Chapter 348: The situation is confused (Part 1)

Two scouts were taken to the study by Zhang Huan's personal soldiers. In the study, Zhang Huan was staring at a map of Youyan in front of him. He was just enjoying the joy of family reunion with his whole family, and a sudden news interrupted his drinking.

"Report to the Governor, they are here." The personal soldiers came from outside the door.

"Come on, come in!"

After a moment, two scouts were brought in. They stepped forward and knelt down to Zhang Huan to salute, "See the Governor!"

These scouts were sent by Zhang Huan to monitor Tuoba Qianli on his way back from Anxi. They went around for several months and got the latest information, so they rushed back to Chang'an. Seeing that they were haggard and thin cheeks, Zhang Huan knew that their journey was very difficult, he comforted him: "You have worked hard all the way, and I will have a great reward later."

"Thank you Governor!" One of the lieutenants bowed again and said, "We found the whereabouts of Tuoba Qianli's troops near the Kulun Lake in Wangjianhe. They still had more than 50,000 cavalry and retreated all the way east. Finally, they entered the territory of the Songmo Governor's Office. It seemed that they had met some conditions with the Khitans. The Khitans kept them, and then the Khitans suddenly launched a large-scale attack on the Bohai Kingdom."

"Attack the Bohai Kingdom?" Zhang Huan was very surprised. It was the middle of winter, and the Khitan was in the bitter and cold place in the north. How could it launch a war at this time? Is this related to the arrival of Tuoba Qianli tribe?

At this time, the scout captain took out a stack of drawings from his arms and said, "The Khitans are well prepared, and their subordinates cannot explore their military secrets in depth, so they drew a map of mountains and rivers in the area controlled by the Khitans, and presented them to the governor!"

"Thank you for your hard work!" Zhang Huan pointed out with approval, and then ordered his personal soldiers: "Take them down, have a good rest, have a good meal, and give each person five hundred stags of money."

"Thank you for the reward of the Governor!" The two scouts bowed and went down with their own soldiers. Zhang Huan unfolded their map. Although the drawings were rough, the mountains, rivers, cities, villages and so on were clearly marked. The Tuoba Qianli tribe's resident can also be found on the map.

Zhang Huan walked slowly in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about this sudden information. Judging from common sense, it was precisely because of the arrival of Tuoba Qianli tribe that the Khitan's strength greatly increased that they dared to attack the Bohai Kingdom in winter.

Tuoba Qianli failed to compete for the Khan position with the loyal Khan. He fled to the east to find a foundation. With the prosperity and prosperity of the Bohai Kingdom, it is indeed a piece of fat that makes him covet. In this case, Tuoba Qianli should be the main force in the attack on the Bohai Sea. Why did he station the camp in the south of the Khitan and not invest in the attack for a long time?

Zhang Huan always had a faint intuition. Things may not be that simple. Judging from his understanding of Tuoba Qianli, no matter what this person does, his final purpose always falls on himself, and the Khitans are not that stupid. He spends manpower to conquer Bohai and then give it to him. Could it be that Tuoba Qianli is not for the Bohai Kingdom, but has other intentions? If so, what is his purpose?

A series of questions arose in Zhang Huan's mind. Suddenly, he seemed to think of something and quickly walked to the table to check out the Youyan map. This map was officially painted, and the mountains, rivers and rivers were clearer than the scouts. However, this map was left in the Kaiyuan period and was relatively long. The settlements of the village and the Khitans were very different from those of the present. Putting the two maps together, Zhang Huan quickly found the camp of Tuoba Qianlibu on the official map. He couldn't help but eat a lot of money. The camp was less than two hundred miles away from the Pinglu Jiedu Mansion.

The Khitan, Bohai, the Pinglu Jiedu Mansion of the Tang Dynasty, and the Andong Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty, the four places are in the shape of the "utensil". The Khitan and the Bohai are above, and the Pinglu Jiedu Mansion and the Andong Protectorate are below. At present, the Hebei army of the Pei family is stationed in the Pinglu Jiedu Mansion and the Andong Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty.

Zhang Huan suddenly stood up, and he thought of a possibility that Tuoba Qianli's real purpose was the Tang Dynasty, and the Khitan attacked the Bohai Kingdom at this time to lead the Tang army to the Bohai Kingdom.

‘Wait!’ Zhang Huan tried hard to calm himself down. This matter was of great importance. You should not make a rash decision before there is no definite evidence.

At this time, a burst of rapid footsteps came from outside, and Li Fanyun's voice was heard outside the door: "Can I come in?"

"Come in!" Zhang Huan put this aside for the time being. It can be heard from the sound of Li Fanyun's footsteps that something must have happened.

The door was pushed open, and Li Fanyun hurriedly walked in and said to Zhang Huan anxiously: "Second brother, Cui Qinggong was defeated in Yongqiu."

"Don't worry, sit down and talk slowly."

Zhang Huan asked Li Fanyun to sit down and poured her another glass of water, "Try to be more detailed, how did he lose?"

