scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 208 Fighting poison with poison

The buzzing casino in the inner city of Wuchang, even though the time is close to the second watch, the casino is still brightly lit and crowded with people. Every gaming table is crowded with soldiers of the Wu army who stayed up late to gamble, including generals, deputy generals, and soldiers. There are military academies and even gang leaders, all of them are yelling, yelling, betting bets, or cursing luck Too bad or laughing and lucky enough, the noise almost knocked down the roof of the house—and the loudest one was naturally Wu Yingqi, the second prince of the Pingxi Palace, General Wu.

"Damn! Why don't you be ten again? I didn't touch the white tiger last night? Why is my luck so bad?! Damn... look at this..., son of a bitch! Three o'clock! I'll fuck your ancestor eighteen Dai, it's three o'clock—! I'm so pissed off!"

"Hahahahahaha, Second Prince, I'm sorry, but the younger one is Meihua, and I beat you again! Hahahaha...!"

"Laugh! Laugh! I don't believe it, you can keep winning tonight!"

Different from most of the time, Wu Yingqi's luck tonight was obviously not good enough. He lost thousands of taels of silver in more than three hours. For Wu Yingqi who loved money like his life, it was undoubtedly a heartbreak The painful blow of cutting off the flesh and the root of the crotch caused him to lose so much that his eyes were red, his pigtails stood upright, his nostrils were panting heavily, his expression was so fierce that he was about to eat people, and the poor domino dice was smashed even more by him. Bang bang, almost shattered.

"The God of Wealth is here!" At this moment, there was a sudden commotion at the gate of the casino, and countless Wu soldiers cheered loudly, shouting: "General Lu, come to our table, come to our table quickly!" "Lord Lu, come to our table!" Come to our table, we will give you a seat!" "Brother Lu, don't listen to them, come to our side, we will give you a seat by the fire!"

Shouting, countless soldiers of the Wu army rushed up impatiently, trying to drag Fatty Lu who had just entered the door to his gambling table.When Wu Yingqi saw his most proud student enter the arena, his eyes lit up immediately, he grabbed the dice, and shouted loudly: "Yifeng, come here, I'm here to sit in the dealership, come here and make some bets, help me get lucky!"

There is definitely a reason why Fatty Lu is so popular in the Wu Jun casino. As we all know, Fatty Lu is invincible on the battlefield, but he is invincible in the casino. After joining Wu Jun for a few years, every time he entered the casino, he lost everything. Clean and tidy, never took away a tael of silver or a copper coin from Wu Jun soldiers in the casino.What's even more rare is that Fatty Lu is not only rich and powerful, but also extremely good at gambling. No matter how much he loses, he never criticizes the world like Wu Yingqi for a small loss. No matter how miserable the loss is, he always smiles He smiled and didn't care. It would be unreasonable for such a gambler not to be welcomed in the casino.Therefore, because of this, it is rare for Fatty Lu to take time out of his busy schedule to enter the casino once, so he is naturally welcomed and expected by everyone.

"Yifeng, niece and son-in-law, come here! Come here!" Wu Yingqi was afraid that Fatty Lu would be snatched away by other gambling tables, so he hurriedly shouted.But at this moment, the two people who followed behind Fatty Lu shocked all the Wu Jun gamblers present. The yelling and greetings stopped at the same time, and Wu Yingqi's yelling also suddenly stopped, and she exclaimed: "Brother-in-law!" , Mr. Liangchen, did you go to the wrong door? Why are you here today?"

"What are you looking at me for? Can I eat people?" Hu Guozhu, who is in charge of Wu Jun's military discipline, had a very kind expression on his face. He smiled and waved his hands and said, "Go ahead and play with you. Our Pingxi Palace has no regulations that the army is not allowed to play money, as long as it is not escaped from the post." If you come here to gamble, you can play whatever you want. Just be careful, don’t lose your pants too—it’s so cold, it’s a bad life to go out without wearing pants.”

"Hahahahaha..." All the soldiers in the Wu army laughed loudly, and the atmosphere suddenly relaxed again. Wu Yingqi also let out a long sigh of relief, patted his chest and muttered: "I was scared to death, I thought it was the father who suddenly banned gambling. My brother-in-law is here to grab the bet."

