The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 866 Taking credit
That night, before dawn, Hou Junji returned to the camp with a caravan.

Tu Changgui, who had been waiting here anxiously, finally put down his worry. Seeing Hou Junji return safely, he hurried to greet him: "Deputy Commander, you are finally back. I have been living these past two hours like a year, fearing that something might happen to you."

"Hahaha, what are you afraid of!"

Hou Junji was very happy: "I have seen all kinds of situations, including mountains of swords and seas of fire. How dare the Turks do anything to me?"

"The Turks invited me to Liaodong City just to give me gifts and hope that I would show some leniency to them. They are busy trying to curry favor with me, so how dare they hurt me?"

After that, Hou Junji lowered his voice and said, "The boxes in the car are all gifts they gave me. You can arrange for your trusted people to move them to my tent so that no one sees them."

"Yes, deputy commander!"

Tu Changgui quickly arranged for people to receive the convoy and drove it directly to the camp. Then the Turks who were driving the convoy withdrew.

When moving those boxes, Tu Changgui discovered that each box was extremely heavy. While others were not paying attention, Tu Changgui quietly weighed them and was secretly shocked. With such a large weight, they must be filled with either gold or silver.

Seeing the boxes piled up in the corner of the tent and occupying a wall, Tu Changgui's eyes flickered.

Since Hou Junji formed the Flying Tiger Army in the third year of Zhenguan, Tu Changgui was ordered to infiltrate it and shoulder the task of monitoring Hou Junji. However, after a long time of getting along with him, Hou Junji loved his soldiers like his own sons and trained and promoted him with great care.

Tu Changgui admired Hou Junji's character very much and was grateful for his cultivation. He didn't want Hou Junji to make mistakes from the bottom of his heart.

So after everything was settled, Tu Changgui couldn't wait to go to Hou Junji's tent, trying to persuade him not to be stupid.

"Changgui, you're here!"

Hou Junji greeted him warmly: "You came at the right time. Can you help me with some advice on what to do next?"

"Deputy Commander, you are confused!"

Tu Changgui, who was always quiet and cold, began to complain: "The emperor trusted you so much, and Lord Changsun left Yuchi Jingde aside and gave most of the Flying Tigers to the deputy commander. How could you betray the trust of the court for a few money and property?"

Seeing that this confidant he had personally trained was so considerate of him, Hou Junji was moved; on the other hand, Li Yan's words today really left a mark in his heart. Now when he looked at the people around him, everyone looked like the emperor's spies.

Seeing that Tu Changgui was concerned about the court, Hou Junji became even more worried.

"Hahaha, Chang Guini, do you think that I really abuse my power for personal gain and let down the emperor's expectations for the sake of some money and property? Don't forget that I am the prince's father-in-law and the grandfather of the emperor's eldest grandson. How can I be bought with mere gold and silver?" Hou Junji said this very calmly.

Upon learning that his son-in-law was still alive and well, and had conquered a kingdom in the north and might unify the north in the future, Hou Junji seemed to have infinite confidence and was no longer as cautious as before.

It was as if Li Yan had a system, and he didn’t care much about the situation no matter what it was.

Seeing this, Tu Changgui became even more confused. They even took the things away, so how can you still argue?

Hou Junji smiled slightly, pulled Tu Changgui to sit down and said, "Do you know how much money Turk gave me?"

"Subordinate."

Seeing Tu Changgui's puzzled expression, Hou Junji boasted, "Two hundred thousand taels of gold."

"hiss"

Tu Changgui stood up suddenly, his heart was shaken, he was dumbfounded and fell into confusion.

Two hundred thousand taels of gold?
Converted into copper coins, it would be as much as 7 or 8 million strings of cash. For Tu Changgui, this was an astronomical figure that he had never heard of. Thinking of the boxes just now, which were filled with gold, Tu Changgui felt dry in the mouth.

If I had so much money, it would be worth it even if I betrayed the emperor.

After a long while, Tu Changgui came back to his senses. Seeing Hou Junji looking at him with amusement, he immediately laughed awkwardly and said, "Deputy Commander, I didn't expect the Turks to be so generous. What are you going to do?"

Hou Junji smiled slightly. No matter who Tu Changgui was working for, his faith was obviously shattered by so much gold.

Just now he was recommending me with a righteous look on his face, but now his tone has obviously become much more relaxed, as if to say, "General, just give me your orders and I will obey them."

The hidden line is, how should this gold be divided?
Hou Junji's joking expression turned serious, and he looked at Tu Changgui with sharp eyes: "Changgui, we generals have to live on the edge of a knife and risk our lives on the battlefield. Sometimes, it is inevitable to make some windfall, but we must distinguish the situation and must not neglect state affairs because of selfish desires."

"If you end up losing your life, it won't be worth it."

Tu Changgui was scolded by Hou Junji and then he lowered his head in shame. He was the emperor's man, but he couldn't resist the temptation of such a large sum of money. He was not as determined as Hou Junji. He felt so ashamed!
"I will keep the deputy commander's teachings in mind!"

"Um"

"Please keep a record of this money and hand it over to the emperor later. This will be another achievement for us."

Hou Junji said righteously: "The Turks think that so much gold can buy the heart of a Tang general. They are wrong. This money belongs to the people. I will not only take their money, but also their lives." Tu Changgui was inspired: "Deputy commander, what is your plan?"

