Dear mother, how did we become the first sheep?! How did we become the chickens who set an example for the monkeys?!

The shopkeeper Tai and the shopkeeper Lu sat on the ground in fright, cowering in fear, there was no trace of blood on their faces, the cold sweat on their foreheads couldn't stop flowing down, and they couldn't stop trembling with fat, and they trembled like chaff, as if they had been electrocuted at the same time.

In the eyes of the shopkeeper Tai and the shopkeeper Lu, the smile on the face of the errand next to him was like the smile on the prisoner's last meal in the prison, which was eerie and terrifying.

A gust of wind blew, like a ghost howling. The clear sky seemed to be dark all of a sudden, and the air around them seemed to turn into a bloody mouth, swallowing the two of them alive.

There is no rain in the clear sky, only the two of them are drenched in the rain!

God knows how the shopkeeper Tai and the shopkeeper Lu got to the county office, but they can't remember it themselves.

When they arrived in front of the gate of the county government, their brains were blank, and when they crossed the threshold of the county government like walking corpses, one stumbled, and almost fell to the ground.

"Shopkeeper Lu, shopkeeper Tai, please. After waiting inside for a while, the county respected the official business and came. ”

The messenger made a gesture of please and led the two to a squad room on the left side of the county office.

"Hey, there's labor, there's labor......"

The shopkeeper Tai and the shopkeeper Lu trembled and hugged their fists to thank them, and their voices were trembling.

The shopkeeper Tai and the shopkeeper Lu looked up at the class room in front of them, in their eyes, the class room seemed to come to life all of a sudden, turning into a dark head, squatting and grinning with teeth, and the two doors were its open bloody mouth, the kind that had no entry or exit!

"Please."

The officer stood in the doorway, making a gesture of please, to watch the two of them enter the room.

"Oops......"

Under the gaze of the servants, the shopkeeper Tai and the shopkeeper Lu pushed open the door of the class room with trembling hands.

Going to die, going to die......

The shopkeeper Tai and the shopkeeper Lu trembled, and walked in with their feet raised with the mentality of entering the execution ground.

It was sunny outside, slightly darker inside, and there was a big difference between the inside and outside, and the moment the two of them entered, it was as if they were blind.

"Yo, isn't this the Thai shopkeeper and the Lu shopkeeper, now everyone is together, come, sit here."

As soon as the two of them entered the door, they had not yet adjusted to the light difference, when they heard a familiar voice.

"Lao Xing?!"

The owner of the Thai shopkeeper and the Lu shopkeeper suddenly heard the voice and was surprised.

Lao Xing is another grain merchant in the county, but he is not in the same street as them, and due to the distance, the three do not have too direct competition, and the relationship is relatively better.

Lao Xing is also there?!

And Lao Xing, what does it mean that everyone is together?! Meaning there are other people in this room?!

In an instant, 10,000 thoughts and emotions surged into the hearts of the Thai shopkeeper and the Lu shopkeeper, and the two hurriedly reached out and rubbed their eyes, adapted to the light difference in the room, and looked up to see a group of people sitting in the room, and the first one was Lao Xing, who had just spoken.

Behind Lao Xing, there were more than 30 people sitting, both of whom were familiar with each other, and these more than 30 people were grain merchants in the county, some were in the county, and a few were in the town below.

The two hurriedly glanced at it, and basically the grain merchants of the entire Jingnan County were gathered in this room, including the three largest grain merchants in the county, who were also present.

It turned out that all the grain merchants in the county had been invited! It's impossible for the county to kill them all, right?!

So, so to speak, we are not the first sheep and the chickens who have been killed as monkeys?!

The Thai shopkeeper and the Lu shopkeeper glanced at each other, and they were pleasantly surprised, and they both had a feeling of escaping death.

"Hehehehe, everyone is here, I'm late, I'm late, forgive me, forgive me."

The shopkeeper Tai and the shopkeeper Lu hugged their fists to the grain merchants, and finally laughed again.

