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The flowers fell helplessly, and the swallows returned as if familiar.

The ten-mile lonely pavilion is still there, outside the west gate.

Three thousand iron cavalry stood on both sides of the road, and the two thousand soldiers were surrounded by three layers inside and outside. They guarded Wangjun Pavilion in the center and stared at the mountains and forests on both sides. In the open space north of the pavilion, there were luxury cars parked. Hundreds of civil and military officials stood in the middle of the road, and from time to time, they stood tiptoe to look towards the road to the west.

There was a pot of tea on the stone table in the pavilion, and six people sat around the table. Behind them were more than ten civil officials and military generals as listeners. While listening to the conversations of the six people present, they looked west from time to time and paid attention to the movements on the road.

Inadvertently, Zhuge Liang led his army to the west for three years. During these three years, the situation in the world was relatively stable, and there was no other war except for some local wars such as Changshan and Zhongshan Kingdom. The current situation is still the defensive situation three years ago. The Western Liang army besieged Cao Cao of the Northern Wei Dynasty on three sides, restrained Liu Biao on both sides of the Southern Han Dynasty on both sides, firmly occupied the initiative in the war, led the development of the world's situation, controlled the direction of troubled times, and fully played the strong position of the world's number one overlord.

As long as the Western Liang army under Li Li showed no sign of mobilizing troops, the Northern Wei and Southern Han forces did not dare to act rashly and always stared at the every move of the Western Liang army. Therefore, the Western Liang army did not move, and the two major vassal states would be calm, and the entire situation would be in a relatively stable state, and the situation would still be in a stalemate.

At the same time, the Northern Wei and Southern Han established their countries one after another, and they also needed a period of smooth transition. Taking this opportunity, the two vassal states actively sorted out military and political affairs, stored money, grain and supplies as much as possible, prepared for war, further consolidated their rule, and put them on the right track. Whether it was Cao Cao, Hebei or Liu Biao, they were very clear. They had a common opponent, and their opponents were very powerful, so powerful that they could not resist by their own strength. Therefore, the cruel facts forced them to target the Xiliang Army and Xiliang Li Li without any discussion, and were always ready to face a new round of more severe war situations, accumulate strength for the upcoming battle of the Lu, and do their best to prepare for the final decisive battle. Everyone knows that one point of preparation will have one point of chance of victory in the future, and success will finally favor the prepared people or the power of the princes.

Now, a year has passed since the founding of the Northern Wei and Southern Han, and the civil and military officials under Li Li have also prepared for the upcoming ceremony of the throne. At present, palaces, ancestral temples, altars and other related matters were ready half a year ago. Everything was ready for the honesty. Just wait for Li Li to approve the throne and officially establish the country. However, this wait took half a year. Li Li was still moving, and the civil and military officials in Xiliang were helpless, so they had to wait patiently and hope that the exciting moment would arrive soon.

Ten days ago, Yizhou sent back news. Zhuge Liang's Western Expedition was soon to return to Chang'an. Li Liqin then decided to hold the throne ceremony on the 15th of next month. At this point, the date of the founding of the Western Liang Kingdom was finally determined. Therefore, in recent days, all the city gates in Chang'an have been opened. Thousands of messengers and mailers were scattered out and went to various states, counties and border troops to convey military orders.

It is not difficult to imagine that in the next half month, the generals of the towns, governors of the prefectures and county magistrates under Li Li will come to Chang'an with quick horses, and the soldiers from all battalions who were ordered to arrive in Chang'an to participate in the throne ceremony and a large military parade. At that time, the Western Regions countries that had been in trade with Xiliang for many years will be dependent on the small Western Sea countries under Li Li's rule, and the two major vassal states of the Northern Wei and Southern Han will send envoys to Chang'an to observe this grand event. For this reason, the Western Regions and the small extra countries have received observation invitations three months ago. Now, the missions of seven Western Regions countries have arrived in Chang'an and moved into the inn to wait for the arrival of the throne ceremony, so a large military parade is indispensable.

Just as he was preparing for the throne ceremony in full swing, Li Li went to Shili Pavilion outside the west gate to wait for the triumphant return of the Western Expedition. Li Li's original intention of this trip was to fulfill his promise to Zhuge Liang in the past and lead three thousand gold guards to welcome him. Unexpectedly, all the officials under his command followed him after hearing the news. So it became like this now. The civil and military officials of Xiliang gathered in Wangjunting. There were more than 200 carriages alone, and nearly 10,000 people were blocking the roads, blocking the roads around Wangjunting. The scene was too big, much bigger than the scene when Li Li returned from Yizhou three years ago!

Such a big scene is undoubtedly a great honor for the returned Western Expedition army, but it may not be a good thing for Zhuge Liang, who was in charge of the Western Expedition.

Now, someone in Wangjun Pavilion questioned this: "This time the lord and all officials went out of the city to welcome him ten miles away. Is this the specification too high? It was just a western expedition to the Southern Barbarian tribe. What a mere barbarian barbarian, but I was troubled by the lord to go out of the city to greet him personally. The officials were waiting here for a long time. Kong Ming was afraid he couldn't afford to take care of it!"

