Poor Family 1

  Chapter 382 Song Jiang Conditions

  On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Hou Meng, the magistrate of Bozhou, arrived in Luqiao Town, Jezhou. Hou Meng was about fifty years old. He was born as a Jinshi.

The reason why the imperial court chose Hou Meng to recruit the Liangshan Army was because he had served as the magistrate of Yuncheng County, Jezhou. Liangshanbo straddled Jeju and Yunzhou, and half of Jeju was under the jurisdiction of Yuncheng County. Song Jiang, the leader of the Liangshan Army, was under his His subordinates served as the commanders. It can be said that the Liangshan Army grew stronger under his rule.

After Yang Jian was shot and killed in Xucheng County, the responsibility was determined to be Yunzhou. All the county and county officials in Yunzhou were dismissed, and Hou Meng escaped as an official in Jeju. He was not punished, and was promoted to the magistrate of Bozhou by the imperial court.

A few months ago, Cai Jing was forced to sue his old man to return to his hometown, and Hou Meng lost his backer. The new prime minister, King Fu, believed that Hou Meng was unshirkably responsible for the Liangshan rebellion, so he recommended him to recruit the Liangshan Army. Then he can redeem his crimes. If he can't be recruited, then he will have to bear the responsibility for letting the Liangshan gangsters grow up in the past.

It was also for this reason that Hou Meng was under great pressure and seemed worried. The price offered to him by the imperial court was not high, and he was only given one prefect, two general judges, seven magistrates and twenty regiment training envoys. But it is to completely disband the Liangshan Army.

  However, there are some subtleties that he can handle at his own discretion. For example, the looted property in Liangshan does not need to be handed over, and the killing of local officials can let the past go. Based on these conditions, it may be possible to have a face-to-face talk with Song Jiang.

Lushan Town is located at the junction of Shanzhou and Jeju. Hou Meng just walked into the town with a dozen of his men, and saw a group of people in front of him. The leader was a middle-aged man with the appearance of a scribe. Hou Meng felt that He looked vaguely familiar.

  The man got off his horse and stepped forward to salute: "Wu Yong sees Hou Guanren."

   "You are the county official of Wu!"

  Hou Meng suddenly recognized this person. He was also a county magistrate in Yuncheng County. He was in charge of the prison camp copywriting.

  Wu Yong said with a smile: "The official has not forgotten the old man."

  He pulled Dai Zong again, "This Dai Zong also followed the officials down the mountain to inspect. The deputy head arrester of Yuncheng County, do the officials still have any impression?"

"of course I remember!"

Hou Meng nodded again and again. After all, it was only ten years ago. He still has the impression that this Dai Zong was the deputy head catcher he personally promoted back then. He also went to Liangshan. The yamen servant is very skilled in martial arts, and his surname seems to be Li."

   "Officer, I'm here!" Li Kui also stepped forward to salute.

  Hou Meng was overjoyed. It turned out that they were old officials. Song Jiang asked them to welcome him, which meant that Song Jiang was also willing to be recruited!

   "I don't know where Gongming is?"

   "Gongming is still in Xucheng. He has a lot of work to do and has no time to spare, so he asked me to meet Hou Guanren. I can also have a talk with Hou Guanren on his behalf."

  Hou Meng knew that Wu Yong was the No. 3 figure in the Liangshan Army, and he came to greet him on behalf of Song Jiang, which meant that they also knew their intentions. Since both parties are interested, it is best to negotiate as soon as possible.

   "I don't know where Military Division Wu plans to discuss with me?"

  Wu Yong pointed forward and said with a smile: "It's not convenient here, let's go to Rencheng County to discuss in detail."

The reason why Wu Yong didn't want to take Hou Meng to Xucheng was because many generals were opposed to accepting the recruitment. They are in a good situation now. accept? In particular, Lu Junyi's faction strongly opposed surrendering to the imperial court. For this matter, almost everyone forgot about Tangyin's massacre of the city, and Liangshan's army was arguing fiercely.

  Song Jiang was also afraid of stirring up a mutiny in the army, so he could only send Wu Yong to contact Hou Meng secretly. If the conditions were favorable, he would try to persuade everyone.

  Rencheng is not far from Luqiao Town. Soon, Hou Meng was welcomed into Rencheng County by Wu Yong and other confidantes sent by Song Jiang like stars holding the moon, and lived in the VIP post in Rencheng County.

This is a luxurious building specially built by the Liangshan Army to attract heroes from all over the world. It was expanded from the original Rencheng Post Station. It covers an area of ​​nearly 100 acres and has more than 20 courtyards of various sizes. The main courtyard is called Qingsong Courtyard. , Hou Meng lived in this courtyard.

