The journey was inconvenient, and it was already dark when Yang Hu arrived at the Xiju Bamboo House. Dozens of bright-horned lanterns illuminated the small campsite as brightly as day.

Yang Hu's personal guards were stopped from waiting outside the camp, and Yang Hu was taken to the Xiju Bamboo House.

It was unbearably hot outside the mountain, but it was cool inside the mountain. After nightfall, Han Qian put on a thin shirt over his short coat.

Seeing Yang Hu walking in accompanied by Feng Liao and Gao Shao, Han Qian put Xin'er, who was playing on his lap, on the ground, asked Zhao Ting'er to take it away, and motioned to Yang Hu and the others to sit down and talk.

After the maid made tea, Han Qian asked "concernedly" about Sizhou's situation:

"I heard that there is not much peace in Sizhou recently, and I don't know how far the situation will develop?"

In addition to the farther and more remote states in central Guizhou, the four states of Chen, Xu, Si, and Ye, as the Jizhou state attached to Da Chu, now except for some symbolic tributes every year, as well as the state of emergency

Except for conscription, military and political affairs in peacetime mainly depend on autonomy and are not directly restricted by the Chu court.

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the central court has adopted more checks and balances strategies for tribal disputes between and within Jizu Prefecture, and it does not even object to tribes in Jizuo County killing each other.

The winner in tribal disputes would often be newly canonized by the central imperial power and become the new ruler of Jizhou County.

In this kind of environment and atmosphere, as long as he doesn't get burned, Han Qian is now eager to cause more monsters in Sizhou. It is really a normal mentality.

Even if he didn't know the real inside story, Yang Hu knew how cheap Han Qian's so-called "concern" was, so he said in an understatement:

"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Marquis. I caused some minor disturbances but haven't caused any serious trouble. My father has already led his elite troops down the Chen River and entered Jinhe County to take charge. I believe that within three to five days, the rebellion will be suppressed.

"

Sizhou is adjacent to Xuzhou, but among the famous Yang family figures in Sizhou, Han Qian has been in contact with Yang Hu a few times. Regardless of the calculations inside, he was still very polite on the surface and said with a smile: "Everything is with Yang Hu."

It's really good that the governor is under control. I don't have to rush to Gaoyiyu to add more troops to prevent the chaos from spreading to Chenzhong County. I don't know what the young master's needs are when he comes here this time. Please feel free to put them forward.

"

On the pretext of missing the civil unrest in the state, Han Qian had sent reinforcements to Gaoyiyu with 300 elite soldiers to build a camp the day before yesterday.

However, in the short term, unless Sizhou directly lends troops to assist in the suppression, or the court issues a transfer order, otherwise, Han Qian will not further send additional troops from the border area of ​​Si and Xu because he does not want to cause Chenzhou and Yezhou to react violently.

reason.

Seeing that Han Qian deliberately changed the subject to borrowing troops to help suppress the war, Yang Hu swallowed hard, thinking to himself, how stupid would the Yang family be to do such a stupid thing as luring a wolf into the house?

Yang Hu hesitated for a while, sorted out his words, and said:

"My father asked me to come to see Mr. Hou mainly because he heard that the bandit leader Tan Yuliang and his family settled in Gaoyiyu, Chenzhong after he deregistered from Tanyang County. Tan Yuliang led his nephew to sneak into Jinhe to help the salt lord Gaotai.

After waiting for someone to escape from prison, he occupied Nanhuang Village and named himself General Tianping. He really deserved to die. I heard that his children should still be in Gaoyiyu. I hope Xuzhou can help arrest him..."

"It's easy to say. Tan Yuliang occupied Osprey Village in Xuzhou in his early years and caused trouble. I thought he was the number one figure at first. After capturing Osprey Village, I just expelled him from Xuzhou to end the trouble. I didn't expect that he would not change his evil intentions and ran away again.

If Sizhou causes trouble, I will definitely send someone to arrest and imprison his family," Han Qian said. "However, desperadoes like Tan Yuliang dared to commit evil deeds of breaking out of prison and rebelling, so they probably did not think of taking care of their children.

Life or death."

Whether it is protection, or taking Tan Yuliang as a hostage, or Zhao Zhixian not to have other delusions, Han Qian will detain the women and children of the Tan and Zhao families, but no matter what Yang Hu says, he will not be able to detain the women,

Just hand the children over to Sizhou.

What's wrong with Xuzhou's bad mind?

As the leader of Xuzhou, he should have evil intentions and take advantage of the situation.

When he said this, Han Qian narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at Yang Hu's face, without any hint of guilt.

