Chapter 28 Jiang Tong's gratitude ruined the Wang family's business!
At this moment, Jiang Dahe and the others also saw Ye Li.
Jiang Dahe waved excitedly: "Brother Li!"
Ye Li gave a loud "Yes!": "Second Uncle, Eldest Uncle, Brother Datong, how was today?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Dahe burst into laughter: "Successfully!"
He hurried a few steps, and before he even reached Ye Li, he excitedly began to recount what had happened: "As soon as the clan chief entered the carpenter's house, without even looking around, he called Jin Yu, Man Tang, and the others to rush into the kitchen and smash the Wang family's iron pot."
"Three iron pots, all smashed! That immediately intimidated the Wang family!"
Ye Li's eyes lit up upon hearing this. So ruthless?
For farmers, an iron wok is definitely a big item; even a small frying pan can cost over a hundred coins.
Therefore, when people in Beiyang County have a dispute and exchange harsh words, they will often say that they will smash your pot!
If the pot is smashed, not only will you lose money, but you also won't be able to eat.
This is a very big deal!
Ye Li really didn't expect Jiang Fuzheng to have such a trick up his sleeve, smashing the Wang family's pot right from the start.
That felt so good!
happy!
It's such a pity that he missed such a memorable moment of being slapped in the face.
"Second Uncle, let's go home first. After we sit down, tell me what happened in detail so I can vent my anger."
Jiang Dahe laughed heartily upon hearing this.
Jiang Dachuan's laughter wasn't as hearty as Jiang Dahe's, but at this moment, all the wrinkles on his face smoothed out.
When they arrived at the Wang family's house, the Wang family was busy in the yard. After Jiang Fu smashed the pot, the Wang family was first stunned, and then they were furious.
However, this time every household in Yezaopo sent someone, and in order to prevent the Wang family's wife and husband from causing trouble, Jiang Fuzheng specially selected two old women who were good at arguing to go with them.
The group of over twenty people completely overwhelmed the Wang family in terms of sheer presence!
Therefore, although the Wang family was furious, they only dared to shout but not to take action.
When it comes to shouting, those two old ladies aren't afraid at all; they stood with their hands on their hips and started yelling back at the Wang family.
While cursing, he stated the purpose of his visit:
The Wang family must compensate Jiang Tong with fifty taels of silver, or they will report the Wang family to the authorities for bombing!
The Wang family was furious when they heard this.
Fifty taels!
What a pipe dream!
The apprentice extorted money from his master, betraying his master and ancestors!
The Wang family even wanted to report it to the authorities!
Jiang Fuzheng is indeed the village chief, but his Wang family is also related to Village Chief Feng of Baxian Town!
Upon hearing the Wang family's words, Jiang Fuzheng sneered and invited them to go to the county town. He told them to report the matter to the authorities and see how the magistrate would rule.
Beiyang County, as a transit point for ships traveling between the south and horses traveling between the north, held a very important geographical position, and the imperial court established a transport commissioner there.
However, the Grand Canal Commissioner was only in charge of all matters, large and small, along the Nantong Canal and had no right to interfere in local government affairs. Even though Baxian Town was the starting point of the Nantong Canal, neither the Jiang family nor the Wang family wanted to make a living from the Grand Canal.
Therefore, this dispute falls under the jurisdiction of the magistrate of Beiyang County.
Baxian Town was also under the jurisdiction of a village chief surnamed Feng.
The magistrate of Beiyang County is replaced every three years.
However, the county magistrate and county assistant magistrate remained in their posts for a long time, as they were all locals.
Jiang Fuzheng served as the village head for twenty years. Yezaopo was close to Beiyang County, and Jiang Fuzheng had a good relationship with the county magistrate and the county assistant.
With this connection, if they really went to the county government to file a lawsuit, the county magistrate would definitely not side with the Wang family.
When the Wang family saw that Jiang Fu was about to get serious, they chickened out.
As people from Baxian Town, they knew Jiang Fuzheng. Twenty years ago, it was Jiang Fuzheng and a group of people who sneaked into Baxian Town and burned the bandits' supplies!
At first, knowing that Jiang Fu was the clan leader of Jiang Tong, the carpenter Wang treated Jiang Tong fairly well.
But Jiang Tong is a pushover; he was extremely obedient not only when he was a child, but he remained obedient even as he grew up.
He touched it lightly, and Jiang Tong tolerated it.
He pinched him hard, and Jiang Tong didn't resist.
Gradually, he stopped taking Jiang Tong seriously, scolding and cursing him whenever he was unhappy, and occasionally slapping him.
