Under the ice and snow, boiling a pot of thick and fresh mutton soup over a high fire and eating two mutton fat pancakes is the ultimate enjoyment in Yumenguan.
After wandering around the military camp outside the city for a day, Qin Mubai and Xue Rengui were both hungry, so they didn't care about the New Year's Eve dinner and had a full meal first. Later, when the two of them went to the kitchen and took a look, they couldn't help laughing. It is said that a good woman cannot drink without rice. The so-called New Year's Eve dinner, which is pancakes and mutton soup, is just a few more bottles of milk wine.
However, Chen Yan prepared a lot of these things, enough for at least twenty people to eat. Qin Mubai asked out of curiosity who she had invited. Chen Yan just laughed at first, but then she couldn't help but asked repeatedly, and then she replied: "I have come from thousands of miles away to help you a lot, how can I invite you to a New Year's Eve dinner?" Shouldn’t they all?”
"Oh, I invited the Turkic and Uighur generals, I should, I should." Qin Mubai nodded and babbled a few words, then walked out of the kitchen.
Chen Yan shook her head and smiled, "Pretend!"
Xue Rengui also laughed when he heard their conversation and said, "Mu Bai, I want to tell you something."
"I know what you want to say, about the Blood Lotus thing, right?" Qin Mubai grinned widely, sat down next to Xue Rengui and drank a few mouthfuls of hot soup, smacking his lips and said, "Actually, these days Since then, I have been thinking about how to deal with this little girl.”
"Deal?" Xue Rengui was startled, "She is not an enemy."
"Not an enemy, but more difficult to deal with than an enemy." Qin Mubai frowned and said, "Actually, I understand Xue Lian's intentions. After my observation, I have a little understanding of her personality. She is a very upright person. She is also a very innocent girl, with a different kind of wild charm, which is enough to attract any man. From the perspective of men and women, no man will reject such a woman. But from the perspective of the overall situation, I have to think more about the consequences. ”
"What are the consequences?" Xue Rengui asked confused, "Although Blood Lotus is a grassland noble, the Ashina family has long since declined. She only has a bit of blood that is very noble in the eyes of the grassland people. Other than that, there is nothing special about it. She and her sister are recognized as beauties on the grassland, and no man wants to pursue them. However, they have never been in love. Although Xuelian is good at martial arts and can bend a bow and charge into battle like a man. She is just an ignorant little girl. Otherwise, how could she admire you so much based on some rumors without even seeing you in person?"
"You are absolutely right. I think back then, Princess Wencheng was just like her. Women are born for feelings. Girls who have just begun to fall in love are even more blind and fanatical in their pursuit of love. This seems unreasonable to us. But in their hearts, it is natural for them to be persistent and unrepentant." Qin Mubai sighed and said, "I have said that I don't know much about Blood Lotus, and I can't say I have a good impression or dislike. I have no choice but to ignore her."
"We have no choice? What's the reason?" Xue Rengui asked.
"Politics." After Qin Mubai spit out these two words, he took a few sips of soup and was silent for a long time.
Xue Rengui thought about it secretly and seemed to have some understanding, but he still didn't think it through thoroughly, so he waited patiently for Qin Mubai's next words.
"Rengui, think carefully about your experiences on the grassland." Qin Mubai reminded, "When you arrived on the grassland, you found that the Ashina tribe had been exterminated by Xue Yantuo, right?"
"Yes." Xue Rengui nodded, "Xue Yantuo's leader Yi Nan has arrogant ambitions and plans to unify the grasslands and establish a khanate. The first one to be eliminated is the aristocratic Ashina tribe of the old Turkic Khanate. Blood Lotus's parents are all gone. All were killed, and the Ashina family was almost wiped out. The Blood Lotus sisters survived because they went out to visit their aunt."
"Their uncle is Tumidu, the great leader of Huihe, right?" Qin Mubai said.
