After sending Yan Chongyi away, Qian Yuanshan and the other traversers did not rest, but gathered together to discuss the contact with the people of Qiulinzhuang. Since it was early in the morning, it was not appropriate to contact "Qingyuan" and "Liangyuan", so Qian Yuanshan and the others planned to discuss a charter by themselves first, and then report to the committee after dawn.

Regarding the issue of contact with the squires and people of Qiulinzhuang, Qian Yuanshan and the other four people did not have a very unified opinion, and Tang Chao had reservations about it. He felt that the main purpose of the Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion's dispatch to Pingsanzhai this time was to train the troops. If you cooperate with local Shili, it may affect the effectiveness of military training. He believed that the local shili was usually very familiar with the situation of these cottages, and knew where the opponent's weakness was, so he would naturally guide the Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion to attack the enemy's weakest point. In that case, the difficulty of fighting will be much less, and the purpose of military training may not be achieved.

Qian Yuanshan and Zeng Zhilin felt that the situation would not be as serious as Tang Chao said, and the matter could not be generalized. They believe that whether or not to cooperate with local shili depends on the situation at the time. If the place shili is beneficial to me, it can be used by me. If the place is not good for me and cannot be used by me, it will not be used. Even when necessary, it is not impossible to sweep these places shili together. The two of them were of the view that they could neither rely on the support of the local shili, nor should they turn away the help that came to their doors. After all, the future goal of the Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion is to drive the Khitans out of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, as long as there is a suitable opportunity, this thing that can win the hearts and minds of the people should be done without hesitation.

Since Qian Yuanshan and Zeng Zhilin were the chief and deputy commanders of the operation, and now they were in a two-to-one majority -- Muttel did not express his opinion, and he listened to the role of the side where there were more people -- the final result of the discussion was to follow the opinions of Qian and Zeng and decide whether or not to jointly attack "Baihuazhai" with Qiulinzhuang after making contact with Qiulinzhuang according to the situation. Of course, their resolution only sets a general direction for the subsequent actions, and whether or not to implement them will still need to be subject to the decision of the committee.

After the meeting, it was almost dawn, and Qian Yuanshan and the others had no time to sleep, so a few people only took a nap in the Chinese military tent and got up to continue working.

The first thing Qian Yuanshan and the others did after waking up was to report the decision of the forward command to the committee through the radio. After discussion, the Committee endorsed their recommendations. At the same time, in order not to delay the opportunity due to the back-and-forth requests for instructions and reports, the committee said in a telegram back to them that in the future, if the issues are not particularly important, the forward command can handle and make decisions on their own, and report them after the matter is over, and there is no need to ask for instructions on everything.

After being recognized by the committee, Qian Yuanshan and others immediately took action. After some discussion, the four of them decided that Qian Yuanshan and Tang Chao would go to Qiulinzhuang in the afternoon to visit the owner of the village, Mrs. Yan, on behalf of the Feilong Pioneer Battalion, and negotiate with him on the matter of cooperating in the extermination of the "Baihua Village" according to the situation. At the same time, for safety reasons, Qingchen and six guards will accompany Qian and Tang into the village, while Zeng Zhilin and Mutel, who stayed in the camp, led the brigade to make all preparations. If there is an accident, Qian Yuanshan and others will shoot a signal flare into the sky, and Zeng Zhilin will immediately attack the village when he sees the signal and rescue Qian Yuanshan and others from the village. In addition, in order to maintain contact between the two sides, Qian Yuanshan and others will also carry a handheld radio station with them in case of emergency. After everyone had decided on it, they began to prepare for the afternoon meeting.

After lunch, Qian Yuanshan and Tang Chao left the camp with Qingchen and his personal guards and went to Qiulinzhuang. Because the two sides were very close to each other, as soon as Qian Yuanshan and the others came out of the camp, they were seen by Zhuang Ding who was patrolling the village wall. Therefore, when Qian Yuanshan and others came to the front of the village, Yan Chongyi and his eldest brother Yan Chongren were already waiting at the gate of the village.

Yan Chongyi introduced the two sides, and everyone greeted each other, and after saying a few polite words, the Yan brothers let Qian Yuanshan and others into their homes.

Qian Yuanshan and the others entered the Yan house accompanied by the Yan brothers, and the old lady Yan had already greeted them with the support of the other two children. After Yan Chongyi introduced the two parties, Qian Yuanshan and others hurriedly stepped forward to greet Mrs. Yan, and said that they really didn't dare to let Mrs. Yan lower their rank to greet them. Mrs. Yan even said that she should. The two sides exchanged polite words for a while, and then entered the main hall together. ,

When they entered the house, they all found their seats and sat down. Everyone talked about the unnutritious scene again, and then they began to get to the point. Qian Yuanshan told Mrs. Yan about the origin of the Flying Dragon Pioneer Camp and the purpose of coming to Baihua Mountain this time.

