When Zhang Huan's soldiers rushed into Mingde Gate, Pei Jun was very annoyed by Ma Siyi's two-faced and three-faced, Pei Danming, who rushed back from Huaibei yesterday, reported to him, Ma Simian said that he had persuaded Cui Qinggong not to attack Huainan, but Cui Qinggong insisted on going his own way, but Ma Simian promised to do Pei Xiangguo's minimum requirements and drag Cui Qinggong along

Pei Jun was satisfied with Ma Siyi's attitude just now, but today Pei Danming got a completely different statement from Cui Xiong: persuading Cui Qinggong to form an alliance with Zhu and taking the opportunity to attack Huainan was Ma Siyi's idea.

Pei Jun couldn't help but be annoyed, a small staff member dared to step on two boats, was he impatient? Pei Jun took two steps with his hands behind his back, and then said to Pei Danming in a long voice: "I don't want this person either, after this incident is over, you will send his letter of allegiance to Cui Qinggong, so that he can taste the taste of betraying the master." ”

"Yes!" Pei Danming agreed and was about to leave, only to hear the old housekeeper say at the door: "Master, Aunt Zhang sent someone to send a letter from Fengxiang, saying that it was an urgent matter. ”

Zhang Huan sent a letter? Pei Jun was slightly stunned, but this stunned was only for an instant, and he immediately turned around and said, "Where is the letter?" ”

In a moment, a guard sent the letter in, Pei Jun quickly opened the letter, and in an instant his face changed greatly, his hand was loosened, and the letter fell to the ground, and there was only one sentence in the letter, Li Zhengji transferred troops to Huijun.

Pei Jun stood there in a daze, cold sweat quietly flowed down his forehead, most of the 70,000 troops stationed in Shuofang were newly recruited soldiers in Hedong, and the sense of belonging was not strong, if Li Zhengji really had a different heart, the consequences would be unimaginable, Pei Jun stood for a moment, he suddenly came back to his senses, and immediately ordered the guards: "Call Pei Yi to me immediately." There must be no delay. ”

Soon, Pei Yi hurried over, and as soon as he entered the door, Pei Jun scolded angrily: "Look at the good things you have done!" ”

Pei Yi was confused, he saw that his eldest brother's face was extremely ugly, and he was really uneasy in his heart, so he persuaded in a low voice: "Big brother, don't be angry, what happened?" ”

"What?" Pei Jun snorted heavily, and he threw Zhang Huan's letter to Pei Yi, "It was you who strongly recommended Li Zhengji to me in the first place. Tell me how he is good at using soldiers, how he is loyal, and if you look at what he is doing now, how can you explain it to me? ”

Pei Yi unfolded the letter, his face turned pale, and he said in a trembling voice, "Big brother." This is Zhang Huan's divisive plan, and I can't believe it. Thinking of the word separation, Pei Yi seemed to have caught a life-saving straw, his thoughts flew around, and he immediately said to Pei Jun: "Big brother, please think about it, we took Shuo Fang at the beginning, and Zhang Huan also turned his face against us for this." It can be seen that he attaches great importance to Shuofang, and now that he is a strong soldier, how can he not want to recapture Shuofang? At this moment, when Hanzhong was tense and Huaibei was in turmoil, he suddenly threw out the Shuofang secession case, big brother! His intentions are ill-intentioned, and he must not believe his words! ”

At this time, Pei Jun also gradually calmed down, playing with his wrists has always been Zhang Huan's strength, and his actions today are indeed not in line with his consistent style, not to mention that Li Zhengji really has the intention to rebel. Wouldn't he be able to get greater benefits by keeping silent? It's a bit of a counterintuitive.

Thinking of this, Pei Jun's face softened slightly. He glanced at Pei Yi and said: "Anyway, this matter must be cautious, you will work hard, go to Shuofang in the name of the army to take a look, if Li Zhengji really has the heart of self-reliance, I will be beheaded on the spot, and the deputy general Liu Wenxi will be temporarily replaced by the envoy." ”

The winter of the sixth year of Seonin was a turbulent and restless season. The tension in Hanzhong, the murderous spirit in Huaibei, and the hidden worries in Shuofang. In the west of the river, the Tang army marched westward, and in the south of the Yangtze River, an unknown army fleet appeared. Several things seem to be unrelated to each other, but careful people will find that these threads are actually connected to each other, silently weaving a big net, and this weaver is Zhang Huan, who has just been named the secretary of the military department.

