The road to immortality for a hundred generations

Chapter 25 Protection Fee

Early the next morning, Wang Feng followed Wang An to the Black Tiger Gang.

"Hey, Brother Wang, are you here? Is this the nephew you mentioned?"

"Morning, Brother Wang, are you here so early today?"

"Have you eaten, Brother Wang? May I invite you to have something to eat at Jufulou Tower?"

After approaching the Black Tiger Gang, many members of the Black Tiger Gang wearing black greeted them one after another.

Wang An nodded and responded one by one. After he got away from that person, he would explain to Wang Feng the identity and status of that person.

But most of them are not as tall as Wang An.

After all, as the fourth in command of the Black Tiger Gang, the only ones who could surpass him were the three second-rate masters.

"Today happens to be the first day of the new year. It's time to collect the protection fee. Come on, Feng'er, I'll show you around."

"Good Uncle An."

Wang Feng responded.

At this time, he had already put on the black clothes of the Black Tiger Gang, and he was holding the bright broadsword in his hand.

It's just that this is an ordinary broadsword, and the Black Tiger Gang only has one, so it's not a high-quality sword.

"You can use this sword Feng'er first. Later, I will arrange a hundred-refined sword for you."

Wang An said with a smile.

The Hundred Refined Sword was already the limit of what he could produce.

After all, what he had in his hand at this time was just a Hundred Refined Sword.

"Well, thank you, Uncle An."

Wang Feng responded.

"In order to prevent someone from being unconvinced and causing trouble, the ones who collect the money every month are warriors. After I joined the gang, part of this matter fell into my hands."

Wang An said as he walked, "Generally speaking, with the intimidation of the Black Tiger Gang, there will be no one who is short-sighted. But as there are always accidents, you still have to pay attention to the dangers."

"Understood, Uncle An."

The protection fee collected by the Qinglong Gang is not too much.

First of all, merchants will charge from one tael to 30 taels per month depending on the size of the store.

Even the Black Tiger Gang's own property must be collected.

This most lucrative part is the responsibility of the third leader in the gang.

Next are the ordinary people living in the county.

This also needs to be collected, but the amount collected is much less.

Depending on the wealth of the residents, they will also charge a fee ranging from one hundred to ten taels.

This kind of people are generally not accepted from family members.

All relatives of the Black Tiger Gang are exempted from protection fees.

And Wang An is responsible for this part.

Although the oil and water here is far worse than that in the shop, it is not as low as expected.

"Hey! Master An! Are you here? Come in quickly, come in quickly!"

After arriving at the door of a courtyard with three entrances and three exits, Wang Feng followed Wang An and was invited into the house by the housekeeper.

After sitting in the mansion for a while and drinking a pot of good tea, when they came out again, in addition to the protection fee collected by the gang, each of them had an extra ten taels of silver in their hands.

In other words, they were supposed to receive 30 taels of silver, but now they got [-] taels.

This extra money is considered invisible oil and water.

Of course, this is not free.

For example, if the other party encounters any trouble, they need to help solve it.

However, no matter how big or small the trouble is, there will be another benefit fee when the time comes.

Families like this are already the ones from which Wang An can receive the best protection money.

The better ones either have power or money, so naturally they won't pay protection money to a gang like them.

For example, the magistrate, county magistrate, and chief registrar of Qingshan County.

They even said that they would not accept even the family members of police officers, edicts, historians and patrol inspectors.

These belong to the people who have the right to do so, and they are truly not collected at all.As for the two big families in the county, at least on the surface, they are glamorous.

Privately, the two of them still give the Black Tiger Gang and Goshawk Martial Arts a large amount of money every year.

But this is for direct assistance and has nothing to do with Wang An.

In the next few days, Wang Feng followed Wang An to various places to collect protection fees.

Speaking of which, the Black Tiger Gang does not collect protection fees from everyone.

Instead, choose those with certain financial strength.

