Fenghou

Chapter 189 Dingxi
Dingxi Village belongs to Qin'an County. It is located on the west bank of Watingchuan, the second largest river in Qinzhou. It is about forty miles away from Qinchuan County. There is only one big mountain, which is tall and majestic, and densely packed cave dwellings have been dug out on the mountain, occupying the east and south sides of the entire mountain, and thousands of families live on the mountain.

Dingxi Village was originally a military village built by the Western Army, where a thousand soldiers and their families were stationed, and there was even a tile made up of dozens of shops.

The Western Army had already abandoned this military village, and the people in several surrounding villages moved to Dingxi Village one after another in order to avoid the iron hooves of the golden soldiers. As a result, more and more people came to live in Dingxi Village. .

Different from Zhoujiabao, Dingxi village is not a certain family to decide their fate, but a meeting hall composed of four big families, and each family sends a respected elder to sit in the town, forming a similar elder Council's decision-making body.

Decide on various affairs, large and small, mediate conflicts among the people, distribute water sources, food supplies, and so on.

Dingxi Village has more than [-] mu of wheat fields on the west bank of Watingchuan River. These wheat fields feed the residents on the mountain. Armed forces are the foundation of Dingxi Village. Dingxi Village has a guard army of [-] people, while Qin'an County has only [-] people. Yu Gongshou was no match for Dingxi Village at all, so even if Dingxi Village never paid taxes and never obeyed the management of Qin'an County, Qin'an County would have nothing to do with them.

The number of guards, population size and influence make Dingxi Village the third largest fort in Qinzhou, second only to Zhoujiabao and Anyuan Village.

But it also became a node that must be split with a knife in Chen Qing's eyes. Unlike Zhou Jiabao's tactics, Chen Qing decided to treat Dingxi Fort with courtesy first and soldiers later.

That afternoon, Chen Qing led two thousand cavalry to Dingxi Village, and the team set up a camp opposite Dingxi Village.

Chen Qing carried a thousand small marching tents, each of which could only accommodate two soldiers to sleep, and the army dug a trench around the camp. More than a hundred scouts were divided into bright sentries and dark sentries.

As soon as the camp was built, soldiers came to report, "Qin'an county magistrate, please see me!"

The magistrate of Qin'an County is called Wei Yuan, and the county captain Zhang Qu is also here.

Chen Qing asked the two of them to sit down in his big tent. Chen Qing's big tent was the only normal one, and it was also the command center of the whole army. Of course, small tents could not be used.

Unlike Chengji County, Qin'an County did not have Jin soldiers stationed there, so the county officials did not escape, and they also regarded themselves as officials of the Song Dynasty, and did not recognize themselves as officials of the Kingdom of Jin.

"Dingxi village is just four families, hateful, they are against the government, it has nothing to do with the people, I implore the general to attack the village and show mercy to the people!"

Chen Qing waved his hands and laughed: "You may not know that Zhoujiabao has been captured by me. Except for beheading the Zhou family, the rest of the more than [-] people have been evacuated back to their homes. I also gave them money, food and cloth. The attack on Dingxi Village is the same this time, the people will not be attacked, and the money I get will be handed over to the county to resettle the villagers and relieve the hungry."

Wei Yuan and Zhang Qu were overjoyed, they stood up and saluted together, "Thank you General for your tolerance!"

Chen Qing asked them to sit down, and then asked Wei Yuan, "Are there any organized county people in Qin'an County to cultivate land?"

Wei Yuan nodded, "Received the general's order, I also organized thousands of county residents to farm in the official fields outside the city, but our county is fine, it has always been a major grain-producing county in Qinzhou, it seems that Jin Bing didn't realize it We realized that the amount of grain allocated to us was not large, only half of the grain stored in the official granary, and we hurriedly hid the rest of the grain, creating the illusion that the granary was empty.”

"That is to say, there is no situation in Qin'an where people dig wild vegetables outside the city to catch voles for a living?"

"It didn't show up. We have grain porridge in our county. It's not too bad. I heard that the situation in Gangu County and Jichuan County is not very good."

Chen Qing nodded. His next step was to go to Gangu County. Chen Qing glanced at the county captain Zhang Qu, and asked with a smile, "Can county captain Zhang tell me about the situation in Dingxi Village?"

Zhang Qu hurriedly said: "The humble official is willing to share the general's worries!"

