Water Margin people

Chapter 1488 Qi Huai'en

"Thank you, Master!"

Wu Jie bowed respectfully to the old man and took the box.

When the box was opened, there were sheepskin maps inside. These surprised Wu Jie a little, as he thought they would be paper maps.

"There is a gas epidemic on Mount Qilian. Only those with extraordinary strength can climb up. I also felt it when I followed Marshal Zhong up there. I still remember the feeling of suffocation and fainting. The Marshal's maps have been submitted to the court. These maps were obtained from the Tubo tribe. These maps are more detailed than ours..."

The old man pointed at the map and looked at Wu Jie and said, the Qilian Mountains are very large and are a plateau, and only the foreign tribes like Tubo know the topography best.

"Thank you, Master. I will return victoriously with my brothers!"

Wu Jie bowed solemnly to the old man again.

Wu's mother had already prepared a banquet with a group of women, and came out with a smile to invite everyone to join in the celebration.

"Everyone, please take your seats!"

Wu Jie looked at the soldiers standing still and said, these are his personal soldiers.

"Yes!"

The soldiers said in unison.

At this moment, the young people in the village realized that Wu Jie had brought back his personal soldiers. They were all surprised that these soldiers had been standing still from the beginning, making them ignore their existence.

Only the old people in the village had smiles on their faces. Seeing the army in such a state, they felt more at ease letting the younger generations go out. Most of them had been in the army before, so they naturally knew what kind of army was elite.

When the banquet started, a group of young people surrounded Wu Jie and asked him questions, all of them were concerned about the outside world.

Wu Jie answered the questions one by one with a smile, satisfying the curiosity of the young people and making the elders feel more at ease.

After the banquet, Wu Jie finally had time to talk to his mother.

Wu's mother was very open-minded. She was only concerned about Wu Jie's physical condition and didn't ask anything else.

"Mother, I'm going to take my brother out this time!"

Wu Jie looked at his mother and said, while Wu Lin beside him had a hopeful look on his face.

"Go out. The world is booming now. It's a good time for you to make achievements. Don't worry about me. I'm doing well in the village."

Mother Wu said with a smile.

The Wu brothers knelt down together to worship their mother.

The next day, Wu Jie took Wu Lin and a group of young people and left the village.

Wu Jie brought his men to the vicinity of Minzhou.

"Brother, are we waiting for someone?"

Wu Lin looked at Wu Jie and asked.

"Liu Qi hasn't come yet! This time he and I are both responsible for this."

Wu Jie spoke, taking advantage of the time now, Wu Jie told him about the war against the remaining Tibetans in Qingtang.

"Hasn't Qingtang Tubo already perished?"

Someone asked, the pacification of Qingtang Tubo was a war that their fathers had participated in.

"Although Qingtang Tubo has perished, the plateau is still their world. The various tribes look down on the entire Hexi Corridor from a high position, which is very unfavorable for my army's westward expedition. Your Majesty has ordered me and Liu Qi to lead the troops to the plateau to ensure the logistics of the army!"

Wu Jie looked at everyone and said.

"Kill on the plateau!"

Everyone was shocked, because they knew how terrible the plateau epidemic was.

"Don't worry, we have prepared enough medicinal materials and brought doctors. Moreover, we will not attack directly in this battle, but advance slowly..."

Wu Jie looked at everyone and explained, and everyone felt relieved.

Half a day later, Liu Qi finally arrived, but he was followed by a group of soldiers wearing old-fashioned armor. "My father insisted that I bring my family's private soldiers!"

Liu Qi looked at Wu Jie helplessly and said, keeping private soldiers is a capital crime, but this is the northwestern border, facing foreign attacks all year round, it is common for wealthy families to keep private soldiers, and the imperial court has turned a blind eye to this in the past.

"Private soldiers? Do you know what they are doing?"

Wu Jie reminded Liu Qi in a low voice that the Qi State today is not the same country as before, and the emperor will not allow the existence of private soldiers.

"Don't worry, that was in the past. My father has burned the indentures of these people. They are free now, but they have followed my father all their lives and have nowhere else to go. They can only continue to follow my father and treat it as work. This time, they all come with me as private individuals."

Liu Qi explained that he had been in Liangshan City for so long that he certainly knew the consequences of keeping private soldiers.

"Well, that's good if you know."

Wu Jie nodded, as long as it did not violate the laws of Qi State.

The two of them did not wait for each other to meet up and went to Taozhou overnight.

At noon the next day, the two men arrived at a military camp at the foot of the Qilian Mountains.

Liu Qi showed the imperial edict and the military token issued by the Ministry of War, and the guards immediately welcomed them in.

"You are the generals sent by His Majesty!"

A general with a red and black complexion with obvious Tibetan characteristics frowned as he looked at Liu Qi and Wu Jie and asked. The two men were only about thirty years old, which was considered very young among the generals in the army, which made him a little uneasy.

Liu Qi knew what the person in front of him meant, and raised the imperial edict and military token in his hands.

"General Qi Huai'en greets the two generals!"

When Qi Huai'en saw the imperial edict and the military token, he immediately saluted.

"Qi Huai'en?"

Wu Jie frowned. This was a genuine Central Plains name, but the person in front of him seemed to be a Tibetan.

"I am a descendant of the Zuosiluo family. After surrendering to the Song Dynasty, I changed my name to Zhao Huai'en. Now I change my name to Qi Huai'en!"

Qi Huai'en spoke.

"Are these all from Qingtang Zuosiluo?"

Li Qi looked at Qi Huai'en and asked. He seemed to understand a little bit why the emperor was so confident in attacking Qilian Mountain and killing his way to the plateau. These remnants of Qing Tang in front of him were not afraid of any epidemic at all.

"Yes, these are the Qingtang Zuosiluo people who surrendered to the Central Plains."

Qi Huai'en spoke without any psychological burden.

Qingtang originated from Zuosilo and also prospered with Zuosilo. However, after Zuosilo's death, it fell into a long period of war. Zuosilo's three sons each ruled their own territories, and the many Qiang tribes under their rule took the opportunity to rebel. The entire Qingtang Zuosilo was torn apart and finally perished. Qi Huai'en was the last descendant of Zuosilo.

"really!"

These two words popped up in Li Qi and Wu Jie's minds.

Next, Wu Jie and Li Qi inspected the camp and found that there were indeed 5,000 soldiers, and most of the soldiers had skin colors characteristic of the plateau.

"Do you have a map of the plateau?"

Wu Jie looked at Qi Huai'en and asked, since he is a descendant of Qingtang Zuosiluo, he should be very familiar with the plateau.

"Generals, please look!"

Qi Huai'en brought the two men to a military tent and pointed to a sheepskin map and spoke.

"You're not going to tell me that this map is this crude?"

Li Qi looked at Qi Huai'en and asked, the map in front of him was very rough, with only the main roads and cities marked, it could not be used as a military map at all.

"To be honest with you two generals, our ancestors fled here in such a hurry that many things were lost. These are also drawn based on memory!"

Qi Huai'en said somewhat embarrassedly that their ancestors were all nobles who only knew the situation within their own territory, which led to their ignorance of many things.