"Yes. Xue Lian and Xi Yan are half-sisters. Xue Lian's mother is a royal princess who was granted marriage by the Tang Dynasty, while Xi Yan's mother is from Uighur and has a younger sister who is married to Tumido. "Xue Rengui said.
"Later on, in the battle of Xun'erhunhe, you defeated Xue Yantuo and almost beheaded Zhenzhu Khan Yinan in front of the battle. Immediately afterwards, Li Ji led the Tang Dynasty king's army to arrive and began the war against Xue Yanyi." Qin Mu When Bai said this, he paused and said, "At that time, the great leader of Huihe, Tumidu, raised the banner of the Blood Lotus sisters, descendants of the Ashina family, and gathered nine surnames in the name of the Tang Dynasty. The Tiele tribe formed a coalition to conquer Xue Yantuo. It was at that time that you were elected as the commander of the coalition and married Xue Lian's sister, Xi Yan, right?"
"That's right. Li Ji is the one presiding over the wedding." Xue Rengui said.
Qin Mubai smiled and said: "Regardless of whether the Blood Lotus sisters are really affectionate, they were used by her uncle like this. The great leader of Huihe, Tu Midu, is not as ambitious as Yi Nan."
“Oh?”
"You did nothing wrong. In that environment at that time, you also had to join forces to fight against the enemy. At that time, Tumidu must have been a sincere alliance, because his desire to survive was more urgent than yours." Qin Mu Bai frowned and said, "However, human desires will continue to expand and escalate. After seeing the grassland overlord Xue Yantuo being knocked down, every leader of the grassland tribe will be thinking about one question - who will be next?" An overlord on the grassland? Do you dare to say that Tumidu would not think about such a problem? "
Xue Rengui nodded gently with thick eyebrows and said: "That's right... Tumidu was not very enthusiastic about me at first, because we were just a fleeing defeated army. Later, after the battle of the Ming'erkhun River, his attitude He immediately changed and actively began to gather the grassland tribes to form the coalition army. Although I was elected as the commander-in-chief of the coalition army, after all, he summoned and ordered all the tribes, so in fact, Xue was just a vanguard in front of the formation, and he was really behind the scenes. The person in charge is Tumidu.”
"Yes, this man is so scheming that anyone dares to take advantage of him." Qin Mubai smiled and said, "Do you think he is really so generous as to give 40,000 elite cavalry as a dowry? To put it bluntly, he is spending a lot of money. Bribing you and me is just like a businessman, he is making a "pre-investment" to win huge profits. Now Li Ji is trying to destroy Yi Nan, and with his ability, it is only a matter of time before he can deal with the troubled Xue Yantuo. . Once Xue Yantuo is wiped out, the new overlord tribe on the grassland will undoubtedly rise. This title of overlord will fall on the Huihe tribe, which has the strongest military force and has made great achievements in suppressing the rebellion. He will be greatly trusted and praised by the court and become the new uncrowned king of the grassland. Who can say that in a few years, he will not become the second Jie Li or Yi Nan?"
"That's true... On the Mobei grassland now, all the tribes, big and small, have been wiped out or annexed by Xue Yantuo, leaving only the Uighur tribe with some strength to contend with it." Xue Rengui said, "Once Xue Yantuo is destroyed, the Uighur family will be alone." "But I'm surprised. With the lessons learned from the Xue Yantuo tribe and Yi Nan, do the Huihe people and Tumidu still dare to be ambitious?"
"Haha!" Qin Mubai smiled and said, "Ambition and desire are beyond the control of people themselves. As for learning from the past, didn't Yi Nan have any lessons before? Didn't Duke Wei just destroy the Turkic Khanate a few years ago and capture him alive? Jieli Khan?”
"Yes..." Xue Rengui sighed and nodded, "As you said, this Tu Midu is indeed very cunning and ambitious. He sent two cheap nieces and 40,000 cavalry in order to make allies in the Tang Dynasty. I hope there will be big rewards in the future. Maybe one day he will follow Yi Nan's example and make a counterattack, and you and I will be very passive."
