The Gallant and the Governor Ximen Qing

  Ximen Qing thought for a moment, then readily agreed and ordered the Heavenly King to assign 100 small soldiers to serve Ximen Qing. Wu Song was worried and also followed along the way.

  Wu Yong, also known as the clever star, received the order from Chong Tianwang and wanted to take matters into his own hands. He deliberately chose a hundred unruly men who were difficult to discipline and had them wait at the camp entrance for Ximen Qing.

  These rascals don't even dare to come out for training, and they can't be sent into battle. Usually, it's a blessing if they can just feed the horses properly. Now, they're arranged in front of the camp, waiting around. Ximen Qing and Wu Song haven't arrived yet, and they're getting impatient. Some are leaning against trees, lazily sunbathing, watching birds fly back and forth, waiting for bird droppings to fall into their mouths; some are squatting on the ground, who knows where they found a broken ceramic bowl, tossing coins and gambling for two cents; others have taken off their shirts and are wrestling, seven or eight people surrounding them, cheering and shouting, afraid that someone will get killed.

  In short, Wu Yong brought Ximen Qing and Wu Song to the front of the camp, dropped a sentence of instruction, and slipped away with greased soles, leaving Ximen Qing and Wu Song to take care of themselves.

  Ximen Qing and Wu Song stood silently in the wind, their hair disheveled. A short while passed, only seven or eight idle people occasionally looked up at them with a bored expression, without even a hint of interest, just hoping to avoid being called upon for the time being.

  "Brother, isn't this Wu Yong's trick to make things difficult for us? He brought so many useless people, I doubt they can even form a decent line, let alone help with moving and protecting the family."

  "It doesn't matter if these goods are useless anyway. Let's just go back ourselves and forget about it, I'm too lazy to talk to Chong Tianwang."

  Ximen Qing often uses the term "extreme goods" when chatting and commenting on things or people, and over time, even those around him like Wu Song and Shi Qian have picked up this phrase. No wonder, this bunch of goods in front of him can only be described as "extreme goods".

  Ximen Qing shook his head and said, "Even if Wu Yong is intentionally making things difficult for us, if we don't take it seriously and just move our family to the camp ourselves, others will laugh at us. We still need to think of a way to make these extreme goods look new in front of Tianwang."

  "Brother, these lazy rascals are really hopeless, even the king would have a headache. Wu Song agreed with Ximen Qing's words, but couldn't think of any solution either: "Even if we could get them to listen to us for a few sentences, what method can be used to discipline them?"

  "Second brother, wait here for a while." Ximen Qing squeezed into the crowd with great interest, looked around and came back to Wu Song: "I do have a way to make everyone listen to me, but what to do afterwards, you and I are not from a military background, it's not easy to handle."

  "This I have a way." Wu Song looked at Ximen Qing with some surprise, unable to think of what method could make these hundred people all look up and listen: "If brother really has a way, then I can try it out."

  "Really?" Ximen Qing nodded, but felt a bit strange in his heart: "This Wu Song is just because he got into trouble and drifted on the rivers and lakes for many years, what kind of method could he have? Shouldn't those years be spent hiding in the army as an officer? And there's no golden seal on his face?"

  Wu Song never mentioned this experience before, and Ximen Qing didn't dare to ask in detail. He suppressed the doubts in his heart, found a high place, pulled Wu Song up, cleared his throat with a cough, and shouted loudly: "There's money to be collected over here!"

  "Is anyone here to collect the money? If you're late, it's gone!"

  Those who were sunbathing under the tree and watching birds suddenly came to life, their eyes wide open staring this way; those who were gambling quickly stuffed the dice and broken porcelain bowls into their bosoms, stood up and stretched their legs, looking around to see where the sound was coming from; those who were watching the sumo wrestling match also immediately dispersed and no longer paid attention to the two men wrestling in the arena, turning their heads to look over here.

  In less than a few breaths, from over ten people to several dozen, and then all one hundred people, one hundred pairs of excited eyes were fixed on Ximen Qing's brightly dressed clothes, as well as the two strings of copper coins he had deliberately taken out.

  Man is for wealth, birds are for food, and with money, ghosts can grind mills. These idioms are still very applicable in today's society.

  "The ancients were not deceiving me!" Ximen Qing sighed secretly, having just wandered around in the crowd for a while and discovered that money was the focus of this group of extreme rascals, especially since they gambled with their lives, so he used the trick of leading them to take the bait, which also suited their tastes.

  In the era when Ximen Qing crossed over, many supermarkets and shops had a killer trick when opening or holding events: on a certain day, they would give away eggs or rice, limited to one catty per person, with a quota of 100 portions. Guaranteed that by the next day, before the doors even opened, there would be long lines formed by elderly people with white hair, leaning on their canes.

  "Hey, you scoundrel, don't try to cheat us!" A man suddenly stood up from the back and asked. This person must have been hunchbacked normally, but now that he straightened up, he was at least half a head taller than everyone else. His body was muscular, with a large scar on his face and a blurry golden tattoo: "You only have two strings of copper coins in your hand, we have a hundred people here, each with only one or two copper coins, what's the point?! Brothers, let's continue playing!"

