PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket support of book friend Tu Chengwei.

The spring of the third year of the Great Cause came very early, and the land outside the desert was already lush with green grass, and the Dali City where the Qimin Khan lived had expanded from a temporary small wooden city to a large city built of bricks and stones within a radius of five miles, and the city was full of bazaars and yurts, and around the city were the tents dotted with tents and herds of cattle and sheep on the grassland within a radius of dozens of miles. In the middle of this Dali city, a gold-roofed tent stands proudly, enough to accommodate hundreds of people, and in front of this golden-roofed tent, a wolf's head and a big bag flutter high, indicating the authority of the Turkic Khan, the overlord of the entire steppe and the wolf king of the desert.

Qimin Khan was dressed in Hanfu, did not have traditional Turkic braids, but combed a Han-standard bun, wore fine silk clothes, sat on his chair made of sable, put his hands on his thighs, and looked extremely respectful, without any arrogance and arrogance of the Turkic Khan.

And under this khan seat, the two classes on the left and right stood with swords of the Turkic lords, princes, and Teler (all Turkic official positions, equivalent to the clan nobles of the Han people, assigned to each tribe as leaders), and the three brothers, Dubi, Tong Lifu and Duji, were still wearing fur hats, fox fur tight robes, and braided hair on the left side of the typical Hu people's dress, standing closest to the khan, their faces full of grievances and anger, and the hand holding the hilt of the knife was clenched into a fist, trembling slightly.

Changsun Sheng was dressed in a three-grade purple robe, holding a yellow silk national book in his hand, standing proudly in the court of the Turkic Khan. The many Turkic nobles around him did not say a word. The inside of the tent was so quiet that only the sound of the wind blowing through the tent could be heard. And the mood of the crowd was also the same as the curtain that was blown around.

Still Qimin Khan felt that the atmosphere was a little wrong, and laughed dryly: "Ambassador Changsun, I haven't seen you for two years, you have lost a lot of weight, but we have always missed your old friend." ”

Eldest Sun Sheng smiled slightly, revealing two yellow teeth: "Eldest Sun also misses Khan very much, but since I ascended the throne to the Supreme Supreme. I have been busy with internal affairs, and I have not had time to send an envoy to the Turks here in the past two years to pass the book, and now that my Great Sui has been settled internally, the Supreme Remembering the long-standing brotherhood between the Great Khan and my Great Sui, he specially appointed the eldest grandson to come and present the national letter. Please also smile at the Great Khan. ”

Qimin Khan's face became unusually respectful, he stood up, carefully adjusted his clothes, and knelt down to accept the decree as he had done when he accepted Yang Jian's holy decree before.

Duji couldn't help it. He said, "Father Khan, you are the Great Khan of the steppe. The pride of the heavens, even in the face of the heavenly envoys, cannot lose the dignity of our great Turks, how can they kneel to others casually? ”

Qimin Khan's face was slightly red, he knew what kind of status he had in the hearts of the Turks on the steppe, but he didn't expect his son to openly challenge himself here today, he turned his head to look at Du Ji: "What do you kid know, the Celestial Empire has a great grace for our Ashina clan, and Ah Da has always knelt down to receive the holy decree of the Celestial Empire like this before, and he is not standing on the side!" ”

He said: "Father Khan, the former emperor of the Great Sui reigned, he was your father-in-law, and he is the benefactor of our Turks, you kneel to your father-in-law, it is okay, but now the Great Sui has changed to a new son of heaven, and your generation is the same, my Turks and the Great Sui are brothers, you kneel again, I'm afraid it's not suitable." ”

A trace of hesitation flashed on the face of Qimin Khan, as if this was indeed the case, and for a moment he also withdrew his knees that were about to bend and groaned.

Changsun Sheng said coldly: "Although the Turks and the Great Sui are brothers, the Great Sui has great grace to the Great Khan, that is, the Dali City where you are now, and it is also my Great Sui who sacrificed tens of thousands of soldiers and defeated the Dulan Khan, which was established for you, and now although my Great Sui has died in the first emperor, the Great Khan cares about the kindness of the previous emperor and kneels down to my Great Sui, what is inappropriate?" ”

Qimin Khan gritted his teeth, and his eyes flashed: "Okay, don't say it again, Ben Khan has always been grateful for the kindness of the Great Sui, and often thinks about the meaning of loyalty, but also asks Ambassador Changsun to understand the feelings of our Turks. As he spoke, he lifted his placket, ran down on one knee, pressed his hand to his chest, and looked extremely respectful, Changsun Sheng's brows suddenly loosened, and the Turkic people were so angry that they turned their heads one by one and stopped talking.

Changsun Sheng spread out the yellow silk in his hand and began to read aloud the content of the text, mainly saying that Yang Guang missed the Qimin Khan, and would personally patrol the northern border in the near future, and invited the Qimin Khan and the princes to go out on patrol with him.

