In November of the first year of Yong'an, a snowstorm struck Hexi, the snowstorm fell for nearly half a month, the wind and snow ravaged and destroyed everything on the ground, when the wind and snow paused, the land of Hexi was already a world of snow, the thick snow was several feet, the thickest place was as deep as a zhang, the herdsmen's tents were crushed, the survival was threatened, many herdsmen drove cattle and sheep, and took refuge in the nearby city from all directions.

Zhangye City, like other cities in the Hexi Corridor, has been overcrowded these days, the small city has poured into more than 100,000 people, as well as a large number of cattle, sheep and horses, the personnel are full, the smell is stinking, Zhangye assassin Shi Mengjiao is even more tireless to resettle the victims, solve the problem, he has not closed his eyes for three days and three nights.

In the afternoon of this day, he had just settled a group of Qiang people and was dragging his tired body back to the state office, when a government official ran to report in a panic, "Envoy, the governor has returned, and he has just sent someone to report that he has arrived thirty miles away." ”

Meng Jiao was taken aback, and the exhaustion all over his body was swept away, he jumped up and shouted: "You quickly go and tell Yan Sima and let him clean up the official residence." ”

Meng Jiao didn't have time to go to the yamen, so he took a dozen servants and went out of the city gate in a panic to greet Zhang Huan.

After more than 20 days of arduous trekking, Zhang Huan led an army of 30,000 to finally arrive in Zhangye, and it snowed heavily in Hexi, and he could not continue to travel east, so he decided to temporarily stay in Zhangye.

Zhang Huan stopped his war horse, and looked into the distance, under the dark clouds and low sky, in the distance was the boundless snowfield, and Zhangye City was faintly visible.

"Governor. It looks like this blizzard will continue for some time. The tooth general Li Dingfang immediately stepped forward and smiled.

Zhang Huan glanced up at the sky, then looked back at the thousands of Arab stallions in the team, and said to Li Dingfang: "Come all the way." The brothers were very tired, so we rested in Zhangye for a few days to see the weather before leaving. ”

At this moment, dozens of small black dots faintly appeared in the distance, and Zhang Huan pointed with a horsewhip and smiled: "Our imperial horse supervisor Meng Thorn Shi is here." ”

The black dot ran closer, it was Meng Jiao and a dozen of his subordinates, he ran in front of Zhang Huan, turned over and dismounted. stepped forward and gave a deep salute: "Subordinates see the governor!" “

Zhang Huan also got off the horse, looked his former clerk up and down, and saw that although he was much darker and thinner than before, his eyes revealed a kind of heartfelt joy, and he couldn't help laughing: "It seems that you are doing very comfortably."

Meng Jiao smiled embarrassedly and said: "Although I am very tired and things are very trivial, I feel a sense of accomplishment when I see the people living and working in peace and contentment, and watching the number of horses I raise increasing day by day!" ”

Zhang Huan smiled and nodded, "You're right. Although people are a little tired when they are busy, their hearts will be very comfortable. ”

He then said to Meng Jiao: "Come!" Take a look at the big eating horse I brought. ”

Due to the particularity of the Longyou region, the Xiliang army has always attached great importance to the cavalry, after taking Hehuang, the Xiliang army will use Hehuang as a horse breeding base, but the Hehuang area is at a higher altitude, not suitable for large-scale breeding of military horses, so the Xiliang army in the recapture of Hexi, only officially the vast grassland of Hexi as a breeding base for war horses.

Hexi has always been the horse breeding base of the Tang Dynasty, and there were 700,000 horses at its peak. However, the problem of low quality horses has always plagued Datang, and the Hexi horse breed is mainly composed of Hequ horse, which has a thick body and a straight torso. It has the absolute advantage of pulling horses, consignment of three or four hundred catties, can travel hundreds of miles a day, so it is generally used as a carriage and agricultural horses in Datang, and the current Hequ horses are mainly raised in the Hehuang area.

The Hexi region was mainly used to breed war horses, and for a long time, the cavalry war horses of the Tang Dynasty mainly came from the Hui, that is, the Mongolian horses of later generations. This type of horse is not very large. The legs are short, and the joints and tendons are well developed. Hard-working and not afraid of the cold, extremely strong vitality, it can travel one hundred and twenty miles a day, the tamed Turkic horse, on the battlefield is not frightened, brave and fierce, but the weakness of this horse is also obvious, it is small, not fast, and the Western Regions cavalry is easy to be at a disadvantage in the fight between the cavalry.

