The east dust has landed, and then the first emperor was buried, and the new emperor succeeded to the throne, all of which are the right phase, and at the end of the year, tax collection, land and population surveys in various places, cumbersome etiquette and a large number of administrative affairs will Cui Yuan almost breathless, but many years of long-cherished wish fulfilled, the eye thorn in the court was pulled out, which made him physically and mentally happy, although it was a day of great opportunity, but every day was also refreshed, not tired. zuilu

On this day, Cui Yuan returned home from the official office as usual, the sky was already dark, and hundreds of heavily armed Jin Wuwei elites guarded his carriage tightly, although Chang'an's two nails, a Longwu Army and a Tianqi Battalion, had been pulled out, and Chang'an was completely firmly controlled by Jin Wuwei and Qianniuwei, but Cui Yuan still did not dare to be careless, lest someone really follow the example of the last assassination.

The carriage entered Xuanyangfang, and the time was not far from the mansion gate, and at this moment, Cui Yuan felt that the speed of the car gradually slowed down, "What's the matter!" Cui Yuan's slightly closed eyes slowly opened a slit and asked unhappily.

"Back to Xiangguo, there are a few people at the gate of the mansion, and there are already brothers to identify them."

As soon as the words fell, several guards rushed to report, "Xiangguo, this is the other party's famous thorn, saying that there is something important to see." ”

They handed over a famous thorn, Cui Yuan took it, the name thorn is very simple, just a piece of white paper cut out, with a few big characters on it: 'Tianqi Camp Zhonglang General Zhang Huan,' there are four small characters at the bottom: Hengshan Li Yu.

Cui Yuan's eyelids jumped suddenly, sat up suddenly, and asked in a low voice, "Who is here?" ”

"Back to Xiangguo, it's an old Taoist who came."

"Li Mi!" Cui Yuan's eyes slowly narrowed into a slit, and he smiled faintly, of course he knew where Li Yu came from. He groaned slightly and said, "Please wait for him in my outer study first." ”

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Cui Yuan changed into a wide-body Zen robe, slowly approached the door, and at a glance, he saw Li Mi sitting cross-legged, holding a whisk in his hand, and his eyes were closed. Cui Yuan walked in the door and smiled slightly: "Daoist Li, don't come to be harmed?" ”

Li Mi hurriedly got up and bowed to him, "The wild man Li Mi of the world sees Cui Xiangguo." ”

"Out-of-this-world savages?" Cui Yuan shook his head lightly, and said with a hint of mockery: "Savages from outside the world shouldn't come to my Prime Minister's Mansion. Zuilu, could it be that Daochang Li is here to make a fate? ”

"Definitely!" Li Mi also smiled slightly, "The poor road does not ask for charity, it is for the benefit of both parties." ”

Cui Yuan looked at him for a long time, and suddenly waved his hand and said: "Mr. used to be the emperor's teacher, and he was also known as the cloth cloth Xiangguo, but he was actually Cui's predecessor." Please sir, take a seat. ”

After the maid who offered the tea retreated, Cui Yuan picked up the teacup and sucked it gently. Suddenly asked, "Where is Zhang Huan now?" ”

Negotiation is a very skillful thing, some things must be explained clearly, and some things must be detoured a few times, and they cannot be said clearly, just like the game of chess in which Cui Yuan and Pei Jun divided Hedong. The difference lies in the identity of the interlocutor, and if there is a balance of power, the dialogue between the two powers should not be too clear.

You must be subtle and subtle, or ambiguous, and leave some room for yourself between words, and it depends on the understanding of both parties.

However, if there is a dialogue between the strong and the weak, then there is no fear of talking too much, and there is no room for maneuver, and it is necessary to speak clearly, which is not only the psychological advantage of the strong over the weak, but also the sincerity that the weak must show in order to maximize their interests.

