During this period, Li Mao inspected the Guanzhong region, successively eliminated seven Tibetan and Uighur dens, captured and killed thousands of "faceless" people in the two countries, and joined forces with the Right Longxiang Army to dig out six high-level spies lurking in the court, and the highest status was already ranked in Jiuqing, and had the opportunity to participate in military affairs.

With the purging of the spies of the two countries, a "Eye of Watching the Sky" exclusive to Zuo Longxiang's army was quietly laid out, except for Chang'an City, this eye is all-encompassing and meticulous.

Through Lu Wenruo's incident, Li Mao knew that the emperor of the Tang Dynasty had more than one "Eye of Watching the Heavens", and Longshou Mountain was only one of them, and it was likely to be the youngest one. As for whether it is the most powerful eye of the Son of Heaven, Li Mao does not dare to say anything. This eye was built by Li Chun when he was the crown prince, and it used to be his only one, but now, he is the son of heaven, and there are more options to choose from, whether Longshou Mountain can be favored or not, Li Mao has no certainty, after all, people's hearts are transmuted.

All he can do now is to do his best first, practice a breath inside, fight for a skin outside, lay a good foundation, enhance his strength, and step on others when the time is right, and always guard against being stepped on by others.

At the turn of the autumn and winter of the second year of Motowa, a tragedy occurred in Toyosu.

A friend of Yan Li, the defense envoy of the Tiande Army and the assassin of Fengzhou, revealed to him a news that there were vacancies in the two positions of Wei Qing and Hongluqing at the same time, hoping that he could make some moves in Fengzhou so that the Son of Heaven could see it.

After some consideration, Yan Li set his eyes on Hongluqing's throne. Toyosu is located on the border and has a lot of dealings with various departments of the grassland, so it is easiest to make some achievements in diplomacy.

After some planning, the Fengzhou Assassin sent an envoy to the northern foot of Yinshan Mountain, inviting the three Turkic tribes who had been oppressed by the Uighurs to the south of Fengzhou to join the alliance.

The three Turkic chieftains each led their guards into the city, Yan Li was a guest, and the people who came were not polite, first drank all the wine stored by Yan Li, and then ate all the bacon that Yan Li had collected to prepare for the winter, and then slept with all the prostitutes in the brothels in the city, and after eating and drinking enough, the three chiefs suddenly turned their faces and did not recognize people, they claimed that the Turks and the Uighurs were like brothers, and they would rather die than fall for the Tang people, for the Tang people to drive.

Yan Li felt humiliated, and the angry Yan Tingshi ordered the city gate to be sealed and the three Turks who entered the city were detained.

The assassin under the rage forgot to calculate an account, the three Turks gathered in the city at this moment are about 1,000 people, all of them are elite warriors who can fight habitually, and in order to show friendship, he transferred the main force of the city defense to the outside of the city, and now his assassin Shi Mansion guards plus the guards guarding the gate are about 600 people, and they are already at an absolute disadvantage with 600 to 1,000, not to mention that the one who came is a wolf, and most of his subordinates are sheep.

The Turks are waiting for this, a whistle, revealing their true appearance, the vertical horse and the knife in the city of vertical and horizontal conflicts, the killing of Fengzhou City blood, Yan Li and his family members were all captured, the Turks will be his female relatives ****, in front of him one by one, and the men in his family regardless of age have tried the newly cast scimitar.

Yan Li was so ashamed and angry that she bit her tongue and committed suicide. The Turks chopped off his head, picked it at the head of a spear, and went around the city to show off. The brutality of the Hu people aroused the great indignation of the people of Fengzhou, and in order to protect themselves, the people's army quickly organized and began a counterattack against the Hu people.

At the moment of crisis, Yang Qi assisted Yan Li's son Yan Gui to go to Zhongshou City, gathered a large army into the city, and joined forces with the people's army in the city to repel the stubborn enemy and recapture Fengzhou City.

After such a big change, whether it was Yan Gui, Yang Qi, or other generals in Fengzhou, they all felt helpless and unable to clean up. So Yang Qi secretly went to Beijing to ask Li Mao for help, and Li Mao asked him to return to Fengzhou immediately, and to unify his voice, only saying that the Turks were plagued by disasters in the summer, and they were exploited by the Uighurs, so they had no choice but to go south to invade and plunder, Yan Li rose up to resist and sacrificed his life for the country.

Li Mao asked Yang Qi to immediately seize the internal and external military power, assist Yan Li's son Yan Gui to stay in Fengzhou, and ask the court to send important ministers.

Li Mao's words reassured Yang Qi, and after he returned to Fengzhou, he persuaded the generals to nominate strict rules as the queen, and appointed himself as the envoy of the soldiers and horses in the ya, and actually controlled the military power of Fengzhou.