After Changsun Sheng finished reading, Qimin Khan stood up from the ground, personally took two steps forward, and respectfully accepted the national letter, his face was full of excitement: "Ambassador Changsun, is the Son of Heaven of the Great Sui really coming to Monan this time?" ”

Changsun Sheng laughed: "Aren't these all clearly stated in this national book, this is the first time that our Great Sui Emperor has personally gone out of the fortress, and the Great Khan must receive it well." ”

Qimin Khan said with a smile: "Of course, Ben Khan will definitely prepare well to welcome the arrival of the Great Sui Emperor." Ambassador Changsun, if you don't refuse, Ben Khan is willing to take you to visit this Dali city that you have single-handedly built, and see the changes in our steppe over the years. ”

Changsun Sheng smiled slightly: "This is one of the purposes of Changsun's trip, Great Khan, or do you understand me!" ”

At night, a hidden tent in the northeast corner of the city of Dali looked unremarkable, but outside the tent there were more than twenty guards who looked like merchants, but they were powerful and bright-eyed, and any herdsmen and merchants who wanted to approach here would be driven away by these people, and they could not imagine that the three most noble princes of the Turks were secretly trading in this tent at the moment.

The smell was overflowing, a whole sheep was roasting on the iron shelf in the tent, and beside the three princes, there were several skewers of grilled meat, and two deaf and dumb cooks were indifferently turning the fat sheep, and cutting off slices of barbecued meat, skewering them into meat skewers, and handing them to the three princes who were drinking yogurt wine and eating barbecue.

Tong Lifu took a bite of the mutton on the big skewer in his hand hatefully: "Father Khan is too much, in the past, our insufficient strength could only rely on the strength of the Han people. Just put up with it if you lose some face. But after a few years. The strength of our Turks has been restored, and there are no less than 200,000 people under our three brothers, not to mention the elite of Father Khan's headquarters here, do you still need to be inferior to the Han people? ”

Du Ji poured a large bag of mare's milk wine and wiped his mouth: "Alas, has it been easy for the three of us brothers in the past few years, relying on the thousands of accounts at the beginning." On this grassland, the desert is fighting from north to south to east and west, but it has not received any benefits from the Han people, so can it be so desperate for the Han people? I knew that this was the case, I didn't come to this bird festival anymore, and I was so angry that I pooped! ”

He had never eaten meat, and he thought quietly as he went, the eldest of the three princes, due to his mother's low birth. is considered to be the eldest son, and his status is not as high as that of the two siblings born to the noblewoman of the steppe, Tong Lifu and Du Ji. It is precisely because of this that he was sent far away to the desolate and backward Mobei region to fend for himself, but in the past few years, with the strong support of Wang Shichong, his strength has become the strongest among several brothers, even the unruly Tiele people have been conquered and controlled by him, with 100,000 cavalry. On the grassland, the strong man is king, which is also the capital that he can drink and eat meat with two brothers who have never interacted much.

Du Ji and Tong Lifu glanced at each other and said to Du Bi: "Big brother, but what the younger brother said is wrong, can't it reach your ears?" ”

Dubi shook his head: "How come, today's Father Khan's expression, every Turkic will feel humiliated, what are we Turks?" It is the blue wolf of the desert and the eagle of the grassland, how can he grovel to the Han people all his life! ”

Tong Livier opened his mouth, and a strong smell of wine gushed out, and the firelight reflected his red face: "Big brother, what do you say?" Today, just an eldest grandson Sheng came, so he let his father Khan kneel, and the emperor of the Sui Dynasty came another day, wouldn't we want to be a slave for him, and send urine to him! ”

The corners of his mouth twitched, and he said in a deep voice: "Third brother, what do you say?" ”

Tong Lifu gritted his teeth: "If you want me to say, just don't do it, don't stop it, with the 200,000 people in our brother's hands, wait for the emperor of the Sui Dynasty to come, give him a surprise attack, take him as a hostage, and force the Sui Dynasty to pay tribute every year in the future, haha, how about it, big brother!" ”

Du Bi didn't answer immediately, and turned his head to look at Du Ji, whose face was sinking like water: "Second brother thinks the same way?" ”

Ji Ji hesitated for a moment and said: "Although the idea of the third child is bold, I am afraid that it will not be easy to realize, the emperor of the Sui Dynasty cannot get out of the fortress alone, there must be thousands of troops and horses around him, and the movement of our 200,000 army is too big, if you tell them in advance that this time it is an attack on the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, I am afraid that it will leak the news, and not many people are willing to do it." ”

