A Myriad of Bizarre Ways to Collect Money

Fish meat was not as expensive as land animal meat.

Even in chaotic times, the price only increased by a few wen.

When Tran Mac went on his big shopping trip the day before, he had specifically inquired: herring was only about eight wen per catty.

The reason it wasn't expensive was because fish was not popular among the poor, and it also consumed a lot of oil to cook.

Furthermore, ordinary people's cooking methods were simple, making the fish taste particularly fishy.

Now, it was also a year of great calamity; those with spare money in their homes would use it to buy grain, not fish.

Except for a few special types, like carp, Dai Dong Silver Fish, Sapo fish, etc., none were priced higher than ten wen per catty.

Black Carp was seven wen per catty.

Even calculating at an average of seven wen per catty, sixteen catties shouldn't only be sixty wen.

Tran Mac somewhat suspected Truong Ha was deceiving him.

Truong Ha immediately explained: "Brother Mac, you may not know this, but when selling fish to the Thanh Ha Bang, the price is roughly cut in half. We also have to give 'respect money' to the people guarding Dai Dong Lake. After all that, only sixty wen were left."

Truong Ha dared not hide anything, giving all sixty wen he received to Tran Mac.

"'Respect money'? After collecting so many miscellaneous taxes, there's still 'respect money'..."

Upon hearing this, Tran Mac felt it was utterly absurd.

He had originally thought the Thanh Ha Bang was already greedy enough, but it turned out they still wanted to collect a share of 'respect money'.

Noticing Brother Mac's shocked expression, Truong Ha continued: "Brother Mac, I heard people say that the Thanh Ha Bang has completely monopolized the aquatic product business in Binh Dinh County. If you take it back to eat yourself, that's fine. But if you want to sell it in town, the Thanh Ha Bang will still be the ones buying, and at that time, they will only buy it at the price of dead fish. Getting one wen per catty would be considered a lot..."

"So, this means that any fish caught can only be sold to the Thanh Ha Bang."

The Thanh Ha Bang once again refreshed Tran Mac's opinion of them.

Most of those who went to Dai Dong Lake to fish were poor people.

And fish was not popular among the poor. Even if they weren't afraid of using oil, if they took it home to eat, they would only bring one or two back to taste the freshness. After all, if there were many fish, preserving them was not only troublesome but also wasted salt.

Therefore, they could only sell them to the Thanh Ha Bang in exchange for money to buy the grain they needed.

This was equivalent to everyone who went fishing in Dai Dong Lake actually working for the Thanh Ha Bang.

If their luck was bad, the fish they caught wouldn't even exchange for the ten-wen tax they had paid earlier.

Not only did they pay money, but they also worked for free.

A typical case of paying for a lesson.

The Thanh Ha Bang really played this game slickly.

"In two days, come with me to Dai Dong Lake."

Tran Mac patted Truong Ha's shoulder, then gave him fifty wen back: "This is what you deserve."

Fortunately, Tran Mac was taking the fish back to eat himself.

Within fifty kilograms, he only needed to pay a ten-wen tax, which meant he could be exploited a little less by the Thanh Ha Bang.

...

Two days later.

Tran Mac paid the remaining four taels of silver and collected his Tang Dao. First, he checked his attribute panel.

[Name: Tran Mac.]

[Age: 16.]

[Cultivation Technique: Blood Nurturing Technique (minor success 283.2/500).]

[Realm: Skin Refining (ninth rank).]

[Strength: 38+32.]

[Skill: Demon-Breaking Dao Technique (intermediate 77300/200000).]

Holding a chopping knife, his strength was 38+31.

A dagger was 38+30.

Now, holding the Tang Dao, the accompanying strength increased by another point.

The feel of it in his hand was also much better than holding a chopping knife.

"Let's go."

Tran Mac stuck the dagger into his waistband. The Tang Dao was wrapped in black cloth and tied together with several fishing rods; outsiders couldn't tell at all that Tran Mac was also carrying a dao.

The two of them walked together to Dai Dong Lake.

