After five years of separation, when I met Su Lie again, Yang Yuanqing felt a sense of separation from him yesterday.

He turned over and dismounted, smiled and hugged him tightly. Yang Yuanqing looked at him again. He hadn't seen him for five years, but he had grown taller, but he was still a little shorter than his head. Only then did Yang Yuanqing suddenly realize that he had grown taller.

"Boy Su, what have you done to stay at home for five years? How many sons have you given birth to?" Yang Yuanqing smiled and punched him in the shoulder.

Su Lie scratched his head embarrassedly, "I have been practicing martial arts at home for five years, and I always think that this arrow is much worse than you, but the more I shoot, the less confident I don't dare to come out. Before I get married, where can I get my son?"

"Improving martial arts depends on experience. How can I do it at home and how can I work behind closed doors? How about I want to join me in the Western Regions?" Yang Yuanqing warmly invited him.

Su Lie's eyes were filled with hope. He was staying at home for five years and practicing martial arts hard. In terms of swordsmanship, he thought he could make it to the top three, but he was always inferior to Yang Yuanqing in archery. At least he did not succeed in practicing iron arrows, but he could no longer wait, and the blood in his heart was boiling.

"I'm willing to go with you!"

"Okay!" Yang Yuanqing patted his shoulder and introduced the iron guard behind him, "These are my nine brothers. We share life and death. Dalang, you have known each other. This is from Erlang to Jiulang."

Su Lie bowed to the crowd one by one. At this time, he saw Pei Ju. Pei Ju's leisurely expression made him respectfully, "Yuan Qing, who is this old man?"

"This is Pei Xiangguo and my grandfather!"

Yang Yuanqing introduced Su Lie to Pei Ju again. Pei Ju narrowed his eyes and smiled: "Another hero, brother Su, I am looking forward to your performance in the Western Regions."

"Report to the prime minister, Su Lie will follow Brother Yuanqing to open up the territory for the Great Sui Dynasty and make achievements!"

Pei Ju nodded with a stroke of her beard and said, "Very good, I look forward to it!"

"Everyone is hungry!"

Yang Yuanqing smiled at the crowd and said, "Since we are here, let's have a meal first and then rush to go."

Several iron guards were already hungry, and the young master ordered them to run towards the restaurant.

The Great Sui Dynasty's control over the Western Regions was mainly concentrated in the Hehuang Valley and the Hexi Corridor, with the traditional Yumen Pass as the boundary, and the westernmost end was Dunhuang County.

After ten years of death, Yang Yuanqing and Pei Ju and his party arrived at Zhangye County. Zhangye was the ruling center of the Great Sui Dynasty in the Western Regions, with more than 5,000 troops stationed in. The reason why Zhangye became the center of the Great Sui Dynasty in the Western Regions was that its geographical location was extremely important, with all connections and access to Juyanze along the weak water. It was an important road leading to the northern desert grassland. To the south, it could enter the Hehuang Valley through the Dadouba Valley. On the other hand, Zhangye was also a major horse-raising site for the Great Sui Dynasty. On the grasslands in Zhangye and Wuwei, there were more than 400,000 war horses.

Pei Ju arrived in Zhangye, and Zhangye Prefect Li Gang came out from afar. Li Gang, the Minister of War who was the Minister of War when the Wu Ju case, was purged by Yang Guang in that Wu Ju case. Only the Minister of War Li Gang and the Minister of War Wang Shichong were spared, but they were also transferred from the Ministry of War. Li Gang was appointed as the Chief of Zhangye and was promoted to the Chief of Zhangye last year. Wang Shichong was appointed as the Deputy Chief of the Jiangdu Palace. He was promoted to the Chief of the Jiangdu Palace for his outstanding reception of Yang Guang and was also the Chief of the Jiangdu Palace.

Li Gang did not participate in fraud in the Wu Ju case. He was very innocent, but he was the chief examiner and had an unshirkable main responsibility. Although he was the master of the Crown Prince Yang Yong and was appointed as the Crown Prince Xima, Emperor Yang Guang still valued his talents very much. He was repeatedly demoted and promoted repeatedly. He was demoted to the Western Regions due to the Wu Ju case and was soon promoted to the prefect. "Li Gang was humble to meet the Prime Minister Pei!"

