Chapter 319 Crisis Appears

The Tubo Battle in Anxi ended very early. When Geshuhan was still besieging the Tubo army in Xingsu Fort, Li Qing'an had already inspected the transfer of the fourth batch of Dashi's grain in a place called Lihe Town in Zhenzhu River. This was also the last batch of grain. From May to September, the large-scale grain transportation was finally coming to an end. In order to exchange 30,000 prisoners of war, Dashi paid a total of 2.5 million stones of grain to the Tang army in Anxi. It had been exchanged at the end of August. All 30,000 prisoners of war had been released. Most of the 2.5 million stones of grain were stored in Ju Zhanti, and it was transported back to the broken leaves. It was already early September, and half of the 2.5 million stones of grain were transported. According to the Tang army's plan, all the grain was transported back to the broken leaves before the river freezes at the end of the year.

These foods were taken from the Jun Zhan onto the ship, and went upstream along the Zhenzhu River, and then transported from a tributary to the Rehai River to the large warehouse of Shuye. The junction between the Zhenzhu River and this tributary is Lihe Town, which is a low hilly area covered with a large forest. Before the Tang army occupied Shuye, there were only a very small number of Turks living here. However, as the Tang army gradually developed westward, its water operation effect on the Zhenzhu River was enhanced, and this transit point gradually became important.

When they got up, in May, a group of about 3,000 Han military immigrants moved here. They reclaimed land and built their homes here, and gradually formed a new town. Because this tributary is called Lihe, the town is called Lihe Town. Because its geographical location is extremely important, the Anxi Army recruited more than 3,000 soldiers from the three thousand households to garrison here, and sent a thousand troops from Suoye, a total of 4,000 troops to form the Lihe Army.

The Lihe Army's envoy was He Qiusheng. He was a young officer who was only 28 years old. He was born in Anxi military households. Although he was young, he had eight years of military experience. He was the first soldier of Li Qing'an's scout camp. He participated in the Xiaobolu Battle and the Shibaocheng Battle. Later, he became Li Qing'an's personal soldier. He was promoted to the Central Army General and was responsible for guarding Lihe Town. In addition to him, there was also an equally young official named Su Yi, who was only 29 years old and served as the Immigration Sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-s

Perhaps it was all because of young people, two civil and military officials got along well. Today, Li Qing'an came to inspect the grain transfer situation in Lihe Town. The two officials were accompanied by Li Qing'an. There was also an inspection envoy who was sent from the Anxi Supervision Office to monitor the grain storage and transportation.

Lihe Town is particularly lively these days. With another batch of grain coming, there are thousands of boatmen and boatmen coming with the boat. Nearly a thousand flat-bottomed boats full of grain docked on the shore. Among them, two hundred boats have to stay in Lihe Town. There are more than a dozen huge granaries north of the town, which can store 500,000 stones of grain. The boatmen and boatmen are busy unloading grain from the boat. Li Qing'an walked past teams of carriages. Seeing that He Qiusheng was always worried, he seemed to have something to say, and seemed to have something to say to himself, he smiled and said, "Say what you have to worry about! Don't hold it in your heart."

He Qiusheng was not very tall, but he was extremely strong. He blushed and said, "General, I want to transfer it from here?"

"Why? You just said that everything here is new and very challenging. Why do you want to transfer it now?" Li Qingan asked with a smile.

"That was what he said, I didn't."

He Qiusheng glanced at Su Yi and said, "I feel bored here, so I beg the general to transfer me to Beiting or Shule."

"Why do you want to go to Shule?"

"I guess the general will fight Tocharo next, and I want to make contributions in Tocharo."

"You are very eye-catching! You actually know that I want to fight Tocharo, but my answer may disappoint you. Without special circumstances, I will not easily transfer a general. Moreover, the Lihe Army has just been formed for half a year. If you are transferred, it will be very unfavorable to the establishment of the Lihe Army."

Seeing that he looked depressed, Li Qingan smiled and pointed to several large warehouses and said to him: "You are an eight-year veteran. You should know the importance of these granaries. Except for the enemies in the north, any enemy to attack Saiye, the first thing is to occupy these granaries. Your Lihe Army is the first to be the brunt of Lihe Town. If I don't say it, you know why you are here to guard this place? Have you considered it? I don't hide it from you. I have thought about it for a long time before I transferred you here to guard this place. Therefore, you have been with me for a long time. I can only feel at ease if you guard this place, but I didn't expect that you didn't want to do it anymore?"

