Of course, Qian Xiangmin didn't want to take risks for Chen Yingliang with his head tied to his trouser belt, but there was no way, he lost sixty percent of the last escort of the imperial porcelain, and Qian Xiangmin, who had been promoted four levels in a row, had fallen into the dust, and was directly cut to the bottom of his job for the people and almost went to prison to lose his head, the family wanted to eat and drink, and the beautiful concubine of Xinna also had to be supported, and that meager savings were not tossed at all, and at the same time, he was born in a humble background, except for Chen Yingliang's old friend, there is no good way to go, Qian Xiangmin wants to make a comeback and re-enter the office, There is no other way than to hug the thigh of his old friend Chen Yingliang.

Of course, Qian Xiangmin can also insist on refusing, and would rather not enter the office again than take this risk, but Qian Xiangmin's early forties are placed here again, he has neither backing nor ability, and it is a fool's dream to start a new business in this turbulent world, and it will not be long before he goes home and he will be poor and starved to death, so after thinking about it, Qian Xiangmin finally gritted his teeth and decided to gamble, and took the risk of being an enemy camp for Chen Yingliang as a cow and a horse, looking forward to coming back alive. Got Chen Yingliang's promise of the military officer Cao participated in the military eight-rank official position.

So, under the protection of two Chen Yingliang's personal soldiers, Qian Xiangmin took Chen Yingliang's handwritten letters and some gifts out of the city on the road, and went straight to the direction of the thief camp in the east. Surrounded by fierce thieves and soldiers, shouting and shouting and killing.

There is no way, in order not to lose his head immediately, poor Qian Xiangmin Qian can only hurriedly wave the small white flag that has been prepared for a long time, while claiming that he is the envoy of Qian County, and at the same time asking to meet the famous hero Miao Haichao in Xiapi, saying that he has something important to report. But it's a pity that Qian Xiangmin encountered a very low level of people's army this time, and he had never encountered such a thing, and after listening to Qian Xiangmin's request, not only did he not give courtesy, but also punched and kicked Qian Xiangmin, verbally insulted, and vented class hatred - fortunately, he did not rush to kill the poor Qian Daren, who was already cornered, and also sent someone back to report to the brigade.

Fortunately, just when Xiucai met the soldier's Qian Xiangmin who wanted to cry without tears, a large group of thieves had already arrived at the border of Qian County, although the thief marshal led by Chen Yingliang felt that it was a little strange for Chen Yingliang to send an envoy to contact Miao Haichao, but he did not slaughter Qian Xiangmin, who had become a turtle in the urn, and also sent some people to escort Qian Xiangmin to contact Miao Haichao's team, and also sent people to report the situation to Du Fuwei and Fu Gongyou and other big thieves.

In this way, under the escort of the soldiers of the People's Army, Qian Xiangmin, who was already blue and swollen, finally found Miao Haichao's team, and finally saw Miao Haichao, the great Kou of Xiapi, who was leading the army. Hearing that Qian Xiangmin was a messenger sent by Chen Yingliang, and he also named someone to see him, Miao Haichao, who had never encountered such a thing, was of course also surprised, and quickly asked the team to temporarily stop advancing, and met Qian Xiangmin on the side of the road, and looked at Qian Xiangmin, who was bleeding from his nose, and asked: "Are you the messenger sent by Xiao Chen Qingzhi?" What is your name? What are you doing to see me? ”

"King Yumiao, the villain's name is Qian Xiangmin." Qian Xiangmin wiped the nosebleed on his face, and said to Miao Haichao: "The villain is currently serving as a staff member for Chen Yingliang and Chen Tongshou, the commander of the county, but he is just a nobody. ”

As he spoke, Qian Xiangmin took out a small cloth bag from his waist, presented it to Miao Haichao with both hands, and said respectfully: "Master Miao, this is a little bit of heart that Chen Tongshou of our county gave you, and I ask you to smile and accept it, and it is not too meager." ”

Miao Haichao took the cloth bag with a suspicious stomach, and when he poured out the objects, Miao Haichao was startled again, but the soldiers who were watching the excitement next to him screamed, it turned out that in the cloth bag, there were four white pearls the size of pigeon eggs, which were worth a lot of money - this also made the soldiers of the People's Army who escorted Qian Xiangmin here regret it very much, and said in his heart Why did he forget to search for Qian Xiangmin's body? Then, of course, Miao Haichao was very surprised and asked Qian Xiangmin: "I don't know you Chen Tongshou, why did he give me such a valuable gift?" ”

