A soldier from the General's Office came to the back office and reported: "Sir, the food and wine have been prepared. It's time to eat."
Li Huaixin looked at Liu Heng and said with a smile: "Dr. Liu, please!"
"Sir, please!" Liu Heng stood up and raised his hand to make a gesture of invitation.
The two people walked out side by side.
When we arrived at the side hall, the food and wine had been placed on the table, and there were several maids waiting for the meal.
Liu Heng and Li Huaixin sat down respectively as guest and host. The maid behind them stepped forward, picked up the wine flask and filled a glass of wine for each of them.
"All of you, please go down!" Li Huaixin said to the maid beside him.
"Yes." Several maids gave a blessing, took a few steps back, and retreated from the side hall.
Only Li Huaixin and Liu Heng were left in the house, as well as Xu Xuewu and two soldiers from the General's Office.
Li Huaixin suddenly lowered his voice and said: "The person behind this incident is Lingqiu Guards Huang An. He is the deputy commander-in-chief. Now the deputy commander-in-chief and the commander-in-chief are fighting openly and secretly, and I am the commander-in-chief. Man, you can be considered half of the General Soldier."
Liu Heng frowned and said: "My lord, what you mean is that this time the tiger-character flag incident was entirely because the deputy commander wanted to deal with the commander-in-chief, and my tiger-character flag was caused by a fire at the city gate. A fish in a pond?"
"That's right, that's wrong." Li Huaixin took a sip from his wine glass, put it down, and said, "You occupy the Dongshan Iron Field with the Tiger Character Banner, and you guard Xujiazhuang, a place with a lot of money, but Huang'an is the spiritual hill. How can he be willing to accept that the defense can't get anything?"
"In the final analysis, money and silk affect people's hearts and make people jealous, which is why this disaster happened."
Liu Heng hesitated for a moment and said: "When Huang Shoubei took office, the common people also prepared a generous gift. Unfortunately, Huang Shoubei's appetite is too big. I'm afraid I won't be able to fill up the tiger-character flag."
"With Deputy Commander Li here, his appetite will naturally increase." A hint of sarcasm appeared on Li Huaixin's lips.
Liu Heng looked at Li Huaixin with puzzled eyes.
Just listen to Li Huaixin continue to say: "He left the garrison because of Li Kaiyang, the deputy commander-in-chief. Now the commander-in-chief has been serving as the commander-in-chief of Datong for many years. Li Kaiyang is moving up and down, trying to get the military department to transfer the commander-in-chief. , so that he can take over the position of commander-in-chief."
As he spoke, he reached for the wine glass, only to find that it was empty.
Liu Heng beside him picked up the jug and filled Li Huaixin a glass of wine.
Grabbing the wine glass, Li Huaixin took a sip and continued: "Now Li Kaiyang needs a lot of money to move up and down. Huang An is his man. How could he let it go when he sees your source of wealth? Naturally, he will break the bones and suck out the marrow." Wipe it clean, besides, your foundation is not that clean."
Liu Heng frowned, picked up the wine glass and took a sip.
"Now you know why Huang An wants to deal with you several times." Li Huaixin picked up the chopsticks, took a mouthful of food and put it into his mouth.
Liu Heng said: "If you say so, the General Soldier should help the Tiger Character Flag to tide over the difficulties. Otherwise, once the Tiger Character Flag falls, Huang An will take away all the property, and all the last money will be used to deal with the General Soldier." grown ups."
Li Huaixin picked up the jug and poured a glass of wine for himself and Liu Heng respectively, and said: "Why do you think the commander-in-chief helped you last time? Even if you didn't give it to you, the commander-in-chief could get it himself. You should be able to figure out what Zhong means, Dongzhu Liu."
Hearing his reminder, a layer of cold sweat broke out on Liu Heng's back.
Before, he only wanted to bribe the General Military Mansion, but he forgot that with the capabilities of the General Military Mansion, he could swallow the fat piece of Tiger Flag in its entirety.
"You must be afraid!" Li Huaixin said with a smile when he saw Liu Heng's expression turned ugly.
