After the battle of Huixi Fort, a strong sense of crisis has always been pressed on Zhang Huan's heart, the attack on Huixi Fort is not the real Tubo army, just the vassal army of the Tubo army, some of the alien races conquered by Tubo, most of them do not even have armor, despite this, the kind of fierce momentum they showed when attacking the city, what impressed Zhang Huan even more was that the sharp siege weapon of Tubo was not inferior to the technical level of the Tang Dynasty.

A battle seems to be a touchstone, exposing all the weaknesses of the Xiliang Army, the number of troops is insufficient, the strategic depth is too narrow, there is a lack of generals who stand alone, and there is no advantage in weapons.

But through this battle, he also gained many new revelations, that is, the talents he urgently needed were actually around him, they were scholars, soldiers, or craftsmen, they were all pieces of uncarved jade, yes, as long as they were carefully polished, they would definitely shine one day.

All this takes time, but he doesn't have time, the Tubo army in Zhangye County is like a piece of iron suspended by a string above his head, it can fall at any time.

The first thing Zhang Huan did when he returned to Wuwei was to decisively remove the ten mediocre county commanders, county magistrates and county lieutenants in the six counties of Wuwei County, these people were all people who were temporarily let go in order not to cause chaos when he killed Yan County, and now that Wuwei County has been completely controlled by him, there is no need for these people to be retained.

After the dismissal of the 10 principal officials, Zhang Huan selected the best 10 performers from among the more than 400 soldiers serving in the army and took over the positions of these officials. And set the rules, and after that, the selection of Hexi officials was selected from the army.

At the same time, Zhang Huan announced in the Xiliang Army. Due to Li Hengqiu's ineffective performance in the battle of Huixibao, he was dismissed from the post of lieutenant general. He was demoted to Lang General, appointed as the soldier and horse envoy of the Liusha River, and at the same time appointed the county commander of Huixi County to concurrently serve as the defense envoy of Huixi, and was fully responsible for the military and political affairs of Huixi Fort.

These two events immediately caused a sensation in Hexi. The reason for the sensation. It is because it has broken many taboos in the imperial court, such as the appointment of general magistrates is selected by the imperial court, even in the territory controlled by several major families, although they have their own private army, with vast farms and countless domestic slaves, but the appointment and dismissal of magistrates is always in the hands of the imperial court, these families have the right of priority recommendation and impeachment at most, they can recommend their own people to the ministry, and they can also impeach incompetent officials to the ministry. Generally speaking, the officials will accept it, and this is the unspoken rule.

Therefore, when Zhang Huan killed Yan County's order, he did not dare to challenge this red line, so he used the means of framing him as a means of responding to the situation in Tibet. Then he used the anger of the people to kill him.

However, the battle of Huixi Fort became a turning point for Zhang Huan to control Hexi. He kicked away all the rules of the imperial court and completely grabbed the personnel power in his own hands. Do what you want.

Half of the ten new officials he appointed were scholars who failed the imperial examinations, and even let a scholar replace a battle-hardened general, all of which subverted tradition and strongly sent a signal to all scholars and all soldiers that in Hexi, as long as they have the ability and ability, they have a chance to stand out.

It was already late at night, Zhang Huan's study was still bright, and he could faintly see his figure pacing and thinking from the window paper, and on his desk was a report by Song Qi of the Ordnance Administration on the development of gunpowder weapons.

This is very exciting news for Zhang Huan, the sharp siege weapons of the Hehuang people made him feel a strong crisis, and even the complex mechanism weapons were learned by the Tubo, and the crossbow arrows and armor making technology that the Tang Dynasty was proud of were naturally more difficult to keep secret, if it weren't for the scarcity of Tubo resources, maybe one day he would see the heavily armored Tubo Mo Sword Team!

He had realized that the only way for the Tang army to maintain an advantage in future campaigns against the nomads was to use more advanced and lethal weapons.

Mo knife is one of them, it is a sharp weapon to deal with nomadic cavalry, Zhang Huan also once considered establishing his own Mo knife army, but because of the special steel required, and the scarcity of Wuwei resources, and Song Qi suddenly proposed a gunpowder weapon that made Zhang Huan's eyes shine, in Song Qi's report description, a picture appeared in his mind, a huge black object exploded violently in the cavalry group, and countless small pieces of killing iron or armor nails burst out of the object, and there was even poison on it.

This is a brand-new, extremely lethal new weapon, gunpowder has been around for hundreds of years, Zhang Huan also heard someone say one thing when he was in Taiyuan Academy, there was a gunpowder craftsman who stored a new formula of gunpowder in a stoneware pot, and the result was inadvertently ignited, and the gunpowder that was originally just fueling the combustion burst out with great power, razing the whole house to the ground, and destroying his people and the new formula.

