Chapter 170 Beggars Gang Leader
There is a price to pay for showing off. If you can afford the price, you are awesome. If you can’t, you are just an idiot.
Zhao Yushu didn’t know yet what the price would be for coming to Wangjianglou’s house and slapping him hard in the face late at night, but he didn’t care. If he cared, he wouldn’t have done it.
Within one day, he let Prince Fu, Duke Yue and the people behind Jiangning Academy know that he had arrived in Jiangning, and that they were coming with great force. With his deeds in Nanyang and his reputation as Mr. Liu, these giants would not be able to remain calm no matter how calm they were. Zhao Yushu had already sensed that all kinds of overt and covert tricks would soon come, and Jiangning, with its undercurrents, would soon become a pot of boiling water.
The arrival of Princess Fuwang proves that the previous arrangements of various factions in Jiangning can no longer hold up, and more important figures will arrive later. He wants to go back to the Taoist temple to meet Sun Wuyang and ask who is behind the Jiangning Academy.
"Junior brother, you are really unexpected." After listening to what Zhao Yushu had seen and heard that day, Sun Wuyang took a long time to digest it.
"I think that investigating secretly is too slow. It's better to make a show of force to scare the tiger. Uh, it's also okay to startle the snake by stirring up trouble."
"It's time to use some tricks. I didn't have much hope. Wang Yan is surprisingly tight-lipped, and given his identity, no one dares to use some powerful tricks on him. Junior brother, you have found out that he is indeed Prince Fu's man, which is a breakthrough. But I didn't expect Princess Li Tong to come."
Zhao Yushu thought about it and asked the question that had been bothering him for two days: "Jiangning Academy is against us?"
"Haha, it's more than just incompatibility, it's simply like fire and water. To be honest, there are many talented people in Jiangnan. Half of the people in the court are from Jiangnan. But Jiangnan scholars always want to go to our academy whenever they have the chance. For example, Shanshan and I, if you were the chief priest of Jiangning Academy, would you be angry?"
"I'm afraid he's going to die of rage."
"Hahaha, that's right. They have been at odds since the previous dynasty. It's not time for this old chief priest of Jiangning Academy to retire, but he is too petty. He has been fighting with our chief priest Wen for decades, losing every year. Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore and resigned."
Zhao Yushu suddenly realized: "No wonder that Master Zheng looked at me like he saw a ghost tonight. He probably thought I came to cause trouble for him before he took office. But he was not wrong, even though it was a coincidence."
Sun Wuyang nodded: "As for the backers of Jiangning Academy, it is no secret. There are two backers, one is the Duke of Yue, and the other is..."
Seeing Sun Wuyang pointing his finger upwards, Zhao Yushu suddenly realized, Your Majesty, so this means that Duke Yue is really a die-hard fan of yours?
"It's late at night, I won't bother you anymore, I'll go shopping again tomorrow, maybe I can get something else."
"Hey wait!"
Sun Wuyang grabbed Zhao Yushu.
"What's the matter, brother?"
"Is Miss Wanqing pretty?"
"..."
The next morning, Zhao Yushu, who was yawning, was pulled up by A Yao.
"If you can't come up with a good reason, I'll deduct one month's salary from you. Do you know how late I went to bed yesterday?"
"I heard from Brother Sun that you were looking for information everywhere. You were busy all day, and I was also busy yesterday."
"Oh? You're looking for information too?"
"Of course. Do you know where the information is most circulated?"
Zhao Yushu thought for a moment and said, "Brothel."
A Yao rolled his eyes and said, "Although what you said is not completely wrong, I hope you can occasionally remember that I am just a child."
"That's right. This kind of words won't hurt you. I have to talk to Senior Brother Sun first. Tell me, what's the matter?"
"beggar."
"beggar?"
"beggar."
There is an old saying (from the previous life) that wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes. Regardless of whether this saying is true or not, in this world, wherever there are people, there must be beggars.
There are two types of beggars. One type fights alone and has no food to eat. Not only do they suffer from the contempt of the rich every day, but they are also beaten and kicked by other beggars more often.
The second type has clear class divisions and territories. If you ask for too much, you have to pay tribute, and if you ask for too little, you will be beaten. They are commonly known as the Beggars' Gang.
In the books written by an old man in my previous life, the Beggars' Sect was full of heroes, and the King of the South Courtyard who appeared carrying his own sound system even raised the Beggars' Sect to the supreme position in the martial arts world. However, that was just a novel after all.
In this world, at least in Jiangning, the Beggars' Gang here are engaged in all kinds of despicable activities. Stealing is commonplace, cheating and deceiving are also basic operations, and even worse, extortion, kidnapping and even murder are possible.
"I was wandering around the city yesterday. No, I was gathering intelligence when I met a few beggars. They had just arrived in Jiangning not long ago, and the Beggars' Gang forced them to join. They happened to reveal some information."
"what news?"
"You come with me, they will tell you themselves, I spent more than ten coins for this."
"I'll reimburse you!" Zhao Yushu smiled and slapped A Yao, urging him to lead the way.
Although I don’t know what information these beggars can provide that is worth paying attention to, I might as well collect all the information now. What if?
This just in case really happened.
What's the best way to impress the little beggar? Of course, a few big meat buns that are so delicious that they make your mouth water.
Three beggars squatted in the corner and munched on buns. Zhao Yushu and A Yao squatted beside them, waiting patiently for them to finish eating.
"Master, if you have any questions, we will definitely answer them."
"Tell my eldest brother again what you told me yesterday." A Yao handed over an oil paper bag with a few buns inside.
The leading boy stuffed the oil-paper bag into his arms and said, "I understand, but these are all matters between adults, and we dare not gossip about them. If someone asks us about it later, we will not admit it."
Zhao Yushu smiled and said, "You are sensible. I am sorry that I have wronged you by being a beggar. Don't worry, I will leave after asking you. I have never seen you before."
The boy nodded and said, "Thank you for your understanding. The situation is this: they are my brother and sister-in-law. The three of us fled from the south to Jiangning. We were really hungry, so we found a place to ask for food. Then a few beggars beat us up, saying that this was their territory and we had to pay to join the Beggars' Gang before we could beg for food."
Zhao Yushu frowned, but said nothing, motioning the boy to continue.
"We can't even afford to eat, so how can we give them money? But we can't beat them either, so we can only beg them to let us go. They said they would give us three days' grace and we would have to pay one or two taels of silver. If we couldn't get it, they would break our hands and feet, and then someone would give us the money."
Zhao Yushu sighed and still said nothing. If he gave these children one or two taels of silver at this time, they would be blackmailed even more.
"My brother is stubborn and wants to sue the government. The other party said that they are not afraid of the government. The governor has to toast their leader when he sees him. He said, no matter how powerful the government is, can it be more powerful than the prince?"