Records of the King of Xin'an County

The fierce cold wind rolled up the white snow, like countless icy blades, and rushed towards the horses who were galloping.Even though they were wearing thick cloaks and warm leather hats, half of the knights' exposed faces were still flushed from the cold, and frost was condensed on their brows and eyes.Whenever the strong wind hits, the face feels like being cut by a sharp knife, and the pain is unbearable.

The leader was holding the Jingjie, his five fingers were already so stiff that he could barely feel it.However, no matter how uncomfortable it is, as an envoy, Jingjie is like a fish talisman and a symbol of the Tang Dynasty, and he cannot leave his hand for a moment.He raised his head to look at the sky, and said to the man beside him: "The wind and snow came suddenly. If you insist on moving forward, you may easily lose your way. Why don't you find a shelter from the wind and rest for a while, and it won't be too late to go on your way after the wind and snow is over." It is expected that in such weather, it is impossible for the tribes to migrate to other places.”

What he spoke was Turkic, and the words were correct, which surprised the young man dressed as a Turkic aristocrat: "What Wang Sheren said is very true. Then find a low valley early to avoid it for a while, and enjoy the fire by the way. It’s also good to eat some dry food. My name is En Ergu, the grandson of Diri and the chief of the tribe, and Wangsheren can just call him by my name.”

The group then found a nearby sunken valley to rest. The guard soldiers and the slaves of the Turkic nobles performed their duties, lighting fires, cooking meat and repairing meat, and setting up simple tents.Wang Zixian and En Ergu sat by the fire, talking about why those "shaken hearts" tribes were like this.

"It's all an excuse for greed to say that we can't let our women and children die on the grassland without food or drink." En Ergu said, with a look of disdain on his face, "The tribe has been traveling with caravans all year round. , Trading cattle, sheep and furs, how come there is no accumulated food? As long as the leader can be more generous and persuade the nobles to take out the food temporarily, and everyone will endure it together, we will always be able to go to Chanyu Dufu Mansion or the surrounding states It's time for the government to ask for help!"

The prince nodded and agreed: "That's right, they don't want to share their own gold, silver and food, and they don't want to give up the life of pleasure, so they lie and deceive the warriors in the tribe. They gave food to them because of their weakness, and helped them survive the winter with hypocrisy, becoming the so-called "savior of life". It is not surprising that the rebels even gave these leaders a lot of money in private to buy them to support themselves."

En Ergu suddenly realized, and was even more indignant: "Those most despicable guys even sent people to persuade my grandfather, saying that the Khan of Heaven did not keep his word, but the king of Hejian County is the one who keeps his word, and deserves our support as a Khan of Heaven. I don’t know how much gold and silver treasures they collected behind their backs, so shamelessly defending Hejian County King!!”

"There are others who said that they received food to make a profit, and followed them without saying a word. It seemed that they didn't send troops or betrayed Tian Khan, just to survive. But who knows when they collected enough money, Turning around and sending all the young and strong men to the battlefield?! They didn't think about it carefully, Tian Khan has never failed us, how can we fail Tian Khan?"

After listening, the prince raised his palm and sighed: "Well said!! It would be better if there is wine, this kind of moment should make sense!! En Ergu, a Turkic warrior like you is the real kindness and righteousness! You will not be moved by such small profits as gold, silver and treasure! I dare to guarantee that as long as you are willing to serve the saint, you may become a great general again in the future!!"

En Ergu laughed loudly, picked up the meat soup next to him, and pretended to be a wine bowl to respect him: "Drink some hot soup at this time! When there is wine, let's have a good drink!! Haha, in fact, I have already I just thought about whether I could leave that grassland and go to Chang'an to guard Tian Khan!! Although the grassland is vast and I can run freely on it, I always feel that my heart is flying higher and farther than the grassland!"

"A man should have great ambitions, as it should be!" Wang Zixian also drank the meat soup and said with a smile, "As long as our mission goes well this time, we can persuade those greedy and cowardly people to come back and take them to see His Majesty, It is a great service. With your merits, His Majesty has valued you, so he will naturally keep you by his side to practice well."

En Ergu nodded happily: "Then even if we beat them up, we have to beat up those bastards!!"

Wang Zixian raised his lips, and casually laid out a map on the snow with dry grass and small stones: "We are about here right now, about a hundred miles away from the battlefield. Taiyuan Fuzhou City is here - and according to As you said, those tribes should gather around here, just to the northwest of the battlefield. Do you know why they didn’t migrate to the true north or northeast? Wouldn’t it be better to show their respect for their benefactor if they were stationed between Shuozhou and the battlefield? 'Giri?"

En Ergu thought for a moment, then shook his head: "Maybe it's because he's afraid of being forced to go to the battlefield? Even if he doesn't want to send young men, he has to send them?"

"No, they are waiting for us. Only by camping here can we advance, attack, retreat, and defend, and then we can wait for the price. Whoever offers the highest price will go with him." The beating flames reflected on the prince On Xian's face, his black eyes seemed to contain a starlight.Yet behind the stars lies a deeper night sky, unpredictable, fascinating and dangerous.He laughed lightly, and casually threw the stone in his hand into the fire, sparking some sparks.

En Ergu couldn't help but stared blankly, and finally came to his senses: "So it's so cunning!! They still want to take money from both sides and please both sides?! It's easy to think!!"

