At the end of July, in Chang'an, it rained lightly, and in this cool autumn chill, Feng Siniang and Lin Fengshuang, who were pregnant for October, finally gave birth to two pairs of dragon and phoenix fetuses for Li Ang on the same day. A pair of children born to Lin Fengshuang are called Li Jing, Li Jingyu. The day the four children were born, it was the full moon wine of Cao Anmin and the queen's new princess, when the good news came into the palace, Cao Anmin immediately gave a rich reward, and the queen recognized these four children as righteous sons and daughters, so that the Manchu ministers and major families were shocked by the emperor's attention and favor to Li Ang, and also made them have to think more carefully about the future.

In the governor's mansion, in the quiet study, the chief waved away the secret guards around him, leaving only Guo Nu. "I've been sitting in the position of chief for nearly thirty years, and it's almost time to give way." The chief looked at Guo Nu, who was pouring tea for him, and said quietly.

"Uncle." Hearing that the commander-in-chief was about to leave the military hall, Guo Nu was shocked, the current Great Qin has fully turned to the external attack, and to reproduce the prestige of the heyday of the thirty-year hegemony, it is precisely the need for an old man like the commander-in-chief to sit in the military hall.

"Don't persuade me, I'm really tired of the position of chief, after the first emperor returns to heaven, I should go with me." Thinking of the past with Emperor Wen when he was young, the chief waved his hand to stop Guo Nu and did not let him continue, "Although the empire is expanding outward, it is actually just completely incorporating Hezhong into the territory. Although the expanding army went out to fight, it was actually migrating them to settle down in the river. There will be no big battles, but small battles will continue. The chief drank the tea that his nephew had poured for him, looked at his eyes with some doubts, and shook his head. Bringing Hezhong into the territory of Great Qin was already the limit of the empire. ”

"The empire fully occupies Hezhong, Persia, Rome, Xiongnu, Kushan these countries will definitely be unwilling, how can there be no big war then?" Guo Nu's brows furrowed, and he looked at the chief chief, he needed a clear answer.

"He, Li Ang, is the sharpest sword that the first emperor has sharpened for His Majesty. It should be used where it works best for him. Putting down the teacup, the chief looked out the window at the drizzle. If it weren't for the Imperial Fleet's final annihilation of the Roman navy in the Inland Sea and the Mediterranean, which allowed the Black Cavalry to cross the sea and fight directly under the city of Rome, that battle might have been a lose-lose situation. ”

Guo Nu lowered his head. He knew much more about the huge war more than thirty years ago, and although Great Qin won the final victory, the price paid was by no means smaller than that of the Romans. "What exactly do you want to do?" Guo Nu looked at the silent chief, and suddenly raised his head and asked.

"I didn't make this decision alone." Glancing at his nephew, the chief stood up. Walked to the window. Look at the darkness. "He'll take his own people over there." We will give him some support, but how much he can do it depends on himself. ”

"Is this the final decision of the ancestral hall?" Guo Nu looked at the chief, his voice was a little low, of course he understood what the commander-in-chief meant by certain support, the ancestral hall party would not fully support, and would not allow the entire empire to support Li Ang, "Is it for the balance of power?" After hesitating for a moment, Guo Nu finally asked.

"The ancestral hall party will not allow another prince to appear in Chang'an, which will destroy the current family pattern." The chief replied very affirmatively, in the past hundred years, the children of the poor family have not been without great achievements, but until now, none of them can achieve the same status as the Gaomen family in the 50 years since the founding of the country, "Although the major families have changed new elders and family heads, they will first consider the interests of their own family, which will not change no matter what." ”

"I see." Guo Nu nodded, as the head of the family, in addition to this country, the interests of the family are the most important, "Then the Zhuge family? Guo Nu asked the last question, now the relationship between Miss Zhuge and the eldest Cui Hao of Li Ang's family can be seen as long as the person with a discerning eye can see it, but the head of the Zhuge family is silent and unusually silent, without any response.

