However, it is easy to kill Qiu Jiang, just one axe and one saw two people. can pay more money to the court, where does this money come from? Tian Ji'an said that now the military government's financial plan is also very tight, although Wei Bo Town occupies Wei, Bo, Xiang, Wei, Bei, Lan six prefectures, the population is also rich, but since the time of Tian Chenghei, it has set the principle of strong soldiers, old and weak women and children farming, taxes are not paid to the court, and all are evenly apportioned to support the army.

80,000 guan, no, according to Xing Caojun's words that more compensation should be paid, it is not easy for Tian Ji'an.

Xing Caojun blinked his eyes, "Go find Shi Zhouluo, the soldier and horse envoy of the Chinese army, and think of a way." ”

Tian Ji'an agreed.

Soon, Qiu Jiang was unlucky, and Tian Ji'an said that he provoked a private fight in Shangdu, "ruining the relationship between the court and Fang Zhen", and the crime was extremely heinous and would not be forgiven.

On a bright spring morning, on the side of the street at the west gate of the Daimyo's Mansion, several Wei Bo soldiers dug a soil pit, threw Qiu Jiang into it and buried it, and his head was exposed, and then two strong soldiers dragged Qiu Jiang back and forth with a saw for half an hour, sawing Qiu Jiang to death.

Qiu Jiang saw the blood in his neck, mixed with the dirt, the color in the sun, and he didn't know what was going on in his heart.

However, before he was executed, he said to the soldiers: "Kill me today to please the court, but sooner or later you will still turn against Xiangwei and the court. ”

After Qiu Jiang was executed, he traveled thousands of miles to the post road, accompanied by a letter from Princess Jiacheng, and sent it to Beijing to apologize to the emperor and Zaitang.

In addition, Tian Ji'an really borrowed 120,000 yuan from the Hu Shang Group of the Daimyo Mansion through Shi Zhouluo, a soldier and horse envoy, as compensation for the "Chang'an Jinjuan Private Fight" incident.

This group of Hu merchants were almost all Sogdians, and because the Tang Dynasty was extremely repulsive towards them after the Anshi Rebellion, in order to avoid trouble, some of them attached themselves to the Uighurs, and some moved to Heshuo, which was opposed to the imperial court (1), and spent money to raise agents to strive for integration into the military and political system of Heshuo.

Wei Bo apologized, and Zai Tang's tone softened, and he said that he could discuss the ownership of Xiangwei and the two states.

But then Zaitang's urging to Ziqing was much more urgent, "When will your three states be sacrificed?" ”

This document was held by the servant Shi Liu Gongxuan (Liu Gongquan's brother), who came to Yunzhou City in person on behalf of Zaitang and handed it over to Li Shigu.

At this time, Li Shigu couldn't hide it, so he gathered all the major generals in the palace and admitted to them that I had previously sent Linghu Zao to Beijing to dedicate the land of Sanzhou to the imperial court.

At that time, the generals of the Pinglu Army, seeing the presence of the imperial court envoy Liu Gongxuan, were silent.

Liu Gongyu gently persuaded Li Shigu: "If you dedicate the Sanzhou edition to the imperial court, you will be a generation of loyal ministers." What's more, according to the clan surname, I am already with the Tang Emperor's family, if you are respectful and humble, you and Shidao are all cousins of the Holy Lord today, what grievances do you have? After Shidao entered Beijing, he immediately became a high-ranking official, and he would never be wronged at all. ”

At this time, Li Shigu hesitated.

And Linghu Zao, who accompanied Liu Gongqiu, knew that if Li Shigu repented, then he was not a human being inside and out, and there was no place to bury him, so he looked at Shigu vigorously, which meant that the land of Sanzhou was cut to the imperial court, and Gou An was able to get it for three years, which was what you promised at the beginning!

In the end, Li Shigu bowed his head and said that I am willing to accept the soil and quality brother.

"Please kill Linghu quickly to relieve the hatred of the military and civilians of the twelve states of Ziqing." But as soon as Liu Gongqiu left satisfied, the major generals in the palace all found Li Shigu and complained bitterly about Linghu's crime of selling land.

