The road from Chang'an to Huaixi is long, there are many mountains and mountains along the way, and there are often thieves haunted, and there is no peace along the way. In order to ensure safety, Li Zhiyun brought a regiment of the New Army to escort him. There were also two carriages in the team, one carriage was carrying Yinggu, this girl was bored in the Chu Palace, and always shouted that she wanted to go with Li Zhiyun. This time, Li Zhiyun's task was easy, almost equivalent to playing in the mountains and rivers, so he brought her with him. On the other carriage was Duan Qu, a free-rider who held the title of deputy envoy, and went to Jutan with Li Zhiyun to comfort Zhu Cang. Duan was indeed a civil official, not good at riding horses, and could only ride in carriages.

The people in the carriage were able to hide from the scorching sun, and the others were not so lucky. The team marched under the scorching sun, and the soldiers were sweating and miserable. Although Li Zhiyun marched on horseback and did not need to walk, the light boy's shirt on his body was also soaked with sweat.

At this time, Scarface drove the horse up from behind, walked side by side with Li Zhiyun, and said, "Lord Wang, it's too hot, and the brothers are tired." There is a village in front of you, do you want everyone to rest and then walk? Li Zhiyun took off the binoculars hanging on his chest and looked at it, and said, "Yes, but you are not allowed to enter the village." There was a forest in the east of the village, so let the brothers rest in the woods for an hour. ”

"Yes!"

The team disbanded when it reached the woods, and the soldiers went into the woods. The forest is large enough to accommodate a few thousand people. Most of the trees in the forest are cedar and poplar trees with straight trunks and tall crowns.

The tired soldier found a place, untied his backpack as a pillow, fell to sleep, and snored in a moment. Some of the thirsty soldiers came out of the woods, came to the small river a mile away, took out the gourd they carried with them, filled it with clear water, "gurged" it into the mouth of the gourd, and then refilled it with water and brought it back to the woods, walked to the side of their good friend, and woke him up to drink. The companion did not open his eyes, took the gourd and drank it to his heart's content, and then fell asleep after handing it back.

Just as the soldiers of the New Army were resting in the woods next to this nameless village, something happened in Jinyang City, a hundred miles away. At this moment, the huge city of Jinyang has become a pot of porridge, and thousands of Turkic soldiers wearing armor and helmets with wild goose feathers are rampant in the streets and alleys with weapons in their hands. They broke into the homes of ordinary people, robbed them when they saw them, and arrested young women when they saw them. The Turkic soldiers were brutal and lawless, and when they encountered ordinary people who dared to resist, they either stabbed them to death with spears or shot them with arrows and crossbows, and sometimes even children. In a family that was originally good, the wife was snatched away, the husband and children were slaughtered, and the family was destroyed in an instant, and the situation was unbearable.

In this way, Jinyang City, which was originally calm and peaceful, became a hell on earth for a while, with chickens and dogs barking and crying loudly.

The Governor's Mansion of the Governor of Bingzhou, the mansion where Li Yuanji originally lived, has now changed owners. After the Battle of Hedong, Li Shimin appointed Li Zhongwen as the governor of the state, so the current owner of the governor's mansion is Li Zhongwen.

Li Zhongwen was sitting at a table in the hall, carefully flipping through the official documents of the imperial court, when Sima Liu Dewei hurriedly walked in. At the beginning, when Li Yuanji fled from Jinyang, he deceived Liu Dewei and asked him to lead the old and weak soldiers to defend the city, but thanks to Li Zhiyun who sent him a letter, he evacuated in time and did not become a prisoner of Song Jingang. Although Liu Dewei committed the crime of abandoning the city without a fight, there was a reason for the incident, Li Yuan did not condemn him, and he still reinstated his official after Jinyang recovered.

As soon as Liu Dewei walked into the house, he shouted loudly: "Dashuai, it's not good, the Turks are looting property and women everywhere, making Jinyang City a miasma!" ”

"What?" When Li Zhongwen heard this, he jumped up as if he had been stung by a scorpion, and his butt pressed a spring, "Quick, let's go out and have a look!" ”

The two men walked out of the hall, and several generals stood in the courtyard and talked about what was happening outside. They saw Li Zhongwen and Liu Dewei walking towards the door and followed behind. The group left the governor's mansion and came to a street in front of them. The Turks did not take the Han people seriously at all, even in front of the Governor's Office of the Annexed Prefecture, they were still rampant and domineering, without any scruples.

Li Zhongwen saw two Turkic soldiers dragging a woman in front of him, and the woman suddenly broke free from the soldier's hand, turned around and ran. The Turkic soldiers did not pursue, and one soldier took off the bow and arrow on his back, put his bow and released the arrow, and the arrow flew over with a "whoosh", hitting the back of the woman's heart. The woman fell headlong to the ground, blood spurting from her mouth, and she struggled a few times before moving.

Li Zhongwen's eyes were red, and he quickly rushed to the Turkic soldier and slapped him in the face. The soldier was dazed by the beating, and after standing firm, he became angry, threw away the strong bow in his hand, and drew his scimitar to cut Li Zhongwen. Andy Lau rushed up like lightning and kicked him to the ground. When the Turkic soldiers next to them saw it, they drew their scimitars and rushed up. Several generals who followed Li Zhongwen also drew their swords and rushed forward to confront the Turkic soldiers, and the two sides were tense and the conflict was about to break out.

