TOFUH – Chapter 158 – Trouble With The Escort Agency

“It’s just a few days of work…” Chen Wang’s wife was a bit reluctant.

Just Chen Wang’s ransom cost 500 silver, while each of Chen Wang’s men cost 100 silver.

If she spent so much money on these people, all the money in the family would be spent!

Wouldn’t it be alright to just let his men work for a few more days?

“Bit*h, why don’t you just go now!” Chen Wang could not help but scold. No food, no sleep while not daring to even drink any water…. In a few days he might be already dead!

Chen Wang’s wife vaguely sensed that something was wrong so she stopped speaking and just went home.

Seeing his wife leaving, Chen Wang breathed a sigh of relief and felt that his heart was dripping blood.

This time, he will have to give up all of the money he had, not to mention even his private money he had been hiding.

Even so, he still wanted his wife to ransom his people.

He no longer wanted to stay here.

Chen Wang was depressed. When Jiang Zhen looked at Chen Wang, his brows frowned slightly.

At first when Chen Wang got into trouble with him, he thought he was just some short sighted guy or that it was Wen family relatives that he had angered but now… things were not so simple.

The people behind the scenes obviously don’t take Chen Wang and others seriously, so they probably don’t expect Chen Wang and others to bring him trouble. Perhaps their purpose was to sow discord between him and Zheng Yi?

In that case, who was behind it?

Jiang Zhen called over He Chunsheng.

“What has been happening in Wexing Province recently?”Jiang Zhen asked.

The Jinzhen Escort Agency has offices in every city in Wexing Province now and left some people there to keep an eye on things. Which was absolutely suitable for intelligence collection.

He Chunsheng quickly said some of the news received recently, and mentioned: “Boss, before we followed Young master Zheng to the capital, we rescued a merchant surnamed Luo on the way. Recently he came to Jiangnan, accompanied by a middle-aged man, and the identity of that middle-aged man seems a bit unusual.”

“Also one of our Jinzhen escort agency ships was robbed yesterday, but fortunately, only some stones were taken, which had little impact.”

“A ship was robbed?”Jiang Zhen frowned slightly: “Tell me more details.”

He Chunsheng was stumped. This was something that even he didn’t know about in detail.

Fortunately, his men knew about it so He Chunsheng quickly called over his own men.

“It was like this, a few days ago a merchant came from Wuzhong Province and brought along a lot of stones to build a garden. He didn’t have a ship, so he hired ours and people from our escort agency to protect the cargo, but unexpectedly they were robbed of elm stones halfway.”

These so-called elm stones were marble. Marble even at this time could be regarded as a relatively expensive stone, but it wasn’t too expensive. If just some elm stones were lost it wouldn’t be too difficult to compensate for it.

Jiang Zhen nodded and was about to say he understood, when suddenly someone came running from afar shouting: “Boss, it’s not good!”

“What is it?” Jiang Zhen asked.

“The escort ship that was robbed, there was something wrong with it.” The man panted as he stopped running: “Boss, the customer said that what he was robbed of was not any elm stone but white silver. Now he has come to Fucheng saying that the robbery of the ship was all directed and committed by our escort agency. He says that his silver was actually robbed by us!”

It turned out that after the escort ship was robbed, the escorts brought back the guest to Wexing Province.

The guest had been very quiet on the way back, but when he arrived at Fucheng he suddenly made a scene, saying that he was not robbed of the stone but of silver.

He also felt that since he was robbed, the root of the robbery was the Jinzhen Escort Agency. They orchestrated the robbery, otherwise why did the thieves spare so many escort agents but killed two of his family members?

“He didn’t say before that what he wanted us to escort was silver?” Jiang Zhen asked. The agency had a rule that if a client wanted to ask an escort agency for help with delivering the goods, he must tell the escort agency what he wanted to have delivered. The escort agency would usually inspect the goodsso why had no one said anything before?

“No, boss.” The person who came to report replied.

Jiang Zhen left He Xiasheng in charge of collecting money for the Changlong Fighting Business members while he went back to Fucheng.

Jiang Zhen went on horseback, so when he arrived he found many people gathered at the entrance of his escort agency, just like before when they stood at the entrance of the store where he sold chickens and ducks.

“Your Jinzhen Agency deceives others too much!” 

At the entrance of the escort agency, a thin, middle-aged man was trembling with anger, as he was looking at Zhao Jinge with a face full of hatred.

“Calm down, Mr. Jin,” Zhao Jinge said. “It was you who did not make clear the value of the goods, so we couldn’t arrange enough escorts. But since it happened, our agency is responsible for this, but you are not without fault either.”

Zhao Jinge was not in a good mood at this moment. He originally thought that this was just a small matter, but unexpectedly it turned out to be a big deal.