Zhang Huan was also very clear about this, so at the beginning of the capture of Hehuang, he sent the Qiang people to try their best to get a lot of Yanqi stallions from Anxi, and stocked them in Hehuang to improve Turkic horses, and finally raised nearly 40,000 war horses.

In the Battle of Shule this time, the Tang army captured nearly 100,000 high-quality horses from the Western Regions, including 20,000 Arab war horses, and found nearly 1,000 ungelding Arab stallions from them, which made Zhang Huanru a treasure and brought them to Hexi.

Zhang Huan is also a great lover of horses, although the treasure of Agush's horse was given to Wang Siyu, he himself also selected eighteen horses from the various war horses captured and owned them for himself.

Zhang Huan ordered someone to pull over a war horse of his own, which was an extremely majestic white war horse, and smiled at Meng Jiao: "How, this kind of horse can get into your eyes?" ”

Although Meng Jiao is a literati, he was born poor, can bear hardships and stand hard work, and is also very down-to-earth, in the years when he was a clerk for Zhang Huan, he did not talk much, and he was not good at communicating, but he was diligent and never made any mistakes, Zhang Huan was interested in pragmatism, so he asked him to come to Zhangye as a thorn and a pastoral supervisor in Hexi, Zhangye did not have much government affairs, and more importantly, the latter, which was the main source of war horses for the Xiliang army.

During his tenure as the pastoral supervisor of Hexi for nearly a year, Meng Jiao worked tirelessly to run around, not only became familiar with every grass and tree in Hexi, established a perfect war horse management system, and he himself accumulated a lot of experience in raising horses.

When he came to see Zhang Huan just now, he found that Zhang Huan and the other soldiers' war horses were a little different, even better than the best quality Yanqi horses in Hexi, but he wanted to give a salute to the governor, so he didn't have time to take a closer look.

Meng Jiao looked at this majestic war horse, and then looked at the thousand Arab horses, his eyes flashed with strange looks, surprises, he had never seen such elegant and elegant war horses, they were tall and burly, the limbs were long and even, the fur was shiny and not messy, the long tail flew in the wind, Meng Jiao stood for a long time. I couldn't say a word.

Li Dingfang saw that he was extremely obsessed, so he introduced with a smile on the side: "This kind of big eating horse has great stamina, and the horse speed is extremely fast. As if suspended in the air during running, it can run long distances without eating or drinking, wounds heal quickly when injured, and when it is excited and courageous, it naturally displays extremely refined qualities. ”

Meng Jiao finally couldn't help but step forward and stroke these war horses one by one, just like his father who had been away from home for many years returned to his hometown to touch his sons one by one, and finally his eyes were a little moist, and he turned his head sharply to Zhang Huan and said, "Dudu." Give me all these horses, and I will raise hundreds of thousands of horses as majestic as them. ”

Zhang Huan nodded slightly, he turned over on his horse, and pointed with a horsewhip in high spirits: "Let's go!" Let them see their new home. ”

However, Zhang Huan and the horses did not know that their new home was not very good now.

The army did not enter the city, and was directly stationed in an open field outside Zhangye City, Meng Jiao was busy with official business, and he had to settle these horses from afar, so Zhang Huan did not bother him. He was sent back to the city directly, and at night, the blizzard struck again, and the strong north wind was wrapped in snow flakes, rolling, whistling and rushing to the earth, the fence around the Tang army camp was blown and squeaked and shaken, and a sentry tower was overturned, injuring several sentries, in this dark night full of wind and snow. On the official road a few miles away from the Tang Army camp, a few travelers leading horses walked with difficulty

Zhang Huan's big tent was particularly strong, and there were two tents in total, large and small, although the blizzard outside was whistling sharply. But the tent was very quiet, the light was soft, a brazier was burning dry cow dung, and a few fine snowflakes occasionally drifted in through the cracks in the tent curtain, and Zhang Huan was half-leaning on the small table and reading intently.

"Report to the governor, a messenger is coming from Chang'an." A pro-soldier report rang out at the door.

"Chang'an messenger?" Zhang Huan was a little surprised, there was still a messenger from Chang'an on this bad snowstorm day, what happened to Chang'an? He put down the book. Immediately ordered: "Bring him in!" ”

Soon the soldiers brought in two messengers. These two people were Li Chuanyun's subordinates, and they rushed to Longyou with urgent information. But the stakes were very high, and Hu Yong and He Lou Wuji and others in Longyou did not dare to call the shots, and told them that the governor was on the way back, so the two decided to rush to the Western Regions to report the news, but the road encountered a snowstorm, and they were lucky to meet the governor's army in Zhangye.

