There was silence in the lobby. None of the four people spoke. Guan Pingxu suddenly punched the table and said angrily: "The Jin soldiers are here. They run faster than rabbits. They don't care whether we live or die. The Jin soldiers are gone. They
He came back to act arrogantly, what do you think we are? It's just too much!"
Luo Tao also sneered: "They regard us as a mob and think that our thousand soldiers are just for food."
Huang Jigu sighed and said: "They are the imperial army after all. We cannot resist forcefully. It is better to send people down the mountain to talk quickly to win the other party's understanding and avoid a war between the two sides. We just want to protect our own interests."
The three of them suddenly realized why Yang Jin, who had been taking the lead, was silent. They looked at Yang Jin together and saw that he was dumbfounded, as motionless as a sculpture.
Guan Pingxu suddenly felt something was wrong and reached out to test Yang Jin's breath. He immediately stood up and said in shock: "What's going on? He's actually dead!"
Yang Jin was actually frightened to death by a letter. The three of them looked at each other in shock. It was a strange thing that they were fine just now, but died in the blink of an eye.
Guan Pingxu said to Huang Jigu: "Huang Yuan, please hurry up and inform the Yang family. I will discuss it with Lao Luo and see who can go down the mountain to talk."
Huang Jigu knew that they wanted to send him away, but he didn't point it out, so he nodded, turned and left.
Guan Pingxu watched Huang Jigu go away, and then asked: "Who is responsible for guarding the water source today?"
"It's Huang Ning!"
Huang Ning is Huang Jigu's son. Guan Pingxu shook his head and said, "Replace him immediately!"
Luo Tao asked nervously: "Is the Song army going to capture the water source?"
"I think it's possible. We have to store water for half a month and ask every household to prepare containers and go get the water quickly."
"But...but aren't we going to send people down the mountain soon?"
Guan Pingxu sneered, "What if Chen Qing doesn't accept the negotiation?"
"Can we hold on?" Luo Tao asked worriedly.
"It doesn't matter how long I can defend. What matters is how much loss Chen Qing is willing to pay. He not only ordered us to surrender before dark, but also threatened us with death. Obviously he doesn't want to pay the price. In this case, we have something to bargain with."
Confidence, once Song Jun's losses become unbearable for Chen Qing, then renegotiation will be inevitable. This is called business. How can there be no reason to prohibit the seller from quoting?"
"But I'm worried that if I offend Chen Qing, he will pretend to agree to the negotiation and then take revenge on us after we come down from the mountain!"
"He will not do such a thing that breaks the trust of the people. Once he does it, no one will believe him anymore."
Guan Pingxu smiled and patted Luo Tao on the shoulder, "Don't worry! My judgment will not be wrong."
"But the Huang family..."
Guan Pingxu nodded, narrowed his eyes slightly and said: "You are right, what I am most worried about is the Huang family. They are not of the same mind as us. I will send people to monitor the Huang family later. Once they want to surrender secretly, we will take action first.
!”
Guan Pingxu immediately asked Yuanzhou Sima Li Weiru, who had fled back to his hometown, to be his representative and go down the mountain to negotiate with Chen Qing.
.........
The Huang family also lives in a cave dwelling. Their family population is not too large. There are only more than 20 people and there are more than a dozen cave dwellings. The Huang family is not a wealthy family. They are the landlords of the village and are the weakest among the four major families.
One group, in the entire Dingxi Village ranking, their family does not even rank in the top twenty.
The reason why the Huang family became one of the four major families in Dingxizhai was that they were the first to settle in Dingxizhai. They spent a lot of money to renovate the dilapidated mountain roads and water diversion tile roads. Later, their fellow villagers moved in, and the Huang family
After living in Dingxizhai for nearly two years, the Guan family settled in.
For a long time, Huang Jigu was the leader of Dingxi Village.
Huang Jigu returned home worried. Of course he knew that the Guan and Luo families did not want him to be there when they made the final decision, so he sent him away. But could Guan Pingxu really understand the crisis facing Dingxizhai?
Chen Qing used an extremely arrogant attitude and ordered them to surrender before dark. If Dingxi Village is regarded as an ordinary village, as a commander, this order is normal, there is no problem at all, and it is even a bit redundant.
The key is, what do these families regard Dingxi Village?
An independent kingdom to compete with the Song Dynasty? Or a lair of bandits?
Huang Jigu felt that it was the latter. Their actions and attitude of confrontation with the government were no different from those of the Shan Dawang. Especially the Guan family enjoyed the supreme power in Dingxi Village. Guan Pingxu was blinded by this power.
's eyes.
Huang Jigu had a strong intuition that Chen Qing did not want them to surrender, so he could find an excuse to attack. Once Dingxi Village rebelled against the imperial court, he could kill all four major families and intimidate other fortresses.
I wonder if Zhoujia Fort still exists? Logically speaking, Chen Qing should attack Zhoujia Fort first, then Dingxi Village, and finally Anyuan Village to the west, wiping out these three forts one by one.
When other forts see what happened to the three major forts, the problem of Qinzhou's forts will be solved. Chen Qing must have planned this.
Huang Jigu paced back and forth with his hands behind his hands, what should he do? Should he accompany the Guan family to destruction?
