In the late autumn and early winter of northern Xinjiang, there was a chill early, there was a snow not long ago, and the thin layer of white on the distant mountains never receded, but in the city where the ground was slightly warmer, the cypress trees were still green and yellow leaves, and from those yellow and green branches to look at the distant grassland and snow mountains, there was a kind of cool color beauty. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

This is Yuzhou in October, the border city closest to the Hulun grassland, because of the long years of stationing heavy troops, the development of commerce, coupled with the victory of the Vietnam War to implement the Wei scholars at the beginning of the "Pingyue two policies", Yuzhou's economy is quite developed, there is the "Northern Xinjiang Imperial Capital" said.

Dongcheng of Yuzhou has always been the concentration of the residences of the major generals in northern Xinjiang, and the imperial court supervisors who came to the war in previous years were also equipped with courtyards there, such as the one without a door plaque in the 32nd Lane of Dongcheng, which was the temporary residence of the Xin scholar who had been supervising the army for nearly two years in the war against Vietnam in the past two years.

With the return of the Xin Jian army to Beijing, this courtyard was also vacant, but the government did not take it back, because Xin University scholars were crazy and righteous, during the period of being a prison army in northern Xinjiang, they took in a lot of war refugees, and they were placed in the house to do some chores, when Xin Jian Jun left, he specially asked the local government not to take back the house, to give these poor people a place to live, Xin Ziyan The minister of the country personally requested, the government did not care about this courtyard, and naturally it was happy to please, and some things on weekdays would call these people over, Help with chores and give a little money or something, and these people also stayed.

Early in the morning, the door of the courtyard opened, and a **** in a green cloth dress carried a basket and walked out a little staggeringly, and he vaguely heard someone whispering behind him: "...... Aunt Mei, the vegetables were not fresh yesterday, don't buy that one! ”

The **** responded in a low voice, his voice was hoarse, and someone strode over and scolded: "A woman who is so stupid that she can't even cook well now!" ”

The door behind him slammed shut, and the walls buzzed.

The **** stood on the steps, gathered a little thin placket in the cold wind, her hair was messy, it seemed that she deliberately didn't take care of it well, through those slightly greasy messy hair, you can see that her face is very mottled.

At first glance, it looks like the light and shadow of different colors caused by the sun shattering on the face, and then I gasp and find that the **** face is full of whitish and brown spots, which are irregularly distributed on the cheeks and nose, making her face look like an old wall of loess that has lost its skin.

The eyebrows and eyes are still beautiful when you look closely, but when they are covered by such a terrible scar, what kind of beauty is gone.

She was stunned on the steps for a long time, looking up at the direction of the grassland.

That vast and vast land, close to the eye, can never go back in this life.

Just like her youth, beauty, and the first half of her life of more than 20 years of privileged wealth, the spark disappeared in an instant.

"Aunt Mei is going to buy groceries?" A neighbor passed by, hurriedly greeted her, as if he didn't want to look up at her face, and walked by the wall, not expecting to wait for her to respond.

She let out a "hmm", lonely in the wind of Yuzhou in early winter.

Aunt May.

Everyone in Lane 32 and the Military Prison called her that, and no one cared how old she was or what her full name was.

But only she knew.

She's not in her thirties this year.

Only she remembered that she had a name as beautiful as herself.

Meadow.

In the past, on the grassland, even the king of the grassland had to be called an aunt like a princess-like woman, but now she is the aunt who cooks rice in the Yuzhou Prison Courtyard.

That year, he conspired with Kelie to fornicate with Dayue, killed Dapeng in Babiao, and almost destroyed the night attack on Baitou Cliff, after which Kelie was seriously injured, she did not go to the scene, and was familiar with the grassland, and fled in a hurry, and initially wanted to stay in the grassland, but the remaining seven of Babiao galloped and wandered in the grassland with knives and arrows all day long, and she was not digging three feet to find out her without giving up. Who knows that because of the poisoning in the grain and grass, the angry Yao Yangyu has long been reported to the court to behead the door, she has nowhere to go, she lives in Yuzhou, without food and clothing, the living environment is bad, the injuries on her body that were made by Kelie gradually deteriorated, and finally spread to the whole body, where she walked, the stench hit people, everyone avoided, and finally one day when she was covered with a broken sack on the corner of the street and shrunk to death, she met Xin Ziyan.

The head of the Xin Academy, who is frantic and sympathetic to the poor, never minds reaching out to others, and since then there has been an Aunt Mei in the prison yard.

Aunt Mei was unwilling to be Aunt Mei, one night she knelt under Xin Ziyan's knees, cried about her origins, and asked Lord Xin to help her return to the grassland, of course, she hid her betrayal of the grassland.

