Chapter 48 The Siege

After all, Wei Danbai did not let Wei Tianchong make a move, but acquiesced to the delay of the Gu family, and sent a letter to wish Gu Liangde a speedy recovery.

This is not surprising, he is a businessman after all, he is not a combative person in his bones, he is born lacking some blood and courage.

Although he saw it right, if Wei Tianchong really had to take action against the Gu family, it would definitely have an impact on the reputation of Weifu, but he didn't know that if he didn't take action, it would bring even greater losses to Weifu!

The uproar about accepting the Gu family's property suddenly stopped, and the eyes of the entire Canglong Mansion were focused on Wei Mansion.

Tang Jie retreated passively, ignored foreign affairs, and fermented on this basis, giving people unlimited reverie.

Many people speculated that the reason why Wei Fu acquiesced to the Gu family's repentance was because of Tang Jie—not everyone can see a concession as generosity, and more people will understand it as weakness.

When one side is weak, it is time for the other side to be strong.

This kind of behavior first appeared in cities other than Canglong Mansion. After all, in these places, the foundation of the Wei family was still shallow.

Earthfire City.

This is a small town three hundred miles away from Canglong Mansion. It got its name because there is a river of fire flowing underground that never goes out all year round. Although it is small in size, it is an important town for the immortal family. Including the Xiyue Sect, there are more than a dozen sects who have set up refining mines here, and they have been refining weapons for the sect for many years. The top-level magic weapons are naturally used by the sects themselves, some inferior ones are handed over to the officials, and the worst ones go to the people and fall into the hands of the guards and other people. Because of this, this Earthfire City is also a well-known weapon center. Every year, a large number of merchants come here to buy and sell. Two years ago, Weijia expanded its business and took root here for the first time. shop.

Today, a group of uninvited guests came to Wei's shop.

The leader was a black-faced man with his clothes open, showing a large amount of chest hair. At this moment, he said to the chief manager of the shop: "Manager Zhang is very polite. Speaking of which, Weifu has been doing business here in Huocheng for two years. Dare to ask me how the Red Cloud Gang has treated your shop in the past few years?"

The steward Zhang hurriedly smiled and said: "Your gang has taken good care of my shop, and has never collected our protection fee. I understand this very well, and I have always mentioned it to the boss."

The black-faced man nodded: "It's good that Manager Zhang understands, but the manager also knows that my Red Cloud Gang also needs to eat. There are so many brothers in the gang. If everyone doesn't have to pay protection fees, everyone doesn't have to mess around."

Guanshi Zhang was stunned: "The meaning of the third master is..."

The black-faced man replied: "From next month,

I'm afraid your shop will have to pay some money. Not many, the gang has always been rigorous in its work. The shops are determined according to the size of the area and the scale of the business. They will never let all parties lose money. Like your shop, it only needs 20 taels of silver per month, and only half of it is charged. "

Zhang Guanshi's complexion changed drastically: "My Wei family is not an unknown person, but a family property protected by cultivators. How dare you accept it?"

The black-faced man's face darkened: "Every place has its own rules. The Wei family, a dragon crossing the river, even if it is protected by a cultivator, it is only a transcendental realm. It is not at the point where it can be exempted from protection fees."

"But my young master is the true biography of Guanri Peak!"

"That's why I only accept half of you. This is the friendship of my family leader. After all, there is no such thing in the rules." The black-faced man said: "Guard Zhang, my Hongyun Gang respects rules and favors. , but it’s not out of the ordinary to deceive each other, I hope you understand, don’t make it difficult for me to wait. Otherwise, if you really don’t want to accept you, I’m afraid that other families who pay money will complain about our unfairness.”

As he said that, he bowed his hands to the steward and left.

The steward looked at the back of the black-faced man leaving, speechless.

The guy next to him came over and said, "Boss, what do you think about this matter?"

Manager Zhang said leisurely: "What else can I do? I can only agree."

The guy said angrily: "This is too cheap for them, isn't it?"

Guanshi Zhang gave the guy a cold look: "Then what else do you want?"

"Naturally let Young Master Wei come over and teach them a lesson!"

Manager Zhang said disdainfully: "Let Master Wei come over to teach you a lesson? Are you kidding? Are there no cultivators when you become the Hongyun Gang? Besides, we are outsiders here, and the Hongyun Gang is doing things. It's still talking about the rules and not breaking the rules. If we call the young master over, it would be a violation of the rules. This is not the Canglong Mansion, and many things cannot be controlled by our Wei family, so bear with it."

