readx; Zhu'a County, Qizhou, a caravan full of all kinds of goods slowly entered the county, here is not far from the Yellow River, although it is late autumn October, but the Yellow River has not yet frozen, in the county, there are many such caravans, most of them want to do business with the immigrants of Hebei Province, a large number of people in Hebei Province moved south to bring unlimited business opportunities to the businessmen, they want to purchase food, purchase household goods, in fact, many prescient businessmen have already come, and now the merchants who have come are a little late, in addition, There are also many businessmen who plan to cross the river to the north and continue to go to Hebei Province to look for business opportunities. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Merchants gathered in the small Zhu'a County, and everywhere you could see a caravan full of goods, the inn was full, and the merchants looked for private houses for rent, and some keen local merchants rented a large number of roadside houses in advance, and then rented them to caravans from other places at a higher price, making a lot of money.

The caravan that had just entered the city was not in a hurry, they had a receiver in the city, all the food and lodging had been arranged, they could enter the city calmly, the caravan was very large, consisting of more than a hundred carriages, full of heavy goods, the goods were covered with oiled paper and coarse linen, no one knew what was on it, nearly a hundred men with the carriage rode to escort the vehicles, they were all burly, agile, and vigilant to pay attention to the situation around them.

Needless to say, this caravan was the team sent by An Lushan to the eastern states of Henan Province to procure sulfur, but this was only one of three teams, east of Henan Province, which is now the Shandong Peninsula, where there were several small sulfur deposits, although the production was not large, but enough for An Lushan to make gunpowder.

This caravan in Yizhou procured more than 4,000 catties of sulfur, is on the way back to Youzhou, they need to cross the Yellow River to the north, Zhu'a County is the confluence of their three teams of transit place, the caravan just entered the city gate, there were immediately more than a dozen people to meet up, a man Shi Li said: "Another team has also returned, the ferry is being arranged, but the Yellow River is too windy and rough in the past two days, it is difficult to cross the river, we will make every effort to arrange, as long as the conditions for crossing the river allow, we will immediately cross the river to the north, everyone please go with us to rest." ”

When the merchant leader heard that he couldn't cross the river for a while, he was a little worried, but he had no choice but to give up his hand and say, "Then it's hard for everyone, please lead the way!" ”

More than a dozen responders led the caravan to a large mansion hundreds of paces away........

Soon after the caravan entered the city, four small merchants on horseback also appeared at the city gate, they followed the front team, not in a hurry, these people were members of the Henan Provincial Branch of the Internal Guard Intelligence Hall, the Henan Provincial Branch received an order from the Internal Guard Intelligence General Hall, ordering them to monitor the people who purchased sulfur in the states of Henan Province, and these intelligence officers kept an eye on the caravan in Yizhou, and followed them all the way to Zhu'a County.

At this time, they saw that the other party seemed to have someone to answer, and this place was not far from the Yellow River, and the other party could cross the river at any time, several intelligence officers discussed for a while, and then parted ways, the two continued to monitor the caravan, and the other two quickly reported the situation to the branch hall master who was nearby.

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Qizhou belonged to Li Guangbi's sphere of influence, Li Guangbi led an army of 50,000 troops to Henan Province, and after successively defeating the two armies of Ji Guangchen and Xu Shuyi, the number of his army quickly rose to 120,000, and Li Qing'an immediately increased his army to 80,000, bringing his army to 200,000.

Li Guangbi immediately divided the army into three theaters, Li Sheng led 50,000 troops to garrison the Qizhou line, General Lifei Yuanli led 70,000 troops to garrison the Xuzhou line, and he himself led 80,000 troops to garrison the Zhengzhou line.

Li Sheng's army was stationed in the five prefectures of Yun, Ji, Qi, Qing, and Zi, and the Yellow River was tightly choked, while the Shuai Tent was located in Licheng County, Qizhou.

That afternoon, two knights galloped in from a distance, and when they were less than a hundred paces from the camp gate, the soldiers on the watchtower immediately shouted: "Stop! ”

The two knights stopped their horses, and they raised their hands and shouted, "We have urgent business to see General Lee!" ”

An officer on duty came out of the battalion and stepped forward and said, "I am the captain on duty at the battalion gate, who are you, and what are you looking for our General Li?" ”

One of the men in his thirties took out a silver medal, handed it over and said, "We are the Henan Provincial Information Hall, and below is Niu Jin, the master of the branch hall, and we have urgent matters to ask General Li for help!" ”

The hall master of the Henan Provincial Branch Hall is at least a Zhonglang general, and they are internal guards, with a higher status, the captain on duty did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly said: "Please wait, I will report immediately!" ”

He rushed back to report, and after a while, he came out and said, "Master Niu Hall, my general is invited!" ”

Niu Jin turned over and dismounted, and followed the captain to the camp.

