Chapter 171: Meet Shatuo again

Outside Li Qing'an's mansion, Yang Fengche looked at the sky worriedly and stared blankly. For more than ten years, he had never felt so much tormented like tonight. Although he knew that there might be such a day, he did not expect that it would come so quickly and so urgently, so he asked him to make the biggest choice in his life overnight.

If Li Qing'an is a temptation, then Cheng Qianli is a threat. The successive visits of the two have made him face a choice, either to cooperate with Cheng Qianli or to join Li Qing'an. He has no other choice.

‘Yang Dudu, we all know how you got the two hectares of land on the north bank of Jinman River.

‘Yang Dupu, did you forget the son-in-law incident of the Gaochang witch’s son-in-law last year?’

Cheng Qianli's words were still echoing in his ears. Yang Feng's vest was soaked. These two things were his handles. At the critical moment, Cheng Qianli was sacrificed. This was a naked threat. If he dared to cooperate with Li Qing'an, don't blame him for being ruthless. But the question is, will Li Qing'an not know these handles? The answer is no. As long as he investigates these things, the truth will be revealed immediately, and Li Qing'an will also use these handles to hit him.

These days, Yang Fengche has been thinking about this matter repeatedly and it is difficult to make up his mind. Today, Cheng Qianli's threat made him finally make a decision. Instead of hiding it and being pinched by someone in the end, it would be better to reveal it yourself first, refund it and compensate it, and simply settle it.

"Yang Dupu, I'm about to send someone to deliver tea to you. Could it be that Yang Dupu is already impatient?" Li Qingan laughed and greeted him.

Yang Fengche smiled bitterly and bowed and said, "General Li, I have something urgent to talk to you. I wonder if I have time?"

Li Qing'an smiled slightly and nodded, "Please go to my study and let's talk in detail."

In the study, Rushi walked over with a tea tray, served tea for the two of them, and slowly retreated. Li Qingan picked up the tea cup and sucked the tea, glanced at Yang Feng's car, and saw him staring at the tea cup in a daze, looking worried, and smiled slightly, "Didn't Yang have something urgent?"

"Oh!" Yang Fengche sighed and said, "General Li just walked forward, but Cheng Qianli came backward."

Li Qingan was stunned. Cheng Qianli was very quick to move! Yang Fengche shook his head and said, "He threatened me with the things I did two years ago and last year, and did not allow me to cooperate with General Li."

Li Qing'an's eyes narrowed slightly. This Yang Fengche was going to bargain with him!

"Yang Duhu might as well tell me what happened to him? "

Yang Fengche was silent for a while and said slowly: "I have three things that are a bit difficult to talk about."

"Yang Dupu, but it's okay to talk."

"One is, in May of the previous year, a Sogdian merchant died unexpectedly. I took care of his funeral. When I was sorting out his inheritance, I found that he had two hectares of land on the north bank of the Jinman River. I did not hand it over to his family, but I took it as my own."

Yang Fengche had sweat beads rolling on his forehead and kept wiping his sweat with a veil. He glanced at Li Qing'an and saw that there was no expression on his face. He could only sigh and say, "There is also a Gaochang witch who had a zodiac stone in her hand. She could distinguish the gender of the fetus in her belly. It is said that after obtaining this zodiac stone, it can also prosper. This zodiac stone is now in my study. The witch committed suicide in prison last year."

Li Qingan nodded, "I understand, what about the third thing?"

"The third thing is that my shop was purchased from a Hu merchant three years ago. The Hu merchant was arrested and died in prison the year before. I have not paid the money for buying the shop yet."

Yang Fengche hesitated and said the third thing. He thought he was already very frank, but Li Qing'an knew that Yang Fengche had done more than these three evil things, but these three were already well known.

"What are you worried about? Did Cheng Qianli have the evidence of you?"

"No! He has no evidence." Yang Fengche hurriedly said: "In fact, no one has any evidence. It's just that some things are full of money. If the court comes to investigate, it may be detrimental to me."

Li Qingan smiled faintly and said, "Don't worry! I am the Chief Censor and have the power of supervision of Beiting. The court will not come over and send people to investigate. If I really want to investigate, I will investigate. As long as I say, there is no such thing, the Censorate will eliminate the case."

Yang Fengche was overjoyed. He actually forgot that Li Qing'an was the chief censor. As long as Li Qing'an said something, who could investigate him again? Of course, he knew how to let Li Qing'an let him go.