Xin Ziyan is not a blind and troubled person, she was only very interested in what she said about Helian Zheng personally transporting grain and grass for Wei Zhi, and asked her a lot about Wei Zhi and Helian Zheng, but in the end she asked her to stay in the prison with peace of mind, he found someone to treat her and be responsible for the rest of her life, as for the grassland, she still don't want to go back.

She stayed on the edge of the prairie in despair, destined to walk the whole journey forever.

The October cold wind rushed from the grassland, cutting on her face as sharp as a knife, Mei Duo did not avoid it, took a deep breath of the wind with the smell of grass tips, and thought of milk cake and butter tea.

However, in this life, she will never be able to eat, those people, the most noble young man of the grassland she loved, the person who was saved by her, in the end abandoned her, snubbed her, trampled on her, and left her alone to struggle in the world, and she will struggle forever.

How fierce the love was back then, how dark the hatred is now.

She stood silently for a long time, carrying a basket of vegetables to buy vegetables, no matter how much uneasy anger she had in her heart, the dishes still had to be made.

After buying vegetables and coming back, passing by the yamen of Yuzhou Mansion, a servant poked his head out, saw her eyes lit up, and beckoned again and again: "Aunt Mei, Aunt Mei, you came just in time, come, help us clean the master's study, Shangfeng is urgently coming to inspect, but there is a case in the countryside, the adults have brought a lot of people to the countryside, no one in the house is working, you come to help." ”

The prefect of Yuzhou Mansion is stingy, and the government does not need to be subordinate on weekdays, all the chores are undertaken by the officials, and when they are too busy, they are transferred to these people who are taken care of by the government on weekdays, and also receive the imperial court relief silver, Mei Duo is also used to it, put down the vegetable basket and go to the back house.

She was familiar with the way into the study, sprinkling and wiping and tidying up, classifying all kinds of books scattered on the bookcase, and suddenly stopped.

Immediately, her hand was slowly withdrawn, and an ordinary briefcase in her palm, with a white cover, had been cut open and looked at, and it didn't look unusual.

But her eyes were strange, staring at the little hazel color that came out of the white cover, a color and pattern that she was familiar with.

Growing up in the royal court of the grassland, of course she recognized this as the secret letter paper for the secret guards of the royal court, which was hemp, tough, not easy to destroy, and easy to carry by riding men.

How could the secret letter of the Prairie Royal Court appear on the desk of the Yuzhou official mansion?

After thinking about it, she also understood, the imperial court has always been both respectful and defensive about the grassland, as the closest frontier city to the grassland, Yuzhou must have a special scout line to survey the grassland situation, this is probably which secret agent inadvertently intercepted the secret letter of the royal court, but the royal court to transmit the secret letter, has always used the unique ancient font of the Huzhuo Department, how can the officials of Yuzhou Mansion recognize? Probably as something unimportant, just throw it here.

Holding the letter, her heart suddenly thumped a few times.

As if suddenly, there was a loud bang, and a glimmer of light opened in the eternal darkness in front of him.

She didn't know what was behind the door, but she was not willing to let her open it at this moment.

Meadow pulled out the letter almost without hesitation.

Sure enough, it is Huzhuo ancient language, which looks more like children's graffiti, which can confuse people who don't recognize this kind of character, so even if it is intercepted, there is no need to be nervous.

No one knows that there is a coincidence in the world, and the damned person is not dead, tossing and turning, and approaching the arrangement of fate.

Mei Duo hurriedly finished reading it and frowned.

The letter said that the previous batch of horses has arrived, the transaction is happy, the sky will be cold soon, the grassland to store grain for famine, can transport another batch of goods, the previous Mayu gate guard has been replaced this time, the general is not there now, no one to cover it up, it is recommended to change the way, even if it is a twist point, safety for the clouds.

At the end, there was another sentence, saying that the father of the nation was too calm because of the news he had received recently, and he thought that someone must have deceived him, and asked the king what he heard in the country, and told him in time.

Mei Duo didn't understand the two paragraphs, and only vaguely felt that the matter was very important, especially the title of the father of the country, which made her feel a tremor of excitement - it was obvious that this letter was addressed to Helian Zheng, and no one except him had this level of communication, which mentioned the country, indicating that the father of the country was the father of other countries, so who was it?

She turned around, looked at the Tiansheng map hanging on the wall, searched carefully along the grassland, and found the place name "Mayu Pass" on the border of southern Fujian in Longbei.

Where the steppe has crossed the province, what kind of horse trade, far to where?