"Maybe in your opinion, without the full support of the entire empire, it is impossible to break the ground and establish a country surrounded by such strong enemies, but for the Zhuge family, or all the great families, it is not like that, you must know that the greater the risk, the greater the benefit." The chief chuckled lowly, he looked back at his nephew, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Make good use of your relationship with him Leon, on him, we can't be left behind." The chief said this, walked back to his seat and sat down, and said angrily to Guo, "After I step down, I will write to your majesty to ask your majesty to let you inherit, and you can't lose my face at that time." ”

"Uncle, I'm not fit to be the chief minister." Guo Nu did not agree, but refused, he knew what he was good at, his character was not suitable for leading the army in the dark, and there were some things he couldn't do.

"Don't make judgments about yourself, I didn't think I was suitable to be the chief at the time, but I didn't become a leader in the end." The chief asked Guo Nu to sit down, poured a cup of tea for him, and handed it out, "Our Guo family's direct family has always been Ding Buwang, do you want me to give up this seat to someone next to him?" ”

"In that case, I'll do my best." Guo Nu bowed down and took over the position of chief minister. "Get up!" The chief called out to Guo Nu and called out his secret guard in a loud voice, "From now on, he is your master." ”

"Yes, Chief." The two Dark Guard Commanders whispered in the dark shadows, and then exited the room again.

Guo Nu finally left the Governor's Mansion, but behind him were a few more secret guards, and now he is actually the person in charge of the military hall secret guard force, and the handover of the position of the chief is just a formality. "Looks like there's only so much I can do to help you in the future!" Guo Nu looked into the distance in the darkness and thought of Li Ang, he whispered to himself, shouldering the responsibility of the chief minister, he must think more for the country.

In the palace, Cao Anmin looked at the intelligence department directly under the military hall in the imperial study two months ago in Guishuang.

"Do you have any countermeasures?" ”

"Your Majesty. At this time, it was already autumn, and it would take three months at the earliest, including the time required to mobilize the army, mobilize food, grass, equipment, and march, and at that time the plateau was already covered with heavy snow, and we could not move the army into the plateau through the mountains to support. The standing staff officer calmly replied, "What we can do is to send people to send intelligence to the plateau first, and then gather the army to the mountains of Yizhou for training." After the beginning of spring, he immediately entered the plateau to support General Lee. ”

"I am very unhappy with the delivery of information. It took nearly two months for this information to be transmitted on the road, so go back and tidy it up. Cao Anmin's face was a little pale, after all, the sudden appearance of the elite army of the Kushan people on the plateau was really infuriating, and the most important thing was that this Kushan army was likely to threaten Li Ang and the 50,000 elite of the Great Qin.

"Wow. Your Majesty! The staff officer who was trained made a military salute and withdrew from the imperial study, for the emperor to ask him to rectify the intelligence transmission system, he could only respond with false and wrongful response, after all, the distance from Guishan to Chang'an is too far, two months is not slow.

Outside the city of Chang'an. Li Angdi Zhuangzi. Feng Siniang and Lin Fengshuang looked at their respective children in the room. With loving smiles on their faces, they never thought about the day they would become mothers. The two teased the child who was in the cradle, and remembered Leon, who was thousands of miles away.

The door was suddenly pushed open, and Trist and Li Yanzong walked in, their steps were extremely light, for fear of startling the sleeping child, "Mastermother! The two of them bowed softly to Feng Siniang and Lin Fengshuang, and then set their eyes on the four children in the cradle, with pain on their faces.

"Yan Zong, we want to trouble you to go to the plateau." Looking at Li Yanzong, who was looking at the child with his neck out, Feng Siniang suddenly said to him, and Lin Fengshuang beside her handed Li Yanzong a written letter.

—

"Rest assured, Master Mother, Yan Zong will definitely personally tell the Lord the good news to the earth." Putting the letter in the bad, Li Yanzong replied in a deep voice, and then exited the room with Trist. "Unexpectedly, in a blink of an eye, the four little masters were born." Thinking of the four children sleeping in the room, Li Yanzong said suddenly, with joy on his face. "It's a pity that the master is not here, otherwise, the master will definitely be happy." Thinking of Leon who led the troops to the battle, Trist sighed with emotion.

