At the end of August 889 A.D., when the northwest region had entered the autumn, Wan Yi led the army outside Jiayu Pass and the Wen people to fight for the last battle of the Hexi Corridor, hundreds of thousands of troops in the Guanguan strong pressure of the Wen Mo people's last resistance force could not raise their heads, in the face of the peak military situation, the Wen Mo people put together 100,000 troops did not dare to let go of a fight, and were forced out of the western border of the Hexi Corridor step by step, Wan Yi was directly on the battlefield to play the banner of "those who commit my Tang Dynasty, although far away, they will be punished", The horn of the Han people passing through the northwest was sounded.

After this battle, the Han people poured into Hexi in a steady stream along the road opened up by the Tiance Army, and the long-oppressed Han people in Hexi were also completely liberated at this moment and reintegrated with the mainstream Han people in the Central Plains. The Northwest War, which lasted for more than three months, also gave a strong signal to the people of the Western Regions that the Tang Dynasty had returned.

"Qinghai Changyun Dark Snow Mountain, the lonely city looks at Yumen Pass. The yellow sand wears gold armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will not be returned if it is not broken. Wan Yi led the generals to the hometown of Yangguan, and to the west was a vast desert, full of emotion.

"In his year, when we set foot on the hometown of Anxi, we will definitely ask the lord to set up a monument, so that I can also be famous for future generations." Qian Lao Liu also laughed.

"The General Staff sent an order that Hexi should be bounded by Wuwei in the east, and except for Tianshui and other places that were assigned to Lingzhou, other areas should be established as separate provinces. In addition, the Modao Battalion will be stationed in Zhangye and other places, and other artillery battalions and other troops will be transferred in the later stage, and the Fourth Army will also arrange an infantry battalion to follow and station. Wan Yi said with a smile: "The Modao Battalion has made great contributions to this war, and there is another important task for staying in Hexi, which is to cooperate with Xuan Yingwei to collect intelligence in Anxi and other places, and find out the true situation of the Ganzhou Uighurs, the Long Family, the Guiyi Army and other forces." ”

"Please rest assured, the last general will definitely live up to his mission." Shi Jian clenched his fists and bowed to answer the order.

"Okay, pass the order, the army will rest for three days, and then the cavalry corps will be rebuilt, and Hou Yong, you will directly lead the army to Chang'an. Toyota, you return to Fengzhou, under the banner of General Tuoba. Wan Yi smiled: "Two teachers, how about we go to Dunhuang to see?" ”

Ma Laosan stroked a handful of goatee and said with a smile: "I have long heard that there are many Buddhist paintings in Dunhuang, and there are countless classics from various families, so I can show off when I go back to see it." Didn't you say you still had a relative there, old fellow? Let's go look for it, maybe we can recognize our relatives. ”

The three of them laughed, Wan Yi handed over the follow-up military affairs to Hou Yong, and took Zhang Tianhu and others to Dunhuang on horseback. And the end of the war in Hexi also flew back to Lingzhou. The end of this battle also made the energy of the Tiance army completely return to the east, almost at the moment when the good news was transmitted back to the base camp Chang'an, Li Xuanqing immediately mobilized the logistics department and various troops to start making preparations, and at the same time, the arrangement of Xuanyingwei in the Youhe area also began to start, and thousands of secret guards received orders from Chang'an, with the content of one sentence: sunrise in the east.

However, at this time, the Xuanying Wei Xinyang Branch sent back a message that made Chang'an turn its attention here again, and in the following time, even Zhu Quanzhong over there focused his attention here. Li Keyong directly led the army to attack Xinyang, so that the contradiction between him and Li Cunxiao was directly white.

"Lord, the people of the Dragon Group have already connected with Li Cunxiao, and the other party is not willing to hand over his family to us to take away, and even his wife is unwilling to go with us." After receiving the information, Hu Xiaosi returned to Chang'an to find Li Xuanqing and said with a wry smile: "The news obtained by the secret guard is indeed a ghost made by Li Cunxin, he made a counterplot between Li Cunxiao and Li Keyong, and stabbed him twice, causing Li Keyong to think that Li Cunxiao was going to rebel and defect to us, but in front of Li Cunxiao, he looked like a good man, and at the same time said all the bad things that Li Keyong used. ”

"Then does Li Cunxiao have anything to say now? Where is Li Cunxin now? Li Xuanqing naturally knew the grievances between the two, but this time Zhu Quanzhong was replaced by himself, but in the end, there was no way for him to change the ending, but Li Cunxiao was unwilling to let his family go with him to make him different, did he still want to show his attitude with Li Keyong at this time? Or is Li Cun messenger bad?

"No, not a word. Li Cunxin is currently stationed outside Xinyang City. Hu Xiaosi shook his head and said.

