Steward Li Hua was brought to the lobby. Chen Qing gave some instructions to Niu Gao and Liu Cui, and then the two said goodbye and left quickly.
"For your humble position, please refer to Jiedushi!"
Chen Qing stared at Li Hua like a knife. He didn't like this manager very much. He didn't like him from the beginning. He was dishonest.
Now Chen Qing even suspected that this person was an informant planted by Ren Zhongqun in Didao County.
"Li Hua, what is your relationship with Ren Zhongqun?"
Li Hua trembled all over and said after a while: "You are in a humble position and don't understand what Jiedushi means?"
Chen Qing's voice turned cold, "Do you know what my nickname is? Both the Jurchen Army and the Puppet Qi Army call me a human demon. I haven't killed anyone for a long time. Don't challenge my patience."
"My humble position means I know Ren Zhongqun, but it doesn't mean anything!"
"Let me ask you, what is your relationship with him?"
"The villain is from the same hometown as him."
"Well, tell me everything you know about Ren Zhongqun."
"Reporting to the Jiedu Envoy, Ren Zhongqun is about forty years old. He is from Huangzhou and is very good at smelting. He went to Xixia when he was more than 20 years old. I heard that he had been responsible for smelting gold and silver in the Xixia Wensi Courtyard and later served as a
He became a judge in Wensi Court. Two years ago, the Xixia Army occupied the Guizhou Silver Mine. Ren Zhongqun was sent by Xixia to serve as the general manager of the Guizhou Silver Mine. It was at this time that I met him and had dinner with him several times.
The friendship is gone."
"I'll just tell you the truth! One hundred thousand kilograms of crude silver was misappropriated by Ren Zhongqun. Neither Xixia nor I can get it. I want to find this person and find the silver. Tell me where he will hide the silver?"
Li Hua was so shocked that he couldn't open his mouth from ear to ear and said for a long time: "He was so bold and reckless and embezzled a hundred thousand catties of silver. I just can't believe it."
"This is not a question of whether you believe it or not. I have to find the silver. I hope you can give me clues."
Li Hua thought for a while and said: "Bizhi does know a clue. He probably transported the silver to Huangzhou."
Huangzhou? Chen Qing was slightly startled, "Why?"
"Because his brother Ren Dejing was appointed magistrate of Huangzhou."
"Wait a minute!"
Chen Qing interrupted him, "Who appointed this Ren Dejing to be the governor of the state?"
"Reporting to the capital, Ren Dejing was originally appointed as the general magistrate of Xi'an Prefecture by the Song Dynasty. After he surrendered to the Jin State, the Jin State continued to put him in charge of the government affairs of Huangzhou and Xi'an Prefecture. Now the Puppet Qi Dynasty appointed him as the governor of Huangzhou. At the same time,
Also in charge of the government affairs of Xi'an Prefecture and Kuo Prefecture."
"So the Xixia people haven't occupied Huangzhou yet?"
"Huangzhou, Kuozhou and Xi'an Prefecture happen to be the Hehuang Valley, which is rich in grain. The Jin State attaches great importance to it and does not allow the Xixia to occupy the three states. It is still under the control of the Puppet Qi."
This news was indeed a bit unexpected by Chen Qing. He originally thought that Xixia had occupied the entire Xihe Road, but he did not expect that Huangzhou, Kuozhou and Xi'an in the west were still in the hands of the puppet Qi.
"Do Huangzhou, Kuozhou and Xi'an have armies?"
"I heard there are, but I don't know how many humble positions there are."
Chen Qing rolled his eyes, looked at Li Hua and asked, "Don't the Xixia people know about the relationship between Ren Zhongqun and Ren Dejing?"
"I also asked Ren Zhongqun about this issue. He said that Xixia people don't care about this issue, and of course they don't know."
Chen Qing took a sip of tea and said calmly: "I understand, please step back first!"
"I resign from my humble position!"
Li Hua retreated. Chen Qing watched his back walking away, and then ordered: "Get Hu Yanlei for me!"
Not long after, Hu Yanlei hurried over, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See you all!"
Hu Yanlei also just returned from Lanzhou. He brought news from Lanzhou that Cao Baozong was recalled to the capital by the Western Xia Emperor, probably to discuss the redemption of 20,000 prisoners of war in Gongzhou.
Chen Qing said to him: "How many people do you have that you can mobilize now?"
"There are more than a hundred people."
