In the middle of June of the second year of Xuanren, a group of about 300 people traveled on the edge of the vast Horqin grassland, and they were Pei Mingyuan, the envoy of Hexi who was sent back to the eight miles of the Hanerduo.

They went north along the Zhangye River, through hundreds of miles of barren Gobi, and after walking for half a month, they finally arrived at the border of Huifu, where in the distance was a white and bright water surface, where was the last lake formed by the Zhangye River, called Yanhai.

Accompanying Pei Mingyuan on the envoy back to Hui was Zhang Huan's master Lin Delong and tooth general Wang Siyu, Lin Delong is currently the chief military doctor in the Xiliang Army, and also serves as the head of the Xiliang Army, participating in the training of recruits.

When the tiresome trip to the Gobi finally ended, large lakes and endless grasslands appeared in front of them, and the accompanying soldiers immediately cheered.

At this time, Pei Mingyuan urged the horse to catch up with Lin Delong and said with a smile: "Master Lin, why don't you let everyone take a break!" ”

Lin Delong looked at it from a distance, this is the Huifu border, and there is an abundant water source, which is generally the key defensive place of the Huifu border outpost, but he looked at it for a long time and found no traces, so he nodded, turned around and shouted: "Rest for an hour!" ”

The soldiers who received the order to dismiss dismounted and ran towards the lake, and some of them even stripped naked and jumped into the lake.

Pei Mingyuan also got off the horse, slowly walked to the lake, found a piece of grass and sat down, he stared at the lake, chewing the grass roots, while thinking about Zhang Huan's explanation before leaving:

"I've been thinking about this for a long time. Now that Dengli Khan is dead, the new Khan of Hui is on the throne, it is an opportunity, Mingyuan is here to return to Hui, there is a long way to go, but no matter whether this matter is successful or not, I hope that Mingyuan can return safely. ”

"After all, the governor is only the governor of a state, although it is feasible in terms of interests, but it is not in line with the etiquette system. Why don't I go back to Chang'an first and go with the imperial envoy. Choose the right time. ”

"Well, the new khan is on the throne. The first thing he wants to stabilize the Khan position is, not to use troops externally, Ming Yuan is only going to express a cooperative intention to the new Khan, and after he stabilizes the Khan position, he will naturally send an envoy to contact. ”

Pei Mingyuan shook his head and smiled, until today he didn't believe that his brother-in-law was indeed outstanding, he had a broad vision, he could grasp the overall situation, he could put aside the grievances between Hui and Datang, and take the initiative to unite with Hui Hui to fight Tubo, and at the same time, he was not controlled by etiquette. If he is impeached by someone with a heart, this is the three felonies of bullying the king, usurping, and privately settling with foreign vassals, but if everything is done by the imperial court. and will fall into passivity, or even achieve nothing, maybe this is called a person who has achieved great things, and he should be informal!

"Pei Yuanjun, I heard that you have been to many places. I've also been to big food. Is this true? "It was Zhang Huanxin's general Wang Siyu who spoke, and he was the queen of the famous family. His grandfather is the famous general Wang Zhonghei of Tianbao, like He Lou Wuji, he also joined the army at the age of fifteen, and has been a soldier for five years, but his martial arts are buried in the Cui Jiafeng Xiang army in the queue, until Zhang Huan led three thousand elite cavalry to attack Han Erbali, he gradually came out.

Pei Mingyuan glanced back at him, then patted the grass beside him gently, motioned for him to sit down, and said with a smile: "I have been to Dashi, and even to Byzantium, in fact, those city-states in the west are too far behind us in Chang'an." ”

Wang Siyu hugged his knees and looked at the lake, and muttered: "The governor once told us that he would let us fight to the west in the future, and I have always wondered, when will this day come?" ”

Pei Mingyuan glanced at him and said with a slight smile: "You all have Lingyun ambitions, this time we were sent back to Huifu to lay the foundation for his next attack on Tibet, I thought he would really take three or four years before he started, it seems that he is more anxious than us." ”

Speaking of Hui Hui, Wang Siyu frowned and said: "Last year, we followed the governor to capture Han Er Bali and burned a city to the ground, but now we have to make friends with Hui Hui, to be honest, I am a little panicked in my heart, do the Hui people believe in the sincerity of the Du Du?" ”

"If it's Denli Khan, of course he's going to crush us to ashes." Pei Mingyuan patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "But now it's not him, it's the new Khan, and the prime minister in power has been canonized by our Tang Dynasty and is more pro-Tang, so although I can't guarantee that things can be done successfully this time, I think personal safety should not be a big problem." "General Wang!" A soldier standing guard in a large tree shouted: "There is a cavalry corps about five miles ahead!" ”

"Assemble your brethren and prepare for battle." Wang Siyu jumped up, Pei Mingyuan was quick and grabbed him, "Don't mess around, we are envoys." ”

At this time, a group of small black dots had faintly appeared a few miles away in the north, and they were galloping towards this side, and after a while, the black dots were in front of them, and sure enough, they were back to the border post, about three or four hundred horsemen.

