Beidi is not comparable to ordinary small countries. It covers an area from west to east, almost stretching across the entire northern border of Dasheng. It is also the location of Dasheng's longest external border defense line.
After rushing to the northern border, Cui Jing led his troops to station in Guannei Road east of Yumen Pass and in the Anbei Protectorate area.
If Cui Jing had not been guarding the Guannei Road to deter others, the Northern Di would not have chosen to attack from the Longyou Road in the west and given up the great opportunity to enter the Central Plains directly.
Cui Jing had repeatedly written to the court to propose rebuilding the northern border defenses, but because the cost was too huge, it took a long time for the court to approve it. Since Cui Jing led the 80,000 Xuan Ce troops to the northern border, he has been building defense lines, stationing troops for training, and integrating the northern forces, without a single day of slacking off.
However, the defense line was too long, and the money, food and supplies allocated by the court were often delayed. It was ultimately impossible to build the entire border defense into an indestructible state and garrison it with elite troops in just a few years.
Cui Jing thought over and over again, and in order to defend the northern border as much as possible, he finally chose to prioritize placing heavy troops at the key entrances of the pass and guard the most important places. If there was any change in the western Longyou Road, the northern barbarians would have to pass through the relatively narrow Yumenguan fortress before entering the pass, which would effectively slow down the impact of the northern barbarians and leave room for response in the pass.
Cui Jing first strengthened the border defenses of Yumen Pass and ordered heavy troops to guard it.
The troops in Longyou were also reorganized and trained, but Longyou is vast and sparsely populated. The Northern Di, who are very familiar with the local terrain, suddenly led more than 10,000 cavalry to invade with great force. Longyou Yizhou tried its best to resist and delay, but in the end it was still defeated by the fierce Northern Di cavalry.
These more than 10,000 Northern Di cavalrymen headed straight for Yumen Pass, but were blocked again at the pass.
At this time, they were being pursued by the Longyou troops behind them, and Cui Jing was leading his troops to support them in front of them.
After listening carefully to the current battle situation, most of the officials who were urgently recalled breathed a sigh of relief. In this way, the defense arrangement in the northern border was still appropriate, and the Northern Di cavalry should not pose a threat of entering the pass for the time being.
But after a brief moment of reassurance, more anxiety arose in everyone's hearts.
This time, the Northern Di only invaded with less than 20,000 cavalrymen, which was not a large-scale military campaign. It was more like an exploration, or an unauthorized action by a tribe in the Northern Di territory...
At the moment, this battle is certainly nothing to be afraid of, but I am afraid that this is just a preview before the real hurricane and sandstorm arrives...
"What is coming will eventually come." Walking on the road leading out of the Forbidden Palace again, Master Chu said, "It is time to end the family feud and national hatred."
Upon hearing this, Zhan Mian, who was accompanying him, looked at the teacher, only to see that on the teacher's usually thin and serious face, in those eyes that didn't take anyone or anything seriously, there was now a rare bit of cold hatred.
National hatred is easy to understand, but family hatred...
Zhan Mian thought for a moment, but failed to figure it out immediately. Moreover, the teacher's words clearly put "family feud" before "national hatred".
Zhan Mian was distracted, and when he looked up again, he saw the thin back of his teacher in an official robe in front of him. Finally, he said in an old and hoarse voice, "This time, my Dasheng will never have another princess marrying into another country."
Zhan Mian suddenly realized it and felt a little emotional.
When Wei Shuyi left the palace, it was already dark.
The young Left Prime Minister, holding a palace lantern in his hand, walked through the long palace road, his mood as unstable as the shadow of the lantern.
What was discussed in front of the Saint today was mostly about the war with Northern Di. When mentioning the war with Northern Di, one cannot avoid the victory over Northern Di more than ten years ago. In that victory, her presence could be seen in many places.
Not long ago, he asked his mother a question: […After your Highness married Beidi, have you ever written to your mother again? ]
This easy question made the mother silent for a long time, and then she said in a very soft and slow voice: "Never, not even one letter."
Wei Shuyi closed his eyes lightly, wondering what those three years were like.
Before she knew it, Wei Shuyi had already crossed the gate of the Forbidden Palace. His official sedan was waiting outside the gate. Changji, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately came forward and took the palace lantern from her husband's hand.
Before getting into the sedan chair, Wei Shuyi looked towards the south, then after a moment, turned his head and looked towards the north.
"Cui Ling'an..." he said to himself, "Fight well."
After he finished speaking, he suddenly sneered, bowed, got into the sedan chair and left - there was no need for him to keep repeating, when fighting against the Northern Di, Cui Lingan would definitely add another layer of his full strength on top of his full strength.
