Huaixi, Huaixi! Pei Du's primary goal after coming to power is, of course, Huaixi!

Once, the feudal town was only a special product of the border and a barrier of the empire, but the fission during the Tianbao period changed everything. When the pot-bellied An Lushan chose to betray, when the wolf-like rebels captured the imperial capital, when the war spread in every inch of the Tang Empire, when the once prosperous inland became a bleak frontier, when the once stable rear became a tragic front line, it naturally gave birth to large and small inland feudal towns, and the Huaixi Jiedu Envoy (whose real name is Huainan Xidao Jiedu Envoy) also came into being.

At one time, Huaixi was a loyal warrior of the empire and a headache enemy for the rebels: Huaixi, the first envoy of Huaixi, who was born in the inland domain of Beacon Fire in March, was a man with archery like a god, and a man named Lai Yao with archery like a god. When the rebels swarmed like a tide, they stood at the head of the city calmly, calmly stretched their bows and arrows, dotted the cold stars, crossed the cloudy sky, and burrowed into the throat of the enemy like a snake. The cold arrows, the pain that pierced the throat, tormented the nerves of every enemy, and fear hung over the heads of the rebels like an invisible net, and the collapse followed, and in an instant, the menacing rebels were defeated like a tide. Lai Yao, who became famous in World War I, has since become a nightmare for the rebels, and he himself has earned a well-known nickname, "Come and Chew Iron"! It's a pity that the brave and warlike general did not die from the rebels' guns and arrows, but died from the suspicion of the Son of Heaven and the false accusations of the eunuchs. The honeymoon between Huaixi and Chang'an is not over yet, and their former chief, who came to chew iron with great prestige, has died with hatred.

Lu Jiong, the second governor of Huaixi, is a particularly tolerant person. In fact, the record of his trapped in the lonely city is a whole year and a little bit more. Nanyang, Nanyang in the storm, Nanyang in the heavy encirclement, like a boulder, stands in the center of the rebels, stumbling on the footsteps of the rebels and protecting the Jianghuai behind them. But what a tragic situation was in Nanyang at that time! A bucket of rice has grown to a sky-high price of forty or fifty thousand, but it is still priceless rice, not to mention a bucket of rice, there is not a grain of rice! Cowhide, beef tendon, horn eaten, everyone disgusted rat has become a delicious delicacy, a skinny mouse can actually be sold for 400 Wen, this is probably the most expensive mouse in history, I don't know if the rat children and rat grandchildren heard this glorious history of their ancestors, is it envy, or happy? Although the rat race has a super reproductive ability and has a much greater ability to reproduce offspring than humans, it is still eaten up. Hungry and crazy, people began to look at their own kind with greed, "cannibalism". Even so, Nanyang City is still "starving to death", and dead bodies are everywhere. It was in such a difficult situation that Lu Jiong was stunned from the turn of the spring and summer of the first year of Zhide to May of the second year of Zhide, and the reinforcements were delayed, and Lu Jiong, who could no longer bear it, chose to break through, you said that he could bear it or not.

When the beacon fires everywhere gradually extinguished, when the smoke of gunpowder gradually dissipated, Li Zhongchen sat on the throne of the Huaixi Jiedu envoy and became the first governor of Huaixi after the war. As mentioned earlier, Li Zhongchen's real name is Dong Qin, and he is a young hero under the command of the Pinglu Army. Pinglu was originally the territory of An Lushan and one of the three towns of Fanyang, but when An Da Fat Man pulled up the banner of rebellion, the young hero Dong Qin chose Chang'an and led the Pinglu Army to a long-distance attack, directly into the rebel lair, Fan Yang, which really made An Da Fat Man break out in a cold sweat. At that time, Fan Yang Shou was An Lushan's good brother Shi Siming, a guy second only to An Lushan, and the young and vigorous young hero was naturally not the opponent of the treacherous and cunning old fritters, so the Pinglu army was beaten all over the ground looking for teeth and fled in all directions. Since then, the Pinglu Army has been divided into three relatively large forces, and the one that cares about the rebels has been absorbed by Shi Siming and continues the pace of rebellion; Under the leadership of Hou Xiyi, one came to Qingzhou and Yunzhou in Shandong, and later became the envoy of Ziqing Jiedu (Pinglu Jiedu); The last one, under the leadership of the young hero Dong Qin, was exiled to Huaixi and became the envoy of the Huaixi Festival. Although it was not successful, Chang'an still admired and moved the feat of the young hero, and not only canonized him as the envoy of the Huaixi Festival, but also gave him the name Li Zhongchen. Of course, Chang'an never expected that the young Dong Qin was a loyal minister of the empire, and the successful Li Zhongchen eventually became the second minister of the Tang Dynasty. Back then, Chang'an failed Lai Yao, and now, Li Zhongchen has also failed Chang'an, which is in line with the old saying, "Heavenly Reason Cycle, Retribution is not happy".

