A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 203 Making a Game
Wuji Castle.

Wu Yuanqing raised one foot and pointed at the footprints on his leather boots. "Guess how much my boots are worth?"

Menshu looked at the long boots, which were black leather boots that were polished to a shine, with yellow and green leather seams on the boot shafts, and the surface was dotted with various exquisite patterns, full of charm.

"The soles of my boots are made of hard cowhide. See? There are circles of iron nipples, which are both beautiful and non-slip. There is also a layer of wool lining inside the boots."

Menshuai scratched his head, "These boots must cost several hundred coins a pair, right?" He looked down at the Liuhe boots on his feet. They were made of seven pieces of black cowhide and had six seams, hence the name Liuhe black leather boots. These were sewn by his mother herself, and all court officials wore this kind of boots.

"How many hundred coins? This one costs ten rolls of silk, and this pair costs twenty rolls of silk."

Men Shuan was surprised, "A shoe is worth a cow?" He and A Lang had visited the East and West Markets in Chang'an. There were shoe shops and boot shops selling all kinds of shoes, but the cheapest straw sandals only cost a few coins, less than the price of a steamed bun.

Hemp shoes are only worth the money for a drink and a piece of cake.

The best Liuhe boots only cost three or four hundred coins and were extremely exquisite.

A pair of boots is worth two cows. This is something Mensuan cannot understand. Even though his mother has entered the palace to be the tutor of the sixth prince and has been granted the title of the third-rank Lady of Chongyi County, Mensuan is still quite simple.

"You stepped on my boots and made them dirty. You must pay me compensation. I wore these boots for the first time today as a gift to my teacher. You give me twenty pieces of silk and I'll give you the boots."

The bolt swallowed his throat.
Then he shouted loudly,

"Someone come, he's blackmailing me!"

Li Yi came over holding a tabby cat, followed by two sturdy dogs, Lai Fu and Wang Cai, one big and one small.

"Teacher, he blackmailed me,"

Zhang Guodong saw Li Yi and quickly pointed at Wu Yuanqing and shouted, "I accidentally stepped on his boots and apologized to him, and he asked me to pay two cows to buy his boots."

Wu Yuanqing saw Li Yi coming, but he still held up his foot. "Teacher, I didn't blackmail him. I bought these boots for twenty pieces of silk. This is my first time wearing them. If you don't believe me, you can ask my brother Yuanshuang, or even my mother."

Li Yi looked at his pair of exquisite leather boots,

Li Yi didn't think it was an exaggeration when he said it was worth two cows. For a noble, seven thousand two hundred coins for a pair of boots was normal. In the summer, villagers would sell their straw sandals at the bridgehead for just a few coins each, making a profit. The buyers were ordinary people, caravan workers, who wore out their shoes because of the heavy walking.

"Is what Zhang Guodong said true?" Li Yi asked.

"Well, he stepped on my new boots and made them dirty, so he has to buy them."

Li Yi stroked the cat in his arms.
"I don't know how you behaved at home before, but from now on, when you're here, you have to follow my rules. If someone accidentally steps on your foot, and it wasn't intentional, and they apologized, then you shouldn't be so petty. You are a man who pees while standing, not a woman who pees while squatting.
It won't break even if you step on it, and it will be clean after just a brush."

"Guodong, this is Wu Yuanqing, he's also my student now. You'll be brothers in the future. Please apologize to Junior Brother Wu again and help him clean up later. This matter ends here."

Wu Yuanqing was still a little unconvinced.
Li Yi looked at him seriously and said, "If you feel that I have treated you unfairly, then take your gifts and return to Chang'an and tell your father that I cannot accept you as my student."

Wu Yuanqing nodded somewhat resentfully.

"Guodong, take the five Wu brothers for a walk."

After dealing with this small matter, Li Yi came to the living room in the front yard.

"Ah Lang, you have to make the decision for me,"

In the living room, a woman wearing an old jacket with patches on top of patches and a pair of reed-leaf sandals was crying and telling her story.

