After praising him, he immediately took the wine flask, filled the glasses for Li Ying and himself, raised them, touched them, and drank.
Li Ying wiped the drink from the corner of his mouth, turned around and called: "Xiang nephew of the Hu family, come and have a drink with me."
In Hujiazhuang's camp, a young man walked out reluctantly, came to the table and clasped his fists, saying: "I, Hu Cheng, have seen Wu Dadutou!"
Li Ying pulled out the chair for him to sit down and said, "This is the young owner of Hujiazhuang. He is nicknamed 'Flying Tiger' and is Hu Sanniang's biological brother."
"I've admired you for a long time." Cao Cao said hello insincerely, poured wine for the three of them, and said, "I've heard for a long time that your three villages have been friends for generations and echoed each other. Wu came here for no other reason than to ask: Zhujiazhuang intends to kill officials and rebel, have you participated in this matter?"
Hu Cheng was startled and said quickly: "Our Hu family are good people. How can we be willing to participate in such evil things? Your Excellency hopes to see clearly."
Li Ying looked at Cao Cao and said slowly: "Nephew Hu Xian is right. The Li family and the Hu family have been good people for generations. Do they all think that we will participate in such evil things?"
Cao Cao nodded slightly. This Li Ying was quite a figure. What he said made it clear: If you said we would participate, we would participate. If you said we didn't participate, we would not participate. There are two words for official. You have killed the owner of Zhujiazhuang. Didn't you participate? Isn’t it up to you to participate?
Cao Cao knew that if he really framed him, Li Ying was afraid that he would immediately take a violent action. He laughed and said, "I have always heard that the Flying Eagle is bright and decisive. When I saw it today, it turned out that it has a well-deserved reputation. With Li Daguan's knowledge, how could it be possible?" Will he associate with those unscrupulous thieves? In my opinion, he must be a good citizen."
Li Ying also secretly breathed a sigh of relief, picked up his wine and said with a smile, "It all depends on your wisdom."
The two drank it all in one gulp.
Cao Cao said: "The Zhu family is guilty and the villagers are innocent. In Wu's opinion, all the Zhu family's frivolous wealth must be confiscated. The rest of the land was taken from the hands of the two families by force. Now it should be returned to the Li and Hu families." In addition, I wish the people in the village will return to their respective families and be educated carefully so that they will not do evil again. What do you think?"
The money is mine, the field is yours.
Li Ying immediately smiled and said: "We are the local big family, so it is our duty to share the worries of the imperial court."
"Okay, since both Li Daguan and Master Hu Shao are reasonable, then the matter has been settled. We don't need many people here. You two will each bring more than a hundred people and follow me into Zhujiazhuang."
Li Ying hesitated slightly, then nodded: "Okay, Quanyi Dutou."
When they entered Dezhuang, Cao Cao sent Pei Xuan, Yang Lin, and Shi Qian as leaders to confiscate all the Zhu family's property. Shi Qian and other great masters were here, burying it in the ground and building it in the wall, letting him hide it however he wanted. Even though they were hidden, they were of no use at all. They were all taken out.
In rough terms, there are 360,000 taels of silver, more than 18,000 taels of gold, some antiques, calligraphy and paintings, 500,000 shi of food, and several house deeds in various prefectures and counties.
Cao Cao was overjoyed. He never expected that a wealthy country man would be richer than Ximen Qing, a rich man in Yanggu County.
He kept his word, not taking an inch of the Zhu family's countless acres of land, and giving it all to the Li and Hu families.
The three big villages in Dulonggang were originally the Zhujiazhuang with the largest land. Especially in Zhu Long's generation, the three brothers were all arrogant and arrogant. They said they were an alliance, but in fact they vaguely regarded the other two villages as vassals and subordinates. Now they are divided. With his family's land, the Li family and the Hu family suddenly became powerful.
Li Ying was so happy that he immediately sent people back to the village to get one hundred thousand taels of silver and gave it to Cao Cao. He said it was "the money from the labor of the army", and Cao Cao accepted it generously.
Cao Cao personally wrote the petition, saying that Zhujiazhuang colluded with the Liao people and conspired to rebel. Li Ying and Hu Cheng, the local good people, took the lead. Wu Zhi, the head of Yanggu, made a decisive decision and destroyed the Zhu family with the cooperation of Li and Hu. The house was full, and 80,000 taels of furniture and some antiques, calligraphy and paintings were confiscated, all of which were confiscated.
Li Ying and Hu Cheng have nothing to say? They proudly wrote their signatures on the papers.
After putting away the papers, Cao Cao randomly selected a few antiques, packed them with 10,000 silver, found some red cloth to wrap them around, invited Li Ying to accompany him, brought a group of brothers and Hu Sanniang, and arrived at Hujiazhuang in a grand manner.
