end song

Late at night on the sixth day of October, Li Zengbo, who was sleeping on the tower, was suddenly startled by a hasty knock on the door.

"Big guy!"

"What's the matter?"

Although he was old, Li Zengbo quickly got up and couldn't find his boots in the dark. He stepped on the cold floor and rushed to the door and pushed it open.

"Pang Pei is back."

"Where is the person? Bring it here!"

"He ran into a probing horse from the Yuan army on the way, and was injured and passed out in front of the city gate."

"With His Majesty's will?"

"No letter was found on him."

Li Zengbo put on his armor and said, "Talk while walking."

Now the flood in Xingqing Mansion has just receded not long ago, this year's harvest has been destroyed, and the city is full of dilapidated and depressed scenes.

And just a few days ago, the news of Kublai Khan's personal conquest had spread. Walking in the city at this time, one can't help but worry about whether such a city can withstand the Mongolian Yuan army.

The ground at the north city gate is bumpy, soft and frosty. When you step on it, there is a "creaking" sound of the frost surface being crushed, and it sinks down to squeeze out the water in the mud, which wets the soles of your shoes, which is extremely uncomfortable.

Pang Pei and several soldiers collapsed at the base of the wall, and some military doctors were busy back and forth treating them.

As soon as Li Zengbo stepped forward, he asked, "How is the person?"

"It might be difficult to save it before, but fortunately, there are good gold-chuang medicines in the army now, and they can live." The army doctor replied, "Only that kid wants to have his left foot amputated. Commander, the student will be able to live." Go and intercept."

"Go."

Accustomed to the days when his comrades said nothing, Li Zengbo seemed a little heartless, without even sighing, he stepped forward and leaned over to look at Pang Pei.

Another army doctor was stopping the bleeding of other soldiers, he turned his head and said, "General Pang also fainted after he lost too much blood, and he has already been bandaged."

While speaking, Pang Pei was startled awake. He shook his body and yelled suddenly before opening his eyelids.

"Kill the past, kill the past!"

Li Zengbo was calm, with a calm old face, and when Pang Pei opened his eyes, he said: "Don't move, it's safe."

"Boss? Boss..."

The pale Pang Pei obviously relaxed the moment he saw Li Zengbo, leaned back weakly, and almost cried when he spoke again.

"Your Majesty's will will eventually be brought back... almost impossible to bring back."

"where?"

"The big one was wrapped up and stuffed into the horse's belly...Tafengzhao has been with me for three years, I feel sorry for it."

Li Zengbo looked a little ruthless, and waved his hand, causing a black horse in the distance to be taken aside.

Pang Pei took a deep look over there, his eyes sad.

He raised his hand with difficulty, pointed to a wound on his fingertips, and said, "There is another little thing, here..."

Li Zengbo glanced at him and asked, "Is it sewn in?"

"Xu Laobian helped me sew it on the road." Pang Pei whispered, "In a few days, Xu Laobei shot an arrow into the Yellow River when Xu Laobei was fetching water... Let's tear it down."

Li Zengbo beckoned to the military doctor, "Demolish."

"It's really inside?" The military doctor didn't believe it, he shook his head and said, "I've practiced medicine all my life, and I've never seen anyone who can sew something under the skin. If I don't believe it, even if there is a golden medicine, I won't believe it either."

"what."

Panting for breath, Pang Pei said: "When I am a scholar with delicate skin and tender flesh... If I don't have the guts to be ruthless, I would have died eight hundred times already..."

He jerked off his shirt, revealing a huge gash on the back of his neck.

"Did you see it? I... the mouth of Kuo Duan's family. This brand... I peeled my own skin..."

The old doctor was still in a daze.

"Believe it or not, tear it apart."

"Ok."

When the doctor began to open the wound, Pang Pei tried his best to be brave and calm, and even made a few jokes.

"Did you see...I'm just a bitch...a rough person...it's not so easy to die..."

But before he opened his mouth, the severe pain almost bit off his tongue.The doctor quickly stuffed a piece of cloth into Pang Pei's mouth.

Screams leaked from the Brie he was biting.

People around couldn't imagine how painful it was for him to hide things in his leather, and even some soldiers made jokes.

"Hey, I'm about to give birth as a general."

"Ha ha ha ha."

