The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 33: The Thirty-Third Interview
Outside Lanzhou city.

Yang Yuhuan was practicing horse riding while Li Heng was sitting on the grass, watching leisurely.

Xin Yunjing was guarding behind, while Brigade Commander Lu was patrolling outside with his men.

The unpolluted sky was azure blue. Yang Yuhuan rode her horse on the grass, turned a few times, and rode to Li Ying. She dismounted and sat next to Li Ying, smiling and saying, "How is it? My dear, have I succeeded in my ten days of practice?"

Li Ying smiled and said, "Not even close."

Yang Yuhuan was not convinced and said, "But I feel that I am very skilled now."

Li Ying looked into the distance and asked Yang Yuhuan, "Do you know where that is?"

"Tibet." Yang Yuhuan replied.

Li Heng nodded and said, "Before, Huangfu Weiming advocated peace, and my father agreed and married a Princess Jincheng to him. But within two years, they still repeatedly invaded the border. Their cavalry is very powerful."

Yang Yuhuan smiled and said, "My dear, do you want me to be like their cavalry?"

"That's not the case." Li Heng shook his head and smiled, "I just hope that if we are attacked one day, you can escape, but the possibility of this is very small. What's more likely is..."

Li Heng wanted to say that what was more likely was that we would ride horses to Tubo together, but considering the spies around him, Li Heng did not finish his words.

Of course, there was another meaning behind Li Heng bringing Yang Yuhuan to ride horses, which was that he wanted to appear to be indifferent to power and not obsessed with material things.

After spending some time together, Yang Yuhuan and Li Ying had already developed a good understanding of each other. Therefore, when Li Ying did not finish speaking, she did not ask further questions. She just smiled and said, "If that is the case, I will definitely take my husband with me and run away."

Xin Yunjing, who was guarding behind them, had a strange expression on his face when he heard the two men thinking about how to escape.

After Yang Yuhuan finished speaking, she thought for a moment and said, "Oh, by the way, what about sister Mu Jin? Let her learn from her too."

As he spoke, he stood up and called Zhang Mujin, who was sitting far away, to come over.

Zhang Mujin came up to the two of them and said respectfully, "Your Highness Prince Shou, Princess."

Zhang Mujin's expression looked a little distraught.

This is understandable. After all, she is from the Zhang family. Now that Zhang Jiuling is beginning to lose power, their Zhang family is naturally not having an easy time either.

Yang Yuhuan wanted to comfort Zhang Mujin, so she took her hand and took her to practice horse riding to relax her.

As soon as Yang Yuhuan and Zhang Mujin left, two other people came riding on horses.

Li Heng looked up and saw that it was Wang Zhongsi and Gao Shi.

The two men came up to Li Ying, dismounted from their horses, and saluted Li Ying.

Wang Zhongsi said, "Your Highness, there is an imperial decree."

"Oh." Li Heng was slightly stunned and said, "Has the emperor approved my resignation?"

"The emperor praised your highness for carrying out his duties despite being ill and being loyal to the country, so he ordered this edict to be read by your highness." Wang Zhongsi said, presenting the edict to Li Ying, and then said:
"The Saint originally wanted to summon Your Highness back to the capital to receive the reward, but considering that Your Highness was on a trip to recuperate, it would not be appropriate to recall Him midway, so He continued to appoint Your Highness as the Envoy for Promotion and Demotion, and to patrol the four towns of Longyou, Hexi, Beiting, and Anxi on behalf of the Emperor. Wherever He goes, it is as if the Saint is there in person, and Your Highness is given the power to act at His discretion."

"Alas." Li Heng took the imperial edict, sighed pretentiously, and then opened it to read.

In addition to what Wang Zhongsi said, the contents also included some money and silk as a reward to him.

In addition, he was also instructed to receive the envoys from Bukhara and handle the affairs of Bukhara as appropriate.

The Kingdom of Batthanara was located to the west of Anxi, with the Turks to the north and the Arabs to the south. Over the years, it had been frequently ravaged by these two countries.

Because of this small country, Gao Xianzhi went out to fight a war with the Arabs several years later.

But Li Heng's focus at the moment was not here. Instead, he was curious about where Wang Zhongsi had been these days, so he smiled and said, "I haven't seen you for a few days. I thought General Wang had left Lanzhou." Wang Zhongsi sighed and said, "To be honest with you, Your Highness, the barbarian who offended the princess before was kidnapped. I will take people to investigate these days."

"Oh?" Li Heng became interested. "Did you find anything?"

Wang Zhongsi said: "It was a Tibetan spy who robbed him. I have already eliminated the Tibetan spy in Lanzhou, but the Hu man has been relocated to another place, and I still haven't caught him."

"Tibet." Li Heng raised his eyes, thought for a moment, and said, "It seems that the identity of that Hu person is complicated."

Wang Zhongsi nodded and said, "I originally wanted to capture that Hu man and then investigate those who ambushed Your Highness, but the Saint just ordered me to take up the post of Jiedushi of Hexi."

Li Ying smiled and said, "In that case, congratulations, General Wang."

"I am overwhelmed by the trust of the Saint." Wang Zhongsi said modestly, "But Dafu and I have been investigating these matters together in the past few days, so I want Dafu to continue the investigation here. However, Dafu is currently the sergeant of the Left Guard and the secretary of Hexi. If he stays here, it may be suspected of overstepping the boundaries."

Li Ying asked, "What does General Wang want me to do?"

Wang Zhongsi said bluntly: "If Your Highness requests someone, it won't be considered as overstepping the boundaries."

Li Heng glanced at Gao Shi and said, "Okay, when will General Wang set off for Hexi?"

Wang Zhongsi said: "The sage asked me to leave today."

"Then I wish General Wang a safe journey."

"Thank you, Your Highness. Please take care of yourself. I will welcome you on your tour in Hexi."

"Ok."

After the two of them finished talking, Wang Zhongsi bowed to Li Heng, said hello to Xin Yunjing, mounted his horse and left.

After Wang Zhongsi left, Gao Shi said to Li Heng, "Your Highness, the Hu people have been robbed. The Tibetans must have known that Your Highness is in Lanzhou. Judging from the Tibetans' behavior, it will surely threaten Your Highness' safety."

Gao Shi’s words hit the nail on the head.

But Li Ying acted as if he didn't care.

Li Heng said, "No defense. Longyou is strong and powerful. They dare not attack suddenly. At most, they can sneak in and do some sneaky things. Let's go to meet the envoys from Bukhara first."

"Yes." Gao Shiyi said.

……

At the Lanzhou government office, the envoys from Bukhara had been waiting for a long time.

They came to the Tang Dynasty this time to ask the Tang Dynasty to mediate the conflict between them and the Arabs.

Their delegation had already been to Chang'an and met Li Longji. Li Longji had already had an idea, but when he saw that Li Heng was in Longyou, he threw the matter to Li Heng and let Li Heng handle it.

Li Heng came to the government office and met with the envoys from Bukhara.

The person in charge of leading the team from Bukhara was the prince of Bukhara.

When the prince of Bactria saw Li Ying, he immediately bowed to him and spoke in Eastern Iranian language which Li Ying could not understand.

Fortunately, someone nearby translated in time, saying, "Your Highness, he said he was here to greet you, and said that you are handsome and extraordinary."

Upon hearing this, Li Ying looked at the translator. He saw that the man was in his twenties and had a handsome appearance. He asked curiously, "Who are you?"

The translator bowed respectfully to Li Ying and said, "Your Highness, I am Gao Xianzhi, a young general under General Anxi Gai Jiayun."

(End of this chapter)