But Huaixi really began to divide one side and blatantly confront Chang'an, but it didn't start with Li Zhongchen, but with his nephew, Li Xilie. In the third year of Jianzhong (782), Tang Dezong appointed Li Xilie as the envoy of Pinglu and Ziqing Festival, and conscripted Li Na, the envoy of Ziqing Festival, but Li Xilie, who was in line with Yang and Yin, colluded with Li Na, Zhu Tao, Tian Yue and other festival envoys, raised the banner of rebellion, and proclaimed himself the marshal of the world and the king of Jianxing, which eventually evolved into a vigorous "rebellion of four kings and two emperors". Li Xilie's perverse behavior caused the dissatisfaction of the subordinate general Chen Xianqi, and a cup of poisonous wine sent this thief who was on one side of the division to the western sky. However, at this time, Huaixi could no longer go back to the past, and the continuous migration of ethnic minorities and the landing of the Pinglu Army greatly accelerated the process of Huhua in Huaixi. Huaixi is Hebei in the interior; Hebei is the border of Huaixi. Therefore, Chen Xianqi, who was loyal to the Tang Dynasty, soon followed in the footsteps of Li Xilie and was sent back to his hometown by his subordinate Wu Shaocheng. It was in the hands of Wu Shaocheng that Huaixi became more and more terrifying, more and more terrifying, and became a tiger sleeping soundly on the side of the couch of the Tang Empire.

Once, the jurisdiction of the Huaixi Jiedu envoy was once very large, very large, and at the time of its largest, there were even nineteen states under its rule. After the Anshi Rebellion, Chang'an began to weaken its strength in order to minimize its harm. The infighting in Huaixi provided an opportunity for Chang'an, and when Li Xilie drove away his uncle Li Zhongchen, he was dismayed to find that there were only six prefectures left in his jurisdiction: Shenzhou, Gwangju, Caizhou, Shouzhou, Anzhou, and Tangzhou. However, Chang'an still refused to give up, when Li Xilie, Chen Xianqi and Wu Shaocheng fought back and forth, Chang'an took the opportunity to take back Shouzhou, Anzhou and Tangzhou, when Wu Shaocheng sat on the throne of the Jiedu envoy, he was pleasantly surprised to find that under his rule, only Shenzhou, Guangzhou and Caizhou remained. But what is unbelievable is that Huaixi, which is getting smaller and smaller, is becoming more and more terrifying and ferocious. And Huaixi is not Hebei, once it rebels, it is equivalent to choking Chang'an's throat and cutting off the lifeline of the empire. Therefore, as early as after pacifying Liu Pi in Western Shu, Li Chun had already set his sights on Huaixi. Five years ago, a generation of heroes Wu Shaocheng lingered on the sickbed and was about to die, which was an opportunity for Chang'an, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But due to Li Chun's youth and impulsiveness, opportunities quietly slipped out of his hands. Now, the opportunity has come again, how can Pei Du, who is a new official, let it go, and how can Li Chun, the son of heaven, let it go? They are determined that this time they must completely solve the problem of Huaixi's henchmen.

The problem is that determination alone is not enough, but also enough confidence and patience, because, Huaixi is definitely not a bone to gnaw, on the contrary, it is definitely a difficult bone to gnaw, quite difficult to gnaw, if you are not careful, you may be knocked out a few front teeth. Of course, there is a reason why bones are so hard to gnaw, and there is more than one reason.

