Liu An returned to Hou Qing and said anxiously: "Gonglian, something happened."

"Why are you so anxious about Changsheng?" Hou Qing had just finished eating, and seeing Liu An looking in a hurry, Hou Qing asked hurriedly.

"For some reason, Gong Lian's servants broke into my house and were captured by my guards. Gong Lian quickly followed me to see what happened." After Liu An finished speaking, he walked to the gate first.

Hou Qing nodded and followed Liu An. The two of them came to the gate. Several servants of Hou Qing's family were tied tightly and thrown to the side of the gate.

Although those people were tied up, they were still arrogant and scolded the guards at the door angrily. Liu An's escort seemed to have not heard them and ignored them.

But when several people caught a glimpse of Liu Anhou Qing walking out of the hospital from the corner of their eyes, their expressions suddenly froze.

"Home, Master? It's great that you are still alive..." One of the servants reacted with joy on his face.

But before he could finish his words, Hou Qing, who suddenly accelerated past Liu An, rushed forward and slapped him in the face.

"Shut up! An evil servant is disgraceful!" Hou Qing followed Liu An, and when he was near the door, he heard some familiar curses.

When I got closer, I saw that it was actually my little steward.

Liu An just gave him three bolts of fine silk to make clothes yesterday, and today his servants came to his house to embarrass himself.

Not only did he forcefully break into the county magistrate's mansion, he was so arrogant and domineering after being captured, and he was full of evil words. How could he face Liu An?

The servant was slapped by his master and stood there blankly, no longer as arrogant as before.

Seeing that the steward was beaten, several other people also calmed down and lowered their heads, as if they had done something wrong, and did not dare to speak.

After Hou Qing finished beating the slave, he turned around, clasped his fists at Liu An, and said apologetically: "I've done nothing to discipline you, and I've made Chang Sheng laugh."

Liu An waved his hand to show that he didn't care, and said: "It's better to ask the reason first."

"Yeah." Hou Qing turned around, kicked the slave he had beaten again, and said, "You bastard, do you know what the crime is for breaking into the county magistrate's house?"

The servant was kicked, and he finally regained his usual alertness. He nodded and bowed and said to Hou Qing: "I know my sin, I know my sin. I will never dare to do it again. Master, please spare my life!"

When Hou Qing heard what he said, he felt even more hateful. He kicked him in the chest again and said viciously: "Now that you know it, how dare you break in? Who gave you the courage?"

Then the man told Hou Qing what happened quickly and fluently, and finally said: "How dare I break into the county magistrate's house? I was really worried about the master of the house, so I had no choice but to do it. I hope the master will miss me."

Be loyal and spare this villain’s life!”

After hearing what happened, Hou Qing turned back to Liu An with a puzzled look.

Liu An was the first to say: "That's strange. I clearly sent someone to report it, why didn't I receive the news?"

After saying that, Liu An seemed to have remembered something, and asked Liu Bei who was following him on the road: "Xuande, has the person who reported the message come back?"

Liu Bei frowned and thought for a moment, then hesitated vaguely: "It seems...never came back..."

"This..." Liu An looked surprised, and then said to Hou Qing with a hint of self-blame: "I'm afraid the problem lies with the person who reported the news, and this matter was handled improperly by me. After the whereabouts of the person who reported the news are found out,

I will definitely give an explanation to Gong Lian."

"It's okay, there's no need to worry too much about immortality. It'll be good once the matter is clarified." When Hou Qing spoke to Liu An, he no longer had the anger he felt when facing his own slaves. His face changed so quickly that it was staggering.

While the two were talking, they saw a group of people in the distance, about two to three hundred people, heading this way in a menacing manner.

Liu An then asked Liu Bei what those people did. Liu Bei also looked puzzled and shook his head.

Liu An asked Hou Qing again, but Hou Qing also said he didn't know.

At this time, the servant who was thrown aside by Hou Qing whispered: "Xu, Xu yes, yes...yes..."

He wanted to say it out, but now his master was standing here, talking and laughing with the county magistrate. The hard work of his group of slaves turned out to be just a joke, and he was afraid that if he said it out, he would be beaten by the master again.

It can be seen that he seemed to know that he was hesitating as if he had eaten shit. Hou Qing became even more angry, kicked the servant again, and shouted: "You bitch, hurry up and tell me!"

"Yes!" The servant was frightened and said hurriedly: "It should be the other clan leaders who brought people to save the family master!"

When Hou Qing heard what the servant said, he reacted, then his face turned pale, he kicked the servant hard, and cursed "you troublemaking dog", and hurriedly walked towards the servant.

People who come.

Liu An did not follow him. Hou Qing was there to persuade the group of people, but his presence would only make them more embarrassed.

After all, Hou Qing was also the tool who helped him unlock the wartime lottery board, and Liu An's impression of him was not too bad.

After waiting there for a while, Liu An swiped the wartime lottery board and found that the wartime lottery board had been closed again, then he looked attentively at Hou Qing and others a hundred meters away.

After a while, the group of people left, and Hou Qing came back with his servants and the man Liu An sent to communicate.

I apologized to Liu An first, saying it was a misunderstanding and I hope Liu An won't be offended.

