Li Hu said angrily: "Why should I believe you? ”

The merchant sneered: "General Li can not believe us, but you should know that if you let Li Zicheng suffer, even if you take the men and horses to his command, can he still spare you?" ”

"General Ben doesn't understand what you're talking about." Li Hu said in a sullen voice, "Why did General Ben join the command of the thieves? All the officers and men of our Henan Army will soon be absorbed by the Central Army, and we should not let go of the Central Army, why should we go to be a thief under the thief? ”

"Huh." The merchant smiled, "General Li doesn't have to deceive himself. ”

Li Hu said coldly: "What do you mean? ”

The merchant said: "Anyone can be absorbed by the Central Army, but you Li Hu cannot be absorbed by the Central Army!" General Li Hu's affection for the red lady can be seen even by the blind, as a man, how can you watch your beloved woman fall into the arms of other men? Well? ”

"What's more, even if you change your original intention and no longer serve the thieves, and instead accept the reorganization of the Central Army, do you think you will still have the prominent position you have now after the reorganization? It's not alarmist, with the threat of you, even if Wang Pu doesn't kill you, he will never be able to reuse you. ”

These two sentences hit Li Hu's vital point!

Li Hu may not care if he can be reused by Wang Pu after the Henan Army accepts the reorganization of the Central Army? But if he wants to watch the red lady throw herself into Wang Pu's arms and become Wang Pu's woman, he can't stand this stimulation, if this is the case, Li Hu would rather choose to die.

"General Lee." "Now you should understand the current situation, right?" ”

Li Hu said in a condensed voice: "Who are you?" ”

The merchant looked solemn and said, "There is no need to hide General Li anymore, otherwise wouldn't it seem that our Wu family in Shanxi lacks sincerity?" Below is the brother of the king of Pingxi - Wu Sanfu! ”

Li Hu's eyes froze, and he said in a deep voice: "You are Wu Sanfu?" ”

Li Hu is naturally no stranger to the name of the Wu family's three masters, although the second Wu Sangui is the helmsman of the Wu family, but the eldest Wu Sanfeng and the third Wu Sanfu are not easy to match.

Wu Sanfu said: "General Li, now you should believe in the sincerity of our Wu family, right?" ”

Li Hu asked, "What do you want?" ”

"It's simple." Wu Sanfu said, "We will help General Li to get the beauty back, but General Li has to help our Wu family get 40,000 war horses from the Henan Army, if you really can't get this war horse, then kill these war horses, in short, no matter what, we can't let these 40,000 war horses fall into the hands of the Ming Central Army!" ”

After saying this, Wu Sanfu said again: "Of course, after the matter is completed, General Li will be the guest of our Wu family. ”

Li Hu pondered for a moment and said coldly: "Lao Tzu can agree to this condition, but after the matter is completed, Lao Tzu will lead the army alone, and it is only a cooperative relationship with your Wu family!" ”

Wu Sanfu readily agreed: "Of course this is no problem. ”

Wu Sanfu promised happily, and on the surface, he was also pleasant, but he sneered in his heart, thinking that Li Hu really didn't know how much he lived, and he didn't weigh how many catties he had, so he still wanted to lead an army alone and sit on an equal footing with the Wu family? No wonder until now it was only a small role, and even the red lady and the girl could crush him to death.

Li Hu muttered: "There are two hundred guards around the Red Lady, it is difficult to deal with, if you want to kidnap the Red Lady, you have to find a way to solve the two hundred horsemen first......"

Wu Sanfu said: "These two hundred guards will be handed over to deal with here. ”

Li Hu frowned and said, "Do you have a way?" ”

Wu Sanfu smiled and said, "There is indeed a way to do it, but I still need General Li's help." ”

Li Hu said: "How can you help?" ”

Wu Sanfu said: "Find a way to lead the red lady and her two hundred relatives to Kaifeng Beixiao." ”

"That's fine." Li Hu replied without thinking, "As long as you can kidnap the red lady in Kaifeng Beixiao, the Henan army will immediately fall into a leaderless situation, and then I will be able to come forward to control the overall situation and pull people to Shanxi before Wang Pu leads the central army to Kaifeng." ”

"Okay." Wu Sanfu stretched out his right palm and said happily, "Then it's decided." ”

Li Hushou and Wu Sanfu high-fived each other and said, "A word is a certainty!" ”

■■■

Ji County, Henan.

