A knife in love

Chapter 2832
When Li Qiufeng walked into the house, he saw that the situation in the house was quite different from that in the morning.A sandalwood square table is placed in the middle against the north wall, and a sandalwood chair is placed on the left and right.Zhang Gui sat on the left and Feng Yanqing sat on the right.There were two rows of small tables and chairs in the middle of the room from the inside to the outside, and they were already full of people.On the left are Yang Zhenzhong, Xu Yingyang and three senior Jinyiwei officials.On the right were six generals including Huang Ze and Li Chengliang, only the chair at the end of the left was empty and no one was sitting.

Li Qiufeng did not expect that Feng Yanqing, Zhang Gui and others had already returned to Wangjiazhuang, and they were also seated in the main seat, so he was quite surprised.Therefore, after entering the room, he stopped in his tracks, and his eyes slowly passed over the faces of the people in the room.Seeing this, Yang Zhenzhong stood up with a smile, and said: "Li Baihu came just in time, please sit down and talk."

While talking, Yang Zhenzhong pointed to the chair at the end on the left.Only then did Li Qiufeng realize that the chair was originally reserved for him, and he thought to himself, these people in the room are all high officials, but I am a commoner, I don't know what Yang Zhenzhong called me here for.Thinking of this, Li Qiufeng cupped his hands towards Yang Zhenzhong and said: "I don't know that you adults are here to discuss matters, and it is disrespectful to break in rashly. Please forgive me, Lord Yang. I will leave the room now and wait for Yang outside." Your Excellency summons you."

After Li Qiufeng finished speaking, he was about to turn around and leave when Yang Zhenzhong hurriedly said, "Wait a minute! Li Baihu, the matter we discussed has a lot to do with you, it's better for Li Baihu to stay."

Although Li Qiufeng hesitated, but Yang Zhenzhong asked repeatedly, he naturally couldn't leave, so he could only sit on the last chair on the left.After Li Qiufeng sat down, Yang Zhenzhong slapped his hands together and said: "Since the masters are all here, let's discuss how to clean up the mess."

Yang Zhenzhong's voice fell, only to hear Zhang Gui sneer, and said sarcastically: "Master Yang, my old Zhang is a rough man, and he can't talk around corners. If there is any offence, please don't blame it. Yi From my old Zhang’s point of view, it’s up to Mr. Yang to make up his mind on the big and small things here, why call us here to talk nonsense?!”

Having said this, Zhang Gui glanced at Yang Zhenzhong, then turned to Feng Yanqing and said, "Old Feng, do you think what I, Old Zhang, is right?"

Feng Yanqing's face was gloomy, he snorted, and said in his mouth: "Master Zhang is right. The Jinyiwei is the Emperor's personal army. As the commander of the Jinyiwei, Lord Yang holds great power in his hands. When he gives an order, all the governors everywhere obey it. Feng and Zhang Your Excellency is just a general soldier, so naturally he dare not disobey him. If Lord Yang refused repeatedly, Lord Yang should have sat on the two chairs in the main seat. Now that the Japanese pirates have escaped, how to clean up the mess is up to Lord Yang How can you dare to say a word more?"

Li Qiufeng watched with cold eyes, seeing Feng Yanqing and Zhang Gui singing together with sarcasm, he thought to himself, among these officials, in terms of official positions, naturally Feng Yanqing and Zhang Gui are the leaders.However, Yang Zhenzhong, who is in charge of Jinyiwei, is the emperor's confidant, and his authority is far above Feng and Zhang.Listening to Feng Yanqing and Zhang Gui talking, when everyone was seated, they seemed to want to invite Yang Zhenzhong to sit at the main seat, but Yang Zhenzhong declined.And about the matter of cleaning up the mess, the two of them probably also discussed with Yang Zhenzhong, and nine out of ten they didn't get their wish, so they started to sneer at Yang Zhenzhong.

Thinking of this, Li Qiufeng was puzzled, thinking to himself that Feng Yanqing and Zhang Gui were both veterans in the officialdom, although they were dissatisfied with Yang Zhenzhong, they would never easily offend such powerful people as Yang Zhenzhong unless it was absolutely necessary.Right now, Feng and Zhang are not polite to Yang Zhenzhong, they put on an appearance that a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water, which is not justified.