"Their character and character are indeed far inferior to those of your tribes. However, in order to quell the war as soon as possible, we have to temporarily win them over. As for the future, His Majesty's heart is like a mirror, and he will naturally remember who is loyal and who is traitor , Whoever is trustworthy will betray without hesitation for the sake of profit."

"Then how are you going to persuade them? I don't think they will move their legs if they don't see the real money."

"Heh, we won't be able to get the real gold and silver for a while, but hundreds of thousands of troops are behind us, so why worry about it?" the prince offered, "Our ancestors of the Tang Dynasty had a saying, knowing yourself and the enemy, you can win a hundred battles. Only by understanding the enemy can we win. They. You might as well tell me about the temperament and preferences of those tribal leaders, their wives, concubines and children, and their reputation among herdsmen and slaves, etc. If you want to persuade different people, you must use different strategies.”

En Ergu nodded again and again, completely convinced by him.

-

A few days later, the group finally arrived at the place where all the tribes gathered.Due to various concerns, a dozen or so tribes lived together. From a distance, the yurts stretched like clouds on the grassland, and there were tens of thousands of them.This means that there are at least [-] to [-] young and strong cavalry available in these tribes.And if the power of these cavalry is used on the battlefield, it can almost reverse the outcome of the fierce battle outside the Taiyuan Mansion. At present, the Turkic Tiele cavalry assisting the rebels has about ten thousand cavalry, and Ashina really sips the troops under his command. A total of less than [-] cavalry was mobilized, and only about [-] infantry were gathered one after another.

Hearing that it was an envoy sent by Tian Khan, all the tribal chiefs gathered together to discuss.Some were inclined to the rebels, clamoring to cut off the head of the envoy and give it to the rebels as a gift, and they might be able to exchange a few boxes of gold, silver and jewelry immediately; The imperial army wiped out their own tribes as rebels; those who were inclined to the imperial court insisted that they must meet the envoys of Tian Khan and state their last resort to the envoys.

However, after all, those who were determined to rebel had already conspired with King Hejian to rebel, and their attitude was still vacillating. No matter how good they were with the rebels, they were not without hesitation.They still remember the bravery of the Tang army that swept the Turks and Tie Le back then.If there is a glimmer of life, who is willing to find the door to die by himself, and become a mountain of corpses piled up under the iron hooves of the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty in vain?

Therefore, when the young messenger came to a certain patriarch's tent with a banner in his hand, what he saw was the heads of various dead beasts hanging on the tent, as well as the patriarch and the patriarch's children and grandchildren sitting around.

Facing the crowd with unkind faces, the young envoy showed no fear, smiled slightly, and took out the imperial decree: "His majesty's decree, are you still kneeling down to receive the decree?" Although he had a smile on his face, his eyes were as sharp as cold blades, It seems that blood can be seen when stabbed coldly.Several patriarchs who were originally biased towards the court immediately got up and knelt down.Hesitantly seeing this, he could only kneel down, fearing that if he got up a little slower, he would be hated by the envoy.

And those patriarchs who wanted to show him off, although they still wanted to hang their necks and stay up, unexpectedly, the young envoy's eyes became more cold and fierce, looking at them one by one, making people feel like they were coming from a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood. Walking through it, I shivered suddenly.

The patriarchs who had seen many big scenes were able to withstand it, but their descendants couldn't help their feet becoming weak, fell straight to the ground, and made a big salute of Jishou.At this time, no matter how much momentum they had accumulated earlier, it was completely dissipated.

So, frightened by the imperial decree and the power of the imperial court, as well as the ferocity of this young envoy who they had overlooked, the rest of the people had no choice but to kneel down in humiliation.Although there was still disrespect in his expression, he followed the etiquette after all.

Seeing this, the young envoy seemed to be finally satisfied, and then he read the imperial decree slowly - once in Chang'an official language, once in Turkic language, and again in Tiele language.He repeated it three times in full, and almost everyone who was proficient in all languages ​​could memorize it. They naturally understood the holy meaning: the saint is kind, and even if they followed the rebels for hundreds of miles, he was willing to accept them again.If they can set off immediately and go to the Taiyuan Palace to have an audience, all the past will be forgotten.

The patriarchs couldn't help but winked at each other, their expressions relaxed a little, and they heard the young envoy smile slightly: "The sage is kind, benevolent, and loves all people in the world, and is willing to accept your allegiance again. Of course, if you insist on being rebellious, then the rebellious Such is the fate of thieves, such is the fate of those who adhere to rebellion."

"Presumably, all of you have heard the names of the chief commanders of the march this time, right? The deputy chief of the East Road March, General Ashina Zhenshui, is the orthodox Khan of noble blood after the Turkic royal family and the princess of the Tang Dynasty. ; The Chief of the West Road Marching, the King of Yong'an County, has guarded Shazhou for decades, and is as stable as a rock; the Chief of the Central Road Marching, Jian Guogong and Xu Gong, I think everyone will not forget it."

Hearing this, the complexions of all the patriarchs immediately turned pale.

Of course they still remember that 20 years ago, it was this Duke Jian who leveled Xue Yantuo and smashed the Tiele tribe into loose sand.Going back for more than ten years, it was he who assisted another general and defeated the Turkic tribes, forcing them to split from east to west.