In the steady cabin, a tall middle-aged man slowly pulled out the horizontal knife in his hand, this knife had been with him for ten years, and he had not changed the knife since he received it from his master at the age of thirty. And this knife is indeed a good knife, he used this knife at the beginning, followed the master on an expedition to the desert, and countless Turks died under his knife, maybe the battle was too tragic, and this knife also drank too much blood, so there was still a wisp of dark red in the gap on the handle, which was the enemy's dried blood, which could not be cleaned.

The middle-aged man's name is Li Shi, who is the general of Li Jing, the Duke of Weiguo, who has followed Li Jing since he was a teenager, and it can be said that as long as Li Jing participates in the war, he has also participated in it without falling, especially in the war to destroy the Turks ten years ago, he followed Wei Gong to break through the old nest of Jieli Khan, and welcomed Li Su's grandmother, that is, Queen Xiao's family, back to the Tang Dynasty. It was also in that battle that Li Shi took the lead, and countless Turks died in his hands, and he also blocked three arrows for Wei Gong Li Jing, but he almost fell, which can be described as a great achievement.

After the war, Li Jing originally wanted Li Shi to be a general in the army, so as to find a wife and a son for himself, but Li Shi refused the kindness of his master, but said that he had no intention of being a general, and only wanted to stay in the mansion to be a general, and to guard the Patriotic Mansion for generations. For such a loyal Li Shi, Li Jing was also quite moved, so although Li Shi was named the general of the house, Li Jing had already regarded him as his own son and nephew, and all the generals and subordinates of the house were all under Li Shi's control.

I saw Li Shi slowly pull out the horizontal knife, picked up the wine jug beside him, and drank three sips first. Then he slowly poured the rest of the liquor onto the knife, and finally picked up a piece of soft cotton cloth next to it. Gently wipe the wine off the knife. At the same time, he muttered to himself: "Old man, I haven't drunk blood for ten years." Presumably you are already hungry, this time the master finally sent me to lead the troops again, although the opponent is only a small Wa country, but it can finally make you drink blood again! ”

As soon as Li Shi's words fell, the door of the cabin was suddenly pushed open, and a guy who was not tall, but extremely strong, broke in, and saw that Li Shi was maintaining the horizontal knife again, so he pouted and said, "Brother Li." Even though it's humid at sea, you don't need to take care of your knife three times a day, right? ”

The name of the person who came was Xu De, a little younger than Li Shi, and he was the only general on the ship except for Li Shi, and there were a total of four hundred and two people on board their ship, including four hundred and two generals in addition to Li Shi and Xu De. The two of them were in charge of two hundred men each. In addition, in addition to their ship, there are many other ships around, and the boats are also the generals and subordinates of various wealthy nobles in Chang'an, and the number of people is uncertain. They were all invited by Li Su to come to Si Xuan to prepare to help Li Su attack the Wa Kingdom.

Li Shi is the general of Li Jing, the Duke of Weiguo, and he has two hundred trilogies under him. In addition, on a small boat next to it, there are three generals of the Patriotic Mansion. With a hundred people each, that is. This time, the Patriotic Mansion produced a trilogy of 500 people. And Xu De, who had just broken into Li Shi's cabin, was the general of the British Duke Li Ji, and he also participated in the war to destroy the Turks, so he and Li Shi were old acquaintances, and the two often drank together, and the relationship was very good.

Seeing Xu De, who never knew how to knock on the door, Li Shi didn't bother to talk about this old brother, but carefully wiped the horizontal knife of his hands and feet again, and then put the knife into the sheath and said: "We have gone to sea, and we are about to go to Si Xian to see His Royal Highness the King of Qi, but I don't know if His Royal Highness is really as heroic and intelligent as the legend?" ”

I saw Xu De walk up to Li Shi, lift the wine jug just now and take a few sips, and then laughed and said: "I don't know if His Royal Highness King Qi is really heroic and intelligent, but the person who can make both the Lord and the Little Lord admire him very much is definitely not a simple character!" ”

The Guogong and the little grandfather in Xu De's mouth refer to Li Ji and Li Jingye, Li Jingye is the most outstanding among all Li Ji's children and grandchildren, and has inherited most of his art of war and martial arts, so he has long been designated as the next British prince, so Xu De's generals are all commensurate with the little grandfather.

Li Shi also nodded after hearing this, when he was in Chang'an, he had never had the opportunity to see Li Su, so he could only appreciate the demeanor of His Royal Highness the King of Qi from the legend, but when he thought of Wei Pingping, when he mentioned this King of Qi, he showed his appreciation, with Wei Gong's ability to recognize people, the people who could get his appreciation would naturally not be like those princes in Chang'an City, who only knew how to fight around the throne.

Li Shi's sails were full of wind, and the speed of the fleet was very fast, and in a few days they reached the sea off the coast of Si Xian City, but it was at this time that they found a fleet parallel to them, and it was also a fleet of people.

