Martial Arts World Assassin

Chapter 374 The sword points at the royal court
Huang Sixi planned to place Li Jing at the border and lead Zhai Jiao's troops to intercept the impending Turkic invasion from the south.

If Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu, the two border warlords, were not eliminated, the Shibi Khan of the Turks would only need to issue a royal order to instruct Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu to join forces to attack Li Jing and Zhai Jiao from the north and south with the Turks.

In fact, everyone present could foresee this situation.

It is not difficult to assassinate Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu, the key is how to solve the aftermath problem?
Li Jing pointed out: "Liu Wuzhou's territory is adjacent to Taiyuan County, which is where the Li clan started their army. It has a large amount of food and supplies stored there, supporting the Li clan's expansion to the south. Taiyuan County is absolutely not something that the Li clan can afford to lose!"

Before launching his rebellion, Li Yuan first pledged allegiance to the Turks in order to prevent the Turks from joining forces with Liu Wuzhou to attack Taiyuan County and cut off Li Yuan's retreat.

Li Jing looked at Huang Sixi and said, "If you kill Liu Wuzhou, it will cause unrest in Liu Wuzhou's territory. The Li family will definitely send troops to seize Liu Wuzhou's territory to stabilize Taiyuan County! The Li family will definitely not tolerate you deploying troops at the northern border!"

Huang Sixi placed Li Jing and Zhai Jiao at the border just to snipe at the Turks, but the Li family would not think so. They would think that Huang Sixi wanted to cut off his retreat.

Perhaps the Li family believed that Huang Sixi really wanted to deal with the Turks, but if Huang Sixi defeated the Turks, would he continue to attack Taiyuan County in the south? The answer is obvious.

Huang Sixi has formed an alliance with the Song clan, and eliminating the Central Earth warlords is his established goal. If Huang Sixi has the ability to defeat the Turks, would he not attack the Li clan?
After listening to Li Jing's deduction of the situation, Zhai Jiao blurted out: "Why don't we just occupy Liu Wuzhou's territory? If the Li clan leads troops to attack, we can just fight against the Li clan!"

Li Jing smiled at Zhai Jiao and said, "Liu Wuzhou's territory includes Mayi, Yanmen, Loufan and other counties, covering an area of 300 to 400 miles, with a population of over a million and so many cities. How can it be conquered in a day or a night?

Even if we ask for an imperial edict from the capital and issue an order to all the counties, how can we govern? If we do not appoint the officials properly, when the Li clan attacks in the future, they will just surrender the city or rebel on their own. What is the point of taking over the territory?"

Zhai Jiao was suddenly speechless.

In fact, she had heard Zhai Rang talk about the issue of governing the country before. As long as she had trusted troops with deterrent power, officials from all over the country would be obedient. However, her current manpower was stretched to the limit when guarding the border, so how could she garrison troops in various places?

Seeing that Zhai Jiao was silent, Hong Fu Nu continued, "My dear, you want to deal with Liang Shidu and Liu Wuzhou, two Turkic vicious dogs. We can deal with Liang Shidu first. His territory is adjacent to Guanzhong in the south. We can ask the Song clan to send troops to the north. After taking over Liang Shidu's territory, we can attack Liu Wuzhou. By then, the two places will help each other, and the Li clan will be helpless!"

This strategy is only feasible in theory, but it is quite difficult to implement in practice.

Li Jing sighed, "The Song clan can no longer send out troops. They have to confront the Li clan at Tongguan, and also block the tens of thousands of Qin cavalry led by Xue Ju in the west. If they withdraw troops to the north, the defense of Guanzhong will inevitably be weakened!"

The territory of Western Qin State was located in the Gansu-Longnan area. In the middle of the year, Xue Ju proclaimed himself emperor in Jincheng. After Song Que occupied the capital, Xue Ju also became restless and wanted to lead his troops to get involved in Guanzhong.

