Chapter 404 Yanmen veteran is coming

The twelfth year of Tianbao, the first month.

The Lantern Festival has passed, and Chang'an City must be bustling with prosperity again. But in Yanmen County, the sky and the earth are still covered with snow.

The sound of wild geese pierced the sky.

When spring comes, geese from the south fly north, holding reed leaves in their mouths. When they fly to Yanmen Mountain, they begin to circle in the air until the reed leaves in their mouths fall. Then they fly over. Therefore, the scene is called "Yanmen Mountain, with geese flying out of it".

" said.

A mountain facing Yanmen Mountain is called Longshan. The two mountains are intertwined with steep rock walls, and there is a road in the middle that is winding and rugged.

On the top of the mountain, a majestic pass city stands, which is Yanmen Pass, known as "the first pass in the world".

That day, there was a man wrapped in a fur coat, driving his horse from the south to Yanmen. He only had one pair of eyes exposed, with deep wrinkles at the corners, and his eyes were full of vicissitudes and thoroughness left by the world. When he left that

As the majestic Yanmen Pass approached, he began to recite a poem.

"Gaoshan Daijun is adjacent to Yan in the east, and the Hu family in Yanmen is close to it."

"Freeing the Hu Ying to chase away the birds, he can hunt the Akita on behalf of the horse."

"The wildfires on the mountaintops burn more when it's cold, and the lonely peaks become wet and smokey in the rain."

"When I heard that there was no fighting in western Liaoning, I often slept in restaurants drunkenly."

The high-pitched sound of the poem reached Guancheng. A guard poked his head out from the wall and shouted: "Who is coming?!"

The man pulled off the scarf wrapped around his face, revealing an old face. Between the traces of time, it could still be seen from his skin that he was born into a wealthy family and must have been extremely handsome when he was young.

He is about fifty years old and has a handsome temperament. Although he does not put on an expression, he still has a spring-like smile.

"Daizhou Dudufu recorded affairs and joined the army." He raised his head, reported his official position, and called out his name, "Cui Hao!"

The Yanmen closed and the soldier withdrew his head. After a while, a general wearing a helmet poked his head out and asked: "But Cui Hao, who is 'the best among the seven laws of the Tang Dynasty'?"

"no!"

Cui Hao responded decisively and laughed loudly: "Just an ordinary Cui Hao."

After a while, the city gate was opened, and several generals came out to check Cui Hao's official status.

One of the veteran generals at the head squinted his eyes, sometimes brought the document closer, sometimes pulled it away, looked at it for a while, murmured "to supervise the censor and serve under the governor of Daizhou" and then laughed loudly: "It's Cui Hao, let's

Cui Hao as Li Bai puts down his pen."

"General Yan, what do you mean?" asked a young general.

"Have you never heard of this? I should have told you to read more books. Do you know who this person is? He passed the imperial examination at a young age and wrote the poem "Yellow Crane Tower". Li Bai once wrote for it and wrote, "Before you

There is a sentiment that Cui Hao wrote a poem on it."

"General, you are exaggerating." Cui Hao waved his hands repeatedly and said, "This matter is just nonsense spoken by the world, and it cannot be taken seriously. It cannot be taken seriously."

"What kind of poem is Cui Gong's "Yellow Crane Tower"?" the young general asked again.

Cui Hao didn't wait for the old general to chant, and asked first: "I haven't asked the general about his name yet."

"I'm Yan Weiyue, deputy general of the Datong Army." The old general said, pointing to the two young generals behind him, and said: "Xue Song and Xue Kui, they are two brothers, both are Pingyang County Dukes of Three Arrows Dingtian Mountain.

after."

The brothers Xue Song and Xue Kui were both young, less than thirty years old. Xue Song had a short beard on his lips and was taciturn; Xue Kui was in his twenties and seemed more lively. He was the one who kept asking questions just now.

The current military envoy of Datong and the guard general of Yanmen Pass are also descendants of Pingyang County Duke Xue Rengui. He is the son of Xue Na Xue Dingshan and the younger brother of Xue Hui, the general of Zuojin Wuwei, Xue Zhi.

Soon, Yan Weiyue took Cui Hao into Yanmen Pass and met Xue Zhi.

Xue Zhi was standing on the tower in the north, looking out. Cui Hao could only see the vast mountains and rivers, and the world was silent. He didn't quite understand what Xue Zhi was looking at.

"I received a report that Khitan troops were marching south. Is Cui Canjun here for this matter?"

"General Xue turns out to know." Cui Hao said: "Han Jieshuai is very worried about this and sent me to ask about the situation at Yanmen Pass."

The Han Jieshuai he called was none other than Han Xiulin, who is now the governor of Hedong Province and the acting governor of the prefecture.

Xue Zhi asked: "Why doesn't Commander Jies send an old soldier who is familiar with the road?"

When Cui Hao heard that he seemed to be looking down upon himself, he looked sternly and said: "I am just an old soldier who is familiar with the road. During the Kaiyuan Dynasty, Du wanted Duke Du to be appointed as the governor of Daizhou, so I acted as a curtain under his door.

The song "Song of Yanmen Huren" was composed at that time."

"I heard that there was no fighting in western Liaoning. There was no fighting in western Liaoning back then, but it's different now." Xue Zhi frowned and his eyes deepened.

