Reincarnation of the Heavens: Starting from Hong Kong Comprehensive

Chapter 354 Westward Journey
On August [-], the second year of Yifeng, the two saints personally stood at the top of the city and watched the expedition march from Chang'an.

Prime Minister Li Jingxuan was granted the title of Grand Superintendent of the Taohe River. He led his generals Liu Shenli, Wang Xiaojie, Li Jinxing, Heiji Changzhi, Lou Shide and other generals. With Taishi Ling Meng Fan as his military advisor, he led 18 Tang troops to attack Tibet.

A team of more than [-] people left the imperial capital in a mighty manner and took the lead in arriving at Shiping, Guanzhong.

At this time, everyone received a report from Longyou's military plane sent to Chang'an. The Tubo people were arrogant and led their troops to break through Shanzhou. They burned, killed, looted, and destroyed the city before leaving.

When Li Jingxuan found out, he was very worried and wanted to have the words "What can I do" engraved on his face.

Sometimes, Meng Fan felt that Zhao Kuo was pretty good on paper. At least no matter what he said, at least he didn't show cowardice and dared to command.

Before the battle started, the coach was the first to be timid and at a loss...how to fight?
Of course, it can also be said that Li Jingxuan is self-aware and knows exactly what this trip means.

It is worth mentioning that Meng Fan was able to follow him this time, but he offended two women. Taiping found him several times, thinking that he chose to go to war to avoid her. His aunt Wu Zetian gave some advice: cherish feathers and don't make mistakes. .

In the end, the saying that if you live high in a temple, you worry about its people, all sounds were blocked.

Now, he is in the marching team and communicating face to face with the coach:
"The Heyuan, Jishi, and Momen armies have been set up in the Longyou area. They are all veterans of many battles. Their combat effectiveness is incomparable to that of newly recruited local warriors."

"There are veterans following you on the battlefield, and I also have some skills. As long as you don't mess up your position, this trip will be safe!"

"Yes, if Jiu Ru has magical means, he will definitely be able to borrow heavenly soldiers and generals to turn things around." Li Jingxuan seemed to be hypnotizing himself, and he seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw.

The further away from Chang'an, the less assertive this guy becomes. People can't help but worry that at a critical moment, because of his confusion, he will make some unbelievable tricks and cause the entire army to be annihilated.

Therefore, as a military advisor, Meng Fan was under a lot of pressure compared to Xu Maogong, the founding hero of the country. What can be comforted is that the other generals are not parallel imports, and even the civil servants are quite courageous.

Among them, the name Wang Xiaojie has been heard in movies and TV series, and the frequency is not low——

In Detective Di Renjie, the empress's favorite general is worshiped as General Youwei, who guards the border all year round.

In addition, there is also the famous general Hei Te Changzhi.

This name is very strange, so as long as you hear it once, it will be deeply remembered in your mind. As a foreign general who joined China, since he can go down in history, he must have made great military achievements.

The only fly in the ointment is that the two of them are very young and have only a slight reputation in the military. Therefore, they do not have much say and cannot lead the army alone.

It would be nice if he could predict things in advance. Meng Fan sighed. He still needs to study more. At least he can be useful after time travel, but he won't be in trouble yet.

Because even if you do nothing, keep a close eye on coach Li Jingxuan, don't let him make outrageous decisions, and let the experienced generals below perform freely, you can still achieve something in this trip, but the success will be small.

……

The march route this time is along the ancient road. In the past, the Tang army also chose this route for their expeditions——

Along the north bank of the Weishui River, cross the Longshan Mountains, arrive at Qinzhou, go back to the Weishui River and continue westward, cross Niaoshu Mountain, and enter Linzhou;

Afterwards, it traveled northwest from Lintao, crossed the Yellow River via Hezhou, passed Longzhi City, continued northwest, and finally arrived at Shanzhou.

There were no accidents along the way.

After all, the thousand-year-old monster would stay far away when he saw such evil spirits in the army.

During this process, after the army arrived in Hezhou, it temporarily changed its target and went to Dunhuang City for rest and recuperation. The generals gathered together to analyze the situation based on various reports.

Among the 18 troops, about 13 came from the Central Plains, that is, recruited warriors, and they had slowly gathered during the march.

The rest are waiting at the border. They are veterans of many battles, with rich combat effectiveness and experience, ensuring that all hopes for this battle will not be pinned on the new recruits.

Hu Jiruo plans to invite him to stay with him.

The golden whip is tied to the purple whip.

Literati have always been shameless, taking the initiative to spend money to buy sex as a forced invitation by Hu Ji, as a romantic affair, and often show it off to friends.

Dunhuang City.

Closely connected to the Silk Road, the murals became famous all over the world in later generations. At the same time, it was also one of the most rampant places for the female slave trade in the Western Regions.

But this description actually reflects Meng Fan's strong subjective will, because the Tang Dynasty never prohibited the sale of slaves, and everything was legal and compliant.

First night in town.

