It was New Year's Eve in the eighth hundred and twenty-fourth year of the Holy Tang Dynasty.
The "Metasequoia Peace", which has been criticized by later generations and received mixed reviews from historians, was finally finalized through secret consultations between representatives of the Zhenjiang and Turkic parties.
At this point, the Shengtang Zhenjiang Army, which had been stationed in the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang for nearly three years and defeated the alliance's crusade several times, had all its dynasty designations removed and was renamed "Methaquoia Military Mansion" to the outside world.
The commander-in-chief of the military government, Li Jiangyao, was canonized as Metasequoia Baron by the Turkic Empire. He was in charge of a territory with a radius of hundreds of miles, and was on par with the kings of Loulan, Chechi and other countries.
The Turkic army also immediately stopped its hostile actions against Metasequoia. Except for the Blood Guard Cavalry Corps, which continued to stay in place, the rest of the troops retreated one after another and headed towards the Liangguan Camp.
The precarious Metasequoia City has finally returned to a peaceful and peaceful state.
For such an act of "betrayal" and "surrender", Li Jiangyao felt more uncomfortable than anyone else, but he had no choice. The rapid fall of towns such as Homnitz made him realize two things very clearly: First, the Turks were moving in full force and marching eastward in large numbers. The scale of their troops was unprecedented, and there was no room for change in the western Xinjiang; Although it has just begun to take shape, fundamentally speaking, it is still a lone army hanging outside the territory. Without support and reinforcements, it is difficult to form lasting resistance.
Especially after the contest with Yun Qianxue, Li Jiangyao deeply realized the terror of the Turkic cavalry. If he continued to fight hard, there would be only death in Metasequoia City.
As for the Turkic princess Hesijia, she can only be used as a bargaining chip in a short period of time to change some conditions with the other party. Once the enemy loses patience, it is very likely that as Stanley and the others said, if the princess is no longer wanted, everyone will be killed for her. Just be buried with you.
In addition, there is another important reason, which is also the key to Li Jiangyao's decision to temporarily compromise the agreement, and that is the next move of the Turks.
He, Xie Tanzhi and Xu Youda reached a unanimous conclusion. Ashina was very ambitious, and his ambition was not the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang, but the Holy Tang Dynasty further east. Otherwise, there would be no need to mobilize 50 people. Tens of thousands of main forces came all the way here.
Because of this, the three of them all believed that the precious fire should be preserved at this time, not for themselves, but for Shengtang. Once the main Turkic army advances eastward, no matter how Shengtang responds, whether the battlefield is at two passes or further away, the Metasequoias will be located behind the Turks. At critical moments, they can attack the enemy from behind. Knife hard!
From this strategic point of view, even if it is called "surrender", it is worth it.
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The second day of the Lunar New Year is the day when people from Shengtang return to their parents' homes to pay New Year's greetings.
Li Jiangyao, the newly promoted Turkic Metasequoia Baron, also escorted Princess Hesijia back to her "natal home" as agreed today.
Along the way, Li Jiangyao rode alone in front, while Xu Youchang accompanied Hesijia, and the two walked side by side. After walking for a long time, neither Xu Youchang nor Hesijia spoke. Only the sound of horse hooves tapping back and forth echoed in their ears and hearts.
Seeing that he was about to arrive at the camp of the Blood Guard Cavalry, Hesijia suddenly stopped and asked softly: "You...don't have anything to say to me?"
Xu Youchang was stunned for a moment and said hesitantly: "I...I don't know what to say, I..."
Li Jiangyao, who was walking in front, silently reined in the reins and stopped with his back to them. Hesijia looked at his back and said softly: "You know, actually I don't want to leave."
"I understand everything," Xu Youchang couldn't bear to look at her and looked elsewhere: "You are saving us."
"No, you don't understand," Hesijia turned around and faced Xu Youchang: "Once I leave, I'm afraid I won't be able to come back. I... I want to get married."
Xu Youchang felt his heart twisting. He was silent for a moment, then slowly turned around, faced his beloved girl, and held back his tears and said: "I can't give you what Yun Qianxue can give you, I... don't deserve it. you."
Hesijia stared at Xu Youchang's angular face with her beautiful eyes, suddenly smiled sadly, and said softly: "You have given me what I want most, which is something that Mr. Yun can never give me. Xu Youchang, thank you... Please forget about me."
After saying that, before the tears came out of her eyes, Hesijia turned around and jumped on the horse prepared for her, and galloped forward. After Li Jiangyao waited for her to pass by, he looked back at his good brother who was still in a daze, and a sad look flashed in his eyes.
With a sigh, he waved his hand, signaling the team to continue moving towards the Turkic camp.
From a distance, they saw a large group of people standing in darkness outside the Blood Guard cavalry camp. The leaders were Hesijia's second brother Prince Tanley, Blood Guard General Yun Qianxue, Duke Druhan and others who came to report the news. of Inas.
Hesijia sighed secretly in her heart, adjusted her mood slightly, jumped off the horse, smiled and waved to everyone.
Yun Qianxue rushed out of the crowd, ran to her in three steps, opened her arms, and hugged Hesijia tightly.