The commander in the camp is Li Sheng, according to Li Guangbi's deployment, he is responsible for defending Qingzhou and Qizhou, in fact, Li Sheng also has his own ideas, he believes that the Northern Tang Army should not passively defend south of the Yellow River, and should enter Hebei when the conditions are ripe, and trap An Lushan in Youzhou, so as to take the initiative in the battle against An Lushan, but Li Sheng did not write to Li Qingan, he knew that Li Qingan would not think of it, Li Qingan should have other thoughts, he was only considering it militarily, And Li Qingan will think more politically, which is not something he can ask.

As a soldier, he must resolutely obey the orders of the commander, but as an individual, he also hopes that Datang will have a monarch born in Rongma, so that the monarch will be merciful to the soldiers, will better understand the glory of the soldiers, and will never give in in the face of external humiliation and resolutely fight back, which is incomparable to the emperor who grew up in the deep palace.

In the past two days, Li Sheng also received an order from Li Guangbi, ordering his army to fully cooperate with the Internal Defense Information Hall, and he must provide full assistance to all urgent requests for help from the Information Hall.

Li Guangbi's order was issued just the day before yesterday, and today the hall master of the Internal Defense Intelligence Hall personally came to ask for help.

After a while, the captain on duty hurriedly walked into the big tent with Niu Jin, and Niu Jin bowed and saluted: "Niu Jin, the master of the Henan Provincial Intelligence Branch, see General Li." ”

Li Sheng knew that the Henan Provincial Intelligence Branch was located in Chenliu County, and Niu Jin personally came to Qizhou from Chenliu, indicating that it was not trivial for him to help himself, so he hurriedly said: "Niu Tang Master doesn't need to be polite, if the situation is urgent, please say it directly!" ”

"Thank you General Li for your refreshment!"

Niu Jin said: "This is the case, we are ordered by the Chang'an General Hall, to investigate An Lushan's purchase of sulfur in Henan Province, after a few days of investigation, we found out that An Lushan sent three caravans in Qingzhou, Yanzhou and Yizhou purchased a total of tens of thousands of catties of sulfur, of which two caravans from Yanzhou and Yizhou have converged in Zhu'a County, ready to cross the river to the north, they received a lot of people, more than 500 people, it is An Lushan's army in disguise, please General Li sent troops to assist us to intercept these two groups of people and goods. ”

Li Sheng frowned and said, "But there has been a lot of wind and waves on the Yellow River in the past two days, and it is not easy to cross the river!" ”

"Exactly, so they are waiting in Zhu'a County, and they haven't crossed the river yet, this is our chance."

"What about the caravans in Qingzhou? Don't you need my help? Li Sheng asked again.

"Back to General Li, the caravan in Qingzhou has been scuttled by our people when crossing the water, and more than 3,000 catties of sulfur have all sunk to the bottom of the river."

"And the second time they sent someone to buy brimstone? How do you cope? Li Sheng was very thoughtful, and if he wanted to help him, he would help him to the end, he meant to completely destroy the sulfur mine and cut off the supply of goods from An Lushan.

"This ..... We are going to get a batch of fake sulfur, if An Lushan sends someone to buy it for the second time, we will sell the fake sulfur to him and let him use the fake sulfur to make heavenly thunder, but we can't prepare this batch of sulfur, and we ask the general to support it strongly! ”

Li Sheng laughed, "Okay! I'll send troops to help you. ”

Li Sheng immediately ordered 5,000 cavalry, he personally led the team, and slaughtered towards Zhu'a County.

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At this time, Zhu'a County was not only two caravans, but also An Lushan's 500 additional scouts after the explosion of the gunpowder factory, and now these purchased sulfur were all his hopes, and he also sent one of his staff members to take full command of the operation. The staff member is called Luo Qingzheng, about 40 years old, a literati who took refuge in An Lushan last year, and this person is very thoughtful and makes up for the shortcomings of the 500 scouts who are brave but unscrupulous.

At this time, more than 7,000 catties of sulfur and all the personnel have left Zhu'a County, they have just received news from Qingzhou, another caravan has had an accident, more than 3,000 catties of sulfur all overturned and sunk to the bottom of the river, although the news said that it was just an accident, but Luo Qingzheng was still sensitive to realize that this would not be an accident, the water is not very wide, and the water surface is calm, how can there be a boat that capsized halfway, this must have been manipulated, he also realized that their whereabouts should have been discovered by the Northern Tang Army.