Mei Duo thought for a while, she was not smart enough after all, and she was not very sober after a long illness, and she couldn't get the correct result, if she changed to Feng Zhiwei, she could immediately touch the shocking truth, but she just looked at the name of the place in a daze, and thought for a long time that this was probably the king's annual tea and horse trade for the winter famine.

So he threw it away, thinking only of the latter paragraph, when he suddenly heard a commotion in the distance, and probably the inspectors came, and quickly put the things back and went out through the side door.

She returned to the prison and was about to carefully explain the reason for the delay with her companions, but a director left by the prison court raised a letter in her hand and said, "Aunt Mei, the scholar brought a letter from Beijing, saying that he asked the Tai Hospital for a cure for your illness and asked you to show it." As he spoke, he pointed to a carriage waiting outside the door, and said, "The university scholar has been transferred to Shannan to take up a post, and said that there are also famous doctors there, if you are afraid that you will not be able to take medicine well, you can also follow the car." ”

In the admiration of everyone, Mei Duo took the letter and returned to his room, there was indeed a prescription in the letter, but at the end of the letter, there were still a few words.

"You told me the year before last that Wei Zhi had trained Huzhuo Tieqi for Helian Zheng with a secret method, what is this secret method, do you remember? If you have time, take you to Shannan, this method is described in detail in me, Huzhuo Iron Cavalry through this secret method training, combat power is fierce and unique in the world, if this method can be used in the imperial army, then the country is worry-free. ”

To put it simply, of course Xin Ziyan can't talk too much to people like Mei Duo, this reason is also reasonable, Mei Duo didn't expect that since she had already mentioned this matter to Xin Ziyan, why didn't Xin Ziyan immediately ask for this secret method?

When Xin Ziyan heard about this that year, he had already moved in his heart, Wei Zhi, as a close minister of the Son of Heaven, helped the grassland train iron horses, but did not offer the magic method of training troops to the imperial court, if this matter reached the ears of Emperor Tiansheng, it would be a "disloyal to the court" at the least, and at worst it could be accused of rebellion, but at that time, Wei Zhi's attitude was not clear, in Xin Ziyan's eyes, it was a powerful assistant who had to be guarded against, but could try to win over the camp of the king of Chu, so he only kept this matter in his heart.

So when he was in prison, he angrily declared to Feng Zhiwei: Don't think that I didn't rule you.

So when Fat Ah Hua died in front of his eyes, what was pressed in his heart a few years ago immediately surfaced.

Mei Duo turned her head and thought about it, showing a little dazed expression, she was a woman, and she was not very familiar with martial arts, not to mention that although Feng Zhiwei had already dialed the Huzhuo cavalry before, but Mei Duo's mind was on Helian Zheng, where did she pay attention to this, when Feng Zhiwei began to train grassland cavalry in large quantities, Mei Duo had already been sent out of the grassland by her to marry to Texas, and later she was secretly picked up by Keree, or from Keree's mouth, only to know that there was a Han boy named Wei Zhi who trained cavalry very well, but to talk about specific methods, Where is the reason for that?

She was stunned, racking her brains and thinking for a long time, the carriage outside the door was already urging, her heart suddenly lit up, she stood up with a sneer, packed up her simple baggage, and hurriedly stepped out of the door.

==

In winter, the grassland is dark early, and the sun has closed the mountains before the sun is over, and the herdsmen have fed the horses early and got into their tents, and the smell of goat's milk and meat mixture has enveloped the whole grassland.

The second house of the Potala stands quietly in the twilight, black and white silent in the afterglow of the setting sun.

"We have enough food and grass this winter." In the apse of the royal court, the noisy owner of the second palace of the Potala, Peony Hua'er, stilted Erlang's legs, looking at the smoke outside triumphantly, "It seems that you can live a full year." ”

Helian Zheng sat under the lamp, silently looked at a pile of letterheads, looked up and instructed the Qibiao: "Tomorrow drive the last batch of horses out of the slaughter, and then stop, and our own horses must be prepared." ”

"I said what else are you going to trade with Xiliang?" Peony Hua'er turned over and sat up, "We have enough food for ourselves, this road is too far, there are too many variables, and once something happens, it's not fun." ”

"Prepare more food and grass." Helian Zheng concentrated on reading the military report in the southwest of Tiansheng, and replied casually without raising his head.

As soon as he said this, he felt speechless, and the room fell silent, and General Helian Zheng raised his head, and saw his old lady staring at him with a vigilant gaze like a female leopard.

