Late Tang

At noon, various merchants on Shamen Island brought a large amount of wine and meat to the island town to meet Song Wen and other officials, and expressed condolences to the labor force.Song Wen was very polite to these people, and even invited the more prestigious merchants to the luncheon.

During the meeting, Li Jing took advantage of the situation and proposed to Song Wenwen and Feng Zhang that part of the reason for the raid on Salmonella Island by pirates was lack of vigilance.Now Daxie Village has agreed to hand over the three outer islands of Salmon Island to the soldiers of Salmon Town for garrison, but the four piers of Salmon Island have not yet been taken back.For the safety of the island and to better protect the merchants, Li Jing proposed to take back the four piers and let Shamen Town take over.After Shamen Town takes over the fourth wharf, a sentry fortress will be built on the wharf to guard Salmon Island.

The four piers on Shamen Island are all jointly controlled by merchants on the island. For example, Shikou Pier is controlled by merchants dominated by the Wang family, and Fenghuangshan Pier is also controlled by some leaders of Tianjie.Li Jing made this request in public, and Song Wen immediately agreed in public.Although Feng Zhang intends to set up obstacles for Li Jing, he is at a disadvantage in every way on today's occasion. At this time, after rolling his eyes, he actually nodded and agreed.

Seeing this, the heads of the merchants at the table couldn't help but change their colors.Salmonella Island has always been a free trade place. Although there are many shops and warehouses on the island, they are actually a distribution center for smuggling, and countless transactions are concluded here.For a long time, the officers and soldiers on Salmon Island did not care about them at all, and they could not control them.But now, Li Jing proposed to take over the four piers, which touched their fundamental interests.

It's just that although the heads of these merchants are basically representatives of the big families, they are just merchants. Song Wen previously dealt with Wang Jin's collusion with pirates to attack Salmonella town just because he couldn't make decisions for Li Jing. I already feel a little sorry for Li Jing.Supporting Li Jing wholeheartedly at this time is also to give him some compensation. On the other hand, the unpaid is not because Song Wen has long coveted the smuggling business on Salmonella Island, but he couldn't get in if he wanted to get involved.Now it happened to use Li Jing to stir up the muddy water. Those merchants were usually very arrogant, but under the authority of Song Wen's state chief official, they finally had to grit their teeth and admit it.

After lunch, Song Wen and his party went back to Dengzhou without further delay.

Song Wen left, but Feng Zhang and Wang Jin still didn't leave, but stayed.

Feng Zhang's 500 troops from Daxie Village and Wang Jin's Dengzhou Navy assembled 500 troops outside the castle, a total of 1000 troops.

"What do they want?" Lin Wei frowned when he heard the news.When the pirates attacked last night, they didn't show up when they were supposed to show up. Shanshan came late today, and now it's time for them to leave, but they refused to leave and stayed on the island instead. What's their intention?

"1000 people." Li Jing repeated it, feeling very annoyed.He understood that Feng Zhang and Wang Jin were putting pressure on him, and the purpose must be the things he detained Feng Ming and his subordinates.As for Wang Jin, he estimated that he should have opened the gift he sent by this time, and found that the shops and underground workshops of the Wang family on the island had been uprooted by Li Jing. "They're intimidating us."

"Really?" Zhang Hong said with some concern: "Song Governor and the others just left with their troops, but they have not left for a long time. Is it possible that they want to attack us?" Zhang Hong sat under Li Jing's hands, He was still holding the account book that he was never familiar with, and there was still a counting bag hanging on his waist.

"They won't, and they don't dare." Li Jing shook his head. In the current situation, Song Wei didn't dare to attack Wang Jingwu's faction rashly, and then Wang Jinwu didn't dare to act rashly.The last time Wang Jin colluded with the pirates to deal with Li Jing, he was already taking risks.But what happened last time has already been defeated, and even the one-eyed flood dragon died in the hands of Li Jing.As long as Li Jing and Song Wen don't disclose Wang Jin's collusion with the pirates, Wang Jin will never dare to openly attack Li Jing in a short time.Colluding with the pirates can still be denied. If he dares to openly attack Li Jing, this matter will be tantamount to Wang Wuwu's faction publicly declaring war on Song Wei's side.

"General, Wang Jin once attacked us. We have to be careful. Feng Zhang and Wang Jin have a thousand official officers and men. With our current situation, if the two sides go to war, we have no chance of winning." Zhang Hong Said in a heavy tone.