Li Gang welcomed him ten miles away and greeted Pei Ju with a smile. Pei Ju and Li Gang were of the same age as Li Gang and had a good personal relationship. Li Gang was promoted to prefect last year, which was the result of Pei Ju's strong recommendation.

Pei Ju dismounted and hugged him with a smile, and introduced Yang Yuanqing to him, "Li Jun, you and Yuanqing should have known each other very early. He is my grandson-in-law now. For my sake, let's expose the past!"

Li Gang and Yang Yuanqing had no big grudges. Bi Jing and the others had a serious problem at the beginning, which was so serious that he was angry about him. However, Li Gang had a deep personal grudge with Yang Yuanqing's grandfather Yang Su. Although Pei Ju hoped that they would reconcile, Li Gang was still resentful of Yang Su and could not be intimate with Yang Yuanqing.

Li Gang had received the imperial decree and knew that Yang Yuanqing was responsible for heavy responsibilities, so he would not neglect in official affairs. He bowed to Yang Yuanqing and said lightly: "General Yang is responsible for heavy responsibilities, and Li Gang will do his best to help."

Pei Ju felt the coldness in his tone. He knew that he still couldn't let go, so he had to sigh secretly.

Yang Yuanqing didn't care. He smiled and replied, "This time I will serve as the ambassador of the Yumendao Army to control the two counties of Zhangye and Dunhuang. The logistics side must rely on the assistance of Li Envoy Li. On the day of triumphant success, I will repay the merits of Li Envoy Li."

"Thank you, General Yang!"

Li Gang introduced him to Zhangye's military commander Qu Tutong, the general manager of Ganzhou, Wang Wei, and Qu Tutong are also old ministers. He is in his early fifties this year and has much older qualifications than Yang Yuanqing. He is not only the general manager of Ganzhou, but also the state of Zhu.

Even the deputy general manager Wang Wei had been in the officialdom for 30 years. Although his reputation was not obvious, his qualifications were as high as the Yinqing Guanglu doctor. Despite this, this time, Qu Tutong was subject to Yang Yuanqing's restraint, which really made him feel a little unhappy.

The crowd met one by one and entered Zhangye City. The crowd sat down in the General Administration Hall. Qu Tutong ordered the team to hang out a map. He pointed at the circle around Zhangye with a wooden pole and said: "Zhangye has 5,000 troops, but they are all distributed in various dangerous passes. There are 1,000 troops in Datong City, Juyanze, and 1,05 troops in Dadoubagu. There are 1,000 troops in Yanzhi Mountain, Ganjun Mountain and Fulu County in the north. We must especially be prepared for the Qiang Incoming and Tuyuhun to collude. If the troops are too small, Tuyuhun will inevitably instigate the Qiang Incoming to enter Hexi. Qu Tutong shoulders the important task of defending the Great Sui Horse Farm and dare not be careless."

After hearing this, Yang Yuanqing understood what he meant, that is, he was short of troops and could not give him much army. Yang Yuanqing's face slowly sank, "Master Qu Tu just say it! How many army is handed over to me."

Qu Tutong smiled bitterly and said, "At most, five hundred!"

"five hundred?"

Yang Yuanqing sneered, "Is General Qu Tu sending beggars?"

Qu Tutong's face changed, he snorted heavily, turned his head aside, and the atmosphere in the conference hall immediately became tense. Seeing that something was wrong, Pei Ju quickly smiled and smoothed out the situation.

"General Qu Tu, General Yang shoulders heavy responsibilities this time, which is related to the overall situation of the Western Regions. If the troops are insufficient, it is likely that they will not be successful. In particular, they have to defend against the attacks of the Western Turks. The five hundred troops are indeed a little less. It would be good if Dunhuang County has more troops, but Dunhuang County only has three thousand garrisons, so they cannot be handed over to General Yang. In this way, General Yang only has three thousand troops. If the troops are insufficient, it is difficult to bear the attack on Yiwu Country. General Qu Tu should add some more troops!"

