After the Yu River merges with the Gupo River, it becomes the Weishui River. It meanders through the hills and ravines between the two large mountains of Longshan (Liupan Mountain) and the West Qinling Mountains, heading towards the Guanzhong Plain.
Among the hills and ravines between Longshan Mountain and the West Qinling Mountains, Qinzhou City, that is, Tianshui County (where Qinzhou is governed), is located at the west pass, and it can be said to be an important town at the gateway to Longshan.
In the old days, Qinfeng Road governed Qin, Feng, Long, and Jie, forming five states. The imperial envoy's office was stationed in Tianshui. However, Tianshui City, located on the south bank of the Wei River, is so simple; it was built along the uneven terrain of the south bank of the Wei Mountain.
The rammed earth city wall is like a gray earth dragon lying listlessly among the mountains and rivers.
In addition, the West Qinling Mountains and the Longshan Mountains in the north are experiencing severe soil erosion, and there is no vegetation cover. At first glance, they are also very desolate, far less lush and green than Jing Lake at this time.
Although the imperial court has been fighting fiercely with the party members to the west of Qinzhou for hundreds of years, and the Hexi Corridor has long lost its past scene of endless business travelers, Tianshui City, as the seat of Qinfeng Road Supervisor and Qinzhou Prefecture, has hundreds of civil and military officials.
Families lived in the city, and tens of thousands of Qin Feng Road generals and soldiers lived in small attached cities. In addition, the imperial court imported one to two million yuan of money and food from outside to support the army every year. These all allowed Tianshui City to maintain considerable prosperity for a long time.
state.
However, after Chi Hu invaded the south, Qin Feng's envoy Zheng Huaizhong led the main force of Qin Feng's army to aid eastward. After Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang, the families of Qin Feng's generals first moved to Luoyang and then to Nanyang, along with the officials and their families.
The population of Tianshui City was greatly reduced due to small resettlement.
Although Xiao Linshi led the remnants of the Khitan, tens of thousands of people, to move westward to Qinzhou, and Xiao Linshi established Tianshui City as the governor of Qinzhou, most of the tribesmen and accompanying vassals still followed traditional tribal customs and looked for lush water and grass outside the city.
It is a place where sheep and horses are herded, but they do not live in cities.
In addition, the Khitan military system is also different from that of Dai Viet. It only recruits strong men from the tribe who are good at riding and shooting into the army, and young men will not follow them to live in the city.
Therefore, the once prosperous Tianshui City fell into silence, with only two to three thousand poor Han households left.
In the past, the city would be lively for a while because of the mules and horses from Zhufengtang, but this time because Datan County was attacked by enemies, Tianshui City became turbulent both inside and outside.
After Zhang Xiongshan and the others entered the city, there were only a few pedestrians on the dusty long dirt road, and they were all walking around in a hurry...
Xiao Linshi's Qinzhou Governor's Mansion did not have many manpower, and the guards were sparse, making the huge mansion look very empty.
Seeing an older man coming from the government hall, Zhang Xiongshan stepped forward and saluted: "Xiongshan has seen General Shi Hai..."
"Why did Marquis Xu ask you to come to Qinzhou this time?" Shi Hai asked.
"Hou Xu is very worried about the situation in the northwest, and he doesn't know if there is any room for recovery. He specially ordered Xiongshan to come over," Zhang Xiongshan asked in a low voice, "Shuai Xiao is not in Tianshui?"
"The forward soldiers and horses of the Red Army have been killing Tianshui without restraint. There is no need to hide many things from each other," Shi Hai sighed softly and said, "Shuai Xiao led his troops to Henan——"
Dai Viet once expanded its territory and established Xihe Road west of Qinzhou to compete with the Dangxiang people for land and established Xi, He and other prefectures. The Dangxiang people were responsible for controlling the southwestern region of Longnan, and the ones who fought against Dai Viet for a long time were He Nanjian Military Division.
After the Chihu people invaded the south, Dai Viet had to mobilize troops and horses from Xihe Road and Qinfeng Road to the east. The area formerly controlled by Xihe Road fell to the hands of the Dangxiang people and the Nanjian Army Division.
Now Gao Junyang is firmly opposed to the remnant Khitan troops retreating from Qishan Road to Sichuan and Sichuan to recuperate. The remaining Khitan troops want to leave Qinzhou, a must-win place for the Red Husbands to go south, and the Tao River controlled by the Nanjian Army Division, and the Linxia River Basin is the west.
A necessary place to move.
Seeing that Xiao Linshi ignored the alliance between Dayue and Dangxiang and had to send troops to fight for the Taoshui and Linxia areas in the south of the Nanjian Military Division, it was obvious that Qinzhou had concluded that the Dangxiang people could not hold on to Xingqing Mansion, the capital of their country.
"What's the current situation with the Nanjian Military Division? How many voices are there within them to resist the Red Husbands?" Zhang Xiongshan came here to understand the situation in depth. Naturally, he didn't care about any taboos now and asked directly.
"Before this expedition, the Red Husband army plundered the western and northern areas of Dangxiang. At that time, there were a lot of voices of surrender in Dangxiang. This time, Heishui and other military commanders surrendered one after another with almost no resistance - and Nan
The Surveillance Army Division is currently dominated by the surrender faction, but its soldiers and horses have been fighting against the Southern Dynasty for a long time and are quite elite. They have never had the opportunity to fight against the Red Husbands. There are still some nobles and generals who advocate resistance," Shi Hai said, "This time
The main reason is to secretly contact Qinzhou with the nobles and military generals who are trying to resist the Nanjian Military Division, and ask Marshal Xiao to send troops to suppress the surrender faction..."