Said that he has gone back to the shop.

The store clerk spat on the ground: "I'm afraid that if there is one time, there will be troubles in the future."

A word from the little man, but it revealed the truth.

Dawn City.

It is located on the edge of Lingzhou, which is at the junction of the three states. Therefore, although Lingzhou has no special products, it is an extremely important traffic artery. A large amount of goods are transported from here to all parts of the country every year, so it is also a must for merchants. .

If the Wei family's business wants to go further, Chaomu City is an indispensable and important place.

Here, the Wei family owns a shop. Although there is only one shop, it occupies a large area, employs many people, and its scale is larger than the sum of the seven houses in Dihuo City. It integrates many functions such as purchase, sale, and transfer. The person in charge, Li Zhaoxu, is an old man in Weifu for many years. He is known as the Laughing Buddha, and he always smiles when he sees people.

But today, the smiling Buddha has a bitter face.

In the reception hall behind the shop, the smiling Buddha said to a green-clothed scholar: "It's pretty good, why is the rent going to be raised? And it's just that much."

The green-shirted scribe held hot tea in his hand, skimmed the tea leaves with the lid of the cup, and said slowly: "Steward Li's words are not good enough. It's not that our master wants to increase the rent, but to let the rent return to its original price. In the past few years, the business in Chaomu City has become more and more prosperous, and the big manager is also seeing it. The rent prices of shops everywhere are rising, but our shop has always been based on the lowest price. To your house."

Li Zhaoxu accompanied him with a smile and said, "Li certainly understands this."

"But good things always come to an end." The green-clothed scribe said leisurely, "Our boss has been a little tight lately, so we can't always be at the expense of ourselves and subsidize the Wei family, can we?"

"Heh, huh... yes, yes." Li Zhaoxu smiled helplessly, but cursed secretly in his heart, it's a shame that he was attached to the Wei family. In the past two years, your Zhong family has made a lot of money just by collecting land rent, not to mention how prosperous your life is.

Just for the Wei family to rent this shop, they have to pay the Zhong family 4,500 taels of silver every year. As for now, the other party has jumped to 7,000 taels all of a sudden.

Although 7,000 taels is not an excessive number, it is indeed a reasonable price compared to the surrounding areas, but I am used to enjoying the discounts, and suddenly there are no discounts, so the feeling is naturally very bad.

The most terrible thing is that a few days ago, in order to expand the business, Li Zhaoxu spent a lot of money to buy goods. He only prepared a limited amount of money to pay the rent, but he did not guard against the other party's price increase. Suddenly, there was a shortage of funds. .

Fortunately, this matter was not too serious, and the green-shirted scholar obviously didn't want to push people too much, and said that he could give Li Zhaoxu time to raise money, and Li Zhaoxu finally had time to ask the head of the Canglong Mansion for help.

After the discussion, Li Zhaoxu sent the other party away, and when he came back, his face was full of sadness again.

His personal servant saw Li Zhaoxu like this, and asked: "Didn't the Zhong family already promise us time to raise money from the master? Why is the master still so worried?"

Li Zhaoxu shook his head and said: "What do you know? In order to open up the situation, foreign businessmen often operate at low prices and try to build a reputation first, so the profits are meager. I heard that my wife complained about foreign affairs a few days ago. Incompetent, but in fact, this meager profit can only be achieved by the rent being cheap enough. Now, the rent has risen, and the original meager profit is difficult to keep. If you don’t do something next, I’m afraid you will lose money myself."

As soon as the word loss was mentioned, Li Zhaoxu was immediately worried.

The boy also nodded and said: "This is really a trouble, but fortunately, the master is not going to face it by himself."

"En?" Li Zhaoxu raised his head to look at the servant.

The boy laughed and said, "Master, you don't know, do you? I just heard about it before. Recently, many businesses in various places have encountered such things. The shops in Dihuo City were paid protection fees by the Red Cloud Gang; the ferry boats on the Dingjia River , was charged a parking fee; for the Wanhuaxiu in Qiansi Town, our Wei family is no longer one of the priority suppliers, but we have to go through a lottery to get a number like those ordinary merchants, and buy it at a competitive price; I heard that even the ancient The gang of woodcutters in Wan Township all jumped out, saying that my Wei family gave us too little money, so they wouldn’t do anything for us.”

Li Zhaoxu was stunned when he heard this: "There is such a thing? How could this happen?"

