Chapter 2 The North Wolf Smoke

It is said that Cao Xiang strictly ordered Kang Chuangui to secretly arrest the 13 trouble-riot soldiers who killed Deng Qian and transfer them to Jinyang. Kang Chuangui came to Tian Gong'e to discuss this matter, but Tian Gong'e did not agree with this matter and was afraid of provoking a mutiny.

Kang Chuangui thought for a long time and decided to follow Cao Xiang's words and sent his general Zhang Yanqiu to deal with this matter.

Zhang Yanqiu had no choice but to follow the order, but he took care and sent his own soldiers to find the 13 soldiers, lying that Kang Lishi wanted to reward them and let Kang Chuangui deal with them. Thirteen soldiers came from the countryside, with well-developed limbs and simple-headed. They were coaxed and deceived by their own soldiers. They really followed their own soldiers to Tang Chuangui's mansion.

The group arrived at the gate of the Daizhou government office and interrogated the situation. Zhang Yanqiu came forward and said a few words. Hearing this, the government official reported it to Kang Chuangui.

Kang Chuangui thought to himself: Zhang Yanqiu, Zhang Yanqiu, are you good at calculating? These 13 soldiers are hot potatoes. If you don't catch them directly, you let me deal with this difficult matter directly. Although Kang Chuangui was very dissatisfied, he had to force his hand to order these 13 soldiers into the government office and prepare a jar of wine with sweat medicine, and sent a cook to cook a few dishes to "entertain" these soldiers.

The government official went to the door of the house and shouted, "Kang Lashi has an order. Because of the hard work of the thirteen brothers, they have won a lot of rewards for everyone. Today, I will give you a special drink and treat you to invite the brothers to drink and talk!"

After listening to the words of the government official, these thirteen young people really believed it and followed the government official to go in. Zhang Yanqiu made an excuse to go to the toilet and ran away.

When Kang Chuangui saw that the 13 soldiers came to the lobby of the government office, he immediately got up and left his seat and laughed: "Brothers, thank you for your hard work! I prepared some thin wine today to treat you, in recognition of your winning a lot of rewards for our army! After drinking, I will reward each of you with 50 taels of silver!"

Thirteen soldiers knelt on the ground together; "Xie Kang's history rewarded!"

Kang Chuangui pretended to be generous: "Brothers, I have to rely on you to suppress the thieves and the people in Daizhou. Brothers, don't be polite. Please come to the living room for a drink!"

The soldiers laughed wildly and followed Kang Chuangui into the living room and saw chicken, duck, fish and other dishes on the table. There was a big wine urn next to it, which had not been sealed. The soldiers danced with joy. They opened the wine urn and chewed into the table without waiting for Kang Chuangui to greet them.

It didn't take much time. Thirteen soldiers foamed at their mouths and fell to the ground one after another. Kang Chuangui quickly ordered his own soldiers and government officials to tie up the ropes of the soldiers, then put them in sacks, stuffed them into carriages, and sent a team of soldiers to escort them. At midnight, they set off and went straight to Jinyang.

After 13 soldiers were detained in Jinyang, Cao Xiang was personally promoted to the court for interrogation, and Zhou Congyu, the eunuch of the army, also participated. Cao Xiang patted the wooden and asked, "You are bold and reckless to kill the imperial court officials without authorization. They are traitors and thieves. Do you know whether they are guilty or not?"

The soldiers glared and shouted:

"Dog officer! Shameless things! If you can't defeat the bandits, treat us as bandits! I will also devour you alive in hell!"

"We are not convinced! What kind of man are you to arrest us without permission?!"

"We are going to the emperor to denounce you!"

......

Cao Xiang was furious and handed over the confession written in advance to the government officials and forced 13 soldiers to press their hand prints. A chaotic soldiers suddenly bit a government official's finger and only heard the government officials screaming, and his right index finger was bitten alive by the soldiers!

Other soldiers also kicked the yamen and Cao Xiang's own soldiers in the court with their feet. In the court, they suddenly became a mess.

Zhou Congyu walked to Cao Xiang and persuaded him, "General Cao, I think it's better to punish this matter lightly. At that time, these soldiers came out to make trouble and were supported by many soldiers. Even Kang Chuangui, Zhang Yanqiu, Tian Gong'e and others can't help it. Why do we stir up this muddy water? In case of a mutiny, there will be a lot of trouble. I think let them go to the countryside to farm!"

