My years as a soldier

The three came suddenly, but Hu Jiuzhang's reaction was faster and more ruthless than theirs, without any hesitation.

Before the two people behind him could make a move, Hu Jiuzhang's horizontal knife had already been unsheathed, and the silver knife flashed under the firelight. In just a moment, two bloodstains had been added to the chests of the two people for no reason.The bloodstains penetrated deep into the bones, causing the two of them to howl uncontrollably.

A sneer slipped from the corner of Hu Jiuzhang's mouth.

Hmph... It's just that two clumsy laymen dared to steal it from themselves.

Hu Jiuzhang suddenly flashed his saber, not only did the two people who were cut have no time to react, even the one who touched from behind Li Muyun backed away a few steps in fright, and dragged Li Muyun to the ground for a distance of one meter.

But Hu Jiuzhang didn't leave him any room for surprise.From the moment he drew the knife, he had already calculated the back and forth movements.The two people who turned around and slashed were not his real target. Even if he swung the knife, he only used two or three points of strength.Controlling Li Muyun is what he really cares about.

But Hu Jiuzhang swooped forward with a stride, the blade seemed to be slashing in front of Li Muyun, but in fact, it slashed at half of Li Muyun's obliquely exposed face.

The distance between dimensions tests the strength of the knife holder the most.

There was only a wailing sound, but Hu Jiuzhang picked out one of the man's eyes with the point of his knife.He is not as kind as Cao Yi, since he decided to go east with Li Muyun, he has already made up his mind to be a retainer.At this time, Li Muyun was not only his savior, not only his friend, but also his lord.To protect the lord, of course he would not hesitate to kill someone.

"roll!"

That stern shout with a Northwest rough tone only shocked the three people in front and behind, and before he could move again, those three people really all clutched their wounds and left in a hurry.

Even Li Muyun, who was brought down to the ground, was stunned by Hu Jiuzhang's actions.He never thought that Hu Jiuzhang would have such a vicious side.In my impression, the easy-going frontier soldier who always had a silly smile turned out to be so horrifying when he started to be ruthless!

When the three of them ran away, Hu Jiuzhang swung the knife to shake off the pus and blood left on the blade, and put the knife back into the sheath.This series of movements is flowing like clouds and flowing water, so chic and smooth.

"Are you okay?"

He walked over to help Li Muyun up, but Li Muyun still couldn't stop looking at him.Especially those eyes, if he had never seen Hu Jiuzhang's serious appearance, he would not have known that those eyes that were always shining with warmth could actually emit such a frightening look.

"I'm fine." When Li Muyun spoke, he still couldn't take his eyes off Hu Jiuzhang's face.And when the two of them sat down by the bonfire, Hu Jiuzhang returned to his drowsy appearance. His drowsiness was also true. Once he became sluggish, he couldn't see the fierce appearance just now. .

"I didn't expect someone to rob like this." Li Muyun looked around with lingering fear, and suddenly he felt that the whole world became strange.This place is different from Chang'an City. Between the two heavens and the earth, there are two completely different environments, and they also breed completely different people, like two heavens of ice and fire.

"What would they have done if you had really fallen asleep just now?"

"If I'm the only one falling asleep and you are here alone, there's no guarantee that you and I will both be injured." Hu Jiuzhang said calmly, his voice still tinged with sleepiness.

"After all, you can't just sit and watch them grab things like this. You will definitely call me. And the one who ambushed from behind you appeared in that position just to make you silent."

As Hu Jiuzhang spoke, he pointed to the dark sky behind him, and Li Muyun looked back unconsciously.As long as he thought of the fear and pain of being suddenly strangled by someone from behind, he couldn't stop the chills down his spine, as if he always felt that someone behind him might be planning an attack.

"But when you are suddenly strangled by someone, you will always struggle. Once the person behind you feels threatened, I think...he will probably kill the killer. By then, it will be too late. It is very likely that I am lying behind you Those two people who came here also wanted to kill me. So I will definitely not keep my hands on this kind of person."

