Late Tang

Wearing a dark green round-neck gown, and wearing a veil on his head, Li Juren, the eldest son of the young Qingni City Lord, is full of elegance. No one can see that such a tall but gentle young man, but He mounted a horse and killed the enemy when he was 12 years old.At this time, he looked like a scholar, bowed his hands to Monk Xuancheng very humbly and said: "My father sent me to invite you to the mansion."

Xuan Cheng nodded. He had been in Qingni City for several days. When he first came, he reported his family name, but few people knew where Shamen Town was.No one knew who Li Jing was, and at least it cost a lot of money to meet the person in charge of Qingni City.Then, after delivering that heavy gift, a steward of the City Lord's Mansion arranged him to this concierge pavilion.After the Liaohai victory yesterday, Li Jing immediately sent someone to deliver a letter to him, telling him about the victory and asking him to discuss the alliance with Li Lingfu as soon as possible.

On Li Lingfu's birthday yesterday, he gave two generous gifts, and secretly sent a few scouts to spread the news about the great victory in Liaohai in the restaurants and brothels of Qingni City.Now that Li Lingfu's eldest son has come to invite him personally, it seems that Qingni City has heard the news and is interested.

Li Lingfu met Xuan Cheng in the study this time, meeting in such a place seemed a little private and intimate.When Xuan Cheng entered, Li Lingfu was not the only one in the study, there was also an old man with white hair and two burly and bearded middle-aged men sitting there.This old man, Xuan Cheng, knew that he was the general manager of Qingnipu City, and those two middle-aged men seemed to be the generals of Qingnipu City.

Seeing Xuan Cheng's arrival, Li Lingfu greeted him very politely.

"Xuan Cheng, the envoy of General Li Jing from Shamen Town, pays a visit to City Lord Li."

Li Lingfu waved his hand with a smile, "You don't have to be so polite, it's not the first time we've met." He cut to the chase, "I heard some rumors today that your general Li Jing and the pirate teamed up to break through the one-eyed dragon's cave first. , lured and annihilated a squadron of Feng Zhang in Tieshan Port, and even captured Wuhu Island?"

"The rumors are not true." Xuan Cheng shook his head, and said slowly: "It is a false rumor that my general and the pirates joined forces, and it is even more ridiculous to say that we lured Feng Zhang's fleet."

A look of disappointment flashed across Li Lingfu's face when he heard this answer. If these were not true, then there was no need for him to join forces with Li Jing.

Xuan Cheng smiled lightly, "The fact is that my general sent people to investigate the lair of the one-eyed dragon. He raised his troops in order to avenge the pirates' raid on Shamen Town last time. Before the rise of troops, he also asked Daxie Village to send troops." However, Feng Zhang refused to send a single soldier. My general led the Shamen town army and the children on the island to sail to the sea to break the thief's lair in Iron Mountain. Unexpectedly, Feng Zhang not only refused to send troops to help our army, but instead He secretly sent his fleet to Iron Mountain to ambush our army."

"As a result, the city lord also found out. My general led his brothers to fight to the death, defeating the strong with the weak, and defeated the Fengzhang Fleet. They chased all the way to Wuhu Island, and finally captured Wuhu Island in a fit of anger, annihilating the entire Fengzhang Fleet. Honor the fleet."

Li Lingfu was stunned for a moment, looking at the honest-looking Xuan Cheng, he almost smashed the teapot in his hand onto his bald head.This monk, it's all obvious things, and he insists on going around such a big circle and speaking so grandly.However, he suddenly felt relieved for a while, everything has been confirmed, Li Jing really annihilated one of Feng Zhang's fleets, and even took Wuhu Island.

"General Li Jing sent his foot down, besides celebrating his birthday, is there any other meaning?" Li Lingfu didn't want to hang around with Xuan Cheng, so he asked directly.

"My general wants to join forces with the city lord."

"Why do you want to join hands with me?" Li Lingfu's eyes were aggressive.

"Because my general said that the city lord is a hero of the times. He traveled alone in Liaodong, built the Crane Control Army with nothing, and even turned the tide and rescued Qingnipu. Moreover, my general and the city lord's ancestors were both officers in Pinglu, Yingzhou, western Liaoning. Brother Paoze. The general and the city lord are both descendants of the Pinglu Army. What's more, we all have a common enemy, Duli Town."

"Duli Town is not your enemy, is it?"

"To tell you the truth, Cat Island was attacked by us. Now whether it is Feng Zhang from Daxie Village or the Feng family from Duli Town, they are all our enemies," Xuan Cheng said.

Li Meng, who had been dozing off with half-closed eyes, suddenly said, "How does General Li Jing plan to join forces? For such an important matter, I'm afraid I can't fully represent General Li Jing."