Zhang Xiongshan nodded, expressing his understanding of why Qinzhou wanted to seize this opportunity. This may be Qinzhou's last chance to save itself.
Xiao Yanhan ordered Shi Hai and others to recruit Zhang Xiongshan and others. She was about to go to the inner house to change her clothes and armor before hosting a banquet for everyone. At this time, a five or six-year-old child brandished a bamboo whip and ran in like a horse.
Xiao Yanhan shouted happily: "Auntie, I also want to go out of the city to kill the enemy. Let's see how my sword works..."
The child took out the wooden sword from his waist and slashed it several times with a "huohuo" sound in the air, but it felt a bit like a python sword.
"When you grow older and practice martial arts better, you can go into battle and kill the enemy." Xiao Yanhan hugged the child in her arms and took her chin to caress the child's tender face.
"Auntie, let me down. I am a man now and you are not allowed to hug me like this." The little boy struggled and jumped out of Xiao Yanhan's arms.
"Little Prince, look what gift I have brought here to the Little Prince?" Xu Guanshan took out a few gadgets from his arms and handed them to the child.
Xiao Linshi led the remnants of the Khitan to move westward to Qinzhou. In addition to his sister Xiao Yanhan, he was accompanied by more than ten members of his family, including two wives and concubines and four children. His eldest son, second sons Xiao Chunquan and Xiao Chunyu were all adults.
The two girls were still waiting to be married, but after arriving in Qinzhou, their concubine gave birth to a son, the little prince Xiao Bai.
Chu Shan had known this for a long time, and had specially appointed Xu Guanshan to send congratulatory gifts to Xiao Linshi.
Maybe Xu Guanshan travels to Qinzhou every year and has met the little prince Xiao Bai many times. He is familiar with it and doesn't think there is anything unusual. But Zhang Xiongshan looked at the outline of the little prince Xiao Bai's face and was slightly startled.
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Xu Zang stood behind Zhang Xiongshan, his eyes widened. He was about to say something, but Su Mi kicked him.
"Oh, why are you kicking me?" Xu Zang asked angrily.
"Oh, my feet are cramped, but it hurts when I kick you? You haven't been clamoring to compete with me, right? I found that I haven't moved my muscles for a long time, and I should let you know that I have made great progress in my boxing and kicking during this time!"
Su Mung said.
"Hey, you brought this on yourself, don't sue me and say I bullied you!" Xu Tan said quickly.
"General Shi Hai, you talk to Zhang Xiongshan and the others first. I'll go to the inner chamber and change my clothes and armor before hosting a banquet for everyone." Xiao Yanhan hugged the child and walked straight to the inner chamber.
"We have to ask the guests to settle down in the post house first," Shi Hai said with a smile. "Princess Princess is busy first. I will arrange for someone to send Xiongshan and the others to stay in the post house first!"
Xiao Linshi led his troops to secretly attack Henan. He was not in Tianshui City. Shi Hai was in charge of many affairs. The elite cavalry of the Red Husband had already sneaked into the hinterland of Qinzhou. This time they also found out the void of Qinzhou's defense. There was no guarantee that they would not guess.
Regarding the whereabouts of the main force of the remaining Khitan troops, Shi Hai, Wu Sanrong and others had no way to escape from the Governor's Mansion at this time, so they could only arrange for additional subordinate officials to accompany Zhang Xiongshan and the others to the post house.
Zhufengtang has a pavilion in Tianshui City. Especially since the mule and horse teams have so many people, every time they go to Tianshui City, they have to rest for a month before returning again. Therefore, Zhufengtang also prepares an accommodation area in the city.
However, Zhang Xiongshan came to contact on behalf of Chushan, and he also wanted to bring Su Miao, Xu Teng and others to discuss with the Qinzhou generals and learn about cavalry warfare. Naturally, he had to live in the post house under the governor's mansion to be considered official.
Xu Tang asked Su Mi to kick him. He realized that some things should not be said in public, but after moving into the post house and waiting for the officials accompanying Qinzhou to leave, he couldn't help it anymore. He grabbed Su Mi's shoulder and shouted:
:
"Do you think that little prince looks a little like Xu Huai? Are you all blind, or are you trying to hold back your voice?"
"I think the young prince looks very much like Xiao Shuai - you have never met Xiao Shuai, so you know what nonsense you are talking about." As a child of the Han family, Han Qihu grew up with the Xiao family children.
They led their clansmen to join Chu Mountain.
He was deeply impressed by Xiao Linshi when he was a boy, but he didn't think that the little prince had anything to do with Xu Huai.
"You know what the saying goes? A nephew is like an uncle, and a nephew is like an uncle. The little prince is half of the Xiao family. What's wrong with looking like Xiao Shuai? But he also looks like Xu Huai, so you can
Don’t you have the brains to think more about it?” Xu Zan laughed and said, “I thought Niu Er was talking nonsense before, but I didn’t expect him to be accurate.”
"It's a serious matter, don't say anything nonsense!" Zhang Xiongshan stared at the people in the room with a serious look and warned, "You all have to pretend that this never happened..."
"I'm not stupid. There are so many people in the court who are suspicious of Chushan. The Gao family even publicly said that Naqidan is inside and is suspected of attracting wolves into the house. I can't tell the difference at all?" Xu Tan said in a low voice.
, "But it's strange to say that the Liu family has been with Xu Huai for so many years, and the Wang family's daughter has been married to the Hou Mansion for more than half a year, but there is no movement in her stomach? I heard from my father that it is said that martial arts practice is not good for fertility after reaching a certain level, so it must be stopped.