When the main force of the Central Army was still in Zhangde Mansion, Wang Pu had already led the forward battalion to Ji County of Weihui Mansion, and further south from Ji County was Kaifeng Mansion, and the defenders of Weihui Mansion had received the military order of the Red Lady and knew that the Henan Army was about to accept the reorganization of the Central Army, so Wang Pu's forward battalion was ceremoniously received.

Wang Pu also promptly sent the Central Army to post notices along the streets to reassure the people.

Because the people of Henan have certain concerns about returning to the Ming Dynasty, because when the Red Lady ruled Henan, she wantonly killed the local tyrants and inferior gentry, and distributed all their land to the poor people according to the head, and even the fields and manors of King Fu have been divided up by the people of Kaifeng.

Now that the Henan Army is about to accept the reorganization of the Central Army, and the whole of Henan Province is about to return to the rule of the imperial court, the people cannot but worry that the land they have just been allocated will be regained and lost, and they will once again become tenant farmers who work for others, and many people are even more worried that the rich families who have fled will retaliate against them when they return.

In order to dispel the concerns of the common people, the Central Army began a powerful propaganda offensive at the beginning of its entry into Henan, constantly sending soldiers of the Central Army in squadrons and squads to post notices in the prefectures, counties, towns, and even villages along the way, and sparing no effort to carry out propaganda, emphasizing that the imperial court would never take back the land that had been allocated to the people.

At the same time, the edict on killing Hu just issued by the imperial court was posted in all the prefectures and counties along the way, encouraging the people to settle in Shandong and Beizhi.

Although Wang Pu originally stated that the scope of application of the order to kill Hu was the five northern provinces, after careful consideration, the cabinet felt that it was still appropriate to use the four provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Beizhi, and Shandong, and because Shaanxi and Shanxi were not under the rule of the imperial court, the actual scope of application of the order was only Beizhi and Shandong.

The county seat of Ji County, post house.

Liu Qingyan entered Wang Pu's chamber with a solemn expression, and said in a low voice: "Master Hou, Zhao Liujin Flying Pigeon passed the book." ”

"Zhao Liujin?" Wang Pu said in a condensed voice, "What do you say? ”

Liu Qingyan said: "Zhao Liujin's flying pigeon biography says that Wu Sangui's third brother Wu Sanfu has suddenly disappeared in the past few days, and at the same time, the five hundred most elite members of the Wu family have also disappeared!" The slave family suspected that Wu Sanfu and these 500 family members might have secretly infiltrated Henan, intending to be detrimental to the Henan army. ”

Wang Pu frowned and said: "Five hundred people is a lot, so many people sneaked into Henan, will the red lady not notice it?" ”

Liu Qingyan said: "If it is infiltrated in batches and phases, I am afraid it will be difficult to detect, after all, the forces of the Henan army are mainly concentrated in Kaifeng, Runing, Nanyang, and Henan, and the control over the surrounding provinces is not strong. ”

Wang Pu said in a deep voice: "Immediately send the horse to relay the news to Monk Zhang, and let him tell the red lady!" ”

Liu Qingyan answered and took the order.

Seeing Liu Qingyan's graceful and plump figure go away, Wang Pu's ears suddenly sounded Liu Ruye's voice: "Because of the poor logistics and supply, it is difficult for the Central Army to launch a major offensive, if Hou Ye plans to use the newly reorganized cavalry battalion to attack Shanxi, although there is no shortage of ammunition, but he is also facing a shortage of food and grass." ”

"Lack of food and grass?" A sly smile flashed in Wang Pu's eyes, and he shook his head and said, "No, the grain and grass have already been prepared." ”

"Huh?" Liu Ru's eyes widened when she heard this, and she said in a delicious voice, "Has Master Hou already prepared grain and grass?" When was it ready? ”

"Huh." Wang Pu smiled, "As early as the beginning of this year, it was ready. ”

■■■

Huguang, Longyang County, Changde Prefecture.

He Tengjiao, who had just been promoted to the governor of Huguang, was patrolling the grain accompanied by Zhao Xin, the governor of Huguang's office, and the officials of Longyang County.