"Indeed, the matter of forming an alliance is important, and I'm just a messenger." Xuan Cheng said: "My general asked me to tell the city lord that there will be an alliance at sea tonight. If the city lord is to be invited to the sea, the principals of the two families will meet in person."

This proposal surprised everyone, Li Mengdao: "Why didn't Li Jing come to Qingni City in person, do you know that there is still a fleet from Duli Town outside Qingni Port?"

Xuan Cheng was silent and did not speak. Although Li Jing wanted to join forces with Li Lingfu, under the current circumstances, he was not willing to venture into Qingni City.Wuhu Island is not far from Qingni City. It is a relatively safe proposal to choose the sea alliance between the two parties.

"I'm willing to take a walk." Li Lingfu broke the somewhat silent atmosphere, "Although I have only heard of General Li Jing's reputation for a short time, I already have great admiration for General Li Jing in my heart, and I am very much looking forward to this meeting."

"City Lord"

"Uncle Meng doesn't need to say much, I've already made up my mind." Li Lingfu stopped Li Meng's advice.

Li Lingfu is a hero, and it is not easy for Qingnipu to be stable in the chaos of Liaodong.However, Qingnipu suffered heavy losses ten years ago, and was surrounded by Duli Town and Beisha City. Shou, how can I survive until today.This time, although he ambushed twice in a row and defeated the opponent's surprise attack, Qingnipu was still too weak in terms of strength between the two sides.Especially at the moment, Duli Town and Beisha City are not in a hurry to attack, instead they are only besieged by sea and land, and this situation is very unfavorable to him.

Qingnipu's territory is not large, although there are fields, but the output is not enough for the people in the city to eat.The maintenance of Qingni City basically depends on the trade that guards the sea trade route to make money, but now that the two armies are blocked, the situation is getting more and more unfavorable.He urgently needs an ally, an ally who dares to confront Duli Town, and this Li Jing who suddenly appeared is such a suitable target.

That night, Li Lingfu took his second son Li Juyi, third son Li Juli, and two generals of the Crane Control Army under his command to board the Qingnifu battleship, and led five thousand troops to leave the port quietly, leaving Li Meng and his eldest son Li Juren behind in the city.

Although he was going to meet the alliance, Li Lingfu also did not dare to be careless.Not to mention that the fleet of Duli Town on the sea outside the harbor is not far away, even Li Jing, a future ally, dare not be completely at ease.Taking advantage of the darkness, the Qingnipu Fleet carefully avoided the patrol boats of the Duli Town Fleet after leaving the port, sailed [-] miles southwest, and finally arrived at Chisha Reef.There, Li Jing also led the fleet and was waiting.After the exchanges between the envoys of the two sides were confirmed, the last two fleets stayed one mile away from Chisha Reef each, and Li Jing and Li Lingfu each took their subordinates to board Chisha Reef in small boats.

On the small island reef, before the two arrived, the envoys from both sides had searched carefully to ensure that there was no ambush.

Li Lingfu and Li Jing landed on the island almost at the same time, and there was a tent that had just been temporarily arranged on the island.When they saw each other for the first time, both of them were a little surprised.Li Jing was surprised that Li Lingfu was tall and burly, and he seemed to be in his 30s or even less than [-] years old, which was very inconsistent with the fact that most people in Datang were older than their actual age.And Li Lingfu was even more surprised because Li Jing was too young.Although Li Jing has deliberately grown a beard since he joined the army, the short mustache on his chin is only an inch long, and although the two beards on his upper lip have been groomed, no matter how you look at him, he looks more like a refined scholar. Rather than a bold and unscrupulous tiger general in his impression.

But at the first glance, the two of them were surprised, and immediately felt a sense of sympathy between heroes, as if they had met each other and hated the lateness.

"How to join forces?" Li Lingfu didn't say any polite words, and went straight to the point.This made Li Jing a little surprised, and the words that had been prepared for a long time on the way here were in vain.Seeing that he was so straightforward, Li Jing stopped talking nonsense, "Exchanging needs, offensive and defensive alliances, watching and helping each other, and business exchanges."

"I have no objection to teaming up, but it must be beneficial to everyone. Let's join forces, what do I need to do, what can you do, what can I get, what can you get?" Under the double-teaming of Li Town and Beisha City, Qingnipu can still be managed well, so it is natural to have a special character.This ability is not only in his ability to fight, but also in his strategy.In his view, any cooperation is possible. Friends are better than enemies, and one more friend means one less enemy.However, there is a prerequisite for any cooperation, that is, both parties can benefit.