However, since the Western Xia Dynasty destroyed the country, the Jin Kingdom destroyed the country, and the Mongolia-Song War, the wars have never stopped for more than [-] years.

In this land where all races can be slaughtered, a little flesh injury is really nothing.

"Recover well."

Li Zengbo patted Pang Pei, picked up the bloody oily paper bag, turned around and left.

Pang Pei relaxed, leaned back, and murmured, "Have some wine, Commander..."

~~
The sky was already bright, and the morning sun shone into the tower through the arrow holes in the windows.

Li Zengbo opened the smelly oil-skinned paper and saw many letters inside.

He was about to read the letter, but he looked at a bloody little piece of wood again.

Once you weigh it, you will know that there is something inside.

Li Zengbo opened it first and looked at it.Although Pang Pei said that this was sent to Chang'an by His Majesty along with other orders, not for him to see.

When he saw the tiger talisman between the two pieces of wood, his face became serious.

This tiger talisman is only the size of two fingers, but its workmanship is extremely fine. It is impossible for anyone in the world to imitate it. It is Li Xia's soldier talisman.

Li Zengbo felt that Li Xia shouldn't hand over such an important thing to Pang Pei for escort, but when he thought of Pang Pei's injuries, he was speechless for a while.

He put it away and looked at the letter in the package.

Some of them are written in secret script and need to be deciphered, while others are in ordinary script.

Li Xia had a letter to him, the writing didn't look like an imperial decree, but like an ordinary letter from home.

Perhaps it was because of haste, the handwriting was a bit sloppy, and some words were obviously not considered carefully, so it can be seen that they said whatever came to mind.

"Li Qing has been out of the town for 30 years. I remember that day I arrived in Xingqing Mansion. When I gave you the genealogy of Li's family, I said that when Hetao is recovered, you should go to Gongchang to celebrate the New Year this year. The family scroll that stayed there. Unfortunately, Kublai Khan’s personal expedition was delayed again this year. Since we recovered the Hexi Corridor, you have not seen your family for the third year. I heard that your ancestral home is in Qinyang, Henan, I hope that one day, you can bring your family back to your hometown to worship your ancestors..."

In the whole letter, there seemed to be no really useful words. Li Zengbo didn't think that at his age, he could wait until the day when Henan was recovered.

But he could see Li Xia's meaning from it, that is, Li Xia did not intend to intervene in the defense of Xingqing Mansion, and how to defend Xingqing Mansion was all under the command of Li Zengbo, the commander-in-chief.

Afterwards, I translated the secret text again, and it was indeed so.

Li Xia even told Li Zengbo directly that if he felt that the Xingqing Mansion could not be defended, he could retreat to Lanzhou or Liangzhou, fortify the walls and clear the fields, and concentrate his troops.

Li Zengbo skipped these words, but paid more attention to where Li Xia went and what he wanted to do.

He carefully read the content behind, his eyes gradually became serious, finally stood up, walked to the map and looked at it for a long time, and began to pace anxiously.

After seeing a few wounded soldiers just now, his face has not changed, but he lost his composure because of Li Xia's secret letter.

"Your Majesty is still so young, you can return to Chang'an and take it easy, why bother to take such a risk?"

After talking to himself like this, Li Zengbo felt inexplicably sad when he thought of what Li Xia said in his letter just now about going to his hometown to worship his ancestors.

Sorrow mixed with worry, mixed feelings.

Finally, he turned his head to look at the other letters in the package.

It was to be sent to Chang'an for the ministers staying at the court, so Li Zengbo shouldn't have seen it.

But after hesitating for a moment, Li Zengbo cut open the sealing wax with a knife, read each seal, and put it back without changing a single word.

Leaning back on the chair tiredly, he rubbed his forehead, worried.

He rubbed and rubbed, but in the end he stood up, excited by a thought that popped up in an instant.

"That's fine." He said to himself, "If I don't fight decisively, I'll die of old age? What more can I ask for if I can experience a national war in my lifetime..."

~~
October eleven.

The news from all parties was finally delivered to Chang'an urgently within [-] miles.

Han Chengxu didn't dare to read Li Xia's letter alone, so he summoned all the former officials of the Hantai shogunate.

Each letter has been read, and a tiger charm is pressed on the letter.

The hall fell into a long silence.

Finally, it was Li Yong who spoke first.