Speaking of this, Li Qing'an's tone gradually became stern, "If you don't want to do it, just write me a written request. I will change someone to guard it. If you want to do it here, you will be vigilant and not be slackened for a moment! Did you hear it?"

He Qiusheng looked ashamed. In fact, he had no idea of ​​transferring him. But a few days ago, he heard that Zhang Yongqing, who was as experienced as him, made great contributions in the blocking battle of the Utan and was promoted to general. He felt a little unbalanced. Here, when will he have the chance to make contributions? Today he wanted to take advantage of Li Qing'an's opportunity to inspect Lihe Town to make a request for transfer, but Li Qing'an scolded him severely, which made him ashamed and lowered his head and could not say anything.

Seeing that he knew his mistake, Li Qing'an slowed down and patted his shoulder and said, "I know you want to start a business. I can understand, but your current responsibilities are also extremely important. If an enemy spy sneaks into the granary and sets up a fire, our hundreds of thousands of stones of food will be destroyed. This will be fatal to Anxi. Because I know you can protect this warehouse, I will choose you to guard it here, work hard, and cultivate more capable subordinates. I will definitely give you a chance in the future."

As the person involved, He Qiusheng did not feel the way Li Qing'an was in control, but it made Su Yi, the civil servant next to him feel very moved. As a low-level official, it was his first time to come into contact with the Lord of Anxi. Li Qing'an's youth certainly surprised him, but Li Qing'an's sternness and tolerance against his subordinates touched Su Yi even more. Moreover, he treated himself well and affirmed his efforts and achievements without saying anything flattering. This was completely different from his former boss, and even made Su Yi have the idea of ​​serving Li Qing'an.

Su Yi was originally forced to come to Anxi because he had no background. In his opinion, coming to Anxi was no different from exile. He only thought about doing it for a few years and then wanted to transfer it back. However, the vitality and integrity of Anxi's officialdom surprised him, and many institutional rules also made him feel fair. For example, he was ordered to build a town in Lihe, and then gradually build it into a county town within three years. His term of office was five years, which means that he would be the first county magistrate of Lihe County, which gave him a great sense of accomplishment, rather than working hard to build a town, and finally building the county town, but letting others be the county magistrate. It was this kind of achievement and inspiration and institutional fairness that made him work hard. Today, when he first came into contact with the highest power in Anxi, he developed a strong desire to bring his wife and children to Anxi and serve for Anxi for a long time.

Perhaps this is a leader's temperament. This temperament will change the people around him anytime and anywhere, give them a revelation and a belief. This is an extremely common thing for Li Qingan. He was not aware of it at all, but he changed Su Yi's life.

At this time, a war horse ran from a distance, and a cavalry shouted immediately: "General, let's make a quick letter!"

When Li Qingan saw the cavalry waving a red bamboo message tube on the horse, he couldn't help but be surprised, which meant an important matter that was urgent.

He quickly walked forward and took the letter tube from the soldier's hand. The letter turned from the broken leaves. Li Qing'an quickly opened the letter tube and took out the letter from it. He was stunned. The letter turned out to be a handwritten letter written by the crown prince Li Yu. When he finished reading the content of the letter, his eyes suddenly narrowed, and his clenched fists squeezed the letter into a ball.

The thing he had been worried about finally came.

In Ganzhou, a team of more than a dozen knights rushed past, and Zhangye was already thrown away by them. The team of knights ran forward without hesitation. At the front of the team was a eunuch. His face was covered in dust and exhausted, but he could not stop at all. The mission he was shouldering was constantly urging him to run forward.

This eunuch named Xia came from Zhidaming Palace. His destination was Shazhou thousands of miles away. He was ordered by Emperor Li Longji of the Tang Dynasty to send a secret decree to King Qing who lives in Shazhou. Of course, he could not read the secret decree, but Li Longji's repeated instructions when he handed over the secret decree to him made him feel the importance of this secret decree.

