There was not a single star in the dark night sky, and a small sedan chair came hurriedly on the street where I couldn't see my fingers, and a dim lantern was carried in the hand of a sedan chair driver who walked in the front.

The four sedan chair drivers have obviously walked a long way, each of them let out a heavy wheezing sound, if the light is a little brighter, you can definitely see their sweat, but the people in the sedan chair seem to be too slow, still shouting from time to time inside, "It's too slow, hurry up!" The words.

After walking for another quarter of an hour, the sedan chair stopped at the side door of one of the courtyards of the governor's yamen, and the people in the sedan chair hurriedly came out and knocked on the small door immediately after getting off the sedan chair, and soon a porter with a lantern opened the door and came out, and after the two had spoken a few words, the porter put him in, and then the small door was closed again.

In a dimly lit study, Wu Yadong, the governor of Hangzhou, sat on a chair, although he was still holding a teacup in his hand, and the tea in the cup was already cold, but he still sat in the same place without realizing it, maintaining a posture and not moving.

Suddenly, a servant from outside deliberately lowered his voice, "My lord, Lord Song has arrived." ”

"Oh, let him in." Wu Yadong, who was distracted, hurriedly got up, but unexpectedly his hand shook, and the teacup fell to the ground with a crisp sound, and the tea in the cup spilled on the ground, but at this time, Wu Yadong was in no mood to pay attention to these, he frowned and stretched out his feet to kick the teacup aside.

Soon, an emaciated figure walked in, bowed down and said, "Xiaguan Song Xinghe has seen the governor!" ”

"Excuse me, get up quickly!" Wu Yadong did not be polite with Song Xinghe, but asked directly: "Commander Song, how did you talk to him, what did he say?" ”

Song Xinghe said with a gloomy face: "My lord, the huge man did not agree to evacuate Hangzhou, he said not to treat him as a fool, the murderer who assassinated him must be handed over, and the grain must be sold to him at the market price, otherwise he will never withdraw." ”

"Bang!"

Wu Yadong slammed the table and said angrily: "The rebellious person is shameless!" A vulgar martial artist dares to blackmail the Hangzhou government, it is simply lawless, such a chaotic minister and thief really deserve to be killed, Lord Song, do you have any way to kill him? ”

Song Xinghe shook his head and said: "My lord, if you want to send troops to destroy this person, you must send troops to encircle and suppress him, but where are we going to get a water master." ”

Wu Yadong gritted his teeth and said: "If you can't fight at sea, then send troops to Shandong by land, this official doesn't believe that he doesn't even want the nest, as long as we send someone to threaten Qingzhou by land, presumably he will definitely retreat in a hurry." ”

"It's even worse on land." Song Xinghe explained with a wry smile: "Not to mention the trouble of sending troops across provinces, even if we have an official document from the imperial court and approve us to send troops to Qingzhou, but even if we have an official document from the imperial court, how many soldiers can we send?" If there are fewer factions, we can only send them to death, and if we send too much, we will have no soldiers. And the lower officials still know Pang Gang better, that guy is known for being good at training troops and brave, if you want to threaten Qingzhou, you must send at least more than 20,000 troops, but do we have so many troops? ”

Wu Yadong sat down on the chair dejectedly, he has been up and down in the Huan Sea all his life, if he picks up the yin people, plays with the conspiracies in his sleeves and officialdom, he will never lose to anyone, but in the face of such a thing now, he can only stare at it.

He originally thought that after a lifetime of immersion in silver in officialdom, it would naturally be a sure thing to deal with a martial artist from other places, and as long as he used a little trickery, he could make that vulgar martial artist recover.

But there is a saying among the people, so that Xiucai can't be justified when he meets a soldier, and now Pang Gang doesn't play with him at all and reason, but directly picks up his fist and smashes it.

Song Xinghe sat on the side and didn't speak, he was born as a military attaché, and he understood better than Wu Yadong, who was born as a civilian official, that if no party was willing to back down in the current situation, it could only be to see whose fist was big and strong, and talking about anything else could only be nonsense.

After being silent for a long time, Wu Yadong sighed and said, "Commander Song, do you have a way to make that reckless man retreat?" ”

Song Xinghe shook his head gloomily, a trace of bitterness appeared at the corner of his mouth, "My lord, according to the shallow view of the lower officials, although Pang Gang is arrogant, he is a person with a firm mind, which is known from the fact that he dared to send troops to Korea despite the will of the imperial court, and he will not give up if the things he decided do not achieve his goal." ”

Wu Yadong was silent, and there was silence in the dimly lit room, except for the wick of an oil lamp that kept swaying with the breeze

Early the next morning, when Pang Gangzheng, who had just gotten up, was having breakfast with Li Xuezhu and the three daughters, the soldiers outside the door came to report, and Song Xinghe asked to see him outside.

