Chapter 92 Internal strife
“I know, I know!”
Gao Shicheng was the first to speak, his body bent like a cooked shrimp, afraid that the prince would not see his loyalty. "I am willing to pay 10,000 taels of silver to help the prince complete his great cause. I only ask that the prince give my unworthy son a sinecure so that he can make a living."
"Can you come up with ten thousand taels?" Wu Sheng glanced at him, his lips curled up in sarcasm. "It seems that Master Gao is quite greedy. I'm afraid he has pocketed all the money in the bank."
"Wu Sheng, stop slandering me!" Gao Shicheng turned around and glared at him with a vicious look in his eyes. "Don't just blame me. How much can you offer to serve the prince?"
Wu Sheng snorted coldly and said complacently, "If the prince needs it, I can give you any amount of food."
Hearing this, Gao Shicheng grinned and bluntly pointed the finger at him, "What a joke! Our great philanthropist Wu from Ganping County uses stale rice and rotten flour to make porridge for refugees, and you still have the nerve to criticize me? How can a beast in human form like you truly be loyal to the prince?"
"The two heads of the family should stop arguing." Zhong Ping, who had been silent for a long time, spoke slowly, his tone heavy. "Since we are gathered here, it means that we are all people who can help His Highness. We should do our best. Your Highness, I am willing to give you 3,000 pieces of cloth, and we can also transfer goods from Lincheng."
Hearing this, Gao Shicheng and Wu Shengcai calmed down, rolled their eyes at each other, and secretly competed with each other.
The man hidden in the shadows curled his lips, staring at the three people in front of him with interest, and said lightly, "I have seen the honesty of the three family heads. Come here and meet me at this time tomorrow with the goods."
"Yes, yes, yes." The three family heads nodded in agreement hurriedly, their faces full of wrinkles from smiles.
"Idiots." Su Cheng hid behind the boxes, staring at them through the gaps between them with disdain on his face, "You haven't gained anything, yet you're so happy."
"Ah Cheng, they've dispersed." Xie Ming withdrew his gaze, his expression somewhat solemn. "My husband wanted to send someone over, but you took the responsibility yourself. Did you think of a solution early on?"
"Originally, I wanted to destroy their alliance, but now it seems that I don't need to put in the effort. The Gao and Wu families are already at odds, and the internal strife is fierce. It's a good opportunity to target them." Su Cheng raised the corner of his lips slightly, and said calmly, "The bank is too big a target, so we will start with the Wu family's grain store."
Xie Ming lowered his eyes, his expression somewhat gloomy. "This is definitely not the first time that King Qin has done such a dirty thing. He has wicked ambitions and is exploiting the people's wealth for his own benefit. If he were to ascend to the throne, wouldn't he become a stubborn and incompetent ruler? How could the people live in peace..."
"So, we must not let him leave Ganping." Su Cheng's face darkened, and he looked in the direction the man left, with a gleam in his eyes.
-
Wu's Grain Store
Following the master's orders, the grain store closed early today, and the remaining waiter curled up at the counter and took a nap.
Suddenly, several dark shadows flashed in front of the window. The waiter was still snoring and didn't notice at all.
The next moment, all the windows of the grain store were kicked open from the outside, and the loud noise woke the waiter from his dream.
As soon as he opened his eyes, seven or eight tall masked men stood in front of him.
The waiter caught a glimpse of them holding a knife in their hands. They rushed to the bag of rice and flour, cut the bag with the knife, and collected the spilled rice and flour into the pockets they brought with them.
"Who...who are you!" The waiter was panicked, but no matter how scared he was, he had to go forward. If the thieves succeeded while he was on duty, he would have to bear all the losses.
Hearing this, the masked man closest to him turned around suddenly and walked up to him in a few steps.
"Good... please spare my life..." The courage that the waiter had just mustered disappeared in an instant. When he was knocked unconscious by the handle of a knife, he only saw that these thieves were wearing the clothes of Gao's servants.
The next morning, it was just dawn.
"Splash it on him to wake him up!"
"yes."
A bucket of ice-cold water poured down his forehead. The waiter shivered a few times before slowly waking up.
Looking at the mess on the ground, Wu Sheng's face turned pale. If it weren't for the people beside him supporting him, he would have fainted.
"Master..." The waiter looked at the newcomer with a startled expression. He quickly knelt down and kowtowed to him. "Master, I have failed in my duty as a guard. I deserve death!"
This was the Wu family's largest grain store, and most of the rice and flour inside had been stolen. For Wu Sheng, this was a great shame and humiliation.
"How do you do your job?" Wu Sheng looked at his pale face, furious. He kicked him in the chest and pointed at him, cursing, "I handed over such a big store to you, and this is how you work for me?"
"Master, please spare me! Master, please spare me!" The waiter scrambled to his feet and continued to kowtow. "Master, I must be punished for my dereliction of duty, but yesterday wasn't just a matter of a vicious criminal stealing rice and flour!"
Wu Sheng finally recovered from his rage and asked in a deep voice, "What do you mean by that?"
"According to the master, the thieves who came yesterday were all highly skilled in martial arts and were armed with knives. I tried to stop them and tried desperately to protect the food, but was knocked unconscious."
The waiter said with a confident look on his face, "Before I passed out, I saw the clothes they were wearing. They were the clothes of Gao's servants!"
"Gao Shicheng?" Wu Sheng was stunned and murmured, "Is everything you said true?"
"Even if I had ten thousand guts, I wouldn't dare to fool the master!" The waiter nodded repeatedly, fearing that his master would not trust him. "If the master has any doubts, he can search along the streets. After all, those thieves stole rice and flour, and some might have been spilled during transportation."
Wu Sheng lowered his eyes, his expression gradually becoming solemn, "Gao Shicheng, this beast, wants to dirty me and harm me!"
The largest grain store was robbed, and even if he asked relatives for help, he couldn't transport the grain to Ganping in just one day.
Gao Shicheng deliberately made himself look bad in front of the prince and completely lost the possibility of being reused!
"Someone, go check it out!" Wu Sheng was on the verge of collapse. The mess in front of him made him furious. After instructing his men to investigate, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.
"Master!"
The Wu family grain store was in chaos. The waiter took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention to him and quickly escaped from the store.
-
Gao family ancestral home
"Master, please take a look. This is 7,000 taels of silver notes, and the remaining 3,000 taels is loose money."
Looking at the piles of banknotes piled up like a mountain in front of him, Gao Shicheng snorted coldly and patted the head of the steward, "Old Yu, I call you stupid but you are not smart at all."
"When you serve someone above you, you always lie. If I tell you 10,000 taels, you won't be prepared to pay 15,000 taels? Your Highness will think I'm persuasive and only then will he use my son!"
"One... fifteen thousand taels?" Manager Yu's face changed, and he whispered, "Master, we've lent out a lot of money to break even. You also owe a debt to the gambling house, and you've been refusing to pay it back. We really don't have any extra money left in the account."
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