When Li Qiufeng was thinking about it, he only heard Yang Zhenzhong say with a smile: "The two adults are too modest. At present, who else has a higher official position than the two adults in Dongliao County? It's up to the two adults to decide."

Yang Zhenzhong's voice fell, only to hear Zhang Guiqi humming and saying: "Maintainer? Old...what does my old Zhang use to be the master?! Right now, most of my old Zhang's soldiers have died in battle, and the soldiers who died in battle are compensated. I don’t know where to find my money, and I’m still a bird owner?!”

After Zhang Gui finished speaking, Feng Yanqing smiled and said, "Master Zhang, don't cry poorly. Others don't know the way you make money in the Liaodong General Army's Yamen, doesn't Feng know? Every year, you only sell wood to the pass. Mr. Zhang can earn at least 6 to [-] taels of silver in trading, not to mention the income of valuables such as ginseng, fur, jade, etc. These goods have to be sent into the customs through Shanhaiguan and Yuguan. For the sake of my lord's face, I turned a blind eye and didn't collect the full amount of taxes, I'm afraid that Mr. Zhang won't be able to earn so much money."

When Feng Yanqing said this, he glanced at Zhang Gui, and then continued: "This time Feng led his soldiers to Liaodong to help in the war. He spent 11 taels of silver on the purchase of grain, grass, ordnance, cattle and horses. The silver stored in Wuzhai was clean. In addition, the pensions for the dead and wounded soldiers, and the silver rewards for the meritorious soldiers are not available at all. When stationed by the sea last night, many soldiers were dissatisfied and gathered together to whisper. There is a look of injustice. The amount of money is a trivial matter, and the confusion of the army is a major issue. If the soldiers cannot be satisfied this time, and there are Japanese pirates coming again, I am afraid that no one will try their best to do things for the court."

Just as Feng Yanqing finished speaking, Zhang Gui sneered and said, "Old Feng, you said that I, Lao Zhang, was crying poor, but I, Lao Zhang, would say that you are hypocritical. When I, Lao Zhang, led his brothers to fight against Japanese pirates, But you stood on the sidelines with your soldiers and horses, and reaped the benefits of the fisherman. You didn’t lead your troops to kill the Japanese pirates until they retreated to the sea. You didn’t fight the Japanese pirates at all. The Japanese pirates had already retreated. How could there be casualties without fighting with Japanese pirates?!"

When Zhang Gui said this, he was so angry that he slapped the table hard with his right hand, and then continued: "Besides the dead and injured brothers who need to be compensated, and the soldiers who have done meritorious service must be rewarded, there are more than 4000 people. Manzi came to help the battle. My old Zhang has already promised Manzi to exchange the heads of Japanese pirates for silver. Originally, I wanted to fight the Japanese pirates, and I could snatch some silver from the Japanese pirates as a reward. I temporarily borrowed some silver taels from the county magistrate's office in Dongliao County to serve as military pay. Unexpectedly, the Japanese pirates escaped so quickly and did not leave a single penny. However, after the county magistrate's office in Dongliao County was breached by the Japanese pirates, they lit a fire and burned everything There are ruins left, and there is not even a tael of silver left. What can I, Lao Zhang, give to the barbarians? The officers and soldiers under the jurisdiction of the Liaodong General Army’s Yamen can’t get pensions and silver rewards. There will be no trouble, but the barbarians have always been strong. If we break our promise and refuse to exchange silver for the heads of Japanese pirates brought by the barbarian sergeants, I'm afraid they will have to raise their flags to rebel. At that time, it will be too late to spend money to buy people's hearts Yes. Over the years, my old Zhang has sold wood, hunted and killed bears, tigers and other ferocious animals, skinned the animals, boiled the bones of bears and tigers and sent them to the customs for sale. I have earned some money, but in order to buy food, cloth, rewards and pensions The meritorious and casualties of the soldiers have already spent all the money, how can there be any spare energy to reward the soldiers and reward the barbarians?!"

(End of this chapter)