Li Yuanhao was gambling heavily, using Suzhou, Ganzhou, Xiliang and other places as bait to lure the Song Dynasty's heavy troops to cross Yangguan, laying the foundation for his surprise attack on Guazhou and Shazhou.
Kou Ji felt that he had no reason to refuse Li Yuanhao's kindness.
There is absolutely no need to restrain Li Zhaoliang, and there is absolutely no need to storm Yumen Pass.
Just follow what Li Yuanhao wants.
The final winner must be Song Dynasty.
He finally made a trip to the Western Regions, how could he give up the meat on his lips to others?
Xixia can dispatch reinforcements, but Song Dynasty cannot dispatch reinforcements?
Is the Zhongshiheng in Qingjian City a decoration?
Are the Qingtang soldiers and horses stationed on the east side of the Snow Mountain a display?
Are the 20,000 soldiers and horses and 3,000 patrolling horse guards in Shazhou City just decorations?
Is the gunpowder workshop in Shazhou City a decoration?
Are the shiny artillery pieces in Shazhou City a decoration?
Iron Harrier is already half disabled, but he still dares to play tricks in Hexi?
Is the iron kite that dislikes the other half useless?
After clearing out the Shazhou Uighurs in Shazhou City, Kou Ji had already calculated all the available troops and the troops that could be seconded.
The number of soldiers and horses available at hand is extremely large.
It's enough to give the entire Xixia a hard fight.
He also has the means to restrain the iron kite that Xixia relies on.
He doesn't need to be afraid of Xixia's schemes in Hexi.
Li Yuanhao was obviously learning the tactics of the late King Yelv Xiu of Liao Kingdom. Kou Ji didn't mind going along with the situation and gave Xixia a sound beating on the way.
Previously, Kou Ji was afraid that Li Yuanhao would use the wolf pack tactics in Hexi and abandon the city to fight guerrillas in Hexi, so he ordered Li Zhaoliang and Zhu Neng to fight steadily and reduce the losses of the Song Dynasty's troops as much as possible.
Now Li Yuanhao has voluntarily given up on the wolf pack tactics for his own conspiracy.
The soldiers and horses of the Song Dynasty were allowed to attack cities and territories in Hexi.
Not to mention how happy Kou Ji was, he sent someone to deliver a plaque to Li Yuanhao.
If he hadn't been thinking about the news about his wife and children, he would have rushed to Yumen Pass to praise Li Yuanhao.
The leader of the patrol horse guard didn't know what Kou Ji was thinking, so after hearing Kou Ji's words, he said with a very serious face: "Then can we win?"
Kou Ji glanced at him and said calmly: "Whether we can win or not depends on whether you can beat the remaining iron kites."
Hearing this, the leader of the patrol horse guard said proudly: "Then we will definitely win. Let alone more than a thousand iron kites, even if there are three thousand iron kites, they will not be the opponent of our brothers."
Kou Ji said perfunctorily: "Let's talk about it then."
The leader of Xunma said happily: "Just wait and see, the brothers will definitely beat up the iron kite and run away in embarrassment."
The leader of the patrolling horse guards smiled and went to his brother to share the news he had learned from Kou Ji.
After walking to the side of the patrolling horse guard, I saw the brothers looking at him with strange eyes.
"What's wrong?"
The leader of the patrol horse guard asked puzzledly.
A man from the horse patrol rolled his eyes and said, "My brothers have heard the conversation between you and the young master. I only have one thing to ask you."
"What words?"
"Are we the young master's tribe, or are we soldiers of the imperial court?"
The leader of the patrolling horse guard said in astonishment: "Of course it is the young master's part."
The man patrolling the horse guard curled his lips and said: "Where is the imperial court going to fight? Can we win the battle? What does it have to do with our brothers?"
"ah?!"
"Ah what! We are the young master's subordinates, and the young master's mood is the first priority. We only care about the other things! You went to comfort the young master. You comforted him for a long time. Have you comforted him?"
"..."
The leader of the patrolling horse guards scratched his head in embarrassment and said: "Then I will go and comfort you..."
Kou Ji, who was sitting aside, couldn't help but rolled his eyes, "What you said has been heard by the people on the other side of the desert. How can you, a bunch of rough guys, comfort anyone?"
You can kill people and comfort people, but you need those gentle and virtuous girls to come."
When the horse patrol man heard this, his eyes lit up, "Young Master, you have fallen in love with that girl? Brothers, go and grab her for you."
