“A kitchen knife can only be exchanged for three liang of millet?”
Tang Xiaobei stared at the wooden sign, his eyes wide open in shock.
“To get three liang of millet, it has to be a good knife with plenty of material, weighing more than one jin. If it is an old knife that has been used for many years and is almost worn down, you cannot even get three liang of millet,” said Da Liu.
“Is this not outright robbery?” Tang Xiaobei said angrily.
“Otherwise, why do they prepare so many people here?”
Da Liu sneered and glanced at the shed.
A small shed with only three sacks of millet was guarded by more than ten big men carrying knives.
When they noticed Jin Feng and the others approaching, the big men all picked up their knives, looking as if they were facing a great enemy.
The common people who had been surrounding the stall quickly scattered and watched from a distance.
A middle-aged man who seemed to be in charge came out from the woods, pulling up his trousers, followed by a woman with disheveled hair.
The woman must have lived well before. Her skin was not as dark as that of ordinary people, nor was she extremely thin. She still had some charm.
After coming out, she gave Jin Feng and the others a fearful glance, then looked eagerly at the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man impatiently grabbed two handfuls of millet from the sack and poured them into a bamboo tube.
Perhaps feeling that two handfuls were a bit too much, he poured some out again before throwing the bamboo tube to the woman.
The woman picked up the bamboo tube, covered her face, and left.
After sending the woman away, the middle-aged man trotted over to Jin Feng with a fawning smile and asked, “Sir, do you need something?”
As he spoke, he deliberately patted the nearby pillar.
A flag hung on the pillar, embroidered with the character “Liao”.
Jin Feng understood that the middle-aged man was reminding him that this was the Liao family’s stall.
Even if Jin Feng did not know what the Liao family was, he would not care.
With a cold face, he said, “Nothing. I just came to see how you people rob others!”
“Sir, you must be joking. This is a voluntary trade between both sides. How can you call it robbery?”
“A kitchen knife for three liang of millet, and that is also voluntary?”
“Sir, feel free to ask around. We have never forced anyone to buy or sell. It is always the common people who come willingly to exchange!”
The middle-aged man quibbled, “Absolutely voluntary!”
“You indeed do not force anyone to buy or sell. You simply take advantage of people’s desperation,” Jin Feng said with a cold laugh. “Is there really much difference between the two?”
By setting up a stall here to exchange grain, they knew that many common people, having walked this far, had already eaten all the food they carried. If they did not exchange something valuable for grain, they might starve to death tomorrow.
Once they starved to death, even the most valuable things would belong to someone else.
So, to survive, the common people had no choice but to grit their teeth and make the exchange.
“Sir, what exactly do you want?”
The middle-aged man sensed that Jin Feng’s tone was unfriendly. The fawning smile on his face disappeared. “If you want to rest your feet, we will serve good tea. If you want to do something else, I must remind you that this is the Liao family’s stall.”
“The Liao family? Never heard of them!” Jin Feng shook his head. “Are you throwing out the Liao family’s name to threaten me?”
Jin Feng knew that such stalls were certainly common all over Sichuan.
He had only come to see what was going on and had no intention of doing anything to this place.
But the middle-aged man’s tone made Jin Feng very unhappy.
Sadly, the middle-aged man still did not realise the problem. He continued with a fake smile and said, “If sir thinks I am threatening you, there is nothing I can do about it.”
“So you admit you are threatening me?”
Jin Feng nodded slightly. “Da Liu, smash this stall for me!”
Having seen so many miserable common people along the way, Jin Feng had already been feeling very depressed. Now he finally found a place to vent.
“You dare! My master is the county magistrate! This is the Liao family’s stall!” The middle-aged man hurriedly threw out the Liao family name again when he heard this.
To prevent Jin Feng from pretending not to understand, he even clearly stated that his master was the county magistrate.
“As a county magistrate, instead of serving the people, he takes advantage of their hardship here to rob them!”
Jin Feng became even angrier when he heard this. He shouted coldly, “Da Liu, smash it!”
“Yes!”
Da Liu answered and stepped forward to kick over the only wooden table in the shed.
The middle-aged man, probably used to bullying others with his master’s power, became furious when he saw Da Liu really daring to smash the stall. He shouted at the group of thugs, “Are you blind? Someone is causing trouble! What are you standing there for? Beat them up!”
“Liao steward, they dare to smash the stall even after hearing the county magistrate’s name. They are probably not ordinary people!”
One of the thugs quietly reminded him.
It was a joke. The escorts Jin Feng brought clearly were not to be trifled with, and their numbers far exceeded theirs. Charging forward would just be asking for a beating.
“As long as they are in this county’s territory, even a dragon must coil for me, and even a tiger must lie down for me!”
The middle-aged man roared, “All of you, beat them! Beat them to death! If anything happens, my master will take responsibility!”
The thugs could see that Jin Feng’s identity was not simple. How could the middle-aged man not see it?
But before coming out, Magistrate Liao had specially instructed him that no matter who caused trouble, he must not back down.
For the powerful families, this was a golden opportunity to make money. The more stalls a family set up, the more they earned.
So the middle-aged man thought Jin Feng and his group had been sent by another powerful family to cause trouble.
This checkpoint was one of the largest official roads for entering and leaving Sichuan, and also one of the most profitable stalls. If he withdrew the stall just because Jin Feng said a few words, his position as steward would be finished when he returned.
Since someone above would bear the consequences anyway, and it was the thugs who would do the fighting, how could the middle-aged man possibly back down?
Unfortunately, he had guessed Jin Feng’s identity wrongly.
With the middle-aged man saying this much, the thugs had no choice but to brace themselves and charge forward even though they were afraid.
Da Zhuang and the others had once been common people themselves, so they naturally had no goodwill toward these lackeys of the powerful. Seeing that the thugs still dared to fight back, they did not even need Jin Feng’s order. They rushed forward in a swarm and beat the thugs until they cried and howled in pain.
By the time the escorts pulled back, not a single thug could still stand.
The middle-aged steward did not escape either. Da Liu directly broke both of his legs, leaving him rolling on the ground in agony.
“Sir, we found five carts of ironware and one cart of millet at the back. What should we do with them?”
Houzi came over and asked.
Jin Feng glanced at Houzi without answering.
“You usually have so many clever ideas. Why are you acting stupid now? A few carts of scrap metal. We cannot take them with us anyway. Just dump them on the ground over there. Whoever among the common people wants to pick them up can do so!”
Tang Xiaobei saw that Jin Feng was in a bad mood and said irritably, “Do you really need to bother your husband with such a small matter?”
“Understood!”
Houzi finally noticed that Jin Feng’s expression was wrong and quickly slipped away.
“Let’s go!”
Jin Feng looked at the thugs moaning all over the ground and the stall that had been smashed into chaos. Suddenly he felt somewhat bored.
With his status, bullying a group of lackeys gave him no sense of achievement. Instead, his heart felt even more irritated.
Because he knew that right now, all over Sichuan, there were such lackeys everywhere, and such stalls taking advantage of people’s desperation everywhere!
He could not go and smash them one by one, beat them one by one.
The best solution was still to target the powerful families.
Only by dealing with the powerful families could the problem truly be solved at its root.
