Liu Pingkang hurried ahead and saw several large trees lying across the road, as well as the men standing on the stumps. He purposefully glanced over the axes and knives in their hands before stepping forward with clasped hands, saying to them, "Greetings, brave brothers. We meet again by chance on this road. We’re on a task for the government, so I hope you’ll give us some passage."

"Don’t give me that spiel, Mr. Liu. We’ve known each other for quite some time now," said an elderly man who emerged from behind the group of men, his face full of smiles as he looked at Liu Pingkang. "I know it’s not easy for you to travel, so let’s stick to the usual arrangement."

"Ah, Uncle Yang, I wish you good health!" Liu Pingkang curiously examined the men behind him, "If I’m not mistaken, Uncle Yang, isn’t your territory elsewhere?"

"Hahaha, you remember well. It’s just that there’s more mouths to feed, and this old man has to find other ways.

How about it? This place isn’t too bad either. In the future, just report your name when you come here, and we’ll follow the usual protocol."

Yang Bo glanced at the long queue behind Liu Pingkang, noting that there were quite a few exiled people this time around, meaning good days would be ahead for them.

As roadblocks, they also had their own rules. They didn’t want to become enemies with the government officials, so they would charge a small toll for passage.

Besides, in addition to avoiding conflict with the officials, they needed to leave some for the groups further down the road.

If they cleaned out people this early, the later groups wouldn’t be happy and would come looking for trouble. That would be less than ideal.

"That’s fair," Liu Pingkang was thinking of traversing this road often in the future, and was not willing to offend anyone too harshly. He sighed and took out a silver note he had reserved ahead of time, handing it to Ma Zhi beside him to pass it along.

"This is a treat for some tea for the brothers, and I hope Uncle Yang can allow us through."

Seeing the ten taels silver note, Uncle Yang said nothing more, turned around, and ordered the men to move the trunks aside, retreating to the roadside himself.

The people thought the matter was settled, but unexpected things happened when their carts reached the stumps; they were immediately stopped.

Zhou Gang was at the front of the convoy today. He turned his head suspiciously to Liu Pingkang, wasn’t everything agreed upon?

"Don’t look at Mr. Liu, he only paid for his own toll, yours haven’t been paid yet," said a man holding an axe as he slammed it down on the axle of the cart. The women inside shrieked in fear, and the men’s eyes changed immediately.

Zhou Gang’s pupils narrowed and his heart raced. Though he was known for his frankness at court, he wasn’t a fool.

Emperors and ministers in the court always cared about face; even if they were corrupt, they wouldn’t show it. But these reckless bandits, they wouldn’t abide by morals.

He’s heard plenty about these bandits who not only want money but people as well, and he couldn’t afford to have a direct confrontation here.

Thinking of this, he immediately offered a smile, took out a silver ingot, "You brothers are right, please consider this a small token."

The man weighed the silver ingot and glanced back at Uncle Yang, who nodded slightly, and his face immediately broke into a satisfied smile.

"Alright, your attitude looks decent. You may pass."

This time it was surprisingly easy; the first person cooperated, and handed over a five-tael silver ingot, he waved it high in his hand and shouted to the back, "Everyone listen up, pay this amount for the toll."

Zhou Gang had just crossed the roadblock when he heard this, stumbling and almost falling.

He didn’t even need to look back to feel the eyes of resentment towards his back.

But seeing the armed men nearby, he didn’t dare say anything, quickly pulling the ox cart to leave.

Although these people inside were resentful, seeing that Liu Pingkang had given benefits first, they dared not say much more, and each handed over silver to pass. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

When they spotted the escort agency’s carts, Yang Bo’s eyes narrowed, "Mr. Liu, this time you have companions too."

Liu Pingkang replied, "They’re just traveling the same way, and I hope Uncle Yang shows mercy."

Yang Bo wasn’t thinking about that; with decades of experience on this road, he could tell at a glance that these two escort agencies weren’t simple.

The escort agency had more people than theirs, even double.

These weren’t like the soft ones before; if a fight broke out, they wouldn’t have the advantage and might even suffer losses.

With a whistle, the men who were still collecting silver immediately turned to look at him.

Yang Bo gestured, and they quickly crowded around him.

Liu Pingkang frowned, "Uncle Yang?"

Yang Bo ignored him and instead clasped his hands towards the escort agencies behind, saying, "Brothers of the Eternal Escort Agency and Lichang Escort Agency, sorry for the disturbance today. We shall meet again."

With that said, he turned and left with his men following behind, though they reluctantly complied.

Head Liu and Head Xu exchanged looks; they had encountered this Yang before, but this time it was easily settled?

They had expected a large payout, yet they were let off lightly, it felt like a dream?

But saving some money was certainly welcome, pretending not to notice Liu Pingkang’s curious eyes, they quickly caught up with the convoy ahead.

Just as Yang Bo entered the forest, someone couldn’t help but ask, "Yang Bo, why did you let them go?"

There was a big score up for grabs, especially with the escort agencies having so much cargo. Even taking a fraction would be enough for good times.

Yang Bo snorted coldly, "These two escort agencies, we’ve dealt with them before, haven’t you noticed they have at least double the numbers?

From what I can tell, the additional men are skilled. Even if we keep our heads down with belts, I want to live a few more years."

"Uncle Yang, are you overthinking? We’re just here for some petty cash." Although accustomed to following Uncle Yang’s lead, they didn’t want the silver slipping away.

"Trust my instinct, planning to extort like before might work, but I feel like this kind of trouble isn’t worth inviting."

Yang Bo led them in small-time hustles, not wanting to harm lives nor bring doom to their crew.

He had always had a premonition that there were people in that convoy he couldn’t afford to provoke, so he’d rather forsake some money and cultivate goodwill.

He relied on this instinct to live up to his age, unwavering in believing his intuition wasn’t wrong.

The men still had differing opinions but ultimately remained silent.

They just put up a toll and asked passersby for benefits, having managed to coexist peacefully with road travelers for years.

As Uncle Fu said, no one would start a commotion over a few taels of silver.