After five years of separation, when he saw Su Lie again, Yang Yuanqingjing had a feeling that he was separated from him only yesterday.

He turned over and dismounted, and hugged him tightly with a smile, Yang Yuanqing looked at him again, he hadn't seen him for five years, he actually grew taller again, but he was still a head shorter than himself, Yang Yuanqing suddenly realized that he had also grown taller.

"Su boy, what have you been doing at home for five years? How many sons did you have? Yang Yuanqing smiled and punched him in the shoulder.

Su Lie scratched his head embarrassedly, "I have been practicing martial arts at home for five years, and I always think that this arrow is much worse than yours, but the more I shoot, the more I have no confidence, I don't dare to come out, I haven't gotten married yet, where is my son?" ”

"The improvement of martial arts depends on experience, how to do it behind closed doors at home, how, would you like to follow me to the Western Regions?" Yang Yuanqing warmly invited him.

Su Lie's eyes shot a light of expectation, he had been at home for five years, practicing martial arts hard, in terms of sword skills, he thought that he could enter the top three, but in archery he was always inferior to Yang Yuanqing, at least in the practice of iron arrows, he did not succeed, but he couldn't wait, the blood in his chest was boiling.

"I'm willing to go with you!"

"Good!" Yang Yuanqing patted him on the shoulder and introduced him to the iron guard behind him, "This is my nine brothers, we live and die together, you already know Dalang, this is from Erlang to Jiulang." ”

Su Lie bowed to everyone one by one, and at this time, he saw Pei Ju, Pei Ju's leisurely expression made him awe-inspired, "Yuanqing, who is this old gentleman?" ”

"This is Pei Xiangguo, and my grandfather-in-law!"

Yang Yuanqing introduced Su Lie to Pei Ju again, Pei Ju squinted and smiled: "Another heroic young man, junior brother Su, I am looking forward to your performance in the Western Regions." ”

"Back to Xiangguo, Su Lie will follow Brother Yuanqing to open up territory for the Great Sui and make contributions!"

Pei Ju nodded, "Very good, I'm looking forward to it!" ”

"Everyone's hungry!"

Yang Yuanqing smiled at the crowd: "Since we have come to the wine shop, let's eat first, and then hurry." ”

Several of the guards were already hungry, and the young master gave the order, and they rushed to the liquor store.

The Great Sui Dynasty's control of the Western Regions was mainly concentrated in the Hehuang Valley and the Hexi Corridor, bounded by the traditional Yumen Pass, with Dunhuang County at its westernmost point.

Ten years later, Yang Yuanqing and Pei Ju and his entourage arrived at Zhangye County, Zhangye is the ruling center of the Great Sui Dynasty in the Western Regions, there are more than 5,000 garrisons, the reason why Zhangye became the center of the Great Sui in the Western Regions, on the one hand, is that its geographical location is extremely important, extending in all directions, along the weak water can reach Juyanze, is the main road to the Mobei grassland, to the south can enter the Hehuang Valley through the Great Dou Ba Valley, on the other hand, Zhangye is also the horse breeding place of the Great Sui, in the grassland around Zhangye and Wuwei, there are more than 400,000 war horses.

Pei Ju arrived in Zhangye, Zhangye Taishou Li Gang came out from afar, Li Gang was the original military officer of the military department, in that martial arts case, the military department was purged by Yang Guang, only the waiter Li Gang and Wang Shichong, the staff of the waiter, were spared, but they were also transferred out of the military department, Li Gang was appointed as Zhangye Cheng, last year he was promoted to Zhangye Taishou, Wang Shichong was appointed as the deputy palace supervisor of Jiangdu Palace, and was promoted to Jiangdu County Cheng because of the excellent reception of Yang Guang, and at the same time Jiangdu Palace Supervisor.

Li Gang did not participate in the fraud in the martial arts case, he was very innocent, but he was the chief examiner, and he had the main responsibility that cannot be shirked, although he was the master of the crown prince Yang Yong, and the official prince washed the horse, but the emperor Yang Guang still valued his talent very much, and was repeatedly degraded, repeatedly promoted, because of the martial arts case, he was demoted to the Western Regions, and soon promoted him to the Taishou, "Humble Li Gang see Pei Xiangguo!" ”

Li Gang greeted ten miles away, smiled and saluted Pei Ju, Pei Ju and Li Gang are the same age, and have a very good personal relationship, Li Gang was promoted to Taishou last year, which is the result of Pei Ju's strong recommendation.

