Chapter 256: Feng Xiang’s Change (Part 1)

When Zhang Huan's soldiers rushed into Mingde Gate, Pei Jun was extremely angry about Ma Siyi's two-faced swords. Pei Danming, who rushed back from Huaibei yesterday, reported to him. Ma Siyi said that he had advised Cui Qinggong not to attack Huainan, but Cui Qinggong insisted on his own, but Ma Siyi promised that he would meet Pei's minimum requirements and delay Cui Qinggong for a month.

Pei Jun was just satisfied with Ma Siyi's attitude, but today Pei Danming got a completely different idea from Cui Xiong: It was Ma Siyi's idea to persuade Cui Qinggong to form an alliance with Zhu Li and take the opportunity to attack Huainan.

Pei Jun couldn't help but be very angry. A small staff member dared to step on two boats. Is he impatient to live? Pei Jun walked two steps behind his back, then raised his voice and said to Pei Danming: "I don't want this person anymore. After this incident, you send his loyalty letter to Cui Qinggong and let him taste the taste of carrying the Lord."

"Yes!" Pei Danming agreed and was about to leave, but the old butler said at the door: "Master, Mr. Zhang sent someone to send a letter from Fengxiang, saying it was an urgent matter."

‘Zhang Huan delivered a letter?’ Pei Jun was slightly stunned, but this moment was only in a moment. He immediately turned around and said, “Where is the letter?”

After a moment, a guard sent the letter in. Pei Jun quickly opened it. In an instant, his face changed drastically. He loosened his hands and fell to the ground. There was only one sentence in the letter, "Li Zhengji dispatched troops to Huijun."

Pei Jun stood there in a daze, cold sweat flowed quietly from his forehead. Most of the 70,000 troops stationed in Shuofang were newly recruited soldiers in Hedong, and their sense of belonging was not strong. If Li Zhengji really had a strange intention, the consequences would be unimaginable. Pei Jun stood there for a moment, and he suddenly came to his senses and immediately ordered the guards: "Call Pei Yi to me immediately, and you will not delay for a moment."

Soon, Pei Yi rushed over. As soon as he entered the door, Pei Jun cursed angrily: "It depends on the good things you have done!"

Pei Yi was confused by the scolding. Seeing that his elder brother's face was extremely difficult to see, he felt really uneasy, so he whispered: "Brother, don't be angry, what happened?"

"What's the matter?" Pei Jun snorted heavily, and he threw Zhang Huan's letter to Pei Yi. "You strongly recommended Li Zhengyi to me at the beginning, saying how good he is at using troops and how loyal he is. Look at what he is doing now, how can you explain to me?"

Pei Yi opened the letter, his face turned pale, and he said in a trembling voice: "Brother, this is Zhang Huan's plan of separation, and he will never believe it." Thinking of the word "Brother", Pei Yi seemed to have caught a life-saving straw. His thoughts flipped around and immediately said to Pei Jun: "Brother, please think about it. When we took Shuofang, Zhang Huan turned against us for this. This shows his importance to Shuofang. Now he is strong in soldiers, how can he not want to retake Shuofang? At this moment, when Hanzhong is tense and Huaibei is in turmoil, he suddenly threw out the Shuofang separatist case. Brother! He has ulterior motives and must not trust his words!"

At this time, Pei Jun gradually calmed down. He has always been the director of Zhang Huan. His actions today are indeed not in line with his usual style. Moreover, Li Zhengji is really willing to rebel. Will Zhang Huan get greater benefits when he remains silent? It is a bit unreasonable.

Thinking of this, Pei Jun's face was slightly gentle. He glanced at Pei Yi and said, "No matter what, you must be cautious in this matter. Just work hard and go to Shuofang to take a look in the name of rewarding the army. If Li Zhengji really has the will of self-reliance, behead me on the spot and order Deputy General Liu Wenxi to temporarily serve as the governor."

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The winter of the sixth year of Xuanren was a turbulent and uneasy season, the tension in Hanzhong, the murderous aura in Huaibei, the hidden worries of Shuofang, the Tang army advanced westward in Hexi, and unknown military fleets appeared in Jiangnan. Several things seemed to be unrelated, but careful people would find that these lines were actually connected one by one, silently weaving a large net, and this net weaving person was Zhang Huan, who had just been named the Minister of War.

Ziwu Valley is a shortcut from Hanzhong to Chang'an. It is a secret passage across the Qinling Mountains. The mountains are steep and the road is difficult to walk. It is more than 600 miles long. The mountain pass in the north is called "Zi" and the mountain pass in the south is called "Wu", so it is called Ziwu Valley. At that time, the general of Shu Kingdom Wei Yan once suggested that Zhuge Liang go out 20,000 soldiers to go directly to Chang'an. Kong Ming was not sure, so he laid the root of Wei Yan's rebellion.

