In the twelfth year of the Tang Dynasty, on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Chang'an, Li Shimin received a note from the eldest grandson Wuji, saying that Xue Yantuo was growing stronger and stronger, and had 200,000 troops.

Li Shimin had to pay attention to this letter, the 200,000 army was not a joke, so he summoned all the capable ministers to gather in the Liangyi Hall to discuss how to solve this problem.

For Xue Yantuo's question, the ministers have different opinions, the generals led by Cheng Yanjin and Hou Junji belong to the radical faction, they think that it is best to send troops directly to Xue Yantuo, and the ministers naturally do not agree, after all, the division is unknown, Xue Yantuo did not make any big mistakes, rashly sending troops, contrary to faith, so Li Shimin asked the ministers what the magic method was, but they couldn't think of any good ideas, so this matter fell into a dead loop, for three days, this matter has not yet been decided.

On the seventh day of the ninth lunar month, Li Hao's housekeeper Du Hong came to Ma Zhou's house to meet Ma Zhou after disguise, Ma Zhou happened to be at home to get the two seals that Li Hao gave him, thinking about the mystery, and heard that the housekeeper of Li Mansion was coming, and immediately met him.

Du Hong didn't dare to sit down after entering the living room, because Li Hao had taken care of him, and when he saw Ma Zhou and Master Ma, he must be extremely respectful and courteous, he was just a housekeeper, so he naturally didn't dare to sit down in front of Ma Zhou.

Du Hong bowed forward and handed over a letter, lowered his head, and said: "Master Ma, this is a letter entrusted by my master to the old slave to Master Ma before leaving, saying that if His Majesty asks about Xue Yantuo, he will let the old slave personally deliver this letter to Lord Ma." ”

Ma Zhou took the letter with both hands, opened the envelope, and unfolded the letterhead, there were only three words on it, but when he saw these three words, he was shocked, and saw that those three words were - "Tui En Order".

Ma Zhou was familiar with the history books, and naturally knew everything about the Tui'en order, which was the Han Dynasty when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered that the princes and kings be allowed to divide their fiefs to their sons in order to consolidate their power, and the vassal states became smaller and smaller, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took the opportunity to weaken its power.

Ma Zhou is a smart person, as soon as he sees the Tui En Order, he can extend a lot of ideas, gradually, the method of dealing with Xue Yantuo has taken shape in his mind, he put away the letter, looked at Du Hong with a smile, and asked: "Steward Du, how did Lord Li know six months ago that His Majesty would consult the ministers because of Xue Yantuo's matter, could he not know the prophet?" ”

Du Hong said: "Back to Lord Ma, my master has found that Xue Yantuo has been faintly sitting on the throne as early as last year, fearing that he will become a confidant of the Tang Dynasty, he thought hard for a long time, before he came up with this trick, but unfortunately my master is lowly and does not dare to trespass the play, he guesses that His Majesty is wise and wise, and will definitely find out that Xue Yantuo is a threat to the Tang Dynasty, so he left this letter before leaving, so that the old slave can be presented to Master Ma at the right time. ”

Ma Zhou heard the words for a long time, raised his eyebrows and asked: "Then if Your Majesty asks about this official, where did this idea come from, and how should this official answer?" ”

Du Hong said slowly: "The original words of my master are: 'Master Ma can take it as his own credit, or it can be said that he has discussed this matter with the poet maniac, but please don't mention this letter. ’”

Ma Zhou narrowed his eyes when he heard this, nodded and smiled lightly: "Poetry madness...... What a wonderful person, Steward Du rest assured, this official will not rob the poet of the merit, presumably ...... He also wants to rely on this credit to be transferred back to Chang'an. Ma Zhou was still very smart, and he guessed Li Hao's intentions at once.