"I'm just being passive." Qin Mubai said with a meaningful smile, "I'm afraid that like Li You, the king of Qi who rebelled a few years ago, he openly claimed that you and I are his allies - you see, not only did we marry His niece even took over his troops. This is all evidence! Or, if the Tubo people find out about these things and spread rumors, we won't be able to clean it up even if we jump into the Yellow River. It doesn't matter if the two of them die unjustly, but if it affects the military and national affairs, it will be very bad! "
Xue Rengui's expression changed, "Then I will write a divorce letter immediately and divorce Xi Yan! - Why should a man worry about not having a wife? Although Xi Yan is a good woman and treats me deeply, she puts the overall situation first. I’m not greedy!”
"Rengui, don't be nervous, I don't want you to divorce your wife." Qin Mubai smiled and patted Xue Rengui on the shoulder, and said, "The country is picturesque and the beauty is like jade. What man doesn't like it? Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too?" What? I have a solution!”
"Oh, Mu Bai has a clever plan?" Xue Rengui said with a smile, "No wonder I think you have always been confident and calm when facing the willful and domineering Blood Lotus!"
"Actually, it's not a clever plan. It's just a bad idea at most." Qin Mubai raised a finger and said with a mysterious smile, "One word - drag!"
"drag?"
"Yes, hold her back first." Qin Mubai said with a smile, "Neither unfamiliar nor warm; neither agreeing nor rejecting. Don't worry that she will leave in anger, it is absolutely impossible! For one thing, like A woman like her who has a strong character and perseverance, the more she can't get it, the more she will work hard to get it. On the contrary, if you let her get it easily, she may lose interest quickly; secondly, Among the Huihe generals accompanying her, there must be a few who are Tumidu's confidants, and they will always instill Tumidu's philosophy in her - therefore, no matter what, Blood Lotus will always follow me, even if I punch or kick, Don’t let her go back!”
“Haha!”
Qin Mubai also laughed so hard that his eyes narrowed, and he said softly: "Actually, which man would dislike having too many women around him? Ashina Blood Lotus is really a foreign Qiba, with a different kind of coquettish charm. As long as It was a man who saw her and said he didn't covet her or liked her. That would be a lie! However, a woman with such a wild and complicated background is not something that ordinary men can afford to mess with. With a stinging thorn."
Xue Rengui laughed, "Is there any girl in this world who is more difficult to mess with than Princess Gaoyang?"
Qin Mubai laughed loudly, and immediately lowered his voice to avoid Chen Yan hearing it, and said, "Actually, I can see that she, a young girl who has just begun to fall in love, is sincere to me, and I have no evil intentions to deceive or play with her. To her, the debt of love is the most difficult to repay, and I don’t want to be a betrayal. Therefore, I have to think of a perfect plan to make Tumido lose his wife and lose his troops!"
"It's up to you." Xue Rengui said with a smile, "I can't even think about this kind of thing. But you are good at it."
"Actually, I already have a preliminary idea in my mind. It is not only to solve the personal problem of Blood Lotus, but also to solve the long-term problem of long-term stability of Mobei Grassland." Qin Mubai frowned and said, "A few years The Turkic Khanate had just been annihilated, and now there was another Yinan rebellion. It seems that our Tang Dynasty's policy of setting up a governor's office to station troops in the vassal country and letting the Hu people control their own affairs would not work. . Not only do we in the Tang Dynasty spend a lot of money and food every year to feed the garrison, but it won't take many years for them to come back from the ashes. "
"This is related to the national policy of the Tang Dynasty..." Xue Rengui couldn't help but be startled.
"Yes! Such a major matter is not something that I, a border commander, can decide. Therefore, I have to hold Xue Lian back, at least until I take her back to Chang'an and meet the emperor." Qin Mubai paused and drank. Taking a sip of hot soup, he said with a smile, "That's not only the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, but also me, Old Taishan! If I want to take a concubine, I have to say hello to him and give him some face, right?"
"Haha, that's right!"