"Hahahaha, shopkeeper Tai, shopkeeper Lu, look at the bear-like appearance of the two of you just now, I don't know that I thought you were in the execution ground."

There is a shopkeeper surnamed Han among the grain merchants, and the two of them are also old acquaintances, and they laughed.

"Come on, old Han, you weren't any better than the two of them when you came in. The crow fell on the pig, and no one said who was black. ”

As soon as Shopkeeper Han's words fell, other grain merchants laughed at him in the same tone.

Hahahaha......

There was a burst of laughter in the room, and the atmosphere suddenly became cheerful.

In addition to the seven or eight grain merchants in the west of the county seat, these grain merchants, when they first received the notice of the county honor, they all thought that they had been selected as the first sheep and monkey chicken, and they were in a panic. After seeing the other grain merchants in the board room, they breathed a sigh of relief and swept away the haze, it was impossible for the county to kill all the grain merchants.

"You said, the county lord invited us here, what is the matter?"

The shopkeeper Liu of the rich grain shop was cautious, he first stepped on the chair and observed the window, and then leaned on the door to listen for a while, and after making sure that no one was outside, he said to everyone.

"Didn't you squat in the thatched pit and ask about the smell - ask knowingly, what else can you say about this stall, it's not for the price of food!" Shopkeeper Han rolled his eyes and said angrily.

"The county invited us to come, it must be to lower the price of grain!" Several grain merchants present replied without thinking.

"You said that if the county lord came later and asked us to lower the price of grain, what should we do?" Shopkeeper Liu asked.

"How much? Now that the price of grain is rising three times a day, on the basis of the price of grain outside, we will reduce the price of grain by three or five wen for one stone, and if it drops too much, it will not be possible! These days, it is more and more difficult for us to purchase food, it is difficult to buy food in the south of the Yangtze River, we can only go to the west of Bashu or the north of Shandong to buy food, not to mention the distance, the local food has also seen the wind rise, this way people eat horses and chew plus freight is a large sum, and this road is not peaceful, yesterday when we came back from the stewardship was robbed, a group of refugees like bandits roared, if it was not for the accompanying nursing home, the food that was transported with hard work could not be saved...... The cost is so high, can the price not be increased?! If the price is reduced and there is no profit, what are we doing with all this?! A shopkeeper at the scene said.

"No fall?! Do you want to die? The beheaded Mi shopkeeper and Wang shopkeeper in Taizhou Mansion City are a lesson from the past! There is also Taiping County, I heard that the shopkeeper of Zhang Ji Grain Store was also arrested, saying that it was going to be opened at noon tomorrow! Linhai County is also the same, three grain merchants were arrested and sent to prison...... If we agree to reduce the price, it's okay to say, if we don't agree, I'm afraid we will also learn the prefect's thunderbolt methods! After hearing this, a shopkeeper next to him shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"Humph! If we advance and retreat together and grit our teeth, I don't believe he can still kill them all! Now the imperial court is obviously powerless to rescue, without our grain merchants to transport grain, the people of the county will have to starve to death! The shopkeeper of the king sneered and said, he is a silver-loving person, and he is unwilling to reduce the price, even if the price of a stone of grain is reduced by three or five yuan.

"Our flesh and blood, can we still fight against the government?" The shopkeeper who had just spoken said with a wry smile.

"Confrontation, why confrontation? There is no place to stay here, there is a place to stay! If the price is forcibly reduced, then I will not sell grain in Jingnan, and there are many places in the south of the Yangtze River that cause disasters, so I will sell it elsewhere. A long, skinny shopkeeper with a pinch of beard on his chin sneered.

He is one of the three largest grain merchants in the county, named Yang Zhen, the shopkeeper of Yang Ji Grain Store, and the most influential grain merchant in Jingnan.

"That's right, what Shopkeeper Yang said makes sense. The hustle and bustle of the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit! What are we working so hard to transport grain for, not to make money. If he forces the price to be lowered, we will not oppose him, lest we be caught by the handle and cut off his head. There is no place to stay here, there is a place to stay! Hearing this, many grain merchants' eyes lit up and they echoed.