Chapter 23 Dividing the spoils
Chapter 23 Dividing the spoils
The three of them quickly left the post station and continued heading south.
This time their target was not very conspicuous, and they left before the rebels arrived, so they did not attract any attention at all.
They traveled south for a long time. When they changed horses at noon, Pei Yuancai and the other two found a forest to hide in and rest.
Pei Yuan was efficient and spread the bundle directly on the open space in the forest.
The gold, pearls, treasures and silver ingots scattered in the bundle shone brightly, and Chen Toutie and Cheng Leixiang couldn't help swallowing their saliva.
Pei Yuan thought about it and simply divided the scabbard of the Xiuchun Sword into three equal parts.
Then he looked at the two of them and said calmly, "Don't say I'm unfair. I'll be the last one to choose."
Cheng Leixiang and Chen Toutie looked at each other.
This is not the time to be polite.
In a sense, these properties are dirty and if you don't touch them, it will arouse suspicion.
Anyway, it was done by three of us together, so there was nothing to worry about.
Cheng Leixiang glanced at Chen Toutie and said, "Me first?"
Chen Toutie looked indifferent and didn't answer.
Cheng Leixiang then used the scabbard of the Xiuchun Knife to cut his portion into two piles, one large and one small. He then cut the large pile back and put the small pile into his own package.
Chen Toutie smiled and had no objection. He followed suit and only took a small portion of the property.
Pei Yuan was unsure when he saw the two of them like this.
He had a casual relationship with Chen Toutie and had only known Cheng Leixiang for a short time.
One of these two men is a veteran in the East Factory, and the other is a social figure with rich experience in the underworld.
If the relationship among the three cannot be straightened out, there will definitely be endless troubles.
He looked at Chen Toutie and Cheng Leixiang and said calmly, "What do you two mean?"
Chen Toutie was very self-aware and answered honestly.
"It was all thanks to your planning that this matter was able to be done without any consequences."
"Don't even mention that there is no evidence. Even if we meet Hu Ang again one day, he might thank us for saving his life."
"This kind of money is earned cleanly and honestly, and it is impossible for a rough man like me to do this. I am already unworthy of being able to share this."
Although Cheng Leixiang is not very old, he has always been heroic.
But now he swept away the chivalrous air on his body, and said seriously, "Sharing adversity with you, I can survive. Sharing wealth with you, I can share it. I, Cheng Leixiang, am not a fool to seek refuge with a superior like you."
Pei Yuan was about to say something.
Two lines of system prompts will pop up.
——Current credit value: 17/100 (You take advantage of the situation and gain Chen Toutie's confidence)
——Current credit value: 18/100 (Your command ability and capacity have earned Cheng Leixiang's trust)
Pei Yuan immediately felt relieved.
The situation is chaotic now and no one knows what will happen. As long as these two people obey me and don't have any ulterior motives, things will be much easier.
Speaking of which, Pei Yuan was already very satisfied with the performance of these two people before.
At that time, the rebels' arrows were almost behind them, but they still carried out Pei Yuan's order to "rush into the fields and slow down the horses" without hesitation.
Moreover, Cheng Leixiang was able to ignore his own life and go up to fight Xue Songqi as ordered; Chen Toutie was also able to turn around and rush back to meet Cheng Leixiang.
If it weren't for the sudden appearance of such a large sum of money, which made Pei Yuan worried, he wouldn't have stopped halfway and wasted time dividing the money.
The reason why Pei Yuan felt uneasy was that neither of these two people were law-abiding people.
Otherwise, these two guys would not have dared to follow Pei Yuan and rob officials in the chaos based on his rough plan. Pei Yuan did not bother to be polite with them. He rolled up the valuables in the bundle and tied it to his horse.
Then the three of them stopped talking about this topic and quickly ate and rested.
While eating the dried meat, Pei Yuan asked the two, "What do you think, should we still go to Linqing City?"
Cheng Leixiang didn't respond to this, and asked directly, "Does your Excellency have any concerns when he said that?"
Pei Yuan nodded and said, "Not bad!"
"Yuan Lang said that we should gather in Linqing. I can roughly guess what he meant."
"Linqing is close to the Grand Canal and is the throat for transporting grain to the north. There are many grain transport soldiers stationed there. In order to protect this grain route, the court specially transferred the Jining Left Guard to Linqing. Yuan Lang asked us to go to Linqing to meet up in order to stabilize the situation and wait and see."
"But in my opinion, in the current situation, the Left Guard of Jining alone may not be able to hold on. If we go to Linqing, we may end up walking into the tiger's mouth."
Cheng Leixiang and Chen Toutie listened and said nothing.
Jining Zuowei has more than 5,000 soldiers. If 70% of them are short of salary, plus the old, weak, sick and disabled, and those with incomplete clothing and armor, the number of soldiers who can actually be mobilized to fight will not exceed 2,000.
These people were also responsible for the safety of water transport and were scattered in various stations along the canal.
As long as there are a few hundred elite cavalry, it would be easy to defeat the Jining Zuowei.
Chen Toutie said with a glimmer of hope, "If the Bazhou bandits attack the canal, the whole world will be shocked. They may not have the courage to do so."
Pei Yuan ignored the conversation and chewed the dried meat for a while before slowly saying, "What do you think? If the Jining Left Guard can't hold out, will the Jining Guards with the same number of people be of any use? If the rebels easily defeat the Jining Left Guards, will they target the Jining Guards?"
Chen Toutie and Cheng Leixiang were so frightened by Pei Yuan's bold guess that their faces turned pale.
"No way?!"
"That would cause chaos in the world!"
Pei Yuan seemed to be certain of this, and said in a firm tone, "From what happened last night, Liu Liu and Liu Qi's rebel army is looting horses with a purpose. Maybe a large number of rebels have joined them."
"As the rebels grow stronger, they will certainly need a lot of food. They will definitely go south to attack Linqing. When they find that the Jining Left Guard stationed in Linqing is so easy to defeat, they will see through the false appearance of the Jining Guard and will most likely quickly launch a surprise attack on Jining."
Chen Toutie swallowed his saliva and spoke incoherently.
"Jining is not just about food!"
Chen Toutie's words hit the nail on the head.
As an important hub on the Grand Canal, Jining not only stockpiled a large amount of grain, but also had more than 1,200 grain ships just arriving from the south!
If the food is gone, we can still try to collect it again, but once these grain ships are destroyed, the entire country's food supply system will be seriously damaged.
As the final destination of the grain transport from the south to the north, the border troops at the front will be the most severely affected.
If Pei Yuan remembered correctly, after Dayan Khan unified the Mongolian desert, he had already thought of moving south.
And it seems that it was from the end of the sixth year of Zhengde that the Mongols south of the desert began their decades-long harassment.
Seeing that Chen Toutie and Cheng Leixiang realized the terrible consequences, Pei Yuan told them the decision he had been thinking about for a long time.
"I plan not to go to Linqing, but to take you directly to Jining. What do you two think?"
Chen Toutie asked, "Sir, are you planning to go to Jining to warn people?"
Pei Yuan hummed.
"Try it."
(End of this chapter)