In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, Hou Jun gathered to discuss Gaochang, and the Western Turks stationed troops in Futu City, and responded to Gaochang. The Tang army went deep into the Hanhai, defeated the Hu soldiers, and then took Gaochang, Zhenguan 20 years in April, the Western Turkic mud and sand bowl Luo Ye Hu Ashina Helu led the people to attach, it was placed in Tingzhou, Chang'an two years, changed to the Beiting Protectorate, from Yonghui to Tianbao, the Beiting Jiedu made 20,000 soldiers in charge of the town, and the commander shocked the Tuqi Shi, Jiankun, and slashed.

With the passage of time, Jiankun and Chosi have been conquered by the Uighurs, the Turgish have weakened, the Qarlu has risen, and the defense focus of the Beiting Jiedu has changed to the Hui, Turgish, and Qarluq, in addition to Shatuo, Qianghu and sporadic Turks, and in Xizhou, there are also Gaochang Hu.

Different from the military town of Anxi, Beiting has jurisdiction over Ting, Yi and Xizhou, and has set up the Han Navy in Tingzhou, the Yiwu Army in Yizhou, and the Tianshan Army in Xizhou, with a total of 20,000 troops, east to Xingxingxia, west to Yuegong City, north to Kunjian, south to Xizhou Dashahai, spanning 10,000 miles, and establishing a four-level defense body such as fort, garrison, city, and army.

In addition, there are many Han people in Beiting, as early as the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, with the conquest of the Western Regions by the Tang army, a large number of Han people with adventurous spirit followed the army to Anxi, they first settled in Beiting, and then slowly spread to all parts of Anxi, but Beiting, especially the rich Tingzhou, it has always been the most concentrated place of Han people, after a hundred years of development, although Anxi belongs to several ups and downs, but a large number of Han people are still firmly rooted in Beiting, after the Kaiyuan, with the final establishment of the military household system, Beiting and Anxi have welcomed a new wave of Han immigrants.

At this time, there are tens of thousands of Han people in Beiting, they brought advanced farming technology, led to the great development of agriculture in Beiting, in order to facilitate management, the imperial court set up the Central Plains county system in Tingzhou, with jurisdiction over Jinman, Pu and Luntai three counties, the Han people in Beiting basically live in the three counties, at the same time, it is also the transit place of the goods of the Hu merchants in Lingxi, after decades of governance, the business here is prosperous, the products are rich, the ethnic groups are harmonious, and the people live and work in peace and contentment.

At present, the Beiting Festival and the Beiting Metropolitan Protector are basically combined, with the right minister Li Linfu concurrently serving as the Beiting Jiedu envoy and the Beiting Metropolitan Protector, and Li Qingan as the Governor of Tingzhou, the Deputy Envoy of the Beiting Jiedu, the Deputy Metropolitan Protector and the Governor of the Beiting Jiedu, and with the title of Zhongcheng in the Imperial History, which means that Li Qingan will take the military and political power of the Beiting in one.

On the eighth day of March in the eighth year of Tianbao, Li Qing'an led a convoy of more than 1,000 materials to trek 5,700 miles, which lasted nearly 50 days, and arrived at Jinman County, where the Tingzhou Governor's Mansion is located, which is also the location of the Beiting Jiedu Mansion and the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate, and also the Beiting Han Navy Station, with a garrison of 12,000 people, the Han Navy is the core army of Beiting, that is, Li Qing'an's direct tooth army, and he leads this army as the Governor of Tingzhou.

There are still twenty miles away from Jinman County, dozens of civil and military officials of the Beiting Jiedu Embassy greeted them, and Li Qing'an had handed over his military post to Lu Fengyuan, the deputy envoy of the Beiting Jiedu, when he was in Yizhou, and Lu Fengyuan went to the Andong Metropolitan Protectorate to take up his post, and handed over the Lingjian and the Great Seal to Li Qing'an, which meant that he officially took over the Beiting.

Dozens of officials came to greet Li Qing'an under the leadership of Yang Fengche, the deputy capital of Beiting, Yang Fengche is forty years old this year, white and fat is very well maintained, he has the best house in Jinman County, there are ten hectares of land outside the city, there is a wife and three concubines in the family, and one child each, he is satisfied, he has been the deputy protector for ten years, he does not seek to be motivated, and does not want the court to transfer him away, so he stays in Beiting year after year, and becomes the most senior old official in Beiting.

Yang Fengche has no ability to do things, but his ability to speak is very high, he even boasted, his mouth was like a lotus, and he introduced the civil and military officials of Beiting in just a moment.