Although it was Liu An's men who 'made a mistake' at this time, murdering a court official was a serious crime. Hou Qing was afraid that Liu An would blame him, so he apologized to Liu An first.

By now, things have become very clear.

Liu An sent someone to report the message to Hou Qing's home, but the person he sent could not enter the city gate because he forgot to bring the token. He got lost again after the city gate opened the next day and failed to report the message to Hou Qing's home in time. As a result, Hou Qing's servants and

There was a misunderstanding among the clan leaders, so they led their men to break into Liu An's home.

After Liu An understood the cause and effect, he ordered the person who reported the news to be severely punished, and he apologized to Hou Qing.

Just then, a servant came to report that the clothes he had made for Hou Qing yesterday had been completed, so Liu An asked someone to bring them to Hou Qing.

Hou Qing was very worried at this time. Although the clan chiefs in the city who brought people here today had done a useless job, he had to accept their kindness and had to come to thank them after he returned.

So he took the clothes Liu An gave him, left in a hurry without having time to check them, and left with his servants.

Immediately afterwards, Liu An returned to the county government office in the city, found a few vacant rooms, and extracted the 200 sabers and swords, 300 spears, 400 pairs of leather armor, 300 pairs of repeating crossbows, and 200 pairs of bows and arrows that he had just drawn.

.

After thinking about it, he extracted another set of 10 pairs of pearlescent scales, called Liu Bei, Meng Lan and Gao Shun, and gave each of them a pair.

After that, Liu An asked Liu Bei to take enough money and go outside the city, so that the villagers who built the manor outside the city could all pretend to be ordinary people and enter the city at dusk, and sneak into the county government office.

Then Liu An ordered Meng Lan to invite his uncle Cheng Ze, and invited him to come to the county government office for a banquet in the evening on the grounds that Liu An had newly acquired a rare thing and wanted to share it with him.

He also asked Meng Lan to explain in a vague way that this item was extremely rare and might attract others to covet it, so he hoped that his uncle would not spread the word.

Now that Liu An has people and weapons, it's time to take action against the powerful ones.

However, Liu An, together with the escort led by Xiang Yongji outside the city, only had 700 people, and they were unable to deal with all the powerful forces.

So before that, Liu An had to take a risk and try to conquer Cheng Ze, the captain of Wuyuan.

In the past few days, he has investigated clearly that Captain Wuyuan originally had four thousand county soldiers.

When the barbarians invaded at the end of last year, many men were lost. To this day, the county army has not yet fully replenished its strength, but it already has 2,000 men.

If Cheng Ze can be successfully subdued, Liu An will be able to hold these two thousand people in his hands.

If that fails, Liu An's 700 men, plus the four brave generals Lu Bu, Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, Gao Shun, and many highly skilled guards may not be able to compete with Cheng Ze's 2,000 men.

If it doesn't work, at least it can keep Liu An safe.

If not, he is Meng Lan's uncle after all. Liu An has promised Meng Lan that he will never harm Cheng Ze's life. Otherwise, even if Meng Lan is Liu An's dead soldier, he will not be happy and may even refuse to cooperate with Liu An's plan.

.

Liu An has never tried to ask his dead soldiers to do things that they would definitely not do under normal circumstances, so he does not know what the consequences will be.

But Liu An will not try to do it. In his opinion, this is definitely not the behavior of the master.

Of course, even without Meng Lan's relationship, Liu An would not kill Cheng Ze.

The captain of a county was appointed by the imperial court, and Liu An could not bear the crime of murdering the superior. If Cheng Ze died in Liu'an County Yamen, the imperial court would certainly investigate the matter.

However, not harming his life does not mean that he will let him go.

If Cheng Ze refuses to obey, Liu An will have no choice but to capture him. If necessary, he may even threaten his subordinates with his life, making his subordinates fearful and afraid to fight with Liu An.

In the afternoon, Liu An summoned Liu Bei and others and discussed in detail the plan to persuade Cheng Ze to surrender.

There were no rare items in Liu An's hands, and Cheng Ze had already seen the silk. The only rare items in Liu An's hands were the vitamins he brought from home.

The vitamin chews are sweet and have a delicate appearance, so they can be used as invitations.

Although the value of a bottle of vitamins is not small, it is only a drop in the bucket compared with the two thousand people under Cheng Ze and the more than a thousand slaves he has in his family as another powerful man.

After reviewing the plan several times and confirming that there were no loopholes, Liu An asked Liu Bei and others to get started.

When the sun gradually set, Liu An took out a bottle of vitamins, asked his men to prepare wine and food, and then calmly waited for Cheng Ze to arrive.

At this time, the Xiangyong outside the city also began to enter the county government in batches through the side gate of the county government. Liu An had handed over to Liu Bei the arrangements for the Xiangyong to receive weapons and armor.

Six hundred local warriors, one group of swordsmen, one group of swordsmen, and one group of spearmen, all 200 people.

Liu An did not let Liu Bei distribute crossbows to Xiangyong. The swords can be used to cut people, but crossbows cannot be shot with just one hand. After the matter of the powerful is decided, Liu An plans to choose Xiangyong to practice bows.

crossbow.

