There is a small town thirty miles away from the east of Wuwei County, called Wild Boar Town, one hundred and ten households, there is a small tea shop next to the official road at the west entrance of the town, it is opened by a pair of military households who moved from the west of Longyou, the shopkeeper is surnamed Hu, about forty years old, he is silent, and he does not care about the business of the tea shop, he only makes a pot of tea every day, and sits in the corner of the tea shop to listen to the chats of the guests who eat and drink tea.

The tea shop is managed by his wife, Mrs. Hu is warm and generous, thoughtful service, and hired a chef and two men, plus this official road is the only road to the east of Wuwei County, the small tea shop is also operating well, and the business is very prosperous.

This afternoon, the shopkeeper Hu in the corner of the tea shop was a little restless, he kept looking at the west of the official road, as if waiting for someone, suddenly, he saw a few knights from afar in the city of Wuwei County, the shopkeeper Hu immediately stood up and walked out of the tea shop, which frightened Mrs. Hu who was greeting guests, when did the shopkeeper become so enthusiastic?

The person who came was Wei Deqing and his entourage who came to Wuwei to send a letter to Zhang Huan, and as soon as they came to the tea shop, they saw a kind-looking man bowing to them, "This military master is Wei Bingcao of Kaiyang County." ”

Wei Deqing was stunned, he reined in his horse and asked, "Do you know me?" ”

"I am Hu Sanlang, the shopkeeper of Hu Ji Teahouse in Kaiyang County, Wei Bing Cao came to drink tea, why did you forget me?"

Wei Deqing thought about it, Hu Ji Teahouse himself often goes, but he doesn't remember what the shopkeeper is, he only remembers that there is a hospitable Mrs. Hu, at a glance, but just saw Mrs. Hu coming out of the tea shop, Wei Deqing immediately laughed, he turned over and dismounted, and laughed: "I didn't expect to meet the old people in other places, we just didn't catch up for lunch, what is there to eat in the shop?" ”

"Yes! Yes! Aunt Hu greeted her warmly and said with a smile: "There are all kinds of wine and food, Wei Bing Cao Ruo is in a hurry." We also have hot buns and dough stuffed meat here that you can take with you on the road. ”

"Two jugs of wine. Five or six more hot dishes. Wei Deqing ordered his subordinates to take out a few large wine gourds and hand them to Aunt Hu, "Fill these wine jugs with wine." ”

"Guest, please wait." Aunt Hu quickly turned around and went into the back room, and then the shopkeeper Hu walked over slowly, arched his hand and smiled: "I saw Wei Bingcao galloping over in the morning, and I couldn't call it, so I thought that Wei Bingcao might come back, but I didn't expect to come back in the afternoon." ”

Wei Deqing has now joined the army and has been promoted to Wei Ge's brave lieutenant, and he still listens to him, Wei Bing, Cao Chang, Wei Bing, Cao Short, and he doesn't say anything. With a slight smile, he asked: "How could Shopkeeper Hu come to Wuwei, I remember that the marshal ordered that some industrialists are not allowed to move west?" ”

Seeing that there was no one left and right, Shopkeeper Hu quickly took out a small bronze medal from his arms, shook it in front of Wei Deqing, squinted his eyes and smiled meaningfully. s

The bronze medal is engraved with a plum blossom pine crane picture, and a number is engraved in the middle. June Fourth, Wei Deqing was taken aback, he couldn't be more familiar with this bronze medal, with this bronze medal he could directly meet the handsome, it is said that there are more than 100 in total, he himself has one, but the number is ninety-seven.

"Who the hell are you?" Wei Deqing suddenly realized that the chubby shopkeeper in front of him was probably not an ordinary person.

"Wei Bingcao, please come with me." Shopkeeper Hu pointed to the back room and took a step first.

"You eat first, and I'll come right away." Wei Deqing ordered a few of his subordinates, then got up and walked quickly into the back room.

Shopkeeper Hu took him to the backyard. The yard is full of all kinds of sundries, but in one corner there is a cage of pigeons, cooing in the cage! Mutter! screamed, Wei Deqing saw this cage of pigeons, and immediately realized, "Are you the Hexi Feinuke that the handsome often mention?" ”

Shopkeeper Hu smiled and nodded slowly.

Fei Nu is a pigeon, and Fei Nuke refers to a person who uses a pigeon to transmit news, after the Tang Dynasty, the use of pigeons to transmit news has been widely used, especially used in military espionage. Therefore, the flying slaves have gradually become the name of the spies, and Wei Ge also has such a group of flying slaves, distributed in Chang'an, Taiyuan and other places, controlled by himself personally, because Wuwei County and Lingwu County are extremely important. He also has a manpower here.

Shopkeeper Hu came to Wuwei through the westward migration of military households. He opened a tea shop and passed on all kinds of information to Wee in pigeons. For example, Zhang Huan's construction of Huixi Fort, mining the gold mine of Liushahe, rectifying the officialdom, establishing the military household land acre system, recruiting Anxi party items, etc., these major things were sent to Wei Ge at the first time. The shopkeeper took two stools for Wei Deqing to sit down, he took out a pigeon from the pigeon cage, touched their heads caress and said: "My flying slaves have not been in good condition recently, and they have not come back after flying out. ”

He raised his head and looked at Wei Deqing, and said with a smile: "I'm worried about how to get to Kaiyang County, and it just so happens that Wei Bingcao is here, and I am in urgent need." ”

Wei Deqing was silent, he knew that Wei Ge controlled the spy very strictly, and never let outsiders know, even he, the brave captain in front of the tent, was already regarded as Wei Ge's personal guard, and he couldn't know it, and this spy seemed to be a little too careless.