The Longyang County Commander who followed behind He Tengjiao was full of red faces, and excitedly introduced: "He Butang, this year is a rare good year, the harvest of wheat in spring and rice in autumn is good, and the sweet potatoes that have just been introduced are even more bumper harvest, and on average, each mu of land can harvest nearly 2,000 catties of sweet potatoes!" ”

"Good fellows." He Tengjiao stroked his hands excitedly and said, "So this famine year has passed?" ”

"Hey, what kind of famine year are you talking about." The commander of Longyang County shook his head and said, "The people of Longyang County are all setting off firecrackers to celebrate, according to their words, this year is a rare harvest year in the past 50 years!" I won't be able to eat all the grain I have harvested this year for the next four or five years, hehe. ”

He Tengjiao couldn't help but say: "Can't eat it in four or five years?" Is this true? ”

"Of course it's true." Longyang County ordered, "It's better to settle accounts for the ministry lord, our Longyang County is flat, the land is sufficient, every family can almost have ten acres and eight acres of land, this acre of land is two thousand catties of sweet potatoes, ten acres of land is twenty thousand catties of sweet potatoes!" Even if a family of ten can only eat four or five thousand catties of grain a year, can 20,000 catties be eaten for four or five years? ”

"Haha." He Tengjiao stroked his forehead and laughed, "You can really eat it for four or five years!" ”

Longyang County ordered: "However, this is thanks to the household department, if it were not for the household department to introduce sweet potatoes to Huguang, with the harvest of wheat and rice, it would only be enough to barely make a living." ”

"Hmm." He Tengjiao nodded, and then asked, "Before the frost this year, the governor ordered all counties to harvest sweet potato vines, have you collected them in Longyang County?" ”

"Collect, collect!" Longyang County Ling hurriedly said, "Now that it has been dried thoroughly, it is stacked outside the south gate of the county seat, and the yard is like a hill, which is enough for hundreds of thousands of catties." ”

"Okay." He Tengjiao excitedly patted the shoulder of the Longyang County Commander and said with a smile, "Don't underestimate that pile of sweet potatoes, that's a lot of silver." ”

"What, silver?" Longyang County Ling was stunned and said, "Can you exchange that pile of sweet potato vines that can't be eaten and worn for silver?" ”

"Haha." He Tengjiao laughed and said, "You don't need to ask more, in short, listen to Bendu, take care of those sweet potato vines, and when the time comes, they will be replaced with white flower pattern silver." ”

He Tengjiao has already received news from Wang Beech that Wang Pu is about to collect the 40,000 rogue cavalry in Henan, and the next step is to use troops against Shanxi and Shaanxi.

When the time comes, Huguang's surplus sweet potatoes and seemingly useless sweet potato vines can be turned into white flowers, and when he thinks that every household in Huguang has excess sweet potatoes and sweet potato vines to exchange for silver, and then use these silver to exchange for salt, cloth, silk, tea and other daily necessities and even luxury goods, He Tengjiao's heart is churning.

He Tengjiao served as an official for one term and benefited one party, he had no other wishes in his life, he just wanted to let the people under his rule live a good life!

■■■

Kaifeng, the red lady is in line.

When Li Hu strode into the lobby, he found that Monk Zhang was actually there, so he couldn't help but snort from his nostrils, he had always been very hostile to Monk Zhang Li Hu, the reason was very simple, because Monk Zhang was Wang Pu's subordinate, and Li Hu still suspects that Monk Zhang is Wang Pu's annihilation of the Henan Army.

The red lady glanced at Li Hu coldly, and said to Monk Zhang: "General Zhang, this matter is already known." ”

"Then the general will take his leave."

Monk Zhang shook his fist at the red lady, turned around and walked away.

When Monk Zhang left, the red lady's cold gaze fell on Li Hu's face and asked, "Huzi, is there anything wrong with you?" ”

Li Hu said: "Sister-in-law, do you remember Zhang Laohan?" ”

"Zhang Laohan?" The red lady thought for a while, nodded and said, "Of course I remember, why did you suddenly mention that Zhang Laohan is here?" ”

"That's right." Li Hu hurriedly said, "Zhang Laohan and his son Zhang Xiaobao have already married a daughter-in-law, saying that their family has a good life after our rebels arrived in Henan, and his son Zhang Xiaobao can marry a daughter-in-law, and he is arguing that he has to invite his sister-in-law to drink his son's wedding wine." ”

"Really?" The red lady showed a rare joy on her face, and said happily, "This is a happy event, Ben Shuai can't disturb Zhang Laohan's interest, so let's go, Huzi, you go to the street to pick up a few gifts, we can't drink other people's wedding wine with empty hands, Ben Shuai is ready to come right away." ”

"Hey." Li Hu responded, and said, "Sister-in-law, do you want the little brother to help you gather the guards first......

"No need." The red lady waved her hand and said, "This is to drink wine, not to fight, why do you gather the guards?" ”

"Yes, it's the little brother who is too worried."

Li Hu complimented and turned around, but when he turned his face, the corners of his eyes suddenly revealed a trace of inexplicable hideousness.

(To be continued)