On May 15, 785, after nearly a month's journey, Zhao Ziliang arrived at Guazhou Wufeng Station under the protection of the escort army and the dragon guard.

The assassination incident that took place here a few years ago is still fresh in my memory, the remains of the two princesses Xinping and Zhiyun are still here, and Du Zongwu, the former general of the Dragon Guard Army and the current tomb guard, still takes a hundred Dragon Guards and twenty eunuchs and palace maids to guard the coffins of the two princesses again.

When Zhao Ziliang rode a horse and galloped from the eastern road with thousands of guards and dragon guards, Du Zongwu and the soldiers of the Dragon Guards who stayed here were already wearing polished armor and lined up on both sides of the road outside the post station to greet them.

"Law" Zhao Ziliang stopped at the gate of the post station, and the army behind him also stopped advancing, and the thick smoke and dust rushed straight into the sky, and the surrounding area was shrouded in dust trampled by the horse's hooves.

Du Zongwu and the soldiers who stayed behind saw that Zhao Ziliang, who was in his sixties, was still so vigorous, they all suppressed the shock in their hearts, and bowed down and shouted together: "Long live Your Majesty, long live!" ”

Zhao Ziliang jumped off his horse, walked up to Du Zongwu and asked, "Du Zongwu, are you ready to return to Xinjing?" ”

Du Zongwu said loudly: "Your Majesty, the minister received a notice five days ago, and he is ready to leave at any time!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was silent for a while, and said, "Get up, I want to go see them and lead the way!" ”

"Yes!" Du Zongwu got up according to his sword, and led the way in front with two soldiers, while Zhao Bei raised his hand in the back and waved in the direction of the post station, and the two columns of escorted Dragon Guard soldiers jumped off their horses and lined up in a queue to run into the post station neatly, and the security in the post station was quickly taken over by the Dragon Guard brought by Zhao Bei.

The basement of the inn. There are two crystal coffins in the middle, in order to preserve the remains, Zhao Ziliang ordered to seal the corpse with ice to prevent decay, and later transported the crystal coffin from Xinjing, only to use the crystal coffin for storage, but it is still sealed with ice, and the ice cubes of the cuboid are lying in Xinping and Zhiyun respectively, and the ice cubes are placed in the crystal coffin, and there is constantly cold air curling up around them, although the two have been dead for three years, they still look like when they were alive, and their faces are lifelike.

Zhao Ziliang stood between the two crystal coffins, his hands on the ice cubes and kept rubbing, looking obsessed and focused. Nie Sanniang is old, she can no longer travel long distances like before, and Zhao Ting is in Chang'an again, so Nie Sanniang did not come with her here, and stayed in Chang'an, Zhao Ziliang has no woman by his side, and his movement is more convenient, and he didn't even bring the royal carriage, and rode directly with the guards and the soldiers of the Dragon Guard.

As the people around him grew old and died one by one, Zhao Ziliang felt unprecedented loneliness, so he missed Xinping and Zhiyun Erren very much, and he couldn't help but let out a long sigh when he saw the two of them quietly sealed in the ice.

After a long time, Zhao Ziliang said to the others behind him: "Pass the decree, and set off in an hour!" ”

"Yes!"

After only staying at Wufeng Station for an hour, Zhao Ziliang took the coffins of the two princesses and set off to the west.

Ten days later, after arriving at Gaochang in Xizhou, the army did not advance to Tingzhou in the northwest, but turned southwest towards the town of Yanqi in Anxi. Zhang Xianfu, the general of the Anxi garrison, who got the news, had already led people to the junction of Xizhou and Yanqi Town to greet him.

Zhang Xianfu is the son of Zhang Shouqi, the younger brother of Zuo Wuwei, the general Zhang Shouqi, when he was young, he often marched and fought with his father and brothers, and accumulated a lot of credit, his two uncles Zhang Shou and Zhang Shouyu are famous generals, the Zhang family can be described as the family of the gate, Zhang Shou's reputation is the greatest among the three brothers of the Zhang family, and he is an ordinary soldier who has a white body on the border step by step to do the Youzhou Festival Envoy, which is simply a legend and myth, Zhang Shouyu and Zhang Shouqi are actually relying on their brother Zhang Shou to enter the army as a general. These three brothers have been dead for many years now, even Zhang Shou's son Zhang Xiancheng died of illness a few years ago, and only Zhang Shouyu's son Zhang Xiangong and Zhang Shouqi's son Zhang Xianfu are still alive in the second generation of the Zhang family.

Zhang Sancheng guarded the outside of the city, thousands of soldiers lined up on both sides of the road, flags fluttering, gongs and drums were noisy, Zhang Xianfu and the Anxi military and political dignitaries were looking forward to it. Zhao Ziliang has not been to Anxi for nearly 30 years, and it is no wonder that the military and political officials of Anxi have rushed from Guizi Town to Zhang Sancheng to guard and greet them.

"The ministers welcome the king to Anxi, Chitose, Chitose, Chitose!" The military and political officials of Anxi bowed down and chanted one after another, and the soldiers on both sides also knelt in an uproar, and everyone who came to greet them knelt on the ground.

"Zhuqing came all the way to greet you, it's hard work, let's all be even!" Zhao Ziliang jumped off the horse.

"King Xie!"