"Now I need you to do two things. First, send someone to secretly keep an eye on the warehouse manager Li Hua's every move and report directly to me; second, send someone to Huangzhou, Kuozhou and Xi'an Prefecture, especially Huangzhou,
It’s best if you lead your men there yourself.”
The reason why Chen Qing suspected Li Hua was because Li Hua showed his flaws. First of all, he knew too much. For example, even Xixia didn't know about the relationship between Ren Zhongqun and Ren Dejing, and Ren Zhongqun would not divulge casually that Li Hua and he were not related.
If it's not for a reason, how can you let him know?
Secondly, Li Hua was from Didao County, so how could he be related to Ren Zhongqun from the same hometown? Secondly, the Kingdom of Jin did not allow Xixia to get involved in the Hehuang area. Even Wu Hongwei didn't know about this, but he, a small warehouse manager, knew about it.
Already.
Chen Qing began to suspect that this Li Hua was actually an undercover agent sent by Ren Dejing. Who was Ren Dejing? The famous Xixia warlord in history almost seized the country of Xixia. Such an ambitious person would be very interested in Lintao.
No idea?
Hu Yanlei nodded, "I understand!"
Chen Qing continued to give instructions: "A batch of silver from Guizhou Silver Mine, about 100,000 kilograms, fell into the hands of Ren Zhongqun and Ren Dejing. Your focus is to find Ren Zhongqun and pay attention to him to understand the whereabouts of this batch of silver. This will
This is the mission I want you to go to Huangzhou for."
Hu Yanlei nodded silently, feeling the pressure on his shoulders.
"When will the capital attack Huangzhou?"
Chen Qing shook his head, "We won't consider it in the short term. We'll concentrate our forces on dealing with Xixia now and wait until the situation is clearer!"
.........
In the palace of Xingqing Prefecture, Emperor Li Qianshun angrily criticized Cao Baozong, "It is ridiculous to send troops to Gongzhou. They sent troops hastily without establishing a complete logistics supply point, and rashly went south without mastering comprehensive intelligence. In the end, 20,000 troops became prisoners of war.
I need money and food to redeem them. You don’t know that this year’s locust plague has caused us heavy losses. The little surplus left in the treasury has been squandered by your haste. You have disappointed me so much!”
Cao Baozong lowered his head and did not dare to take a breath. He did not even dare to mention the silver mine in Guichuan County. If the emperor knew that the silver mine was taken away by the Song army, he would have to kill himself.
But what was he afraid of, and what happened?
Li Qianshun asked again: "You just said that the Song Army captured Lintao Prefecture, so was the batch of silver in Guichuan County also taken away by the Song Army?"
Cao Baozong was so frightened that he quickly explained: "The silver mine in Guizhou County is directly under the jurisdiction of Wensi Yuan. I don't know much about the silver mine."
"Hmph! I have already asked the Wensi Institute. Wensi Institute is only responsible for mining and smelting, and you are responsible for safety. How could you not know?"
Cao Baozong could only continue to shirk responsibility, "When Beizhi took over, Governor Li told me that the Guizhou Silver Mine was directly under Wensi Yuan, and the one thousand defenders of the mine were also arranged by Wensi Yuan, and were not under Beizhi's control. How could we say that Beizhi was responsible for security?
Your Majesty, please enlighten me!"
Li Qianshun stared at Cao Baozong bitterly, guessing that the money was in danger, so the Wensi Academy and the army shied away from each other.
Li Qianshun was filled with hatred, but there was nothing he could do.
He took two steps with his hands behind his back and asked, "What are you going to do next?"
"Reporting to your majesty, Wei Chen's goal is still Gongzhou. As long as Gongzhou is captured, the connection between Chen Qing and the states along Xihe Road will be cut off. Now whether Chen Qing occupies Lintao or Hezhou, Wei Chen doesn't care. Weichen will concentrate manpower and material resources to build three supply military cities between Dingxi County and Longxi County, hoard food and supplies, and then concentrate his forces to attack Longxi County, so the 20,000 prisoners of war will not need to be redeemed for the time being. As long as Weichen captures Longxi County, this will Twenty thousand prisoners of war will be rescued at the same time."
When Li Qianshun heard that he didn't need to pay for food to redeem people, he said to Cao Baozong: "This winter you have to strengthen your intelligence and understand Chen Qing's every move. I hope you can bring me good news tomorrow when spring begins."
"I will obey your orders and will never disappoint Your Majesty!"
Cao Baozong breathed a long sigh of relief. He was relieved that the emperor would not pursue the matter of the batch of silver.