Hu Cheng was panic-stricken and reported back on Pegasus. His old father Hu Taigong came to greet him in person. He had learned that his family had swallowed up half of the land of Zhujiazhuang. He was ecstatic, but he also learned that his daughter had accompanied the Zhu family to "rebellion", so he was suspicious of Cao Cao's intentions. , quite wary.
Cao Cao met Grand Duke Hu and bowed to him: "The old Grand Duke is well. He is in Dutou Wuzhi in Xiayanggu County. He suppressed the rebellion in Zhujiazhuang and rescued the daughter of your mansion from the rebel army. She fell in love with you at first sight. As the saying goes. My marriage is made in heaven, and I can't bear to live up to it, so I offer you ten thousand taels of silver as a betrothal offer to ask Hu Sanniang to be my wife. If your father-in-law makes her a good match, my son-in-law will be very grateful."
When he opened his mouth, he called the old lady, and before he finished speaking, he started calling him "father-in-law" and "son-in-law." Hu Taigong had never seen such a shameless person in his life, and he couldn't help being shocked.
Li Ying secretly nodded: My Dao Hu family is so virtuous and capable, but they actually share half of the land with me, Li Ying. It turns out that Wu Dalang fell in love with his third wife.
He immediately spoke up and said, "As the old saying goes, a wise eye recognizes a hero, and today it is true. Brother Hu, Sanniang's niece has good eyesight. Wu Dutou is indeed a hero today. He is willing to propose marriage. It is a good match."
When Taigong Hu came, the incident happened suddenly, and when he saw that Cao Cao was short, he couldn't help but wonder: "This, this..."
Li Ying laughed and said: "My old brother is so happy that he is so happy that his head is spinning. Can I take a step to talk to him?"
Cao Cao said: "But please don't worry."
Li Ying pulled Taigong Hu out of the living room and said anxiously: "Brother, you are confused! The Zhu family is so arrogant that they dare to touch people from the official family and cause huge disasters. Your three wives are also confused. Among them, fortunately, Wu Dalang fell in love with your Sanniang and wanted to exonerate her. Why don't you just get off the road? Furthermore, Sanniang and Zhu Biao were engaged first, and now that Zhu Biao has died, she is already looking forward to it. I am a widower, where can I find a good match like Wu Dutou? Even if you don’t think about your old husband’s family, you also want to think about your daughter. If you don’t think about your daughter, you also want to think about your old husband’s family.”
Grand Duke Hu thought for a while, then stamped his feet and said, "I still want to listen to Sanniang herself. I can't wrong her."
Shi Xiu eavesdropped at the door and told Cao Cao, who then asked Hu Sanniang to be invited.
At this time, Grand Duke Hu also returned to the hall. When he saw Sanniang, the father and daughter hugged each other and cried.
Cao Cao smiled and said, "My father-in-law, my son-in-law lives in Yanggu County. Sanniang married me, and she didn't marry far away. She can go home to take care of me at any time, so we don't have to worry about being separated for a long time."
Then he said to Sanniang: "Madam, Wu said that he must take responsibility for offending your innocent body. Now he hurriedly came to see his father-in-law and asked to marry me. Is this true to his word?"
Hu Taigong felt his vision go dark, and thought to himself, no wonder he dared to call me father-in-law. It turned out that his daughter's innocence was gone.
Hu Sanniang thought it was true that she spanked me, but my innocence was just gone? Although she knew something was wrong, she, a young girl who had not yet left the court, had no shame in talking to others about how to be innocent of offense. She was angry and embarrassed, and her face suddenly turned red.
Yang Lin clapped his hands and said with a smile: "My daughter's face is red, and she misses her husband in her heart! Old lady, the so-called daughter is not allowed to stay, and staying here and there will lead to hatred. The villain is waiting here to congratulate you for getting a heroic son-in-law like my brother. You are in Hujiazhuang On the ground in Shandong, who dares to underestimate us?"
Grand Duke Hu originally wanted to listen to his daughter's opinion, but seeing her blushing as red as a peach, what else could he say? He sighed, reached out and grabbed Cao Cao's hand and said, "My dear son-in-law, I have pity on my daughter. My mother passed away so early. If a person is taught but does not know etiquette, if she fails to serve a gentleman, a good son-in-law must be considerate and do not beat or scold her."
Cao Cao took hold of Taigong Hu's old hands and said sincerely: "My father-in-law said this. My son-in-law is definitely not one of those Lu men who don't know how to show mercy to women. I will never suffer any injustice if my daughter marries into the Wu family."
Seeing that he was sincere in his words, Grand Duke Hu felt slightly relieved. When he learned that Cao Cao had no parents in the court, he ordered a big banquet and married his daughter to Cao Cao. He even gave out 120,000 silver as his daughter's dowry.
