Yuwen Hongtai was covered with four quilts and had three fires burning around him. He was still trembling all over. His already dark face had already turned purple, and his eyes were a little straight.
When Qin Mubai saw him, it was very similar to the scene when he ran all night from Huanyue Valley back to Shanzhou that day. Moreover, Yuwen Hongtai ran further, and now the ice and snow were even colder, which showed that this man was indeed about to freeze to death.
"Third, third brother, I, I'm here again..." Yuwen Hongtai was a little excited when he saw Qin Mubai, but he couldn't move and his eyes were just stuck together.
"Why did you say 'again'?" Qin Mubai's heart was blocked, and he frowned and said, "What happened?"
Yuwen Hongtai grinned with difficulty and revealed an ugly bitter smile, "When I come here, nothing good will happen! I am such an ominous person and I deserve to die early!"
"Stop talking nonsense, the military report is here!" Qin Mubai became more and more anxious and couldn't help shouting in a higher tone.
"Here... here..." Yuwen Hongtai gestured with his eyes, in his own underwear.
Qin Mubai personally took off the thick quilt on his body and saw that the man's neck was purple and swollen from the cold. From his clothes, he found a small package tightly wrapped in oil paper and cotton cloth, and hurriedly opened it.
Xue Rengui and Su Dingfang stood nearby, not daring to breathe, looking at Qin Mubai seriously.
A thick and very detailed military report was obviously written by Li Daozong, the king of Jiangxia. Perhaps Li Daozong was afraid that Yuwen Hongtai would not be able to explain clearly, so he wrote in great detail what he did during the eastward attack on the Garqin Mausoleum and the gathering of Hou Jun in Dafeichuan.
There are also three letters written by Hou Junji. They were written to Qin Mubai, Li Shimin, and his wife respectively.
After reading the military newspaper and the letter written to him by Hou Junji, Qin Mubai's expression froze for three minutes. Xue Rengui, Su Dingfang and Yuwen Hongtai all looked at him in confusion and did not dare to shout out.
After a while, Qin Mubai finally moved and handed the general's report to Su Dingfang, "See for yourselves!"
After Su and Xue finished reading, their expressions were as frozen as Qin Mubai's.
Is it hate? Is it worry? Is it anger? Is it urgent
Their hearts were blocked together.
"Mu Bai, we must make a decisive decision and send our troops back to Lan!" Su Dingfang said decisively, "Hou Junji went crazy and left Dafeichuan behind to fight on the plateau. Dafeichuan, the throat of the river, has no troops to guard it! What if? Er Qinling led a group of troops to attack suddenly, and everything was lost!"
"If we are still required to save Dafeichuan, then Helong will really be doomed." Qin Mubai was calmer than they expected, but he frowned deeply and said, "Li Daozong, the king of Jiangxia, must have died." He took over and rebuilt Dafeichuan's defense immediately."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!!" Yuwen Hongtai nodded vigorously and murmured, to show that Qin Mubai was right.
"But the King of Jiangxia only has a few Lanzhou recruits. If the enemy's powerful soldiers come to attack, they will be unable to resist." Su Dingfang said, "In any case, Lanzhou is already empty, and reinforcements are urgently needed at this time."
"Not busy!" Qin Mubai raised his hand and said, "Think clearly before taking action. At this time, any move we make is the key to victory or defeat. To be honest, I feel like a butt I was as anxious as being burned, and the sorrow and anger in my heart could not be expressed in words. However, at this time, we should not rush into self-discipline. Let's carefully analyze and think about why Hou Junji did this. ? What are the consequences of what he did? If we were Gar Qinling, what would we most likely do now? "
As soon as Qin Mubai said these words, it was like pouring a bucket of ice water over everyone present and giving them a dose of sedative. Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui looked at each other, with expressions of appreciation and approval in their eyes, and then said: "That makes sense!"
"Come on, everyone, sit down!" Qin Mubai waved his hand, signaling Su and Xue to sit next to Yuwen Hongtai by the stove, and then sent the servants to prepare tea and serve them.
Su Xue and Su Xue were secretly shocked and admired, thinking that after experiencing so many storms and waves, Qin Mubai had almost reached the point where he would not be shocked if the sky fell. Originally he was still in his youthful and frivolous years, but he was able to maintain such unusual calmness at such a critical moment. It was really not easy. Now they finally understood why so many famous ministers and generals in the court were not used, but the emperor gave half of the country in the west to Qin Mubai, a weakling's son.
