Chapter 120: Shi Tian’s gap

That afternoon, a team of more than 100 light cavalry came to Li Qing'an's Jiangdu regiment training camp. The leader was a general in his early thirties. He turned over and dismounted and asked the guards from a distance: "Is General Li Qing'an not entering the city?"

"My general is still in the military camp."

The general smiled again and said, "Please tell your general, and let me say that Li Guangbi of Longyou is visiting."

"Please wait for a moment!" The guard rushed to report.

In the big tent, Li Qing'an and Li Fei Shouyu and He Yanming discussed the matter of Anxi. Li Fei Shouyu smiled and said, "I talked with my brothers yesterday. I thought I was unwilling to go to Anxi. After all, the gentle hometown in Yangzhou is nostalgic. Unexpectedly, when I mentioned it, half of the soldiers were eager to go to Anxi. It seems that many brothers have had this idea."

"Where is half there?" Li Qingan asked with a smile.

"Most of the others are worried about their families. I promised them that if they were willing to go to Anxi, we would give each person two hundred acres of land, and military households would not have to pay taxes, and they would also give 50 stagnant of family payments. In this way, many people said they could consider it. I can see that they were actually willing."

Speaking of this, Li Fei Shouyu said a little depressedly: "But in the end there were still more than 30 people who were unwilling to go to Anxi, which is a pity!"

"Actually, this is already very good!"

Li Qing'an patted his shoulder and smiled, "How can it be perfect? ​​After all, people miss their hometown, and Anxi is too far away."

"I know, so I think these brothers are all very good."

Li Qing'an was very relieved when most of his brothers could follow him. He asked He Yanming again, "Have he taken away the gold I gave to the prince?"

"Here, last night, more than a dozen carriages came. It can be seen that they were all dressed in court guards, and half of the bronze ware was transported away, with the general's token."

"It seems that he is impatient."

Li Qingan smiled and said, "I guess the day we will return to Anxi is coming soon. You will bring a few brothers to buy more big items such as porcelain and silk in the past two days, and then mix the other half of the gold into it and transport it back to Anxi together."

"Don't worry, General, I'll do it now!"

At this time, a soldier ran to the door to report: "General, General Li Guangbi, who was from Wujin camp outside the door, asked for a meeting."

‘Li Guangbi?’ Li Qingan was slightly stunned. He then smiled at Li Fei Shouyu and said, “This Li Guangbi is a famous general from Longyou. We cannot neglect others. Let’s go out to welcome him together!”

Of course Li Qing'an knew who Li Guangbi was? During the Anshi Rebellion, this famous middle-Tang general led the Tang army to fight against Hedong and Hebei, severely attacking An Lushan's rebels, and together with Guo Ziyi, became two mainstays of the Tang Dynasty's strong tide.

This time during the Jianghuai military training, Li Guangbi was appointed as the Changzhou Wujin regiment training envoy. Like Li Qing'an, he also selected 500 elite troops to train and achieved remarkable results. Their troops stationed were not far from Li Qing'an's Jiangdu Camp, about three miles away.

After a moment, the camp gate opened wide, and Li Qing'an led Li Fei Shouyu and several other subordinates to greet him.

Li Qing'an stepped forward and bowed and smiled, "I heard about Brother Guangbi's name for a long time, and Qing'an only met him today."

Li Guangbi was 32 years old this year. His father Li Kailuo was originally the chief of the Khitan. He was a member of the Tang Dynasty during the reign of Wu Zetian. He was appointed as the General of the Right Yulin and was granted the title of Duke of Ji County.

When Tubo invaded Heyuan, Li Kailuo led his elite troops to resist. Before leaving, the old man had some premonition and told people: "If I destroy the attacking Tubo thieves, I can't come back."

Sure enough, after suppressing the thief, Li Kailuo died of illness on his way back to the army, and he really "sacrificed at his job." The court vigorously praised him and was awarded the title of the governor of Yingzhou and was named Zhonglie.

Li Guangbi was a child of a martyr and did not play like ordinary children since he was a child. Since his youth, Li Guangbi has been skilled in riding and shooting, with a strict and concise personality, and is serious and serious, which makes people feel awe-in-law at first sight. Everyone in the camp knew that this was a good seedling with lofty ambitions. After Li Kailuo's death, Li Guangbi inherited his father's title and joined the army in Hexi. He was especially admired by Wang Zhongsi and promoted him to the Chishui Army's military envoy. He was just transferred to Longyou last year.

Last night, his regiment training camp was shot by someone, which disrupted the morale of the army. He was puzzled all night and came to Li Qing'an to ask about the situation.

Seeing Li Qing'an being polite, he hurriedly replied: "I have also heard of Anxi's reputation as the first arrow for a long time. I have wanted to visit him for a long time, and I have been delaying it until today."

