Fourth Update!

In the palace. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Yuan sighed again and again. "The Turks, the treacherous Turks, we have an alliance with them, and the annual tribute is not less."

Pei Lin and Chen Shuda and the other prime ministers sat there bowing their heads and were dejected, the Turks were moving south in a big way at this time, which they did not expect. The Tang Dynasty monarchs and ministers wanted to pay tribute to the Turks for a few more years, in exchange for the stability of the Central Plains, and then start a war with the Turks. But the Turks didn't give them a chance in the past few years, and suddenly attacked, which caught Datang off guard.

Li Jiancheng's three brothers are all there.

"Your Majesty, please lead the army to resist the Turks." Li Shimin spoke up.

Li Jiancheng had been a little hesitant, but when he heard Li Shimin's request to command the troops, he also hurriedly stood up, "Father, this time the Turks are menacing, and the son asks to lead the troops north!" ”

Li Yuan looked at his two sons.

"I, the Tang Dynasty, have raised troops since Jinyang, relieved the people from hanging upside down, and the destiny of heaven has returned. The Turks have repeatedly provoked and messed up our borders, and the Turks are not of our race, and their hearts will be different, and they will not see the stability of our Central Plains. Now, the Turks have finally broken the previous covenant and marched south. The crown prince was built, and since the beginning of the army in Jinyang, he has been the auxiliary government of Kuang State, and his merits are high. ”

"Special order: The crown prince is the generalissimo of the Northern Expedition, everything on the front line, you can cut it first and then play it, lead the troops, set off on a certain day, defeat the Turks, and recover the territory. The Ministry of War will hand over the commander of the army to the prince tomorrow. ”

Li Shimin looked at the prince unexpectedly, but he didn't expect the prince to ask for orders to go on the expedition at this time, and he didn't expect the emperor to allow the prince to command the army. He wanted to speak out against it, but in the end he held back.

The crown prince decreed.

"Your Majesty, Erchen asked King Qi and Luo Yi to be deputy marshals to reject the rebels in Hedong and Shuofang, and Erchen personally rescued Youzhou."

Li Yuan nodded, "Yes." ”

Li Shimin got up, "Your Majesty, the Jianghuai Fu Gong Qi rebellion is very strong, and the sons and daughters ask the army to recruit the Jiang Huai Fu Gong and Zhang Shan'an. ”

"On the Jianghuai side, I have decided that Li Xiaogong, the governor of Shannan Eastern Province, will be in command, and Li Jing, the governor of Lingnan Province, and Feng An, the governor of Gaozhou, will lead troops to assist in the conquest of the Jianghuai rebellion."

Li Shimin retreated in disappointment.

The prince completed the encore, "Erchen asked to transfer Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, Cheng Yanjin, Wei Chigong, Shan Xiongxin, Niu Jinda and other generals to accompany the expedition!" ”

"Yes!" Li Yuan nodded again.

Qin Wangfu.

Li Shimin discussed with Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui.

Li Shimin sighed, "The prince and I both asked for orders to lead the troops, but His Majesty asked the prince to lead the troops, and let the king of Qi and Luo Yi be the deputy commanders." Even when I asked to lead an army to crusade against the Jianghuai rebels, His Majesty did not allow it, and only let King Zhao Jun, Li Jing and Feng Ang send troops to fight. The northern Turks invaded, the southern Jianghuai rebelled, such a situation, but His Majesty refused to let me lead the army, so suppressed me, and the prince transferred the generals in my palace to accompany the expedition, I was trapped in this Chang'an city, and I did nothing. ”

Fang Xuanling also sighed, "Yes, I didn't expect the prince to personally invite the commander to go on the expedition, the Turks are very powerful, and the prince actually has such confidence." ”

"What worries me most now is that after the crown prince gets the right to command the army, if he wins this battle, his prestige will inevitably increase. For a long time, His Royal Highness the King of Qin has been known for his ability to fight well, and every time the imperial court uses troops abroad, when things don't go well, His Royal Highness can always calm down. But if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can even repel the Turks, then His Royal Highness the King of Qin will be even more useless in the future. Du Ruhui said.

"I'm also worried that the prince will take this opportunity to win over the generals in the army and plant forces in the Kanto region."

Li Shimin was a little frustrated, the crown prince and the king of Qi had military power, but he only got the title of governor of Gyeonggi Province. This Gyeonggi Provincial Governor sounds like a very important person, but in fact, he is the same as the Yongzhou Mu, he is simply a remote leader, not a real job. Compared with the other thirteen major governors, this is simply an empty title.

"The king of Huai'an was defeated in Hebei this time, but I am afraid that the position of the governor of Hebei will not be kept." Li Shimin was upset, Li Shentong was the strongest one in the clan except for Li Yuan's father and son, although he was often defeated generals, he was deeply trusted by the emperor. But this time, as soon as he took office in Hebei, he fought such a big defeat, and even Li Daoxuan, the governor of Jizhou, was killed.