This point, Li Mi knows it in his heart, Cui Yuan has already said it very clearly, please take a seat, I respect the emperor's teacher, I respect the cloth cloth Xiangguo, and it is definitely not the general of the Tianqi camp, since Cui Yuan is not pretending to be confused, and directly asked Zhang Huan, it means that he knows his intentions, and he is very interested, so there is no need for him Li Mi to detour.

"General Zhang should have crossed the Yellow River, and now he is still in Longyou, Wei Shangshu obviously does not welcome his arrival, General Zhang asked Xiangguo to appoint him to the military post in Hexi, and to fight in Hexi for the imperial court."

"Serving the Imperial Court?" Cui Yuan smiled, he suddenly changed the topic, and asked frankly: "Mr. is the teacher of the emperor, the country of cloth and clothes, and a man of great material, but why didn't he come to serve the imperial court, but instead went to assist a small Zhonglang general, this old man is really puzzled, does Mr. think that my Tang Dynasty can change the sky again?" ”

Li Mi shook his head, he let out a long sigh and said: "I don't need to hide it in front of Cui Xiang, Poor Dao is a person who is a Daoist, and Poor Dao has no interest in worldly things, the reason why I went out of the mountain to help Zhang Huan is really that I promised Prince Yu to take care of his son, if I don't solve this knot, it will be difficult to practice in the poor Dao, as for how far Zhang Huan can go, it depends on his own creation." zuilu”

Cui Yuan didn't speak, he pondered for a long time, he knew very well that Zhang Huan's idea was to take Hexi as the foundation, and take advantage of the decline of Tubo to gradually expand his power to the west, he didn't understand others, but Zhang Huan knew very well that he had this ability, and in the end Zhang Huan would inevitably fight with Wei Ge, so once he agreed, the consequence was very likely to replace the third family of the Tang Dynasty with a hero, thereby disrupting the balance of power in the Tang Dynasty.

But he Cui Yuan is not only the head of the Cui family, on the other hand, he is also the Tang Dynasty Xiangguo, is the actual controller of the highest power of the Tang Dynasty, so he not only has to consider the interests of the family, but also to consider the name behind him, the Anshi Rebellion has been over for 16 years, and the country is gradually recovering, but Hexi, Anxi, Beiting, these Tang hometowns have not been recovered, and millions of people of the Tang Dynasty have been reduced to slaves of the Tubo people, and the people have long been dissatisfied

Cui Yuan also knew that this was a strategic event related to the Tang Dynasty's national lineage, and if he could not recover Hexi in his own office, it would greatly affect his historical status.

Since Zhang Huan now took the initiative to ask for help, once he succeeded, the reputation he gained would be extraordinary, rather than cheapening him, it was better to receive this reputation into his own pocket first, and at the same time, he could also use him to weaken the Wei family, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone, thinking of this, he smiled slightly and said: "Since General Zhang Huan wants to take back Hexi for my Tang Dynasty, of course he should be strongly supported, I don't know what kind of military position General Zhang wants?" ”

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Exiting from Cui Yuan's mansion, the night was already deep, and the sky was filled with fine snowflakes. Li Yu exhaled a long breath of white air, the most difficult level has passed, and he has to find Pei Jun next, but with Chu Xingshui helping in the back, and Pei Ying holding Pei Ying hostage in Zhang Huan's hands, Pei Jun's level will be relatively easy. Then Han and Meng went to Guozijian to encourage the Tai students to march, asking the imperial court to support Zhang Huan to send troops to Hexi and recover the Tang Dynasty's hometown.

After these three things are accomplished, Zhang Huan will gain a political advantage. The rest of the way depends on how he goes, but Li Mi's brows are still unfolding, and there is even a trace of worry, after all, Zhang Huan only has 5,000 cavalry, how far can he go in the hinterland of Longyou and Shuofang, which has an army of 130,000?

Li Mi couldn't help but murmur. "Zhang Huan, I hope you don't let me down."

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Yin Mountain. Fifty miles south of the city of Xishou, ten cavalry of the Tiancai Battalion were leading their horses to walk on the ice of the Yellow River, led by Chen Ping, the scout captain of the Tiancai Battalion, who was entrusted by Zhang Huan to do a major event.