"Forget it, no matter what he does, I've already done what I can. Let the Flying Eagle Brigade go south immediately after the mission, and if he can rescue his family at that time, he will be saved, and if he can't be saved, forget it, but he must find a way to kill Li Cunxin for me. Li Xuanqing sighed and said a little helplessly.

"Actually, this matter is also a bit good for us, that is, we can have a very legitimate reason to enter the Youji region at that time." Hu Xiaosi tried to comfort Li Xuanqing, but as soon as the words came out, he found that his words did not make sense, so he was stunned for a while.

"Okay, since you're back, don't go out, and follow me to plan and implement Plan No. 1 in Chang'an. In addition, Tiancheng was notified to prepare to send troops, as long as Li Cunxiao had an accident, the frontal corps would immediately march out of Danzhou and Hezhongfu, and take advantage of the situation in the north to take Shengzhou and other places. Li Xuanqing knew what he was thinking, and said with a smile: "When will your plan be launched?" ”

"When I came back, I had already given the order, and the Youzhou area and the Qiantao area were the first to be launched, because these places were far away from Li Keyong's ruling center, and once there was turmoil, it would inevitably pull his nerves, mobilize his troops and disperse, and prepare for our attack. As for its hinterland and prefecture areas, it is planned to wait for Li Cunxiao's affairs to be understood before starting, or Li Ke will use his troops to disperse and deal with it as appropriate. Hu Xiaosi said with a smile.

Li Xuanqing nodded, stood up and walked towards the military headquarters building, "Tiancheng is actually not a big problem here. It's just that the situation on the northern route is more complicated. ”

The main cavalry force of the Tiance Army was concentrated on the northern front, but the current commander-in-chief made Li Xuanqing hesitate a little, Chen Fan's temperament was too calm, and this kind of character was not very suitable for commanding cavalry battles. The remaining candidates did not have enough experience in the operation of large corps, and their own prestige was not enough to suppress others.

Hu Xiaosi knew what Li Xuanqing was thinking, but he had a different opinion about Chen Fan, so when he heard this, he immediately said: "Does the lord remember the last battle of Wuliang Suhai?" ”

"The battle of Wuliang Suhai?" Li Xuanqing was slightly stunned, and then Chen Fan's performance in that war quickly flashed in his mind, nodded and smiled: "I didn't expect you to have more than I thought, not bad, it seems that you have done a lot of homework during this time." Okay, go and listen to Tiancheng's opinion, if there is no problem, let the General Staff immediately order the formation of the Northern Front Corps, and give Tashi an order to let his steppe cavalry battalion also participate in the battle. ”

The military headquarters building of the Tiance Army was built by Li Xuanqing in imitation of the later Pentagon, but he didn't know anything about the internal structure of the Pentagon, so he only imitated a rough appearance in appearance, and the interior was designed by the General Staff itself. Xu Tianxiang was not in Chang'an, and Yang Tiancheng's operations department led the daily affairs of the General Staff Department. So when the two walked in through the guards, Yang Tiancheng was lying on the desk and writing hard, and when he saw Li Xuanqing and Hu Xiaosi coming in, he smiled and said: "Xiaosi, you won't take a fancy to what I have, so you pulled the lord over and prepared to force it, right?" Tell you, don't play this crooked brain, nothing, and lunch doesn't care about you. ”

"Is there a case like you? Why are you more stingy than Tianxiang? My taste is so low that I want what you have here? Hu Xiaosi raised his hand and hit it, and said with a smile while fighting: "Lord, look, this is all a bad problem brought out by Tianxiang, bullying me every day, you also saw it today, but you have to call the shots for me." ”

Li Xuanqing ignored this guy, but walked to the left side of Yang Tiancheng's case, where there was a map of the Youji region, which imitated the military dynamics drawn by later generations with red and blue pens, and pointed to the direction of Hezhong Mansion above: "How long have you been fighting him in this Hezhong Mansion?" Xuan Yingwei sued me, saying that you robbed them of their jobs. ”

As soon as Hu Xiaosi heard this, he immediately jumped up, pointed at Yang Tiancheng and gritted his teeth: "If the lord doesn't say it, I'm almost forgotten, why did the good chess pieces I arranged in Hezhong Mansion be handed over to you by Tianxiang?" And it's obvious that Xuanying Weice rebelled against the city gate order of Hezhong Mansion, how can I see in front of the lord's case that it is your General Yang Da's credit? ”

Yang Tiancheng didn't save face for Hu Xiaosi at all, pointed at his nose and said: "You dare to say that I, you Xuan Yingwei do things by yourself mysteriously and secretly act without saying hello to my general staff, are you still reasonable?" Are you wasting manpower and material resources? ”

Li Xuanqing hurriedly stopped these two guys, otherwise it would be endless, these two guys plotted against the opponent and ended up hitting the same person, but Xuan Yingwei was secretive and had only reported to Li Xuanqing in advance, so the General Staff knew nothing about this matter, and only later did he know that there was a trouble.