The speaker is Li Ru and Li Wenyou, who is currently in the Shaofu, and is also in charge of the Chang'an Order. His words can easily be misunderstood at first glance, and they mistakenly think that he is dissatisfied with Zhuge Liang, but in fact it is the opposite. The reason why he said this was not only not to have an opinion on Zhuge Liang, but to worry about Zhuge Liang, and to speak out the thoughts in everyone's mind in front of Li Li. Therefore, the purpose of Li Ru's words is to share the pressure Zhuge Liang is about to face, purely to protect Zhuge Liang, because he has a strong personal relationship with Zhuge Liang, and is still a relative of his children (children). So he had to make the words clear before Zhuge Liang came back to prevent everyone from having prejudice, envy, jealousy and hatred towards Zhuge Liang.

However, Li Ru's desire to protect him could not be hidden from the five people present. Look at the people sitting beside him: on the left is Li Xuan and Jia Xu, on the right is Guo Jia, Chen Gong, and Li Li in the middle, sitting in the east, opposite Li Ru.

As expected, Li Ru finished speaking, Li Xuan, who was sitting beside him, smiled and said, "Wenyou's words are indeed insincere. You are too anxious to defend him before Kong Ming has returned. What's more, this time the lord went out of the city to greet him, we should follow him and look at the civil and military officials outside the pavilion. In fact, they were not for Kong Ming, but for the lord, so they came to express their firm position of following the lord. That's all, there is no other intention. Therefore, Wenyou doesn't have to worry about everything. What are you worried about if you have the lord in charge of everything?" Li Xuan's words were very straightforward, but he explained the mystery in one sentence and saw the problem thoroughly. No wonder, all the civil and military officials unanimously believed that he was the best candidate for the first prime minister after the founding of the country. His eyes were sharp and his observation was really amazing.

After hearing this, Jia Xu, Guo Jia and Chen Gong all smiled and nodded, deeply agreeing with what Li Xuan said. Guo Jia smiled and said, "According to the war reports sent back in Yizhou, although the army of the Western Expedition lost a lot of troops, it had a remarkable record and achieved great success. The most rare thing is that Kong Ming led his army to pacify the Southern Barbarians and then marched westward to Daxue Mountain (Tanggula Mountain). He then built a camp, left two thousand troops to garrison and then returned, and led his troops to attack the southeast and arrived at the 100,000 mountains in the southern border. If we had not repeatedly urged Kong Ming to return to Chang'an, I was afraid that he would have led his army to the beach of the South China Sea at this moment. Hahaha!"

When Guo Jia talked about the achievements of the Western Expedition Army, Li Li waved to Li Zhi to take out the map of Jinbo on his back and spread it on the table. Then, as Guo Jia told him, Li Li pointed out the location on the map in turn. This map was drawn on Jinbo by Li Li himself, and many of the place names were different from those of later generations. Fortunately, there were many well-educated people under Li Li, so he still accurately drew this map with his brainstorming.

In addition to this complete map of the Han Dynasty, Li Li also used his memory to draw maps of East Asia, maps of Asia and maps of the world, but these maps are very general. Except for the relatively detailed map of East Asia, the other maps are very sketchy, with no specific cities, mountains, rivers and lakes, only rough locations.

Even so, it opened his eyes and opened his eyes. For the first time in his life, he learned that there was such a vast territory and sea area outside the Han Dynasty. Especially when he saw the whole world map drawn by Li Li, they were completely shocked. The great Han Dynasty only occupied a palm-sized place on the map that was ten feet long. At best, it was only an inch, and the sea area occupied 65% and the remaining three feet of the area was other people's territory. Although the territory outside the sea area was still far away from the Han Dynasty, there was still a large area around the Han Dynasty. As long as he was willing to work hard, it might not be impossible to incorporate it into the Han Dynasty's territory.

It was also from then on that time that Li Xuan, Jia Xu, Li Ru and others' desire to compete for fame and fortune was obviously weakened a lot. The contradictions that had gradually emerged between them disappeared, and replaced by becoming more harmonious and harmonious, and they had a very tacit understanding. Obviously, they realized that Li Li would never be satisfied with the existing territory of the Han Dynasty. After pacifying the world, they would continue to expand their territory and include all the places where the Han cavalry went into. On this point, they were consistent with Li Li's ideals; quelling civil strife was not the ultimate goal, and expanding the territory was the real great achievement. They could be kept in history and remembered forever.

When Li Xuan, Li Ru, Jia Xu and others were all gathered on the map, Li Li laughed and said, "Kongming's Western Expedition extended our Xiliang territory to the southern border, and thousands of miles of barbarian territory were included under the kingship of the Han Dynasty. He had outstanding achievements and made great contributions. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration for us to go out of the city to welcome him. If there is such a feat in the future, I will be willing to go out of the city to welcome him for a hundred miles!"

Not only did Li Li's words hear clearly, but even the civil and military officials standing next to the pavilion could hear clearly. Therefore, they had no objection, stood straight one by one, with a calm expression, and truly waited for the return of the Western Expedition Army.

As the sun sets, the sound of rumbling horses tramplings came from the west road. Then, teams of iron-armored cavalry came from the afterglow of the sunset and met the civil and military officials of Xiliang who were waiting in Wangjun Pavilion.

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ps: [Heartly thanks: The sixth master of Xiaoqi, "Book Friend 150305080244453", the book friend for his strong support, thank you!]

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Chapter completed!