"Hong Tai, please tell me first, why did Hou Junji do this? What was the scene like at that time?" Qin Mubai asked.
"I don't know much. Before the incident, Hou Junji sent me to the Buha River to repair the dam, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It took more than ten days to repair the dam." Yuwen Hongtai said, "Wait until I hear this. When I hurried back to the military camp after hearing the news, Hou Junji had already captured Qingluo Yuan and killed all the prisoners. After I made a fuss with him, he tied me up with a hemp rope and sent me to Shanzhou. Later I heard that he also killed Changsun Huan! This old bastard is really cruel!"
The three of them were really stunned after hearing this. Qin Mubai smiled bitterly, "It seems that it is indeed necessary for the King of Jiangxia to write such a detailed and thick military report."
"What?" Yuwen Hongtai rolled his eyes.
"Let me ask you this, you haven't noticed anything strange about Hou Junji?" Qin Mubai said.
"Yes!" Yuwen Hongtai glared and said with certainty, "I can see that he doesn't want to live anymore! He is going to the plateau to seek death!"
"In other words, he believes that he is a mortal person." Su Dingfang continued.
"That should be it..." Qin Mubai sighed slowly, nodded slightly, frowned and closed his eyes, shaking his head with a worried expression.
"Hey!..." Su Dingfang also let out a long sigh and said, "Hou Junji is really an unruly, wild and bloody madman. Who else would have committed a mistake like his? They must be thinking about how to remedy it and how to make it up." Escape. Instead, he committed the crime of death first, and then risked his life to do whatever he wanted. I guess he felt that by giving up all his strength for the rest of his life, he put all the honor and shame aside. A drowning person knows that he will die, but he has to drag someone into the water. This is the only way."
"To be more precise, he is like a snake head that has been chopped off. It can still open its mouth and bite people without its body. It is extremely poisonous and dangerous." Qin Mubai said, "In the past, Hou Junji has always suppressed his wild nature. And Arrogance is like a hungry wolf with an iron chain around his neck acting as a watchdog. Now that he breaks free of the iron chain, no one knows how many people will die tragically at his hands. In the end, he will definitely die."
"What a madman!" Su Dingfang punched hard and shouted angrily and helplessly.
Xue Rengui never interrupted, then Fang said: "Mu Bai, Ding Fang, the matter has come to this, how should we act? I am still a junior official, and I don't understand the affairs of the court very well; for Hou Jun I don’t know much about Ji. But in my humble opinion, regardless of politics and etiquette, from a military perspective, Hou Junji’s move is actually a killing move. Of course, both sides will lose.”
"It's appropriate that both jade and stone will be burned together." Qin Mubai nodded in approval and said, "The Gar Qin Ling's surprise attack on Taozhou turned our western frontier of the Tang Dynasty upside down. After that, the Gar Qin Ling had to escape and return to the plateau. The purpose of his sudden eastward invasion was nothing more than to create disaster to give the defeated Tibet a chance to breathe, and at the same time, he unexpectedly used advance as a retreat to find a way out. It is not difficult to imagine that after the defeat of Dafeichuan, the Tibetans were unable to fight anymore. First, they suffered heavy losses in military strength, and secondly, more importantly, they had no logistics and food. Tubo's agriculture was not very good, unlike our Central Plains, which had so much food that they had been saving for how long they had to fight this war. However, he was worried that we would take advantage of the victory and pursue him, so he stabbed him before retreating. He killed us and left us too busy healing our wounds to take care of him. From this point of view, Gal Qinling is indeed very sophisticated and vicious."
"But he never expected that there would be someone more ruthless than him!" Su Dingfang said, "Gal Qinling seems to know our court and political situation very well. He thought that Hou Junji would definitely regret it if he let him go. We are helpless, and at the same time, the young commander will definitely be implicated to some extent. He is even more convinced that after he made a fuss in Western Xinjiang and retreated to the plateau, we did not dare to take the initiative to attack the plateau because this was indeed the case in the past. The situation is that our soldiers and horses from the Central Plains have never entered the Tibetan mainland. He expected that since we in the Tang Dynasty could not retaliate against him militarily, the only thing left was to hold ourselves accountable. In this case, Hou Junji would die. Undoubtedly, the young commander will also be attacked by his political opponents. If there is civil strife in the court, Lanzhou will collapse without a fight, and the Tang Dynasty's national policy towards Tibet will also change because of this - his goal has been achieved!"