In the night, hundreds of cavalry escorted more than 100 carriages along the official road by the Yellow River, they had to cross the river overnight, but several boat owners refused to cross the river because of the too strong wind and waves on the river at night, and they did not agree to give any amount of money, and it would be tomorrow morning at the earliest, while another shipowner was tempted and promised to cross the river with them, but his boat was not here, but on a wharf fifty miles away, there were three large boats, and the price was 3,000 to cross the river for their people and goods, and they had to pay in full before boarding, although this was a hundred times the sky-high price. But Luo Qingzheng still agreed, as long as the sulfur was transported back to Youzhou, he was willing to spend as much as he wanted, and then he would go back to the shipowner to settle the account.

An hour later, the convoy arrived at the Qibei Ferry, which is a medium-sized ferry, the location is very remote, there are not many people crossing the river at ordinary times, there are more than a dozen big boats parked, the night is dark and the wind is high, the black and heavy river is turbulent, and the waves are crashing on the shore, 'Whoa!' There was no one on the boat, and it had not been possible to cross the river for two days, and there were only two young men on the dock guarding the boat.

Luo Qingzheng frowned, and said to the owner of the boat dissatisfied: "You have repeatedly assured me that you can cross the river, and now I have seen the boat, but what about the crew?" Where is your crew? ”

The shipowner hurriedly said, "Wait a minute, I'll go and find it." ”

He ran up to the two crew members and asked, "Where are the others?" ”

The two crew members looked at each other and said, "Everyone else has gone home separately, and they can't cross the river anyway, so everyone is okay here." ”

The shipowner came back and nodded to Luo Qingzheng and said with a smile: "This master, the crew members are all home, but they all live nearby, I will call them immediately, at most half an hour, the master is waiting!" ”

"Humph!" Luo Qingzheng snorted heavily and scolded: "Go quickly, go back quickly!" ”

"I'll be right back!" The shipowner ran into the darkness and disappeared in a moment.

After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, everyone couldn't bear it anymore, and sat on the ground, Luo Qingzheng also sat on a big rock, looking up to the south from time to time, his eyes were full of anxiety, and after another quarter of an hour, it had reached the appointed time, but the shadow of the shipowner could not be seen.

At this time, the captain on the side finally couldn't help it, and stepped forward and whispered: "Sir, I'm worried that there is fraud here!" ”

"How do you know there's fraud?"

"I also grew up by the Yellow River. According to the current waves, it is very dangerous to cross the Yellow River at night, the undercurrent in the river is agitated, and it is difficult to find it by eyesight at night. You must know that the price offered by the gentleman is a hundred times that of the usual crossing of the river, and these people still don't do it, and I suspect that there is something wrong with this person who has led us to such a remote place. ”

Luo Qingzheng pondered for a moment and said: "Maybe as you said, it is too dangerous to cross the river at night, so the crew members are unwilling to come, in fact, I also know that I may not be able to cross the river tonight, but at least stay away from Zhu'a County, not to be found by them, and waiting until dawn tomorrow at this remote dock is not a solution." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard a bowstring sound, a cold arrow, 'Whoosh!' When the ground shot, the captain was not on guard, he couldn't dodge, an arrow hit his throat, he turned over and fell to the ground with a muffled scream, this arrow stunned everyone, Luo Qingzheng was the first to react, he rolled to the ground, hiding behind a boulder, trembling with fright.

In the darkness, arrows rained down, the sound of chaotic running came from all directions, the Yan army scouts on the dock were in chaos, everyone hid in the province, looking for a place to avoid arrows, their bows and arrows were in the bags of the horses, they couldn't take them out for a while, they couldn't form a counterattack, and they were very passive.

The horses riding and transporting goods fell to the ground with a scream, and a dozen wagons overturned, and bags of sulfur were scattered on the ground, and then the rain of arrows became denser and denser, shooting from the east, west, and south, leaving people with nowhere to hide, and the screams continued, and people were shot down one by one.

The five thousand Northern Tang troops completely surrounded the dock, they released arrows sixty paces away, formed a semicircle, and the overwhelming number of arrows shot at the dock, and when every soldier's quiver was gone, the dense rain of arrows finally stopped, and there was no sound on the dock, and there was no sign of life.

Torches began to light up, and soon a sea of torches was formed, thousands of torches slowly approached the wharf, illuminating the wharf as day, only to see the wharf like an arrow field, hundreds of thousands of arrows poured on this open space of several acres, the ground was full of corpses, blood flowed like a river, many people even if they lay on the ground, they could not escape death, hundreds of people were all shot to death, none of them lived, even if the strategist Luo Qingzheng was also hit by more than a dozen arrows, curled up behind the boulder and died.

