"Long Qianhu didn't come to help Jingzhou, right?" Seeing this, Lin Zhixian sneered in his heart, but on the surface, he asked in a tone of sudden realization.

"Ah, ah, exactly!" Long Qianhu's black face turned red, and by the action of raising a glass to drink, he pondered the rhetoric, grunted twice, drank the wine in the cup, and the rhetoric was also there.

Long Qianhu clenched his fists with both hands, arched his hand towards the south, and said, "Shangfeng Anton Zhongwei commanded the Lord to receive an urgent report from Jingzhou and ordered me to rush to the aid in the starry night. Long thought that the major general of the Jingzhou City Soldiers would not be able to resist the attack of the thieves for a long time, so after receiving the order, he ordered his men to be brave and set off to help. Fortunately, God blessed me with a bright mind, and the thieves were repelled by Lord Xu's army. ”

Lin Zhixian smiled and said in surprise: "Xia Guan remembers that he sent someone to Pingliang Mansion early yesterday morning to ask for help, and the thousands of households only rushed to the outside of Jingzhou City today, is the road from Pingliang Mansion to Jingzhou County so difficult?" ”

Having said this, everyone heard the sarcasm in Lin Zhixian's words. Long Qianhu's face became ugly, and he kept his face calm and did not speak.

Seeing this, Xu Liang saw that Lin Zhixian was going to continue talking, so he hurriedly intercepted the conversation and said, "Lord Lin said that he was laughing." Yesterday, I saw that the thieves were in the sky, and I was afraid that they had already ambushed the reinforcements of Pingliang Mansion in the middle of the road. Long Qianhu must have been stopped by the buried soldiers of the Heavenly Dragon, and there was a fierce battle. As he spoke, he turned to Long Qianhu again, and asked with a winkled eyebrow: "Long Qianhu, yes or no?" ”

"Oh, ah." Long Qianhu nodded suddenly, and said, "That's right." Ben also fought two battles with thieves on the road, and wounded many officers and soldiers of the guard. ”

This is lying with your eyes open. Outside the South City Gate, everyone could see clearly, the five hundred officers and soldiers of the guard brought by Long Qianhu's men were neatly dressed and hated, and there was a lot of dust on the upper of their shoes, which was the trace of a long-distance march, but how could they see the slightest trace of fighting with people?

Seeing that Lin Zhixian's expression was quite disdainful, Xu Liang changed the topic, raised his glass and said to a long-bearded squire of about fifty across the dinner table: "Xu Mou led the troops to suppress the bandits and quell the chaos, which is within his duty. I asked a few good students to break the bank, I really dare not take it, come, Xu will give you a drink. ”

The long-bearded old man didn't dare to say anything, and he raised his neck and drank.

Xu Liang asked again: "Being able to sit at the same table with you today can be regarded as fate. Haven't consulted your names? ”

Lin Zhixian heard this, thinking that the squires sitting here were all famous figures in Jingzhou City, and it would not be embarrassing if they were introduced by themselves, so he got up and pointed to the squires one by one to introduce them to Xu Liang, Xing Zhongshan, Huang Ziren, Long Feng and others.

Xu Liang raised his glass again and smiled at the old man: "It turned out to be Liang Laoyuan, hehe, Xu also has a Liang character in his name, I think that hundreds of years ago, we might be a family." Come, come, have another drink. "It turned out that the long-bearded old man's surname was Liang, and his name was Yinxian, and he was a prominent family who had lived in Jingzhou for generations.

Liang Yin didn't dare to say it first, and raised his glass to drink.

Lin Zhixian saw that Xu Liang seemed to be interested in this Liang Yuanwai, so he took a drink of himself and said with a smile: "Lord Xu doesn't know, Liang Yuan lives here in the outer world, and it is said that the ancestor is the Eastern Han Dynasty Yicheng Marquis Liangtong. ”

Xu Liang and the others were all surprised.

Liang Yinxian waved his hand again and again and said: "I'm ashamed, I'm ashamed, the countryside is old, I've lived a mediocre life, I have no achievements, I'm really ashamed of my ancestors." The name of the Marquis of Yicheng, Lord Lin should not mention it again. ”

Everyone laughed. Xu Liang saw that Long Qianhu was left aside by the people of Jingzhou, so he gestured to Xing Huang and the others. Xing Zhongshan and Huang Ziren raised their glasses to Long Qianhu knowingly. After toasting three or five glasses of wine, Long Qianhu's interest was raised, and he swept away Fang Cai's depressed expression, and called Xu Liang and the other three brothers brothers at the wine table.

The banquet was dispersed, Long Qianhu was drunk, and was helped out by his own soldiers. Lin Zhixian asked people to serve tea again, and everyone chatted for a while, and Xu Liang sighed.

"What's the matter with Lord Xu?" Lin Zhixian said with a smile.

"Ugh." Xu Liang sighed again, and when he saw that Liang Yinxian and the others were all looking at him, he brewed his tone and expression, and said with a sad face: "In yesterday's battle, although I successfully repelled the thieves, my Liang soldiers were also seriously injured. Xu thought that after leading the army back to the city, how should he be appeased in the face of the wives and daughters of more than 300 fallen soldiers? ”

A squire smiled and said: "Lord Xu said that he was joking, the court has a clear order, and my Ming soldiers died in battle, and the court should issue a pension of silver taels." ”

Xu Liang was even more sad when he heard this, and said with a sigh: "What the old man said is right, it should have been like this, but the situation of the court is not as good as before, not to mention the pension of the fallen soldiers, looking at the entire Shaanxi Province, how many armies can be paid on time?" ”

"Ah, how is this to be?" The squire exclaimed.

