Ming Dynasty: pacifying the rebellion and defending the border, dominating the world

Chapter 401 An outrageous demand, leaving one speechless with despair.
"This lord."

Xu Fengnian clasped his hands in greeting to Sikong Zhaixing and asked in confusion, "I have just arrived in the Ming Dynasty and have always been law-abiding. I am not very familiar with Wang Xianzhi and Huang Longshi. It just so happens that we met today."

"This...shouldn't have anything to do with me, young master?"

"No problem, no problem." Sikong Zhaixing smiled with narrowed eyes: "This matter has nothing to do with you, otherwise you wouldn't be here safe and sound right now."

"That……"

Xu Fengnian hesitated for a moment, somewhat puzzled.

"Don't worry, it's nothing serious." Sikong Zhaixing smiled broadly, pulled out an abacus from somewhere, and pointed to the surrounding environment: "This Mr. Li Chungang just now had a sword intent that soared to the sky, turning Zuichunlou into ruins."

"You two have come from afar and disrupted the businesses of the people of my Great Ming Dynasty. Shouldn't you compensate us accordingly?"

Li Chungang's lips twitched, and he subconsciously looked at Xu Fengnian.

Having lived most of his life, Li Chungang had paid for his meals and drinks before, but this was the first time he had ever had to pay for a building he had damaged in a fight, or rather, had anyone dare to ask him for money.

Xu Fengnian paused for a moment, then laughed heartily: "No problem."

"It's just a brothel. Just name your price, and I won't pay a single penny less."

The Crown Prince of Beiliang: When Xu Xiao conquered the six kingdoms, no one had a clear idea of ​​how much wealth he plundered. But one thing was certain: the Beiliang Royal Palace could support 300,000 Beiliang cavalry, making it incredibly wealthy.

Let alone one brothel, it could destroy all the brothels in the capital.

Xu Fengnian can afford to pay the compensation.

“It’s good that the young master acknowledges it.” A sly glint flashed in Sikong Zhaixing’s eyes. He picked up his abacus and began calculating rapidly. Suddenly, he noticed the swords lying around Zuichunlou out of the corner of his eye, and looked up again: “And these…”

"When Mr. Li Chungang gave the order to draw his sword, he borrowed all the swords in the capital city for a battle, causing countless casualties."

"Look..."

Li Chungang was speechless. Since he became famous for his sword and ascended to the position of Sword Immortal in the Jianghu of Liyang, this was the first time he had encountered something so outrageous.

He is the Sword Immortal of Liyang, the Sword God in Green Robes.

After the battle with the swordsman who borrowed the swords, do I still need to pay compensation at the original price?
Will he still dare to shout "Sword, come!" and borrow swords from the whole city to fight against powerful enemies when he gets into a fight in the future?
"pay!"

Xu Fengnian noticed the increasingly hostile gazes lurking in the darkness near Zuichunlou and immediately shouted, "No matter how much it costs, it's all on my tab, Xu Fengnian's."

"Very well, Your Highness is truly magnanimous!"

Upon hearing this, Sikong Zhaixing's face instantly lit up with a radiant smile.

Only Lu Xiaofeng's gaze towards Xu Fengnian and Li Chungang revealed a hint of pity.

Lu Xiaofeng didn't want to bring up Sikong Zhaixing's past, but after spending time with her since she joined the Secret Guard, he knew her personality all too well now.

Animals leave their skins as they pass by, geese are plucked as they fly by.

This refers to Sikong Zhaixing today.

If he were to calculate this, Lu Xiaofeng had no doubt that Xu Fengnian would be so badly cheated by Sikong Zhaixing that he wouldn't even have enough money for the return trip, and that Liyang would have to send people to transport a large amount of gold and silver to ransom him.

really……

"Zuichunlou is the number one brothel in the Ming Dynasty, a renowned brand that rakes in money every day."

"Furthermore, Zuichunlou has become famous because of the martial arts legend Zhang Sanfeng, so it is bound to rise to even greater heights."

"Previously, daily revenue was around 20,000 taels."

"Now we're calculating based on 50,000 taels per day."

"This Drunken Spring Pavilion is already abandoned. The reconstruction period is calculated at three months, which means..." "Two million eight hundred thousand taels of silver."