"Humph"

"I risked my life to enter the city tonight just to find out the truth."

Hou Junji began to justify his previous behavior: "They think that even gods would be tempted by such a large sum of gold, so I pretended to be greedy for money, but in fact I was playing along and digging their graves for them."

"Changgui, didn't I tell you a few days ago?"

"Lord Changsun told us that before Jie Li left, he arranged for someone to drug the horses of the Right Wise King's 20,000 cavalrymen. After my investigation tonight, I found that the 20,000 cavalrymen had indeed become infantrymen, and their horses could not even stand up."

"If that's the case, then we can lure them out of the city, gather them together and annihilate them, and complete our mission."

Seeing Hou Junji's wise and thoughtful look, Tu Changgui felt something was wrong, so he said, "Deputy Commander, they are already trapped in a jar, surrounded by our army of 200,000 soldiers. Why do we need to do this any more?"

"If something goes wrong, how can we explain it to the court?"

"Also, for such a big matter, should we talk to Lord Changsun? After all, he is the commander-in-chief appointed by the emperor himself."

General Hou Junji's face turned serious: "Changgui, you are really confused. The Turks are now hiding in Liaodong City. If we really want to attack them, I don't know how many of my Tang soldiers will die. Who knows how much food and grass they have?"

"Although Jie Li doesn't have much food and grass left, Liaodong City is after all the place where the Turks store supplies."

"If we really have hundreds of thousands of shi of grain and fodder, and we besiege them for three to five months, if they don't collapse, then the Tang Dynasty will be dragged down."

"Do you know how much food and rations a 200,000-strong army would consume in a day?"

"Now the troops in Hebei Province have all been pulled to Liaodong. If the Turks take the opportunity to move south, our Tang Dynasty will be in calamity."

"Even if everything is safe and sound, the Three Kingdoms of Korea are unprecedentedly weak and are waiting for us to take over. The achievement of expanding the territory is just around the corner. If time drags on for too long, those people will stabilize again and hold on to the city. If my Tang wants to take it down again, I wonder how many people will die?"

"The matter in Liaodong cannot be delayed. The sooner the better. We must not let the overall situation be affected for the sake of a mere 20,000 Turks."

"With this little bit of merit, how much of our Flying Tiger Army is left if we divide it among more than 200,000 troops? Instead of this, why not take it all for ourselves? Don't worry, Lord Changsun doesn't know how to fight. Once the Turks are wiped out, he won't say anything."

"I will take care of him, you just need to follow his orders. If anything really happens, I, the deputy commander, will take care of it. If you have made contributions, I will certainly not forget you."

Tu Changgui didn't quite understand the general situation. Seeing Hou Junji putting one hat after another on him, each one bigger than the other, he didn't dare to argue anymore: "If that's the case, then I'll listen to the deputy commander. I'll do whatever you say."

"Well, that's right!"

Hou Junji had a teachable look on his face: "I personally led the Flying Tigers. How could I not care about you? The Turks without their war horses are like tigers without teeth. My 20,000 Flying Tigers can easily defeat them."

"I have thought it through. Tomorrow we will withdraw the garrison in front, giving the Turks a sense of success and letting them leave the city and enter the camp without worry."

"They don't have horses, so they will definitely head straight for our stables. Then our Flying Tigers will set up an ambush around the stables. When they come to get the horses, we will attack from all sides and catch them off guard."

Tu Changgui listened to Hou Junji's arrangement and nodded repeatedly, then asked: "What if they grab our horses and rush out?"

"you're so dumb?"

Hou Junji said decisively: "Of course we can't leave the war horses at the horse farm. I've already thought about it. There is a small valley 20 miles away from the camp. Although it's not big, it is surrounded by mountains on three sides and only connected to the plain on the west. There is excellent pasture in the middle. It's just right for us to drive our horses to the valley and hide them."

"There are only a few hundred horses left in the stables, and visibility is poor in the middle of the night. How would the Turks know how many horses there are? Once they enter the stables, they will be unable to escape."

Tu Changgui's heart moved, and he asked doubtfully: "In this case, wouldn't it be a better chance of victory if we just let our Flying Tigers ride on horses and use cavalry to attack the Turkic infantry?"

Hou Junji was very unhappy with Tu Changgui's repeated interruptions and doubts. "What do you know? Horses are just animals. How can we ensure that there will be no mistakes when setting up an ambush with more than 20,000 horses? If there is any noise, the Turks will not be able to enter the encirclement, and it will be difficult to surround and kill them all."

"It's the middle of the night, and the Turks are scattered in the wilderness. Who knows how many of them will have escaped by tomorrow morning?"

"Besides, once the war starts, we can trap them. It won't be long before our army arrives. The 20,000 Turks will surely die against 230,000."

"When the battle is over, we will say that the Turks wanted to launch a surprise attack on us, but we held them back. Then the credit will naturally go to our Flying Tigers."

Hou Junji had set up a series of schemes to seduce the Turks.
In Tu Changgui's opinion, Hou Junji's taking off his pants to fart was unnecessary and he was just trying to steal the credit. This kind of thing was not uncommon on the battlefield.

Although Tu Changgui is the emperor's confidant, he only has a vague understanding of how generals fight on the battlefield, how magic tricks are performed, and how to maximize their merits.

Seeing Hou Junji's excited expression, I guess other generals are doing the same thing, right?
(End of this chapter)