After the officials in Liangzhou sent the news of Wei Yuanpi's death to Fujiaobao, they quickly got a reply, but the reply was not written by Li Qin, but by Liu Sheng. [Full text reading]

On the premise that Chang'an has not yet arrived, Li Qin is not good to appear immediately, and he has to wait a little longer, so he can only ask Liu Sheng to write a letter for him. Liu Sheng told the officials in Liangzhou in the letter that the Fujiao soldiers had learned of Li Qin's current location and would soon find Li Qin, so Li Qin's temporary replacement of Liangzhou's assassination would not be delayed, and they just had to come to Yingli, and it was a big deal to stay in Fujiao Fort for a few more days

After receiving the reply, the officials in Liangzhou got together again to discuss, and decided that since they wanted to surrender, it was better to go early, and now that Li Qin happened to be "supposedly" not in Fujiao Fort, then they went to Fujiao Fort to wait, to comfort the second elder of the Li family, wouldn't that be a good way to show sincerity

The officials immediately set off and rushed to Fujiao Fort, planning to stay where they would stay, and stay until Li Qin returned, and by the way, they would have a good relationship with the people of the Fujiao Army, so that they would have something to take care of in the future

Li Qin is of course very happy to be the assassin of Liangzhou, but Liangzhou is already in his hands, so the position of the assassin is not in a hurry, he is now anxious about the affairs of Chang'an, Sizhou is a very important state, according to the rich land in the country, densely populated, Chang'an is easy to defend and difficult to attack, if he can move the base camp to Chang'an, then he has the capital to look at the world.

After staying on the border for a few days, Jia Xu from Chang'an sent a letter, telling Li Qin that the original plan had changed, that Jing Zhaoyin and Captain Si Li didn't care about anything, as long as the Fujiao Army did not enter Chang'an, then whatever they tossed, those two senior officials could pretend that they couldn't see anything.

After Li Qin read the letter, he felt in his heart, this Jing Zhaoyin and Si Lixiao are both very big officials, but it is really two strange flowers to be such an official law, and the troubled times are coming, and they are really full of demons

How these two officials react will have a great impact on his next plan, if they react violently, it will be really difficult to do, but if they react like this, although it is not expected, it is much easier to deal with.

Li Qin immediately wrote a reply to Jia Xu, there is no need to wait outside Chang'an City, there is no point in blocking the city gate, if Gai Xun and Zhang Wen want to send someone to ask for help, the wall of Chang'an City is so long, you can send people to go anywhere, you don't have to go to the city gate, but blocking the city gate is easy to make local officials nervous, and even the army of Sizhou will be nervous, which will cause unnecessary trouble.

Li Qin ordered Jia Xu to disperse the army, divide it into small divisions, and go to various counties to publicize the Fujiao Army, saying that the Fujiao Army is a glorious army and an invincible army, so that the local soldiers and people think that the Fujiao Army is invincible, and then talk about the various benefits of Fujiao Fort, so that the soldiers and the people have a good impression of Fujiao Fort, and finally spread rumors, that is, he is going to become a lieutenant of Si Li, and the court also intends to let himself concurrently serve as Jing Zhaoyin, but he is in the process of resigning, but he is sure that he will come to Sizhou to be an official, It's just a matter of time, as soon as he comes to Sizhou, the people will have a good life, and the local soldiers can also join the Fujiao Army, when it will be, stay tuned.

After the letter was sent, Li Qin did not immediately set off for Chang'an, but asked people to go back to Fujiao Fort, mobilized 10,000 Fujiao soldiers, met him at the border, and then went to Chang'an together.

Before the army was mobilized, Li Qin waited at the border, but he was not idle, but took his subordinates, dressed in ordinary people's clothes, and walked around. He found that the maps of this era were too rough, and only the important places were drawn, and the proportions were not uniform, often there were several versions of the map in a place, or even no map, and the maps of different versions were often marked with very different locations.

Li Qin plans to train a group of soldiers who specialize in drawing maps, and regard map-making as a major event, make proportional drawings, and then print them in batches and distribute them to generals at all levels.

Since it is difficult to draw a map and go from simplicity to difficulty, it is necessary to go everywhere, and Li Qin took a hundred or so people to go back and forth in various villages on the border to investigate the terrain.

On this day, Li Qin took the Fujiao soldiers to the small road section from Sizhou to Liangzhou, where the terrain is more complicated, there are no high mountains, but there are more hills, there is a path in the middle of the hills, a little far away from the official road, this path is only for the local people to walk, and the brigade rarely passes by.

Li Qin rode up a hill, pointed to the path below, and said to the Fujiao soldiers: "You see, this path is rarely walked, and there are few footprints on the snow, which shows that even the local people rarely walk from this path, why do you say this?" ”

The general who followed him was Zhao Zheng, Zhao Zheng was the best at running, and he didn't talk much, among the generals, he was the most well-behaved, and his spear skills were superb and his archery skills were also good, so Li Qin let him follow him.

