After some work, Zheng Rong finally felt relaxed, got up and looked around, and suddenly found that a layer of twilight had gradually closed on the window paper, but he didn't expect that half a day had been consumed, so he smiled and said to the people in the house: "Everyone has worked hard, let this king instruct the palace cook to cook a few good dishes, how about everyone eat together?" Without waiting for everyone to thank him, Zheng Rong pushed the door out and wanted the attendant to pass the word to the kitchen, but when he saw Zheng Xin, Zheng Sen and Zheng Miao standing respectfully at the door, he didn't know how long, and he was even happier in his heart, so he simply let these people stay to eat.

At the dinner table, Zheng Rong started from Yizhi's courageous and resourceful rescue of Yiran, and talked about the pros and cons of the alliance, all of which were praised one by one, and the appreciation was overflowing. Even Zhong Likuang, who has always been unsmiling, nodded frequently in praise. Seeing the attitude of his father and husband, all the princes also praised a few words, Zheng Sen also wanted to find a chance to toast a toast, but Qiu Yizhi never drank a drop of wine, so he gave up.

Zheng Rong gave birth to three sons, and Qiu Yizhi was a moth again, but now there is a little Yiran who is different from the Central Plains woman who lives in the house, so it seems that he has more daughters, and he chats with her about the customs on the grassland whenever he has time. Qiu Yizhi and Zheng Miao saw each other, and they often came up to chat; Only Zheng Xin and Zheng Sen brothers are inconvenient to fight with their younger brothers because they are old, but the two of them study and practice martial arts together.

Zheng Rong enjoyed the joy of family in Youyan, and a letter of alliance from himself was played together, but the entire court was in turmoil. After the banquet that day and night, Emperor Zheng Yong suffered from the cold, and even more ignored political affairs, listened to Wang Zhonghai's suggestion, and divided government affairs to two princes to manage. The two princes did not care about the fashion of government affairs and fought in a faction, but now they are directly in charge of the affairs of the imperial court, and they have made the imperial court as a battlefield. Yang Yuanzhi saw the chaos in the court, knew that he was powerless, so he simply learned from the emperor and recuperated at home. As soon as Yang Yuanzhi left, there was no one in the court to lead the outline, and no matter how big or small the affairs were, they always had to quarrel, and in the end they were still not allowed to implement it.

Youyan King Zheng Rong's documents were sent to the Ministry of War, although Fu Kui, the secretary of the Ministry of War, belonged to the faction of Zheng Chang, the eldest son of the emperor, he still had some public intentions, and his relationship with Zheng Rong was extraordinary. Yang Yuanzhi also felt that the matter was serious, even if there was no party dispute between the DPRK and China, if such a major matter was submitted to various ministries for discussion through the Zhongshu Province, it would take at least two or three months to wait for the results, not to mention that the government was now in chaos. Yang Yuanzhi thought about it, so she simply gave up her old life, and ran directly to the palace gate and knelt down to see the emperor. Although Emperor Zheng Yong was slack in political affairs, he was not so good as to deceive the teacher and destroy his ancestors, and when he heard the teacher kneeling at the door, he immediately announced him into the palace, and immediately approved Zheng Rong's recital. The emperor's approval is a holy decree, even the slightest negligence is the crime of deceiving the king. However, there is no disobedience, but it may not be without the intention of obstruction - Zhang Chaohe, who was responsible for drafting the holy decree, was the leader of the second son of the party, and he was arbitrary and dictatorial, and put aside Cao Kang and Shi Liangzhi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and moved a little bit of pen and ink in the holy decree, and sent straight to Youyan Wangfu.

After Zheng Rong received the holy decree, he was happy and worried, happy that he had approved the annexation of the Ulin Yala clan so quickly, and worried that the imperial brother actually wanted to let the prince of Youyan go to the desert to join the alliance with Dali Khan, and he couldn't help but feel a chill.

Zheng Rong has been at war with the Turks for more than ten years, and although it is not common for him to lead the army to the desert in person, it is not a thrilling event, and he thinks that as long as he is well prepared and acts cautiously, he can retreat with his whole body.

