(First update.) ）

Mu Gehua's visit to Youzhou was just a small episode for Li Congjing, and after making proper arrangements for his living, Li Congjing devoted himself to the work of building Youzhou. Although he intends to reuse Mu Gehua, but if he wants to hurry, he will not be able to reach it, this matter is not urgent, and whether Mu Gehua can be used remains to be seen, not to mention anything else, how he treats the Tang Dynasty, it will take time to observe.

If Li Congjing wants to use Mu Gehua, it is impossible to use the wolf to drive the tiger, if Mu Gehua is willing to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, Li Congjing is naturally happy to help him take revenge and use him to deal with the Khitan, but if Mu Gehua lacks respect for the Tang Dynasty, or is unwilling to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, Li Congjing may still use him at the moment, but how to use it must be different.

The Youzhou border army has come to an end in a vigorous and resolute test, and the proportion of layoffs in the Hundred Battles Army is not large, but the absolute number is also very large, reaching about 3,000 people, which is mainly because of the several major battles after the conquest of Huaizhou, the personnel of the Hundred Battles Army swelled too fast, so that the quality of the soldiers was not neat.

Although the army strength of the Lu Long Army is only half of that of the Hundred Battles Army, there are only 10,000 people, but the number of soldiers who have been eliminated has reached more than 2,000. In addition, the military strength of the town army in Youzhou is retained in seven or eight out of ten, which is not because the combat power of the town army is stronger than that of Lu Long's army, but because Li Congjing lowered the requirements for these town troops according to the actual situation. In particular, the border guards have not been eliminated much. Although the strategy of strengthening the army is carried out in a big way, it cannot be blindly achieved in one step.

The vacant number of troops needs to be replenished, and not only that, Li Congjing still has plans to expand the army. It's just that the expansion of the army will be carried out on a large scale only after there is enough food and ordnance, and at most some "reservists" will be recruited in the early stage. Because of Li Congjing's deeds of recovering Pingzhou last year and repeatedly defeating the Khitan, the recruitment of troops went smoothly. In this case, it is naturally not difficult to recruit strong men.

After recruiting troops, it is training, and the Hundred Battles Army has long been familiar with the road, and Li Congjing still let Peng Zushan lead the overall situation. Peng Zushan's ability to train new pawns is beyond doubt, which has been fully proven before. In addition, Li Congjing asked Meng Ping and Guo Wei to assist Peng Zushan in commanding the training of various towns in Kyushu under the Youzhou Festival.

In addition to military training, all aspects of agricultural work have also been carried out in an orderly manner, and large-scale land reclamation and land preparation have already been completed; due to the urgency of time, spring planting cannot be missed, and the work of building water conservancy and irrigation facilities can only be carried out at the same time as spring ploughing. Wei Xingming and other former officials of Li Congjing, and Fei Gaozhang and other local state civil officials were very busy at this time.

In the early summer, Wang Buqi reported to Li Congjing that he led officials at all levels in Kyushu to build more than a dozen large and small fishing grounds in the coastal areas of Pingzhou, Jizhou, Youzhou, and Cangzhou, and what was even more gratifying was that two large sea salt manufacturing sites were built. Youyun's fishing and salt benefits naturally cannot be compared with Jianghuai, but under Wang Buqi's excavation, according to his old-fashioned statement, this year's output can be three times higher than that of previous years, which is quite considerable.

With these, Li Congjing will not worry about having no money to train and expand the army in the coming year, and increase the military strength of Youyun.

In the first year of Tongguang, after Li Congjing went north, he was determined to "become a cloudy sky", and now whether it is military or agricultural affairs, he has been on the right track, and his ambition is finally no longer empty talk, but really to be realized!

Whether it is Youyun or the Tang Dynasty, they are basically happy to see what Li Congjing does, because the fundamental interests of all parties are the same, that is, to seek the strength of one place and one country, so all parties are very cooperative with Li Congjing. But some people don't want to see Li Congjing do these things, especially when Li Congjing handles all affairs in an orderly manner and is about to become a trend, some people can't sit still.

Li Congjing was originally very concerned about the situation in the grassland, and never stopped infiltrating the grassland, striving to find some trouble for the Khitan from the inside one day, or even inflict a heavy blow on it. Especially after Mucohua arrived in Youzhou, Li Congjing stepped up this pace even more. However, he is not alone.