"The labor costs and various materials amounted to approximately 700,000 taels."

"That is……"

"Wait, wait a minute."

Xu Fengnian quickly stopped Sikong Zhaixing, who was busy calculating the losses with an abacus. Pointing at the Drunken Spring Pavilion at his feet, he asked angrily with an expression that said, "You're treating me like a pig to be slaughtered?" "This brothel costs seven hundred thousand taels of silver?"

This amount of money is enough to build a palace.

Sikong Zhaixing spread his hands with an innocent expression and said, "Rebuilding a Zuichun Pavilion would naturally not cost that much money, but there is one thing that Prince Xu needs to know: Zuichun Pavilion is also a stronghold of the Ming Dynasty's Eastern Depot and Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"What you see on the surface is naturally worthless."

"But I still have to give an explanation to the other brothers, don't I?"

The strongholds of the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard?
Lu Xiaofeng's eyes twitched violently. The latter was one thing, but the Eastern Depot's stronghold was Zuichunlou? Was Sikong Zhaixing not afraid that Cao Zhengchun of the Eastern Depot would send someone to knock him unconscious at night and take him to the Eastern Depot to be castrated!
On the contrary, Xu Fengnian was somewhat skeptical because he didn't know much about it.

"If Your Highness does not believe me..."

Sikong Zhaixing looked around and quickly summoned several "witnesses," including members of the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Upon seeing this, Lu Xiaofeng's expression froze, and Xu Fengnian could only admit it with a mournful face.

Anyone could see that Sikong Zhaixing was asking for an exorbitant amount.

But coincidentally, the few people that Sikong Zhaixing specially recruited were indeed from the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Li Chungang's eyes twitched violently, and he could no longer suppress the urge to draw his sword.

Xu Fengnian couldn't hear it, but Li Chungang noticed that Sikong Zhaixing had just communicated with those Eastern Depot servants and Embroidered Uniform Guards through telepathy.

"Come out and cooperate. When you get back, tell your Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Qinglong, that he will give your Northern Garrison Command 100,000 taels of silver."

“Those guys from the Eastern Depot, come here and admit it. If your Chief Supervisor Cao knew that you brought back 100,000 taels of silver, he would definitely reward you handsomely.”

Who wouldn't love free money?

With the opportunity to be promoted and gain the favor of superiors right in front of them, who would refuse to cooperate?

Therefore, the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard cooperated to admit that Zuichunlou was indeed an intelligence base for their two agencies, and that it contained a large number of secrets. They claimed that transferring it would require a lot of manpower and resources, and that it would be necessary to rebuild the intelligence network, which was a blatant lie.

Soon, the people from the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard left happily with the IOU that Sikong Zhaixing had written for them.

Before long, a group of swordsmen who had received the news gathered around.

"Lord Sikong, you are wise. My sword just flew this way and is now shattered on the ground. I heard that you are here to help us. This is the receipt for the purchase from the Hua Family Merchant Guild."

"My sword is a famous sword produced by the Famous Sword Manor. It cost me fifty taels of silver. What do you think..."

"My lord, you must do us justice! My sword was obtained from Mount Hua, it's priceless, a family heirloom, but now it's broken in two."

"Yes, sir. My sword is the famous sword Bai Xue, which was once used by Ye Gucheng, the Sword Immortal of the South Sea. Ye Gucheng once defeated 173 enemies with Bai Xue and drank countless blood. It is a rare and famous sword and divine weapon. It cannot be broken in vain."

Xu Fengnian's face fell completely as he listened to the outrageous offers from the martial arts masters. He knew Sikong Zhaixing would definitely ask for an exorbitant price, and he was prepared to bleed a lot.

Who told him to be so unlucky as to get caught up in the vortex of that so-called Heaven's Mark?

However, Xu Fengnian never dreamed that Sikong Zhaixing wasn't just asking for an exorbitant price, but was actually going to rip him off completely!

Having witnessed the whole thing, Lu Xiaofeng now looked at Sikong Zhaixing with a hint of fear in his eyes. He could guess roughly what the compensation from Zuichunlou was. Could those swordsmen in the martial arts world have also been specially arranged by Sikong Zhaixing?

Is this an attempt to completely squeeze every last bit of value out of this Prince of Beiliang?

(End of this chapter)