Under Zhang Xianfu's introduction, Zhao Ziliang and these Anxi military and political dignitaries knew each other one by one, some of them had higher official positions, Zhao Ziliang knew each other, but some people did not have high official positions and did not know each other.

After the greetings, because it was not early, Zhang Xianfu and others reported to Zhao Ziliang for approval, and they rested for one night in Zhang Sancheng before leaving for the camp of the assassin army.

There is no need to change the route to the camp of the Thorn Army, and then walk forty or fifty miles to the southwest to the north bank of the Danhe River, and go directly to the northwest along the Danhe River, and it takes four days to arrive at the camp of the Thorn Army at Yingsa River.

On 16 June, Hun, Gao Chongwen, and Fan Xichao threw hundreds of generals and officers to greet them outside the camp of the Assassin Army, while all the non-commissioned officers of the Assassin Army were already waiting in the camp.

It was another welcoming ceremony, Zhao Ziliang was already surprised, and said after the end: "First order the soldiers to disband and rest, the officials and soldiers who are alone and accompanying them also need to rest and eat on a long-distance march, and the review will start early tomorrow morning!" ”

"Yes, King!" Hun and the three agreed, they didn't expect that Zhao Ziliang came to review in person, they only received the notice a few days ago, and hurriedly prepared for Zhao Ziliang's coming, but there was always some haste, fortunately, the matter of eating and staying had been arranged.

The next day, the review officially began, and the subjects to be reviewed were mainly dozens of subjects such as military posture, military appearance, queue, phalanx, column, individual combat skills, individual tactics, coordinated combat tactics, cavalry cavalry, cavalry archery, cavalry combat, confrontation, and actual combat drills.

On the morning of the seventh day, the review had reached the final stage of actual combat drills, and on the point platform of the school field, Zhao Ziliang and all the generals and officials stood on it to watch.

After watching several actual combat drills in a row, Zhao Ziliang asked the generals around him: "I heard that Hun, Gao Chongwen and Fan Xichao called these soldiers the assassination army, so let's assassinate the army." Today is the seventh day of the review, and it has reached the final stage of actual combat drills, generals, you have also observed for seven days, what do you think of the quality of this piece of soldiers? ”

Zhang Xianfu said: "The king, the minister has seen some situations, these 55,000 people are divided into twenty groups of people, and the morale of the soldiers in each team is different, and the breath on their bodies is also different, it stands to reason that this situation should not occur, they are all refined in the same furnace, how can there be such a big difference?" ”

Liang Zhenwu, deputy commander of the Long Wei Army, said: "I think it is because they are prisoners, first of all, the sentences of these prisoners are different, some are death row prisoners, some are 20 years, some are 10 years, some are 5 years, some are 3 years, and even only a few months, if the sentence is more than 10 years or the death penalty, of course those people would like to be escorted here." However, those prisoners who only had a few months of prison were not happy, and many of them were about to be released from their cells at that time, but they were escorted here to serve in the army. ”

"Secondly, before they were imprisoned, these people had various identities, including scholars, hawkers, runners, housekeepers, farmers, hunters, river and ocean thieves, green forest bandits, and children of official eunuchs, people from all walks of life, only you can't think of it! Because these people have a different temperament because of the industry they were engaged in before they were imprisoned, it is difficult to completely eliminate them! ”

"Moreover, at the time of the exercise, all the prisoners were mixed together for training, and they were not grouped according to the length of their sentences, nor according to their previous occupations, nor according to their age, so this special phenomenon was created!"

After listening to Liang Zhenwu's analysis, all the generals and colonels talked in low voices, and some people heard him speak the truth, and they also felt that it was quite reasonable.

Zhao Ziliang listened thoughtfully on the side, and after watching it for a while, he instructed Zhao Bei: "Go and check, how many death row criminals, Jiangyang thieves, bandits, murderers, and how many hunters are among these, find out and report it!" ”

"Yes!"

At lunchtime, Zhao Bei reported to Zhao Ziliang; "My lord, I found that there were more than 3,600 death row prisoners, Jiangyang thieves, bandits, and murderers; There are more than sixty Orions! ”

Zhao Ziliang put down his chopsticks and stopped thinking for a moment, and instructed Hun, Gao Chongwen and Fan Xichao: "Tomorrow, all these people will be singled out and organized into a death camp, and Orion will be selected and organized into a scout camp, the number of people in this scout camp will be smaller, and then some people with good riding skills and clever skills will be selected from other people to add to it, and there will be three hundred people!" ”

The three agreed: "Yes!" ”

Zhao Ziliang instructed the attendants behind him: "Go and find Guo Xin and Duan Wei!" ”

"No!"

Guo Xin is Guo Ziyi's nephew, and he has reformed over the years, and he has some skills, so Guo Ziyi took him to Zhao Ziliang before he died and recommended him to Zhao Ziliang. Duan Wei is the son of Duan Xiushi, who has obtained the true inheritance of his father's spying, tracking, and reconnaissance.

The two quickly walked over and saluted Zhao Ziliang with their fists: "Meet the king!" ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "I have already told General Hun just now, some people from the assassination army will be transferred to form a death battalion and a scout battalion, Guo Xin will be the general of the death battalion, and Duan Wei will be the general of the scout battalion!" ”

The two agreed: "Yes!" ”