Ma Xing stood on the wall of Siwuguan with his hands behind his back, looking down at the endless mountains in front of him, filled with emotion in his heart. Since the year before last, how many people have died surrounding Siwuguan!

Now, he is finally back in the hands of officers and soldiers.

The significance of reoccupying Siwuguan is not only that the rebellions in Xiazhou, Shizhou and other places have been put down, but more importantly, the officers and soldiers have regained the key to entering and exiting Hengshan.

Li Du, who was standing on one side and slightly behind, looked at the thin figure in front of him with admiration in his eyes.

The comfort envoy in front of him was so courageous that he only brought a dozen guards with him and followed Zhang Yunsheng back to Siwuguan without worrying that he would regret detaining him.

"Bachelor, it's windy and cold in the city. It's better to go inside and talk!" Li Du greeted him.

Ma Xing looked back at him and said: "Although it is cold and windy, it can make people's minds clearer. A clear mind allows us to make more accurate judgments and not act randomly when we are temporarily dizzy.

.Li Du, either you or I hold the lives of millions of people in our hands. Do you know how many people will die if we make a mistake?"

Li Du's expression changed slightly, and he bowed and said, "Li Du knows he is guilty, and Li Du is willing to accept the guilt!"

Ma Xing sighed and turned around. He grabbed two handfuls of snow on the battlements with both hands, balled them up in his hands, and threw them towards the bottom of the city. He watched the two snow dumplings break into snow flakes again.

.

"From the bottom of my heart, I am very angry at people like you. For the sake of your own selfishness, you ignore thousands of people, start wars, and do all kinds of evil. Li Du, if nothing else, it's you

For what you did in Suide, it’s not an exaggeration to behead you ten times!”

Li Du bowed silently, but the generals around him suddenly changed their expressions, and became even more impatient. Their hands were already on the hilts of the swords at their waists. Ma Xing did not even look at them.

"But, for the sake of the overall situation, sometimes I have to do things that I don't like." Ma Xing continued: "As the official position increases, more and more such things are done. Ordinary people do more and more things like this.

I can be happy with my grudges, but I can't."

Li Du said: "The bachelor is like this, so why aren't we like this? Getting to where we are today was not my original idea, Li, it was just step by step, and I couldn't help it!"

"Without ambition and loyalty, how could we have reached where we are today?" Ma Xing sneered: "Li Du, do you know that as long as I give an order from this comfort envoy, what if you still have tens of thousands of troops?

Even if we occupy Siwuguan, so what? We will still be defeated forever."

Li Du smiled and said: "Of course I believe this general. There are more than 30,000 cavalry under the command of General Manager Xiao, and they are all members of the Party, Tubo and Uighurs. This vast sea is indeed insurmountable for the infantry.

The natural danger is nothing to the cavalry. As long as they appear in Xiazhou and Wang Zhijun here at Siwuguan launches a fierce attack with all his troops, with the current morale of our Dingnan Army, I am afraid they will be defeated soon."

Ma Xing's face looked a little ugly.

He stretched out his hand and dragged a bundle of feather arrows over the top of the city, and sat on it.

"Sit down too!"

Li Du, however, sat down on the ground with his legs crossed and his hands on his knees. Then he glanced back at the generals behind him and waved, "You all get off!"

The people headed by Zhang Yunsheng hesitated for a moment and finally reincarnated down the city wall.

"How did Li Xu die?" Ma Xing asked.

"Half of it is due to the defeat at the hands of Xiao Ding, which has ruined the business for more than ten years, and the other half is because of the unbearable humiliation. My eldest brother was a hero for a lifetime, but in the end he was treated as a tool, and he kept driving and running away.

, turned out to be the mouse under the cat's claws." Li Du bowed his head and said: "The two intertwined, and eventually died of illness in an unknown town in Suzhou."

"Is it because of Li Xu's death that you decided to be recruited by the imperial court?"

"Of course not!" Li Du's eyes flashed with sharpness, "It was my brother's decision before he died. Bachelor, to be honest, if it weren't for this letter from my brother, I would have been ready to lead my troops to defect to the Liao Kingdom."

"Go to the Liao Kingdom?" Ma Xing sneered: "I became a lost dog. When I went to the Liao Kingdom, I could only be driven around like a pig or a dog."

"That's why I kept hesitating until my eldest brother sent me a letter." Li Du said, "Bachelor, I, the Li family, have a mortal feud with Xiao Ding."

"General Manager Xiao killed the rebels and opened up territory for the country. Now the Hengshan party has surrendered, the Tibetan cavalry is no longer there, Qingtang and Hehuang have all returned to the country. On the northwest road, the military front has been formed. The three countries and dynasties

The road to Liao is almost ready!" Ma Xing looked directly at Li Du: "What do you mean by this?"

Li Du lowered his eyelids and said: "Bachelor, General Manager Xiao is indeed a good general. Although he is an enemy, Li Du still admires him so much. However, Bachelor, the strength that General Manager Xiao now holds is far greater than that of my Li family."

That’s when it was.”

"You, Mr. Li, have evil intentions, but Mr. Xiao is the pillar of the court and loyal!"

Li Du raised his head with a smile: "What the bachelor said is true, but after what happened to me, Li, the bachelor must have some other ideas, right? The land of Xingling and the Hetao is really a good place! I think.

Back then, I, the Li family, was ordered to go out of Hengshan to manage the land of Xingling. There was no one to check and balance, so the power became increasingly powerful, and this was what the bachelor said was ambitious. It is very similar to today's Manager Xiao. The difference is that the current Xiao

The manager’s courage is much greater than ours.”

"Go on!" Ma Xing said calmly.