Du Bi nodded: "What the second brother said is extremely true, such a big thing can't be kept secret, there is no problem with the three of us brothers, but those tribesmen below, Teller may not be of the same mind as us, in case any bastard runs to Changsun Sheng to complain, then it will be over, I heard that the new emperor Yang Guang is not a good person who is willing to keep it, this time he suddenly wants to tour the north, and I don't know for what purpose." We can't be too impulsive this time, we have to wait and see first. ”

Duji laughed: "It's still the eldest brother who can see far, and the younger brother who listens to you." Alas, eldest brother, in fact, this conference, I came mainly to meet you, eldest brother, since our three brothers broke up in Naxia Prefecture five years ago, we have never seen each other, my younger brother has seen the eldest brother strong and strong over the years, that is really happy in my heart. ”

Tong Lifu also echoed: "That is, our two brothers are in Monan and Liaodong, and have their own ways to obtain all kinds of supplies from the Han land, especially smuggled pig iron, but the eldest brother is in Mobei, and you can still do this kind of journey, it is really not easy, is it possible that you still know some nobles who support you in secret?" ”

A strange smile appeared on his face: "You really want to know who has been helping me?" ”

Tong Lifu and Duji's eyes lit up at the same time: "Who is it?" ”

He smiled and stood up, clapped his hands three times, and said in a low voice, "Mr. Wei, you can come in." ”

A medium-sized man wearing a fox fur hat and braided hair, dressed as a Turk, opened the tent, and when he looked up, he saw that his face was slightly dark, his facial features were straight, he had a goatee on his chin, and especially a pair of eyes, which were full of light, and he was by no means ordinary, although he was dressed as a Turk. But at first glance, he is an authentic Chinese scholar. And by his side. It is the number one think tank with gray hair, Gao Baoyi of the former Northern Qi clan.

The person who came was Wei Zheng, this time he was ordered by Wang Shichong to send an envoy to Mobei in Changsun Sheng's team, just to get on the line with the Turks and implement that exquisite plan.

He smiled and introduced the two sides: "This is with my old friend, the richest man in the Sui Dynasty, and the think tank next to Wang Shichong, the general of the Kaifu. Mr. Wei Zhengwei, and these two are my two noble younger brothers, the prince of the grassland, Ashina Lifu, and Ashina Luji. ”

The two sides saluted each other, and the two Turkic princes looked Wei Zheng up and down, and sighed: "The younger brother has long known that the eldest brother must have a noble person to help, but I didn't expect that it was the famous General Wang Shichong, who had him to help." It's not surprising that the eldest brother can develop so quickly, but the younger brother is still a little unclear. Big brother, you are far away in the Northern Desert, how can you establish contact with General Wang? ”

Wang Shichong has gone to the Turks many times, and has been trading with the Turks for many years, and has a very high reputation in the grassland, except for Changsun Sheng, ordinary Turks know that this Central Plains is rich, and the name of the Wang family's shops has long spread throughout the north and south of the desert, even the ignorant Tiele people know that this Wang General of the Central Plains is their food and clothing.

Wei Zheng smiled slightly: "This time my lord ran into some trouble and couldn't come in person, so I specially wanted to apologize to the three princes, but this time before I came out, the lord specially instructed me to cooperate with Prince Dubi for many years, and I have a very tacit understanding, needless to say, but this is the first time I have met and cooperated with Prince Duji and Prince Livier, so I must be sincere." Some things can't be hidden, and it's good to get straight to the point. ”

Du Ji and Tong Lifu glanced at each other, Tong Lifu was the youngest, couldn't hold back, and said: "Listening to Mr. Wei, it seems that he knows our situation very well, right?" ”

Wei Zheng nodded, took out two and a half pieces of jade pendant from his arms, and handed them to Du Ji and Tong Lifu, their faces changed suddenly, this is a token when they traded with Yang Xuangan in Xiazhou, as early as the last years of Renshou, Yang Xuangan walked through Xiazhou with Hongfu (on the Hetao grassland north of Daxing, Shuofang County in the Han Dynasty), and saw Yu Wenhua and Yu Wenzhi and the smuggling of pig iron with the two brothers and the three princes, and will be calculated, Reached a long-term cooperation agreement with the Liang Shidu family, a powerful local person in Shuofang, on the one hand, they and the Turkic prince secretly contacted in the form of pig iron transactions, and on the other hand, they helped the Liang family open a horse market in the mainland.

