Chapter 61: A Defeat

Gao Yingshu tidied up the dress that was a little messy by her thoughts, pulled up her long shawl hair as thick and silky as satin, and her beautiful eyes hung under her eyebrows like a crooked crescent, and even the pupils revealed a sweet taste.

An Yi sat at the table, looking at the bamboo slip that Ying Shu was holding in his hand before, and looked at it with interest.

"This kind of pre-Qin ancient books are all obscure and difficult to understand, I didn't expect you to like this kind of thing." After looking at it twice, he rolled the bamboo slip in his hand and shook it towards Gao Yingshu's back.

Gao Ying turned his head, looked at him and smiled and said: "The more difficult the book, the more artistic conception it comes out of every time you read it, and it is a kind of enjoyment for you to be able to understand it." ”

An Yi chuckled and gently put the bamboo slip back into the distance. Among them, that is, Gao Yingshu and Jiang Ruyue are the kind of people who can sit in the house all day with a scroll and a stove of sandalwood.

Although Mr. An Zhiyuan has always arranged for himself to take the top prize, and the four treasures of the study room purchased at home are also expensive, but the two brothers and sisters like to read the "Miscellaneous Notes" in Mr. Yi's mouth, but they are not interested in the "serious" Four Books and Five Classics.

Jin Mingyin can't even mention it, in the words of Old Man Jin, he is a wild child who doesn't learn and has no skills. On the contrary, although Lin Muzhi is a Jianghu person, he has still read books for a few years.

"Haven't you read anything that sticks out to you?" Gao Ying pursed her delicate little mouth and asked An Yi, the happiest and most elegant thing is to have a book with the same interests as her beloved.

An Yi was a little dumbfounded by Gao Yingshu's question, and he didn't know how to answer her for a while, he liked a lot of miscellaneous books, but after he saw the bamboo slips on the table, he felt that he still didn't want to get an axe.

So he thought for a moment, then the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and replied with a smile: "Yes, my favorite book....... It's high, shadow, and sparse, how about it? Have you read it? ”

Gao Ying glanced at him angrily after hearing this, then turned around and continued to sort out the folds on her dress, but there was a little smile on her face unconsciously.

While laughing, An Yi suddenly saw an open letter on the desk, so he casually took it in front of him and saw that the signature on it was Gao Yuhong.

Gao Youhong is the name of the King of Shu, so it seems that this letter was sent back by the King of Shu from the front line.

He took the envelope and asked Gao Yingshu: "Yingshu, did the prince reply from the front line?" Is there any mention of the war in the Northwest? ”

Gao Yingshu turned around and saw An Yi holding the letter sent back by his father in his hand, and he didn't answer, but said to him: "You look at yourself, I'll tell you after reading it." ”

An Yi looked at the letter carefully according to Gao Yingshu's meaning, this letter really made his brows tighter the more he looked at it, and finally he slapped the letter paper on the table,

"Even the town of Gansu has been lost?" An Yi asked in disbelief,

An Yi's voice was full of surprise, so much so that his voice was much higher than just now. Gao Yingshu hurriedly poked his head outside the house to take a look, and after confirming that there was no one, he turned around and said to him: "Don't make a noise, these are all confidential information in the court, and you can't let others know about it casually." ”

As she spoke, she took the bamboo stool on the side and sat next to her. The small bamboo bench was much smaller than the rattan chair that An Yi sat on, so that Gao Ying could lean on his lap.

"When my father led his troops to the northwest, he learned that the town of Gansu had been broken by the Liao army for a long time, and the chief soldier Wang Chengguang was killed, and nearly 120,000 border troops under his command were strangled by the thousands of vanguard iron cavalry of the Liao State, and even the city was lost. Xu Guohui, the deputy commander-in-chief, led all the way to Lanzhou to join the Wei commanders who came to support, and barely escaped the danger of annihilation of the whole army. ”

An Yi listened to Gao Yingshu's feeling that his heart was already shocking, obviously the speed of the Liao army's actions this time was completely beyond their expectations, I am afraid that even if he went back to tell Jiang Ruyue the news, he would be able to make this confident "Jiang Xiucai" sweat.