However, since the two princes, they are not as good as Zheng Rong himself. The three brothers, Zheng Xin, Zheng Sen and Zheng Miao, all thought that the current situation in the grassland was treacherous, and the king of Youyan should not be moved lightly, and were willing to go deep into the desert for their father and form an alliance with Dali. Zhong Likuang even bluntly said that this edict of the imperial court may not be a plan to kill people with a knife. Even Yiran said that the sincerity of the Great Han Alliance was sufficient, and there was no need for the prince of Youyan to enter the danger. Qiu Yizhi had talked about this matter privately with Zheng Rong before, although he was very yearning for the scenery of the grassland, he also knew that today's grassland was more dangerous than usual, and it was not a good plan for his father-in-law to take risks at the moment.

However, Zheng Rong has always liked heroes, and when he saw Dalí's two letters, he was already handed over, and he really wanted to make friends with this leader of the grassland. So he tried his best to override public opinion, let Zheng Xin manage Youyan government affairs, Zheng Sen to lead the military, and he brought three children, strategists Zhong Likuang, Zheng Miao, Yizhi and Yiran, and ordered 5,000 elite soldiers, and Cui Nan and Wei Hu were each led about 1,500, and he commanded 2,000 Chinese troops, and then went to the desert.

There are a total of 100,000 armor soldiers, iron horses, and crossbows in this Youyan, and Zheng Sen, the second son who is familiar with military affairs, made a rough calculation and suggested that his father could lead 60,000 soldiers and horses to the north. Zheng Rong knew his son's thoughts, waved his hand and said with a smile: "Now the situation on the grassland, this king is to lead 100,000 horses to pour out of the nest, and it doesn't matter if only Guangyang is an empty city." However, this time it was not to conquer the Turks, but to meet the alliance, if you bring more soldiers, one will be misunderstood by the other party, and the other will also make the Turks despise the courage of the Han family. Zheng Sen was speechless, so he had to carefully select elite soldiers from among the elite soldiers, and selected 5,000 soldiers and horses for his father to take away.

The group left Guangyang, all the way north through Yanzhou, Yingzhou, Youzhou, and soon arrived at Shanhaiguan.

The majestic posture of the first pass in the world suddenly shocked Qiu Yizhi, who saw such a magnificent building for the first time - the upper and lower levels of the Xiongguan are made of huge stones, more than ten zhang high, and the crossbows, stone cannons, sassal wood, rolling stones, boiling soup, etc. are all available on the wall, and the spirit of the whole armor is vibrant. Qiu Yizhi was very impressed, and approached his father-in-law and said: "This Shanhaiguan can't shoot arrows, and the knife can't be broken, it can be said that one husband is a pass, and ten thousand people can't be opened, no wonder the Turks don't dare to go south and graze horses!" ”

Zheng Rong shook his head and said slowly: "Although Shanhaiguan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but the northern border of the Han Dynasty is thousands of miles away, is it impossible to build tens of thousands of Shanhaiguan?" Emperor Taizong of our dynasty once had three strategies for the northern strategy of Yiping. Build a city and defend it to protect the Central Plains from ravage, which is the next policy; waved the army to the north, but the enemy was thousands of miles away, this is the middle strategy; China is safe, and the four are self-serving, which is the best policy. And we are still restrained everywhere with the best strategy to resist the enemy, and we are really the descendants of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, it is recorded that the strong city is not enough to be ashamed, and the armor is not enough to be proud, and only the rule of a strong country is the law of peace for ten thousand years. Compared with Zhong Likuang, Zheng Rong's teachings to Yizhi are not much, but he always explains in simple terms and is good at inducement, which benefits Yizhi a lot.

After staying in Shanhaiguan for one night, the army took tens of thousands of cattle and sheep prepared by Youzhou Prefecture and left the customs to the north.