The lord of this khaki-colored frontier fortress city hurriedly ordered someone to send a group of female slaves secretly, but everyone refused righteously.

Li Jingxuan and other coaches and generals are all old people. They enjoyed nothing when they were young, but now they don’t care about beauty;

Wang Xiaojie, Hei Chi Changzhi and other young and strong factions are eager to make achievements in order to become marquises and prime ministers at their age, and do not want to bear the stain.

National war is imminent, playing with women?

It can be cut!
Even if he deliberately indulged the soldiers, he would give repeated orders not to conflict with local people and Hu merchants. If he did not return home at night, he would be beheaded in public.

"Hu Teng's body is from Liangzhou, his skin is like jade, his nose is like a cone, his light tung cloth shirt is rolled up front and back, and his long grape belt hangs down one side."

"Kneel down in front of the tent to compose the music, roll up your lapels and sleeves to dance for the king, the old pastor of Anxi watched with tears, and the poet from Luoxia copied the music."

"Stepping on the floral carpet with raised eyebrows, red sweat exchanges beaded hats, tilting eastward and westward while drunk, soft and weak boots in front of the lamp, walking in a circle and quivering in time, backhands on hips like the moon."

"Sitong suddenly played the end of a song, whining and drawing Jiaocheng's hair, Hu Teng'er, Hu Teng'er, do you know the road to your hometown?"

This poem is perfectly suitable to describe Meng Fan's state of mind. If the Tang army cannot win this battle, the road to the Western Regions will continue to be cut off.

Especially when I see a foreign woman with three-dimensional facial features wearing a pearl flower hat, a light gauze embroidered long skirt, decorated with golden bells, wearing brocade boots, twisting her slender waist, performing complex dance steps to the beat of drums, using bells. Make a crisp and cheerful sound.

How long can this peaceful scene last?

In the end, before leaving, Meng Fan spent ten taels of gold to buy a female slave, the one who left the deepest impression on him in Dunhuang Tucheng——

Whenever night falls, the business troupe will perform performances next to the fire. Mako Jackfruit is the best dancer among the female slaves.

Of course, this weird name was given by Meng Fan after his redemption. After removing the word "honey", it had the same pronunciation as the famous explorer Marco Polo.

For Mako Boromit, whenever the singing and dancing stopped, she could always notice two people in the crowd. One was Meng Fan, who had an outstanding temperament and was surrounded by countless armored elite soldiers. The other was a young man with ordinary appearance and mediocre temperament. , with obsessed eyes, wearing a coarse robe.

"That person is a noble from the Tang Empire. It is said that he came from Chang'an and is extremely expensive."

The manager of the business group introduced it this way: "The other one is a local painter, or a painter's apprentice. Look at his shoulders. No matter how clean they are, there is still a layer of paint on them. We don't have much money to reward us."

It turns out that there is a cliff mountain in the southeast of Dunhuang City. Thousands of caves, large and small, were dug on the cliff face. There were murals and statues in them to make offerings to the Buddha and make merit.Local wealthy families are proud to open caves to make offerings, so there are craftsmen who make a living by painting and carving Buddha statues.

During the few days that the caravan stayed in Dunhuang City, not only the military personnel watched and cheered, but the ordinary-looking young man also watched silently from the corner.

Moco Boromi hopes to be sold in Dunhuang, so that she may see the painter often.

But if no one intervenes, there will be no story between the two. A female slave who is destined to be sold to a nobleman, and a poor young painter. Their fate is limited to this——

After the caravan left, the man packed up a few clothes and old drawings and lived in a small cave on the cliff that could not even straighten his waist. He painted and ate the simplest meals in the cave during the day, and slept in the small cave at night.

I will never leave here again in this life until I am old and frail, unable to recognize colors or hold a paintbrush. I will take the initiative to walk out of the cage-like Mingsha Mountain on a windy sandstorm day, walk into the vast desert, and end my life.

Behind him is a solemn and beautiful alms cave. On the wall are countless apsaras wearing light gauze and dancing Hu Xuan dance. They are all immersed in the joy and satisfaction of the paradise paradise, based on women.

But the woman didn't know anything. She came to Chang'an, the most magnificent city in the world. Because she was young, beautiful, and good at singing and dancing, she was attracted by a nobleman. She signed a contract to buy a maidservant, and her wealth and life were taken by the new owner.

Unfortunately, she was not lucky. The noble lady was always fond of the new and disliked the old. After she got tired of playing, he sent her to a restaurant to make money. Scholars and scholars came on horseback and asked her to sell wine as a sourdough. After the wine made her ears warm, they played music and danced until dark.

Since there is a curfew in Chang'an, the scholars who read the sage's book will ask for it and go somewhere else to spend the night together.

Most of the money was taken away by the owner.

When they grow old and lose their beauty, they can no longer play the pipa or dance the Hu Xuan dance, and become slaves who cannot make any money, they will be driven away by their masters and left to fend for themselves.

