Zhuge Liang took off the lamp cover, stretched out the letter in his hand to the lamp and lit it. The bamboo paper quickly burned, illuminating Zhuge Liang's eyes, and then quickly dimmed, turning into a ball of fire and slowly falling.

Zhuge Liang sighed again.

Zhuge Ke walked over slowly, took the lamp cover from his hand, re-covered it, and helped Zhuge Liang back to the front of the case. I don't know who sent this letter, and even Zhuge Ke didn't know it, which made Zhuge Ke very surprised. But he didn't ask anything, since Zhuge Liang didn't want to tell him, it was useless for him to ask.

"Find Xi Zhong."

"Whoa." Zhuge Ke turned around to arrange. When he came back, he found Zhuge Liang kneeling at the desk to check the map, and a few white hairs hung down from his sideburns and landed on the desk, gently shaking with Zhuge Liang's rapid breathing, like shredded in the wind.

Zhuge Ke sighed secretly, sat beside Zhuge Liang, glanced at the map, and understood what Zhuge Liang was worried about.

"Uncle, have a problem??"

"Wei's workshop in Xiangyang has produced a new type of horse armor, which is more than 30% lighter than ordinary horse armor. Wei Ba broke the more than 600 horsemen of Wuqiu Jian with one hundred and twenty horsemen equipped with horse armor, and played a trick of a white wolf manifestation in White Wolf Mountain, and the Wuhuan people were frightened by him. ”

Zhuge Ke gasped. He understood what Zhuge Liang meant, and even heard the murderous intent behind this meaning.

Will Wei Ba climb the White Wolf Mountain with one hundred and twenty horsemen and fight against Wuqiujian's more than 600 horsemen? That sounds so incredible. If this is another miraculous victory for Wei Ba, then Zhuge Liang Weishenme has no happy expression at all?

Zhuge Liang seemed to feel Zhuge Ke's horror. He raised his head, looked at Zhuge Ke, stroked his beard with one hand, and knocked on the case with the other: "Yuan Xun? ”

"Ah, uncle." Zhuge Ke woke up like a dream, and quickly retracted his mind, only to find a layer of cold sweat on his back.

"Tell me, how will this affect the situation?"

"Whoa." Zhuge Ke quickly sorted out his thoughts, and when he spoke, he was already calm. "The Wei family created horse armor, first, it was of great help to Wei Ba's Liaodong offensive. But the bigger impact is the Yanyu battlefield. If the Yanyu battlefield has an obvious advantage. If the progress is too rapid to reach a stalemate, there will be no way to talk about the war in Guanzhong. ”

Zhuge Liang bowed slightly. Among the children and nephews, Zhuge Ke's brain is obviously the best. If only he could get rid of his pride and arrogance. This is a pillar of talent. is a few points better than Zhuge Qiao. The only person who can compare with him may only be Zhuge Zhan, who is still a young child. Zhuge Liang often said in front of others that Zhuge Zhan was precocious, and his future achievements may be limited. But he was still very proud of his smart and lovely son.

"Secondly, Wei Ba left Ma Kai's jishu in Xiangyang, I'm afraid there is another purpose. As soon as the horse armor comes out, in order to avoid being at a disadvantage, both sides will do their best to buy horse armor and equip their own cavalry. In this way, Wei Feng's wealth is extensive, and the Xi family is also stained, and his uncle's plan to contain Wei Ba as Wei Feng's eldest son may be in vain. ”

"Zuihou, Wei Ba has horse armor, and his meritorious service in Liaodong is just around the corner, leaving time for his uncle...... But there are fewer and fewer of them. Zhuge Ke looked at Zhuge Liang's eyes, and saw a deep uneasiness in them. Uncle, Wei Ba is fighting for the initiative, forcing his uncle to be tired of coping. ”

"Even if I die of exhaustion, he can't do it." Zhuge Liang suddenly laughed: "Yuan Xun, you are still young. ”

Zhuge Ke shook his head: "Uncle, I do want to compete with Wei Ba, but I know that I am not his opponent." ”

Zhuge Liang smiled even more, he reached out and picked up the teacup, and Zhuge Ke immediately added some water to him. Zhuge Liang thought for a moment and said, "What you're worried about is nothing more than the jishu owned by Wei Ba, right?" ”

Zhuge Ke nodded honestly.

"Yes, power scheme, you are not weaker than Wei Ba, compared with Wei Ba, your biggest weakness is jishu. Without jishu, no matter how clever the scheming is, it can't play its due role. Zhuge Liang sighed softly: "This sentence was also said to me by Wei Ba, but I didn't really understand it at the time, but now I understand it, but it's a little late." ”

"You're still young, though." Zhuge Liang changed his words and looked at Zhuge Ke with a fierce expression: "I have prepared some talents for you, and when they join forces, they may not be worse than Wei Ba, at least not too bad." ”

Zhuge Ke nodded, but there was not much joy in his eyes. He felt that Zhuge Liang was a little too optimistic. Wei Ba has been preempting for so many years, and now that the situation has been completed, how can it be easy for Zhuge Liang to pull the situation back. However, he didn't say this to Zhuge Liang, in his opinion, Zhuge Liang is living on these hopes now, if there is no hope, he doesn't know how long Zhuge Liang can hold on.

And he needs Zhuge Liang to live. He boasts that he is not inferior to Zhuge Liang, but in terms of the prestige of Shu Han, he does not dare to compare with Zhuge Liang. In the Shu Han court, no one can replace Zhuge Liang.

At least not yet.

"Good." Seeing that Zhuge Ke's joy and anger were invisible, Zhuge Liang was very satisfied.