No! The death of the Guan family is their business, and the Huang family will never accompany it.
At this moment, Huang Gu's eldest son Huang Ning walked in quickly.
Huang Jigu was startled, "Ning'er, aren't you on duty at the top of the mountain today?"
"Guan Shibo won't let me guard anymore. He asked me to go home and Guan Liu will guard it instead."
"Why?"
"I don't know either."
Huang Jigu took two steps, and he suddenly understood. It was estimated that the Song army would seize the water source tonight. Guan Pingxu was afraid that he would collude with the Song army, so he would not let his son guard the water source.
Huang Jigu was really annoyed. Since you don't believe in the Huang family, let's go our separate ways.
Huang Jigu made up his mind. He immediately wrote a letter, gave his son Huang Ning a few words, and asked a hunter from the same village to take his son down the back mountain.
...........
Later in the afternoon, Dingxizhai finally sent someone. The person who came was Sima Li Weiru of Yuanzhou. He was also from Qin'an County. He was from a poor background. He didn't make much money as an official. When the Jin soldiers came to kill him, he also abandoned his official position.
Return to hometown.
Li Weiru's family was really poor and he had no financial resources to support him in going south to avoid disaster, so he could only take his wife and daughter to hide in Dingxi Village.
The Guan family usually took good care of Li Weiru, so this time Guan Pingxu asked him for help. Li Weiru couldn't refuse, so he had to bite the bullet and go down the mountain.
Fortunately, Chen Qing was very polite to Li Weiru. He heard from Wei Yuan, the county magistrate, that this Li Weiru was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Zhenghe. He was an honest official and served as the magistrate of Qingshui County for two full terms of eight years, which made Qingshui a county magistrate.
One of the poorest counties in Qinzhou has suddenly become the largest grain-producing county in Qinzhou, surpassing Chengji County.
Although he had no backing, because of his outstanding political achievements, even the traitor Cai Jing admired his integrity and ability and promoted him to Yuanzhou Sima.
Chen Qing believed that Li Weiru was an upright and upright Sima of Yizhou, but he actually wanted to hide in a fort. This shows that his family was really poor and they probably didn't even have the money to travel to the south.
Chen Qing invited Li Weiru to sit down in his tent and asked with a smile: "Li Sima is still very young, right?"
Li Weiru smiled bitterly and said, "You're not young anymore. You're forty-five this year."
Chen Qing knew that Li Weiru's son died in Hebei in the second year of Jingkang and that he had only one daughter, who was only fifteen years old. Chen Qing stopped mentioning his family affairs and changed the subject: "Li Sima is here to deliver a message, right?"
!”
Li Weiru nodded, "I owe the Guan family a favor. He came to beg me and I couldn't refuse, so I had to make a trip for him, just to deliver a message."
He took out the letter and handed it to Chen Qing. Chen Qing opened the letter and read it. Guan Pingxu was very polite in the letter, saying that he had no idea of separatism and independence, but that he had invested his entire fortune in Dingxi Fort, hoping to gain some independence after surrendering to the imperial court.
compensate.
Chen Qing sneered and handed the letter to Li Weiru, "Has Li Sima read this letter?"
Li Weiru shook his head, "I am only responsible for delivering letters, Guan Pingxu's matter has nothing to do with me!"
"Li Sima, let's take a look!"
Li Weiru reluctantly took the letter, read it, and said calmly: "It's normal, the Guan family are businessmen! Businessmen always like to wait for a price and sell."
"The letter says that they invested their entire fortune in Dingxi Village. What does it mean?"
"Actually, it refers to a thousand village soldiers. The roads, water diversion, cave dwelling repairs, etc. in Dingxi Village are all paid for by the other three families. The Guan family does not contribute a penny. The Guan family is responsible for paying to maintain a thousand village soldiers. This is the Guan family.
The main reason why the family can dominate Dingxizhai."
Raising a thousand soldiers without any military salary would cost a huge amount of money in terms of equipment, food and drink. It seems that the Guan family did not spend less money, but what does this have to do with themselves? Could it be that the Guan family wants to sell this army to
Own?
Chen Qing sneered in his heart and asked: "Why is there only a letter about Pingxu? What is the attitude of the other three families?"
"The attitude of the Guan family is the attitude of the Luo family. The Luo family only follows the Guan family's lead. As for the Yang family, its existence has no meaning at all. It was originally brought by the Huang family to fight against the Guan family, but at the critical moment, the Yang family surrendered to the Guan family.
One vote from the family caused the Huang family to lose their position as village leader, a family that likes to take advantage of small things.
Huang Jigu was originally the leader of Dingxi Village appointed by the government and was very popular among the people of Dingxi Village. However, since Huang Jigu’s youngest son accidentally fell from a cliff and died two years ago, Huang Jigu has been completely silent.”
Chen Qing nodded, "I probably understand. Should Li Sima stay here or go back?"
Li Weiru smiled bitterly, "Guan Pingxu asked me to stay here and negotiate with the general at any time!"
Chen Qing laughed, "It seems he is very confident!"
At this time, Yan Jun, a soldier, walked in quickly and whispered a few words in Chen Qing's ear. It was a bit beyond Chen Qing's expectation. The Huang family sent someone here so quickly?