Cao Xiang filled his chest angrily: "I don't believe that I can't cure these soldiers! This time, we must rectify the appearance of the army and never allow soldiers to commit trouble! Come on, drag these soldiers out of the government office and immediately behead them to show them to the public! I think who dares to despise the laws of the Tang Dynasty in the future?! Killing Tang officials without permission?!"

After a while, thirteen people's heads hung high on the flagpole of Jinyang City, attracting many military and civilians to watch and talk about it. The news soon spread to the Tang camp in Daizhou. The hardcore brothers of the soldiers vowed to kill Cao Xiang, publicly promoted Su Hongzhen as their representatives, and asked Zhang Yanqiu and Tian Gonge to find out the truth. Zhang Yanqiu and Tian Gonge put all the responsibility on Kang Chuangui and secretly paid military pay to their subordinates, only hiding Kang Chuangui's generals.

After Li Guochang and Li Ke officially defected against the Tang Dynasty with their father and son, they were fully prepared to expand their military preparations in the northern area, so they raised 50,000 troops and went south to attack the Hedong area. Li Keyong and his generals Xue Atan, An Xiuxiu, Li Jinzhong, Cheng Huaixin and Li Cunzhang discussed the military situation in the camp outside Yanmenguan. Li Keyong said, "At present, thousands of people of Xue Zhiqin and Kang Junli are in the area of Lanzhou. I estimate that the Tang army will attack Lanzhou first, and then concentrate their forces to deal with us. Let's talk about how to deal with it!"

Li Jinzhong said, "I heard that the Tang soldiers in Jinyang recently made trouble and killed the officials. Later, Dou Yu, the governor of Hedong, rewarded him with a lot of money and things, so the matter was put out. Unexpectedly, Tang Ting thought that Dou Yu was weak and incompetent, and sent Cao Xiang as the governor of Hedong. As soon as Cao Xiang arrived in Jinyang, he started to kill and killed 13 chaotic soldiers who made trouble. Now he stabbed the hornet's nest. Many Tang soldiers held a grudge and publicly said that they wanted to kill Cao Xiang! Hahaha, I saw a good show. This time, I think we can fight against the Yanmen Pass. We will know the interests of the defenders of Yanmen Gate and buy them with gold and silver. We welcome those who are willing to join the Shatuo Army. Those who do not want to participate can walk freely after taking gold and silver. In this way, as soon as the Yanmen Pass is close, it will be flat! The day to take down Jinyang is just around the corner!"

The generals all said that this plan is wonderful, and you can try it. Li Ke was overjoyed and asked Li Jinzhong to write a letter of persuasion and shoot into the Yanmen Gate with arrows. The guard of Yanmenguan picked up the letter and showed it to the Tang general. Li Tangbing of Yanmenguan hated Cao Xiang to the bone and had no intention to resist the Shatuo army, so they agreed and decided to abandon the gold and silver and escape.

In this way, Li Ke's Shatuo army passed the Yanmen Pass without any effort, continuously conquering Yixian County and Tanglin, and went straight to Xinzhou.

The failure quickly reached Cao Xiang's desk. Cao Xiang quickly sued the urgent documents and asked the surrounding towns for help. Soon, Wang Chucun, the envoy of Yiwu, sent 2,000 horses to Jinyang. The Yiwu soldiers shouted in Jinyang City and asked for a generous reward. Cao Xiang was murderous again and sent troops to kill a general in the volunteer army who led the trouble before calming the incident.

Then, reinforcements from Yicheng, Zhongwu, Zhaoyi, Heyang and other towns also entered Jinyang. With the soldiers and horses of Jinyang, this miscellaneous army had 100,000 people. Cao Xiang thought that with this capital, he could challenge the Shatuo army. He divided his troops into two routes, with 20,000 soldiers and horses all the way, and asked Zhou Congyu to lead him to fight against Xue Zhiqin and Kang Junli, who were stationed in Lanzhou, and 50,000 soldiers and horses on the other way, and he personally led to reinforce Xinzhou.

Before the army led by Cao Xiang arrived in Xinzhou, he got the news that Xue Zhiqin and Kang Junli had defeated Zhou Cong's soldiers and horses in Honggu. Cao Xiang was shocked and quickly ordered the army to be stationed outside Xinzhou and become a horn in Xinzhou to resist Shatuo's soldiers and horses.

One night later, Su Hongzhen took several Daizhou's own soldiers outside Cao Xiang's battalion and showed the documents of Daizhou messenger to the Tang battalion sentries, saying that a Shatuo soldiers and horses surrounded Daizhou. Daizhou was in danger. Kang Lashi sent him to Cao Xiang to ask for rescue soldiers. The sentry checked and found no flaws, so they let Su Hongzhen and his entourage into the Tang camp.

Su Hongzhen walked into the military tent and saw Cao Xiang lying on the handsome chair with his eyes narrowed, emitting a burst of alcohol on his body. Cao Xiang heard the sound of footsteps and saw Su Hongzhen coming in. He asked, "Who came? Why did you come here late at night?"

Su Hongzhen glanced and found that there were two own soldiers next to Cao Xiang. He stood in place and replied generously, "General Cao, I came to see you under the order of Kang Lashi. Daizhou is now besieged by Shatuo soldiers, which is very dangerous. Please ask General Cao to dispatch a sentry to rescue Daizhou quickly!" After saying that, Su Hongzhen slowly put her hand into her pocket and took out the letter.

Cao Xiang snorted in his nostrils, and a personal soldier quickly came forward, took the letter from Su Hongzhen's hand, turned around and handed it to Cao Xiang.

Cao Xiang took the letter, approached the candlelight, opened the envelope, and read the letter.

At this moment, a cold light flashed in Su Hongzhen's hand, and the two flying knives in his left and right hands were lightningly throwing at the necks of the two soldiers, and the soldiers fell down. When Cao Xiang heard the sound and raised his head, Su Hongzhen's third flying knife had arrived, right in Cao Xiang's throat. Before Cao Xiang understood what was going on, he became the ghost under the knife.

After finishing her "gongs", Su Hongzhen swaggered out of the account and left the camp with the accompanying Tang soldiers from Daizhou. After a while, the rotating soldiers walked into the Chinese army tent and found that Cao Xiang's corpse was next to the handsome man's case, so they shouted loudly. When the soldiers of the Tang battalion learned that the master would be assassinated, they were suddenly in chaos. Because most of these 50,000 horses are reinforcements sent by various local towns, each with each other's ghosts, and they are already afraid of fighting against the Shatuo army. Now they take the opportunity of Cao Xiang to take their own troops back to their own town.

Among them, when Zhaoyi's reinforcements passed through Jinyang, they used the excuse to eat and entered the city to plagiarise. Jinyang citizens were furious and rose up to fight back. They actually killed more than 1,000 Zhaoyi soldiers, and the chaos was out of control.

Su Hongzhen and her own soldiers gossiped on the way back to Daizhou. A personal soldier said, "Jianghu people call General Su 'Flying Knife Su', and he takes people's lives in ten steps like searching for things. Today, we finally learned General Su's magic skills, which are awesome!"

Su Hongzhen laughed and said, "I'm a flying knife that specializes in killing corrupt officials and bully robbers!" I'll see who dares to attack our brothers in the future!"

After returning to Daizhou, 'Flying Knife Su' told his subordinates about the "heroic feat". After being known by Kang Chuangui's eyes and ears placed in Su Hongzhen's barracks, he secretly reported to Kang Chuangui. Kang Chuangui was furious and worried about Su Hongzhen's forging of his letters, but he had no choice for a moment.

Zhou Congyu reported the news of Cao Xiang's killing and reported to Tang Ting. Li Yan was shocked when he heard the news and urgently summoned Tian Lingzi, Zheng Wei, Lu Zi, Wang Duo and others to the inner hall for deliberations. After discussion, he decided to send Li Jun, the governor of Zhaoyi, and Li Keju, the governor of Lulong, together with Helianduo, Bai Yicheng, the chiefs of the Tuyuhun tribe, and Chang'an of the chiefs of Shatuo. Mi Haiwan, the chief of Qing and Saga Tribe, joined forces to fight against Li Guochang and Li Keyong's father and son. And appointed Cui Jikang, the condolence envoy of Hedong, as the governor of Hedong, to fight together with the coalition army and destroy the Shatuo army.

Li Ke used to detect the movement of the Tang army and fired a false shot, ordering Xue Atan and An Xiuxiu to lead 10,000 horses to raid Shizhou. Cui Jikang really fell into the plan and dispatched a large army to reinforce Shizhou. Li Ke secretly notified Xue Zhiqin and Kang Junli, moved his troops to Honggu, and used a few suspected soldiers to lure the coalition forces to take the bait. Without finding out the reality of Shatuo's army, Li Jun made great efforts and fought a decisive battle with Li Keyong's army. As a result, he was besieged by Shatuo's soldiers and the whole army was destroyed. Li Jun also fought hard and died.

Since Li Guochang and Li Ke sent troops with their father and son, they have fought with the Tang army several times in a row, showing the strength of the Shatuo army to the Tang Empire with an unbeaten record, and began to claim the north, and their ambitions expanded sharply.