This had something to do with Mr. Jin.

For escorting some stones, although this Mr. Jin asked to arrange a few more people, no one took it seriously. Most of the people who were arranged were also newcomers. He was at fault in this matter, but the fault laid mostly on Mr. Jin.

He shouldn’t have concealed the value of the goods.

“I’ve already made it clear, so shouldn’t that no longer matter? Those robbers spared your agency escorts but your escorts are still out on a job. The robbers were arranged by your escort agency, right?!” Mr. Jin’s eyes were bloodshot, making his eyes look very red.

This was something that made Zhao Jinge feel a little guilty.

He had already asked the escorts on that job, and was told there were many robbers at that time so they became a little timid. In addition, they felt that the goods they were escorting were worthless so they were not willing to fight hard and resist.

But didn’t the escorts assigned by him act like this because the man in front of him didn’t say that the boxes were full of silver?

“Boss Jin, we have rules in our Jinzhen Escort Agency. If the goods received don’t match what is written on the contract, even if something goes wrong, we will not compensate!” Jiang Zhen came in from outside and said with a cold expression.

The Changlong Fighting Business was trying to make trouble, so this person was probably here for the same reason.

Because of this, Jiang Zhen’s impression of this person in front of him was already very bad.

He prepared and acted like this to tarnish the reputation of the escort agency and now even wanted them to pay compensation. This person was really cunning!

There was indeed such a rule in the Jinzhen Agency. It’s just that at the beginning, Boss Jin was afraid that someone would be jealous, so he did not dare to tell anyone that they brought 100,000 silver to go home.

But now 100,000 silver is gone!

This was money he earned during his lifetime and originally wanted to return home with it, but now it was all gone!

Boss Jin looked at Jiang Zhen with such an expression of hate, it was almost like he wanted to eat him.

Send Boss Jin out!” Jiang Zhen said directly. This matter was very reasonable so he will directly expel people who step out of the line!

Usually if you hired someone to escort you during ancient times they wouldn’t pay you compensation even if something happened on the way.

“Let me go!” Boss Jin wanted to resist, but he was pulled away in the end.

Jiang Zhen also shouted: “Our Jinzhen Escort Agency always writes contracts when we escort other people’s things in black and white. As long as you tell the truth, we will certainly pay compensation in accordance with the contract. But if someone does not abide by the contract, I will not tolerate it!”

Jiang Zhen spoke loudly, letting the people around him respond one after another.

When Jiang Zhen said this, people standing around also felt that it was the client’s problem.

What’s more, this man said that he was being escorted with silver. But does he have proof? Who knows if he really was robbed of stones and now just wanted to rely on the agency to earn more money?

The people of Fucheng were watching the Jinzhen Escort Agency become bigger little by little. Many of the escorts of the agency were people from Fucheng. In such a situation, the people of  Fucheng were naturally more on Jiang Zhen’s side.

When Boss Jin was escorted out he saw suspicious eyes of the people around him, and for a moment he became extremely angry.

These people… These people.

He thought about it and went directly to the Yamen.

After Jiang Zhen sent people away, he called in all the escorts of the Jinzhen Escort Agency in the city:”Tomorrow everyone will follow me to train outside the city! You are escorts, the most important part of your job is to protect the guests and goods! In the future, if something like this happens and the goods are robbed, all escorts involved will no longer have to work for the agency!”

The Jinzhen Escort Agency paid a lot of money so all escorts were reluctant to leave the agency so they nodded in agreement.

Jiang Zhen planned to take these people outside the city for good training the next day, but he couldn’t because there was another incident the next day.

Boss Jin unexpectedly in the middle of the night committed suicide in front of the agency, leaving behind a bloody letter.

Jiang Zhen looked at the scene, and his heart immediately jumped.

It was true that Boss Jin committed suicide.

He did not know whether the man wanted to use his life to frame the escort agency or if he was really a victim, but at present the agency was really in trouble.

Since the person was dead, everyone would sympathize with him and blame the Jinzhen Escort Agency. On the same day another escort job for the agency had a problem.

Several escorts from Jinzhen unexpectedly killed their clients and robbed the goods before running away!

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

Support translation:

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This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. White Whale

    Ohmygosh. One trouble after another.

  2. alyela

    I’m worried, how are they going to get out of this situation?? In this kind of stories, I feel like some officials are taking part in causing troubles. Along with the jealous Wen family members and that guy calling himself King Ping.

  3. GiL

    There’s also a saying that if it rains, it pours….but soon, the sun shines again.
    Thanks for the chapter

  4. Sofea

    I’m not sure if this count as a flaw, but if MC keep his enemy closer he would not get into trouble. If he wants to keep up with his way, he needs to be a tyrant or someone with big power if he is not willing to be in a relationship with his enemy.

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