On the second day after the Nine Princesses were robbed by the mysterious Tibetan masters, the 300,000 Tubo iron horsemen who surrounded Liangzhou City retreated to Dafeichuan under the control of Lingyou.

Half a day later, Xue Rang, the general of the expedition to the west, led 50,000 remnants out of Liangzhou City and returned to Beijing in embarrassment.

On the Jinluan Palace, in the face of the accountability of a group of civil officials led by the imperial historian Nangong Court, Xue Rang, who had suffered a defeat, did not make any arguments, and took the initiative to wear a flower feather, with a look of not being afraid of those who were waiting to be killed.

Tianxuandu, who originally cherished the general's intention to release the water, was furious about this, and demoted Xue Rang from the post of the second-rank Andong Metropolitan Protector by three levels, received the rank of fifth-grade guerrilla general, and was assigned to the Liangzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion for meritorious service.

It's just that before Xue Rang left for his post, the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate sent an urgent document of 800 miles.

The 100,000 iron cavalry of the North Tubo Route Army, which was originally confronting the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate, suddenly attacked the Metropolitan Protectorate and the Governor's Office.

Li Bu, the protector of Anxi, who dedicated half of his life to the vast land of the Western Regions, knew in his heart that the treasury of the Celestial Empire had been drained by the war of Goryeo, and not long ago he sent out a little princess who was the emperor's favorite to relieve the siege of Liangzhou City. Therefore, Li Laoduhu, who has not shown any military achievements in half of his life and has a clear grasp of the overall situation, only briefly stated the situation of the battle between the two armies in the Western Regions, and then made an impassioned statement, directly expressing the heart of the jade, vowing to live and die with the four towns of Anxi to repay the country's favor and so on.

Emperor Tianxuan, who read the urgent battle report of the Western Regions in the south study, sighed helplessly, this time the Celestial Empire was fortunate to be able to protect Liangzhou City and Xue Rang's 50,000 remnants of the army, and fortunately, the Tubo army led at that time was Lingyou, who was not heavy on the murderous heart, if he changed to the Tubo Eastern Xinjiang Jiedu Envoy Wulang, who had always been unkind to the Celestial Empire and had killed prisoners several times, I was afraid that even if the Celestial Empire sent out the princess in the end, the 50,000 troops in Liangzhou City would be gone. As for the barren land far away from the Central Plains in the Western Regions, when he decided to compromise with Tubo and send the Nine Princesses, as the king of a country, he and His Royal Highness had tacitly and temporarily abandoned it.

Gonggong Gui, who was standing behind the side with his bow, stepped forward to study the ink very tacitly, and was silent for a long time, and finally couldn't help but comfort: "Your Majesty, you must pay attention to your body, don't be angry." ”

For this father-in-law Gui, who has served three generations of emperors and watched him grow up since he was a child, Tianxuan has great respect in his heart. In the entire palace, only the oldest Duke Gui dared to intervene in Tianxuandu's anger, even if the Duke of Wei who was in power to the Ministry of Internal Affairs could not.

Tianxuan, whose mood had calmed down a lot, took a smallest-sized trench pen from the wood-grain pen holder standing in the upper right corner of the desk, raised his hand and dipped it on a thin layer of thick black ink that Gonggong Gui had just grinded, and escorted back a handwritten message for Li Laodu, who was far away in the Western Regions.

If the situation is urgent, you can give up the governance of Qiuzi and retreat to the northern Xinjiang, please Aiqing to preserve his military strength and mediate with Tubo to the end, so that my Celestial Empire has the opportunity to return to the Western Regions. Tianxuandu handwritten.

After finishing it in one go, Tianxuan put down his pen heavily and said calmly: "Gonggong Gui, the province of Zhongshu will make a holy decree according to this content, and the court will order the world tomorrow morning." ”

Gonggong Gui answered, took the handbook respectfully, bowed backwards and went out. Only Tianxuandu was left in the huge south study.

As soon as his body loosened, Tianxuan, who suddenly felt a tingling pain in his brain, leaned on the back of the chair and rubbed his temples vigorously, and his slightly tired cheeks felt a little more lonely. After the brain pain was a little lighter, he got up and walked out of the study, taking only two personal little eunuchs, towards the imperial garden in the northeast corner of the palace.

Along the way, watching the palace maids and eunuchs and guards kneeling and kowtowing to him, Tianxuandu did not have a trace of superiority, and he had mixed feelings in his heart.

As a father, he gave away his favorite little princess Tian Yixuan for Jiangshan Sheji, he is incompetent and not a good father.

As a monarch, although he conquered Goguryeo and opened up the northeastern territory of the Celestial Empire, he was about to lose a large area of land in the Western Regions.

As soon as he thought of this, the emperor who was powerful all over the world, sitting on thousands of miles of rivers and mountains and three thousand fans in the harem, envied those palace maids and guards who passed by in a hurry, as long as he did one thing with peace of mind in this life.

Unknowingly, he came to the gate of the imperial garden, and Tianxuan left two personal eunuchs and walked in alone.

There is a two-and-a-half-story platform in the center of the imperial garden, called the Lan Pavilion, Tianxuan has stepped into the second floor and looked at the railing alone, and the whole palace has a panoramic view.

Directly below the Pavilion is a large artificial lake, the embankment is paved with countless pebbles, and the entire surface of the lake is as smooth as a mirror, and the bottom can be seen deeply.

Tianxuandu looked down, looking at the reflection in the lake, he was stupid, and the vision in his eyes became more and more blurred, and the blurred light and shadow reflected an elegant woman in a blue shirt and a sword on the lake mirror. In the past 20 years, even he can't remember how many times this strange woman in the rivers and lakes that he will never forget has appeared in his memories. If you could have let go of your glory, wealth, fame and fortune at the beginning, and go away to the end of the world with her for the rest of your life, how free and easy it would be, and how could you be so depressed and burdened physically and mentally as you are now.

She, without him, is destined to die of depression--- because he is her only one.

It, there is no shortage of him, the Celestial Empire that has begun to show its grandeur will still be prosperous without him--- because the Celestial Empire is full of talents, and there are many of them.

However, in the end, she still won the world, but lost her.

Once upon a time, even though he first ascended the throne and exhausted countless manpower and financial resources to search the whole world, it was difficult to find a beautiful woman.

I don't know when Tianxuan, whose eyes were wet with tears, remembered Li Tiantu, who had become famous in the rivers and lakes in just over a year, and it was not her son who was angry with her. It's just that at this time, Tianxuandu didn't see that Li Tiantu was now trapped by love, which was also strikingly similar to him.

As the commander of the forbidden army in Beijing, Li Tiantu can walk freely with a knife in the palace. Today, he accidentally walked to the Imperial Garden, but met the person he least wanted to see after returning to Beijing. There was no way to avoid it, he could only go head-on, and was about to kneel down to salute, but he was helped down in time by Tianxuan, who was surprised, and looked at Li Tiantu with a smile and said: "You haven't come to see me these days, haven't you been blaming me for Xiao Jiu's affairs?" ”

Li Tiantu stood silent, which can be regarded as a default.

Tianxuandu shook the dragon's head lightly, walked slowly and sat down on the side of the railing, and changed the topic: "I'm old, I can't stand it anymore after standing for a long time." ”

After that, he patted the railing next to him, waved to Li Tiantu like an uncle next door, and said cordially: "Come, sit next to me, and tell me about this trip to Xiliang." ”

Li Tiantu sat down as he said, and finally couldn't help but say in a low voice: "Could it be that if you were born in the emperor's family, you really don't want any family affection?" ”

(End of chapter)