Looking at the mountains and rivers

Wei Changxuan's expression changed slightly, he stared at Tuoba, and said suspiciously: "You want me to kill Ashinanur?"

Tuoba nodded, and he smiled casually: "I know, you should want to kill him more than me. In the previous battle at Yunxiaguan, he used a trick to lure the enemy to kill your general's nephew. Attacked Panmen Pass and slaughtered your Ganzhou City. You will not want to avenge this revenge."

After he finished speaking, seeing Wei Changxuan's pale face, he knew that he probably guessed right, so he couldn't help laughing: "However, it is not that simple to kill Ashinanur. He has always cherished his life. He refused to put himself in danger. Therefore, he will always be in the army, guarded by his forty Zhejie guards. If you want to kill him, it will be difficult to do it by yourself." He said this , lowered his voice, "Why don't you and I join forces, and I will secretly pass on his tactical layout to you before your two armies face each other. In this way, you can take his head in one fell swoop while fighting, how about it?"

Wei Changxuan was silent for a long time, and suddenly said: "Why should I believe you? You and he are both from Yanyu, and you said that you have a rift with him, how can I know if it is true or not. If you take the opportunity to spread false military information to me , It’s not just me alone, but also thousands of soldiers under my command, how can I trust you?”

Tuoba frowned, touched his chin and said, "Because I'm a foreigner, so you won't believe me?" He thought for a while, "Well, to show my sincerity, I'll give you a big gift."

Pei An was in a hurry to chase, and galloped all the way to the dense forest in the west of the city before reining in the reins. Looking back, only a dozen Qingqi followed, and the others seemed to be left far behind.

A cavalryman looked into the dense forest vigilantly and said in a low voice, "Lieutenant Pei, is there an ambush in this forest? The general has been in for so long, did something happen?"

Pei An felt uneasy, but his face didn't show it at all, and he rebuked in a low voice: "Don't talk nonsense."

The cavalryman hesitated to speak, but the sound of rumbling horseshoes came from behind him, and the Yanyu cavalrymen chased them over. Thousands of people surrounded them like a tide.

Pei An's heart felt a little cold, his palms were covered with cold sweat, and he frantically touched the epee beside the saddle.At the same time, the comrades around him also drew their swords, ready to fight to the death with these Yanyu people.

The Yanyu cavalry looked at the lonely dozen or so people with cold eyes, and the leading warrior suddenly raised his saber and approached with a roar.They were menacing, like giant beasts out of the cage, and they were about to tear these dozen people into pieces in a blink of an eye.At this moment, a loud shout came from the forest: "Wait!"

This sentence is in the Central Plains dialect, and the people of Yanyu didn't understand it, but they all stopped the movements in their hands by coincidence.I saw a tall blue war horse slowly walking out of the forest. The rider on the horse was holding a long knife. The scorching sun shone on the blade, which was scarlet.There was a person lying across in front of his saddle. Because he was lying on his stomach, he couldn't see his face clearly. He could only see blood dripping from the corner of his forehead, and he walked all the way in front of the crowd.

Pei An saw Wei Changxuan on the horse at a glance. He breathed a sigh of relief in the extreme tension. He was about to go forward to meet him, but saw Yanyu's soldiers changed their expressions and rushed towards Wei Changxuan.

Without even raising his eyelids, Wei Changxuan jumped off the horse, picked up the man on the saddle with one hand, and raised the long knife horizontally with the other, resting the blade on the man's neck.

The person he was carrying was the former enemy general. He saw blood dripping from his forehead and a knife wound on his chest. The injury was obviously quite serious.Pei An saw the man drooping his head from a distance, his eyebrows and eyes were covered with blood, he coughed several times, and then spoke to the surrounding Yanyu soldiers.

Because a few steps away, the person spoke Yanyu dialect again, Pei An couldn't hear clearly, only faintly heard the words "retreat" and "out of the city".That man obviously had a lot of status, and the two thousand Yanyu soldiers immediately withdrew their swords when they heard the order.The leading Yanyu warriors got off their horses, walked up to Wei Changxuan, bowed down respectfully and saluted.Wei Changxuan withdrew the long knife in his hand, and the general fell forward, and was soon supported by his subordinates onto the horse.They didn't bother anymore, turned around and left, and soon disappeared from sight.

This turn of events was too sudden, before Pei An could touch it completely, his body moved consciously first, ran to Wei Changxuan, and asked, "General, are you alright?"

Wei Changxuan shook his head, put away the knife: "How are you doing, are you injured?"

Pei An hurriedly said: "Just now, the two armies had no intention of fighting, and they chased after each other, and there were no casualties."

Wei Changxuan nodded and said, "That's good." He paused, "Pei An, hurry up and gather troops, and lead the troops into the city in half an hour."

Pei An was taken aback for a moment, but quickly realized: "It turns out that the general captured General Yanyu just now, and he was going to exchange him for Ganzhou City?"

