In the second year of Tai'an, in August, the Northwest Frontier won a great victory. Gao Wei led the forbidden army to return to the court, and the emperor led hundreds of officials to greet him outside the Yongde Gate.

Historically, the army has gone out of the Yongsheng Gate in Chang'an and returned from the Yongde Gate, which is a good omen. Those who go out look forward to victory, and those who return to the dynasty are Dexin. Shao An still remembers that he and his brother went out from Yongshengmen together, but unfortunately they couldn't come back from Yongdemen. Now that my brother is about to return from this gate, it is also a matter of concern for him.

Just as he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard the familiar sound of the horn, the city gate opened, and the handsome flag with the word "high" fluttered and came into everyone's eyes. The army has arrived, and the entire capital has fallen silent at this moment.

Shao An looked into the distance, and the army entered Chang'an in an orderly manner. There are so many soldiers, but they are all unfamiliar faces. And the former comrades have been buried in the battlefield.

Gao Wei rode a high-headed horse and walked at the forefront. They were followed by several lieutenants, followed by cavalry and infantry. Shao An hurriedly searched through the crowd, but did not find that familiar figure.

Brother, isn't he on the team?

Gao Wei dismounted and came to the stage to bow. The emperor personally supported him, worshiped Gao Wei's privy envoy, and held the power of soldiers and horses, and the government and the opposition were shocked.

The Privy Envoy is the Privy Councillor, who is in charge of the military. Moreover, the Privy Council and the Zhongshu Province are called the "two governments", which are divided into two powers: leading the army and the government.

However, due to the fact that this dynasty emphasizes literature over military force, it has always been the prime minister in charge of hundreds of officials, and the privy envoy has always been vacant. Gao Wei occupies this important position this time, which makes a few families happy and a few worried.

Shao An's mind at the moment was not on the struggle for power and profit, he finally managed to reward the three armies, thinking that he could ask General Gao at the palace banquet. But the officials were close to Gao Weitao, so that Shao An couldn't interject and sulked on the side.

There is another person who is as angry as Shao An, and that is Liao Hongxuan, the prime minister of this dynasty. The meaning of the emperor's big seal this time is self-evident. After all, the position of the privy envoy can compete with the prime minister. This has just finished eliminating the power of the Jin King Party, and the emperor can't wait to get rid of the Taizi Party.

Liao Hongxuan sneered, he really didn't expect the emperor to move so fast. When he first ascended the throne, he also wooed himself to deal with the Jin King Party together. Now it's going to be cooked by rabbits and dogs.

Gao Wei was entangled in the toast and drunk. Finally, after a round of drinking, Gao Wei went out to relieve himself, and Shao An hurriedly got up and followed.

Although Gao Wei was drunk, he was still keenly aware that someone was following him, and deliberately turned into the back of the rockery, and as soon as Shao An entered the rockery, he immediately grabbed him by the neck and shouted: "Who is it?" Why track? ”

"General Gao, don't you recognize the lower officer?"

Gao Wei was a little dizzy from drinking, looking at the person in a daze, feeling so familiar, and the strength in his hand slowly loosened. He blinked his eyes and looked closely, recognized the person, and said angrily: "It turned out to be you!" You turn to ashes, and I know you. ”

Shao An understood that he blamed himself for what happened back then, so he didn't care about it, and only asked him: "What about my brother?" ”

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be exiled? Gao Wei was already delirious and spoke in a daze, "You are embarrassed to ask your brother, he was almost killed by you." ”

"Where's my brother?"

Gao Wei still answered the question: "Oh, I remembered." You have come back from Qianzhou and are still an official. I heard the emperor say that your current name is Shao Junyi, and you are the one who disturbed a pool of water in Chang'an...... Shao Junyi. ”

"My brother, where is he!"

Gao Wei continued to say upside down, "In the army, people are not at peace, but they are still in the court." Li Hongyi, he has amnesia, and he can't remember you. How good it is, you won't come into his life and disturb his life. ”

"What do you mean?" Shao An said angrily when he heard this.

"Your brother is doing well now, don't harass him."

"You mean, you don't want him to regain his memory?"

