"Now that Xue Yang has been gone for almost seven days, is there any news from Xuan Yingwei?" In Xu Tianxiang's office in the General Staff Building, Yang Tiancheng was holding a list sent by the logistics department, where was there a match, and he chatted with Xu Tianxiang.

"Forget it, you seem to have to nag a few words every day about this matter, how did I find that your mouth has become so broken since you returned to the General Staff War Department? Tomorrow is the annual meeting, and the emperor said that the plan of the General Staff this year will make you catch the knife. And I have another thing to tell you, two days ago, the emperor said that he would consider adding a Ministry of Defense to the cabinet and divide part of the functions and powers of the General Staff Headquarters. Xu Tianxiang was a little speechless about this guy, and in fact, after Xue Yang and the others left, all the high-level leaders of the General Staff were worried about their team. But Xu Tianxiang still thought of one thing, before Li Xuanqing and Xu Tianxiang discussed and prepared to divide the functions and powers of the Tiance Mansion into a part, set up the Ministry of National Defense, placed in the cabinet, and be responsible for the daily training, training and related matters of the army, and the General Staff and the Tiance Mansion became a full-time command organization.

Yang Tiancheng nodded, in fact, all the high-level officials of the empire are worried about the current functions and powers of the Tiance Mansion, the current powers of the Tiance Mansion are too big, and it has become an institution with greater power than the cabinet, and because the empire has been at war, there is simply not enough time to deal with the issue of dividing powers, and all the high-level officials, including Xu Tianxiang and Cen Tianshi, are worried that their generation and Li Xuanqing are fighting together, no matter how great the power is, it is not a big problem. But if the habit is formed and wait until a hundred years later, after your own generation withdraws from the stage of history, those successors of the empire will really do all kinds of things, thus threatening the stability of the empire. Therefore, Li Xuanqing thought about it and remembered that in the political systems of various countries in his previous life, it seemed that the daily training of the army and the command and operation were separated, and the two performed their own duties but cooperated with each other and hindered each other.

Therefore, Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi's other thoughts during this period of time were to improve this system, so as to start splitting the various functions and powers of Tiance Mansion, and bring this system similar to that of later generations to this era. In fact, this kind of system of separating the daily training and command of the army Li Xuanqing remembers that it was basically in place at least in the Song Dynasty, and the system of the Privy Council and the division of the military system is not bad, but Li Xuanqing also sees the shortcomings of this system, so what makes Xu Tianxiang and Cen Tianshi focus on important modifications is that the situation of pulling each other's hind legs occurs when the two contain each other. For this reason, Li Xuanqing took off all the command rights of the Ministry of Defense over the army in one fell swoop, and let it be responsible for the daily affairs of the army full-time, and basically retained other departments of the Tiance Mansion, but handed over the Recruit Office and the Political Training Office to the Ministry of National Defense, and the military court corps was also expanded into a military court under the control of the Ministry of Defense, but the newly established military court was also subject to the control of the law court, which can be regarded as a constraint.

However, Cen Tianshi finally revised this part of Li Xuanqing's rules and transferred the command of all members of the Central Garrison Battalion from the General Staff and the Ministry of National Defense to Li Xuanqing himself. Li Xuanqing also knew about the actions of the two of them, and the power of the reformed Tiance Mansion was greatly weakened, but the power of the Ministry of Defense, especially the influence of the army, was increasing day by day. Moreover, according to the geographical division of the military training in the future, the closest to the Beijing division will inevitably be the central garrison battalion, and this part of the military force that is free from the military and political departments will become the best force to stabilize the political situation. In addition, the decision on the peacetime training of the Central Garrison Battalion was also divided into two, and the Ministry of Defense and the Imperial Family jointly handled it.

All in all, the plan made by the three of them can be considered to have taken all aspects into account, and if announced this year, it will be able to nip the crisis in the bud at the earliest opportunity. Because this year is the penultimate year of Cen Tianshi's first cabinet, which means that the first political system of the Tang Dynasty is about to come to an end, and all levels of the empire are actually gradually adapting to this system, but the actual age of today's top leaders of the empire is very young, and everyone's eyes are actually staring at this time, just to see how the political rules formulated by Li Xuanqing himself should actually be implemented.

