On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Hou Meng, the magistrate of Bozhou, arrived in Luqiao Town, Jeju. Hou Meng was about fifty years old and was a Jinshi. He was elegant and had a thin face. His bright eyes made him look very smart and capable.

The reason why the imperial court elected Hou Meng to recruit Liangshan Army was because he was the magistrate of Yuncheng County, Jeju. Liangshanbo spanned Jeju and Yunzhou, and half of the area was under the jurisdiction of Yuncheng County. Song Jiang, the leader of the Liangshan Army, served as the guard under his command. It can be said that the Liangshan Army grew stronger little by little under his rule.

After Yang Jian was shot and killed in Xucheng County, the responsibility was determined to be Yunzhou. All officials at the prefecture and county level in Yunzhou were dismissed. Hou Meng escaped as an official in Jeju. He then left Cai Jing's relationship. Not only was he not punished, he was promoted to the magistrate of Bozhou by the court.

A few months ago, Cai Jing was forced to retire and return home. Hou Meng lost his backer. The new prime minister, King Fu, believed that Hou Meng had an unshirkable responsibility for the Liangshan bandits, so he recommended him to recruit Liangshan Army. If he could recruit him, he could atone for his merits and sins. If he could not recruit him, he would have to take responsibility for the former indulgence of the Liangshan bandits.

It is precisely because of this that Hou Meng was extremely stressed and seemed worried. The price given to him by the court was not high. He only gave him one magistrate, two magistrates, seven magistrates and twenty troupe trainees, but the condition was to completely disband the Liangshan Army.

However, he can deal with some details at his discretion, such as the property robbed by Liangshan does not need to be handed over, and killing local officials can be left unresponsible, etc. With these conditions, he may be able to talk to Song Jiang face to face.

Lushan Town is located at the junction of Shanzhou and Jeju. Hou Meng and his dozen subordinates just walked into the town, and saw a group of people coming in front of him. The person in charge was a middle-aged man with a literati. Hou Meng felt that he looked familiar.

The man turned over and dismounted, stepped forward and bowed, "Wu Yong met with the Hou Guanren."

"You are an official from Wu County!"

Hou Meng suddenly recognized this person, who was also a county official in Yuncheng County back then, in charge of the copywriting of the Prison Camp, and had a deep friendship with Song Jiang. He heard that this person is now a military advisor of the Liangshan Army and the third person in the Liangshan Army.

Wu Yong smiled and said, "It turns out that the official has not forgotten his old friend."

He pulled Dai Zong again, "This Dai Zong also followed the officials down the mountain to inspect. Is the deputy captain of Yuncheng County still an impression of the officials?"

"Of course I remember!"

Hou Meng nodded repeatedly. After all, it was only ten years ago. He still had the impression that Dai Zong was the deputy chief who was promoted by him. He also went to Liangshan. He smiled and said, "I remember there is also a dark and strong yamen runner who is very skilled in martial arts, and it seems that his surname is Li."

"Official, I'm here!" Li Kui also walked forward to salute.

Hou Meng was overjoyed. It turned out that they were all old officials. Song Jiang asked them to welcome him, which means that Song Jiang was willing to be recruited!

"I don't know where Gongming is?"

"Gongming is still in Xucheng now. He has a heavy business and has no time to clone him. So he asked me to welcome Hou Guanren. I can also talk to Hou Guanren on his behalf."

Hou Meng knew that Wu Yong was the third person in Liangshan Army and he came to greet him on behalf of Song Jiang, which means that they also knew their intention. Since both sides had the intention, it would be better to hold negotiations as soon as possible.

"I wonder where Military Advisor Wu is going to discuss with me?"

Wu Yong pointed forward and smiled, "It's not convenient here, let's go to Rencheng County to have a detailed discussion."

The reason why Wu Yong did not want to take Hou Meng to Xucheng was because many generals opposed accepting the envoy. The situation is good now, and the army is unstoppable. It can completely occupy the entire territory of Shandong. Accepting the envoy is equivalent to surrendering to the court. Who can accept such a thing? In particular, Lu Junyi's faction strongly opposed surrendering to the court. For this matter, almost everyone forgot about the massacre of the city in Tangyin, and the Liangshan army was arguing fiercely.

Song Jiang was also afraid of stirring up a mutiny in the army, so he could only send Wu Yong to contact Hou Meng secretly. If the conditions were good, he would find a way to convince everyone.

Rencheng is not far from Luqiao Town. Soon, Hou Meng was welcomed into Rencheng County by the confidant sent by Wu Yong and Song Jiang like stars, and lived in the VIP office in Rencheng County.

