August is the day of early autumn, the heat in the Western Regions has gradually faded, the morning and evening are even cooler, the grass leaves are condensed with dewdrops, the wind is gradually rising, the herdsmen begin to stack the dried grass into haystacks, prepare the cattle and sheep for the winter.

The sky is bluer, the smell of absinthe and wheat stalks wafts across the savannah, and on the flat prairie, no matter which direction you look from, there are piles of haystacks standing everywhere, an eagle flies up from the haystacks, soaring slowly in the sky, and in the distance, a shepherd's tent rises, and a wisp of blue cooking smoke rises.

An army of tens of thousands marched on the field, each soldier rode a horse, and in the Western Regions, both the infantry and the Modao army were on horseback, and then dismounted and lined up during the battle.

Zhang Huan walked in the middle of the procession, he rode on a horse and marched slowly, looking at everything in Qiuci with great interest, the shepherd's tents, women's clothing, the types of horses, and the snow-capped mountains and rivers in the distance.

A black city was already faintly visible in front of them, and after ten days of marching, they finally reached the end of the journey, Qiuzi.

At this time, the yellow dust was billowing in the distance, and a cavalry team of hundreds of people was galloping towards this side, which was the main general who had arrived in Qiuzi in advance to greet the arrival of the governor.

The first one, burly and tall, and heroic-looking, was Wang Siyu, the chief general of Qiuzi, and next to him was Xin Lang, followed by dozens of generals and some civilian officials.

Wang Siyu had already seen Zhang Huan, he turned over and dismounted, quickly stepped forward and knelt down on one knee and said, "The last general will see the governor!" ”

Zhang Huan also dismounted, he hurriedly helped his favorite general up, and smiled approvingly: "Your raid on Qiuzi this time was expected by me, but you did a better job than I thought." ”

Wang Siyu smiled modestly: "The governor has been awarded, this is the life of the soldiers." It was the result of several years of careful preparation by the Governor, and I just had the right time. ”

Zhang Huan nodded, he patted Xin Lang's shoulder again and said with a smile: "The Battle of Yanqi is the first time you actually commanded a battle, and you won a complete victory, it's not easy!" ”

Xin Lang also bowed and said, "My subordinates are ashamed." If it weren't for the 500 warriors captured by Zhang Sancheng to defend the castle, Jiegan Garth would be in the position of being attacked on his back, and I am afraid that his subordinates would not be his opponents. ”

Hearing that Zhang Sancheng was arrested, Zhang Huan's face became solemn, he had already heard about it. Five hundred extremely ordinary soldiers of the Tang Army, the supreme commander was only a captain, actually withstood the attack of tens of thousands of Hui troops, fought to the death and did not retreat, and finally almost all of them died heroically, only more than 20 people were wounded and survived, and in the end only eight people survived from their injuries.

At this time, Xin Lang pulled a young officer from behind him and introduced to Zhang Huan: "He is the last team leader." It's called Guan Ying. ”

He glanced at Guan Ying again and said, "This is the governor of our Xiliang Army, and he hasn't gone up to pay his respects." ”

Guan Ying was a humble soldier a month ago, and he never thought that he would be able to meet the supreme leader of the Xiliang Army, the second most powerful person in the Tang Dynasty, his eyes showed excitement, and he stepped forward and knelt down to salute: "See the governor for his humble position!" ”

"Hurry up and excuse me!" Zhang Huan hurriedly helped him up and looked him up and down, only to see that he was very thin and small, like a child compared to Wang Siyu next to him. But such a thin soldier can treat death as his home and serve the country with death.