Of course, this is just a rumor, but in Song Qi's report it is clearly pointed out that gunpowder will explode when burned in a small container, they have already done experiments, although it has only succeeded once, but it confirms the authenticity of this legend, now the only problem is that there is no gunpowder in Hexi, to be precise, there are no craftsmen who can make gunpowder, the gunpowder of the Tang Dynasty is only used for medicine and alchemy, no one would ever think of using it in the military, Song Qi searched all over the counties of Wuwei, Finally, in the warehouse of a pharmacy in Tianbao County, more than a dozen barrels of dried black powder were finally found.

Although it was only a preliminary idea, Zhang Huan immediately made the decision to develop gunpowder weapons at all costs.

He put pen to paper and gave instructions on Song Qi's report: allocate 100,000 yuan, allocate 500 sergeants, set up a firearms bureau, and ordered Song Qi to find a suitable bureau.

Just as Zhang Huanfen was writing a book, a white hand placed a bowl of ginseng tea next to him, and then a soft body leaned on his back, and a warm hand gently stroked his hair.

Zhang Huan finished writing the last word, he put down the pen, leaned back in the chair, wrapped one hand around his wife's waist, and the other hand carefully stroked her obviously bulging belly, and said with a smile: "Why don't you stay in the house, but run to the front, beware of flashing." ”

Pei Ying has been pregnant for six months, her body is getting heavier and heavier, and it is quite inconvenient to walk, coupled with the hot weather, she has been staying at home and not going out, but the joy of being a new mother fills the heart of this beautiful woman and makes her more gentle.

But today she changed back to the mentality of her little daughter, she pouted and arched in Zhang Huan's ear for a while, and said coquettishly: "You always stay in the study, and you don't go back to the room until the third watch in the middle of the night every day, and you don't pay attention to others, and you don't want to find a speaker." ”

"You can talk to Cui Ning! Isn't she always with you when I'm away? Zhang Huan lowered his head as he spoke, put his ear to Pei Ying's stomach and listened carefully, and suddenly, he was pleasantly surprised: "Ying'er, I seem to hear his heartbeat." ”

Pei Ying didn't say anything, she caressed her husband's face lovingly, and suddenly asked in a low voice: "Go sick, did you deliberately come back late, for fear that you couldn't help it for a while and spoil the child in my belly?" ”

Zhang Huan smiled bitterly, there was a little bit of this reason, but not exactly, he smiled: "You know that after the battle of Huixibao, it is an opportunity for me, no matter what I do, I can find all kinds of reasons with this battle, I want to hurry up and complete the deployment, so I am a little cold to you these days, I will spend more time with you in the future." ”

"I know, I'm physically inconvenient these days, and I'm really suffering from you." Pei Ying sighed and said to Zhang Huan: "Otherwise, you can take a few concubines, and I will arrange it for you, I have taken a fancy to a few good women, all of whom are women from a solid family in Wuwei County, with a clean net worth and good looks." ”

Cui Ning's lonely figure quickly flashed in Zhang Huan's mind, he shook his head and said: "Ying'er, it's not that I don't want to take concubines, but there are many young generals in the army who have not been able to get married, and there are few Han women in Hexi, if I don't restrain myself, let everyone think of it, if you are interested, arrange a marriage for He Lou Wuji, Wang Siyu, and Li Shuangyu for me, which is a good thing." ”

"Forget it, I have a good heart, but you don't appreciate it, be a matchmaker for them, and wait until I give birth to a child!" Pei Ying glanced at Zhang Huan and said lazily: "I'm a little tired, do you continue to do official business or go back with me." ”

Zhang Huan hurriedly stood up and helped Pei Ying and said with a smile: "At this time, I am really a stupid donkey when I do official business." ”

Pei Ying was happy when she saw that her husband was interested, and she pointed to the ginseng tea on the case and said, "Drink it before leaving." ”

The moonlight was bright, the night was as gentle as water, Pei Ying took Zhang Huan's hand and walked slowly, and a gust of breeze came to her face, which was refreshing.

"Sickness, what are you going to give our children a name?"

"If it's a boy, it's called Zhang Qi."

"What if it's a girl?"

"Hmmm! The girl's name is also Zhang Qi. ”

"You're going to be lazy."

"me, do you want me to have a boy or a girl in my belly?

"Whether it's a boy or a girl, it's my sweetheart."

"I wish it was a boy, so that I would be the first hero of the Xiliang Army."

Passing through a moon gate, the two walked up to the short corridor, the corridor was narrow, the two let go, walked one after the other, just walked out of the short corridor, but met Cui Ning hurriedly walking, she saw Pei Ying complained and said, "Where did you go?" I'm scared to death. ”

As soon as Cui Ning raised his head, he suddenly saw Zhang Huan behind him, and seeing him looking at him with complicated eyes, Cui Ning immediately lowered his head, and his face was obviously a little unnatural.