The boy said: "It wasn't that Tang Jie who made the trouble, who said he would no longer take care of the Wei family's affairs. When the Gu family heard about this, they were the first to jump out, and all the shops that were originally going to be sold to the Wei family were not sold. The family still has nothing to do with them. This is great, everyone sees it, and some things will come out naturally. So don't worry, master, at this moment, I am afraid that the elder of the Wei family is more serious than you. Hurry up, I definitely can’t blame you.”

Li Zhaoxu was startled at first, then his face became angry, and he slapped the boy with his hands: "You bastard, the master is in trouble, and you're taking pleasure in other's misfortunes!"

The boy was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

Only then did Li Zhaoxu regain his kind face, and sat down slowly: "Tang Jie... I've heard about him, and it's not surprising that he reacted like this. But it's just a Tang Jie, how could he attract such a big fuss?" The storm? And it came so fast, so urgently? I think there are probably people in the dark who are fueling the flames... If this is the case, I'm afraid there will be some actions in the future."

"Is there any movement?" The boy was also a little silly in fright.

Li Zhaoxu snorted: "It depends on how the owner responds. It's just the beginning, and all parties are doing things with a sense of probing, and they won't be too extreme. At best, they will erase some of the benefits that should have been given to the Wei family. But if we respond Weak..."

Li Zhaoxu's voice dropped.

No matter where the family is, they will not like outsiders to intervene in their business.

Why did the Gu family refuse to sell even though they tried to offend the Wei family? Isn't it just to continue to control the casino business in Canglong Mansion? If any family wants to open a casino in Canglong Mansion, it cannot do so without the permission of the Gu family. Selling the casino to Wei's family did not lose a few shops, but the default casino franchise.

For the same reason, outsiders will not be welcome to do business in other places, and the strength of the cultivator is the key to deciding whether to enter.

If you are strong, I will bear it. If you are not powerful enough, you should naturally shrink back.

When the Wei family has the two pillars of Wei Tianchong and Tang Jie, the Wei family's business can be opened to all cities in Lingzhou, and the status is equivalent to that of the Zhun Tianxin family, as long as they don't overwhelm the host. But when Tang Jie expressed his negative attitude, his status dropped, and the treatment he deserved naturally also dropped.

When the strength is great, all expansions are justified; if the strength is weak, then these originally legitimate expansions will become "a hand that is stretched too wide."

Faced with such a hand, chopping off is the most natural choice.

From this point of view, any action against the Wei family is actually not excessive. As long-term businessmen, everyone knows how to measure and strictly adheres to the concept of how much strength and how much territory to expand.

But for the Wei family, the nature of the matter is completely different.

Expansion requires investment, a lot of money is spent, and the situation has just stabilized, not to mention making money, even the capital has not been returned, and it is about to withdraw? With this withdrawal, a lot of money was wasted. The wealth accumulated by the Wei family over the years is all on it, and they even owe a lot of money. If it is all for naught, one can imagine the huge loss.

But if you don't want to withdraw, you must use the corresponding strength.

—————————————

"I don't agree." Wei Tian said lightly.

"What did you say?" Wei Danbo looked at his son in surprise.

"I said I won't make a move." Wei Tianchong replied: "Everyone's actions are just trivial matters, and they belong to each family's duty. What reason do you want me to make a move? Just to destroy the Zhong family for the rent Did you kill Qiansi Township for priority supply? Or go to Guwan Township to say that anyone who dares not work for our Wei family will be killed? Father, Wenxin is not a lawless place, even if it is The royal family is not so unscrupulous in doing things!"

"What about the Red Cloud Gang? You can always deal with them, right? The matter of protection fees will never be brought up on the table." Wei Danbai's voice was full of exhaustion and helplessness. It can be seen that these days, he has suffered a lot from troubles everywhere.

Wei Tianchong smiled wryly: "I can't get on the stage, but the problem is that I can't beat your son either! You, the Red Cloud Gang, dare to collect protection fees in Dihuo City, are you a vegetarian? They have real people backing them, Didn't I go there to seek death?"

"They dare not kill you, you are Master Yan's apprentice."

"That's true. They definitely wouldn't dare to kill me. But they can beat me up, strip me naked and throw me out. The master is the best face. If any apprentice is bullied by the elders, he may stand out. But if he comes to the door Going to trouble someone but being humiliated instead, then I am the one who is unlucky! If the master knows at that time, not to mention revenge, I am afraid that the first thing he will do is to pick up the sword and cut me off... You don’t know , I am not valued in his mind, and it is not easy to keep this true inheritance."