"Let's deal with Duli Town together." Li Jing said slowly, "Of course, I can't really attack Duli Town right now, but we can take our time. First join forces in other areas, for example, my emissary before I have handed over the Liaodong distribution rights for several in-demand products to Qingnipu, and I believe this is a good cooperation."

"That's really good, but if it's just like this, it's not worth my effort to come here in person." Li Lingfu laughed.He was not disappointed when Li Jing said that he would not attack Du Lizhen now.Li Jing said the truth and was very frank.If Li Jing opened his mouth to help him deal with Duli Town, he might turn around and leave.

"I still have a good business deal with City Lord Li." Li Jing believes that any cooperation must be beneficial, and joining forces with Qingnipu must be done step by step.Only when everyone gets the benefits and repays the sweetness, the road ahead will be further. "I know that City Lord Li just won two big victories and captured more than 2000 soldiers from Beisha City and Duli Town."

"That's right." Li Lingfu nodded, "But I don't have more than [-] prisoners. I control the Crane Cavalry Army to take the initiative to attack every year, and the total number of captured prisoners is over a thousand. In addition, the people we plundered are also Many, if you want to do slave business, I can have more than ten thousand young and strong people in my hands. Of course, these people are not all captured soldiers, and many of them are ordinary people. Not only Tang people, but also many Khitan people, Shi Wei People, Turkic people, Goguryeo people, etc. There are many young and strong male slaves, I also have many young female slaves. If you want to buy, I can give you a discount."

Li Jing smiled and said: "I want all of these, and I want as much as I have. However, I don't plan to buy, but plan to exchange."

"Change? How?"

"This time, our army broke through the Iron Mountain Bandit Den, wiped out Fengzhang's fleet, and captured Wuhu Island. The harvest is also not small. Presumably the city lord has also had such troubles. The captured soldiers are not easy to use. Don’t worry about them joining the army, but also worry about them escaping, and they often make troubles.”

"It's true. They were all captured on the battlefield. Many people's brothers and even their fathers died in our hands for several generations. They are enemies for generations. Even if they become captives, it is difficult to control them."

"That's right, because they are your captives, so it's not easy to control these people even if they become slaves. I have a proposal, why don't we exchange prisoners of war slaves, you give your prisoners of war slaves to me, and mine to you , Disposing of these captives will save a lot of worry." Li Jing suggested.He thought about the idea of ​​exchanging prisoners for a long time. He kept those soldiers in Daxie village in his hands, and he had to worry about them making trouble all the time, so it was better to throw them out for peace of mind.If a group of Liaodong prisoners of war had been replaced, the situation would have been much better if there had been no direct grievances between the two parties.

Li Lingfu thought about it for a while, discussed with several subordinates, and finally agreed to Li Jing's proposal to exchange slaves, and the two sides immediately reached the first cooperation.Li Jing added more than 1 family members from the rest of the One-Eyed Flood Dragon Pirate, and Zheng Mo who surrendered and his [-]-odd soldiers.In addition, there are nearly [-] captives in Daxie Village, plus those soldiers and their families on Wuhu Island, a total of [-] people, in exchange for the [-] captives in Li Lingfu's hands, [-] young and strong male slaves and [-] young and strong Female slaves.However, the value of these slaves in Qingnipu was higher, so Li Jing had to provide Qingnipu with Salmon Town specialty liquor, rock sugar and perfume equivalent to the other half of the value of the slaves.

After negotiating the first business, Li Lingfu also wanted to buy some warships and weapons from Li Jing.He needs all spears, horizontal knives, bows and arrows, especially bows, arrows and crossbows.Although Qingnipu also has its own ordnance workshop, as soon as the war starts now, he has to start storing ordnance for a long-term war.

"We need crossbows, especially heavy crossbows." Li Lingfu pondered for a while, "I want to buy from you the kind of sharp firearms that can defeat Fengzhang's fleet."

Li Jing thought about it for a while. Although he had a lot of weapons and equipment, he was unwilling to sell them and would rather store them.However, it is the first time to form an alliance with Qingnipu, and he must get something that can be sold. Anyway, he has enough weapons in the short term, so he said: "I can give you three thousand spears, three thousand horizontal knives, and three thousand bows. I’m also in short supply with crossbows, and the same is true for arrows. I have a special ordnance workshop in Shamen Town, but various materials such as beef tendon and cowhide are really tight. If the city lord can provide us with a large amount of materials in the future, we can help the city lord Li to order .As for that kind of powerful flame, it is quite difficult to make, and I have almost used up my hand, but I can draw a hundred pots for you first."

"Okay!" Li Lingfu readily agreed. Anyway, the future will be long, and he can get three thousand spears and horizontal knives each, one hundred pots of powerful flames, and the exchange of materials for ordnance promised by Li Jing. He is already very happy. Satisfied.

(To be continued)