Qu Tutong was very polite to Pei Ju, and he bowed: "Reporting to the Prime Minister Pei, it was not that I deliberately made things difficult for General Yang. It was really difficult for me. In the past one or two years, Tuhun's fire has repeatedly provoked the Qiang's rebellion. At the beginning of the year, Tuyuhun's cavalry appeared in Dadoubagu, and the court refused to increase troops to Zhangye. We were short of troops and under great pressure. If we sent too many troops, Zhangye was empty. Not only would Tuyuhun send troops to threaten them, but the Turks would also go to the south. Zhangye was heavily involved in the entire Western Regions. You should not act rashly!"

Qu Tutong sighed, "For the sake of the prime minister, that's one thousand, no more!"

Yang Yuanqing also knew that the imperial edict clearly stated that Zhangye was for logistics support, and the army was mainly Dunhuang County. If the troops were insufficient, they could be recruited locally in Dunhuang County. This was the imperial edict, but he did not want to use the recruited army. The temporary recruitment army was much weaker in combat power, so he still hoped to use the regular army.

"General Qu Tu, I am ordered to control Zhangye and Dunhuang. The Zhangye army is also under my control. I also know that Zhangye has a great pressure on defense, so I discussed with the general manager that I don't want to make trouble at the end of the emperor. We should give in to each side! I don't want your army of three thousand, at least two thousand, how about it?"

Yang Yuanqing stared in his eyes, "If General Qu Tu is unwilling to cooperate, then I, Yang Yuanqing, will go back and report, saying that I can't fight this battle, and recommend General Qu Tu to fight. I think General Qu Tu doesn't want this result."

Qu Tutong didn't say anything for a while, and he knew in his heart that he could not do too much. This battle of Yiwu was related to the overall situation of the Western Regions. He could not afford the consequences of the failure. After hesitating for a long time, he finally agreed, "Okay! Zhangye will send two thousand troops to the general, but I have a small condition."

He pointed to the deputy general manager Wang Wei, "I recommend Deputy General Manager Wang as General Yang. I will tell you what?"

Yang Yuanqing looked at Wang Wei, and saw that he was taciturn and was always steady, and nodded, "Then let's just say one thing!"

In this war against Yiwu, Yang Guang gave Yang Yuanqing a quota of 10,000 troops, but the troops in Zhangye and Dunhuang counties were only 8,000, and he could only use half of them at most. There was still a gap of 6,000. Yang Guang meant that he could solve the problem by himself. The local government provided the money and grain, which was also the most common way to recruit soldiers on the spot. Although Yang Yuanqing did not want to use this method, the situation was unavoidable.

Yang Yuanqing led two thousand troops to travel west and walked a few more times. The army arrived in Dunhuang County, which has always been an important western town of the Central Plains dynasty and was also the first stop for the Western Regions business travelers to enter the Hexi Corridor. As early as the Jin Dynasty, the commercial area was developed here. Businesses from Persia, Sogdian, Yaozhu, Tochar and various parts of the Western Regions gathered here, making Dunhuang an international commercial center.

There are 3,000 troops in Dunhuang County, mainly stationed in Yumen and Dunhuang, and are under the jurisdiction of Dunhuang prefect Pei Wenjin.

Pei Wenjin was a nephew of Pei Ju clan. He was transferred from Liangzhou to Dunhuang at the beginning of the year. When he heard that the head of the family was coming, Pei Wenjin was extremely surprised and went out of the city to greet him. The uncle and nephew met in a foreign land and were extremely happy. Pei Ju introduced Yang Yuanqing for him. Pei Wenjin promised that he could hand over all the troops to Yang Yuanqing for disposal.

"Pei Envoy, why are there so many Han people entering Dunhuang?"

Outside the city, Yang Yuanqing actually saw the streets full of Han, coming and going, and it was very lively. The man was gentle and elegant, while the woman was elegant and graceful, and the accent was mostly in the southern area, which surprised him.

Pei Wenjin smiled slightly, "General Yang, do you really don't know why?"

(To be continued)

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Chapter completed!