There were still six or seven days before Yuanzheng in the second year of Yuan Shuo, and Yang Zhilie, the envoy of Hexi Jiedu, finally made a decision to go out of the city to surrender to Li Siye, which was regarded as officially betraying Li Heng and falling to Li Siye.

Now there are still 40,000 troops in Hexi, all of whom are cowering in four counties, including 20,000 in Wuwei City, 8,000 in Dunhuang City, 5,000 in Zhangye, and 7,000 in Jiuquan. Yang Zhilie held the festival summons in his hand, and behind him he walked out of the city gate with his own soldiers holding two sides of the gate and six sides of the big silk and went west for five miles.

In the past, the Hexi army was displayed in front of him, Li Siye was wearing a golden mountain armor, a red cloak behind his shoulders, and a thousand ox knives on his waist on his horse, looking down at Yang Zhilie in front of him.

I remember that when he was the envoy of the Hexi Festival, Yang Zhilie was just a small deputy military envoy, and now things are not people, how many old people are he familiar with?

Yang Zhilie knelt in front of Li Siye's horse with the festival call and the big seal in his hand, bowed his head and said: "Since Yang Zhilie took over Hexi, he has not been able to appease the people's livelihood internally, and he has not been able to resist the enemy Tubo outside. I am ashamed of the court and the people, and I am willing to ask Your Majesty and King Yong for guilt, return the scepter of military power in Hexi to the court, and ask King Yong to choose the virtuous and good. ”

Li Siye turned over and got off the horse, did not go to pick up the scepter and the seal letter, but supported Yang Zhilie's arms to help him up from the ground, and said with relief: "When I led my troops into the customs to fight in the past, I took away 50,000 of the 80,000 sons of Hexi, and only left 30,000 for Cheng Qianli, the envoy of Jiedu, but Cheng Qianli died early soon after taking over, and the government and military affairs were abandoned. The Hexi Corridor has the Hui in the east and the Tibetan threat in the west, and it requires a large number of troops to be able to hold on and forge ahead. Since you took office, you have expanded your army by 10,000, and you can keep the four counties of Hexi with only 40,000 troops, which is already a great achievement. ”

He patted Yang Zhilie on the shoulder and said, "I have sent a song to the emperor to ensure that you continue to serve as the envoy of the Hexi Festival, be promoted to the imperial historian, and expand the army to Hexi by 20,000." As long as you can ensure that you do not lose an inch of land in the Hexi Corridor during your tenure, you will be rewarded in the future. ”

When Yang Zhilie heard this, he knelt on the ground in fear, and said with his hands crossed: "King Yong's great grace, Zhilie is unforgettable, and he will guard Hexi for you in the future." ”

"What is this talking about?" Li Siye frowned and said: "Hexi is the emperor's Hexi, and it is the Hexi of the imperial court, is it my personal bag?" ”

"Mistaken in the humble position, please forgive the king."

Under the greeting of Yang Zhilie, Li Siye led the children of Hexi into Wuwei City, they have left Hexi for more than five years, and now they have finally returned to their homeland after countless bloody battles. But the homeland and personnel have been consumed, some parents have become barren hills and mounds, acquaintances have also been frosted white, the people who used to be silent in the spring have already married women, and the former old friends and partners have also become strangers, and the four eyes are relatively full of sighs, and then they cross their hands and choke speechlessly.

How many times have they dreamed of returning to their hometown and remembering the reunion of their relatives, but this moment has really arrived, but it has added more regret and loss, and there is no point in returning home after joy.

When Li Siye brought them back, he had already made a promise to leave 10,000 veterans in Hexi, first, to supplement the troops under the command of the Hexi Jiedu Envoy, and secondly, to let some old soldiers, as well as soldiers who were riddled with new injuries and old diseases, or people with wives and children and parents in special difficulties at home, stay, and distribute arable land and money subsidies. Such a human touch will make his command more cohesive.