Kou Ji cursed loudly: "Get out! I am an official of the imperial court after all, how could I do such a despicable thing."
The men on the horse patrol smiled and said: "The laws of the imperial court do not control the Western Regions now. Whatever you want to do, young master, my brothers can help you do it."
Kou Ji was too lazy to talk nonsense to these rough guys anymore. He stood up and patted his butt, sighing: "Go back..."
The men on patrol were stunned.
"Young Master...it's not dark yet..."
"Huh... I've been waiting for several days, but no news... If I wait any longer, I'm afraid there will be no results... After I go back, I'll send someone to take a look..."
"..."
A group of men on patrol scratched their heads, wondering what Kou Ji was thinking.
One by one, under Kou Ji's instructions, they began to pack their things.
Just when they were about to leave.
A figure carrying a letter flag, riding a horse, appeared in their sight.
When the men on patrol saw this, they were shocked.
One by one, without waiting for anyone to urge them, they eagerly climbed onto their horses and rushed towards the messenger, howling.
When Kou Ji was about to speak, there was no one around him, only a horse was left, biting his sleeve and pulling him.
The messenger in the desert saw the men on horseback rushing over shouting and yelling. He was startled and turned around and ran away.
But the horses on his back were obviously not as sophisticated as those on the horse guards.
Not long after, he was overtaken by a man from the patrol horse guard, and then he was caught by four or five big-bodied men like a chicken, and escorted back.
The messenger was escorted to Kou Ji.
Kou Ji asked: "Why are you running?"
The messenger recognized Kou Ji. He gave Kou Ji a salute first, and then said in a dumbfounded voice: "As soon as they saw Beizi, they rushed over. Beiji thought they were not good people."
Kou Ji glanced at the men patrolling the horse guard, and nodded in agreement, "They all look fierce, and they really don't look like good people."
The men on the horse patrol were not happy when they heard this, and they all opened their mouths to defend themselves.
Kou Ji rolled his eyes and said, "Okay, I just said it casually, and you guys took it seriously."
After appeasing the man who patrolled the horse guard, Kou Ji stared at the messenger with burning eyes and asked: "Do you have a letter from Bianjing City on you? Do you have a letter from the Kou Mansion?"
The messenger shook his head decisively.
Kou Ji was annoyed, "Then you are a fake messenger, right?"
The messenger smiled bitterly and said: "I did have a letter on my back, but when I arrived in Huangtou Huihe territory, it was intercepted."
When Kou Ji heard this, his eyes widened for a moment, "What do you mean? Is there anyone in Huangtou Huihe who dares to intercept my letter from the Song Dynasty?"
The messenger said with a grimace: "It's Mr. Li..."
Kou Ji was stunned and frowned: "That Mr. Li?"
The messenger hurriedly said: "Li Gongdi..."
Kou Ji said in astonishment: "Li Di? He went to the Western Regions? When did it happen? Why don't I know any news about it? Why did he come to the Western Regions? Why did he intercept your letter?"
The messenger said with a grimace: "I don't know the specific humble position. In short, all the letters sent back from the Western Regions were intercepted by Li Gong. All the letters sent from Bianjing were also intercepted by Li Gong. .”
When Kou Ji heard this, his face turned dark.
"I just said that after waiting for so long, I still didn't get a letter from the court. It turned out that Li Di stopped me."
"Just stop it. If you block official documents, I don't care. Why are you blocking private messages?"
"..."
Kou Ji complained a few words, stared at the messenger with a dark face and asked, "Where is Li Di now?"
The messenger hurriedly said: "Li Gong has arrived in Shazhou and specially sent a lowly official to deliver the message, asking you to prepare wine and meat to entertain him."
Kou Ji gritted his teeth and said, "Okay... I will prepare a sumptuous table of food and wine for him..."
Kou Ji turned around and ordered the patrolling horse guards: "Pass my order to the soldiers guarding the palace in Shazhou City. I will block the main hall of the palace with huge trees and rocks. Without my order, it cannot be opened."
With my order, the garrison in Shazhou City will lead the prisoners and drive the cattle, sheep and horses in the city to the pasture ten miles north of Shazhou City to take care of them."
When the men on patrol heard Kou Ji's words, they looked confused.
They didn't understand why Kou Ji would do such a thankless thing.
Kou Ji stared, "Why don't you go quickly?!"
The men of the patrol horse guards hurriedly agreed and went to convey Kou Ji's order.
Kou Jileng hummed and said to the messenger: "Can you please go back and tell Mr. Li to walk slowly and don't be in a hurry. Anyway, there is nothing he wants in Shazhou City."
