Before dawn, Li Qing left his house to go to the state government office, not that he was diligent in government, as soon as he came out, the ground would be like a fire, almost everyone who went out to do business would choose to go out at this time, and Li Qing also followed the customs of the country.

The day is about to break, the air is fresh at dawn, and there is a hint of coolness, Shazhou can not store heat, in the middle of summer, the morning and evening are relatively cool, at this time there are more people on the street than at noon, all of them are people who go out early, people come and go on the street, and carriages speed past Li Qing.

Li Siye has been there for five days, whether he can borrow troops, to be honest, Li Qing has no bottom at all, not to mention that this kind of cross-regional transfer of troops requires the approval of the Ministry of War or Li Longji's approval, even if it is a private transfer of troops, it is not known whether Gao Xianzhi is willing to take this risk for him, after all, it is just a small bandit, he began to regret it a little, if Li Siye is detained by Gao Xianzhi again, it will be worth the loss.

"Yang Ming! Li Thorn History! Li Dudu! ”

Li Qing, who was contemplative, was awakened, it seemed that someone was calling him behind him, one by one, he hurriedly looked back, but the flow of people obstructed his vision.

"Dudu, it seems to be Lord Wang?"

Through the crowd, the soldiers around him saw the person who called him from a distance, and soon, a carriage stopped in Li Qing, and a dark and thin face poked out of the window, full of folds, sure enough, it was Wang Changling, Li Qing just made the rule yesterday, Shazhou officials can only ride in the carriage over the age of 50, and everyone else rides, including himself, saving the huge volume of the carriage to be congested at the entrance of the yamen, which affects the ventilation.

"Morning!"

Li Qing greeted him with a smile, "Since Brother Yuhu is in the carriage, it doesn't hurt to come later." ”

Wang Changling didn't answer, he also leaned out of the window, trying to look back, Li Qing was strange, was about to ask, but saw a carriage galloping, parked behind Wang Changling's carriage, the door opened, and a young man came down from inside, quite obese, Wang Changling saw him, immediately jumped out of the carriage, pulled him in front of Li Qing, and introduced to Li Qing: "This is one of the top businessmen in Dunhuang County, between the Western Regions and Chang'an, surnamed Ma, I met at the wine table the day before yesterday. ”

When the merchant saw Li Qing, he immediately stepped forward and saluted respectfully, "Xiaomin Ma Yuan has seen Lord Thorn Shi." ”

Li Qing looked at Wang Changling in surprise, this person's temper is stinky and hard, and he never pretends to talk to others, why did he change his sex today? He actually introduced himself to a big businessman, although he thought so, he still smiled and said, "I don't know what kind of business the horse merchant does?" ”

"Xiaomin is in the silk business, no, I plan to go to Chang'an to buy goods today."

"Silk!"

Li Qing immediately became interested, and said with a smile: "If you go to Chang'an to buy goods, I will introduce a store to you, Bashu Xing in Chang'an West City, you will say that I introduced it, to ensure that you can buy good quality and low price." ”

"Huh! Xiaomin went to it once in the spring, and the shopkeeper with a pair of attractive ears was so powerful, and the business actually came to my inn, I really don't know how they found me. ”

The two were talking about business, but Wang Changling next to him was in a hurry, he was so anxious that he stomped his feet and shouted: "Ma Yuan, you are looking for me, didn't you say that there is something important to report to the adult?" ”

A sentence reminded Ma Yuan that he had a major event, and hurriedly said to Li Qing: "When I passed through the east gate and saw the city wall just now, I suddenly remembered something my father said, maybe adults will be interested." ”

Li Qing saw that he said solemnly, and his smile retracted, "What's the matter?" ”

Ma Shang thought for a while and said: "Kaiyuan three or four years, I forgot what year it is, adults can go to check the county chronicles, at that time it was to rebuild the city wall, I heard my father say, I don't know what the reason is, the main gate of the east city wall cut corners, the thickness of the stone used is more than half thinner than normal, and the inside is still hollow, not tamped with sediment." ”

As soon as the words fell, the person was pulled by Li Qing twice, but fortunately, the center of gravity of this brother was quite low, and the lower plate was strong so that he was not pulled down.

"Show me!"

