It was drizzling hazy, and Xu Huai stood in front of a lonely cliff in Guanjuan Mountain with an umbrella.
Su Laochang walked to a neem tree, touched the several burr marks on the tree, and said:
"Worried that no one would take care of it, the tombs would be washed away by rain over time. After the edict was over, Wu Xuan quietly returned here and planted three neem plants as signs. I had never been there in person, and I didn't expect that as time went by, only this one was left.
The neem is still swaying in the wind and rain - if it weren't for these knife marks, I don't know where to find this lonely grave?"
There were overgrown weeds under the tree, and there were no traces of the corpses buried sixteen years ago. However, at this time, it was not possible to build new graves or leave traces of worship. Xu Huai kowtowed a few times under the tree, and that was all.
Su Laochang, Liu Qiong'er turned around and walked down the mountain.
Yin Peng led his men and horses and waited in the valley.
Liu Qiong'er's riding skills were not yet good enough to navigate the rugged wild trails, so she and Xu Huai rode a horse together, and the group meandered through the valley.
"Chen Zixiao hugged Yue Hailou's thigh and abandoned the mission of the Caocheng Village inspection envoy. He has been in Kelan City these days and must have wanted to find out the specific strategy of defeating Yan from Yue Hailou," Liu
Qiong'er said, "Our people lost track of Chen Zixiao in Sichen Alley for the first time. Later, I specially arranged three fixed points from Sichen Alley to East Street. Yesterday, we finally caught their tail.
Got it!"
"Where is the contact point for the Khitan people?" Xu Huai asked.
Five hundred prisoners have been officially recruited and moved to the Lanzhou Stone Field. It was Mr. Su who said that today was the death ceremony of his own mother, so he went into the mountain to find the solitary grave to pay homage. Liu Qiong'er and the others did not know the progress of watching Chen Zixiao.
.
"There is a shop called Sujin Building on East Street, which also sells mules, horses and meals. It mainly attracts local horse owners in Lanzhou. The owner of the shop, Han Renkui, is also a horse owner in Ningwu County. There are more than 40 people in Sujin Building.
There are both Tibetan and Han people, and they are all tough villagers hired from Ningwu, Langu and Qianlan. Hedong Road and the Khitan people have built a border market in the north of Ningwu, and mules and horses pass through the border market every year.
When they flow into the mainland, Sujin Tower is also involved in the mule and horse trade in the border market. If they conceal the exchange of personnel and information through this method, there may be something wrong with Sujin Tower as a whole! Do you want to send someone to try to make contact? "
Although it was confirmed yesterday that Chen Zixiao had problems entering and exiting Sujin Building, Liu Qiong'er has not yet arranged for anyone to directly enter Sujin Building to inquire about information. Instead, he will first collect some information about Sujin Building from the outside.
Even so, Liu Qiong'er also deduced that Sujin Tower was probably the key secret stronghold for the Khitans to break into the northern part of Hedong Road. However, if he wanted to find more clues to confirm this, he still had to explore and make contact.
.
Xu Huai frowned and said hesitantly: "The Khitans did not deploy many troops on the Xijing Road. They must be frightened. We are going to test them. If we are not careful, we may be able to frighten the enemy."
"Are you sure you don't want to reveal Chen Zixiao's identity?" Liu Qiong'er asked hesitantly at this point, still in disbelief that Chen Zixiao could be the Khitan's secret room.
"There is no point in exposing it at this time..." Xu Huai shook his head and said.
In addition to anticipating that the Khitans were about to perish and that Da Viet could not escape the iron hoofs of the Red Husbands, Xu Huai felt somewhat sympathetic to the same problem. Xu Huai did not want to reveal Chen Zixiao's identity for the time being. More importantly, he wanted to learn from Chen Zixiao.
From the Khitan people's secret contacts and activity trajectories in Kelan City, more clues were found, and based on this, we can deduce the possible deployment of the Khitan to resist the Vietnamese troops in this northern expedition.
Whether they can avoid some dangers as they march north with the army depends not only on strengthening the training of the five hundred prisoners, but also on whether they have done enough homework in the early stage.
The most difficult thing now is that Chen Zixiao is extremely alert. The other Khitan secretaries must also be extremely cautious in such a stormy time, and the informants they can trust are all from the Xu clan, and their accents and looks are obviously different from those of the locals.
The difference is that if you rush over to test it, it will be too easy to scare the snake away.
Xu Huai was also extremely troubled by this.
"You have your own considerations, but if this matter is delayed until the end, there will be a moment when it is revealed. I'm afraid that Prime Minister Wang will have opinions on our side!"
Su Laochang rode his horse closer and said with some worry,
"We clearly knew that Chen Zixiao was an enemy, but we still allowed him to lurk around key figures such as Yue Hailou and Guo Zhongxiong to steal Vietnam's strategy for fighting against Yan. Even at a critical moment, we cannot rule out the possibility that Chen Zixiao might take risks and assassinate Fe Yan.
A key figure in the army - if this matter was finally known to Prime Minister Wang Chun, we would have a hundred clever words, and it would be impossible for Prime Minister Wang Chun to believe that we were doing this for the sake of the country and the billions of subjects of Dai Viet.
.”
Xu Huai turned back to look at Su Laochang, knowing that instead of worrying that Wang Zhen would eventually have a problem with this side, he knew that there was a barrier in his heart that he couldn't get past.
Predictions about the future are too vague, but as people of Dai Viet, how many people do not hope that this time the expedition to Yan can successfully capture the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, thus completely completing the military defense line in northern Dai Viet?
