"Deputy Director, Temulun is here." Wu Bin came to Li Shuheng and reported.
Li Shuheng, who was inspecting the barracks, stopped, frowned slightly, and said, "Why is he here?"
Zhang Sancha, who was following him, said, "The master arranged for people to build a fort on the grassland. Is this Temulun here for the purpose of building a fort?"
"Sancha, you can no longer call me master. From now on, you have to call me sir. We sir are the guerrillas on Datong East Road and the defender of Xinpingbao." Zhang Hong, who was standing on the other side of Li Shuheng, reminded Zhang Sancha.
Zhang Sancha raised his hand and patted his bald forehead, and said with a smile: "Hey, judging from my memory, our leader is already a guerrilla general, so he really should be called "Sir."
Since the Tiger-Character Banner was recruited by the imperial court and Liu Heng became a guerrilla general, people within the Tiger-Character Banner feel that their backbone is a bit tougher than before.
Li Shuheng turned to Wu Bin and said, "Take people to the office first. I'll be there in a moment."
"Yes." Wu Bin agreed, turned and left.
Li Shuheng then said to Zhang Hong and Zhang Sancha who were beside him: "You will follow me to see Temulun in a moment, and let's hear the purpose of his coming together."
"yes."
Zhang Sancha and Zhang Hong agreed at the same time.
After Li Shuheng inspected the last few barracks, he took the two people back to his office.
The barracks are not far from the office building.
As soon as he entered the office, Li Shuheng saw Temulun in Mongolian attire. He smiled and said, "I have made Tai Ji wait for a long time. Please don't blame Tai Ji."
As he spoke, he cupped his fists and cupped his hands.
Temulun stood up from the bench, held his chest with his right hand and saluted, and said, "I came too suddenly and disturbed shopkeeper Li."
"Taiji is welcome. We are all old acquaintances. Nothing is sudden. If Taiji can come, I welcome him." Li Shuheng said with a smile, then turned to Wu Bin and said, "What's the matter with you? Taiji is here." It's been so long, why haven't you even prepared tea?"
"Subordinate, go get ready now." Wu Bin turned around to prepare tea.
Temulun looked at Li Shuheng and said, "Shopkeeper Li, don't blame him. I didn't let him prepare tea."
He explained something for Wu Bin.
"Taiji, please sit down." Li Shuheng made a gesture of invitation. After Temulun sat down, he sat down in front of the bench next to him.
Zhang Hong and Zhang Sancha, who followed him back to the office, sat on another bench.
After a few people sat down, Temulun said to Li Shuheng: "Shopkeeper Li, this time I came here at the behest of the Great Khan. The Great Khan asked me to ask you whether you built a fort on the grassland privately?"
At this time, Wu Bin walked in with a tray.
There were several bowls on the tray. He handed one of them to Temulun, the remaining two to Zhang Hong and Zhang Sancha respectively, and finally handed the remaining large teapot to Li Shuheng. 168
"Take a try, Taiji. This is the Longjing tea specially sent to me by my family. It is a rare and good tea with a history of thousands of years." Li Shuheng gestured with his hand to signal Temulun to drink tea.
Temulun held the tureen in both hands without moving, but said: "Please tell me, Shopkeeper Li, whether your Tiger Flag has built a fort privately on the grassland?"
He asked Li Shuheng again.
"Yes." Li Shuheng nodded.
He had no intention of hiding the fact that the Tiger Character Banner was building a fort on the grassland, and he couldn't hide it. The Mongols only had to send people to the direction of Xinpingbao to see the fort under construction.
Temulun frowned and said: "The Great Khan has always been supportive of your tiger-character banners coming to do business on the grassland, but now you are building forts privately, which is a provocation to me, Tumote, and also disrespectful to the Great Khan. .”
The grassland is the grassland of the Mongols, and Tiger Flag came to the grassland to build forts. He had the same attitude as all the Mongolians and was deeply dissatisfied with Tiger Flag doing such a thing.
"In the past six months, there have been fewer convoys coming to Tumut from the Tiger Flag, and there are also a lot less goods. However, I have asked people to prepare the portion for Taiji. When Taiji goes back, I will ask people to take the things with them. Let's go back to Taiji's ranch together." Li Shuheng changed the topic and talked about other things.
Temulun said with a cold face: "If your Tiger Flag cannot give an explanation to the Great Khan, I will not ask for your things in the future, and I will not dare to ask for them."
The Tiger-Character Flag is good, and Taiji and herdsmen from all parts of the grassland like it. But for the sake of the Mongols, he chose to side with the Mongols this time and reject the benefits of the Tiger-Character Flag.
"It is my family's decision to come to the grassland to build a fort. I, a small shopkeeper, have no right to change your decision." Li Shuheng said calmly.
After finishing speaking, he picked up the teapot, blew in the hot air inside, and took a sip of the tea in the teapot.
"So your Tiger Flag is determined to build a fort on the grassland?" Temulun's face darkened.
Before coming here, I thought that based on the friendship between him and Hu Zi Qi, even if he couldn't make Hu Zi Qi stop building forts immediately, he would be comforted. However, I didn't expect that the people from Hu Zi Qi didn't even give an explanation.
Li Shuheng held the teapot between his legs with both hands and said: "Among the Mongolian tribes, the earliest one to cooperate with the Tiger Character Banner was the Tumut Ten Thousand Households. And I, the Tiger Flag, have never treated the Tumut tribes badly. , but Taiji must know very well how the various Tumut ministries have treated us, so I don’t need to explain them one by one."
"But this is not the reason why you came to the grassland to build a fort." Temulun's face was very ugly, and he immediately said, "Now many Taiji have proposed to send troops to your tiger-character flag, and want to drive you out of the grassland completely. It’s just that the Great Khan sent me here because he wanted to cooperate with the Tiger Character Banner, otherwise, the next one will be my Mongolian army.”
Li Shuheng suddenly laughed when he heard this.
When his laughter stopped, he said: "As soon as the earth was civilized, Su Nang gathered all the ministries to use troops against our tiger-character banner, and even led the army to Datong. For this reason, we attracted the army of our country to attack our tiger-character banner. Then At that time, the Great Khan wanted to drive the tiger-character flag out of the grassland, and demanded that the goods of the tiger-character flag could only be handed over to Han merchants on the grassland in the future. This was what Taiji told me. Taiji would not be so quick. Forget it!”
Temulun choked and paused before saying: "It was the suggestion of Su Nang Taiji and Kankantada to drive you out of the grassland. The Great Khan just wanted to appease them, so he verbally I agree, but this time it’s different. You Tiger Character Banners secretly built forts on the grassland. The Great Khan was extremely dissatisfied and demanded that you destroy the forts you built and withdraw from the grassland.”
"We will not withdraw from the grassland." Li Shuheng shook his head slightly and then said, "Go back and tell your Great Khan that I will continue to build the fortress of the Tiger Flag until it reaches your Qingcheng."
"You are declaring war on me, Tumut." Temulun stood up suddenly and stared at Li Shuheng on the bench with wide eyes.
Li Shuheng leaned back slightly, looked directly into Temulun's eyes, and said, "When your Tumut Ministry wanted to drive us out of the grassland, you already declared war."
Temulun looked at Li Shuheng for a while, then finally looked away and said coldly: "You will regret it."
After saying that, he left Li Shuheng's office angrily.