"Second Prince, how's your luck?" Fatty Lu leaned over and asked with a smile, "How much did you win?"

Wu Yingqi first took a look at Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong behind Fatty Lu, and found that they were all smiling and relaxed, so he replied cursingly: "Win a ball! Lost more than 1000 taels! How about it, come up and help me out!" gas?"

"Okay." Without saying a word, Fatty Lu immediately pulled out the 200 taels of silver note from his sleeve, and threw it at the Tianmen position, which scared the surrounding Wu army soldiers to quickly put away the chips placed at the Tianmen position, and bet on the Qinglong Baihu position instead. , I'm afraid of the bad luck that Fatty Lu's casino will lose.Wu Yingqi laughed loudly, threw the dice, and quickly distributed the Pai Gow. As a result, Fatty Lu's nickname of losing every bet was really not a cover. Wu Yingqi, who was unlucky all night, actually caught a pretty good person Fatty Lu took the Pai Gow and fumbled left and right. After a long while, he said with a sad face, "Damn, I really can't bet on it, Zawu."

"Ahahahaha..." Wu Yingqi laughed wildly, and hurried to grab all the chips on the table.When Fatty Lu was about to throw the dominoes into the pile of dominoes, Wang Shirong snatched the dominoes, touched them a few times in his hand, and immediately widened his eyes, staring at Fatty Lu and muttering to himself, "Damn it, no wonder you Fatty loses every gamble, and if he holds the biggest Shuangtian Supreme, he will be called a miscellaneous five." Fatty Lu gave Wang Shirong a wink, telling Wang Shirong to keep quiet.

"Yifeng, virtuous nephew and son-in-law, hurry up and play two more hands to help uncle." Wu Yingqi greeted with a wry smile, urging Fatty Lu to continue betting.

"Uncle, I won't let you down this time." Fatty Lu shook his head and said, "Uncle, Mr. Liangchen and I came to see you today because we have something to talk to you alone."

"If it's business, let's do it tomorrow." Wu Yingqi was betting on his happiness, and replied casually: "Tonight we only talk about money and dice, not about business."

"It's about money." Fatty Lu said with a smile: "My nephew is about to congratulate my uncle, and my uncle is about to make a fortune. My nephew, uncle and Mr. Liangchen came to see my uncle tonight, just to join forces with him , make this fortune bigger and earn more.”

The gambling table suddenly became quiet again, and all the generals of the Wu Army present pricked up their ears, listening to the conversation between Fatty Lu and Wu Yingqi——No way, the name of the God of Wealth, who can get rich by getting in touch with Fatty Lu, is too famous up.Wu Yingqi was also taken aback, seeing the serious expressions of Fatty Lu, Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong, they didn't seem to be joking with him, so he quickly threw the dice and dominoes, and shouted: "Then tell me earlier, hurry up, get to the back Go, I own this casino, go to the back and talk!"

"Damn, you're the one who ran this casino after a long time." Fatty Lu, Hu Guozhu and the others murmured in their hearts together, and quickly went to the back hall to talk under Wu Yingqi's nodding and bowing lead. Several Wu soldiers behind wanted to follow and eavesdrop. But he was stopped by the soldiers of Wu Yingqi, Hu Guozhu and others.

All the way into the back hall of the casino, Wu Yingqi first asked people to prepare charcoal fire tea, called Hu Guozhu, Fatty Lu and others to sit down, and then drove all outsiders out of the room, and then turned his attention to Fatty Lu, Fatty Hu and others.However, before Wu Yingqi could ask, Fatty Lu had already said with a smile: "Congratulations to Uncle, congratulations to Uncle, Uncle is about to make a fortune, and soon someone will take the initiative to send a large sum of money to honor Uncle."

"Really?" Wu Yingqi was surprised and delighted, and hurriedly asked: "Aren't you joking? Who sent me a large sum of money, why did you send me a large sum of money?"

"Ying Qi, are your brother-in-law and Mr. Liangchen casual jokers?" Hu Guozhu took over the conversation and said with a smile: "Yifeng is the favorite student you personally selected, dare to make jokes in front of you to make you happy for nothing? "

"So, this is true?!" Wu Yingqi was even more pleasantly surprised, and hurriedly asked: "Brother-in-law, tell me quickly, who wants to give me money?"