Meridian Valley, here is a shortcut to Chang'an in Hanzhong, it is a secret road across the Qinling Mountains, the mountain is steep, the road is difficult and difficult, the total length is more than 600 miles, the northern mountain pass is called Zizi, the southern mountain pass is called noon, so it is called the Meridian Valley, when the general of Shu Wei Yan once suggested that Zhuge Liang send out 20,000 strange soldiers to take this road directly to Chang'an, Kong Ming is not allowed, so he buried the root of Wei Yan's rebellion.

Different from the slope valley of the avenue, the road in the meridian valley is narrow and rugged, and it cannot pass through heavy baggage, so it is not suitable for the passage of large groups of people and horses, so it can only be galloped forward by light horses to seize the opportunity.

At night, on the mountain road about thirty miles from the south entrance of the Meridian Valley, a light cavalry team of 2,000 men was quietly speeding southward, the figures flickering, and the horses' hooves were covered with thick hemp, making a slight click in the night! Voice, this army is a task force of the Xiliang Army, secretly coming to Hanzhong to carry out a mission.

The pace of the team slowed down as they approached a pass, which was actually a fortress built against the mountain and held the mountain road.

The procession slowed down and stopped, and finally came to a halt in a col about a mile from the pass, where the distant fortress was visible in the night, and in a moment, a scout quickly climbed down from the cliff, "General, there are about thirty patrolmen on the fort, and they are very well guarded. ”

The commander of this army is Liu Shuai, the captain of the third battalion of scouts, but this cavalry is not a scout battalion, but a cavalry battalion under the garrison of Kaiyang County.

Carrying out this mission made Liu Shuai's heart heavy, all the way, I didn't see him show a smile, his task was very simple, that is, to seize the southern entrance of the Meridian Valley

As a scout, it is a professional instinct to know the enemy situation in advance, but Liu Shuai was given a temporary order, he did not have time to send people to reconnoiter in advance, and he did not know the garrison of the enemy army at the southern end of the meridian at all, Liu Shuai even had a faint feeling that the above did not seem to care too much about his success or failure, but as a soldier, the first is obedience, and the second is to win.

Liu Shuai stood up straight, stared at the distant fortress and measured the distance, his heart was slightly bottomed, he turned around and beckoned, called the captain of the first regiment forward, and instructed him: "Look at the scale of this fortress." It can only hold a maximum of 500 men, and you lead your headquarters to rush through the fortress first, and follow my orders to attack from the south. ”

"Obey!" With a wave of his hand, the captain led the five hundred people of the headquarters to quickly run towards the fortress, and Liu Shuai waited for them to run a hundred steps away, and then resolutely ordered: "Abandon the horse and attack with me!" ”

As soon as the voice fell, dangdang! The sound of the gong suddenly became loud, and the sound of the gong was particularly harsh and moving in the silent night. The fortress patrol has discovered the enemy attack, exclamations, shouts and killings are loud, from time to time someone is hit by an arrow, let out a long scream, Liu Shuai jumped up, shouted: "Kill!" ”

"Kill!" More than 1,000 soldiers roared. Bravely go to the fortress to cover up.

There were not 500 people in the fortress as Liu Shuai guessed, in fact there were only 300 defenders, when the Xiliang army attacked, most of the defenders were asleep, and the sudden alarm shattered their dreams, and the Hanzhong army did not even have time to put on armor in the panic, and rushed to the city wall with bows, arrows, knives and guns.

Arrows rain down. The offensive is in full swing.

The Xiliang army attacked very methodically, they took the regiment as a unit, one regiment raised a shield to attack, and the other regiment was covered with bows and arrows, in the attacking team, dozens of soldiers carried a crashing wood to the hillside and rushed, and there was a soldier holding a giant shield to cover by everyone's side, the formation was undulating, and it seemed to be a hundred-legged giant insect running in armor in the night.

