C125

Xu You's residence was just two streets away from the prefectural governor's mansion. It was originally the home of a wealthy merchant, but was sold off at a low price by Xu You later on, and the family members were expelled from Qing He. This house took up less than three acres of land, but it was extremely exquisite and luxurious. Yuan Shao praised it after he looked around.

When Xu You returned home, Xu Hao and Xu Yang was in the garden laughing as they counted up today's' income '. Seeing that Xu You had returned, the two of them quickly went to pay their respects.

"Business? Just the two of you? " Xu You scoffed.

Xu Yang smiled and said, "Uncle, Brother is right. We are indeed doing something serious this time."

"Oh?" Xu You was immediately interested, he took two steps forward and sat on the stone bench, and playfully smiled: "Tell me about it."

Xu Hao laughed proudly: "In order to protect the shops in the city from the harassment and extortion of those green skin and thugs, I have collected a small amount of protection fees from them. In the future, if anyone tries to harass and extort them, I will step in and help them.

"Protection fee?" Xu You was a little taken aback upon hearing this new term, but when he combined with what Xu Hao had just said, he immediately understood the meaning of this word, and could not help but nod in praise: "Not bad, this idea is really not bad, but my son must not go overboard to catch this amount of 'protection fee', and must not forget how much this is worth."

Xu Hao came to a sudden realization as he praised: "Father is wise, I will return some money later."

"This child can be taught …" Xu You twisted his beard and laughed, then suddenly shouted: "Wait! There's no need to return the money, just go and take it back later. "

"Huh?" Xu Hao was startled, and anxiously asked: "Father, why is that so? Didn't you just say that you would let the water flow in long and thin streams? "

"Just do it!" Xu You laughed and waved his hand, thinking that since the old man was already prepared to change sides, it would be worth it to earn money quickly, since he would not have the chance to do such a promising thing once he reaches Youzhou.

"We shall obey father's teachings." Xu Hao did not question further about the reason. He rubbed his hands excitedly and asked: "Is there anything else father needs?"

"One more thing, do not touch those shops with backers, especially the businesses owned by the prefectural governor ladies, just hide as far as you can, understand?"

"Here," Xu Hao hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth, wanting to say something.

Xu You frowned and asked: What's wrong?

"Father, your son is very excited today. He took them all in one by one, and didn't check them out beforehand."

"AHH!" Xu You turned pale with fright, suddenly standing up and shouting: "Son, this old man is going to be killed by you! In less than half a month after Yuan Shijun had entered the Qinghe County, about forty percent of the shops in the city had already been bought by the prefectural governor's wife. This won't do, I need to hurry up and meet Madam prefectural governor, even if it means double the compensation! "

Xu Hao and Xu Yang were also shocked. They were both silkpants and normally wouldn't care about this sort of thing, but they had heard of Mrs Liu's methods a lot. They were extremely afraid of that beautiful woman.

Xu You was about to change his clothes and head towards prefectural governor's mansion, when the butler ran in and shouted excitedly: "Master, master! Yuan Shijun had someone send a reward over again!

Xu You muttered to himself for a moment, then ordered the Xu Hao brothers to stay at home to not run around, and walked towards the front hall.

"I pay my respects to Mr. Xu." The one who came was Yuan Shao's Guard Commander, he cupped his fists and saluted when he saw Xu You coming over.

"No need to be so polite!" Xu You laughed: "Yuan Zhong, why would such a small matter like this happen to you? Come, come, let's go. This old man will have the banquet prepared.

Xu You had always been kind and friendly to those who were useful to him, and Yuan Zhong was one of them. Of course, Xu You received even more news, such as the one that Yuan Zhong was going to tell him.

"Mr. Zi Yuan, let's talk about drinking wine another day." Yuan Zhong's face turned serious, and said softly: "Mister, you still don't know after returning, young master has caused trouble today! He had smashed quite a number of shops and they were all Madam's. Madam was infuriated, hearing that he had insulted Mister's entire family! "Mister, quickly apologize to Madam. Otherwise, if Master finds out about this matter, things will be difficult to resolve!"