Hesijia wanted to refuse, but she was surrounded by eager eyes and it was hard to offend Mr. Yun, so she had no choice but to hug him half-heartedly.
Li Jiangyao saw this and secretly felt sorry for Xu Youchang. Just when he didn't know how to react, fortunately Prince Tanli came closer and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Baron, the princess has returned successfully. I am very happy and congratulated."
Li Jiangyao slightly cupped his hands at him: "Your Highness, this is the result that everyone hopes to see, and it is indeed worthy of happiness."
Stanley nodded: "Your Excellency Baron, things here have been taken care of, and we are ready to set off. Do you need anything else over there? We are destined, and I treat you as one of my own, so if you have anything to say, you are welcome. .”
Li Jiangyao knew that the second prince intended to win over him, so he responded with a smile: "There is nothing to trouble Your Highness, it's just..." He glanced at the troops who were cleaning up the camp not far away, and lowered his voice and said: "You really want to Going east?"
Tanli smiled leisurely: "What's wrong?"
Li Jiangyao also smiled back: "Your Highness has lived in the imperial capital for a short period of time before, so he should know the Holy Tang better than others. Do you think a 550,000 Turkic army can conquer the East?"
Tanli turned to look at the Turkic generals not far away, and also whispered: "I think that under normal circumstances, it would be difficult to achieve even double the number of troops."
Li Jiangyao was slightly stunned. He was not surprised by the other party's rational answer, but noticed the unusual thing in Tanli's statement. Then, a name that was both familiar and unfamiliar suddenly appeared in his mind - Xie Guang!
"His Highness said that it is difficult to do it under normal circumstances. Could it be that..." Li Jiangyao asked tentatively: "Could there be something abnormal happening in Shengtang? Are you referring to civil strife?"
A hint of fear flashed in Tanley's eyes, and he immediately laughed and said: "His Excellency the Baron is indeed a smart man. He immediately caught the flaw in my words. Your Excellency is so powerful that I started to worry a little, right? Shouldn’t we leave you behind us?”
Li Jiangyao didn't expect that the other party would also react very quickly. He quickly cursed himself for not being able to calm down just now. At the same time, he pretended not to care and spread his hands: "Your Highness is joking. We were repaired repeatedly by your army before, and not only did we lose a large area of territory, , and also lost troops and generals, and suffered a huge loss in strength. If it were not for the princess as a hostage, Qiaoqiao would have been dead by now. If you stay in Western Xinjiang now, you will inevitably be attacked by other countries seeking revenge, so how can you threaten them? Turks?"
"Hahaha, Baron, don't mind. I was indeed joking just now." Tanli waved his hand: "Don't worry, I will say hello to Alik Jiang and the others, and the Western Xinjiang Alliance will not be allowed to come to Metasequoia City to cause trouble. Still the same sentence By the way, we are destined, and I treat you as one of my own."
Li Jiangyao knew that the other party was definitely not easy to fool, and the so-called "greeting" was probably not a strict order to the Xijiang Alliance not to cause trouble to him. On the contrary, they had to frequently come and harass Metasequoia to prevent Li Jiangyao and the others from growing stronger again.
However, masters often see through things without telling them. Li Jiangyao immediately assumed the posture of "one of his own", thanked Prince Tanli repeatedly, and said that he would follow the second prince from now on, and he would follow Tanli's lead in everything.
The day after Hesijia returned to the camp, the huge legions outside the city began to withdraw, and the haze of war that gathered over Metasequoia City finally gradually dissipated.
The people came out of the heavy atmosphere of fear and resumed their normal lives with smiles on their faces. Restaurants and restaurants resumed business, caravans came and went to do business, people picked up the work they had left behind, and went about their lives bustlingly.
All this made Li Jiangyao feel gratified.
However, compared with the people, the army's response seemed a bit subtle.
I don't know since when, the officers and soldiers of the Shengtang Department began to look at their commander with a strange look.
More and more people were talking secretly behind their backs, and more and more noises reached Li Jiangyao's ears.
Surrender, betrayal, traitor, greed for life and fear of death...
Some people even wrapped a piece of cloth with "Baron Metasequoia" written on it in feces and threw it directly into the castle guard's mansion.
Many commanders of the troops came to report that their men were ready to move, that they were almost unable to suppress them, and that a mutiny by bombing the camp might occur at any time.
Faced with this situation, Xu Youchang took the initiative to take over the position of military judge left by Lin Feng, and personally led the White Robe Law Enforcement Team to inspect each camp and severely suppress all restless voices. Yudra and Samor also fully deployed the intelligence department's spies to enter different levels of the army to search for those who secretly discussed the commander-in-chief. Situ Wushou was even more nervous. He kept a close eye on the guards every day and urged them to strengthen the security of the city guard.
In this regard, Li Jiangyao did not comment at all.
He locked himself in the study room and meditated on the map all day long. He never stepped out of the door for several days, which made Xia Lian have to run over every hour or two to take a look, for fear that Li Jiangyao would die because he couldn't think clearly. Short-term pursuit.
