Chapter two hundred and ninety-first private meeting in Qiuci wine shop
Tiaodang camp on the banks of the Baima River is only a few miles away from Kucha City. Li Siye would go back and stay for a day every now and then to solve some minor problems at home.
That evening, he led the horses back to the backyard, cut grass and fed the two horses, and then entered the courtyard through the side courtyard door.
Twelve Niang and Mei'er were sitting on the beech bed under the thorn willow in the yard. They were playing a rope art game with a length of rope, and their laughter like birds was rippling in the yard.
Li Siye watched for a moment with his hands behind his hands, when suddenly there was a knock on the door.
He shouted twice at the top of his lungs: "Aunt Wu! Mrs. Chen!"
Li Meier held the rope with both hands and said without raising her face: "Aunt Wu and Mrs. Chen are not at home. Today is the local Qiuchi Autumn Festival. Everything in the market is cheap. They took the Sogdian female slaves there.
I went to buy live sheep and chickens.”
Oops, there are really big holiday discounts.
He turned around and walked to the door, opened the door, and saw a soldier wearing a forehead wiper and a horizontal sword standing outside the door. He glanced at the cross-hand and asked, "Is this the residence of Lieutenant General Li Siye?"
"What's your business?"
The soldier raised his head and saw Li Siye's appearance. He immediately folded his hands respectfully and said, "My general has invited you to have a banquet at the Orchid Wine Shop in the city."
Li Siye lowered his head and asked: "Who is your general?"
"Cheng Qianli, the current envoy of Kucha Town."
He nodded lightly. When he first came to Qiuci, he had heard of Cheng Qianli's name, but he had never paid a visit. He wondered why he was suddenly invited to the banquet today.
"You go back and reply to your general. Li Siye will be here shortly."
"Here."
Li Siye closed the courtyard door and returned to the center of the courtyard, where Twelve Niang and Mei'er were still entangled with each other around the rope. He returned to his room, changed into a new official uniform, walked out and ordered the two of them: "In the evening
Leave the courtyard door open for me and don't come back for dinner, you two, be good."
Twelve Niang nodded obediently, while Meier was still urging her.
He stepped toward the backyard, but heard Li Twelve Niang say from behind: "Come back early, I'll wait for you."
Li Siye's back felt numb when he heard Twelve Niangjing say these ambiguous words.
He led the green horse out of the back door from the stable, turned over and rode it, and rode slowly along the street. He was not in a hurry to attend the banquet anyway, and just wandered around admiring the scenery and people on the street.
Orchid Winery should be the most high-end consumption place in Qiuci. It is located in the center of the city. It combines the style of the Western Regions with some Central Plains Dougong hard-top design. Two soldiers with swords stood at the door of the winery to welcome the guests. They saw Li Siye riding a horse.
After coming, he quickly went up and crossed his arms to lead the horse: "General, please go to the second floor of the wine shop."
Li Siye narrowed his eyes and dismounted. It seemed that Cheng Qianli had invited more than just himself.
He walked into the wine shop and took a look. The Sogdian shopkeeper, with a linen cloth draped over his shoulders, crossed his hands and said, "General, please come upstairs!"
I followed the store owner up the wooden stairs to the second floor. The empty seats upstairs were divided into three spaces by folding screens. The store owner pointed to the screen on the left and turned around to go downstairs.
He straightened his head, then walked around the screen and went in. He saw a bunch of crimson official robes sitting inside, each sitting on a four-legged table. One of them stood in the center, with a purple beard, and the right hip of the robe was hanging down on his chest.
He went up to him and smiled slightly, cupping his hands and saying, "This must be the lone general Li Siye."
Lone General? When did someone give him such a nickname? Why didn’t he know?
The man in front of me is Cheng Qianli, the envoy of Kucha who also serves as the governor of Kucha. Although he is a fourth-grade official, his official position is under the jurisdiction of the envoy of Kucha. He quickly crossed his hands and said to Cheng Qianli: "I see you in this humble position."
Process envoy."
Cheng Qianli smiled heartily, stretched out his hand to invite him: "Please sit down, I will talk to you in detail later."
His eyes briefly glanced at the generals present. They looked familiar, but he didn't know any of them. Maybe they had met a few times when they were at the Governor's Mansion, but they were just like passers-by.
Gao Xianzhi was actually at the table, but since he entered the door just now, he didn't say hello or look at him. It seemed that he didn't want to show that he knew him in front of everyone. Li Siye didn't try to show his coldness to him, he just looked for him.
He took a corner by the window and sat at the same table with an unknown general.
The man's head was tilted, but he had no intention of straightening it. He looked lazily out of the window, as if he didn't care about the purpose of the banquet and had no intention of making friends with his colleagues.
Li Siye thought to himself, it seemed that there were everyone in the Anxi Army, and if he behaved independently, there wouldn't be any big problem.
The person in front of him made him curious, and he took the initiative to ask: "I wonder what the general is called?"
"Horse."
Ma Phosphorus glanced back at him like lightning, then turned his face to the window.
That's it? Don't people in the Tang Dynasty like to put official titles in front of their names? General Fubo, Ma Li, etc.
"What is General Ma's position?"
"Anyway, I don't have a high rank like you, Lieutenant General Li Siye, so you don't need to ask. You just need to remember the name Ma Phosphorus. Oh, a person's official position and situation will change in his life, but there is only one name."
This answer is really amazing. One sentence can mark your own style. Maybe it is the kind of person who never stops talking without surprising words. If you write poems with amazing words, you can be forgiven, but if you speak with amazing words, maybe
There won't be many friends.
"Everyone." General Cheng Qianli, who was standing in the middle, went to block the screen himself, then turned back and spoke: "We are all old people from Anxi. We have crawled out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood time and time again. Naturally, we know how to carry the people behind us.
How difficult it is for brothers who work hard."
Ma Fu leaned on the case with both arms and whispered to himself: "Cheng Qianli, when he first entered Anxi, he was the commander of the personal troops of the deputy governor Wang Husi, and then the commander of the personal troops and brigade, and also the flag officer, Jiedu
As an official, he has never experienced anything like a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. It is true to watch other people's mountains of corpses and seas of blood."
Cheng Qianli caught sight of this weird talker at a glance, stretched out his hand to invite Ma Li, "How about General Ma Li, please stand up and say a few words? I see you move your mouth very diligently."
Ma Phosphorus waved his hands repeatedly: "No need, I'm not good at talking and can easily offend people."
Cheng Qianli snorted: "If it weren't for this bad mouth, you, Ma Lian, would have been promoted to Deputy Protector long ago."
"Deputy Protector, we don't dare think about it." Ma Li raised his hand, "Okay, I won't say a word from now on."
Cheng Qianli rolled up his sleeves, looked around, and then said to everyone: "Those who can come here are all the mainstays of Anxi, and they are also old friends and subordinates of Fumeng Duhu. Of course, there are some things that must be of the same mind as the Duhu.
"
Li Siye frowned, was he planning to join forces and form a clique? If he had known this, he should not have come to such a banquet. But if he isolated himself from everyone, the future would be difficult.
"Tian Zhongcheng wants to mobilize troops for an expedition to attack the Xiaobolu Kingdom, but judging from the situation in our army, the time for the expedition is not yet mature. If we act in a hurry, we may lose our troops and generals. So do you have the same opinion as that of Fumeng Duhu? If so, , we jointly presented our advice to Prime Minister Tanaka and persuaded him to postpone the crusade."
Li Siye expected that the imperial censor Zhongcheng had the power of special report, and the Jiedushi had the autocratic military power. If Tian Renwan reported the plan to attack Xiao Bolu to the emperor, and waited for the saint to send the edict to Anxi, no matter how many people persuaded him, Advice, can the Anxi Protectorate still resist the decree?
While everyone was whispering and talking, Ma Li next to Li Siye finally couldn't help but speak: "General Cheng, if Tian Zhongcheng wants to attack Xiao Bolu, he must first ask the imperial court. The imperial court has its own Zhongshu Order. It is our turn to give advice and suggestions, but it is our turn to give advice when the sage makes his own decisions. Is it possible that when the imperial edict is issued, we still have to go to Chang'an to give advice to the sage?"
Cheng Qianli was displeased and glared at Ma Phosphorus, meaning if you don't know how to speak, just say less.
Ma Phosphorus laughed out loud and turned his head to look out the window.
Cheng Qianli deliberately did not look at the corner where Ma Phosphorus was, so as not to feel troubled, he put his hands behind his back and said: "Tian Zhongcheng is a man who has read books, and he also knows that public opinion cannot be violated. As long as we go together to advise..."
He quickly turned his head and glanced at Ma Phosphorus.
Ma Phosphorus pouted and said, "Look what I did, I didn't say anything."