I let you have children and you lead seven sinful girls to rebel?

As soon as I opened my eyes, there was a golden ingot in front of me.

The old man rubbed his eyes hard, wondering if he had seen it wrong.

This is ten taels of gold!

"If you can fight, this gold ingot is yours. If you can't, forget it."

After saying that, Chen Xuan reached out to take the gold ingot back.

"Sir, please wait a moment!"

The old man's eyes widened. This was gold, a full ten taels!

I wonder how much ironwork I have to do to earn so much money!

He directly held the gold ingot in his arms to prevent Chen Xuan from taking it back.

"I've already retired, and I've let my disciples do the blacksmithing. It's easy to lose your skills if you don't do it for a long time!"

"Never mind, young man. I see you and I are destined to be together. It just so happens that I've been itching to get my hands dirty lately, so I'll reluctantly step out and forge a weapon for this little girl."

As he spoke, the old man stood up from the rattan chair in an exaggerated manner, like a carp somersault.

Then, he beckoned to Yang Ying'er and said, "Come here, little girl. There are a lot of weapons over there, including quite a few guns. Go and try them out and see which one is the heaviest and most suitable for you. I'll make one for you!"

Yang Ying'er curled her lips. She thought he was such a noble old man, but he behaved well after seeing the money.

"Don't look at it, just build it according to this gun."

Yang Ying'er threw the badly worn silver spear in her hand to the old man to see.

The old man took one look and immediately started cursing, "Who the hell made this silver spear? How could it be so bad? It's a disgrace to us craftsmen. A little girl could wear this spear down like this! The person who made it is a disgrace to our industry!"

Listening to the old man's cursing, Yang Ying'er couldn't help but feel very suspicious and couldn't help but say, "Old man, do you really have the ability, or are you just talking nonsense here for money? I'm telling you, if the gun you make is not good, be careful, I will punish you!"

The old man immediately puffed his beard and glared at her, "What do you know, little girl? This broken gun in your hand is pure garbage. The guns made by my newly-minted apprentice are ten thousand times more powerful than this piece of junk!"

"Just wait and see how I, this old man, will personally forge you a truly exceptional gun!"

After saying that, the old man drove away an apprentice who was forging iron, and he wanted to do the forging himself.

"Oh my god, isn't that Old Man Li from the blacksmith shop? Didn't he say he'd quit and wouldn't forge iron anymore?"

"Old man Li's blacksmithing skills are unparalleled. When he was young, he even forged swords for many generals. He was named the imperial blacksmith in the capital. Later, for some unknown reason, he left the capital."

"This old fellow has a bad temper. I heard that a few years ago, the governor wanted him to forge some weapons, but he refused, saying he would never forge iron again in his lifetime. Why is he taking action again now?"

There were pedestrians passing by the blacksmith shop. When they saw Old Man Li working on the ironwork himself, they were surprised as if they had discovered a new world, and they all stopped to watch.

Chen Xuan and his friends had originally planned to go somewhere else, after all, there was nothing interesting about blacksmithing. However, after hearing people around them talking about the old man, they became interested in him for a moment.

Was he once appreciated by the late emperor in the capital and became the royal blacksmith?

Later, for some unknown reason, he left the capital?

It seems that this old man has some skills, so it wouldn't hurt to take a look at his craftsmanship.

Soon, Chen Xuan saw the old man take a piece of iron and put it into the boiler for quenching, while he took off his shirt.

Although the old man is very old, with gray hair and beard, he still has muscles on his body, and they are very strong.

His disciples, with their shirts off, all looked very muscular, but compared to the old man, they looked like skinny dogs.

The old man seemed to be completely immersed in his own world, unable to hear any sound from the outside world, and his entire temperament had completely changed.

At this moment, he seemed like a master who had worked hard for many years. Just standing there, he was full of momentum!

Chen Xuan was not idle either. While the old man was tempering himself, he deliberately started chatting with the crowd around him.

But what he was talking about was not about blacksmithing, but something else.

"Friend, why do I see beggars everywhere when I enter the city? I remember that although the border of my Daqian is not very peaceful, when there is no war, we have always had trade exchanges with surrounding countries, so the economy should be quite prosperous."

Along the way, there were too many beggars and people who had starved to death. The carts carrying corpses were piled high one after another, which was a shocking sight.

Does this look like a normal city?

If it weren't a time of chaos, so many people wouldn't have died!

"Friends, you are from other places, right? You don't know what's going on in this barbarian city."

"Now this Barbarian City has been divided up by the three major families: the Qin family, the Chen family, and the Liao family."

"Among them, the Qin family is related to the prefectural government. With the mountains at their backs, they are incredibly powerful. They walk around the city like a tyrant, and no one dares to offend them. The bank in our Barbarian City is owned by the Qin family, and they also own gambling houses."

"The Chen family's job is to collect rent. Countless houses in Mancheng belong to the Chen family. They also run pawnshops and work in cahoots with the Qin family, stealing heirlooms from gamblers at rock-bottom prices. The Chen family is also involved in brothels all over the place."

"As for the Liao family, that's even worse. The Liao family's head initially made his fortune through illegal means. After becoming wealthy, he also opened casinos and brothels, and bought women from other places to sell. This isn't the most unethical thing. The most unethical thing is that the Liao family controls the largest rice shop in the city."

"Ever since the Liao family took control of the rice shop, the price of grain has been rising day by day. Many ordinary people have been unable to afford food, so they have to buy houses and sell their land, and eventually even sell their sons and daughters to buy food. In the end, they are really left with no choice but to either become beggars and starve to death, or go to the casino and gamble their lives away."

"Those bastards in the Liao family are worse than pigs and dogs. They've caused countless people to be torn apart and their families to be destroyed."

Many people gnashed their teeth in hatred when they mentioned the Liao family.

Food is the most important thing for people. Grain is the foundation of the people. What is the difference between deliberately raising food prices and murder for money?

"The Liao family is so excessive, and the prefectural government doesn't care?" Yang Ying'er asked indignantly.

"Care? What a joke! The Governor's Office and they are in the same boat, why should they care?"

Someone immediately spoke sarcastically.