Chang'an, the general's mansion in the west.

"I heard that Li Thief is going to return to the court in the near future?"

"It's true, and the old man has heard about it."

"Dong's trip is specifically for this matter."

In the inner hall of the east courtyard, the main entrance is closed, and the lattice windows are falling.

On both sides of the door stood dozens of sturdy servants, all of whom looked solemn and meticulously guarded the entire courtyard.

There are two old and three young people sitting in the hall, sitting opposite each other on the left and right, and the two old men in the first place are the only remaining famous generals in the world, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun.

The Zhengxi General's Mansion is the residence of Huangfu Song, and he is the landlord and occupies the first place on the left. And Zhu Jun on the opposite side, although he is now a captain, but the strong soldiers do not suppress the master, so he has to sit in the first place on the right.

However, this is not the case. Today, the situation of these two famous generals is very similar; Although the two nominally occupy a prominent position comparable to that of the Three Princes, they have no real power, and even their freedom of movement is restricted, which is not enough for outsiders.

In contrast, the current situation of Huangfu Song is much better than Zhu Jun, although the position is not as prominent as Zhu Jun, but there are no soldiers inside and outside the mansion to guard day and night, and all cadres in the mansion are free to enter and exit without any restrictions. In addition, Huangfu Song's money has always been paid in full, and has never been reduced by half a cent, and has never been cut off since the Chang'an Rebellion was pacified.

Among the hundreds of officials of the Manchu Dynasty today, Huangfu Song is the only one who has not cut his salary and has not had county soldiers to monitor the mansion. Because of this, Zhu Jun secretly came to the Huangfu Mansion tonight to discuss with him and discuss the upcoming upheaval in the court.

However, the initiator of the secret discussion was not either of them. It was Dong Cheng, the speaker who sat under Zhu Jun.

Dong Cheng, who is approaching middle age, is no longer young, but he is sitting in front of Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun. He is quite young, as if he is a latecomer, a junior.

Therefore, in this inner hall, Dong Cheng is also one of the three young people, and the other two are sitting at the bottom of Huangfu Song, and in turn Huangfu Song's eldest son, Huangfu Jianshou. From the Emperor Fuli.

At this moment, they have been gathering together for more than an hour. However, it has always been a polite word to each other before. Endless chatter. So much so that the weak Huangfu Jianshou was drowsy, and he really couldn't lift his spirits, so he had to squint and pretend to sleep, even so. But his ears were still full of repeated polite words. If he hadn't known that this secret meeting was at stake. I had already left the inner hall early and went back to the dormitory to rest.

Compared with Huangfu Jianshou, who lacked interest, his younger brother Huangfu Li listened to it with relish, and observed with interest the expressions of Zhu Jun and Dong Cheng when they spoke. In the meantime, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly from time to time, revealing a meaningful smile, as if smiling, and like mockery. Anyway, it feels weird.

After a long greeting, Zhu Jun took the lead in breaking the deadlock. Directly point to the theme of the secret discussion: Li Li will return to the court in a few days.

Then Huang Fu Song bowed slightly, and did not hurry to cater to him, although he affirmed the accuracy of this news, he did not express any opinion, as if he was noncommittal.

Seeing Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song asking in the air, they heard Dong Chengyun's mountain fog, his eyes were confused, and he didn't know what to say. Suddenly, he was so anxious that his head was sweating, so he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and simply opened his words.

"Dong's trip is specifically for this matter. Presumably, the two of them already know the current situation in the palace, how can they be a 'miserable' word! ”

As soon as he said two words, Dong Cheng was sad, and the pearls in his eyes flashed, but he couldn't help but cry in public.

After calming down, he said in a low voice: "Since the beginning of the Northern Expedition of the Hussar General last year, Li Dao and the thieves have been doing mischief in Beijing, first wantonly cutting the salaries of the Manchu Dynasty officials, and then under the guise of raising food and salary for the army, he cleverly set up a pretext to force the ministers to donate money and grain, which is called donation, but it is actually extortion and robbery. In the end, the old thief turned out to be ?????? I even hit the idea into the inner courtyard of the palace! ”

Speaking of this, Dong Chengyi was indignant, furious, and his expression became excited again, even more than just now. However, just now he was miserable in his heart, but now he was furious, with a fierce expression and a face with bared teeth and cracked teeth, as if he wanted to choose someone to devour, and his eyes were full of hideousness.

Raising his eyes to look at Dong Cheng's angry face, Huangfu Song, who had passed the age of sixtieth birthday, looked slightly gloomy, and a trace of unbearable color flashed in his eyes. However, this sympathetic look was fleeting, and then he still had a calm and indifferent look on his face, his eyes were blank, as if he was dizzy with old eyes, and he couldn't see Dong Cheng's angry expression clearly.

Compared with Huangfu Song's breezy wind, Zhu Jun, who was sitting next to Dong Cheng, couldn't be calm. Turning his head to look at Dong Cheng with an angry face, he seemed to see himself who had been repeatedly humiliated by Li Dao and Li Li's uncle and nephew, and felt empathy, and suddenly felt the same hatred and hatred, and his face was also gloomy and angry.

However, after most of his life's ups and downs, Zhu Jun has long passed the age of anger, and his control of his own feelings has long been perfected, and he can completely achieve joy and anger without being visible, and his likes and dislikes are not obvious. Therefore, when he saw Huangfu Song's indifferent expression, the anger on his face quickly disappeared, and was replaced by a calm and calm expression.

