Chapter 114 It's snowing, the time has come!
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Li Shiyue would naturally not refuse any help that came to her door.
She agreed to Gou Lao San's request and even gave him a heads-up: "Third Brother, if it snows in the next couple of days, then there should be an opportunity."
Dog Lao San understood what Li Shiyue said. He wasn't the type to pry into things, so he just needed to know that such a thing happened.
"Hey, if you need anything in October, just call me!"
After seeing off Dog Lao San and Third Aunt, Li Shiyue, who was standing at the gate of her own yard gazing at Daheishan Mountain, suddenly felt a chill on the tip of her nose. She looked up at the gray sky and saw one, two snowflakes, and a gust of cold wind swept in. Li Shiyue reached out her hand to catch them, and the cold wind mixed with snowflakes fell down.
It's snowing, the time has come!
At the same time, Liu Tan, who was practicing swordsmanship at the military training ground, put away his sword, stood still, and looked up at the sky.
"It's snowing."
After making this remark, Liu Tan picked up his knife and left the training ground.
That night, a troop of soldiers arrived in Liujiatun. The sound of more than ten horses galloping towards them was quite noticeable in the quiet night.
However, as the noise faded into the distance, some of the people in Liujiatun mustered their courage, took lanterns, and went out to look in the direction the sound had come from, which was Qin Tao's house. Sure enough, they saw a group of blurry figures.
Thus, the people of Liujiatun were relieved, knowing that someone had come to visit Liu Shu, the noble son of the Qin family. They closed their doors and went back to rest.
Liu Tan did indeed visit Liu Shu at Qin Tao's house, but by the time he arrived, Liu Shu had already gone to bed.
He summoned the pageboy and inquired in detail about Liu Shu's daily life. Upon hearing from the pageboy that Liu Shu's condition had improved, Liu Tan finally showed some expression.
"Take good care of the young master. Tomorrow I will have Physician Liu come again to examine his pulse."
If he recovers well, Zhao Guang'an will naturally come to take the young master back to the palace. Be careful.
"Yes, young master."
After visiting Liu Shu, Liu Tan led his horse towards Li Shiyue's house. He had been there before, and even at night, he could remember the direction.
Following behind Liu Tan, Ma San was not surprised at all by the direction Liu Tan went. He was even a little excited. Ma San felt that if Li Shiyue wasn't a young girl, he would have liked to have a drink with her.
Liu Tan and the others stood in front of Li Shiyue's house. After a while, Li Shiyue came out dressed.
"Did you guess that I, the general, would come tonight?"
There was no moonlight tonight, and even though they were quite close, Li Shiyue still couldn't see the expression on Liu Tan's face.
So she bowed to Liu Tan and replied, "Young Master, I've been thinking about this ever since it started snowing."
"My ears are very sharp; I heard the sound of horses' hooves from inside the house just now, and I guessed it must be you, young master."
The swirling snow carried Li Shiyue's words to Liu Tan's ears: "What you said before, I can agree to, but if you want me to lead more men to launch a surprise attack, you have to prove first that you can really find the barbarians' location!"
Without stammering, Li Shiyue followed Liu Tan's words directly, saying, "As long as the eldest young master agrees, I can lead men to scout ahead tonight and return within three days!"
Liu Tan was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected Li Shiyue to speak so confidently and readily.
Liu Tan remained silent for quite a while, and Li Shiyue understood that if she wanted to gain Liu Tan's support, she would have to show some sincerity first.
Therefore, Li Shiyue stepped forward and looked at Ma San, whose face was blurred behind Liu Tan, and said with a smile, "Deputy General Ma, would you like to come with me on this trip?"
Ma San naturally couldn't make his own decisions. He looked at Liu Tan in front of him and called out, "General?"
"Alright! Since Miss Li is so agreeable, then let Ma San go with you to scout the way!"
Ma San immediately bowed and replied, "Yes." Then Li Shiyue directly told Liu Tan to quickly take the horses of these barbarians away, settle the money, and they could buy things to prepare for their work.