They thought that this was a choice for the soldiers to break their heads and scramble, but they encountered an unexpected situation, there were only more than 6,000 veterans who were willing to sign up to stay in Hexi, and more people chose to follow them to leave their hometowns to fight, which made Li Siye and Xu Bin puzzled.

They did not explore the reason why the veterans were willing to leave their hometowns, it may be that years of conquest have made them hard-hearted and at a loss, and they can no longer integrate into the people and sophistication of their hometowns.

There is another reason why Li Siye chose to take the lead in attacking Hexi, that is, he hoarded a large amount of gold and silk in Tingzhou City, the envoy of Beiting Jiedu, which was a large amount of wealth he had obtained in exchange for the pepper trade route during the few years when he supported the Western Regions Chamber of Commerce in Hexi. For this reason, he once built a fortress in Tingzhou City, digging tunnels in the ground to store gold silk, these gold silk stocks are huge, gathering the wealth of Kyushu and the four seas in one place, which can help him complete the great cause of pacifying the world.

In the second year of Yuan Shuo, after they ate Yanyue wontons in Liangzhou City, Li Siye led his troops to continue north, from Zhangye to Jiuquan, and then to Dunhuang, each city opened its gates and welcomed it. Of course, this is inseparable from the merits of the Hexi surnames Zhang and Guzang Li. For this reason, Li Siye specially set up a banquet in Dunhuang City, singing and dancing, and invited all the patriarchs and elders of Hexi to the banquet, which can be regarded as having fun with the people.

During the banquet, Li Siye wore a flat scarf on his head, wore a purple flower dress, walked into the hall with a bronze winelord, and said loudly to everyone: "Longyou Road is my hometown, my birthplace, and my backing. This is thanks to the support of the fathers and elders of Hexi for many years, today there is a big chaos, only Hexi is stable, which reminds me of the past when the Central Plains was in trouble, only Hexi and Jiangdong were stable, and the Wuliang homeland accommodated how many Shuo Confucians in Hexi accommodated, so that there was no fault in my brilliant Chinese culture. Today, we still have to rely on Hexi and continue the cultural prosperity brought by Youtang, which is inseparable from your help. ”

The wealthy families present all stood up, took the wine jue and toasted Li Siye, and Zhang Kuo took the lead and said: "Please rest assured King Yong, you are the savior of the people of Hexi, and we, the people who lived here for generations, do not recognize anyone else except you." ”

No matter what Zhang Kuo said or the truth, Li Siye was very happy to hear it, at least in the prestige of this land, only the Li Tang royal family could PK with him, and Li Tang had already fled to Jiangnan, and the rest of Shi Siming and Guo Ziyi's foundation in Shuofang and Youzhou was not as stable as him, he just had to rely on the three lands of Guanzhong, Longyou and Hexi to complete his reshuffle of the Central Plains.

Li Siye was slightly drunk, left the banquet with Xu Bin's support, returned to the hall and sat on the chair, and asked Xu Bin: "Xu Gong, do you see if these people are really loyal to me, do they really support me?" ”

Xu Bin said implicitly: "Friends in the capital can only see the truth when they get along with each other, I think it is the same to govern the place, when you are smooth, everyone is loyal and righteous, but once the sun is waning and the army is defeated, they will not follow you to the funeral." This is the case for the Zhang family in Dunhuang, and the same is true for the Gu Zangfang of the Li family in Longyou, and Yang Zhilie, who served as the envoy of the Hexi Jiedu, needs to be more vigilant. ”

"You don't need to say that I also understand that Jiedu has too much military power, not to mention my base camp in Hexi, so naturally I can't safely hand it over to an outsider. Let Yang Zhilie be happy for a while, and when we return to Chang'an, we will transfer him to Chang'an for retirement. ”

The system has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the military professional recruitment system has made the army's combat effectiveness stronger and stronger. Its disadvantage is that it is easy to form a situation in which generals sit on the throne. Li Siye naturally can't beat him to death with a stick, but he needs to be restricted by various regulations and regulations, of course, this is a matter for the future, but it must be put on the agenda.