"This Wang Yichu, the deputy envoy of the Han Navy, is known as the first shot in Beiting, and there are countless people who fell under his gun, of course, I'm talking about women, ha! Ha! ”

Wang Yichu is a big man with a black face, a native of Bianzhou, the first batch of Long March athletes, and he seems to have a good temper, although Yang Fengche damaged him, he just smiled, stepped forward and knelt down to Li Qing'an to give a military salute, "Humble Wang Yichu, see general!" ”

"General Wang is exempt."

Li Qingan didn't smile, and there was no smile on his face from beginning to end, so that Yang Fengche couldn't see through the thoughts of the new deputy envoy of Jiedu, and he played a small drum in his heart, and he didn't dare to joke anymore, and introduced another slender civil official, "This is Chen Zhonghe, a native of Chang'an, a jinshi in the twenty-seventh year of Kaiyuan, the current county magistrate of Jinman County, and has been a county magistrate in Jinman County for four years. ”

Chen Zhonghe stepped forward and bowed and said, "See Li Yuanjun!" ”

"Chen County's order doesn't have to be polite, I hope to take care of it in the future."

Yang Fengche introduced dozens of officials one by one, Li Qingan glanced at it, but he didn't see another deputy protector, so he asked: "What about Cheng Duhu, why don't you see others?" ”

It can be said that the road is narrow, Li Qingan was promoted to the deputy envoy of the Beiting Festival, and Cheng Qianli of Anxi was also transferred to the deputy protector of the Beiting at the same time, and the two became colleagues again, and Li Qingan also served as the deputy protector of the Beiting, to some extent they are at the same level.

It is necessary to say a few more words here, although the Beiting Jiedu envoy and the Beiting Duhu serve each other, but in fact they are still different, the Beiting Jiedu envoy is also called the Yixi Jiedu envoy, which belongs to the military position, which is equivalent to the commander of the frontier military region in later generations, and mainly governs the Ting, Yi, and Western garrisons actually controlled by the Tang Dynasty, that is, the Han Navy, the Tianshan Army, the Yiwu Army, and other places to guard, fort, and so on.

The jurisdiction of the Beiting Metropolitan Protector is much broader, not only including the three prefectures of Beiting, but also the Guardian Prefecture of the Turqishi, Gelulu, Shatuo and other tribes north of the Tianshan Mountains, such as the Shuanghe Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, the Luzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, the Dadesert Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, the Shatuo Prefecture Governor's Mansion, the Yingsa Governor's Mansion, etc., but in fact, the Tang Dynasty only has nominal jurisdiction over these feudal prefectures, so if the Beiting Metropolitan Protector does not concurrently serve as the Jiedu envoy and does not have the right to lead troops, it is actually a false position.

Li Qingan is a double term, the deputy envoy and deputy protector of Jiedu, which is one more military power than Cheng Qianli's only deputy protector, and it is also the most critical power.

has no real power, which makes Cheng Qianli depressed, and he did not come to greet Li Qingan.

Yang Fengche hurriedly explained: "Cheng Duhu has been sick for several days and can't come to greet General Li, please forgive me!" ”

"Cheng Duhu and I are old friends, he is sick, I should visit him, but I am not free these days, so I will go again."

He turned over and said to the civil and military officials who came to greet him: "Colleagues, we will work together again in the future, I, Li Qingan, have no extra words, just say to everyone, everything is done according to the rules, everyone can rest assured, I have always been right about things and not people, okay, now you can go back, and I will talk to you one by one." ”

Although the Beiting Jiedu Embassy is within the jurisdiction of Jinman County, it is not in the county seat, but a castle of reading power, about three miles away from the county seat, it is a majestic ancient city, called Beiting City, divided into inner and outer cities, the circumference of the outer city is 3,000 steps, the circumference of the inner city is 2,000 steps, the inner and outer cities have moats, the castle is made of huge bricks, tall and solid, and forms a male castle that is easy to defend and difficult to attack in the wasteland.

There are two thousand garrisons in Beiting City, it is the Jie Du Envoy Guards, but there are no military households and ordinary houses, in addition there are more than 6,000 garrisons around the castle, the entire Jinman County garrison is 8,000, the vast majority of the Han military households in Beiting are concentrated in Jinman County, here are everywhere a piece of farmland, a Han village is distributed on the plain, the Jinman River formed by the meltwater of the Tianshan Mountains flows through the middle, flows into the Ting Lake more than ten miles away, sufficient water sources, fertile land, forms the Beiting Delta, Jinman, Luntai, The three counties of Pu are located on the three corners of this delta, making it the richest area in Beiting.

At this time, spring has arrived in the north garden, the field is full of greenery, the fields are full of farmers busy sowing spring wheat, and countless water birds inhabit the large poplar forest in the distance, and the breeze blows on the face, making people feel the vitality.

The arrival of the mighty convoy made Jinman County boiling, tens of thousands of men, women and children in the city rushed out of the city together, sandwiched into a long welcome procession on both sides of the official road, most of them were Han Chinese, from all over the Central Plains, one greeting after another, the familiar local sound, made many people tearful.

