The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 819 Autumn in the Ancient Capital
Three days later in the early morning, Er Qiangzi was tied up like a dumpling with half a bottle of Erguotou left over, and sank into the Yongding River forever along with a stone weighing more than ten pounds.

“Woo woo…”

"Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, the green grass reaches the sky."

Qi Meng stood on the river bank, playing the harmonica.

Until the last splash of water returned to calm and sank into the darkness before dawn, he turned around and walked calmly back to the ancient city of Sijiu along the willow bank, stepping on the rising sun.

~~~
It is time to burn incense at the top of the mountain again, and the weather is getting extremely hot.

The paper fan vendors seemed to appear all of a sudden from somewhere, carrying Xiangzi on their shoulders, and the bells on their boxes jingled, attracting attention.

Yangge, lion dance, road-clearing dance, five-tiger stick dance, and various other performances swept across the city of Peking like a spring breeze.

But Peking had become an ancient capital, far removed from the heart of the south. Today, Marshal Zhang would fight Marshal Chiang, tomorrow, Marshal Feng would fight Marshal Yan. In these chaotic battles, Peking gradually lost its former grandeur. The food, language, and gold and silver of the old capital were dispersed throughout the land as power shifted.

The biggest advantage of losing power is that no one cares about you.

The flags on the city walls are changing, and this is a good time for literati. The literati in Peking curse Marshal Zhang of Lingnan, and the literati in Bashu curse Marshal Yan of the Northeast. As long as they don't run to other people's territory and block the door to curse, they will be safe. At worst, they can hide in the concession to avoid the limelight - everyone does this anyway.

There were many abusive literati, and the blackmailing detectives were like wolves, coming as soon as they smelled the scent. Qi Meng again acted in the name of justice and sent a few unlucky guys into the Yongding River.

With the help of the Yiguandao sect, Qi Meng went to the black market and bought two box guns and a thousand rounds of bullets for one hundred silver dollars.

In his spare time, he took Xiao Fuzi's two younger brothers to Xishan for target practice.

Er Qiangzi hasn't come back for more than half a month, and no one mentions him, even if he doesn't come back for another two months.

Xiao Fuzi and her two younger brothers have now forgotten Er Qiangzi.

The three siblings didn't care about their adoptive father's life or death. They just let him disappear. People disappeared every day in Peking anyway.

The good news is that Qi Meng is here, and everyone no longer has to eat cornmeal three times a day. They can eat white flour buns every few days, and sometimes even pork elbows.

Huniu was very dissatisfied with Xiaofuzi's existence, but it was just dissatisfaction. No matter whether she was Huniu or Longniu, even if she was a dragon, she had to coil in front of Qi Meng.

"You, Dad, where did Mr. Liu go?"

Hu Niu has found out everything about Renhe Factory these days: his father sold some of the cars and gave the rest to a famous car owner in Xicheng.

"The old man is old, and without my help, he can't make a living, so he just sold it and used the money to live a comfortable life."

Qi Meng slapped his forehead, and the cooked duck flew away.

"Where has he gone?"

Hu Niu shook her head: "I didn't find out."

She knew that his father had originally looked down on Xiangzi, thinking him too honest, like a stubborn donkey, and incapable of achieving anything. But things were different now. In recent days, Xiangzi had committed more murders and robberies than even Mr. Liu Si had done in the past thirty years.

"What a pity! If your father liked us, he would at least leave us a few thousand dollars in cash."

Hu Niu took over the conversation and said angrily while eating melon seeds, "That's more than that. The old man has tens of thousands of dollars in cash!"

Killing people is not enough to get what he deserves, so he might as well look for the person who brought him here. By blackmailing Detective Sun and killing Officer Ma, he now has three hundred dollars in cash, which is really a drop in the bucket compared to Mr. Liu Siye's belongings.

"When the old man calms down, we should go and pay him a visit and apologize." Qi Meng said to Hu Niu as if they were discussing something.

When Hu Niu heard this, she immediately became angry: "If you want to go, go ahead. You're thinking about the old man's money, not me!"

She pointed at Qi Meng's forehead and said, "Xiangzi, what do you need so much money for? Aren't the few hundred dollars we have on hand enough for you to spend?"

Qi Meng's goal is certainly not just to have enough food and clothing. This era, how should we put it, is a chaotic time. The bald man in the south has not yet completely unified China. The warlords in the north who have been divided, attacked, and bribed are somewhat dissatisfied in their hearts. And further north, the Japanese devils are eyeing the Northeast.

The autumn in the ancient capital is not peaceful either.

"A few hundred dollars in cash is certainly not enough." Qi Meng didn't intend to hide it from Huniu. "I want to open a rickshaw company, a huge one, to bring all the rickshaw drivers in our city together."

Hu Niu curled her lips and said, "Humph! Nonsense! Even my father doesn't have such a method!"

Qi Meng didn't argue with Hu Niu, but continued, "Have you heard of The Godfather? The Godfather."

Hu Niu nodded, then quickly shook her head. She had seen foreigners in Dongjiaominxiang before, including one who called himself The Godfather.

"Xiangzi, you can't believe in foreign religions. They're not popular in old Beijing." "I'm not from old Beijing. I'm from Henan!"

Qi Meng briefly introduced the mafia godfather who was thousands of miles away, and Hu Niu was stunned.

"Now you know why I want to get close to Xiao Fuzi?"

"What?"

"I'm not after her body." Qi Meng explained.

Huniu nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.

Unexpectedly, in just a few days, Xiangzi transformed from a timid, cowardly and kind rickshaw driver into a ruthless and merciless man who killed countless people.

The look in Hu Niu's eyes when she looked at Qi Meng again was obviously different.

