On the fifth day of the first month of March in the first year of Yongchun, the imperial court issued an edict to go out to quell the rebellion, in which the edict denounced the great rebellion of the ten tribes surnamed Western Turks who rebelled against our Tang Dynasty, and ordered the Turkic tribes to immediately ask for surrender to my Anxi Protectorate, and warned other tribes not to follow, and must participate in the counterinsurgency battle together with the border soldiers of the Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty. Tang Xiujing, the general of the right Qianniuwei, was the deputy chief and the head of the Shuanghe Road march, Yan Huaidan, the general of the right Jinwuwei, was the head of the Heishui Road march, Zhang Qianqiao, the right general of the inspection school, was the head of the Tianshan Road march, and Yang Yuanyan, the right leader of the army, was the head of the Luntai Road march, with 100,000 soldiers and crusaded against the rebellion of the Western Turks.

This time, the army led by Tang Xiujing and Li Zhishi had 80,000, Tang Xiujing led about 50,000 horses and horses from Chang'an, Beijing, and Li Zhishi led a border army and about 30,000 other collected government soldiers from Fengzhou to Shanzhou to meet Tang Xiujing's troops and then set off to the northwest together. Together with the 20,000 horses in the Anxi Prefecture, a total of 100,000 people, they participated in the counterinsurgency campaign, and the scale of the troops was not small in terms of the number of troops participating in the counterinsurgency, and most of the generals who led the troops were people who had participated in several battles.

The generals who went on this expedition, except for Yan Huaidan, were all recommended by Liu Yi, and this result had already surprised Liu Yiting, Wu Zetian actually took most of his opinions, and Li Xian had no objections. Perhaps this is also a kind of helplessness of Wu Zetian, there are not too many generals in the army who can be trusted, and he is not very familiar with the talents of these middle and senior generals in the army, so when choosing generals for the campaign, he needs to listen to the opinions of others, rather than having a fixed number in his heart.

The date of the expedition of the army was selected on March 15, from the issuance of the edict to the departure of the army, the time was very short, and all the relevant personnel of the ministries, including the officials at all levels of the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry, and other ministries and departments, were preparing for the expedition in succession. In addition, in recent years, there have been a lot of foreign expeditions in Datang, and there is a set of effective expedition scheduling methods, so the affairs of various departments are carried out in a tense but very orderly manner, whether it is soldiers, materials, ordnance, etc., they have been basically prepared, and they can set off when the time for the expedition is up.

The officials of various departments are busy, and Liu Yi, who is the squire of the military department of the inspection school, also needs to complete the things he is responsible for many times, which also makes him have to go to the yamen of the military department to deal with affairs in many days, and sometimes he returns to the Yulin army to be on duty, and has little free time. Princess Taiping and her entourage have already gone to the villa by the Bahe River outside the city, and Liu Yi also accompanied them to visit the villa in the first two days, enjoying the scenery on the side, and other people had no time to accompany them. Liu Yi was sent back to the city when he stayed in the villa, and two days have passed, and in the past two days, he just sent someone to the outside of the city to deliver a message to Princess Taiping, but no one went back, and they all stayed in the palace.

Liu Yi failed to fulfill his promise and stayed in the villa with Princess Taiping, Princess Taiping was not very happy, and sent someone to tell Liu Yi that he would let him go over once no matter what, even if he was not free during the day, he would go at night, but Liu Yi could only tell him to go to the villa to rest as much as possible, but also tactfully told Princess Taiping that the army would go on the expedition, and some times she couldn't help it, and she might not have time to pass, so let her and Shangguan Wan'er narrate together, write some poems, and make some paintings, and wait for him to evaluate and appreciate it in the past.

Shangguan Wan'er was also called by Princess Taiping, and she didn't know what Wu Zetian thought, anyway, she allowed Shangguan Wan'er to accompany Princess Taiping and allowed them to stay outside the city together for ten days.

Liu Yi thought that it may be because the weather is getting warmer, Emperor Li Zhi's body has recovered a little during this time, Wu Zetian is still by Li Zhi's side, Shangguan Wan'er has more time to be free, or it may be because of Princess Taiping's repeated requests, Wu Zetian agreed.

Princess Taiping also saw that her father had recovered a little and was relieved, so she decided to go out of the city to live for a few days and relax.

In the villa named "Willow Wind" by Liu Yi, a large number of willow trees are planted, such as peaches, pears, apricots, etc., which are all kinds of flowers in full bloom, willow branches are spitting, and the beautiful scenery is countless, plus the facilities are quite complete, it is indeed a good place to recuperate, which is also the reason why Liu Yi strongly recommended Princess Taiping to go out of the city to live for a period of time and breathe fresh air. This mountain villa required a lot of money when it was built, but it was all raised by Princess Taiping's idea, and many of the facilities in it were used for personal guard training, and they could be used for other purposes when they were not training. During this time, Liu Yi's personal guards have been transferred to the city to train, and there are only a few people here to stay, and after Princess Taiping went, she also brought a large number of maids and other subordinates, and the villa, which had been deserted for a while, became lively again.