Du Ji and Tong Lifu also each took out half of the jade pendant from their arms, and the half of the jade pendant in their hands was a pair, and they were exactly the same. While returning this half of the jade pendant to Wei Zheng, Du Ji said: "I didn't expect that General Wang and Yang Shizi are still friends, since the death of Chu Guogong, I heard that Yang Shizi has temporarily cut off contact with our friends in the mainland, and we are also sorry that we may lose this powerful friend of the Yang family." ”

Wei Zheng's face did not change, and said slowly: "Yang Su, the Duke of Chu, is a master of high merit, and Yang Guang is not tolerated, so he is forced to die, and now Yang Shizi and Yang Guang have become an undying enmity, and the faint monarch is jealous of the strength of the Yang family. ”

Tong Lifu said excitedly: "I can't imagine that General Wang and Yang Shizi are also dissatisfied with the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, and they have the intention to cause trouble, big brother, how is the situation you talked to General Wang, can he help us kill the emperor of the Sui Dynasty and then attack the Central Plains?" ”

Wei Zheng's face changed, and he said: "Third Prince, Wei feels the need to remind you that the reason why General Wang and Yang Shizi intend to get rid of the faint monarch is because Yang Guang is cruel and unkind, and he may attack Yang Shizi and my lord at any time with his faint violence. ”

Tong Lifu's face also sank suddenly: "If you don't lead us into the Han Pass, what are you doing with us?" Could it be that you came here on this adventure to talk to us about doing business in the future? ”

Seeing that the atmosphere was a little wrong, he hurriedly said: "Third brother, you misunderstood, what Mr. Wei and General Wang mean is that we will join forces to get rid of the tyrant and set up another master, and in the future, the new emperor and our Turks will be a real brotherly state and get along with each other on an equal footing, instead of sending Changsun Sheng over in front of all the tribal lords and princes to openly humiliate our Great Khan like today." ”

Du Ji patted Tong Lifu on the shoulder, signaled him not to get excited, turned to Wei Zheng and said, "Mr. Wei, do you want to discuss a way with us to let General Wang and Yang Shizi be the internal response, and lead us to attack and kill him during Yang Guang's next northern tour?" ”

Wei Zheng shook his head: "No, you may not know, Yang Guang won the position of the prince by acting, and later killed his father and brother, so he is extremely insecure, every day out of a gong has to be guarded by dozens of guards, and more than 200,000 people on both sides of the canal have to follow on both sides of the canal. In the grand pomp and circumstance, although the three of you are strong and strong, I am afraid that it is unlikely that you will succeed in a sneak attack. ”

The faces of Du Ji and Tong Lifu suddenly turned pale, and the pride and ambition of wanting to attack Yang Guang and enter the Central Plains just now disappeared all of a sudden, and Tong Lifu's eyes widened in surprise: "Five, five hundred thousand troops? ”

Wei Zheng smiled slightly: "The population of the Great Sui has exceeded nine million households, 50 million people, and there are no less than two million soldiers from all over the country, and when he destroyed Nan Chen, he used more than 500,000 troops, and counterattacked your Turks twice, and each time he sent out more than 300,000 troops, this is still the result of the emperor's cherishing of the people's power and no national mobilization, Yang Guangke doesn't care about these, he needs to make as much pomp as possible, so this time the entire Guanzhong to Bingzhou, Jizhou's government soldiers, more than 500,000 foot cavalry, have all set off, Listed on the thousand-mile official road from the Eastern Capital to Daizhou, why, you don't know such a heavy inland military situation? ”

A trace of helplessness flashed in Du Ji's eyes: "Alas, Mr. Wei, you don't know, since our Turks surrendered to your Great Sui, all the markets that were originally in the border pass have been moved to Dali City, a nomadic city in the south of the desert, and our Turkic merchants are not allowed to enter the Han Pass, so they can't send spies to the Great Sui." If Mr. Wei hadn't been willing to sue us about this, we would still be blind to us. ”

Wei Zheng's heart moved, he originally thought that only Prince Dubi was far away in Mobei and was not familiar with the situation in the Central Plains, but he didn't expect that Du Ji and Tong Lifu, who were in the Monan and Hulunbuir grasslands, also knew nothing about the Central Plains.

But Wei Zheng's face still had a look of pampering and dismay: "Our lord has known these things for a long time, so this time I have asked me to inform the two princes, don't be impulsive, the strength of the Great Sui is so strong, the strength of the army, not that you can deal with it now, when the two Khans of the Eastern and Western Turks were extremely prosperous, they joined forces and were not the opponents of the Great Sui, and now only you are the only one left, and your father Khan still does not agree with your approach, so you can't be reckless, if you are not careful, the Ashina clan will be wiped out." ”

Du Ji and Tong Lifu were covered in a cold sweat when they heard this, and while raising their sleeves to wipe their sweat, they secretly said that they were lucky, and Lu Ji asked, "What does General Wang mean?" Do you want us to miss this opportunity, and just like Yang Shizi, lurking and waiting? ”

Wei Zheng smiled slightly: "The two princes have been secretly trading pig iron with the current General Zuo Yiwei and the two sons of Xu Guogongyu Wenshu for many years. ”

Du Ji and Tong Lifu glanced at Du Bi in unison, and said with a smile: "We have already seen the matter with the Yuwen family, Yang Shizi has already seen it, let's talk to Mr. Wei about this matter today." (To be continued......)