"Mangou Court." Wang Shirong said seriously: "We have received accurate information that Mangou Court has sent a second batch of negotiating envoys to persuade the prince to extend the time for the payment of military salaries and food that Mangou Court promised to pay. Some persuaded the prince to release the Mangou prisoners of war who were captured by our army in advance. In order to achieve the goal, the Mangou court planned to spend a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry to buy our army's important officials, so that our army's important officials could persuade the prince to agree to the Mangou court's request."

"Uncle, you are grandfather's second son." Fatty Lu said with a smile: "Now the eldest son is gone, uncle, you are already the eldest son and grandfather's only son, and you have made a lot of promises in front of grandfather, enough for the court to send gifts and filial piety everywhere. How dare you lose your share? Honoring your gold, silver and jewels, isn’t it the biggest share?”

Wu Yingqi couldn't close his mouth with a smile. He rubbed his hands and said excitedly: "That's right, that's right. If the Mangou court wants to impress the father, it will never dare to lose my share, and it will definitely have to It's the biggest portion! Good, good!"

After smiling happily for a long time, Wu Yingqi finally came back to his senses, and hurriedly asked Hu Guozhu and Fatty Lu again: "Brother-in-law, Yifeng, Mr. Liangchen, what does the father mean? Are you going to agree to the request of the Mangou court?" ?”

"Of course it is impossible to agree." Hu Guozhu replied: "Emperor Mangou has always been despicable and shameless. If his father-in-law releases Mangou prisoners first, what if Emperor Mangou suddenly breaks the peace treaty and starts a new war? At that time we Prince Pingxi's mansion is empty of people and wealth, so why not go to grandma's house?"

Wu Yingqi's expression was stunned, and after a long while, he suddenly burst into tears again, and said, "My father is not going to agree, so I'm going to lose my fortune? Man Gou is not a fool, I can't say that my father agreed to their conditions, and they will Give me the silver?"

"Uncle, why have you been so smart all your life and so stupid all your life?" Fatty Lu started talking nonsense, "According to my nephew and son-in-law, it is precisely because my grandfather refused to agree to these conditions that you, uncle, can get rich, really rich."

"How do you say that?" Wu Yingqi, who was actually confused all his life, asked in surprise.

"Uncle, don't worry, please listen to my nephew and son-in-law." Fatty Lu said with a smile: "Uncle, please think about it, the Mangou court is going to buy important civil and military officials of our Pingxi Palace, so the rare treasures they prepared , surely you won’t go there less? Man Gou has prepared so many rare treasures, surely they can’t just be used to honor uncle and you alone? In this case, uncle, if you can use a method, both Let Man Gou fail to achieve his goal, take advantage of our Pingxi Prince's Mansion, and expose Man Gou's tricks, then the grandfather is overjoyed, and he has to reward all the rare treasures confiscated from Man Gou Give it to you?"

"Yes, yes, yes." Wu Yingqi nodded again and again, and asked impatiently: "Nephew, please tell me, uncle, what method should I use to make my father reward me with all the gold, silver and jewels?"

"Uncle, you can do this." Fatty Lu stopped his smile and said darkly, "When Mangou's imperial mission comes to Wuchang, they will definitely ask you to bribe them first. No matter what Mangou asks you to do, uncle You can agree straight away, no matter how much gold, silver and jewelry Mangou sends to your uncle, you can accept all of them. And take this opportunity, Uncle, you can find out who Mangou bought you, and send someone to spy on them, Find out that they all gave us gifts and bribes..."

"Ying Qi, I'm in charge of the spy team of Prince Pingxi's Mansion." Hu Guozhu interrupted and said, "You can let me know when the time comes, and I can send someone to help you spy on the secret agents of Mangou and help you get this great achievement."

"Thank you, brother-in-law." Wu Yingqi was so happy that he almost hugged Hu Guozhu for a kiss, and quickly asked, "Then what should I do?"

