When the carriage passed through Luoyang, Li Mao was asked out by a group of people, the leader of this group of people surnamed Ming Dongwang, is the control of the water shipping between Yongqiao and Shaanzhou, Ming Dongwang turned out to be the big boss of the boat gang, since the big boss gave up to Li Mao, he started to be a military advisor, the big boss is a high-ranking official of the imperial court, he doesn't care about anything, and the military advisor has become the actual leader.

The big boss crossed the border, and it was natural for Ming Dongwang to come to pay homage as a military advisor, of course, this was not the main reason, he came to ask Li Mao to fulfill the promise he made at the beginning.

At the beginning, the boat gang did its best to do things for the imperial court, and the imperial court promised many benefits, but now these benefits are only less than half of them, and the boat gang claims to have cashed these benefits, even the capital paid has not been returned, and they demand that the imperial court have a correct attitude and earnestly fulfill the agreement, otherwise he hints that the boat gang will unilaterally tear up the agreement.

Li Mao persuaded Ming Dongwang to look farther away, and now the imperial court is using troops in Hebei, at this juncture, he does not want to serve the imperial court, but forces the door to collect debts, is this a manifestation of loyalty and patriotism, this is a move to smash the pot and pull back the legs.

Li Mao also told Ming Dongwang that the imperial court has the rhythm of the imperial court's affairs, and one of its very important characteristics is casualness and procrastination, so it is more important for the imperial court to deal with it, and it is not easy to deal with it if it is too anxious to eat hot tofu in a hurry.

Li Mao finally assured Ming Dongwang that as long as he reigned for one day, the promise he made at the beginning would not be denied.

Meng Lian, the master who came with Ming Dongwang, said angrily: "This is obviously perfunctory, if you are promoted to prime minister tomorrow, don't you have to admit this account, if you release the feudal town tomorrow, you don't have to admit this account, if you ......"

Li Mao said: "If you want to make a comparison, go back to your tutor, I don't want to say what I said a second time, if you don't believe it, you can detain me here, and if you want to kill or chop your convenience." ”

Ming Dongwang hurriedly persuaded Meng Lian out, and Meng Lian said: "Look at his face, it is clear that he wants to admit it." Ming Dongwang said: "The matter has come to this, you can only grind and soak, your little temper has to be changed, now we are begging him, go and apologize to him." ”

"Huh?!" Meng Lian has one head and two big.

But due to the general trend, he could only bite the bullet and admit his mistake to Li Mao against his will.

Li Mao also breathed a sigh of relief and said: "You don't have to cry poor with me, I will settle the account for you, and so far, you will only make money and not lose money." Of course, I'm a man of words, and I will naturally honor my promise to your terms, but you also have to be considerate of my benefits, you forced me to death, and there are really benefits? If you do, you can kill me. ”

Meng Lian took the case, and before he could say anything, he was kicked out by Ming Dongwang.

Ming Dongwang smiled and said, "Young man is irritable, don't be like him." You're right, overall we made some money with you this time, but money is a thing, who thinks it's more, naturally the more the better, the more you earn, the more prestige you have, isn't it. ”

Li Mao said: "Since the words have been spoken, there is no need to detour, what do you want me to help this time, let's say." ”

Ming Dongwang smiled and said: "The imperial court uses troops in Hebei, and the cost of grain is huge, not to mention the huge loss of public grain transfer, and it is often impossible to keep up. Is it feasible and the way to make me a little more money? ”

Li Mao said: "This is no problem, but you don't have too much appetite, you must know that you can't chew too much." ”

Ming Dongwang patted his chest and said: "The boat gang has always done things fairly, and they will go to the market with them, and they will never fall into the ground." I won't be embarrassed by the big boss. ”

Li Mao said: "I still say the same thing, it is difficult to make a fortune, after all, there is no good end, fighting with the court, and you are the ones who suffer in the end." ”

The premise is to ensure that the supply of grain is sufficient, and secondly, the price is within a reasonable range, and the so-called reasonable range is not directly related to the cost, but depends on the ability of the imperial court to bear it.

Zhaoyi Jiedu made Lu get the moon first from Shi Jinshui Tower, raised a large amount of grain and grass in Zhaoyi, and transported it to the front line in the name of grain merchants.

If Li Mao wants to make peace, he must break Lu Congshi's monopoly, and if he wants to break Lu Congshi's monopoly, the first thing is to remove the stumbling block of Lu Congshi.

