Xue Shao garrisoned Taozhou to watch the movement of Tibet. Shortly after returning to Qinghai, there was no major action except for the reorganization of soldiers and horses. The soldiers and horses on both sides temporarily pressed down, like two fierce beasts that had just exhausted their strength after a life-and-death fight, each squatting in a corner to recover their strength and lick their wounds, while both glaring at each other coldly.

Lou Shide said that neither the Han nor the Tibetan people could let the corpses rot or be devoured by wild beasts. Respect for the dead aside, this can lead to a plague.

So when he left Liangzhou, Xue Shao left Lou Shide and Zhang Qianqiao to guard the aftermath of Liangzhou, and sent them tens of thousands of manpower to collect the remains of the fallen soldiers of the Zhou army and bury them. The corpses of the Tibetan people will be cremated. If the Great Zhou and Tubo really reconcile in the future, these ashes will be sent back to the plateau.

After arriving in Taozhou, Xue Shao finally had time to collect the remains of the soldiers who died on several lines of defense. Every time the Garqin Mausoleum occupied a defensive line, they sent people to hastily clean up the corpses. Some were burned, and some were piled together and covered with a thin layer of soil. There are also some scattered all over the Russell Dry Mountain, rotting or being crushed by wild beasts.

For soldiers, collecting the bodies of their robes is always a cruel and sadistic thing.

Therefore, in recent days, there have been many cries at the foot of Russell Khan. The paper money that spreads all over the mountains is about to dye the whole mountain white. Some of the corpses were already decomposed and unrecognizable, so they had to be cremated and divided into urns and ashes, and distributed to those who were alive to bring their brothers' "bones" back to their hometowns.

There is a group of wounded soldiers in Helong, about one or two thousand, and they will return to their hometown ahead of schedule with a batch of ashes.

Xue Shao personally came to see them off.

Some were standing, some were on crutches, and some were being carried. In the same way, each of them carried several urns containing their countrymen, or fathers and sons.

Xue Shao stood in front of them, not knowing what to say.

More than a thousand wounded soldiers also looked at him quietly, and no one spoke.

"Brothers, I'm ......" Xue Shao swallowed for a moment and smiled self-deprecatingly, "I'm sorry for you!" ”

"Xue Shuai, you didn't feel sorry for us." One of the wounded men standing at the front said loudly, "We all came voluntarily, and we swore when we came. Life or death, fight to the end! ”

"Yes." The wounded soldiers agreed, "Life or death, bloody battle to the end!" ”

Xue Shao glanced at him, an elderly man in his fifties, with gray hair and beard, his left arm was missing and he was wrapped up, and he was holding a cloth bag in his right hand, which contained four ash jars.

Xue Shao walked up to him, "Old man, who did you bring back to your hometown?" ”

"My three sons, and a little rabbit next door. They all died in the second line of defense on Mount Russell Khan. The old man's voice was hoarse, and he said, "I don't know if I've found the right person, it's so rotten that I can't recognize it." Anyway, it's all burned to a ball, and I can bring some back with me. ”

"......" Xue Shao's eyebrows were furrowed, and he felt very sad in his heart, and said softly: "Is there anyone else in your family?" ”

"The daughter-in-law ran to death, and there was still an old woman who had been blind for many years. With two grandchildren, one is three years old and one is one year old. The old man said, "No, it's not dead!" ――In more than ten years, there will be people in our family who will be able to follow Xue Shuai into battle again! ”

Xue Shao didn't know what to say, and habitually wanted to pat him on the shoulder to show comfort, but found that his arm was half of his shoulder gone. So he changed his hand and gently patted his shoulder on the other side, "After returning to my hometown, I received a pension and lived a good life with my wife and grandson." If there is a difficulty, they will appeal to the government and ask for help. Di Gong was a good official, and the yamen at all levels under the Lingzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion under his rule were also trustworthy. Someone will help you. ”

"Okay." The old man answered, and then said: "Xue Shuai, I haven't read and I don't have much knowledge, I have something I want to ask you for." This is also something that many people want to ask. ”

"What's the matter, please tell me."

The old man said, "When a person dies, can the soul fly?" ”

When he asked, many of the wounded next to him also nodded or agreed, "Yes, we want to know too!" ”

Xue Shao looked around, a little puzzled, "Why do you have a question?" ”

The old man said: "My youngest son was going into battle that day, and like his two older brothers, who had already died in battle, he went to guard the second line of defense. As he was leaving, he said to me, "Dad, if I die in battle, you don't go into battle again, you have to collect our bodies and take us home." After you go back, you will tell your mother that in the first seven days after the burial, our brothers and sisters will go home to visit the second elder. Remember to prepare three bowls of rice wine, light incense candles and burn some money. If you have money, you can buy a chicken stew for our brothers to eat, and if you don't have it, you can use straw paper to tie one and burn it. ”

Xue Shao felt very uncomfortable when he heard this, "Then what do you say?" ”

"I said, my home is hundreds of miles away from here, can you go back in seven days?" The old man said, "My youngest son said that when a person dies, he doesn't have to walk anymore, and his soul can fly." I called him stupid and said what if he couldn't fly? He said, then our brothers will walk back slowly, we can always get home in May and Seven, and we want to eat chicken anyway! ”

Xue Shao's eyes turned red all of a sudden, and he said loudly: "I can fly, and my soul can fly if I can walk!" ”

"Then I'll be relieved." The old man grinned, lifted the cloth bag on his shoulder, and hugged the urn tightly.

Xue Shao said: "Wherever you go with their ashes, they will follow." When you return to your hometown, remember to let them settle down. ”

The old man nodded and said loudly, "Folks, let's go!" We lead the way in front, and the boy returns to his hometown and settles into the ground! ”

"The boy returns to his hometown and settles in the ground!"