Although all the officials had left, the lights in the Ganlu Hall were still on, and the emperor had no intention of going to bed.
Soon, the new head of the Palace Office came into the hall with two guards in black to pay their respects.
The irrelevant people in the hall had already left. The Holy Book Emperor at the head looked at the two men in black and said in a dignified and indifferent voice: "Is it done?"
One of the men in black stepped forward holding a long black box, bowed his head and replied: "I have accomplished your mission!"
The head of the Palace Office took the long box, went up the imperial steps, and carefully inspected it before opening it and presenting it to the emperor.
The Holy Emperor looked over and saw a whisk quietly lying inside. From the handle of the whisk, it was clear that it was the one she had given to the Heavenly Mirror.
The emperor frowned slightly and looked at the two men: "Since you have not failed in your mission, where is your head?"
When someone dies, we want to see the corpse, not a whisk.
“Your Majesty… I had already taken the head of the Imperial Master, but…” The black-clad man in front of him knelt down with his fists clasped, and bowed his head, saying, “But it was stolen in the middle of the journey!”
The Emperor of the Holy Ceremonies narrowed his eyes slightly, and his expression turned silently cold.
Invisible pressure came from above, and the man in black knelt down and kowtowed: "The head of the Imperial Master was taken by me personally. I would never dare to try to evade or deceive Your Majesty!"
Another man in black also knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I was present when the leader took down the head of the Imperial Master! Two other people also witnessed it with their own eyes and can prove it!"
The head of the Palace Office bowed slightly and nodded to the emperor. He had already had people check and found that those people's statements were consistent. When they were questioned separately, even when faced with some very minor questions, the answers they gave were the same. In the process, no one showed any flaws in deceiving the emperor.
It was hard to tell whether the Emperor of the Holy Ce believed it or not. "If that's the case, who stole the head? Where is the rest of the body?"
"After the incident was completed that day, I and others took the head and buried the body... Later, the head was stolen, and I went to check the place where the body was buried, only to find that the rest of the body was also missing."
"So I boldly speculated that perhaps it was done by an old friend of the Imperial Master or someone from his school... who wanted to retrieve his body and bury it."
Finally, he said: "Your Majesty, please allow me to go to Shu and investigate this matter in detail!"
Tianjing came from Shu. Although his master's school was not well-known in the world, if one investigated carefully, one would always be able to find something.
After a moment, the Emperor of the Holy Book waved his hand and asked his men to retreat.
She was so worried about the Northern Di and the chaos everywhere that she no longer had enough energy to devote to these minor matters.
She fixed her eyes on the whisk for a moment and said, "Announce the world that the Imperial Master Tianjing has attained the Tao and ascended to immortality. He has returned to the void and transformed into a new life. I am grateful for his merits and would like to build a Taoist temple for him to be worshipped by the world."
The head of the Sigongtai understood and agreed, then left with the whisk in his hand.
Outside the palace, the night was deep and the wind blew, casting swaying shadows on the trees.
Yao Yi returned home from his duty at the Dali Temple. As usual, he whispered to his personal servant, "Did the girl send any letters back from home?"
The servant shook his head: "Master, there is no..."
Yao Yi sighed.
Since last year, he had tried to get his daughter to find out who was behind the girl, but not only did his daughter reject him in a letter, she also rarely sent him letters, as if she was trying to avoid him...
"He really has forgotten his father because of his lord." Yao Yi muttered in a low voice.
However, even if his daughter didn't send a letter back, he had heard about her by chance. There were also people in the capital saying that there was an outstanding female historian around the envoy Chang Jie, who was very important to him...
But who could have imagined that it would be his daughter, Yao Yi? Earlier, during the Dayun Temple's offering of sacrifice to the heaven, the divine elephant injured people on the spot, Pei's conspiracy was exposed, and Ran'er destroyed her own face... It caused a lot of uproar.
Nowadays, everyone thinks that Ran'er has become a monk and no longer appears in public, but they don't know that she has already gone to the side of the girl from the Chang family who was nearly killed by the divine elephant.
The world is truly unpredictable.
Yao Yi sighed in his heart.
But what is more unpredictable than the world is that little girl...
Even thinking about it now, he still found it strange. Jiu Niang was weak in nature, and her cousin's mother was also very timid. There had not been a single brave woman in this family for three generations. How could they have given birth to such a courageous girl?
Could it be that the courage that the elders before her didn't grow up fully and saved was finally born to this girl alone? Or maybe... she inherited it from that person.
Needless to say, looking around now, if you count all the people with the surname Li, there are really not many who can compare with her in considering the overall situation... Take the rescue of Jingzhou from danger this time, which is undoubtedly a move to protect the country.