But who would have thought that Jiang Fuzheng would lead a group of burly men to demand an explanation and even report it to the authorities? If they really went to the county government, he would probably be in the wrong.
After all, he and Jiang Tong were just master and apprentice, not father and son.
Moreover, as his mentor, he really hadn't taught Jiang Tong any skills over the years...
Carpenter Wang chickened out.
But fifty taels of silver is too much!
The Wang family went to invite Village Chief Feng to help mediate.
Out of respect for Village Chief Feng, Jiang Fuzheng reluctantly reduced the price to forty taels of silver.
Forty taels of silver is a huge sum of money, and the Wang family didn't want to pay it.
While the two were arguing, Jiang Tong suddenly stepped forward and said that if Wang the carpenter was willing to let him beat him up, he could reduce the price by ten taels.
Upon hearing this, Wang the carpenter was so angry that his nose twisted.
If he really gets beaten up by that junior Jiang Tong, then he's doomed!
In the end, the Wang family reluctantly paid forty taels of silver.
This aligns with Ye Liding's goals.
In the Jiang family courtyard, after listening to Jiang Dahe, Jiang Dachuan and the others recount what had happened that day, Ye Li laughed and said, "The Wang family got off easy. In my opinion, we should take back the Wang family's set of equipment."
Tools such as adzes, saws, planes, and ink lines can cost a lot of money to acquire.
"Let's forget about that. After all, we're insisting that Xiaotong didn't learn any skills. If he doesn't have any skills, then we can't use them."
Jiang Dahe shook his head.
That's true, but Ye Li has already arranged a new job for Jiang Tong. How can he make a wooden wind chime without the tools?
For now, Jiang Tong has no choice but to handle it himself.
He looked at Jiang Tong: "Brother Datong, what exactly have you learned? Can you make furniture by yourself?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Tong scratched his head, looking ashamed: "Over the years, I've only ever done odd jobs, and the only things I've made for the family are a few small stools."
Actually, he had wanted to get started for a long time.
But every time the topic is brought up, the man surnamed Wang makes excuses and avoids it.
Later, as he got older, the man surnamed Wang couldn't refuse anymore, so he let him work on the furniture making.
But before he could even do anything, the man surnamed Wang scolded him for making mistakes here and there, and then made him do odd jobs...
"So what are you planning to do next?"
Ye Li continued to ask.
"I'd like to buy some noodles and pastries from you first, so I can thank my fellow villagers."
Jiang Tong looked at Ye Li with gratitude: "Tomorrow I'll buy another pig. I'll share one side of the meat with the villagers, and you and Uncle Jiang can share the other side."
"If it weren't for your brilliant idea, I wouldn't have been able to get rid of this anger."
Half a pig!
Ye Li's eyes widened suddenly. So much flesh!
But he quickly shook his head: "Brother Datong, we're all family, why are you being so polite? I just talked, I didn't even go to the town."
“You, Xiaoda, and Xiaoshun are all of marriageable age. Don’t waste this money; save it for your weddings.”
Jiang Dachuan quickly said, "No, no, no, you must take this meat."
“As his uncle, I haven’t helped Xiao Ji much these past few years. Today, you’ve helped me get this money back. If you don’t take this meat, when I go down to the underworld and see the sea, the sea will definitely beat me up.”
"That's too much!" Ye Li shook her head: "Buying two catties is enough."
“A pig is only worth a little over one tael of silver. If it weren’t for your idea and the villagers’ hard work, we would not only have been mistreated, but we wouldn’t have received a single penny.”
Jiang Dachuan persisted.
Sigh, it's all his fault.
When Xiao Tong hadn't learned anything after studying under the man surnamed Wang for five years, he actually wanted to come back.
Five years had been wasted, and he had even paid the apprenticeship fee. He thought that perhaps one day the man surnamed Wang would be moved by Xiao Tong's sincerity and then teach him his real skills.
With that in mind, he told Xiao Tong to hold on a little longer, to be patient a little longer, and then...
When Xiao Tong came back the night before, he was furious.
But after the anger subsided, I felt a sense of relief.
I'm not going to have any more fantasies. I'll just stay home and honestly farm and do odd jobs.
Therefore, he felt very relaxed when he came to buy tofu from Ye Li.
But unexpectedly, there was a second way to resolve this matter, and it was such a satisfying way!
Having received forty taels of silver, and spending two taels to thank the villagers and Ye Li, it was well worth it!
Jiang Dachuan and Jiang Tong insisted on buying meat, and Ye Li, unable to refuse, had no choice but to agree.
