Chapter 19 Establishing Authority and Rallying People's Hearts

The Zhenfu Division Yamen.

As soon as Li Qing entered, he saw the two sides in confrontation.

Five finger marks were clearly visible on Liu Qiang's left cheek, which was slightly swollen. He was glaring at the burly man opposite with a face full of anger, while the other man had his nostrils flaring upwards, wearing an expression of "What can you do to me?"

In terms of both the number of people and momentum, the other side was obviously superior.

Li Qing had already understood the whole story on the way here, so he went straight up and pointed at the man with his nostrils in the air, saying, "Liu Qiang, was it him who hit you?"

Liu Qiang's face turned red with shame, and he said, "Yes, this subordinate has shamed the lord..."

Li Qing waved his hand, walked directly in front of that man, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Wang Ao."

"Ha, you really are arrogant." Li Qing nodded, then swung his hand and landed a big slap.

"Slap——!"

This slap was both fast and sudden. Wang Ao clearly didn't expect such a move from him, and he took the slap squarely.

Li Qing's slap was extremely forceful, causing him to stagger. His head was jerked to one side by inertia, and then his body was driven to fall heavily to the ground.

When he looked up again, blood was already oozing from the corner of his mouth.

"A bunch of good-for-nothings." After delivering the slap, Li Qing didn't even look at the other side. He turned around and scolded his subordinates, "The deputy thousand-household was beaten. What have you been doing?"

A group of people slowly lowered their heads, looking ashamed.

Actually, this couldn't be entirely blamed on them. Wang Ao had been their superior before, and his long - established authority was hard to shake off. They had just switched camps a few days ago, and it was difficult for them to change their habitual thinking for a while.

Moreover, this was in the Zhenfu Division Yamen, and the commander was also present. They were afraid of making a big scene.

Li Qing didn't care about all that. He scolded these people mercilessly. The group of people lowered their heads and listened, but they felt warm in their hearts.

While he was scolding fiercely, Wang Ao finally couldn't take it anymore and came forward cursing to argue.

"Slap——!"

Without even raising his eyes, Li Qing swung his hand and landed another slap, continuing to reprimand his subordinates.

Li Yu and the others buried their heads even deeper. A sense of touch welled up in their hearts. At the same time, a sense of belonging and collective honor also surged.

Li Qing was swearing, but Wang Ao thought the other was scolding him indirectly. He felt that both his body and mind had been severely humiliated. He rolled up his sleeves and was about to fight. Unexpectedly, as soon as he got close, he was slapped away again.

As the saying goes, once, twice, but not a third time. After receiving three big slaps in a row, Wang Ao completely lost his mind and roared, "Damn you, I'll fight you to the death."

"Shut up!" Li Qing turned around impatiently and glared at him, "I'll come back to deal with you later."

Wang Ao was stunned for a moment, then fell into a frenzy, "All of you, go up and beat the hell out of this son of a bitch."

"Stop."

A calm voice sounded. Mao Xiang, the commander, walked out slowly, followed by a Jinyiwei half a step behind. The thousand - household tooth plaque swayed gently with the movement of this person.

Mao Xiang glanced at the situation, then turned his head and said, "Zhang Jing, your people have clashed with Li Qing's people. You two thousand - households solve it yourselves."

"Yes." Zhang Jing cupped his hands and said, "This subordinate complies."Li Qing also cupped his hands in salute.

At the same time, Wang Ao regained his calm. The noisy courtyard suddenly quieted down, and everyone quickly cupped their fists to pay their respects.

Mao Xiang glanced at Li Qing, flicked his robe, and walked slowly out between the two sides.

Zhang Jing looked at Liu Qiang, then at Wang Ao, and his face immediately turned gloomy. "How many slaps did you hit him?"

Wang Ao suppressed his anger and said in a low voice, "Reporting to my lord, one slap."

"How many slaps did you receive?"

"Three slaps."

Zhang Jing nodded and came to Li Qing. "You've just taken up the position of Jinyi thousand - household. I can understand that you want to establish your authority, but isn't it too much to use my men to do so?"

"I didn't want to establish authority, nor did I want to use your men for that." Li Qing said indifferently. "It was your men who provoked first."

Zhang Jing smiled. "It's just that Wang Ao didn't know that Captain Liu... Oh no, now he's Deputy Thousand - household Liu. "

As he spoke, he looked at Liu Qiang and chuckled. "You've made some contributions following me in the past. Now it's reasonable for you to be promoted to Deputy Thousand - household. As your former superior, I haven't even congratulated you yet. Congratulations, Liu Qiang!"

Liu Qiang was stunned. According to the usual practice, he should have been polite. But at the moment, the situation between the two sides was tense. It was not appropriate for him to greet with a smile. But if he gave a cold shoulder, people would think that he, Liu Qiang, was ungrateful.

No matter what he did, he couldn't win a good reputation.

As expected of a thousand - household, his level is indeed much higher than that of Wang Ao... Li Qing took over the conversation with a smile:

"So Deputy Thousand - household Liu used to work under Thousand - household Zhang. In that case, I really should thank Thousand - household Zhang. You've trained such a capable subordinate for me."

When Zhang Jing heard him refer to himself as a junior, his expression softened slightly. Just as he was about to press his advantage,

he heard Li Qing continue, "My Jinyiwei unit is in urgent need of people right now. Thousand - household Zhang, if you're willing to be a good person to the end, would you be willing to part with three to five hundred men for me?

We all work under Commander Mao, serving the emperor and relieving his worries. Why distinguish between yours and mine?"

At the end, he added another sentence, "What do you think, Brother Zhang?"

Zhang Jing was disgusted by Li Qing's shamelessness, but he couldn't refute it.