"Let's go, Cui Hao is still waiting for us, and he doesn't know what's going on, so anxious to find us?" Li Yanzong said, and walked to Cui Hao's room with Trist, where Cui Hao was waiting for them with a serious face, and Zhuo in the room had a document on it.

"This is what Miss Zhuge got it." Pointing to the paperwork on the table, Cui Hao looked at Li Yanzong and Trist and said, "Look at it yourself!" ”

"What the hell is going on?" Li Yanzong muttered, picked up the paperwork on the table, unfolded it and looked at it with Trist, after reading not much, the faces of the two changed, and they looked at Cui Hao together, "Is this true?" ”

"It shouldn't be fake." Cui Hao nodded heavily, and continued, "It's too late to send reinforcements directly to the plateau now, and it will be after the spring of next year at the latest, and the military hall should have sent someone to send this information to the plateau, but I'm still not at ease." ”

"I see, I'll go at once." Li Yanzong stuffed the information into his arms, didn't say a word, and left the room without looking back. "This matter must be hidden from the two ladies." Seeing Li Cunxiao leaving, Cui Hao looked at Trist.

"I know, is there anything else you want me to do?" Trist nodded heavily, he didn't think that Cui Hao came to him just to tell him about it, he must have something to do with him.

"The empire will certainly not make any moves until spring, and I hope to send some logistical supplies into the plateau before November." Cui Hao looked at Trist and said, "I need you to help me do this together, and hide it from the two housewives." ”

"I see." Trist looked at Cui Hao and replied in a deep voice, "Do you have a list, if you do, I'll leave for Yizhou." Cui Hao took out a list from his arms, handed it to Trist, took the list, Trist glanced at it, and then walked out of the room, his face was terrifyingly serious.

After the two left, behind the screen in Cui Hao's room, Miss Zhuge walked out, she looked at Cui Hao and said, "Deliver supplies into the plateau." If you don't get in before November, all the money will be in the water, have you ever thought about it? ”

"Do it even if you smash it in the water." Cui Hao replied coldly, clenching his fists. "If it weren't for the fact that the secret agents directly under the military hall were too useless, how could time be so rushed?" He gritted his teeth and said, scolding the military agents in his heart.

"You're worried about him, aren't you?" Looking at Cui Hao's appearance, Miss Zhuge suddenly sighed, these days of getting along with each other, she has thoroughly understood this man she fancies, in his heart, Li Ang and the local people in this Zhuangzi are the most important existence in his heart, even now she is difficult to replace.

"No one can defeat the Lord on the battlefield." Cui Hao looked at Miss Zhuge . "It's just that I know that the old man hopes to take those soldiers to victory and return to Chang'an alive one by one. I don't want my lord to feel bad about fighting a terrible battle. ”

"You're really thinking about him!" Miss Zhuge snorted, but she couldn't get angry with the serious man in front of her, isn't his affection exactly what she likes! I was cocooning myself and thinking of this. Miss Zhuge looked at him, "Is there anything you want me to help with?" ”

"I don't want you to be difficult." Looking at the sincere expression on the face of Miss Zhuge who spoke, Cui Hao couldn't help but be moved, but he still declined her, "You just accompany the housewife and don't let them know about it." ”

"Then I'll go." Miss Zhuge nodded. walked out of Cui Hao's room. He was the only one left. "The old man's team is still not enough!" Think of the manpower in Zhuangzi. Cui Hao couldn't help sighing, those orphans still need a period of training

Useful. For now, the only way to deal with it is to deal with the past first.

In the pouring rain, Li Ang looked at the dark and dreary sky, his brows furrowed, he wanted to wait for the rain to stop before marching into the upper camp of Yelu, but he didn't expect that the rain would fall for four or five days without any stopping. "Order the whole army, set up camp and repair." In the rain curtain, Li Ang shouted at the soldiers of the Broken Army Guard beside him, and then jumped off his horse, marching at the current speed of forty miles a day, at least ten days.