"Then it's easy." Fatty Lu said with a smile: "Uncle, when you get the evidence, when all the generals of our Pingxi Palace are gathered, you can immediately reveal the evidence to grandfather, and show it to you from the imperial court." At that time, the court will be disgraced, and the grandfather will be extremely furious. If my nephew, my uncle, and Mr. Liangchen help uncle you to say more good things, grandfather will still have to confiscate it. The gold, silver and jewels that came here will be rewarded to you? In this way, Uncle, you not only get the silver, you get the appreciation of your grandfather, and you can also gain the respect and trust of our Yunnan-Guizhou army.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" Wu Yingqi applauded frantically, laughed and said, "Just do it, do it like this! Brother-in-law, Mr. Liangchen, good nephew and son-in-law, don't worry, I will take care of this matter, and I will make sure that the dumb people in the court will eat it." Coptidis, I can't express my suffering!"

Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong breathed a sigh of relief, and exchanged glances. They both secretly admired Fatty Lu's immoral idea. Fighting poison with poison not only eliminated the greatest danger, but also pushed Wu Yingqi as a substitute for the dead ghost, offending Xia Guoxiang and Ma Baona's gang. It is convenient to offend people casually.But before Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong were happy, what Wu Yingqi said next made them almost fall off their chairs...

"It's wonderful." Wu Yingqi scratched his head and said, "But in this way, after the court is full of dogs, no one dares to give me money. What should I do?"

"Are you still planning to keep taking it?!" Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong almost wanted to pounce on Wu Yingqi and strangle Wu Yingqi to death.Fatty Lu remained calm, and said with a smile: "Uncle, although your words are very reasonable, but you are very wrong! If you do this, not only will the Mangou court not give you money anymore, but it is also very likely that you will be wronged." You are even more fawning, sending silver as high as a mountain, and a girl with yellow flowers as beautiful as flowers, to your arms non-stop!"

"How do you say that?" Wu Yingqi's eyes lit up again.

"Second uncle, uncle of nephew and son-in-law, is your elder brother gone?" Fatty Lu said slowly, "Grandfather now has only one son of you, and the two grandsons are still young. Brother Shifan, the oldest, is only now Nine years old, uncle, don't you want to plan for your future?"

When Fatty Lu mentioned the biggest hidden danger and taboo of Pingxi Palace, Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong's faces changed color together, and they all stared at Fatty Lu in horror.Wu Yingqi was still confused and asked, "What do you mean? How can I plan for the future?"

Fatty Lu smiled but didn't answer. With small mung bean eyes, he just looked at Wu Yingqi with a smile.After a while, Wu Yingqi's poor head finally came to his senses, and he said pleasantly, "Could it be that you...?"

"Hush!" Fatty Lu hurriedly made a silent gesture, and said in a low voice: "Uncle, this matter can only be understood, not explained in words. In a word, this is a good opportunity. It is a good opportunity to make grandfather look at you with admiration. Opportunity is also a good opportunity for you, Uncle, to establish your prestige and authority! If you seize it, Uncle, if you grasp it well, you will be successful in the future. With the strength of our Pingxi Palace's soldiers and horses, the soldiers are the best in the world, and the full dog court dare not come and try our best to curry favor Please? How dare you send gold, silver, and beauties in front of you, uncle?"

When Fatty Lu said something, Wu Yingqi nodded his head. When Fatty Lu finished speaking, Wu Yingqi stood up excitedly, stomped his feet and said, "That's right! I'm still very insightful. How can I be so stupid and behave so well?" Why don’t you know how to grasp the opportunity?” After that, Wu Yingqi couldn’t wait to turn to Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong, and asked, “Brother-in-law, Mr. Liangchen, do you also mean the same?”

Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong were silent. After a long while, Hu Guozhu finally said vaguely: "This is a big matter, and it must be decided by the father-in-law. I don't dare to speculate and participate. But if there is such a day, we should do our best. Help the second prince wholeheartedly."

Wang Shirong would not speak so ambiguously like Hu Guozhu, but just nodded in agreement.And Wu Yingqi saw it in his eyes and was delighted in his heart. He quickly cupped his hands and said: "Brother-in-law Xie, Mr. Xie Liangchen, if there is such a day, I will take my brother-in-law as the prime minister and Mr. Liangchen as the minister! Yifeng, that is my cabinet university scholar!"