Li Yi's eyes fell on the reed-catkin shoes. These were warm shoes for the poor in winter. The soles were made of straw, and the uppers were woven with a mixture of straw and reed catkins. These shoes, made by twisting reed catkins into straw ropes and then weaving them, were exclusively for the poor. They looked like a bird's nest and were quite warm when first worn, but these shoes were not durable and not waterproof.

"This year, there are wars and chaos everywhere, and many people can't even eat. We met Alang, and he lent us food to tide us over the famine, and also arranged some work for us. This year, my family and I worked hard and earned some money and food.
Seeing that it was the end of the year, I could have bought some cloth to make new clothes for my children and cut some meat to have a snack, but who knew that the devil was bewitched.
He gambled with others and lost all the money he had worked hard to earn in a year in just a few days. He also signed many IOUs with his fingerprints and was in debt.
I said a few words to him, and he hit me. Look at my face and body, they are all bruised, not a single piece of skin is intact. This heartless man even wanted to sell me to pay off his debts."

"Ah Lang, please save me. I have elderly parents and children at home. I can't survive this any longer."

The woman was crying and sobbing.

She is in her forties and is from Gaojiabao next door. She is a female worker in Li Yi's tofu skin workshop. Her husband Gao Dayan works in the persimmon-baked workshop. They are both the kind of people who work very hard and diligently.

But now it’s the end of the year,

But the woman came crying with wounds all over her body.

In the living room, Li Yi was sitting on the kang, leaning against a small stool. A tabby cat was snoring on his legs, and two dogs were lying on the edge of the kang.

There was also a stove in the room with a kettle on top.

There were several small windows on the thick Huji wall, but now they have been replaced with oyster shell windows, which are bright even in this gloomy winter day.

Du Ping'an, Shi Niang's companion, was the accountant in the outer courtyard. He sat in a corner of the kang, counting accounts at a table. On the right side of his table was an abacus, with a rectangular wooden frame and a horizontal beam dividing it into two parts, the upper part with two beads and the lower part with five beads, and a straight column running through it.

This abacus has a total of fifteen levels. Alang asked a craftsman to make it for use by people in the church. The upper bead represents five, and the lower bead represents one. When calculating, the beads are moved to calculate. It can be used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and there is even a set of abacus formulas.

But Du Ping'an was not used to it yet. He always made mistakes while calculating, and had to fiddle with the abacus sticks he had used for decades to check from time to time.

The abacus beads clattered so loudly that he had no time to listen to the woman's crying. It was the end of the year and all the accounts had to be settled. It was an urgent task.

Luo San, Luo Er, Liu Heizi and others were also sitting on the kang, some were making tea, some were counting, and no one disturbed them.

Beside the stove, there are several wooden couches.

Luo Sanniang served a cup of tea to the tall, big-eyed bride.
Li Yi waited until the woman finished her sobbing, then petted the cat and asked Liu Heizi, "Do you know anything about this?"

"I heard that Gao Dayan lost a lot of money. This year, the couple lost all the wages they earned from our workshop, including the New Year benefits, and even the scholarship for his son.

He still owes a lot of money, and people are holding IOUs to demand payment. He can't even sell his land to pay it back, and he even has to sell his wife and daughter." Li Yi frowned.

"So cruel? Is the other party also from our village?"

He felt that something was not right. If the villagers gambled on their own during the New Year, it was possible, but it was impossible for them to gamble so fiercely, and they would not demand repayment so harshly. He smelled a hint of a conspiracy.

"There are some from this township, and some from the surrounding townships. They are all some rogues from the surrounding area. Gao Dayan might have been set up," Liu Heizi was also well-informed.

Li Yi asked, "I'm afraid Gao Dayan is not the only one who lost money in gambling and is in debt?"

"Well, these people set up a gambling house in a scoundrel's house in Gaojiabao. They've been gambling for several days. They've dragged a lot of people to gamble, and many of them lost money."

Li Yi snorted coldly, already very certain.

