Before Pei Xingjian left, Li Hong called him, Heichi Changzhi and Xue Rengui to a unique courtyard in Qiuci again.
He gave each of the three people a package of things, and then said with a smile: "No drinking in the army, this is an iron rule, but if you take Shule City, I can allow you to drink once. Here are the pig's trotters and pig ears, all ready, this is the best dish to go with the wine."
The three men now believed Li Hong's words without a doubt. After Li Hong arrived on the first day, he tricked them. On the second day, Xue Rengui caught a live wild boar early in the morning.
The wild boar's screams reached the sky, and I'm afraid that no one in the entire Qiuci City slept well.
Li Hong was even more depressed and scolded General Xue with a dark face, but he finally stewed the wild boar after noon.
So within just a few days, the screams of wild boars could be heard from time to time in every corner of the barracks, and as killing wild boars became popular in the army, the name "pig-killing dish" was given to them.
The wild boars nearby seemed to have noticed this group of people and had taken a liking to their flesh, so they began to hide during the day and come out at night. But even so, many wild boars still could not escape their fate.
Pei Xingjian took the pork head and other cold dishes handed to him by Li Hong, and bowed deeply to Li Hong together with Xue Rengui and Heichi Changzhi, and said first: "Your Highness, I, Pei Xingjian, would like to thank you for making the pig-killing dish for the soldiers. With this simple and easy-to-make meal, not only can the soldiers have a full meal in the snow, but they can also have a hot meal. I would like to thank your Highness for loving the soldiers like your own sons, and for your kindness and love."
"It's useless to say all this. You should think about how to take back Shule in the shortest possible time. If you fail to take back Shule before the New Year's Day, the three of you should just go back to Chang'an. Then I, Li Hong, will clean up the mess for you." Li Hong was the first to sit down in the bare little garden, and then motioned the other three to sit down at the same time.
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"I and my men will live up to your mission and will recapture Shule before New Year's Day. If we fail, I will allow the Grand Protector to deal with me as he pleases." Pei Xingjian signed the military order before sitting down opposite Li Hong.
Xue Rengui's 70,000 troops are still stationed outside Shule City. In Qiuci, there are only Pei Xingjian and Heichi Changzhi's troops.
Li Hong did not let them leave behind any soldiers, but forced them to take away all the troops. Naturally, the entire Qiuci was left with only the 21,000 people that Li Hong led this time.
Pei Xingjian was very worried that this amount of troops would not be able to resist the cavalry of Ashina Duzhi who came and went without a trace, not to mention whether they could defend Qiuci before the New Year's Day.
But no matter what the three men said, Li Hong shook his head and disagreed with them leaving some troops behind to help him guard Qiuci.
Seeing the three people's puzzled eyes, Li Hong looked at Heichi Changzhi and said, "Heichi, do you remember the crossbow I showed you when we first met?"
"Of course I remember it." Heichi Changzhi stood up and replied.
"That's it. With him here, Qiuci will not be lost, and I promise that they will never return." Seeing Pei Xingjian about to speak, Li Hong stopped him and continued, "I understand what you mean. Don't worry, I will never lead the troops out of Qiuci to attack them for the sake of military merit. My mission is to protect Qiuci from being taken away for you before you return on New Year's Day."
Seeing that Pei Xingjian was still in a dilemma, Li Hong sighed and continued, "Go, General Pei, don't worry. Qiuci is with me, Li Hong, as long as the people are in the city."
Seeing Li Hong's eyes suddenly become resolute, Pei Xingjian, Xue Rengui and Heichi Changzhi looked at each other and nodded silently.
They didn't know why, but looking at Li Hong's determined expression, they believed from the bottom of their hearts that the Crown Prince, who always did not play by the rules in Chang'an, could really defend Qiuci, which was being coveted by Ashina Duzhi, with the help of 20,000 men.
On the second day, Pei Xingjian led Xue Rengui and Heichi Changzhi and began to march towards Shule. Li Hong, after holding a simple departure ceremony for them outside the city, hurried back to Qiuci.
It is now the cold winter, and due to natural disasters, all food is scarce in Yunzhong this year. Fortunately, the Tang Dynasty is now wealthy, and a large amount of grain has been transported from the south to Luoyang, and then transferred to Yunzhong and other places.
Therefore, after eating and drinking their fill, the Eastern Turkic people in Yunzhong had only one great thing left to do on the cold grassland: to have children while hiding in their tents.
Ashina Duzhi was also affected by the natural disaster and the wolf pack. Because the route for transporting food was too long, they rebelled before the food was delivered to them.
Therefore, Pei Xingjian had no choice but to give up Shule at that time and rush to Qiuci to guard it overnight.
Now that Pei Xingjian has fled to Qiuci, Ashina Duzhi, who has been watching from the side, feels that there is an opportunity. If they can seize Qiuci, it will not only provide Ashina Duzhi with a stronghold.
