Chapter 21: Stabilizing the Basics (I)
Perhaps he would soon be hungry, or perhaps Zhu Youquan already knew that the head of the police had come to support Huo Chong. Zhu Youquan sat at the door of Huo Chong's house until the evening, and the next day he was not seen outside the door.
Huo Chong hurried to see the captain. He gave him a hundred bucks, and the captain took it with a smile, then said: "Huo Chong, I can only stay here for one more day. If you need me to do anything, you have to hurry up."
One hundred coins is one hundred coins. In a remote place like Zhangdian, it is definitely not a small amount of money, but Huo Chong thinks it is worth it. He whispered his request to the captain, who nodded, "Is that all?"
Huo Chong replied with a bitter face: "Those people say that I am a bad person, but I am really not a bad person. They only know how to bully me, so they are the bad people."
The head constable smiled and said nothing, and left with the constables. Huo Chong followed from a distance with his junior fellow apprentices, and saw the head constable walking along the way. When he arrived at the door of a prominent figure's house, he would greet him. The prominent figure naturally did not want to offend the official, and spoke to the head constable very politely.
Walking and walking, walking and walking. The head of the police led the detectives out of Liujia Village and arrived at Lijia Village after a long journey. Li Tongshan saw the head of the police coming and greeted him with a smile. The head of the police did not say much, and after chatting for a few words, he continued to wander around the village.
After the police chief and other officers left, Huo Chong and his apprentice knocked on the door of Li Tongshan's house. Li Tongshan was a little surprised to see Huo Chong coming. Although he was a little reluctant, he still invited Huo Chong in.
As soon as he entered the door, Huo Chong said straight to the point: "Brother Li, I want a thousand glass bottles."
If it was a normal transaction, Li Tongshan would naturally negotiate the price after hearing Huo Chong's order, or at least start the conversation with some politeness. Li Tongshan just frowned and replied, "Brother Huo, this won't work."
Huo Chong did not blame Li Tongshan, and asked straightforwardly: "Brother Li, do those people hate me so much?"
Li Tongshan probably didn't expect Huo Chong to be so straightforward. He was stunned for a moment before he sighed: "Brother Huo, you have offended too many people this time."
Huo Chong took something out of his bag and shook the glass bottle of distilled liquor in front of Li Tongshan. "Let's drink while we talk."
"I can't control this wine." Li Tongshan immediately became excited.
Huo Chong took out another smoked rabbit, and when he smelled it, Li Tongshan was a little shaken. Huo Chong smiled and said, "Have someone roast the rabbit again, it will taste good when heated up. I diluted the wine so that it won't burn your throat ."
Soon, Li Tongshan and Huo Chong sat face to face. After looking at the glass bottle for the nth time, Li Tongshan finally said, "Brother Huo, the stove you made for me is really good. But you have offended all the surrounding villages."
Huo Chong immediately corrected Li Tongshan's statement, "Don't! Brother Li, at most I have offended a few people who wanted to take advantage of me, but I have never offended everyone in the surrounding villages."
Seeing that Huo Chong was so serious, Li Tongshan just shook his head.
Huo Chong poured wine for Li Tongshan, "Brother Li, try this."
Li Tongshan picked up the wine glass, smelled it, took a sip, and his nervous expression immediately relaxed, "This wine tastes good."
Huo Chong smiled. Modern brewing technology mainly involves blending wine. The so-called five-year or ten-year aging does not mean that the whole tank of wine has been aged for five or ten years. Wine is divided into head wine and base wine. The head wine has a high alcohol concentration and is aged for five or ten years. The wine blended with the base wine is the so-called five-year or ten-year aging.
Huo Chong now has new wine in his hands, but just by using this blending method, he can freely control the intensity of the wine without changing the basic taste of the wine.
Seeing that Li Tongshan could accept this blended wine, Huo Chong felt relieved. Zhu Erniu was indeed not a boaster. If he was taught some techniques, he would be able to execute them.
After they drank a cup, Huo Chong said, "Brother Li, I need bottles. Even if I don't have a thousand, I'll have to have three hundred."
Li Tongshan kept shaking his head, "Brother Huo, do you think those people don't know? As long as I burn the bottle, they will know that I am helping you."
"That's easy. I'll ask the captain to sit outside your house, and those people will know that I forced Brother Li to burn the bottle for me. I'm already a bad guy, so I don't worry about the debts or the lice."
Li Tongshan frowned. It seemed that he heard that Huo Chong's solution was actually a threat. But Huo Chong didn't care. Since he had already used the power of the government, he naturally had to use it as much as possible. In fact, Huo Chong said that there was no need for the head of the police to lock people up. Only then did the head of the police accept the money and leave.
But the captain knew, but Li Tongshan didn't. Huo Chong wanted to take advantage of this intelligence gap to make Li Tongshan think the situation was even worse.
Thinking of this, Huo Chong smiled and said, "Since the police chief won't come in to arrest us anyway, Brother Li should just help me burn a thousand bottles."
Li Tongshan's face looked even uglier. But he was able to keep his composure. After thinking for a while, he said, "Brother Huo, why don't you ask the head of the police to come to my door. I'll go and light a fire."
Soon, the sound of iron chains rattling could be heard at the door of Li Tongshan's house. Huo Chong approached the yard. Li Tongshan didn't light a fire at all, but just stretched his ears to listen in the yard. Compared with the look of Huo Chong going out, Li Tongshan's face was a little uglier.
Huo Chong walked up to Li Tongshan and whispered, "I won't hide it from you, Brother Li. The southern barbarian who was with me last time was a relative of County Magistrate Xu. I made these wines for him. Brother Li, burn the bottles. That guy will come back in two days, take the things and leave. If he doesn't get them, I can't say what he will do."
Li Tongshan's eyes lit up, and it seemed that he had understood the relationship behind this matter. Huo Chong leaned close to Li Tongshan's ear and said sincerely: "Brother Li, I have told you this, please don't tell anyone else."
Li Tongshan knew why he was blocked at the door and didn't say anything more. He just said, "Okay. I'll go light a fire."
When Xu Youlin and his team appeared in front of Huo Chong's house again, the head of the police had already returned to the county town. Huo Chong invited everyone to come in and sit down, but Xu Youlin didn't answer and went straight into the house. He saw that there were already hundreds of bottles in the yard, and jars of wine were placed under the eaves. With so many objects, the originally empty house immediately felt like a rich family.
The fierceness on his face disappeared. Xu Youlin opened the lids of the jars one by one and smelled them. He also asked for a bottle of wine and tasted them one by one. Then he said to Huo Chong, "Brother Huo, let's talk about the price."
Xu Youlin was so straightforward, Huo Chong also answered straightforwardly: "Give me fifty taels, and I'll take all of these."
"No!" Xu Youlin rolled his eyes at Huo Chong as hard as he could. As a result, he looked like a sleeping big bad wolf.
Huo Chong raised the price again, "Thirty taels."
"Three or two."
"Twenty taels." Huo Chong continued to bid.
"Ten taels. That's all I have!" Xu Youlin's voice was filled with the helplessness of telling the truth.
"Ten taels is fine. You have to leave me all the iron things you brought."
"An iron thing? That's not worth ten taels!" Xu Youlin immediately refused.
Huo Chong whispered, "Li Tongshan is unreliable. I want to make the colored glaze myself. I can't do it without iron."
Hearing this, Xu Youlin stopped bargaining. After thinking for a while, he made up his mind and replied: " You can come with me to transport wine. There are some iron tools on the boat that you can use."