The messenger stared at Kou Ji in astonishment.
Kou Ji ignored him, got on his horse, and led the men on horseback to Shazhou City.
Kou Ji could guess why Li Di appeared in the Western Region.
Li Di blocked his family letter and made him suffer for a long time. Naturally, he had to let Li Di feel the torture.
After Kou Ji and his party left.
The messenger stood there for a long time, hesitated, and then rode his horse back into the desert.
…
The next day.
A gust of wind and sand rolled up in the desert of Shazhou.
Li Di and his party appeared on the green land of Shazhou despite the wind and sand.
After experiencing the baptism of wind and sand in the Western Regions, Li Di looked a bit older.
The group of people stood at the edge of the oasis for a long time, but no one greeted them.
Li Di gave a bitter smile, stroked his dry beard, and sighed: "Everyone knows that the flaws of the bandits will be repaid, and it is indeed true. I just blocked a few letters from his family, but he treated me like this. It's really true." Be careful."
"It concerns the wives and children of the Kou officials, so the Kou officials will naturally take it seriously."
Next to Li Di, a young eunuch wiped the sand from his face and whispered.
Li Di stared and said disdainfully: "You know nothing!"
The eunuch glanced at Li Di with a resentful look and decisively shut his mouth.
The eunuch really couldn't understand Li Di's action of blocking the documents leading to Bianjing City and the Western Regions. He really didn't understand why Li Di would risk being impeached to do such a thankless thing.
When Li Di saw that the eunuch had closed his mouth and stopped interrupting randomly, he put his hands behind his back and sighed.
"It's human nature, how can I not understand... I have children and grandchildren, so I naturally know the anxiety of a father who knows that his wife is about to give birth, but can't get any news about his wife and children..."
The eunuch rolled his eyelids and wanted to ask, why did you block the family letter from the Kou officials?
But he felt that if he asked, Li Di would probably scold him again, so he decided not to ask.
After Li Di sighed something that others could not understand, he climbed into the carriage. After lying down comfortably, he urged the coachman and drove the carriage towards Shazhou City.
Went forward for some distance.
Li Di heard the deafening shouts, and he immediately urged the driver to drive quickly towards the place where the sound came from.
After arriving at the place, Li Di saw a scene he had never seen in his life, and his eyes widened in shock.
The people around Li Di had similar expressions.
Everyone opened their mouths in shock, with dull expressions on their faces.
The scene of more than 100,000 people clearing wasteland is very spectacular.
They shouted slogans and waved their farm tools, turning patches of weedy fields into patches of fertile farmland.
The pioneers and the wet land as far as the eye can see are very shocking.
"This...this...this..."
The eunuch stammered and could not speak.
Li Di was shocked and sighed: "What a big granary!"
Li Di saw far more than the eunuch, so he was not at a loss for words.
In the eyes of eunuchs, it was countless fertile fields.
In Li Di's eyes, that is endless amounts of food.
"No wonder you, kid, stayed in the Western Region and refused to go back... No wonder you, kid, dared to privately dispatch an army to challenge Xixia... No wonder, you kid, you even forced Xue Tian to death and were not afraid..."
"With this countless amount of fertile land, let alone Xue Tian's life, I would be willing to do it even if it cost me my life."
"I am also worried that what you did in the Western Regions will be reported back to the court, and the court will blame you for it, so I stopped those documents and planned to use my last dignity to help you get through this difficult time."
"Now it seems that everything you did in the Western Regions was not wrong. It was my fault and the fault of the imperial court."
"The imperial court and I are so short-sighted that they didn't know that there was such a treasured land in the Western Regions, and they didn't know that you had done such great achievements in the Western Regions."
"..."
What does such fertile land as far as the eye can see mean?
No one knows better than Li Di.
It represents that the Western Region will produce countless grains in the future.
It means that many people in the Song Dynasty will no longer have to worry about starvation.
It represents countless lives.
Was the Song Dynasty rich?
The Song Dynasty was very wealthy.
But food was still in short supply in the Song Dynasty.
Even in a bumper year with no disasters or injuries, people will still starve to death because there is no food to eat.
For this reason, the imperial court had to dig out some of it from the people's mouths and store it in Changpingcang for emergencies.
It can be said that the food in the Song Dynasty was never enough.
Since the founding of the country, food has been in short supply in the Song Dynasty.
Officials in the court and the people among the people have many troubles every year because of food issues.