In May of the first year of Yongchang, the Turkic nobles drove the troops into Koudingxiang County, and the Empress Wu ordered the general Zuo Weiwei and Xue Huaiyi of Liang Guogong to be the general manager of the Qingping Road march, leading the army of 80,000 to resist, and the Hanlin scholar Quan Ce joined the army for the record room, and the army marched for more than 20 days, to the Purple River in the North Desert, there was no trace of the Turkic army, and the right policy was adopted, and the troops plundered the Turkic people, grabbed tens of thousands of horses, cattle and sheep, slaughtered tens of thousands of ordinary herdsmen, and burned tents, haystacks, Lele carts and other things countless.

Quan Zhi practiced himself, wearing civil robes, straddled horses, brandished Persian long knives, killed people and set fires along the way, poisoned rivers, drove plague livestock to pastures, people died, livestock plague spread into disasters, and the ferocity was worse than Wufu Qiuba, and the Turks called it "Shura joining the army".

The whole army swept all the way, arrived at Shan Yutai, and returned with a meritorious service.

Xue Huaiyi's class returned to the dynasty and was impeached by the imperial historian, believing that the Qingping Road march was meritless, slaughtering the border people, killing the good and risking the merits, and the right to come up with ideas was not spared.

Empress Wu ordered Xue Huaiyi to lead the generals and civilian assistants to defend themselves.

"After playing the queen of heaven, the post-Turkic fierce, entered the border of our country, killed my people, plundered the people's fat and people's ointment, and the ministers were punished by the Turkic enemy, and did not hurt the people of the Tang Dynasty at all, the master said, to repay grievances directly, Taoist clouds, to return the way to the other body, Buddhism said the cycle of cause and effect, plant melons and get melons, plant beans and get beans, ministers and others have not reported the merits of the Turkic people, only ask the army to go out of the fortress, and use thunderous means, so that when the Later Turks have any abnormal movements, they can take into account the consequences of the army's anger" Xue Huaiyi quoted the scriptures and read according to the text.

"A bunch of nonsense" Zhang Sizong angrily reprimanded, Xue Huaiyi's face was immediately gloomy, he didn't have the spit face to be self-contained, "My Tang Heavenly Soldiers are the army of kings, how can I be confused with Turkic tigers and wolves"

Quan Ce retorted, "In the humble opinion of the following officials, the Tang army should be the army of the king to the people of the Tang Dynasty, and it should be a mighty army to the army and people of the enemy country, and the two are truly not to be confused."

"Ridiculous" Another old man with white hair jumped to his feet and scolded, "Benevolence and righteousness are the avenues of the world, and they are universal, the Tang Dynasty is the upper country, inclusive of the universe, and the herdsmen of all people, and they should be merciful and educated.

"As the old gentleman said, the Tang Dynasty is the chief of all directions in the world" Quan Ce raised his eyebrows angrily, "There are rebels in the family, and they naturally want to be served by the family law, if they are repeatedly tolerated and allowed to be disobedient, isn't it an unfilial son?" The nine sons of the dragon are still different, and Kong Sheng also has rotten wood that cannot be carved, the enemy and the enemy are divided, and they cannot be crossed, and the mercy of the enemy is cruel to the people, and the cruelty to the enemy is to be merciful to the people.

The tone is sonorous, the righteousness is awe-inspiring, the court is civil and military, there are those who admire, and there are those who despise.

"You, you, read the sage book in vain, if you really have a spicy hand Shura, it is not a good reputation, and rotten wood cannot be carved" Zhang Sizong scolded with a halberd, but accidentally used the allusion mentioned by Quan Ce, and his momentum was very frustrating.

"Hehe" Empress Wu chuckled, "Good, my thousand cows and tigers still have the courage to exist, I heard, the eastern capital of thousands of cattle have a military soul, and the people are like fish and water, and the enemy is endless, that's what it means."

Empress Wu avoided the dispute of merit and demerit, on the grounds of driving the Northern Desert for a long time and working too hard, Xue Huaiyi was renamed the Duke of Hubei and transferred to the general of the right guard.

At the same time, another war in the Tang frontier also came to an end, Wenchang right minister Wei Zhiyuan, Anxi Dadu Hu Yan Wengu led the 36th Route Army, set out to conquer Tubo, the army marched to the Yinzhijia River and Tubo battle, the initial victory and then defeat, Wei Zhiqi had no generals' talent, not good at soothing the people, the weather was cold, the grain and grass were scarce, the soldiers were frozen to death, the Northwest Zhuqiang turned to surrender to Tubo, and the Tang Dynasty Western Regions business was in danger.

