Fenghou

Chapter 497 Negotiations
In Baochuan County, Huizhou, Liu Qiong has led the army to capture the county seat. During the civil strife, Xixia has completely abandoned Xihe Road, and there are less than a thousand guards left in Baochuan. The Song army has not yet arrived. He abandoned the city and fled, causing the Song army to occupy Baochuan County without bloodshed.

At present, Baochuan County is guarded by Cheng Huan, the commander-in-chief, with [-] troops, and the defenders in Ganquan County have been reduced to [-].

In mid-April, a team of Xixia envoys composed of more than a hundred people crossed the Yellow River. The head official was Bari Zuren, the imperial censor of Xixia. He was Li Qianshun's most trusted minister. Army negotiations to redeem [-] prisoners of war.

Xixia is now in big trouble. Xiao Heda's rebellion intensified. Not only did they get the support of the Qiang people, but also several remnant tribes of the Liao Kingdom who lived on the grasslands also marched southward and captured the Hetao area.

However, Jin Guo has always been ambiguous and has been reluctant to send troops to help.

In desperation, Li Qianshun had no choice but to mobilize the whole country. All men over the age of [-] and under [-] must join the army to counter the rebellion. The army gap is too large.

The fundamental reason is that their three expeditions to Xihe Road all ended in disastrous defeat, and they lost more than [-] elite soldiers.

At this time, Li Ganshun, who was in a state of desperation, finally thought of the more than [-] Xixia Army prisoners of war who were still mining in Qinzhou.

Cheng Huan sent a thousand soldiers to escort the Xixia envoy to the south. This morning, the envoy team arrived in Chengji County.

The envoys were received by Zhang Xiao, the new Military Affairs Sima of the Jiedu Mansion, and Qiao Changshun, the military Cao Shenjun.

The Xixia envoy stayed in the No. [-] VIP Hotel, where the two sides conducted a preliminary negotiation.

Zhang Xiao immediately rushed to Jiedu Mansion to report the negotiation situation to Chen Qing.

"To Jiedushi, we both agree to exchange sheepskins for prisoners of war according to the usual practice, but there is a difference in the number of sheepskins. We ask for thirty sheepskins each, but the other party is only willing to give twenty."

Chen Qing said with a faint smile: "It seems that the situation in Xixia is not good. They are so eager to redeem the prisoners of war, ignore them, only thirty sheepskins, one less will do!"

"My subordinates understand!"

At this time, a soldier reported at the door, "The supervising army is here!"

Chen Qing signaled Zhang Xiao to back down, and then he smiled and said, "Please come in, the supervising army!"

Since the gift of [-] taels of silver, the relationship between Chen Qing and the military supervisor has eased in an all-round way. Wang Mi basically doesn't care about military affairs. recognized.

Wang Mian walked into the official room, sat down carelessly, Chen Qing ordered the tea boy to serve tea, Wang Mian calmly said, "I just heard that the special envoy of Xixia is here, is that so?"

Chen Qing nodded, "Indeed, they just arrived!"

"Since it is the special envoy of Xixia, do you want to notify the court to deal with it?"

Chen Qing smiled slightly and said, "It depends on what's going on. If it's an armistice agreement, I don't mind letting the court come to negotiate, but this time they're only here to redeem the prisoners, so there's no need to alarm the court for such a trivial matter. "

Wang Mian laughed dryly, "Understand! Understood! It's good. It's better to eat the meat yourself."

Chen Qing was a little surprised, Wang Mi represented the interests of the emperor!He actually said the words 'You have to eat the meat yourself', Chen Qing changed his mind, and suddenly understood that this bastard wanted to share a piece of the pie, as long as he was good, he didn't care whether the emperor and the court were good or not.

Although this kind of person is very greedy, it is easy to deal with. Anyway, no matter how much you give him, it is only temporarily stored for yourself.

Chen Qing laughed again: "For this ransom, I will offer [-] sheepskins to redeem one person, a total of [-] sheepskins, part of which will be distributed to soldiers and civil servants, and the supervising army will also have a share, and the rest will be put into the treasury as military funds. "

"I still have it!"

Wang Mi couldn't even close her mouth with a smile, "I don't know how much I can have?"

"For [-] prisoners of war! How about [-] sheepskins?"

Wang Mian was overjoyed, and hurriedly got up to salute, "Then respect is worse than obedience!"

"If the supervising army doesn't want the sheepskin, it may be converted into money. According to the price of Qinzhou City, it will be bought by the military."

Wang Mian quickly calculated in his mind that although Lin'an could sell five guan coins for a piece, it would be easy for the emperor to know, so he might as well change the money in Qinzhou, he hesitated and asked, "Can it be converted into silver?"