Xu Huai himself also asked himself from time to time. Since none of the kings were killed by bandits, it meant that the existing historical trajectory was not irreversible. Maybe the joint attack on Yan would not lead to the situation he was worried about, or maybe he gently dialed it back.
Can this historical trajectory be reversed with a golden finger?
However, Xu Huai is certain of one thing.
In the established historical trajectory, Chen Zixiao did not have the opportunity to directly intervene in the war against Yan. He should still be lurking in Tongbai Mountain.
This also means that under the established historical trajectory, if Dai Viet's coalition forces to attack Yan are destined to be frustrated, it must be caused by other factors and has nothing to do with Chen Zixiao.
Xu Huai also decided not to touch Chen Zixiao due to this consideration.
However, it is normal for Su Laochang and the others to have concerns.
Whether it's Xu Wuqi or Su Laochang, they have made so many sacrifices over the years to save each other. How could they not have national integrity in their hearts?
So on this key issue, Xu Huai still has to give Su Laochang and the others an explanation:
"The Khitans only have a few troops on the Xijing Road. They also need to deploy some of their elite troops in Fengzhou and Jiuyuan in the north to prevent the Chihu people's cavalry from getting involved in the Yinshan Mountains. They can deploy even more troops in Shuozhou and Yingzhou in the south.
We are stretched thin. And we are north of Hedong Road. We are expected to gather 70,000 to 80,000 forbidden troops before moving north. Regardless of the Xiang army and rural soldiers, the number of soldiers and horses of the forbidden troops alone is already more than twice that. If the two armies go in an upright manner,
I think everyone can’t understand how Dai Viet could lose. Therefore, we can win this war with regular troops. Even if the deployment of surprise troops will be discovered, we will not harm it. In fact,
For such an important war, the imperial court has always directly drawn up combat plans by the Privy Council. With such a rigid decision-making mechanism, the final Northern Expedition march route, combat deployment, and even the differentiation and wooing of enemy generals, as long as they have enough explicit information, they should all be able to deal with it.
It is not difficult to figure out, what secrets can we have here that can be leaked? What we are really worried about is what tricks the Khitans will use to deal with all this. It is more useful to leave Chen Zixiao untouched at this time. If we find Yue Hai
Lou exposed Chen Zixiao’s identity. Can Yue Hailou and the others trust us and not alert others? We shouldn’t hide it, but can Yue Hailou and the others trust us?”
Su Laochang sighed and shook his head, knowing that if they told Wang Zhen the identity of Chen Zixiao, Wang Zhen would definitely abandon the party struggle and inform Yue Hailou.
However, Yue Hailou did not trust them. As long as Sujinlou was raided to verify their words, the hidden line they had would be cut off.
Then there are some losses outweighing the gains.
"Not in his position, not in politics," Liu Qiong'er said, "We still find Chen Zixiao's identity unbelievable. Apart from seeing his behavior as suspicious, there is no evidence to designate him as an enemy -
- If we really want to expose him, Yue Hailou, Guo Zhongxiong might even conclude that it was us who maliciously framed him!"
Xu Huai and the others walked through the rugged mountain roads for nearly an hour before returning to Zhufeng Villa.
Wang reported that Lu Xiong came to the Zhufeng Villa at this time. Xu Huai dismounted and saw them waiting in front of the stone archway. He asked curiously: "Why did Wang Xianggong come to the Villa at the same time? We just entered the mountain pocket."
It’s been a circle.”
Wang Xuan's eyes were swollen from crying, but her face was full of joy and uncontrollable excitement. When she saw Xu Huai and the others coming back, she ran over like a skip, grabbed his arm and shouted: "My father is back alive.
If you don't come back, I will go to Kelan City with my grandfather to meet my father!"
"Really?" Xu Huai asked happily.
The first time the Chihu people sent an envoy to talk about joining forces to attack Yan was six years ago. Wang Zhen was doubtful about joining forces to attack Yan at that time. He made a determined effort to recommend him to serve in the Zhi Secret Hall at that time and take charge of the affairs of the various departments.
The eldest son Wang Fan, who was relatively familiar with him, secretly sent an envoy to Chi Hu in order to have a clearer understanding of the reality of Chi Hu's people.
Unexpectedly, Wang Fan left on his mission and never returned. After that, he had several secret exchanges with the Chihu people, but there was no news from Wang Fan. Everyone who knew the inside story thought that Wang Fan encountered an accident on the way.
However, the previous exchanges with the Chihu people were top secret, and the court only announced to the outside world that Wang Fan drowned and died on his way to Mingzhou to take up his post. Even Wang Xuan did not know the truth.
To go on a secret mission, with only a few followers, but to cross enemy territory and thousands of miles of grasslands, Gobis, and mountains, is a narrow escape, an extremely dangerous thing - Wang Xuan's mother knew about the secret mission, and she also
It was determined that her husband's body was not found outside the Great Wall, and he died in depression three years ago. Finally, Wang Zhen was left, and Wang Xuan and his grandson depended on each other.
However, he did not expect that Wang Fan not only did not die accidentally, but also came to Lanzhou on the eve of the war against Yan.
Xu Huai asked in surprise: "Why did Wang Fanlang come directly to Lanzhou when he came back?"
"Fan'er returned to Bianjing two months ago with the secret envoy sent by Chi Hu Ren, but he also wrote a letter to report that he was safe. However, the letter probably went wrong on the way and did not reach Lanzhou," Wang
Xin, who had just received the news, anxiously picked up Wang Xuan and rushed to Lanzhou with him. There were tears on his cheeks. At this time, he could not suppress his excitement and said, "But it was not until he came to Lanzhou to serve this time that I found out about him.
Still alive in the world - God has mercy on me, Wang Zhen!"