  The attendants were still cleaning up the house, but Hou Meng and Wu Yong sat in the study and started the first negotiation. Of course, the first negotiation was tentative, and no one would easily reveal their bottom line and price.

"The imperial court is now concentrating on preparing for the war against the Liao Kingdom. It does not want to be constrained by domestic turmoil. It is not that the imperial court on Fang La did not give them a chance. Not only did they renege on their promises, but they also showed signs of proclaiming the emperor's treason. The imperial court will never tolerate them, and General Liangshan Most of them have no way out because of poverty or committing crimes, and they have not acted to proclaim the emperor and seek rebellion. In this case, the officials think that they can reconcile. Effectiveness, the imperial court can properly confer official positions so that they can honor their ancestors and return to their hometowns. If the heroes of Liangshan want to put forward higher demands, it is not impossible to talk about it, but first of all, they must show sincerity and attitude.”

  Wu Yong pondered for a while and asked, "I don't know what the attitude and sincerity mentioned by the official Hou mean?"

"The attitude is to be willing to accept the imperial court's recruitment, not to delay time or fool the imperial court. Sincerity means that the conditions must be realistic, not far-fetched, impossible conditions. As long as these two points are met, I believe the imperial court will try its best. Give everyone a good treatment."

Wu Yong smiled, "If there was no sincerity, my general would not have sent me to meet Hou Guanren. There must be sincerity. Although some Liangshan generals have resistance in their hearts, General Song will slowly enlighten it. This is not a problem. We The requirements are not very high. Now we actually control Yunzhou, Jeju and Bozhou. If necessary, our influence can even quickly expand to more than a dozen state capitals. Secondly, we plan to attack Daming Prefecture again after the Chinese New Year, but look For the sake of the imperial court's intention to negotiate, we promise that we will not mobilize troops outside the country until the results of the negotiations come out.

   "Maybe let me tell you, if I can't make the decision, I can go back to Beijing and ask for instructions."

Wu Yong thought for a while and said: "Let's not mention General Song, just talk about me! I am already forty-two this year, and my greatest ambition in life is to be the governor of any state and govern the people for the emperor. I am satisfied with the rank of a loose official as a doctor."

Wu Yong did not mention Song Jiang, but implicitly put forward his own conditions. To be a governor of a state, he needs to be a doctor. The lowest rank of a doctor is Chaosan doctor from the fifth rank. Conditions, then based on him, Lu Junyi is at least the fifth rank, while Song Jiang, as the leader, needs to be the fourth rank or third rank. This is obviously higher than the price that the court is willing to offer, but there is also room for negotiation, such as giving Song Jiang a third rank or For the title of the fourth rank, the official position is still the fifth rank Zhizhou, Wu Yong can also be given the official rank to the fifth rank, but the official position will be judged.

  Thinking of this, Hou Meng smiled and said: "Let's do it! I will report to the imperial court overnight, and ask the imperial court to relax the conditions a little bit, and then we will continue to talk."

  Hou Meng also implicitly told Wu Yong that the price offered by the imperial court was not too different, and the two sides had room for negotiation. If Liang Shan was willing to make concessions in other areas, then the imperial court would also make appropriate concessions in terms of official positions.

  Wu Yong was overjoyed, and quickly got up and said, "I'll go back to Xucheng County to report to General Song. We are looking forward to the news from the court as soon as possible."

   "I look forward to it too!"

  Hou Meng sent Wu Yong out of the post, Wu Yong told Li Kui to protect the safety of Hou officials, and he and Dai Zong returned to Xucheng.

   Li Kui led 500 elite soldiers to live in the post, and they were distributed around the main courtyard to closely protect the safety of Hou Meng and his entourage.

Song Jiang attaches great importance to this court recruitment. He still wants to accept the recruitment in his bones and become a high-ranking official of the court. He continues to lead the army to attack the city and plunder the village, defeating the officers and soldiers. Soldiers stand on their own, he sometimes has such ambitions, but when he calms down, the idea of ​​​​accepting security will still prevail.

Song Jiang was very worried that someone would sabotage the negotiation, especially those like Lu Junyi and Lin Chong who hated the imperial court. Li Kui led five hundred soldiers to closely protect Hou Meng's safety.

At one o'clock, a man in black appeared on the street outside the post house, holding a three-foot short copper rod in his hand, with a pair of sharp and cold eyes on his masked black scarf, he walked towards the post house step by step. go.

  (end of this chapter)