Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

"It's not that you can fight, it's that you're not afraid of death!" Wang Kuan sneered: "Do you think fighting is just a game of house? The two sides set up their positions, picked up swords and guns to counter each other, and if they win, they win, and if they lose, they lose? What a joke!" "

"What else can we do?" the young man asked, "Uncle Wang, you have been in the army, why don't you tell me what this war is like?"

"Fighting is rarely so enjoyable!" Wang Kuan snorted coldly: "Let's put it this way, fighting is hard, killing a thousand enemies and damaging yourself eight hundred, marching for half a month, spraining your ankle, eating something bad and getting dysentery, falling There are at least a dozen people out of 100 who have broken arms and legs. The young and middle-aged people have been dragged away to fight. There is no one to harvest or plant the crops in the fields. In the winter, the elderly and children starve to death at home. Just go through it like this. Who on either side can Whoever can't stand it first will admit defeat. The Silla people are not good at fighting, but they can indeed stand it!"

"Aren't Silla people afraid of dead people and their families starving to death?" the young man asked in confusion.

"It is the common people who starve to death, not the nobles! The upper and lower boundaries of Silla are much harsher than those of the Tang Dynasty. As long as the nobles of Silla continue to fight, the common people of Silla will have no choice but to continue fighting, even if their wives and children die. The light must also be beaten! So you understand, General Xue’s beheading is nothing to the Silla nobles. In their view, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and they must seize it to the death. How many people have been killed? After all, the common people are just like the grass in the field. If you cut one crop this year, more will grow next year. What’s the big deal!”

"Damn, those Silla nobles are so cruel!" the young man cursed.

"How can a noble person not be cruel? Why did the people of the Tang Dynasty cut off their own hands and feet when they were so good? Weren't they all forced? Why did our ancestors come here? Is it because the sky is high and the emperor is far away here, so there is no need to do hard labor? ! All noble people in the world are the same!"

"Then what should we do now?" the boy asked.

"Look for an opportunity to go to Fan Yang!" Wang Kuan answered decisively: "This battle cannot be fought in a day or two. The war will come here sooner or later. We are not short of money. If the battle here cannot be finished in a while, we will If we stay at Fan Yang's place now, if the war is over, we can go back and clean up our family business in time! Remember, there is nothing else but fate!"

"Ok!"

After convincing the young man, Wang Kuan let out a sigh of relief and went to the city gate to see with his own eyes. Halfway through, he saw a familiar figure on horseback. He hurriedly shouted: "Azhiluo, are you brother Azhiluo?"

The man on horseback turned around, and it was Ah Zhiluo, with a scary and serious look in his eyes. Only when he saw Wang Kuan did he squeeze out a smile: "So it's you, brother!"

"What's wrong?" Wang Kuan walked up to the horse and said, "I was about to go to the city gate to have a look. I heard that General Xue just won the battle!"

"Well! The Silla people are too careless!" Ah Zhiluo jumped off his horse: "If we hadn't had too few cavalry, there would never have been only a few beheadings!"

"Three thousand is a lot!" Wang Kuan said with a smile.

"There are not that many, it would be good to have a third!" Ajira lowered his voice: "The Silla people's Hwarang team fought desperately to counterattack. We had too few cavalry, so we didn't pursue them. However, those Hwarang troops They were also ambushed by our crossbowmen, and at least a hundred people died!"

"More than a hundred Hwarangs, that's not ordinary. For the Silla people, this is more than thousands of infantry!" Wang Kuan's eyes lit up: "You also made meritorious service in this battle, right?"

"It's just a little effort!" Ah Zhiluo smiled: "But the situation has not improved. There is definite news that the Da Ting clan has also rebelled!"

"Are you talking about the Da Ting clan of the Songmo Governor's Mansion?" Wang Kuan's face changed drastically: "Isn't that the north of Yingzhou -"

"Yes!" Ah Zhiluo nodded: "So you'd better leave as soon as possible, the sooner the better!"

"Thank you very much. I'll go back and pack my bags right away!" Wang Kuan was already anxious and turned around to go back.The Songmo Dudufu was the Jisi Prefecture built in the early Tang Dynasty to house the Khitan tribes. Its geographical location was probably located in today's Chifeng and Tongliao areas, just north of Yingzhou. Once the Khitans rebelled, Yingzhou would be attacked from both sides. The situation is only connected to Hebei by a long and narrow Liaoxi Corridor, which shows how dangerous the situation is.