Li Jing sighed: "Don't worry, they are just bluffing and intimidating us now. And this intimidation also means to test us. If we give up now, then they will think that we are afraid of them and that we have no trump cards. Then If we come down, things like yesterday will definitely happen again. Therefore, we can't show any fear now, but have to be tougher, so that they will not be able to figure out our details, and they will not dare to mess around in a short time."

"You should have seen Song Wen's attitude today. Don't expect him to come out to help us deal with Wang Jin and Feng Zhang. We are now in a weak state and need time to recover. When we pass this time, Only then will we be able to take the initiative to give them an eye for an eye and blood for blood. But now, we can only temporarily pretend to be a tiger, and give them an empty plan."

"I hope so!" All the generals thought so in their hearts.But other than that, they didn't know what to do.Originally, I was full of expectations for Song Wen, thinking that everything would be settled by handing over the evidence to him.But in the end, everything can only be handled by themselves.Not to mention that Song Wen didn't help them deal with Wang Jin, but even Wang Jin's collusion with pirates was not allowed to be disclosed at all, so as to prevent Wang Jin from jumping over the wall in a hurry.

On that day, Shamen Town was on full alert, and all soldiers and family members were temporarily concentrated in the city.The soldiers are all armed generals, all in their positions, ready to deal with all possible emergencies at any time.

The silent confrontation between Shamenzhen and Wang Jin and Feng Zhang continued until almost dusk.

Then Feng Zhang asked Li Jing to have a meeting between the two armies in the city. Li Jing brought Liu Shouqian, Zhang Chengzong and the two teams of servants there. Feng Zhang did not come alone, but also brought a hundred guards.

When Feng Zhang saw Li Jing, he went straight to the point: "I will immediately withdraw the soldiers on the three islands affiliated to Shamen Town, and you can take over the defense tomorrow. But you must immediately hand over Feng Ming and the people you are detaining to me. Walk."

"I can leave it to you. When the [-] guan money will be delivered, you can take it away at any time. When you see the money is given to others, you can't talk about it if you don't have money." Li Jing refused to give up an inch. If you fight a fox like Feng Zhang, you must not Weakened momentum, let the other party see the truth.

Stand still, wait and see what happens, and never act if you don't know what's going on.This has always been Feng Zhang's unchanging style of conduct. Li Jing has already inquired about all this, so at this time, he does not give an inch and looks at each other with Feng Zhang.

"You really want to go against me like this? Don't forget, you are my subordinate, and Shamen Town belongs to Daxie Village!" Feng Zhang raised his eyebrows and said in a stern tone.

Li Jing smiled lightly, and replied tit for tat: "The town of Shamen is indeed subordinate to Daxie village, but Daxie village is also under the jurisdiction of Ziqing town, and the subordinates and envoys are all subordinates of Song Jieshuai. Is not it?"

"Aren't you afraid that pirates will suddenly attack again in the middle of the night one day?"

"Hahaha, the pirates attacked yesterday, but where are those pirates now?" Li Jing snorted coldly, "Feng Bingmashi, if you stay today just to tell me these things, then you can avoid it." If you are brave enough, you might as well lead troops to attack me now, I want to see who will fall first in the end." Li Jing turned around and left.

As soon as he returned to the tower, Feng Zhang had already sent someone to see him again.The envoy brought Feng Zhang's handwritten letter and told him to exchange it at the Phoenix Mountain Wharf at noon tomorrow.After reading this handwritten letter, Li Jing knew that Feng Zhang had surrendered this round.He heaved a sigh of relief in his heart, nodded to the envoy, and at the end he did not forget to confess, "By the way, remember to tell envoy Feng Bingma, besides bringing thirty thousand coins to bring back Mr. Feng Liu and others from your home. There is also the [-] yuan pension he promised to give me in public today to the dead and wounded in Shamen Town, and the [-] sets of ordnance he promised me. If you don’t bring all the things tomorrow, don’t blame me for not giving them.”

After the envoy returned, Feng Zhang took his troops back quickly, but Wang Jin still hadn't left.

At the foot of Phoenix Mountain, Wang Jin's 500 troops temporarily stopped here. In a temporary military tent, Wang Jin heard that Feng Zhang actually led the troops to withdraw without even saying hello, and cursed angrily.

When he glanced at the three open wooden boxes in front of him, the anger in his eyes grew even bigger.

There are three things in the three wooden boxes, all of which are 'gifts' given to him by Li Jing.In the first wooden box is a human head, in the second wooden box is still a human head, in the third wooden box are more than a dozen letters and an account book.