"Dingfang's analysis is reasonable and thorough." Qin Mubai said, "Gar Qinling's identity is different from us. He is not only a military commander, but also a powerful minister. He runs the army and governs the government. He has the power to confide in Tibet. Everything he does is not just for the purpose of simple military attack. What you just said coincides with what I am thinking - Garqin Ling, he has absolutely nothing to do. I didn't expect there to be someone more ruthless than him! No matter how scheming he is, he is not from the Tang Dynasty, and he is not in the court. It is impossible for him to fully understand Hou Junji's personality - even those of us who spend time with Hou Junji. , and may not fully understand him. So Gar Qin Ling made a miscalculation, and Hou Junji, this crazy hungry wolf, instead of being frightened and frightened because of his dereliction of duty, actually saw his own end in advance with a clear head, and then faced the consequences. He made a fatal blow before he died!"
"This case of the Garqin Mausoleum is a typical example of a wise man who must make a mistake after thinking a lot." Su Dingfang said, "As Rengui said, from a military perspective, Hou Junji's move is not entirely without merit. . Garqinling holds half of the Tubo troops and horses, and they must be empty when going abroad. Unlike the Tang Dynasty, half of the troops and horses are stationed in Guanzhong to guard the capital. In many cases, their soldiers are scattered. Herdsmen and serfs, there are not many soldiers and horses of Yuru (equivalent to the Royal Forest Army) who can really defend Luoche. Now Hou Jun is gathering extraordinary troops to attack Luoche. If they can succeed... Tubo will be mostly destroyed! "
Xue Rengui then said: "It is not difficult to imagine that after making trouble in Western Xinjiang for a while, the Garqin Mausoleum must have been quite exhausted even though it had made a lot of gains and escaped unscathed. But if it is known that Hou Junji won it in one fell swoop Qing Luoyuan then immediately attacked Luoche City. He would be frightened, and then led his army to chase after Hou Junji, and hurried back to Luoche to rescue him. "In this way, Hou Junji had no way to retreat. The entire army fought tooth and nail - either they really knew how to capture Luoche City and made great achievements; or the entire army was wiped out and no one came back alive! "
"Even if Luoche City is captured, no one can come back alive." Qin Mubai's expression darkened and he said, "Rengui, if Hou Junji had thought about living again, he would not have taken this step. Killing on the plateau means to be determined to die together with the enemy. Now Hou Junji is willing to kill two if he goes to the plateau. Just like, he will go on a killing spree! He showed no mercy like killing 50,000 prisoners in Dafeichuan!"
Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui both took a breath of cold air.
"Hou Junji is using a move that will kill both the jade and the stone to eradicate the root!" Qin Mubai took a long breath and slowly exhaled, "Tubo has a population of less than two million, and even if all the people are armed, they can only be called 'six hundred thousand soldiers.' How many young men were there in total? He killed 50,000 people at once in Dafeichuan! Now that he is on the plateau, he is like a tiger among sheep, and I dare to say that many Tubo people will be killed by his sword. , he never thought about making a name for himself, nor did he think about capturing Zong Zan alive to atone for his sins. He just wanted to kill people, just kill people! This is undoubtedly unethical, unnatural, and almost pervertedly cruel and bloody. It is not difficult to imagine that in the future, both the Tubo people and the Han people, including our descendants, may condemn him. A cold-blooded butcher and executioner who takes human life lightly, he will bear the shackles of shame and hatred forever, and will be criticized; but from an objective perspective, one goes down and the other goes up. If his move can greatly weaken Tibet, will it be another blow to my current situation? What about Datang’s great contribution? - Perhaps this is his true purpose!”
"If that's the case, then it's a veritable death! The price of his reputation is not only his life, but also his reputation, personality and dignity!" After hearing Qin Mubai's words, Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui were shocked.
Qin Mubai sighed and said: "His madness is not only to vent, but also to express his shame and regret! Moreover, it is also an indirect and alternative way to repay His Majesty the Emperor's past kindness to him, and to me. Trust him! —Hou Junji seems to everyone to be a cunning, cruel, ruthless wolf; but in fact, is he not a truly lonely and pitiful person? "