"will never forget Protector Yuan's heart of protection!" Xu You bowed as he expressed his gratitude. He pointed at the big box that Yuan Zhong had brought and sighed.

"Alright, Mr. Zi Yuan, don't worry. I will speak for you when the time is right."

"Thank you!" It's just a small token of my appreciation. Brother Yuan, please do not decline. " Xu You took out a jade pendant from his sleeve and forced it into Yuan Zhong's arms.

"Many thanks for Mister's gift. I'll be leaving first. Mister, please head back quickly and request an audience with Madam."

"Brother Yuan, you go first. This old man will go to prefectural governor's mansion after I change."

After a while, Xu You rode on the horse carriage with a few big boxes, and under the escort of a few servants, he quickly arrived at the entrance of the prefectural governor's mansion.

"Mr. Zi Yuan, Master is having dinner with Madam right now and has said that he will not see anyone for the time being. If Mister isn't in a hurry, could you please wait in the living room for a moment?"

After Xu You heard the housekeeper's words, his heart immediately went cold. He originally planned to settle this matter with Mrs. Liu privately, without Yuan Shao's knowledge. Xu You was not worried that Yuan Shao would reprimand him, after all, they had been friends for so many years, and during the great battle, Yuan Shao would rely on himself for most of the time.

At this time, in the small living room in the prefectural governor's mansion's backyard, Yuan Shao put down his chopsticks, frowned and asked: "Could it be that someone offended Madam with his eyes closed?"

When Yuan Shao first arrived, Mrs Liu was still smiling, but since then her face had been tense, causing Yuan Shao to lose his appetite.

Mrs Liu forced out a smile: "Husband, there's nothing wrong, I'm just not feeling well."

Yuan Shao slightly sighed: "My lady, you and I are husband and wife, why can't you say it clearly? No matter what the problem is, your husband will solve it for you. "

Mrs Liu was silent. After a while, she sighed and shook her head.

Yuan Shao asked a few more times, but seeing that Mrs Liu was still silent, he impatiently stood up and prepared to leave.

"Husband!" "I did not intentionally hide it, and in truth, this matter involves Xu Ziyuan. I'm worried that if I were to offend him, he would no longer wholeheartedly advise my husband!"

"Xu Ziyuan?" Yuan Shao was shocked and angry at the same time, but immediately he had a bad idea, and anxiously asked: "What did he do? "Madam, just tell me, your husband will not forgive him!"

"Husband!" Mrs Liu lightly hit Yuan Shao and scolded: "What are you thinking of, Husband? It's not that! Xu Ziyuan's son and nephew smashed a few of my shops, and even beat my uncle half to death. In the end, they even threatened that if they wanted to do business in the Qinghe County, they would have to pay what seemed to be "security fees".

"How preposterous! "This brat is really reckless!" Yuan Shao was immediately enraged. He had seen Xu Hao a few times, and at that time, he felt that he was a useless, good-for-nothing. I, Yuan Shao, am the master of Qing He, the master of Jizhou. Who do you think you are, to dare to spout such nonsense! Then, he thought about how he had just sent Xu You a thousand gold coins, and his heart became even more furious. How could you, Xu You's son, accept my rewards for doing such a reckless thing?

"Husband, why don't we forget about it?" Lady Liu advised falsely, "It's just some useless things, I and Xian Fu will be able to save some money, but the military expenditures for Husband will be greatly reduced."

So it turned out that Liu family's methods were brilliant, after seizing half of Qinghe County's shop, they gave more than half of their harvest to Yuan Shao as military expenses. Yuan Shao liked and trusted her even more, and anyone who talked bad about Mrs Liu in front of him, no matter who it was, would be held responsible, and Mrs Liu would always dissuade and quietly fan the flames, even Ju Shou had been scolded by Yuan Shao. After a while, no one dared to say anything wrong about Mrs Liu in front of Yuan Shao.