Li Qingfei got on his horse and whipped it down fiercely, and the war horse was in pain, so he galloped towards the east gate.

.

"Lord Thorn Shi, listen to my father, it's probably this paragraph."

The horse merchant started from the city gate, walked three steps to the north, and pointed forward: "Eighty or so steps forward, this section of the city wall is the situation I am talking about." ”

Li Qing's face was gloomy, and with a finger of his hand, he turned back and ordered to the dozen or so soldiers guarding the door: "Pry down a piece of masonry and take a look!" ”

When the soldier heard the order, he hurried to find iron bars, crowbars, and the like, but as soon as he exerted his strength, the masonry cracked and shattered into several pieces. They fell into it, and frightened the soldiers scattered and ran away as if the walls were about to collapse.

"It's not going to collapse today!" Li Qing glared at them, and personally stepped forward to take a closer look, there was a big hole in the city wall that was two feet square, it was pitch black, and a musty and damp air rushed towards him, he picked up a crowbar and poked it inside, but he didn't enter most of it, but he encountered a soft and soft thing, as if it was a rotten wood, and it was really empty inside, and it was supported by wood, just like the prop city wall used to make movies in later generations.

Wang Changling lit a torch and stretched it into the hole to look, there was not enough oxygen inside, the torch was weak and weak, and it was quickly extinguished, but Wang Changling also saw a corner and sighed: "It is all supported by wood, it seems that the wood has rotted, if it is a few years later, this section of the city wall will collapse." ”

Qing was silent, he used his palm to gauge the thickness of the wall stone, and suddenly slammed on the wall, and said hatefully: "If the Tubo people use a giant trebuchet, they can crush it with one stone." ”

Wang Changling was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said: "I want to go to the yamen to find information, in the early years of Kaiyuan, it should still be there!" ”

Li Qing shook his head and said with a sneer: "This kind of evidence will not be left to the successor, even if there is, it is fake!" Forget it, let's figure it out ourselves! ”

"But there is less than 100 yuan in the treasury, and the tax will not be paid until August."

Wang Changling hesitated, glanced at Li Qing, and the words changed when they came to his mouth, "Otherwise, I'll ask how much money is still in the county?" ”

"There are only more than 300 in our county!"

Dunhuang County Commander Zhang Xun also rushed to hear the news, he looked at the situation, quickly estimated it, and said to Li Qing: "My lord, if you want to rebuild this section of the city wall, let alone 3,000 runs, now the plan can only be reported by the imperial court, and the imperial court is asked to allocate money to repair it." ”

Li Qing smiled bitterly and said, "When will the imperial court allocate money?" First of all, we must send someone to check, and then investigate the responsibility of the previous governor, and then debate, and then the Ministry of Industry will line up the fortifications, and the squire will play haha again, Lord Xiangguo said, the weather is cool and autumn, and I will talk about it next spring! Let's talk about it next spring! In this way, it comes and goes, and there is no money that cannot be paid for a year and a half. ”

"Then how should Yang Ming deal with this matter?" He.

Of course, Li Qing understood what he meant, and said angrily: "The thing I regret the most is to pay my own money to repair the bridge in Yibin, but now it's good, I don't want to open up sources and reduce expenditure, so I stare at my money all day long." ”

Wang Changling laughed, gave him a punch and said: "Wealth is not exposed, who told you to be so flamboyant, even horse bandits can beat your idea, why can't I?" ”

"You. . . The sound of horses' hooves, I saw a horse running from the direction of the state government, and when he got closer, he found that the person on the horse was his staff Gao Shi, and I saw him shouting to Li Qing: "My lord, go back quickly!" The decree of the imperial court has arrived. ”

Li Qing had a thought, "Could it be that Li Longji has faith?" ”

Then he felt that time was not so fast, it was unlikely, if not, then what would it be, he didn't think about it, and strode towards his mount.

"Yangming, what about this city wall?" Wang Changling didn't hold him, and shouted in a hurry.