He looked up and down at Li Qing'an, and saw that he was majestic, he couldn't help but like it, and said, "The Ministry of War has an order to let us enter the imperial city today. I will lead troops into the capital now. I wonder if my brother is willing to go with me."

"I'm also about to enter Beijing, so I ask Brother Guangbi to come in and sit down for a while. I pack up my troops and leave."

"No need, I'll wait here, please give me a gift!"

Li Qingan cleaned up for a moment and led a hundred of the most elite soldiers out of the camp gate. He bowed and smiled, "Brother Guangbi, let's go now!"

The two of them joined forces and rode their horses towards Chang'an City.

"Brother Qing'an, what was wrong with your military camp last night?" Along the way, Li Guangbi asked about the abnormality of last night.

Li Qingan smiled slightly and said, "Has Wu Jinying been shot by someone too?"

"That's right!" Li Guangbi said in surprise: "Could it be that Jiangduying had the same experience?"

Li Qing'an nodded, "But we were not last night, but the night before yesterday, another sentry was injured by an arrow."

Li Guangbi frowned and asked, "Then have you found out who did it?"

"Brother Guangbi, there is no way to investigate this matter. I told my brothers that it was a hunter who accidentally shot the military camp in the hunting camp."

"Why do you say that?"

"Brother Guangbi, there is no point in shooting archery at night. The only impact is to disrupt the morale of the army and affect the soldiers' performance tomorrow. If that's the case, why should I take this matter to heart? I fell into someone else's trick."

Li Guangbi nodded and smiled, "My brother, Gao Jian, I haven't had a good sleep all night last night, my mind is drowsy. Maybe I will make a mistake in command later, which will disappoint the emperor."

"You might as well, this inspection is just about riding and shooting, and not confrontation. The key is that the soldiers can perform normally."

"Fortunately, I did not investigate this matter strictly last night. I ordered my personal guards to block the news, otherwise my brothers would not have a good sleep all night."

Speaking of this, Li Guangbi laughed in a low voice and said, "Brother Qing'an, have you ever thought about bringing the regiment training camp back to Anxi?"

Li Qingan glanced at him and smiled, "Where is Brother Guangbi? Do you have this idea?"

The two of them looked at each other, and they all understood and laughed together.

The two of them walked while talking and soon entered Mingde Gate. At this time, the various regiments and soldiers led their soldiers into the city. Tomorrow's inspection will be carried out in turn by the 12 regiments. Each battalion produced 100 people, a total of 1,200 people. This is an opportunity for each side general to show his abilities in front of the emperor. Although it is not a confrontation, an invisible competition is known to everyone that the great governors in the future will definitely be among them.

In order to ensure tomorrow's inspection, the training camps of each regiment will be stationed in the guard camps of the imperial city tonight, among which the three regiment camps of Fan Yang's army are stationed in the guard camps of the right leader.

As soon as the sky was getting dark, the general Tian Ganzhen found Shi Siming. Tian Ganzhen was training troops in Hefei Camp in Luzhou. He just heard a rumor that the 12th regiment training camp had been shot by arrows these two nights, but his Hefei Camp was safe and sound, and the other Fan Yang Army regiment training camp was also safe and sound. He became suspicious in his heart. This may have been done by Shi Siming.

He had just stationed the soldiers and immediately found Shi Siming.

Shi Siming was having supper in the tent. When he saw Tian Ganzhen coming, he stood up and smiled and said, "General Tian hasn't eaten supper yet! He happened to have a meal together."

Tian Ganzhen ignored him, and he asked with a cold face: "You sent someone to do the fact that the train camps of various regiments were shot coldly, right?"

Shi Siming laughed dryly and said, "What do you mean? What are I sending someone to shoot arrows? What are the benefits for me?"

"I'll just ask you, did you do it?"

Tian Gan really made Shi Siming feel a little angry with shame. He snorted heavily, "So what if I did it? I didn't interfere with you, then this matter has nothing to do with you."

"But this matter is related to Fan Yangjun. Once the court finds out that you did it, the emperor will not blame you Shi Siming alone, but will say that Fan Yangjun is despicable. Then am I being implicated?"

Tian Ganzhen was extremely angry. He knew that Shi Siming did this to disrupt the morale of other regiment training camps and he made profits from it. However, the consequences of his doing so were extremely serious. Not only did he destroy Fan Yang's reputation, he might also implicate the position of the commander.

"I want to report this to Dashuai. You can explain it to Dashuai by yourself!"

After saying that, he turned around and left. Shi Siming suddenly drew his sword and blocked his way, "Stop!"

"What, do you want to kill me?" Tian Ganzhen sneered.

Shi Siming glanced at him, took back his sword, and said coldly: "We are all serving the general. I don't want to turn against you. I just want to remind you that when you attacked the Khitan two years ago, you were besieged by the Khitans overnight. Who fought to the death to save you? I, Shi Siming, do not ask for your return, but I also hope you don't repay you with kindness."