This is a luxurious hall specially built by the Liangshan Army to attract heroes from all over the world. It was expanded on the original Rencheng Station, covering an area of ​​nearly 100 acres and has more than 20 yards of various sizes. The main courtyard is called Qingsongyuan, and Hou Meng lived in this yard.

The entourage was still cleaning the house, but Hou Meng and Wu Yong sat in the study and started their first negotiation. Of course, the first negotiation was tentative, and no one would easily reveal their bottom line and price code.

"The court is now focusing on preparing for the Liao Kingdom, and does not want to be constrained by domestic chaos. The court on Fang La has not given them a chance. They not only rebel, but also signs of rebellion. The court will never tolerate them. Most of the generals of Liangshan are left with no way out because of poverty or committing crimes, nor have they made acts of rebellion. In this case, the official family believes that reconciliation can be made. The official family promised that the generals of Liangshan will not blame all the things they committed in the past. If they are willing to serve the court, the court can appropriately grant official positions so that they can honor their ancestors and return home in glory. If the heroes of Liangshan want to put forward higher requirements, it is not impossible to talk about them, but first of all, they must show sincerity and attitude."

Wu Yong pondered for a moment and asked, "I don't know what the attitude and sincerity that Hou Guanren said mean?"

"The attitude is to accept the court's amnesty, rather than to delay time or fool the court. Sincerity means that the conditions must be realistic, and not to mention the conditions that are irrelevant and impossible to achieve. As long as these two points are met, I believe the court will give everyone a generous treatment as much as possible."

Wu Yong smiled, "If there is no sincerity, my general will not send me to welcome Hou Guanren. There must be sincerity. Although some Liangshan generals have conflicts, General Song will slowly enlighten him. This is not a problem. Our requirements are not very high. Now we have actually controlled Yunzhou, Jeju and Bozhou. If necessary, our power can even be rapidly expanded to more than a dozen prefectures. Secondly, we plan to attack Daming Prefecture again after the Chinese New Year, but seeing that the court intends to negotiate, we promise that before the negotiation results come out, we will not launch external troops for the time being. This is our attitude, so our requirements must be in line with the status quo and will not ask for a price all over the world."

"You might as well say that if I can't make the decision, I can go back to Beijing to ask for instructions."

Wu Yong thought for a while and said, "Let's talk about me if you don't mention General Song for now! I'm already forty-two years old. My greatest ambition in my life hopes to be the governor of a state and govern the people for the emperor. If I can get the rank of a scattered official in my life, I will be satisfied."

Wu Yong did not mention Song Jiang, but just implicitly put forward his own conditions, to be the governor of a state and to be the official rank of a high-rank official. The lowest among the official ranks is the Chaosan Dafu, which is from the fifth rank. In other words, Wu Yong proposed the conditions for the fifth rank. Then, based on him as the standard, Lu Junyi was at least the fifth rank, while Song Jiang, as the leader, had the fourth or third rank, which was obviously higher than the price offered by the court, but there was room for negotiation. For example, to give Song Jiang a third or fourth rank title, the official rank was still the fifth rank prefect, and Wu Yong could also give the fifth rank official rank, but the official rank was the general judge.

Thinking of this, Hou Meng smiled and said, "Let's do it! I will report to the court overnight, ask the court to relax the conditions a little, and then we will continue to talk."

Hou Meng was also implicitly telling Wu Yong that the price offered by the court was not much different, and the two sides had room for negotiation. If Liangshan was willing to make concessions in other aspects, the court would also make appropriate concessions in official positions.

Wu Yong was overjoyed and quickly stood up and said, "I will go back to Xucheng County to meet General Song first. We are looking forward to the arrival of the court news as soon as possible."

"I look forward to it too!"

Hou Meng sent Wu Yong out of the inn. Wu Yong ordered Li Kui to protect the safety of Hou Guanren, and he and Dai Zong returned to Xucheng.

Li Kui led 500 elite soldiers to live in the inn, and they were distributed around the main courtyard to closely protect the safety of Hou Meng and his entourage.

Song Jiang attaches great importance to the court's amnesty recruitment. He still wants to accept the amnesty and become a senior official in the court. He constantly leads his army to attack cities and villages and defeats the officers and soldiers. That is just a bargaining chip for him to increase his negotiations. As for separating the side and having troops to stand up, he sometimes develops such ambitions, but when he calms down, the idea of ​​accepting amnesty will still gain the upper hand.

Song Jiang was very worried that someone would disrupt the negotiation, especially those like Lu Junyi and Lin Chong who hated the court to the core. They would never accept the recruitment easily and would definitely find ways to destroy the recruitment. Song Jiang was full of vigilance against them, so he sent his confidant Li Kui to lead 500 soldiers to closely protect Hou Meng's safety.
Chapter completed!