Gao Wei said: "Perhaps, forgetting is the best. ”

"It's up to you whether it's good or not." Seeing that there seemed to be palace guards patrolling, Shao An didn't want to attract attention, so he restrained himself and asked in a low voice, "Ask again, where is he?" ”

"I won't let you see him, die of this heart." Gao Wei looked at Shao An contemptuously, and said word by word, "Because, you are not worthy." ”

Shao An spit on Gao Wei's face in anger.

"Bastard thing!" Gao Wei waved his old fist and greeted him.

Although Gao Wei's martial arts are high, it is a pity that he is drunk and unstable. Shao An seems to be weak, but he can be regarded as having practiced a little in the army. Therefore, the two fought with their bare hands and were entangled for a long time.

The dinner was still staggered and lively. But Gonggong Chen received shocking news that Shao An and Gao Wei were actually fighting!

Gonggong Chen walked up to the emperor resignedly, "Your Majesty, General Gao and Lord Shao...... Fights began. ”

In a fit of rage, the emperor slammed the wine glass on the table, and with a "bang", the movement was quite loud, causing the ministers, maids, and internal supervisors below to stop their movements, and the hall instantly fell silent.

Of course, the emperor knew why the two of them were fighting, and he was angry, but he had to whitewash the peace. He ended the banquet on the grounds of physical discomfort and hurried to the scene of the incident.

At this moment, the two have been pulled away by the guards, but they are still scolding each other. Seeing that the emperor was coming, he finally stopped.

When the emperor saw the two of them embarrassed, he was angry. After raising his hand and waving away the guards, he scolded: "What kind of system have you become like this, and where are the officials? Zizhong, you are a dignified privy envoy, and you still care about him. ”

Gao Wei hurriedly admitted his mistake and said: "The minister knows the crime, the minister knows the crime...... Chan just didn't want him to meet someone. ”

Shao An hated him the most, and regardless of the emperor's presence, he scolded: "You dog takes a mouse, why don't you let me see it." ”

The emperor frowned, "Shao An's mouth. ”

"Are you sorry for what he said?" Gao Wei's words woke up the dreamer.

Shao An woke up like a dream. yes, what can you say after meeting? Because of his faults, because of his miscalculations, he is stubborn, because of his arbitrariness; caused his brother to die nine times, and led to the death of his former comrades on the battlefield. What kind of face did he have to go to his brother and ask for forgiveness.

The guilt hidden in Shao An's bottom "Teng" erupted, and it was out of control. It's him who is sorry for his brother, sorry for the emperor, and even more sorry for the dead soul. Even if he was exiled to Qianzhou to atone for his sins, he would not be able to make up for his mistakes.

Shao An was silent, and Gao Wei and the emperor were also silent. In the meantime, a gust of wind happened to blow in the face, blowing the branches of begonias falling in a row, and the sound of "rustling" was endless, as if it was a monotonous music for the dead night.

I don't know how long they were silent, everyone suddenly heard a commotion behind them, and saw a white-robed young general rushing in regardless of the guards' obstruction, seeing Gao Wei's embarrassed appearance, he immediately became calm, "General, you, you were beaten?" ”

When Gao Wei saw the young general at first glance, he hit a spirit, looked at Shao An in a little panic, but shouted to the man: "Wu Ming! What are you doing here? Give me back! ”

The man didn't care about it, stepped forward and raised his hand to punch Shao An directly. Shao An wanted to dodge sideways, but he didn't expect the man's fist to fly quickly, hitting him in the abdomen hard and accurately.

Shao An was punched hard, his intuition was sweet in his throat, and a mouthful of blood poured up, and he forcibly pressed it down.

He looked up at the person indignantly, and suddenly his expression was agitated, and the blood finally spurted out, pouring down like a begonia that had just been blown off by the wind, and it was sprinkled all over his clothes......

The white-robed young general is his brother who is looking forward to his return - Li Hongyi.

※※※※※

In the summer of the nineteenth year of Yongkang, the first war broke out since the expedition.

Gao Wei laid out for a few days, and sure enough, he intercepted the enemy army in the vast desert. The two sides engaged in a fierce battle, and the sound of killing shook the sky and covered the sun. Everything went smoothly as Gao Wei expected, until he saw the wind and sand in the distance, as if a large group of people were coming.