This is a pig-killing scam.

Isn't this just like those gangsters and con men in later generations who would go out to gamble as soon as payday came in the factory, and drag the workers into gambling. The wages they worked hard to earn would be laundered overnight.

These people are not just gambling, they are cheating.

Obviously, it's the end of the year.
This year, thanks to Li Yi's several workshops, many villagers in this village have received extra income, and even have cash.

Those rogues came to set up gambling games,

"How dare you come here and cause trouble."

These people are so brave.

It's not a small amount of money scam,

Instead, they want to deceive people into losing everything and selling their land and daughters.

People like Gao Dayan are not worthy of pity, but they are Li Yi's neighbors, and the couple are also workers in Li Yi's workshop. Their child is studying at Wuji Academy. He is very talented and hardworking, and he has won a first-class scholarship.

This time, Gao Dayan was not the only one who was deceived.

"Heizi, go get Guo Erlang, Feng Liulang, and Wang Lizheng, the village chief."

"What is Lang going to do?"

"Needless to say? These people set up gambling scams, tricked people into gambling, defrauded them of their money, and even forced innocent people into slavery. Any one of these is enough to get them exiled.

Go gather our unity camp and arrest people!"

Liu Heizi was excited when he heard this. "Okay, I'll go right away, but I suggest that we don't make too much noise to avoid alerting the enemy. In fact, there are only about ten scoundrels in that group. We can just call some servants and that will be enough."

"Well, notify Mayor Wang, Lizheng Wang, as well as Xiangzuo Feng and Guo Erlang. You can also invite Coach Zhang and the other Imperial Guards brothers to come along."

The tall and bright-eyed bride was very grateful when she heard that Li Yi was going to take action. She repeatedly asked her husband whether she could get back the money and grain she had lost in the gambling, and whether the IOU with her fingerprints on it was still valid.

"Aunt Gao, please stay here for now. Don't go home for now, and don't think too much. I will handle this matter properly."

Catch a bet,
In fact, Li Yi was only able to lead Zhang Yongan and Liu Heizi, but he still notified the village head, village assistant, and village head.

This time he intends to purify the atmosphere.

Clean up this scum.

He even sent someone to the Wannian County Government Office in Chang'an City to report to County Magistrate Xin.

If you're going to clean up, do it harshly.

They were stirring up trouble in his territory. Although they didn't dare to attack the Li family directly, they dared to attack the workers in the Li family's workshop this time. Would they dare to attack the Li family's servants next time?

Then head to the Li family?
Township head Wang and others arrived soon.

Li Yi said to him rudely, "Village Chief Wang, this is a serious dereliction of duty on your part. How could you sit back and watch a bunch of scoundrels set up a scheme to defraud people?"

When Village Chief Wang saw that Li Yi didn't even call him Uncle Wang but just referred to his position directly, he immediately knew that Li Yi was angry.

Facing this current Shallow Water Earl and Fengyi Palace Supervisor, Township Chief Wang did not dare to be arrogant and quickly admitted his mistake, "It's all my fault."

"Let's not talk about this for now. Let's first compile a list of those guys. After dark, we'll go and shut them up in their gambling operation and catch them red-handed!"

"Yes, I will listen to Director Li."

At that moment, a capture team was organized, led by Li Yi, the shallow water master, and then Wang Xiangzhang Feng Xiangzuo, as well as Wang Lizheng, Guo Cunzhang, and Luo San, the village chief.

The main force for the arrest was Zhao Yongan and his four imperial guards, as well as the servants of several local officials, who were also listed in the Unity Camp.

Bow and arrow, spear, small shield, broadsword,

Four imperial guards, each commanding ten household servants, plus the village chief Li Yiwang and others, formed a capture team.

"We're using a sledgehammer to kill a chicken."

Looking at the group of people in the room, and the bows, swords, spears and shields, Liu Heizi couldn't help but sigh. Why did those guys have to mess with Li Yi? Isn't it like lighting a light in the toilet and seeking death?

(End of this chapter)