Chapter 575: Huge Price Difference!
County Magistrate Zhang raised his glasses and frowned, saying, "Minister Bai, what's going on? Are they coming over to fight?"
Secretary Wang's eyes also showed displeasure; this was a sign that he wasn't being taken seriously.
Minister Bai frowned as he watched the approaching herb farmers and said, "It must be a misunderstanding."
Zhou Wansheng didn't say anything, but asked Gu Yin and Secretary Zhou to move closer to him, just in case those stubborn people hurt them.
Gu Yin glanced around and saw that there were about ten people who had come, but none of them were the people she had just seen at the Bai family's residence.
"Are these herb farmers?" Gu Yin asked softly.
Minister Bai nodded: "He's a medicinal herb farmer, or a troublemaker among them, basically the kind who doesn't reason."
Gu Yin raised her eyebrows. So that's the kind of person who's unreasonable and insists on arguing even when they're wrong. Gu Yin felt that it was a waste of time to talk to such people. As long as you have no morals, then these people have nothing to fear.
"Xu Laoliu, why aren't you working in the fields? What are you doing here with hoes and sickles?!" Bai Mengshan stood in front of the group, his tiger-like eyes glaring at the ten men who had come with such menacing force.
The ten men stood in a line opposite them, and the man Bai Mengshan called Xu Laoliu shouted, "What kind of work are we doing! The land is about to be taken away! What's the point of doing any work! Minister Bai, you are a son raised by our great Baishan! Now you bring people here to take away our means of survival! This is the behavior of an ingrate! In our An County, you are an ingrate!"
Gu Yin didn't know if the other party was brainless or if Bai Mengshan was too easy to talk to; this person was taking advantage of her kindness.
"Sixth Brother is right! Why did you take our land away? Don't you owe us an explanation?"
"We've been planting all along, and now they're telling us we can't! How are we supposed to live?!"
"Isn't this just trying to kill us?!"
"Since none of you want us to live, then let's all just give up on living!"
The ten people became more and more excited as they spoke, and they were about to step forward!
Minister Bai and the people brought by Captain Jia immediately stood in front.
Upon seeing the imposing police and soldiers, the shouting group visibly took two steps back.
"What do you want? We're just ordinary people!"
Gu Yin laughed in exasperation. He was certainly arrogant, but he was also quick to back down.
Bai Mengshan looked at them and said coldly, "Is this land yours? Do you have land certificates? The Bai family was just kindly giving you free opportunities to grow medicinal herbs, and now you're treating their land as your own? Have some shame! Use your brains! Don't just believe everything you hear! If we didn't care about you, we wouldn't be here now! See this? This is the county secretary! This is the county head! This is the bureau chief! Including me, we're all here! I've seen people rushing to receive awards, but I've never seen anyone rushing to jail! Your behavior today constitutes disturbing public order! Obstructing official business! Provoking trouble! Those with serious offenses will be sentenced to more than five years!"
Hearing this, the group exchanged fearful glances. They only wanted their land to stay, not to go to jail! The county's top official was here; if they caused any trouble, would they really be arrested?
"That's easy for you to say! You're here to resolve things? You're here to deal with us! That land was originally given to us by the Bai family to cultivate! They never intended to take it back! And today you come here saying you want to take it back! It must have been your own decision! You people! You're all lining your own pockets! You don't care about the lives of the people! And you talk so righteously! Do you think we're all fools? Our whole family depends on this medicinal herb field to survive! We're already struggling enough! And now you're not even giving us a chance to live?!"
Upon hearing Xu Laoliu's words, the others, who had initially been hesitant, immediately became resolute again! Moreover, the anger in their eyes grew even stronger!
"Since you won't let us live, then we don't care anymore! At worst, we'll be heroes again in six years! Brothers! Their duty is to serve the people! They won't dare to do anything to us! Fighting one is a draw, fighting two is a win! Let's drive these wolves and tigers out of our homeland!" After saying this, Xu Laoliu picked up his hoe and stepped forward first.
Others also shouted and rushed forward.
Zhou Wansheng waved his hand, the security captain nodded, and with a wave of his hand, more than a dozen bodyguards stood directly in front of the police and soldiers.
