Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 93: Which bandits are running wild here?
The first breeze in the morning suddenly turned cold, indicating that winter was coming.

The busy people finally have some free time.

As one of the few "safe areas" in Shangcheng County, Lijiazhai also has a prosperous farmers' market, and people from dozens of miles around are willing to come here to sell agricultural products.

Moreover, Lijiazhai has a huge demand for all kinds of manpower, and there are job opportunities everywhere.

Farmers who are not employed in farming also flock to Lijiazhai to do odd jobs to earn extra money, which directly leads to a rapid increase in the local "average wage".

In the past, some workshop owners would recruit temporary workers, not paying them wages, just providing them with food every day. If you don't want to work, there are plenty of people who will.

But now the world has changed. Lijiazhai is madly impacting the labor market. If the mine owners and landlords still don't pay wages as usual, the temporary workers will just leave. Even if you don't want to make money, there are plenty of people who do.

More and more people are moving to Lijiazhai to make a living, and the resulting security issues are becoming increasingly prominent.

Theft, robbery, and armed fights often resulted in bloody brawls, with some people even forming gangs and dividing up territories in the surrounding area to collect protection fees.

Can Li Mu tolerate this?
Hundreds of players were immediately organized to launch an anti-gangster and evil campaign, and all those involved in gangs and evil were caught in one fell swoop. The lightest punishment was twenty years of hard labor, and the worst was hanging.

To prevent similar incidents from happening again, Li Mu organized militia to conduct regular patrols and recruited players and ordinary people to act as police to solve grassroots cases.

In this way, "Potato Chips" was lucky enough to become one of the first player police officers due to his high reputation and high honor.

Originally, police uniforms were distributed uniformly, but "Potato Chips" thought they were not handsome enough and always felt that the awful style looked like that of a certain X-control brigade.

So he paid for three sets of clothes to be customized and took turns to wear them.

Any player who sees this will shout "Have I traveled through the Tang Dynasty?" or pretend to kneel on one knee and shout "Welcome to the Bad Commander."

That's right, he dressed like a Tang Dynasty official in a small town in the Ming Dynasty, and even customized a weird gold-decorated fish bag for himself.

Only the "Police" badge hanging around his waist can prove that he is actually Mr. Li's security officer.

As a policeman, his daily task is simple: patrol his jurisdiction with four militia assistants.

They checked suspicious persons to prevent fights, chatted with residents and shops along the street, imposed heavy fines on dirty behaviors such as urinating and defecating in public, and forced those who could not pay to do voluntary labor for a few days.

Today, he reported for work again, patrolling back and forth for hundreds of steps, and even said hello to his fellow players, exchanging the latest big news among the players.

Someone flew to Shandong in a hot air balloon... A player lurking in Nanjing opened a pastry shop, and business was booming... A certain assassination team assassinated three prefectural governors in succession, losing two and winning once...

The Huguang guerrillas defeated the local militia, gaining immense prestige... The peasant army in Shangluo Mountain erupted in unrest, slaughtering several wealthy families... The project of magnetizing iron rods with lightning strikes was a resounding success, promising a promising future for power generation... Under the guidance of professional players, a copper mine was successfully discovered in Lijiazhai, and mining is proceeding steadily...

"Potato Chips" breathed in the fresh air of ancient times, and could only sigh that it was another peaceful and tranquil day.

But when he took a few dozen steps, he suddenly saw a large number of people crowding the streets.

The caravan carriages that were stopped by the traffic jam stopped at the side of the street, and the following horsemen and civilians were stuck in place.

The streets were filled with the resentment of people coming and going and the neighing of horses.

"Potato Chips" wondered if it was a car crash in ancient times that caused the traffic jam?
He immediately led his militia assistants to rush over, and it turned out to be a financial dispute.

Mobile vendors claimed that a Lijiazhai militiaman ate two bowls of mixed grain dumplings but did not pay for any of them.

"You're talking nonsense! I only ate one bowl." The militia pointed to the three coins on the vendor's table and said, "This is what I just paid. It's all Wanli coins."

"Potato Chips" stepped forward, picked up the copper coins and looked at them one by one. On one side of the copper coins, the four words "Wanli Tongbao" were written in traditional Chinese characters.

Seeing the Lijiazhai servants "police" show up, the vendors immediately cried out, "Master, please judge for yourself. He ate two bowls of mixed grain dumplings and didn't pay for them, and now he's claiming he ate only one bowl. These three cents were clearly given by someone else, and they were right next to him, not far away. Here!"

The vendor raised his hand and pointed, and sure enough, a rough man came over and said, "This is indeed the money I gave you."

Potato Chips turned to look at the militiaman, "What's going on?"

The militiaman's face was filled with fear and confusion, and he looked anxious as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. He was obviously an introvert who was not good at speaking.

After the words got stuck in his throat and his face flushed red, he slowly uttered a few words, "I really only ate one bowl, and I paid for one bowl."

"These are the militia trained by Master Li, right? We've all received Master Li's kindness. If they just don't pay for a bowl of noodles, what's the big deal? Just consider it a way of repaying a favor..."

"No! I paid for the dumplings!" the militiaman was eager to defend himself. "Master Li told us not to buy on credit. We must pay the full price for everything we buy. I really paid!"

"?" Potato Chips frowned, his eyes suddenly became sharp, and he always felt that the atmosphere at the scene was a bit weird.