Wei Changxuan nodded.

"But... Yanyu's coach this time is Ashinanur, who should be just one of his generals, how dare he hand over Ganzhou without authorization?"

"That's right, that man is just a general, but he has another identity," Wei Changxuan sighed, "He is Yan Yu's eldest prince."

Pei An was taken aback, thought for a while and said: "I heard that when I was guarding Huining, Yanyu's eldest prince was called Ashina Jilian. Rouran, hang the head of King Rouran on the battle flag, and it will shock the grassland." After he finished speaking, he looked at Wei Changxuan strangely, and asked, "General, how did you capture him?"

Wei Changxuan seemed a little embarrassed, he coughed: "It's just a fluke." He obviously didn't want to talk about it, so he just waved his hand, "Hurry up and deliver the order."

In the seventh year of Yong'an, on the tenth day of the sixth month, Jian'an.

The Xuanzheng Hall was filled with hundreds of desks, and many Confucian scholars and scholars were writing with their heads down, rustling.Sitting on the dragon throne, Emperor Yong'an looked around for a while boredly, but finally couldn't hold his hands, covered his face with his sleeves and yawned softly, muttering: "If I had known that the imperial examination in front of the palace was so exhausting, I shouldn't have agreed to it." come down."

As if sensing the impatience of the emperor, Xie Ao, who had been wandering around the palace, lowered his head and slowly walked up the imperial steps, lowered his head and said with a light smile: "This time, the emperor personally opened the examination in front of the palace to obtain scholars, which is really a breakthrough of the ages. For the first time, there are tens of thousands of candidates for Jian'an this year, many of whom are talented and academically outstanding, and now both inside and outside the court and the public praise the emperor for his thirst for talent, and the people even call him the king of Dazhao Zhongxing."

When Emperor Yong'an heard this, he suddenly regained his energy and sat up straight: "Is this really true?"

"It's absolutely true," Xie Yao bowed his head and said, "I also heard that a white deer suddenly appeared on the top of Xishan Mountain a while ago. This white deer has been an auspicious sign since ancient times. It can be seen that today is the time when a virtuous king governs the country."

"White deer, it really is a good omen," Emperor Yong'an became more excited, "Where is that deer?"

"Reporting to the emperor, the white deer has been personally escorted by the governor of Xishan County, and will be sent to Jian'an in a few days."

"Okay!" Emperor Yong'an looked down again at the students in the hall who were hard at work writing, "All the scholars selected in this imperial examination will be sent to the Hongwen Hall. From then on, the Hongwen Hall will be changed to the White Deer Hall."

"Yes, I will go down and do it now." Xie Ao said, bowed his head and left.

Outside the main hall, a sparrow fluttered its wings and flew under the eaves. Under the eaves, there was a slender figure standing with its hands behind its back.The hair crown on the man's head was inlaid with a longan-sized south bead, and the edge of the bead was decorated with a golden dragon pattern. His status was obviously extremely expensive, but his eyebrows and eyes were calm, and his eyes were as clear and shallow as water under the shade of a pair of long eyelashes.

"Master." Tang An bowed beside him and handed a thin piece of paper to him.

Yang Yan took it, groped the note with his fingertips, and his expression changed: "Why, Wei Changxuan regained Panmenguan as soon as he arrived in Hexi?"

"Yes," Tang An couldn't hide the joy on his face, "I heard that the soldiers were bloodless, and General Wei made another great achievement this time."

Yang Yan was not necessarily very happy, but tilted his head and asked, "Has my letter been sent to Liangzhou?"

"It was delivered a month ago, and the Hexi garrison has probably arrived in Ganzhou City." Tang An scratched his head, "However, now that Ganzhou has been taken back by General Wei, even if the Donghu army goes there, it will be of no use. "

Yang Yan shook his head: "Do you think this battle will be over if Ganzhou is regained and Panmenguan is taken back? The Yanyu city of Ganzhou has been lost, and they will never let it go, and Dazhao's side... Wei Changxuan It is determined to kill Ashina Nur, both sides are in full swing, I am afraid that the most important battle is yet to come." He raised his hand, "Send a letter to Hexi, let them find out and recover the Panmen. Pass the beginning and end, report to me quickly."

Tang An hurriedly responded, and then carefully watched Yang Yan's expression, and said in a low voice: "I thought it would be easy to win this battle, and General Wei could return to Beijing as soon as possible."

Yang Yan frowned slightly, seeming to have infinite melancholy, and sighed: "I'm afraid that even if he really wins this battle, he still won't come back."