"General Li, although Cheng Qianli was transferred to Beiting last year, in fact, he began to make arrangements in Beiting two years ago. The governor of Xizhou and the Tianshan Army's military envoy Zhao Tingyu was his marriage. Zhao Tingyu is from Qizhou, and his younger brother married Cheng Qianli's daughter. It was extremely secret at this time and most people had no way to know it. I discovered it by chance last year."

After saying that, Yang Fengche took out a piece of paper from his arms, placed it on the table, and pushed it to Li Qing'an: "I know that these dozen people are Cheng Qianli's followers in Beiting."

Li Qing'an picked up the list, and Zhao Tingyu was the first person. He couldn't help but sneer. No wonder Zhao Tingyi has no news yet. It is estimated that he is in sync with Cheng Qianli.

The next person was Chen Zhonghe, the magistrate of Jinman County. Li Qingan couldn't help but be stunned. Why is he also a person from Cheng Qianli?

Yang Fengche quickly explained: "Chen Zhonghe's family is poor and has no money to bring his mother to Anxi. Cheng Qianli sent someone to Jingzhao Mansion to bring his mother. Because of gratitude, Chen Zhonghe defected to Cheng Qianli."

Li Qingan took the list and smiled and said, "Master Yang starts tonight, and you can forget what happened before and have a safe sleep!"

Yang Feng's car left, Li Qing'an stood up and smiled at Rushi who had packed the tea cups and said, "Don't hurry up and collect them first, accompany me to the East Courtyard to see the bronze ware. I have been waiting for them for a long time."

"Those are just some bronze ware, why does the prince value them so much?"

"They are not ordinary bronze ware! You can find out when you go with me."

As he said that, he hugged Rushi's waist and kissed her cherry lips, but his hand was unhonestly put into her skirt. Rushi pushed him away with shy face, "Brother, stop making trouble, go to the East Courtyard first!"

"Okay! Go to the East Courtyard first."

Li Qing'an reluctantly stroked her buttocks, and then he smiled and took her to the east courtyard.

There are five large courtyards in Li Qing'an's mansion. The front yard is for his family and servants. The west yard is his personal soldiers' garrison, the middle yard is his family's usual living place, while the east yard is empty. In the future, it is ready to be a guest room. From the back yard, it cannot go directly to the East and West yards. He must go around the front yard. As soon as he and Rushi walked to the front yard, a personal soldier came to report: "General, Mr. Yan is here."

Li Qingan couldn't help but smile bitterly and sighed: "I have so many friends that I have no time to see my wealth."

"Then let's go see it together!"

Yan Zhuang's laughter came from the far door. Li Qing'an's four personal soldiers walked in with a sedan chair. Yan Zhuang sat inside. He pulled the curtain and laughed: "If I guessed correctly, your wealth should come from your trip to Yangzhou."

"It seems that everything can't be hidden from you, the old fox."

Li Qingan smiled and said to Rushi: "Rushi, go! Lead the way forward."

Rushi had seen Yan Zhuang before, and a look of surprise flashed in her eyes. Unexpectedly, Mr. An’s first aide would be in Beiting, and it seemed that he had a very good relationship with his elder brother.

She didn't dare to say anything more, so she agreed gently, picked up a lantern and walked towards the east courtyard.

"General, I heard that Yang Feng's car has arrived?" Yan Zhuang asked with a smile.

"Yes, a lot of interesting things happened tonight and the rewards were great."

"Tell me, who is the basis for Cheng Qianli to confront the general?"

"Zhao Tingyu, sir, didn't expect it!"

Yan Zhuang suddenly realized that it was him, no wonder! He asked again: "Does the general have a countermeasure?"

At this time, they had already walked to the room where the bronze ware was placed. Rushi opened the door, and the faint light of the lantern illuminated the huge hall. This was a hall that accommodated hundreds of people. The room was empty, and dozens of large boxes were placed in the middle. One of them damaged a corner, revealing a bronze Buddha.

At this time, in addition to the three of them, there were also four of Li Qing'an's confidant soldiers in the room. Li Qing'an walked up to count and counted them simply. There were 28 boxes in total, and there were numbers marked on the boxes, totaling 320 bronze ware.

Li Qing'an casually picked up a Buddha statue from the damaged area and tore off the straw wrapped outside. It turned out to be a Maitreya Buddha who respected about ten kilograms.

He handed the Buddha statue to Rushi and asked with a smile: "Do you like it?"

Ru Shiyao didn't meet her head, and smiled with a pursed lips and said, "If it were the bronze statue of Guanyin, I would like it."

"There are also Guanyin statues inside. I'll find one for you later."