"I am indeed a little scared." Liu Heng did not hide what he was thinking.
At the same time, he also reminded himself in his mind that although Tiger Character Banner and Li Huaixin had always cooperated well, the future of Li Huaixin was the commander-in-chief, while Tiger Character Flag could only be regarded as a money career.
Li Huaixin took a sip of wine and said, "This matter involves the governor. The general will not offend the governor for you."
"So the Commander-in-Chief will no longer care about the Tiger Flag?" Liu Heng frowned.
He knew that if a deputy commander-in-chief took action, if there was no more powerful official to suppress the matter, there would be only two ways to wait for the tiger-shaped flag, either to rebel or to escape.
"Otherwise, how could I say that the Chief Soldier will not see you? Even if you take five thousand taels of silver, I can't guarantee that the Chief Soldier will see you." Li Huaixin sighed.
He is a member of his own family, and his relationship with Tiger Character Banner is too deeply involved. As the deputy commander-in-chief, Li Kaiyang will definitely not let him go, as a general from Lingqiu, so now he can only fight with Tiger Character Banner. Flags stand on a rope. If one is unlucky, the other will not be much better.
"Is there really nothing we can do?" Only then did Liu Heng realize how difficult it was to develop the Tiger Flag.
Without the support of a big official in the official circles, the Tiger Character Flag can develop safely this year, which is the limit. Even if there is no Huang An incident, there will be Li An and Zhang An in the future. In short, the Tiger Character Flag is just a piece of fat. , everyone wants to take a bite.
Li Huaixin's face became solemn and he said: "If the General Soldier agrees to see you, he must take advantage of the disagreement between the General Soldier and Li Kaiyang. If we seize this, there may be hope."
Liu Heng held the wine glass in his hand and did not answer.
This matter has already involved the governor, and Li Kaiyang alone is not enough to put a commander-in-chief at risk.
……………………
At dawn the next day, Li Huaixin and Liu Heng rushed to Datong with their people.
Xinping Fort is much closer to Datong Prefecture than Lingqiu. After leaving Xinping Fort in the early morning, within a day, the group arrived at Yongtai Gate of Datong Prefecture.
During the Hongwu period, Xu Da still rebuilt Datong City, which was square in shape, with a city wall more than ten miles around, a brick-covered city wall more than four feet high, and four gates.
As an important town to defend against the Northern invaders, the four gates of Datong City have urns, suspension bridges, moats, and turrets at the four corners. The city defense can be said to be impregnable.
Liu Heng followed Li Huaixin into the city.
Because of Li Huaixin, they did not face difficulties from the soldiers guarding the city gates like ordinary people and merchants.
The group passed through the barbican city and saw Zhao Wu waiting inside the south gate.
"My boss." Zhao Wu quickly took a few steps to greet him.
Liu Heng, who was riding on horseback, asked, "Have you brought everything?"
"Bring it here, in the car." Zhao Wu turned around and pointed at the carriage behind him.
Liu Heng glanced at the carriage and immediately said: "Let the carriage follow the team."
"Yes." Zhao Wu responded, turned around and said to the driver, "Follow me."
There were a lot of pedestrians on the street, so naturally they couldn't ride their horses in the city. They could only follow the flow of people and rush towards the General Military Mansion.
Less than half an hour later, Li Huaixin reined in the reins outside the gate of the General Military Mansion, jumped off the horse, and handed the reins to the soldiers beside him.
When he came to Liu Heng, he said: "Dr. Liu, I am going to see the Commander-in-Chief. As for whether the Commander-in-Chief will see you, I cannot guarantee."
"Thank you, sir." Liu Heng cupped his hand and immediately said to Zhao Wu who was standing aside, "Give me the gift list."
Zhao Wu stepped forward, took out the gift slip from his arms and presented it to Liu Heng with both hands.
Liu Heng took the gift list and handed it to Li Huaixin.
Li Huaixin knew that the gift list was for five thousand taels of silver and was used to ask for an audience with the Commander-in-Chief, so he took it.
