Tibet

After capturing Taiyuan, Gao Xiuyan led 30,000 people to the north again. He was once again appointed by Li Ye as the governor of Yunshuo, in charge of the military affairs of Yunzhou, Shuozhou and Daizhou.

Gao Xiuyan fell from this position and defected to An Lushan.

Li Ye gave him this opportunity again, and he would get up from where he fell.

Gao Xiuyan was nearly 60 years old. He no longer considered promotion. He wanted to use the last ten years of his life to wash away the shame on himself and regain his reputation after his death.

Let his descendants no longer be ashamed of him.

What is the grace of knowing and meeting? This is the grace of knowing and meeting. Only Li Ye can understand the pain in Gao Xiuyan's heart and give him this opportunity to stand up again.

At this moment, Gao Xiuyan is willing to die and repay Li Ye's kindness.

Five days later, Gao Xiuyan led his army to Yunzhong County, which is today's Datong. As early as the Northern Wei Dynasty, this was the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The city was large and imposing, with strong and tall walls, a population of about 200,000, and developed commerce.

To the north of Yunzhou is the uninterrupted Great Wall of the Sui Dynasty. Only more than a hundred years have passed, and the Great Wall is still very solid.

But there are still three gaps in the mountains in the north, all of which were formed by the erosion of rivers for hundreds of millions of years. The Great Wall also built three city fortresses, where the Tang army was stationed.

One is located in the northeast, Tiancheng Army, which is actually the name of the pass fortress, one is located on the front and back, Qingsai Army, where the Qinghe River flows, and the other is the Jingbian Army in the northwest, with a garrison of 1,000 people, defending the famous Zihe Road.

Zihe Road can be said to be the most important of the three passes. The other two passes have narrow and long canyons, and nomadic cavalry will be blocked in the canyon from front to back if they are not careful.

Therefore, nomadic cavalry generally do not want to invade the Central Plains through the Tiancheng Army and the Qingsai Army, but prefer to take the Zihe Road. The canyon here is hundreds of miles wide, and the grass on both sides is lush, which is more conducive to the cavalry's southward movement.

Of course, there are few nomadic cavalry, and more caravans from the grasslands, grassland merchants, and Huihe merchants pass through here continuously and go to Yunzhong County.

After Gao Xiuyan took office, he immediately inspected the Jingbian Army in Zihe and found that the defense of this fortress was loose and the city gate was dilapidated.

Gao Xiuyan immediately stationed a thousand troops here and transferred another 5,000 soldiers to repair the city gate.

That afternoon, Gao Xiuyan had just returned to the military camp of Yunzhong County from Zihe Road when Deputy Governor Zhang Guangsheng came to report, "Governor, a Han merchant came to see the governor these two days and said he had important military intelligence related to the Huihe. I was not here at the time, so it was the gatekeeper who reported it." Gao Xiuyan pondered for a moment and asked, "Can we find this person?" Zhang Guangsheng nodded, "He left his address, so we should be able to find it!" "Please ask General Zhang to send someone to find the merchant!" Gao Xiuying sat down in the big tent and looked at the accumulated official business on the table. In fact, there was nothing to do, just daily military training reports. Gao Xiuyan leaned back in his chair and gently pressed his temple. After all, he was old and his energy was not as good as before. Fortunately, he was only in charge of military affairs now, not government affairs, which greatly reduced his burden. As early as the Longyou period, Li Ye abolished the Jiedushi and implemented the separation of military and political affairs. At that time, it was because Li Ye controlled the border areas and the jurisdiction of each Jiedufu. If the Jiedufu system of military and political integration was still implemented as before, the Longyou court would not have many counties under its jurisdiction, so it was necessary to implement the separation of military and political affairs.

After the merger of the two dynasties, the civil service group welcomed Li Ye's separation of military and political affairs and the abolition of the Jiedushi system. The court learned the lessons of An Lushan's rebellion and the separatist rule of the feudal lords, and firmly supported Li Ye's separation of military and political affairs, abolished the governor's office, and the governor could have his own death house in the city, but the governor had to return to the barracks.

In addition, the position of the governor's office chief was abolished, and the military affairs in the governor's office were handled by the Sima.

The current governors of the governor's offices have been changed to high-ranking officials of the governor's office, who are responsible to the court, and firmly implement the governor's office, the governor's office, the governor's office, the governor's office, the governor's office, the governor's office, the governor's office, the military affairs.

This system was also welcomed by the governors of various military units. If they were not ambitious, they would welcome this system. It would reduce the burden on the governors and take away the cumbersome and complicated government affairs from the governors, which undoubtedly greatly reduced the pressure on the governors.

Coincidentally, Zhang Guangsheng met the merchant just after leaving the camp and quickly brought him into the camp. The merchant was about fifty years old and looked very smart and capable. He knelt down and saluted, "I, Wang Feng, pay my respects to the governor!"

Gao Xiuyan nodded, "Where are you from? What business are you doing now?"

The merchant bowed and said, "I am from Shuozhou. My family has been doing business for generations. I have been doing business with the nomadic peoples of the grassland for thirty years!"

"It seems that you can speak the language of the grassland?"

"Yes, I can speak Turkic and have many friends there."

"What important military intelligence do you want to tell me?"

Merchant Wang Feng said, "I wonder if the governor knows about the war between Kunjian and Huihe?" Gao Xiuyan shook his head, "I don't know, and the court doesn't know either. Please tell me in detail!" "Half a year ago, Kunjian Khan died. His three sons had an internal conflict in order to compete for the Khan. In the end, the second son took the Khanship and the other two brothers were killed. Huihe Khan seized the opportunity of Kunjian's internal conflict and sent 80,000 to 100,000 troops to attack Kunjian. A war broke out between the two countries west of Quman Mountain. Kunjian was defeated by Huihe, and more than 50,000 people were killed. The rest fled to the far north." "This was the situation half a year ago. What about now?"

"The villain heard that the Geluolu people withdrew from the Sijie land they had previously occupied and asked for peace with the Uighurs. The Sijie, Pugu, Bayegu, Dubo and other tribes once again appointed the Uighurs as their capital khans. These are two About Yue, when the villain came back, it snowed heavily in the grassland, and the news was cut off, so the villain didn’t know anything about it. "

Gao Xiuyan asked some more questions, then thanked the merchant and sent someone to send him out of the camp.

"Does General Zhang think this news is credible?" Gao Xiuyan asked Deputy General Zhang Guangsheng.

Zhang Guangsheng nodded, "I think the news should be credible, but the matter is so important that we should ask some more businessmen and verify it from multiple sources so that the news can be accurate."

Gao Xiuyan nodded silently, "This news is indeed important and must be reported to the Supervisor. Please ask General Zhang to inquire again in the next two days. Once we have confirmed the news, we will report it to the court immediately."

"The governor is right, I'll go and find out now!"

Zhang Guangsheng left in a hurry, and Gao Xiuyan became really worried. From the captured Tian Shenyu information, he knew that Tian Shenyu had surrendered to Uighur. Now that Tian Shenyu has been wiped out, will the Uighur Khan remain indifferent?

Fortunately, it is winter now, and the grassland is covered with heavy snow. Since there is enemy situation, it will not be until spring next year.

Two days later, Zhang Guangsheng collected accurate information. The information reported by businessman Wang Feng was completely true. Based on the collected information, Gao Xiuyan immediately wrote an eight hundred-mile expedited message and sent a team of messengers to Chang'an.