"Of course, it's a matter of respect." Qian Xiangmin, who is very good at sycophancy, finally got to show his strengths, and said like smearing honey on his mouth: "Although we Chen Tongshou are far away in Qian County, we have already heard of King Miao's great name, and know that King Miao is a rich man in Pi County, with thousands of acres of fertile land, and more than 40 pottery kilns. The name of chivalry is like thunder, and our Chen Tongshou admires the prestige of the king, so we sent the villain to meet you and send a little gift to show respect. ”

Thousands of clothes, not sycophants, hearing Qian Xiangmin boast of his proud deeds, Miao Haichao's face showed some smiles, and asked: "You Chen Tongshou sent you here just to say these good things and give these gifts?" How kind can he be? ”

"The king knows everything and guesses it." Qian Xiangmin continued to pat his ass, and at the same time took out a letter from his arms, explaining: "Don't hide it from King Miao, in fact, we Chen Tongshou still have a small request for you, begging you to act on your behalf in front of King Du Fuwei Du, persuade King Du not to invade Qian County, and to go to other counties and counties to get food. This is our handwritten letter from Chen Tongshou, please take a look at it. ”

Miao Haichao was completely stunned, and the generals and soldiers of the Mutant Army next to him were also stunned, and one of the generals also said: "You Chen Tongshou are dreaming, right?" Our army has already been killed to the edge of the county, why should we change course and retreat? Why should we listen to you? ”

"Generals, don't worry, please listen to me." Qian Xiangmin hurriedly hugged the square fist, nodded and said: "If the kings promise to change their routes and withdraw their troops and not invade Qian County again, we Chen Tongshou are willing to give you 5,000 stone of grain, 2,000 pieces of cloth and 2,000 yuan of money as a thank you." ”

Since the outbreak of the peasant uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty, although there have been many civil uprisings, it is the first time that the local officials have bribed the thieves to pay protection money, and when they heard such strange things, Miao Haichao and others were inevitably even more surprised, Miao Haichao also quickly opened the letter, and saw that Chen Yingliang really made a similar request in the letter, begging himself to say a lot of good words in front of Du Fuwei, persuading Du Fuwei to give up the plan to invade Qian County, and promised that as long as Du Fu Wei was willing to withdraw his troops and change his route, Qian County would give Du Fu Wei's team a sum of money and food as a thank you. In addition, Chen Yingliang naturally had to slap Miao Haichao's ass in the letter, blowing Miao Haichao as rare in the sky and unique on the ground, and told Miao Haichao straight to the point, as long as Miao Haichao persuaded Du Fuwei to withdraw successfully, Chen Yingliang would send another batch of gold, silver and jewelry to Miao Haichao.

After reading Chen Yingliang's so-called handwritten letter, Miao Haichao felt extremely ridiculous, but also inevitably felt a little proud, and asked with a smile: "Aren't you Chen Tongshou known as Little Chen Qingzhi, invincible in all battles?" Why, I know I'm scared today? ”

"King Miao, our Chen Tongshou is indeed a little scared." Qian Xiangmin replied respectfully according to Chen Yingliang's prior instructions: "But our Chen Tongshou is not afraid that King Du will enter Yongcheng and ask for his head, our Chen Tongshou is still very sure of defending the seven cities of Qian County." We, Chen Tongshou, are just worried that after King Miao's team enters the county, it will inevitably go to the grain village and plunder the people, in order to prevent the innocent people from suffering and ruining their lives, we Chen Tongshou sent a villain to meet you and beg you to facilitate this matter. ”

"Your Chen Tongshou, do you still have such a bodhisattva heart?" Miao Haichao smiled sarcastically and said: "I have seen a lot of corrupt officials who oppress the people, and I have really never seen someone like you Chen Tongshou who loves the people so much." ”

"King Miao, our Chen Tongshou is not a corrupt official." Qian Xiangmin hurriedly said: "King Miao, you can immediately send someone to inquire, and see if we Chen Tongshou have ever increased the rent of a dollar to the people since he took office in Qian County, and have he ever extorted a stitch from the people?" If so, you will cut me down with your own hands, my lord! ”

Seeing that Qian Xiangmin said so confidently, Miao Haichao didn't continue on this issue, but asked with some doubts: "Since you Chen Tongshou want to exchange money and grain for us to divert the route, then why don't you go directly to King Du Fuwei Du to talk about this?" Do you want to come to me first? ”

I don't know if there is someone from Du Fuwei next to him, Qian Xiangmin replied a little timidly: "King Miao, because you are extraordinarily chivalrous, unstained out of the mud, and can understand our Chen Tongshou's love for the people, so we came to ask you for help." As for King Du, I am afraid that not only will he not understand our Chen Tongshou's painstaking efforts to protect the people, but he may be greedy enough, using the lives of thousands of innocent people as a threat, extorting and blackmailing, and forcing us Chen Tongshou to come up with more money and food, such a thing, King Miao, you will definitely not be able to do it. ”

