Tang Dynasty: Taking the Empress Dowager to a brothel, Father Emperor, what a coincidence!

Li Chengqian flicked his sleeves and casually kicked away a pebble at his feet.

"Brother Xue saved my life, and I will remember this kindness."

"That five strings of cash for the gatehouse tax, deducted from this amount, is the account settled?"

"It's cleared. Absolutely cleared."

"Not to mention this year's gate tax, even for the next ten years, with your pocketful of money, sir, that's more than enough."

The leading constable nodded repeatedly.

"That's enough."

Li Chengqian grinned.

"I'm a very principled person, and I came to Hedong to do legitimate business."

Keep the change. Treat the officers to a warm drink to soothe their throats.

Upon hearing this, the junior constable who was about to rush forward and seize Li Chengqian hurriedly shouted:

"Master Li is very generous."

"As expected of a wealthy man from Chang'an, he's completely different from us who toil in this pit."

No matter the era, when money paves the way, the law takes a back seat.

The leading constable bowed deeply to Li Chengqian three times.

"Master Li, I was blind and offended you, a man of great stature. Please forgive me, I am a magnanimous person."

Li Chengqian glanced at the constable and asked:

"A few brothers run around on this dirt road every day, just to collect this little bit of gate tax?"

"If I may ask, after sending this small amount of silver to the county government, how much will your county magistrate actually have left?"

The leading constable replied without hesitation:

"Oh dear, sir, you haven't done the math."

Although our Longmen County is poor, it has a large population and vast land. Even if we contribute here and there, we can still scrape together a hundred or so strings of cash.

"If the magistrate eats meat, can't we at least have a sip of soup too?"

"That's really shabby."

Li Chengqian shook his head with a look of disgust.

"In Chang'an, a single night of drinking and carousing would cost more than this."

"Your county magistrate is, after all, a member of a collateral branch of the Wang family of Taiyuan. To engage in this kind of scavenging business is beneath him; it's beneath him."

These words made the smile on the leading constable's face freeze. He couldn't figure out what this man wanted to do.

"I, Li, am traveling by the Yellow River, carrying the capital of the Changsun family and the Crown Prince, preparing to go to Youzhou to engage in the world-class trade of military salt and iron."

Li Chengqian put his hands behind his back and casually uttered some earth-shattering words.

"Hedong Road is good in every way, except that the Wang family has cut off all access."

We're looking to invest foreign capital, but we can't even find a place to build a factory. We're really worried about that.

Li Chengqian glanced sideways at the constable holding the money bag.

"If your county magistrate really wants to get rich, why bother arguing with these poor folks?"

He only needs to issue me two trade documents so that I can build two mines outside the city.

"Don't even mention these ten or so strings of cash; I could easily take out three or five thousand strings and renovate your dilapidated government office from the inside out."

"Three...three to five thousand strings of cash?"

The lead constable was so shocked he almost fell to the ground.

You should know that even if everyone in the Longmen County government tightened their belts for a year, they still couldn't scrape together three thousand strings of cash.

This guy in front of me is willing to spend thousands of dollars to build a building just for two documents?

This is simply a gift from heaven, a god of wealth.

"I'm so lucky today, my ancestors' graves are emitting auspicious smoke."

Rest assured, sir, our county magistrate is absolutely willing to take on this lucrative business.

Master Wang always complains that he can't get any profit. "Come with me, I'll carry a lantern and lead the way to the magistrate's office to report."

"sensible."

Li Chengqian smiled and patted the leading constable on the shoulder.

Then he walked to Xue Rengui's side and said:

"Brother Xue, our lives are practically intertwined. It's fate that we're staying at your place today."

"Manager Li... I... I can't accept you spending so much money on me."

Xue Rengui looked at Li Chengqian with a troubled expression.

"shit!"

Li Chengqian waved his hand to interrupt.

"I've come to Hedong to do something big, and I can't do without a capable commander like you by my side."

You can't let your skills go to waste on a few pounds of rice husks.

"Call your sister-in-law and bring your mother. Tonight, come with me in the oxcart to town and have a good time."

Before Xue Rengui could object, Li Chengqian pushed Xiao Shunzi and forced him to pay for three ox-drawn carts from a nearby village.

In less than half an incense stick's time, the scene on the main road at the end of the village had completely changed.

The seriously ill Xue family matriarch was settled in a cart covered with a thick straw mat.

Xue Rengui then forcefully shoved the carcass of the fierce tiger with its piercing eyes and white forehead into the center of the cart.

Meanwhile, the few officials who had been fierce and menacing just moments before were now bowing and scraping, eager to act as drivers and clear the way.

The poor villagers who hadn't run far all clung to the mud wall fence, staring in disbelief.

Normally, they would treat these officials like the King of Hell, but today, seeing them escorting a group of people away with arrogance at first and deference at the last, they were all so shocked that they gasped, thinking that some kind of deity had descended to earth.

On the way, Cheng Chumo came to Li Chengqian's side and complained:

"My lord! Our Hundred Cavalry Guards are all skilled warriors. Why not just storm into the county town and behead those scoundrels from the Wang family? Why let these few bastards get away with a few dozen taels of gold?"

"With a brain like yours, you deserve to be scolded by your father every day for being a stone-wild brute on the training ground."

Li Chengqian smiled grimly.

"The Wang family has managed Hedong like an iron barrel, with officials protecting each other. It's harder to investigate their past accounts than to dig up their ancestral graves."

With that one strike, you're only killing a few small fry; the real big fish have already fled in terror.

My principle is "to take, you must first give." Doesn't the Wang family only care about money and not the law? Then I'll use this mountain of money to smash open their tortoise shell that's been sealed for generations.