He handed the bronze statue to Yan Zhuang again, "Sir, look at my wealth."

Yan Zhuang looked left and right with the faint light, and it seemed that there was no treasure hidden in his stomach. He wondered: "Is this the general's wealth?"

Li Qingan smiled, pulled out the dagger from his boots, stroked the bronze statue, and said, "Sir, look again."

The scratches were shining with golden light, and there was no copper red color. Yan Zhuang was stunned and he stammered: "This is gold."

Rushi's beautiful eyes also widened, staring at the bronze statue incredibly, and murmured: "It seems to be really gold!"

"This is my wealth, a total of 50,000 taels of gold, which is enough to do some things."

A bright light flashed in Yan Zhuang's eyes, and he asked with a smile: "What does General Li want to do with this gold? It's not just buying land and houses for his descendants!"

Li Qingan glanced at Rushi and laughed: "Sir, you are so good at joking. I haven't even seen my son's shadow now!"

He took Maitreya Buddha, stroked its belly and smiled, "So much gold is not used in Beiting for the time being, but in Dashi and Central Plains, these golds can be exchanged for all the supplies I need."

Yan Zhuang nodded, and said something too early, so he smiled and asked: "The general has not answered my question yet! How do you plan to deal with Zhao Tingyu?"

"No, I haven't thought about it yet."

Li Qing'an put the bronze statue back to its original place. Suddenly, he stopped and turned around for a while and smiled: "Maybe the opportunity will come in the near future."

The next morning, Li Qing'an left Beiting City under the escort of a thousand cavalry and began his first inspection tour. Beiting was vast and it took at least half a year to inspect it. However, as the head of the military and political affairs of Beiting, it was his duty to go out to various places in Beiting. Therefore, whether Anxi or the new Jiedushi of Beiting, it usually takes one year to understand the situation in various places under his rule.

The first stop Li Qing'an went to was not the Tianshan Army in Gaochang, nor to Yuegong City, nor to inspect the three counties of Tingzhou, but to Yizhou east. His first stop was to inspect the Yiwu Army.

The Yiwu Army is located north of Zheluman Mountain, in the Ganlu River in the northwest of Yizhou, close to the northern shore of Pulehai. Pulehai is today's Balikun Lake. The terrain here is flat and sparsely populated. It is an endless vast grassland. To the north is the place where Shatu people live.

The grassland in March is full of vitality, a clear river flows slowly, and large groups of cattle and sheep can be seen everywhere on the lush grassland. The herds waving their long whips, white clouds in the blue sky, and snow-capped Zheluo Mountains in the distance. The ice peaks are like gems, shining with a brilliant luster in the sun.

That afternoon, a long team of Tang army cavalry appeared on the grassland east of Pulehai. They were brightly armored and majestic. Dozens of flags were fluttering in the wind. This was Li Qing'an's patrol team, which was less than two hundred miles away from the Yiwu army's castle.

In addition to some of his confidant generals, there were also judge Cen Shen and clerk Pei Yu. Seeing Cen Shen thinking about it all the way, Li Qing'an smiled and said, "Judge Cen, but he is very excited about poetry."

Cen Shen smiled and said, "There is no interest in poetry now. I wrote a poem when I came to Beiting. Unfortunately, there was something wrong with the season."

Li Qingan waved his hand and smiled, "You might as well read it to everyone."

"My poem is called "Follow Deputy Envoy Li to the government army in Jixi, everyone listen."

Everyone laughed and said, "I wish to listen to Poet Cen's masterpiece."

Cen Shen shook his head and slowly said:

"The volcano should be hotter in June, and there will be no pedestrians at the intersection of Chiting Road.

I know that you are used to being in Qilian City, how can you be worried about seeing the moon on the wheel of the Taiwan Strait?

He took off his saddle and entered the restaurant house temporarily, followed the king to attack Hu in the west.

Fate and fame are only taken immediately, and they are truly a hero and a husband."

"What a good poem!" Everyone applauded. Whether they understood or not, everyone remembered the last sentence, 'What a heroic husband'.

"General Li, Poet Cen is the best in the world!" Someone shouted, and everyone laughed together.

At this time, a personal soldier pointed to the distance and said, "General, it seems that a team of people is coming, not like the Tang army."

Li Qing'an put his hand on the curtain and looked at him. He saw more than a hundred Hu cavalrymen coming from a distance, all wearing white cloaks. Li Qing'an couldn't help but laugh and said to everyone: "It's an old friend from Yumen Pass."
To be continued...