After listening to Qian Yuanshan's introduction, Yan Chongli, the third elder of the Yan family, thought for a while and asked: "According to Commander Qian (the title of Commander Qian is a position given to him by the old lady Yan according to the number of the Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion commanded by Qian Yuanshan, because it is too troublesome to explain the title of the Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion to the Yan family's father and son, so Qian Yuanshan is also screamed by the other party) said, you and dozens of other brothers are all gentry in Liangxiang City? ”

"Exactly," Qian Yuanshan replied.

"That being the case, then I will ask you next, what does Commander Qian have to do with the thirty-six brothers of 'Qingyuan' in Liangxiang City?" Yan Chongli asked tentatively.

Seeing that the other party asked about the thirty-six brothers of "Qingyuan", although Qian Yuanshan was a little surprised that the people in this remote mountain village also knew about their people, he did not deliberately hide it, but replied very frankly: "Don't hide it from the old lady Yan and all the sons, this Tang brother is one of the thirty-six brothers of 'Qingyuan'. In the eleventh in the lower row, this Tang brother is ranked twenty-fourth. The Zeng brother who accidentally injured the second son last night was ranked 26th, and there was a Mu brother ranked 35th. ”

"It turns out that you are four of the thirty-six brothers of 'Qingyuan', and I have heard of your great name early in the morning, and I have great admiration for your various righteous deeds in Liangxiang and several surrounding counties. It is a great pleasure to meet you today. Yan Chongli said a little excitedly, Yan Chongren and Yan Chongyi also echoed on the side, and even the old lady Yan couldn't stop nodding.

"The third prince has an overreputation, he is just an ordinary squire in the inferior class, how can the third prince say so extraordinary" Qian Yuanshan hurriedly said humbly.

"Commander Qian is too modest," Yan Chongli said, "I heard that the thirty-six brothers of 'Qingyuan' were the most anxious and righteous in the morning, and everyone in the Liangxiang area praised them. It is said that the wages of the shops and workshops of yours and others for the men and workers are the highest in Liangxiang County and even in the whole Youdu Prefecture; It is said that you and others not only financed the construction of bridges and roads for the people, but also purchased a large amount of land, which was provided to the landless peasants and even the displaced people from other villages to cultivate, but only collected a very small amount of land rent; It is also said that as soon as you made your debut, you hit the bandits of the 'Five Tiger Village' in Xiayunling, so that they never dared to go down the mountain again. This time, he was not afraid of danger and took the initiative to organize the township to go into the mountains to suppress bandits and bring benefits to the people. If these are not righteous deeds, I don't know what else can be called righteous deeds. ”

Listening to Yan Chongli's list of "great achievements" for his people one by one, Qian Yuanshan felt that his face was slightly hot. As a member of the crossing team, he naturally knew that the so-called "righteous deeds" that Yan Chongli said were not as great as the people had praised them.

He knew very well that the reason why the team paid the guys and workers high wages was because the team signed a confidentiality agreement with them, and the price for the guys and workers was that they could not divulge any team secrets to outsiders, otherwise they would be killed. And even if they are allowed to leave the shop or workshop, they must not be out of the control of the team for a long time, otherwise it will also be a dead end.

He also knew very well that the main reason why the team built bridges and roads was so that the brothers could move quickly between the various strongholds, so that they could quickly move in case of danger. The main purpose of purchasing a large amount of land for landless farmers and displaced people to cultivate is to control enough human resources to provide sufficient manpower for other industries and the Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion. What's more, except for the people around the original "Jingyuan" and the villagers of Liangshuiquan Village, the land rent that other tenants have to pay is not much less than that of other tenants.

He knew better that the team's heavy attack on the "Five Tigers" was completely self-defense, and it was to protect their lives and property from being threatened. And this time, the pacification of Sanzhai is aimed at exercising the actual combat ability of the Feilong Pioneer Battalion, and "benefiting the people" is just a by-product of this purpose.

Of course, although Qian Yuanshan had a fever on his face, he still had to say polite words. Therefore, on the one hand, he even said that he did not dare to be a local gentry, and on the other hand, he said that as a local gentry, he should do what he could for the local people.