But this is all a superficial phenomenon, but in fact, Zhu Jun's heart is boiling like a river and a sea, and his feelings fluctuate greatly. Don't look at him now in the respect of the Taiwei, he is one of the three princes in the world, a very popular minister, one person under ten thousand people; However, he knew better than anyone else what the reality was, and the pain made him unspeakable and miserable. Now, the most direct thought in Zhu Jun's heart is that he is really too poor to live!

For Li Li and Li Wenchang, who are in full swing nowadays, no one knows better than him Zhu Jun how Li Li rose to the position step by step, because Li Li originally stepped on his Zhu Jun's shoulders and rose to fame. It is no exaggeration to say that if he had not helped Li Li become famous, there would be no General Li Wenchang today. It's a pity that the reason why he helped Li Li become famous was not voluntary, but was put on his neck by Li Li with a knife and had to be a stepping stone for others. This pain or shame has always been entrenched in Zhu Jun's mind like a nightmare, and it will not be dispersed and lingered, and it is still vivid in his mind today.

Therefore, whenever someone mentions Li Li's name, Zhu Jun can't help but think of the scene under the lonely mountain outside Nanzheng City. That day was the first time in his life that he was defeated and captured, and at the hands of a young man under the age of sixteen, and from that moment on, he firmly remembered the boy's name, Li Li.

Time flies, and five years have passed in a blink of an eye. Zhu Jun is still the same Zhu Jun, the only change is that his temples are white, and the backbone that used to be unyielding is now not straight, and the years are urging people to grow old, how can it be done by manpower. However, the once unruly young man has now risen to the top of his life, from a small colonel who was not even a military Sima to 90,000 miles, and has become a hussar general who is a very popular minister, holding the authority of the world, holding hundreds of thousands of male soldiers, dominating the world, and dominating the world.

It can be said that Zhu Jun has witnessed every process of Li Li's growth, and watched the young man who captured him step by step to the peak of power, and he was only one step away from reaching the peak of power and becoming the supreme being. Relative to power, what Zhu Jun really cares about is that Li Li has as many as 500,000 Xiliang troops in his hands, which is the most solid and powerful existence in the troubled times.

Although Li Li has always claimed to have 400,000 troops, as a battlefield general who has led soldiers for half his life and fought all his life, and occupies the position of Tai Lieutenant, Zhu Jun is clear about the existing number of troops in the Xiliang Army.

At the beginning, Li Li had an army of 300,000 when he pacified the Chang'an Rebellion, and then pacified the two prefectures of Yongliang, and collected no less than 100,000 soldiers and horses from Han Sui, Ma Teng and the four counties of the Western Regions, which means that the Western Liang army had 400,000 troops before Li Li implemented the strategy of rest and recuperation. After two years of recuperation, the Xiliang Army nominally no longer expands its soldiers and horses, but in fact it is still slowly increasing, at least seventy or eighty thousand soldiers and horses have been added in two years, and there is no movement at all, and it has been completed quietly, because the Xiliang Army has a large base and many war cavalry battalions. In other words, before the Northern Expedition, the Western Liang Army was close to 500,000.

In the Northern Expedition, Li Li nominally mobilized 100,000 iron cavalry to go out, but in fact, it was a ragtag army with only 50,000 elites but claimed to be 100,000 troops. But it was this miscellaneous army that made brilliant achievements under the command of Zhou Yu, swept away the Southern Xiongnu in one fell swoop, and collected hundreds of thousands of Southern Xiongnu prisoners. At the same time, Zhou Yu also recruited tens of thousands of Southern Xiongnu light cavalry, and the 20,000 light cavalry of the Shuofeng battalion were only part of them, and the remaining prisoners of war were enough to form another cavalry battalion. It's just that because of Li Li's order, Zhou Yu had to mix the Southern Xiongnu troops with the infantry of the suppression, and then marched into the state. After collecting and merging the entire territory of the state, Zhou Yu recruited 80,000 soldiers from the county government, plus 50,000 or 60,000 horses from his headquarters, and Zhou Yu alone had more than 100,000 soldiers and horses.

At this point, the number of soldiers and horses of the Xiliang Army has exceeded 600,000. Even if the battle of Hanguguan lost more than 100,000 troops, the army under Li Li still had no less than 500,000 people. It's just that after the decisive battle of Loudiyuan, the Xiliang army became a little chaotic, and the good and the bad were uneven. The soldiers and horses of the main battalions with strong combat effectiveness were damaged, and individual battalions suffered heavy casualties, while the army of the county government was unprecedentedly large, accounting for more than sixty percent of the total strength of the Xiliang Army, close to seventy percent. However, regardless of the combat strength, with the rapid expansion of the territory, the number of soldiers and horses under Li Li's command has indeed reached 500,000.

The true strength of the Xiliang Army, others may not be able to tell, and there is no way to know, but they can't hide Zhu Jun's careful observation. Tong Guò Hu heard the news from He Jiading, as well as the side knocks and learned about the heavy use of grain and grass of the Xiliang army, he was able to accurately judge the number of soldiers and horses of the Xiliang army. Otherwise, he, a famous general in the world, will be in vain, and his decades of fighting career will be in vain.

—————— To be Continued —————— (To be Continued......

PS: [Thanks: kingleo book friends for their support, thank you!] 】

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The cold is much better, the whole body is a lot easier, let's continue to fight, I hope to get your support and affirmation, thank you!

The fifth volume is the top priority of Xiaoqi, all the contradictions and many leads, all concentrated in this volume, I hope you are comfortable and enjoyable. This is the biggest harvest of Tiger Ben.