Zhang Huan nodded slowly, he suddenly remembered something, so he asked with a smile: "I remember that the scout who found the whereabouts of the Qarlu people in Pu County seems to be called Guan Ying, the name is the same as Guanyin, I remember it very clearly, there is also a Sun Mu person, but are you?" ”

Guan Ying straightened his waist and replied loudly: "The governor remembers well, it is a humble position. ”

He couldn't help but think of Sun Muren. There was a gloom in his eyes, and he lowered his head and said ashamedly: "The humble position is just a fluke to survive, and the real people who have made great contributions are Sun Muren and Wang Tingjiang, if it weren't for their death that inspired my fighting spirit, maybe I would have retreated." ”

Zhang Huan pressed his thin shoulders, stared into his eyes and said, "I will remember them, and I will take care of the family of every brother who died in battle." Let them look at the nine springs. You don't have to blame yourself, everyone will be afraid in the face of death. Including me, but we always need a spirit to live, and even if we die, it is worth it. ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Huan glanced at everyone again, and said loudly: "In this western expedition, we have killed more than 13,000 people, and I have given the Ming court to establish an Anxi Loyal Martyrs' Shrine in Chang'an to commemorate the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country in the recovery of Anxi and Beiting." ”

When everyone heard this, they knelt down together and said loudly: "The heart of the governor, the soldiers are grateful!" ”

Zhang Huan sighed, waved his hand to everyone, and said, "Everyone get up!" Don't thank me, the Xiliang Army was founded by me, how can I have no feelings with my brothers? ”

At this time, it was getting close to noon, Zhang Huan ordered the army to be stationed outside the city, and he entered the city of Qiuci under the escort of more than 1,000 personal soldiers, which was much larger than the ancient city of Gaochang, which was the capital of the ancient country of Qiuci, and was an important transit station on the Silk Road.

The population of Qiuci City is about 50,000 people, most of them are local natives, followed by Turks and Han Chinese, the road is quite straight and neat, both sides of the road are covered with various shops and houses, due to the impact of the war, most of them have been closed, but there are still many adventurous merchants leading camels to walk in the streets.

The most important street in Qiuci City is called Tianshan Street, stretching straight from the north city gate to the south city gate, obviously imitating Suzaku Street, Qiuci Palace and Anxi Jiedu Embassy are located on both sides of the road in the middle, Qiuci King in Tubo captured Anxi, then led part of the royal family members to exile to Chang'an, the current palace is empty, not long ago Trisong Dezan lived here, and now Zhang Huan's residence is also arranged in the Qiuci Palace.

Qiuzi Palace is obviously much more majestic than Gaochang Palace, only the white jade foundation is more than two zhang high, enter the high gate, the palace is splendid. It is very neatly cleaned, expensive Datang porcelain can be seen everywhere, and the light is bright, there is no dark and damp atmosphere, and the window is full of all kinds of precious flowers and trees, and it is full of green.

Zhang Huan walked around. Only then did he nod slightly, although he didn't want to live here, but before he officially took over power, Wang Siyu was still the supreme commander of Anxi, and he Zhang Huan was just a VIP. Zhang Huan is very careful at this point, in the future, Wang Siyu will be the governor of the four towns of Anxi, and he doesn't want to be too noisy.

Of course, this was not the main reason why Zhang Huan did not want to take the lead in the battle against the Hui Hui, the main reason was that there was a change in the imperial court, a few months ago, Cui Qinggong was convicted of massacring the people, deprived of the title of the king of Ruyang County, removed from all his positions, and expelled from the cabinet. At the same time, Cui Xiaofu sealed the west of Zhejiang to observe Han Tongzhong's book under the door of Pingzhang, replacing Cui Qinggong's cabinet, a piece of information sent from Chang'an shows that because of the failure of Li Li, the king of Luo, to enter the cabinet, he tried his best to encourage the Tang Emperor to intervene in the government behind his back, making the contradiction between Cui Xiaofu and Li Yao more and more acute, this information was two months ago, and he had a strong premonition. It is very likely that something big has happened in Chang'an.

Therefore, he must arrange military affairs in advance, and as soon as necessary, he will immediately return to Chang'an.

After lunch, Zhang Huan slept again, and when he woke up, it was already dusk, the golden sunset shot in from the window, and Zhang Huan was lying on an unusually wide bed, with a soft silk quilt under him. In front of him was the golden roof and the four walls, and a huge pale green tassel tent was dragged down from the temple, completely covering the large bed, and he had not enjoyed it for a long, long time, and for a moment, he felt as if he were in a dream.

"Governor! General Wang asked to see him. Outside the dormitory, a soldier shouted a report. The high palace made his voice echo in bursts.