He thought for a while, then slowly said: "Dingxi Village existed at least during Renzong's time, and it has always been a military village. When I was young, I lived in Dingxi Village for five years. Later, Dingxi Village was abandoned until it was abandoned by nearby villagers in the second year of Jianyan. It was rebuilt, and villagers began to live in it. Up to now, there are about a thousand households with a population of nearly [-]. It is currently controlled by four families, Guan, Yang, Luo, and Huang. The main one is the Guan family. His family is from Dingxi County. A well-known merchant, Zhai Ding's armor was purchased by his family, so the Guan family has the greatest say in Dingxi Village, their owner is called Guan Pingxu, and they are currently the owner of Dingxi Village."

"How to solve the water source on the mountain?" Chen Qing asked again.

"There is spring water on the top of the mountain, and they divert the water into the village."

Chen Qing laughed, "Does it mean that if I cut off the water source, they will have to kneel down?"

Zhang Qu nodded, "It can be said that, but they must have stored water. At least when I was young, the army had regulations. Every household must store water. Now I don't know how much they require."

Chen Qing got up and walked to the tent door, looking at Dingxi village on the mountain, he could try to cut off the water source.

He turned back to Wei Yuan, the county magistrate, and said, "There is one more thing. The magistrate of Wei must prepare to receive the people. I hope the magistrate will organize manpower as soon as possible!"

A cavalry galloped close to Dingxi village, raised his crossbow and shot an arrow at the sentry tower on the mountainside. A letter was stuck in the arrow, and the cavalry turned around and walked away. Take the arrow letter and run to the mountain.

The owner of Dingxi Village is called Guan Pingxu. His family is a merchant, a well-known cloth merchant in Dingxi County. He has been a cloth merchant for decades and accumulated a lot of wealth. Like all merchants, his family turned all this wealth into land.

After the Jingkang Incident, a large number of businessmen took their families and wealth to the south, but the wealth of the Guan family was deposited on the land and could not escape. They simply took their clansmen to Dingxi Village, and took advantage of the war to buy a large number of soldiers at a low price. First.

The Guan family's financial power, military power and influence made them the number one in Dingxi village. The other big families, Yang family, Luo family, and Huang family can only become the younger brothers of the Guan family.

Guan Pingxu is about fifty years old. Although he is already a landlord, he still maintains the shrewdness, cunning and profit-seeking of a businessman in his bones.

Two thousand Song soldiers appeared at the foot of the mountain, which made Guan Pingxu very nervous, so he quickly invited several elders to discuss matters together.

At this time, everyone didn't know that the Zhoujiabao had been razed, and they didn't know whether the cavalry of the Song Army were just passing by or came from Chengji County.

"Goose horns can be greedy!"

Yang Jin, the oldest, spoke first with a little lisp. He was nearly seventy years old, his mouth was like a cloth pocket, and he leaked air when he spoke, but he liked to show off his knowledge.

Guan Pingxu knew he said 'I think we can negotiate', but now is not the time to correct his pronunciation.

With a wave of his hand, Yang Jin was not allowed to speak again, and he said to the crowd: "Let me just say a few points, first, we need to know the purpose of the other party, why they came, and what they want; second, how to protect our interests No loss; third, what about my soldiers? Fourth, if we surrender, what benefits can we gain?"

As expected of a businessman, Guan Pingxu's thinking is very clear. His meaning can be explained in commercial terms, just one sentence, "How much is the other party willing to pay? What price can I sell?"

Luo Tao, the representative of the Luo family, nodded, "The village master is right, we can send people to contact them, get to know them, and then start negotiations."

"It's like being greedy!" Yang Jin was in a hurry, he was the first to propose the negotiation, how did it become the meaning of the Luo family.

No one understood what he said, and didn't care what he said, Huang Jigu worried: "What is the strength of our negotiation?"

"army!"

Guan Pingxu said coldly: "With our [-] soldiers guarding the heights, just [-] people want to capture Dingxi Village?"

At this time, there was a rush of running outside, and a soldier shouted: "Send to the village master, a letter is shot up from below."

"Bring it up!"

The soldiers walked into the hall and put a letter on the table. Everyone came forward together, and saw on the letter: "Imperial seal of Qinzhou Zhizhi envoy, control of Chen Qingzhi Dingxizhaiguan, Yang, Luo, and Huang." '

Guan Pingxu picked up the letter and opened it, took out the letter and read it again, his face became very angry.

The three of them asked together: "What is written in the letter?"

Guan Pingxu snorted coldly and said: "He ordered us to go down the mountain and surrender before dark, otherwise the four of us will be killed!"

(End of this chapter)