"What about the army of the Imperial Expedition? With the country's soldiers and horses in their hands, how could they watch the entire territory of Lintao Mansion fall? ”

Gao Yingshu snorted lightly and said: "It's ridiculous, this time the emperor also brought Concubine Hui, you should know that Concubine Hui, who has been favored by the emperor for a long time, has always been arrogant and domineering. She was originally from Xi'an, and the army was originally scheduled to go directly from Qingyang Mansion to Lintao Mansion, but this Concubine Hui had to pester the emperor to let the army pass through Xi'an, I think she just wanted to experience the vanity of returning home. "Lintao Mansion

She lowered her face and said with some resentment: "Three hundred and fifty thousand troops! For her to stay in Xi'an for three days! In his father's hands, he only had tens of thousands of horses brought by Chengdu for a long time, and he didn't dare to move lightly, so he could only watch the Liao army attack the city in Lintao Mansion, as if entering a no-man's land. ”

Listening to her in comfort, An Yi felt a sense of sadness in her heart for no reason, no wonder she was defeated, the king of a country is still like this, do you expect the soldiers below to fight to the death?

"What about the current situation? Did the prince say what the court plans to do at present? ”

Gao Yingshu nodded, then raised his face and whispered to An Yi: "My father said in the letter that there are now many people in the court who advocate peace with the Liao State, but after preliminary contact, the conditions proposed by the Liao State are unacceptable to the cabinet and the emperor, so they did not continue to talk. ”

In other words, if the cabinet and the emperor feel that the conditions given by the Liao State are acceptable, will they already start discussing the matter of peace? With all the troops of the whole country, more than 300,000 people gathered at the border to negotiate peace, in a sense, it was the defeat of the Great Xia Dynasty!

However, An Yi was still more curious, what kind of peace conditions were proposed by this Liao State, which could make the emperor and the cabinet reject with such a high degree of unanimity, and he asked Gao Yingshu what he wanted in his heart.

"Reparations, harmony, and........ Cut the Tao Mansion to them. Gao Yingshu replied,

It is not surprising that he is comfortable with the affinity indemnity, this is all the same old thing, and there are countless small frictions on the border between Liao and Daxia, and they are finally resolved in these two ways. But this is the first time to cut the land, for the emperor and the cabinet, the first two are not a problem, the problem must be the last.

Lintao Mansion is not a very large place for the vast Great Xia Dynasty, but for the imperial court, it is to be nailed to the pillar of shame by future generations, so whether it is the emperor or the minister, no one wants to or dare to be this sinner.

An Yi smiled bitterly twice, and asked Gao Yingshu: "Do you remember the last time in the back mountain of Songling Village, we talked about the legendary Empress Dowager Xiao of the Liao Kingdom?" ”

Gao Ying nodded hurriedly, of course she remembered that at that time, she still admired the young queen mother. However, An Yi said that the Liao people have such a talented master, which is a curse rather than a blessing for Daxia.

"Now it seems that there should be a disaster, and it is a catastrophe!"

An Yi looked out the window at the still stable blue sky in Chengdu, and muttered to himself.

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twilight

northwest

Gansu Town

The general soldier's mansion is no longer what it was when the Great Xia army was located, and the inside and outside of the mansion have been replaced with the unique dark yellow dragon banner of the Liao people, and the courtyard of the mansion is full of arrows and grain and grass, and the sergeants who come and go are busy transporting these things to the Liao army camps in Gansu town on small carts.

Originally, the main hall of Wang Chengguang, the chief soldier of Gansu Town, was a place of calm in the midst of chaos, and all the sergeants avoided the room one after another, as if there was a wall of air around the house that could not be seen by the eye, blocking out all the noisy and disturbing sounds.

