Tibet

At night, Dugu Ming hurriedly came to see his eldest brother Dugu Lie.

"Brother, the situation is a little bad. My people went into the inner treasury and didn't find the gunpowder A Ye entrusted me to find. Only half of the "Treasure Book" that A Ye mentioned was found."

Dugu Lie frowned and said: "It must have been taken away, otherwise the treasure book would not only be half a volume. Who is the most likely?"

"That can only be Yuan Siyi. Only he has the right to take away the materials from the inner warehouse. It should be this morning."

Dugu Lie thought for a moment and said, "Get out that half of the "Treasure Book" first, and then continue investigating the gunpowder matter."

Dugu Ming said worriedly: "I'm worried that Yuan Siyi sold it to Anlu Mountain, and Liu Luogu is still in Chang'an. I don't know where he is hiding?"

Dugu Lie smiled and comforted his brother: "We just have to try our best. If we really can't get it, there is nothing we can do. I have never heard of this thing. It is probably just a fire starter. Don't take it too seriously."

Dugu Ming nodded, "I have followed Feilong for several years, and I have never heard of the name gunpowder. I do know about the "Treasure Book", which is the most advanced technology of the Tang Dynasty. In short, please give it to Aye. Just tell him and I will try my best to help him find gunpowder!"

Two days later, Li Ye arrived at Wutingchuan with twenty of his men. At the riverside, everyone lit a firewood pile. The firewood pile burned brightly and completely engulfed Feilong's body. This time, Feilong bid farewell to the Tang Dynasty completely.

The fire burned for a full two hours. When daybreak, only a pile of white ashes was left. The soldiers pushed the ashes and firewood into Wuting River. The ashes sank to the bottom of the river. The last wish of Feilong's soul to return to his homeland was finally fulfilled. It was settled for him.

At this time, a rapid sound of horse hooves came from a distance, and two of Li Ye's men immediately went up to check. After a while, they brought two warriors from the Dugu family up. The leading warrior clasped his fists and said, "Brother Qi, I am humble enough to come here to deliver the message as ordered by my master!”

He handed a yellow silk package to Li Ye, and the letter was inside the package.

Li Ye opened the package. Inside was a brocade scroll with the first volume of "Treasure Book" written on it, but not the second volume.

Li Ye opened the letter again and looked at it carefully. It was written to him by Dugu Lie. The second volume of "Treasure Book" and the gunpowder were taken away a step later. Yuan Siyi was most likely to have given them to An Lushan. I can't trace it back, I can only say sorry to him.

Li Ye sighed helplessly. The thing he was most worried about happened. Feilong told An Lushan about the gunpowder and the "Treasure Book", and specially sent a barrel of gunpowder to An Lushan. As a veteran of many battles, How could the military commander An Lushan not know the power of gunpowder? Although only the burning power of gunpowder could be used at the beginning, it was already a great improvement for the Yan army without kerosene.

As for the propulsive and explosive effects of gunpowder, they will only appear slowly after two to three hundred years of evolution.

Li Ye had the gunpowder from Bukhanna in his hand. He originally didn't want to make gunpowder, but if An Lushan started to make it, he would have to start.

"Please tell your master, thank you very much!"

Li Ye put the scroll into his horse bag, got on his horse, and galloped towards Ziwu Valley with his men.

Although the details of history vary in many places, the end result is much the same.

Five days later, a major event that shocked the court occurred. Gao Xianzhi participated in the rebellion of Prince Rong Li Wan and was dismissed from all posts and taken back to Chang'an. However, he committed suicide by taking poison in Huayin County.

It is impossible to verify whether Gao Xianzhi was forced to commit suicide by taking poison, or whether he committed suicide by taking poison on his own initiative. The court concluded that he committed suicide out of fear of crime.

The family property was confiscated, and Gao Xianzhi's wife and children were also sent to Lingnan.

Li Longji immediately appointed Ge Shuhan, who was recuperating in Chang'an, as the commander-in-chief of the three armies, and ordered the transfer of 60,000 Longyou Army troops. At the same time, he recruited 100,000 troops in Chang'an to prepare for a decisive battle with An Lushan's army.

Time flies to July, and the 40,000 newly recruited Jianghan Army has completed its first phase of training.

At this time, Li Ye's Jianghan army had reached 70,000 people.

That morning, the second batch of troops and officials from Suiye arrived in Xiangyang.

