In fact, the boundary between Shazhou and Yizhou is a mountain range, called Beishan, which can only enter Yizhou through Xingxing Gorge, but Xingxing Gorge is on the boundary of Guazhou, and the foot of Beishan Mountain in Shazhou is at least a hundred miles wide and is a desert no man's land.

But fifty miles at the foot of the Snow Mountain, the Tang Dynasty has a long and narrow passage bordering Shazhou, this plan seems to be a loss to Shatuo, but turn your head and think about it, Shatuo is actually not at a loss, this land is also meaningless to Shatuo, more importantly, the Tang army has a passage to the west, so there is no need to think about recovering the Hexi Corridor all day long.

Zhu Xie Shenglu understood this, but he couldn't call the shots, so he immediately took his leave and went back to report to the Khan, and the Khan decided.

Guo Song was not worried that Sha Tuo would refuse, once Sha Tuo refused, then a war between the two sides would be inevitable, not only as simple as recovering Guazhou, the Tang army would contact Ge Lulu, attack from the north and south, and directly destroy Sha Tuo.

The return schedule is getting closer and closer, in the big tent of the military camp, Guo Song stood in front of the map and pondered, and the old guide Uncle Zhong drew two points on the map, respectively at the distance of 80 miles and 130 miles from Dunhuang County, the road section here is steep, and it is not possible to take a big car, if you must go, you must build a bridge.

"Then build a bridge!" Guo Song said to himself.

At this time, the personal soldiers reported at the door, "Enlighten the envoy, General Yao asks to see!" ”

Guo Song put down his pen and said, "Let him in!" ”

After a while, Yao Jin walked into the big tent quickly, knelt down on one knee and saluted: "See the envoy for your humble duties!" ”

"No need to be polite, get up!"

Guo Song asked Yao Jin to sit down, and asked with a smile, "Are you all ready?" ”

Yao Jin nodded, "The army has been arranged, please give you a lecture!" ”

Guo Song smiled and said: "Shazhou was originally the garrison of the Tang Army's Doulu Army, although the Doulu Army has long disappeared, but the army you led is the Doulu Army, although I can't make you the governor, but you are alone, and you have a heavy responsibility on your shoulders, understand?" ”

"Humble duty understands!"

Guo Song said: "I don't like Shatuo either, but Shatuo is contained by Ge Lulu, and will not attack Shazhou for the time being, you have to try to be safe with Shatuo, relative to Shatuo, Tubo is the enemy of Shazhou, so I will tell you, to build a beacon in Dangjin Pass, once the Tubo army kills, you will immediately know, the army retreats to Dunhuang City, as long as Dunhuang City is held, the Tubo army will retreat without a fight, Shouchang County will definitely not be able to hold, you move the people in the county to Dunhuang, destroy the county seat, and then rebuild." ”

Yao Jin nodded silently.

"The third thing I want to explain to you is the recruitment of Shazhou young men to join the army, I have talked to the squires, and they also support it, recruit 6,000 Shazhou young men to serve in the army, so that your defenders will have 11,000 people, train them well, and you will definitely be able to defend Dunhuang City."

"The humble position will not disappoint the envoy!"

Guo Song patted his arm, "I believe that one day, you will also become a famous general in the world." ”

.........

On the second day of Zhu Xie's return to Shatuo, Guo Song also led a large army to return to Zhangye.

Now that it has been decided to open a new road, it is crucial to be able to walk in a large car, but this road under the snowy mountain is really not easy to walk, at least for the first three hundred miles on the road, it is impossible to walk a large car.

For this reason, Guo Song decided to open up a new road, and the Daxue Mountain Road only took the Guazhou section, so as to avoid the Suzhou section where large cars could not be walked.

The Tang army did not return exactly according to the original road, after walking along the northern foot of the Daxue Mountain through the Guazhou section, the Tang army turned north, entered Suzhou, and went south directly along the Suzhou official road.

In this way, the problem of carrying a heavy car to Shazhou was solved.

After ten days of marching, the army finally returned to Zhangye City.

Guo Song didn't care about going home, so he first came to the official office of the Jiedu envoy, and went out for more than a month, and there will inevitably be news from the imperial court.

"The proclamator of the imperial court came, and when he heard that the envoy was not there, and they didn't know the way north, they left their will and went back."

Zhang Qianyi took out a volume of holy decrees and handed it to Guo Song, "Envoy, please take a look!" ”

Guo Song took over the will to unfold, it was indeed the reply of the Son of Heaven to the recovery of Shazhou, crowned himself as the crown prince Shaobao, rewarded the three armies with 200,000 yuan, and gave double pensions to the dead or disabled soldiers, agreed to his own recommendation, and appointed Liu Zi as the assassin of Shazhou, and the defense of Shazhou was arranged by himself.