"Let him wait for me in the side hall."

Zhang Huan jumped up from the bed. I only feel refreshed, and there is still the sweetness of waking up in my mouth. He stretched out his waist, put on his robe, and walked energetically towards the side hall.

This side hall is the place where the king of Qiuci dealt with official affairs in the past, the books are well preserved, most of them are historical books of the Central Plains, which have not been destroyed by the Tubo people, it can be seen that Trisong Dezan is also a person who knows books, and there are also annotated bookmarks written by him in many books, for example, in the historical records about the battle of Changping, there is a bookmark left by him, he wrote with a beautiful hand: 400,000 Zhao soldiers in Changping pit, it is the strategy that the king of Qin has planned for a long time. Not only are the books not destroyed, but all the other furniture is as it is, and it has not been changed to the Tubo style, however, unlike the Tang Dynasty, there is no wooden couch here, let alone soft seats, but chairs, at this moment Wang Siyu sat on a chair and waited, next to him there were Xin Lang, and two other old men, one was an officer, and the other was an old monk.

Seeing Zhang Huan coming in, Wang Siyu immediately stood up, bowed down and said, "My subordinates have disturbed the governor's rest." ”

Zhang Huan smiled and waved his hand, "Military affairs are big, so don't be polite." ”

As he spoke, he glanced at the two old men and asked with a smile, "Who are these two?" ”

The old general stood up and arched his hand and said: "Below is the original Shule town guard Lu Yang, see Zhang Shangshu." ”

Zhang Huan was in awe, and immediately saluted him back: "It turned out to be General Lu, you have been alone in Anxi for decades, you are Zhang Huan's seniors, and the younger generations are polite here." ”

Lu Yang sighed, and then smiled with satisfaction: "There are talented people in the country, it is the rise of your young and handsome that makes me and other veterans see the hope of the Tang Dynasty. ”

Zhang Huan was overjoyed, with him, in the future, it will be twice the result with half the effort, at this time, the old monk next to him also stood up and clasped his palms and saluted: "Poor monk Dharma Daodu, give Zhang Shangshu a salute." ”

Zhang Huan couldn't help but be a little surprised when he saw that he spoke fluent Chinese, and Wang Siyu next to him said with a smile: "This master was also an official of the Tang Dynasty in the past, and his common name was Che Fengchao, has the governor heard of it?" ”

Zhang Huan was greatly surprised, he had read some miscellaneous records when he was studying, and it seemed that there was a record of this person, he hesitated and asked: "Could it be that Master Fei is the chariot envoy who was ordered by Emperor Xuanzong to go to the Western Regions with Zhang Taoguang and did not return?" ”

Bodhidharma nodded slowly, "I didn't expect Zhang Shangshu to know about the old case, the poor monk was sick in the country of Jiandra, and after he recovered from his illness, he became a monk, and he was willing to follow Master Xuanzang to bring the Tianzhu Buddhist Sutra back to the Central Plains, and the poor monk returned from Tocharo last month." ”

Tocharo? Zhang Huan glanced at Wang Siyu, he suddenly realized, and said with a smile: "Isn't the master trying to tell me about the situation of the Great Food Land?" ”

Bodhidharma gave a thumbs up and praised sincerely: Zhang Shangshu is really extraordinary, and he can see the big food, it's not simple! ”

He pondered for a while and said: "When the poor monk left Tocharo, Da Shi had already had 100,000 soldiers in Shi Khan, threatening the back road of Tubo. ”

"The reason why Da Shi refuses to leave Tocharo is probably not just as simple as defending Tubo!" Zhang Huan shrugged his shoulders lightly and said with a faint smile: "I think their real reason is that they are afraid that the Tang army will cross the green ridge and continue to advance westward. ”

The night in Anxi always falls very late, dusk has passed more than half an hour, the sky is still glowing with blue and white, the street is still very bright, the air is refreshing, the breeze is blowing, it is refreshing, Zhang Huan finished dinner, he planned to go out for a walk, to see the customs of Qiuzi, but when he packed up and was about to go out, a personal soldier came to report with a strange face: "Dudu, there is a woman at the door looking for you, saying that it is your old friend." ”