The army totaled 3,000 people, including 1,000 soldiers from Shouju Zhanti and 2,000 soldiers from Bukhana. At the same time, they brought 15,000 barrels of kerosene, carried by 10,000 camels.

Many civil servants from Suiye also came, including Li Ye's staff Chen Huan, Yang Shaohua, Qiu Xuan, Qiao Bin, a member of the army of Cangcao, and Wang Chenghua, the county lieutenant of Suiye.

What surprised Li Ye most was that Wang Changling also came back.

They came from Hanzhong. After Li Ye captured Raofeng Pass, the group arrived in Xiangyang smoothly without being blocked.

The arrival of these officials really made Li Ye happy. He lacked trustworthy civil servants around him, so his wish came true.

Li Ye hosted a banquet for a group of officials who had returned from the river at the most famous Jiangxia Restaurant in Xiangyang, as a way to cleanse themselves from the dust for them.

Li Ye picked up the wine cup and asked Wang Changling with a smile, "I always thought that Magistrate Wang would die in old age, but I didn't expect that he would return to his hometown."

Wang Changling smiled bitterly and said: "I wanted to stay in Suiye for retirement, but others didn't allow me! I had no choice but to resign and come back in despair."

Li Ye was startled, "Who doesn't allow it?"

"Who else is there? Xie Jinbai, the new commander-in-chief who will take over as envoy!"

Wang Changling sighed and said: "He transferred me to Aral Sea County. I didn't want to go, so I offered to resign. He didn't allow me to resign. He put forward two conditions, either to go to Aral Sea or to leave Suiye and return to the Central Plains. I had no choice but to the latter."

Next to him, Chen Huan said: "This Commander-in-Chief Xie is very unkind and even sinister. He has ordered the withdrawal of troops from Aral Sea County, abandoned Aral Sea County, and then asked the prince to go to Xianhai County. If the prince goes, there will be no Tang army there." No, not even a translator, so he could only come back in despair. In this way, the big hat of abandoning Aralhai County will be placed on the head of Magistrate Wang."

Li Ye was furious, "Who asked him to abandon Aral Sea County?"

"I heard that it was the suggestion from Prime Minister Zhang Jun, saying that the commander-in-chief is too ambitious and unrealistic. Occupying a useless city will only increase the burden on the governor's palace in the middle of the river."

"Corrupt Confucianism harms the country!"

Li Ye was so angry that he cursed. This was the Khazar Khanate's treaty recognition that the west of the Aral Sea belonged to the Tang Dynasty. The most important thing was the support of Aral Sea County. Without Aral Sea County, the treaty would be meaningless.

Zhang Jun, this idiot, doesn't understand anything. Maybe it's not that he doesn't understand, but that this thief is deliberately targeting him. He must deal with this thief in the future!

And Xie Jin, he should know the importance of Xianhai County, but he actually gave up. Over the past few years, he has not seen through him.

"Who owns Aral Sea County now?" Li Ye asked again.

"Return to Kang State! Kang State has wanted that place for a long time. The county magistrate Lao Kang is from Kang State. As soon as we leave, Kang State will naturally take over."

Li Ye nodded. It's okay to return to Kang State. He can get it back in the future, but he is afraid that it will be taken back by the Khazar Khanate, which will mean war.

"Can the Hezhong Governor's Office still control the Sogdian and Tocharian countries now?"

Chen Huan shook his head, "Xie Jin is a civil servant. He is not as pioneering as the governor. He is very conservative. He abolished the Sogdian Liaison Department, withdrew troops from Juzhanti and Jumi, and abandoned the Sogdian and Tocharian countries. Now he is the governor of Hezhong. The government only has jurisdiction over three areas: Rehai, Suiye River Valley and Yili River Valley, and even Yibohai has given up. We tried to persuade him to recruit troops, but he refused. He ruined all your hard work, which is really disappointing."

Li Ye was really helpless. What he was most worried about had happened. Letting civilian officials guard the border would be a disaster. Now he had no choice but to forget about the incident in the river for the time being. He raised his glass and smiled and said: "Okay! Let's temporarily forget about it." Don't worry about the broken leaves. I am now the observer envoy of Shannan East Road and the governor of Jianghan. I have enough good seats to accommodate everyone. Come! Let's toast to your arrival."

Everyone was overjoyed and raised their glasses together, "Cheers!"