My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 96: Colleagues are enemies

"What are you talking about, father-in-law!" Lu Yi pretended to be angry and complained.

"Qiqige chose me and was willing to be her concubine. How broad-minded are you and Qiqige?"

"Hatler respects and loves me very much. It is a great honor for my father-in-law and his family to settle in Jiuyuan. If I, Lu Yi, ask my father-in-law for money and livestock again, what kind of person would I be?"

"If that happens, I will even look down on myself!"

"Please don't blame me, my dear son-in-law. I know I mean well. But now your family is big and powerful, and there are so many mouths relying on you for food. It's very difficult. This is also my good intention. Please don't blame me!" He Xutuo has been dealing with Lu Yi for a long time. He already knows what kind of people they are. Naturally, he would not take his courtesy seriously. Instead, he was very tactful and immediately gave him a way out.

Such a small number of horses is nothing to Hesuto now, but it is not a small favor to Lu Yi. If there really comes a day when he needs to live under someone else's roof, it will be a favor, and he can feel more at ease if he sends them himself.

"Father-in-law is right. Our Han ancestors said that a gift from an elder cannot be refused. Since it is a kind gesture from father-in-law, I have no choice but to accept it with reluctance. However..." Lu Yi nodded, but changed the subject casually: "Speaking of which, there are indeed many mouths to feed under my command. In order to feed them, I have spent a huge amount of money to buy 300 hectares of land in Jiuyuan and hired more than 500 servants to cultivate the land. However, I only regretted the lack of money when I needed it. Now that I have bought the land and have enough manpower, I don't have enough money to buy oxen..."

Lu Yi said this and glanced at He Xutuo a little embarrassedly, the meaning was self-evident.

"Hahaha, how difficult is that?"

He was stunned at first when he heard this, and then he burst into laughter.

"I don't have anything else in my Huye tribe, but I have plenty of cattle and sheep!"

"Since you are short of oxen, I will give you a thousand strong oxen!"

"If that's the case, I, your son-in-law, would like to thank you for your generous gift on behalf of my men! If they knew that it is thanks to your kindness that they can have enough food to eat, they will definitely do their best to help the Hunye tribe in the future, and I, your son-in-law, will definitely show my performance at that time!" Lu Yi smiled when he heard this.

"Then I can feel at ease!" He Xutuo smiled when he heard that.

With their status, even Hexutuo, a Hu man, would not express his demands directly.

Because once you express your true demands and get rejected, the relationship will be broken.

Therefore, it is not the case that people become more cunning as they get older.

Instead, the longer you live, the more you experience, and the richer your experience becomes. Certain thoughts and actions that avoid mistakes have almost become instincts.

After completing the trade and establishing the offensive and defensive alliance, he especially arranged his family's retreat.

Kasuto once again held a grand banquet among the Huya tribe.

After another night of excitement, Lu Yi set out on the road back to Mayi with the caravan and more than 2,000 cattle and horses.

……

At the same time, a conspiracy against the Four Alliances was quietly rising in Zhongshan County.

"Where did this Lu family caravan come from? They have quietly assembled a caravan of over a hundred vehicles."

"I did some research and found out that the head of the Lu family caravan is the Lu brothers from Jiuyuan County in Bingzhou. The elder brother Lu Yi and the younger brother Lu Bu are both famous heroes in Bingzhou. Lu Yi is even recognized by the heroes of Bingzhou as the best hero in Bingzhou. He is a tough nut to crack!"

"The Lu brothers don't want to be heroes, but want to learn to be businessmen? Who here doesn't have experience in business accumulated from generations?"

"Although Lu Yi has no family background, he is quite talented. Not only did he make a fortune by bringing back more than 2,000 strong horses on his first trip to the border, hey... that's a full 2,000 horses. Even if my caravan goes out to the border for a year, it can't make half of that amount. He really became fat in one go!" "It would be fine if he made a fortune quietly, but I don't know what kind of magic potion he gave Sima Huang Yi, the general guarding the Mayi Great Wall, to make this man, who used to plunder the feathers of a passing goose, not even accept the money delivered to his door. Now, except for his Lu Yi caravan, no other caravans are allowed to enter or leave the Mayi Great Wall. Isn't this cutting off all our livelihoods!"

"That's right. Lu Yi wanted to eat all the food for himself, but he cut off our financial resources. As the saying goes, cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. Lu Yi has offended all of us horse merchants at once. He will definitely not survive!"

Inside the secret room of the Zhongshan Su family, several businessmen were talking about Lu Yi, and they were all filled with indignation.

These people were all merchants from Bingzhou and Jizhou, and were also local wealthy and powerful families.

The worst are the newly emerged nouveau riche landlords.

Relying on their status and financial resources, these people colluded with each other and monopolized the horse smuggling activities in the direction of Bingzhou.

There are only three horse smuggling outlets in the entire Han Dynasty.

There is one road to Liangzhou, one road to Bingzhou, and one road to Youzhou.

Liangzhou and Youzhou each have their own big families that monopolize the local horse smuggling trade, and they cannot intervene.

Therefore, the only remaining smuggling port in Bingzhou was regarded as a forbidden delicacy by them.

Not only did Lu Yi barge in without warning, he also monopolized the horse smuggling trade in the Mayi section, which immediately angered other smugglers.

Peers are enemies.

The most naked hatred exists only among colleagues.

why?
Because of conflict of interest!

And conflict of interest itself is one of the most intense types of conflict.

The horse trading business in Bingzhou has a history of hundreds of years. The sphere of influence of each family, the routes of merchants on the grassland, and even how much goods a merchant can carry at a time and how many horses can be smuggled have become conventions and rules.

To put it in a more vivid way, Lu Yi's behavior is like pouring a cup of ice water into a hot oil pan. It is easy to imagine what serious consequences this will cause.

However, Bingzhou is vast in territory, and the Mayi Great Wall is not the only checkpoint. Therefore, Lu Yi only offended a very small number of merchants, and did not offend all horse merchants.

The few people who were filled with righteous indignation just now were all colleagues whose jobs were accidentally taken away by Lu Yi, so naturally they shouted the loudest.

However, the real big smugglers, such as the Su and Zhang families from Zhongshan, did not make any move. They just watched the merchants who smuggled through Mayi shouting.

After seeing these people shouting and venting for a long time and then their emotions calmed down.

"Ahem..." The leader Su Shuang coughed lightly, drawing everyone's attention back.

"Although this Lu Yi has no foundation, according to my investigation, Zhang family of Mayi has a 30% stake in the caravan, and Zhen family, the richest family in Hebei from the same county as me, seems to be quite optimistic about this person. Therefore, this matter needs to be carefully considered and cannot be rushed!"

……

(End of this chapter)