"General Gao, it's not good, there are enemy troops behind us, and we are surrounded."

Gao Wei was in danger and responded calmly: "How many people are there?" ”

"The yellow sand is overwhelming, and it is estimated that there are thirty or forty thousand people."

Gao Wei's heart was cold, it turned out that the information was a trick to lure the enemy, just wait for him to lead the army out of the city, and then cut off his back road and encircle and suppress in the desert.

King An naturally understood at this moment, and said hatefully: "A good trick to lure the snake out of the hole and divert the tiger from the mountain." ”

Gao Wei immediately made a decision and ordered to switch from attack to defense, covering the left and right flanks, and breaking through in the middle. It's a pity that at this moment, the enemy has been encircled, and Gao Wei's several breakthroughs have been blocked, and the losses are heavy. They had to retreat and confront the enemy.

However, the disaster did not go alone, and at this moment, a call for help came from the rear, and the camp was attacked.

When Gao Wei heard this, he felt like he was at the end of his rope. He looked at the rest of the soldiers, their armor was torn and bloody, some of them still had blood-stained bands on their arms, and some of them were even crippled, but they were still fighting.

When the soldiers heard the news of the attack on the battalion, they all looked at General Gao and waited for him to speak. Gao Wei was silent, and slowly raised the sword in his hand, "Brothers, now we have no way out, we can only fight bravely to kill the enemy, either we step on the corpse of the enemy, or the enemy cut off our heads. Just now, Ben received a call for help from the rear, and the battalion was attacked. There are more than 1,000 brothers in the camp, and we cannot die without help. Ben will decide to break through again, who wants to follow me at this critical juncture! ”

"Me!" Li Hongyi was the first to raise his hand, and his mind was blank at this time, and he only remembered that his younger brother was still in the camp. Even if he knew that he was going to die, he had no hesitation.

"Me." Someone else raised his hand.

"I, I, I ......" More and more people raised their hands, their voices getting louder and louder. The grief and indignation flowing in the chest gushed like water opening the floodgates.

"Good!" Gao Wei drew his sword, "I, Gao, swear here: this sword continues, the handsome flag does not fall, and I vow to live and die with everyone!" ”

Gao Wei led a thousand people, ready to break through. King An led the rest of the men to stay behind and continue to hold on to the enemy.

Li Hongyi rode a horse and followed General Gao to rush towards the enemy. He couldn't remember how many people he had killed, but he kept mechanically raising and dropping his knife. He had only one thought in his heart: rush out and save An'er.

When Li Hongyi rushed out, he looked back and saw that there were only 300 of the 1,000 people left.

Li Hongyi took the lead in galloping away and hurried to the camp without stopping, but when he arrived, he found that the inside was already in flames. He swung his knife and cut off the enemy's head, rushed to the military doctor's tent on the very edge, looked around the left and right, and shouted: "An'er! ”

No one answered him. As far as the eye could see, the fence had been knocked down, the tent had collapsed, and only a few hundred enemy troops were still sweeping in the camp, but there were no soldiers of our ranks. Li Hongyi's heart was gloomy, and it was estimated that the soldiers left behind here were either killed or burned to death. And the blood flowing on the ground and the mutilated corpses irritated his eyes......

"An'er! An'er ...... "Li Hongyi just doesn't believe in evil and insists on looking for it." But no matter how much he shouted, he couldn't hear An'er's answer.

The sound of horses' hooves came from behind, and Li Hongyi looked back, took a few steps back, and avoided the sharp shot. Li Hongyi took the opportunity to swing his knife and slash out at the barrel of the gun.

With a single hit, the sneak attacker screamed and fell to the ground. When five or six enemies heard the movement, they sharpened their swords and gathered on Li Hongyi's side.

Li Hongyi raised his knife and "swished" a few enemy soldiers to fly. The last remaining enemy whispered behind Li Hongyi. However, the praying mantis catches the cicada, and the yellow finch is behind, and when the man is about to sneak attack, he is shot by a dark arrow flying from behind.