At present, Xue Ju and the Li clan have stationed troops on the east and west sides of Guanzhong, tying down almost all the main forces of the Song clan.

Li Jing had already thoroughly studied the situation of various forces when he was in the capital: "If the Li clan and Xue Ju knew that the Song clan divided their troops and went north to attack Liang Shidu, they would most likely attack from both the east and the west! The Song clan would never dare to act rashly!"

Hong Fu Nu had a different opinion: "My husband, the Song clan's relatives, Xie Wenlong's family, are the most powerful in Sichuan. Song Que has appointed Xie Hui, the master of Du Zun Fort, as the chief of Sichuan. In the future, they can continuously dispatch troops to Guanzhong. The Song clan should not be short of troops!"

Xie Wenlong is Song Que's eldest son-in-law. He is married to Song Yuzhi's sister Song Yuhua. A few days ago, he and Song Zhi led troops to enter Guanzhong. Currently, they are stationed in Tongguan to confront the Li family. He is good at marching and has won Song Que's trust.

As a result, Xie Wenlong's father Xie Hui was also highly valued by Song Que.

Li Jing was very clear about the relationship between the Xie family and the Song clan. He looked at Huang Sixi and said, "Even if the Song clan has sufficient troops, they will not easily go north, because Liang Shidu has already surrendered to the Turks!

My dear, if you assassinate Liang Shidu first and then ask the Song clan to lead troops to occupy Liang Shidu's territory, the Turkic army will surely invade the south in large numbers, and then the Song clan will have to fight hand-to-hand with the Turkic clan!"

The Song clan is now struggling to deal with the Li clan and Xue Ju in the Central Plains, so how could they dare to engage in direct battle with the Turks?
"Besides..." Li Jing looked around at Huang Sixi, Hong Funu, Zhai Jiao and Tu Shufang, and said:

"To the west of Liang Shidu is Li Gui, who occupies four or five counties on the Hexi Corridor. When Xue Ju rebelled at the beginning of the year, Li Gui also followed suit and called himself the King of Daliang. He also pledged his loyalty to the Turks. If the Turks invade the south, Li Gui will join the siege from the west, and the Song clan may not be able to win!"

When Zhai Jiao heard Li Jing mention Xue Ju and Li Gui, she felt a headache and muttered, "There are so many traitors who want to be emperors in the world! In the north, there are Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu, in the west, there are Xue Ju and Li Gui, in the east, there are Li Mi and Dou Shibo, all of them are trying to become kings and hegemons. Power is really attractive!"

Her father was also a traitor, but he has been eliminated.

In fact, there were originally Li Zitong and Du Fuwei in the south, but they were killed early by Huang Sixi. If Li Zitong and Du Fuwei were still alive, there would be self-proclaimed kings in all corners of the world.

In troubled times, heroes emerge and the strong are washed away by the strong. This is the norm.

After Li Jing finished his long speech, he gave Huang Sixi a suggestion: "My dear, as long as you assassinate Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu, the heroes of the world will definitely rush to move, and then the troops from all directions will fight in the northern border, and the people of the northern border will suffer!

But if you assassinate the Turkic Khan Shibi first, and stir up internal strife among the Turkic tribes, so that the Turkic troops have no time to look south, then you can kill Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu, and you can stabilize the situation in the north. The Li family, Xue Ju, and Li Gui will all stop and dare not compete with you for the northern territory!"

Li Jing's meaning was very clear. As long as Huang Sixi could defeat the Turkic royal court, he could occupy the northern territory of Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu without bloodshed.

After hearing this, Huang Sixi looked behind him and asked, "How far is the Turkic royal court from here?"

Tu Shufang replied: "Go north for two hundred miles and you will reach the city of Dali, the capital of the Turkic Kingdom!"

In fact, the distance was very close, and Huang Sixi could launch a surprise attack on the Turkic royal court at any time.