When Yuan Shao heard these words, he couldn't help but be enraged, and shouted towards the door: "Men, quickly get Xu You here to see me!"

After Mrs Liu's secret provocation, Yuan Shao already hated Xu You to the extreme! In order to recruit many people to fight against Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shao had reduced the daily use of prefectural governor's mansion s by a few times. If not for the Liu Family being able to earn a lot of money, it would be extremely difficult for Yuan Shao to continue living a life of luxury. The Xu Hao brothers still had to collect protection fees after smashing up the Liu Family's shop, this action was no different from snatching money from Yuan Shao, how could Yuan Shao not be enraged?

Yuan Zhong's voice came from outside the door: "Reporting to Master, Xu You has already been waiting in the front courtyard's living room for a long time.

"Hold on!" Yuan Shao shouted, and thought for a while, then asked: "Did you accept the reward that I gave to Xu You? Did he bring anything with him? "

"Xu You did not accept the reward. He brought a few large chests with him, and when he carried them down from the carriage, they looked extremely heavy. It should be something like gold, silver, copper, etc. In my opinion, if it's copper coins, I'm afraid that they would be no less than two hundred thousand! It looks like Xu You is here to pay with all his money to atone for his sins! " Yuan Zhong seemed to be speaking the truth, but he was actually speaking up for Xu You.

Yuan Shao laughed coldly: "This fellow sees the timing pretty quickly! Two hundred thousand slots? His annual salary was only eight hundred stone, it would take at least a hundred years to accumulate to two hundred thousand! "From this, we can see how crazy this guy is to amass wealth!" When he thought about how he had to rely on the Madam's shop to get rich while Xu You could only rely on bribery to earn that much money, the rage in Yuan Shao's heart simply couldn't be helped.

When Mrs Liu heard the number 'two hundred thousand', her eyes immediately lit up. For Jizhou's side, there was no way to compare with the current incomparably rich Youzhou in the year-round battles. Even the annual income from taxes was only about four hundred thousand five hundred thousand slashes, while two hundred thousand slashes was almost half a year's worth of income tax. Therefore, she was both angry and angry towards Xu You in her heart. It was not because she was angry that Xu You had that much money, but because she,, had spent so much effort just to earn a few thousand points. How could Xu You have amassed that much money?

Yuan Zhong asked softly: "Master, would you like Xu You to bring something here?"

"No!" Yuan Shao laughed coldly, "Let's hang him up like this. If he doesn't leave after four hours, bring him to this old man's study again, if he leaves … hehe …"

It was close to dusk, and after four hours, it was already deep into the night. Yuan Shao's intentions were clear, if Xu You could hold on, he would forgive him once, but if he could not, then that would be telling the truth!

"As per the lord's orders, I know what to do now." Yuan Zhong bowed and retreated, after thinking about it, he quickly went to report to Xu You.

After Yuan Zhong left, Lady Liu saw that no one was around, so she grabbed Yuan Shao and said emotionally: "Husband, two hundred thousand slashes ah! With this money, my husband will be able to recruit thousands of people! "

"As expected of Madam, you're always thinking of this old man's career!" Yuan Shao touched Lady Liu's face with emotion, the anger in his heart had dissipated by a lot, and he asked with a smile: Madam, do you want to forgive Xu You? You have the final say in this matter! "

Mrs Liu laughed lightly: "Although Xu You's character and conduct is bad, he still has some tricks up his sleeves and is quite loyal to his husband. How about we just let him go after a round of punishment? However, if he were to hand over the money that he had stolen, he can't possibly let others learn from him, right? "

Yuan Shao laughed: "Madam is right, let's do it this way! I have instructed the kitchen to prepare a table of delicate dishes, and Madam and I will go to the study to have a few cups! "

Every time Yuan Shao talked about going to the study room to drink, something would usually happen after he drank, so when Mrs Liu heard him say that, he couldn't help but throw him a flirtatious glance, before spiralling over to the garden's gate to call for someone.