'Mengxia is late, and the grass and trees in Hu are long. The horse galloped past the birds, and the sky was poorer than the sunset. All of them are newly recruited, and military uniforms are issued in September. There are two million soldiers, and the golden light is scattered. Raise the flag to blow Kunlun, cut drums and vibrate Puchang. Taibai led the officers and troops, and the sky was in the wilderness. ’

In September, the North Courtyard has entered the season of alternating cold and warm, with the sun shining during the day and the wind blowing at night, and the cold is pressing.

In the early morning of this day, the sun was rising, and the sun in the east rose from the white mist, smearing the Moon Bow City and the surrounding woods with a patch of gold, and in the distance, an army came from the edge of the mountain forest, this Tang army was about three thousand men, all of them were bright and bright, with swords and bows, and military blankets and sleeping bags were placed behind the tall horses.

Li Qing'an was in the middle of the procession, starting from the tenth day of the ninth month, and after a seven-day march, he was about to arrive at the destination of this march: Moon Bow City.

On the surface, this was a routine inspection, and he did not have many troops, only bringing 3,000 cavalry, but if you add the strength of the newly built five cities, Li Qing'an's troops deployed north of Broken Leaf have exceeded 18,000 people, which is enough for him to launch a campaign.

This time the decision to send troops to Yuegong City was made on the evening of the tenth day of the first month of September, and that night he received a pigeon letter from the Chang'an Han and Tang Associations, and the imperial court had officially approved Gao Xianzhi's use of troops against the Shushi State, which was the signal for him to send troops to break the leaves.

In fact, since May, he has been actively preparing for war, and the recruited recruits will be stationed in Sanzhou, while the main force of Beiting will gradually move to the new five cities in the form of changing defenses, and by mid-August, there are already 15,000 troops stationed in the new five cities, and there are a large number of food and military supplies at the same time as the soldiers, and the grain stored in Fengming City alone is enough for 10,000 troops to eat for a year.

Moon Bow City was originally a small city, in a sense it was more like a large fort, at most it could accommodate six hundred people, but its unique geographical location, so that Li Qing'an chose it as the first of the five cities, Moon Bow City is located on a cliff north of Cheling, the terrain is extremely high, easy to defend and difficult to attack, after thousands of craftsmen for several months of construction, Moon Bow City is five times larger than the original, not only that, but also built four sub-cities around, so that Crescent Moon Bow City can hide 8,000 soldiers.

In addition to the Moon Bow City, Fengming City, Longwei City, Baihan City and Yibo City were built in turn in the northwest direction, like a string of pearls, distributed in the grassland and the Gobi that are thousands of miles long, the farthest is Yibo City, close to the Yibo Sea to build.

At this moment, the army marched in the continuous mountains of Cheling, along the valley of the Yili River to the west, this is a difficult road, all the way over the mountains, from the north court can all the way to the broken leaves, and then to the west seven hundred miles to Talas, this is the famous northern line of the Silk Road, since the Han and Tang dynasties, this road has been full of wealth and cultural exchanges between the East and the West, following the ringing of camel bells, has been extended to the far west.

Walking through this wood, along a stream over a high hill in front, the Moon Bow City can be vividly seen, Li Qingan took the curtain and looked at a cliff in the south, there was a beacon tower of the Tang army on the cliff, he saw that the beacon tower was lit with three pillars of smoke, which was the news of the arrival of the army.

"Envoy, please see!" A soldier pointed to a high hill in the distance, only to see a group of small black dots appearing on the hill, about 100 people.

Li Qing'an's eyesight surpassed ordinary people, he had already seen that those black spots were all Tang Army cavalry, and they should have come from Moon Bow City to greet him.

The cavalry also spotted them, rushed down from the hill, and rushed to them in a moment, led by none other than the Moon Bow City Lord General Lifei Yuanli.

Li Fei Yuanli was originally a soldier and horse envoy of the Han Navy, and as the main force of the Beiting Army moved westward, he also came to Moon Bow City as the main general, and at present, there are 6,000 garrisons in Moon Bow City, all of which are the original Han Navy.

Li Fei Yuanli stepped forward to give a salute: "The last general, Li Fei Yuanli, will see the envoy." ”

Li Qing'an saw that there was a small black green on his right forehead, which was quite fresh, so he smiled and said, "Is your lady also in the city?" ”

Li Fei Yuan Lili came to the North Court soon married Shi Sanniang as his wife, at the beginning of the husband and wife love, it can be said that the case is eyebrows, but a few months later, Shi Sanniang gradually revealed the other side of the not very gentle place, Li Fei Yuan Li was strictly controlled, he was not allowed to drink, let alone allowed him to set foot in the Ji Yuan, set a number of family laws, Shi Sanniang also has a lot of means, and actually cleaned up the brave and ruthless Li Fei Yuan Li, Li Fei Yuan Li had multiple bags on his head, and the dough was scratched and gradually became commonplace, and everyone laughed at him at first, and then it was not strange.

