readx; Li Mao of Jingxiang also has an army of 100,000, of which Li Mao led 30,000 troops to defend Xiangyang, and the remaining 70,000 troops were stationed in various important places in Jingxiang, Jingzhou, Jiangxia, Baling and other strategic places, all of which were heavily garrisoned. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

For this reason, Li Mao began to expand the army, and ordered his confidant Zhang Weijin to recruit soldiers in Lu, Shu, and Shou Prefectures, but Ge Shuhan did not approve of the expansion of the army, he believed that there were no more soldiers in the fine, although there were many soldiers and no more unscrupulous generals, it was equivalent to a group of rabble, Li Mao was not allowed, and insisted on recruiting soldiers.

Ge Shuhan also proposed a list of 500 officers, all of whom had followed him for many years and had rich experience, and they could be promoted to generals to command the new army.

Ge Shuhan's kindness was suspicious of Li Mao, he didn't use any of the five hundred Longyou officers, but promoted hundreds of officers from the army of his henchmen Zhang Weijin, Zhao Fengzhang and others, and appointed them as generals, Zhonglang generals, and Lang generals, most of these officers were mixed, many of them were the children of Jingxiang's rich families, and they won officials by bribery, and the level of military rank was determined by the amount of money.

This made Ge Shuhan extremely dissatisfied, he was angry, gave up the defense of Jingzhou, led his 10,000 troops back to Yuezhou to station, Li Mao had no choice but to send a lieutenant to Yuezhou, appease Ge Shuhan, explain to him, the reason why Zhang Weijin and others were used as generals, the main consideration was to win over the Jingxiang Township Party, there was no other meaning, Li Mao implored Ge Shuhan to focus on the army.

But Ge Shuhan refused to stop there, and he wrote to point out that Zhang Weijin and Zhao Fengzhang had sold their officials to make a fortune and corrupted military discipline, and asked Li Mao to kill these two people to thank the soldiers of the three armies, otherwise he would never return to Jingzhou.

Li Mao was helpless, and wrote a letter to persuade Ge Shuhan that selling officials to make a fortune was just a matter of chasing after the wind and shadows, and there was no real evidence, and he promised to strictly investigate the matter, and once it was verified, he would not tolerate it.

Then, Li Mao appointed more than 100 of his subordinates as Zhonglang generals, and Ge Shuhan calmed down a little and returned to Jingzhou.

Although the matter subsided, Ge Shuhan's self-respect made Li Mao deeply jealous of him, coupled with the instigation of Zhang Weijin and Zhao Fengzhang, Li Mao gradually had a murderous intention against Ge Shuhan in his heart.

．．．．．．．

Zhang Weijin is a native of Xiangyang, was originally a military lieutenant under the Jingzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, Li Mao first arrived in Xiangyang when the people were unfamiliar, he gathered several remnants of the military near Xiangyang, got nearly 2,000 troops, and supported Li Mao as the king, he saw that Li Mao was single, and gave his two cousins to Li Mao as concubines, which won Li Mao's trust, named him the hussar general, the generalissimo of Jingbei University, and since then has become Li Mao's confidant and favorite general.

Zhang Weijin's family power has gradually risen, his brother-in-law, Liu Qing, the former county commander of Gucheng County, Xiangzhou, was promoted to Xiangzhou Taishou, his two younger brothers and brother-in-law and three cousins also entered the army, all of whom were named generals, and his other clan brother was also promoted to the county lieutenant of Xiangyang County, and Zhang Weijin's family gradually became the first powerful in Xiangyang.

Zhang Weijin is about forty years old this year, burly, with a big beard, and a naturally loud voice, giving people a bold feeling, but he gave birth to a pair of small eyes, and when he laughed boldly, the small eyes were full of deceit and shrewdness.

Zhang Weijin had been recruiting troops in Shouzhou, and when he heard the news that the Jiannan army had sent troops to Yiling, and received a secret letter from his cousin Zhang Zhong, he hurried back to Xiangyang.