First, Li Qing used the highest - ranking official of the Jinyiwei as a shield, and then he brought up the matter of relieving the emperor's worries. What else could he say?

Moreover, Li Qing was using the slogan that the Jinyiwei were like one family. Even if he wanted to find fault, he couldn't.

Zhang Jing had to avoid answering and led the conversation back to the main topic. "Deputy Thousand - household Wang didn't know that Deputy Thousand - household Liu had been promoted and was transferred to be under the jurisdiction of Thousand - household Li. Mistaking him for an insolent subordinate, he took action to teach him a lesson..."

"So it was a misunderstanding." Li Qing feigned enlightenment and chuckled. "I was also mistaken. I thought Deputy Thousand - household Wang was deliberately looking for trouble."

Zhang Jing was stunned. He suddenly realized that when it came to being unreasonable, he was far inferior to this young man in front of him.

Helpless, he could only pretend to be fair and say, "Liu Qiang received one slap, and Wang Ao received three slaps. How should we account for these two extra slaps?

How about this? Let Wang Ao slap Liu Qiang back twice, and then it will be even."

At the end, imitating Li Qing's words just now, he said, "What do you think, Brother Li?"

"That's not appropriate!"

Li Qing shook his head. "Those two extra slaps were brought upon Deputy Thousand - household Wang himself. The first slap was for his abusing his superior, and the second was for his defying his superior.

If we were really to convict him, I'm afraid it wouldn't be resolved with just two slaps."

After that, he said earnestly, "Brother Zhang, you really need to discipline him well. Otherwise, one day, you'll surely suffer because of him."

Unable to win in reasoning and not being a match in being unreasonable, Zhang Jing was filled with anger. He simply said, "Since neither of us can convince the other, how about following the old rules of the Jinyiwei?"

He had heard about the commotion in the front yard a long time ago. He didn't stop it in time because he wanted to test the ability of this newly - appointed Jinyi thousand - household. After all, Liu Qiang was indeed his subordinate before.

It was hard for him to accept that a hundred of his men were taken away for no reason. Although he could recruit new ones, new recruits were not as reliable as the old hands.

It was Mao Xiang who made this arrangement, so he couldn't say anything. He could only vent his anger on Li Qing.

But he really didn't expect Li Qing to be so difficult to deal with. In this situation, if he, Zhang Jing, chose to let the matter go, how could he lead his men in the future?

"What rule?" Li Qing asked.

"A contest!" Zhang Jing added, "The winner gets to decide."

Li Qing had a strange look on his face. "You mean... have a fight?"

"Dare you fight?" Zhang Jing said proudly. "I won't take advantage of you. I'll only use one hand. If you can hold out for a quarter of an hour, you win."

Liu Qiang quickly stepped up to Li Qing and whispered, "My lord, his martial arts rank among the top three of all the thousand - households. It's better to..."

"It doesn't matter." Li Qing said softly, and walked forward slowly. "Thousand - household Zhang, let's start!"

"Fine!"

Zhang Jing assumed a fighting stance, stamped his right foot hard, and rushed forward rapidly with the help of inertia, throwing a punch towards the upper left of Li Qing's abdomen.

He knew how to fight.

This area was where the stomach and intestines were located. A punch here wouldn't seriously injure a person but would cause great pain. An ordinary person who took such a punch wouldn't recover for half a day.

Li Qing didn't want to waste time. Seeing the attack coming, he neither dodged nor evaded, but instead counter - punched.

As their fists were about to collide, Zhang Jing changed his move and went for Li Qing's abdomen again.

Li Qing was even faster. He spread his five fingers and, reaching there first despite starting later, slapped Zhang Jing's elbow before his fist landed on himself.

It seemed like a light punch, but Zhang Jing's expression changed. He felt a huge force hitting him, and his body uncontrollably started to spin. Even though he tried his best to resist, he still spun 180°.

His body turned from facing Li Qing to having his back to Li Qing.

Half of Zhang Jing's body went numb. With just this one strike, he knew he was definitely no match for the other. Although he didn't use a deadly move, it was obvious that the other side had also held back.

Unable to win in argument and defeated in a fight, he had really lost today.

However, he had to maintain his dignity. After all, he was a thousand - household with thousands of men under him. He had to save face. After a brief thought, an idea came to him.

Zhang Jing put his left hand behind his back, stood with his back to Li Qing, and said, "I suddenly remembered that Lord Li still needs to diagnose the Empress's illness. It really isn't suitable for a martial arts contest.

Fists and feet are unpredictable. If, by any chance, Lord Li is injured and the Empress's illness is delayed, even if I were to die ten thousand times, I couldn't atone for my sin."

"Today's matter arose from a misunderstanding. Since it's a misunderstanding, there's no need to delve too deeply into it." Zhang Jing said in a placid tone. "What's your opinion, Lord Li?"

The change from addressing Li Qing as Thousand - household Li to Lord Li indicated that Zhang Jing had backed down.

Li Qing had avenged his subordinate and, taking this opportunity, rallied the hearts of his subordinates. Since it wasn't a deep - seated enmity, he didn't want to push things too far either.

So he gave the other party a way out. "What Lord Zhang said is quite fair."

After that, he turned to Liu Qiang and asked, "How's the investigation going on the matter I told you to look into?"

Liu Qiang replied respectfully, "My lord, we've got some clues."

Li Qing nodded. "Let's talk in the inner hall."

The group walked past Zhang Jing, who still stood there with his hands behind his back, showing no reaction.

Wang Ao also came to his senses from his anger. He knew that the slaps he received today were in vain, but he couldn't quite swallow his pride.

Covering his face, he said, "Chief, are we just going to let this go?"