First of all, of course, the bones are too hard to gnaw. From Li Xilie to Wu Shaocheng, from Wu Shaocheng to Wu Shaoyang, and then from Wu Shaoyang to the current Wu Yuanji, Huaixi has been living under the obscenity of the Jiedu envoy for 60 years. The reincarnation of a Jiazi, Huaixi, has changed a lot. The young people who were alive and well in the past gradually weakened and withered, and now the young people have become accustomed to the chaotic and disobedient environment, they only know Huaixi, only know the Jiedu envoys, do not know Chang'an, do not know the imperial court. Moreover, don't think that the Huaixi Jiedu envoys are all martial artists who simply advocate the aesthetics of violence, in fact, they also know the truth of attacking the heart. In the sixteenth year of Zhenyuan, Caizhou marched from all sides to recruit Han Quanyi to defeat Han Quanyi in Lishui, and he ran back to Chenzhou in one breath, leaving a large number of letters to Wu Shaocheng. Wu Shaocheng bundled them into a bundle and showed them to his subordinates, because these letters had an important theme: asking for the wives and daughters of the soldiers of Caizhou to be maidservants and concubines. Caizhou is still in our hands, and those court magnates fantasize about dividing up our wives and daughters, which is unbearable! The Huaixi soldiers were excited, swore to serve the rebels to the death, and vowed to fight Chang'an to the end. Therefore, although Huaixi cannot be said to be monolithic, it is not too much worse. What's more, although Caizhou is located in the Central Plains, the people are fierce, and if they don't agree with each other, they will pick up a knife and stab them, which is a veritable dead man. Therefore, Huaixi's proud soldiers and fierce generals are not inferior to the three powerful feudal domains of Hebei: Wei Bo, Lu Long and Chengde. Such Huaixi, of course, is a hard bone, if you want to gnaw it down, you must have a good tooth mouth, but Chang'an's tooth mouth is not very good.

Secondly, Chang'an's teeth are not good, and he can't gnaw. Why is Chang'an's mouth bad? Because there are no soldiers! Why are there no soldiers? Because the soldiers are in the hands of the envoys or eunuchs in various places! It turned out that the Tang army at that time was mainly composed of two parts. One part is the Shence Army, and the other part is the Domain Army. Needless to say, the feudal army is naturally in the hands of the Jiedu envoys. At that time, the Tang Empire was full of feudal towns, and there were as many as forty or fifty large and small festival envoys, all of whom had their own armies, ranging from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands. These armies were actually the private armies of the feudal towns in various places, and the envoys of the various festivals recruited the soldiers, paid them salaries, and helped them support their families, so these soldiers only obeyed the orders of their superiors, and the envoys of the festivals; But he does not urinate on the superiors of the superiors, the imperial court. As for the Shence Army, it was originally a border guard stationed in Lintao, Longyou, after the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, he was ordered to go to the Central Plains to quell the rebellion, but was beaten by the rebels, scattered as birds and beasts, one of which was a small team of 1,000 people, fled and fled, and fled to Chang'an. When the emperor saw that such an army was not too many in number, and it was not too much, how should it be placed? By the way, they have experienced ninety-nine eighty-one difficulties, but they still run back to Chang'an unswervingly, and their loyalty is commendable, so let them be the guards of the capital, this small detachment has become the forbidden army of the Son of Heaven.

Since it is a forbidden army, the command of the army must be in the hands of his own people, so who is the emperor's most trusted person? Of course, it's the inseparable eunuch by his side! In this way, the command of the Shence Army fell into the hands of eunuchs who were neither male nor female. Regardless of whether the eunuchs were absolutely loyal to the emperor or not, in terms of the overall quality of the eunuch group, this was a group with generally low cultural quality and basic lack of military literacy. It's no wonder that if you have a little ability to settle down, how many people are willing to take that knife and become an incomplete person? Let such a person command the troops to fight, and the consequences can be imagined. In the fourth year of Yuanhe, Li Chun ignored the dissuasion of civil and military officials, and insisted on letting the great eunuch Tutu Chengxuan lead the Shence army to Chengde to quell the rebellion, but he ended up disgraced, which was a painful lesson. Therefore, although the Divine Army is reliable, it is not very useful. What's more, the Shence Army only has 180,000, and it is also responsible for the social security of the capital, so the number of troops that can be drawn is really limited.

Since he has a bad tooth and mouth, he can't gnaw the hard bone of Huaixi, so he has to ask for help, but people are not willing to help.