In his heart, he had already agreed with Li Jing's proposal to go to the Turkic royal court to assassinate Shibi Khan first, and then come back to deal with Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu. The round trip would take at most a few days and would definitely not delay anything.

As the emerging overlord of the grassland, the Turks rose for about half a century. They ruled thousands of miles of grassland pastures from the Greater Khingan Range in the east to the Altai Mountains in the west, the Yinshan Mountains in the south, and Lake Baikal and the upper reaches of the Irtysh River in the north.

However, during the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, the Turks split into two parts, east and west.

The previous leader of the Eastern Turks, Qimin Khan, gained power over the Eastern Turks with the help of the Sui court, and he submitted a letter of surrender to the Sui court.

The Sui court also treated Qimin Khan very well and allowed him to move his royal court to the south of the Yin Mountains.

With the death of Qimin Khan, his son Shibi Khan ascended the throne and took control of the vast pastures of the Eastern Turks. After gathering hundreds of thousands of cavalry, he began to show his fangs.

Two years ago, when Yang Guang was inspecting the northern border, he was surrounded at Yanmen Pass by the troops led by Shibi Khan and almost became a prisoner. Since then, Shibi Khan has treated invasions from the south as commonplace.

Thanks to the blessing of Qimin Khan, Shibi Khan built his royal court in Dingxiang County, the northernmost part of the Sui court, which is the famous Chi Lechuan grassland.

The Chi Lechuan Grassland is located in the south of the Yin Mountains and is also the capital of Inner Mongolia. It is only one or two hundred miles away from Mayi County.

Shibi Khan's cavalry could easily set out from the Chilechuan grassland, sneak into the northern border of China, burn, kill and loot, and invade the border areas of Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei for years.

Two years ago, when Shibi Khan's troops besieged Yang Guang, they successively captured dozens of cities in Mayi and Yanmen counties, and burned and killed people in towns and villages along the way, which are still in ruins today.

Therefore, the Turkic royal court that Huang Sixi asked about refers to the royal court of Dali City on the Chilechuan grassland, where Shibi Khan was in charge.

The people to whom warlords such as Li Yuan, Liu Wuzhou, Liang Shidu, and Li Gui paid tribute were all Shibi Khans of the Eastern Turks.

As for the Western Turks, their territory was thousands of miles away in the Western Regions. They were busy extorting the countries in the Western Regions all day long and had no spare energy to attack the Sui Dynasty in the east, so they were not a concern.

As long as Huang Sixi could kill Shibi Khan and force the Eastern Turkic nobles to fight for power and fall into civil strife, the threat from the Eastern Turks would be eliminated and they would no longer have the energy to support the Central Earth warlords.

Li Jing suggested Huang Sixi to assassinate Shibi Khan because he saw this point clearly.

With Huang Sixi's unparalleled military power, he could not only kill Shibi Khan, but he could even expel the Eastern Turkic royal court from the Chilechuan grassland and drive them to the vast plateau north of the Yin Mountains.

It should be noted that the Yinshan Mountains stretch for more than a thousand kilometers from east to west. They serve as the dividing line and natural barrier between nomadic peoples and farming people. Once the Eastern Turkic troops move away from the Yinshan Mountains, the northern borders of Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei will be able to enjoy long-term peace.

After Huang Sixi heard Li Jing and Tu Shufang's detailed account of the situation at the Turkic royal court, he began to assign tasks to them: "Wuxia, you must return to Tuoshui Village immediately and bring all the Wagang volunteers here. Also, call back all the merchants who are traveling outside!" Zhai Jiao was full of fighting spirit: "Just wait and see, my good brother. I promise to bring the brothers to Cangtou River in a few days!"

She asked again, "But Senior Brother Xuan is trying to find out the whereabouts of Senior Sister Shi, so there is no need to call him back for the time being, right?"

"Okay, let Xuanyong continue to stay outside the Great Wall!"