When they saw that the other party was a Tang soldier, they immediately drew their swords and swords, and an officer rushed forward and shouted loudly in Turkic: "Why did the Tang army invade the border in front? ”

Pei Mingyuan has been traveling abroad for a long time, and he is coarse Turkic, so he stepped forward and replied in Turkic: "We are envoys of the Tang Dynasty, and we have no malice in sending an envoy to return to the Tang Dynasty on the order of the Tang Emperor. ”

The other party's hundred people were shallow, and he didn't know that the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was actually only three years old, he saw that the other party said solemnly, and also transported a few carts of gifts, only when they were going to meet the new khan, his heart was happy, and he said: "It's okay to go to see our khan, but you must follow us." ”

Pei Mingyuan arched his hand and said loudly: "Yes, please lead the way." ”

With a wave of his hand, he turned his horse's head and led the Tang army to the depths of the northern grassland.

At night, the moon appears and disappears in the clouds, there is silence in the camp of the Xidangxiang people, only occasionally there are soldiers patrolling the night in the camp tent, in the west of Yanran Town, here is the camp of Tuoba Yue, the brother of Tuoba Xi, Helan Mountain's huge mountain shadow is projected on the ground, making the camp appear more dark and weird.

The party still maintains the characteristics of slavery, all the population and livestock belong to the party nobility, among the seven nobles in the west party, Tuoba Yue controls three thousand households, about 10,000 people, the strength is second only to the eldest brother Tuoba Xi, ten days ago he accepted the request of his nephew Tuoba Qianli, accepted him to raise a son for himself, and at the same time gave him the right to inherit his property, Tuoba Xi did not interfere, in his opinion, the second son will reduce a lot of trouble, especially in the succession to the throne, there will be no two sons competing for the throne in the future.

The time has come to the second half of the night, Tuoba Yue's big tent suddenly stirred, the two women who accompanied the bed ran out of the tent in a panic and shouted loudly, more than a dozen guards rushed into the big tent together, only to see Tuoba Yue vomiting blood, unable to speak, everyone didn't know what was going on, some went to find the witch, some rushed to report to the king.

In a moment, Tuoba Xi rushed to the camp of his younger brother surrounded by dozens of people, and hundreds of torches were shining like day around the camp, and a pile of one-man high fires were burning vigorously, and the flames swept into the night sky.

A half-naked shrine maiden was bouncing around the tent, her body covered in oil paint, her expression frightened, muttering something as she threw handfuls of unknown powder into the fire, which changed into strange colors.

Everyone didn't dare to step forward, so they could only wait for the witch to drive away the demons in the camp, and Tuoba stood at the end of the crowd, his expression was as serious as everyone else, but if you looked closely, you would find that there was an irrepressible smugness in his eyes, and the poison of Persia that he brought back had a miraculous effect.

The witch jumped tirelessly, until the east sky was slightly blue and white, she finally let out a long breath, her face was tired, she put on her clothes, and said to the confused party king Tuoba Xi: "I have asked about the situation, the second king went to the mountain of Henan five days ago to hunt, accidentally injured the daughter of the mountain god, the mountain god was furious, so he asked the mountain ghost to ask for his life, the king can kill the cow and sheep tomorrow to sacrifice to the mountain god, so as not to harm the clansmen." ”

Tuoba Xi was suspicious, and hurriedly led people into the tent to inspect the situation, but when everyone entered the tent, the witch and Tuoba Qianli quietly exchanged a look.

At this time, Tuoba Yue in the camp had already died hard, but the witch didn't take his death to heart, it didn't matter, the important thing was that through her efforts, the mountain ghosts who were supposed to wreak havoc on the camp of the party members had been driven away, and her lofty spiritual leadership status had not been shaken.

Tuoba Yue died, and his body was immediately burned to ashes and scattered on Mount Honan to appease the wrath of the mountain god, and everyone was convinced of this, most of them did not want to ask more because they had nothing to do with them, but Tuoba Yue's slaves were happy because they had one less stingy and cruel master, and more importantly, he was replaced by the young and promising second prince Tuoba Qianli, who was tolerant and caring for his subordinates.

In the morning, after the unanimous consent of the six party nobles, Tuoba Qianli officially moved into his uncle's big tent, inherited everything from him, wealth, slaves, cattle and sheep, and women, and that night, Tuoba Qianli secretly sent someone to send five hundred taels of gold to the shrine maiden.