Pei Ju got off the horse and hugged him with a smile, and introduced Yang Yuanqing to him, "Li Yuanjun, you and Yuanqing should have known each other for a long time, he is now my grandson-in-law, and the previous things are on my face, so let's expose them!" ”

Li Gang and Yang Yuanqing didn't have a big feud, Bi Jing did have a serious problem with martial arts at the beginning, so serious that he himself was angry about it, but Li Gang had a deep personal enmity with Yang Yuanqing's grandfather Yang Su, although Pei Ju hoped that they would reconcile, but Li Gang still had a grudge against Yang Su, and he couldn't be affectionate with Yang Yuanqing.

Li Gang had already received the order of the imperial court, knowing that Yang Yuanqing was burdened with heavy responsibilities, and he would not slack off in official affairs, he saluted Yang Yuanqing and said lightly: "General Yang has a heavy responsibility, and Li Gang will do his best to help." ”

Pei Ju felt the coldness in his tone, and knew that he still couldn't let go, so he had to sigh secretly.

Yang Yuanqing didn't care, he smiled and saluted back: "This time, I will serve as the ambassador of the Yumen Road march, control the two counties of Zhangye and Dunhuang, and rely on Li Yuanjun to help me in logistics, and on the day of triumph, I will repay Li Yuanjun." ”

"Thank you, General Yang!"

Li Gang also introduced Zhang Ye's army commander to him, Qu Tutong, the governor of Ganzhou, and Wang Wei, the deputy governor, Qu Tutong is also an old minister, in his early fifties this year, and his qualifications are much older than Yang Yuanqing, not only the governor of Ganzhou, but also the pillar country.

Even the deputy manager Wang Wei has been in the office for thirty years, although his reputation is not obvious, but his qualifications have survived to the level of Yinqing Guanglu Doctor, despite this, this time, Qu Tutong has to be controlled by Yang Yuanqing, which makes him really unhappy in his heart.

The crowd entered one by one, entered Zhangye City, the crowd sat down in the council hall of the governor's mansion, Qu Tutong ordered to hang out a map, he pointed to a circle around Zhangye with a wooden pole and said: "Zhangye has 5,000 garrisons, but they are all distributed in various dangerous passes, there are 1,000 garrisons in Juyanze Datong City, 1,000 garrisons in Dadou Bagu, and garrisons in Yanzhi Mountain, Ganjun Mountain and Fulu County in the north, especially to guard against Qiang and Tuyuhun collusion, if the force is too small, Tuyuhun will inevitably plot against Qiang and seek to the west of my river, Qu Tutong shouldered the heavy responsibility of defending the Great Sui Horse Farm and did not dare to be careless. ”

Yang Yuanqing listened for a while, and then he understood what he meant, that is to say, he was not strong enough to give himself many troops, Yang Yuanqing's face slowly sank, "Chief Qu Tu will just say it!" Give me how many troops. ”

Qu Tutong smiled bitterly and said, "Five hundred at most!" ”

"Five hundred?"

Yang Yuanqing sneered, "Is Chief Qu Tu calling Huazi?" ”

Qu Tutong's face changed, he snorted heavily, twisted his head to the side, and the atmosphere in the council hall immediately became tense.

"Governor Qutu, this time General Yang shoulders a heavy responsibility, it is related to the overall situation of the entire Western Regions, if the troops are insufficient, it is likely to be unable to succeed, especially to defend against the attack of the Western Turks, five hundred troops are indeed a little less, if there are more troops in Dunhuang County, it is better to say, but Dunhuang County only has three thousand garrisons, and it cannot all be handed over to General Yang, so that General Yang only has three thousand troops, and the troops are insufficient, it is difficult to undertake the attack on Yiwu State, and the Governor of Qutu should add a little more troops here!"