You, Ji, Tan three states border, Shuntian Town.

As an ordinary county town in the land of clouds, Shuntian Military Town only has less than 500 town soldiers, and the town general is named Zhao Tianhe, who has just passed forty in the first year of Tongguang, and now he has gone through nearly a year at the age of not confused. However, for Zhao Tianhe, the lack of confusion in age did not really bring him confusion, on the contrary, his days ago were full of confusion.

Some time ago, the newly appointed envoy of Youzhou Jiedu ordered to carry out a capital test in Kyushu, requiring the army to eliminate those who failed the test, and the number of people who were eliminated in the Shuntian Town Army reached three or four out of ten.

"When it comes to killing barbarians, when has Lao Tzu Shuntian Town been worse than anyone, the number of enemies killed by Lao Tzu's two teams can be equal to those turtle grandsons 200 people, damn it! In terms of military merits, Lao Tzu Shuntian Town's military merits are great, why is Lao Tzu the most laid off? ! ”

This is a sentence that Zhao Tianhe often complained about after the disarmament. Whenever he said this, Zhao Wu, who was Zhao Tianhe's closest confidant, would not say a word.

Zhao Tianhe's method of leading troops is different from that of ordinary generals, although he has 300 people under his command, but in fact, whenever the Khitan enters the country and there is a war under his jurisdiction, he only takes 60 people to fight to hunt the Khitan rangers and leave the small group of cavalry in the brigade. Every time he goes into battle, he will surely gain something, but his own casualties are very small. This is not how Zhao Tianhe's personal force is outstanding, it all depends on his method of leading troops.

Zhao Tianhe used the resources of the 300 town army to train 60 elite cavalry. As far as he is concerned, those sixty horsemen are the combat power, and as for the other two hundred people, Zhao Tianhe is just taking them with him.

"Fighting against the Khitan barbarians, the foot soldiers are useless, only the cavalry is used, and the ordinary cavalry is useless, you must use the fine cavalry! The border army is poor, and the military expenditure is so little, rather than spreading it evenly over the heads of 300 people, and as a result, they can't train an elite and die in vain in front of the Khitan barbarian thieves, it is better to use it all to train elite cavalry, this is the way to lead the troops! This is a sentence that Zhao Tianhe often hangs on his lips.

This method once created a record for Zhao Tianhe that shocked Li Cunxian, but again, because he neglected to train other soldiers, he was reprimanded by Li Cunxian, because although he had many military exploits, his promotion was slow.

In the autumn of the first year of Tongguang, Zhao Tianhe, who had been promoted to the captain of Danzhou Zhechong, was bumped into by Li Congjing, who happened to be passing by, because of his subordinates robbing the people's daughters a few days before leaving Shuntian Town, and was deprived of the opportunity to be promoted. The brand-new letter of appointment became a piece of waste paper before it was hot in his hands.

In this regard, Zhao Tianhe once said angrily: "Lao Tzu's brother played with the Khitan barbarians with his head, made countless military exploits, and protected the peace of one party, what happened to marrying a woman?" Could it be that the border army is destined to not even be able to please a mother-in-law? ”

That incident was done by Zhao Wu, because Zhao Wu could not say anything about it. In fact, he didn't want to mention it.

On this day, Zhao Tianhe called Zhao Wu and said to him with a solemn face: "Take two teams of elite horsemen and follow me out of the city." ”

Zhao Wu's heart was slightly cold, and he wanted to ask, but seeing Zhao Tianhe's face and dark eyes, he didn't say much. Walking out of the door, the doubts in Zhao Wu's heart lingered: the combat power of Shuntian Town is all on the two teams of elite cavalry and Zhao Tianhe's team of personal soldiers, and now "pouring out", there must be something very important, but at the moment, I have not heard of the Khitan Koubian, the entry, and I have not heard of which bandits are going to be exterminated, and there is no major event in the county, so why is it that so many elite soldiers are summoned out of the camp at this time?

After a young age, Zhao Tianhe and Zhao Wu rode out of the city under more than 60 elite horsemen.

I went out of the city in the morning, and at dusk, everyone galloped for nearly a hundred miles, and then stopped.