Lin Zhixian looked ashamed, and said apologetically to Xu Liang: "Lord Xu, forgive me, originally Lord Xu led the troops to rescue Jingzhou from danger, and Jingzhou should have something to pay for." It's just that the Jingzhou County Treasury has been looted by thieves right now, and there are no decent things except for these county houses. Shame, shame. ”

Jingzhou County Ya was looted and was poor and white, which Xu Liang naturally knew. Xu Liang waved his hand and sighed, with a sad expression.

At this time, Liang Yin stroked his long beard first, coughed lightly, and said slowly: "Lord Xu, Lord Lin, let the old man say a few words." ”

"Liang Yuan, please speak."

Liang Yin first bowed to Xu Liang and said: "Jingzhou is in trouble, Lord Xu led troops to rescue, what a benevolent and righteous act, everyone in Jingzhou is grateful for Lord Xu's great kindness." Now that the court is weak, it is also true that the military camps in various places have not paid salaries for a long time. The old man thought that since the court could not issue the pension silver, and Lord Xu's soldiers fought bloodily to protect my Jingzhou and the thieves, this is why there are such casualties, in order not to let Lord Xu's soldiers chill, the pension silver of the fallen soldiers, it is better for the old man to take the lead and collect donations from the rich gentry and people in Jingzhou City. As he spoke, he took out two silver tickets of one hundred taels from his bosom and put them on the table, saying, "The old man will take the lead and donate two hundred taels." ”

When the other four squires heard Liang Yinxian say this, they all nodded in agreement, and then the four of them each took out their silver tickets and donated them on the spot.

Liang Yin first put the more than 600 taels of silver tickets donated by the five squires into Xu Liang's hand, and said: "These silvers, Lord Xu will collect them first, and the old man will go back to Zhang Luo to collect donations from the people." ”

The other four squires followed, "Let's go with Liang Yuanwai." ”

After that, he hugged his fists with Xu Liang and others and said goodbye. Xu Liang said words like "how can this be," "how embarrassing is this", and enthusiastically sent the five squires out of the county office. After a few people got into the carriage and left, Xu Liang stuffed a stack of silver tickets in his hand into his arms, turned his head and said to the magistrate of Jingzhou: "Lord Lin, the people of Jingzhou are really, too enthusiastic!" ”

Xu Liang ordered the Liang army to stay in Jingzhou City for a day to help the Jingzhou County Government clean up the streets and repair the city gates. On the second day, Xu Liang ordered the army, took prisoners of war, and went out of the city with the guard army led by Long Qianhu, who was stationed outside Jingzhou City, and went to Pingliang Mansion. Before leaving the city, Liang Yin really went to Liang's military camp in person, personally handed Xu Liang nearly 2,000 taels of broken silver, and gave ten carts of grain. Xu Liang naturally couldn't help but say another word of thanks.

The 500 guards led by Long Qianhu were in front, and the Liang army led by Xu Liang was behind, marching towards Pingliang Mansion. After walking for about thirty miles, Xu Liang rushed to Long Qianhu's army with his own soldiers, took Long Feng aside, and said to Long Qianhu with a worried face: "General Long, the thieves have retreated, and the general should be happy, why are you depressed?" ”

Long Feng glanced at Xu Liang and said in his belly: You led the troops to kill the thieves and captured more than 2,000 prisoners of war, and you are naturally proud of such a military feat. And I was ordered to lead the army to help, but I didn't kill a single thief, and when I went to Pingliang Mansion to meet the prefect Hong Chengchou, I reported that the credit was all you, Xu Liang, wouldn't it seem that I, the official of the five products and thousands of households of Andong Zhongwei, was too incompetent?

"Nothing." Long Qianhu replied lukewarmly, and asked again: "Lord Xu, is there something wrong?" ”

Xu Liang smiled at the corner of his mouth, he knew Long Qianhu's mind clearly, smiled and leaned into Long Qianhu's ear, and whispered: "Lord Qianhu led the army this time, and met the thief ambush on the way to help, Long Qianhu took the lead, bravely killed the enemy, and killed more than 300 heads of the thief army, and smashed the idea of the thief ambush to reinforce Jingzhou City in one fell swoop, so that the Liang army under the army could recapture Jingzhou City from the thief Shangtianlong. The battle of the Thousand Households on that day can be described as a great achievement. ”

Long Qianhu's eyes widened more and more, and he could hear Xu Liang's nonsense. Hesitantly said, "Really...... Is there such a thing? ”

Xu Liang nodded again and again, pointed to the several carriages that approached, and said, "It's true!" Lord Qianhu, please see, the head of this slew thief has been installed on the carriage, and the iron-clad fact is in front of you, who dares to covet the merits of the adult! ”

Long Qianhu looked at the carriage covered with tarpaulin, only to see the soldiers of the Liang Army who were driving the carriage lifted the tarpaulin, revealing the heads of thieves who were densely piled inside, and a smell of blood wafted over. This batch of heads was exactly the more than 300 heads that Xu Liang chased to the forest that night and killed, and it was even loaded into the carriage as a proof of Anton's Zhongwei Longfeng Qianhu's military exploits.

Xu Liang took the opportunity to squeeze his eyebrows and said: "General Long, Xu is the most honest person, and he is extremely sincere to his friends, he pays attention to seeking truth from facts in everything, the credit belongs to others, and he will never dare to encroach on the slightest." ”

Long Qianhu turned his head, looked at Xu Liang in a daze for a long time, and suddenly patted Xu Liang's shoulder with a big hand, and laughed: "Xu Liang, you are really a friend!" You friend, I'm Longfeng settled! ”

Xu Liang chuckled and said, "Xu and General Long also hit it off at first sight, as if they had known each other for a long time in their previous lives, it's really strange......"

The two of them rode on tall horses, looked at each other, and laughed.