Fu Xuexian thought for a while, and then said: "Brother-in-law, if you want to make Shanxiang safer, you have to meet the vital interests of the Taiping Army, and you have to give them a batch of arms to help them break through, otherwise they see that there is no hope of breaking through, and there is no arms to improve their strength, even if they exchange Hong Xuanjiao and Liu Shaoting back, it is useless, and they may not agree to exchange hostages." ”

"You're right!" Li Weiguo agreed: "Fortunately, I asked Wu Yong to prepare 800 muskets for them, and if necessary, I can also provide a few heavy cannons, but this batch of ammunition cannot be given in vain, I am ready to extort them 2 million taels of silver, what do you think?" ”

Fu Xuexian rolled his eyes, secretly thinking that his brother-in-law was really black-hearted, and this bit of ammunition would cost two million taels of silver, and he would just grab it.

However, the other party is his own brother-in-law, and he will have to follow his brother-in-law in the future, Fu Xuexian's mentality changed quickly, and he immediately said: "I know that they have a secret vault in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, about six or seven million taels of silver, all of which are secretly stored in Jinling Shenjia Qianzhuang, which is used to recruit troops and horses in various places, and purchase arms, grain and grass materials. ”

Li Weiguo suddenly realized, no wonder in history the Taiping Army Yong'an broke through the siege all the way like a bamboo, if they had a secret vault outside, six or seven million taels of silver used to recruit troops, buy horses, buy arms, then it would be easy to fight the Qing army inside and outside.

Li Weiguo thought that the Taiping Army knew everything about him, and there must be people in Chongming County, so he had to be more careful, but he didn't overturn the boat in the gutter.

Thinking of this, Li Weiguo suddenly smiled and said, "Since their gold inventory is in the Shen family's bank, then this time I am ten percent sure." ”

Fu Xuexian asked in surprise: "Brother-in-law, do you also have a connection with the Shen family's money village?" How did I hear that your Li family and the Shen family are rivals? ”

"This time and that time! The Buddha said: Don't say! Li Weiguo smiled mysteriously, joking, he couldn't tell his relationship with Shen Ziyan in front of his eldest brother.

While speaking, Zhang Xiaoliu came in and reported: "Young master, those people are all controlled, they are not convinced, they want to see you!" ”

Li Weiguo nodded, since he had subdued Hong Xuanjiao and his party, let's go and meet him, he still has something to say.

Soon, Li Weiguo, Fu Xuexian, Wu Yong and others came to the hall of the county government's back house, only to see Hong Xuanjiao, Liu Shaoting, and Chen Wu tied to the chair and unable to move, and the dozen or so Taiping soldiers they brought were all killed.

"What's going on?" Li Weiguo suddenly frowned and asked.

Zhang Xiaoliu said with a bitter face: "The young master doesn't know, as soon as our people make a move, they will resist desperately, and we have also killed a few brothers, so we have no choice but to kill them all." ”

At this point, Li Weiguo couldn't hold his own people accountable, and immediately said: "Kill it, kill it!" Our dead brothers must be buried in a good life, and the settling-in allowance will be doubled, so that they can be compensated! ”

"Whoa!" Zhang Xiaoliu replied, and the hundreds of officers and soldiers around him also heard Li Weiguo's words, and they all cast grateful eyes at Li Weiguo.

Li Weiguo is undoubtedly the best treatment of his soldiers, and the settlement fee is twice as high as that of regular Qing soldiers (referring to the Eight Banners), and now it is four times as much as two times more than a small business for their families. Therefore, for people like Li Weiguo who love soldiers like sons, who are they willing to chase sincerely.

At this time, Hong Xuanjiao, Liu Shaoting, Chen Wu and others had already seen Li Weiguo, and they all shouted: "Li Weiguo, what do you mean?" ”

Li Weiguo snorted coldly, sat opposite them, and said expressionlessly: "I still respect you very much, and I am willing to help you." But you threatened me with my wife, and even tried to frame me and force me to join your Taiping army. ”

After a pause, Li Weiguo suddenly scolded: "I, Li Weiguo, hate being threatened by others the most in my life, especially the people around me!" ”

Hong Xuanjiao, Liu Shaoting and Chen Wu were all startled when they saw Li Weiguo's angry expression, especially the murderous eyes, which were swept away by his eyes, and their whole bodies were full of coldness.

"Li Weiguo, you killed our guards and arrested us, our Taiping Army will remember this account for you, don't forget that your beautiful wife is still in our hands, if you dare to touch us, hum!" Liu Shaoting said fiercely, the meaning was already obvious.

"Shanxiang, if she is missing a hair, I will pull out your hair, if she is hurt in the slightest, I will torture you to death a hundredfold and a thousand" Li Weiguo sneered and said, glanced at Liu Shaoting, and suddenly a nameless fire rose in his heart, adding: "He didn't hear what I said just now, go and give him a memory!" ”

"Whoa!" Zhang Xiaoliu understood, and immediately stepped forward to beat Liu Shaoting fatly, and in a blink of an eye, the other party's nose was blue and his face was swollen, and he screamed in pain.