  "Liu Zhuangzi is right!"

  "What's with this division? It's meaningless, let's disperse!"

  As soon as he said this, someone below immediately started cheering, and it gradually became as noisy as a vegetable market.

  As soon as he said this, someone below immediately started cheering, and it gradually became as noisy as a vegetable market.

  "This man must be the leader!" Ximen Qing and Wu Song exchanged a glance, both immediately reading this from each other's eyes. Ximen Qing's means were not as simple as just two strings of copper coins. Thus, facing the noisy crowd, Ximen Qing smiled awkwardly, and again pulled out a stack of IOUs, fanned them out like playing cards, and used them as a fan to wave at the people below twice.

  "I didn't bring much cash when I went out today, there are various denominations in here, probably just two or three thousand yuan."

  Ximen Qing was very fond of the IOUs in this world, with varying denominations, almost anywhere could be used. When receiving money, no need to use firecrackers, two IOUs were handed over, it was simply a door-knocking brick for getting things done. Therefore, Ximen Qing did not like heavy copper coins, but instead liked carrying a large amount of IOUs on his body. This habit was also because he was used to using banknotes in the past.

  This grand gesture instantly attracted the attention of everyone present, and as Ximen Qing's hands moved, many people below began to nod their heads, and the noise gradually subsided.

  "What's the use of a stack of paper? You guys don't accept IOUs!" A lazy fellow suddenly shouted, and immediately the leader Liu Zhangzi slapped him with a loud slap, causing the man to twist his face in pain.

  "You scoundrel, even the cheapest one is five guan, which is worth five strings of copper coins!"

  Liu Dui's son scolded and cursed, stretching out his two long arms to part the crowd and push his way forward. With his hands clasped together in a salute, he asked without moving from the spot: "Sir, please tell me, how do I get this money?"

  Ximen Qing having already attracted everyone's attention, especially that of Liu Daizhang, naturally took a step back and yielded the stage to Wu Song. From now on, it's Wu Song's turn.

  "Take it easy." Ximen Qing whispered in Wu Song's ear.

  Wu Song had anticipated this outcome from the moment Ximen Qing took out the copper coins, and he already had a plan in mind. He nodded slightly and said to Liu Daizi: "Chief Chao has arranged for you to help us two brothers escort our family members, and you've seen the money too. But business should be fair, so we brothers also want to see if these one hundred people are worth the money, and how much they're worth."

  Liu Yu-zi was originally a personal soldier of Thunder Fire Qin Ming. When Qin Ming reluctantly went to Liangshan and became a bandit, Liu Yu-zi was even more helpless. He had been a soldier for many years and was slashed in the face during a battle, barely escaping with his life. He then became a personal soldier of the Qingzhou Army Commander and could have become a small military officer after a few years of mixing around. However, unexpectedly, he ended up following Qin Ming to become a bandit again. Not only did he ruin his promising future, but even on Liangshan, Qin Ming was a henpecked husband who didn't care about his own personal soldier.

  So Liu Daizhi didn't do one thing and not another, he simply made friends with the unruly and unmanageable troublemakers on the mountain, hiding in the back when it was time to fight, but pushing forward when it was time to receive rewards. On Mount Liangshan, he also had a bit of a reputation. Because he usually hunched over, he got the nickname "Liu Daizhi" (Liu the Hunchback).

  It's strange to say that these stubborn people wouldn't listen to anyone, not even Chao Gai or Song Jiang, but they all took Liu Yuandu as their leader.

  "I, Liu Maozi, know about this matter, but I'm really too lazy to do anything about it." Liu Maozi said: "To tell the truth, more than half of these hundred people were ostracized by others and slowly formed a group on their own. No one cares about them, no one manages them. But if they really start fighting, everyone will be a good fighter."

  Others didn't notice Ximen Qing, but this Liu Daizai in front of him really looked like he had crawled out from a pile of dead people, and the big scars on his face could be seen.

  "How do you know our brothers won't take you to fight?" Wu Song squinted at Liu Zhangzi's bulging muscles and said, "But fighting isn't about individual martial arts, it's about the power of a team. No matter how strong an individual is, facing thousands of troops is like being tofu dregs. If you are really a team and not just scattered sand, then line up immediately and show me!"

  "Received!" Liu's expression changed, he cupped his hands and turned around to shout: "He Lao San! Wang Ma Zi! Zhang Da Zui! Xiao Hu Tu!..."

  As Liu Touzi reported one by one, someone below immediately raised his hand and responded seriously.

  "Old He has arrived!"

  "Long live the king!"

  "Zhang's big mouth has arrived!"

  "Good grief!"

  "Form up! Let's get started, brothers!" Seeing ten arms raised below, Liu Erzi made a gesture. Wu Song understood that Liu Erzi had divided the hundred men into ten small teams, with He Lao San, Wang Ma Zi, Li Da Zui, Xiao Hu Tu and others as team leaders.

  The squad leader's face turned stern, raised his hand and made a gathering gesture: "Fall in!"

  Others responded, and within ten breaths, the originally disorganized hundred people surprisingly formed a neat and tidy formation, even more astonishing than yesterday's Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation!