"That's enough. I remember that the scout knight who killed 30,000 people was indeed named Ye Xu!" The old man seemed to have fallen into deep thought for a moment, and then he began to speak after a deathly silence:
"My name is Bai Yong. When the army retreated, King Cheng sent our brothers to stay behind to support the general. After waiting for half an hour, no one was seen..."
"Isn't there a small group of enemy troops? The confessions of Liu Bozhou and Wang Zhiyi said that they discovered the enemy's vanguard." He Qizhou interjected and asked.
"No, there's not a soul around. As soon as half an hour passed, my eldest brother, who was the commander of the team, ordered a retreat. I was the deputy general at the time, and together with several thousand generals, I didn't understand why eldest brother issued this order. The eldest brother said he got it
The secret order required us to wait for half an hour before withdrawing our troops. We did not suspect it was false, so we retreated in a hurry, but we did not expect that it would cause a big disaster afterwards!"
"Do you know who gave your elder brother the secret order?" He Qizhou asked.
Bai Yong shook his head and said: "My eldest brother didn't say anything afterwards until his death. He didn't say anything. He just admitted that he was timid, but we all know that he was not such a person."
"Do you know the reason?" He Qizhou asked.
Bai Yong shook his head again and said: "I don't know, but I should be able to guess something. We were detained separately not long after we came back. I still remember the last words my eldest brother said to me - live well!"
"Why are you still alive? I remember it was written in the Privy Council file that all the generals and deputy generals were sentenced to be cut in half!" He Qizhou asked.
"Yes, the earliest sentence was indeed to be cut in half, and it even implicated the whole family, but for some reason it was changed to be sent to this place. The officer at that time said that my eldest brother was the only one who died in my family, because I was publicly already dead.
He is a dead man, and Jie Guan asked me to stay here honestly and never go back until I die, so as not to implicate the family."
He Qizhou said: "So, your eldest brother wants to save the whole family by killing one person. He must have reached a certain deal with the person behind the scenes."
Bai Yongdao: "I think so too. After receiving the order to stay and respond to General Yang Zheng, we were all prepared to die. The person behind the scenes should know that Big Brother cares about his subordinates and family, so he forced him to withdraw.
, I missed the general’s last chance of survival.”
"Then have you ever guessed who is behind the scenes?" He Qizhou asked.
"The Jiang family can't escape the involvement after all. Do you think the emperor sent you here to find out the case?" Bai Yong asked back.
"It should be like this, and I don't want the people behind the scenes to know. How many people were assigned to this place back then?" He Qizhou asked.
"Sixteen people, all above the president have been assigned here. Bai Chong's father was Mr. Qian, and he died a few days after arriving here. This boy is a poor man, his mother died not long after giving birth to him, and there is no one left in the family.
Others, so we took him with us when we assigned him, and after his father left, I adopted him as my adopted son. Speaking of which, it was our brothers who caused trouble for these brothers."
Baichong said hurriedly: "Father, please don't say that. It was you and my uncle who saved my father and those uncles."
"But dying here is a hundred times more shameful than dying on the battlefield!" Bai Chong sighed.
He Qizhou said: "No wonder the martial arts of the city guards are so high. In this case, the emperor should know that you are not dead, and it is very likely that he has known the fishy situation for a long time. Did he secretly pardon your death penalty?"
"That's all I can think of."
"Then who do you think is most likely to be the person behind the instigation of your elder brother?" He Qizhou asked.
"Only three people have this possibility: coach Cheng Wang, deputy coach Jiang Shan, and military supervisor Xu Xuan!"
"Why?"
"Because my eldest brother was called to the big tent alone. It was only the three of them who were discussing the matter. They were also the ones who decided that my eldest brother would take the back seat. There was no meeting at that time, otherwise a third-rank general like me would have been included."
"In other words, only these three people have the time and opportunity to make a deal with your eldest brother, or do they threaten your eldest brother?" He Qizhou asked.
"That's right!"
"To tell you the truth, I was knocked down by an assassin into the Yalong River. There may be others who knew that you were not dead and didn't want me to meet you, so they took action on the way before we got here.
." He Qizhou analyzed.
"It's possible that an inconspicuous old man here may be a Liumai. Most of the frontier soldiers here also learn from us. I'm not bragging. They can pull out an elite soldier casually." Bai Yong said proudly.
"I understand, you are the master of this small town." He Qizhou said.
"That's right, even the people from Wuchasi will nod and bow when they see the postmen at the post station." Baichong said proudly.
"I was accompanied by one from the Yongquan realm, one from the Eight Meridians, and one from the Seventh Meridian, just to prevent someone from assassinating me. But the person who assassinated me was from the Wind Control realm, so even an elite sentry might not be able to stop that person.
Man. But that assassin is cautious by nature. He must have thought he had found the best opportunity and was unwilling to take risks in this city."
"Hmph, being able to command the Wind Control Realm further confirms my suspicion that he must be one of these three people!" Bai Yong said.
"Uncle, I have said everything that needs to be said, can you help me?" He Qizhou asked.
"Okay! It's just that you can't go to Tuyuhun yet."
"Why?"
