Gu Qing hadn't yet studied the design of the impact mechanism, and the cavalry team that had set off from Chang'an had already arrived in Qiuzi City.

In the Qiuzi camp, Gu Qing led the generals of the Anxi Army and Pei Zhounanbian Lingcheng and others to kneel down to receive the order.

The face of the scholar was indifferent, and he slowly unfolded the yellow silk, and slowly read out the content of the holy decree in a slow tone.

At the beginning, there were a few words similar to praise, such as the Western Regions bandit suppression operation led by Gu Qing, Li Longji was very satisfied, and praised a few words lightly.

But the more to the back, the content gradually became a little different, even the generals kneeling behind heard that something was wrong, as the tone of the Zhongshu Sheren gradually became high and sharp, the content of the holy decree also became a severe reprimand, reprimanding Gu Qing for being pampered and arrogant, sending troops to provoke the soldiers of the Hexi Jiefu without authorization, ignoring the persuasion of the supervising army Bian Lingcheng and Yushi Pei Zhounan, and insisting on provoking the Hexi army, which almost caused a catastrophe.

In the end, the scholar paused and read out the last part of the decree.

“…… Snatching Gu Qing's young protection, Guanglu doctor, receiving the purple gold fish bag, replacing the silver fish bag, and fining him for one year, he was still temporarily appointed as the envoy of the Anxi Festival, and he used it after observation. ”

After the holy decree was recited, the generals behind Gu Qing showed dissatisfaction, but fortunately, the basic political literacy of this group of killers had not been eaten by the dogs, and they didn't dare to say anything in front of the angel who announced the decree, and they all had gloomy faces and didn't squeak.

Gu Qing knelt down without changing his face, and said loudly: "Minister Gu Qing, accept the order." ”

After speaking, Gu Qing took the holy decree handed over by the Zhongshu Sheren with both hands, and bowed in the direction of Chang'an before getting up, and the generals behind him also got up.

Gu Qing smiled and ordered the guards to set up a banquet to entertain the angels from Chang'an, turned around and politely chatted with the people of Zhongshushe, but the generals behind were a little resentful, and they all found a reason to retire.

Only Pei Zhounan's face was a little embarrassed, while Bian Lingcheng was expressionless and couldn't see joy or anger.

Only he and Bian Lingcheng were until, the reason why Gu Qing was so severely reprimanded by His Majesty today, and even the official positions of the crown prince Shaobao and Doctor Guanglu were also taken away, was because of the joint performance of the two, which detailed the ins and outs of Gu Qing's unauthorized dispatch of troops to provoke the Hexi Army.

Pei Zhounan is not selfish, he is just loyal to his duties, the purpose of being transferred to Anxi by Li Longji is to contain Gu Qing's power and prevent him from doing anything out of line, Gu Qing sent troops without authorization It is indeed out of line, Pei Zhounan truthfully played to Chang'an, and from his standpoint, he did not do anything wrong.

However, even Pei Zhounan didn't expect that the Son of Heaven's punishment of Gu Qing would be so severe.

Originally, Pei Zhounan thought that the Son of Heaven would only reprimand him in the holy decree, and at most he would be punished for one or two years, after all, Pei Zhounan explained the reason when he played truthfully, it was Ge Shuhan who took the lead in snatching the war horse of the Anxi Festival Mansion, and there was a reason for it, and it was excusable.

After chewing the content of the holy decree just now for a long time, Pei Zhounan finally understood a little bit.

The reason why the Son of Heaven severely reprimanded Gu Qing and even took away his official position is probably not only because of the unauthorized dispatch of troops, the Son of Heaven is knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger, it is a stern warning to Gu Qing, the military town is a feudal prince, holding the power of soldiers and horses, and his every move is very eye-catching, especially the court and the monarchs and ministers are sensitive, and the precedent of sending troops without authorization is unavoidable, and the nature is too bad.

There is already a person in the north who holds the military power of the three towns and makes the Son of Heaven want to cut but does not dare to cut it, and there can be no second wanton and reckless Jiedu envoy in the west of the Tang Dynasty, even if he was the savior of the Son of Heaven.

Pei Zhounan sighed secretly, Gu Qing was indeed at fault, for the sake of five thousand war horses, he disregarded his own future, which of the two was more important, and people who were a little more normal could distinguish it, but Gu Qing was not normal at all, he sent 20,000 troops to return the war horses, but in exchange for the severe punishment of the Son of Heaven, I am afraid that the saints in the future will be affected.

Is it worth it?

Pei Zhounan felt that it was not worth it.

After entertaining the housekeeper who announced the decree in the tent and arranging for him to stay at the Qiuzi City Inn, Gu Qing returned to the tent, unfolded the decree again, and carefully read it word by word, with a sarcastic smile on the corner of his mouth.

"Master Hou, for the sake of five thousand war horses, is it worth it?" Han Jie's expression was lost, and he sighed and asked the same question behind him as Pei Zhounan.

Gu Qing put away the holy decree and said with a smile: "It's worth it." ”

"Prince Shaobao and Doctor Guanglu, oh, by the way, there is also a purple gold fish bag, which of these things is not worth more than five thousand war horses?"

Gu Qing smiled: "You think I will care about this? ”

Han Jie shook his head and said, "Master Hou has always been shrewd, but this time he made a loss-making deal and lost a lot. ”

Gu Qing's smile gradually narrowed, and said, "Do you know why I insisted on sending troops to provoke in the first place despite the advice of others?" ”

"I don't know."