By this time it was the middle of November. On the winter solstice, the Yellow River freezes overnight, and the thick ice surface layer is three feet. But there may be ice in some places, and ten soldiers each hold a long bamboo pole, cautiously testing every step.

After walking for about half an hour, ten cavalry finally crossed the Yellow River, they turned over their horses, accelerated and galloped in the direction of the surrendered city to the west, and carried a handwritten letter from Zhang Huan to Duan Xiushi on Chen Ping's body, which read: Your Majesty is unfortunate, the Anbei army has nothing to rely on, and now the land east of the river has been eaten by Cui Wolf Pei Hu, the grain and grass are cut off, and the harsh winter is coming, so that Jun'an has surplus grain to spend the winter? The younger generation is not talented, and he has to make Jun teach, and he is willing to follow the hussars of the Han Dynasty to recover his hometown in Hexi for the Tang Dynasty, but Longyou Wei's ignorance of the overall situation of the country, for his own selfishness, brazenly dispatched Shuo Fang's elite to encircle and suppress the division of righteousness, and people of insight in the world all hate it, so that Jun Gaoyi, how can he stand by and watch? Now that the 30,000 elites of Shuofang are exhausted, the spirit is empty, so that you can intend to go south for the winter? ”

The three cavalrymen accelerated their march and arrived at the city of Xishou in the midst of a vast snowfall, where they made their intentions clear to the defenders, and soon the gates of the city were wide open, and Xiushi, who was in trouble at home and abroad, went out of the city to meet them in person.

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Zhang Huan had left Yanxi County for ten days, and according to the plan of the prior deployment, Li Hengqiu led a thousand people to pretend to be a brigade and continued to advance due west, attracting the Shuofang Army and the Longyou Army to come and encircle, while Zhang Huan led the main force, day and night, and broke through in the direction of Lingwu County in the northwest.

On this day, less than two hundred miles away from Lingwu County, the sky finally fell the first heavy snow since the beginning of winter, the sky and the earth were covered with wind and snow, and the figure could not be seen clearly thirty steps away, it was a godsend, the soldiers of the Tianqi Battalion began to march during the day, trying to rush to the Yellow River before the snow stopped.

"General! A cavalry corps came from the north. A scout rushed to report, "About five hundred people, less than three miles from us.

”

This is very likely to be the sentry of the Shuo Fang army, and Zhang Huan immediately ordered He Lou Wuji: "You lead a thousand brothers to go around their backs, and follow my orders to attack, and not one of them is allowed to escape." ”

"Yes!" He Lou Wuji agreed loudly and led the army to leave, and at this moment, several horsemen galloped from the north, and shouted from afar, "General! It's your own people. ”

It turned out that after he led 500 people to cross the river from the Qinjin Gorge, he continued to gallop north, and made a big circle to cross the river to the west of the river, but he didn't expect to meet Zhang Huan.

"My subordinates are fortunate not to be dishonored!" Li Shuangyu turned over and dismounted, knelt down and bowed to Zhang Huan.

Zhang Huan hurriedly dismounted and helped him up, looked at his haggard face, and patted him on the shoulder with great emotion, "Thank you for your hard work." ”

Li Shuangyu scratched the back of his head and laughed twice, he suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly said, "The general doesn't know yet!" Last night the Yellow River was frozen and very thick, and I took my brothers to try it in the morning, and it was completely possible to walk on the ice. ”

Zhang Huan was overjoyed, the Yellow River had frozen, this was definitely an extremely important piece of information, it was very beneficial to his plan, and it would even change the entire battle situation, so that his original fifty percent certainty had now reached seventy percent.

Zhang Huan lowered his head and pondered for a while, and resolutely said to Li Shuangyu: "I now appoint you as the general of the Tianqi battalion, you still take five hundred brothers to continue westward to Wuwei County, if the Hexi army crosses the Yellow River to intercept me, you must find a way to occupy Tianbao County for me first, and cut off the return route of the Hexi army." ”