Late Tang

(Thanks to Lao Tzu for making book shortages and Xiao Feilong ぜ sword’s monthly ticket support, thank you! Five consecutive monthly tickets!)

"All the purchased salt will be shipped directly from Dengzhou to Songzhou without additional cost! Li Jing threw out another tempting bargaining chip. If you don't need to transport the salt yourself, you will save a lot of manpower and material resources, and you can just buy it directly. It can make two or three levels of profits, and it can also lower the salt price in Songzhou and win the support of the people. This business is worth doing.

Zhang Rui hesitated for a while, but finally agreed.Although the salt business was somewhat illegal in the procedures, since it was Marshal Li's business, so what if it violated the rules.Weng and his son-in-law quickly reached an agreement that Zhang Rui and the Songzhou government would fully support the business expansion of Dengzhou merchants to Songzhou.There are still many specific details, and there is no controversy, and it hits it off.Li Jing wants to open up business routes and make money.Zhang Rui wants to borrow Li Jing's goods to re-prosper Songzhou and restore the economy.Everyone cooperates for a win-win situation.

Although it is a dragon crossing the river, with Zhang Rui's official support and Li Rang's network in the Bian Song shopping mall, Li Jing believes that it will not be too difficult to open up business routes in this market.

Weng and son-in-law finished their tea, and the cooperation has been reached, Li Jing left with satisfaction.

Just returned to the barracks, but immediately got a bad news.

Li Cunxiao lowered his head and trembled at him, "That damned San, I should have known that I shouldn't have pleaded with him last time, so I just beat him to death."

"What happened?" Li Jing sat down and asked.

Yang Shihou reported: "Commander Li envoyed his commander Zhu Wen in Jiying and my subordinate commanded Liu Cai to fight for a woman, and killed Liu Cai. Liu Cai's two sworn brothers, Zhu Zhen and Zhu Cun, took Liu Cai's Four subordinates were killed. The guards of Jiying went to arrest them, but they resisted the arrest, wounded three guards, and took eight horses. Please punish yourself."

Li Jing was stunned for a moment, and suddenly raised his head and said to Master Yang: "Who did you say killed someone?"

"Zhu Wen is the commander of the fifth battalion in the left wing of the Selected Front Army, Zhu Cun, the leader of the left team, and Zhu Cun, the leader of the right team." Yang Shihou replied truthfully.

Zhu Wen, Zhu Zhen, Zhu Cun, upon hearing these three names, Li Jing's mind was shocked.He wanted to tell himself that these three people might just have the same name, but in fact, he also understood that it was absolutely impossible for them to have the same name.

It never occurred to him that Zhu Wen, the great ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, would stay in his army all the time.This result made him a little confused, and he couldn't believe it.

"Zhu Wen reported the details, when did he join our army?" Li Jing said coldly.

Li Cunxiao was startled when he saw Li Jing's appearance, and said in a low voice, "Zhu Wen joined the army in Songzhou. During the expedition, this guy was the first to respond to the command of the commander. As a result, the commander thought that he had performed well, and even appointed him as the team leader in front of the army. Later in Yucheng, this guy led five teams of soldiers to resist more than 1000 grasshoppers. The thieves charged and defended our left flank. As a result, when he was left to clean the battlefield, he killed all 180 and seven grass thieves prisoners who were seriously injured. Therefore, the commander also fined him a hundred army sticks and reduced his military achievements. Finally, he was promoted to command. After returning to the division this time, he also participated in the martial arts competition on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival. During the dragon boat race on the Dragon Boat Festival, this kid even boldly took the paddle to ask the sixth lady for blessings."

Li Cunxiao honestly explained Zhu Wen's situation in detail, Li Jing was slightly stunned after listening.Previously, he only remembered that when Li Cunxiao talked about Zhu Wen with him several times, he always said Ah San, so that he didn't even realize that Ah San was Zhu Ah San or Zhu Wen.

Thinking of this, he was agitated for a while. He actually let Zhu Wen stay under his nose for so long.This Zhu Wen really acted boldly and somewhat cruelly and cunningly.However, Li Jing was disappointed to hear that Zhu Wen fought with others and killed his fellow comrades for a memory girl.A majestic hero, to do such a thing.

If you escape, just escape. Even if such a guy stays in the army, it probably won't be a good thing.

"Do you know where they fled to?" Li Jing asked.

"Fleeing all the way north, it may be to Xuanwu Army, or it may be to go to Caozhou to cast grass thieves." Li Cunxiao replied.

Li Jing thought for a while: "Notify the whole army about this matter, and then make Zhu Wen, Zhu Zhen, and Zhu Cun three people wanted by the portrait."

Li Cunxiao and Yang Shihou were slightly surprised to see Li Jing's appearance of thunder and rain.Li Jing waved his hand, "The two of you have no way to rule the people. Each of you will be fined for three months. In addition, at the time of the o'clock tomorrow, you will receive ten army sticks yourself! Go out."

Li Jing was only surprised by Zhu Wen's appearance for a moment. Even the one-eyed dragon Li Keyong was driven to Mobei to herd sheep by him. Li Jing didn't have much taboo against Zhu Wen, a hero in troubled times.Just run away, if Zhu Wen can get up, don't be afraid.Just beat him.

Putting Zhu Wen's matter aside, Li Jing began to write to Lin Wei in Dengzhou, telling him about the trade route, asking him to set up a few more salt farms in the near future, recruit more salt workers, and dry more salt. After that, it was transported from the Huaihe River to Songzhou.In addition, he also told Lin Wei that he might return to Dengzhou at the end of the month or the beginning of next month.Let him start preparing for the attack on Liaodong in advance. Once the army returns to Dengzhou, it will launch a wave of offensives against Liaodong within the year.In addition, he also asked him to strengthen some contacts with Guo Zhenhai in Youzhou, and pay close attention to the situation in Youzhou.