He leaned over to the militia assistant's ear and whispered, "Hurry up and go to the 'Macho Hall' to call for help."

"I am just a commoner, how can I call upon the servants of Master Li?"

"When you get there, shout, 'Blood is flowing like a river! Come quickly!' I guarantee they'll run away as fast as they can."

"Okay." The militiaman said and rushed out of the crowd towards the target.

"Great, this is the fairness that Mr. Li wants. Eating without paying, this is not fair!" "You said it's okay, but you are not allowed to insult Mr. Li!" The militiaman couldn't help but pounced on him, but was caught under the armpits by two onlookers.

"Let him go!"

Potato Chips drew his sword and pointed it at the two burly men of different builds. The latter looked at each other and reluctantly let go of their hands.

One of the sturdy men said, "A bowl of mixed grain dumplings only costs three cents. I heard you work for Master Li, with three meals a day and a monthly allowance of several cents. I wonder how much 'three cents' you are. And you still want to refuse to pay a poor vendor for the dumplings? If you don't want to pay, I can help you!"

"You said you didn't pay, so you didn't pay?" Potato Chips stepped forward to argue.

The sturdy man didn't respond directly, but paced in circles in front of the people, "Okay, okay! They say officials protect each other. I thought the praised Mr. Li would be different, but I didn't expect him to be the same. He hasn't even become an official yet, but he's already protecting his own people without any respect?
If the people present hadn't come to the rescue of the vendor, I'm afraid once the incident was over, you'd find a reason to drag the vendor into a dark alley and beat him up to vent your anger, right?"

These words stung the militiamen's ears like a knife, but to Potato Chips, it was like witnessing a familiar show with their own eyes.

"No matter how hard you try, I've told you everything." Potato Chips sneered.

"We are seeking justice!"

"Me!" The militiaman was so anxious that he wanted to dig a hole in the ground, stumbling over and unable to utter a fluent rebuttal.

He angrily pulled out a knife and pointed it at the vendor, "You're a good person, just tell them the truth and how many bowls I ate!"

"What? You draw your knife as soon as you disagree with something. No wonder they say the militiamen in Lijiazhai are all vulgar and rude monkeys. Today I see that their reputation is well-deserved." The strong man's words were like a knife piercing his heart.

At this time, several strong men squeezed up from the crowd and glanced at him coldly.

Potato Chips gripped his knife tightly, assuming a defensive stance.

"Don't be afraid, you dumpling seller! My brothers, I, and the surrounding people will all seek justice for you," the sturdy men said kindly. "Tell the villagers loudly how many bowls of dumplings this Mr. Li's militiamen ate!"

The vendor glanced around, hesitated for a while, and finally made up his mind to shout out his answer: "He ate two bowls and didn't even pay for one!"

The onlookers immediately started talking, and their eyes looked at the militiamen with something strange.

The whispered suspicions made the militiamen feel uneasy. If he was slandered as a scoundrel who refused to pay his debts, wouldn't Master Li be humiliated as well?

"If you want to prove whether you've eaten or not, I'll cut open your stomach and see how many bowls are inside!"

The militiaman hesitated for a moment, then gripped the knife tightly and shakily raised it to his belly button, then pointed it steadily at his abdomen. "Okay! I'll show you how many bowls I've eaten!"

With a snap, the knife in the militia's hand was knocked down, and Potato Chips stomped over, "Are you stupid? Don't you know how many bowls you can eat? Why do you believe their nonsense?"

"But they say officials protect each other."

"Protect your fucking head! Can't you see they're deliberately fanning the flames and trying to get you to commit suicide? Oh, it's okay, help is coming."

"Potato Chips" suddenly changed the subject and turned to look not far away, where dozens or even hundreds of players were rushing over.

At this time, several strong men saw that the situation was not good and turned around to flee, but found that hundreds of ferocious armed men surrounded the crowd.

"No one is allowed to leave until this case is settled!" 'Potato Chips' shouted, and then repeated what had just happened to the players.

Suddenly someone yelled, "You want to kill me, Sixth Master!"

"If you want to know how many bowls of dumplings you have to eat, I'll dig out your eyeballs and put them in my stomach to take a good look."

Potato Chips suggested on the spot, "I have a way to show you what justice is—him."

Potato Chips pointed at the male passerby who claimed to be the "three-cent owner" and thus triggered the false accusation case.

"Open his stomach and see if he really ate a lump!"

As soon as these words were spoken, a player rushed over and held the man down. The latter struggled and begged for mercy, but before he could make a sound, the player deliberately covered his mouth.

Several players pressed down on him, like a huge rock pressing down on him.

I saw a short knife stabbed into the belly and pulled hard. Then someone searched through the "harmony filter" and only found some dried meat, but no pastry.

"It seems the truth is out. You lied and framed my brother!"

Potato Chips raised his hand and pointed, like a long sword, and the vendor and several strong men who were fanning the flames were immediately controlled by the player.

The framed militiaman felt relieved, staggered back a few steps, and almost fainted.

"You can't kill us! We are envoys sent by the Tiger Camp's boss to discuss matters. I have something important to discuss with your master. You can't kill us!"

A strong man struggled and shouted, and the hawker and other strong men kowtowed and begged for mercy.

"It was Master Li's decision to kill you, but I can make you suffer a little!" As soon as Potato Chips finished speaking, he took out a hammer and smashed it hard on the strong man's right palm.

(End of this chapter)