Soon, the whole team stopped and began to look for high ground to camp, and Equida was brought to Leon, "I wonder how long this rainy day will last?" Looking at Equida, Leon asked in a deep voice.

"According to the practice of previous years, I'm afraid it will be about the same in three or four days!" Arquota replied, and as he answered, Leon frowned slightly, at least the most difficult part of the way had already gone through the mountain, although the heavy rain had slowed down his march, but in the same way, the Tibetans could not go out at will under such heavy rain, so that they could continue to keep their troops secret until the heavy rain stopped.

Walking into the tent that had been set up, Li Ang summoned the generals of the Black Cavalry, "We will camp here now and repair, and then set off when the rain stops." Speaking of this, Li Ang looked at the people present and said in a deep voice, "Let the soldiers pay attention to conditioning their bodies and keeping warm, if they get a cold here, it is a very dangerous thing." ”

"Whoa!" The officers present responded with a bang, and then withdrew from the tent, for them, any non-combat attrition is unacceptable, and the highland men and horses on this expedition are all elite and cannot afford to lose.

"Bring him in." After those generals retreated, Li Ang asked Li Cunzhi to put the surrendered Yelu lower head into the tent, since the capture of this head of the great nobles in Tubo, he has always let Li Cunzhi greet him, never seen again.

"It looks pretty good." Looking at the folded vector whose face was just a little pale, Li Ang smiled, and then said to Equida on the side, "Ask him, is he willing to serve Daqin?" ”

Listening to what Equida said, Oriya immediately knelt in front of Li Ang and agreed again and again, saying good things. Listening to Equida's words as a little disgusting, Li Ang couldn't help but sneer, "You ask him, I killed so many Tubo people, and I also killed his son, doesn't he hate me?" ”

"He said that it is a matter of course for the weak to die at the hands of the strong, just like a wolf eating a sheep, as a weak sheep can only be eaten by a wolf, as for his son, he can be reborn after death, and he has other sons, it is a great blessing that he did not kill them by the kindness of the lord, and he does not dare to resent the adult." Arquota told Leon what he had said in the same way.

"The wolf eats the sheep, but it is an apt metaphor." Li Ang smiled, and then looked at the folded vector who was lying on the ground, not daring to gasp. "Tell him for me, as long as he is loyal to Great Qin, I will ensure that he will be prosperous and rich in the future ten times stronger than when he was in Tibet."

Listening to what Equida conveyed, he was stunned. Then he said good things out loud with joy, he had seen the strength and ruthlessness of Li Ang and the Great Qin army, and since the moment he was captured, he had long lost any fighting spirit, in his opinion, the destruction of the Tibetan land was already a doomed thing, even with the help of the Guishan people, and now he had decided to stake everything he had on the Great Qin, who would never fail.

"Let him subdue his men, and I'll have them when I need them." When Leon ordered the massacre of the prisoners of war, he left Oriya and his three hundred cronies unkilled. It is for one's own use.

"The father-in-law is intending to take the banner of the Tibetan people's clothes and armor. Infiltrate the upper camp of Yelu. After Li Cunzhi left with the folded vector, Li Cunxiao asked Li Ang, he felt that he had not guessed wrong, when they left the camp of Ye Lu. In addition to taking away the horses, food and grass of the dead prisoners of war, Leon also ordered them to take away their lichen, which he thought was just for the soldiers to keep warm.

"Even without this rain, sooner or later our whereabouts will be exposed." Li Ang looked at Li Cunxiao and said lightly, "Since you can use these clothes." Why not take advantage of it. ”

"The lives of those people. It was also deliberately left by the father-in-law? Listen to Leon say this. Li Cunxiao fully understood.

"The head of the lower part of Yelu has lost his courage. I can use him with confidence. Thinking of folding vectors, Li Ang couldn't help but smile, since ancient times, it is still relatively rare to be unyielding barbarian nobles, and the creed of their childhood life is destined to make them easily succumb to the strong.