Unlike the slanting valley of the Avenue, the Ziwu Valley road is narrow and rugged, and cannot pass through heavy baggage, so it is not suitable for large groups of people to pass through. They can only gallop and advance lightly to seize the initiative. Similarly, the terrain of Ziwu's easy to defend and difficult to attack also determines that it is not commonly used, so on the 600-mile mountain road in Ziwu Valley, there are more scouts who explore intelligence.

At night, on the mountain road about thirty miles from the southern entrance of Ziwu Valley, a team of two thousand light cavalry was quietly moving south. The figures flashed, and the horse's hooves were covered with thick numbness, making a slight "da da!" sound in the night. This army was a task force of the Xiliang Army, who secretly came to Hanzhong to carry out a mission.

When approaching a pass, the team slowed down. The pass was actually a fortress, built according to the mountain, guarding the mountain road.

The team was moving slowly and slowly, and finally stopped in a valley about one mile away from the pass. The fortress in the distance was visible under the night. After a moment, a scout quickly climbed down from the cliff. "General, there are about thirty patrols on the fortress, and the guard is very tight."

The commander of this army was Liu Shuai, the commander of the third battalion of the scout, but this cavalry was not a scout, but a cavalry battalion under the Kaiyang County garrison. The reason why Liu Shuai was selected was because he was attracted by his courage, meticulousness and situational changes.

Performing this mission made Liu Shuai feel heavy in his heart. He never saw him smile along the way. His mission was very simple, which was to seize the southern entrance of Ziwu Valley.

As a scout, it is a professional instinct to understand the enemy situation in advance, but Liu Shuai was temporarily assigned to the order. He did not have time to send people to investigate in advance, and he had no idea about the situation of the enemy's garrison at the southern end of Ziwu. Liu Shuai even had a vague feeling that the above did not seem to care much about his success or failure, but as a soldier, the first is obedience and the second is victory.

Liu Shuai stood up straight, stared at the fortress in the distance and looked at the distance, and felt a little relieved in his heart. He turned around and waved his hand, called the captain of the First Regiment forward, and ordered him: "Look at the size of this fortress, it can only accommodate up to five hundred people. Lead the headquarters to rush past the fortress first, listen to my orders, and attack from the south."

"Abide by the order!" The captain waved his hand and led five hundred people from the headquarters to quickly run towards the fortress. Liu Shuai waited for them to run a hundred steps away, and then he ordered: "Abandon the horse and attack with me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of the gong of 'Dangdang!' suddenly turned into a loud sound. The gong was particularly harsh and striking in the quiet night. The fortress patrol had already discovered the enemy's attack. The screams of screams and the sounds of killing were heard. From time to time, someone was caught in an arrow and screamed in a long scream. Liu Shuai jumped up and yelled: "Kill!"

"Kill!" More than a thousand soldiers roared and bravely rushed towards the fortress.

There were not as Liu Shuai guessed that there were five hundred people in the fortress, but in fact there were only three hundred defenders. When the Xiliang army attacked, most of the defenders were dreaming. The sudden alarm shattered their dreams. The Hanzhong army was in panic and had no time to wear armor, and rushed to the city wall with bows, arrows, swords and guns.

The arrows are like rain, and the attacks are like tides.

The attack of the Western Liang army was very well organized. They used regiments as units to attack with shields, while the other regiment was covered by bows and arrows. In the attacking team, dozens of soldiers carried a bump onto the hillside with a bumper wood. Aside each, there was a soldier holding a giant shield to cover the cover. The team was undulating, and in the night it seemed like a hundred-legged giant insect wearing armor was running.

Liu Shuai stood on a huge rock and stared at the battle with a nervous expression. He was a scout and had never commanded a battle alone. Although it was just a minimum level of offensive and defensive battle, offensive morale, offensive routines and offensive methods were no different from a battle of ten thousand people.

Seeing that the soldiers of the first regiment had rushed up the hillside and began to hit the city gate, Liu Shuai breathed a sigh of relief. The defense power seemed to be not as powerful as he thought. The opponent seemed to have no other than bows and arrows, huge rocks, and mulberry trees.

But he only had a moment of relaxation. The fire suddenly rose on the city wall and the flames rolled towards the night sky. Two words flashed through Liu Shuai's mind, "Beacon!" He couldn't help but look up at the dark mountains, his eyes gradually narrowed, and a cluster of small flames suddenly rose on the ridge in his pupils. Then, a second cluster, the third cluster, and the beacon of Ziwu Valley continued to pass to the south.

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Chencang County Government Office, Li Shuangyu held a piece of information in his hand and walked towards Zhang Huan's room. In the room, Zhang Huan was still looking at his Hexi sand table. Early in the morning, Wang Siyu scored a fight against Xingxing Gorge and took down the East Gorge of Anxi. This was his own strategy, which made Zhang Huan unable to help but admire. It was a false capture of Yumen Pass and a true capture of Xingxing Gorge. This guy is indeed promising. He is worthy of being his right-hand man, and can actually be closely linked to his ideas.

