The atmosphere in the imperial study was very depressing, many things were gathered together, Li Yuan originally planned to hold a military meeting in the side hall, but Zhao Liming hanged himself, he didn't want to expand this matter, so he changed it to the imperial study.

In fact, Li Yuan didn't hate the ministers, he wanted to establish the image of a Ming Jun, so on the surface, he wanted to welcome the ministers' advice, and he also put on a posture of humbly listening to the advice.

But Zhao Liming's exhortation was really harsh, the target was the King of Qin, and his exhortation was impossible to do, abolishing the Tiance Mansion and depriving the King of Qin of military power, this unrealistic exhortation made Li Yuan extremely annoyed.

King Qin killed him, and also relieved Li Yuan of a heart disease, and King Qin did it so beautifully that even Zhao Liming's family thought it was self-hanging.

But even if it is suicide, Li Yuan has to make a gesture to appease Li Jiancheng's anger.

Li Yuan sat down, he glanced at everyone, "Regarding Zhao Liming's self-hanging, I am also deeply saddened, but it has happened, in addition to grief, we can also do something else, spread my will, bury Zhao Liming, nicknamed 'Zhi', and Yin Qi's son is an official." ”

Li Jianwei wanted to investigate Zhao Liming's death, although Zhao Liming's advice had nothing to do with him and was not his instigation, but the death of such an upright official as Zhao Liming was a huge loss to Datang.

What's more important is that Li Jiancheng didn't believe that Zhao Liming committed suicide at all, if Zhao Liming really wanted to die, he would die in the Wude Palace, and win the reputation of a loyal minister who will go down in history, and he will never die at home silently.

Li Jiancheng was almost certain that Zhao Liming was killed by the King of Qin, but he had no evidence, which made him hate him in his heart.

Li Jiancheng was about to mention the investigation of the cause of Zhao Liming's death again, but Li Yuan glanced at him vigilantly, Zhao Liming's self-hanging was over, and he did not allow Li Jiancheng to overturn the case again.

"Emperor, let's talk about Nanyang County! I'd like to hear what you think. ”

Li Jiancheng swallowed back the words that came to his mouth, and his father did not allow him to say anything about Zhao Liming again, which made him both resentful and helpless. It should be what the father and King Qin talked about just now, and Zhao Liming's death cannot be overturned.

Helpless, Li Jiancheng had to swallow this breath, bowed down and said: "Father, the Sui army may not take Nanyang County to attack Jingxiang, after all, with the national strength of the Sui army, it cannot afford another large-scale battle, and even Taiyuan has no movement to dispatch troops, so the son thinks." This was just an unplanned operation by the Sui army. ”

Next to him, Li Shimin knew that the Sui army actually sent troops to Nanyang County. And what about Xiyang County? Was it captured by the Sui army?

At this time, Pei Lin explained on the side: "His Royal Highness King Qin may not know yet, he just received news from Xiangyang. The Sui army sent 10,000 troops to occupy Nanyang County and Xiyang County, and had blocked the passage between Shangluo County and Xiangyang County. ”

Sure enough, Xiyang County was also occupied. Li Shimin's heart became a little nervous, because he insisted that the two counties of Nanyang and Xiyang should not garrison troops and maintain a transitional area with the Sui army, so as to ensure the safety of Jingxiang, but the Sui army reversed itself and directly occupied these two counties, making him passive.

Li Shimin asked Li Jiancheng again, "I don't know what the imperial brother means by saying that the Sui army is outside the plan?" ”

Rao is Li Jiancheng has self-cultivation again, thinking that Li Shimin will kill Zhao Liming. His heart burned with anger, and he didn't say a word with a gloomy face, ignoring Li Shimin's questioning at all.

The atmosphere in the imperial study became a little awkward, and at this time, Xiao Yu said: "His Royal Highness King Qin, what the prince said is unplanned, that is, this matter is not in the plan of the Sui army, and it should be a temporary decision. Otherwise there would not be no warning. ”

Xiao Yu saluted Li Yuan again, "Your Majesty, the minister supports His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's statement, this matter should be a temporary decision of the Sui army, if the Sui army does not have a plan to attack Jingxiang." Then there is no point in taking Nanyang County and Xiyang County, there is only one reason why they do this. Increase the favorable conditions for negotiations. ”

Several other ministers in the imperial study agreed with Xiao Yu's analysis that the Sui army captured a large number of Tang troops, most of whom were Guanzhong and Bashu people, and it was difficult to be converted into Sui troops.

As was customary, negotiations were usually made to redeem prisoners of war, and just before the negotiations were about to take place, the Sui army occupied Nanyang and Xiyang counties, apparently to increase the weight of the negotiations.

Li Shimin had already understood what was going on, he also thought for a moment, and he said in a deep voice: "Father Qi, the son also has something to say. ”

Li Yuan nodded, "Emperor, please speak!" ”

"Father, now for the major forces in the world, the most valuable resource is not money and food, but population, especially for the Sui Dynasty, the population is of great significance, whether it is Hebei or the Central Plains, greatly affected by the war, the population withered, judging from last year's situation, Yang Yuanqing is going to leave more than 20,000 captured Guanzhong soldiers' families, so that these 20,000 Guanzhong soldiers have become the elite of the Sui army, Erchen means that no matter what, the families of this prisoner of war can no longer be handed over to the Sui Dynasty, and would rather send troops to recapture Nanyang County and Xiyang County."

Li Jiancheng snorted coldly, "I'm afraid that the two counties will not be recaptured, and even Jingxiang will be lost." ”

Li Shimin was repeatedly ridiculed, and he was also a little annoyed, he looked at Li Jiancheng angrily, "Could it be that the imperial brother wants to give the families of the prisoners of war to the Sui army and redeem the captured soldiers?" ”

"I didn't say that, I just oppose the use of troops again, it is not realistic to recapture the two counties of Nanxi by force, I think we should listen to Yang Yuanqing's conditions first."