Liu Shuai stood on top of a boulder, watching the battle with a nervous expression. He was a scout and had never commanded a campaign alone. Although this is only a minimum level of offensive and defensive battle, the offensive morale, offensive routines and offensive methods are all the same as those of the 10,000-man battle.

Seeing that the soldiers of the first regiment had rushed up the hillside and began to hit the city gate, Liu Shuai breathed a sigh of relief, the strength of the defense did not seem to be as strong as he imagined, and the other party seemed to have no boulders and sassalwoods except for bows and arrows.

But there is only a moment to relax the mind. Suddenly a fire broke out on the city wall. The flames rolled into the night sky, and two words flashed through Liu Shuai's mind. Balefire! He couldn't help but look up at the swarthy mountains, his eyes narrowed gradually, and a small flame rose abruptly on the mountain beam in his pupils, and then a second and third clusters rose in the distance, and the beacon fire of the Meridian Valley continued to pass to the south.

Chencang County Ya, Li Shuangyu held a piece of information in his hand, strode towards Zhang Huan's room, in the room, Zhang Huan was still looking at his Hexi sand table, early in the morning received the news, Wang Siyu fought back at Xingxing Gorge and won the east gate of Anxi, but this is a strategy he decided independently, so Zhang Huan couldn't help but appreciate a burst of appreciation, seizing Yumen Pass is false, taking Xingxing Gorge is real, this guy is really promising, worthy of being his right-hand man, and can be interlocked with his own ideas.

At this time, Zhang Huan's hanging heart finally fell, as for the Tubo people in Jiuquan County, Zhang Huan no longer took it to heart, according to He Lou Wuji's current step-by-step, steady and steady offensive strategy, behind him there is Wang Siyu's cavalry team that is as elegant as flowing clouds and water, and Hexi is already the turtle in his urn.

However, the appointment of the assassins and county orders of the three counties of Jiuquan, Jinchang, and Dunhuang required him to think about it a lot.

Thinking about it, his hurried footsteps came from far to near, but when he walked to the door, he hesitated, and seemed to be a little undecided, "Report to the Governor!" Li Shuangyu's voice sounded at the door.

"How's the situation in Meridian Valley?" Zhang Huan asked without looking back.

"Liu Shuai and they captured the Meridian Fort at night, but after dawn they encountered a large group to support the enemy, and the battle was fierce, and our army suffered more than 500 casualties, so they barely repelled the enemy and held the Meridian Fort."

Speaking of this, Li Shuangyu hesitated for a moment and said: "According to the intelligence, there are more than 10,000 garrisons at the southern end of the Meridian Valley. ”

"No need." Zhang Huan slowly turned around and said, "You immediately send someone to inform Liu Shuai, he can return." ”

But Li Shuangyu was a little stammered, he really didn't understand Zhang Huan's intentions, but the military order was like a mountain, and he was not allowed to doubt it, so he immediately gave a military salute, "My subordinates will go and pass the order." ”

"Wait a minute." Zhang Huan stopped him and smiled slightly, "Aren't you surprised why I want to attack Meridian Valley?" But it was pointless to return to the army. ”

Li Shuangyu nodded, "Yes!" The subordinates are a little confused. ”

Zhang Huan pondered for a moment, and then said to him: "When I defrauded Luo Some Cities, I also told Wang Siyu that as a general, you must have a view of the overall situation, and you can stand alone in the future. And now from the fact that he took the Star Gorge, it can be seen that he has grown rapidly, and he has become a great weapon, and you are my first pro-soldier team, and you have to work harder. ”

Li Shuangyu looked ashamed, and couldn't help lowering his head, "The subordinates have disappointed the governor." ”

"No, I didn't give you a chance." Zhang Huan smiled and patted him on the shoulder and said, "Let me ask you, what is the real purpose of our garrison in Chencangdi?" ”

"Create an opportunity for the soldiers to take down Fengxiang without blood." Li Shuangyu replied without hesitation.