"Brother Wang, don't worry!" Azhiluo stopped Wang Kuan and took out something from his arms: "This is the Bodhisattva statue my mother left for me. I don't know if I can come back this time. You can collect it for me." Well, if I can’t come back this time, I’ll give it to my child!”

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Fan Yang.

Wang Wenzuo was receiving another wave of visitors when the messenger brought the news that the Khitans had raised the flag of rebellion.

The weather outside the window was gloomy, and the sky was gray and black. Wang Wenzuo smiled at the visitor in a patterned manner, reservedly accepted the visitor's loyalty and gifts, and then picked up the tea cup to indicate that he could leave.As soon as the visitor's heels crossed the threshold, Wang Wenzuo put down his tea cup and asked Di Renjie on the side: "How many guests are there to see today?"

"There are four more before dinner!" Di Renjie looked at the list: "There are seven more after dinner!" He carefully looked at Wang Wenzuo's face: "Of course, if you want, General, you can push it to tomorrow!"

"Forget it, there is still tomorrow!" Wang Wenzuo said with a wry smile: "Be more compact, they are just clichés anyway, try to compress everyone's time to less than half a quarter of an hour!"

"Yes, yes!" Di Renjie responded twice: "Actually, you don't need to meet everyone in person!"

"That's not possible. I see the people in front but not the people behind. If a bowl of water is uneven, it can easily cause trouble!" Wang Wenzuo sighed, and when he turned around, he found Sancho standing at the door, his lips trembling slightly. It must be something. Important news.

"What happened?"

"Urgent military report from Yingzhou!" Sanqiu stepped forward and submitted the military report: "It's so urgent that the military envoy killed two good horses along the way!"

Wang Wenzuo took the letter and after reading two lines, he shouted: "Map, get the map!" "Here!" Sancho quickly pulled out a scroll from the cabinet at the back and spread out several cases in front of Wang Wenzuo. , Wang Wenzuo's finger slid across the map, and finally stopped at a certain point: "Damn it, these Khitan people really know how to choose the right time to backstab!"

"What's wrong?" Di Renjie asked.

"The Khitans rebelled! Just a few days ago!" Wang Wenzuo stretched out his finger and nodded on the map: "Obviously, it was the Silla people who caused the trouble. They should have made some promises or some concessions. The Khitans pulled over!"

"Probably so!" Di Renjie was not surprised at all by Wang Wenzuo's judgment. Over the past few days, he had become accustomed to Wang Wenzuo's keen intuition, and the layers of veil floating on the truth seemed to him not to exist at all.

"In other words, the people of Silla have formed an alliance against us!" Wang Wenzuo twirled his beard, walked back and forth in the room twice, and suddenly stopped: "Huaiying, are you willing to go? Jincheng, can you bring a message to Jin Famin for me?"

"My subordinate is willing to go!" Di Renjie puffed up his chest.

"Very good!" Wang Wenzuo suddenly took off his waist knife: "Sancho!"

"The little guy is here!"

"Take this sword, go with Mr. Di, and tell the old people of Baekje and the Japanese country that if they still consider themselves my subjects and family members, they will come in armor and follow the emperor's orders to attack the rebels! The time has come! If there are If you don’t want to come, you can kill them with this knife!”

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Songmo Governor's Mansion, on the banks of the Laoha River, in the adult tent.

The road is rugged, passing over hills, woods and passes, and follows a narrow path that often disappears under the horses' hooves. It stretches, stretches, and seems to never see the end. Dating Huaien's body clings to the horse's back to reduce the risk of the oncoming collision. The blowing wind caused his body to rise and fall with the horse, just like his mood.

As the latecomers of the grassland ethnic groups, the social development stage of the Khitan people in the early Tang Dynasty was far less developed than that of Xianbei such as Turks and Tieles.According to historical records, the first time the name Khitan was mentioned in the history books of the Central Plains Dynasty was in the "Book of Wei" written in the fifth year of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty (554), which recorded the first year of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (406). At the beginning, "King Xi of Yan attacked Khitan".The Korean "Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms" mentions the Khitans even earlier. In the third year of Taiyuan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (378), the Khitans invaded Goguryeo and "trapped eight tribes in the north."Obviously, the Khitans at that time, like the Xianbei people, also originated from the Changbai Mountains, where the mountains are high, the forests are dense, and the terrain is complex. Neither the Central Plains Empire nor the nomadic empire could penetrate their power into it, making it the common origin of many nomadic peoples. , this is also confirmed by the Khitan people’s own founding myth of “green ox and white horse”.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, a large number of refugees fled outside the Great Wall to avoid the war. This made the Khitan people make great progress in civilization. They established a permanent tribal alliance, the Eight Tribes Alliance, which was the foundation of the later Liao Empire.However, the Eight-Ministry Alliance at this time was still quite weak and loose. The Tang Empire initially supported it and used its power to contain powerful enemies such as the Turks, Uighurs, and Goguryeo.