"Does Miss Li have any other requests?"
"Young Master, just give me two more signal flares in three days. If it works in three days, I will set off fireworks and wait for Young Master to come."
If that doesn't work, I'll bring my men back and we can discuss other solutions.
Liu Tan came under cover of night and left again before dawn, but this time they took with them the eight fine horses that Li Shiyue and the others had brought back last time.
They didn't give me the money, saying they'd have Ma San bring it over later.
Li Shiyue still trusted Liu Tan. After all, it was only a few hundred taels of silver. Liu Tan, a general of Andong, wouldn't stoop so low as to embezzle such a small amount of money.
The amount was not small, but that was for Li Shiyue and his group; for Liu Tan, it was just a drop in the ocean.
The next day, when Li Shiyue opened the door, she saw a layer of pure white snow in the yard.
Stepping outside, I felt my foot on the snow. It wasn't very thick, only about the thickness of a finger joint.
The two horses in the stable that had been hastily erected just two days ago started neighing as soon as they saw Li Shiyue.
Li didn't sell these two horses in October; they still have a great use for them.
The donkey in the stable was so bullied that it could only stay in the corner, not daring to bray even once.
When Li Shiyue saw this, she almost laughed. Li Qiutian, who had also gotten up, felt a pang of sympathy when she saw the donkeys in the stable in such a miserable state.
"In October, how about we hire someone to build another shed to separate them?"
Li Shiyue took a bowl of fried beans from the kitchen and went to feed the horses. He had to take good care of them, as he would have to rely on them in the future.
"Haha, what you say is right. I'll ask someone to add another section next to this stable and put a board in the middle to separate them."
During the day, seeing that the snow would stop falling, Li Shiyue invited Li Wangshui and Gou Laosan to come over. With many hands making light work, the shed was set up in just half an afternoon.
As soon as their shed was set up, Ma San rode his horse and delivered a large bag full of silver to Li Shiyue.
After arranging a time with Ma San, Li Shiyue took the bag of silver home.
So Li Shiyue called his relatives over to share the silver, and they ate dinner at Li Shiyue's house.
Of course, no one would just show up empty-handed and expect to eat and drink for free.
Some brought food, some brought pickled vegetables, and some brought dried mushrooms; in short, no one came empty-handed.
Dinner was a stew, and although it wasn't very oily, the people who had experienced the famine weren't picky at this point; being able to eat their fill was already a good thing.
Everyone gathered in the main room, and Li Shiyue placed a bundle of silver directly on the table in the middle.
Even the dim light of an oil lamp makes the gleaming silver ingots look beautiful.
Eight horses, including one with a saddle and stirrups, were sold to Liu Tan for a high price of eighty taels of silver.
When they went, there were eleven people in total, including Li Shiyue and his group. Except for the younger Wang Shisan and Yangzai, who did not directly participate in the search for the horse but stayed behind to wait and help lead the horse, everyone else contributed a lot.
In the end, Wang Shisan and Yangzai each received ten taels of silver, and the remaining six hundred and thirty taels were divided among the nine people, about seventy taels each.
Ma San gave us silver ingots, which are not easy to divide. So we'll divide the ones that can be divided first, and for the ones that are hard to divide, we'll just break them up and put them in the account when we buy things in town.
Dog Lao San watched as Li Wangshui handed over all the silver he had received to Zhou Lanhua, and he couldn't help but swallow hard.
That's almost seventy taels!
I've never seen so much money in my life.
Li Shiyue gave everyone some time to process the money. She kept half for herself and gave the other half to her mother behind her.
"Mother, take this and use it."
Li's mother didn't refuse. This was money her daughter had earned through her own hard work, so she felt at ease taking it. However, she also thought that she should tell Li Shiyue not to work so hard anymore, as the family had enough money to spare.
Little did Li's mother know that, seeing that everyone's joy had subsided, Li Shiyue coughed twice and said, "Everyone, I need someone to help me with something that will pay me. Would you like to do it?"
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