The soldiers quickly cleaned up the battlefield, pulled out the arrows, and threw the corpses into the Yellow River, at this time, the firelight flashed a way, and the general Li Sheng came slowly on horseback, followed by Niu Jin, the master of the intelligence hall.

He admired it in his heart, the five or six hundred people on the other side, all of whom were An Lushan's elite scouts, were all killed by arrows, and they didn't even need to see the other party's face.

Li Sheng urged him to step forward, looked at the sulfur filled with more than a hundred carriages, and smiled at Niu Jin: "Do you want me to help you deal with these things?" ”

Niu Jin hurriedly thanked: "Thank you for the general's help, I burned this sulfur as soon as I set it on fire." ”

"Okay, withdraw!"

Li Sheng gave an order, thousands of sergeants withdrew in a moment, only more than 40 people left the intelligence hall on the dock, the soldiers retrieved the war horses in the woods not far away, turned over their horses one after another, and went in the direction of Licheng, traveling for several miles, Li Sheng couldn't help but look back, only to see that the wharf was already in flames, billowing white smoke.

He jerked his horse, which galloped like an arrow into the darkness.

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Two days later, the secret report of the Henan Provincial Intelligence Hall reached Chang'an, and Li Qing'an got the information at the first moment, although in the gunpowder interception battle, Li Qing'an won the victory of deciding the surname, and dealt a heavy blow to An Lushan's dream of thunder and gunpowder, but Li Qing'an was not happy, and Zhang Yue's death also gave him a heavy blow.

Li Qing'an only got the news of the accident in Youzhou City's Miaoshou Rejuvenation Hall seven days later, at this time his five hundred elite scouts had withdrawn to Taiyuan and were on their way back to Chang'an, but the Miaoshou Rejuvenation Hall was destroyed, except for Zhang Yue and Zhao Jiaju who committed suicide, forty-three men were arrested, of which twenty-seven were members of the Intelligence Hall, and at the same time, including fifteen members of the Han and Tang Associations in the army who were directly related to the Miaoshou Rejuvenation Hall, were also arrested, including Chen Zhiming, the first lieutenant who discovered An Lushan's use of gunpowder.

Li Qing'an's carriage walked in Chang'an City, hundreds of personal soldiers with halberds on both sides, next to the carriage, Hu Peiyun, the general of the internal guard, was reporting the latest information to Li Qing'an through the car window, "Hebei has just come to the news, An Lushan has ordered to strictly prohibit the folk pigeon breeding in Youzhou and several nearby states and counties, as long as it is discovered, the whole family will be beheaded, and at the same time, people from other states and counties are strictly prohibited from entering Youzhou, and people who go out from Youzhou must also be strictly searched, and now it is difficult for us to get the news of Youzhou." ”

Li Qingan said slowly: "Pigeons can't be raised, you can use eagles, try to hide a little, in short, the intelligence can't be cut off, you can appoint Qi Yuhua, the head of the Yizhou Branch, as the head of the Hebei Provincial Intelligence Branch, and order her to rebuild the Hebei Intelligence Hall, to learn the lessons of this wonderful hand rejuvenation hall, there can be no more mistakes, in addition, to strengthen the monitoring of Chang'an, I suspect that An Lushan will retaliate against Chang'an, he must also have intelligence agencies in Chang'an, it is best to use their opportunity to retaliate against Chang'an, and destroy the ears and eyes that An Lushan planted in Chang'an in one fell swoop, go!" ”

"Subordinates obey!"

Hu Peiyun saluted and left in a hurry.

The carriage continued to move forward, and for a long time, Li Qingan let out a long sigh, the four generations of the Zhang Yue family were loyal, and finally before he died, Ji Bu and Hou Yingmingzhi, such loyal subordinates, how could he repay him?

In addition to Li Qing'an in the carriage, there was also his second concubine Jiang Wuyi, Wuyi didn't know why her husband took her with her, she was puzzled, it can be seen that her husband's face was solemn, and she didn't dare to ask more.

Soon, the carriage entered Chongrenfang and stopped in front of a small house, and another member of the Hidden Dragon Society, who was also the court's ceremonial minister, Wang Xi'an, stepped forward to call the door.

