Two days ago, in the outskirts of Bagan, Naiwen Village, and Master Basong's manor.

Just like the manors of most Burmese nobles, Mr. Basong's manor is composed of pagodas, water wheels, millstones, rice warehouses, blacksmith shops, carpenters, cattle sheds, his own residences, servants' residences, many other buildings. In short, this manor can provide Mr. Basong with most of the necessities of daily life that cannot be produced in his territory. In addition to Naiwen Village, Mr. Basong is also the owner of twenty-two nearby villages. As a member of the royal family of Myanmar, Mr. Basong spent most of his time in Mandalay, such as Mandalay, who only returned to his estate every New Year, and after living for a while, he would return to the city. This noble master was like a migratory bird, traveling between his territory and Mandalay every year.

However, 1885 was a special year. Master Basson returned to the manor from July in an abnormal manner. He lived for more than two months and had not left to return to Mandalay. There was a rumor among the people in the village that a riot occurred in Mandalay, the king was beaten to death, and the nobles and monks were also hung on trees on both sides of the road. The thugs divided the man's property. Because of this reason, Master Basson fled back to the manor.

This terrifying rumor made the villagers panic. For these simple peasants, the nobles and monks are both sacred and inviolable existences. Not to mention killing them, even if they disobey their will, they will be terrible punishment from gods and Buddhas. Not only will they be whipped and hanged when they are alive, but they will fall into the animal realm after death and will never be reborn. This is the most terrible thing. So although Master Basong has increased the burden of labor and taxes, the villagers still endured silently. Since this has been like this for thousands of years, will it continue like this in the future?

Basson sat at the dining table, the hard teak table top was filled with exquisite dishes, carefully cooked fish, birds, and game. An exquisite silver-necked wine glass was placed next to his right hand. Judging from the round and rosy cheeks of the middle-aged man, this was a guy who knew how to enjoy life. At this time, he was chewing and swallowing delicious dishes, and a happy and carefree look appeared on his broad forehead.

After nearly forty minutes of meals, Basong finally let out a satisfied sigh, as if he was regretting that he could not continue to eat. Basong put down the chopsticks in his hand, picked up the wine glass and shouted loudly in his bright voice: "Come on, pour me a glass of sugarcane wine so that I can rush the full food. I bet that the eel meat and fish roe have already blocked my throat!"

"Yes, lord!" A thin man standing next to him came forward and poured the wine glass into Basson's wine glass. Basson drank it all and shouted dissatisfiedly: "Another glass, as the saying goes: 'Good things come in pairs!'"

"Yes, Master!" The man hurriedly filled Basson's glasses again. Basson took a few sips, smashed his mouth, and complained with dissatisfaction: "Oh, why does this wine taste a little thin? Damn, that damn wine merchant dared to sell me the inferior wine as a good wine. When I return to Mandalay, I must use a whip to suck his back!" Basson complained, while drinking a few more glasses of wine to calm his anger. Finally, he had enough wine and food, put the wine glass aside, and asked the man beside him who poured wine for himself, "Yu Qi, my housekeeper, how much is our rent now? Is the newly built granary full?"

"Master, it's still not all the twelve villages. The newly built granary has been installed about one-third of the newly built granary!"

"Yes!" Basson nodded and whispered: "You have to hurry up and urge you. Isn't there an open space in the northwest corner of the manor? Build another granary there to install the newly-called taxes!"

"Yes, lord, I will let the servants do it tomorrow!" The official Yu Qi bent down and replied: "Where are the Chen Mis from those warehouses sold all the Chen Mis to merchants as usual to make room for new rice!"

"No buy!" Basson shook his head and rejected the official's suggestion: "Depending on the situation, the British and Chinese still have to fight. If they fight big wars, they will not be able to stop for a while. As long as they fight, the rice price will rise. If Chen Mi is also stationed, it will be twice the price by next spring!"

"Yes, Master!" Yu Qi nodded, wrote down the master's order in the notebook, and continued to ask: "But if you follow your order and fill the newly built granary, there will probably be no remaining grain in the villages, and people will probably starve to death. After all, when King Mengji was recruiting troops in the summer, he took away a lot of young and strong people. Many families lacked labor and did not plant rice in the third season. Even if they planted, the harvest would be much less than in previous years. Do you think you would have a grace?"

"Starting to death?" Basong hesitated for a moment, and finally shook his head and said, "Then let's mix the Chenmi and chaff at the bottom of the warehouse in the warehouse to the worst villages. Each family is enough to divide three buckets. I lent them to spend the spring famine and pay it back next year. During the war years, the food is the best sold price. This time, my house in Mandalay must be finished. I must make up for the deficit from here!" Speaking of this, Basong's fat meat shaking, and it was obvious that the losses not long ago made him heartbroken.

"Master, Master, it's not good!"

At this moment, a servant outside the door walked in quickly, holding a letter in his hand, shouting repeatedly. Basong frowned and shouted in a low voice: "What's the matter? I'm so panicked. Could it be that the person who built the granary was injured?"

