Chapter 187 – Visitors from the Cangzhou Meng Clan (Part One)
“These things were all written by the Young Master. I didn’t expect him to delve into military training too…”
Meng Hunyun cradled Jiang Pengji’s training manual like a treasure, while Xu Ke, not used to his starry-eyed admiration, handed him the original manuscript written by Jiang Pengji. The training content was what Xu Ke referred to as “torture”—heavy and merciless beyond imagination.
Meng Hunyun glanced over it briefly, then silently set it down; better to stick with the revised version.
“If Head Instructor Meng has any uncertainties, feel free to come and find me.”
Meng Hunyun was quite perceptive, and Xu Ke’s transition into the role was smooth, rendering all his prior preparations unnecessary.
“Of course! I will also trouble Xiaoyu then.”
Meng Hunyun clasped his fists and smiled, his fondness for Xu Ke noticeably increasing.
Civil and martial arts were two distinct realms. Xu Ke, being a scholar, wasn’t familiar with training, but he was very meticulous. Even though Meng Hunyun had never interacted with this fledgling troop before, after carefully reviewing the materials Xu Ke provided, he felt much more grounded.
Both belonged to the same camp, but since they weren’t familiar yet, they didn’t digress into topics beyond their work.
Xu Ke was young, but his talent was evident, and his intuition was remarkably high. He learned quite a few things while conversing with Meng Hunyun. He excelled particularly in internal affairs, which naturally piqued his interest in Meng Hunyun’s mention of “war-time supply logistics.”
As the saying goes, “before troops march, provisions must proceed,” a good logistics line could definitely sway the outcome of a war.
The Young Master—one could instantly tell his ambitions reached far beyond this.
As one of Jiang Pengji’s initial team members, Xu Ke couldn’t restrict his aspirations to just the little Liu Residence’s accounts.
In fact, Xu Ke himself had ambitions, and they weren’t small—not merely content with being an accountant.
Seeing him inquire about this aspect, Meng Hunyun naturally disclosed everything he knew and even named a few books that contained relevant information. How to find those books, well, that wasn’t something Meng Hunyun was concerned about.
Indeed, Meng Hunyun hadn’t read as many as Xu Ke, but he had the advantage of age and his own accumulation of experiences—each was a gem.
Unbeknownst to them, the two chatted until nightfall, hastily finished dinner, and went about their busy lives.
Jiang Pengji returned to the Liu Residence, took out her previous night clothes, and placed those two scrolls in a relatively hidden corner of the wood room.
“This should be fine…”
She smiled, feeling everything was under control, which greatly improved her mood, and her figure quickly vanished into the night.
That deep night, the Gambling House was still bustling and noisy.
The gamblers didn’t care how much this Gambling House had lost. All they could see were their own silver coins and those in others’ pockets.
Having lost over four thousand silver taels due to Jiang Pengji’s schemes, the Gambling House owner nearly spat blood in anger.
Then he received news that the alluring beauty kept in the wood room had been snatched away by unknown assailants. His hired thugs were heavily injured—upon hearing this, he nearly choked, but he was still alive.
Despite experiencing these two major blows, the owner wouldn’t shut down shop. Business had to keep going.
This Gambling House was his property in Hejian County. If he closed, how much pure white silver would he lose in a day?
Swallowing his bitterness with a mouthful of blood, the owner hired a Young Doctor to treat his wounded thugs, bought medicine, and sent them home to recuperate with just a bit of pocket change, leaving the security temporarily to the thugs who weren’t on duty that day.
“Big, big, big!!! Definitely roll big!!!”
“Small! Small! Small! This round has to be small!”
The clamor echoed through the first-floor hall of the Gambling House, with the banker wearing a smile on the surface but inwardly feeling a bit tense.
He opened the dice cup; three sixes—still a triple. The banker swept it all in.
At this moment, many gamblers with red eyes began to protest, hollering that the Gambling House had underhanded dealings.
“Why’s it another triple? That’s the third triple tonight, right? I’ve lost twenty taels since I walked in!”
“The last round was three to one, now it’s three to six! Who’s going to believe it’s clean?”
“Exactly! I came to sell my two acres’ worth of crops, and now it’s all gone.”
Facing the gamblers’ uproar, the banker chuckled coldly to himself—a bunch of dimwits.
A Gambling House is originally a place designed to drain the pockets of gamblers; how could there not be some shady dealings?
Without shady dealings, could the banker clean up so many times?
Are they really that dim?
Seeing the gamblers getting a bit out of control, the banker quickly dispatched some thugs with clubs to intimidate them. The heated-up gamblers quickly became as docile as quails, not daring to stir things up further. How could mere mortals fight against those wielding heavy clubs?
The banker maintained his composure and remarked, “If you’re having bad luck, go pray to the God of Wealth more. Losing your own money is just bad luck; don’t blame it on the Gambling House. You think this is some kind of place where only winnings exist? If you aren’t winning, you get to complain, eh?”
In truth, the banker was internally distressed; losing too much money, and hardly anyone was making any, even the dullest gambler would sense something was off.
But what could be done?
After being swindled out of that much money, the owner naturally intensified squeezing and exploiting those gamblers.
Previously, it was just the occasional fleece, now he aimed to shear every single fat sheep clean.
“Love to gamble? Then bet; if you don’t, get lost!” The banker waved his hand impatiently.
The gamblers looked at each other, but in the end, not many left. They continued to cling to the hope of “the next round will definitely be a comeback to win back the lost silver,” sinking deeper into this crude trap, and the banker coolly snorted at seeing them gather back around the gambling table.
Such fools!
The Gambling House remained lively and boisterous, shouts mixed with the ecstasies of profit, continuing until dawn.
In the early morning, dew-drops clung to the blades of grass.
The city gate wasn’t opened yet, but outside, many common people had gathered, most carrying vegetables harvested from their own fields.
With a creak, the city gate swung open, and the people lined up orderly, entering the city one by one after inspections.
Clop clop clop clop!
The clear sound of hooves came from afar; the lined-up commoners carefully counted the eggs in their baskets. These were laid by their own hens, collected over several days to sell at the market for a good price to help out the household.
“Make way!”
The commoner heard the hoofbeats and stepped aside but didn’t expect the riders to be so arrogant, refusing to stop.
“Ah!”
“Help!”
“My eggs… my eggs…”
“Who stepped on me? That hurt… ouch…”
Several fast horses ignored the lined-up commoners and galloped through, sparking chaos among the crowd.