Wei Danbai gasped: "That means you can't do anything?"

Wei Tianchong shrugged: "Wait for them to go too far."

"Wait for them to go too far? I'm afraid it will be too late by then! Do you know how much money the Wei family has lost during this period? It's all money for your cultivation!" Wei Danbai said anxiously.

Wei Tian rushed forward and remained calm: "Oh, I don't care. Anyway, I have enough money now, so I don't need the Wei family to pay for it."

"What did you say?" Wei Danbo couldn't believe his ears, he stared at his son: "How can you say such a thing! You don't need the Wei family anymore, so you can throw the Wei family aside? "

Wei Tianchong spread his hands: "Isn't this like what you learned from your father? You don't think Tang Jie is needed, so you just throw him aside?"

Wei Danbai froze on the spot.

He looked at his son: "So that's it, you are standing up for Tang Jie? He did this to my Wei family, and you still want to stand up for him?"

Wei Danbai was already roaring.

Wei Tianchong sneered: "Dare to ask father, what did he do?"

What did he do?

Wei Danbai opened his mouth, but couldn't answer for a moment.

Wei Tianchong said: "He just announced that he would not care about everything. Given what his father did back then, why is it so strange for him to make such a decision? How can I feel sorry for my Wei family?"

"But during this time..."

"What has happened during this time has anything to do with him? Or does father want to say that this person is so important that without him, the development of our Wei family will be greatly affected?"

Wei Danbo no matter what, he didn't want to admit that Tang Jie was so important to the Wei family.

He stared at his son fiercely: "Are you speaking for Tang Jie?"

"Baby is just telling the truth."

Wei Tianchong said and strode out the door.

After leaving his father, Wei Tianchong also let out a long breath.

These days he was caught between the two, and he was also in a dilemma, but today he finally spoke loudly, uttering the words from the bottom of his heart. I really didn't expect that the feeling of contradicting his father was so refreshing.

The reason why he dared to do this was not for anything else, but because Tang Jie retreated and gave way.

Originally, he had always been worried that Tang Jie would turn his back on him, and he was prepared to protect the Wei family.

But when Tang Jie didn't do anything and just announced his retreat, it made him feel very relaxed.

No one knew better than him what Tang Jie had done for him, and because of this, he felt that he was sorry for Tang Jie.

So when the Wei Mansion was besieged on all sides because of this, Wei Tianchong not only didn't feel troubled, on the contrary he felt a kind of joyful excitement, thinking that Dad, you finally know the stupidity of your actions, right?

Wei Danbo is his father, no matter how he cultivated to the sky, he can't yell at his father, but because of this, from his point of view, he is very happy to see his father suffer.

As for the loss of Weifu, he really didn't care.

As mentioned before, he is a cultivator, and he is completely consistent with Tang Jie in terms of values.

Spirit money is money!

The gold and silver in the mortal world, the wealth of the world, and the busy running around are no longer in the eyes of practitioners.

Furthermore, his refusal was not entirely unreasonable, in the current situation, if he made the move himself, he would probably lead to gossip, and if he really let the master know that he was rushing here for the family business, he would probably send someone to arrest him immediately.

But what Wei Tianchong didn't expect was that even though he didn't do anything, Yan Changfeng still sent someone.

Three days after the decision against Wei Danbai, Nan Baicheng appeared at Wei's house.

Standing in front of Wei Tianchong, Nan Baicheng asked, "I heard that something happened to the Wei family recently?"

Wei Tian hurriedly replied: "It's just some small business problems."

"That's it..." Nan Baicheng looked at Wei Tianchong, with a half-smile, and said with a drawn-out tone: "If that's the case, then come back to the mountain with me."

"Go back to the mountain?" Wei Tianchong was shocked: "What are you doing back to the mountain?"

"Master has an order. You followed Tang Jie to win the Shimen sect and made great contributions. Master wants to reward you and teach you the nine changes of the day."

Nine changes on Sunday?

This is Yan Changfeng's best immortal method, just like the chaotic wind walking in the bright night sky.

Wei Tianchong also listened in a daze, but then he came to his senses: "But my family..."

Nan Baicheng said impatiently: "It's nothing serious, why do you care about it? Let me go."

As he spoke, he waved his sleeves, and Wei Tian was swept away, flying slowly into the air...