"No, no!" The servant looked frightened, handed over the letter, and said, "Master, look, there are robbers!"

"Robber?" Basong was shocked and took the letter. It was true that after Meng forced the levy to levy the area, a large number of robbers appeared near Bagan, but the targets of these robbers were usually passing business travelers or relatively weak villages. After all, the size of robbers was not large, at most one or two hundred people. There were more than a hundred strong servants in Babu's manor, sixty or seventy guns, and the houses were very strong. In addition, there were more than twenty nearby villages. There were two or three thousand young and strong people who were blind to steal him. Basong opened the letter paper in confusion, and saw the following passage written on the rough paper:

"Great Master Basong, I heard that there are six large barns in your manor. Each barn is three stories high, five or six households as big as that of five. The food inside is enough for people in a village to eat for five years. Now there are children in each village who are hungry and cry loudly, but the women don't have food for them, and there is not even taro. Please share the food to these poor people. With them, there will be endless food in your granary. Be kind!" At the end of the new, I spent two crossed scimitars, and the signature was "kind people"!

"What's going on? Tell me what's going on?" Basson threw the letter aside in annoyance and asked angrily.

The servant replied tremblingly, "Great Master, I have just passed by the cattle shed. You know there is a small path over the cattle shed, which is narrow and black. There is no one passing by at all. Every time I pass by, I will be scared and tremble all over-"

"Enough, you long-winded guy!" Basson was finally exhausted by the servant's long-windedness. He shouted loudly: "I swear to the gods and Buddhas and ancestors that if you dare to continue talking nonsense, I will make you tremble now-but not because you were scared, but because you were whipped by a whip. If I leave a piece of good flesh on your back, I will let Basson fall into hell alive!"

"Master, Master!" The servant knelt down by Basson's threat, raised his hands and shouted loudly: "When I passed by the cafeteria, two people rushed out of the shadow. They asked me to bring this letter to the master, and they also threatened me with a pistol and a knife. I swear to the gods and Buddhas that all this is true, they have guns and a knife!" At this point, the servant had already plunged to the ground, trembling all over.

"Are there any pistols and knives?" Basson was attracted by the servant's words. He stood up and pulled the servant from the ground, and asked in a low voice: "You are sure you read it wrong. They have pistols and knives?"

"I swear to the gods and Buddhas, I'm absolutely not wrong!" The servant's face was already filled with tears, and he was obviously frightened by what had just happened: "The middle part of the guns in the hands of the two people bulged out like a small wheel. I could see clearly that the gun was only as far away from my eyes as a palm."

"It's a revolver!" Basson's face became solemn. He turned around and walked into the house. After a while, he had already got a small cloth bag in his hand. He opened the cloth bag and pointed to the Webley revolver inside and asked, "Is this the thing?"

"Yes, yes, exactly the same as this one!"

"You go down first! Don't talk about this matter everywhere!" Basson waved his hand. After the servant retreated, his face immediately became gloomy. At that time, there were not no guns among the bandits, but they were generally outdated bore guns, single shot guns, and few modern guns. Even if there were a small number, they were basically rifles, not such revolvers. Because these revolvers are generally equipped with officers, and few of them were wandering among the people, not to mention that such pistols are far less powerful and range than rifles, so they rarely appear among bandits. It is really strange that such a gun suddenly appears, let alone bandits in the world rob money, some rob grain, and some rob people, but how can they do nothing like this? As long as you distribute the food to villagers who have nothing to do with them?

At this time, Yu Qi whispered: "Master, I think something is wrong with this!"

"Strange? Tell me!"

"Master, think about the more than 20 villages nearby are your territory. If a group of strangers come and want to eat and drink, how could you have no news? Moreover, the roads on the cattle shed are dark and narrow. If it is an outsider, who would block people in that place and send a letter!"

"You mean an internal thief?" Basson would feel sorry.

"That's right, master, think about it, even if the thieves outside want to rob, they will still rob money and rob women. How many people can rob food? The food is heavy and cheap. How many people can pick it up? Not to mention that they have to share it with the farmers. They also know how many granaries we have and how big the granaries are. This is clearly an internal thief. It must be that a few cunning people picked up pistols from somewhere, and they came up with such cunning tricks to make a profit from it!"

"That's right!" Basson slapped his high-highlights and said with a smile: "Fortunately, I have you, otherwise I would have almost fallen into the trap of these bastards. A kind person? Humph! When I, Basson, grab you into my hands, let you know what 'kindness' is!" As he spoke, Basson clenched his thick palm tightly, and the exquisite silver wine glass in his hand slowly twisted and deformed.

Yu Qifei smiled and said, "Master, it's not difficult to find these guys!"

"Oh? You have a way, come on!"

"Master, there are no outsiders in the manor on weekdays. They are either servants of several generations or they are rare to go out. Even if they have the courage, they have no place to get guns and knives. There are only young and strong people who have been recruited from nearby villages to repair the granary. Among them, they heard that some of them came back as deserters from the New Army. They have seen many of these guys outside and are also wild. This idea must have been made by them!"
Chapter completed!