How to move away from this stumbling block, Li Mao felt a little headache.

After trekking for half a month, this day finally came to the Tutu Chenghuang camp, which is one hundred and twenty miles away from Zhenzhou, the two armies of Shence plus the two armies of Hedong and Zhaoyi, the joint camp is more than ten miles, and the scene is magnificent.

For Pei Du's arrival, Tutu Chengxuan was very unhappy in his heart, and the other identity of the pacification envoy was the prison envoy, and Li Mao was in Xichuan as a pacification envoy, and he was an unruly figure such as Gao Chongwen and Yan Li, and he also bowed down to his ears and obeyed orders in the north, which shows the special status of the pacification envoy.

Tutu Chengguang has been serving by the Son of Heaven for a long time, and he doesn't know what it means to lose the trust of the Son of Heaven.

When Pei Du was received in the camp, Tu Tu Chengxuan's expression was always light, but Pei Du took the initiative to say that his trip was only to appease the three armies, and did not interfere with the specific strategy of using troops.

With this statement, the expression on Tu Chengxuan's face improved slightly.

That night, Tutu Chengguang set up a banquet to appease the party and wash the dust.

During the banquet, when Tu Tu Chengxuan toasted Li Mao, he said lukewarmly: "As soon as General Li came, my heart has the backbone, Xichuan seeks to level Liu Pi, although Gao Shuai and Yan Shuai have great merits, but I think this merit still belongs to the general." ”

Li Mao said: "Xichuan is a small battle, 10,000 people have been fighting for a year, Lutouguan is the most tragic, there are 20,000 people before and after, and Chengdu is even more without a fight." The land of Sichuan and Shu has a humid climate, suitable for agriculture and farming, and is known as the country of abundance. The Shu people have a gentle temperament, pay attention to life, do not like to fight, and are not as good as the land of Yan Zhao, and there are many generous and tragic people, and every battle is extremely tragic. Tutu Dutong This kind of big battle, how can Xichuan be compared, nearly 300,000 troops, stirring Hebei is turned upside down, what kind of momentum this is, it can't be compared, it can't be compared. ”

Li Mao's words suddenly burst into joy, and his attitude was much better than at the beginning, and he touched Li Mao three times in a row.

Among the front-line generals, there are also acquaintances that Li Mao knows, such as Li Dingjin, the general of the Zuo Shence Army. Li Dingjin was promoted two levels in a row because of his meritorious service in capturing Liu Pi, and became the general of the Zuo Shence Army, although he had no real power, his reputation was very high, and Li Dingjin was very satisfied with this. However, the repeated defeats in the front-line battles made him very dissatisfied with Tutu Chenghuang, and at the banquet he toasted to all the people he didn't know, except for the disrespect of Tutu Chenghuang.

Li Mao reminded him not to be emotional, Li Dingjin nodded, and reluctantly toasted a glass of wine to Tutu Chengxuan, but still didn't say a word.

Li Mao's old acquaintance, and another one, although he has never met, has also heard of it.

Wu Chongyin, the word Baojun, the son of Wu Chengqia, the general of the Hedong Army, is currently the commander of Zhaoyi. Wu Chongyin is a veteran general in Zhaoyi and has a great reputation. He has a concubine named Wuslan, married to Wang Jian, who was excluded from Mo Kedu as an official, and Li Mao hit it off at first sight, although they have not met again over the years, they still have correspondence.

When Li Mao talked about this past, Wu Chongyin was shocked and hurriedly said: "When the little son-in-law sees that he is serving in the army, I will call him to see the deputy envoy." Li Mao stopped and said, "I'll see him another day." ”

After Wang Jian made a contribution to Mo Kedu's killing of Wen San'er, he was transferred back to the Heyang Jiedu Embassy, and soon the Jiedu envoy was replaced, and the old opponent Zheng Tu turned over and wanted to turn over Wen San'er's old case, Wang Jian was afraid of persecution, so he switched to Zhaoyi and became a general under the command of his father-in-law.

Hearing that Li Mao was coming, Wang Jian was overjoyed, and specially asked the guards to sweep the camp tent, but he felt that there was a peculiar smell, so he simply changed to a new one. Li Mao stayed at Wang Jian's place for a day, and only left drunk when he was in charge of the lamp.

In the future, the two often corresponded, and Li Mao begged for Wang Jian in front of Lu Congshi as a deputy envoy to appease, and Lu Congshi also agreed.