"You are from the armament hall, right? Although you have strong bones and deep internal strength, once the altitude sickness strikes, it is useless no matter how strong you are. Besides, you have worked hard for several days with such a serious injury, and it is easy to lose your little one.
Damn it. You have to go over several high mountains on the way to Xining, so you can only go when I think you can go!"
He Qizhou also understood his state. He really couldn't exert even a trace of strength, so he could only ask again: "Can you secretly send me a few letters back?"
"It's possible, but we here are usually only responsible for delivering to the county. Because the rank is too low and it is a place of exile, we can only send postal letters, which means that the letters sent need to be reviewed by the county." Bai Yong said.
"That's not possible. There can't be secret messages or something urgent like eight hundred miles away?" He Qizhou asked.
"This is possible. If Tu Yuhun invades, or someone invades Tu Yuhun, I can rush it eight hundred miles away."
"Then can you send one to the capital and Jiangling Mansion?" He Qizhou hoped to secretly inform his relatives and friends about the news of his death.
"No, no!" Xin Leshan said hurriedly: "Lying about military information will cost you your head, and the eight-hundred-mile express can only be sent to the Ministry of War, so it is impossible to send it to Jiangling."
Bai Yong added: "Actually, the so-called eight-hundred-mile expedited service is also a lie. Generally, no postman can do it. Even if ten horses are killed, it will only be six or seven hundred miles at most, and often the postman will do it."
I'm exhausted. The roads here are difficult and we can't travel very far in one day. It's faster to send the letter from Xining through Hexi. Just be patient and wait for a while. It might be faster to find the King of Qin and let him send the letter.
.”
He Qizhou walked here step by step. Of course, he knew that the journey was extremely difficult. On the contrary, the Gannan area he traveled through last year was more convenient, but he still asked without giving up: "How long does it take to send a letter from here to the capital?"
"It's more than 3,000 miles away. Normally, letters take more than 20 days. The fastest one I remember was the pardon letter sent here on an urgent basis from Beijing. It took 17 days. I heard that the fastest letter from Xining to Luoyang was
It can be delivered in five days, so you should let that King of Qin figure out a way."
"Okay." He Qizhou sighed helplessly.
"You can live in this inn with peace of mind these days. The road will be completed in about twenty days. June every year is the peak season for trade between the two countries. It will be convenient to help you get an identity to cross the border." Bai Yong said.
"Thank you!" He Qizhou said, clasping his fists.
"Actually, when you mentioned Yang Zheng, we all felt a little guilty. If we had fought side by side with the Northern Zhou Dynasty, it wouldn't have been so troublesome. Alas, we old guys, what we want most now is to return home, and what we hope most is
There was no hope that the emperor could reverse the case for us. I never thought that I would meet someone like you, so you must take good care of yourself and find out the real culprit while the old emperor is still alive.
!”
"I understand, I won't let him go!" He Qizhou gritted his teeth and said.
…
In early June, the armies of the Northern Expedition returned to their original stations one after another. The fourth Qi-Zhou War ended hastily, but the notices posted by Da Qi in various places showed that it had won an inspiring victory: Although this battle, although
There was no big gain in the territory, but the army once again penetrated into the Zhou Dynasty, which severely dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Northern Zhou Dynasty; the relationship with the Eastern Zhou Dynasty became closer, so that the Northern Zhou Dynasty did not dare to act rashly; the war also caused the whole country of the Northern Zhou Dynasty to be in turmoil, and in time, it would be able to unify
Mountains and rivers...
Because of the "victory", almost no one was punished, but many generals were more or less rewarded. Xiao Jihuai was one of them! After Yanbei's victory, he stayed with King Cheng.
He held an "important" guard position, and because he shot and killed seven enemy soldiers and boosted the morale of the army, he was promoted to a second-class rural marquis. The entire Xiao family seemed to have ushered in its most powerful moment!
The Yulin Army, You, and the two border towns all suffered considerable losses in this battle, especially their morale. Ganzhou suffered heavy casualties when it resisted the Northern Zhou Dynasty's attack on Jiayuguan at the beginning of the year. The 10,000 cavalrymen who attacked were
Being completely wiped out greatly damaged the vitality of the Ganzhou Army. Among the several major armies, only the Hebei Army controlled by the Xiao family was intact and was still growing through preparations for war. The Xiao family's status in the court also increased.
In the palace, the relationship between Concubine Chen and Concubine Xiao is getting closer and closer; whenever matters are discussed in the court, the Chen family and the Xiao family are surprisingly consistent. In such an unwinnable situation, the other beneficiary is of course the prince, the emperor's body.
The situation is getting worse and worse, and there is not much time left for them, so the two families' joint efforts to fight against the prince have gradually emerged from the darkness.
Xiao Jixiong has been very busy recently. He first visited Yangzhou and Jinling, and then went straight to Ganzhou without stopping. He had a long talk with the old man of the Zhang family. Not long after returning to Beijing, he brought the newly promoted Xiao Jihuai to visit.
When I met Zhang Zhiren, Deputy Envoy of the Privy Council, the topic of conversation was naturally the marriage between Xiao Jihuai and Xu Muxue.