"Thank you, Ma-sama." Du Hong bowed down and asked, "Master Ma, did Master Ma come up with the thing that the master entrusted the old slave to send last time?" ”

Ma Zhou sighed and shook his head when he heard this: "I don't have a clue yet." ”

Du Hong said respectfully: "Why don't Master Ma take it to the scientific research temple and ask the group of craftsmen in the scientific research temple?" ”

Ma Zhou was stunned when he heard this, and then suddenly he thought that this was something that Li Hao gave him, but it turned out to be related to the scientific research temple, but he really couldn't think of it, let the craftsmen of the scientific research temple study what to do with the seal, and if he couldn't think of it, he didn't want to, anyway, this is not his specialty, so he nodded and said: "Okay, thank you for reminding me, this official will bring those two seals to the scientific research temple tomorrow, so that the craftsmen can refer to them carefully." ”

"Master Ma is wise." Du Hong bowed his hand and said, "If Master Ma has nothing else to do, the old slave will retire first." ”

Ma Zhou nodded and shouted towards the door, "Steward Qin, send Steward Du." "His housekeeper's surname is Qin, and it is really a bit too polite to let his own housekeeper give someone else's housekeeper.

Du Hong was flattered and said: "Master Ma has tormented the old slave, the old slave can't afford it, the old slave will leave on his own, and there is no need to bother to send him off." With that, he bowed and exited the living room.

In the afternoon of the same day, Ma Zhou wrote a letter of recital, and in the evening he entered the Taiji Palace with a recital to ask to see Li Shimin.

Until the early morning of the next day, all matters were agreed, Li Shimin was excited, without the slightest sleep, he left Ma Zhou, let the other ministers retreat, and then walked down the hall to ask Ma Zhou: "Ma Qing, although it is said that the Tui En Order has been in place since ancient times, but I and the ministers of the court have not thought of it, how can you think of it." ”

Seeing that Li Shimin finally asked, Ma Zhou said respectfully: "Back to Your Majesty, in fact, this is not Weichen's idea, but Li Shifang's idea." ”

"Poetic maniac?" Li Shimin was stunned when he heard this, a little confused, frowned and asked suspiciously, "Didn't the poet go to Tingzhou a long time ago, how did this become his idea again?" ”

Ma Zhoudao: "Your Majesty doesn't know, Xue Yantuo is getting stronger and stronger, the poetry madness has long been in his eyes, last year he told Weichen that Xue Yantuo was afraid of becoming a big trouble in the Tang Dynasty, when Weichen asked him if he had a wonderful way to deal with it, he told Weichen that it is most appropriate to use the Tui En Order, and it will not take a single soldier to disintegrate Xue Yantuo's power, so that it will not stop fighting, and what I want to do in Datang is to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight." ”

"Is it really a poetic maniac?" Li Shimin looked at Ma Zhou with wide eyes, seemingly a little excited.

Ma Zhou bowed: "Weichen doesn't dare to bully the king, he is indeed a poetic maniac." ”

Li Shimin's expression changed several times, and he suddenly raised his head and sighed: "The poetry madness is really my Tang Dynasty hero." ”

Ma Zhou also echoed when he heard this: "Your Majesty, Weichen also thinks that Li Shifang is indeed a rare genius in a hundred years. ”

Li Shimin nodded and said: "You are not bad, if you don't come up with a clever plan in time this time, I don't know when I will be able to come up with such a perfect strategy, this time, I have written it down for you, you should retreat first." ”

"Your Majesty, Weichen retires." Ma Zhou kowtowed and left the Manna Palace.

After sending Ma Zhou away, Li Shimin walked out of the Ganlu Hall slowly, and Xu Lian bowed slightly and followed behind him unhurriedly.

At this moment, the sky is about to brighten, the eastern sky has faintly turned red, and the stars in the sky have begun to fade, Li Shimin looked at the eastern red, was silent for a long time, and sighed leisurely: "Xu Lian, you say...... I ...... to Li Hao Isn't it too much. ”

Xu Lian thought for a while and replied: "What Your Majesty did was all for the sake of the country. ”

"You're right." Li Shimin paced slowly with his hands in his hands, and said as he walked, "Li Hao is a good seedling, I have seen from him all kinds of talents that many important officials of the court do not have, to be honest, I admire him very much......"