He stated in the letter that because of the entry of Chen Jingxuan and others in Youzhou, the original good situation is very likely to be repeated.Let the soldiers and horses in Youzhou get ready, if the situation is out of control, they will immediately retreat to the seaside, and the navy will pick them up and return to Daxing Island first.

After all these matters were settled, the account suddenly reported loudly that General Li Wei had brought back several envoys outside the city.

After Li Wei came in, Li Jing realized that the envoy came from Luoyang and Bianzhou, the eastern capital.The envoys from Bianzhou were from Mu Renyu, while those from Luoyang were from Ximen Sigong and Yang Fugong.

Mu Renyu's envoy brought a letter and a generous supply of labor supplies.In the letter, Mu Renyu stated that he had been mobilizing troops and collecting food and grass some time ago, but because of the urgent time, he did not have time to send troops to Caozhou.But now they are fully prepared and ready to attack Caozhou at any time.At the same time, he also congratulated Li Jing on his victory, congratulated Li Jing on accepting Li Rang and other five good disciples, and congratulated him on his marriage with Zhang Rui.At the same time, two generous congratulatory gifts were presented, one was to congratulate him on accepting an apprentice, and the other was to congratulate him on accepting a concubine.In the end, he also inadvertently mentioned a little past misunderstanding between him and Li Rang in the letter, saying that everything was over and so on, and showed a low profile to Li Jing.After reading the letter, Li Jing just smiled.For this guy, Li Jing didn't have a good impression. I heard that this guy was greedy. After he took office, Jie would often deal with those businessmen who didn't have a strong backer to extort money.

Especially the last time Songzhou was attacked, he was so handsome that he would not save him. Li Jing was willing to send troops to help him, but he was not willing to borrow food.Such a person, Li Jing shook his head, will never have any great promise.But since he lowered his stance, Li Jing was unwilling to embarrass him, so those things would not be brought up again.

The envoy from Luoyang came with a simple intention.Ximen Sigong and Yang Fugong have summoned all the towns to send troops. The defense envoy of Dongdu Jidu, Li Zhuo of Heyang Jiedu, Du Shencun of Zhaoyi Jiedu, Cui Anqian of Zhongwu Jiedu, and Muren of Xuanwu Jiedu The six families of Yu and Yicheng Jiedu envoys Li Zhong have sent troops to assemble in Chenliu, and the six towns sent a total of 10 troops, which can be regarded as an all-out effort.

Hearing the news, Li Jing just smiled.The last time the grass bandits attacked, all the towns stood still.Although there are Zhongwu, Zhaoyi, and Yicheng towns that have just returned from the Hedong battlefield and need to supplement and restore them, Xuanwu and Duji towns are completely frightened by the strength of the bandit army and dare not send troops alone.

Now seeing that Li Jing defeated one hundred thousand grass thieves in one battle, he felt that the grass thieves were all mobs, and they were in a hurry to send troops, naturally they wanted to grab credit.Especially Ximen Sigong and Yang Fugong, who were nowhere to be seen before, but now they suddenly arrived in Chenliu, Bianzhou, obviously to grab the credit.

Ximen Sigong's envoy came here on behalf of Ximen Sigong and Yang Fugong. First, he commended Li Jing for his great victory, and then asked Li Jing about the current situation in the town of [***].If the town [***] is in good condition, ask him to enter Yanzhou directly from Songzhou and go around to Yunzhou. He will join forces with Li Shi, the Jiedu envoy of the Taining Army in Yanzhou, and Xue Chong, the Jiedu envoy of the Tianping Army in Yuncheng. Biancha cut off the retreat of Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao, so as to complete the encirclement, and gathered and wiped out the grass thieves in the Cao and Pu areas.

Seeing this military order, Li Jing couldn't help laughing.Xue Chong of Yuncheng and Li Xi of Yanzhou had already been beaten and disabled. They didn't have enough soldiers to defend the city. Let them go out of the city to intercept grass bandits. This arrangement seemed good on the surface, but Li Jing knew that in fact, This arrangement is to prevent Li Jing from doing more meritorious service.

Wang Xianzhi's 10 people were defeated, Huang Chao only had tens of thousands of people, and now there are 10 officers and soldiers in the six towns, so there's no need to take such a troublesome detour to the east and run over them directly, the grass bandits will be defeated.Now they deliberately asked Li Jing to go around to the back, no doubt they didn't want Li Jing to share the credit.

Although Li Jing could see their intentions, he didn't say anything.It seems that I have indeed been in the limelight recently, which has caused the towns to jointly suppress.But it doesn't matter, Wang Xianzhi lost badly last time, it doesn't mean Huang Chao will fight well.Although Huang Chao is only Wang Xianzhi's deputy, Li Jing knows that Huang Chao is the most ruthless of the grass thieves.

There are 10 people in the six towns, and it is estimated that at least two-thirds of them are auxiliary soldiers and civilians. The real soldiers may be about 4 to [-] people, and they are divided into six towns.Such a hasty swarm, can they really win?Li Jing was a little suspicious.

However, that's not what Li Jing needs to worry about. Even if he reminds him now, not only will it not work, but it will cause other reactions from the towns. Maybe they will think that Li Jing looks down on the towns.That being the case, why bother.

Li Jing wrote back to Mu Renyu and Ximen Sigong each. In his reply to Ximen Sigong, he stated that the town [***] would send troops on May [-], and he didn't say much about the rest. (To be continued.)