Poor Family 1

  Chapter 218 One Mountain Two Tigers

  Not long after Li Yanqing broke through the blockade, he came to Zengtou City. Zengtou City is a big town between Zhongdu County and Xucheng County, which belongs to Xucheng County.

Last year, a great war broke out here. The wealthy Zeng family that controlled Zengtou City was defeated and wiped out by the Liangshan Army. Although the Liangshan Army withdrew from Zengtou City, this area has since become Liangshan’s sphere of influence and the three towns controlled by the Liangshan Army. One, the inns, restaurants, brothels, quality warehouses, and Guanpu stores in the town used to be the properties of the Zeng family, but now they are all assets of Liangshan.

Li Yanqing entered Zengtou City at dusk. He and Luan Tingyu made an appointment to meet here. Li Yanqing did not dare to be careless. This place is different from Zhongdu County. At least Zhongdu County is still the territory of the government. Liangshan is just some eyes and ears in the county. , but this is completely Liangshan's territory, all the shops have a Liangshan background, and even half of the family's children are in Liangshan.

If he is not careful, he may fall here. Li Yanqing put his sword across the saddle. His long-term running has made his hearing and vision sharper than half of the people, and his reaction is very quick. He feels that there are people behind every door and window. Peeping at himself, after all, riding such a strong horse in Zengtou City is a kind of provocation to Liangshan itself.

   "This way!"

Li Yanqing suddenly heard a familiar and low voice coming from the depths of an alley. He was overjoyed, immediately got off his horse, led the horse and walked into the alley. When he reached the bottom of the alley, he saw an open door. Luan Tingyu's thin face was exposed in the crack.

  Li Yanqing led the horse into the courtyard. The house was not big, only a small courtyard and three adobe houses. Luan Tingyu closed the door and smiled, "I've been waiting for you to come over!"

   "Brother knows I'm coming?"

  Luan Tingyu nodded, "The news that you killed Liu Gao has reached Zengtou City. A pigeon letter has been sent from the front, asking the Liangshan scout here to intercept a black-faced man riding a white horse."

   "But... I didn't see the interceptor!"

   "The person responsible for receiving the pigeon letter has been killed by me. This pigeon letter is in my hands. Of course they don't know."

   Li Yanqing suddenly realized that since Luan Tingyu knew it so clearly, of course he solved it for himself.

  Li Yanqing looked at the house again. He felt that the house was dilapidated and might collapse in a while. Why did Luan Tingyu live here?

Luan Tingyu moved out the table and chairs from the house. He understood Li Yanqing's doubts, so he smiled and said, "I have lived here for a year. This is my house. I bought it five years ago for twenty pennies. Behind it is Woods, if there is any abnormality, you can evacuate immediately, don't worry!

   "Why did senior brother live here for a year?"

   "It's a long story, sit down and have a sip of tea!"

Li Yanqing sat down, Luan Tingyu poured him a bowl of tea, and said lightly: "Five years ago, I took a business from Yang Jian and escorted him to Yunzhou. Later, I accidentally fell ill and recuperated here for a year. At the same time, he taught martial arts to the children of the Zeng family, and later he met Lin Chong, who was invited by him to live in Liangshan for a few months."

   "Brother, have you ever been to Liangshan?" Li Yanqing asked curiously.

   "Do you find it strange?"

   "It's a little strange, so why did the brother leave Liangshan, and Song Jiang is willing to let him go?"

"My going to Liangshan has nothing to do with Song Jiang. I live in Chao Gai's Dazhai. At that time they were negotiating a merger. Everyone disagreed with the merger with Song Jiang. But Chao Gai resisted all opinions and wanted to do great things. Everyone had to reluctantly Agreed, but still left a lot of people, I just left Liangshan shortly after the merger and returned to the capital."

   "That's why brother knows Liangshan so well!"

"I am a bystander, not like a fan of the authorities. I advised Lin Chong at the beginning that one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. One day in the future, Chao Gai will die at the hands of Song Jiang. Lin Chong is the number two under Chao Gai. Even if Song Jiang wins over him, he will not Give him any real power, I have seen through Song Jiang for a long time, hypocrisy, fame, nepotism, cruel to ordinary people, but tolerant to the government, just because he is afraid of cutting off his own way, Chao Gai still thinks Can he do great things?"

   "Brother really sees it very clearly!"

Luan Tingyu took a sip of tea and said, "The Liangshan general you killed today is called Liu Gao, who is ranked thirty-fourth among the thirty-six generals in Liangshan. Although his status is not high, his elder brother Liu Tang is the number two under Chao Gai. Second only to Lin Chong, and the Liu brothers are loyal to Chao Gai, Song Jiang may not care about Liu Gao, but Chao Gai will never let it go, let's eat something and go immediately!"

