Zhai He is a native of Jing County, Anhui Province, and was born as a prisoner. In 1857, he was promoted from Hunan Chenyuan Yongjing Taoist to Guangxi Inspectorate. In 1858, he was vacant as an alternate envoy, and he still served as Yongjing Dao in Chenyuan, Hunan. In 1860, after Shi Dakai marched into Sichuan, Xianfeng urgently transferred Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, to Sichuan to supervise military affairs, and Zhai He temporarily took over the position of governor of Hunan.

At this time, he was facing his fellow countryman, Zhai Xianfeng, who was also born in Jing County. Listening to the familiar local sound, Zhai He not only did not have the teary-eyed nostalgia of the villagers when he saw the villagers, but he was vigilant and afraid in his heart.

Zhai Huan felt that Zhai Xianfeng was only afraid that he was the most nondescript person he had ever seen who wore a long shirt. Zhai Xianfeng is about 170 years tall, which is considered tall in this era, and he has a round face, strong muscles on his body, and looks full of strength. Whether he is walking or standing, he gives people the appearance of wanting to shake off Sven's robe. If Zhai Xianfeng was wearing a short coat at this time, it would be more suitable.

"Governor Zhai, our army hopes to return the more than 2,000 Hunan troops captured in Chenzhou and Guiyang Prefecture, but I don't know if you want it or not?" Zhai Xianfeng's speech was not as strong as his appearance, his voice was not very loud, and his tone was very calm.

"What the hell do you mean?" Zhai He pretended to be tough and said.

Zhai Xianfeng said with a smile: "If you are talking about a year or two later, then we are afraid that we will fight you to the death on the battlefield." If you ask about half a year to a year, then as long as the Hunan army does not go south, we have no intention of going north. Oh, of course, we have to take Daozhou and other places. I personally build yì, you don't have to send troops to rescue. ”

Zhai He listened to such a calm answer, and scolded in his heart: "Are you really the official of the government?" ”

Since he was angry in his heart, Zhai Huan replied very politely, "You are so bold, are you not afraid when you come here?" ”

"Huh! Hahaha! Zhai Xianfeng laughed, "Lord Zhai, let's put it this way, we will definitely march into Hunan in the future, so how to kill people during the war is a public matter, and killing prisoners is a private matter." It's not a problem for you to kill me, if you kill me, we will post articles all over Hunan, and the captives captured in Hunan will be executed because Zhai He killed our messenger. If the people of Hunan can kill you, then we will release the captives immediately. I can't kill you, as long as someone can kill your family and pay for my life. We also release the captives. Otherwise, we will have to retaliate by shooting the officers who were captured. This blood feud must be counted on the head of your Governor Zhai. ”

Zhai He listened to this opponent who was a fellow villager and the same surname calmly telling about the full threat, and said angrily: "Get out!" ”

Zhai Xianfeng Shi Shiran got up, buttoned the melon skin hat lined with a fake braid on his head, and calmly walked out of the back study of the conversation. After Zhai Xianfeng went out and took him to secretly leave the governor's yamen through the back door, Zhai Huan went to the next room to see Luo Bingzhang.

Although Luo Bingzhang received an errand to go to Sichuan to supervise military affairs, he did not take office at this time. After listening to Zhai He's account of the meeting, Luo Bingzhang frowned and remained silent. If the Guangfu Army completely relied on military superiority to make a simple threat, Hunan Guangfu would certainly be able to bite its teeth, stalk its neck, and carry it to the end with a broken can. But now the Guangfu Army has made it clear that it wants to contact the families of the captured Hunan army officers.

In the Battle of Fuzhou, the Guangfu Army killed 5,000 elites of the Hunan Army, and in the Battle of Sanhe, the Taiping Army killed 5,000 elites of the Hunan Army. There were more than 3,000 Hunan troops in Chenzhou and Guiyang Prefecture, and the Guangfu Army captured two cities in succession, and not a single soldier of the Hunan army could escape. If more than 2,000 Hunan troops were slaughtered again, the reason for the slaughter was that the government refused to redeem the prisoners. The Hunan gentry and literati will definitely not let go of the Hunan government.

After pondering for a while, Luo Bingzhang gritted his teeth and said to his subordinates: "I'm going to Sichuan in the next two days, and you will do the things here!" ”

After hearing this, Zhai He scolded angrily in his heart, "You old thing knows how to run away!" Throw such a hot potato to me! ”

No matter how he scolded in his heart, Zhai Huan knew that his governor of Hunan was just a temporary candidate, and even if he didn't make a mistake, he wouldn't be able to do it for a few days, so Luo Bingzhang dared to treat himself like this.

"Luo Gong, I'm going to redeem people first!" Zhai Huan directly made his words clear, forced Luo Bingzhang first, and asked him to express his position. Luo Bingzhang can't afford to provoke hundreds of Hunan gentry families, and he Zhai He can't afford to mess with him. This must be said in the head.

Although Luo Bingzhang is an old fox, he is not completely irresponsible. After hearing Zhai He's words, he snorted, "Let's talk first!" ”

That night, Zhai Xianfeng walked out of the back door of his residence and entered a small sedan chair. The sedan chair man carried him to the back door of a large house, there was no light on the door, and Zhai Xianfeng smeared into the back door that opened a crack in the door. Then the sedan chair immediately left, and the back door was completely closed.

