Before the army arrived in Yunzhong City, Cui Zhiyi, the head of the household department sent by the imperial court to comfort the army and take charge of the follow-up military affairs, led the officials of the capital to welcome the triumphant army for dozens of miles out of Yunzhong City.

The welcome scene was very warm, Cui Zhiyi, on behalf of the imperial court, sincerely praised Pei Xingjian's miraculous achievements, and said that after the army was divided, he would continue to pacify the tribes in the Anbei area.

Cui Zhiyi also announced the court's first reward for Pei Xingjian and his generals.

Liu Yi, who made the first contribution and had a very outstanding performance in the first large-scale annihilation war, was rewarded by a single edict from the queen of heaven, and had very generous monetary and material rewards, and the generals who made their military exploits also had different degrees of rewards.

It's just that the actions of my various armies are too fast, and the rewards come late, and Cui Zhiyi has not yet rushed to the front line, and the military operation has ended, and these rewards do not have the effect of boosting morale.

In addition to the money and goods that brought rewards, Cui Zhiyi also brought a lot of wine to reward the soldiers.

Tens of thousands of soldiers who returned to Beijing camped outside Yunzhong City, and Pei Xingjian led a large number of middle and senior generals into Yunzhong City, and held a festive carnival in the Shan Yu Metropolitan Protector's Mansion, accompanied by Cui Zhiyi and other officials.

Although it is a bit regrettable, in any case, this great victory is worth celebrating.

In this battle, our army wiped out nearly 300,000 Turks, of which about 50,000 were killed, more than 200,000 were captured, about 500,000 horses were captured, and countless cattle and sheep were captured. More than 4,000 of our officers and men were killed and more than 15,000 wounded.

All the generals who went out to fight, as well as the officials and soldiers in the capital protection mansion, and the officials who came to the labor army were very excited, at the celebration banquet, everyone was open to drink, and most of the people were not stained with wine in the past six months, and this time there were countless fine wines sent, and it was strange not to drink it.

Many generals were drunk, and some were even drunk and unconscious, playing drunk and crazy there, and boasting about their bravery on the battlefield, Pei Xingjian surprisingly did not reprimand these ugly generals.

Liu Yi, who had been poured a lot of wine in his stomach, was still relatively sober, and after the banquet, when Cui Zhiyi accompanied Pei Xingjian to narrate, together with other generals, he went out of the official office of the capital protection mansion.

Liu Yi was one of the few generals who walked alone to his camp, and most of the generals had to be carried back by their guards.

Liu Yi took his personal guards, rode a horse, went out of the city, and went to the camp of his own department stationed outside the city, but just arrived at the city gate, but was stopped by several people.

Seeing these two people, Liu Yina's somewhat dizzy head suddenly sobered up because he had drunk a lot of wine.

These two people are Li Jingjia, the former general of the Right Qianniu Guard, who was dismissed due to the defeat of the army, and Hua Dazhi, the general of the Right Leading Guard.

Facing his former boss, as well as Hua Dazhi, who was not inferior in rank and was also from the rank of Sanpin General, Liu Yi did not dare to be rude, and hurriedly got off the horse and saluted the two.

"General Li and General Hua, I really didn't expect to meet you here!" Liu Yi still called them generals, in Liu Yi's mind, the two generals who were able to save their troops and retreat to Shan Yu Duhu Mansion under the hard battle are still quite respectable, he can't understand why the imperial court dismissed them, and let them stay in Shan Yu Duhufu all the time, not letting them return to Beijing.

"Don't dare to be called General Liu like that!" Li Jingjia hurriedly returned the salute, "The villain heard that the general made great contributions in quelling the rebellion of the Turks, and he passed by here on his way back, so he waited outside the city with Brother Hua, wanting to see the general!"

Li Jingjia and Hua Dazhi glanced at each other, as if they were a little regretful, and then said: "When the two of us went out to fight in the army, we wanted to join the army in white, but because the army quickly crossed the border, we missed the opportunity. ”

When the army set out on the expedition, it did not pass through the Shan Yu Duhu Prefecture, but directly swept through Yunzhong City from the northwest side and advanced rapidly to the north.

"This...?!" Liu Yi was a little dumbfounded, can he call the shots in this matter?

"General Liu, as long as the commander of the army agrees, people like us who have been dismissed can join the army in vain and seek to atone for their crimes with military merits! It's like Liu Xianggong..."Li Jingjia was a little surprised when he saw Liu Yi, and hurriedly explained.

It turned out that when he went out to Baekje that year, the sea ship that was responsible for transporting soldiers and grain and grass was capsized by wind and waves, and as a result, Liu In-rail was dismissed from his post and deprived of all official positions.

It's just that this war has ended, and Li Jingjia and Hua Dazhi have no chance to make meritorious contributions.

"If this is possible, then the two generals will be very welcome to join our army!" Liu Yi no longer hesitated and immediately agreed!

Liu Yi still didn't understand why these two generals didn't ask for instructions from other generals of more ranks, or even Pei Xingjian, and begged a middle-level officer like him, and he had to ask Pei Xingjian if it was feasible!