It was okay for Shi Siming not to mention the matter of New Year. When Tian Ganzhen mentioned that incident, he was furious, "You are so embarrassed to say, if you hadn't given me false information, would I be besieged by the Khitans? Both of my brothers died in the siege that night. You came to save me just to take the opportunity to make meritorious contributions. You got the most merit afterwards, but I was accused by the commander of being greedy for merit and being fined for one year, and said that I owe you favors. Shi Siming, you have the shame of saying this, Hum!"

Tian Ganzhen pushed away his sword and walked out. Shi Siming's face was extremely gloomy. He narrowed his eyes and said viciously: "If you dare to tell the general about this, don't blame me Shi Siming for being ruthless."

"Okay, let's go and see!"

Tian Ganzhen quickly left Shi Siming's camp, and Shi Siming's face turned pale and red. Although he said fiercely, he was indeed afraid that Tian Ganzhen would tell An Lushan that An Lushan would generally agree with this kind of thing, but there is a prerequisite, that is, he is not allowed to do it without authorization. Because An Lushan is far away in Fanyang, Shi Siming had no time to ask for instructions. If Tian Ganzhen sued him, maybe An Lushan would settle the new and old accounts together, which would cut off his future.

Before Shi Siming could think about it, he immediately wrote a letter, attracting a confidant and said, "You should send this letter to Fanyang immediately and hand it over to Mr. Gao, and ask Mr. Gao to help me this time no matter what."

The messenger left, Shi Siming punched the table hard, gritted his teeth and said, "Tian Ganzhen, if you really dare to sue me, then wait and see!"

The next five days ago, the rumbling drums rang throughout the imperial city. The garrisons in the imperial city got up one after another, but the most active one was the twelve regiment camps. Today is their day of the big test. They were particularly nervous and excited, perhaps because of the little influence. No one mentioned that the archery was shot in each regiment camp. Several officials from the Ministry of War who had heard a little about it were deaf and dumb when they saw that everyone did not pursue the matter, for fear of causing trouble.

As usual, when the drums in Jiangdu Camp sounded, they got up as fast as possible to train troops. According to the draw order of last night, Jiangdu Camp was the fourth, ahead of Li Siye's Shouchun Camp, and the first one to appear was Li Guangbi's Wujin Camp.

In the military camp, five grass man targets lined up in a row. A trench that was one person high was dug under the grass man target. Several Anxi soldiers ran back and forth with grass man targets, asking the soldiers to shoot the moving targets while running at high speed.

Hundreds of soldiers rode horses and shot in a row of five rounds, each of which shot two arrows in a row within twenty steps of running, and one arrow from left to right. Li Qingan supervised the battle with a gloomy face. These hundred people were carefully selected by him from 500 people. They can be said to be the elite among the elites. They are all tall and burly, and they can all drive five stone bows and pass through the sun for hundreds of steps.

Only the sound of arrows breaking through the air and the sound of bowstrings came one after another. One hundred people were like a lantern, drawing arrows, setting their bows, shooting out, one after another, one round after another, without stopping, and arrows were shot without silence. In just a quarter of an hour, all 100 and five rounds were shot, and a thousand arrows were shot out, including three of them, and eight out of ten arrows, which did not meet Li Qing'an's minimum requirements.

At this moment, the three soldiers were lowering their heads and accepting Li Qing'an's reprimand.

"You three, He Yingchuan, Liao Guozhi, Luo Jiang, I remember your names. Since a month ago, you all scored every shot in training and ranked in the top 20. I don't know why you were not good today, but you actually got off the target with two arrows. Tell me, what's the reason?"

None of the three dared not say anything. Li Qingan pointed to one of the young and heroic young men and said, "He Yingchuan, you are the coach of the traveling army, you can talk first!"

He Yingchuan said, "General, the last general is a little nervous. He wants to shoot too much, but he will miss the shot."

The other two also said, "General, we are also nervous. Thinking of His Majesty the Emperor watching us shoot arrows, we feel panic."

Li Qing'an shook his head and said, "Maybe there is a reason, but the other ninety-seven brothers are equally nervous. Why won't they get off the target? I think nervousness is not the real reason why you get off the target. The real reason is that you are too proud and complacent. Usually, you always have arrows hitting the target, so you are underestimating the enemy. I tell you, if you can't even hold up this little pressure, you will always be a soldier in your life. But if you withstand the pressure, you are all the chief lieutenant generals, and even if there are great generals among you, I will never encourage you randomly. Li Qing'an is using the strictest means to train you. As long as you can pass the training, you can be disdainful to you."

"General, we understand, we will never make any mistakes."

"Okay! I look forward to it."

Li Qingan jumped onto a big stone and whispered to everyone: "Today's review, let His Emperor of the Tang Dynasty appreciate the most powerful magic camp in the world. Brothers, do you have confidence?"

"Yes!" A hundred people roared.
Chapter completed!