At the time of the second watch, all the things were silent, the palace room was lit with a faint candle flame, and several pretty and lovely maids surrounded a table and a chair, they held all kinds of things in their hands, ready to serve the guy who called himself the king of Wei sitting on the chair. The maids were cautious, and they didn't dare to catch their breath. On the table was a steaming perilla and sonic drink, and the light and leisurely smell of incense and medicine filled the palace room with the steam. Lu Chongmao likes to drink the medicinal soup called Yinzi, and after nightfall, he drinks a strong perilla drink, and increases or decreases the auxiliary materials in the soup according to the change of weather to nourish and nourish the body, which is a habit he has developed for many years.

"King Wei, the mighty general asks to see." A servant quietly walked in and whispered.

Mighty general, this is the title given to Zheng Lei by Lu Chongmao. Lu Chongmao took a sip of perilla drink, put down the teacup and said, "Let him come in." The servant agreed, turned and went out. Lu Chongmao waved his hand and asked the servants to retreat. Suddenly, Zheng Lei walked in with two subordinates, and the three of them clasped their fists and saluted. Lu Zhenmao smiled: "Mighty General, you go and return, is there anything important?" ”

"King Wei, do you remember the prince you saw at Xu Sunchen's house?"

Lu Zhenmao nodded, puzzled: "What's wrong?" ”

"He is Li Tang's King of Chu."

"Huh?" When Lu Chongmao heard this, he stood up in horror, opened his eyes wide, and said, "Really? Are you not mistaken? ”

"It's true!" Zheng Lei swore solemnly, "This king of Chu led five thousand soldiers and horses to Gaoyang Town. In order to rescue Li Xiaoji and others, he risked his life and led people to sneak into the city. ”

The Tang army arrived in Gaoyang Town? Lu Zhenmao was shocked when he heard it. He secretly pondered in his heart, it seems that this King of Chu is really not good! Li Tang sent troops to attack Xia County again and again, this was to kill him Lu Chongmao!

"Where is Li Tang's King of Chu now?" Lu Chongmao asked viciously.

"He hid in Xu Sunsin's barracks."

"What a guts! You go to the Xia Mansion with me immediately. ”

Lu Chongmao, Zheng Lei and others, with the palace guards, a total of hundreds of people, rode horses, and rushed towards the Xia Mansion with torches. When he arrived at the front of the mansion, Lu Chongmao dismounted and was just about to walk towards the gate, when Zheng Lei stepped forward to stop him and said: "King Wei, Xu Sunchen may have taken refuge in Li Tang, be careful that there is an ambush in his mansion, it is better to let people call him out." When Lu Chongmao heard this, he nodded, and then said to the captain of the guard next to him: "Send someone to call Xu Sunchen out." The captain of the guard immediately asked two soldiers to come forward and knock on the door.

In the inner room of Xu's mansion, the candlelight was bright, and Xu Sunchen sat leisurely at the table drinking tea soup. A beautiful maid holds a tea pestle and grinds tribute tea from Fujian. The slender hands holding the tea pestle are as tender as onion tubes, white as jade, and the wrist is lightly turned, and the snow-white group tea is ground into foam. After being injected into the boiling water, the water veins churned, and it seemed that countless flowers, birds, insects and beasts appeared in the water, and then quietly disappeared.

The green tea cup and the white tea soup were brought to Xu Sunchen's eyes by a pair of soft and boneless jade hands. The tea was fragrant, secreting people's hearts, Xu Sunchen took the teacup, raised his glass to drink, the butler hurriedly walked in, and said: "Master, it's not good, Lu Chongmao came with many soldiers, and they were shouting outside the door to see you." When Xu Sunchen heard this, he was taken aback, put down the fine porcelain teacup and said, "What's the matter?" The butler spread his hands and said, "I don't know, they just let you out." ”

Xu Sunchen frowned, stood up and said, "Come with me and have a look." The two men walked out of the inner room, through the hall, and into the courtyard.

Lu Chongmao made such a big commotion, which alarmed everyone, and many servants of the Xu Mansion came to the courtyard with lanterns to illuminate the courtyard. More than 100 guards also gathered in the courtyard, each with a sword in hand, nervously guarding the gate and the courtyard wall.

Instead of heading towards the gate, Heo Sun-sin ascended to a veranda on the left side of the main house. He stood on the veranda and looked out of the courtyard wall. In front of the gate of Xufu is a wide street, I saw Lu Chongmao and Zheng Lei standing more than ten steps away from the gate, behind them, two or three hundred soldiers were neatly arranged, dozens of soldiers held torches, the firelight illuminated half of the street, and also reflected the armor on the soldiers' bodies and weapons in their hands, and a murderous aura went straight to the sky.

The scene in front of him made Xu Sunchen's heart sink suddenly, Lu Zhenmao put on this posture, he must have come to Xingshi to ask for guilt, and he had an ominous premonition in his heart. At this time, the butler who had been following him said, "Master, what should I do?" Xu Sunchen pondered for a moment and said, "Go, let people open the door of the mansion." The butler agreed, and hurriedly ran down.