Although there was also a heavy reward for the soldiers in this will, Guo Song still felt that the tone was completely different from the holy decree of Ganzhou's great victory, and there was no excitement and joy in the words, and it became very bland, even a little cold, and it seemed to be just a routine.

Guo Song faintly felt that the Son of Heaven was coldly dealing with this victory in Shazhou, and an indescribable disappointment surged in his heart.

"What else is there to say?" Guo Song asked calmly.

"There is also the fact that Han Xiangguo was dismissed as prime minister and reappointed as the observer envoy of the two Zhejiang, Cui Youfu and Zhang She, both of whom were dismissed as prime ministers and returned to their hometowns for retirement."

Guo Song was stunned, "In this way, there will only be two phases left in the court, is it possible that the Son of Heaven will restore the two-phase system?" ”

"That's right, I heard that the imperial court now only has the left and right phases, the Son of Heaven still gave up the multi-phase system he advocated before, it is said that now it is Yang Yan who covers the sky with one hand, and all officials below the third grade are appointed by him, and the Son of Heaven trusts him very much, and Lu Qi, who was promoted from six to three grades overnight, is now the head of the household and the envoy of the degree, holds the financial power of the Tang Dynasty, and is also deeply favored."

"Then the other left minister should be Li Yu!"

"It's him, but I heard that he went to Bashu, and temporarily served as the envoy of the Jiannan Festival, and the Yin of Chengdu Mansion was also served by the father-in-law of the envoy, and the imperial court began to control Bashu."

Guo Song's spirits perked up, "Has Cui Kuan entered Beijing?" ”

"It seems that yes, he was named the Duke of Shu and the Taishi, and he was appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Justice, but he was not sealed."

Guo Song understood, Cui Kuan's official position sounded glamorous, but in fact, he did not have any real power, and was completely hollowed out, in the matter of Bashu, Li Shi handled it very decisively, and took advantage of Cui Kuan's opportunity to enter Beijing to recapture Bashu in one fell swoop, as long as the Bashu army and officials were appeased, Bashu basically returned to the imperial court.

"What else is there to say?"

Zhang Qianyi hesitated and said: "There is also news, Chengde Jie Du made Li Baochen die. His son Li Weiyue asked the Son of Heaven to appoint him as the new envoy of Chengde Festival and inherit his father's throne, but he was refused"

This news made Guo Song sigh secretly, last year Wei Bo Jiedu made Tian Chenghei die of illness, his nephew Tian Yue led the soldiers and horses, Li Shi had just ascended the throne, the throne was not stable, and he had to be forced to recognize Tian Yue as the new Wei Bojie envoy, and now that Li Baochen is dead, it must be Li Weiyue who took the throne, will the court recognize it? Li Shi has secured the throne and successfully controlled Bashu, will he want to use this opportunity to recover the Hebei states as he did in history, and eventually cause the Jianzhong Rebellion?

Guo Song returned to the mansion, his daughter's cuteness made him forget the troubles of the court for a while, although he had not seen him for more than a month, his wife Xue Tao was very happy, but she still carefully captured a trace of worry between her husband's eyebrows.

In the study, Guo Song put more than 100 pieces of mutton fat jade he got from Anxi and put it on a full table, just when Xue Tao came in with tea, he saw the table full of mutton fat jade, and couldn't help laughing: "You went to Anxi for this?" ”

Guo Song smiled slightly: "Of course I didn't go to Anxi for them, this is a gift from the old county king, a room full of them, I picked so many, and the rest was rewarded to the soldiers." ”

Xue Tao put down the teacup, picked up a few pieces of jade and looked at it carefully, it was indeed beautiful and flawless, which made her love it very much, and said with a smile: "These jades are put in my study, let me appreciate them slowly." ”

Guo Song got up and said: "The good wife has an order, how dare you disobey the husband, move now!" ”

"I'll talk about it tomorrow, and my husband will drink tea first!" Xue Tao hurriedly stopped her husband.

Guo Song took the teacup, took a sip of tea and asked, "Does the lady know about my father-in-law's transfer to Chengdu?" ”

"I know, my father wrote me a letter, and I plan to tell you at night, husband, is this good or bad?"

"If you go to Bashu, it's a good thing, but if you go to other places, I'm afraid it's not necessarily a good thing."

Xue Tao was taken aback, "Is there going to be a war again?" ”

Guo Song nodded, "The Son of Heaven is still a little younger, it seems that he wants to solve the division of the feudal town within two or three years, Hebei is not Bashu, this time I estimate that he will hit his head and bleed." ”

"Then will he transfer his husband to the Central Plains?" What Xue Tao is really worried about is this problem.

Guo Song pondered and said: "He may have this idea, but neither Yang Yan nor Lu Qi will welcome me, they will definitely try their best to stop me, I should not be involved in this battle of the Ping Domain, but I still have to persuade the Son of Heaven and ask him to carefully consider the matter of cutting the domain." ”