Wang Jin was no stranger to the contents of these three wooden boxes. The head in the first box was none other than Wang Fu, the head of his family. His eyes were wide open at this time, and he was putting it in the box with his eyes wide open.The other head was also very familiar. The head with one eye covered with an eye patch, leaving only one eye was the pirate Cyclops, the one-eyed dragon Zheng Balang who should have been sold to Song Wen.

He had already read the dozen or so letters and the ledger, all of which were letters he wrote to Zheng Balang, and the ledger where Zheng Balang recorded all the transactions between them.However, these letters and ledgers are transcripts, not originals.

Along with the letter was a letter from Li Jing, in which Li Jing arrogantly asked him not to interfere in the affairs of Shamen Town, and as revenge for his unfriendly actions, he had already sent all the people on the island The property of the Wang family was confiscated.In addition, if he wanted to take back the originals of those letters and ledgers from Li Jing, he would also need to compensate Shamen Township with [-] guan as compensation for the soldiers who died in the battle.

Wang Jin has been falling into mania since he opened these 'gifts'.Li Jing actually blackmailed him. After the Wang family's armory on Shamen Island was copied, Li Jing dared to blackmail him for [-] coins. "I'm going to kill Li Jing and flatten Shamen Town!"

"Old Wu, calm down! Fengzhang, the old fox, has already withdrawn. He probably waits for us to fight Li Jing, and then watch the show! The current situation, we already have the handle in Li Jing's hands. If we really fight, Song Wenke If you have taken the initiative, you may have to implicate the Patriarch. Everything is the overall situation, let's stop for a while, let Li Jing be arrogant for a while, and deal with him later." Dengzhou Governor Shi Wang Jingwen said with a dark face.

Wang Jingwen ranks the eldest in the Wang family, he is the eldest son of the eldest son, but he is a concubine.Now the head of the Wang family is held by the eldest son Wang Jingwen, who is the second eldest son. Wang Wujing is the general of Ziqing Jiedu Yabing.But Wang Jin is only the third-bedroom, and the fifth in the family.Therefore, Wang Jingwen's attitude towards Wang Jin was completely the same as that of an elder brother towards his brothers. When he opened his mouth, he took a disciplinary tone, but Wang Jin dared not show any emotion.

"But this Li family boy is too arrogant, and besides, he has already held our ground, so if we don't kill him, if this matter gets out, it will be very detrimental to my Wang family." Wang Jin sighed.

Wang Jingwen shook his head and said: "You also know that this matter is not good for my Wang family, what do you think, you actually ordered the pirates to attack Shazhen. The instigator also ordered, but you also found such a useless pirate, Thousands of people attacked a small island, and they were all killed. You have been leading troops for many years, and you have completely discredited the Wang family this time."

"I must kill Li Jing!" Wang Jin was furious, "Li Jing may be able to kill the one-eyed dragon, but that one-eyed dragon is just a bad pirate. I wiped it out in the first battle. It was just a dog I raised. .With the [-] soldiers and horses in my hands now, I can wipe out Shamen Town with just one surprise attack tonight!"

"You are messing around!" Wang Jingwen was furious, "After yesterday's battle, the whole city of Dengzhou is now watching Salmon Island, so what if you really killed Li Jing at this time, at that time Song Wen led troops to surround you If you kill me, even the head of the family will not dare to come forward to save you. If you really do this, then our entire Wang family will be destroyed in your hands. We have worked hard for several generations, and finally we have such a powerful position. In a few years, in the future, the Jiedu Envoy of Ziqing Pinlu will definitely be a thing in our royal family's bag. If you do this now, don't you want to force our royal family to immediately raise troops? At that time, can you guarantee that the imperial court will not send troops to attack us? "

Wang Jin looked at Wang Jingwen, then at the heads in the two wooden boxes on the table, trying to find the answer, but in vain.For a while, although he was wearing armor and a sword, he looked extremely depressed. "How do I do it?" he asked.

"Take a step back for now. Didn't Li Jing ask for money? Give it to him." Wang Wuwen said with a gloomy face, "It's only [-] guan. If you can temporarily appease this rebellious horse, it will be worth it. Now we What I have to do is to wait and see what happens. I have found some evidence that Feng Yanqing and Feng Liang were killed by Li Jing. As long as we hand over these evidences to Feng Zhang, do you think Feng Zhang can sit again? Do you want to live?" He smiled sinisterly, "Old Wu, sometimes you don't need to do it yourself to kill someone, you have to understand."

(To be continued)