Xu Sunsin walked slowly down the steps and walked towards the gate. The housekeeper arranged for more than a dozen guards to guard the courtyard. After Xu Sunchen stepped out of the gate, he stopped after taking a few steps forward, and arched his hand: "King Wei, it's so late, I don't know what urgency you have to come to find the minister?" ”

Before Lu Chongmao could speak, Zheng Lei preemptively said: "Xu Shunchen, why we came, you should know very well, quickly hand over Li Tang's King of Chu!" Xu Sunchen was not surprised because he had already guessed it, but he still pretended to be very surprised and said, "What is Li Tang's King of Chu?" King Wei, don't listen to the villain's words, where do I have a King of Chu here? Zheng Lei snorted coldly and said, "Xu Sunchen, when has this been, are you still sloppy?" Do you think we're all three-year-olds, so easy to deceive? Lu Chongmao waved his hand to interrupt him and said, "Shun Chen, I have always been kind to you, as long as you hand over Li Tang's King of Chu to me, we will still be good brothers in the future." ”

Xu Sunchen understood as soon as he heard that Lu Chongmao was cunning and cunning, and he did not investigate him for the crime of secretly hiding the enemy chieftain, but only asked him to hand over people, which was to cut off his back road. As long as he handed over the king of Chu, he would be an enemy of the Tang Dynasty and completely tied to Lu Chongmao. He knew that any justification was pale in the face of now, and that there were only two options before him. He pondered for a moment and said, "King Wei, you can go back and think about it, and then reply to you, okay?" Lu Chongmao nodded and said, "Okay, I'll give you a stick of incense." ”

Xu Sunsin arched his hand, turned around and walked back to the mansion, and the gate of the courtyard was closed. Xu Sunsin stood in the middle of the courtyard and asked the housekeeper on the side, "Where is the prince now?" ”

"I'm coming!" As soon as the words fell, I saw Li Zhiyun walking out of the darkness, followed by Cai Hu, Fan Shuxiang, and Xu Zisheng and his two brothers.

The ancestral hall of the Xu family is next to the Xia Gongfu, and there is only a seven or eight foot wide alley between the two, and there is a corner gate between the two courtyards. There was such a big commotion on the Xu Mansion's side, of course Li Zhiyun couldn't have been unaware, so he brought a group of people over.

Li Zhiyun walked up to Xu Sunchen and smiled: "General Xu, if I guessed correctly, Lu Chongmao led so many people to kill the mansion, is he trying to force you to hand me over, right?" Xu Sunchen nodded and said, "Lu Chongmao and Zheng Lei have already recognized your identity and come to ask for someone." Presumably you also know that if Xu doesn't hand you over, he will completely tear his face with them, then there will be a big war next. However, there are many of them, and Xu has few soldiers, so it is difficult for Xu to do it. Although he didn't say it explicitly, the implication was obvious, that is: I can't beat Lu Chongmao, so I'm sorry.

Xu Zisheng, who was standing beside Li Zhiyun, heard this, and hurriedly said loudly: "Third uncle, you can't hand over the King of Chu, I will never agree!" ”

Li Zhiyun waved his hand to interrupt him, looked at Xu Shunchen with a calm gaze and said: "General Xu, I have already said last time that you are the head of a clan, where you go, it is related to the life of a clan, I believe that General Xu will make the right choice." As for the troop problem you are worried about, you don't have to. Don't hide it from General Xu, he has already sent people to Gaoyang Town to transfer troops, as long as General Xu can resist for one or two hours, reinforcements will arrive. At that time, Lu Chongmao will be eradicated, and General Xu will make great contributions, and this king will definitely go to the court, add officials to General Xu, and seal his wife and son. Li Zhiyun's words were also both soft and hard, not only sealing the official and making a wish, but also threatening, and clearly told the other party that my army is about to arrive, don't toast and don't eat and drink, you just watch it!

However, Xu Sunchen was still pensive and hesitant, and at this time, someone next to him shouted: "The eighteenth master is here." Li Zhiyun turned his head and saw two people standing in front of the hall, one was Xu Zisheng's father, and the other was an old man in his seventies and eighties. The two men had probably entered through the back door and made their way through the hall to the front yard.

The surrounding servants and guards automatically made way of the way, and two people walked over. Li Zhiyun was full of respect when he saw that everyone was courteous to the old man, and thought that he must be the elder of the Xu family. Sure enough, Xu Sunchen stepped forward and respectfully saluted: "Eighteenth uncle, why are you here?" The old man snorted coldly and said, "You have made such a big disturbance here, can the old man not come?" After that, he turned his eyes to Li Zhiyun and said, "This is the King of Chu of the Tang Dynasty, right?" ”

Li Zhiyun hurriedly stepped forward to salute: "The junior Li Zhiyun has seen the old gentleman. The old man hurriedly returned the salute, and then said to Xu Shunchen: "Shunchen, you can't be confused anymore, the Tang Emperor has sent the King of Qin to lead a large army to recover Hedong, Liu Wuzhou can't do anything, and Lu Chongmao can't do anything." You are the patriarch of our Xu family, and the lives of tens of thousands of people in the Xu family are in your hands, you must not make mistakes and harm the clansmen! ”

At this time, more and more people gathered in the courtyard, in addition to the subordinates of the Xu Mansion and the guards, there were many children surnamed Xu wearing armor and holding weapons. Apparently, they all rushed from home after hearing the news. It is about the survival of the Xu family, how can they not care? Therefore, everyone gathered in the patriarch's mansion.

The old man's words resonated with many people, and Xu Zisheng's father said loudly: "Cousin, what Uncle Eighteen said is right, you should quickly break off with Lu Zhenmao!" As soon as he finished speaking, many people around him echoed him. It seems that they are usually bullied by Lu Zhenmao and his subordinates, and they all have a fire in their hearts.