The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 44 Intentional Negligence
"Great, you two are real heroes!" Li Heng helped Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing up. Seeing that they had no guards following them, he asked, "Where are your attendants?"

Gao Xianzhi sighed and said, "All of them were taken back by General Gai. We two generals asked General Gai for troops, which made him unhappy. I'm afraid he can no longer tolerate us two generals."

"It's alright," Li Heng comforted Gao Xianzhi, "It's not up to him to decide whether the Tang Dynasty can accommodate anyone. I will report your great achievements to my father."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Gao Xianzhi bowed.

"You deserve a reward for your merit. I'm just doing what I should do. No need to be polite." Li Heng patted Gao Xianzhi on the shoulder. "You two have been tired all the way. Take a rest. I still have some things to deal with. When I finish, I will hold a banquet for you tonight to celebrate your success."

Gao Xianzhi said: "I wonder if the two of us can be of use to what Your Highness wants to do. If you need us, please send us."

Li Heng was stunned when he heard this.

Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing have been dealing with Tubo for many years. If they could help, things would indeed be much easier.

Moreover, Gao Xianzhi had already said so. If I refused, it would seem like I was killing the donkey to satisfy my own needs.

It would be better to let them be together.

Thinking of this, Li Heng first said politely, "I'm just worried that you two have been tired all the way and need to rest."

Gao Xianzhi said: "We are both soldiers. Walking is a rest for us, so it is not tiring."

Li Ying said, "In that case, please discuss the matter together."

After that, Li Heng brought Hong Yue, Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, and summoned Gao Shi and Xin Yunjing to discuss the matter together.

Du Xiwang should have had a place here, but Du Xiwang was a military governor after all, and could not stay in Lanzhou for a long time. He needed to return to the Longyou military governor's seat for defense.

Hongyue told him everything about Liu Zhicheng, and based on what she knew, she marked seven Tibetan secret strongholds in Longyou.

Based on these two pieces of information, Li Heng divided his troops into two groups.

Along the way, he wrote memorials himself, reporting to Li Longji about Liu Zhicheng's preparation for rebellion, and giving credit to Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing for requesting the withdrawal of the Arab troops.

Another route was taken by Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing and Gao Shi, each leading a group of men to destroy the Tibetan stronghold in Longxi.

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The next day, Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing and Gao Shi came to report.

Gao Shi said to Li Heng, "Your Highness, we have captured six of the seven marked strongholds. As for the last one, I was a step too late and they escaped."

Li Heng said: "We have seized six places and escaped one. We have already eliminated the eyes of Tubo in Longyou. Everyone has made great contributions this time."

"But we haven't caught the Hu people or Dou Bai yet." Gao Shi sighed, "If we don't catch these two, your whereabouts will always be exposed to the Tubo."

"This is my negligence." Li Heng also sighed, "The base they escaped from should be the one where Dou Bai went to tip off. At this moment, Dou Bai and the Hu people should be fleeing with the Tibetan secret agent in this base. Where do you think they will flee to?"

Gao Shi thought for a moment and said, "Dou Bai's identity has been exposed. It is very dangerous for him to stay under the rule of the Tang Dynasty. It seems that he is very likely to flee to Tubo."

"That's right." Li Heng nodded. "The Tang Dynasty and Tubo are separated by several mountain ranges. If they want to escape from the Tang Dynasty to Tubo, the route they want to take is the route that Tubo has used to harass the Tang Dynasty over the years."

"The southeastern route requires a detour to Shuzhou and Nanzhao. This route takes a long time in the Tang Dynasty, so they won't choose it. The eastern route requires passing through Hezhou, which is heavily guarded by Du Gong. They can't pass through, so they can only go west and try to escape to Tubo from Hexi or Anxi."

After listening to Li Heng's analysis, Gao Shi and others nodded in agreement.

Gao Shi said, "In that case, should we send a message to General Wang and General Gai immediately, asking them to keep an eye out for us?" "Alright." Li Heng nodded, "My father ordered me to inspect the four towns of Longyou, Hexi, Beiting, and Anxi. Now that things here are done, I should set off. Maybe I can catch up with Dou Bai and make up for my mistake."

Hearing Li Heng blaming himself, Gao Shi said quickly, "If it weren't for your brilliant plan, not only would we not have been able to capture these six strongholds, but we wouldn't have been able to find out that there was a rebellion planned in Chang'an. This is all your credit, how can it be your fault?"

After Gao Shi took the lead in saying this, Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing and Xin Yunjing all spoke in unison and praised Li Heng.

And this is exactly the effect Li Ying wanted, because this mistake was committed intentionally by Li Ying.

After Li Heng's observations over this period of time, he has roughly understood that the butterfly effect he has caused so far is not that big, and many things in history will still happen as expected.

What is going to happen now is that Tubo will invade Xiaoboluo.

Historically, Tubo succeeded in this plan and used it to threaten Anxi and Hexi areas. Also because of this incident, the Tang Dynasty and Tubo fought another war.

This is an opportunity for Li Heng.

In other words, Li Heng had been waiting for this opportunity since the moment he entered the Northwest.

As long as Tubo invades Xiaoboluo and threatens Anxi, the Tang Dynasty will fight with Tubo. At that time, Li Heng will be in the northwest, or even in Anxi. He can take charge of local military and political affairs and fight against Tubo.

However, there are two prerequisites for this matter. The first is that there is a problem with the Anxi Jiedushi. The second is that the Tang Dynasty had no preparations beforehand and was too hasty to transfer generals from other places. It can only be temporarily handled by Li Heng, who has the power to supervise military and political affairs.

Li Ying deliberately made the mistake of letting Dou Bai go in order to make the second premise true.

Therefore, ever since Li Heng knew that Dou Bai had connections with the Tubo secret agent, he wanted to deliberately let Dou Bai go and let Dou Bai evacuate the secret agent who knew the main information of Tubo.

In this way, everything would be the same as in history. The Tang Dynasty would not know in advance that Tubo was going to attack Xiaobolü, and Li Longji would not have time to transfer border generals to deploy defenses in advance.

As for the first premise, Gai Jiayun should also be finished.

So Li Heng went to so much trouble to make everyone ignore his little mistake.

The goal had been achieved, and Li Heng said a few humble words to everyone, then held a banquet to reward everyone and prepared to set off the next day.

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The next day.

Li Ying led his men westward.

However, this time, in addition to the original group of people, there were also Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, Gao Shi, the envoys from Bakhchisar, and his guard of honor.

Li Heng and his party set out from Lanzhou and went all the way to Liangzhou.

As soon as they arrived in Liangzhou, Wang Zhongsi and his men had been waiting for a long time.

Originally, Wang Zhongsi should have been happy because he had just won the victory, but Li Heng noticed that there was some sadness between his brows.

Li Heng and Wang Zhongsi exchanged a few words and then joined the banquet together.

At the banquet, Li Heng got straight to the point and said, "General Wang just won a great victory, so he should be happy. But I see that the general seems to be troubled, and I don't know why."

(End of this chapter)