The world of film and television begins with the God of Medicine.

Chapter 1644 Wave after wave

"Why did you guys provoke him?"

In the dimly lit cell, Qian Boyuan squatted on the ground, writing a letter while complaining about the two traitors beside him.

With members of the White Lotus Sect around him, coupled with the Tea Merchants Association's dominance and Wang Yan's polite manner, even though he tried his best to respect Wang Yan, the gangster leader, he couldn't help but gradually let contempt take over his mind.

This was his habit, his long-standing habit of lording it over others. The Yang, Bai, and Liu families of the past never had the confidence to negotiate with him. What could he do if he refused? Even the White Lotus Sect had to politely come and discuss it with them. Unlike Wang Yan, who slapped people first, then detained them, and openly robbed them.

Song Cheng snorted: "That's not what Mr. Qian said when he threatened people with the Tea Merchants Association."

"Wasn't that all instigated by you? If it weren't for you, how would I, a mere tea merchant, have dared to speak ill of such a tyrant who would wipe out an entire family at the drop of a hat?"

"No matter how strong he is, he's still human. A musket bullet will still leave a hole in his body!"

"Well said! Ten thousand taels each for both of you!"

Zhao Erhu popped his head out from the side, looked at the two traitors with ugly faces, laughed loudly, then turned and left with light steps.

In that instant, he sensed Wang Yan's joy; so this was what it meant to toy with people...

At that time, travel was slow, and the transmission of information also took some time. Then, discussions and decisions would take even longer. By the time the White Lotus Sect and the Tea Merchants Association arrived in Huoshan, eight days had passed.

Both sides brought dozens of people, including strong men and white-haired old men.

This is a small county town that doesn't often have outsiders visiting, but this time, due to various events, the number of outsiders who came was much greater than in the past few decades.

The most obvious reason is that the county didn't have enough space to accommodate so many people, so several families in the city had to temporarily ask relatives and neighbors to stay with them, thus freeing up their houses for the guests. Of course, the fees charged were not cheap.

In addition, the influx of foreign food and beverage services, along with other local handicrafts, has made many people a fortune these days.

On the other hand, the people who received the silver came to the county town to make purchases, making the small county town more lively and even somewhat prosperous.

And so, the tea merchants who came to the meeting discovered that Wang Yan had already raised the price and bought up all the tea in the county. The people had no need to worry about the purchase price of tea this year; everyone was happy.

At the same time, they also realized that Wang Yan had never intended to budge. After all, the entire county's tea had been purchased, and such an expense was barely manageable even with the combined resources of the Yang, Bai, and Liu families. If the tea deal fell through, all three families would suffer significant losses.

Now, it's fair to say that all the wealth of these three families belongs to Wang Yan. Therefore, Wang Yan's initial kindness was to avoid trouble. Now that they're being so ungrateful, he'll use this as a pretext to openly and legitimately seize some assets…

Xu Anxian, a director of the Tea Merchants Association, looked at Wang Yan, who was drinking tea in front of him, with a pained expression: "Uncle Wang, this is not how business is done. We are all in this together, we should help each other, but you are asking for an exorbitant price..."

Wang Yan waved his hand to interrupt him: "Old man, I think you're tired of living. Am I haggling with you? You think it's so hard to understand that you can just take my tea for double the price and leave? If you keep acting like an old man, you're not leaving either. Get lost, go back and discuss it with money."

Xu Anxian, with an ugly old face, was kicked out, and then the people from the White Lotus Sect walked in.

This is a strong man who is over 1.9 meters tall. He is strong and powerful, so his martial arts skills must be quite good.

The man greeted him respectfully and took out two silver notes from his sleeve: "These are silver notes from the Four Great Hengs, totaling twenty thousand taels. Please take a look, Master Wang."

He bowed slightly and stepped forward, respectfully handing over the silver notes with both hands.

Just as Wang Yan reached out to take it, the man suddenly pulled back and kicked out from the side. Immediately afterwards, he heard Wang Yan let out a soft sigh, and then he was sent flying.

Before he could stand up, Wang Yan had already rushed forward and stomped down with a powerful kick. With a crisp crack, the man's shinbone was crushed to pieces. However, the action did not stop there. With three more cracks, he completely broke the man's limbs. Only then did he take the 20,000 taels of silver notes from the man's hand and return to his seat to drink tea.

"You've really given me face. If I don't kill one of you, you'll all think I'm easy to bully. Erhu, go, gather the men, arrest everyone who came here, go through them one by one, and interrogate the White Lotus Sect members by torture."

