Fenghou

Chapter 190 Human Heart
There was silence in the hall, and none of the four people spoke. Guan Pingxu suddenly slammed his fist on the table and said angrily, "The golden soldiers are here, and they run faster than rabbits. They don't care whether we live or die. When the golden soldiers leave, they He ran back to act like a domineering man, what did he think of us? It’s just too deceitful!"

Luo Tao also sneered and said, "They treat us like a mob, and think that our thousand soldiers are for nothing."

Huang Jigu sighed: "After all, they are the imperial army. We can't resist. Why don't we send someone down the mountain to have a talk, to win the other party's understanding, and to avoid a war between the two sides. We just want to protect our own interests."

The three of them suddenly realized why Yang Jin, who had been grabbing the conversation, was silent, and looked at Yang Jin together, only to see him stunned, motionless like a sculpture.

Guan Pingxu suddenly felt something was wrong, he stretched out his hand to test Yang Jin's breath, he stood up immediately, and said in astonishment: "What's going on, he's actually dead!"

Yang Jin was frightened to death by a letter. The three of them looked at each other in dismay. They were fine just now, but they died in a blink of an eye. It was an anecdote.

Guan Pingxu said to Huang Jigu: "Mr. Huang, you should hurry up and inform the Yang family. I will discuss with Lao Luo and see who will go down the mountain to talk."

Huang Jigu knew that they wanted to send him away, so he didn't point it out, so he nodded, turned and left.

Guan Pingxu watched Huang Jigu walk away, and then asked: "Who is in charge of guarding the water source today?"

"It's Huang Ning!"

Huang Ning is Huang Jigu's son, Guan Pingxu shook his head, "Replace him immediately!"

Luo Tao asked nervously, "Could it be that the Song army wants to capture the water source?"

"I think it's possible. We have to store water for half a month, and ask everyone to prepare containers and hurry up to pick up the water."

"But...but aren't we going to send people down the mountain soon?"

Guan Pingxu sneered, "What if Chen Qing doesn't accept the negotiation?"

"Can we hold it?" Luo Tao worried.

"It doesn't matter how long I can stay. What matters is how much loss Chen Qing is willing to pay. He ordered us to surrender before dark, and at the same time threatened death. Obviously he doesn't want to pay the price. In this case, we have a bargaining power." Confidence, once Song Jun's loss is unbearable for Chen Qing, then renegotiation is inevitable, this is called business, how can there be any reason not to allow the seller to quote?"

"But I'm worried that Chen Qing will be annoyed. He will pretend to agree to the negotiation and take revenge on us after we go down the mountain!"

"He will not do this kind of thing that breaks the trust of the people. Once he does it, no one will believe him again."

Guan Pingxu patted Luo Tao's shoulder with a smile, "Don't worry! My judgment will not be wrong."

"But the Huang family."

Guan Pingxu nodded, narrowed his eyes slightly and said: "You are right, what I am most worried about is the Huang family. He is not of one mind with us. I will send someone to monitor the Huang family later. If they want to surrender secretly, then we will attack first." !"

Guan Pingxu immediately invited Li Weiru, the Sima of Yuanzhou who had fled back to his hometown, as his representative, and went down the mountain to negotiate with Chen Qing.

The Huang family also lives in a cave dwelling, and their family population is not too large. There are only about twenty people, and the cave dwelling has more than a dozen eyes. The Huang family is not a wealthy family, they are the landlords of the village, and they are the weakest of the four major families. One, ranked in the entire Dingxi village, their family didn't even rank in the top twenty.

The reason why the Huang family became one of the four major families in Dingxi Village is that they were the first to settle in Dingxi Village. They spent a lot of money to renovate the dilapidated mountain road and water diversion tile road, and then their fellow villagers moved in. After living in Dingxi Village for nearly two years, the Guan family only moved in.

For a long time, Huang Jigu was the owner of Dingxi Village.

Huang Jigu returned home worried. Of course, he knew that the Guan family and the Luo family did not want him to be present when making the final decision, so he sent him away. But can Guan Pingxu really understand the crisis facing Dingxi Village?

With an extremely arrogant attitude, Chen Qing ordered them to surrender before dark. If Dingxi village was regarded as an ordinary village, as the envoy, this order was normal, there was no problem at all, and it was even a little redundant.

The point is, what do their families think of Dingxi Village?
An independent kingdom to compete with Song Dynasty?Or a bandit lair?

Huang Jigu felt that it was the latter. Their actions and attitudes against the government were no different from those of the King of the Mountain, especially the Guan family, who enjoyed the supreme power in Dingxi Village. Guan Pingxu was blinded by this power. eyes.

Huang Jigu had a strong intuition that Chen Qing didn't want them to surrender, and asked him to find an excuse to attack. Once Dingxi village fought against the imperial court, he could wipe out the four major families and deter other fortresses.

I don't know if Zhoujiabao still exists?It stands to reason that Chen Qing should attack Zhoujiabao first, then Dingxi village, and finally Anyuan village in the west, and wipe out these three fortresses one by one.

When the other fortresses saw the end of the three fortresses, the problem of the fortresses in Qinzhou would be resolved. Chen Qing must have planned this way.

