Chapter 158: That’s Way Too Many
Tang Wen led his men into the courtyard where the mother and daughter lived and took a look around.
Wu Hao said, "It’s a bit small. It might be passable for living, but I’m afraid it’s not enough for raising beasts."
Tang Wen nodded and joined him on the roof.
The two of them looked down from their high vantage point.
After assessing the area, Tang Wen pointed to the six courtyards below and said,
"If we could take over this whole area, we could use four of the courtyards to raise Exotic Beasts. The other two could be connected for me to live in. That would be perfect."
Wu Hao chuckled, drawing out his words. "That would probably cost a fair bit of money."
"How much?"
Wu Hao didn’t know either, so he turned to look at his subordinates.
One of them estimated,
"They’re all tenants here. The residences belong to our Black Water Gang, but getting them to move out and hiring people for excavation will probably cost two or three thousand taels of silver."
The people who lived here all had some status, more or less.
You couldn’t just kick them out. You had to give them some money so they could find another place to live.
Hearing it would cost so much, someone did the math:
Wu Hao had over twenty men.
If everyone split the cost, it would still be over a hundred taels each.
They started to get cold feet.
"Should we maybe look somewhere else?"
Wu Hao looked to Tang Wen, letting him make the decision.
The latter said, "I think this place is secluded enough and won’t attract attention. If it’s three thousand, then it’s three thousand."
"Commander Tang and I will cover the cost!" Wu Hao immediately declared.
"How can we let the two Commanders pay for everything?"
"Exactly! I say we all pitch in for the silver."
"That’s how it should be. Don’t we always rely on our two Commanders to look out for us?"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Tang Wen didn’t say a word.
Wu Hao thought for a moment, then said, "Alright, here’s the deal. Commander Tang Wen and I will each put up one thousand taels. You all can cover the rest."
"This...?"
"That’s final. You all have families to support! It’s only one thousand taels. Worst case, Commander Tang and I will just have to skip a few trips to Baihua Tower."
"HAHAHAHA!"
The crowd erupted in laughter after Wu Hao spoke.
Once the laughter died down, Tang Wen’s smile faded. "Well, the sooner the better. Shall we get started? The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can start earning our Commander some money for Baihua Tower."
This brought on another round of laughter.
When it came to making money, everyone was naturally enthusiastic.
They immediately split up and took action.
Some went to find acquaintances in the gang to check the roster and see who lived in the area.
After all, knowing yourself and your enemy was Tang Wen’s style.
What if someone with powerful connections happened to like the tranquility here?
Kicking down their door and demanding they move without doing their homework would be a surefire way to make a bitter enemy.
Others went directly to the nearby teahouses and restaurants to make inquiries.
They needed to see if there were any hidden dangers in the vicinity, and if so, figure out how to avoid them early on.
They also needed to find out which Black Water Gang Commander had jurisdiction over this area.
Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.
「Before long」
A funeral troupe arrived from outside the city.
The mother and daughter dried their tears and supported each other as they went forward to greet them.
Their family wasn’t a major clan, and with no man to manage affairs, the funeral was a simple one.
Only the coffin was of decent quality, and the offerings were sufficient.
Tang Wen didn’t watch any longer. Wu Hao pulled him along, and they spurred their horses away, heading straight for a restaurant.
They ordered food and wine, then sat down to eat, drink, and talk at a leisurely pace.
"Brother Tang, you’ve just arrived and don’t even have anyone to wait on you. How about I give you a couple of Female Slaves?"
Before Tang Wen could refuse,
Wu Hao started talking nonstop. "You know, our experiences are pretty similar, brother. We both came from small places, drifted to the Four Seas Camp, paid to find Elder Li, and joined the gang.
"But I wasn’t as good as you, brother.
"When I arrived, I wasn’t even a Martial Artist.
"Fortunately, Elder Li is a fair man and saw potential in me. That’s how I got my chance to rise.
"In just over a year, I broke through all the way to the Martial Artist realm. It feels like a dream."
After finishing his story, Wu Hao turned to look at Tang Wen.
’We’re going to be partners from now on, so we should get to know each other, right?’
Tang Wen understood, of course, and immediately delivered the story he had prepared in advance:
"I came from the north. My village is hidden in a mountain hollow.
"Life was decent enough, until one day, an old man covered in blood stumbled into the village.
"He would later become my Beast Taming Master.
"His village had been wiped out by a powerful nearby camp.
"He was lucky to have escaped to our village.
"I started learning from him. He had seen a bit of the world and always told me how great it was outside.
"He said it so often that I started wanting to see it for myself.
"After all, our village didn’t have any Contemplation Methods. If I stayed there, my life would be stagnant.
"It seemed better to venture out and make a name for myself while I was still young."
Wu Hao nodded. "You’re right, brother! So you actually had a proper master. No wonder you don’t talk like a big brute like us."
Tang Wen immediately feigned displeasure. "Brother Wu, what are you talking about? I’m a big brute too!"
The two of them made small talk.
They ordered another jar of wine and a whole, half-grown roasted lamb.
As they ate and drank, the sun soon set, and night fell.
Suddenly, the guests at the next table paid their bill.
As two drunken men walked past Tang Wen, one of them said:
"Heard the Slave Pavilion has a new batch of trained Female Slaves. I gotta go check ’em out tomorrow."
"You again? Still buying slaves? If you buy more, won’t you have seventeen at home?"
"Hehe, you’re wrong there. A full twenty. Twenty Female Slaves waiting on me day and night. I wouldn’t trade it to be a Gang Leader!"
"Hush! You’ve had too much to drink. What nonsense are you spouting?"
"..."
The two men’s voices faded as they walked away.
Tang Wen glanced at their retreating backs.
Wu Hao had also overheard them. He chuckled and said, "Brother, you haven’t been here long. You haven’t been to the Slave Pavilion yet, have you?"
Tang Wen admitted candidly, "I haven’t. But I have been to the slave market over at the Four Seas Camp."
"HAHAHAHA!" Wu Hao suddenly burst out laughing. "You don’t get it, do you?"
Tang Wen shot him a look.
"Brother, you don’t know? The biggest slave trader in the world is right here in our city."
With that, he lowered his voice and whispered a single word: "Huang."
The Inner City Huang Family.
Their main business was human trafficking.
Tang Wen already knew this.
"But brother, did you know that the Huang Family has a Slave Factory?"
What?
’A Slave Factory? A place where slaves work?’
The moment Tang Wen said this, Wu Hao began to mock him mercilessly.
"My dear, foolish brother. It’s not a factory for slaves to work in. It’s a factory that *produces* slaves!"
"Huh? Aren’t slaves just people? Aren’t they all captured from the outside? How can you... produce them?"
Tang Wen put down his wine cup, his face a mask of confusion.
"Hehe, the first time I heard about it, I was shocked too."
Wu Hao, this outsider from a small town, began to show off his knowledge to Tang Wen.
"Brother, were there many beautiful women back in your village?"
Tang Wen hadn’t actually stayed in such a village, but he didn’t have to think hard to know the answer was no.
"Right. And what about Ganshan City? Do you think there are many beautiful women here?"
"Quite a few."
There were indeed quite a few. He had only just arrived.
And yet he had already seen dozens of brothels by the roadside.
Each one was a large-scale operation; you couldn’t run a place like that without several hundred pretty girls.
As he thought about this, he suddenly froze.
’That... doesn’t seem right at all!’