Huang Sixi turned his head and looked at Hong Funu: "Hong Fu, you rush back to Guanzhong immediately and tell Song Que about my plan to assassinate Shibi Khan. Ask him to form an army and prepare to attack Liang Shidu's territory!"

Hong Fu nodded in response, then glanced at Li Jing. Huang Sixi did not let Li Jing go with her. She guessed that Li Jing should have a more important task, which might be related to the attack on the Turkic royal court.

She couldn't help but feel a great sense of anticipation in her heart, and sincerely hoped that Huang Sixi would become independent in the northern border. In this way, Li Jing could become the number one general under Huang Sixi.

Huang Sixi then signaled Tu Shufang: "I have a message here. I'd like to trouble Butler Tu to deliver it to Jianglong Academy in Bieshan, Jianghuai!"

Tu Shufang felt honored to be employed by Huang Sixi. He clasped his fists and said with a smile, "It is my good fortune to be able to work for Master Jianglong. I just don't know who I should send the letter to."

Huang Sixi said: "You know this man, and you are very familiar with him. His name is Xu Shiji, and he controls the Jianglong Academy in Bieshan for me. Send him a message and ask him to come to Cangtou River!"

"Ah? Xu...Xu Shiji?" Tu Shufang exclaimed:

"Did Xu Shiji follow Master Jianglong? He accompanied Shen Luoyan to Jiangnan several months ago, but only Shen Luoyan returned to Wagang Village. Xu Shiji was nowhere to be found. Everyone asked about his whereabouts, but Shen Luoyan refused to mention it. He only said that Xu Shiji had left Wagang Village and would never return to the village. So he joined Master Jianglong?"

"It's not like I'm surrendering. Shiji and I have a history of friendship. Steward Tu, just call him over!"

After Huang Sixi assassinated Shibi Khan and expelled the royal court of the Eastern Turks, he would immediately return to the interior to deal with Liu Wuzhou and Liang Shidu.

Considering that Liu Wuzhou occupied northern Shanxi and Liang Shidu occupied northern Shaanxi, their territories were too vast. While Huang Sixi was going to Mobei and the Western Regions to look for Xi Ying, he had to leave behind two outstanding generals to guard these two territories.

Northern Shanxi is adjacent to Li Yuan's old nest, Taiyuan County. Huang Sixi planned to let Li Jing stay in northern Shanxi because after the fall of Liu Wuzhou, Li Yuan might send Li Shimin to lead troops north.

Looking at the whole world, only Li Jing could lead troops to fight on equal terms with Li Shimin. Apart from Li Jing, no one could be Li Shimin's opponent.

It was already very difficult for Li Jing to defend northern Shanxi, and he could not be distracted to govern northern Shaanxi.

Therefore, Huang Sixi wanted to transfer Xu Shiji to northern Shaanxi to fight against the warlords Xue Ju and Li Gui in the west.

After Huang Sixi assigned tasks to Zhai Jiao, Hong Funu and Tu Shufang, the three of them looked at Li Jing together, and they were very curious about how Huang Sixi planned to use Li Jing.

Huang Sixi did not keep the secret, and finally said to Li Jing: "Pharmacist, accompany me to the Turkic royal court, and let's go to meet Shibi Khan!"

Huang Sixi would not launch the assassination attempt on Shibi Khan immediately. He would wait until Zhai Jiao brought thousands of Wagang volunteers and let Li Jing lead this army before he carried out the assassination.

This time, Huang Sixi wanted to drive the Turkic royal court out of the Chi Lechuan grassland completely and occupy all the territory south of the Yin Mountains.

In this way, when Huang Sixi leaves the Central Plains and goes to Mobei and the Western Regions, Li Jing and Xu Shiji will be able to rely on the Yinshan Mountains to establish a defense line. They will no longer have to worry about the grassland cavalry attacking from the south, and they can also focus on managing the territories of northern Shanxi and northern Shaanxi.