On this day, Liu Yi was still busy, as an official of the Ministry of War who had participated in several battles and was familiar with military affairs, Liu Yi and Cen Changqian, the secretary of the Ministry of War, went to inspect the camp where the army was going to go out, check and understand the overall situation of this army, and follow Cen Changqian and Liu Yi to go together with some important generals who are about to go on the expedition. These high-ranking generals were basically unable to return home during this time, and most of the time they rested in the barracks.

The army will be stationed in the four military camps outside the city, respectively, the left and right guards, the left and right guards, the east and west of the city, it takes a lot of time to go back and forth, after the three military camps are turned down, it is already early afternoon, Cen Changqian because there is an urgent matter, someone from the palace to transmit, the first step back to the city, the rest of the matter to Liu Yi is in charge, Liu Yi led these middle and senior generals to check the preparation of the ministries.

Finally, the four foreign military camps where the expeditionary army was stationed were inspected, and Liu Yi led the generals to leave the barracks and prepare to return to the city.

As the deputy chief of the expedition, Tang Xiujing and Liu Yi rode horses together, and the other guards who followed left and right and behind, and the personal guards of each general formed a huge force and followed behind the generals.

After walking for a while after leaving the right Wuwei barracks, Liu Yi, who was originally talking to others about paying attention to the situation when going out, changed his tone, turned his head to look at Tang Xiujing and said: "General Tang, the last general really envy you, this time you can lead the army as the deputy commander, but the last general can't go out... I hope that General Tang and all the generals under his command can come back with military achievements and soon put down the rebellion of the Turks!"

"General Liu, he has gone out to quell the rebellion several times before, and the general has made a lot of military achievements, which is very enviable, and it is time for the last general and others to show their hands on the battlefield and get some military merits back, in order to be promoted! Hahaha!" Tang Xiujing laughed. He and Liu Yi originally had a good relationship in the Qianniu Guard, and this time he relied on Liu Yi's recommendation to serve as the deputy chief of the Jinshan Road March, and he was still very grateful to Liu Yi, "The last general and others are extremely grateful to General Liu for his recommendation in front of the Queen of Heaven and His Royal Highness the Prince, and when he returns to Chang'an in triumph, he must invite General Liu to have a good drink to celebrate!"

Being able to lead the army to the expedition is the biggest dream of the generals, and the marching chief and the marching chief are the most coveted positions in the generals' lives.

Like Tang Xiujing, other generals such as Zhang Qianqiao and Yang Yuanyan also have similar feelings, this time they were also able to lead the army as a general manager because of Liu Yi's recommendation, and they are still very grateful to Liu Yi, and even have the grace of knowing each other, and when they heard Tang Xiujing say this, they also echoed.

"Okay, when the generals return to Beijing, Liu will definitely invite the generals to go to the best hotel in Chang'an to drink, and get drunk! Hahaha!" Liu Yi also laughed.

"Of course General Liu wants to invite us to drink, presumably when we return to the division, the general must be a father, and it is impossible to say that he does not invite us to drink!" As Liu Yi's old subordinate, Zhang Qianqiao also spoke most casually.

Tang Xiujing also immediately agreed, "That's it, that's it!" You, the first colt of the dynasty, didn't invite a few of us to drink alone when you got married, and you have to be punished once, but unfortunately you will go on an expedition, and you will not be allowed to drink, so when you return to Beijing, make up for it! Haha..."

The generals were originally talking more casually, plus these people were all familiar people, and even Yan Huaidan, the general of Jin Wuwei, had been in contact with Liu Yi and other generals during this time, and they were relatively familiar with each other.

"It's easy to say, it's easy to say, as long as you come back with your military exploits, I will definitely invite you to drink, and you can even drink for a few days!" Liu Yi didn't hesitate at all, "However, today we are going to visit a person together, and he still has some things to tell you, presumably his instructions will be of great use to you when you launch a military campaign against the Turks after you arrive in Anxi!"

"Is it Pei Shangshu?" Zhang Qianqiao asked first.

"Exactly!" Liu Yi nodded, "Pei Shangshu is very concerned about this war, plus he has been in Anxi for many years, and he is very familiar with the situation of various tribes, everyone has to enter Anxi to fight, it is better to listen to Pei Shangshu's words for some things..."

Tang Xiujing said with some surprise: "Pei Shangshu is like a god with soldiers, and his prestige in Anxi is very high, we originally wanted to visit him when we went on the expedition, but we were afraid that he would be sick..."

Liu Yi smiled, "Presumably, Pei Shangshu must be waiting for us in the mansion today, let's go quickly!"

"Good! Please ask General Liu to lead the way!" Tang Xiujing hugged his fists and gave a salute.

"Then let's go!" Liu Yi patted the chasing wind under him and shouted: "Drive..."

Chasing the wind immediately let go of the four hooves and ran wildly.

The other generals also rode their horses to keep up, and ran into the city from the Chunming Gate, and the soldiers defending the city knew that these were the generals who were about to go on the expedition, and no one dared to stop them, but ordered the people who entered the city to make way for these generals who were galloping on horses...

(To be continued)