Shopkeeper Hu understood his thoughts, so he smiled slightly and said: "If I change someone else, I won't come forward, Wei Bingcao is a disciple of the Wei family, and he came to send eight hundred miles to expedite, which shows the trust of the marshal, and the stakes are very high, and the marshal must be let know as soon as possible." ”

Wei Deqing nodded, "I am now the brave captain in front of the big marshal's tent, do you have any important news for me to pass on?" ”

Shopkeeper Hu went back to the room and took out a wax pill, handed it to Wei Deqing, and said in a low voice: "Please tell Wei Dashuai that the Tubo people may be secretly courting the party members of Wuwei County, and now the contradictions between the party and the Han people are acute, and there are probably signs of rebellion, Zhang Huan has stepped up his vigilance, and anyone who crosses the border must be strictly interrogated, especially the exchanges with Zhangye have stopped." ”

Wei Deqing suddenly realized, no wonder the Xibao dock was heavily guarded, it turned out that this was the case, he carefully put away the wax pills, stood up and arched his hand and said: "Thank you for the news of Shopkeeper Hu, I will go to Kaiyang County." ”

He went back to the tea shed and ate a little indiscriminately, flew on his horse, and led the people to the east, and the shopkeeper walked to the official road, and watched his back disappear, and only then did there show an imperceptible sneer in his eyes.

In the early morning of the next day, a team of personal soldiers escorted Zhang Huanchi out of Wuwei County, and at this time, on the eastern horizon, a round of red sun was spraying out from the dense fog that filled the land. Ten thousand golden lights reflected the red sky, on a low hill. A cavalry of 3,000 men was ready to go.

Zhang Huan rode a horse, and the pro-army team merged into the cavalry of the brigade, like a rolling torrent, galloping towards the east.

In Kaiyang County, Wei Ge, the secretary of the Ministry of War, was receiving Wei Deqing's report, Wei Deqing not only brought Zhang Huan's reply, but also brought him back Hu Sanlang's secret letter, Hu Sanlang was a spy he planted in Wuwei County by taking advantage of the opportunity of the military household's westward migration, and brought him a lot of news about Wuwei Land for more than half a year. Although it is not confidential, it also enables him to know very well what Zhang Huan has done.

According to the agreement, Hu Sanlang should send a pigeon letter every two days, but it has not been delivered for five days, just when he was worried that something would happen to Hu Sanlang, Wei Deqing brought back Hu Sanlang's secret letter.

Wei Ge was not worried that Zhang Huan would come to Kaiyang County, and Pei Jun was summoned. He will definitely come, but he is very interested in the news sent by Hu Sanlang, and Zhang Huan has encountered trouble with the party members.

Wei Ge put Hu Sanlang's secret letter on the desk, and came to the window with his hand, the corners of his mouth couldn't help showing a mocking smile, this result should be said to be what he had expected a long time ago, when Hu Sanlang wrote to tell him that Zhang Huan recruited tens of thousands of Western party members who fled to Hexi, he knew that Zhang Huan had made a big mistake.

Not bad! Hexi is sparsely populated, but it is not a big problem to recruit Qiang, Turkic or even Uighur. Only these party members are notoriously treacherous, they were oppressed by the Tubo people, asked the imperial court for help, and the imperial court specially placed them near Shuofang, but these people were not only grateful, but took advantage of the weakness of the Tang Dynasty to loot the city, plunder the population, and do evil in the Longyou region, and they have dealt with the Tuoba family for more than ten years, don't you know them?

It would be better if they were to be placed in the interior. However, in Hexi, a sparsely populated area, tens of thousands of party members are already similar to the population of Hexi, so how can they not disagree, and the Tuoba family will be co-opted by the Tubo people again. Zhang Huan's headache came. This is the best, and it makes Zhang Huan's backyard restless.

Come to think of this. Wei Ge turned around and said approvingly to Wei Deqing: "The news you brought is very timely, I will reward you heavily, go down!" ”

Wei Deqing saluted and slowly retreated.

Half a month ago, Cui Yuan was preparing to crusade against Shu Di Zhu, and specially visited Wei Ge, hoping that he could send 60,000 troops to Shu from the west road.

For Zhu's rebellion, Wei Ge is also deeply vigilant, if Zhu takes Bashu and can't attack Chang'an for a while, then his next target must be Longyou, especially when he denounces Cui Yuan's resignation, and proposes to be the right minister, which is obviously provoking the relationship between himself and Cui Yuan, Cui Pei and the two families have decided to send troops, if they stand by and watch, it seems that they and Zhu really have some collusion.

For both public and private reasons, he must send troops to fight against Zhu.

However, the only thing he was worried about was that Zhang Huan would take advantage of the situation and take away his land, and after thinking about it again, he proposed to conclude a mutual understanding agreement with Zhang Huan, with Pei Jun and Cui Yuan as guarantors.

Due to the serious situation in Shuzhong, after Cui Yuan discussed with Pei Jun again, he agreed to Wei Ge's request, and Pei Jun and Cui Xian went to Kaiyang County to negotiate with Zhang Huan, and at the same time, Cui Xiaofu sent Li Chuanyun as a special envoy to Kaiyang County to persuade Duan Xiushi to focus on the overall situation.

On October 16, the second year of Xuanren, Zhang Huan arrived in Kaiyang County.