Empress Wu was furious and exiled Wei Zhiqi to Xiuzhou, Lingnan, but Yan Wengu hesitated, delayed the military plane, and was beheaded.

Two border battles, coupled with the counterinsurgency battle in Layue last year, Quan Ce saw the courage of the Tang Dynasty, the court, dare to speak and fight, often disagree with the inertia of the brave spirit of the early days of the Tang Dynasty, but this is limited to the upper class, in essence, the combat effectiveness and discipline of the soldiers of the Nanya government are not as good as before, the basis of the government soldiers is the homesteaders, the land has been annexed, the homesteaders have shrunk, the gentry and nobles do not undertake military service, the collapse of the government military system, it is only a matter of time, the government military system has collapsed, the conscription system has been replaced, and on the occasion of change, The central government did not quickly adjust and seize the initiative, so it planted the root cause of the secession of the feudal towns.

Quan Ce rubbed his face vigorously, that's it, he has no power to interfere with these at all.

There was a knock on the door, and the ruler of the Taoist priest's bun looked inside, "Dalang, the porter sent a letter, saying that it was sent by Luoyangling's family."

Quan Ce took it, and the envelope said "Daoyou Quan Ce personally opened", which was fresh.

When I opened the envelope, I realized that the letter was not written by Wei Yuanzhong, but by the Taoist master Sima Chengzhen.

The content of the letter is extremely vague, "I am glad to hear that the Taoist friends have returned from the northern expedition, on the battle array, it is inevitable to damage the body, some bad opinions, Fu begging to adopt, the harmony of the human body, the emphasis is on the qi and blood joints in their respective positions, such as the dantian has qi, even if it is weak, it is not bad, it can be cultivated carefully, if it is introduced to the original spirit, it is bound to disturb, not in harmony with the human body"

Quan Ce was puzzled, summoned Quan Zhong, and asked about the recent movements of his father and Wang Miao's father and son, but there was nothing abnormal, Quan Ce picked up the pen several times and wanted to write a reply, but he didn't know how to phrase it, he didn't believe that the dignified Taoist master would write a letter to care about his body for no reason.

Quan Ce put the letter aside, played a hundred points of caution, and paid more attention to the movements of the DPRK and China, and many Hanlin scholars gathered and feasted, and those who came did not refuse, just hoping to hear some clues, and the relationship with his colleagues was much warmer, but in the end nothing was found.

At the end of June, Song Jing, a member of the Fengge House, suddenly played a game, impeaching Li Wei, the king of Runan, for illegal handover and conspiracy, and Empress Wu immediately ordered the imperial history platform to investigate thoroughly, and brought out the twelve Li Tang clans such as the Duke of Poyang.

Quan Ce was frightened and shocked, and turned out Sima Chengzhen's letter, everything is clear, the Li family is not monolithic, while dealing with the martial arts family, he is also fighting, how Li Dan and Li Xian brothers are still unknown, but their respective support forces are fighting fiercely, otherwise they will not tear their faces and open the table.

Quan Ce sighed, is it worth it to be a puppet emperor?

Sima Chengzhen obviously supported Ruizong Li Dan, and Wei Yuanzhong, who conveyed the letter, opposed the return of King Luling, and did not come forward in person, with an ambiguous attitude, but in this matter, he did not support the return of King Luling.

What did Sima Chengzhen do when he wrote to him? Do you want him to take sides?

Quan Ce was extremely disgusted in his heart, but he was helpless, he couldn't not only survive under the obscenity of the martial family, but also guard against the Li family's open guns and hidden arrows, so he had to move indiscriminately, "Quan Zhong, you check, among the characters related to Li Wei, who has the highest official position"

"Heavenly official squire Deng Xuanting" Quan Zhong blurted out.

Quan Ce didn't bother to ask carefully, and directly wrote that he was impeaching Deng Xuanting, and the crime was unwarranted, only saying that he was suspected of knowing and not reporting.

Who knows, a letter went up and neatly took Deng Xuanting's life, Lijingmen arrested people first, and did not stay overnight, that is, Deng Xuanting's scribe confessed that he knew the details of the incident of welcoming back the King of Luling, and at dawn the next day, Lijingmen played, and Deng Xuanting had already pleaded guilty and ambushed.

For a while, the ministers looked sideways.