Qu Tutong was very polite to Pei Ju, he arched his hand and said: "Back to Pei Xiangguo, it's not that I deliberately embarrassed General Yang, it's really that I have difficulties, in the past year or two, Tuyuhun has repeatedly provoked Qiang to rebel, at the beginning of the year, Tuyuhun cavalry also appeared in Dadou Tugu, and the court refused to increase troops to Zhangye, we have insufficient troops, and the pressure is very great, if we send too many troops, Zhangye is empty, not only Tuyuhun will send troops to threaten, but also the Turks will iron cavalry to the south, Zhangye is heavy, involving the entire Western Regions, don't act rashly! ”

Qu Tutong sighed, "For Xiangguo's sake, it's a thousand, and it can't be more!" ”

Yang Yuanqing also knew that the holy decree clearly stated that Zhang Ye was the logistical support, and the army was mainly based on Dunhuang County, if the troops were insufficient, they could be recruited on the spot in Dunhuang County, which was the meaning of the holy decree, but he did not want to use the recruited army, the temporarily recruited army, the combat effectiveness was relatively much weaker, and he still hoped to use the regular army.

"Governor Qutu, I was ordered to control Zhangye and Dunhuang, and Zhangye's army was also within my control, and I also knew that Zhangye's defense pressure was very high, so I discussed with the governor, I don't want to make trouble to the saint in the end, let's give in to each other! I don't want you 3,000 troops, at least 2,000, how about it? ”

Yang Yuanqing stared at his eyes, "If the Qu Tu manager is unwilling to cooperate, then I, Yang Yuanqing, will go back to my life, saying that I can't fight this battle, and recommend the Qu Tu manager to fight, I think the Qu Tu manager doesn't want this result to happen." ”

Qu Tutong was silent for a long time, he also knew in his heart that he really couldn't go too far, this Yiwu battle was related to the overall situation of the Western Regions, and he couldn't afford the consequences of failure, he hesitated for a long time, and finally agreed, "Okay then!" Zhang Ye sent 2,000 troops to the general, but I had a small condition. ”

He pointed at Deputy Governor Wang Wei, "I recommend Deputy Governor Wang to be General Yang's general, I'll go over there and say, how about it?" ”

Yang Yuanqing glanced at Wang Wei, and when he saw this, he was silent and steady, so he nodded, "Then let's make a decision!" ”

In this war against Yiwu, Yang Guang gave Yang Yuanqing a quota of 10,000 troops, but the armies of Zhangye and Dunhuang counties were only 8,000, and he could only use half of them at most, so that there was a gap of 6,000, Yang Guang meant to let him solve it himself, and the money and food were provided by the locality, which was also the most common way, recruiting troops on the spot, although Yang Yuanqing did not want to use this way, but the situation was not up to him.

Yang Yuanqing led 2,000 troops all the way to the west, and walked a few miles, the army arrived at Dunhuang County, Dunhuang County has always been the western town of the Central Plains Dynasty, but also the first stop of the Western Regions business travel into the Hexi Corridor, as early as the two Jin Dynasty, here is the commercial development, from Persia, Sogdia, Yaozhu, Tocharian and the Western Regions from all over the merchants gathered here, making Dunhuang an international commercial town.

Dunhuang County had 3,000 garrisons, mainly stationed in Yumen and Dunhuang, and was under the control of Pei Wenjin, the Taishou of Dunhuang.

Pei Wenjin is Pei Ju's nephew, only transferred from Liangzhou to Dunhuang at the beginning of the year, heard that the head of the family arrived, Pei Wenjin was pleasantly surprised, went out of the city to greet, uncle and nephew two into a foreign land to meet, extraordinarily happy, Pei Ju introduced Yang Yuanqing for him, Pei Wenjin promised that he could hand over all the army to Yang Yuanqing to dispose of.

"Pei Yuanjun, why are there so many Han people in Dunhuang?"

Outside the city, Yang Yuanqing actually saw that the streets were full of Han people, coming and going, very lively, the men were gentle and elegant, the women were clear and graceful, and most of the accents were from the south, which made him feel stunned.

Pei Wenjin smiled slightly, "General Yang, don't you really know what the reason is?" ”