Li Daoxuan is the youngest generation in the clan who admires and supports Li Shimin the most, and Li Shimin placed him in the position of the governor of Jizhou, which also took a lot of effort, but now he died in battle.

Li Daoxuan died in battle, and Li Shentong may lose the position of the governor of Hebei, which means that the forces he previously planted in Hebei will be uprooted by the crown prince. Finally, last time, I borrowed Li Jin's case, and pulled down Li Jin, Wang Junkuo, and Luo Yi of the prince's party, and replaced them with Li Shentong and Li Daoxuan, and now they have lost again.

"Do you know who sent the prince to lead the army?" Li Shimin asked.

"The civil and military forces of the East Palace invite the prince to go on the expedition." Fang Xuanling said helplessly. This northern expedition is very important to the East Palace, and it is obvious that the people in the East Palace have seen such an opportunity.

If I wait for the crown prince to triumph, then I will no longer have the possibility of shaking his position as the prince, Li Shimin was irritable.

Admiral Tiance, in charge of external conquest.

But it's only been a long time, and he, the general of Tiance, can't even get out of Chang'an City, let alone command the troops.

Li Shimin found that he was holding a bunch of empty titles and had no real power.

Admiral Tiance, but he can't lead a single soldier. The Twelve Guards generals also can't command the soldiers.

Shang Shu Ling, but the affairs of Shang Shu Province are in charge of Pei Lian. Yongzhou Mu does not pay attention to the facts. The governor of Gyeonggi Province is also only led by the rank of prince.

As for one plus two and three public titles, it also has no real power.

A chill arose in Li Shimin's heart, he felt that he had been completely hollowed out, the left and right Protector Mansions had also been disbanded, and the generals of the Qin Mansion were scattered everywhere, and now they had to be transferred to fight under the crown prince.

"We can't sit back like this!" Li Shimin gritted his teeth, originally he still had confidence in himself and wanted to compete for the heir through the court, but now it seems that he was overconfident before.

"But we don't have a chance right now." Fang Xuanling said.

"Then find a way to create opportunities."

"Do you have any good ways to make the prince unable to return to Chang'an." Li Shimin asked in a low voice.

Fang Du and the others glanced at each other and inhaled the cold air, but they didn't expect that King Qin had such thoughts.

Wing Country Mansion.

As soon as Qin Qiong returned to Beijing from Tongzhou, Zhang Chao rushed over. Under the pavilion in the back garden of the house, Qin Qiong and Zhang Chao sat at the stone table, and there was a copper hot pot on the table. There are a lot of meat and vegetables on the side, including thinly sliced lamb, beef meatballs, tofu, radish, lettuce and spinach.

The base in the pot has been boiled, and Zhang Chao put the mutton into the pot to shake it.

"Every time I watch you eat, I don't grieve myself. You spend half of your day figuring out how to eat. "The peach blossoms and pear blossoms in the garden outside are in full bloom. The weather is neither hot nor cold, but the shabu-shabu is also very good.

"It's not that you don't have the conditions to pay attention to it, since you have the conditions, it's not a big mistake to meet yourself appropriately." The mutton was already cooked after a few times, Zhang Chao picked it up and put it on the plate in front of him, and then put a lettuce in the pot and scooped it up twice.

"You really don't wronged yourself."

Zhang Chao ate mutton and lettuce, and nodded with satisfaction, this base is worthy of being carefully prepared by himself, and the taste is very positive.

"If I could, I hope this life is like this, it's good. I didn't want to go to the battlefield at all, I didn't want to go to war, I didn't even want to leave Chang'an. ”

"What do you think of the situation this time?" Qin Qiong asked, although he felt that Zhang Chao was not motivated many times, but his vision was very good. It often hits the nail on the head.

Zhang Chao was soaking the mutton, but he was actually confused.

Many things have gone out of the course of history, there is no Wude five years in history, the Turks have invaded the south, all of them are petty fights, and more of them are a few puppet lackeys who support him.

But this time, the Turks sent troops from several directions, and the number of soldiers and horses dispatched was at least no less than 100,000. If you add the three puppet rebels, the bits and pieces add up, it is estimated that there are 200,000.

This is an all-out war.

Although the Tang Dynasty has just unified the world, it does not yet have the strength to fight such a national war, not to mention that there are more than a dozen rebellions in Jianghuai now.

Zhang Chao also did not estimate the trend of this war.

"It depends on the purpose of the imperial court, if the imperial court wants to defeat the Turks, it is almost difficult, if not impossible. And if the imperial court just wants to hold the line of the Great Wall, this should be fine. I think this time, in the end, we may still have to negotiate peace, fight a few games first, stabilize the position, and resist the momentum of the Turks moving south, then negotiate peace again, as before, give the Turks money, give them benefits, and even lower their posture, then the Turks may retreat. ”

"Negotiate peace, pay tribute?"

Qin Shubao's face is not very good-looking, as a military general, if he can't defend the border for the country, if he wants the imperial court to ask the barbarians for peace, it will be a shame for their warriors.

