July and August are the hottest seasons in western Sichuan, and it is also the rainy season. In the alternating climate of scorching sun and torrential rain, the time has blink of an eye to the beginning of August. In the past month, Ouyang Xuan's fear of the attack of the Sichuan West Mongolian army and Cao Zhizhou's surrender to the enemy did not appear. At present, this period of time is both humid and hot, and there is still a month before the autumn grain harvest, and it is basically impossible for the Mongolian army to make any big moves, which makes Ouyang Xuan feel a lot more at ease. Now the Thunderbolt Army is short of weapons and ammunition, and it is really not suitable for a large-scale war. In particular, in the production of artillery, although the production of the arsenal has reached the design capacity, it has only recently supplemented the losses in the early stage, and it will still take several months if the needs of the brigades are to be met.

To say that this person really can't be idle, the pressure has decreased slightly, and Ouyang Xuan can't help but think of Yang Yan. Miss Yang's figure would appear in his mind without warning, so that during this time, a smirk often appeared on his face, which made the people around him inexplicable, only that Brother Xuan was unfathomable. Only Lu Dezhi, who had just returned from Banshu, saw the mystery. At that moment, he suggested to Ouyang Xuan that he should first send someone to Banzhou to send a dowry to set a wedding date, and then marry Miss Yang after the autumn harvest. Lu Dezhi is also a chronic son on weekdays, but after seeing his proposal, Ouyang Xuan was silent but full of smiles, knowing that he agreed, he couldn't hold back the joy in his heart, and rushed to prepare.

Soon after Lu Dezhi followed Yang Yan to Banzhou, Yang Wen also led his troops back to Banzhou. The Banshu army has been fighting abroad for several months, with a lot of personnel losses and great pressure on the supply of grain and grass. As soon as the Mongol army besieging Diaoyu City retreated, Yang Wen bid farewell to Lu Wende and hurried back to Banzhou on the grounds of returning to Banzhou to fight against the Dali barbarians who disturbed the border. At present, although the Wuliang Hetai Department did not lead the Mongolian army to attack Banzhou, it continued to lure and drive the barbarians of all ethnic groups in Dali to harass Banzhou, and it was never stopped.

Yang Wen and Rude are of the same age, and both of them are full of poetry and books, but they also hit it off at first sight. He heard Rude's general Ouyang Xuan praise to the sky, and he only said the words of the family. Then he quietly asked Yang Yan what he thought of Ouyang Xuan, and asked about the key point of marriage, which made Yang Yan, who is usually not afraid of heaven and earth, blush, and said in a low voice: "It's all up to Daddy", which made him laugh. What is the personality of his daughter, he is naturally in a situation, and he knows that she is extremely satisfied with this marriage. Yang Yan is now twenty years old, and she belongs to an old girl in this generation. If the marriage is decided by itself, where are there so many troubles? If you want to say that most of the gray hair on her head is born because of her marriage.

Although he hadn't seen Ouyang Xuan, his daughter had no opinion, so Yang Wen naturally put his mind at ease and immediately made a marriage contract with Lu Dezhi. In this world, Ouyang Xuan was alone without a father or mother, and Lu Dezhi represented the elders with peace of mind, and the firearms sent naturally became the first batch of dowry gifts. After Yang Wen saw the power of these firearms, especially the power of the two heavy fortress cannons, he was even more overjoyed. This marriage is not only satisfactory to her daughter, but also a matter of her own heart, which also means that Banzhou will be blessed with firearms in the future, and she is not afraid of the Mongolian army and the barbarians driven by it.

In addition to the good news of her marriage with Yang Yan, two other good news also followed. The first is that Möngke really died. After Huang Dagen and his entourage arrived at Diaoyu City, they learned from Wang Jian and Zhang Jue that the two heavy fortress guns sent by the Thunderbolt Army played an important role in the Battle of Diaoyu City. The defenders hit the lookout where Möngke Khan was standing with their cannons, and it is unknown whether Möngke was hit, but after a few days the Mongol army began to retreat. Later, news of Meng Ge's death came out, saying that he was injured by the cannon wind and died on the way back from the army. For this reason, his son Asutai slaughtered all the people on the way to retreat, and tens of thousands of innocent people died.