"Thank you General Liu, then we will wait for the general's news in the city!" Li Jingjia and Hua Dazhi were overjoyed and left with a ceremony.

Liu Yi also rode back to the city, ready to wait for Pei Xingjian to come out and inquire-

The returning army rested for five days in the Shan Yu Metropolitan Protectorate and restarted their journey.

The march of the large army, carrying a large number of prisoners, was still slow, and the journey was only twenty or thirty miles a day.

At the end of May, the army arrived in Shuozhou, where it rested and recuperated, and according to the orders of the imperial court, more than 20,000 captured Turks were placed in the area south of Shuozhou.

After resting in Shuozhou for five days, more than 100,000 soldiers braved the scorching heat of midsummer and re-embarked on the road to Chang'an.

As the commander of the army, Pei Xingjian also ordered the soldiers to march in the morning and evening, and when the noon day was very big and the temperature was the highest, the camp was stopped to rest.

Even so, there were many soldiers who fell ill due to the hot weather, and even died of illness, and many of the captives who were escorted to Chang'an died of illness, and even more livestock died of illness, and some captured Turks took the opportunity to make trouble.

There were many things, which made the journey even slower, and it took more than a month from Shuozhou to arrive near Tongguan, and at this time, it was almost three months after starting from the vicinity of Yinshan, and the time was almost August.

Because the army general Banshi, Emperor Li Zhi, and Empress Wu Zetian were also in Xia Yueli, returned to Chang'an from Luoyang, and returned to Beijing about half a month earlier than the army of Banshi, and the army of Banshi also marched directly to Chang'an.

Liu Yi led more than 1,000 soldiers under his command, after entering the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty, as the vanguard of the entire army, has been at the forefront of the team, when entering Tongguan, Liu Yi was also the first to enter the city gate of Tongguan, and accepted the greetings of the soldiers of the Tongguan garrison.

The army did not stop at Tongguan and continued to march towards Chang'an.

It was already late July, but the weather was still very hot, especially the generals who were marching in armor, and they were covered in stinky sweat after a day of marching.

When the army was resting, Liu Yi took a column of sergeants to the Wei River and let the horses take a bath.

"General Liu, it's finally about to go back to Chang'an, and my subordinates have no face to go back to see their families!" Li Jingjia, who was riding a horse beside Liu Yi, looked at the Wei River with waves and was very emotional.

Li Jingjia, who had just been promoted to the general of the Right Qianniuwei, was still full of ambition before this expedition, thinking of making great contributions, but he did not expect to encounter such an accident.

Hua Dazhi on the other side seemed to be in a similar mood, with a lonely look on his face.

Although it is said that the imperial court dismissed them from their posts, there was no further punishment, and the family members in Chang'an did not suffer, but the two were both generals from the third rank, and now they have been removed from their posts and become a white one, no different from other small soldiers, the psychological gap is huge, especially when they will return to Chang'an, they feel even deeper.

After being defeated and dismissed this time, Li Jingxi and Hua Dazhi lost all their official positions and fiefdoms, and missed the opportunity to serve in the army as white, and they didn't know what would happen in the future, but they just hoped that with the help of Liu Yi, a young general who was deeply trusted by the queen of heaven, they would avoid being punished by the imperial court after returning to Beijing, and there might be a chance to make a comeback.

This is also the main reason why they asked Liu Yi to be incorporated into his army.

After Liu Yi listened to Li Jingjia and Hua Dazhi's request to join the army in Cloud City, he also immediately inquired about Pei Xingjian, who thought about it for a while and agreed to let them be incorporated into Liu Yi's army and return to Chang'an with the army.

In Liu Yi's heart, these two generals are brave warriors, after the defeat of the commander Xiao Siye, they led the infantry or cavalry infantry-based sergeants, and resisted the pursuit of the Turkic rebels, and were able to lead most of the soldiers to retreat into the Shan Yu Protectorate, and defend the fortified city, so that our army still saved a lot of troops under the defeat, Liu Yi still couldn't understand why the imperial court treated the brave and good generals who were good at fighting but lost the battle because of the cowardice of the commander.

Such a general, should have been rewarded by the imperial court, because of the defeat, although these two generals showed great courage, but they were still punished with heavy responsibility, were dismissed, dismissed, from the court of the third grade, to ordinary civilians, such an encounter is really unacceptable.

"Two... The last general believes that the imperial court will give you a fair treatment at that time!" In the face of the feelings of these two departed generals, Liu Yi had some thoughts surging in his heart, he knew the details of these two generals, and his ability was also very good, but he didn't have a mature plan, and he didn't want to say anything, so he shouted to his sergeants who had washed the horses: "Brothers, let's go..."

After the army entered Tongguan, it did not rest, but also accelerated the trip to Chang'an.

The imperial court has sent an envoy to the army to spread the news, and when the army arrives in Chang'an, the emperor and empress will lead their ministers out of Chang'an City to meet the triumphant army.

On July 29 of the second year of Tiaolu, the triumphant army arrived outside Chang'an City...

(To be continued)