"Thank you, the second prince, for your love." Hu Guozhu forced a smile, while Wu Yingqi smiled all over his face. He bowed to Hu Guozhu, Wang Shirong and Fatty Lu repeatedly, and patted his chest to promise that he would make good use of this incident to make old traitor Wu He looks at himself with admiration, and will never disappoint the expectations of Hu Guozhu, Fatty Lu and Wang Shirong.

........................

After the secret talk was over, Wu Yingqi happily returned to the casino to start gambling again. After Fatty Lu and the others left the casino, before returning to the secret room used for the secret talk, Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong went to a place where there were no outsiders. Grabbing Fatty Lu's collar, his expression was so fierce and angry that he wanted to tear Fatty Lu up on the spot.Fatty Lu quickly said in a low voice: "Uncle, Mr. Liangchen, I know what you want to say, but I just want to ask, if I didn't say that at that time, how could I strengthen the determination of the second prince? How can I stop it?" He continues to be bought by Mangou and continues to be the biggest hidden danger of our army?"

Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong were speechless, but Fatty Lu lowered his voice and said, "Uncle, Mr. Liangchen, you also know that our Pingxi Palace has signed a secret agreement with Zheng Jing of Taiwan, and plans to secretly sell a batch of new firearms to Taiwan." In addition, we are also negotiating secretly with the secret envoys of the Jingnan Palace, and we are also planning to sell them a batch of new firearms to help them improve their strength and contain Mangou."

"This kind of thing can only be kept secret for a while at most, but it can't be kept for a long time. When the news leaks, if Man Gou starts to attack the second prince again, and buys the second prince with money as high as a mountain, you think the second prince will not do it." Will you be tempted? At that time, Mangou will also have our new firearms in his hands. Do you still dare to imagine the consequences? If I don’t do this, can you guarantee that this biggest hidden danger will not be eliminated?”

Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong showed panic expressions on their faces together. After thinking about it carefully, they found that with Wu Yingqi's personality, the possibility of daring to do this is definitely not just ordinary!Fatty Lu said again in a very low voice: "The character of the second prince is actually no different from that of a child. If you want to impress him with words, educate him in character, and stop him from doing stupid things, don't even think about it. The only one The best way is to give him hope, let him see a better hope, only in this way can he not do stupid things for the immediate benefit."

Hu Guozhu's iron-like hands slowly loosened, and the veins on his forehead gradually receded.But Wang Shirong said angrily: "Stop this kind of rhetoric, do you know that maybe the second prince didn't have this idea before, but after hearing what you said, maybe he will have this idea, and it will give birth to countless troubles !"

"Maybe so." Fatty Lu sighed, and replied: "But I really have no other way. You know the character of the second prince. It is almost impossible to expect him to be reliable in his words and deeds. He did it because Mangou didn't know our strength before, and didn't know the importance of the second prince. Now that our strength has been exposed, Mangou killed our son in order to cause civil strife in the Pingxi Palace in the future, and sooner or later I want to attack the second prince."

"For us, instead of being anxious and unable to sleep at night, it is better to take the initiative and control the second prince first, so as to prevent more and greater hidden dangers! It can also let the second prince see this hope and go Do your best for the prince's great affairs, charge into the battle, and give full play to his strength as a brave general. Besides, he is still the only son of the prince. If he is really a good man, the prince also has his heart for him, and we will help him with all our strength. What's the matter? No? What's wrong?"

Wang Shirong was silent, and it took a long time to shake off Fatty Lu's collar, and said angrily: "I can't win your mouth, anyway, just this time, next time you dare to talk nonsense, I will be the first to ask the prince to chop your head off!"

"What Yifeng said makes a lot of sense." Hu Guozhu was calmer, and said slowly: "Mangou killed our son at any cost, which proves that Mangou has also noticed this huge hidden danger of us, and this hidden danger will sooner or later It will also explode. Instead of worrying about it and muddling along, it is better to list the second prince as the one we consider whether we can help, so as to avoid sudden events in the future and cause even greater disasters."