At this moment, Yan Ruhua, the second lady of the Yan family, who had not spoken just now, suddenly asked: "I heard from the eldest sister, you people have all returned to Middle-earth from overseas, is this true?" ”,

Seeing that Qian Yuanshan felt a little abrupt about his sister's question, Yan Chongli hurriedly explained: "Commander Qian doesn't know, in addition to being picturesque, there is also a sister Rushi below, who married in Liangxiang County two years ago. The things about the thirty-six brothers of 'Qingyuan' are all told by this sister who is like a poet. ”

It was not until this time that Qian Yuanshan and the others understood that the other party had such a comprehensive understanding of the story of these people, and it turned out that they had relatives in Liangxiang County. So, according to the team's standard answer, Qian Yuanshan told the Yan family father and son about the way to return to Middle-earth, the "descendants of overseas Han Chinese".

Qian Yuanshan's narration not only made the Yan family father and son sigh at their innocence of these "descendants of overseas Han people", but also aroused Yan Ruhua's great interest. If it weren't for the presence of her father and brother, she couldn't show too much, she was afraid that she would break the casserole and ask to the end, and even let Qian Yuanshan tell her about the development history of overseas island countries.

Just when Qian Yuanshan finished telling the Yan family father and son about the return of these "overseas Han descendants", and was about to direct the topic to this action to pacify the "Baihua Village", a member of the Yan family came in to report that two soldiers had come from the camp outside the village and had something important to see their commander.

When Qian Yuanshan heard this, he knew that Zeng Zhilin might have something to report, but it was not urgent enough to pass through the radio, so he sent someone over to spread the word. So, he asked Tang Chao to go out to meet the two soldiers who reported the news to understand the situation.

Tang Chao returned to the main hall after a short time, and after he sat down in his seat again, he leaned into Qian Yuanshan's ear and said in a low voice: "Brother Eleven, the person sent by the old twenty-sixth said that the Bai Fei from the 'Baihua Village' sent a letter just now. The old twenty-six hopes that we will return to the camp as soon as possible, and everyone will discuss the next move. ”

I heard that Bai Fei, the owner of the "Baihua Village", sent someone to deliver the letter, and Qian Yuanshan felt a little surprised. Although they had long expected that so many of them going up the mountain would definitely arouse the vigilance of the thieves in the "Baihua Village", they did not expect that the other party would take the initiative to send someone to contact them.

So, Qian Yuanshan also asked in a low voice: "Did the old twenty-six say what was written in the other party's letter?" ”

Tang Chao nodded and said, "Bai Fei made an appointment with us in the letter, proposing that in three days, we would fight to the death in the area of Dakiba between Qiulinzhuang and 'Baihua Village'. ”

"I didn't expect this Bai Fei to have a bit of backbone," Qian Yuanshan said, "However, this kind of face-to-face fight is exactly what we want." ”

After speaking, Qian Yuanshan turned to Mrs. Yan, intending to resign to the other party. As a result, they found that both Mrs. Yan and their sons were looking at them with a suspicious expression. At this time, Qian Yuanshan realized that the whispering between himself and Tang Chao just now was a little inappropriate. So, he hurriedly hugged his fists to the Yan family's father and son, and said, "It's rude, I hope that the old lady Yan and the three sons will not be surprised." The twenty-fourth brother who had just been under the city reported to the next that the twenty-sixth brother who stayed in the camp came with the news, saying that Bai Fei, the owner of the big village of 'Baihua Village', had sent someone to send a letter, and the two sides would fight to the death in Da Muchang about three days later. The twenty-sixth brother couldn't make up his mind for a while, hoping that he could go back as soon as possible to discuss countermeasures. ”

This news also surprised the Yan family's father and son, because with their understanding of Bai Fei, this person has always paid attention to promoting his strengths and avoiding weaknesses when he fights with foreign enemies, and he has always used the steep mountains and strong walls to fight the enemy, and has never had such a face-to-face and hard-to-face battle with the opponent. Therefore, the father and son of the Yan family agreed that Bai Fei definitely had a conspiracy to go against the norm this time.

Hearing what the Yan family's father and son said, Qian Yuanshan immediately realized that he was too optimistic just now. Therefore, after a little thought, he proposed to the Yan family father and son, hoping that the other party could send someone to return to the camp with him to discuss the matter together.

Regarding Qian Yuanshan's proposal, the Yan family father and son said that there was no problem. Mrs. Yan immediately ordered her eldest son and third son—Yan Chongyi's leg injury was not yet healed, so it was not suitable to move around frequently—to return to the camp with Qian Yuanshan to deal with Bai Fei's appointment.

After Qian Yuanshan thanked the Yan family's father and son, he said goodbye to the old lady Yan, left the Yan family with Yan Chongren and Yan Chongli, and hurriedly returned to the camp outside the village.

);