The year 821 was destined to be an eventful year for the Saint Tang.

Just after the Spring Festival, bad news came one after another, reaching the heart of the imperial capital.

The first is the change of the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang, the two countries of Loulan and Shule suddenly raised troops to mutiny, the scale of which far exceeded the small riots in various parts of Western Xinjiang years ago, the rebel army claimed to have 200,000 people, and quickly swept away the surrounding feudal states and military towns, and the calm western region fell into chaos in a blink of an eye;

Not long after, the famous general of the Saint Tang, the commander of the Flame Blade Legion and the protector of the Zhenjiang Metropolitan Protector, He Jingming, was suddenly attacked within the territory of the Saint Tang's own country, and the star fell, shocking the government and the public.

Soon after, the heaviest blow finally came—the 120,000-strong army of the Zhenjiang Protectorate and the Fierce Blade Legion was wiped out in the Battle of Crescent Bay!

At this point, west of Zijin Pass, there is no longer the main force of the Holy Tang Dynasty, and the ghosts of the entire western Xinjiang have lost the hands of the rebels.

According to the latest battle report sent back from the west, just five days ago, a Turkic army of 50,000 people appeared outside the Zijin Pass, known as the western barrier of the Shengtang Dynasty.

With the existing strength of Liangzhou, it is already very difficult to barely keep the Zijin Pass alive, and the western expedition to quell the rebellion does not even need to be thought about. Asking the imperial court to send troops to reinforce the defense, it flew like snowflakes in front of Emperor Li Chengwu's dragon case.

And below the dragon case, the Manchu Dynasty civil and military are making a lot of noise.

"Lord Xie, as the Shangzhu State in charge of the military affairs of the imperial court, you are really to blame for the current situation!" Zhongshu made Liu Shiming beat his chest and pointed at Xie Guang's nose and reprimanded.

In the face of this accusation from the civilian official group, Xie Guang naturally scoffed, and couldn't help but snort coldly: "Joke, this official has just taken office in the Shangzhu Kingdom, and he only commanded the Xuanjia Army before, and he belongs to a different system from the troops in Western Xinjiang, how can he carry this black cauldron?" ”

In the imperial history, Cheng Wangjie is a person named by Liu Shiming, of course, he has to help the civil and official department speak, but he smiled predictively: "Then Lord He's death has nothing to do with you?" Isn't Xu Youchang the vanguard general of your Xuanjia Legion? ”

"Xu Youchang is indeed serving under me," Xie Guang obviously didn't care much about Wang Jie's troubles, and retorted unhurriedly: "However, what evidence does Lord Wang have that it was Xu Youchang and the Xuanjia Army Pioneer Battalion who attacked He Jingming?" ”

Liu Shiming said angrily: "It's not him? If it wasn't him, then why did he flee to the West with his subordinates? ”

Xie Guangbai glanced at him: "Why did Xu Youchang leave Western Xinjiang?" According to this official, I am afraid that it was because I was worried that I would be framed by the villain for no reason, so I had no choice but to escape. ”

Wang Huan, the commander of the Imperial Forest Army, retorted when he heard this: "Shangzhu Kingdom, even if Xu Youchang really has grievances, then he should return to the imperial capital to distinguish right from wrong." Whether it is the Three Law Divisions or the Governor's Office, they have their own ways to find out the case. Leading his troops to abscond in Western Xinjiang without authorization like this is clearly a rebellion! Shangzhuguo, as his chief official, I'm afraid you can't just push it away. ”

"Commander Wang, what do you mean by that?" Lu Yaofeng, the secretary of the military department, was Xie Guang's protégé, and when he saw this, he hurriedly relieved Xie Guang and said: "The whole thing hasn't been figured out yet, so what is the intention of putting a big hat of rebellion on the people of the Xuanjia Army first?" Anyway, our military department has never issued an order to let the Liangzhou Mansion soldiers and the Fierce Blade Army join forces to besiege and detain the vanguard battalion of the Xuanjia Army for no reason. Who was behind all this and forced Xu Youchang away, he really should have a good investigation. ”

"The surname is Lu, you explain to me clearly, what is the meaning and what is the intention? You are referring to Sang scolding Huai, who do you want to say about this? ”

"Who did it, who knows! Anyway, I can't do that kind of thing of throwing dirty water on other people. ”

"Bastard!"

"You're the bastard, big bastard!"

"Lord Lu, it is really insulting to speak foul language in the court above the court! Insulting Sven! ……”

"Phew, Sven scum!"

With a snap, Li Chengwu picked up the white jade paperweight on the dragon case, slammed it to the ground, and immediately shattered.

The ministers were all shocked, and hurriedly bowed down one after another to plead guilty.