"Okay, it can be converted into [-] taels of silver. Once you get the sheepskin, you can deal with it immediately!"

"Then you have to negotiate with the other party carefully, just thirty sheepskins, you can't give in at all!"

Chen Qing narrowed his eyes and said with a smile: "Don't worry, the supervisor! We all don't want to give in."

The two of them laughed heartily, and Wang Mian returned satisfied.

Wang Mi went back with one kick and one kick. He didn't expect Chen Qing to go on the road like this, and he could make a fortune by negotiating the ransom, thirty-six thousand taels of silver!

When the military supervisor went back for a few years, didn't he earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver?

The more I thought about it, the more beautiful it became, and I went back lightly under my feet.

The next day, the two sides began formal negotiations. Zhang Xiao and Jiang Yanxian participated in the negotiations together. The Song Army took a tough attitude and refused to give up any ransom. They only agreed that the prisoners of war could return to Xixia immediately.

In the end, the Xixia side was eager to redeem the prisoners of war, so they had to agree to Chen Qing's request and redeem all the prisoners of war at the price of [-] pieces of high-quality sheepskins per person.

The two parties negotiated various handover details, and finally decided to hand over at Huangkou Wharf in Baochuan County, and release people after ransom.

The Xixia envoys rushed back to the country overnight, and the front line was running out of time.
In Lin'an, the emperor and the queen mother finally saw Wang Mian's report. The harsh wording but no actual content made the queen mother very dissatisfied. Annoyed, she threw the report directly on the ground.

"Can you fool Aijia like this?"

Empress Dowager Wei said angrily: "The Ai family tried so hard to convince the officials to let him be a military supervisor. This is the content of the first report. He might as well not write it!"

Another confidant eunuch Deng Quan picked up the report, looked at it briefly, and persuaded: "After all, Wang Mian just went there just now, and he doesn't know much about the situation. Even if Chen Qing has problems, he will hide it. Wang Mian can't All of a sudden, this takes time.

But the old slave thinks that there is nothing wrong with Wang Mi's attitude. He is obviously standing on the Queen Mother's side. He reprimands and criticizes Chen Qing in various ways, saying that Chen Qing's achievements are cruel and merciless. months! "

Empress Dowager Wei's anger eased a little, "Okay! The Ai family will wait for him for a few more months, and if Chen Qing can't be caught, he will be too disappointing to the Ai family."

She snorted again, and ordered: "Go and see what the official's attitude is?"

"The old slave understands!"

Contrary to the queen mother's attitude, the emperor Zhao Gou was very satisfied with the report. The queen mother was dissatisfied that the report had no actual content, but Zhao Gou was afraid of seeing any actual content. If it was a self-respecting Chen Qing, what should he do? How to deal with it?

Zhao Gou handed Wang Mian's report to Lu Yihao, "Lv Xianggong take a look at this military supervisor's report!"

Lu Yihao looked at the report of the supervising army, and he was a little surprised. In fact, he knew that Chen Qing had some problems. His son Lu Wei's letter mentioned that his immediate boss was Jiang Yanxian, the servant of the Puppet Qi Military Department. During the years, he was the magistrate of the Song Dynasty, and later surrendered to the puppet Qi.

The imperial court has clear regulations on the use of such high-ranking officials who have surrendered to the puppet Qi. They must pass the review of the Ministry of Officials, and even the approval of the emperor, otherwise they will never be appointed.

This is a big flaw of Chen Qing, which was not mentioned in the report, but only criticizes Chen Qing for nepotism, regardless of seniority and court rules, which is a bit of a feeling of avoiding the truth.

Lu Yihao thought to himself, could it be that Chen Qing bought the supervisor?

Thinking of this, Lu Yihao said with a smile: "Actually, what I am most worried about is that Chen Qing will not accept the supervisor. After all, he is relatively young, and he is not as stable as Wu Jie. Suddenly, an eunuch supervisor will come, and his attitude will be arrogant. I I was really worried that Chen Qing would kill the supervising army in a fit of anger, but now that I see this report, I am relieved, Chen Qing is also slowly maturing, and he is beginning to accept the rules of the court, Your Majesty, this is actually a good thing."

Zhao Gou nodded happily and said: "Lv Xianggong is right. No one is perfect. I won't care about some small flaws. The key is the attitude that is the most important. He can accept the supervision of the army. This attitude itself is worthy of admiration, and more importantly, he Restoring the Xihe Road for the imperial court, and opening hundreds of miles to the west, this is a great contribution, and I must commend it!"

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【Sad and haggard, coupled with the cold weather, Lao Gao fell ill when he came back. He really couldn’t write three chapters. Let Lao Gao delay for a day or two, and two chapters today. 】

(End of this chapter)