After listening to the report of the pro-soldiers, Liu Ruis and Chen Yuanyuan just lowered their heads and drank the gruel in their hands and were silent, but Li Xuezhu asked curiously: "General, isn't that Song Xinghe the original commander of Qingzhou?" What is he here for? ”

"I'm very capable, I'm definitely here to be a lobbyist. You eat slowly, and I'll go see him first. Pang Gang reached out and grabbed the face towel on the table, wiped the rice grains on the corner of his mouth, and then put it down casually and stood up

It was still a small hall on the third floor, and Pang Gang sat behind the bookcase and asked with a smile: "Commander Song, what kind of good news will you bring to this official today?" ”

At this time, Song Xinghe's expression was indifferent, he looked at Pang Gang and said solemnly: "Huge man, this official is here to express concern about your assassination at the dock on behalf of Governor Wu, and will go all out to pursue the assassin and his culprit." ”

Pang Gang didn't have any reaction on his face after hearing this, but asked silently, "What else?" ”

"Also," Song Xinghe gritted his teeth and said, "That is, you can buy grain directly from the grain merchants, but in terms of price, you can only negotiate with the grain merchants themselves." ”

"Hmm!" When Pang Gang heard this, his face slowly turned cold: "Could it be that Governor Wu still wants to use the hands of those grain merchants to get a handful from Pang Mou?" ”

"Oh, don't get me wrong." Song Xinghe knew at a glance that Pang Gang was thinking crookedly, and hurriedly explained: "That's the case, the price of grain in Hangzhou is not something that Lord Wu can decide, and you must also understand the things involved, Lord Wu can only say that he tries to match your deal, but as for the price, he can't do anything." ”

"It seems that the governor is not omnipotent." Pang Gang laughed when he heard this.

Song Xinghe smiled bitterly, the forces in Hangzhou are complicated, although Wu Yadong is the governor of a province, but he can't cover the sky with one hand, those businessmen are self-contained, if they are alone, Wu Yadong is not afraid, but if all the businessmen are united, it is a very huge force, especially the price of grain, which is not something that Wu Yadong can control, and now Song Xinghe just sat silently in the chair and waited for Pang Gang's answer.

Pang Gang pondered for a long time before nodding and said, "Okay, although the governor can't force the grain merchants to sell the grain to the official at a parity price, it's always okay to gather the grain merchants in Hangzhou City to meet with the official." ”

"That's fine." Song Xinghe nodded in agreement.

"Alright, so be it." Pang Gang stood up, "When Lord Wu sends the murderer of Pang to Pang's ship, the official will lift the blockade of the dock." However, the official hoped to meet the grain merchants on this boat in two days, and the official would guarantee their safety. ”

What else could Song Xinghe say, he could only agree silently.

After sending Song Xinghe away, Pang Gang began to scratch his head again, now those grain merchants are holding the grain in their hands tightly, if they let them sell the grain in hand to themselves, if they don't bleed much, it is almost impossible, how can they avoid them from ripping off, this is really a problem!

Pang Gang patted his head and walked to his room with a headache

In the lobby of the Hangzhou Governor's Yamen, Governor Wu Yadong, Inspector Xi Lianglin, Political Envoy Tang Zhonglin, Governor Chen Hai and others gathered together to discuss matters in secret.

"Lord Wu." Tang Zhonglin asked: "Will that Pang Gang's really battalion withdraw as long as the murderer is handed over?" ”

"Yes," Wu Yadong nodded: "Commander Song and Pang Gang talked twice, and finally talked about it, and he made two demands, one is to hand over the real culprit behind his assassination, and the other is to arrange for the grain merchants in the city to gather on his ship, as long as he meets these two conditions, he will withdraw his troops." ”

"These two requirements are not too outrageous, Xia Guan thinks that you adults may wish to consider it." Chen Hai, the prefect of Hangzhou, hesitated for a moment before he said slowly, there are only those present who have the lowest official position, so he is also cautious when speaking.

After a while, Tang Zhonglin, the political envoy, said slowly: "It's not impossible to arrange for grain merchants to meet with him, but the first one is a little difficult, if it is passed out, it will inevitably affect the reputation of the government." ”

"I can't care about that much now." According to the inspector Xi Lianglin said viciously: "Now those merchants on the dock are complaining one by one, and this matter will fall into the ears of the imperial court at any time. ”

Everyone nodded in unison, for them, the sky and the earth are not as big as the black gauze hat on their heads, if they don't even have the black gauze hat, everything will be over.

Wu Yadong's eyes flashed with a hideous look and said: "That's it, tonight Governor Chen, you will ask the Yan family's grandchildren out for dinner, and then send someone to secretly kill them, you must do a good job with your hands and feet, and remember not to catch people." Then he said that he had met the Assassins, and afterwards gave half of their property and shop to several other salt merchants, presumably so that they would have no gossip. ”

Chen Hai felt a greasy feeling in his heart, why did he come to do this kind of dirty work, but who made him a lowly official, so he had no choice but to get up and respond: "Yes, obey the orders of adults!" ”

(To be continued)