Li Shi and Xu De were the leaders of the generals of Wei Guogong and British Gong respectively, and when they heard the news, they immediately went out of the cabin, walked to the side of the ship and looked at the fleet on the right side of the fleet, and found that the other party's fleet was larger than them, and there were also people on the deck of the ship, but the distance was too far away to see who the other party was.

"Brother Li, the other party is the fleet of the Qi Palace, and there is the flag of the palace on it!" Xu De was a marksman, and his eyes were much sharper than ordinary people, so he could see at a glance that the ships in that fleet were all planted with the flag of the Qi Palace.

Li Shi nodded after hearing this, and at the same time reached out and took out the telescope in his arms, which was given to him by Li Jing, the Duke of Wei, when he left Chang'an, although the telescope is not a rare item now, it is generally only owned by army generals and captains of sea ships.

With the help of the function of the telescope, Li Shi finally saw the people on the other ship, but what surprised him was that on the decks of many ships on that fleet, there were many children playing, and these children had red and black faces, and they were wearing clothes made of sheepskin and linen, and they knew at a glance that they were grassland people.

At this time, Xu De next to him also used his telescope to see the people on the nowhere deck clearly, and as a result, he also said to himself strangely: "Why are they all grassland Hu people, could it be that they were transported and sold by captured grassland slaves?" ”

Regarding Xu De's speculation, Li Shi shook his head disapprovingly, and opened his mouth to analyze: "The Hu slaves in the grassland are generally only men in the prime of life, of course, there are some beautiful young women, but there are not only children on the other party's boat, but I also saw a few old people and women, these people have no value for selling at all, presumably no one will capture them as slaves!" ”

Li Shi is not only brave, but also as a master of the art of war, the general of Li Jing, the Duke of Weiguo, he has also learned a lot of the master's skills, his mind is very calm, and his analysis is also very reasonable, Xu De also nodded after hearing this, but he was even more puzzled in his heart, and he couldn't guess what the purpose of this fleet full of grassland people was?

The other ships next to Li Shi were also very interested in the fleet next to them, so Li Shi also gathered all the family members on the boat, and everyone discussed it, but in the end there was no result in the discussion, but someone provided information, that is, when they were on the Yellow River, it seemed that this fleet was not far from them, but there were too many boats on the river at that time, and no one paid attention.

The two fleets arrived at Si Yu almost at the same time, and Li Su in Si Yu City also received the news and immediately rushed to the port to greet him, of course, he was not going to greet the grassland people, after all, those Hu people were destined to become only a tool for him, and they were not worth meeting him personally. The generals of Li Shi are different, although the generals are also regarded as the private property of the master, and the political status is lower than that of the beloved, but they can represent their own masters outside, and the relationship between Li Su and various wealthy nobles shows their sincerity in person.

Among this batch of generals and subordinates, the generals and subordinates from the Duke of Wei Guo and the British Mansion are the most, plus Li Shi and Xu De were also extremely famous generals at the beginning, and the generals of each province were also convinced, so Li Shi and Xu De naturally became the leaders of the team this time.

When Li Shi, Xu De and the generals of various prefectures disembarked, they immediately saw a young man in Chinese clothes standing on the port, surrounded by many local officials. Li Shi and Xu De immediately guessed that this young man should be His Royal Highness King Qi, and they didn't dare to slack off at the moment, and immediately stepped forward a few steps to see, and Li Yu also smiled so that everyone didn't have to be polite.

After a few words with Li Shi and the others in the port, after all the subordinates got off the ship, Li Su immediately asked people to arrange for these subordinates to go to the military camp that had been prepared long ago, and there was also wine and meat prepared there to catch the wind and wash the dust for everyone, as for Li Shi and Xu De, these generals were personally entertained by Li Su in the palace, in order to show his attention to them.

Li Shi and these people are all rough people, seeing that the famous His Royal Highness the King of Qi is so enthusiastic, they naturally all open their minds and drink freely, plus Li Su arranged a group of generals such as Hu Li and Zhou Long to sit with them, so this reception banquet is very lively, and Li Su also took this opportunity to understand Li Shi and the people who came this time.

According to what Li Shi said, the wealthy nobles of Chang'an have produced a lot of people from each family for this attack on the Japanese country, adding up to a total of 6,400 people, although it seems that the number is not much, but they are the most elite generals of each family, many people have been on the battlefield with the main family, and their combat power is much stronger than the regular army of the Tang Dynasty, so even if the other party has ten times the enemy, they also have the courage to fight to the death with it.

Regarding Li Shi's words, Li Su did not suspect that the other party was bragging, because he also knew that when the generals of the Tang Dynasty went to the battlefield, the personal soldiers around them were all served by these generals and subordinates, so for the safety of their own lives, the combat power of these subordinates is indeed stronger than that of ordinary soldiers, plus the subordinates are all generations of soldiers, and they are usually raised by the master's family, and men have to participate in training when they reach their age, so it can be said that they are professional soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, so it is normal for them to have stronger combat effectiveness.

After the banquet, Li Su had just sent Li Shi's drunken guy to the barracks, but suddenly received news from the officials who had settled the Hu tribe that something was wrong over there! (To be continued.) )