"Don't say it sooner!" Li Shigu was disappointed and pointed at the generals, "Then let me ask you if you are willing to fight to the death with the officers and soldiers?" ”

At this moment, the Pinglu army knew that Liu Wu stepped forward, hugged his fists and said: "In the past, Wu Shaocheng and Wu Shaoyang only relied on the three states of Shenguang and Cai, and they still fought fiercely with the officials and soldiers for many years, and now they have twelve states, so why be afraid!" ”

Xiahou Cheng, the general of the Ya Gatekeeper, also said: "In this way, the three states can fight for a year, so to protect the twelve states, at least four years can fight against the official army alone, and with these four years, other Wei Bo, Hengji, etc. will also see the situation clearly and support me Ziqing." ”

The rest of the generals also said to Li Shigu one after another, there is no need to worry about armaments, there is such a powerful firearm as the bee gun, our Pinglu army will soon have 3,000 or even 5,000 guns, and dozens of artillery pieces have been cast, and the soldiers have been practicing diligently day and night, and their proficiency level is no longer lower than that of the Wuyi Army, the benchmark of the official army.

Seeing that the caliber of many generals was amazingly consistent, Li Shigu swayed again, to be honest, the power structure of the Pinglu Army was roughly similar to that of the Chengde Army, that is, the style of "all generals in the town", if Li Shigu arbitrarily donated the land and offended these martial artists, it would not be easy to do.

Another military general named Liu Yanping complained bitterly to Li Shigu: "Jiexia was originally the envoy of the two Tibetans of Silla in the Bohai Sea, but that Huaihai Gaoyue found a Silla man named Zhang Baogao, and took a batch of sea ships Bai Shuilang to set up a nest in Wandao to control the trade routes of Silla and the Wa Kingdom, and compete with our town in light and dark. ”

Li Shigu looked at Liu Yanping.

Liu Yanping added: "Gaoyue's sea trade is to use raw silk cotton porcelain to exchange a large number of high-quality sulfur from the Wa Kingdom, partly used to kill field pests, and more for making divine thunder medicine. ”

"Is that to be determined to use force?"

"You can go back to the court and say, Wei Bo will defend Xiangwei, and we will offer Haiyi Mi Sanzhou, if Wei Bo does not dedicate, it is a contract of the imperial court, and I will not offer Ziqing. If the court is angry, we will fight, and if we win, we don't have to cut anything, and if we lose, it's not too late to cut the three states. Liu Wu came up with a trick for Li Shigu again.

"Alright then, you wait and get ready for battle." In the end, Li Shigu said this.

"Whoa!" The generals of the Pinglu Army took the order majestically.

In the last corner, there was only one named Cui Gongdu, who was silent, but he didn't leave.

Li Shigu stepped forward and asked him in a low voice what his opinion was?

Cui Gongdu said: "The matter of cutting the land of Sanzhou, the festival was only discussed with Linghu Zao at the earliest, and it was clear that he did not trust the generals, but after the agreement was made with the envoys of the imperial court, he was repented by the generals and wanted to use troops against the imperial court." However, the troops are all led by this group of profit-hungry generals, and when they go to the battlefield, the court will tempt them with the conditions of one pulp and ten cakes, and they will all defect from you. ”

"I ...... the generals of the Pinglu Army" Li Shigu was just about to argue, but Cui Gongdu lowered his hand and said calmly: "Our army knows that Liu Wu, the soldier and horse envoy, was originally the nephew of Liu Yihuai of the Xuanwu Army, who stole and swallowed his uncle's millions of money in the Luoyang cash cabinet, so he came to the Pinglu Army for fear of crime. If Jiexia believes him, he is really seeking skin with the tiger. ”

Li Shigu's face was white and blue, and he was very angry in his heart, but he felt that Cui Gongdu had some truth in what he said, so he thanked him and said that after I returned to the house, I was thinking about it carefully.