"Your Majesty, Li Chengong's army has been dispatched, Li Guangyan reported that Shi Jingfeng and Sha Chali had been sent as the vanguard to penetrate into the territory of Tubo, Sha Chali had crossed the Yellow River and captured Shimen, and Shi Jingfeng had disappeared since he sent his troops. According to the itinerary in Xia Suijun's newspaper, Li Guangyan led the army and was about to arrive in Shazhou. ”

Pei Yan replied. Before the war, according to Fan Xichao's suggestion, the imperial court decided to send Sha Zha to lead 1,500 Shatuo soldiers with Li Guangyan. The Shatuo soldiers themselves fled from Zhangye a few years ago, and were chased and killed by the Tubo soldiers along the way, and the leader Zhu Xie was loyal and all died in the chaos, and the remnants of thousands of old and young were taken in by the Tang Dynasty and placed in Lingzhou, setting aside pastures, supplying money and grain, and setting up the Yinshan Governor's Mansion to manage the Shatuo people. After more than five years of recuperation, Shatuo, which is backed by the Tang Dynasty, has prospered again. The new Shuofang Lingyan Festival envoy Tian Hongzheng reported that Shatuo's battleable soldiers had reached 3,000. The governor of Daiyinshan Prefecture, Sha Zha Li, said that the Shatuo tribes wanted to welcome back Zhu Xie Chixin, who was placed in Chang'an by Li Yu, every day, and counterattacked Hexi to take revenge.

Since the strength of the Shatuo people is strong enough, and they also have a strong desire to fight, of course Li Yu will not be polite, at that time, let the military department issue a downward order, so that Sha Zali was controlled by Li Guangyan, and led the army to fight back to Hexi from Shimen along the original road, and the Shatuo people who hated Tubo were naturally happy, but Li Yu did not forget to strictly order the discipline of the Shatuo people at the same time. They are not allowed to plunder. Hearing that Sha Chali had already entered the stone gate, Li recited:

"Sha Tuo is good at fighting, after this battle, Sha Tuoli's merits will not be small, but I am afraid that the casualties will not be light, and Zhu Xie Chixin should be put back to be his governor of Yinshan Mansion."

He immediately ordered:

"Tell Li Guangyan that Sha Tuo has come from afar, and the court should be kind to him, Tubo is his clan enemy, and a good knife should be used or used, but no matter what, Sha Tuo and other leaders should not be allowed to make mistakes."

Pei Yan said:

"The minister wrote it down, and he will send a message to Xia Suijun later."

Li Yu asked again:

"Where did that Shi Jingfeng come from? It seems that there is no such person in Xia Sui's army. ”

Pei Du Dao:

"Back to Your Majesty, Shi Jingfeng was originally the envoy of the Zhenwu Army Li Guangjin under the account of the West Surrender City, familiar with the grassland, it is said that he has gone deep into the desert for thousands of miles, and has repeatedly made military exploits in the Zhenwu Army, Li Guangjin thought that the Zhenwu Army was not in the division sequence this time, and would bury Shi Jingfeng's talent. It was mentioned in Li Guangjin's recital. ”

Li Yu remembered this and said:

"Shi Jingfeng, right? Is it the one who is said to be a little short but extremely skilled in equestrianism? ”

Pei Du Dao:

"Exactly. This person is the most familiar with life outside the border army, and it will indeed be a big pity if he can't go on the expedition this time. ”

Li Chanted:

"It turned out to be him, I heard that this person is very good at guerrillas, leading the headquarters to live in the water and grass, often not heard from for months, but every time he attacks, he will gain a lot, according to this view, this time this person is going to win by surprise."

Pei Du Dao:

The minister thinks so too. It's a pity that although most of the people in the army are surprised by this person, they think that his tactics are not on the table, and he has changed from Lingyan to Zhenwu, but he has only become a guerrilla general. ”

Li Yu smiled:

"This man is interesting. I never think that the tactics are superior or not, but only whether I can win the battle. What kind of quality is the guerrilla general now? If Shi Jingfeng makes another great contribution this time, I will still appoint him as a general guerrilla general, but two words must be added in front, champion, champion guerrilla general, yes, champion guerrilla general, so that the warriors in the army and everyone in the world know that Datang is a place where you can achieve success as long as you have the ability. ”

Pei Yan was stunned for a moment, and there seemed to be no place to use guerrilla tactics to win the battle. So he asked:

"Dare to ask Your Majesty, what is the rank of the champion guerrilla general?"

Li Chanted:

"It's the same as the champion general, it's the third grade—this matter is decided."

Seeing that Li Yu would not allow them to speak, the ministers had no choice but to hold back their words and leave them for the next opportunity. Moved on to the next topic.