……

Mrs. Xi personally greeted the door, took Xi Zhong into the house, and led him to the hall to sit down.

Looking at those exquisitely crafted high tables and chairs, Xi Zhong glanced at it enviously: "Sister, you are really rich now." This set of tables and chairs, if placed in Chengdu, is worth at least ten gold. ”

"Where to buy ten gold, the raw materials are not enough." Mrs. Xi covered her mouth and smiled: "Brother, do you like it?" If you like it, I'll ask someone to send you a set, and let you rise in front of your sister-in-law. ”

"Hehe, with an in-law like the Wei family, I am very majestic now." Xi Zhong couldn't help but be happy, sat down slowly, tried it, and nodded: "Well, this workmanship is different, comfortable, comfortable." ”

"Fake serious, just say it if you like it, you have to beat around the bush." Mrs. Xi gave him a blank look: "Okay, this matter is on me." Say, what did you come all the way from Chengdu for? ”

"For the sake of horse armor." Xi Zhong got straight to the point and explained his intentions: "The prime minister wants to order 5,000 sets of horse armor for the forbidden army. ”

Mrs. Xi's eyes turned, and she seemed to smile: "Okay, pay the deposit first." ”

Xi Zhong smacked his lips. Without waiting for him to speak, Mrs. Xi said again: "Since you are here, there is a sentence, I just passed it on to the prime minister." He owes my uncle more than 40,000 gold, and now the IOU is in my hand, if he has money, will he pay it back together? ”

"IOUs? What IOU? "Xi Zhong is incomprehensible, he was just entrusted by Zhuge Liang to come to Xiangyang to order horse armor, but he didn't know that Zhuge Liang still owed Wei Ba money. More than 40,000 gold? My God, what a huge sum of money, and it won't be enough to sell all of Zhuge Liang's family property. He was suddenly disrupted by Mrs. Xi's counterattack, and even forgot his intention.

Mrs. Xi explained the situation again. Zhuge Liang owed Wei Ba more than 40,000 gold, and he couldn't pay it back for a while, and Wei Ba was embarrassed to urge him, but he also wanted money, so what should he do, so he had to transfer this IOU to Mrs. Xi in the form of a seven-fold discount. In other words, Mrs. Xi only needs to spend 30,000 gold, and she will get more than 40,000 gold, and if she can get this money back, she can earn more than 10,000 gold at once. As for Wei Ba, he cashed out 30,000 gold at once, and with the money in hand, it is naturally much more convenient to do things.

Mrs. Xi couldn't come up with so much money, but she mobilized the strength of the Nanyang and Xiangyang families, scraped together 30,000 gold, and ate the business. In other words, the current creditor is not Wei Ba, nor Wei Feng, but more than a dozen families in Nanyang and Xiangyang. The big one is more than a thousand gold, and the small one is a few hundred gold. They also use these debts to buy shares, and they can get a lot of dividends every year, and these dividends are of course earned by Mrs. Xi.

has gone around in a big circle, in fact, Mrs. Xi is paying huge dividends every year, and of course she is in a hurry to recover the debt of more than 40,000 gold.

Xi Zhong was sweating profusely when he heard this, and looked at his sister in awe.

"Sister, your courage now is really amazing, more than 30,000 gold in foreign debt? My ancestors and ancestors of the Xi family have never done such a big business. ”

"That's because they don't have the backing of my uncle." Mrs. Xi said disappreciatively: "The prime minister now has money to buy horse armor, did he pay back the money first?" I'm waiting for the money now. ”

Xi Zhong opened his mouth, embarrassed to speak again. Where did Zhuge Liang have money, he said that he wanted to order 5,000 sets of horse armor, but he wanted the Wei family's workshop to be unable to supply others for the time being. It was not easy for him to hand over the deposit, let alone the debt of more than 40,000 gold.

"You already know what I'm here for?"

"I don't know." Mrs. Xi shook her head with a smile: "However, we can roughly guess what kind of countermeasures the prime minister will come up with." Don't forget, it's not me who wants to collect debts from the prime minister. We often think about when the prime minister will be able to repay the money. ”

Xi Zhong was a little depressed, Zhuge Liang was going to provoke the anger of the public. There is money to buy horse armor, but there is no money to pay off debts, this is unreasonable. Xi Zhong thought for a while, and then asked: "I see what you mean, I'm afraid that debt collection is false, and it's true that I don't want to take this business." Did someone order horse armor? ”

"Not yet, but we believe it will soon be in short supply." Mrs. Xi smiled like a flower: "Brother, don't blame my sister for not giving you face, give you a month, and the prime minister will pay back the money within a month, no matter how profitable the business is, I will give priority to you to complete the task." But if the prime minister refuses to pay back, then I can't do anything. You see me, a big family, too, to eat, don't I? ”

"Okay, count yourself ruthless." Xi Zhong pretended to be ruthless and said: "The daughter who married out of the house, splashed the water out of the door, this elbow turned out." ”

"You can't say that, my Xi family has a large share." Mrs. Xi squeezed her eyes: "Do you really think that your sister-in-law can't see the actual benefits, so you can live a comfortable life?" This is what my sister spent money on, so I won't tell you, I'm just afraid that you will be a scholar again. ”

Xi Zhong couldn't cry or laugh.

"By the way, my aunt has a letter." Mrs. Xi turned around and entered the inner room, took out a letter and put it in front of Xi Zhong. "My uncle is old and wants to return home to support his old age, so he wants me to arrange it for him. When you go back to Chengdu, by the way, I will say to Bixia, this Pang family has made great contributions to the country, and you can't say nothing at all. ”…… (To be continued......)