Listening to Li Qin's question, Zhao Zheng thought for a while and said: "Under normal circumstances, the small road is always closer than the main road, although the small road is always more difficult to walk, but because it is close, there are no fewer people walking than the official road." This path is inaccessible, few people walk except the local people, and there are two main aspects in the end, one is that the weather is cold, and the people are reluctant to go out, and the other is because this path is not close, on the contrary, it is farther than the official road, and it is far away, and it is not easy to walk, so there are so few people who walk."

Li Qin nodded and said: "The first one is not the key, even if the weather is cold, as long as the pedestrians are in need, they will still take this road, and the second one is the key, because this path is not only not close, but far away, so pedestrians will naturally not choose it." However, the more this is the case, the more military value the path becomes. ”

Zhao Zhengdao: "The last general understands, this is the same as the Ming plank road and the secret crossing of Chen Cang." Just because there are few people who know about this path, and there are few people who walk it, the more important it is for marching and fighting, the more we should draw a map of this place. ”

"Opponent" Li Qin nodded and smiled: "The purpose of the terrain is different, so the importance is also different, which is one of the differences between military and civilian." ”

The Fujiao soldiers got off the hill one after another and began to prepare to draw, while Li Qin and Zhao Zhengze stayed on the mountain, which can be regarded as doing the work of looking at the overall situation.

After a while, a horn soldier ran back and shouted at Li Qin: "Li Lang, a team of men and horses came from the east, and there are several big carts inside, it seems that they are all soldiers, do you want to go over and ask?" ”

Li Qin followed the direction of his finger and looked east, because there were trees blocking it, what was behind the mountain bag in the distance, he couldn't see it too clearly, and he couldn't see a convoy coming.

Li Qin waved his hand and said: "It's good that our whereabouts are not discovered, how can there be any reason to take the initiative to provoke us." ”

After saying that, he thought that something was wrong, from the east it was the direction of Sizhou, if the people in the team were all soldiers, then why didn't they take the official road and take the small road? Is it to escape the war? Now the situation in Sizhou can't be said to be war, it's just Jia Xu tossing in it. So this team of soldiers is hiding from Jia Xu? If it's the Fujiao Army that you want to hide, then you have to find out.

He waved his hand and said, "Call all the brothers back, and don't let those people find out about us." Also, Zhao Zheng, you go and ask what that team of people is doing in Liangzhou, now is the time to test your ability to adapt to changes, you will always lead the troops alone in the future, and the ability to act randomly is very important. ”

Zhao Zheng agreed, beat his horse and went down the mountain to meet the unknown convoy, while Li Qin took the horn soldiers and hid in the woods.

Before Li Qin's life and death were unknown, he did not dare to contact the generals of the Fujiao Army, and he did not dare to take the avenue, for fear that someone would report to Jia Xu, his convoy was easy to catch up, so he could only take the small road, and after inquiring with the locals, he took the convoy to pass through here and go to Longxian first. Cao Cao wanted to rest in Longxian first, contact Liangzhou Assassin Shi first, and then discuss Li Qin.

Cao Cao thought about all kinds of possible things along the way, and his mind changed again and again, and even a few times he really wanted to ignore the gentleness and return to Luoyang alone, but he still didn't do it, but he didn't have any sympathy for a weak woman, he was afraid that after going back, he would be repaired by Zhang Rang and He Jin together.

Cao Cao rode on the horse and sighed incessantly, although he was ambitious, but the future was uncertain, no matter how much he thought he had the ability, the current situation really made him troubled.

Just as he was sighing, the Yulin army in front shouted: "Captain Cao, there is a horse rider in front, it looks very fierce, it may be a Qiang person, but here is the border of Liangzhou." ”

Cao Cao sighed, sat up straight on the horse, and looked at Zhao Zheng who was running in the distance, and saw that it was a strong man dressed in ordinary people's clothes, and he said: "There are many Qiang people in Liangzhou, and it is not surprising to see one here." I'm afraid that this person is a sentry of robbers, this place is so desolate, it is a place where strongmen haunt."

The Yulin Army beside him immediately became nervous, and they all picked up their weapons and looked at Zhao Zheng who was rushing over.

Zhao Zheng came to the front and thought: "If I ask directly, I'm afraid that they won't tell the truth, since they may be hiding from my Fujiao Army, why don't I pretend to be the enemy of the Fujiao Army, Li Lang often says that the enemy's enemy is a friend, maybe I can find out something." ”

Zhao Zheng shouted: "Listen, everyone, our brothers are doing things in front of you, you should go back the way you came, if you get in the way of your grandfathers, be careful of swords and guns."