"It really is... to join the game with one's own body and continue the world's order with daylight." Thousands of miles away, an old man sighed and put down his fingers that were counting.
"You are a Taoist, right?" The boatman saw the old man counting on his fingers and smiled as he started a conversation: "I wonder which school you learned from?"
The old man laughed and said, "I have no master or school, so I just practiced it randomly."
The boatman disagreed. Although he did not know much about family affairs, he could tell at a glance that the old man had a fairy-like aura. He probably just didn't want to reveal too much.
The boat cut through the thin night and reached the shore at dawn.
The old man went ashore and left. The boatman subconsciously watched him go. The old man was wearing a gray cloth robe and his steps were particularly brisk. He soon disappeared on the green path.
At dawn, the sky and the earth were all misty blue. The fisherman blinked hard and weighed the dozen copper coins in his hand before he confirmed that the manned night ferry was not an illusion. However, he still couldn't help wondering: "It really feels like I have met a god..."
When the "immortal" walked to the rising sun, he broke off a green lotus leaf, scooped up some cool spring water from the spring and drank it, then wiped the corners of his mouth with his sleeves, uttered a sigh of joy, then stood up, put his hands behind his back, and floated away to the south: "It's time to go to Jiangdu to keep my appointment..."
At this time in Jiangdu, flowers are in full bloom and people are bustling around, creating a bustling early summer scene in the south of the Yangtze River.
The Jiangdu Governor's Mansion has been quite noisy recently.
The provincial governors had already arrived and were now gathering in the front hall to discuss matters. They urged Wang Changshi to ask, "...May I ask when Envoy Chang will return?"
They all knew about what happened in Anzhou, so their questions at this moment sounded mostly concerned, without a trace of impatience.
The failure of Anzhou Cao Hongxuan and Huangzhou Sheng Baoming's execution brought a particularly heavy psychological trauma to the governors of Shuzhou and Guangzhou. If they had not woken up in time, I'm afraid their graves would have been built by now... No, if they died in this way, they wouldn't even have a grave.
In addition to the shadow, the Governor of Guangzhou also had a hidden passion in his heart - he would soon meet someone who was truly suitable to lead him in a rebellion, and the other party was so capable that he was quite looking forward to it.
In anticipation, the governor of Guangzhou also asked, "I wonder if the Jiedushi has already set off to return to Jiangdu?"
Just as Wang Changshi was about to speak, everyone suddenly heard hurried footsteps approaching from outside the hall, mixed with the faint sounds of many greetings.
A minor official came running over to deliver the message, and said with joy on his face: "The governor is back!"
Everyone in the hall was cheered up upon hearing this, and they quickly straightened their official robes and appearance, then turned around to look outside the hall.
At this time, a young man wearing the same official uniform was seen striding out of the hall with a happy look on his face.
When everyone looked closely, they saw that it was Yun Hui, the governor of Hezhou - this boy, although young, was very scheming!
And such an act of flattering the superiors, how could they...how could they fall behind a mere child!
Everyone followed quickly and rushed out of the hall.
This was the front yard of the governor's mansion. Chang Suining got off his horse outside the mansion and came directly here, so he was only a little slower than the messenger.
She separated from the army behind her and her itinerary was not disclosed to the outside world. Only Yao Ran, Wang Changshi and others knew about it. Yesterday afternoon, Yao Ran personally left Jiangdu City to greet them.
Chang Suining rested outside the city for a night. This morning, when the sky first brightened, he washed, bathed, packed his clothes, changed into the official robe of the governor brought by Yao Ran, and then set out to return to the city.
At this moment, everyone saw that the girl who was walking under the crowd was tall, had light steps, and a dazzling face. The governor's robe, which had never belonged to women, fit her very well, making her look high-spirited and giving her a layer of supreme light called power.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." She came closer and bowed slightly. She didn't act majestically, but instead had a hint of smile on her face.
The provincial governors raised their hands in haste to salute, and the voices rose and fell, but the girl who was walking with her hands behind her back did not stop.
They hurriedly and respectfully made way to both sides and followed her into the hall.
Chang Suining sat at the top of the hall, his posture casual and relaxed.
Everyone stood still below. Most of them were meeting Chang Suining for the first time, so they began to introduce themselves.
"Hezhou Governor Yun Hui!"
"Ban Run, the governor of Chuzhou!"
“…”
"Chuzhou Governor Shen Wenshuang..."
"Luzhou Governor Liang Tanzhi!"
And the one who followed Chang Suining back to Jiangdu: "Shenzhou Governor Ding Su!"
“…”
"——Meet the Jiedushi!"
After the provincial governors reported their names, they all bowed to the person in charge.
Good night everyone.
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