Chapter 411

Princess Taiping and Xue Chongxun rested in Huaqing Palace for another night, and the next morning they hurriedly left this warm palace and parted ways, Taiping returned to Chang'an, Xue Chongxun and the Flying Tiger Regiment Guards went straight north

Xue Chongxun's initial destination was Shangjun (near present-day Yulin), which was the military center of the Guanzhong Army in the north, and stationed a large number of elite elites of the Tang Army in the interior

The journey to Shangjun was bumpy and boring, and the weather was still very cold, naturally it was not as comfortable as soaking in the hot springs in the Huaqing Palace Xue Chongxun wrapped a very thick fur coat on his body, and then passed the time with a book of traditional Chinese characters printed vertically, but the taste of reading a book in the carriage was really not very pleasant, and his eyes were so shaky that he could make people dizzy and swollen after a while

He lifted the curtain and looked outside, and there was snow nearby, and dead dead grass would emerge from the snow; However, looking into the distance, you can find that there is a faint layer of light green in the branches and fields, which is the breath of spring, after all, the envoy has already begun spring, and the sergeants on horseback and on the left and right are also dressed very thickly, and they are almost covered with only one eye, and they are silent and stay in the cold wind, and there is only the sound of horses' hooves stepping on the soft snow

Sure enough, Xue Chongxun felt the wound on his left shoulder tremble for a while, so he didn't dare to lean on the carriage, so he could only sit with his waist straight, and he could only rest when he arrived at the post station to rest

After walking all day, I arrived at a small station, and I had to spend the night here, there were 200 people in the Flying Tigers, and the rooms and beds in this small station must not be enough, but it was better for everyone to stay in the house than to camp in the ice and snow

When Xue Chongxun got down from the carriage, he heard a sergeant complain: "This is really frozen! Wouldn't it be even more cold further north? ”

Xue Chongxun took over and said: "When I got to the place, it was February, have you heard of 'February spring breeze like scissors'?" ”

The sergeant looked back and saw him, hurriedly bent down and clenched his fists, and after a while, he remembered Xue Chongxun's question, so he shook his head and said, "I can't read."

At this time, Li Kuiyong, who was also illiterate, said to the sergeant in a tone of lesson: "This is poetry!" Xue Lang, how did you read the whole sentence? ”

Xue Chongxun thought about it, and then satisfied the curiosity of the big-headed man and said: "The jasper is made into a tree high, and the ten thousand hanging green silk silks don't know who cut out the thin leaves, and the spring breeze in February is like scissors."

"Good poetry! Good poetry! Li Kuiyong sighed twice unexpectedly

Xue Chongxun pondered in his heart that He Zhizhang seemed to be a person from the Tang Dynasty, but he didn't know that he had written this poem now, after all, not all the people who followed him were illiterate, even if it was the military generals of the Flying Tiger Regiment, the cultivation of literature and ink was also very good, so as not to mistake others for thinking that it was made by him, he explained: "This poem was written by He Zhizhang."

Thinking of He Zhizhang, Xue Chongxun only remembered that he was a famous poet, but he was not impressed at all as for his practical talents, and this method of identifying talents was very limited, because people who wrote poetry well did not necessarily have military and political talents

When the army entered the post station, they lit a fire in the courtyard to cook dry food, and the officials of the post station also found some wine and meat to come over, and everyone ran around in the wind and snow all day, and finally had a hot sleep at this time, and they could only lay on the floor all over the house, squeezing together, but Xue Chongxun had a room to sleep in, and the imperial doctor who accompanied the army took the opportunity to rest and changed the medicine for him

Rest for one night and continue the march the next morning, such a journey has to be repeated for many days, the pain of the wound, the bumpy journey, and the cold weather are not the most uncomfortable, the most uncomfortable is still this boring and boring Just imagine what it is like to take a long-distance train for a month, the train is much more comfortable, he walked for a few days, so he called Li Kuiyong to the car to chat with him, but Li Kuiyong always said knives, guns and the like, and Xue Chongxun got tired of it in less than two days, so he found another team with a lot of literature and ink to study poetry and songs......

When he arrived in Suizhou (Guannei Road, southeast of Shangjun), it was already early February, and Xue Chongxun suddenly received news from Shangjun: Zhang Renyuan openly announced his rebellion against Chang'an

The messenger sent a copy of the proclamation of the army from the north, and then hurried south to Chang'an

Xue Chongxun stayed in Suizhou for one night, read the article carefully, and sure enough, in the name of King Heze, from the position of Xue Chongxun or Princess Taiping, this kind of article is simply boring, but fortunately, Xue Chongxun's face is thick enough...... Among them, the crimes of Princess Taiping's mother and son, such as tyrannical power, unauthorized abolition, conspiracy and so on, are all true, and what is arrogant and extravagant, cruel and unkind, and so on, Xue Chongxun felt that he had been wronged in his heart, and what was even more excessive was that he openly said that their mother and son were incest! This made him a little angry

That night, he received the officials sent by the county guard to contact and greet him, and asked the officials of the upper county: "Have the soldiers and horses set off?" ”

The official replied: "I received an order from the Ministry of War six days ago, and Zhang Shouzhu was ordered to lead the light cavalry of Shangjun to the west and rush to Lingzhou."

"Zhang Shouchuang?" Xue Chongxun blurted out a question

The Shangjun official hurriedly explained: "The surname of the guard is Zhang Chongsi, but he is not related to Zhang Renyuan, I am afraid I have never even met him, please rest assured."