The two of them stepped forward and knelt down to salute, and reported that "Yang Luo and Li Xiaoren, both of whom are lieutenants of the Department of Internal Affairs, see Governor." ”

Zhang Huan waved his hand and said, "You have worked hard all the way, stand up and speak!" ”

"Xie Dudu!"

The two stood up, and one of them took out a thick letter and handed it to Zhang Huan and said, "This is Li Sizheng's urgent matter, and his subordinates dare not delay." ”

A personal soldier took the letter and handed it to Zhang Huan, he shook the letter open, and quickly read it, the letter was written by Li Chuanyun himself, mainly to say three things, one is that Li Li, the secretary of Zongzheng Temple, ignored Cui Xiaofu's opposition, and built a side hall of Prince Yu in the temple, which aroused great repercussions in Chang'an; Another incident is that Wei Deqing, who stayed behind, robbed Cui Qinggong's concubine, which once again triggered a conflict between the two, and the war was about to break out; And the third thing is that the Hui Loyal Khan was successfully restored, killed the Great Khan established by Tuoba Qianli, and defeated Tuoba Qianli, Tuoba Qianli led the rest of the army to flee eastward, and the Loyal Khan's envoy thanked the Tang court, and officially recognized Anxi and Beiting as owned by the Tang Dynasty in the form of a national letter, and at the same time asked to marry the Tang princess as his wife.

Although it was only urgent, Li Chuanyun still wrote down all the details she knew very clearly, writing six or seven pages, Zhang Huan slowly put down the letter, and asked them again: "Can you read this letter Hu Yong and He Lou Wuji?" ”

"Back to the governor, the subordinates sent the letter to the lady, and the lady immediately summoned the two to discuss countermeasures, and they both said that the matter was very important and they had to wait for the governor to come back to make a decision, so the subordinates decided to come west to report to the governor."

Zhang Huan nodded, and then ordered his own soldiers: "Take the two of them down and have a good rest!" ”

The soldiers took the two messengers down, Zhang Huan picked up the letter and read it carefully, and couldn't help but fall into deep thought, three things, the palace of Prince Yu, he had already known it in advance from Pei Mingyuan, he was not surprised; He even sent a special service battalion of 500 people to help the loyal khan seize the throne. In this regard, it was also expected by him, but the battle between Cui and Wei was the only one. He was very interested.

Li Chuanyun said very clearly in the letter that Wei Deqing shared the joys and hardships with the soldiers, ate coarse grains, slept on straw mats, and never approached women, while Cui Qinggong's concubine was born in Chang'an, and went south to Xingyang, but did not go to Wei Deqing's territory, but Wei Deqing specially sent someone to Xingyang to rob her. and publicly announced that he took possession of it, which was obviously intended to provoke Cui Qinggong, and he wanted Cui Qinggong to provoke the war first.

Zhang Huan slowly paced in the room with his hands behind his back, Wei Deqing's political methods were obviously better than Cui Qinggong's, he asked Cui Qinggong to provoke the battle, so as to bear the infamy of civil strife, but Zhang Huan thought that things might not be so simple, he won in Anxi, and his strength and fame reached new heights. At this time, Li Li made another Zongmiao incident, how could this not make Cui Xiaofu sensitive, as the weakest party, if he wants to compete with himself, he can only establish a strong strength as soon as possible.

So in the incident of Wei Deqing robbing Cui Qinggong's woman, if Cui Xiaofu's shadow was not said, if there was no Wei family's decision-making, it would be absolutely impossible.

Pity Cui Qinggong's idiot, and once again become a victim of Cui Xiaofu and Wei Ge teaming up to deal with him. Thinking of this, Zhang Huan immediately wrote two orders and instructed his soldiers: "Let Li Dingfang come to see me." ”

In a moment, Li Dingfang strode into the tent. He bowed down and knelt down and said, "See the Governor!" ”

"I have a few things I want you to send someone to do quickly!"

Zhang Huan handed him the first order: "Ordered Shu Zhong to send 50,000 troops immediately to support Xiangyang along the Yangtze River, and at the same time ordered Xiangyang Li Shuangyu not to act without my order." ”

"Obey!"