As a last resort, she found a nunnery and persuaded the abbot to accept her haircut and become a nun. She worshiped the Buddha with green lanterns every day and spent the rest of her life surrounded by the sound of wooden fish.

The flying dancing postures of his youth and the silent Dunhuang painter he met by chance all flashed by in the flames of green smoke and candles. These were the most precious things that white beauties could obtain during the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, before leaving, Meng Fan decided to redeem her body, burned the deed on the spot, and arranged for the Dunhuang City Lord to register her household registration. When writing a handbook similar to the household registration booklet of later generations, he gave her a name:
Macho jackfruit.

You can't change the times, you can only make a marriage happen, which is considered a meritorious deed.

……

After leaving Dunhuang City, everyone hurried all the way, and finally arrived at Shanzhou City before winter came, but it had been almost destroyed by the war.

War is coming.

At this moment, there are many officers, soldiers and common people inside and outside the city who are transporting the corpses on shelf carts, and some people are digging pits outside the city.

Staring at the messy and miserable city, Meng Fan fell into silence. The people living in Chang'an, the Central Plains, and even other areas far away from the war were really blessed.

"Ladder, who's going to find the auxiliary ladder? Get the kid down."

There was a long arrow stuck halfway up the city wall, and an infant child was crucified there.

When the troops saw this, they were in an uproar. They were young men who had prepared their own clothing, food, and weapons, and had specially joined the army to kill the enemy. They immediately shouted: "Even the children will not be spared! If the Tibetan people are not killed to extinction, I will never return to Chang'an in this life!"

"August has already robbed once, and just now, he comes to kill us again. Kill all these beasts!"

A low-level military commander said angrily.

"What's the use of just yelling? The saint recruits warriors and sends everyone here just to fight to the death! But everything must be arranged, and we can't talk about the big plan!"

After finishing speaking, Wang Xiaojie looked at the coach Li Jingxuan and Liu Shenli. The latter was the minister of the Ministry of Industry and the general of Zuowei who inspected the school. This trip was equivalent to the deputy commander.

"Although Shanzhou is destroyed, it is still a place to live. Let's go to the city and rest."

After all, Li Jingxuan was the prime minister. After going through the ups and downs of the officialdom, and after such a long period of adjustment, he gradually adapted to the current situation. He led the generals to walk through the miserable streets and said in a deep voice:

"Tell everyone to take a closer look at what the aliens have done to us. If we fight in the future, don't f**king care about yourself for fear of death!"

"Think about it carefully, maybe those lying here in the future will be your grandparents, brothers and sisters."

As everyone walked, they looked around at the collapsed houses, and corpses were everywhere they saw.

The women were mostly naked and were humiliated before being killed. Some of them could not bear to look at them, with their intestines leaking out.

"What a damn coward, I wish I had come earlier!" Black Teeth Changzhi roared.

The Shanzhou civil official who was responsible for guiding the way took over and said:
"In the past few years, the imperial court has been quelling the war in Liaodong. Seeing that the troops here are empty, the Tubo people come to grab some when they have nothing to do, especially in the autumn when the horses are fat."

"The gates of all the cities in Longyou are closed during the day. I heard that we will only stop fighting if we marry the princess."

The atmosphere was silent for a moment.

Angry curses sounded again. What is the hatred of the country and the family? You will know it when you go to the frontier.

Meng Fan was used to seeing all kinds of scenes, and he felt boundless anger in his heart. He wished he could ask Lei Zu to come to the world and kill these inhuman Tubo beasts.

It is impossible for the army to gather in the city. The place is not that big, and most of the soldiers set up camp outside the city.

The surviving local officials tried to get a batch of cattle and sheep, but the troops were somewhat exposed to meat.

After all, the standards of this expedition were very high. The prime ministers were here, and the deputy commander-in-chief was the Minister of Household Affairs. The two of them casually said a few words in the center, and the surrounding areas were shaken.

Meng Fan had no appetite at this time. He always felt that he had to do something immediately, otherwise he would not be able to calm down.

inside the camp.

After receiving his signal, Wang Xiaojie and other intermediate generals began to arrange for their subordinates to tell stories.

"Who is Ban Gu? He's just a small copyist. He hopes to make meritorious service in a foreign land to win the title of Marquis, so he throws a pen and sighs: An Neng Jiu Shi pen and ink."

The meat was grilled by the charcoal fire, and the smell of oil was overflowing. The eyes of the soldiers were against the campfire, listening to the story attentively.

After leaving Dunhuang, we marched hard all the way. Today we saw the tragic situation in Shanzhou and were all frightened. I especially liked hearing about the great achievements of the Han family.

Admiring our ancestors and longing to restore our past glory...

"I compared the Tang Dynasty to the Han Dynasty. I read history in the past and never heard that the Han army was defeated by foreign invaders!"

"Even in times of great chaos, when the world is divided into three parts, one corner of the country is still beaten so that the barbarians dare not invade."

(End of this chapter)