Ouyang Xuan knew the significance of Meng Ge's death. The vacant position of the Great Khan of Mongolia was coveted by the Mongol kings and would lead to infighting. Möngke had three half-brothers, Kublai Khan, Hülegü, and Ali Buge. They were the sons of Torre and his wife, Ruheteni. After Kublai Khan received the news of Meng Ke's death, he first launched an attack on the Southern Song Dynasty and won many victories. Then he led the army to turn around and return to the north, and after Kaiping, he held a Kuritai conference in Kaiping, which was supported by some kings and became the new Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. A month later, Ali Buge also held a Kuritai conference in Helin, which was also supported by some of the kings and ascended the throne as Khan. After that, the two fought many times for the throne of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, until Ali Buge was defeated and surrendered four years later.

Möngke's death led to the complete fragmentation of the Mongol Empire. In addition to Kublai Khan's establishment of the Great Yuan Empire, the Mongol Empire also had four independent khanates, which led to the Mongol Empire's various factions being divided and ruled by divisions, no longer united, and suspicious of each other. Kublai Khan's newly established Yuan Empire, due to its large number of internal and external enemies, has been focusing on governing its own territory for several years, and naturally it can no longer engage in large-scale southern invasion wars. This will give the Southern Song Dynasty a precious respite, and the Thunderbolt Army will also have a valuable period of development.

Zhang Jue also told Huang Dagen that the short musket given by the Thunderbolt Army saved his life. In May, the Mongol army was on a fierce offensive, and even stormed the gate of the country for a time. As soon as the Protectorate Gate fell into the hands of the Mongolian army, Diaoyu City was in danger. In the battle for the protection of the country, Zhang Jue led the defenders and the Mongolian soldiers into bitter battles, and almost died under the scimitar of the Mongolian army on several occasions. Exhausted, he was also knocked down by a Mongolian centurion with a long sword in his hand and fell to the ground. Just as the enemy struck at him with a sinister sword, he touched the musket behind his waist. At that moment, he smashed the head of the Mongolian centurion with a single shot. As soon as the centurion died, the Mongol offensive was stalled, but the morale of the defenders was greatly boosted, and the attack and defense were transposed in the blink of an eye. After a few rounds, the defenders slaughtered the Mongols out of the Protectorate.

The second piece of good news is that Ouyang Xuan was promoted to the deputy envoy of Chengdu to pacify, and he is still the commander of Yongkang. This imperial appointment was brought by the messenger of Jiading Mansion. In the letter, Yu Xing first congratulated him, and then said that he should drink water and not forget to dig the well, hinting that Ouyang Xuan should know how to honor his recommendation, and also asked him what his relationship was with Lu Wende, Jia Nidao and other local dignitaries and a number of important ministers and nobles of the imperial court. Ouyang Xuan read Yu Xing's letter and knew that the messenger team had successfully arrived in Lin'an. There was a post station in the imperial court, and the official documents appointed were naturally much faster than the reply letters from the messenger team and Li Kaipeng. He knew that this appointment was the result of Li Kaipeng's operation, and he must have spent a lot of money. This Yu Xing is really thick-skinned, and he doesn't take "merit and refuge" seriously at all, but wants to extort some more money from Ouyang Xuan with a shy face.

It is said that the deputy envoy of Chengdu pacification can nominally save the prefectures and counties of Chengdu Road, but at present, most of Chengdu Fu Road is still occupied by the Mongolian army, except for the Thunderbolt Army, Yazhou and Lizhou, the rest of the places are in ruins. What is particularly fatal is that Chengdu's duty to appease the deputy envoy and pacify the Yibo tribe and prevent them from disturbing the border and even rebelling is really thankless. In fact, the imperial court established the post of deputy envoy of Chengdu pacification precisely to deal with the affairs of Yibo in western Sichuan.

In the eyes of Yu Xing and other officials, this position is really like chicken ribs, which has no meat to eat, but it tastes good when discarded. However, this official position was very important to the Perak Army, which meant that Ouyang Xuan had the authority to govern the affairs of Yibo on the Sichuan Border, and could handle the affairs of the Jie, Yan and other prefectures that were originally managed by Yazhou, and it also meant that Cao Zhizhou no longer dared to openly obstruct the activities of the Thunderbolt Army caravan in the Yibo region. At the moment, Ouyang Xuan is his superior, although it is only in name.