Seeing Li Qing'an's vicious eyes, Li Fei Yuanli couldn't help but scold secretly, so he had to say with a bitter face: "She tossed me for one night, and she went to Fengming City in the morning." ”

Li Qingan smiled slightly, and no longer teased him, so he asked, "Have you received the order I sent?" ”

"The humiliation has been received, the army is ready, and it is ready to set off at any time."

"Good! After a day's rest, early tomorrow morning, the army will assemble towards Fengming City. ”

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Half an hour later, the army marched into the Moon Bow City, which is today's Khorgos, where there are both snow-covered mountains all year round, as well as large plateau meadows, which has been the throat of the Silk Road since ancient times, and the Moon Bow City was the first place for merchants to rest, but with the rise of the Turgish people, the Moon Bow City gradually became a military town to defend against the Turgish people.

Moon Bow City is not all garrisoned by troops, among the four sub-cities, there is a sub-city built on a low hill for commercial use, there are more than 100 merchants in the city, most of them are inns, records and other things, and soldiers can also go there after being approved.

The soldiers all entered the city to rest, but Li Qing'an stood on the castle and looked into the distance, where the castle was towering, as if looking down from the clouds, and in the distance you could see an endless plateau meadow, the blue sky was like a wash, huge white clouds were floating in the air, and a white tent could be faintly seen on the grassland, and there were huge haystacks next to the tents, which were the nearby herdsmen cutting autumn grass to prepare for the winter.

This is Khorgos, 1,300 years later, this place is known as the bridgehead of the East, Li Qingan looked at this land with some emotion, he had been here in his previous life, and the mountains and grasslands had not changed.

"It's a fucking dream?" Next to him, Li Fei Yuanli sighed loudly.

Li Qingan glanced at him and smiled: "How does it look like a dream?" ”

Li Fei Yuanli grinned and sighed: "Every time I stand here, I will think of the fort back then, that is, there were only fifty people under Lao Li, but it has only been more than three years, and Lao Li has commanded six thousand people, which was absolutely unthinkable three years ago." ”

"What you didn't expect was that the nameless boy who was rescued by you and fed the horses back then actually became your boss, right!"

"That is, back then, I had a discerning eye and promoted you to be the fire chief."

Li Fei Yuanli scratched his head, and asked with a smile: "Where are you kid?" I'm still confused, I heard that you were from Luoyang back then, but now it seems that you are not at all. ”

"I don't know where I'm from, I've been wandering around since I was a kid."

Li Qingan sighed lightly and said with a wry smile: "Maybe I'm really a Broken Leaf Han person." ”

"You? Broken leaf Han people. Li Fei Yuanli looked at him suspiciously.

"The Han people of Broken Leaf should be able to speak Turkic, but you learned it later."

"I don't know, don't ask."

At this time, Li Qing'an suddenly saw a team of camel caravans coming from afar, so he smiled at Li Fei Yuanli and said, "Follow me to see!" ”

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This is a Sogdian caravan from Kangguo, all the way to the Tang Dynasty, they are not many, only more than 200 camels, about 100 merchants, it is a medium-sized caravan, from a distance has arrived in front of the Moon Bow City, the merchants have urged the camels, speed up.

"Uncle, there's an army coming ahead."

A merchant with sharp eyes saw a group of cavalry rushing towards this side, the merchants slowed down their camels, and the leader of the caravan was called Toto, an experienced old merchant, who looked at the visit for a while, and waved his hand to everyone: "Don't be afraid, it's the Tang Army." ”

The Hu merchants were not afraid of the Tang army, but were afraid of the Tuqi Shi people, especially the black surnamed Tuqi Shi people in the south of the broken leaves, looting into the surname, these years their big chief Du Mozhi connived, and the Tuqi Shi people intensified their killing and overkilling, making the Hu merchants from Anxi into the Tang Dynasty less and less, and most of the departments chose to enter the Tang Dynasty from the northern line.

Entering the Tang Dynasty from the northern route, Moon Bow City was the first pass for them to enter the Tang Dynasty.

In a moment, five hundred Tang cavalry galloped in, surrounded the caravan, and the merchants were all huddled together in a nervous state.