Gu Qing stared at the holy decree that was quietly resting on the table, and said softly: "Actually, I just want to know, among the more than 40,000 soldiers of the Anxi Army, how many people can follow me without hesitation, even if I want to do a lawless thing, they have no hesitation, I am tempting the Anxi Army, not entirely for the five thousand war horses......"

Han Jie was stunned and said, "Why did Master Hou want to test the Anxi Army? ”

Gu Qing was silent for a long time, he couldn't say the real reason now, he could only make up an excuse to fool the past.

"An Lushan is about to turn around, Your Majesty will definitely transfer the Anxi Army into Yumen Pass to quell the rebellion, I need an indiscriminate army regardless of the reason, the soldiers under my command must completely obey my orders, I am the only constant commander of the Anxi Army, no one can replace me, do you understand?"

Han Jie's cheeks twitched, hesitated for a long time, and then lowered his head and said, "The last general understands." ”

Gu Qing's words were more subtle, but Han Jie still heard something else from them.

After getting along for a long time, the relationship between the two has long been better than that of brothers, Han Jie didn't believe that Gu Qing had the intention of rebelling, but what he said just now actually had a bit of self-respect.

After thinking about it, if An Lushan really rebelled, and the troubled times of the Tang Dynasty were coming, what about Gu Houye's self-respect? As long as they still obey the dispatch of the imperial court, this army still belongs to the imperial court, and the commanders in the troubled times have actually done more or less things to support the army and respect themselves?

Han Jie was in a complicated mood, thought of a lot of things in an instant, and asked softly: "Master Hou, if before An Lushan's rebellion, His Majesty suddenly transferred Lord Hou back to Chang'an, wouldn't everything Hou Ye did in Anxi be in vain?" The Hou Ye, who returned to Chang'an, was still an idle magnate, and it was difficult to even protect himself in the troubled times......"

Gu Qing smiled: "I'm not worried about this, because I have asked the Tubo people to help in advance, and the Tubo people will give me an excuse to stay in Anxi and not be transferred, you look at the holy decree this time, in fact, Your Majesty is already angry with me, but he still only took away the official positions of the crown prince Shaobao and Guanglu Dafu, and the real power of the Jiedu envoy is still kept for me, what does this mean?" It shows that His Majesty also knows that he can't do without me if he wants to level Tibet, and the Anxi Festival makes this position immovable. ”

"Han Jie, born in the world, you can't resign yourself to fate, let alone rely on others, you must have chips in your hands, and only those who have chips are qualified to play at the table to become a winner."

…………

The news that Gu Qing had been severely reprimanded by the Son of Heaven and that he had been dismissed from two official positions quickly spread throughout the Anxi Army camp and Qiuzi City.

To Gu Qing's surprise, the officers and men of the Anxi Army were very indignant about this.

Since Gu Qing practiced with the soldiers every day, and later commanded the soldiers to fight a victory with Tubo, and later did not hesitate to merge with the Anxi army for the sake of the soldiers' war horses, all kinds of performances were seen in the eyes of the soldiers, Gu Qing finally won the heartfelt support of the soldiers of the Anxi army.

Gu Qing didn't deliberately put on a show, he just followed the concept of leading the team in his previous life, and created opportunities to integrate with the soldiers, plus he was fair and generous, and the reward system for daily drills won the hearts of the army, and it was reasonable to get the support of all the soldiers.

There is no love and hate in the world for no reason, and there is a reason why the soldiers love Gu Qing after all.

After the news came out, the people and businessmen of Qiuzi City talked about it, and countless people felt incomprehensible about the punishment of the Son of Heaven, and they also cried out for Gu Qing.

People robbed the war horses of the Anxi Army, let's go out and grab them back, is there anything wrong? Why didn't the Son of Heaven blame the person who grabbed the war horse, but blamed Gu Houye, this is obviously a black whistle.

That's what the people and merchants think, the logic is simple and unpretentious.

As for the Anxi Army camp, the soldiers were even more indignant.

Many soldiers personally participated in that dispatch, they all knew the reason, in their eyes, Gu Hou Ye was a person who was extremely protective of calves, whether it was the soldiers under his command or the war horses, he tried his best to maintain it, and he never swallowed his anger in this regard, and directly returned it in the most rude and simple way.

To be honest, the soldiers who sent troops at that time were actually quite relieved of their hatred, if Gao Xianzhi was replaced by the envoy of the festival, and the war horse was robbed by Ge Shuhan, he would only keep sending official letters to question and condemn, and the two sides became a war of words, and in the end, most of the war horses would not come back, and the matter would be over after all.

And Gu Houye is so refreshing, without saying a word, he will send troops directly, if you grab my war horse, I will beat you, the style of the Anxi army is so rough.

Everyone has seen the effect, the Anxi army is approaching the city, and Ge Shuhan, who is so brave and irascible as the commander, was also forced by Gu Houye to honestly sign the alliance under the city, and the Anxi army returned with a big victory before the official war.

What could be more enjoyable?

However, it was Ge Shuhan who was obviously wrong, why did the Son of Heaven punish Gu Houye?

On the night that Gu Qing received the holy decree, the lights in the soldiers' tents had been extinguished, and everything was quiet in the camp, only the footsteps of the soldiers on patrol mixed with the impact of the nail leaves were heard in the vast desert night.

In the tents, many soldiers stayed up all night, and many of the tents were chatting about the decrees.

It's not a big deal, it may not be painful for Gu Qing, it's nothing more than taking away two official positions without any real power, but the simple and unpretentious soldiers are not convinced, some words are too taboo, and the soldiers dare not say it, but the tone of the conversation has revealed a lot of dissatisfaction.