Chapter 45
"Huang Guanjia, it's been a long time since we parted ways in Heishi City. I never thought you'd end up becoming a bandit in this place." Li Jia.
"I'm no longer a steward, now I'm the general manager of Hama Village. Let's not mention what happened before." Huang San Yuan.
"What a pity! What a pity!" Li Jia sighed: "Why can't I see Master Cheng..."
"The master of the house is busy with important matters and won't bother with such trivial things." Huang San Yuan said, "Whatever you have to say, it's all the same if you tell me."
The characteristic of Chinese negotiation is to avoid the reality and focus on the virtual, as if whoever speaks out their purpose first will be at a disadvantage. Huang San Yuan and Li Jia were together grinding, neither of them talked about the main topic, fortunately Huang San Yuan was good at doing these things, he wasn't afraid of dragging things out with Li Jia.
Li Jia still wanted to see what this legendary Toad King looked like in person.
Now only Xu Shenji and Huang Sanyuan are sent to negotiate with themselves, it's clear that they don't take themselves seriously, that Toad King is indeed very mysterious.
After dawdling countless times, finally got to today's main topic: how much ransom should be paid for the longevity gift?
"Xue Chengzhu is willing to take out 20,000 guan to redeem the longevity gift. This sum of money is also a great kindness and virtue of Xue Chengzhu, and I have my face as guarantee."
"Haha, Xue Chengzhu thought of a good idea. That batch of longevity gifts sold out, I'm afraid it's not just this amount."
"Huang Zongguan, don't forget, this batch of longevity gifts was snatched by you, and originally didn't belong to you."
"Li Bangzhu also didn't forget, we are mountain bandits, whatever we rob is ours."
"There are only six of you in Toad Village. If we don't give you the money, it's not like we can't wipe out Toad Village."
"But we were just six people and also snatched a hundred-man team from Lu Honghao."
Two people go back and forth, playing some linguistic tricks, one side wants to increase the number, the other side wants to lower the number, it can be said that they are engaged in a war of words.
Huang San glanced at Li Jia with disdain and thought: You're still far from being able to chat with me about these things!
"So how much does Director Huang want?" Li Jia wanted to sound out Huang San Yuan's bottom line.
"It depends on how much power Li Bangzhong has." Huang San's psychological price was 30,000 yuan, but with his cunning, he wouldn't easily reveal it.
Li Jia cursed and sighed: "If Director Huang can't make a decision, it's better to call out Cheng Dangjia."
"It's better for me to talk to you." Huang San Yuan smiled slightly.
Wow!
The door was suddenly kicked open, and Li Jia was shocked to see a big man with a full beard and mustache, carrying a large axe, rushing in.
Could it be that this man is the infamous Toad King who eats human flesh and drinks human blood every day, indeed with a ferocious appearance.
Li Jia's heart skipped a beat, could it be that the other party wanted to make a move against him!
"What... what do you want to do?!"
Bang!
"I don't like haggling, the ransom is 100,000 yuan." Cheng Dalai slammed his axe on the table: "Will you agree or not?"
Sweat beads appeared on Li Jia's forehead. Indeed, he was the one who ate human flesh. If he didn't agree, this axe would chop his own head off.
"I promise, I promise..."
Beep, received fear value 199
Beep, received fear value 288
Beep, received fear value 266
"Alright, Huang San Yuan continued talking with them!"
Cheng Dalai carried a large axe out of the house, and as soon as he returned to his own room, he washed off the black soot and fake beard on his face with water, and in fact, he was already overjoyed.
It's really effective. This wave just earned me a little over 1,000 fear points. It seems I've found the right method. At this rate, collecting 10,000 fear points for the task shouldn't be difficult to complete.
Inside the earth house, after Cheng Dairen left, Li Jia and his two followers wiped off the sweat beads on their foreheads.
Huang San Yuan narrowed his eyes and smiled: "Alright then, it's settled. You bring the ransom of 100,000, and Croak Hill will return the birthday gift."
"Wait a minute." Someone beside Li Jia said, he wasn't one of the Wild Wolf Gang, to be exact, he was Xue Ban Chuan's man.
"What's wrong, want to back out?" Xu Shenji said.
At this time, the three of them did not dare to go back on their word, or they would lose their heads. Li Jia and his two companions whispered among themselves, and Li Jia said: "The problem is... we can't come up with 100,000 yuan."
One guan is one thousand wen, so ten million guan would be one hundred million copper coins. Don't look at Xue Ban Chuan as the master of a city, he can't take out that much cash. Having just obtained the position of Blackstone City's lord, many places need to spend money, and he doesn't have much of this kind of thing. Those longevity gifts, no matter how you calculate them, are only worth over three million guan, so ten million guan is indeed a ridiculously large amount for Ha Ma Zhai to ask for.
As he said this, Li Jia's heart was pounding a little, wondering if he wouldn't offend the other party.
"No problem, can we pay in installments?"
"Installment payment?" Li Jia and the other two were perplexed, having never heard of this term.
"We've all thought it through for you." Huang San Yuan snapped his fingers, adopting the attitude of a third-rate financial manager: "No cash? You can use grain, salt, or cloth to pay off the debt. As long as you pay the down payment, that's fine. As for interest, from now on, any caravan passing by He Ma Ling will be charged 20% interest until the principal is fully repaid."
Li Jia didn't quite understand Huang San Yuan's words, including the two people from Xue Ban Chuan who were standing behind him. It wasn't their fault, if anyone was to blame, it would be the poor education level of this era. How could one expect a gang leader to know what "equal principal and interest" meant? However, Li Jia did understand one thing - as long as he paid 3%, which was 30,000 yuan, he could take away all the birthday gifts. As for the debt afterwards, I won't pay it back, what can you do...
It has to be said that Li Jia's way of thinking is very simple.
"If there's no problem, let's sign the contract." Huang San-yuan and Xu Shen-ji took out a thick stack of paper, looking well-prepared: "Two copies of the contract, you sign it first and then give it to Xue Ban-chuan for signature and seal. Once the down payment is ready, you can take the longevity gift away."
Afterwards, both sides discussed some details, such as how much copper money a stone of grain was worth, and at what price salt and iron were to be sold, and how the specific delivery should be carried out...
These tedious things were talked about until very late, and finally Li Jia left with a thick stack of contracts. When leaving the Frog Village, Li Jia couldn't help but wonder if he had completed the task entrusted to him by Xue Banchuan.
Some things took Dairen a long time to figure out, and the mountain stronghold naturally relied on robbery for survival. After two consecutive battles, the Frog Stronghold also made a name for itself. For a very long time, the Frog Stronghold no longer had to worry about safety issues.
But draining the pond to catch fish and burning the forest to hunt, no one can pass through from the mountain down. So it's still necessary to cast a long line to catch big fish, Cheng Dalai doesn't want to cut off the transportation route between Luoye City and Heishi City.
Cheng Dairen may be living in seclusion on Gobi Hill, but his heart is still tied to the economic problems of Black Rock City and Falling Leaf City.
Of course, this way of making money by lying down requires strength to support it, and now the strength of Hama Village is obviously not enough.
So development is the hard truth.