Among the materials brought by Li Qing'an, in addition to money, silk, food, and military supplies, he also brought a lot of civilian items, such as household utensils, sickles, hoes and other agricultural tools, and even a few dismantled new huge waterwheels.

Li Qingan was surrounded by more than a dozen old men, vying to introduce him to the customs of Beiting, and Li Qingan nodded to them with a smile.

At this time, a group of soldiers walked up, and someone shouted from afar: "Shichiro! ”

Li Qingan turned around, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, it turned out to be Duan Xiushi, he hurriedly apologized to the old men, walked forward quickly, punched Duan Xiushi on the shoulder and smiled: "Why are you here?" ”

"What, aren't you welcome?" Duan Xiushi smiled slightly.

"Of course I welcome that."

Seeing Duan Xiushi, Li Qing'an suddenly remembered Bai Yuanguang, and his eyes couldn't help but be gloomy, and he said in a low voice: "Lao Bai unfortunately died in battle, I am ashamed of my brothers in Anxi!" ”

Duan Xiushi was also sad in his heart, Bai Yuanguang was his best friend, he hugged Li Qing'an, patted him on the back, and comforted: "Being able to die on the battlefield is also an honor for our soldiers, Qilang don't blame himself too much, if you survive, it's already a blessing in misfortune." ”

As he spoke, he pulled over the two burly young officers and introduced them to Li Qing'an: "These two are the rising stars of the Anxi Scout Battalion, and they are both Bai Yuanguang's brothers, and they are Bai Xiaode and Bai Xiaojie. ”

The two young officers immediately knelt down to Li Qing'an and gave a military salute, "See General Li, we inherit our brother Yonglie and follow the general." ”

"Two generals, please!"

Li Qingan hurriedly helped them up, Bai Yuanguang is the prince of Qiuci, so these two are also the nobles of Qiuci Kingdom, but he is a little puzzled, how can they come to Beiting, and Duan Xiushi, why did he also come?

Li Qingan hesitated and looked at Duan Xiushi, Duan Xiushi smiled and said, "You must be wondering, how can we come to Beiting, right!" ”

"Just say it! Stop playing pantomimes. ”

"Speaking of which, you also want to thank Gao Shuai for his generosity, everyone heard that you are the master of the North Garden, many brothers want to come to the North Court with you, and Gao Shuai does not stop him, just say that those who want to go to the North Court can do whatever they want, I will resign from the Anxi military and come to the North Court to join you, and there are many brothers, it is estimated that they will arrive one after another in the next few days."

Li Qing'an was overjoyed, he was worried about the lack of capable generals under his subordinates, so a group of people came, and he smiled at Duan Xiushi: "Don't resign from the Anxi army, it's a pity, I will directly go to the military department to transfer you." ”

"Li Yuanjun, I'm here too."

A young civilian official appeared next to him, Li Qingan almost didn't recognize it, it turned out to be Pei Kuan's eldest grandson Pei Yu, who had not been seen for more than half a year, and he seemed to have completely changed as a person, with a much stronger figure, but his face was like black charcoal, and he was a little darker than the generals in Anxi, he turned out to be a graceful white-faced scholar.

Duan Xiushi introduced on the side: "Pei Gongzi has basically investigated various places in Anxi for most of the year, and also went to Xiaye and Ningsu countries, and he is a genius, and he learned Turkic and Sogdian languages in most of the year. ”

Li Qingxin was overjoyed, patted him on the shoulder and said: "Very good, the eldest husband should make contributions to the frontier, and if you say it, you will definitely become the pillar of the Pei family." ”

Pei Yu nodded, "My grandfather also sent a letter, asking me to follow General Li and develop in Beiting for a long time, and I am willing to ask General Li to give me more opportunities to go out, and I am willing to send an envoy to Lingxi for General Li." ”

"Don't worry! I'm going to make the most of everyone.

Speaking of this, Li Qingan waved to everyone and said: "It's not early, everyone hurry up and unload the goods." ”

The convoy suddenly became busy, the civilian materials were directly unloaded in Jinman County, and the military supplies such as money and grain had to be transferred to the Beiting City warehouse, most of the carriages were military supplies, and the carriages turned around one after another and drove to Beiting City from another road.

The scene was busy, Li Qingan finished greeting everyone, turned over and was about to leave, at this moment, a familiar shout suddenly came from a distance, and the sound was crisp and pleasant.

"Big brother!"

Li Qing'an suddenly turned around, only to see two young women running on the side of the road who looked average and were dressed exactly the same were jumping and waving to him, it was his picturesque sisters, and the two rushed up regardless of the surprised eyes of others.