He did not dare to slack off at all, and he ran all the way, and a fort appeared faintly on the cliff ahead.

"Eunuch Xia, let's stay in the fort for one night!"

The Chief Zhang Guard who escorted him loudly suggested: "Didn't the Zhangye Guard say that? We'd better not walk at night, we might encounter horse bandits."

The eunuch Xia looked at the sky. It was still a while before dusk, but it was not far from Shazhou, and it was still five days away.

"We have a rest too early now. Let's go for another journey, and there should be some rest in front of us."

The eunuchs of the Xia Dynasty refused to rest, and the knights had to guard him and continue to move forward. They galloped for more than half an hour. The sky gradually became dark, but they never found a family or a tent, and there was a vast grassland everywhere. They had a map, and they knew that they would walk about forty miles forward, and then they reached the border between Ganzhou and Suzhou. There was an army stationed there, called the Health Army, but their horses were exhausted and they were sniffing desperately.

"Eunuch Xia, we can still bear it, but the horse is no longer able to do so. What should we do?"

The tone of Guard Zhang was filled with a hint of complaint. They were all pampered people in the palace, and they had never suffered such hardships. If I had heard of him just now, they were drinking and eating meat, but Eunuch Xia was a person around the emperor. Although he was dissatisfied, he still had to hold it back.

The eunuch Xia also felt that the horse could not do anything, and he felt a little regretful, but his face did not show his expression. He looked around the curtain of the thug, and suddenly he found a dark shadow in the northwest direction, as if it was a forest.

He immediately pointed his hand and said, "Go over there and have two hours of rest!"

Everyone ran five miles northwest. It was indeed a small black pine forest, standing alone in the grasslands of the Hexi Corridor. Everyone had no intention of investigating. There were only one or two hundred trees in the black pine forest, so there would be no danger hidden.

Everyone turned over and got off the horse, went into the pine forest to find a place to rest. The pine forest was simply a natural bed covered with a thick layer of pine formation leaves, dry and soft, and the followers were exhausted. They drank a few sips of water, ate two sips of dry food, fed some grass and water to the horse, and then fell asleep.

The eunuch Xia was worried and touched his hand from time to time, where he had his mission for this trip. Li Longji's secret decree was afraid that it would be a little lost.

At this time, the sky was already dark, the night wind increased, and it whistled through the pine forest, making a strange sound like a woman's humming, which was creepy. The silence and terrible on the grassland were covered with dark clouds, and there was no trace of starry sky in the sky. Under the dark clouds, the grassland seemed to have an indescribable desolation and loneliness.

Although he was resting for two hours, everyone was exhausted, and even the eunuch Xia fell asleep. Suddenly, he sat up suddenly, and a strange voice woke him up. He stared at him and listened again. His face changed slightly, and he quickly pushed the guards beside him, "Everyone, wake up! Hurry up!"

Everyone was pushed back from their sleep, their eyes seemed a little confused, not knowing what was going on?

"Listen, what's the sound?"

Everyone stopped talking and even held their breath. After a while, everyone jumped up in shock, "It was the sound of horse hooves, the dense sound of horse hooves, at least a few hundred people ran towards them."

At this time, a black shadow appeared. It was indeed a cavalry team, with at least three or four hundred people. They made strange screams, as if a wolf pack discovered prey and rushed towards the black pine forest.

"Everyone gets on the horse and runs away quickly, it's a bandit!"

Commander Zhang shouted urgently, Eunuch Xia was panicked, but he got on the horse several times but failed to step on the kickstick. In the end, two guards helped him get on the horse. They fled, but it was a little too late. An arrow shot in the air and hit the back of a guard's neck. With a scream, the soldier turned over and fell off the horse.

Everyone was so scared that they were scattered. Although they were Yulin Army, they were all from wealthy and were always powerful in Chang'an. Death was extremely far away from them. Now some people were dead. They were scared and fled in all directions. No one could care about the Xia eunuch. Escape was important now. The horse bandits were extremely fierce. They pursued them quickly and shot the guards one by one, not letting them go. Xia eunuch was also shot in the back with an arrow and fell off the horse.