"Are you going to kill people just to grab this little thing? You and I have never brought out anything valuable during this journey."

Li Muyun frowned slightly.

"Hubing is not worth enough?"

Hu Jiuzhang laughed at Li Muyun's question.

"Most of these people are desperate for a bite of food. If you eat an extra bite of food, you can live an extra day. For them, this is not just grabbing things, but fighting for their lives. If they succeed, they will live an extra day , if it doesn’t work out, they don’t know how many days they have left to live. In fact, most people are like this, they don’t have much ambition, but as long as they want to survive, they will do anything.”

"I understand..." Li Muyun let out a long sigh, with a rather helpless smile on his face, "In troubled times, human life is as cheap as worthless... It's not just that the powerful and high-ranking officials don't treat people as human beings. If people want to live, they have to treat other people's lives as human lives."

"That's the truth. If you want to walk in the world in the future, if you don't understand this truth, you will suffer."

Hu Jiuzhang also sighed softly.He raised his eyes and stared at the full moon in the sky, his brows furrowed suddenly, fearing that he would think of his younger brother who died in vain in Chang'an again.

When the two finally arrived near Tongguan, there were no refugees on the road. Instead, there were clusters of cooking smoke rising from the mountain pass not far away, which made Hu Jiuzhang instantly filled with emotion.

"The front should be where the garrison in the pass is, Xiaobai, shall we go to the general stationed in Tongguan?"

"Now Tongguan is guarded by Ge Shuhan. I'm afraid I won't be welcomed if I just report my name to him directly."

Li Muyun sighed, but led Hu Jiuzhang to choose a small path, trying to bypass the direction of the general's shogunate, and start contacting the small group of defense troops below.

The closer he got to Tongguan, the more energetic Li Muyun became.The fatigue of the past few days has been swept away by the continuous smoke.

In the blue sky not far away, the amount of cooking smoke rising is not a small number.In the pass of Tongguan, there are at least hundreds of thousands of Tang troops stationed, and there will be no shortage of big shots here.There should be no less than one important figure under Ge Shuhan's account.

Although Li Muyun said that he stayed behind closed doors for many years due to illness, his time in Chang'an was not in vain.

Although he is not deeply involved in the world, but he is in Chang'an, and he has a good news like Zhang Si at home, so he knows how many times more information than people outside.The disputes in the court and the undercurrents in the court are dangerous, no matter whether he wants to hear it or not, they can all reach his ears.

Being immersed in such an environment for many years also made him develop a mind that is particularly sensitive to political tactics.

As early as when he set off, Li Muyun had already planned for himself a relatively safe way to become an official.And if you want to take advantage of the chaos and enter the game, you have to see clearly the structure and division of the Great Tang.

When it comes to military affairs, the Northeast Army and the Northwest Army have always been the two major military centers in this direction to check and balance each other.

On the northeast side, after a series of integrations in the early years of Tang Minghuang, it became two major military systems headed by Fan Yang and Lu Ping. The core figure was An Lu, who was also in charge of Fan Yang and Lu Ping at the time. Mountain.Many generals of the Northeast Department under An Lushan's command are also experienced in actual combat. Not to mention how brave the combat ability is, but the strength is definitely far stronger than that of the defenders in the pass. Even in foreign battles, there is a great chance of winning.

On the northwestern side, in terms of record, they outperformed the Northeast Army by a large margin.And the most critical figure in the Northwest Army is the veteran of Tongguan——Ge Shuhan.

Ge Shuhan was originally from Kucha, Anxi, and was the son of Ge Shu Daoyuan, the former deputy governor of Anxi.This person was born as a general, and he was appreciated by General Wang Zhongsi in the army in his early years, so he started his promotion path.When he was young, he had repeatedly defeated the invading Tubo army, and he was a powerful general who came out of the front line with a knife and a gun.