When the morning sun woke up the life in the field with its cold light, a poplar forest thirty miles away from Shazhou was as quiet as ever, and from time to time birds flew out to meet the morning light and start a new day. After all, it snows in August, and it may still be the Mid-Autumn Festival in Jiangnan at the moment, and the winter atmosphere here is already extremely strong, and the birds flying out are many fewer varieties than in summer. So, one of Rinnai's bows opened and quickly put it down.

"General, the front is Shazhou, the subordinates have investigated, there are only 3,000 defenders in the courtiers, 1,000 people were taken away yesterday to guard Xiazhou, and 800 people are stationed outside the city to guard the main road, and the defenders in the city are now only 1,200 people. Perhaps the war has broken out in Longyou, Chen Guogong's army has been killed out of Xiazhou, the security here is very tight, only every morning and evening there are two hours of the city gate open, allowing entry and exit. According to the subordinates, the so-called permission to enter and exit is only to allow the leaders in the city and the families of the leaders from other places to leave the place, and the ordinary people are not allowed to leave. ”

In the poplar forest, a short and capable soldier bowed to a short and capable general. The general's black and thin face, if it weren't for the armor, he could only think that he was a man herding sheep, and he wouldn't have thought that he was Shi Jingfeng, a famous general in the west of the famous town. Since sending troops on the order of General Li Guangyan, Shi Jingfeng led 2,000 people from his headquarters to disappear from the sight of the army, marching day and night all the way, and finally quietly rushed to the outside of Shazhou City that morning. As soon as Shi Jingfeng arrived, the scouts sent back.

Shi Jingfeng pondered for a while and asked:

"I have retreated all my family members, and it seems that Tubo is not unprepared for a big battle. Why did the Shazhou army send 800 men to guard the main road? ”

Scout said:

"My subordinates heard that in the past few years, a group of horse thieves has appeared in the mountains near Shazhou, coming and going like lightning and wind, crisscrossing all parts of Hexi, and the Tubo people have no way to take them. They often robbed merchants, and sometimes even small groups of Tibetan troops were attacked, so they had to divide their troops to protect the trade routes. ”

Shi Jingfeng asked again:

"Then the Tubo army must send troops to escort the leader and his family out of the city every day?"

Scout said:

"General Hui, that's exactly the case, every time I will send about one or two hundred people to escort it."

Shi Jingfeng said:

"Ah! It seems that the first merit of this general's departure from the army fell on these family members. Come on, get a map. ”

A large sheepskin map quickly unfolded in front of Shi Jingfeng. Since Li Yu opened the martial arts, the habit of using the sand table and the map has been promoted to the whole army, especially the border army, because the imperial court takes a defensive position in the west, the border generals can only have a good time on the map and the sand table, it is said that the Fengxiang army also made a joke that two generals actually quarreled with each other when they were on the map. After the map was opened, Shi Jingfeng narrowed his already small eyes and said:

"When the sun rises a little higher, let the soldiers have a good rest. Take care of the horse and don't make any noise. Scout camp, go find a few locally-born Han Chinese. ”

Shimen, Sha Chali's two mustaches are still very eye-catching, but his face is much older and a little fatter, and he seems to be unable to find even the appearance of the fierce general who went in and out of the tens of thousands of troops in Tubo back then. However, the leaders who followed behind Sha Chali knew that the means of this Dai Yin Mountain Governor and soldiers and horses to make Sha Chali crisscross were no worse than those on the battlefield. The first time was fine, the second time the support was more intense, and several people died inexplicably in the battle against the Uighurs, and by the third time, the people who were willing to ask Zhu Xie Chixin to come back almost did not dare to speak. Who doesn't know that Sha Chali is showing his loyalty and righteousness?

But in all fairness, Sha Chali is very generous to those who are willing to get close to him, and he is also more generous than the Zhu Xie family, every time he comes back from the expedition, in addition to the one handed over to the Shuo Fang Jiedu envoy, the other trophies that are allocated to this part Sha Chali take a small part of it himself, and give a lot to the subordinates, so in the past few years, except for a few people, all of them have recognized Sha Chali as the acting governor, and everyone seems to have forgotten the rumored governor who spent money in Chang'an and always asked the tribe for money.

But today, Sazari seems to want everyone to think about it again. Standing in front of the stone gate, Sha Chali asked:

"Guys, do you remember what this place is?"

One of the generals replied:

"Dudu, this is where we escaped from Hexi back then."

This was not the answer that Sha Chali wanted, his eyes wandered among the generals, and some of the generals lowered their heads when they saw him, and only one of the relatives of the Zhu Xie family replied:

"This is where we buried the old governor and vowed to fight back."

Sha Zhali nodded, smiling and staring at the general, but everyone was scared. Sha Chali said loudly:

"Yes, this is the place where I took you back then, accompanied by Chixin, and buried the old governor."