"I will implement this matter, and after the annual meeting, I will cooperate with the cabinet to form the Ministry of Defense first, but I am afraid that the candidate for the Minister of Defense will not be determined by Mr. Cen, right? After all, it was impossible for the prime minister to intervene in the General Staff after the separation of the military and the government. Yang Tiancheng thought for a while and said, "You can't let the emperor choose by himself, right?" Our third child doesn't have the bad problems of the previous emperors. ”

"I'm also worried about this matter, there are still three days to go, and then a decision will definitely need to be made at the annual meeting, and the first defense minister will definitely be concerned by everyone, not casually." Xu Tianxiang scratched his head and smiled bitterly, this kind of thing is really troublesome, and the most important thing is that after the Minister of Defense is elected, it is equivalent to ruining the future of this general in the army, especially when the empire is still fighting endlessly, basically all the high-level generals want to go to the front line and make military achievements.

"Forget it, it is estimated that the emperor has a plan, and if you can't think of it, forget it." Yang Tiancheng shook his head and turned around and walked out, saying, "I'll go to find Xiao Si, the news of Xuan Yingwei has always been faster than that of our General Staff." ”

"You wait for me, accompany me to see the teacher later, and take our eldest nephew by the way." Xu Tianxiang followed closely and chased after him.

And when Chang'an was worried about Xue Yang, the troops that crossed the snowy plateau had just drilled out of the mountains of Qilian Mountain, and Biao Zi saw the wasteland with snow foam in front of him and laughed: "This time the son finally came out, damn it, I finally didn't die in this endless mountain, now I want to find a yak to eat." ”

"You can forget about the yak, but we can eat more sheep that looks like something, and I'll let the guards take people on a trip later." Xu Ying on the side smiled and said: "In this way, we can also save some grain and grass, there is snow everywhere, and it is estimated that there is no one in the wild, what should we do next?" ”

"You don't know how to lead the way, how do we know?" Li Yang on the side couldn't help it, and directly complained: "You don't know how we should go?" I remember that the emperor asked the General Staff to inform the armies that your Xuanying Guard is meticulous and meticulous, and there will never be mistakes or omissions? ”

"This is in the snow-capped mountains of Tibet, how do I know what to do?" Biao Zi jumped directly off the stretcher, pointed at Li Yang and scolded with a smile: "If I have the ability to find a way on this snowy mountain wasteland, I'm afraid that I will become a god, okay?" Why don't you use your brains? Forget it, you can't reason with you people who carry guns every day, let me take a look. Biao Zi roughly identified the direction, then spread out the map with Xue Yang and nodded: "It seems that our current position is not far off, we should be in the east of Qiangtang now, that is, the area between Qilian Mountain and Tanggula Mountain, so it will be windy here." The next step is to walk along the southern foot of the mountain range, so that we can quickly cross the Tibetan area and enter Khotan. ”

"Then inform the people, those who should go hunting will go hunting immediately, and the rest of the people will start to cook on the spot, and we will set off as soon as we have eaten." Xue Yang nodded and said, "According to the time, we have walked a lot in the past seven days." ”

"That's right, I said my Xue Dashuai, do you know how many miles you have walked? I feel that your Third Corps as a whole is an immortal, this Qilian Mountain has at least a thousand miles to go from Jincheng to here, you have walked in seven days, and it is still a plateau area, you are already comparable to the speed of the cavalry, you should be content, right? ”

"I'm going to eat first, it's still the brains of the logistics department, and I actually came up with this kind of coal, what is it called honeycomb coal or something." Biao Zi pulled a few people and began to pile the honeycomb coal sent by the logistics department together, then poured fire oil and finally lit it, the bonfire began to burn, and there was finally a warm breath in the iceberg and snow. The other soldiers of the Third Corps also began to live and cook in a learned manner, but the meals cooked in this plateau area were basically half-cooked, and most of the baggage in the logistics department was cooked food and dry food, put it in snow water, and boiled it casually and ate it. As for the hundreds of messy animals that the guards brought back, they were thrown to the logistics department to deal with themselves. Two hours later, the corps set out again, and although the climate at the southern foot was still extremely cold, the road was much easier than in the mountains. The 3rd Battalion and the Mountain Battalion had been stationed in the Wonju and Muqi areas for a long time, so although it was extremely laborious in this climate, there was no problem, and the marching speed was much faster than before.