"The parties in Hengshan surrendered, and Tubo was defeated in Qingtang." Li Du continued: "The land under General Manager Xiao's control is now as vast as that of the imperial dynasty. What is missing is just people. What should we do if we give it some time?

?So I think the bachelor must have a force to check and balance General Manager Xiao. Please forgive me, at this moment, besides my Li family, who else can do this for the bachelor? Wang Zhijun? He is under General Manager Xiao.

Is Commander Li coming out? Can he be the opponent of General Manager Xiao? Apart from these two generals on the road to Shaanxi, do you have any other generals that you can use?"

"A transfer order from the imperial court..."

"Why did the bachelor lie to me? If the imperial court can transfer Xiao Ding away with a single order at this time, then what's the point of me, Li Du, giving this head to the bachelor?" Li Du laughed: "

It’s easy to issue an order, but breaking this layer of paper and making the conflict between the two parties public is not only what the bachelor doesn’t want to see, but it’s definitely not what the court wants to see, right?”

Ma Xing fell silent. This was not just a matter of breaking the window paper!

If it were the previous imperial court, it would naturally not be afraid, but now, the Song Dynasty is really in turmoil!

A great defeat in Hebei completely destroyed the foundation laid by King Jing over the years, and the current situation in Bianliang can be said to be that a storm is about to come. At this moment, if something happens in the northwest, it will be terrible

The sky is really falling.

As Li Du said, if the court really gave an order to Xiao Ding, but Xiao Ding did not obey the order, how could the court deal with itself? What would Xiao Ding do next?

No one dares to bet.

"But you are not Xiao Ding's opponent!" Ma Xing sighed: "Looking at the world, it is really difficult to find generals who can fight against Xiao Ding."

You can't just put people like Taiwei Zhang Chao on the road to Shaanxi because of some superficial suspicions. So what's the difference between this and a demotion order?

"It's impossible to tell!" Li Du raised his head and said: "With the power I have now, I am naturally far from Xiao Ding's opponent, but I surrendered to the imperial court, and I have the imperial court's support behind me.

, soldiers, horses, grain, grass, and equipment will continue to flow out of Hengshan through Siwuguan, but it is not yet known who will win?"

"And bachelor, what you need is just checks and balances, right? From your heart, of course you don't want Xiao Ding to do anything? What you want is just to control Xiao Ding and make him feel afraid. That's all.

, I, Li Du, am confident that I can still do it with ease."

"You're right! Of course I don't want anything to happen to Xiao Ding. I'm still counting on him to become the main force in attacking Liao! Is it possible that I can still count on you?" Ma Xing said. "But as you said, power is

There needs to be checks and balances. Even for officials, there are two government offices above the court to advise them. They cannot act arbitrarily, let alone the ministers below. Moreover, this is also for Xiao Changqing's good! Li Du, what do you want, now?

You can bring it up."

Maybe Ma Xing didn't expect that this ordinary patrol of his would unexpectedly solve the problem of Li Du who had been troubling Shaanxi Road for a long time. More importantly, it would also bring about the problem that had been lingering in his heart.

There are some possibilities for resolving the problem.

Does Ma Xing now think that Xiao Ding has evil intentions?

of course not.

It's just that in the view of old bureaucrats like Ma Xing, the structure of officials should be a stacked bed frame with checks and balances. Only in this way can the operation be smooth and safe. Power without checks and balances is very dangerous and easy to

Let those who hold power have no scruples and do whatever they want.

Of course, such a thing cannot be tolerated by an official like Ma Xing.

In the final analysis, the Song Dynasty was a country ruled by literati. They designed a complex official system and service system, which restricted each other. Even the officials could not do whatever they wanted.

The emergence of Li Xu has already made them extremely alert, and now there is a more powerful Xiao Ding. How can they not be worried?

How could we repeat the same mistakes?

Naturally, it needs to be controlled.

If Hebei is so undefeated, there are still many cards that can be played. But now Hebei is completely defeated, which makes Xiao Ding's team even more critical.

Shaanxi Road is under the jurisdiction of Qing Dynasty!

This is the new official position Ma Xingxu gave Li Du.

This position, nominally speaking, is in charge of all the soldiers and horses on the entire Shaanxi Road.

In other words, Li Du has now jumped from a rebel to the boss of Li Dan, Wang Jun and others.

Li Du will go to Yan'an Prefecture as the pacifier, but the troops under his command will be stationed in Xiazhou, Shizhou and other places. Naturally, the people who will lead the army will be Li Du's confidants, and the magistrates of these two states will also be

Recommended by Li Du.

"I'm afraid Wang Jun and Wang Zhijun will be very angry!" Cheng Gui was a little worried: "In the past year or so, his subordinates have had many conflicts with Li Du's subordinates, and the two sides have a deep hatred. Even Li Dandu, the commander of the envoy, has only one thought in his heart:

I'm afraid it won't be too comfortable! Bachelor, now the soldiers and horses on Shaanxi Road are actually divided into several forces. If something really happens, I'm afraid it will be difficult to form a joint force."

"Li Dan has an indifferent temperament and doesn't like to fight for power, but he is loyal and a general who can make people feel at ease." Ma Xing said with a smile: "So there should be no problem for him to get along with Li Du.

He is very sober when it comes to major matters. As for Li Du, there is no other way to go now. If he really wants to cause chaos, Xiao Ding can easily destroy him when he returns to the army. He knows where his role is. As for

Wang Jun?"

Ma Xing laughed: "I'm going to let him go to Hebei! Now the border generals in Hebei have either been killed by the Liao people or Cui Ang. They are withering badly. Wang Jun was born in Hebei, so it's okay to let him go back.

I think he must be willing to return home in glory."
To be continued...