His voice was very soft, like a whisper, and when he was sighing to himself, there was a sound from the palace door behind him, and after a while, Xie Gui's voice sounded: "His Royal Highness King Mu didn't rest in the side hall, why did he stop in this hot place? "

Yang Yan lowered his eyes, and when he turned his head again, there was a smile on his lips: "So it's Mr. Xie, the hall is stuffy, and there are weeping willows under this corridor, so it's cool." He paused and relaxed He said with a smile, "I'm afraid the emperor will hardly be able to sit still in the palace?"

Xie Xie shook his head, quietly told about the situation in the palace just now, and then smiled wryly after speaking: "This proposal to recruit scholars in front of the palace has caused an uproar in the court. The adults of the noble family have repeatedly reprimanded me , Said that my proposal is too absurd, taking the foundation of the government as a trifling matter. Now that it has finally come to fruition, but the emperor complained, this is really a thankless job for this subordinate."

There were complaints in his tone, but Yang Yan said lightly: "Your Majesty Xie can figure out the temper of the emperor. If the rest of the courtiers were in front of the imperial court, they would have been reprimanded long ago, let alone let the emperor start the exam in front of the palace." It seems that the emperor was very happy to be comforted just now, since he ordered Mr. Xie to change the name of the Hongwen Museum, then this White Deer Museum must be in charge of Mr. Xie." He raised his hand and pointed at Xuanzheng. In the hall, a slight smile said, "This group of students will inevitably be famous all over the world, and they are all disciples of Master Xie. This king would like to congratulate Master Xie."

Xie Xie had no choice but to smile and wave his hands: "Your Highness is disgruntled." He paused slightly, raised his eyelids and looked at the young King Mu, "It's just... because of this palace test, the servants under the door served Mr. Gao Lugao, and the right servant shot Li. Mr. Zhu Li regards this official as a thorn in his side. This Mr. Gao is the Empress Dowager’s nephew, and Mr. Li is in charge of the affairs of the Minister of Ministers, so he is extremely powerful. I am afraid that Mr. Gao..."

"Your Majesty Xie, you don't need to worry about these trivial matters." Yang Yan shook his head lightly, "After a while, the Empress Dowager will naturally advise Master Gao not to interfere in this matter."

Xie Yu was a little surprised: "I don't know how His Highness persuaded the Queen Mother?"

Yang Yan said with a smile: "How could the queen mother listen to the words of us juniors? Even the emperor might not be able to persuade her, but the queen mother listens to the words of a group of people."

Xie Xie thought for a long time, and finally came to his senses: "Your Highness is saying... Taibu Department?"

Empress Dowager Gao is getting old, she doesn't ask about political affairs for a long time, and even the affairs in the harem are left to the empress, but she always believes in divination, no matter how big or small, she calls the Taibu Ling to divination for good or bad.

Yang Yan nodded and said: "Last month, Taibu ordered the scorched tortoise shell to perform divination, and got a vision, saying that the cracks are like water glows, and they are broken. I am afraid that there will be a sign of foreign relatives taking power in the court. This statement coincides with Chuan Xing again. Falling like rain, words that are not good for Ziwei Emperor Star." He smiled, "It is said that the Empress Dowager was very shocked by this, and has been preparing to write a decree to reprimand Gao in the past few days."

Xie Xie was stunned, and whispered admiration: "Your Highness, this is a bottom line, I really admire you."

Yang Yan raised his face slightly, the blue sky was reflected in his pupils, and there was nothingness.He said softly: "The sky is like this, you and I are just doing our best and obeying the destiny."

"Then Master Li..."

"Li Zhui?" Yang Yan raised his head and thought for a while before saying, "Do you know that he has a close friend named Cao Yuanbai, who is now serving as the Jiedu Envoy of Pinghu?"

"I have heard that the two of them have a very close relationship. General Cao holds tens of thousands of troops, and General Chen of Huining guards the two gates in the north and south of the capital. They are very arrogant. The emperor."

"Lord Li and this General Cao often exchanged letters. In a letter last year, Lord Li actually said something like 'today we are frivolous and do not understand political affairs'." Yang Yan said slowly.

Xie Yu was startled, and quickly asked: "So, Your Highness has seen this letter?"

"This letter happened to be in the hands of this king." Yang Yan looked at Xie Ao, seeming to be a little bit embarrassed, "But, I don't know if I need to add and change some words before presenting it to the emperor."

As soon as he said this, how could Xie Ao not know what it meant, he lowered his voice and whispered: "In my opinion, just add another eight characters."

"Which eight characters?"

"His son is young, so he should be the new king."

A smile finally broke out in Yang Yan's shallow pupils, and then the smile grew bigger and bigger, and finally he couldn't help laughing: "Master Xie is really smart."

The cool wind blew over the weeping willows in front of the hall, and the willows hit the jade railing lightly. Yang Yan's slender fingers rested on the railing, no different from the white jade. If the position is vacant, Master Xie will be able to fulfill his long-cherished wish." He lightly tapped his hand on the jade railing, and said meaningfully, "Then this king... will feel at ease."