The team separated, Li Qing'an and Li Fei Yuanli urged forward, and Li Qing'an asked in Turkic, "Which of you is the head?" Where did it come from? ”

The old merchant Toto stepped forward and saluted respectfully: "General, I am the leader, and I have come from the city of Samad in Kangguo. ”

"Let me ask you, you have come all the way east, but you can pass through Ashi Bulai City?"

"Pass! Elapse! ”

"When did you pass by?"

"Back to the general, ten days ago."

"Then what has changed in the city of Ashbulai, I mean the army, whether there is an increase in the army, or the inspection is strict."

"Hmmm! It's an increase in the army, and when we came over, we met a stone [***] team of nearly 10,000 people, and Ashi Bulai City checked very strictly, especially for the Han people, which was not like this before, and I heard that it started in the last month. ”

Li Qingan nodded, and asked with a smile: "Is the Great Food Civil War over?" ”

"It's not over yet, the black-clothed leader Abbasid promised that as long as we help him fight, after the war is won, he will allow us to restore the original Hangjiao, so many of us in Kangguo have gone to war, and I heard that the war is coming to an end.

"I see!"

Li Qingan arched his hand and smiled: "Go ahead!" "There's nothing going on."

The Tang army got out of the way, and the merchants urged the camels one after another to go towards the Moon Bow City, Li Qing'an turned around and said with a smile: "It seems that the people of the Shi Kingdom are also ready to attack the broken leaves, hum!" It also thought of us together. ”

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Early the next morning, Li Qing'an left only 1,000 people to guard the Moon Bow City, and the remaining 8,000 troops marched towards Fengming City.

Fengming City is located on the north bank of the Yili River two hundred miles away, it is also built according to the mountain, tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, because it is the closest to Broken Leaf City, it has become the location of the logistics headquarters of the Beiting Army of the Western Expedition, with a garrison of 3,000 people.

Fengming City not only stored a large amount of food and military supplies, but also set up a new institution here, that is, the Beiting Army West Expedition Hospital, if the Tang army that attacked the broken leaves was injured, after being bandaged on the spot, they would be sent to Fengming City for treatment and recuperation.

There are not only 100 military doctors here, but also the station of the female escort battalion of the Beiting Army, the establishment of a field hospital and the female escort with the army has become one of the biggest features of the Beiting Army, in the era of cold weapons, most of the soldiers will not die on the spot, more are killed by injuries and excessive bleeding, in the battle of Chiling, Li Qingan successfully established a female escort, after coming to Beiting, he recruited 500 healthy women in the military family, and established a female escort battalion, Li Fei Yuanli's wife Shi Sanniang is the first captain of the female escort battalion.

Two days later, Li Qing'an led the army to Fengming City, at this time Fengming City has been a gathering of wind and clouds, in addition to the Moon Bow City, the army from the other three cities has also arrived in the past two days, the Tang army has gathered 15,000 people.

Fengming City could not accommodate so many troops, so the Tang army who arrived in advance set up camp next to the city, dug deep trenches, erected thick fences, and tents were neatly distributed, and the barracks were in order.

The arrival of the main force of the Tang army made the military camp extremely lively, and Han Zhi and Sha Tuo, the governors of Yizhou, who had just come from Longwei City, welcomed Zhu Xie Duzhong and Zhu Xie Shengyi together.

"The envoy is the last to arrive, replace the wine with tea, and be fined three cups first!" Han Zhi smiled and gave Li Qingan a punch.

Li Qingan took his hand and smiled: "I came from thousands of miles away, and I can't compare to you, so I came from nearby." ”

He nodded at Zhu Xie Duzhong again and smiled: "When did General Duzhong arrive?" ”

The 3,000 people of the Shatuo battalion were stationed in Longwei City and Northern Hancheng respectively, and under the control of Han Zhi, the governor of Yizhou, Zhu Xie was loyal and hurriedly said: "General Huiyu, I arrived early this morning." ”

"Good! Everyone rested for an hour, and after an hour, all the officers above the rank of Captain Guo Yi came to my big tent. ”

The soldiers entered the camp one after another to rest, and at this time, Han Zhi stepped forward and whispered to Li Qing'an: "I just received news from the scouts, and I'm afraid that Shi Guo is also going to attack Broken Leaf." ”

Li Qing'an glanced at him, this news should be reported to him by Li Fei Shouyu from Fengming City, which scout did he receive?

Li Qingan didn't ask much, and said with a smile: "When we came, we met a team of Hu businessmen, and I also got news from them, so it's lively." ”

At this time, Li Fei Shouyu brought Bai Xiaode and Bai Xiaojie brothers to greet him, and Lao Yuan said apologetically: "Envoy, I am dealing with the matter of camping, and it is too late to greet you, please forgive your sins." ”

"What's wrong with the tent, isn't it enough?"