Quietly peeking at the surrounding people's army, there were no people who were furious, on the contrary, there were many people who nodded, and some money with some officialdom experience expected that these people must be Miao Haichao's subordinates and even henchmen, so he was also much bolder, and hurriedly said: "King Miao Mingcha, in fact, our Chen Tongshou's mention is beneficial to both of us, King Miao, your team went to Qian County to get food, and our Chen Tongshou was forced to send troops to resist, no matter what the result is, your subordinates will suffer some damage." But if you can make this happen, then neither you nor we need to die, you have food to eat, and we don't need to kill and hurt innocent people, wouldn't it be wonderful to have the best of both worlds? ”

After that, Qian Xiangmin hurriedly added loudly, "Of course, we Chen Tongshou will not let King Miao work in vain, after the matter is completed, we Chen Tongshou will give King Miao your team 2,000 stone of grain, 1,000 yuan of money, and 20 fat pigs and fat sheep to repay King Miao for your kindness." ”

As a rebel general who voluntarily led his team to defect to Du Fuwei in history, and did not betray Du Fuwei when he was martyred twice, and followed Du Fuwei until the final Tang Dynasty, Miao Haichao is of course somewhat commendable in terms of character, so after listening to Qian Xiangmin's words, Miao Haichao was naturally a little tempted - because this is indeed a best of both worlds. And Miao Haichao's close confidants were immediately excited, and they all encouraged: "Brother Miao, agree, this is a good thing, you don't have to work hard to have food, it's much better than grabbing it directly." ”

"Yes, Brother Miao, let's agree, our team will enter Qian County, I'm afraid we won't be able to grab so much food, it's better to agree."

Hearing the instigation of a group of henchmen and siblings, Miao Haichao was inevitably even more tempted, and couldn't help but have the idea of giving it a try, but just when he wanted to open his mouth and promise to bring money to the people to see Du Fuwei, Miao Haichao's eyes turned to another direction - where the crowd was surging, a tall young man led a group of strong men in his twenties and thirties into the circle. Miao Haichao didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute the young man respectfully, and shouted, "King Du." ”

"King Du? He's Duvoy?! Qian Xiangmin's eyes almost popped out, because Qian Xiangmin found that the legendary thief Du Fuwei in front of him was as young and childish as Chen Yingliang, and his age seemed to be slightly younger than Chen Yingliang - in fact, the current Du Fuwei was indeed only sixteen years old, one year younger than Chen Yingliang, who was already seventeen years old.

"Brother Miao, I heard that Chen Yingliang's dog official sent someone here, and he also named you to see you, what's the matter?" Du Fuwei asked in an old-fashioned manner.

"He is the messenger sent by Chen Yingliang." Miao Haichao first introduced Qian Xiangmin to Du Fuwei, and then roughly explained Qian Xiangmin's intentions, and finally took the initiative to present Chen Yingliang's letter, as well as Chen Yingliang's precious gift to himself, and treated Du Fuwei, who was at least ten years younger than himself, with a very respectful attitude.

Listening to Qian Xiangmin's intentions, and seeing Chen Yingliang's handwritten letter, Du Fuwei was of course very surprised that he had never encountered such a thing, but the generals of the People's Army behind Du Fuwei laughed wildly, all of them were Chen Gouguan's timid mouse, but so, only Tian Baishe, who had broken his left hand, did not laugh wildly, but also poked his head out of the crowd and said to Du Fuwei: "Godfather, be careful, Chen Yingliang's dog thief has always been treacherous, you must guard against changes, in the opinion of your son, godfather, you had better cut down this dog official messenger immediately, so as not to cause extraneous branches." ”

"Godfather?!" Qian Xiangmin was dumbfounded again, although Qian Xiangmin had never seen Tian Baishe, he could see that Tian Baishe was also in his thirties - a middle-aged man in his thirties was called a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy godfather, and this was the first time Qian Xiangmin had seen such a strange thing.

"Afraid of what? It's not easy to kill the dog official messenger? A matter of one word. Du Fuwei smiled, first carefully looked at Qian Xiangmin, and suddenly asked: "You want to use money and food to beg me to withdraw from the army or change the route, then why didn't Chen Yingliang send you to ask for a meeting directly, but first begged for Brother Miao Haichao Miao?" ”

"Awesome!"