Similarly, Liu An did not give all the leather armor to Xiang Yong.

The one hundred escorts he brought were not equipped with armor because they were traveling lightly.

Moreover, there were not many leather armors in Zhuo County Manor. It was Liu An's base camp and there was no room for mistakes, so Liu An did not bring any leather armor.

Liu An asked Liu Bei to distribute the newly drawn 400 leather armors to the escort team first, and then distribute 100 leather armors to each of the remaining three teams.

When night fell, Cheng Ze brought three burly men to the banquet.

Liu An welcomed Cheng Ze warmly at the door and took Cheng Ze to the living room.

The gate through which Xiang Yong entered the county government office was far away from the main entrance, so Liu An did not need to worry about Xiang Yong being seen by Cheng Ze.

Entering the living room, Liu An asked Cheng Ze to take a seat. Cheng Ze's three men stood behind him. Zhang Fei, Lu Bu, and Gao Shun also followed Liu An all the time.

Wine and food were placed in the living room. After Liu An took his seat, he raised his glass and drank with Cheng Ze, then invited him to taste the delicious food, but never mentioned where the rare things he shared with Cheng Ze were.

The pack of thirteen incense that was served to Hou Qingshi yesterday was not used up, and the dish that was served to Cheng Ze today also contained thirteen incense.

Cheng Ze originally planned to eat the dish and went straight to ask about the strange thing. After taking a bite of the dish, he found that the dish tasted great and couldn't help but eat a few more bites.

As the saying goes, a person with a short hand eats a person with a short mouth. After eating the delicacies Liu An carefully prepared for himself, Cheng Ze was in a happy mood, but he was too embarrassed to ask questions directly with a cold face.

So Liu An accompanied Cheng Ze while drinking and eating, while chatting about what he had seen and heard in the Central Plains. Some of them were mixed with some strange things that would only be seen by later generations, which really opened Cheng Ze's eyes.

Cheng Ze was a native of Wuyuan and had never been to Luoyang, the most prosperous city in the Han Dynasty. Even his current official position was only recommended to the court by his close relationship with the former prefect.

After chatting with Liu An, he saw that Liu An was knowledgeable and his conversation was humorous and elegant, and he suddenly understood why his pretentious nephew was willing to follow him.

When he first learned that Meng Lan had defected to Liu An, Cheng Ze was angry at her for not fighting and called Meng Lan away for a scolding. Meng Lan took the opportunity to persuade him to follow Liu An. Cheng Ze was furious at that time. If he hadn't pity him for being his sister's only son.

, I really want to break his legs.

But now Cheng Ze understands some of his nephew's thoughts. He is neither humble nor arrogant when facing him, neither slander nor flattery. He speaks well and behaves well. He is also quite good at managing his subordinates. He seems to be a capable person.

If he hadn't been transferred to these five plains, he should still be able to use his talents to protect the safety of the people there.

While Liu An and Cheng Ze were chatting, they also kept paying attention to the movements outside the living room door.

It wasn't until Liu Bei came outside the living room and made a gesture to himself from an angle that Cheng Ze couldn't see that Liu An changed the subject and brought the topic to the so-called rare objects.

Liu An had made an appointment with Liu Bei a long time ago, and he would notify him after the warriors from all over the country had arrived, equipped with weapons and leather armor, and told them what to do next.

Now that everything was ready, Liu An took out the vitamins from his clothes, chewed one himself, and gave it to Cheng Ze to taste.

Then Liu An told Cheng Ze about the effectiveness of vitamins. Cheng Ze chewed the sweet vitamins in his mouth and was in a good mood. After listening to Liu An's introduction, he felt that his trip was worthwhile.

After that, Liu An returned to his seat and suddenly let out a long sigh.

Cheng Ze asked: "Why does Changsheng sigh?"

Liu An Qi Qi Ran said: "The captain didn't know something. An had heard a few years ago that Xianbei had the reputation of Tanshihuai. He unified the Xianbei tribe and repeatedly invaded our borders with the Han Dynasty. Hearing that Tanshihuai fell last year, An was glad that our country

Han Shaoyi threatened, but also sighed that he could not kill the leader of the thief with his own hands. When he first received the appointment of Jiuyuan County Magistrate, An An was very excited and came to the post with great ambition, hoping to recruit local braves to guard the border and fight against the foreigners. But..."

Liu An sighed again and said in an increasingly sad tone: "But when I came to Jiuyuan, I found that I couldn't even protect myself. I was restrained by others and couldn't move even an inch, let alone kill the enemy and make meritorious deeds?"

Listening to Liu An's words, Cheng Ze's expression gradually turned cold.

"What do you mean by longevity?"

"Alas...!" Seeing Cheng Ze's expression, Liu An had come to the conclusion that it was basically impossible to conquer Cheng Ze peacefully.

This sigh was made for Cheng Ze to see, and it also made Liu An feel regretful that she still wanted to attack the uncle of one of her subordinates.

Liu An lamented repeatedly while slowly opening the distance between him and Cheng Ze. After reaching a safe position, he suddenly turned around and said loudly:
Chapter completed!