Zhang Weijin's mansion is located not far from Jingwangfu, which is a huge mansion covering an area of nearly 100 acres, second only to Jingwangfu in scale, so there is a folk song in Xiangyang City that says, "Jingwang's mansion, Zhang Wang's mansion, Jingzhou Geshu stands aside....." This ballad points out that in Jingxiang's forces, Geshuhan's power is not as good as Zhang Weijin.

This afternoon, Zhang Zhong, the county magistrate of Xiangyang County, brought a middle-aged man to Zhang Weijin's house, Zhang Zhong is Zhang Weijin's cousin, more than 30 years old, originally a gangster on the streets of Xiangyang, three years ago left the relationship into the county government as a small tolerance, running errands, standing guard and the like, Zhang Weijin after the power rose, he changed from a small tolerance, became the county lieutenant of Xiangyang County.

Zhang Zhong has no ambitions, and being an official is just to make more money, the county lieutenant is fat, in charge of the criminal security of Xiangyang City, leading a class of officials to run rampant on the street, and when he sees a beautiful woman, he will find a way to get it, and when he sees someone who is not pleasing to the eye, he will say that it is a fine annihilation, and he will be caught in the yamen and tortured, and wait for the family to take the money to ransom people, as for the shops and wine shops, it is even more blackmail, buy horse money today, pay for the joint insurance tomorrow, and there is a security fee at the end of the month, in just half a year, he has collected more than 20,000 yuan, which can be described as a black hand poison, and countless people ran to the county Yazhou to complain, But it was too late for the county order to shoot the Zhang family's sycophants, and Taishou was Zhang Weijin's brother-in-law, and he pretended to be deaf and dumb.

Without the constraints of the law and the moral bottom line, Zhang Zhong naturally became more crazy about accumulating wealth, and his only ideal was to be able to enjoy these wealth comfortably after accumulating wealth, so whether it was the Southern Tang Dynasty or the Northern Tang Dynasty, for him, it may be his future uncle.

A few days ago, Zhang Zhong's house came to a mysterious guest, he is Yang Shenjin, the servant of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Yang Shenjin turned out to be the secretary of the Tang Empire, the minister of political affairs, this is in Zhang Zhong's eyes, that is a person who is high in the sky, of course, Yang Shenjin did not come to him, but to ask him to introduce Zhang Weijin, Zhang Zhong immediately wrote to tell Zhang Weijin, today I heard that the eldest brother is back, so he immediately brought Yang Shenjin to see him.

Zhang Zhong took Yang Shenjin to the door of Zhang Weijin's mansion, nodded to him and said, "Yang Shilang, please wait a while, I will go and report to you." ”

Yang Shenjin nodded and smiled: "I'm here, let's go!" ”

He stood in front of Zhang's Mansion with his hands in his hands, and looked coldly at the Jingwang Mansion not far away, which was built more magnificent than the Southern Tang Dynasty Palace, and was more splendid, this Li Mao was really impatient.

After a while, Zhang Zhong ran out and said with a smile: "Yang Shilang, please come with me, my eldest brother invites you in." ”

He took Yang Shenjin and walked quickly towards the mansion.

Zhang Weijin was going to see Li Mao in the afternoon to report on the recruitment of recruits, and he heard that Yang Shenjin was coming, which immediately made him a little nervous, he knew that the Southern Tang Dynasty had already stationed heavy troops in Yiling, Yang Shenjin came at this time, undoubtedly related to the current situation, he did not dare to be careless, and ordered Zhang Zhong to take Yang Shenjin to his inner room to meet.

Three years ago, when Yang Shenjin went to Jingxiang, he had met Zhang Weijin once, as soon as he entered the door, Yang Shenjin smiled and arched his hand: "General Zhang, I haven't seen you for many years, has always been good?" ”

Zhang Weijin also returned the salute and smiled: "It turned out to be Yang Shilang, it's rude, please sit down!" ”

Yang Shenjin was not polite, and sat down directly opposite him, Zhang Weijin gave Zhang Zhong a look, and Zhang Zhong withdrew and closed the door.