Third, there are people who have ghosts and don't want to gnaw on this bone. The Shence Army is useless, and the only thing left is the Domain-Town Army. The so-called Sixteenth Route Army is actually the Sixteenth Route Domain Town Army. The 16th Route Army encircled the three states of Huaixi, and it was said that it should be easy to capture it, but the reality is far from so simple. This is like using Song Jiang to fight Fang La, it is inevitable that some people will feel very uncomfortable. Loyal to Chang'an, there are certainly those who move forward bravely, such as Li Guangyan, who is loyal to the military festival, Liu Gongxuan, who is observed by Eyue, and Tian Bu, the son of Tian Hongzheng, who is the son of Wei Bo Jiedu, but more people are pregnant with ghosts, and they do not contribute to the work: the corpse is vegetarian, and there are those who are not the former, such as the Xiangyang Festival to make a strict award, support the people of the eight states, and have more than 10,000 elite soldiers, but they are stationed at the border, and the wall is closed for years, and there is no size of the work; There are those who rely on thieves to respect themselves and are unwilling to ask for thieves, such as the envoy of Yiwu Festival and Prime Minister Han Hong; Fear of thieves like tigers, there are those who stand still; There are those who are wise and protect themselves, and those who wander and stay; The rabbit dies and the fox is sad, and there are those who refuse to contribute; There are those who wait and see, stop and go; What's more, it is called a thief, and there are also people who help thieves, such as Li Shidao, who is the envoy of the Ziqing Festival, and Wang Chengzong, who is the envoy of the Chengde Festival. From this point of view, the rebel generals have their own henchmen, but they can't talk to others, so they have to persevere in grinding foreign workers. Lick the bone lightly, whether you lick it or not, and quickly run away. How can such a Sixteenth Route Army, each with its own confidants, gnaw the hard bone of Huaixi! To add insult to injury, there are still people who are wreaking havoc behind their backs.

Fourth, some people withdrew the fire, some people pulled out teeth, desperately trying to save this bone. Wu Yuanheng and Pei Du are Li Chun's right-hand men who cut down the feudal domain by force, so find a way to drive them out of power (Wang Chengzong), and if they can't get out of power, then let them disappear (Li Shidao); Grain, grass and military supplies are the guarantee of war, then get rid of your granaries and munitions; If you can't move Li Chun, the son of heaven, then dig your ancestral grave...... This is tooth extraction. At the same time, many people in Chang'an are eager to withdraw the fire and withdraw Li Chun's fire. The way to withdraw the fire, of course, was to lobby incessantly at the root of Li Chun's ears, and there was only one theme of lobbying, to strike the troops.

The tide of opposition to the use of troops in the DPRK and China rose higher and higher, Li Chun was very troubled, and Pei Du was also very troubled, and they unanimously decided to arrest two typical examples, and make an example of the chickens and monkeys, so that those who only knew how to talk about rhetoric would obediently shut their mouths. The two unlucky ghosts caught by Li Chun, one is Bai Juyi's friend, Qian Hui, a member of the Zhongshu Society; The other is the driving department Lang Zhong and the intellectual system Xiao Li. The two have a common part-time job, an enviable part-time job, Bachelor Hallym. Li Chun's method of telling them to shut up was very simple, that is, to drive them out of the Hanlin Academy and exempt them from the enviable part-time job of the Hanlin Academy. Li Chun's trick made an example, and it worked, Jingnan Jiedu made Yuan Zi enter the Hajj, and originally prepared a set of rhetoric, wanting to persuade the emperor to dismiss the army, but when he heard the news that Qian and Xiao were demoted on the way, he immediately saw the wind and turned to support the use of troops.

The troubles are far more than these, there are many more, such as the eunuchs and the army, the soldiers are tied up, and they are often to blame; For example, fighting away from home, people and land are both born; For example, soldiers do not know generals, and generals do not know soldiers; For example, the generals are not in harmony and hinder each other...... All kinds of problems came one after another, making Chang'an anxious and tired of coping, it was really pressing the gourd to float the scoop, and the troubles were one after another. No, it was not easy to silence the mouth of the Lord and the faction, and there was bad news from the front, the government's rebel army had lost the battle, a big defeat.

This person who doesn't give Li Chun a long face is called Gao Xiayu, and Tang Deng Sui made Gao Xiayu in the festival. Speaking of which, Gao Xiayu was a little wronged, because he was not the only one who lost the battle among the generals who conquered Huaixi, but he was not as badly defeated, so embarrassed, and so thorough, "only spared". If someone loses, you can not say it, hide it from the top or not, everyone knows each other. As for a small victory by luck, it will be publicized with great fanfare. It was just that Gao Xiayu was unlucky, and he was defeated without concealment, and finally reached the Holy Hearing, which made Chang'an a little caught off guard and a little panicked. The Lord's and faction, which had just been silent, began to move again, and they united and prepared to persuade the emperor to call off the army again, but Li Chun did not give them a chance to speak at all, and preemptively said, "Victory and defeat are common in soldiers, but now we should talk about the strategy of using soldiers, and those who are incompetent in examining the generals are easy to do, and those who are short of food and food are helped." How can we defeat and dismiss the army! "The Lord and the faction came and went back in defeat, and Chang'an finally calmed down, of course, only temporarily.