It was Zhai He who came to greet him, and his face at this time no longer had the official appearance of the daytime. Born as a prisoner, Zhai He is also exquisite. After taking a seat in the back study room closely surrounded by his relatives, Zhai Huan laughed and said, "I said brother, it's business during the day, and it's just a joke for me to ask if you are afraid of death." The two countries are fighting each other, do you think I will really be so ignorant? Besides, you and I are both fellow countrymen and have the same surname. There are no outsiders surnamed Zhai in Jing County. ”

Zhai Xianfeng didn't come here to fight for the benefit of his tongue, since Zhai Huan had softened his attitude, he also smiled and said: "Haha, since you and I are in two camps, it is also appropriate to test each other." ”

In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere between these two distant relatives seemed to be clear. Zhai He asked, "If we don't do anything, you shouldn't just let people go." ”

Zhai Xianfeng also came up with the conditions of the Liberation Army, "We want to buy tea, not blackmail, but really buy it." Of course, you won't make much money on the price. ”

After finishing speaking, Zhai Xianfeng was afraid that Zhai Huan would misunderstand, so he said, "Let's give silver." Not in arrears. If you do something in the tea, then we can only write an example and post it all over Hunan, and then kill people. ”

Zhai He never expected that the Guangfu Army would put forward such a condition, he only thought it was extremely funny. Just looking at Zhai Xianfeng's serious expression, it didn't look like he was joking, so Zhai He also said seriously: "Isn't it a ransom?" ”

Zhai Xianfeng shook his head, "We are not kidnapping tickets, what are we going to do with the ransom." Besides, we don't just do this business, but want to do this tea business for a long time. War is war, business is business. As the governor of Hunan, you have to do something good for the people. Now that the war is raging, and the tea can't be sold, you sell us the tea from Hunan, and the tea sellers and the old brother also have income. If you can beat us, you have the credit and the money is earned. If you can't beat us, then you should have earned the money, and you can become a rich man when you run home. Why not do such a good thing? ”

Zhai He was dumbfounded when he heard this, he couldn't imagine that such a major event as war would become such an easy thing in the mouth of Zhai Xianfeng, a fellow countryman. How did this sound wrong, after thinking about it carefully, Zhai He understood. What Zhai Xianfeng talked about was based on a point of view: the Guangfu Army would definitely be able to defeat the Manchus, so Zhai Huan still prepared a way out for himself as soon as possible.

This kind of thought did not make Zhai He feel uneasy, but made him feel that it was a good thing. Regarding his positioning as a "transitional governor", Zhai He has long been well aware. He asked, "But how to change people." ”

Zhai Xianfeng took out a document, Zhai Huan took it with some hesitation, and wrote a plan on it. The Liberation Army provided a list of the prisoners, some of whom had families in the tea business, and some of the soldiers had tea plants in their homes. The Guangfu Army conducted an investigation, and compared it with the lowest price for tea purchased in ordinary times, the Guangfu Army purchased tea from Hunan. A soldier has to change at least one load of tea. If Hunan is willing to sell more, the Guangfu Army will also buy all of them.

Of course, there is a very nonsense condition in this, and after the amount of tea received is enough, the Liberation Army will release the people. Before that, the Guangfu Army had to make sure that every soldier and officer's family member who provided tea at home knew that the Guangfu Army would hand over the tea money to these captured Hunan officers and soldiers to bring back.

Zhai Huan asked about this: "I said brother, what do you mean by this?" ”

Zhai Xianfeng said with a smile: "We don't talk darkly, all such rich things, is your government just a few knives?" We, the Liberation Army, are not willing to carry this black cauldron. Whoever has the knife bears this responsibility. ”

"Huh!" Governor Zhai He was angry. He didn't expect the vicious Guangfu Army to pay so much attention to its own credit. Without waiting for Zhai Zi to speak, Zhai Xianfeng continued: "To you, brother, we will send someone to give you one percent of the total quota of this transaction." We buy tea with Yingyang, and we give it to you as well as Yingyang. ”

Governor Zhai He's eyes widened, and he said in surprise: "You're not joking, are you?" ”

Zhai Xianfeng waved his hand, "Brother Ming's accounting, you can help complete this business, I can't help but give you benefits." And I bring to you the words of our Wezeduk. It is unlikely that we will go north in a year, and you governor, brother, will not be able to serve for a year. When you don't become governor, if we call and you surrender, we will keep your whole family safe. Of course, the premise is that you don't go to the battlefield, and you don't recognize people when you fight. ”

Fighting with the Guangfu Army also made a business, and Governor Zhai He was completely speechless.

After the secret meeting, Zhai He went to report the matter to Luo Bingzhang. After Luo Bingzhang read the contents of this piece of paper, he said hatefully: "These Cantonese bandits actually want to win the hearts of the gentry!" It's really wishful thinking! Surname...... Have you questioned them, Governor? ”

Zhai Huan replied: "Hui Yu Lord Luo, I also said this below, but the Guangfu Army said that it was a big deal that they wrote this into an article and spread it everywhere in Hunan. At that time, those gentry families knew about this, and even if they didn't dare to make trouble openly, they would privately sell tea to the Guangfu Army. If this is done, the gentry's resentment will only be directed against the government, and they have nothing to fear from recovering the army! ”

Hearing such shameless words from the Guangfu Army, Luo Bingzhang's eyes were closed tightly, and his lips were tensed, as if he was worried that he would scold as soon as he opened his mouth. After a while, Luo Bingzhang said: "I'll leave the day after tomorrow, you can do this!" ”R1058