Seeing that the two of them were no longer arguing, he pointed to Hezhong Mansion and said: "Hezhong Mansion is the first barrier for us to get out of the customs, and it is also the focus of the contention between your frontal corps and Li Keyong, so no matter whose credit it is, this must be guaranteed, and Hezhong Mansion must be taken quickly, so that Li Keyong can be forced to fight with us in the city, and the garrison Hezhong Mansion can also directly threaten the eastern capital Luoyang, oppressing Zhu Quanzhong and Wang Shifan who dare not let go of attacking Shandong, leaving a foreshadowing for us to solve Shandong in the future." ”

"Shandong Wang Fan Xuanyingwei has already sent someone to contact him, but the specific timing depends on the strength of Zhu Quanzhong's attack to be effective." Hu Xiaosi took over the conversation and said: "The princes of all walks of life in the eastern part of the country are actually a raccoon dog, relatively speaking, Zhu Quanzhong is a little better, at least in the jurisdiction of Bianliang, the people's lives can still be passed." ”

"We don't need to keep these people, Xuan Yingwei should pay attention to those people in society who care about the suffering of the people, there are also talents in troubled times, and in the future, the territory will expand, and the people of the northwest alone will not be enough to manage the whole world." Li Xuanqing naturally knew the virtues of these so-called jiedu envoys, and he didn't want to talk about these things, so he pointed to the Hetao area of the northern line and said: "I can rest assured that you are in charge of the frontal army, the only thing I am worried about now is the northern line." The tasks on the northern front are not lighter than yours, and most of them are cavalry, what do you and Tianxiang recommend for the commander? ”

"Does the lord think Chen Fan's personality is a problem?" Yang Tiancheng asked: "But I have studied with Tianxiang, although Chen Fan has a calm personality and is not good at scheming, but the role of the battle strategy of the large corps is actually not large, and the planning of the war and the decision in the middle of the battle are actually the most important." Therefore, the opinion of our General Staff is still in favor of Chen Fan. ”

"Since this is the case, then directly issue an order to take up the post, and Chen Fan immediately form the Northern Front Group Army, unify the command of the Third Army Corps, the Fifth Army Corps, the Seventh Corps built from the northwest and the grassland cavalry battalion, and garrison the first line from Fengzhou to Tiande City, the combat goal is to wait for the opportunity to seize the Houtao area, and then expand to the north to recover the twenty-four states of Youyun." Li Xuanqing nodded and said, "At the same time, give orders to the Second Army Corps, the directly subordinate battalion and the personal guard battalion to be used as a campaign reserve to support all aspects of the battle at any time." ”

"The entire No. 1 plan will be commanded by you and Chen Fan at the front, and at the latest it will start at the end of March next year, march into Youyou and pass through the Central Plains." In Li Xuanqing's words, Yang Tiancheng also quickly drafted the order, and then Li Xuanqing signed it and handed it over to the flying cavalry to distribute the troops.

"Little Four, what about Xuan Yingwei's plan?" Yang Tiancheng saw that after Li Xuanqing finished speaking, he asked Hu Xiaosi beside him, "Is there anything near us that can be activated?" ”

Hu Xiaosi shook his head and said: "The arrangement of Xuan Yingwei is basically in the area far away from Taiyuan Mansion, the purpose is to mobilize Li Keyong's troops, distract his attention, and provide you with enough space in the early stage, and in the later stage, it will also focus on harassing the opponent's logistics line, so that you can let go of the war." I will send the specific arrangement later, and I will stay at the base camp during this time and arrange it with you. ”

Yang Tiancheng nodded and said, "In that case, should we wait for Li Keyong and Li Cunxiao to finish before we do it?" Our frontal corps differed from the northern front, the weather was not so affected and could fight in winter. ”

"You don't have to wait long, according to the news sent by Xuan Yingwei, this matter is only in the past few days, the Flying Eagle Brigade has entered Xinyang in accordance with the will of the lord, I estimate that it will be over after you have completed the transfer, and when the time comes, you will occupy Hezhong Mansion in one fell swoop, and it will change later." Hu Xiaosi pointed to the distance between Hezhong Mansion and Xinyang and said: "At that time, the entire land of Youzhou and some areas of Hetao and even Bizhou will be ignited with war, which will inevitably make Li Keyong tired and unable to concentrate his troops." I've put up enough back-up hands in several grain fields of the Shatuo people, don't worry. ”

Li Xuanqing said with a smile: "The General Staff can now put the front-line troops into a state of standby, and as long as the opportunity is right, the Central Corps will act immediately, which can also cover the strategic intentions of the northern front." You're ready to form a front-line command. I will stay in the base camp until Tianxiang comes back. When the time comes, the reserves will move with me and be your backup. ”

Several people continued to discuss the details and implement the No. 1 plan to every point, and the land of the Central Plains gradually changed color from this day.