Huang Jigu paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, what should he do?Accompany the Guan family to perish together?

Do not!The death of the Guan family is their business, and the Huang family will never accompany them.

At this moment, Huang Gu's eldest son, Huang Ning, walked in quickly.

Huang Jigu was startled, "Ning'er, aren't you on duty at the top of the mountain today?"

"Guan Shibo won't let me guard it anymore, let me go home, and Guan Liu will guard it instead."

"why?"

"I do not know either."

After Huang Jigu took two steps, he suddenly understood that the Song army was going to seize the water source tonight, and Guan Pingxu was afraid that he would collude with the Song army, so he refused to let his son guard the water source.

Huang Jigu was really annoyed, since you don't trust the Huang family, then we will go our separate ways.

Huang Jigu made up his mind, he immediately wrote a letter, asked his son Huang Ning a few words, and asked a hunter from the same village to take his son down from the back mountain.

Later in the afternoon, Dingxi village finally sent someone. The person who came was Sima Li Weiru from Yuanzhou. He was also from Qin'an County. return home.

Li Weiru's family was really poor, and he had no financial resources to support him to go to the south to avoid disaster, so he had to hide in Dingxi village with his wife and daughter.

The Guan family usually took good care of Li Weiru, so this time Guan Pingxu asked him for help, Li Weiru couldn't refuse, so he had to bite the bullet and go down the mountain.

Fortunately, Chen Qing was very polite to Li Weiru. He heard Wei Yuan, the county magistrate, say that this Li Weiru was a Jinshi in Zhenghe for five years. One of the poorest counties in Qinzhou, it has become the largest grain-producing county in Qinzhou, surpassing Chengji County.

Although he has no background, but because of his outstanding political achievements, even the traitor Cai Jing admired his integrity and ability, and promoted him to Yuanzhou Sima.

Chen Qing believed that Li Weiru was an upright and dignified Sima of Yizhou, but he actually wanted to hide in the fortress. This shows that his family is really poor, and he probably doesn't even have the travel expenses to go to the south.

Chen Qing invited Li Weiru to sit down in his big tent, and asked with a smile, "Li Sima should be very young, right?"

Li Weiru smiled bitterly and said, "I'm not young anymore, I'm forty-five this year."

Chen Qing knew that Li Weiru's son died in Hebei in the second year of Jingkang, and he had only one daughter at the age of fifteen, so Chen Qing stopped talking about his family and changed the subject: "Is Li Sima here to deliver a letter?" !"

Li Weiru nodded, "I owe the Guan family a favor. He came to beg me, but I couldn't refuse, so I had to run for him, just to deliver a letter."

He took out the letter and handed it to Chen Qing. Chen Qing opened the letter and read it. Guan Pingxu was very polite in the letter, saying that he had no idea of ​​secession and independence. It was just that he had invested his entire fortune in Dingxi Fort, and hoped that he would have some success after submitting to the court. compensate.

Chen Qing sneered, and handed the letter to Li Weiru, "Has Li Sima read this letter?"

Li Weiru shook his head, "I'm only responsible for delivering the letter, Guan Pingxu's matter has nothing to do with me!"

"Li Sima, take a look!"

Reluctantly, Li Weiru took the letter and looked at it, then said calmly: "It's normal, the Guan family is a businessman! Businessmen always like to sell for a price."

"The letter said that they invested their entire net worth in Dingxi Village. What does that mean?"

"In fact, it refers to a thousand soldiers. The roads, water diversion, and cave repairs in Dingxi Village were all paid by the other three families. The Guan family didn't pay a penny. The Guan family was responsible for paying for the maintenance of a thousand soldiers. The main reason why the family can dominate Dingxi village."

Raising a thousand soldiers, even without military pay, would cost a huge amount of money just for equipment, food and drink. It seems that the Guan family did not spend less money, but what does this have to do with me?Could it be that the Guan family wanted to sell this army to themselves?
Chen Qing sneered in his heart, and asked again: "Why is there only Guan Pingxu's letter, what is the attitude of the other three families?"

"The attitude of the Guan family is the attitude of the Luo family. The Luo family is only the Guan family. As for the Yang family, its existence is meaningless. It was originally recruited by the Huang family to fight against the Guan family, but at a critical moment, the Yang family voted for the Guan family. The Huang family lost its position as the head of the village, a family that likes to covet petty gains.

Huang Jigu was originally appointed by the government to be the owner of Dingxi Village, and he was very popular with the people of Dingxi Village, but since Huang Jigu's youngest son fell from a cliff to his death in an accident two years ago, Huang Jigu has been completely silent. "

Chen Qing nodded, "I probably understand, does Li Sima want to stay here or go back?"

Li Weiru smiled wryly, "Guan Pingxu asked me to stay here and negotiate with the general at any time!"

Chen Qing laughed, "It seems that he is very confident!"

At this time, Yan Jun, a personal soldier, stepped in quickly and whispered a few words in Chen Qing's ear. It was a little unexpected for Chen Qing, the Huang family sent someone so soon?
(End of this chapter)