"Xue Yang, according to the map, there should be a temporary station set up by our Xuanying Guard a hundred miles ahead, responsible for picking us up in front, by the way, let's get some supplies, and by the way, leave those wounded behind for them to transport back to Tibet." Biaozi pointed to the road ahead as he walked.

"That's fine, our Third Corps is not a big problem, but the number of troops attached to the Logistics Department who have fallen from altitude sickness in the past few days is quite a lot, and counting those who have recovered, I am afraid that there are still hundreds of people. Now I'm not worried, I'm afraid that more and more people will fall as the forced march continues. Originally, the logistics department sent them to assist us, but it turned out that we were in trouble to take care of him. Xue Yang nodded and smiled bitterly.

"Don't worry, our Xuan Yingwei has already arranged it, but Minister Zuo is a person specially sent to you, can you be considerate and considerate of his old man? And you all said that Xuan Yingwei is meticulous, so there must be some arrangement. The bitch looked at Li Yang beside him with a look of disgust and scolded with a smile: "In the future, there will be a temporary station every three hundred miles, which will contain the wounded and sick while passing on the latest information, so that we can prepare in advance." The Tibetans on the other side of Qiangtang are estimated to have ties with Khotan and the Uighurs. ”

Before Xue Yang could speak, Li Yang interjected on the side: "Wasn't it done by the Tubo people before Khotan's annihilation?" How do you mean that the connection between them is not ordinary? "He had been stationed in Hanzhong before, and by the way, he assisted the Construction Corps in opening up the Shuzhong Passage. The straight road between Shuzhong and Hanzhong had already been repaired, but considering the construction plan of the railway from Hanzhong to Shuzhong, the Railway Department decided to widen it next to the straight road and use it as a construction railway. Therefore, not much is known about the specific situation of the war in Khotan and the northwest.

"Forget it, when I didn't say anything." As soon as Li Yang's mouth was closed, Xue Yang smiled bitterly: "I'm afraid that when the time comes, we will have to face enemies from all sides at the same time, so we still need a lot of help from your Xuanying Guard." ”

"Alas, I found that not only I was calculated by you, but I am afraid that Qin Kong, who is far away in Khotan, and Zhao Si in Shazhou, have been calculated by you. Honestly, did the chief of staff explain to you our Xuanyingwei's hole cards? Biao Zi looked at Xue Yang with a wry smile and shook his head: "I can't say the specific northwest plan for the time being, but this time Xuan Yingwei's plan is top secret, and the only front line that knows all the details is Zhao Si and Hou Chun, who were in charge of coordinating the overall situation." ”

"Forget it, I don't embarrass you, anyway, you should be able to know after arriving in Khotan as you." Xue Yang nodded.

"In that case, let's speed up in advance, if we arrive a day early, we will have one more day to prepare. I don't want anything now, not all the battles we've fought over the years have been thrilling, so it doesn't matter if I'm in Khotan this time. Xu Ying shook his head and waved his hand to let the herald send the message back and forth, and the speed of movement suddenly began to increase.

"Why are you Third Corps so crazy from top to bottom?" Biao Zi watched the soldiers of the third battalion beside him begin to follow the pace of Xue Yang and Xu Ying and began to accelerate silently, the speed of the third battalion that made Biao Zi terrifying increased again, this time the more than 10,000 people in the logistics were directly thrown down from afar, and the 57th battalion of Li Yang, who followed closely behind, took over the baggage directly from the hands of many logistics soldiers and helped them start to accelerate the pursuit of the third battalion and the mountain battalion, and a corps of the 30,000 army actually rushed crazy on the plateau like this, like a wild horse roaring away with rolling snow foam.

This scene on the plateau was recorded in his memoirs by the retired Biaozi after a lapse of several decades, and this memory also made the Third Corps, which later became a legend, more mysterious and more legendary. However, at this time, Biao Zi was not happy at all, he had been walking in the dark before returning to the headquarters of the Xuan Ying Guard, busy leading the work of the dark guards in various places, how could he have experienced this kind of forced march? So within an hour, altitude sickness flared up again, and he was carried and run by Xue Yang's personal guard captain.

When the Third Corps was rushing forward on the plateau, the situation on the Khotan side also began to gradually move towards the final outcome, and Zhao Si's side also began to give the final order after receiving the signal from Biaozi's side.