"Sir, Commander-in-Chief, do you think Tiger Character Banner is willing to turn the feud into friendship with me?"
In the General Military Mansion, Li Kaiyang asked Zhang Huai worriedly. ,
Zhang Huai glanced at him and said, "What? I regret it now. When you targeted the Tiger Flag, you never thought that this day would happen."
"To be honest, Xiaguan really regrets it." Li Kaiyang said, "Xiaguan was also deceived by Huang An, a genius, and did such a stupid thing."
"Okay, don't explain." Zhang Huai waved his hand and said, "In the final analysis, you still want to seize other people's property."
Li Kaiyang showed a hint of embarrassment.
However, this kind of thing is too normal. Not only officials like them, but also some famous scholars and scholars often do such things. It's just that he did it wrong this time. Not only did he fail to get the Tiger Flag, property, but it offended people.
Zhang Huai continued: "If you had cooperated with Huzi Banner in the beginning, you would also have a share in their smuggling business now. The money you receive every year is more than what you make from opening a shop in Datong, even if it is forced by Xu Tong After collecting the money for suppressing bandits, you don’t have to worry about running out of money.”
Li Kaiyang's face darkened when he heard the words "bandit money".
Several shops owned by his Li family in Datong were forcibly confiscated by Xu Tong with money from bandit suppression. In the end, the shop's accountant found that not only did his Li family's shop fail to make any money, but it actually lost half a year's profit.
More importantly, he was the dignified deputy general of Datong, but he was charged money for suppressing bandits. This was like a slap in the face, especially when neither the shop in the General Military Mansion nor the shop in Prince Dai's Mansion collected money from bandits. This made him understand that Xu Tong did not take him as the deputy commander seriously at all.
At this time, he felt a hint of regret in his heart.
If he had not listened to Huang An's temptation at the beginning, now he would have benefited a lot from the tiger-character flag smuggling business, and he might have been able to raise more soldiers and servants. ,
For these generals, what is important is not the strength of the official position, but the strength of the soldiers and retainers.
At this time, a servant from the General Military Mansion came into the house from outside, came to Zhang Huai, bowed and said, "Master, the people from Lingqiu are here."
Zhang Huai said: "Invite people in!"
The servant agreed and withdrew.
Li Kaiyang, who was sitting aside, naturally heard the words of the people from the General Military Mansion. As soon as he heard the people coming from Lingqiu, he guessed that it was the people from the Tiger Character Banner.
He picked up the tureen at hand and took a sip of tea.
The reason why he came to the General Military Mansion at this time was because the people from the General Military Mansion told him that people from the Tiger Character Flag would also come to the General Military Mansion today.
It didn't take long before the servants brought the person in.
"The common people have met these two adults." Zhao Yutu bowed to Zhang Huai and Li Kaiyang respectively.
Only those with meritorious status can salute like this. Without meritorious status, it is considered a white body, and one has to kneel down and kowtow when meeting an official. However, Zhao Yutu does not deal with the General Military Mansion once or twice, and the tiger-character flag is now closely related to the General Military Mansion. Even if he No one would blame him for not kneeling.
Zhang Huai and Li Kaiyang naturally looked at a large and powerful business like Tiger Flag in a different light.
"Mr. Zhao, there is no need to be polite, just take a seat!" Zhang Huai raised his hand and pointed to the seat below.
"Thank you, sir." Zhao Yutu bowed before walking to his seat and sitting down.
After he sat down, Zhang Huai said: "This time I have called both of your families here. I hope you can clear up the past grudges and resolve the misunderstandings between you, so that you can work together in the future."
"The common people will obey the orders of adults." Zhao Yutu was the first to express his position.
Li Kaiyang also said at this time: "What you are saying is that the lower official was also deceived by the villain, and then he did some stupid things."
This was considered an admission of mistake, but he was admitting his mistake to Zhang Huai. As for Tiger Flag, it was a business after all. As a deputy general, he would naturally not admit his mistake to a business.
Zhang Huai turned to look at Zhao Yutu and said, "What do you think, Mr. Zhao?"
After he finished speaking, several people in the room looked at Zhao Yutu.
Zhao Yutu knew that this was the other party asking him to express his position, and this position was naturally not for him to accept Li Kaiyang's apology. Their Tiger Flag was just a business name and was not qualified to accept the apology of a deputy commander-in-chief.
He knew in his heart that Zhang Huai was asking for benefits for Li Kaiyang, and this benefit was the dividend from the smuggling business.
After hesitating for a moment, he said: "I dare to ask Master Li, is the person who bewitched you at the beginning, Lord Huang of Lingqiu Guards?"
Hearing this, Li Kaiyang understood that Huang An was the condition proposed by Tiger Character Flag.
Zhang Huai tried to remove Huang An from the guard position in Lingqiu several times before, but he stopped him all the time. This time the people coming from Tiger Character Flag brought up the matter again, and naturally they wanted to remove Huang An from the guard position. Get rid of the seat.
In the past, he would definitely have to think about it. After all, Huang An was also his, so he had to consider Huang An's own attitude.
But it's different now. Huang An betrayed him and turned to Xu Tong, which made him lose face. Even if there was no suggestion from the Tiger Character Flag, he would get Huang An away. Now the people from the Tiger Character Flag have proposed it. , he just happened to be a favor.
At this time, Zhang Huai, who was sitting at the top, said: "I have discussed Huang An's matter with Deputy General Li and transferred him to the Zhenlu Guards to serve as a commanding officer."
Zhao Yutu was stunned.
The commander of Qianshi was a fourth-level officer, the same level as the Lingqiu garrison, but he didn't know about any Suppression Guards in Datong, and he had never heard of them.
Zhang Huai saw Zhao Yutu's look and knew that he didn't understand. He smiled and explained: "Zhenlu Guards and Tiancheng Guards are together, but Zhenlu Guards only has an empty name. The real person in charge is Tiancheng Guards."
Zhao Yutu understood.
What he didn't expect was that these officials were so ruthless and gave Huang An a worthless vacant position. This meant that Huang An's rank remained unchanged, but he didn't even have the last bit of real power, and he didn't even have a single soldier under his command. Death, because Zhenluwei only has one name left.
Even if Huang An wanted to recruit troops by himself, he would not be paid. In addition, the General Military Mansion would not give him official recruitment documents, and Xu Tong, as the governor, was not qualified to directly order Huang An to recruit troops beyond Zhang Huai.
In the future, even if Huang An pays his own money to recruit soldiers, the General Military Office will be able to merge all the soldiers into Tiancheng Guard with a piece of official paper.
Zhang Huai said again: "The official document has been drawn up, we just need to prepare the troops and use the seal."
Zhao Yutu bowed and said: "From now on, we will have to rely on these two adults for the business affairs of Tiger Character Flag."
"Haha, easy to say." Zhang Huai laughed heartily, knowing that he had finally made peace.
Li Kaiyang on the side also breathed a sigh of relief.
He knew that even if he joined the Tiger Flag smuggling business, he would be able to benefit from it. Of course, even if the Tiger Flag did not give him this benefit, there was nothing he could do.
When he targeted the Tiger Flag in the past, the Tiger Flag's grassland smuggling business was still booming. Even powerful Shanxi merchants like the Fan family were defeated by the Tiger Flag.
Zhao Yutu is also very satisfied with the result.
Including Li Kaiyang's people in their smuggling relationship means that Datong's official and military forces are attracted by their tiger-character banner. It will be even more difficult for Xu Tong to deal with their tiger-character banner. 11