"Sir! It's a misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding!"

The burly man lying on the ground howled in pain, but still bravely spoke up, "It was all my own idea. I wanted to test your skills, sir, to see if you could handle these 20,000 taels of silver. You must not implicate my sect because of this, sir, so that you and my brothers would fight each other and cause unnecessary casualties. It would be a terrible loss."

Wang Yan chuckled and said, "What you said makes sense. So tell me, how do you plan to settle this matter today?"

"I'll give you 50,000 taels to appease your nerves and apologize to you. The silver is hidden in your clothes."

Jiang Wuyang went over, rummaged in the man's clothes for a moment, took out a silver note, and looked at it curiously: "Brother, they are really rich."

"They've rebelled against the Qing Dynasty for two hundred years, of course they're rich. Look, it's all hard currency from the Four Great Hengs." Wang Yan flipped through the banknotes and then gave Jiang Wuyang a briefing on Chen Jinnan's famous sayings about rebellion.

Then Wang Yan waved his hand, "Take him away. Go to the dungeon and notify them to release him."

The White Lotus henchmen who followed the burly man in silently dragged the miserable man away, not even daring to look at Wang Yan.

They had intended to join in, but things didn't go as planned, leaving them completely bewildered and unsure of what to do due to a program conflict...

After the man left, Zhao Erhu said, "Brother, are we just going to let him go like that?"

"Otherwise what?" Wang Yan swung the silver notes in his hand, making a clattering sound. "Are their lives worth more than these seventy thousand taels of silver?" "I feel they definitely haven't given up yet, and they'll send more people over. Who knows, they might try to sabotage us one day. Brother, we can't let this go unchecked."

Wang Yan nodded in satisfaction: "You've read the book quite well, and you can even use idioms now. Not bad."

Considering the limited education of Zhao Erhu and Jiang Wuyang, and the fact that Zhao Erhu was practically illiterate, as well as the need to build a high-quality team, Wang Yan found an old scholar from the county to teach his men. The day was clearly planned: martial arts practice in the morning, and cultural lessons and other military knowledge in the afternoon.

Aside from literacy, all other subjects were taught by Wang Yan. He seemed to have an easy life every day, but in reality, he was quite busy...

"Brother, you're talking about the White Lotus Sect." Erhu was speechless.

"Then tell me, what should we do?"

Erhu racked his brains but was speechless. Then he resorted to shamelessness: "I don't know. You're the eldest brother, so you make the decision. Anyway, I just feel that the White Lotus Sect can't be trusted. They'll definitely do something bad again."

Wang Yan sipped his tea and glanced at him: "These White Lotus demons, killing one will bring out a whole bunch of them. Look, ever since we wiped out the Bai family, they haven't stopped making moves. They're an organization that's been around for hundreds of years, they're not so easy to mess with. I said last time, they won't be satisfied until we kill hundreds or thousands of them."

But can we kill that many? With only two hundred or so men, we really can't defeat them. They even have muskets and cannons. Our meager swords and spears wouldn't even be enough to fill their teeth. It's just that for now, they're busy cooperating with the rebellion in the south and can't expose their forces here too early, which gives us a chance to catch our breath.

I know they won't let this go easily, so we have no choice but to hold back for now. We'll deal with them when they make another move. After all, they're unscrupulous, but we have to be. We've already taken the money, so we have to do the job.

Jiang Wuyang looked at the silver notes with great delight: "Brother, isn't it still the same? Those sons of bitches from the White Lotus Sect will definitely cause trouble later!"

"A person cannot stand without integrity, whether it's in life or in business. We must keep our word for others to trust us. You think this is just a problem with the White Lotus Sect? You're wrong. It's about how those damned martial arts figures who know about this will view us."

We need to let them know that what we say goes. Only then will our business thrive, our people be able to go far, and our lives be prosperous. Don't worry too much; as long as I'm alive, they won't dare to touch you first.

But we also need to be careful. They've been operating for centuries, and their infiltration and stealth methods are very sophisticated. Who knows, we might even have their people among our ranks. From now on, think more carefully before you speak or act. That's all I have to say. Keep practicing; you all have a lot to learn.”

These two are quite talented in martial arts. Recently, they've settled down and have some money. Wang Yan has been giving them extra lessons, using both external and internal tonics, which have helped them improve their physical fitness and combat skills very quickly.