Cui Hao cupped his fists and said: "I was born in the Cui family of Boling. I was admitted to the imperial examination at a young age and have little reputation for poetry. Everyone in the world regards me as a scholar and elegant guest, and calls me a frivolous name. They don't believe that I can make a difference as an official. But I

He has been traveling in frontier fortresses for many years and experienced military service. He can really be called an 'old soldier'. Can General Xue be trusted?"

Xue Zhi then turned around and glanced at Cui Hao. He raised his eyelids with a look of surprise in his eyes and nodded.

"Let me first ask Cui Canjun, why is Commander Ji worried about the situation at Yanmen Pass?"

Cui Hao was stunned and said: "Of course it was because of the Khitan's move south."

"Cui Shenjun, please come here."

There is a map on the table in the city tower, which roughly outlines the garrison areas of several armies in Hedong.

Xue Zhi led Cui Hao to the map, raised his finger and pointed, saying: "To the north of Yanmen, there are Hengye Army, Kelan Army, and Yunzhong Guards. Even if the Khitan people go south, Yanmen Pass will not be the first to bear the brunt.

Why didn't Commander Jie ask these troops instead of asking me?"

Cui Hao smiled and said: "It's because I arrived at Yanmen Pass first."

"Okay." Xue Zhi said, "Since Commander Jie asked me about the situation at Yanmen Pass, I will tell you directly. What I am more worried about now is not the Khitan, but Fan Yang."

"What do you mean?"

After Xue Zhi was silent for a while, he pointed to the northwest direction of Yanmen Pass on the map, which was the station of Hengye Army and the junction between Hedong and Fanyang Roads.

"In the fourth year of Kaiyuan, nine Turkic tribes such as Tongluo and Bayigu surrendered to the Tang Dynasty because they could not bear the tyranny of Mochu Khan. The court was happy to accept them, but was also worried that they would rebel in the future, so they split them up and organized them into

Among the armies in Hedong, the Hengye Army took over five tribes. The leaders of the five Turkic tribes were respectively awarded the front, rear, left and right attack ambassadors, stationed in Yuzhou, and guarded Feihukou."

Cui Hao had never thought about this problem before. Now his eyes fell on the map, and he realized the importance of the Hengye Army Station.

Where is Feihukou in Yuzhou? It is one of the eight peaks in Taihang Mountain and is the main road connecting Hedong and Fanyang.

Xue Zhi added: "In recent years, several things have happened in the court. The leader of the Tongluo tribe, called 'Abu Si' or 'Li Xianzhong', defected. Before that, An Lushan requested several times to bring Abu Si's

The tribe moved to Fanyang; in addition, An Lushan also killed the Turkic Zuoxian King Gejie who refused to obey his orders, and reorganized Gejie's tribe."

"What does General Xue mean?"

"The reason why An Lushan cares so much about the surrendered Turkic tribes, what do you think his purpose is?"

"The Hengye Army?" Cui Hao thought for a moment and said, "But the Hengye Army belongs to the Hedong Jiedu. How can An Lushan, as the Fanyang Jiedu, interfere?"

Xue Zhidao said: "It is difficult to supply materials in the Taihang Mountains. There are many troops on the east side of the river, and the imperial court has a heavy burden. Therefore, it has been encouraged to farm fields and salt to make the soldiers and horses in the east of the river self-sufficient. Among them, there are one camp in Lanzhou, five camps in Puzhou, and Yunzhou

Thirty-seven villages, Datong Army’s 40th Army, Hengye Army’s 42nd Army, Hengye Army’s scale has always been the largest, and they also make native salt.”

"Earth salt?"

"The so-called soil salt is to extract crude salt from the salinized river bed. The Hengye Army Salt Farm is quite effective. A salt soldier can collect up to 1,500 shi of salt a year." Xue Zhi said: "With these important things

supplies, the Hengye Army has always had close trade relations with the Turks, Khitan tribes, and Fan Yang."

Cui Hao said: "General Xue, why don't you just tell me what you are worried about?"

Xue Zhi pondered and said: "The news from Fan Yang has been saying that the Khitan will be destroyed soon, but just after the New Year, Khitan troops went south. Why?"

"Perhaps they were beaten by Fan Yang's army and lost their cattle and sheep. They wanted to take advantage of the beginning of spring to come and rob them."

"The Queen of Autumn is not coming, but she is coming at this time?" Xue Zhi shook his head.

At this point, his meaning was already obvious.

Although Cui Hao kept asking questions, he was actually a very smart person and had already understood.

"What I'm worried about is that if An Lushan rebels and bribes the Hengye Army and colludes with the Khitan, he can easily occupy Hedong by force." Xue Zhi still said it bluntly.

"Is this... possible?"

"Han Jieshuai sent you to ask, don't you have any guesses?"

"All this is just speculation by General Xue." Cui Hao said: "Is there any evidence?"

"No." Xue Zhi said, "What I said is just speculation."

Cui Hao was speechless for a long time and turned to look north again. This time he finally understood what Xue Zhi was looking at just now.

In the vast mountains and rivers, it turns out that there are so many dangers.

"General Xue." At the end, Cui Hao clasped his fists and said: "The general believed in me as soon as we met, and I also believed in the general. So I went back to General Han Jieshuai and asked him to send troops to help the general guard Yanmen."

Xue Zhi sighed slightly and nodded.

So Cui Hao rested for the night at Yanmen Pass and rode back to Daizhou the next day.

~~

Yanmen Pass still stands there, and occasionally you can hear a few wild geese chirping in the air.
To be continued...