A group of wounded soldiers shouted, scattered paper money, and slowly walked forward.

"Life or death, fight to the end!"

"The boy returns to his hometown and settles into the soil for ......"

Xue Shao couldn't stay any longer, so he rode his horse alone and fled from this place quickly.

But man is just a kind of cheap animal, and the more things he avoids in his heart, he can't help but pay attention to them. After riding his horse in a circle, Xue Shao stood on a hillside a little farther away, watching the remnants of the group walk away slowly.

Tears had long blurred his vision.

"When will there be no war in this world?"

A few days later.

The imperial court sent Xue Shao an urgent "empress secret order" of 600 miles.

It is not very accurate to say that it is an order, it is more like Wu Zetian is "chatting remotely" with Xue Shao. Wu Zetian told Xue Shao that Tubo Zampu had officially sent an envoy for peace talks and was about to arrive in the Shendu soon. If there is a civil war in Tibet, "Aiqing can act with a camera". However, it is necessary to eradicate the Garqin Mausoleum, otherwise there will be endless troubles after the tiger returns to the mountain.

The arrival of this secret order made Xue Shao feel a little relieved, in addition to reaching a consensus on the major matter of "eradicating the Garqin Mausoleum", the empress also told Xue Shao that there were people in the court who slandered Xue Shao, and the empress had already "dealt with" it.

She only gave one example, Wenchang's left minister Wei Wang Wu Chenghei has been reduced to his official post and only retains the prince, and he can no longer participate in state politics in the future.

What made Xue Shao happy was not that the disgusting Wu Chengsi had been cut, such a thing had happened many times, and it wouldn't take long for him to jump out again after being beaten, and Xue Shao was about to be numb to this. What is really gratifying to Xue Shao is that he led his troops to fight desperately outside, not asking the people to praise and go down in history, but he will not be cunning rabbits and dead lackeys, and birds will be good bows.

Even if the villain demolishes the stage, the king still does not suspect it, and the wish of the general is enough!

Xue Shao personally took up the pen and wrote a return report to the imperial court. This time, of course, it was good news, saying that the Garqinling had been expelled to recover Taozhou, and that it would soon march into Qinghai for a bloody vengeance.

First and then raised, it is often more effective to "slap the face". This was not something that Xue Shao did on purpose, but he knew that Wu Zetian definitely needed such an effect.

From taking the initiative to recover the Western Regions, which led to the dispute with Tibet, to the later "change of commanders", these are all Wu Zetian's ideas. After losing Taozhou in seven battles and seven defeats before, there will definitely be a lot of opposition voices in the court, and the pressure on Wu Zetian is not small. Now that the war has been reversed, Wu Zetian can raise his eyebrows again and erect a taller image of the Holy Monarch.

Politics without the military is a castle in the air, and the military without politics is a headless snake. Xue Shao felt that the cooperation between himself and Wu Zetian was indeed becoming more and more tacit.

After a few more days, Xue Shao's army was almost rested, and the vitality lost in the previous bloody battle in Liangzhou had basically recovered. Compared with when he first arrived, Xue Shao's troops have been sharply reduced from 150,000 to about 100,000, but their combat effectiveness has definitely increased by several steps.

There is nothing like actual combat to make an army grow rapidly, especially when the opponent is a plateau tiger like the Garchinling.

At this time, important information came from the plateau. There, a major event occurred that was enough to affect the century-old national fortunes of the Tubo Dynasty and the historical course of the entire nation.

After the Zanpu crossbow sent envoys to Da Zhou to prepare for peace talks, the news of Da Zhou's request to "hand over the war criminal Garqin Mausoleum" spread far and wide.

Previously, the crossbow had already executed the important minister of the Tubo family, Garzan Gongton, which directly forced Garqinling to lead an expedition to avoid disaster and seek merit. Now Zampu's butcher's knife seems to have been set on the head of the Garqin Tomb, which has caused great panic and anger in the Gar family.

Gar Siduo, who was also a member of the Tubo Dynasty and a general of the Tibetan Dynasty, organized many ministers and clansmen of the Gar family to rise up to fight. The current Zampu crossbow in Tibet is a young man in his twenties, who rules the country with an iron fist. There are also many people in the country who support him, otherwise he would not be able to defeat such an important minister as Garzan Gongtun, and it would be impossible for him to force Garqinling to go out to avoid trouble and seek merit.

The crossbow was able to withstand Si Yu's provocation, and in a fit of rage, he caught him and slashed him. Then he didn't stop doing anything, and cut down nearly 2,000 people from the men, women, and children of the Gar family!

At this point, the Garda Lun family, which had been in power for nearly 70 years in the Tubo Dynasty, disappeared almost overnight on the plateau.

Only the lone army of Garqinling remained, still entrenched in Qinghai.

After cutting down Siduo Yu and others, the young Tubo Zampu personally raised an army of 300,000 and drove forward to conquer the "rebellious" Garqin Mausoleum.

The news on the plateau was difficult to understand, and when Xue Shao learned this information, Zampu's army was already not too far from Qinghai. Zampu has eliminated the Ga family and held the power of the entire dynasty, and now he wants to kill the Garqin Mausoleum, obviously to cut the grass and eradicate the roots.

The rabbit died and the fox was sad, and Xue Shao sighed.

As an enemy of the Garqin Mausoleum, Xue Shao knew him better. In fact, up to now, the Garqin Mausoleum has not done anything to betray Zampu and Tibet. But there is no excuse for wanting to add sin, Zampu says that he is a rebel, then he is a rebel!

Xue Shao couldn't help but think, in a few decades, will my Xue family be like this?!