This house is a property that Zhang Yue bought in Chang'an, Zhang Yue is one of the core members of the Hidden Dragon Society, three generations of single transmission, Zhang Yue's only son died of illness ten years ago, and he had no children and no daughters under his knees, two years ago one of his concubines gave birth to a daughter for him, and soon the concubine also died of illness, Zhang Yue sent his daughter to Chang'an, and handed over to his own nurse Qiu to raise.

The nurse Qiu family took Zhang Yue's two-year-old daughter to live in this house.

The door opened, and a man in his thirties walked out, he was Zhang Yue's nurse's son, named Qiu Yuan'er, a fur merchant who traveled between Anxi and Chang'an.

As soon as he opened the door, he was startled to see so many troops outside, and asked nervously, "You.... Who to look for? ”

Wang Xi'an and Zhang Yue have a very good relationship, he knows the nurse's family, so he smiled and said: "Qiu Yuan'er, don't you know me?" ”

Qiu Yuan'er was stunned for a moment, "Are you ..... Yes! You are Wang Langzhong. ”

"It's good that you remember me."

Li Qing'an got out of the carriage, and Wang Xi'an hurriedly introduced him: "Your Highness, this is Qiu Yuan'er, the son of Zhang Yue's nurse." ”

"Your Highness?"

Qiu Yuan'er had seen Li Qing'an a few times in Anxi, and he suddenly recognized it, so frightened that he hurriedly knelt down and said, "Grass people Qiu Yuan'er knocked on His Royal Highness King Zhao." ”

"Get up! I'll take a look at Zhang Yue's daughter. ”

"Ahh With a bang, Qiu Yuan'er hurriedly turned around and shouted, "Lady, come out quickly." ”

I saw a young woman walking out of the courtyard, and at a glance I knew that it was Anxi Hu Niang, her cheekbones were very high, her lips were very thin, there was no blood, her body was very thin, she was very tall, and her figure was like a compass of later generations.

She was holding a young boy in her arms, holding a four or five-year-old lady in one hand, and behind her, there was another little girl, about two years old, well-behaved and cute, she was holding the woman's skirt, and a pair of big eyes looked at Li Qing'an timidly.

Li Qing'an's nose was sour, this big-eyed little girl looked like Zhang Yue, and he knew that this was the only flesh and blood that Zhang Yue left in the world.

He squatted down, stretched out his hands to the little girl, and said with a smile: "You are Zhang Ling'er!" I'm your uncle, and your father asked me to pick you up. ”

The little girl hid behind the woman and didn't dare to come out, Qiu Yuan'er stepped forward and gently grabbed her wrist, half-coaxed and half-dragged to tell her that her uncle had come to see her, and pulled her to Li Qing'an's side, Li Qing'an took out a string of sparkling pearls, hung them around her neck and said with a smile: "This is for you from your uncle, do you like it?" ”

The little girl was attracted by the beautiful pearl, her tender little hand pinched a pearl, a little shy nodded, at this time, Qiu Yuan'er's other daughter reached out to come over to grab it, but was slapped back by Qiu Yuan'er, the little lady immediately cried, Qiu Yuan'er glared at her husband fiercely, and angrily pulled her daughter back.

Qiu Yuan'er was extremely frightened, and he hurriedly explained in a trembling voice, "This, Your Highness, my lady is a Hu person and doesn't understand etiquette. ”

Li Qingan glanced at the woman's back and said coldly: "I won't pursue you, but I took the child away, and as compensation for you raising her for a year, this house belongs to you." ”

At this time, the dance dress came up, she squatted down, took out a small bronze mirror studded with gems, took a picture of the child, handed it to her and smiled: "Do you like it?" ”

The little girl smiled shyly, nodded slightly, stretched out two little hands to grasp the mirror, looked carefully at herself in the mirror, and giggled, the dance dress liked her so much, she picked up the little girl, and kissed her little cheek.

At this time, Wuyi had fully understood what Li Qing'an meant, and she saw Li Qing'an looking at her with a gaze that asked for her meaning, so she nodded solemnly.

Li Qing'an no longer paid attention to Qiu Yuan'er, walked quickly to the carriage, danced and hugged the little girl behind her husband, got into the carriage, she stroked the child's little face lovingly from time to time, there was an unspeakable emotion in her heart, Li Qing'an stroked the child's hair, and said: "Take her well, she will be the princess of my Tang Empire in the future." ”

Wuyi nodded silently, she looked at her husband gratefully, her eyes were a little red, at this time the little girl was completely attracted by the exquisite little bronze mirror, looking over and over, there was no nostalgia for the Qiu family.

Qiu Yuan'er stared blankly at the carriage going away, his heart was mixed with five flavors, and he didn't know whether it was joy or sadness.

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(To be continued)