While the two were talking, Li Cunzhi entered the tent again, "Father-in-law, just now the scouts caught a few Tubo people, judging from their clothes, they should be sent by the upper battalion of Yelu." ”

"Did you ask anything?" Li Ang's brows tightened, in such a rainy day, Ye Lu's upper battalion actually sent people out, it seems that it should be a very important matter.

"They seem to have sent a message to Origa, saying that he should bring people to the city of Raksha by August." Li Cunzhi replied, "When I came, I had already asked the folding vector to ask carefully. ”

"If you ask for something, report it to me immediately." Li Ang raised his eyebrows and instructed Li Cunzhi, "By the way, increase the intensity of the scouts to patrol the ground, and don't let go of any of the Tubo people they see." ”

"Yes, father-in-law." Li Cunzhi came out of the handsome tent in response, his face was cold, he had a feeling, those few people who were caught in the Tubo did not confess thoroughly when they confessed before, and they had reservations about what they said, so it depends on how the arrow asked.

After instructing the scouts to send more people, Li Cunzhi entered the camp where Zhe Vector was located, and as soon as he entered, the few interpreters who were left behind had already replied to him, and when he was not there, the few captured Tubo people couldn't stand the torture and Zhi Vector whispered for a while, and they didn't know what the specific content was.

"Ask him, what is the matter?" Li Cunzhi frowned, and then spoke, but at this time, the folded vector had already said to the translators like an invitation, which made the translators sigh at the shamelessness of this Tubo head.

He said that those people had come to invite him to join the Tibetan king's bag

The big wedding. The interpreter told Li Cunzhi what he said to Li Cunzhi, and when he heard one of the paragraphs, his face changed, and this scene fell in Li Cunzhi's eyes.

"What's wrong?" Li Cunzhi looked at the interpreters and said in a low voice, "Say it quickly!" ”

"It's the princess of Guishan who is married." Hearing what the interpreter said, Li Cunzhi's eyes showed a cold light, the Guishan people actually married the Tubo people, and they seemed to be planning to use the Tubo people to clamp down on Daqin and regain the sphere of influence in the river.

"Ask him, the details of Princess Kushan's team?" Li Cunzhi thought about it and immediately asked, and soon he knew what he wanted to know. After listening to the interpreter's translation, he glanced at the few Tubo people who were tortured to the point of only half their lives, and "Dispose of a few of them." With that, he walked out of the tent and headed for Leon's tent.

"Got a result?" Seeing Li Cunzhi who was entering the tent, Li Ang raised his head and asked, but when he saw Li Cunzhi's calm face, he knew that things might be worse than he thought.

"Yes, father-in-law." Li Cunzhi nodded, and then walked in front of Li Ang, "Tubo's Nangri Praise will marry the princess of Guishan in Luoqi next month, and the Guishan people have sent nearly 50,000 people to send off their relatives. Among them, 30,000 were their elite troops, led by their second prince himself. ”

"The Tubo and Kushan people have married." Li Ang's face also became gloomy all of a sudden, although the military hall had thought that the Tubo people had the support of the Guishan people behind them, but he didn't expect the Guishan people to be so blatant. "Who is that second prince of Guishan, since he can lead elite troops, he shouldn't be a simple character, right?" Leon finally asked, his voice cold.

"I didn't ask for any useful information about that second prince of Guishan." Li Cunzhi shook his head and replied in a low voice.

"Father-in-law, maybe Arquoa will know?" At this time, Li Cunxiao, who was behind Li Ang, suddenly said that Alakoda was a rare outlier among the Tubo people and liked to read Han books. He once asked the Futu monk of Guishan for teaching, and he should know some things about Guishan.

"Get him." Leon didn't hesitate. Immediately someone went and brought Aquoa over.

"My lord, you're looking for me." After a while, Arquoa walked in with the soldiers of the Broken Army and Guard, and saluted Leon. opened his mouth, and after this period of time, his originally somewhat stiff Chinese accent has become much more fluent.

