After such a small episode, the army, after a rapid march, also arrived twenty miles outside Shuo County when the sun was setting. The pen "Fun" Pavilion happened to be a flat wilderness here www.biquge.info Li Jing set up sentry posts around it, and scattered scouts outside, so he ordered the whole army to camp.

Through the interrogation of the three Turkic captives, Li Jing received a rather shocking news. Jieli still occupies a considerable advantage in the disputes of various tribes. And Tuli, who has always been at odds with him, united with several larger tribes, was actually suppressed by Jieli to the point of being out of breath.

This is not good news for the Tang army. Originally, I planned to send troops in one fell swoop while the two families were fighting to the death, but now it seems that I can only give up. As the head coach, Li Jing is under a lot of pressure at this time. Xu Shiji, Chai Shao, and Li Daozong's soldiers and horses are almost in the deployed position. If it continues to be delayed, not to mention the impact on the morale of the army, the supply of grain and grass will be a problem.

Fortunately, the Sixth Route Army is distributed in Hebei, Henan, Guannei and Hedong four marching roads, otherwise the army will have to retreat if it can't survive the New Year.

Even more worrying than this news is that the further north the march, the heavier the snow will fall. Along the way, due to the cold weather, more than 500 people were lost, and the proportion of 30,000 people was not small.

On this day, after Li Jing raised his account as usual, dozens of generals under his command began to complain.

"Marshal, in the past few days, the sergeants under his command have come to report, and the charcoal fire is obviously insufficient. Seeing that the weather is getting colder and colder, if this continues, it is inevitable that the troops will be wasted. ”

The bright and dark sentinels on duty also came to report, saying that they could not be on duty for an hour in such weather. Although there is a charcoal fire outside, it is not as cold as the night after all. ”

"The scouts asked for a ration of liquor and plenty of dried ginger. Unlike sentry posts, scouts can't complete their patrols in a designated area for more than an hour. The lack of materials will lead to a large number of attrition. ”

“……”

"Okay, okay, these things are handled one by one. The scouts were given priority in rationing, and the sentry posts were replaced with half-hour shifts. As for charcoal fire and grain and grass, I have led Shuo County and surrounding states and counties to collect, according to reports from all over the country yesterday, 100,000 catties of charcoal and 20,000 stones of grain and grass have been collected. In any case, the combat capability of the elite troops is guaranteed as much as possible. 'As a manager, I've thought about these questions for a long time. At this moment, when I heard the generals say this, they immediately gave the answer.

After a series of arrangements and orders, Li Jing was about to let the generals go back, when he suddenly heard an urgent report from a soldier outside the tent: "Marshal, the scout team has something important to report." ”

"Come in."

The felt curtain of the tent parted, and a cold wind blew in. Immediately, a scout dressed in a felt robe stepped in, bowed to Li Jing, and said: "Tell the marshal, I waited for a patrol fifty miles north of Shuo County, and met a Turkic man, dressed gorgeously and not like a civilian, claiming that he had something important to find the marshal. I didn't dare to slack off, so I brought this man back. ”

According to the description of this scout, everyone knows that this is definitely a Turkic nobleman. Most of the nobles of the various Turkic tribes were respected for wearing silk and speaking Chinese. Since this man has taken both. And there is a posture between the words that is not seen by the coach, and the identity must be unusual.

"Let him in."

The Turks in the mouth of this scout had already been taken out of the tent, and as soon as Li Jing's words fell, he was invited in by the guards.

This person saw Li Jing sitting on the main seat, and when he arrived in the tent, he bowed his hand: "The Turki Khan's tent is here to meet the marshal." Now I came here because I was entrusted by the prince of my family, and I have something important to tell the marshal. After finishing speaking, his eyes scanned the surroundings, and then he looked at Li Jing squarely, waiting for his reply.

Just by hearing the name of the person, those who are familiar with the Turks know that their status is definitely not low. The Ashina tribe is a royal family of the Eastern Turks, so it is no wonder that this person is proficient in Chinese and dressed in ayaluo. And when they heard his identity, the generals were even more happy, and in connection with the disputes within the Turks that they had known before, they thought that Tuli was going to unite with the Tang army to attack Jieli.

If this is the case, although there is some deviation from the strategic objectives set before, it is not easy to eliminate Jieli with the help of Turkic insiders.

The style of the person who came was full of Han family atmosphere, and Li Jing also knew what he meant, waved his hand, and asked the generals to retreat.

Just when Luo Yan turned around to go out, he suddenly heard Li Jing say, "Deputy Chief Zhang and General Luo stay." This made Luo Yan stunned, but he quickly came back to his senses. Since Li Jing asked himself to stay, it would be better to stay as a bystander. Thinking about Li Jing's meaning, he also wanted them to be present as a witness, and even if someone used this to accuse him of fornicating with the Turks in the future, he could also find Zhang Gongjin and himself to testify.

Seeing that Li Jing and the three of them were left in the account, this Ashina Qizhi was still a little uneasy, staring at Li Jing with his eyes, but he didn't say a word.

"Your envoy can rest assured, this is Zhang Gongjin, the deputy head of the marching road, and you must be familiar with his name. This is Luo Yan, a close minister of the Son of Heaven, who accompanied His Majesty to negotiate with Jieli Xiaoer on the banks of the Weishui River, and will never leak secrets. There is something, your envoy just said it. Knowing that this person was not worried about Luo Yan and the two of them, Li Jing introduced the identities of the two.