At the same time, it can continue to shake the influence of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions, and make the Tang Dynasty unable to take care of itself and have difficulty in moving forward in the gap between their Ashina Duzhi and Tubo in the south.
"Have Ming Chongyan and Du Yuanji arrived?" After returning to his Protectorate, Li Hong first asked Fang Zhan and Heng Qiao who had rushed over this morning.
"We arrived in Menyuan Town half a month ago." Fang Zhan replied respectfully.
"What was the result?"
"This is a letter from Ming Chongyan to you, asking me to tell you that the stone from Qilian Mountain is perfectly suitable for making cement, and is even more suitable than some stones from the Central Plains." Heng Qiao handed the letter to Li Hong and said.
Li Hong nodded silently. Just kidding. Qilian Mountain cement was famous in the previous life. It would be strange if the minerals from Qilian Mountain were not suitable for making cement.
"Tell them to hurry up. Menyuan is located inside Yumen Pass and borders Tuyuhun occupied by Tubo. I have asked my father for permission to send heavy troops to guard this town. Let them work without worry." Li Hong put down the letter in his hand and said lightly.
Fang Zhan and Heng Qiao bowed in response.
Li Hong's idea was simple. The Western Regions had stones, and now they had cement that could be delivered within ten days. So he could improve the defense of the Western Regions during Pei Xingjian's campaign and build the four towns of Anxi into four huge castles! The huge barracks would become an insurmountable obstacle like the Qilian Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains.
Li Hong thought for a moment and continued, "Heng Qiao will hold on to the Tubo area, and any news must be sent to Qiuci as soon as possible. Fang Zhan, you need to sneak into Ashina Duzhi and find out where they usually live on the grassland. If Jingwei is short of manpower, you can go directly to Bai Chun, she will support you."
"Then... beheading..." Fang Zhan thought for a while and continued to ask.
"Beheadings must be done. Although this cannot stop Tubo from continuing to invade us, it can delay them. After killing their general Zhang San, they will also find Li Si to lead the troops to fight. However, as long as there are enough assassinations, their generals will become more and more stupid. After all, no one can have many outstanding generals who are good at fighting and keep them at home like herding sheep, right?" Li Hong explained to them with a smile.
"Yes, I understand. We need to consume them and fundamentally weaken their combat capability. As long as we can successfully assassinate outstanding generals, it means that their strength will be weakened by us." Heng Qiao looked at Li Hong with shining eyes.
Now that "Myth" and "Jingwei" have merged, the assassination power of "Myth" is like a myth. After being incorporated into "Jingwei", it has not done anything and has not yet demonstrated its terrifying power.
Now that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has finally agreed, it is time for Heng Qiao to show his skills.
There has been a lot of good weather this winter. Pei Xingjian and others have been on the road for three or four days. Li Hong really has nothing to do in Qiuci City. He reports to the Protectorate every day as if he were at work, and then, accompanied by Xia Zhi and others, he inspects the city defenses of Qiuci City.
The people of Qiuci were full of doubts about the new general. No one believed that he could defend Qiuci with such a small number of troops. Some people had even begun to secretly prepare to defect to Ashina Duzhi.
There are also many wealthy families in Qiuci City who have lived here for generations. Although they cannot be of much help to Li Hong in the city’s defense, it would be a good thing if they could help him calm the people’s hearts.
Li Hong held the list in his hand. In this small town with a population of about 40,000 to 50,000, there were more than a dozen prestigious families or wealthy households, and none of them did not start out as businesses. Each family had a minimum of dozens of guards, and some even had three to five hundred.
When they were wondering whether this unstable power should be confiscated by them, the sound of an arrow that pierced the sky suddenly rang out over the city of Kucha from the direction of the north gate.
"Let's go and take a look." Li Hong pulled the warhorse from Mangzhong's hand, quickly turned the horse's head, jumped on it, and galloped towards the north gate tower like lightning.
Behind him, Hua Meng, Mang Zhong, Xiao Xue, Xia Zhi, Ban Mei and Xun Lan also jumped on their horses and ran closely towards the city wall.
The city wall built with rammed earth was not very high, and could just barely stop Ashina Duzhi's warhorse from jumping in. The moat outside the city had already frozen, so the horses didn't have to worry about being crushed if they stepped on it.
"What's going on?" Li Hongfei dismounted and looked at Quan Yi on the city wall, who was holding a telescope and looking outside the city, and asked loudly.
"Grand Protector, look." Quan Yi handed the telescope to Li Hong.
Li Hong did not reach out to take it. In the distance, on the horizon covered with wild grass, a cloud of smoke and dust like a huge dark cloud in the summer sky spread and flew up over the withered grass.
"Ashina Duzhi really knows how to pick the right time. Do you really think that I, the crown prince of the Tang Dynasty, am made of clay and easier to bully than Pei Xingjian?" Li Hong squinted his eyes and watched the rolling yellow fog covering the sky and the sun as it shrouded Qiuci. A sly look flashed in his eyes, and he said, "Deploy sniper bows and crossbows."
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