Li Qingan was overjoyed, what he was most worried about was the two sisters, leaving them alone in Anxi, but he didn't expect them to come to Beiting.

"Big brother, you're finally back." The sisters rushed forward, grabbed Li Qingan's arm and were so excited that their faces were full of tears, they missed it all night, waited for nearly a year, and finally waited for Brother Li back.

"Brother, don't you want us anymore?" One of them was so aggrieved that he began to cry.

"You are picturesque." Li Qingan recognized it at once.

He hurriedly wiped away Ruhua's tears and said with a smile: "Big brother has been fighting in Qinghai, I miss you whenever I have time, and I want to come back as soon as possible!" ”

He took Rushi's hand again and asked with a smile, "Who sent you to Beiting?" ”

Rushi was full of tears, although she didn't cry, but the resentment and sorrow in her eyes made Li Qing'an even more heartbroken, she held Li Qing'an's hand tightly, and said in a choked voice: "It was Brother Duan who brought us here, saying that the eldest brother would not return to Anxi in the future, and Wu Niang said the same, so we came with him." ”

Li Qingan felt that Rushi was holding her hand tightly, as if she was afraid that she would run away again, and she couldn't help but be moved and amused in her heart, so she patted her hand and asked, "What about Xiaolian?" Is she still in Anthy? ”

"Big brother, I'm here."

There was a timid voice behind him, and as soon as he turned around, he saw Xiaolian standing behind him, bowing her head, twisting and uneasy, she hadn't seen her for a year, she had grown a lot taller, and a beautiful girl had begun to appear.

"Big brother, it was the foggy girl who asked me to come."

Li Qingan saw that she was well-behaved and cute, and couldn't help but like it in his heart, so he said: "You are my sister, of course you have to come to Beiting, it has nothing to do with Gao Wu." ”

Xiaolian's eyes slowly brightened, and she glanced at Li Qing'an, wanting to say something, but she couldn't say a word, and her face was red with shame.

Li Qingan touched her hair lovingly, and asked the three of them again: "How long have you been here and where do you live?" ”

Ruhua hurriedly said: "We have been here for half a month, and Yang Duhu arranged a house for us, saying that it will be our home in the future, and we will live in it." ”

Li Qingan turned his head to look at Yang Fengche, only to see Yang Fengche arching his hand to him, and he nodded to him with a smile to show his gratitude.

This was the first time Li Qing'an smiled at him after coming to Beiting, Yang Fengche was worried for a long time, and finally breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly said to Li Qing'an: "General Li, I will lead the carriage to the warehouse, and I will go first." ”

"I'll go too, Yang Duhu will wait for a while."

He immediately smiled at the third girl and said, "You come with me, I'll show you someone." ”

Li Qingan led the three of them to the carriage of the dance clothes, and the dance clothes saw them from afar, she couldn't help but be surprised, jumped out of the carriage and ushered them up, "Picturesque, Xiaolian, aren't you in Anxi?" ”

"Hah! It's Sister Dancer. ”

When Li Qing'an was in Yangzhou, they were together almost every day, and the relationship was very good.

Rushi quietly smiled and asked Li Qingan: "Big brother, did you coax her?" ”

"It's still a little bit hot, you have to work harder, and this task will be handed over to you."

At this time, he and Rushi were together, seeing that Rushi was more bright and moving, more delicate and plump than last year, and holding her soft and smooth hand, he couldn't help but feel his heart fluttering, so he whispered: "Tonight, you want to accompany me." ”

Rushi nodded shyly, but quietly pinched the palm of his hand, and whispered affectionately: "Brother, I know." ”

Li Qingan fell in love with this gentle and considerate beauty, he nodded and smiled: "You take the dance clothes back to your residence first, and I will go to deal with official business." ”

"Well, big brother, go ahead!"

Li Qingan turned over and stepped forward, and smiled at Wuyi: "Wuyi, you go back with them first, I still have to deal with official business, so I won't accompany you." ”

Wuyi saw the picturesque scenery, and the worries of coming to Beiting for the first time were also swept away, and she was in a particularly comfortable mood, so she smiled at Li Qing'an: "Although General Li is busy, I am with the picturesque, don't worry." ”

"Alright, I'm leaving."

He glanced at Rushi again, smiled, and urged the horse to chase after the convoy.

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Note 1: The Beiting Jiedu envoy generally serves as the Beiting Metropolitan Protector, and it is written earlier that Li Linfu is the Beiting Jiedu Envoy, and it is not correct for Rongwang Li Wanyao to lead the Beiting Metropolitan Protector, which is corrected here.

Note 2: It is unknown whether Bai Xiaode and Bai Yuanguang are related in history, but Bai Xiaode should be forty years old when Tianbao was eight years old, and here is the plot needs.

(To be continued)