Ashinaqi put down the newcomer at this time and bowed to Li Jing: "Marshal, please forgive me for the sin of foolishness." It's really a big deal, and you have to be careful. ”

Seeing Li Jing nodded, he said: "I think Dashuai has also heard that since the year before last, the Khan of my family has made it easy for the two of them to compete for the rights in the clan. Recently, because of the decline of the country, this kind of fighting has become even more intense. Previously, because a large number of nobles could not stand the harsh treatment of Jieli, they took refuge in my Khan. It's just that recently, Jieli has bought people's hearts on a large scale, and once made the tribes that originally took refuge in turn against them. If it continues, I'm afraid that the snake-hearted jackal guy in Jieli will be unfavorable to my Khan. Thinking about it left and right, my Khan wants to lead the six tribes under his account to join the Tang Dynasty, and also ask the marshal to pass on His Majesty the Tang Emperor on his behalf. ”

"What?" Mo said that it was Luo Yan and other juniors who couldn't get home, and immediately exclaimed when he heard this. It was Zhang Gongjin and Li Jing, whose faces also changed. Unexpectedly, the struggle between the two sides had become so hot, the three of them looked at each other, and then asked urgently: "What your envoy said, is it true?" ”

"Yes, Jieli is bent on invading the south. But my Khan was educated by the Han family since he was a child, and he even married a princess of the previous dynasty. Thinking about the casualties in the border war, there is no need to use force at all, and there is no need to use force every year. The two sides disagreed, and Jieli saw that my family Khan was powerful, and wanted to use this to get rid of him and consolidate his position. Under the competition, my family's khan is not enough. If you don't think about it, you will inevitably be killed by Najieli. weighed it badly, and finally decided to surrender to Datang and make it a good idea to be a full in-law. ”

dragged Tuli's background, and then pulled the family relationship, Ashinaqi deliberately diluted Tuli's decline in the struggle as much as possible. In this way, in the ears of others, it is Tuli who took refuge in Datang out of righteousness. It's not that he contradicts his language, he was trying to win the trust of Li Jing and them as much as possible, but later he saw that he had been trusted, and there was hope for the matter of Tuli and Tang Dynasty, so he found a high-sounding reason for his master.

Even a person like Luo Yan, who often chews words, is amazed by Ashinaqizhi's words.

"In that case, whether your envoy can wait for me to send a fast horse to Chang'an to deliver a report to Your Majesty will decide. I wanted to rush to the speed of 800 miles in Tang, but there was a reply in six or seven days. ”

"That's very good, I'll wait a few days so that I can give my Khan an accurate answer."

"In that case, please don't dislike the cold and hardships in the army, and stay here for a few days. Come, clear out my big tent and give it to your envoys. After speaking, he said to Ashina Qizhi: "Your envoy, rest first, and I will hold a banquet to entertain your envoy later." Before I do it again, I'll write the newspaper and send it out. ”

"It's a big matter, and everything is up to the boss's arrangement." Ashina Qi was not polite, and went down to rest with the little colonel who came in.

When there were only three of them left in the tent, Li Jing looked at Zhang Gongjin, then looked at Luo Yan, and asked, "I don't know if this matter is true or not, do we want to play it immediately?" ”

"Although Ashinaqizhi's identity has yet to be verified, it is better to believe it than to believe it." After all, the benefits of this kind of thing are too huge, even a cautious person like Zhang Gongjin would rather believe in the truth of the matter at this moment.

"Yes, we only need to report the matter to Your Majesty in detail, and we will have our own decision if we want to come to the DPRK. When the time comes, we will send an envoy to the Turks with Ashnaqi, and if this is true, the envoys who will be sent back to us when the Turks come. Luo Yan knew that it was true that Tuli had descended to Tang, but for the sake of insurance, he also gave Li Jing an idea.

After thinking about it, Li Jing slapped the table: "Okay, just do it." Deputy Chief Zhang, General Luo, you two come forward. How to write this Tang newspaper, I and the other three have to take a closer look. ”

It's just an hour, and under the leadership of Li Jing, a Tang newspaper was released. Write your name, Li Jing looked at Zhang Gongjin and Luo Yan. Luo Yan couldn't help but smile bitterly. Li Jing was too careful, perhaps, this is the reason why he was able to live until the time of Gaozong.

This is clear that the responsibility is shared and the credit is shared. Luo Yan smiled, and after Zhang Gongjin signed his name, he also hung his name and surname behind Zhang Gongjin.

It seems that he put down a big stone in his heart, bakes the pond newspaper on the fire for a period of time, and when the ink stains are dry, Li Jing put it in an envelope, seals it with fire paint, and calls his henchmen to come and order him to send it to the capital quickly.

After all this was done, Li Jing put on a banquet to entertain Ashina Qizhi, who came from afar. The two parties had already negotiated in the account, and the matter was undecided at this time, and they only claimed that Tuli had fallen behind in the struggle, and wanted to borrow some grain, grass and armor from Datang. As for the real purpose, it is buried in the hearts of both sides. (To be continued.) )