"Noisy, noisy! It's so noisy that my head hurts! The matter of He Jingming and Xu Youchang, let it go first! Zhao'er and the others are here, just talking about important things, what should the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang do?! …… Get up! Stand up and talk back to me! ”

Lu Yaofeng was in charge of the military department, and when he heard this, he arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, Weichen is foolish, and now the plan is naturally to send troops to counterattack." On the one hand, he quelled the rebellion in the western Xinjiang, and on the other hand, he expelled the Turkic foreign enemies. Fortunately, Shangzhu Guo previously suggested that this year's school army test and the Son of Heaven's Sixth Army drill should be held together, so a large number of main forces have been assembled near the imperial capital. There are 80,000 Qilin Legions, 60,000 Xuanjia Legions, and the Long Knife Legion is on their way here, about 100,000. In addition, the soldiers sent by the prefectures and the prefectures to participate in the competition and drills, totaling nearly 300,000 horses, are fully capable of resolving the crisis in western Xinjiang. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Governor Xiao Chen echoed: "Now that the cold winter is about to pass, the spring flowers are blooming, and the snow is melting, which is the right season for using soldiers." Moreover, at present, the treasury has all kinds of food, grass and military supplies, so it is necessary to send troops out immediately to avoid long nights and dreams. ”

Lu Yaofeng and Xiao Chen were in charge of military affairs, and they were most familiar with the combat strength of Shengtang, and their remarks were well-founded, even if the other ministers usually disagreed with their political views, they couldn't find any better reasons to refute them at this moment.

Li Chengwu saw that no one in the court spoke, and he couldn't help but agree a little, so he continued to ask: "Since the soldiers, grain and grass are complete, who will lead the army to the battle?" ”

At this question, the court was even more silent. For a moment, no one responded to this sensitive topic.

Li Chengwu was slightly stunned, raised his eyes and looked at the general Chaoban on his right, and couldn't help but feel a little worried.

The most prominent position in the front row originally belonged to Xu Lie, the commander of the Qilin Legion and the old general. Old man Xu is a veteran of the Three Dynasties, with great military achievements, and has always had a pivotal position in the Shengtang military, but today's court discussion involves his grandson Xu Youchang, so the old man took sick leave to show his avoidance. Besides, Xu Lie is old after all, and his health is not very good, even if he is here, it is impossible for him to take on the heavy responsibility of going to the Western Xinjiang.

Looking further back, Li Chengtan, the general of the auxiliary state, is burly and majestic, and is the cousin of Emperor Li Chengwu. The two of them grew up together since childhood, and Li Chengwu certainly knows better than anyone else: Li Chengtan is a good thing, he can't study and practice martial arts since he was a child, he is the first to eat, drink and have fun, you let him go to fight a bird, it is absolutely a problem to let him go to a fight;

Governor Xiao Chen, although he is a military officer, he is a civil official, and he can plan war countermeasures in the court, but unfortunately he has no strength to tie the chicken, and he has never had the experience of leading troops to fight, leading hundreds of thousands of troops into battle, I am afraid that most of them will be strained on the spot;

Shence General Ma Hongyi is a rare fierce general, but unfortunately he had a serious illness two months ago, Lang Zhong said that he looks normal now, but he can't tell when he will suddenly relapse and burp directly. Therefore, Lao Ma now has to take a doctor with him when he goes out to save his life. If this is a critical moment in front of the two armies, his small physique will be good again, and if Ma Hongyi dies or not, the whole army will be in trouble.

As for Chen ......, the general of the Tunwei next to Ma Hongyi, what is Chen coming from? Why don't you have any impression of him? Alas, it was so mixed that even the emperor couldn't remember him, and it was estimated that it didn't have much interest.

Look at the other generals in the court, one by one is either a wine bag or a rice bag, a little colorful, and they generally lack the qualifications to command a large corps.

picked and chosen, and there were only two candidates, Xie Guang and Wang Huan.

Li Chengwu secretly pondered to himself, Wang Huan was his trusted general, he was the head of the palace guard when he became the prince, and now he is shouldering the heavy responsibility of defending the imperial city, and he must not leave. In this way, you can only use Xie Guang......

At this moment, Pan Yukang, the supervisor of the Shaofu Palace, suddenly said loudly: "Your Majesty, Weichen recommended Shangzhu State to lead the troops to go out to quell the rebellion in Western Xinjiang." ”

Hearing him say this, many ministers who were close to Xie Guang hurriedly opened their mouths and seconded them.