Speaking of this, he no longer paid attention to Li Shimin, and wanted Li Yuan to bow down, "Father, the emperor and his sons recommended Chen Xiangguo as the chief envoy of the negotiations to negotiate the release of prisoners on behalf of the Tang Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty. ”

Li Shimin also did not show weakness, and also bowed down and said: "Father, Pei Xiangguo has dealt with Yang Yuanqing, he is more suitable to negotiate with the Sui Dynasty, and his son recommended him as the chief envoy of the negotiations." ”

The two brothers both wanted to compete for the dominance of the negotiations with the Sui Dynasty, and both sides knew that since the father and emperor had sent the five prime ministers to the imperial study to negotiate, the negotiator must be one of the five ministers.

At present, the power of the two brothers in the political hall can be described as evenly matched, since Liu Wenjing was killed, the Dou family has been as willing to enter the phase, from the household Shangshu Dou Jin into the phase, as the right servant of Shangshu.

And the Dou family supports Li Shimin, and Pei Lin is a loyal supporter of Li Shimin, so he and Li Jiancheng have reached a balance of power in the political hall, which is also the reason why Li Yuan handed over the military power of Bashu and Hanzhong to Li Jiancheng, and the military should also give Li Jiancheng appropriate concessions.

Li Jiancheng's political affairs hall forces are Chen Shuda and Dugu Zhen, while Xiao Yu is a centrist, although the two brothers have reached a balance in the political affairs hall, but in the court civil power, Li Jiancheng still has a great advantage.

Almost more than seventy percent of civil officials support Li Jiancheng.

Li Yuan pondered for a moment, and then said slowly: "No matter what Yang Yuanqing's purpose is in occupying Nanyang County and Xiyang County, but it can only be resolved at the negotiation table, I think that Xiao Xiangguo has some experience in negotiating with the Sui Dynasty last time, and I still think that Xiao Xiangguo is more suitable to be the chief envoy of this negotiation, of course, Chen Xiangguo and Pei Xiangguo are also very good, but Xiao Xiangguo is more experienced." ”

Li Yuan made a compromise punch, neither favoring Li Jiancheng nor Li Shimin, but sending the centrist Xiao Yu to negotiate, in fact, Xiao Yu is just a representative, and the decision-making power is still in Li Yuan's hands......

At this time, Yang Yuanqing entered the Tang realm, and his current location is a hilly area east of the Yellow River in the north of Huining County, which has many mountains, sandwiched between mountains and mountains with patches of plains and Gobi, barren land and sparse population.

But it is also a passage to the Hexi Corridor, crossing the Yellow River and heading west into Wuwei County, where most merchants come and go.

The Tang army stationed more than 1,000 troops in this area, except for a few forts, the rest of the garrisons were concentrated in Huining County, but at this time, all the 1,000 garrisons had surrendered to the Sui Dynasty.

Pei Xingyan led 10,000 cavalry of the Sui army to suddenly kill, so that the Tang army here had nowhere to flee and could only surrender to the Sui army, and the beacon was too late to ignite.

Huining County was the focus of Yang Yuanqing's visit, and from some memories of his previous life, he knew that the mountains near Huining County contained great wealth, and this area was later renamed Baiyin, a city named after precious metals.

It was a pity that he forgot about this at first, and did not take Huining County as the six counties of Guanbei, and it was not until later when he wanted to look for silver mines that officials told him that silver had been produced in the area of Huining County since the Han Dynasty, and he remembered that this place was a great rich mine in later generations.

At this time, the Tang Dynasty was mining copper ore in Hanzhong and Bashu, and the prospecting army had not yet touched Huining County, so Yang Yuanqing had to rush to grab this big rich mine before the Tang Dynasty.

The person who led Yang Yuanqing was the county lieutenant of Huining County, named Zhang Fangnong, about 40 years old, a local of Huining County, who was very familiar with the geography and mineral conditions of this area.

He pointed to a few bare mountains in the distance and said: "Those mountains are called Longbao Mountain by the locals, many locals take ore here and smelt it by soil method, it is easy to smelt copper and silver, about the ninth year of the emperor, Emperor Wen banned private smelting, and some mining pits were abandoned, but the government did not mine here." ”

Yang Yuanqing looked at the green and secluded mountains in the distance, this is not the forest on the mountain range, these mountains are all stone mountains, there is no vegetation, but the color of the whole mountain is blue-red.

The Sui Dynasty first opened mines in the Red Iron Mountain in Yanchuan County, but the Red Iron Mountain was mainly iron ore and not much copper ore, so when a vein was mined, there were very few copper mines, and they had to find another way.

These mountains in Huining County are rich in silver and copper, which is exactly what he needs, and more importantly, it is close to the Yellow River, which can be used to transport ore to Lingwu County for smelting.

Yang Yuanqing nodded and asked, "Can the officials of the Ministry of Industry and Shaofu Temple gain anything?" ”

Before Yang Yuanqing set out from Taiyuan, he had sent officials from the Ministry of Industry and Shaofu Temple to lead prospectors to find mineral deposits, and it is said that they had already harvested.

At this time, an official stepped forward and bowed down to report, "Your Highness, we have found a silver vein and two copper veins, both of which are very rich in copper and silver, and Lingwu County contains a large amount of coal, so it is completely possible to smelt a large amount of copper and silver in Lingwu County." ”

Pei Xingyan was a little worried: "But Your Highness, this is the Tang Realm after all, and I am worried that the Tang Dynasty will not give up." ”

Yang Yuanqing smiled faintly, "Don't worry!" I will ask Li Yuan to obediently cede Huining County to me. ”