In the center of the main hall is a huge marble-pedestal sand table, flanked by a group of Liao Dynasty generals dressed in armor. The leader stood in the direction of the hall door, wearing a purple and gold helmet, wearing a golden light heart armor, and two hideous-looking ring beast heads were set on his shoulders, one on each side, which looked very different from the silver scale leaf armor on other generals.

He touched the gray beard on his chin and looked intently at the sand table, as if he was hesitating about something.

"Han Shuai, their emperor Gao Youxiao has almost poured the strength of the whole country into this expedition, with a total of 350,000 troops, known as one million, and has now completed the assembly in Lanzhou. And according to the report of the spies, Gao Youxiao's brother, who is also the king of Shu in the Han population, also brought nearly 50,000 horses to Lanzhou to converge, and now the city of Lanzhou plus the men and horses of the nearby guards, the total strength is no less than 500,000. ”

An older general standing next to the sand table reported the military strength of the Great Xia Dynasty to the person who led him. The "Han Shuai" in his mouth is naturally Han Guangde, the generalissimo of the Marshal Mansion of the Liao Dynasty.

Han Guangde's hand kept rubbing his chin, and he said to himself, "Is the Great Xia Dynasty trying to fight us in a decisive battle?" Or is it just a huge trap? ”

"Who is commanding the army of Great Xia?" He raised his head and asked the general who had just reported to him,

"Han Shuai, we already got the exact news last night, it was Gao Youxiao himself in command."

Han Guangde couldn't help but chuckle twice when he heard that it was Gao Youxiao who commanded it personally, and immediately dispelled the idea that it might be a trap, "I didn't expect that after so many years, this reckless energy has not grown at all, I don't know who gave him the confidence to devote the whole country to fight with me." ”

On the other side, a slightly younger general arched his hand and asked, "Dashuai, it sounds like you know this Han emperor very well?" ”

Han Guangde waved his hand at him with a smile and said, "I can't talk about understanding, but I just had a fight." When I was a commander of a thousand people, I took my brothers to the vicinity of the Han town of Datong to collect food for the tribe for the winter. As a result, when Datong was still a few miles away, I heard that the Han court sent a messenger to inspect the border troubles. I quickly ordered all of them to withdraw to the grassland, and there was no need to rush to fight them at the juncture. And guess what? The minister actually abandoned the fortified fortress of Datong, gathered the defenders, and pursued me. ”

"The Han people chased our cavalry with their foot soldiers?" A general asked Han Guangde with a smile in a slightly mocking voice,

Han Guangde shook his head helplessly, and continued: "Hehehe, who said it wasn't? Then I led them to the vicinity of the Yael River, and slaughtered their army of nearly 10,000 men, and surrounded the minister by the Yael River. ”

"Did you catch him at the end?"

"No, it was later ordered by the Lord Commander, saying that the first emperor considered the relationship with Great Xia and ordered that this Qincha could not be captured for the time being. Then I let the troops open an opening and let them go back. It wasn't until later that I learned that this minister was the crown prince of the dynasty, that is, the current Han emperor Gao Youxiao. ”

"Hahahaha~"

After listening to Han Guangde's experience, everyone couldn't help laughing out loud.

"It turns out that my uncle, like Han Shuai, is a coward who is afraid of Han people."

Suddenly, a foul voice came from the left side of the sand table.

Everyone didn't have to guess to know the source of this voice, so they all looked at a young and handsome brocade-robed general, who was called "the little prince" by the Liao people, and led the army to capture the town of Gansu.

"Don't talk nonsense, the first emperor is the nobles of the sky, how can you be allowed to defile at will." Han Guangde looked at Yelu Xiuke, and said in a deep voice with some anger,

Yelu Xiuke was very unimpressed, he pulled out his saber "Qiang", and slammed it into the small mound marked Lanzhou on the sand table, and said, "Isn't what I said wrong? Han Shuai, you have been almost twenty days now, and you have not taken a step forward in the periphery of Lanzhou, I don't understand what you are afraid of? If you are afraid of death, then you might as well send me to cut off the head of the dog emperor and send you as a congratulatory gift. ”

"You !!"