"Since it is His Majesty's will, let's do it."

Li Yong has not been involved in state affairs for a long time. To describe this situation, for example, he has never been like Li Yuan, but more like Liu Taigong.

All of Liu Taigong's hobbies in his life were butchers and peddlers, he sold off the wine, cockfights and cuju, and enjoyed it.On the other hand, Li Yong likes to see a family full of children and grandchildren, and his family is prosperous. He recently opened a school in Chang'an City.

But now he has been pulled back into the disputes of this troubled world.

"I thought that the decisive battle with Meng Yuan would be in three to five years, at least prepare enough food, grass, and military equipment... But since Kublai Khan has personally conquered, let's fight."

This sentence can also be said to be a process from unwillingness to a decisive battle to having to accept it.

"You don't need to sigh, just think that we have encountered a beast on the road." Yang Guo said: "How could the beast wait for us to sharpen our spears and prepare our bows and arrows before pounced on us. The beast pounced on us, no matter whether we Be ready, you can only fight with one.”

"But His Majesty should return to Chang'an to coordinate the overall situation."

Han Chengxu raised his eyes and glanced blankly, and said: "Your Majesty's failure to return shows the urgency of the situation, and also shows that he has the confidence to win."

If Li Xia was in person, he might persuade her.But even if there were different ideas and arguments, when Li Xia was not around, he would carry out his will immediately.

He is an old man who went to Kaifeng together back then, and everything he did was for that common idea back then.

"Sweeping the dust, the world will be unified. We want to assist His Majesty Zuo to complete the great cause, but Kublai Khan really came, can we still retreat?"

"Of course I won't retreat." Xi Jihu said.

Li Ye stroked his beard and smiled, and said slowly: "Two years ago, Your Majesty wanted to go to the Western Regions, but the ministers opposed it, and they fought back and forth for two months. Today, I only sent back to Chang'an with a tiger charm, and all the lords are happy to accept the order? "

"Xin Ran can't say it, but it must be ordered." Shi Jun said with a straight face, "If this battle is not met, then the Northwest will return to Hu Chen."

"That's right, since your Majesty's surname is not Zhao, how can you lose ground?"

"Please come here, Queen."

Han Qi'an whispered to Guan De, stepped forward, picked up the sealed letter sent by Li Xia, smoothed it with his palm, and began to display it on the shining golden silk brocade.

……

Gao Mingyue, wearing a phoenix crown and Zhai clothes, led Li Changyi into the hall slowly.

The mother and son sat down behind the bead curtain.

"Mother, grandfather, uncle and grandpa Han are all there." Li Changyi whispered, wanting to lift the bead curtain.

Gao Mingyue pressed her son's hand lightly, and glanced at the courtiers in the hall through the bead curtain, feeling a little nervous.

In the blink of an eye in ten years, when I first met Li Xia, she was just a shy girl who was sitting in the carriage with Han Qiaoer and chatting quietly.At this time, he is going to listen to politics behind a curtain.

This incident made her feel strongly uneasy and unlucky.

Although she knew very well that nothing happened to Li Xia, it was just that she couldn't come back temporarily and the situation was urgent, so she needed to come out to stabilize people's hearts.

She thought to herself, as a wife, it's time to come out and share the burden for her husband, and she can be a good wife.

"Queen."

Guan De came over cautiously, holding a plate in which was a scroll of imperial decree and a tiger talisman.

Gao Mingyue stretched out her hand, spread out the imperial decree, glanced at it, and said: "Call all the ministers for a court meeting, and announce the decree."

"The imperial edict says, today the captives are coming to invade, I choose the army to revitalize the brigade, bow to the martial arts festival, and personally lead the masters to march north. Many generals are appointed, and Liu Yuanli, the envoy of the pacification system in Shaanxi, is fully responsible for the defense of Guanzhong; the envoy of the pacification system in Sichuan is transferred. Zhang Hongdao, Chongqing appeasement envoy Gao Changshou, Yunnan deputy appeasement envoy Yi Shiying, Hanzhong garrison Kong Xian... within ten days of the leadership, the troops were dispatched to the north. Kou is the top priority at the moment. It is ordered that before February of the third year of Jiantong, the soldiers of the three routes will gather in Chang'an, with [-] spears and spears, and they will also be the leaders of the captive chiefs, without delay."