Zhang Huan handed him a second order: "Order Changsha Lin Jiuhan to lead his headquarters to rush to Guangling to assist Chu Xingshui in guarding Huainan." ”

Li Dingfang took two orders, and he was about to leave, when Zhang Huan suddenly stopped him again, "You wait a minute." ”

At this time, Zhang Huan suddenly remembered something. He took out Li Chuanyun's letter again. Looking for a sentence he had just seen, he found it. There are only a dozen words: Tuoba Qianli led the rest to flee eastward.

Since he escaped from his own hands, whether he assisted Li Zheng's rebellion or tried to seize back power, his ultimate goal was to drink the horse to go south, take the head of his neck, and seize the splendid country of the Tang Dynasty, and now he fled eastward, with his nature of not daring to be lonely, what kind of storm will he set off? Will it invade Shuofang again?

"There's one more thing that's a little harder." Zhang Huan pondered for a while and said: "You send a team of scouts who understand Turkic to Mobei, find the whereabouts of Tuoba Qianli, and monitor his whereabouts, after the matter is completed, I will have a heavy reward!" ”

"Subordinates obey!" Li Dingfang went down to make arrangements.

Zhang Huan's mood fluctuated slightly, he came to the tent with his hands behind his back, staring at the wind and snow outside from the gap, most of the year's Anxi journey is over, and he is about to return to Datang, so where should he start with his chess game?

Three days later, the blizzard stopped again, the sky began to show the long-lost blue blue, the Hexi Corridor has completely become a world of ice and snow, Yushu Qiongzhi, snow-capped, although the heavy snow closed the road, double the road, Zhang Huan still decided to continue to march east.

Half a month later, Zhang Huan's Western Expeditionary Army finally returned to its long-lost lair, Longyou Jincheng County.

"The lord is back! The lord is back! The big housekeeper rushed into the door of the house, his voice became sharp with excitement, Zhang Huan's house was boiling, Pei Ying was surprised, and ordered the family to put up the lanterns, and she personally took her children, as well as Cui Ning with her son, and Zhang Huan's mother, and nearly 100 people from the family rushed to the street to greet them.

Not only Zhang Huandi's family, the entire Jincheng County is boiling, tens of thousands of people help the old and the young to rush to the street to welcome the return of their children, the whole Wuquan Street is boiling, the crowd is surging, at noon, 30,000 Western Army marched into the city, the people's excitement reached the peak, countless ribbons were thrown to the heroes of the Western Expedition, Zhang Huan rode on a horse, more than a month ago was still in the war in Shule, but now he has returned to his hometown thousands of miles away, everything has become unreal, as if in a dream.

He looked at these people who were boiling with emotions, looked at their sincere smiling faces and joy from the bottom of his heart, and suddenly thought of the tens of thousands of soldiers in Qiuzi, Shule and even Broken Leaves, who were still thousands of miles away, and thought of those heroes who died in battle, when will they be able to return to their hometowns?

He couldn't help but sigh with emotion, recovering Anxi, Beiting, and recovering the lost homeland, this is not only the glory of the soldiers, but also the waist of a nation can be straightened from now on, so that the spirit of the Han nation can be rejuvenated, for this reason, the blood of the soldiers has not been shed in vain.

In front of the state government, Hu Yong, He Lou Wuji, Du Mei, Xin Yunjing, Li Qiao, Li Fei Yuanli and other hundreds of civil and military officials and Longyou clans came to welcome Zhang Huan's return, Zhang Huan turned over and dismounted, bowed to everyone, Hu Yong stepped forward and said with a smile: "We don't dare to stay in the capital for a long time, Mrs. and Gongzi are waiting in front." ”

"Okay, I'll be private and then public today, reunite with my family first, and get together with everyone tomorrow!" Zhang Huan smiled and said to He Lou Wuji: "These 30,000 troops give them a three-day holiday, and there are also soldiers who stay in Anxi, and their letters must be sent home to me one by one." ”

He Lou Wuji gave a deep salute and replied solemnly: "Please rest assured that the governor will definitely do it." ”

The 30,000-strong army began to turn around and march into the large military camp behind the state government, and they returned to the barracks, packed up and washed, and prepared to enjoy the delicious meal that had been prepared for them, while Zhang Huan, escorted by a hundred personal soldiers, galloped towards his home.

At the intersection, he saw his beautiful wives, his kind mother, his eldest son and his daughter who could just run rushing towards him, and he also saw a tiger-headed child in Cui Ning's arms looking at him timidly.

Zhang Huan couldn't help laughing, in the laughter, the fatigue and toil of his journey of thousands of miles disappeared at this moment, he squatted down and opened his arms to the children who were running towards him, he finally went home.