When Li Hongyi heard the movement behind him, he turned around in surprise, and happened to see the enemy slowly falling, and then An Er's pale face appeared in front of Li Hongyi's eyes.

An'er looked at the corpse on the ground in horror, he didn't expect that he would kill the man with one arrow. The feeling of killing someone for the first time is really thrilling.

Li Hongyi also looked at his younger brother holding a bow and arrow, and then looked at the arrow feathers behind the corpse on the ground, opened his mouth in disbelief, and shouted: "An'er......"

An'er heard the shout, came back to her senses, stepped forward and grabbed Li Hongyi's hand, "It's dangerous here, come with me." ”

Li Hongyi was pulled by An'er to turn left and right, and hid next to a manger. It turned out that An'er had been hiding here just now, quietly watching the surrounding situation.

"I just called you, did you hear me?"

An'er raised her hand to cover his mouth and motioned for him to be silent. At this time, the two looked at each other in the darkness, and because they were so close, they could even hear each other's rapid heartbeats. Li Hongyi listened to the "bang-bang" heartbeat that proved that An'er was still alive, and felt that this was really the most beautiful sound in the world.

I don't know how long it took, the surroundings gradually quieted down, and An'er guessed that the enemy had withdrawn, so she said, "I heard you shouting at me, but the enemy is around, and I don't dare to answer." ”

"How did you get here?"

"Well...... Didn't you say that if you learn light skills, you can run fast when you run for your life? An'er jokingly repeated what he had said, trying to break the dull atmosphere.

Li Hongyi looked at An'er in surprise, "But you, have you only been studying for a few days?" ”

"My stupid brother, you really believe it. As soon as you sent out the troops, I felt that something was not quite right, and I felt that there was an ambush outside the camp. Everyone immediately discussed it and made preparations in advance, just in case. Look outside......" An'er explained as she peeked in. Seeing that the enemy army had dispersed, he pulled Li Hongyi up and came out.

At the same time, in other nearby places where people could hide, many people appeared out of thin air in an instant, and all of them had been hiding in advance. Li Hongyi thought that the entire battalion had been wiped out, but at this moment, when he saw so many survivors, he was directly stunned.

Reborn after the catastrophe, everyone hugged each other and cried. Li Hongyi looked at this scene and didn't know what to think; Seeing the bow and arrow in An'er's hand again, he wondered: "When did your archery skills become so accurate?" ”

"I don't know, this is my first shot." An'er said quite proudly, "I didn't think much about it at the time, and I shot it indiscriminately." ”

Li Hongyi opened his mouth and stammered, recalling the episode just now, An'er was only a few steps away from the enemy. If he didn't kill with an arrow and alarm the enemy, if that person turned around and stabbed him, he would definitely kill An'er. Thinking of this, he broke out in a cold sweat, "What if I don't shoot to death?" ”

"Well...... When you hear the movement, you will come to my rescue. ”

"I'm afraid that if I don't have time to save you, you will become a ghost." Li Hongyi reprimanded in his mouth, and his heart was full of mixed feelings. He knew that An'er was trying to save himself, so he didn't hesitate to risk his life.

An'er looked up at the sky indifferently, and asked instead, "Then why did you come back?" Look at your embarrassment, it doesn't look like you've won a battle. ”

"Lost, we lost." Li Hongyi endured his grief and told An'er the ins and outs of the future.

An'er was silent for a long time, he didn't know what to say. He looked at Li Hongyi's dusty appearance, and suddenly wanted to cry, so he quickly sniffed, "So, you broke through just to save me?" ”

"If I don't save you, who will save you? Didn't you just save me? Li Hongyi said, and then, like the rest of those who were reborn after the catastrophe, hugged his younger brother tightly, "Brothers, we have to support each other." ”

After Gao Wei led his troops back to the rescue camp, the enemy was no longer entangled and immediately retreated. Gao Wei thought that the losses were heavy, but fortunately, most of the soldiers were hiding in the shadows and there were few casualties, so he organized the soldiers who stayed behind to help the trapped troops. The two teams flanked back and forth, and the enemy broke and fled. In this battle, 5,000 enemies were killed and 10,000 were self-inflicted.

First battle, defeat!