Xu Laoliu's eyes flashed when he saw this, and his heart trembled, but he still raised the hoe in his hand.
The expressions on Secretary Wang's and the others' faces changed drastically, becoming extremely grim!
In the blink of an eye, before the ten men could even get close, the hoes in their hands were instantly moved, and by the time they reacted, they had already been kicked into the ground.
Captain Jia waved his hand, and the police officers quickly went down and arrested the man.
Minister Bai looked at Zhou Wansheng: "Mr. Zhou's men are quite skilled."
Zhou Wansheng laughed and said, "There are many rivals; it's just a way to protect myself."
Minister Bai also knew that these people must have an extraordinary background; among these dozen or so people, there were several different skin colors.
"Let us go!"
"What are you doing! We are ordinary people! You can't lay a hand on us!"
"Yes! You can't lay a hand on us! Otherwise, we'll sue you!"
The disturbance quickly attracted a large crowd, mostly honest, simple farmers, whose eyes were filled with confusion, unlike the ten people who were so agitated.
Zhou Wansheng walked up to the group, looked at Xu Laoliu, and said with a smile, "Tell me, who told you to come and intercept us? Who told you to incite the crowd to come? What benefits did they give you?"
Xu Laoliu tried to take a step back, but was held down and couldn't move. He glanced at Zhou Ansheng, avoiding eye contact, and shouted, "I don't know what you're talking about! Nobody called me here! I just want to protect my own interests! We just want to live!"
Zhou Wansheng chuckled: "At this point, you're still stirring up the emotions of the masses. It's fine if you don't say anything. Whether you say it or not, it doesn't really matter to us."
Zhou Wansheng waved his hand, and Secretary Zhou immediately stepped forward, looking at Xu Laoliu and saying, "Xu Laoliu, male, 45 years old, from Xujia Village, Baizhen. He has an elderly mother at home. When he was young, he was involved in petty theft, gambling, and drinking. His wife was beaten and ran away. He has no children and spends all his time in gambling dens. By chance, he met a businessman from out of town who came here to buy medicinal herbs. So he became the businessman's buyer, buying the herbs from the locals at low prices, adding two yuan per kilogram, and then selling them to the businessman, thus earning the price difference. He earns at least a million yuan a year. He has houses in the county and the city, and keeps two mistresses in each place."
After Secretary Zhou finished speaking and left, Zhou Wansheng smiled and said, "You neither farm nor are you from Baijia Village, yet you were so agitated to bring people here to beat people up. It's simply because your interests have been threatened. Either you make your fortune by buying medicinal herbs from farmers at low prices, and you're afraid that after your land is taken away, you'll lose millions of yuan in profits every year, or someone paid you to come and cause trouble. In short, everyone else is just cannon fodder that you brought, and you take all the profits."
People around knew that Xu Laoliu helped collect medicinal herbs! But they knew that Xu Laoliu earned a profit of at most 50 cents, but they never expected it to be as high as five yuan!
There aren't many people buying medicinal herbs here, but there are quite a few, about five or six, and they're all here.
"Hey Russian! Is what that guy said true? Do you really charge such a high price difference?"
The man referred to as "Maozi" chuckled awkwardly and remained silent.
"When medicinal herbs were priced at 1 yuan per kilogram in previous years, did you also make 5 yuan?"
"This year it's only 80 cents a pound! And you're still being picky, refusing this and that. In previous years, those medicinal herbs would have been top-grade! But this year they're rotting in the fields and can't be sold! Is it really that they can't be sold, or is it just a lie?"
Secretary Zhou stepped forward again: "According to our investigation, because several major medicinal herb bases are re-selecting base managers this year, the grade of medicinal herbs is very high, the cultivation is very good, and the purchase price is also very high. Our pharmaceutical factory is purchasing medicinal herbs for as much as 30 yuan per jin, and 50 yuan per jin for premium herbs. This is for ordinary medicinal herbs; precious medicinal herbs are priced separately. We have inquired, and the pharmaceutical merchants are also purchasing from Dabai Mountain for 15 yuan per jin. In previous years, the lowest price was 8 yuan per jin."
The villagers who were watching were stunned!
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