In the eighth year of Tianbao, Ge Shuhan launched the Battle of Shibao City, defeating Tubo, and was promoted one after another until he received the Hexi Jiedu Envoy and the title of Xiping County King, and then became a powerful general on one side.

And looking at the Northwest Army, needless to say Anbeiting, plus the Hexi and Longyou Second Armies, the scale is already not small.In the north, Shuofang and the Second Army of Hedong are inextricably linked with the Northwest Army. In fact, only a few years ago, the strength of the Northwest Army was going to overwhelm the Northeast Army.

But until the tenth year of Tianbao, at the request of An Lushan, Emperor Ming returned the command of Hedong to An Lushan.Later, An Sishun, a party member of Anlu Mountain, served as Shuofang Jiedu envoy.At this point, the Second Northern Army, which was originally friendly with the Northwest Army, fell into the hands of the Northeast Army, and the overall strength of the Northeast was stronger than that of the Northwest.

But if he only saw this point, it would not be enough for Li Muyun.

An Lushan and Ge Shuhan have always been fighting openly and secretly, and they refuse to give in to each other, and the backers behind these two people are all very powerful.

When Li Linfu was Prime Minister, he was trusted by Emperor Ming in every possible way. It was because of Li Linfu's express train to the center of power that An Lushan got on the express train to the center of power.

As for Ge Shuhan, it is not a coincidence that he has come to where he is today.

Ge Shuhan has always been friends with Yang Guozhong. Yang Guozhong replaced Li Linfu as Prime Minister in Tianbao in 11 years, and held more than [-] positions concurrently. His power is even more powerful than that of Li Xiang.

However, there have always been irreconcilable contradictions between Yang Guozhong and An Lushan.This rebellion is the most intense portrayal of the conflict between the two.

However, on the surface, all these seem to be contests between powerful officials, but in Li Muyun's eyes, all disputes are inextricably linked with one person.That is his emperor grandfather Li Longji.

No matter how the court situation changes, if one ignores this old man who is in charge of life and death, all the calculations and predictions will be like fishing for the moon in the water and looking for the flowers in the mist.

The art of the emperor is the art of checks and balances.From the perspective of the old emperor, he naturally hoped to maintain the balance between the northwest and the northeast, and it didn't matter which side was higher or lower than the other.

After Yang Guozhong was promoted to prime minister, he became the emperor's chess game to check and balance Anlu Mountain.Backed by Ge Shuhan's Northwest Army, he is sure to crush An Lushan to death.But if you press it too hard, it won't work.Emperor Ming handed over the appointment of Shuofang and Hedong Jiedu envoys to Anlu Mountain, which was to check and balance Yang Guozhong.

It's just that he probably didn't expect that An Lushan would dare to openly rebel under the banner of the Qing emperor.What would the old emperor look like when he heard the news?Li Muyun couldn't think of it, but he really wanted to see how his grandfather, who listened and believed, would end up.

Li Muyun guessed at first that the emperor would definitely use generals from the Northwest faction to suppress the Northeast in this battle against the rebellion.And so it is.Emperor Ming first appointed Feng Changqing, the envoy of Anxi Jiedu who was meeting in Beijing at that time, and Gao Xianzhi, the former envoy of Anxi Jiedu.After the two were beheaded at Tongguan, Emperor Ming directly appointed the most core figure in the Northwest Army - Ge Shuhan.Even though he was disabled at home due to wind disease (half-body paralysis), he was driven to the battlefield.

There is no doubt that the Northwest Army will be taken seriously.

Li Muyun felt that as long as he could get on the big ship of the Northwest Army that sailed straight up with the wind, then finding a place to live in the court would no longer be just a fantasy.

But in reality, there is still a big problem in front of Li Muyun.

That is King Su whose position is unknown.

If Li Muyun had directly reported to Ge Shuhan that he was the son of Prince Su, then he might not be able to board this big ship.He had to completely distance himself from his father in front of Goshuhan, otherwise everything in the future would still be just a fantasy.