As for those poor families, the Black Tiger Gang looks down upon them, but it still attracts small gangs to rob each other.

On this day, as soon as Wang Feng came to the Black Tiger Gang, he realized that the atmosphere in the gang seemed not right.

Some people were in a hurry, and some looked worried, as if they were in for a storm.

"What's wrong? What happened to the gang?"

Wang Feng randomly asked someone.

After all, he is a newcomer who has just joined the gang. He is not well-informed and it is normal for him to not know what is going on in the gang.

"I heard that dozens of horse bandits appeared out of nowhere outside the city. Each of those horse bandits were tall and tall, riding tall horses. There were even seven or eight wearing armor. Even their weapons were very powerful. Excellent."

Considering that Wang Feng was a warrior and his uncle was still the fourth in command, the man answered patiently.

"I don't know where it came from? Isn't it obvious that this is a small group of rebels that broke up after the failed uprising in the east?"

When he mentioned this, people around him also chimed in.

"Well, no one can say for sure, what if it's not?"

"No? Apart from those rebels, who can get dozens of horses? And those seven or eight armored stomachs, I'm afraid they are not trying to ransack the house!
After asking for a while, Wang Feng finally figured out what was going on.

Dozens of rebels were wandering outside Qingshan City. From what I heard, they were not easy to mess with.

Although Qingshan County is not a small county, with a permanent population of [-] to [-], this does not mean that Qingshan County has many defense forces.

First of all, because Qingshan County itself is not too big and can only be regarded as a small and medium-sized county, its own garrison soldiers are limited.

Another thing is that Qingshan County is still a remote county and the transportation is not convenient. It can be said to be a poor county in the true sense.

In addition, some of the residents in the city who are slightly promising, have better martial arts qualifications, and have gained some Mingtang training, have either joined the Black Tiger Gang or the Tianying Martial Arts School, and the rest are probably nothing. Talented ordinary people.

Although these people are enough to defend the city, it is impossible to count on them to take the initiative to attack.

Even if you go, it's just food delivery.

The Tianying Martial Arts School and the Black Tiger Gang themselves cannot exert much effort to eliminate the horse bandits.

Because these are their family assets, once one party becomes weak, they may be wiped out by the other party.

Besides, even if the two of them and the county magistrate work together to capture the horse bandits, will the horse bandits be able to escape if they can't be defeated?

There are dozens of horses, coming and going as they please.

But if those horse bandits were ignored, the caravans traveling to and from Qingshan County, and even the old farmers from small mountain villages who came to the county to sell goods, would not dare to come.

As time passed, the county seat Ziru became dilapidated.

Not to mention that most of the fertile farmland in the county is outside the city.

Soon, Wang An found Wang Feng in a hurry.

"Feng'er, how are you? Have you heard about the horse bandits?"

Wang An asked with a solemn expression.

"I heard that, what do you think of Uncle An?"

Wang Feng asked.

"I don't have any idea, but it's not clear yet whether those horse bandits have any plans to enter the city."

Wang An sighed and said, "It would be okay if they didn't, but if they have the idea of ​​​​entering the city, breaking them into pieces, and causing riots in the county town, it will only be bad for us, not good."

Part of the Black Tiger Gang's income comes from underlying assets, and the other part comes from protection fees.

But with chaos in the county, does anyone still dare to go out to spend money or work to make money?
"If you look at it, those horse bandits may not dare to come in. Even if they come in, they will only buy some daily necessities at most."

Wang Feng said, "Outside, they are riding horses, and no one can catch up with them. But if they enter the city, even if they cause some commotion for a while, as long as the city is closed for strict investigation, they will be able to be caught."

"It doesn't matter if they come in with more than a dozen or even twenty people at once. Even if the commotion they cause is larger, as you said, if the city is closed down and every house is inspected, they will definitely be able to find out."

Wang An shook his head, "But what if they come in every ten and a half months and beat, smash, and kill someone?"

(End of this chapter)