"Why do you think of me like that? Because I'm getting more and more handsome? Helian Zheng looked at his wife with a smile, suddenly his eyes widened, and he fussed and touched her face, "Oh mom, it's terrible, your forehead lines are out!" ”

In the past, the peony flower who loved beauty as much as her life must have been diverted to smooth out the so-called forehead lines first, but at this moment she was not moved at all, her dark eyes stared at Helian Zheng, and said in a deep voice, "I said, Ji Gou'er, what are your plans?" ”

"What are you going to do?" Helian Zheng turned his gaze unnaturally, looking left and right, "It's nothing." ”

"Bastard boy!" Peony Hua jumped up, raised her foot and kicked the military newspaper away, "You care about the military situation in the southwest, and you have been using Changning and Xiliang to trade in the horse market for thousands of miles, obviously the grain is enough, you are still in reserve, you dragged the most elite Shunyi iron cavalry day and night to train and expand the team, and you secretly sent people to mine that black gold mine-you don't know?" It's long enough to store food for the clansmen, why are you still gathering so crazily? Grain and grass, heavy baggage, the army has not moved, prepare logistics first, don't think that after decades by your father's side, the old lady is so stupid that she doesn't even know this! ”

Helian Zheng stood in the middle of the room, with a wave of his hand, Qi Biao didn't dare to come out quietly, and the room was completely quiet, he turned around, his jewel-like eyes stared at his mother, and said for a while: "What do you know?" ”

"You bastard Ji Dog!" The Empress Dowager Peony, who was pushed by her son and almost had her chest sagging, was furious, "What? How? How long has the grassland been settled? After the internal fighting is over, the clansmen are constantly being consumed, and it is easy to have an improvement in the past few years, who do you want to toss to wipe the knife and get on the horse? Before your father died, he told me that the grassland needs peace, and the old lady did her best to protect the complete grassland for you, and what she wanted was for me to recuperate and recuperate, and not to fight, and the people believed that you followed you, and it was not to drag you to the battlefield to be a dead ghost - you you - you you - you - " The Queen Mother Peony was turbulent, and she was so angry that she was angry when she was half stunned.

Helian Zheng put his hand in his sleeve and listened indifferently, he knew that the old lady must be this reaction, and she even blocked it when he sent troops to help Tiansheng attack Dayue, not to mention his idea now? His peony flowers have always been a lover of peace.

"You're thinking too much." King Shunyi was very concise today, but every sentence blocked his mother's mouth like a cannonball.

"Am I thinking too much?" Peony Hua'er spread her hand, looked at her son a little blankly, and shook her head for a while, "Ji Gou'er, you crawled out of my belly, I know what kind of urine you sprinkle when you your tail, you are preparing for war, and you are preparing for Feng Zhiwei." ”

Helian Zheng rolled his eyes, sat down, simply ignored her, and poured himself a cup of butter tea to drink.

"Good son." Peony Hua scolded angrily and changed her attack, and leaned over one by one, "I know that you like Zhiwei, I know that Zhiwei is kind to our grassland, but if you have kindness, you can't pay back the entire grassland, you still want to be that ......" She rolled her eyes and thought for a long time, "How many lifetimes does Edward have?" Don't want to be beautiful for the sake of beauty? The question is, do people need it? ”

Helian Zheng tilted his head and drank tea in a big gulp, ignoring his mother's strange words, his long eyelashes drooped, covering the colorful eyes of the streamer, such an obstruction was expected, peony flowers love the grassland deeply, no one is allowed to trample on it, and no one is allowed to bring a crisis to the grassland, Zhiwei's kindness to the grassland will not let her be willing to put the grassland into the war.

In fact, Zhiwei has no such plans, as can be seen from the fact that she has always only reported good news and not bad news, but Zhiwei doesn't want it, but he has to give it.

Hua Qiong is just because of the grace of saving her husband, she can take great risks for Feng Zhiwei, he Helian Zheng has shouted Feng Zhiwei Concubine for so many years, and she has graced the grassland, is it possible that in the end, she is not even as good as a woman?

What she wants to do, he prepares, Helian Zheng has no ambitions in his life, nor is it rare to have grand ambitions, the only thing Helian Zheng wants to do is his aunt's hero!

Of course, there is no need to talk to Peony Hua'er about this grand ambition, she will gag her mouth in the middle of the night with her weird belly pocket covered with milk butter tea, and then beat her violently.