However, it will take several years before they are fully capable of being used. They should be around seventeen or eighteen years old and have developed sufficiently before they can be given authority and truly become second or third masters...

The members of the Tea Merchants Association watched as the burly leader of the White Lotus Sect was beaten and carried out with his limbs broken. Xu Anxian, a director of the Tea Merchants Association, then stopped wasting time talking to Wang Yan. Instead, he went to the prison to see Qian Boyuan, and the Tea Merchants Association lent him some money, which he then used to redeem himself.

Faced with the White Lotus Sect, the tea merchants' association, a loosely organized group of capitalist interests, was obviously no match for them. They were unwilling to risk offending others if their own interests weren't harmed. Therefore, Qian Boyuan had no choice but to settle the matter himself.

Of course, Xu Anxian didn't think that way when he arrived. He believed in the saying "it's good to have a powerful backer," and besides, he was a director of the Tea Merchants Association, a powerful figure whose word carried weight. Naturally, he wanted to maintain a reasonable level of control over Wang Yan. After all, even the White Lotus Sect negotiated things with them, so he assumed Wang Yan would be the same. He thought that if he could negotiate the price down to 10% above Wang Yan's initial offer, everyone would be happy.

But he hadn't expected that Wang Yan, having already shown him kindness, wouldn't have the patience to listen to their nonsense any longer. After all, the Tea Merchants Association wasn't as difficult to kill as the White Lotus Sect; the Tea Merchants Association members were all presentable, and he easily found out along the way and sent them away. Of course, sending them all away wouldn't look good, but killing a few pretentious ones was no problem.

Xu Anxian's thinking was this: Wang Yan dared to go against the White Lotus Sect time and time again, so why would he care about their damned Tea Merchants Association? Anyway, it didn't cost him any money; it was better to sacrifice a fellow Daoist than himself…

Watching the able-bodied men pack the tea leaves into trucks, Qian Boyuan sighed deeply.

"Old Qian, this isn't my fault. You know I was one step away from rebellion, so why are you bringing up this bullshit tea merchant association? If you're not unlucky, who is?"

Wang Yan chuckled, "Don't be too upset. This year is just to teach you a lesson. Next year, we'll still go with the price increased by 10%. Hey, don't even think about not coming. If you don't come, I'll come to Lu'an to find you."

"Uncle Wang, please just ignore me like a fart."

"No, with such a deep connection between us, we should interact more and make money together. Let me tell you, if you want to double the price of tea, you don't have to give me all the cash. I also need a large quantity of grain. If you can get some smuggled salt, that would be fine too. If you can get some copper and iron, that would be even better."

Qian Boyuan was trembling: "Grandpa, you're not really planning a rebellion, are you?"

“I’m trying to protect myself. What do you think the White Lotus Sect is doing all this for? It’s to prepare for the battle for those who believe in God in the south. The Qing government is suffering defeat after defeat and will be here soon, so they definitely need to make preparations early.”

"Then why don't you hurry up and run? You've made so much money this time, wouldn't it be better to go north? Why do you have to wait here for them to attack?" Qian Boyuan was very puzzled.

"That's why I said you can't make big money. Fortune favors the bold. I don't care about life or death, I just want to live a decent life. Otherwise, all your hard work will just go to your old money to buy a young wife."

Wang Yan put his arm around Qian Boyuan's shoulder and said, "I won't let you bleed for nothing, nor will I let you work for nothing. Putting aside everything else, in this Anhui region, if anyone steals your goods and you can't settle things, come to me and I'll get them for you. If anyone steals your business, makes things difficult for you, or delays your work for me, you can also come to me."

Old Qian grunted in response and simply said thank you, sir, without offering any further explanation.

"You think I won't live long? Maybe I won't even make it past this year?" Wang Yan laughed. "Old Qian, you're still itching for a beating. You can't even pretend properly. It's no wonder you can't leave Lu'an and make any big money. How long I live is none of your concern. Just do the things I'm telling you to do well. That's the premise. If you don't do them well, you'll definitely die before me."

"Oh, sir, you've really misunderstood me. I've spent so much money and am in debt, and I haven't recovered yet. Don't worry, I'll definitely handle the matter you entrusted to me properly."

Qian Boyuan left, taking with him expensive tea and a broken heart...

Huoshan County returned to its former peace and tranquility. After receiving the money, Wang Yan once again expanded the recruitment of young and strong men for his martial arts school. With more manpower, he naturally had to increase his efforts to expand outwards, and trouble inevitably followed...

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