"That's a good point!" Zhang Huan nodded, and asked him again: "Then why don't we directly capture Fengxiang, but make such a big turn?" ”

"The governor wants to defend Hanzhong in the name of it. Smoothly stationed in Guanzhong. Speaking of this, Li Shuangyu sighed and said: "When we didn't understand the battle of Wujun at the beginning, why did the governor put Zhu back in Hanzhong when he was completely able to kill him, until now I understand that it was just to have an excuse to enter Guanzhong today." Governor is far-sighted! ”

"Do you just understand now?" Zhang Huan twisted his beard and smiled a little proudly: "Think about it, if the war subsides, what reason do we have to stay in Fengxiang?" Zhu is a mad dog, just stab him a little, he will bite and bark, so don't we have another excuse to stay in Fengxiang? ”

Li Shuangyu suddenly realized, no wonder Zhu has increased his troops in the past two days. It turned out that Du Du had the intention here, but he thought about it again, this is not a long-term solution!

As if he understood his thoughts, Zhang Huan smiled faintly and said, "Within three days, there will be news from Fengxiang City." ”

It has been more than 20 days since Han Qing received the task, and the three tasks assigned by Zhang Huan are being carried out in an orderly manner, and he has a detailed roster of soldiers in his hand, and he has already copied a copy and sent it out. The list and details of the mid-level officers, he also gave Zhang Huan. The difficult thing is the evidence of Li Mo's embezzlement of grain and land, which really requires some effort.

It stands to reason that he is the marching Sima, and the money and grain of Fengxiang's army are all under his control, and he should know better than anyone else, but the person in charge of the accounts may not know the real situation, for example. His list was eight thousand six hundred. Everyone has a name and a surname, but is there really so many people in the barracks? Of course, it can't be full. He knew that many officers were secretly eating empty food, and as for whether these empty grains had anything to do with Li Mo, he didn't know.

interviewed a lot of people in private, but the final result disappointed him, there is indeed a phenomenon of vacant places, but it is all the local officers below who are greedy for food and salary, and it has nothing to do with Li Mo, if he is tied to Li Mo, it means that he also knows these things, but he turns a blind eye.

Just when Han Qing had nothing to do, he suddenly remembered one thing, he remembered that there was a riot in the Fengxiang army the year before last, because when the Pei family's army was in the southeast of the river, there was a small conflict with the defenders at that time in Changhua County, that is, that time, more than 600 soldiers secretly fled back to their hometown, Li Mo personally went to intercept it, and it is said that all of them were arrested, and afterwards Li Mo reported to the imperial court, and he was also rewarded for this, and was promoted to General Yunlu, and later he gave himself another link of the personnel list.

Han Qing immediately went to the warehouse to rummage through the records from two years ago, and after searching for most of the day, he finally found the list in a dusty file bag, which was densely packed with people's names, and finally Li Mo's autograph, as well as the four words that were all recovered.

According to this list, Han Qing visited the relevant three military camps, and invited an officer who usually has a good relationship to drink, under the smoke of alcohol, the officer finally confided the truth, Li Mo actually only captured more than 200 of the 600 people who escaped that year, and the rest of the people were indiscriminately arrested some peasants to fill the number, placed in the barracks of henchmen, and strictly ordered no one to disclose the matter, and these impostors are still in the roster.

Early in the morning, several firehead soldiers pushed the cart and came to the market leisurely, they wanted to buy some live chickens and ducks to go back, these fireheads were Zhang Huandi's own soldiers, and they were specially arranged for Han Qing, called help, but actually surveillance.

After a few fire-headed soldiers walked around, they returned to the barracks, and a captain put down his things, immediately found Han Qing, and handed him a letter, "General Han, this is a letter from the governor to you." ”

Han Qing hurriedly opened the letter, the content of the letter was very simple, ordering him to immediately impeach Li Mo to the imperial court for concealing the truth about desertion three years ago, Han Qing frowned, and there was a look of worry in his eyes, "It's okay to impeach, but Li Mo can use it as an excuse to stabilize the morale of the army, I'm afraid it won't play much role." ”

The Wu Commander glanced at him and said with a faint smile: "The governor has his own measure, so General Han shouldn't worry too much." ”