Oh my god, how did we become the sheep that sticks out? ! How did we become the chicken that is killed to scare the monkeys? !
Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu were so scared that they collapsed on the ground, cowering in fear. Not a trace of blood could be seen on their faces, and cold sweat kept pouring down their foreheads. Their fat bodies could not stop shaking and shivering like sieves, as if they had been electrocuted at the same time.
In the eyes of Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu, the smile on the officer's face next to them looked like the smile of a prisoner when he was given his last meal before being executed, eerie and terrifying.
A breeze blew by, like the howling of a ghost. The clear sky suddenly darkened, and the air around them seemed to have turned into a bloody mouth, swallowing the two alive.
The sky is clear and there is no rain, but it is raining heavily under the crotches of two people!
God knows how Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu got to the county government office; even they themselves couldn't remember.
When they arrived at the gate of the county government office, their minds were still blank. They walked over the threshold like zombies, staggered, and almost fell to the ground.
"Manager Lu, Manager Tai, please come this way. Please wait inside for a moment. The county magistrate will come after he finishes his official business."
The officer made a gesture of invitation and led the two men to a classroom on the left side of the outer hall of the county government.
"Hey, thank you for your help, thank you for your help..."
Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu both clasped their fists and thanked him with trembling voices.
Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu looked up at the classroom in front of them. In their eyes, the classroom seemed to come alive all of a sudden, and turned into a pitch-black, squatting evil ghost with bared teeth. The two doors were like its bloody mouth, the kind that allowed people to enter but not exit!
"please."
The officer stood at the door, made a gesture of invitation, and watched the two men walk into the classroom.
"Hey hey..."
Under the watchful eyes of the officers, Shopkeepers Tai and Lu pushed open the door of the classroom with trembling hands.
I am dying, I am dying...
Shopkeepers Tai and Lu were trembling all over, and walked in with the mentality of stepping into the execution ground.
It was sunny outside, but a little dark inside the room. The light difference between inside and outside was so great that the two of them seemed to be blind the moment they entered.
"Hey, isn't this Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu? Now everyone is here, come on, sit over here."
As soon as the two entered the room and hadn't adjusted to the light difference yet, they heard a familiar voice.
"Old Xing?!"
Shopkeepers Tai and Lu immediately recognized the owner of the voice and cried out in surprise.
Lao Xing is another grain merchant in the county town, but he is not in the same street as them. Due to the long distance, the three companies do not have a direct competitive relationship and their relationship is relatively good.
Old Xing is here too?!
And what does Old Xing mean by "everyone is here"?! Does it mean there are other people in this room?!
In an instant, myriad thoughts and emotions flooded into the minds of Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu. They hurriedly rubbed their eyes, adapted to the light difference in the room, and looked up to see a group of people sitting in the room. The one in the front was Old Xing who had just spoken.
There were more than 30 people sitting behind Old Xing. Both of them looked familiar. These 30 people were all grain merchants in the county. Some were from the county, and a few were from the towns below.
The two of them took a quick look and found that basically all the grain merchants in Jingnan County were gathered in this room, including the owners of the three largest grain merchants in the county.
It turns out that all the grain merchants in the county have been invited! The county magistrate can't possibly kill them all, right? !
So, in this case, we are not the sheep that stick out and the chicken that is killed as a warning to others? !
Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu looked at each other in surprise, both feeling as if they had escaped death.
"Haha, everyone is here. I, Lao Tai/Lao Lu, am late. Please forgive me, please forgive me."
Shopkeepers Tai and Lu bowed to the grain merchants and finally smiled again.
"Hahahaha, Shopkeeper Tai and Shopkeeper Lu, look at the way you two looked just now. If I didn't know, I would have thought you were being executed."
Among the grain merchants there was a shopkeeper named Han, who was an old acquaintance of the two of them, and he said jokingly.
"Come on, Old Han, you were no better than the other two when you came in. When a crow falls on a pig, no one can say who is wrong."
As soon as Shopkeeper Han finished speaking, other grain merchants began to laugh at him in the same tone.
Ha ha ha ha…
There was a burst of laughter in the room and the atmosphere suddenly became cheerful.
Except for the seven or eight grain merchants in the west of the county town, when they first received the notice from the runners that the county magistrate had invited them, they all thought they were chosen to be the first to be punished, and they were in a state of panic. After seeing the other grain merchants in the board room, they breathed a sigh of relief, and the haze was cleared. The county magistrate would not kill all the grain merchants.
"Tell me, why did the county magistrate invite us here?"
Manager Liu of the Fushu Grain Store was a cautious person. He first stood on a chair to observe outside the window, then lay at the door and listened for a while. After making sure that no one was outside, he spoke to everyone.
"You are squatting in the toilet asking about the smell - you are asking even though you already know the answer. What else can you do for this stall? It's all about the price of grain!" Shopkeeper Han rolled his eyes and said unhappily.
"The county magistrate must have invited us here to lower the price of grain!" Several grain merchants present responded without thinking.
"What do you think we should do if the county magistrate comes and asks us to lower the price of grain?" asked Manager Liu.
"How much will it be reduced? The price of grain is rising three times a day now. It's ok for us to reduce the price of one stone of grain by three or five cents based on the outside grain price. If we reduce it more than that, it won't work! These days, it's getting more and more difficult for us to purchase grain. It's hard to buy grain in Jiangnan. We can only go to Bashu in the west or Shandong in the north to buy grain. Not to mention the long journey, the local grain prices have also risen. The food and freight costs along the way are a huge expense. And the road is not safe either. When our manager came back yesterday, we were robbed. A group of bandits who looked like refugees came roaring in. If it weren't for the guards who fought hard, we would not be able to keep the grain we transported with great effort... The cost is so high, how can the price not increase?! If we reduce the price and lose the profit, why do we work so hard?!" said a shopkeeper present.
“Don’t surrender?! Are you going to die? The two shopkeepers Mi and Wang who were beheaded in Taizhou City are a lesson for us! And in Taiping County, I heard that Shopkeeper Zhang of Zhang’s Grain Store was arrested, and they said he would be executed at noon tomorrow! The same is true in Linhai County, three grain merchants were arrested and sent to prison... Our magistrate is using courtesy before force. If we agree to lower the price, it will be fine. If we disagree, I’m afraid he will learn the magistrate’s thundering methods!” After hearing this, a shopkeeper nearby shook his head and smiled bitterly.
"Humph! If we advance and retreat together and grit our teeth, I don't believe he can still kill us all! The imperial court is obviously unable to provide relief now. Without us grain merchants to transport grain, the people of this county will starve to death!" Shopkeeper Wang sneered. He was a money-loving person and was unwilling to lower the price, not even by three or five cents per stone of grain.
"How can we, with our flesh and blood, fight against the government?" said the shopkeeper who had just spoken with a wry smile.
"Resist, why should we resist? If I am not welcome here, I will go somewhere else! If you force me to lower the price, I will not sell grain in Jingnan anymore. There are many places in the south of the Yangtze River suffering from disasters, so I will just sell it somewhere else." A thin shopkeeper with a tuft of beard on his chin sneered.
He was one of the three largest grain merchants in the county. His name was Yang Zhen. He was the owner of Yangji Grain Store and also the most influential grain merchant in Jingnan.
"Yes, what Manager Yang said makes sense. The world is bustling with people all for the sake of profit! Why do we work so hard to transport grain? It's to make money. If he forces us to lower the price, we won't go against him, lest we get caught and have our heads chopped off. If we can't be welcome here, we'll find other places to stay!" Upon hearing this, many grain merchants' eyes lit up and they followed suit.