Li Zhongwen's mind calmed down, and he hurriedly ordered his generals: "Stand back, stand back!" When the Turkic soldier saw that the other party had retreated, he put away his scimitar, turned and walked away.

The group returned to the courtyard of the governor's mansion, and Liu Dewei said: "Marshal, the Turks only have 5,000 soldiers and horses, and we have 10,000 troops in the city, once the war starts, we are sure to destroy them!" Li Zhongwen shook his head and said: "No, the emperor has already issued an edict that no matter what the Turks do, they must not clash with them." An adjutant general next to him couldn't help but complain: "Why did the emperor issue such an edict? Isn't this making people ride on their necks and?! ”

"Bastard!" Li Zhongwen glared and said, "You dare to put your beak at the emperor's will?" Do you want to rebel? ”

Seeing that the other party lowered his head and didn't squeak, Li Zhongwen slowed down and said: "The emperor is also thinking about the overall situation, the Central Plains is in civil strife, the national strength is weak, our Tang Dynasty has an unstable foundation, and we are unable to confront the Turks, what can we do except forbearance?" ”

Liu Dewei was silent for a moment and said: "Then you can't let the Turks continue to mess around like this, you have to think of a way, right?" Li Zhongwen thought for a moment and said, "That's it, I'll go to negotiate with Liver." "He was the younger brother of the Turkic Shibi Khan, and he brought this Turkic army with him.

Liu Dewei frowned and said: "Tong Lifu is arrogant and unreasonable, he robbed the army, you go to negotiate with him now, is it useful?" Li Zhongwen sighed and said, "Is there any way?" Dead horses should be live horse doctors. ”

Two days later, Li Zhiyun led the new army to Jinyang City. As soon as they entered the city, they met a funeral procession, only to see that some people in the procession were holding spirit flags, some were wearing linen and filial piety, and some were crying, and paper money was thrown into the air all over the street. They had not gone far when they came across another funeral procession carrying the coffin, and had just reached the crossroads when another one came from the south.

What's going on? Li Zhiyun felt inexplicable, they walked less than a mile into the city, and they actually met several funeral teams, is it some kind of underworld murderous day today? Otherwise, why would people concentrate on funerals? Scarface, who was walking with him, also looked puzzled, and muttered, "What's wrong with the people in Jinyang City?" Even when you go to see Lord Yama, you have to pick a day and run together to join in the fun? ”

Zhang Zhengdao, who was walking on the other side on horseback: "Lord, something seems to have happened in the city, you see over there, the houses are burning." Li Zhiyun looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough, he saw that many houses on the side of the road had been burned down, leaving only a large area of charred and blackened ruins. Li Zhiyun's heart was full of questions, what happened to this Jinyang City? Could it be that there was a war disaster? No, Jinyang is now in the rear, and there are no enemy troops within a radius of hundreds of miles, how can it be invaded by enemy troops?

Li Zhiyun was puzzled, so he said to several subordinates: "Wang Baoqiang, you take the new army to the barracks." Zhang Zheng, Cai Hu, follow me to the governor's mansion. When he arrived at the fork in the road in front, Li Zhiyun left the brigade with two subordinate officers and drove straight to the governor's mansion of the state.

They came to the gate of the governor's palace, turned over and dismounted, tied the reins to the bolt stone, and went inside. As soon as the three of them walked into the courtyard, they met Liu Dewei. When Liu Dewei saw Li Zhiyun, he was surprised, and hurriedly stepped forward and hugged his fists and said, "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, why are you here?" ”

"Oh, I passed by here on an errand in Huaixi, is Mr. Li there?"

"Yes, yes, Lord Wang, please." Liu Dewei said goodbye and invited him into the hall.

Li Zhongwen in the house had already heard their voices, and hurriedly stood up to greet the door, clasped his fists and saluted. After Li Zhiyun returned the salute, the two sides sat down separately. Li Zhiyun didn't wait for the messenger to serve fragrant tea, so he couldn't wait: "Manager Li, when we entered the city just now, we walked less than a mile, and we met several funeral teams, and we also saw many burned houses, is there something wrong in the city?" Li Zhongwen said with a bitter face: "Lord, Jinyang City has suffered a catastrophe, and the younger brother of the Turkic Shibi Khan, Tong Lifu, in the name of supporting the Tang Dynasty, led 5,000 men and horses to Jinyang, burning, killing and looting, and doing all kinds of evil. They killed hundreds of people, burned thousands of homes, and robbed three or four thousand women. ”

"What?" When Li Zhiyun heard this, he stood up suddenly, his eyes widened, "When did this happen?" ”

Li Zhongwen also stood up and said, "Just two days ago. Liu Dewei on the side added: "Today is the day of the funeral of the deceased, so it is not surprising that the prince walked less than a mile and met several funeral teams." ”

"Five thousand?" Li Zhiyun thought for a while, "As far as I know, it seems that there are more than this number of our Tang army in Jinyang City, right?" ”

"What the prince said is true," Liu Dewei said, "We have 10,000 soldiers and horses in Jinyang City. ”