In the night, Li Yanqing and Luan Tingyu stood on a small hill, looking at the team descending the mountain like a long dragon holding torches, Li Yanqing secretly admired Luan Tingyu's accurate judgment, hitting the young ones, the old ones would definitely jump up, this is Liangshan The tradition of the rebel army, if you don't do this, no one will be willing to sacrifice their lives in the future.

  Of course, this rate must be accurately grasped. For example, for a small boss like Yang Hu, it is meaningless to kill a hundred of them. The key is to control the generals above. They have seats in Juyi Hall and are members of the board of directors of a large company like Liangshan.

   As long as one of them is killed, in order to appease the other directors, both the chairman Song Jiang and the vice chairman Chao Gai have to take action.

  Li Yanqing stared at it for a moment, then said to Luan Tingyu: "They must be going to Xucheng County, let's split up."

  Luan Tingyu hesitated and said: "Actually, Chao Gai is a good person!"

  Li Yanqing shook his head lightly, "Senior Brother, the arrow has been wound, so I have to fire it!"

   "Okay! I'll go first."

  Luan Tingyu had no choice but to turn his horse's head and went down the hill along another path.

  Xucheng is the state capital of Yunzhou, and it is also the permanent residence of the Xicheng Office founded by Yang Jian. Although the scope of Yang Jian's exploitation of people's wealth has expanded to the Jingdong Road and Hebei East Road, the permanent residence of the Xicheng Office has never been moved.

Of course, there is another purpose for setting up the Xicheng Office in Yunzhou, which is to suppress the Liangshan army. Although Yang Jian can't destroy the Liangshan army for a while, the 20,000 forbidden troops stationed in Yunzhou have effectively prevented the Liangshan rebellion from expanding. .

   Among the four eunuchs in the late Northern Song Dynasty, Yang Jian ranked second, second only to Liang Shicheng in power, but he had great power in the local area. On the Jingdong Road and Hebei East Road, his authority even surpassed the imperial decree.

Yang Jian is about 60 years old this year. He is tall, slightly fat, and has a pair of piggy eyes. His biggest hobby is drinking tea, especially playing with tea. Mei Ji, who orders and distributes tea, makes tea for him at any time.

There is a famous spring at the foot of Liangshan, called Pearl Spring, which is especially sweet to make tea with. In order to prevent Liangshan bandits from harassing this famous spring, Yang Jian also reached a tacit understanding with Song Jiang. Control, in exchange for Song Jiang not to harass this famous spring, every morning, noon and evening, a special person will go to Pearl Spring to fetch water and come back to make tea.

Yang Jian spent most of his time in the garden of his mansion. The mansion covers an area of ​​200 acres and is located in the southeast of Xucheng County. It is an extremely delicate and elegant garden, with rockery and lakes, shaded by green water, and decorated with various pavilions. in.

At this time in the inner hall, Yang Jian was drinking tea while discussing with his confidant Du Gongcai about preparing the birthday outline for the emperor. The emperor's birthday is on the tenth day of October. exception.

  In the past two years, he has indeed collected a lot of precious jade, and he intends to donate part of it to the emperor, but the jade alone seems to be too little, so he discusses with Du Gong to add something else.

   "Officials like flowers, trees and strange stones. I think we can make a fuss about this. The things are more refined than too many. I think the Daishi that the Taifu got last year is a very good birthday gift, unmatched by anyone in the world!"

  Last autumn, someone found a strange stone weighing a thousand catties at the foot of Mount Tai. The appearance was exactly the same as Mount Tai.

   This is Yang Jian's most cherished item, and he is really reluctant to dedicate it to the emperor.

  Du Gongcai carefully reminded: "Now is the critical moment to determine the head of the palace, what is a stone?"

One sentence reminded Yang Jian that Liang Shicheng was the first in charge of the internal affairs, and he took over later. Seven years ago, he went out to establish the Xicheng Office, and the position of the internal office has been vacant. The news of the re-appointment of the head of the palace came out in the palace, which undoubtedly made Yang Jian nervous.

Whether it is Liang Shicheng's confidant Li Yan, or his own confidant Zhao Zhang, is a life-and-death issue related to who will eventually control the power in the palace. He and Liang Shicheng have been fighting for twenty years, and finally it is time to decide the outcome It's a moment.

  Yang Jian nodded, "You are right, compared with the power in the palace, this Daishi is really nothing."

  At this moment, a guard rushed to the hall to report: "I want to report to the Grand Master, there is an urgent message from the dock warehouse, and the Liangshan army is about to attack the warehouse!"

  Yang Jian froze for a moment.

  (end of this chapter)