Through the long and dark doorway of Shanhaiguan, he finally left the border of the Han Dynasty and stepped into the Mobei grassland. Youyan Dao soldiers are full of food, there is no other place in the Han Dynasty defenders false report of military salary, slack training, these 5,000 people are the elite soldiers among the elite soldiers, all of them are warriors who have sacrificed their lives from the battlefield fighting, as soon as they step on the velvet-like pasture, they know that this place is full of dangers, and they can't help but tense their nerves. Zheng Rong is the commander of the first army, even if he is nervous, he should be calm, sit on the horse and talk and laugh with the generals on the left and right, so as to calm the army's heart.

The three children are different from the adults. Qiu Yizhi and Zheng Miao are the first to return to the grassland, the blue sky and green space are all novel, even a small grass pulled from the ground casually, and it has to be studied for half a day. Remembering that she is the daughter of the grassland, she has been in Guangyang City for a month, and she has long been suffocated, and when she returns to the grassland today, she seems to be like a fish in water, although she is younger than Zheng Miao, but she treats herself as a sister, and introduces the customs on the grassland to Yizhi and Zheng Miao.

The three teenagers sometimes teased the cattle and sheep that were eating while walking, and sometimes played with the soldiers' bows and crossbows, jumping up and down, and were very happy; played too much, was scolded by Zheng Rong with a smile, and rode on both sides of Zheng Rong to talk heartily; Tired and sleepy, he ran to Zhong Li Kuang's car again and slept with his clothes.

When I woke up, it was already a golden crow, and the team was gradually stopping, and it was time to set up camp.

The army had its own master who could not understand the terrain, and after a boulder, he chose the location of the camp, and instructed the sergeants to dig wells and raise cattle and sheep in captivity. Wei Hu, the general of Zhengdong, arranged for the sergeants to dig trenches, set up sentry posts, and set up tents, and after operating in an orderly manner for about an hour, a huge camp was set up on the grassland.

Since it is on the grassland, the food is mainly beef and mutton. Under Yiran's guidance, Yizhi and Zheng Miao lit a bonfire and roasted the plump leg of lamb to a "crackling" sound, and a mouth-watering burnt fragrance wafted along the wind. Zheng Rong smelled the fragrance, pulled Zhongli Kuang over and sat down around the bonfire.

Yizhi and Zheng Miao held a freshly roasted leg of lamb and presented it to the teacher, Zheng Rong took the food handed by Zheng Miao and ignored the royal etiquette, and nibbled on it when it was delivered to his mouth; Zhongli Kuang couldn't stand the smell of roast sheep, and originally brought vegetables and rice from Youyan, but it was difficult to refute Yizhi's face, so he took a bite, but he was choked and coughed, causing everyone to laugh.

After talking freely, they went back to their tents to rest.

Early the next morning, the Han army pulled up the camp and continued to march north. A few white clouds changed their shapes leisurely above the blue sky, the endless grassland stretched out at the end of the line of sight with the gloom of winter, the cold wind blowing from the north showed his destructive power without any scruples, but the soldiers from the south did not succumb to his obscenity at all, they all changed into winter clothes, followed behind the confident generals with firm steps, and advanced northward.

Yizhi and Zheng Miao followed Yiran's instructions, lying on horseback to avoid the wind, and occasionally herdsmen drove the sheep and sang incomprehensible pastoral songs, so they straightened up to see what was going on. Whenever this happens, Zheng Rong will have soldiers in the team who are fluent in the languages of the various ethnic groups in the desert drive forward, ask them for the way, and give them a few silver taels, so that the herdsmen will kneel on the ground and pray, thanking God for the gift.

It was the same for several days, the same sky, the same meadows, the same winds, the same flocks. This made the excitement and curiosity of Yizhi when he first stepped into the grassland disappear. The undulating back of the horse shook Yizhi to sleep, and he was about to sneak into Zhongli Kuang's carriage to take a nap, but he heard the sound of a distant horn floating from nowhere.

Immediately, a scout reported: "About 20 miles west-northwest, more than 500 Turks are coming towards our army!" ”