniang said.
Niu Niu was scratching her head, thinking about the excitement outside.
"Mom, I want to go out and take a look..." Niu Niu followed Zhang Yuniang pitifully and acted coquettishly.
Zhang Yunniang couldn't stand her sweet and soft little daughter treating her like this.
"Forget it, you can just watch the fun if you want." Zhang Yunniang said.
Niu Niu's face was immediately filled with joy.
Zhang Yunniang changed the subject and said, "I am just watching over you. You just stay in the room and behave yourself. If you don't behave, I won't tell you what's going on outside."
Niu Niu's face suddenly fell.
Zhang Yunniang found her daughter's appearance funny and said, "You are only six years old, why do you like to watch the fun so much?"
Niuniu sighed and said, "I don't know."
Zhang Yunniang soon found out the reason. She saw two familiar faces in the bustling center.
Old Mrs. Gu and Gu Zhao, two faces, one big and one small, were both watching the fun intently.
"Mom." Zhang Yunniang squeezed over with great effort.
Old Mrs. Gu squeezed out a space and said, "It's clear here!"
Zhang Yunniang had no choice but to squeeze into an empty seat. She could only be thankful that there were many people in her family. Liu Xiaoru and Gu Yan could keep an eye on Niuniu and Old Man Gu to prevent the old and the young from running around.
"What exactly happened?" Zhang Yunniang asked her mother-in-law.
Old Mrs. Gu was the first one to arrive, so she roughly understood the whole story. She pointed at the old men who were surrounded.
"These masters of the rich families dress like decent people, but they actually do nothing. Jiaxing finally spent a lot of money to hire people and boatmen to deal with the pirates that day, but these masters hiding behind asked for double the money to let these people protect them.
"They almost killed Jiaxing and Mingda by doing this. Three boatmen died that day, and several others were injured and are still lying in bed. If it weren't for the young general's accurate shooting skills, Mingda would probably be lying in the doctor's bed now."
"These gentlemen robbed people, and now they are reluctant to pay the money. They don't want to pay double the money. They are really two-faced. Why don't the pirates give them a stab?"
When Old Mrs. Gu talked about these things, she felt so angry that her teeth itched.
After hearing this, Zhang Yunniang looked at these people with an unfriendly look.
But these wealthy gentlemen are still trying to defend themselves: "You are not fighting against us, you just stood beside us, why do you want sixty taels of silver from us?"
There were so many people, and asking for sixty taels of silver per person was like asking for their lives. They even regretted that if they had known that the navy would come so quickly, they should not have invited them. Now the person who paid was Sun Jiaxing.
"Brothers, you are going back on your word. Throw them into the water!" a short man among the young men shouted.
When the other young and strong men heard this, they were instantly encouraged and struggled to squeeze forward.
"Where is the boatman? Where is the manager? Is there no one to take care of things when someone is causing trouble on the boat?" the old man shouted.
But the stewards pretended not to know. When the boatmen thought of their dead companions, they all wanted to rush up and beat them together.
The old man who was leading the group had been lifted up by the young and strong men and was moving towards the water surface. He was about to be thrown in.
"Here, here, here. Can't I give you the money?"
The masters finally compromised. They only regretted that they were still on the boat and no one would respond to their calls. If they got off the boat, who would be willing to endure the bullying of these ruffians?
The young and strong men paused in their action of lifting the man.
"Pay the money now, quickly!" The short man urged to pay on the spot.
Some of the gentlemen are still thinking about scheming even at this point.
"I don't have that much silver on me. Think about it, who would take a box of silver on a boat? Don't worry, I will give it to you after we get off the boat!"
The young and strong men were stunned. Many of them were still naive and actually believed it.
But the short man seemed to be the brains of this group of young men, and he shouted directly: "No! If there is no cash, there are silver notes. If there is no silver note, use valuables to pay for it. Whoever can't come up with it will be thrown out!"
The other young and strong men only needed to hear the voice and follow blindly, and immediately lifted the old man up again.
The masters' faces immediately turned green. They just hated that their servants were useless and were no match for this group of young and strong men.
"Okay, okay, give me the banknotes, give me the banknotes!"
Some people are not giving up and try tricks when giving money.
But this time I really met my match.
"The silver note exchange will be discounted. If you give me one hundred taels of silver note, it will only be counted as eighty taels of silver."
The old man was dumbfounded and cursed: "How can you be more evil than the bank? The bank won't take 20%!"
"Who knows what material this jade pendant you gave us is made of? Anyway, we don't understand what ice type is or isn't. In our eyes, this thing is only worth one or two taels of silver."
The master who took out the jade pendant was so angry when he heard this that he said, "How can it be worth only one tael of silver? I bought it for five taels of silver!"
When the short man heard this, he immediately started to curse: "I bought this for five taels, and you wanted to bargain with us for fifty taels. I knew none of you were honest! I think one tael of silver is too much, ten cents!"
But now all the young and strong men listen to the short man, and the short man is a difficult one to deal with. No matter how many tricks the old men have, they will be defeated when they meet such a smart team.
After all the fuss, how could the gentlemen tolerate that the items they bought at high prices were mortgaged at a low price by the short man? They actually took out a large amount of gold and silver from somewhere.
After the short man and his brothers got the money, they sneered at the old man and said, "Look, they don't have no money, they just don't want to give it to us!"
As soon as the short man said this, a group of people immediately glared at the old man.
Relying on squeezing money from the masters, the short man now has a lot of prestige in the lower class cabin and is very popular. Almost at his command, these people will chase him.
The young and strong people went out to make a living in order to earn money. Now they could earn sixty taels of silver just by sitting on the boat. Many of them immediately thought about returning home.
The short man did not stop them, but took the initiative to say: "Brothers, I happen to have a lot of connections in the capital. If you want to go to the capital again, you might as well follow me to find a job. With me here, I will definitely not let you go hungry."
The short man did not stop those who were determined to return home, but advised them to get off the boat at the next pier to avoid revenge from the masters on the boat.
Perhaps it was because of his excellent performance in asking for wages, after his combination of tactics, more than half of the young and strong people were willing to follow him.
The excitement ended and the crowd gradually dispersed.
Zhang Yunniang was about to go back when she suddenly saw Gu Mingda and Sun Jiaxing in the crowd. Not only were they there to watch the fun, they were also carrying Xie Xingchuan over!
The excitement of watching the fun had not yet subsided on their faces when they saw their family members not far away and their faces were immediately filled with embarrassment.
Zhang Yuniang glanced at Gu Mingda, then looked at Old Lady Gu who was excitedly sharing gossip with her son, and thought to herself, no wonder Niuniu loved to watch the fun so much, it turned out that the cause was these two people.
"This Wang He is quite a character. Either he wants to cheat our brothers out of the sixty taels of silver, or he can really lead this group of people to make a name for himself in the capital." Gu Mingda said.
Wang He was not an ordinary person, but the leader of the young and strong men, a short young man.
Sun Jiaxing, however, had a strange look on his face. It was he who organized the young men in the lower-class cabin that day. He always had a good memory, and now he finally expressed his doubts.
"When I organized the troops to fight the enemy that day, I didn't seem to have seen this person."
Second update
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