What made you have the illusion that I am the protagonist! ?

Dongya's teaching to Liang Xia went smoothly, and the opportunity to test her ability soon came.

"There are some merchants who refuse to pay protection fees...is it?"

Today's Anpingya main hall, although there is still only a small facade facing the street, but the inside has been bought and remodeled, and it has been built into a new house suitable for living. There is definitely a universe inside.

Fuyuya sat upright in the living room, with Diarmuid following behind him as usual, and beside him was Ryoka Ishitani who was listening, asking about Kagemaru Kehei's recent development.

"That's right, General. Some people refuse to continue to pay protection fees on the grounds that the law and order in Kyoto is very good and safe recently, and they no longer need our protection!"

Kagemaru, who was usually calm, rarely showed an angry expression, "Obviously because of our Anheya's efforts, Kyoto has the security it is today, but they use this as an excuse, it's really presumptuous!"

"Is that so..."

"Father, you can't let them go like this!" Hearing what Kagemaru said, even Liang Xia who was listening was a little angry.

In this era, the profession of bodyguards has long appeared, but it is usually limited to the extent that large merchants privately hire some ronin to protect themselves.

Go alone to a certain shop on the street, let alone the question of whether you can afford to hire bodyguards. Illegal ronin usually come in groups of two or three, and there are very few single gangs. Therefore, hiring only one or two bodyguards is really a drop in the bucket to restrain the rogues. , and employ too much, and businesses cannot afford it.

In all fairness, the protection fees collected by Anping House are really not high, at least much less than the loss of goods, money, time and energy that merchants suffer from the entanglement of those illegal wanderers.

Because of this, under Dongya's connection, those merchants are quite willing to pay some protection fees in exchange for Anpingya's protection.

After the successful rise of Anpingwu, many people were envious and tried to imitate the model of Anpingwu, but failed without exception.

First of all, they don't have the good relationship between Shinsengumi and Kyoto's boss like Tomiya;

Second, and most importantly—they quickly discovered that the business was not as lucrative as they had imagined.

The reason is that Tomi Ishitani didn't really aim to make money when he opened the Anping House. As he said, he just wanted to do something casually so that he could sit and eat.

Therefore, as long as Dongya guarantees that he will not be reduced to a situation where he has no money to spend and no food to eat, the remaining protection money can be distributed to the samurai under his command.

——But at this point, other people who try to follow suit because they think it is profitable are obviously unable to do so.

Merchants are chasing after profit, and the followers found that if they hired the same number of samurai with the same protection fee as Anpingwu, they would end up making very little money. It might even be better to pay the protection fee directly to Anpingwu. After spending extra energy on management, these followers quickly disappeared like thin snow in the sun without the help of the people in charge of the capital.

The samurai headed by Kagemaru were also aware of this, and they were moved by Fuyuya's high-spirited approach.

If at first they only came to do this seemingly decent job with the idea of ​​supporting their families, now they have a real sense of belonging to Anpingya and a heart of loyalty to Toyomi.

Some people even suggested that they could take less salary so that the general would not have to live in such a shabby life, but they were fooled by Fuyuya with "ah ha ha ha ha ha, I don't think it's shabby".

Fortunately, with the development of Anping House on track, the operating cost has gradually decreased. After paying the salaries of the samurai, Fuyuya finally had some money left over. Under the strong suggestion of others, he expanded the house of the main hall. .

Under such circumstances, Anpingya, merchants, and hired samurai maintained a proper balance. Anpingya was able to develop, merchants got the peace they wanted, and samurai had money to support their families.

Today, however, this balance seems to have begun to be upset.

"Okay, okay, don't worry~" Seeing Liang Xia and Yingmaru anxious for him, Fuyumi laughed, "Then, which businessmen refused to pay the protection fee?"

"It's mainly the merchants on the other side of the four small bridges, maybe someone instigated it." Kagemaru replied seriously, it seems that he has already done some investigations.

"Is that so... Kagemaru, how do you want to solve this matter?" Toomi asked after thinking about it.

This is not just a matter of the Anping House not giving shelter if a few businessmen don't pay the protection fee.

All the other businesses on a street have paid protection fees, but only one has not paid. Will Anping House still patrol that street?

Not patrolling is tantamount to giving up an entire street for one family.

In terms of patrolling, this will not only protect the merchants who paid the protection fee, but also protect the merchants who did not pay the protection fee. After all, those lawless wanderers don’t know these details. When they see someone patrolling this street, they will definitely take a detour ——That would fit the excuse of the other party’s reluctance to pay protection fees: Anyway, Kyoto is already safe enough, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t need Anping House.

What's more, all things are not too few but uneven. Once the merchants who pay the protection fee know that the merchants who have not paid the protection fee have also received the same protection, what will they think?

Kagemaru Kehei hesitated for a moment, and replied: "...just teach those people a lesson."

Sure enough, Fuyuya shook his head directly, but did not speak.

This matter is a bit tricky. Although Kagemaru proposed such a plan, it was obviously just a last resort, and he didn't really agree with this plan.

Directly teaching those merchants who are unwilling to pay protection fees seems to be the most straightforward and most relieving method at first glance. In fact, it is levying protection fees.

However, if this is done, the nature of Anpingya will be completely changed, and it will become no different from the lawless wanderers who threaten merchants, and this move will also make them lose the trust of other merchants.

Dongmi turned to her adopted daughter and said, "... Liang Xia, it's up to you to find a way to solve this matter."

"Me?" The girl whose name was called suddenly was taken aback, but then realized that this was a test given to her by Fuyuya, "Okay, Father."

"Kagemaru, please help Liang Xia too."

Although he was also surprised that Fuyuya would hand over this matter to Liang Xia, Kagemaru still did not object and dutifully saluted Liang Xia, "Assisting Miss is what I should do."