~~~~~~
Qi Meng rented out his car and collected membership fees, calling it free entrepreneurship.

Pulling a cart has no future, letting others pull the cart is promising.

Now, after deducting the expenses of eating, drinking, defecating and urinating for the whole family, we can save one dollar and eighty cents a day.

Of course I don't count on this little money.

When money is insufficient, look for lone detectives.

Thanks to Qi Meng, detectives in Peking now dare not act alone.

Those disciples of Dai Li from the far south, what about cppcci, were very tired after traveling all the way north and came to Sijiu City to extort money. Many of them went to Yongding River to feed turtles for unknown reasons.

Qi Meng asked the driver to pay attention and inquire about the news of Mr. Liu Si.

The Fourth Master is a cash cow.

Hu Niu said that they must find this cash cow as soon as possible, otherwise tens of thousands of dollars in cash would be lost to those wild women.

Qi Meng was surprised and said, "The old man is over seventy years old, how can that thing still work?"

Hu Niu chuckled and said, "Your sword is still sharp, maybe I can find you a brother-in-law."

Qi Meng breathed a sigh of relief.

Autumn came in a flash, and the weak and lingering sounds of the autumn cicadas filled the whole city.

One day in August, under the gray sky, a cool breeze suddenly blew in the city of Peking, and it began to rain heavily.

After a layer of rain, the clouds gradually rolled to the west, the sky cleared up again, and the sun showed its face again. Qi Meng, holding a revolver, wearing a single blue cloth garment, biting his pipe, stood for a long time in the shadow of the slanted bridge after the rain.

In the past few months, there have been at least a hundred innocent people who died at his hands, if not eighty.

Every time he wanted to kill someone, he would say to the two little bastards:
"Little Pony, I want to eat oranges."

Xiao Maer is Xiao Fuzi's younger brother, and the younger one is called Xiao Shuanzi.

Qi Meng casually held an orange in his pocket.

He has killed so many people before the official war with Vine Company. If he continues like this, the Senate will kick him out.

The sky cleared up after the rain. Qi Meng looked at the sky thoughtfully, feeling silently ashamed.

"Oh, the weather is really cold, and someone is going to kill someone again—"

"Isn't it? The autumn rain is getting colder! The city is going to kill the rebels again today."

When I turned around suddenly, I saw a man dressed the same as me, in a single piece of cloth, holding a pipe in his mouth and wearing cloth shoes. He was standing behind me and looking at me with a smile.

Qi Meng was surprised. Judging from the man's aura, he was obviously not an ordinary person.

"What is your name, sir? Your face looks very familiar to me. Have we met somewhere before?" Qi Meng looked pious.

The man in cloth shoes looked at Qi Meng, laughed loudly, and saluted:
"My name is Yu Dafu, and my given name is Yiwen. I wonder who you are?"

(End of this chapter)