At this time, a burly horse bandit rushed to the front, turned over and dismounted, reached out and grabbed the imperial eunuch Xia. The eunuch Xia was no longer able to do it. He held the imperial eunuch tightly and said in a low voice: "This is the will of His Majesty the Emperor, you cannot move!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the horse bandit leader inserted into his heart with a knife. The eunuch Xia screamed and died. The horse bandit leader snatched the imperial edict and opened it to look at it. He nodded, put the imperial edict in his arms, waved his hand and said, "Let's go!"

Although his dress was Qianghu, he spoke pure Chinese. They carried the corpse onto the horse and rushed to the north like a gust of wind. After a moment, they disappeared without a trace.

A few days later, Li Longji's secret order appeared on Li Qing'an's table. At this time, Li Qing'an had already rushed from the scattered Ye to Kucha. Li Yu's message told him that Li Longji had decided to grant King Qing the title of King Anxi Jiedushi, and Li Qing'an was appointed as the arch-guardian of Anxi, and he was responsible for government affairs and no longer held military power. However, Li Longji did not dare to seize power explicitly, but secretly ordered King Qing to contact General Anxi and wait for an opportunity to seize power.

This secret decree has been obtained by Li Qing'an, and the content of the decree shocked him. Not only did he seize all his military power, but he would also escort him back to Chang'an after seizing the power.

‘If things are urgent, you can be executed on the spot!’

This is the last sentence in Li Longji's secret decree. Li Longji actually wanted to kill him, which was even more fierce than dealing with Wang Zhongsi. After all, Wang Zhongsi and Huangfu Weiming were both demoted for a year before secretly executed, but Li Qing'an even wanted the last mask of hypocrisy when dealing with him.

Li Qing'an couldn't help but sneer. Everyone really thought that Li Longji wanted to leave him to the crown prince! Even Li Yu believed that maybe Li Longji had such a plan, but now he was gone, and he did not wrongly accuse him. Li Qing'an already had strong ambitions, but Li Longji did not kill him because of his ambition, but wanted to snatch his woman.

He was the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. How could he tolerate a minister robbing the woman he liked? This is the reason why he wanted to kill himself. It is very simple. The so-called "whole world, is it the people? What's the use of Li Qing'an making any contribution? If he refuses to give him a woman, he will be dead.

At this time, Yan Zhuang limped in quickly and said, "General, are you looking for me?"

Li Qing'an handed him the secret decree, "Look at it!"

Yan Zhuang looked at it quickly, and his face changed drastically. Although he thought that there would be such a possibility, he did not expect that it would come so quickly. As soon as the Tubo Battle ended, Li Longji started.

"General, what are you going to do?"

Yan Zhuang asked hesitantly. He wanted to know if Li Qing'an had made up his mind. Li Qing'an stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back and stared out the window for a long time. Although he didn't want to face it, he had no way out at this point. Even if he fled to the West, the new Anxi Jiedushi would still capture him back. Li Longji had decided to kill him, so there was no room for ease.

"What else can I do now?"

Li Qing'an's tone was bitter, and he said, "I originally planned to start a war constantly, so that he could not make up this decision, but I still underestimated his determination to kill me. Maybe he wanted to kill me in Chang'an, but Ge Shuhan saved my life."

Yan Zhuang also heard Li Qing'an's determination. He did not hesitate and said, "General, don't worry, the matter has not reached the worst step yet. Since he used a secret order to King Qing, it means he is still a bit jealous. Since that's the case, I have a plan to buy the general for at least half a year."

Li Qingan suddenly turned around and said happily: "Sir, please tell me!"

Yan Zhuang gently stroked the mouse's beard and smiled, "This plan still falls on King Qing. The general might as well give him a fake imperial edict. When he returns the letter, he will change his reply. He will say that the matter is confidential and he has already looked at it. He cannot alarm the snake. He can do it slowly. Then he will move King Qing back to Kucha. This means that King Qing has acted according to the will. After going back and forth, and with the time when King Qing acts, at this time, at least half a year has passed. The general was almost ready at that time."

"This plan is indeed brilliant!"

Li Qingan slapped his legs and praised him, but he frowned immediately, feeling a little regretful. If he had known this, he would not have to kill the envoy. Now that the envoy is dead, how can he explain this?
Chapter completed!