His gratitude solidified his resolve to cooperate with Jiang Tong.
But clearly, the family wasn't in the mood to discuss cooperation at that moment, and they quickly took their leave.
Jiang Dahe did not stay any longer.
Since he had already wasted a day's work, and Ye Li didn't have enough flour and malt syrup to make twenty-five catties of dough, he took the copper coins Ye Li had given him and went to the county town.
There was still some time before the city gates closed, so he quickened his pace to leave the city without delay.
As for soybean oil, Ye Liang is in charge of that.
There was an oil mill in town, and whenever Ye Liang ran out of soybean oil, he would bring it to Ye Li.
When Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya returned and learned that there would be meat to eat tomorrow, they were overjoyed and kept asking Ye Li to confirm it.
Ye Li wasn't impatient at all. He answered Jiang Ya's questions with a smile every time, which made Jiang Ya so happy that she clung to his leg and wouldn't let go.
Jiang Mai's dark eyes darted around a couple of times, and he suddenly said, "Brother Li, could you bring some meat to Big Brother? There's so much meat, the three of us can't finish it all."
"Okay," Ye Li readily agreed.
In the blink of an eye, my cheap husband has been gone for three days.
After stewing the meat tomorrow, I'll send it over at noon the day after tomorrow. Then, in five days, my cheap husband should come back to collect the copper coins!
If you don't mention it, you won't think it's a big deal.
Now that it's mentioned, he really does miss Jiang Ji.
Ye Li couldn't sleep that night.
I rolled around on the kang (heated brick bed) for a while before finally falling asleep.
However, after waking up, he regained his energy.
I'll be able to see that person tomorrow!
After breakfast, Jiang Fuzheng's youngest son, Jiang Mantang, banged a gong to summon the villagers to gather at the village entrance.
Jiang Dachuan bought the meat and sent one person from each household to distribute it!
Ye Li wanted to go and watch the excitement, but he had to get fried dough sticks, twenty-five catties of them.
One jin per household, and the remaining four jin to Jiang Fuzheng.
Pigs in those days ate natural food without any messy feed, so they were relatively light in weight. Even the largest fat pigs weighed less than 200 pounds.
There's only so much meat, so it's divided up very quickly.
At the end of Chenshi (7-9 AM), Jiang Tong arrived carrying half a pig.
Jiang Fuzheng's family took the half with the pig's head, and the other half went to Ye Li.
Ye Li isn't picky; he'll stew it anyway, so the front and hind legs are the same.
With meat as an incentive, he sped up the frying of dough balls. At noon, Jiang came to pick up twenty-four catties of dough balls—Ye Li's family also had one catty.
The price is thirty coins per pound.
Actually, he wanted to sell at a low price, since this batch of noodles didn't require any discounts from Ye Liang, and he could earn eight coins per pound.
But Jiang Tong disagreed.
Jiang Tong asked Ye Li to buy noodles and fruit because he wanted Ye Li to earn more money; otherwise, he would have just gone to the county town to buy snacks.
He was truly grateful to Ye Li!
Thus, with these twenty-four catties of noodles, Ye Li earned one hundred and ninety-two coins in one go.
It was tiring, but it was worth it!
After seeing Jiang Tong off, he ladled the oil out of the pot and began to cook lunch.
After lunch, he immediately started frying tofu puffs.
He won't be frying dough balls this afternoon; he still has to stew meat.
When Ye Liang left, he made several cuts on the pig's rump and cut off a large piece of meat for Ye Liang to take with him.
Of course, Jiang Dahe is indispensable.
Jiang Dahe's family only received three jin of pork ribs.
He set aside the portion of meat for Jiang Dahe, and cut the rest into large chunks to stew in one pot.
Jiangmai and Jiangya came back a little late today.
The two of them dragged back two large bundles of firewood. They had used up a lot of firewood today, so they had collected extra.
The two little ones were so capable that Ye Li immediately rewarded them:
Tonight I'm not eating pancakes, I'm just going to eat meat until I'm full!
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Ya cheered and rushed into Ye Li's arms, shouting that Li Ge was so good.
Jiang Mai was happy, but he was a big kid now.
He first ate a piece of pasta to fill his stomach, and then went to chop pig feed to prepare to feed the pigs.
After feeding the pigs and chickens, it got dark.
The aroma of meat from the kitchen filled the entire courtyard.
He washed his hands and was about to go into the kitchen when the courtyard gate creaked open, and a familiar figure entered the yard.
Although it was dark in the yard, he recognized the figure all too well.
His eyes widened, and he ran towards the courtyard gate, shouting, "Brother! Why are you back?"
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