"That's it! That's it! Who told this rotten thing to spread on my head? ”

He sighed helplessly and said to Wang Changling: "You can do it yourself!" Don't forget to keep a pen to paper. ”

After taking two steps, he turned back to the two and smiled: "I'll say in front first, this time I'll just pay in advance, and when the court allocates the money, I want to pay it back, and you two have to prove it for me." ”

Wang Changling only pursed his lips, but Zhang Xun was dumbfounded when he heard it, three thousand times! Take out 3,000 at once, how much money does he have? He grabbed Wang Changling's arm, almost pinched off a few of his old bones, and said hurriedly: "Lord Wang, how much money did he bring with him?" ”

Wang Changling glanced at him, and whispered a few words in his ear, Zhang Xun's eyes flashed with a strange brilliance, and he rubbed his hands excitedly and chased after him, "Master Li, no!" Li Dudu, you take a step slowly, I want to discuss something with you! ”

Nature is not a good thing.

Li Qing rushed to the state office, but saw that the street was full of people watching the excitement, hundreds of light horses in front of the state government blocked the road in front of the state government, he easily squeezed through, only to see dozens of Yulin troops standing at the gate of the state government, next to a few carriages, covered tightly with oilcloth, presumably this is to reward their own things, and then look up, three yellow-clothed eunuchs are standing on the steps anxiously waiting, their faces are dark, their eyes are bloodshot, their complexions are not very good, it is estimated that they rushed to the night road last night, the eunuch in the middle, Li Qing knows him, It was Bian Lingcheng, the eunuch beside Li Longji, who he had seen when he returned to Beijing from Nanzhao.

But will his appearance in the Western Regions have any special meaning? Li Qing knew that this person was the one who came to the Western Regions to supervise the army in the later period of Tianbao.

"Governor Li is okay?"

Bian Lingcheng saw him at a glance and waved to him with a smile.

Li Qing turned over and dismounted, ran up the steps quickly, grabbed his hot hand and said with a smile: "I said how could it be so hot today, it turned out that Father-in-law Bian arrived, and Li Qing was happy to meet the old people in the capital in a foreign land!" ”

Bian Lingcheng saw that he was sincere, and his heart was also a little moved, he pointed to the holy decree and said: "Originally, I needed your wife to receive the decree, but I heard that she was not in good health, so you can take it for her!" ”

He walked quickly to the back of the table, took the holy decree from the eunuch next to him, and said in a loud voice: "Li Qing, the governor of the Doulu Army and the assassin of Shazhou, and the general of Yunlu, take the order!" ”

Li Qing hurriedly stepped forward and knelt on the ground, "Minister Li Qing takes the order!" ”

Bian Lingcheng smiled slightly, unfolded the holy decree and read it, his voice was clear, and the content of the holy decree was transmitted to Li Qing'er word for word.

"Horse, I want it, I want it!"

Li Qingxin breathed a long sigh of relief and bowed, "Minister Li Qing remembers the holy grace, I wish your majesty long live, long live, long live!" ”

He stood up and took the holy decree, but Bian Lingcheng took his shoulders to the side and whispered, "This time, the emperor."

Go to the Western Regions to be rewarded, there are only four people in total, Longyou and Hexi Jiedu make Huangfu protect Gao Xianzhi in the west, and Cheng Qianli in Beiting, and one is you, you all have all kinds of excuses, like Huangfu Weiming is to seal him as the Ministry of Rites, Gao Xianzhi is to be named the founding county prince, and Cheng Qianli is also to be named the second wife, but the reward is the same, do you understand what I mean? ”

Li Qing nodded slowly, how could he not understand that he was just a small governor, but he was rewarded together with the envoys of the festival and the protectors of the capital, was this hinting at something to himself?

"Fruitless but reluctant, Father-in-law Bian, please tell the emperor, Li Qing is ashamed!"

"It's too late for others to envy you, are you still ashamed of it?"

After the announcement was completed, Bian Lingcheng stretched out tiredly, and smiled at Li Qing: "The conditions of your Yumen Pass are too poor, I really can't look at it, I rushed overnight, and I want to come to Shazhou to sleep well." ”

Hearing that Bian Lingcheng hadn't slept all night, Li Qing hurriedly found Wang Changling and told him to arrange the best accommodation.

"Thank you, Governor Li."

Bian Lingcheng strode down the steps, first ordered Yulin Jun to move the boxes off the carriage, he pointed to a few carriages and smiled at Li Qing: "These are all things that the emperor has rewarded you, it is not easy to carry all the way, and it is easy for me to give it to you." ”

"Is it all mine?"