Today, the snow was light, but the cold wind blew fiercely.

Truong Ha walked ahead carrying the fishing rods, a bucket of bait in his hand – inside were earthworms, bear entrails, and a bran mash mixture, used for ground bait. Tran Mac followed behind, a layer of white frost settling on his head, making him look like a little old man.

After receiving that whip lash, Tran Mac now disliked people walking behind him.

Soon, the two arrived at Dai Dong Lake.

Dai Dong Lake stretched with misty waves over a hundred thousand mu, spanning a hundred li.

But now, the entire surface of the lake was frozen solid.

Tran Mac, being a southerner, although he had seen many images of the Songhua River frozen over online, had never witnessed it with his own eyes. Now, seeing such a large Dai Dong Lake completely frozen, he was truly somewhat awestruck.

Scattered sparsely on the ice surface were quite a few people.

Although the Thanh Ha Bang's exploitation was severe, if one could catch a dozen or so catties of fish each day, they could still earn a little money.

At the entrance stood a wooden shed. A crowd of people had gathered in front of the shed, and sounds of wailing could be heard.

Tran Mac and Truong Ha went over to look and found an old man in hemp clothes lying in the middle, being punched and kicked by several Thanh Ha Bang members, his body covered in footprints.

The old man's constitution was weak. After suffering a beating, he quickly lost his breath.

The onlookers couldn't help but retreat a couple of steps in fear.

A voice came from within the wooden shed: "All of you listen carefully to Laozi! From now on, anyone who dares not to pay the tax money and enters Dai Dong Lake to secretly catch fish will end up like this!"

Dai Dong Lake covered a vast area, and there were always places the Thanh Ha Bang couldn't watch over. Therefore, every day there were people who couldn't afford the fishing tax and would secretly come to dig holes and catch fish. Of course, some succeeded in secretly catching fish, but many more were discovered and then beaten to death.

"Wasn't Uncle Dai Lam also beaten to death like this before?" Tran Mac looked at the breathless old man on the ground, his eyebrows raised, his gaze shifting to the wooden shed.

Inside the wooden shed, a brazier was burning. Beside it sat a robust man, bare-chested, with a tattoo of a fierce tiger descending a mountain on his chest. Leaning against him sat a somewhat attractive, fawningly flirtatious beautiful woman, massaging the robust man's shoulders.

On the robust man's forehead was a red number 33.

"Brother Ho, this is mine and Brother Mac's fishing tax."

Truong Ha pointed to Tran Mac, then walked forward and placed twenty wen on the table in front of the robust man.

The robust man, whom Truong Ha called Brother Ho, paid him no mind. A lackey beside him counted the amount, then collected it and placed it in a money chest next to Brother Ho.

Then, the lackey picked up another iron rod from the wooden shed, glanced at Truong Ha and Tran Mac, and said, "You two, follow me."

Just as Tran Mac and Truong Ha left the wooden shed area, Brother Ho's voice rang out: "What are you looking at? Does this old man have anyone to collect his corpse? If not, find an ice crack and throw him in to feed the fish."

...

The Thanh Ha Bang would have people drill the ice fishing holes. Of course, this wasn't out of kindness from the Thanh Ha Bang; it was mainly because they were afraid people would randomly dig and cause the ice surface to collapse.

Furthermore, one tax payment entitled one to one hole.

If you wanted extra holes, you had to pay more money – two wen per ice crack.

And you weren't allowed to drill them yourself; only Thanh Ha Bang members could do it.

Tran Mac: "..."

He took out another four wen and paid for two more ice cracks.

After the Thanh Ha Bang members left, Truong Ha quickly explained, "Brother Mac, I didn't know that drilling extra ice cracks cost money. I didn't hear anyone mention it yesterday."

"This has nothing to do with you."

Who could have imagined that the Thanh Ha Bang could make money this way too.

It was unknown whether it was because first-time fishermen always had a beginner's bonus, but Tran Mac, without using ground bait and having set down two bamboo rods, continuously caught three fish in less than a quarter of an hour, and each one was over two catties.