The location here is remote, the surrounding is deserted, even the farmland is scarce, the mountains and forests are a quiet scene, there is a small river flowing from the foot of the mountain, there is a pavilion by the small river, the age is ancient, the traces are mottled.

Zhao Wu felt very strange that there could be such a small pavilion here, and without waiting for him to say anything, Zhao Tianhe walked towards the small pavilion. In front of the pavilion, he left the elite cavalry, and only brought two guards and Zhao Wu into the pavilion. Zhao Tianhe sat down in front of the stone bench in the pavilion, untied the horizontal knife and put it on the stone case, and looked at the river.

Zhao Wu felt even more strange, and finally couldn't help but ask Zhao Tianhe, "General, why did we travel so far?" ”

Zhao Tianhe's eyes were far-reaching, he did not immediately answer Zhao Wu's question, but asked about another matter, "Last year, you fell in love with Liu Wenhan's granddaughter, and wanted to marry her, and repeatedly saluted, but it was not allowed, and then you set up a banquet in the military camp, and went to force the woman to return to the camp. ”

"Yes."

"What happened?"

Zhao Wu didn't know what Zhao Tianhe wanted to talk about at this time, but he still said honestly: "That day, the military marshal went north and was bumped into by him, so this matter was not successful. Speaking of this, he laughed at himself, "When the Japanese marshal also stomped on the head of the lowly officer, let the lowly students experience the military law of the military marshal!" ”

Zhao Tianhe took Zhao Wu's words, "When the Japanese general received a messenger message, they knew that you had made a big disaster, and the military commander wanted to expel you from the barracks. ”

"The general has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, the humble position is useless, the general has been demoted, the general is kind, and the humble position is unforgettable!" In all fairness, Zhao Wu was very reluctant to go about this matter.

"Why do you and my brother say this?" Zhao Tianhe waved his hand and sighed: "Since then, you have never touched a woman again, and you blame yourself too much, why bother?" Over the years, when it should have risen but did not rise, is there still less? In this regard, Ben has long been disheartened. ”

"General......" Zhao Wu was in a complicated mood and didn't know what to say.

Zhao Tianhe sighed, "Regardless of these, over the years, you have followed the general's side, made countless sweat and blood contributions for the birth and death of the Tang Dynasty, and the heads of the more than 100 Khitan barbarians were all exchanged for your life by you and my brother...... Over the years, how many hot-blooded sons have lost their lives, but they have not been treated as they should be, I often hate them in my heart, and I can't sleep at night! ”

"General......

Zhao Tianhe waved his hand, signaling that Zhao Wu did not need to comfort him, turned his head to look at him, and asked with a blazing gaze: "Zhao Wu, you tell the general that you were humiliated by the military commander last year, and you were forced to plead guilty to Liu Wenhan, do you have resentment in your heart?" ”

"General, humble ......" Zhao Wu's heart moved, and he was about to say something, when a sergeant standing outside the pavilion said to Zhao Tianhe: "General, they are here!" ”

Zhao Tianhe stood up and looked at the upper reaches of the river with his hands.

Zhao Wu swallowed the words on his lips and looked into the distance with Zhao Tianhe.

Upstream of the river, three wooden boats appeared. On each small wooden boat, there were two people standing in the front and back. What made Zhao Wu raise his eyebrows was that these people were all tall and swordsmanlike, and they were not easy to match at first glance.

After the appearance of the wooden boat, dozens of horses rushed out of the road on the shore and came to the small pavilion. After this group of cavalry dressed in the clothes of ordinary people appeared, they divided into small halves in the middle of the road and went in all directions. From time to time, he met with the Shuntian Zhenjingqi, stopped the horse's feet twenty paces away, and confronted the Shuntian Zhenjingqi quietly.

"Elite!" This was Zhao Wu's evaluation of the cavalry that suddenly appeared, and the surprise in his heart was even worse.