Yang Hu pondered the meaning of Han Qian's words and knew that it would be unrealistic to ask Xuzhou to hand over the bandit leader's family to him and take him back to Sizhou. He then said: "There are still more than 800 village slaves working in Xuzhou in Sizhou. I

Father is worried that if the news spreads, they will be unstable. If I come here this time, I may be able to take them back to Sizhou and keep them under strict supervision. I will also ask the Marquis..."

Han Qian smiled slightly, thinking that if the eight hundred village slaves really asked Yang Hu to take him away, as long as he promised a generous reward and a heavy promise, they would soon become a bargaining chip in Yang's hands to suppress the rebels. How could he easily agree to Yang Hu's offer?

He asked perfunctorily:

"As the news spreads, the instability of people's hearts is indeed a big problem, but please rest assured, young master, Han may not be able to help Sizhou in other aspects, but he will definitely keep a close eye on these 800 village slaves, and if that doesn't work, he will kill them directly

Imprison them. Young Master, please don’t worry about what evil moths these village slaves will cause in Xuzhou! However, Young Master will take them back to Sizhou now. If they cause trouble and rebel on the way, they will be caught off guard.

It might make the situation more serious, which is inappropriate, inappropriate..."

Seeing Han Qian's hypocritical look, Xi Rong and Zhao Ting'er took Wen Xin's little hand and walked to the next room to avoid laughing out loud.

Before Yang Hu came over, some people said that Han Qian was always treacherous and cruel. Even if Xuzhou hadn't done anything beforehand, Xuzhou would have taken advantage of Sizhou. But when they heard that Han Qian was so shameless that he wanted to directly detain Yang.

The village slave of the family, his face still twitched uncontrollably several times.

After a while, Yang Hu finally suppressed the anger in his heart and asked:

"Sizhou still has a working payment of more than 10,000 shi of grain and grain that has not been settled with Xuzhou. When I set off from Jinhe County, my father hoped to use this working payment to buy some crossbow equipment from Xuzhou. I wanted to come to Marquis

Do you also find this difficult to do?"

Han Qian said in embarrassment: "The work payment can be settled at will. The young master can just send someone to collect it. But the young master also knows that in order to support the Jinling war, Xuzhou filled in all his family assets, so that the soldiers, crossbows and weapons of the state camp were

They are all seriously insufficient. It is really difficult to squeeze out more supplies for Sizhou! Apart from these, what other requirements does the young master have?"

Yang Hu felt as if Han Qian had forced several balls of thatch into his chest, and he was choked and speechless, but he knew that he was not qualified to show off his face to Han Qian.

Han Qian met with Yang Hu in person, mainly because he wanted to see what kind of request Yang Hu would make when he rushed over this time, so as to more accurately judge the situation of the Sizhou soldiers and the rebel army. Now that the purpose has been achieved, he is too lazy to continue talking to Yang Hu.

After perfunctory, he said to Feng Liao:

"Young Master has been tired from the journey. I'm afraid he is tired. Feng Liao, please arrange for Young Master to stay in the camp first. Whenever Young Master needs anything, you will take good care of him."

"I dare not disturb the Marquis. Yang Hu has to rush to Chenyang to see Lord Xiying, the governor of Chenzhou. The Marquis will not force Yang Hu to stay, right?" Yang Hu stared at Han Qian sharply and asked.

"What did you say, Young Master? The military situation is urgent. Young Master is rushing to see the governor for help. I'm just ashamed that I can't be of much help. Why do you insist on leaving you in Xuzhou?" Han Qian said with a smile without any hesitation.

, signaling Feng Liao to send someone to escort Yang Hu and the others down the mountain.

When they sent someone to monitor Yang Hu and the others as they went down the mountain, Feng Liao met Guo Rong and walked back to the bamboo house together. He saw Han Qian frowning and looking out the window at the deep night and asked:

"Although we have not received specific information, judging from Yang Hu's non-stop rush to Chenzhou, the momentum created by Tan Yuliang and others in Panlong Ridge may have alerted the slaves in Renshan and Shiqian, making Yang aware

When the crisis becomes serious - of course it is also possible that the Yang family is extremely wary of us, so Yang Hu's three requests are really a test for us?"

Guo Rong just learned about the situation of Han Qian's interview with Yang Hu. It may not be a good thing that Tan Yuliang built such a huge momentum in Sizhou in a very short time. It is said that his rise was sudden and his defeat was quick. The momentum developed too fast.

On the one hand, Yang was vigilant early, and on the other hand, the rebels had no time to digest and consolidate their foundation. There would be a lot of internal problems and no time to sort them out.