As soon as Yang Qi walked on the front foot, Li Mao warned Li Chun, claiming that the Uighurs were instigating the three Turkic tribes at the northern foot of the Yinshan Mountains to invade Fengzhou in the early winter, in order to test the reality of the Tang Dynasty.

Based on other aspects of information, Li Chun also came to the same judgment, and was discussing with the prime minister to send envoys to Fengzhou and Zhenwu to inspect the border defense. Suddenly, I got an alert from the Khitan, Shanxi, Turkic and other tribes along the border.

The grassland rains badly this year, and many cattle and sheep have died of diseases, and according to the convention, the grassland tribes will go south to invade whether they encounter a "black disaster" or a "white disaster". It is not uncommon for the three Turks to invade Fengzhou in the south, as for the assassin Shi Yan Li rose up to meet the battle and unfortunately died, it is also reasonable, but it is his son Yan Gui, soldiers and horses that make Yang Qi stand up, lead the crowd to repel the invading enemy, and protect the city of Fengzhou, which makes people feel refreshed.

Compared with the emergency documents that flew like snowflakes from other places, Toyozhou's victory report was much brighter.

Fengzhou is located on the border, and has been entangled with the enemy of the grassland for a long time, it is unreasonable not to fight a few battles a year, and it is nothing to die a stabbing history, and the imperial court has already had a set of mature coping strategies.

Yan Li sacrificed his life for the country, contributed to the society, was rewarded by the edict, and posthumously presented the military department with a book. His son was strictly regulated, and the soldiers and horses made Yang Qi and other meritorious personnel be rewarded according to the rules. After these things are dealt with, all that remains is to quickly appoint a new head for Fengzhou.

There is an opinion that the new head of Fengzhou should choose one of Yan Gui and Yang Qi, who have been in the border area for a long time, are familiar with geography and people's feelings, have hatred for the enemy, and love for the country, and are worthy of this position.

In addition, the promotion of meritorious generals to the post on the spot is also a kind of affirmation and encouragement to the soldiers on the frontier, encouraging them to take root in the frontier and serve the country, although they have died nine times without regrets.

Another opinion is that Yan Li's son is still young and has too little experience. Yang Qi was born in the army, and his prestige was not high, so it was difficult to suppress a place, so he sent important ministers out of the border town.

The latter opinion gradually prevailed, and some people in the DPRK proposed to summon Yan Gui to supervise the imperial history, Yang Qi was promoted to the post of marching Sima of the Zhenwu Army, and Xue Rong, the assassin of Quanzhou who returned to Beijing to report on his work, was sent to Fengzhou to train the defense envoy of the Tiande army.

When Xue Rong first served as the assassin of Quanzhou, pirates and bandits were rampant in the territory, Xue Rong organized the people's army to go into the sea to fight thieves, go up the mountain to suppress bandits, and in three years, the bandits and pirates were stunts, and the city roads of Quanzhou were not forgotten, and the night was not closed, and women were not afraid of thieves at night, which could be called a model in Fujian.

Therefore, Xue Rong has the name of knowing the soldier, and it seems that it is not indispensable to be the assassin of Fengzhou and the defense envoy of the Tiande Army.

Li Maoshi was inspecting Xiazhou, and hurried back to Chang'an when he heard the news.

Before the people left Xiazhou City, they had sent Han Yi back to Chang'an and told Hu Nanxiang to invite Xue Rong to live in the Gushan Marquis' Mansion.

Xue Rong insisted on refusing.

Lan'er, who went with her, spoke quickly and said: "The envoy refused to come to live at home, just because he was afraid of those rumors, but when you returned to Beijing this time, in addition to facing the saint, you also sent Sister Qinniang home, you can't hide this matter, you don't come to live, it seems that you are weak-hearted, you are originally a gentleman's friend, and you are so tossed, it makes people think that there is something unseemly." ”

Xue Rong refused to live in Li Mao's house, naturally to avoid suspicion, but Lan'er's words also made sense, it was really a gentleman's friendship, so why care about other people's gossip. On the other hand, he deliberately avoided Li Mao, and it seemed that he had a ghost in his heart.

Xue Rong no longer insisted, and calmly lived in Li Mao's house, but when he came to visit, he set up a banquet in the Gushan Marquis Mansion to reward, and his demeanor was calm, and he didn't see anything outside.

I haven't seen it for many years, and there is not much left of Xue Rong's strong scholarly atmosphere, replaced by the ability, mellowness and a little bit of the vicissitudes of pre-aging and decay that have been cultivated in the officialdom for a long time.