Li Chengwu couldn't help but be slightly stunned when he saw this, and immediately remembered something in his heart. A few days ago, Shi Shenlie, director of the Reverse Scale Division, sent an urgent report from Liangzhou to Fenyang, "There is an emergency in Western Xinjiang, and there is a fear of internal changes, and Gyeonggi should take the stability of the army's heart as the priority" Although it was only a few words, it suddenly made Li Chengwu wary. At this moment, the emperor felt even more hesitant: if he made a decision now to appoint Xie Guang as the commander of the Western Expedition, as long as he released the military talisman, the 300,000 troops would all fall into his hands at once.

If Xie Guang really has a plan, he only needs to pick out those troops that do not belong to his descendants and send them away to the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang, while he will lead his cronies to turn around and return to the imperial capital, and play a trick of "Qingjun's side", when the time comes, only relying on Wang Huan's 20,000 imperial forest army, I am afraid it will not even be enough to plug Xie Guang's teeth.

How can this be done?

The young master of the crown prince, Liu Ce, was thoughtful, and he also knew the emperor's fear of Xie Guang, he saw that the emperor was a little embarrassed, so he gave up his hand and said: "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that the matter of recruiting and electing generals in the west should be discussed in the long run. ”

"Oh? Zhang Aiqing, what do you think, tell me about it. Li Chengwu's eyes lit up and he hurriedly asked.

Liu Ce glanced at Xie Guang who was standing not far away, although this Shangzhu Kingdom of the Holy Tang Dynasty still looked as usual, but it was not difficult to find that Xie Guang's face had been covered with a faint layer of frost. Liu Ce didn't care much, and continued to say calmly: "Although the current situation in Western Xinjiang is critical, as the saying goes, illness comes like a mountain, illness goes like a thread, such a major matter, you must not be in a hurry. At present, we are almost ignorant of the specific situation of the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang, if we rush to send out a large army, who can guarantee that there will not be a second Crescent Bay? ”

Xie Guang smiled faintly when he heard this, and asked rhetorically: "According to the meaning of the young master, the Zijin Pass, which is in danger, is left alone?" ”

"It's not that it doesn't matter." Facing Xie Guang's questioning, Liu Ce calmly responded: "Zijin Pass is the western gateway of my Shengtang, and it is absolutely impossible to afford to lose. Therefore, the imperial court could first send the Xuanjia Army under the command of Shangzhu State to rush to the aid of Zijin Pass and try to stabilize the situation there. At the same time, the court deliberated cautiously, and after formulating a proper response strategy, it was not too late to dispatch a large army. ”

As soon as these words came out, Xie Guang was suddenly a little stunned. What he was most worried about was that the emperor really sent out the Xuanjia Army as Liu Ce said, so that the most valuable chips in his hand would be directly abolished. So, Xie Guang rolled his eyes and said aloud to Li Chengwu: "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that this plan is absolutely impossible. Lord Liu's discussion was more than steady, but he was not enterprising enough, and besides, he himself was not familiar with military affairs, so he could not examine the current situation from the perspective of the battlefield. If he really does what he said, he will definitely delay the fighter plane and cause serious trouble. ”

Speaking of this, Xie Guang glanced at Liu Ce, did not wait for the other party to refute, and then gushed endlessly: "In the early chaos of the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang, although the Holy Tang was the first, whether it was the rebels of the vassal country or the Turks who suddenly appeared there, they all had an unstable foothold, and the hearts of the people of my Western Xinjiang were not lost. At this moment, it is the best opportunity for the imperial court to send troops and recover the lost territory. If we hesitate in the face of a sudden invasion of a strong enemy, and only make a minimum division of troops to defend, it is tantamount to allowing the fire to spread, watching the fire grow from small to large, and eventually become a flame. Once the other party is allowed to gain a firm foothold in the western frontier, even if it is a national force dispatched at that time, he will not dare to say that he will win the battle. Please think again, Your Majesty! ”

The ministers of Xie Guang's family in the court also bowed their hands at this time and said, "Please think twice, Your Majesty!" ”

Xie Guang's gushing discussion suddenly made Li Chengwu feel in a dilemma.

Liu Ce's idea was originally very much in line with his heart; But after all, Xie Guang is a famous general in the Holy Tang Dynasty, and when it comes to the ability to fight, except for the late He Jingming, there are really few people in the Manchu Dynasty who can stand out. Moreover, Xie Guang's words are also reasonable, and from the perspective of the state's social affairs, it really cannot be hastily vetoed.

At this time, Li Chengwu felt a little helpless, neither left nor right, it was really difficult to make a decision immediately, so he had to sacrifice the magic weapon of the housekeeper - the word "drag", and hummed weakly: "What the two Aiqing said makes sense, about the matter of the Western Expedition, let me think about it, and discuss it tomorrow morning." ”