"What he is best at is this set of strong rhetoric." Wang Shirong said angrily: "I don't want to think about anything else now, but I just want the prince to kill all the dogs earlier, restore the Han family, and become emperor!"

"Mr. Liangchen is right." Fatty Lu took over the conversation and said, "At present, the most important thing for us is to destroy the Tartars, restore the Central Plains, and assist the prince to rule the country and proclaim himself emperor. For the second prince, we As long as we stabilize him temporarily and prevent him from doing stupid things, then when that day comes, no matter how great the hidden danger is, it will not matter to us."

Hu Guozhu and Wang Shirong silently nodded silently, expressing their great agreement with Fatty Lu's words.Fatty Lu quickly changed the subject, and said in a low voice: "Uncle, Kong Sizhen is one of the second batch of negotiating teams at the Mangou court. This bitch is best at seducing and buying with her beauty, and she might even use me and Wang Xu's special relationship, he also bribed me. My nephew thinks that this is an opportunity to help us with a big event."

"Help us with something important?" Hu Guozhu turned his attention and asked back.

"Find out the truth about the son's murder." Fatty Lu said in a low voice, "Xiao Zhi has always wondered whether our son really died at the hands of the remnants of Obai's party? With his body already dead and his followers scattered, how could the old thief Oboi send out his killers to sneak into the dungeon so easily and kill our son?"

"It's not just you, I've been suspecting this too." Hu Guozhu nodded and replied in a low voice, "It's just that there is no evidence to prove that this is actually the work of Emperor Kang Mazi."

"Kong Sizhen must have evidence in his hand!" Fatty Lu said decisively: "Kong Sizhen is the head of the Mangou Thirteen Yamen, if it is really the murderous hand of the Mangou Emperor, he must have sent her men to be the killers, Kong Sizhen must know about it, There must be evidence! That's why my nephew intends to make false claims with her, try to extract these evidence from her hands, and prevent the son from being wronged and die in Jiuquan!"

"Yes." Hu Guozhu nodded, and said in a low voice: "If you can find out the truth about the death of the son from Kong Sizhen, you can not only comfort the spirit of our son in heaven, but also greatly damage the authority and prestige of Emperor Mangou, and give us more confidence." Make an excuse for war at any time, and do your best."

"There is one more thing." Fatty Lu said quickly: "Uncle, you also know that Kong Sizhen has martial arts and has countless good fighters around him. My nephew and my personal soldiers are not their opponents at all—so my nephew is greedy for life and afraid of death. A few good hands will temporarily fill the manpower vacancy around my nephew, so as to avoid accidents when my nephew is dealing with Kong Sizhen."

"Hmph!" Wang Shirong snorted, extremely dissatisfied with Fatty Lu's cunning.

"Oh." Hu Guozhu also laughed out loud, and scolded with a smile: "No wonder someone said behind your back that you are a fat loach with oil, so slippery that you can't even catch the water drops-I want my uncle to send someone to monitor you, to prove it You did not betray our Pingxi Palace when you secretly contacted and exchanged news with the Mangou court, so you should say it clearly, why are you beating around the bush and making other excuses? Is one of the confidants around you a meat foot?"

Fatty Lu's shameless intentions were publicly exposed by Hu Guozhu, and the fat face was full of embarrassment.Hu Guozhu smiled softly, and said: "But this is also good, so as to save others from gossiping. How about this, I will report this to my father-in-law tomorrow, and I will draw a few good men from his guard team to protect you by your side .”

"Thank you, Uncle, for your understanding." Fatty Lu quickly cupped his hands to express his gratitude, and said frankly, "My nephew is really not worried about my grandfather and uncle suspecting my nephew. , otherwise, once the precedent is set, the consequences will be unimaginable. Therefore, my nephew can only use the heart of a villain to measure the gentleman's belly of my uncle and grandfather."

"If you can think that way, it's naturally the best." Hu Guozhu nodded, then looked up at the sky, looked at the snowflakes falling in the night sky, and suddenly sighed, "If the second prince can also have your kindness and magnanimity." , then our Pingxi Palace will really be invincible in the world!"

"That idiot Wu Yingqi is like me, so will I have a bright future?" Fatty Lu muttered in his heart.

(End of this chapter)