Li Fanyun took a sip of water and said, "Three days ago, Wei Deqing and Cui Qinggong signed a New Year's armistice agreement, and agreed to a ceasefire for ten days. However, last night, Wei Deqing broke out a surprise soldier and burned Cui Qinggong's camp. Cui Qinggong caught off guard and led his troops to retreat, but was ambushed by Wei Deqing's main force, and the army was defeated."

"This Wadeqing likes to send out surprise troops. He only led 2,000 people to ambush my tens of thousands of main forces. Unexpectedly, he used the same trick again, and this time he succeeded." Zhang Huan smiled coldly and asked again: "Do you know how many remaining troops Cui Qinggong has?"

Li Fanyun took out a pigeon letter and handed it to Zhang Huan and said, "Today is just a quick report. The specific data has not been released yet. However, I heard that Cui Qinggong had more than half of the casualties, plus the surrendered and fugitives, I think there are only two or three thousand remaining troops at most."

Zhang Huan looked at the Gexin briefly and said, "Since Cui Qinggong fled east, he must have gone to Pengjun, where there were more than 40,000 people from the Madawei tribe." Speaking of this, Zhang Huan remembered another incident, "By the way, does that Ma Si doubt there is any news?"

Li Fanyun shook his head, "Not yet, he should be still on the road, not that fast."

Zhang Huan walked a few steps behind his back. The key now is how many remaining soldiers Cui Qinggong still has, and Ma Dawei's attitude. If Ma Dawei is a little cruel and kill Cui Qinggong on the spot, then the battle will be over. But if Cui Qing still has many remaining soldiers and Ma Dawei is a little weaker, then there will be some fighting in the Central Plains. Judging from the two things that Ma Dawei took the initiative to give Cui Qinggong food and his obedience to dispatch him to Pengjun, it is estimated that the latter is most likely.

Thinking of this, Zhang Huan immediately wrote a military order and handed it to his personal soldiers and said, "Send it to Guangling immediately to Lin Jiuhan."

"Okay, the report is over, I'm going back too." Li Fanyun stood up with a smile and was about to leave. Zhang Huan suddenly remembered what had happened just now and said to Li Fanyun: "There is another thing you have to worry about asking you to do."

Li Fanyun shook his head and said, "I am your subordinate. If you have any questions, just give me instructions."

"You are my eldest sister, so you must be polite." Zhang Huan smiled and told her: "Go and check it out for me to check it out to see if there have been envoys from the Bohai Kingdom recently, or if there are secret envoys from the north come to find Pei Jun. This matter is of great importance and must not be taken lightly!"

"Bohai Kingdom?" Li Fanyun didn't understand why Zhang Huan thought of such a faraway place, but she didn't ask any more questions, bowed, turned around and left.

Although it was New Year's Eve, Zhang Huan's heart was quite uneasy. Wei Deqing was still so strong in the Battle of the Central Plains. He did not seize power as he thought. It was very likely that Cui Qinggong would die out. Wei Deqing would replace him and rise strongly in the Central Plains. But would Wei Yan let him go? He sent his son to Chenliu as the governor, and anyone with a discerning eye could see that he did not believe in Wei Deqing, and Wei Deqing should also know it. From this, it can be seen that there must be an internal struggle in the Wei family.

Zhang Huan of Wei's family was not caring about it. What he cared about was Pei Jun. Pei Jun was not only strong, but also had a great influence in the court. This was the biggest stumbling block on his way forward. Now that Youyan had a strange movement, how much impact will this have on Pei Jun? Zhang Huan could not see through it for a while.

He slowly walked to the window, looked at the dark mist in the night sky, and laughter from his family came faintly in the twilight. Zhang Huan couldn't help but feel a warmth in his heart. He then walked to the candle, blew out the lamp, turned around and walked towards the lobby, throwing all his worries and confusion into the dark study.

The next morning, before dawn, Chang'an was still sleeping, but there was a sudden riot in the Wei Mansion in Yanshoufang. A murder occurred in the Wei Mansion last night. The person killed was Wei Deqing's mother. She was found dead on the bed in the morning. The murderer was very cruel and even cut off her head.

This is undoubtedly an extremely serious matter. Wei Yan was furious and searched the murderer. The murderer could actually enter the inner house through strict guards. He was either an assassin with high martial arts skills or a work done by an inner thief.

The whole mansion investigated one by one, and kept checking it down for noon. Finally, he found clues. A couple of days ago, a pair of brothers and sisters who entered the mansion disappeared. The two siblings were arranged by the second housekeeper. But the second housekeeper could not tell their specific origin. The servants who introduced them to the mansion went to another place to do business the day before. Wei Yan was furious. He immediately ordered someone to kill the second housekeeper and to do his best to investigate the whereabouts of the brothers and sisters.

In the study, Wei Yan walked back and forth with his hands behind his back, his face extremely gloomy. He placed a book of pigeon letters on his desk. This was a rush to send him 100,000 yesterday afternoon. He said that Wei Deqing ignored his objection at all and attacked Cui Qinggong without authorization, and even moved out of the head of the family. Wei Deqing only said, "I will not accept the orders of the king."

Obviously, Wei Deqing was already dissatisfied, but at this critical moment, his mother was killed again. The consequences of this matter were quite serious. Once Wei Deqing saw his mother's head, all the hopes of the Wei family were over.
Chapter completed!