"Nope! No! It was the Shatuo camp that had to insist on living together, there were too many of them, and I originally divided them into two places. ”

"It's my intention to let the Shatuo people live together."

Han Zhi next to him hurriedly said to Li Qing'an: "The lowly mother is from Shatuo, so I know that the Shatuo people gather and live together, and they are generally unwilling to live separately, please understand their customs." ”

Li Qingan smiled, "It's just a trivial matter, and besides, we will only be stationed in the camp for two days at most." ”

Han Zhi was taken aback, "Are you going to use soldiers so soon?" ”

"The soldiers are fast, the reason why I deployed the five cities in advance is to seize the opportunity before the other party discovers our strategic intentions, if everything is slowly arranged, then what is the point of me building the five cities?"

Han Zhi heard Li Qingan's tone a little harsh, and couldn't help wiping the sweat on his forehead and said, "It's a humble job that is simple." ”

"It's nothing, Han Dudu will go and get busy first! I still have some military matters to discuss with Shouyu. ”

Li Qing'an broke away from Han Zhi, and he immediately asked Li Fei Shouyu: "What's the matter, why did this Han Zhi also send scouts?" ”

Li Fei Shouyu smiled bitterly and said: "I was about to report this matter to you, and I just learned that this Han Zhi secretly sent a scout to Ashi Bulai City a month and a half ago to find out, but the scout was caught, exposing the garrison of Longwei City, so Shi Guo increased his troops in Ashi Bulai City in a big way, just to seize the broken leaves before the Tang army." ”

Li Qingan was furious, "This bastard, what does he want to do?" ”

"If I'm not mistaken, he should want to grab the credit, he wants to get ahead of you, and lead the headquarters to take the city of Ashi Bulai first."

"He's dreaming!"

Li Qing'an pondered for a moment, and then said, "Go and call me Zhu Xie Duzhong." ”

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Li Qing'an returned to the tent first, and after a while, Zhu Xie came in a hurry, half-knelt and saluted: "The last general will see the Jiedu envoy!" ”

Zhu Xie Duzhong is the son of Gu Duzhi, according to the first agreement, after the Shatuo people got the Jinshan Ranch, they sent three thousand elite children to join the Beiting Army, divided into two battalions, one battalion led by Zhu Xie Duzhong, two thousand cavalry, stationed in the north of Tingzhou, under the direct management of Li Qing'an, and the other battalion was led by Zhu Xie Shengyi, the nephew of Gu Duzhi, a total of 1,000 cavalry, stationed in the north of Yizhou, to defend Hui, subject to the control of Han Zhi, the governor of Yizhou, this time the two battalions came to the five cities in advance, Zhu Xie was stationed in Baihan City, Zhu Xie Shengyi was stationed in Longwei City with Han Zhi.

Li Qing'an saw the door and asked, "Can you command Zhu Xie Shengyi's cavalry?" ”

Zhu Xie was a little embarrassed: "Although we are all Shatuo people, we are not a tribe, and I can't command Shengyi's army." ”

Li Qingan pondered for a moment and asked, "What's going on with the trouble in the camp this time?" ”

"Returning to the envoy, originally we didn't live together, but Sheng Yi must invite me to live with his subordinates, and Han Dudu also came to persuade me, his mother is the Shatuo people of the Sheng Yi Department, so he knows the customs of Shatuo, and brothers are not separated."

Li Qing'an sneered, he understood what Han Zhi meant, he wanted to attack Ashi Bulai City first, but there were only 2,000 people under his command, plus Sheng Yi's 1,000 Shatuo cavalry, there were only 3,000 people, and the troops were not enough, and he couldn't command the Hanhai and Tianshan armies, so he hit the idea of another Shatuo department.

The battle hasn't been fought yet! That's when selfishness begins.

"Loyalty, Han Dudu pulled you to live with you, do you understand?"

Zhu Xie Duzhong's face flushed, and he said in a low voice: "I understand what he means, but please rest assured, before I leave, my father repeatedly instructed that the future of the Shatuo people lies in the envoy, let me obey the orders of the envoy in everything, even if there is an order from the court, don't buy it." ”

Li Qingan smiled and nodded, "Very good, your father is an understanding person." ”

At this moment, there was a sudden shouting and shouting outside, and a personal soldier rushed into the tent to report urgently: "Envoy, the Yizhou army and the Tianshan army are fighting for the camp." ”

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(To be continued)