He paused, then suddenly shook his head and sighed: "It's a pity, I can use him, but I don't dare to leave him to Cheng Qian, although Li Hao has great talent, but his temperament is perverse, it is difficult to control, even I am difficult to figure out his thoughts, Cheng Qian and him have a holiday, I am afraid that after I return to heaven, Cheng Qian will not be able to control him." ”

Xu Lian didn't open his mouth very familiarly, it was about the prince and Li Hao, he couldn't express his opinion, otherwise he was only afraid of getting into trouble.

Seeing that Xu Lian didn't express his opinion, Li Shimin also guessed what he was afraid of, sighed again, held on to the stone railing, turned to face the northwest direction, and said slowly: "I can only wronged him first, and I hope he won't disappoint me." ”

That afternoon, Li Shimin made up for more than two hours, and as soon as he got up, Xu Lian hurriedly went in and bowed: "Your Majesty, the secret agent of Yinyuan has a secret report to submit." As he spoke, he handed over a letter.

"Where?" Li Shimin asked casually.

Xu Lian replied: "About Li Hao." ”

Li Shimin was suddenly excited, hurriedly stepped forward to take it, tore open the envelope and looked at it at a glance, the letter was sent from Xizhou, and it was sent to Chang'an by horse, which lasted nearly a month.

It records what Li Hao did all the way, for example, along the way, Li Hao talked about going back to Chang'an every day, and Li Hao fell into the trap of horse thieves in the Longmen Inn, Li Hao took more than 30 people to enter the ancient city of Loulan, the nest of horse thieves, in order to save people, and Li Hao slaughtered the horse thieves and obtained a huge amount of gold, silver and jewelry, but all of them were scattered to the soldiers, and then Li Hao was robbed by horse thieves twice, and the enemy leader admitted that it was the Gaochang army, and Li Hao slaughtered all the prisoners.

After Li Shimin read it, he felt uneasy for a long time, what Li Hao did all the way made him very satisfied, slaughtering the prisoners? Hehe, Li Shimin thinks that Li Hao killed well, and those sluts in Gaochang should be killed! You know, he's also a grumpy.

But he can only think about this kind of thing in his heart, and he can't say it, otherwise those civil officials in the DPRK and China, who are full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, will criticize him again.

After Li Shimin closed the letter, he paced back and forth in the room, thoughtfully, he had just praised Li Hao early this morning, and now he suddenly wanted to praise again, although he had already said that Li Haoyun was a civil and military all-rounder, but now I still want to say it again, thirty people against five hundred horse thieves, what kind of scene is this, even when he was young, he did not have such courage, so he could not accept it.

Li Shimin pondered for a long time, and suddenly turned around and said: "Spread my will, Tingzhou assassin Li Hao, on the way to the post many times to suppress bandits, restore his Lantian County barony and feudal household, and promote him to the rank of guerrilla general from the fifth grade, and awarded the rank of military cavalry lieutenant from the seventh grade." ”

This is for Li Hao's promotion, before Li Hao was the Zhaowu captain of the sixth grade, and now he is a guerrilla general from the fifth grade, this official promotion is of little significance, after all, it is a loose title, and it is also a martial arts rank, but it is quite good to award the military cavalry captain.

Tang Dynasty military attaché commander has a total of 12 turns, a turn to the lowest military cavalry lieutenant, 12 turns to the highest in the pillar country, the military cavalry lieutenant is from the seventh grade, the upper pillar country is regarded as the second grade, the commander wants to upgrade is very difficult, every turn has to have a real merit, one level at a time, unless there is a very, very big merit, in order to skip a grade, and at most can only jump one level, in fact, to say the role, there is no big effect, and the modern military rank is a bit similar, a symbol of honor.

After Li Shimin finished speaking, he felt that his reward was still not enough, thought about it, and said: "Spread my will again, and take Tang Zheng to lead 800 right guards with the right guard, escort 3,000 armaments, and go to Tingzhou." ”

The imperial court has never sent armaments to Xizhou and Tingzhou, but Li Shimin made an exception this time, he has only one purpose, to protect Li Hao, sending armaments is just a reason, in fact, he wants to send eight hundred right guards to Tingzhou to protect Li Hao, after all, Tingzhou is too dangerous, he is afraid that five hundred right guards will be difficult to protect Li Hao.