Qian Xiangmin, who had been in the officialdom for a period of time, tightened his heart, and only then did he discover Du Fuwei's excellence, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy who could ask the key to the matter with a sharp point, this ability is only afraid that many adult men do not have! In addition to being secretly shocked in his heart, Qian Xiangmin just wanted to open his mouth and answer truthfully, but when the words came to his mouth, he stopped - he directly answered Du Fuwei with the words just now, saying that Du Fuwei's character is not good, Miao Haichao's character is good, so he came to ask Miao Haichao first, isn't this looking for death? It was also at this time that Qian Xiangmin suddenly remembered a major event, Chen Yingliang actually forgot to teach himself how to answer Du Fuwei's fateful question!

It must be said here that if Qian Xiangmin knew that Chen Yingliang had deliberately forgotten to teach him to answer this question to Du Fuwei, then Qian Xiangmin would definitely hide his face and cry bitterly, wailing how did he meet such a white-eyed wolf?

"Why don't you answer?" Seeing Qian Xiangmin stopping, Du Fuwei immediately raised his voice and shouted: "Answer!" Why don't you come to me directly, but ask Brother Miao first? ”

Qian Xiangmin cowered and peeked at Miao Haichao, seeing that Miao Haichao was also embarrassed and inconvenient to answer, Qian Xiangmin hesitated again, and had to stubbornly say: "Back to King Du, because we Chen Tongshou and King Miao are old friends, so we sent a villain to ask King Miao to come forward first, and also ask King Miao to introduce the villain to you on your behalf." ”

Before Qian Xiangmin's words were finished, the faces of the dozen or so strong men behind Du Fuwei changed, and their eyes looked at Miao Haichao a little strangely, and Du Fuwei asked Miao Haichao in surprise very directly: "Brother Miao, are you and Chen Yingliang old friends?" ”

Miao Haichao was in great difficulty, but it was inconvenient to tell Du Fuwei what Qian Xiangmin had just said, so he had to nod his head and said, "When I sold goods to Daxing the year before last, I met him, but I was not familiar with him, and I didn't even know his name at that time. ”

The expressions of the strong men behind Du Fuwei were even more strange, and Du Fuwei laughed and said: "Brother Miao, then you said it earlier, your friend is my friend, in fact, I have long wanted to see this legendary little Chen Qingzhi with my own eyes, I already knew that you had this friendship with him, so I have to ask you to introduce me." ”

"It's just a one-sided relationship, not familiar." Miao Haichao replied with a sad face: "If it wasn't for the person he sent to take the initiative to talk about it, I would have forgotten that I had ever seen this person." ”

"King Du, if you want to meet with us Chen Tongshou, it's easy." Qian Xiangmin hurriedly said: "As long as the king agrees to borrow troops to divert the route, not only will we definitely send the promised money, grain and cloth, but we Chen Tongshou will also set up a banquet to entertain you and the kings." ”

Du Fuwei smiled and didn't answer, but turned to Miao Haichao and asked, "Brother Miao, what do you think of this matter?" Promise? Or don't say yes? ”

Because of the small branch just now, Miao Haichao, who was already tempted, hesitated a little, but the generals of the old department of Xiapi next to Miao Haichao didn't care so much, and said one after another: "King Du, you should agree, the boy surnamed Chen promised to give us money and grain is not small, and now it is just spring, and there is no food among the people, even if we enter Qian County, I am afraid we will not be able to grab so much food, it is better to promise him as a favor, so that we can get more money and food." ”

Listening to these persuasions from Miao Haichao's old department, Du Fuwei always had a hearty smile on his face, but he never spoke, just waiting for Miao Haichao's answer. And Miao Haichao hesitated for a moment, nodded his head, and said solemnly: "King, the brothers are right, this is a good idea to have the best of both worlds, it is just spring, even if the situation in Qian County is better, and the people do not have much food, it is better to agree to Chen Gouguan's request, as long as he takes out these money and grain to us, we will withdraw and divert our troops - anyway, robbing there is not robbing, why do we have to rob Qian County?" ”

"Okay, since Brother Miao also agrees to talk about peace, then I'll go and discuss it with Brother Fu to see what he means." Du Fuwei smiled and nodded, and then ordered: "Sons, bring this dog official envoy and go back to discuss with Brother Fu." ”

"No."

More than a dozen strong men in their twenties and thirties agreed suddenly, and a few came over to lift the money to the people and left, while Du Fuwei handed back the four pearls to Miao Haichao, and said with a smile: "Brother Miao, you take the team and continue to march, I will go to discuss with Brother Fu, and I will sue you if there is a result." ”

Miao Haichao, who was open-minded, nodded in agreement, but Miao Haichao's old department was dissatisfied, and many people said: "Mom, don't call us Brother Miao to discuss such a big matter, really when we go down to the Yijun is your dog?" ”