As a pro-Tang faction among the Khitan people, Da Tinghuai'en always believed that the Khitan people should remain loyal to the Tang Empire. Of course, he also knew that his ideas were not very popular among his compatriots. After all, he saw the Mohe people and the Xin Dynasty. Who would not be tempted by the Luo people who wantonly expanded and devoured the corpses of Goguryeo after its collapse?

Therefore, Dating Huai'en could only do the next best thing - urging the Khitans not to place bets easily and wait and see what happens in order to obtain the greatest benefits. After all, in his opinion, with the strength of the Tang Empire, even without the support of the Khitans, it would be impossible to regain It is not difficult to pacify Liaodong.Da Ting Huai'en's idea was supported by most Khitan nobles, but the sudden news gave him a blow. The Khitans suddenly raised the flag of rebellion and stood on the opposite side of the Tang Dynasty.Da Tinghuai'en thought to himself: Now the storm is coming. This is a big storm that the Khitan people have never seen before.

After riding until late at night, Da Ting Huai En finally caught a glimpse of the sharp corners of the tooth tent under the new moon.In order to distinguish it from other tents, the Khitan people erected sharp wooden pickets at the four corners of the tent where the leader of the flag and drum lived, inlaid with antlers to exaggerate the nobleness and power of the leader. These pickets and antlers oozed out under the moonlight. people.Da Ting Huaien tightened the reins, put his thumb and index finger into his mouth, and made a sharp whistle.

"It's you!" The guard who greeted him was a young man with freckles on his face. He grabbed the reins of Da Tinghuai En: "You are late, the alliance meeting is over!"

"Shut up, bastard!" Dating Huaien jumped off the horse: "Where is my father?"

"Right in the tooth tent, with the other leaders!"

The tent was very large, and even though the Khitan people hung felt blankets on the four walls, it was still ventilated everywhere.One of Lord Khitan's daughters handed him a glass of wine, while the other stirred the fire, which brought more smoke than heat.Da Tinghuai'en's father was whispering to a skinny man wearing chinchilla fur. The man wore a necklace with various gemstones around his neck, indicating that he was a shaman.

"My child, you are finally back!" Da Tinghuai'en's father saw his son appearing at the entrance of the tent. He stood up excitedly and opened his arms: "Is the journey going well?"

"It's terrible!" Da Tinghuai En hugged his father with some embarrassment: "The Laoha River flooded, and there were swamps everywhere on the road. It took me twice as long!"

"It's nothing, as long as you're fine!" The father grabbed his son's arm and pulled him to sit next to him: "Bring me a glass of milk wine and barbecue!"

"Don't be busy drinking now, there are more important things now!" Da Ting Huaien raised his right hand and raised his voice so that everyone in the dental tent could hear his voice clearly: "I heard that you have decided to deal with Da Ting Hua En. What about Tang raising the flag of rebellion?”

The Khitan leaders in the tent looked at each other, but no one answered. Only the shaman stood up, twirling a gem necklace in one hand, and called Da Tinghuai'en by his Khitan name: "Beggar fans, you must have heard wrong. Yes, we Khitans just plan to move our pastureland."

"Where to move? To the south?" Dating Huaien snorted coldly: "Our current pasture is between big rivers, with rich water and grass. Isn't that enough for you?"

"Our current pasture land is good, but in recent years the livestock population of our Khitan tribes has multiplied, and the pasture land is somewhat insufficient. Besides, who would dislike having more pasture land? Right? A beggar fan?" the shaman said with a smile.

"No matter how much pasture land is, it is only useful to the living!" Dating Huaien said coldly, turning his eyes to the Lord: "Sir, you should remember what the envoy of the Tang Dynasty said at the time, that this pasture land was given by the Emperor. Ours will belong to us for generations to come, and we must be loyal to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty for generations to come. Now that you are breaking your oath, neither the gods nor the earth will protect us!"

"This--" The Khitan master was already an old man. He was speechless in the face of Dating Huai'en's question, and subconsciously turned his eyes to the shaman standing aside for help.