Now, Zhang Huan's high-rise heart finally fell. As for the Tubo people in Jiuquan County, Zhang Huan no longer cared about it. According to He Lou Wuji's attack strategy of step by step and steady attack, behind him was the cooperation of Wang Siyu's cavalry team, which was flowing like a flowing cloud, and Hexi was already his turtle in the jar.

However, he had to think about the appointment of the governors and county magistrates of Jiuquan, Jinchang, and Dunhuang.

Thinking of the rapid pace, he hesitated when he walked to the door, as if he was a little confused, "Report to the governor!" Li Shuangyu's voice sounded at the door.

"How is the situation in Ziwu Valley?" Zhang Huan asked without looking back.

"Liu Shuai and his friends seized Ziwu Fort at night, but after dawn, they encountered a brigade of support for the enemy. The war was fierce, and our army suffered more than 500 casualties before they barely repelled the enemy and defended Ziwu Fort."

Speaking of this, Li Panyu hesitated and said, "In the information, there are more than 10,000 troops garrisoned at the southern end of Ziwu Valley. Governor, will I send troops to support me?"

"No need." Zhang Huan turned around slowly and said, "Send someone to notify Liu Shuai immediately, he can return."

"But..." Li Panyu was a little stunned. He really didn't understand Zhang Huan's intention, but the military order was as high as a mountain, and he could not doubt it. He immediately saluted, "I'll go and pass the order now."

"Wait a minute." Zhang Huan called him and smiled slightly, "Are you very surprised why I was going to attack Ziwu Valley? But I returned to the army meaninglessly."

Li Panyu nodded, "Yes! I don't understand."

Zhang Huan pondered for a moment and said to him: "When I was deceiving the city of Luoshe, I also told Wang Siyu that a general needs to have a view of the overall situation so that he can stand alone in the future. Now from his taking Xingxing Gorge, we can see that he has grown rapidly and has achieved great things. You are my first personal army, so you must work harder."

Li Panyu looked ashamed and couldn't help but lower his head, "The subordinates disappointed the governor."

"Not that, it's because I didn't give you a chance." Zhang Huan smiled and patted his shoulder and said, "I'll ask you, what is the real purpose of our troops stationed in Chen Cang?"

"Create opportunities to win Fengxiang without bloodshed." Li Panyu replied without hesitation.

"It's right!" Zhang Huan nodded and asked him again, "Then why didn't we directly attack Fengxiang but took such a big turn?"

"The governor wanted to enter Guanzhong smoothly in the name of defending against Hanzhong." Speaking of this, Li Shuangyu sighed and said, "When we didn't understand the battle of Wu County, why did the governor return to Hanzhong when he was able to kill Zhu Li? It was not until now that I realized that it was just for the excuse to enter Guanzhong today, and the governor was far-sighted!"

"Do you understand now?" Zhang Huan smiled proudly, "Think about it, if the war is over, what reason can we have to stay in Fengxiang? Zhu Li is a mad dog. He will bite and scream. Then don't we have another excuse to stay in Fengxiang?"

Li Shuangyu suddenly realized that no wonder Zhu Li has made a large increase in troops in the past two days. It turned out that the governor was trying to use this, but he changed his mind again, this was not a long-term solution!

Zhang Huan seemed to understand his thoughts, and smiled faintly with his hands behind his back, "In three days, news will come to Fengxiang City."

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It has been more than twenty days since Han Qing received the task. The three tasks assigned by Zhang Huan were proceeding in an orderly manner. He had a detailed list of soldiers and had already copied a copy of the reputation and sent it out. He also gave Zhang Huan the list and detailed information of the intermediate officer. The difficulty was the evidence of Li Mo's embezzlement of food and wages. This really requires some diligence.

Logically, he was the Sima of the marching army, and he should know more than anyone else, but the accountants may not know the real situation. For example, there are 8,600 people in his roster, each with names and surnames, but are there really so many people in the military camp? Of course, it is impossible to be full. He knew that many officers were secretly eating empty grain. As for whether these empty grains had anything to do with Li Mo, he didn't know.

He visited many people in private, but in the end he was disappointed. There was indeed a phenomenon of emptying the quota, but the officers below were all greedy for food and salary, which had nothing to do with Li Mo. If they were far-fetched with Li Mo, then he knew about these things, but turned a blind eye.

Just when Han Qing was helpless, he suddenly remembered something. He remembered that there was a riot in the Fengxiang Army the previous year because when the Pei family army headed southeast of Hedong, there was a small conflict with the defenders at that time in Changhua County. That time, more than 600 soldiers secretly fled back to their hometown. Li Mo went to intercept them himself. It is said that they were all captured. Afterwards, Li Mo reported to the court. He was commended and promoted to General Yunhui. Later, he gave another couplet of the personnel list to himself.

Han Qing immediately went to the warehouse to search for the records from two years ago. After searching for most of the day, he finally found the list in a dusty file bag. It was filled with dense names, and finally Li Mo's signature and the four words "Catch them all".
To be continued...