"Do you know the situation of the second prince of Guishan Land?" Leon looked at Equida, only to see that he was stunned when he heard the name. Obviously. This second prince of Kushan is a character.

"The second prince of the Kushan Dynasty is the most virtuous prince of the Kushan Dynasty in recent decades. He was a man of great knowledge and prowess at the same time. And he was very respectful to the Buddha, and was named the protector of the Dharma by the Futu Sect, so he was also named the Thunder Emperor Indra by the people of Kushan. Aquota said, seeing that Li Ang and the others did not know much about the name of Indra, he added, "The Thunder Emperor Indra, also known as the Emperor Shakti, is the king who once guarded the Lord of Buddha in the mythology of the Futu Sect, and is a very powerful god. ”

"Indra the Thunder, Shakti?" Leon listened to what Arquoa had to say, and muttered to himself, "Interesting, it looks like this expedition won't be too boring." As he spoke, he suddenly looked at Equida, "How much do you know about Kushan, such as how many troops they have, and what is their national strength?" ”

"Lord Hui, I don't dare to comment on the national strength of the Kushan land, but from what the Futu monk I studied in the past said, the army of the Kushan has been trained extremely strong by their second prince over the years, and I heard that since the second prince was named the protector of the Dharma by the Futu Sect, after the Thunder Emperor Indra, the 80,000 elite soldiers he trained in the capital of the Guishan King are called the Eight Tribes, named after the eight gods in the Fushan Sect, which are the One Day Sect, the Two Dragons, the Three Yakshas, the Four Gandava, the Five Asuras, the Six Garudas, the Seven Kinaras, and the Eight Makhura, It should be very powerful, right? ”

"The Eight Divisions are really getting more and more interesting." Li Ang laughed, but Li Cunzhi and Li Cunxiao beside him were quite disdainful of the Guishan people getting names for the army, and taking the name of the gods as the military name, and their tone was too big.

Aquota saw that Li Cunzhi and Li Cunxiao were cold, and knew that his demeanor when he spoke just now must have made the two of them unhappy, you must know that it was boring to say that the troops of other countries were strong in front of the Great Qin soldiers, and he didn't know what to say for a while, so he just stayed silent and didn't say a word.

"It's just the name of the god and Buddha, so why should you care." Li Ang suddenly stopped smiling, looked at Li Cunzhi and Li Cunxiao, and said in a cold voice, "Since the Guishan people want to go against us, then no matter what kind of troops they come, there is only the fate of destruction, God prevents and kills God, and Buddha blocks and destroys Buddha." ”

"God prevents and kills God, and Buddha blocks and destroys Buddha." Listening to Li Ang's last words, Li Cunzhi and Li Cunxiao both had a flash of determination in their eyes, that's right, just like the righteous father said, no matter what their names are, if they offend Daqin, there is only one way to die.

"Equida, go down!" Li Ang waved back Equida, then looked at Li Cunzhi and Li Cunxiao and said, "It seems that our original plan is going to change, immediately send scouts to contact Snow Tiger Murong Ke, I want to join forces and annihilate the upper camp of Ye Lu." ”

"The righteous father wants to destroy the foundation of the Tibetan people?" After Li Cunzhi withdrew from the tent, Li Cunxiao asked Li Ang.

"The marriage between Guishan and Tubo is just to use their army to threaten Wanzhou and Yizhou from the plateau, and now I will slaughter the strength of the Tubo people first, I want to see what the Guishan people do?" Li Ang sneered, the first thing he admired in his life was the killing god Bai Qi during the Warring States Period, he fought a war of annihilation all his life, never left a live mouth in his hands, and killed nearly a million prisoners, although he was called a butcher and a murderer, but he annihilated a large number of living forces in the six countries for the Qin State, and Qin Shi Huang's contribution to unifying China was at least half of him. He doesn't mind being the second white start, if someone wants to scold, then let them scold it, he just wants to be worthy of his heart.