"Master Li, I have something to say!" Chen Wu hurriedly persuaded.

"Li Weiguo, what do you want?" Hong Xuanjiao asked with a panicked face, although she is a general on the battlefield, she is a woman after all, and once she is tied up, she will inevitably show timidity.

Li Weiguo felt very happy when he beat Liu Shaoting, so his mood improved, and he said to Hong Xuanjiao: "It's very simple, as long as your ministry returns my wife to me safe and sound, I will let you go." ”

As soon as she heard that Li Weiguo only wanted her to be a hostage, and had no intention of harming her or sending her to the government, Hong Xuanjiao suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Don't worry, we have been treating Fu Shanxiang well since we knew that she was your wife, and she would naturally return to you safe and sound." However, Yong'an is besieged, we don't know when Qinggou will break the city, if you don't help us, once Qinggou breaks the city, I'm afraid we won't be able to guarantee your wife's safety. ”

Hong Xuanjiao was telling the truth, Li Weiguo nodded, and said: "So I will give you 800 muskets to help you break through, but the muskets cannot be given to you for nothing, you need to pay two million taels of silver." ”

When Liu Shaoting heard this, he was almost so angry that his old blood spurted out, and he couldn't help but shout: "Why don't you go and rob it!" ”

Hong Xuanjiao also frowned, although she didn't understand the market, but she was not so stupid that she couldn't see it, and said: "Our brothers outside have at least 10,000 people, and it is obviously not enough for you to give us only 800 muskets, and we can't take out 2 million taels of silver at all." ”

Li Weiguo said with a smile: "Don't pretend to be garlic with me, you have six or seven million taels of silver in the Shen family's money village, and you will definitely be able to get two million taels of silver." If 800 muskets are not enough, then I can give you a few more Western artillery, with artillery, you will be able to blast through the blockade of the Qing army and break through the siege. ”

"Artillery!"

As soon as they heard that Li Weiguo was willing to give them artillery, both Hong Xuanjiao and Chen Wu were excited, and even Liu Shaoting was moved, they all knew very well that the Qing army's artillery had caused huge casualties to the Taiping army, and if the Taiping army also had artillery, then it would be completely possible to engage the Qing army head-on, and breaking through was not a problem.

"Are you really willing to give us artillery?" Hong Xuanjiao asked excitedly.

Li Weiguo nodded and said with a smile: "That's nature!" But artillery and ammunition are very expensive, and I will add another million taels of silver! ”

A rip-off!

Unabashedly, Chiguoguo's rippage!

However, Hong Xuanjiao still nodded, she said, "Yes!" ”

Li Weiguo saw that Hong Xuanjiao agreed so happily, so he said: "Since you agreed, then please write a letter to your eldest brother and let Chen Wu take it back." ”

Liu Shaoting suddenly said: "Chen Wu's status is too low, he can't speak, and he is willing to be a messenger!" ”

Li Weiguo snorted coldly, knowing that Liu Shaoting wanted to take the opportunity to slip away, so he naturally wouldn't agree, and said: "You still write a letter to your brother-in-law, telling him that it's best not to be clever, otherwise I will kill you alive." ”

When Liu Shaoting heard that Li Weiguo knew about his relationship with Yang Xiuqing, he still didn't understand, and immediately glared at Fu Xuexian next to Li Weiguo, knowing that he had betrayed him.

Li Weiguo detained Hong Xuanjiao and Liu Shaoting, locked them in a prison, guarded them by heavy troops, and asked Chen Wu to return to Yong'an with the letters of the two of them to inform Hong Xiuquan.

On the other side, Li Weiguo also ordered Wu Yong to prepare the arms and send someone to personally escort them to Guangxi.

This was Wu Yong's strategy, he asked Li Weiguo to play the imperial court, and announced that he would donate 5,000 muskets and 20 artillery pieces to the Qing army on the front line in Guangxi to support the Qing army in encircling and suppressing the Taiping rebels.

In this way, even if Lu Jianying and other villains make a big fuss about Li Weiguo's private purchase of arms from foreigners, the imperial court will not condemn him, but will praise Li Weiguo's great contribution to donating arms to the front line, and maybe give him a promotion.

On the other hand, Li Weiguo informed the Taiping army of the marching route of this batch of munitions, and asked them to arrange for the robbery, and Li Weiguo's men would secretly cooperate.

Hong Xuanjiao and Liu Shaoting originally disagreed on this matter, and did not want to cheapen Li Weiguo, but soon they found that if the Taiping army could not deliver it outside Yong'an City by itself, it would definitely be intercepted by the Qing army. However, if Li Weiguo is in charge of escorting, under the guise of donating to the Qing army on the front line, he can pass through the customs and go straight to the destination.

In the end, Hong Xuanjiao and Liu Shaoting discussed, knowing that Li Weiguo would become the biggest winner and gain fame and fortune, but they had no choice but to agree.

In this way, the Taiping army received the arms provided by Li Weiguo, and the breakthrough of Yong'an was just around the corner.