"It is necessary to endure humiliation for a while. The Tang Dynasty has also won a hundred battles, the world has just been unified, many places are still unstable, and there have been wars for many years, and the treasury is also limited. Is it really a fight with the Turks at this time? Even if he really wins, it is estimated that it will be the same as Yang Guang's expedition to Liao back then, and the world will be in chaos again. Therefore, it is not too late to fight first and then make peace, to endure for the time being, to calm down the civil strife, and then to recuperate for a few years, and then to fight again. ”

"A few years? How many years do you have to recuperate? ”

"In the long run, ten years of recuperation is enough, and if there is no civil strife in Datang, seven or eight years will be about the same."

Qin Qiong shook her head, "It's been too long." ”

Zhang Chao poured beef meatballs into the pot, "If you can't wait even ten years, then unless there is some miracle, for example, this time you can defeat the Turks, but if you want to do this, it is very difficult." ”

When will the imperial court be able to really destroy the three dogs raised by the Turks, and then will there really be a chance to confront the Turks head-on. It would be naïve to think that even their three dogs could not be destroyed, and they thought that they would overthrow the Turks.

Today's Turks are not the Turks of the Sui Kaihuang period, and they are being played with by Yang Jianjun's ministers as much as they want. The current Turks are truly and sharp-edged times.

At that time, Bi Khan besieged Yang Guang in Yanmen and almost killed Yang Guang. Since then, the Central Plains has become more and more turbulent, and the Shibi Khan has no rival in the steppe, and the Eastern Turks are extremely strong.

Li Yuan paid tribute to Shibi Khan in exchange for the support of the Turks, and the cooperation was good at first.

However, in the second year of Wude, Shibi Khan, who had dominated the steppe for many years, died, and his son was young, so his brother succeeded to the throne of Khan as Chuluo Khan. After the succession of Luo Khan, according to the tradition of the grassland, married to his father and brother two generations of the Sui Dynasty Princess Yicheng as his wife, in the three years of Wude, Chu Luo Khan from Dou Jiande ushered in the Sui Dynasty Xiao Empress and Qi King Yang Zhengdao's son Yang Zhengdao, and established Yang Zhengdao as the king of Sui, succeeding the Sui industry. The Han people in the Turks are all subordinate to him, and in the Zhengshuo era of the Sui Dynasty, he set up hundreds of officials and lived in Dingxiang City.

From the beginning of the Luo Khan, relations between the Turks and the Tang became worse and worse.

And last year, Chuluo Khan died, and his third brother Ashina Dubi inherited the throne of Khan, and also took his stepmother Princess Yicheng as his wife, Jieli Khan. Jieli inherited his father's and brother's inheritance, and his soldiers and horses were strong, unwilling to sit idly by and watch the Tang Dynasty unify the Central Plains, and repeatedly invaded the south, the more support he had for Liang Shidu, Yuan Junzhang, Liu Heimin, Gao Kaidao and others.

This Jieli Khan, who had just succeeded to the throne, was ambitious, and he was no longer satisfied with just getting some tribute from the Tang Dynasty, and he wanted to go south directly.

From Qimin Khan to Shibi Khan, and then to Luo Khan, to today's Jieli Khan, the ambitions of these Turkic khans are greater than one another.

Only from the Turks welcoming Empress Xiao and Yang Zhengdao and establishing Yang Zhengdao as the king of Sui, we can see their ambitions. wants to fully intervene in the Central Plains, and does not want to see Li Tang dominate the world.

At that time, Yang Jian of the Sui Dynasty played the Turkic game of uniting the weak and separating the strong, splitting and splitting, so that the powerful Turks became the lackeys of the Sui Dynasty, and the Turks had a deep memory, and they now also apply what they have learned and prepared to reuse that set in the Central Plains. It's just that Li Tang was unified too quickly, and the lackeys supported by the Turks were of little use, and the Turks could only go south in person.

Speaking of which, it's actually a matter of strength.

Not long after Li Tang founded the country, his strength was not strong, and it was normal for the Turks to covet the Central Plains.

"Don't be angry, father-in-law, things have to be done slowly, like this meal has to be eaten in one bite. As long as we resist the attack of the Turks this time and let them retreat, whether it is war or peace, as long as we can make the Turks retreat, we will have a chance to breathe. Turning back, we will find another opportunity to slaughter the three Turkic dogs one by one, so that we will have a base to counterattack the Turks, and we can attack and retreat and defend. At that time, no matter how much they tried to create some trouble for the Turks, if they could win over one or two of the rebellions, and if they had someone to lead the way, then they could counterattack. ”

However, Zhang Chao is more worried about the Turks at the moment, but within the Tang Dynasty.

This time, the prince asked for an order to lead the troops north, Li Yuanji also became a deputy marshal, and Li Xiaogong led the troops to fight the Jianghuai rebellion, but only Li Shimin, the god of war of the Li family, was pressed in Chang'an.

Zhang Chao was a little worried.

The situation has become beyond Zhang Chao's control, and Li Shimin has become a high-ranking but overhead horseman, a trapped beast. (To be continued.) )