"Good." King Shunyi put the bowl down after drinking tea, and hugged his mother, "I said that if you want more, you want more, yes, I'm preparing for war, but who told you that I was preparing for Zhiwei?" You see, now the situation in Tiansheng is unstable, although the war is in the southwest, but the country is turbulent, and the border will suffer first, as one of the few limited separatist forces in the world, shouldn't we make some preparations early? If we don't beat others, what if others deceive us? What if Dayue sees Tiansheng caught in the war and wants to take advantage of the fire to rob? Didn't they never do this? As soon as Da Yue comes, he must pass through the Hulun grassland, you can't let our sons and daughters drag rusty knives and ride horses that fall to the ground to meet the battle, right? ”

Peony looked at him suspiciously and pointed at his nose, "You really didn't lie?" ”

"Lie to you, I'm Liu Peony!" Helian Zheng pointed to the oath of heaven, "It's still sagging tits!" ”

"Phew!" Peony Flower slapped Helian Zheng away, stood up and turned around a few times, sighed and said, "Dog, don't blame your mother for being kind, my mother is afraid that you will do stupid things, Zhiwei love Niang understands, always remembers, as long as she is willing, no matter how down-and-out she is, we will dare to take her in and protect her for a lifetime, but we have no right to take the life and death of the entire grassland child...... The mother of those children watched them grow up, and the mother was reluctant. ”

"I know, it's all about you and it has nothing to do with Zhiwei." Helian Zheng smiled and touched his mother's face, "My old beauty, you don't know, Zhiwei is not the kind of person who begs for retribution, you are reluctant to be a prairie child, she is willing?" If she was willing to be willing to help us so much, you have read her letter or something, but did you mention a word about it? You can rest assured that there is nothing to do. ”

"Beauty is beauty, why add an old word?" The Empress Dowager Peony raised her eyebrows and kicked her son in vain, "Chamutu is five years old, tomorrow I will take him to Huyin Temple for empowerment, you be honest." ”

"Congratulations to the Queen Mother!" Helian Zheng bent down and sent his mother away with a smile, and as soon as the figure of the Queen Mother disappeared outside the house, the smile on his face disappeared behind the clouds like starlight.

He clapped his hands, and Qi Biao cautiously walked in.

"Last time you said the Courier had lost a letter." Helian Zheng was distracted for a long time, and said in a deep voice, "I always feel a little uneasy in my heart. ”

"Don't worry, the king's letters are written in ancient languages, and the people who know him are limited, except for the people from the royal court of Ingill, who will?" Sibao replied nonchalantly, "I can't think of anyone among those Han people who can recognize that kind of writing, we have never used this kind of writing on Tiansheng's side." ”

"Everyone who can write like this is under control, right?"

"Yes."

"Your eldest concubine once said." The corners of Helian Zheng's lips raised a faint smile, and the colorful gem eyes shone brightly, "There will be a mistake in the hundred secrets, if you want not to lose, you must first not be sparse." ”

Qi Biao looked at each other, feeling that the words of the concubine were really not understood by ordinary people, and Qi Qi looked at their king with admiration.

"I've thought about it," Helian Zheng turned around and said, "Let's take advantage of the war in the southwest and the release of water in Changning, this road that we took the risk should be accepted as soon as we see it, at least before next spring, we can't use it again, I don't know what the letter I lost last time I wrote, the news from Xiliang hasn't come yet, originally according to my meaning, since this happened, I should cut off this road first, so as not to bring trouble to Zhiwei, but you have also seen it, Concubine Peony has found an abnormality, and it will be difficult for us to prepare later, so this time I personally led the team, Take the last trip. ”

"The King." Miyalcon immediately stopped, "You are the most noble eagle of the grassland, how can you ...... for such a trivial matter"

"It's not a trivial matter." Helian Zheng cut off his words, "Your concubine said that if you want not to lose, you must first not be slackened, and your concubine also said that the world is in crisis, and if you are uneasy about anything, you must go to investigate it yourself, please others are better than believe in yourself." ”

The seven biaos rolled their eyes and didn't speak, rubbing their toes on the ground, thinking that this may not be what the concubine said, eighty percent of you miss the concubine and find an excuse to go to the mainland, if you don't secretly go to the imperial capital to take a look after Xiliang finishes running, let's not call Qi Biao, call Qi Gouzi!

"So it was decided." Helian Zheng's face was radiant, and he waved his hand with a heroic spirit, "The last trip to the horse market, let's go in person and change a batch of good weapons!" ”

"Yes!"

The next day, when the first ray of morning light illuminated the pale winter grassland, in front of the second palace of Potala, the peony flower on horseback took her young son to Huyin Temple for empowerment.

Only a quarter of an hour after she left, the sneaky steppe king in a big cloak, masked and covered his face, rushed out of the palace gate, took his seven biao, drove out the last batch of healthy horses in the pen, and embarked on a long journey.