Suddenly, three wooden boats docked, and a sturdy man walked out of the cabin, his eyes swept coldly over the people in the pavilion, and finally landed on Zhao Tianhe, and said indifferently, "Your Excellency is Zhao Tianhe, the general of Shuntian Town?" ”

Zhao Tianhe stood proudly, not losing to the people who came in terms of momentum, and said lightly: "Under Zhao Tianhe!" After that, he said loudly to the cabin: "Since Your Excellency is here, why do you hide your head and tail and dare not come out to meet people?" ”

The man at the bow of the ship was about to get angry, when the curtain behind him was lifted, and out of it came a young man dressed as a gentleman. Seeing this person, Zhao Wu's heart jumped, and the keen perception and intuition cultivated over the years on the battlefield made him feel that this person was extremely dangerous. Even if the other party smiled warmly, it seemed that he was harmless to humans and animals, but his sharp eyes seemed to be choosing people to devour at any time. And the nobility naturally revealed by the other party made Zhao Wu more sure that this person's identity must not be simple.

"Who is this, why is he here, and why is the general meeting him?" These are the three major questions hovering in Zhao Wu's mind.

"General Zhao is so anxious to see me, but he is very hospitable, and this king admires it!" The young man smiled.

"This king?" Hearing the other party's self-proclaim, Zhao Wu was shocked.

The young man got off the boat and entered the pavilion, the man from before took one step ahead, two steps in front of Zhao Tianhe, stretched out his hand and grabbed the horizontal knife that Zhao Tianhe put on the stone case, the movement was fast, and he was about to be caught by him. Zhao Wu's eyes were quick, and he immediately took a step, and the hands of the two fell on the horizontal knife at the same time.

When the two of them looked at each other, they both flashed with a flash of light, and the other hand reached into their waist at the same time, and they pulled out their sabers like lightning and slashed them in front of them!

The sturdy man gritted his teeth and said to Zhao Wu, who had a gloomy face: "Those who meet His Highness must first untie their weapons!" ”

The strength of Zhao Wu's hand did not decrease but increased, at this time, even if he had a thousand doubts in his heart, he temporarily suppressed it, and in the face of the other party's shouting tone, he said angrily: "Fuck you!" ”

The sturdy man was furious, "If you don't let go, Lao Tzu will cut off your head!" ”

Zhao Wu's eyes were cold, and he said, "You can try!" ”

The two of them fought fiercely here, and dozens of horsemen on both sides looked at them sideways, as if one was wrong, they would draw their knives and make a move.

However, Zhao Tianhe and the young man opposite him looked indifferent, as if they were completely unaware of the tension in front of them.

"I have just praised General Zhao's enthusiasm, but this hospitality has disappointed the king." The young man smiled faintly, as if joking.

Zhao Tianhe knew very well in his heart that the other party was going to "untie the knife" when he came up, just to overwhelm his own side in momentum, so as to facilitate the conversation later. He would not let the other party succeed, and said lightly at this time: "My Tang border army, the armor does not leave the body, the knife does not leave the hand, it has always been like this, this point, I am afraid that Your Excellency will be disappointed." ”

He didn't even call the word "Your Highness", only called the other party "Your Excellency", just because he didn't want to be inferior to the other party in terms of momentum.

"Datang soldiers?" The young man laughed, looked at Zhao Tianhe playfully, and said mockingly: "How many days can General Zhao be a Tang soldier?" Now that I have met this king, I will be able to act according to the Khitan rules in the future, and the identity of the Tang Dynasty soldier is better to forget it a long time ago! ”

After speaking, Shi Shiran walked towards another stone case.

Zhao Tianhe stood in place, his face gloomy, "That's how the Khitan treats allies in such an aggressive manner?" ”

The young man smiled and said, "Among allies, interests come first, if it is advantageous, there are allies, and if it is not profitable, there are no allies." As for attitude, what's the matter? If the general wants, this king will give it to you. ”

After that, the man who signaled to wrestle with Zhao Wu took the initiative to stop.

Zhao Tianhe sat down silently.

Zhao Wu heard the conversation between the two sides, if there was a thunderbolt in his mind, he was free at this time, and couldn't help but say to the young man: "Who are you?!" ”

The young man listened to Zhao Wu's words and pointed at Zhao Tianhe, "Who am I, didn't Zhao Tianhe tell you?" After speaking, without waiting for Zhao Tianhe to answer, he shook his robe lightly and said: "This king, the generalissimo of the soldiers and horses of the Great Khitan State, Yelu Deguang!" ”