Guo Rong thought for a while and said: "Even if Yang can't be sure that we have done something secretly, at this time we can still be sure that we have bad intentions and want to take advantage of the situation - of course, Yang Hu went to Chenzhou to ask for help, and Xiying and his son

They are also deeply afraid of Xuzhou, and they will most likely send people to Yueyang or Jinling to report the matter non-stop. To a certain extent, our goal has been initially achieved!"

"After recapturing Jinling, Emperor Yanyou immediately asked Xiying's two sons to lead the battalion back to Chenzhou. He must have used the Xi clan to monitor Xuzhou." Feng Liao frowned and guessed, "If Xiying has something in his hands,

It is not surprising at all that Emperor Yanyou gave him the secret decree to use it cheaply!"

No matter how vigilant and fearful the Chenzhou Xi clan is towards Xuzhou, even if they sense something is wrong, they will not dare to take any sudden action against Xuzhou. But if they have the secret decree of Emperor Yanyou Yang Yuanpu, it will be completely different.

.

Although in the early stages of the war to reduce the vassal state, the Chenzhou Xi clan was severely beaten by the Xuzhou camp, which was reorganized into the Wuling Army at that time. Xiying's three sons died in the war, but we have to admit that after the war in the middle and late stages of the vassal reduction,

, tempered by the battles to recover Jinling, the combat effectiveness of Chenzhou Fanying has been greatly improved.

Whether it was Yang Yuanpu's direct support or Chenzhou Fanying's outstanding military exploits and deserved to be rewarded, its embarrassing situation of shortage of soldiers, armor and weapons has also been completely improved - Yang Yuanpu even exiled some prisoners of war and their families to Chenzhou, which was against

Chenzhou Xishi was strengthened.

In addition to the Chai Jian headquarters on the other side of Xuefeng Mountain Post Road, Chenzhou Fanying can also be said to pose a certain threat to Xuzhou.

Guo Rong and Gao Shao both looked at Han Qian. Although Feng Liao didn't fully explain what he said, his meaning was quite clear.

Since they can quickly achieve the goal of knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger, they should not take any more actions for the time being, lest they really give someone a leg up.

Otherwise, Xuzhou will fall into isolation. Even if the Chaizhou Construction Department of Chenzhou, Yezhou and Shaozhou cannot pass through the Xuefeng Mountain Post Road and pose a substantial military threat to Xuzhou, as long as the waterways upstream and downstream of the Yuanjiang River are blocked, the

Xuefengshan Post Road, Xuzhou will become extremely uncomfortable.

After they achieved their goal of knocking down the mountain and shaking the tiger, they waited to see how the situation in Sizhou would develop. Even if the Yang family succeeded in suppressing the rebellion of the Tianping Army, their vitality would be damaged to some extent, and the situation was extremely favorable to Xuzhou.

In Feng Liao's view, this is the ruthlessness and decisiveness that a hero should have.

Han Qian was sorting out the messy desk, but he didn't seem to understand what Feng Liao was saying. He said to himself: "If you can't say that you have achieved the goal of knocking down the mountain and shaking the tiger, you can leave Tan Yuliang and the others alone."

Feng Liao glanced at Gao Shao and Guo Rong, thinking that he had said everything that needed to be said. The final decision rested with Han Qian, and he would not argue with Han Qian.

Han Qian glanced at Feng Liao and asked, "Are you a bit dismissive of my words?"

"Feng Liao doesn't dare." Feng Liao said.

"When I, Han Qian, mentioned the idea of ​​waiting for the noble or the humble, some people would definitely think, since everyone is waiting for the noble or the humble, how can I ask others to obey my orders?" Han Qian stood in front of the window with his hands folded and said leisurely, "Yes, if I am right

Others just take advantage of me and treat them as dispensable pawns at my mercy. They dare not take responsibility. I am really embarrassed to ask others to take orders from me."

Feng Liao, Gao Shao, and Guo Rong were shocked. They really had not considered such a profound issue.

Han Qian had no intention of dwelling on this issue and continued: "We have never had direct contact with Yang Xingfeng. In fact, it is not that simple - we still need to study more about this person."

The fact that the Yang family sent village slaves to work in Xuzhou does not explain the stupidity of Yang Xingfeng, Yang Hu and his son. It was mainly caused by historical limitations.

In addition to the fact that Sizhou was too poor and closed-off and needed money and food from Xuzhou before he could join forces with Yuzhou to open the Qianjiang Channel, more importantly, who could have imagined in advance that he would be so radical in revolutionizing his own life in Xuzhou?

, directly abolish the old system of slaves?

Now looking at Yang Xingfeng's reaction, although it is very likely to help Xuzhou achieve the goal of knocking down the mountain and shaking the tiger, Yang Xingfeng paid so much attention to the rebels in such a short period of time, and he also maintained enough vigilance against Xuzhou, and used traditional methods to
To be continued...