By the time the few of them had discussed this, the more than one hundred Wagang warriors had already cleaned up the battlefield, buried more than a thousand cavalry corpses, and collected hundreds of war horses.

Several people led the rescued young women to the Moyun Peak village on the bank of the Cangtou River.

After settling down at the base, the group went their separate ways.

Hong Fu went to the capital Chang'an to deliver a message to Song Que.

Zhai Jiao rushed to Tuoshui Village to gather troops.

Tu Shufang went south to Bieshan in Jianghuai to inform Xu Shiji.

Huang Sixi led Li Jing over the hills and mountains in the north for more than 100 miles, and arrived at the Chi Le Chuan grassland, where the song "Chi Le Chuan, under the Yin Mountain, the sky is like a dome, covering the four fields, the sky is vast, the fields are vast, the wind blows the grass low and you can see cattle and sheep!" has been sung for a hundred years.

As a result, Huang Sixi and Li Jing were out of luck. After they walked around the Turkic royal court, Dali City, they discovered that Shibi Khan was not in the city.

As early as half a month ago, Shibi Khan led his troops over the Yin Mountains and went hunting to the north of Yin Mountains. Near the end of the year, the leaders of various grassland tribes came to the royal court to pay homage. Shibi Khan's way of entertaining guests was hunting, which could show off the strength of the Turkic cavalry.

If it snows heavily today, Shibi Khan's army will definitely be blocked by the snow season, and no one can predict when they can return to Dali City.

When Shibi Khan goes on tour, the guards who are responsible for the Khan's safety will also accompany him. Bi Xuan, the martial arts master who is famous in the Central Earth martial arts world, and Zhao Deyan, the master of the magic sect who defected to the Eastern Turks, all follow Shibi Khan on his northern tour. At present, there are no decent masters in Dali City.

Huang Sixi led Li Jing to explore the terrain on the Chi Lechuan grassland in preparation for the future attack on the Turkic royal court.

A few days passed in a flash. Huang Sixi and Li Jing checked all the terrains and finally came to the Yinshan Mountains behind Dali City.

They crossed the Yinshan Mountains and stopped outside a dilapidated city on the north side of the mountain.

Huang Sixi pointed at the city and asked Li Jing: "What is that place?"

Li Jing sighed, "My dear, that is the Wuchuan Town that stirred up the Northern Dynasty in the past!"

"Wuchuan Town!"

Huang Sixi was very familiar with this place.

As early as two hundred years ago, in order to prevent the grassland cavalry from invading from the south, the Northern Wei Dynasty built a city at the northern foot of the Yin Mountains to guard the border. Wuchuan Town was one of the border cities.

As dynasties changed and time passed, many heroes who influenced the world situation were born in Wuchuan Town.

Yuwen Tai, the founder of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Li Hu, the ancestor of Li Yuan, the leader of the Li family, and Yang Zhong, the ancestor of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, all came from Wuchuan Town.

These heroes were stationed in Wuchuan and fought against the nomadic cavalry on the northern grasslands for many years, repeatedly defending the security of the northern border of China.

At the same time, they also forged an iron-blooded army, laying the foundation for their dominance in Middle-earth.

The prosperous Tang Dynasty that Huang Sixi was familiar to later generations was actually the continuation of the bloodline of the heroes of Wuchuan Town.

Although Wuchuan Town is a small place, it has actually influenced the historical process of Middle-earth for hundreds of years.

Huang Sixi stood outside Wuchuan Town, gazing at the vast grasslands in the north, and suddenly felt excited.

He said to Li Jing: "Wei, Zhou, Qi, and Sui, none of them could solve the border troubles in the Mobei grassland, but starting from us, this disaster will be completely eliminated!"

Li Jing was stunned for a moment, and his heart became excited. Huang Sixi was talking about "we", which naturally included him, Li Jing. He thought that this should be the moment to make history.

(End of this chapter)