Li Qing saw Bian Lingcheng walking away empty-handed, and couldn't help but be a little puzzled, "What about the rewards of Gao Du Hu and Cheng Du Hu?" ”

Bian Lingcheng laughed, "Those are all for you, and the rewards of those two are guaranteed by me to be stored in Yumen Guanyi, so that you don't have to go back and forth to take the trouble." ”

"Yumen Guanyi?"

Li Qing's face suddenly changed greatly, he suddenly remembered the group of horse bandits, and couldn't help but ask anxiously, "But there is someone to take care of it?" ”

Bian Lingcheng saw that his face was wrong, and his heart was also a little worried, last night the guards at Yumen Pass told him that there were bandits in this area, he didn't believe it, just those guards were troublesome and coaxed him, but instead reprimanded them, but Li Qing's expression made him feel faintly uneasy.

"I put fifty soldiers to guard the inn, there should be no problem!"

"Fifty?"

Li Qing smiled bitterly, his three hundred people were almost finished, fifty people plus ten people from the post station, a total of ten people, not enough for people to stuff their teeth, and there was no time to explain more, he turned over and hurriedly said to Bian Lingcheng: "Please send guards to the post station quickly, I will come to support later, be quick!" It's late and it's gone. ”

As soon as the words fell, he whipped away, and the war horse neighed and rushed straight to the military camp outside the city.

.

Yumen Guanyi is a hundred miles north of Shouchang County, its functions are still more complicated in the era of Li Longji, both the function of the post office, and the function of the official guest house, and at the same time also responsible for the delivery of official books, all day busy receiving officials, so the efficiency of the transmission is greatly reduced, until the Tang Dynasty, the function of transmission is separated from the post house, and the post house is only responsible for ushering in the reception work sent to.

The function of the Yumen Pass Post is biased towards passing the book, the general officials will not stay here, but go to Shouchang County or Dunhuang County to rest, there is only a group of soldiers stationed in the post station, the "gang" is the smallest military unit of the Tang Dynasty army, equivalent to the current class, a total of ten people, one by one is so poor that there is no oil and water, and the horse bandits usually do not fight their ideas, but if there is grain and grass to stop here, it is also correct to rob.

Li Qing's worries were not wrong, in fact, as early as Liangzhou, Bian Lingcheng's reward team was targeted, and the horse bandits had no knowledge, so they naturally didn't know that this was someone sent by the emperor, but even if they knew, they would still start, 'People die for money!' It doesn't matter who he is, it's just that Bian Lingcheng has five hundred light cavalry guards, which makes them a little worried, and they don't dare to do it, but Bian Lingcheng actually put things in the post station, and there are only dozens of guards, if you don't do it, I'm afraid that the ancestors of the robbers will crawl out of the ancestral grave and scold them.

When Li Qing led five hundred soldiers to Yumen Pass, it was already a mess, the wall of the pavilion was knocked down, and the things had already been robbed.

Li Qing sighed secretly in his heart, the matter happened in his governance, I'm afraid he can't get out of it, he jumped off the horse and walked to Bian Lingcheng's side, patted him lightly on the shoulder, Bian Lingcheng turned around, Mu Ran's eyes suddenly burst out with a glimmer of hope, he grabbed Li Qing, and said in a trembling voice: "Li Dudu, you must help me in this matter!" ”

Li Qing nodded, help must help, but the horse bandits have come and gone without a trace, where to find them? Even if he finds it, he only has 1,200 people, and if he fights hard, he may not be pleased, unless Gao Xianzhi is really willing to send the elite to help.

"Then I'll wait for your good news!"

Bian Lingcheng hung his head weakly, he felt that he was exhausted and couldn't stand anymore, so he slowly walked towards the pavilion, Li Qing looked at his staggering back, and a thought suddenly flashed in his mind, "With this person here, are you still worried that Gao Xianzhi will not send troops?" ’

Thinking of this, he smiled in his heart, hurried to catch up, grabbed Bian Lingcheng's shoulder and said softly: "In order to chase Bian Gonggong's things back, I'm afraid Bian Gonggong also needs to make some efforts." ”