Rebirth of The Deer and the Cauldron, Wei Xiaobao Becomes a God

Toll?

Master Wang looked confused, but suddenly he remembered what Wei Xiaobao said, that he was the ancestor of taking bribes.

Without waiting for Master Wang to come to his senses, Wei Xiaobao continued, "I see there are only about twenty of you, so each of you should pay a toll of 100 taels of silver, a total of 2,000 taels of silver. Master Wang, do you have any objection?"

Wei Xiaobao knew that the bribers wanted a lot of money, and Master Wang definitely didn't have that much on him, so he didn't know whether he could pay the two thousand taels of silver.

Two thousand taels! When Master Wang heard this number, his eyes lit up and he muttered to himself: I have no objection, but I have a lot of objections.

However, no matter how much he objected, the current situation did not allow Master Wang to be arrogant.

He looked at the yamen runners and thought to himself that these corrupt officials were really annoying. Not only did he not receive the filial tribute, but he was also asked for tolls.

Wang looked at Wei Xiaobao, who was grinning, and then at the Jade Sword in Shuang'er's hand, which was shining with cold light. He listened to the chaotic voices outside the house and thought that if he didn't give up some money today, he might not be able to escape unscathed. So he said to the yamen runners:

"Take out all the silver you have and let's pool it together."

For yamen runners, 100 taels of silver was a year's salary. They usually only had a few taels of loose change on them, so it was impossible for them to carry too much silver.

Under the watchful eyes of Lawyer Wang, the runners slowly and reluctantly took out all the silver they had on them. In this way, about 20 people took out more than 100 taels of silver.

Mr. Wang rummaged through his pockets and took out a dozen taels of silver and a fifty-tael silver note.

"Wei Yingxiong, we have taken out all the money we had, and this is all we have left." Master Wang looked at Wei Xiaobao helplessly and said.

Wei Xiaobao looked at the two hundred taels of silver on the ground and said, "Master Wang, this is only two hundred taels of silver. It's still far from two thousand taels of silver!"

Master Wang said helplessly: "Wei Yingxiong, you can see that we only have this much silver. We can't afford any more."

"Haha, you didn't bring enough silver. That's easy. Just write an IOU. But these two hundred taels of silver will be the interest. The IOU will be for two thousand taels."

So, Mr. Wang was thinking: IOU, huh, everyone knows that the prefecture is a place for lawsuits, IOU? Well, I don't plan to pay it back. If it becomes a bad debt or a dead debt, let's see what you can do.

Thinking of this, Master Wang readily agreed: "Okay, let's do it according to Wei Yingxiong's method."

Seeing that Lawyer Wang agreed so readily, Wei Xiaobao thought to himself: This Lawyer Wang thinks he is from the prefectural government and wants to owe me money and refuse to pay it back, thinking that I can't do anything to him. Hehe, I have many ways to deal with him, little guy, I can deal with you.

After Wang Shiye finished writing the IOU, under Wei Xiaobao's encouragement, the crowd surrounding the bakery made way for Wang Shiye and his yamen runners. Amid the crowd's curses, Wang Shiye and his yamen runners disappeared in disgrace.

… …

The four gates of Shuri Castle were tightly closed, soldiers standing on the walls ready for battle were standing, and a massive Japanese army was standing under the walls.

Each Ryukyu soldier defending the city was equipped with a musket from the pre-Ming Dynasty. These muskets were several decades old and were rusty antiques. No one knew if they could still be used.

The firing system of the early Ming Dynasty was to pour black gunpowder from the muzzle, then load iron balls, and ignite the gunpowder through the impact of the firing pin. After the gunpowder exploded, high pressure was generated in the barrel, which fired and sprayed iron balls or iron sand to cause damage to the target.

The effective range of the firearms of the early Ming Dynasty was not high, only about 70 steps. Converted to modern measurement of meters, one step is equal to centimeters, which is about meters, not as long as the range of the bow and arrow, which has a range of to steps. Moreover, the firearm can only be fired once a minute, and it will stop working after firing more than ten times in a row, otherwise the barrel will easily explode after being heated. Once the barrel explodes, the soldier will often be disabled if not killed.

Therefore, although the army of the former Ming Dynasty was equipped with a large number of muskets, seemingly entering the era of black powder and stepping out of the era of cold weapons, these equipments, although advanced, were not as powerful as the bows and arrows of the Qing Dynasty.

Precisely because the Qing Dynasty defeated the Ming Dynasty's muskets with bows and arrows, the Qing Dynasty believed that gunpowder was no match for bows and arrows, which hindered the development of hot weapons, reversed history, and ultimately brought the great Chinese nation into the gutter.

The Ryukyu army defending the city was also equipped with a small number of red cannons and tiger squat cannons. The red cannon weighed a thousand pounds and had a maximum range of about 5000 meters. It was placed on the four city gates, with four on each gate. There were more than ten tiger squat cannons with a range of 500 meters placed on each gate.

There were about seven or eight thousand Ryukyu troops guarding the city, distributed among the four city gates, with only about two thousand men at each gate.

The Japanese army attacking the city numbered more than 10,000 men. They were all from the Ryukyu expeditionary force and had been stationed outside Shuri Castle for almost a year.

Concentrated at the East City Gate, they were all armed with swords, bows, swords and halberds, with a few wearing leather armor.

Japan in the early Qing Dynasty was still quite backward. Its army was entirely based on the era of cold weapons. The weapons used for siege included catapults, battering rams, ladders, etc. The effective range of the catapult was only about 200 meters, which was exactly within the effective range of the Ryukyu army's tiger-pedal cannon. Therefore, the catapult was not pushed to the front of the position, but was parked far behind for standby use.

The Japanese army pushed the battering ram towards the east gate. The outside of the battering ram was covered with wood and iron sheets, shaped like a house. Fifty soldiers hid in the house and carried the battering ram forward. The fire cannons and bows and arrows on the city wall hit the battering ram with clanging sounds, but could not hurt the Japanese inside.

Only when approaching the gate of the city wall, pouring kerosene on the wall and throwing torches to ignite the battering ram, can the Japanese in the battering ram be harmed.

But the Japanese army was no pushover. Although more than ten battering rams were damaged, two of them still rushed into the city gate and rammed the gate hard. The bang bang bang sound spread throughout the city, making people feel panic-stricken.

Four or five hundred light cavalrymen of the Japanese army circled the city wall, occasionally drawing bows and shooting arrows at the soldiers on the wall. These horse archers always kept a distance of fifty or sixty steps away from the city wall, making the muskets in the hands of the Ryukyu soldiers ineffective. They could only use tiger pedal cannons to move and fire at the horse archers, but the fast-moving horse archers always made the solid bullets of the tiger pedal cannon ineffective.

The infantry phalanx of the Japanese army was still outside the range of the Red Cannon, and was on high alert 5000 meters away from the city, seemingly waiting for the moment of the general attack.

In the Ryukyu Shuri Castle Palace, King Shangwen looked at the ministers below the hall with a confused face and asked: "Who can tell me why the Japanese suddenly attacked the city?"

"Your Majesty!" A mature voice replied, "Ever since the Japanese army entered Ryukyu without reason last year, they have been demanding that we pay 100,000 dan of grain as a garrison fee every month. They only have 10,000 people, and each person needs 1,000 kilograms of grain every month. Over the past six months, the national treasury has consumed one million dan of grain. If this continues, our Ryukyu treasury will be blackmailed by the Japanese." This was the voice of Liu Hanlin, the Minister of Revenue who was in charge of the national treasury.