"Why did Yang Shilang think of coming to me at this time?"

Yang Shenjin smiled slightly and said, "I came this time not only to send a fortune to General Zhang, but also to save General Zhang's life." ”

"Save my life?" Zhang Weijin was stunned, and he hurriedly asked, "How do you say this?" ”

"Does General Zhang remember the letter he wrote to Ji Guangchen?"

Yang Shenjin's words seemed to reveal the shell of Zhang Weijin's most secret place at once, exposing his secret at once.

Zhang Weijin and Ji Guangchen have a very good relationship, more than half a year ago, the Northern Tang Army attacked Henan, Ji Guangchen wanted to use the Jingxiang Army to jointly resist the Northern Tang Army, and wrote a letter to Zhang Weijin, promising that as long as Zhang Weijin helped him, he would introduce Zhang Weijin to the Southern Tang Emperor Li Heng.

At that time, Zhang Weijin was dizzy for a while, and even replied to Ji Guangchen, saying that as long as Li Hengken named him the king of the county, he would not only send troops to help Ji Guangchen, but also use Li Mao's head as a birthday gift for Li Heng.

But their union still failed, and soon, the news came that Ji Guangchen's entire army was annihilated, and his letter did not know the whereabouts, and the person who sent the letter did not know whether he was alive or dead, Zhang Weijin has always regretted this matter, and as time passed, the letter has never been mentioned, so he thought that this matter was gone, but he did not expect that it would be suddenly exposed at this time.

Zhang Weijin's face swelled purple-red, his hand pressed the hilt of the sword, stared at Yang Shenjin word by word, and said, "Yang Shilang, what do you mean by this?" ”

Zhang Weijin didn't know that before his messenger arrived in Zhengzhou, Ji Guangchen's department was annihilated, and the messenger secretly read the letter and thought that it was a strange thing to live in, so he turned around and went to Chengdu and dedicated the letter to Li Heng.

Yang Shenjin was not in a hurry, took out a letter, handed it to Zhang Weijin and said: "This letter is just a transcript, if General Zhang wants to kill me, then the original will be sent to Li Mao's desk immediately, whether General Zhang wants to kill himself, or want to be rich and rich, which is more important, General Zhang decides for himself!" ”

Zhang Weijin's hand gripping the hilt of the sword slowly loosened, he slowly regained his senses, realizing that the person in front of him could not be killed, he took the letter, put it on the table and looked at it for a long time, and couldn't help sighing in his heart, God is like this!

He asked in a deep voice, "What kind of wealth does the Southern Tang Holy Lord want to give me?" ”

Yang Shenjin is confident, since Zhang Weijin already has the heart to kill Li Mao and take refuge in the Southern Tang Dynasty in his heart, as long as he promises a lot of money, he is not afraid that he will not give in.

He took out another gift list, handed it to Zhang Weijin and said, "General Zhang, let's take a look first!" ”

Zhang Weijin glanced at it, only to see that there were ten thousand taels of gold on it, a box of jewels and jade, and fifty Bashu beauties, he nodded secretly in his heart, he was satisfied with the money and beauties, but there was no writing on the things he wanted more, he pushed the gift list back, shook his head and said, "Yang Shilang, I don't want these things." ”

Yang Shenjin knew this, pushed the gift list back, and said with a faint smile: "This is just a little reward from His Majesty to the general, not an official knighthood." ”

"Oh! That official knighthood is ......"

Yang Shenjin took out a secret decree from his sleeve and said loudly: "The holy purpose is here, Zhang Weijin accepts the decree!" ”

Zhang Weijin was so frightened that he knelt down, "Minister Zhang Weijin welcomes the holy decree!" ”

．．．．．．．

(To be continued)