Xue Chongxun nodded after hearing this, surnames like Sun Wang Li Zhao Zhang are all big surnames, they are everywhere in the world, and they don't necessarily have any blood relationship with each other, maybe they go back to the same ancestor for several generations, but what's the point? According to the Han people, all the people in the world can be traced back to the descendants of Emperor Yan and Emperor Huangdi

The envoy of Shangjun said again: "King Si Ze and the governor of Shuo Fang really ate the gall of a leopard, and they dared to raise troops against His Highness."

Xue Chongxun was silent, and said in his heart: Zhang Renyuan sent two groups of people, all the way to the surprise soldiers, and the other to the assassin sneak attack, so long without hearing the news of success, how can he judge that the sneak attack failed, at this time, if he doesn't hurry up and mobilize his subordinates, he will have no chance at all; At this time, he was raising troops in the open, so that he could "legitimize" the hostile measures against Chang'an in his jurisdiction, and this legalization meant that he at least had an explanation for his non-compliance with the imperial decrees...... Otherwise, Chang'an will escort him back to Beijing to ask for a righteous and bright edict, what reason does he, as a courtier of the Chang'an court, have to be unrestrained? When the time comes, it will be tantamount to resisting because of fear of sin

Xue Chongxun pondered that Zhang Renyuan would most likely join forces with the Turkic Khanate and borrow troops to launch a war against the Chang'an regime

He got the necessary news from the envoy of Shangjun, so he sent that person away, and didn't want to say anything to an unfamiliar official At this time, he had no staff and advisers by his side, and when he set off from Huaqing Palace to the north, he only brought the Flying Tiger Regiment Guards, and there was nothing to discuss with the generals of the Flying Tiger Regiment, either the rank was too low, or someone like Li Kuiyong couldn't even read a word, what was there to plan with him?

Although Zhang Renyuan and others had openly rebelled, Xue Chongxun did not panic, he did not think that Zhang Renyuan could immediately mobilize a large army to go south to fight Guanzhong, so the itinerary remained unchanged, and the next morning he left Suizhou with the Flying Tiger Regiment and continued to march to Shangjun

Three days later, he arrived in Shangjun, and Wang Dai, the county keeper of Shangjun, led the officials and people to warmly welcome him out of the city ten miles, and the solemnity of his etiquette was almost the same as that of the Son of Heaven Lin Xing Xue Chongxun also fully understood his feelings, especially after the heir Ze Wang passed on the world, he publicly accused him of voyeurism, so that those who were originally peripheral and did not know much about the situation understood the current situation

Wang Dai was born in a scholar family, and also had a wide range of pastoral industries in Shangjun, and after receiving Xue Chongxun, he did not welcome him to the dilapidated county government to settle down, but set up a banquet in his own mansion, and let his house out as a place for Xue Chongxun's front yard to issue military and political orders

After the banquet, Wang Dai brought his son and daughter concubine to meet Xue Chongxun, and hinted that the concubine still lived at home...... Xue Chongxun was funny in his heart, and he really thought that Lao Tzu was as ridiculous and shameless as it was written? No matter what, the woman who can still move the subordinate officials can't do it?

He simply ordered the soldiers of the Flying Tiger Regiment to clean up a side hall in the front yard hall where the guard of honor was stacked, and then Li Kuiyong and other captains and brigade commanders also lived next door and put the table text and ink in the hall as the lobby, so they requisitioned this house and did not harass the inner mansion of the county guard

After the marching army was established, Xue Chongxun began to arrange manpower, and for the time being, there were only the generals of the Flying Tiger Regiment and the civil and military officials of Shangjun...... Of course, it would be impossible to deal with Zhang Renyuan with such a little person, so he immediately formulated the preliminary arrangement

He first wrote an urgent report back to Chang'an, asking to be named the "Chief of the March of the Heisha (Turkic Nanting) Road", and sent the generals Yin Ci and Zhang Wulang to the north as deputy generals, and Wang Changling and Zhang Jiuling as the staff of the marching counselors, and formed a civil and military team on this basis

The title must first be formal and legitimate, and then it can justifiably crusade against rebellions and foreign enemies in the name of the general manager of the march

The next day, after a night of consideration, Xue Chongxun thought that war with the Turks might be unavoidable, and that he had to prepare a large army to enter the army in addition to using diplomatic means, so he wrote a letter to Princess Taiping, asking her to authorize the gathering of the elite from the northern region of Guannai to Shangjun to prepare for the Northern Expedition

The letter that delivered the military affairs emergency was sent to 800 li urgently, and the horses were constantly changed along the way, so the message was transmitted relatively quickly, and in late February, he received a message from Zhang Shuo, who was in the text, and the treasury was empty, and the bitter water of insufficient troops was due to the large-scale war against the Tubo State just last year, and the war and the aftermath of the war consumed a lot of finance (Taiping Xiuhua Qing Palace also cost a lot of money, but Zhang said that he did not say it explicitly), and now less than a year has passed, and the tax revenue of the new year has not begun, and Xue Chongxun is preparing to wage war against the Turks, the government hall will naturally build yì prudent governance

However, Xue Chongxun was on the rise, looking forward to dealing a heavy blow to the internal and external enemies who opposed him, so he ignored Zhang's message and insisted that the military department transfer a group of elite soldiers and grain, grass and ordnance to the north