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Changan.

The center of the entire Tang Empire.

The Son of Heaven of the Tang Empire is holding a relatively secret imperial meeting in the Yanying Palace. The number of people who received the edict to participate in this meeting was not large, but they were all the most important figures in Datang.

"The price of rice in Jingshi has risen for a month, and now it has reached 1,000 yuan of rice, and the price of rice is still rising, compared with before the outbreak of the rebellion in Hebei, it has also increased fivefold. At present, the imperial court is preparing to mobilize troops and horses from all walks of life to suppress the rebellion in Hebei, and more than 100,000 soldiers and horses will be dispatched. With a hundred thousand soldiers, one soldier should be transported by three husbands, and at least 400,000 people should be fed. ”

Li Wei, the head of the household, strengthened his tone, "The minister wants to draw the attention of the emperor and the ministers, at present, the imperial court has mobilized troops and horses from all walks of life to quell the rebellion, and there are more than 100,000. According to the system, the soldiers and horses of the feudal towns provided food and grain, and the troops of each town needed to be fed by the imperial court. More than 100,000 troops have been mobilized. The minister thought that according to a safe calculation, it was necessary to calculate the food supply of at least 600,000 people, so he calculated that he would be given two liters of rice per soldier day, and at least more than 4.2 million stone would be needed for a year's support. If the war is not going on, there is no hope of immediate victory. In the future, military funds will be transferred to other places, and the cost will be even more expensive. In the opinion of the ministers, the imperial court should prepare at least fifteen million yuan of military expenditure, and try to hope that the war will end within one year, and not delay for two years at most. ”

Li Wei's data makes it impossible to refute that the rebellion of the two emperors and four kings caused by Dezong's reduction of the feudal domain, at that time, the imperial court spent more than one million yuan per month. Now the four towns in Hebei are rebellious, and the scale is not as large as at the beginning, and the military expenditure of the imperial court cannot be less than one million yuan per month.

And everyone understands Li Wei's subtext. This war. Once the fight starts. The last bit of the Datang Central Committee is likely to be completely exhausted.

If it is possible to achieve victory and defeat the three feudatories of Hebei within a year, then the investment of 15 million guan is still worth it. However, the outcome of the war cannot be predicted, and once it fails, or as it was in the case of Dezong, an accident occurs, which will drag on the war. That would be a financial nightmare.

Li Wei is known as the head of the household department and the book of the same as the middle book, and the book of the household department is known as the prime minister, and now he is the real prime minister after adding the chapter of the book. The prime minister, who has always kept a low profile in the political hall, is an old-fashioned man, and it has been several years since the new emperor took over the financial power. He knows much more about Datang's family background than anyone else.

"We'd better pray to the God of Haotian to let the Gaodu in the southeast immediately destroy and quell the rebellion of the Yellow Nest Grass Thieves. Because Huangchao is rampant in the southeast, the tax supply of the entire southeastern states will be reduced by at least half this year. And next year it will be at least two to three percent. And if you can't exterminate the grass thieves, continue to let the grass thieves cause disaster to the southeast. Then the consequences are unimaginable, and the imperial court may not be able to collect a penny from the southeast next year. Nowadays, the finances of the imperial court basically rely on the supply from the southeast. and the salt and tea tax, as well as the offerings from Dengzhou, plus the contributions from the towns. In particular, the millions of people in Chang'an City almost all rely on the grain transported from the southeast. Hebei rebelled, and the imperial court had to prevent the rebels from going south to Henan to cut off the canal. Once the canal is cut off, Guanzhong will run out of food. ”

As the head of the household, Li Wei has sensitively discovered an extremely dangerous fact.

That is, at present, there are four towns in Hebei in the northeast of the imperial court that claim the king and rebellion, and there are grass thieves in the southeast. The rebellion on these two sides not only made the imperial court have to use troops on both sides, but also greatly increased military spending. Moreover, the canal is also under great threat, and the canal, the lifeline of Chang'an, Guanzhong, is also under the threat of these two rebels. If the canal is blocked, there will be an even greater crisis in Guanzhong.

As the head of the household department and the prime minister of the political affairs hall, Li Wei opposed the imperial court's large-scale mobilization of soldiers and horses from Hedong, Henan and Shannan provinces to Hebei to quell the rebellion at this time. Because of the mobilization of soldiers and horses in so many towns, the imperial court is responsible for supplying the army. And there is a great hidden danger here, one is to worry that Zhuzhen will be defeated by the Hebei army. If there are a few articles of Zhuzhen soldiers, then there will be no obstruction between Chang'an and the rebels.

Or, the soldiers and horses from Shannan and Henan went to Hebei to quell the rebellion, which would open the gateway to Guanzhong in the southeast, and make the grass thieves turn around and go straight to Chang'an and Luoyang.

Li Wei had already vaguely realized that instead of bothering to transfer the troops in Hedong, Henan, and Shannan, it was better to transfer Li Jing's soldiers, or directly transfer the Hu soldiers outside the plug.

At that time, the imperial court borrowed the soldiers of Su to recover Chang'an.

In Li Wei's view, it is still beneficial to the imperial court to transfer these Hu soldiers to fight the rebels. Hu Bingsheng is naturally the best. If the Hu soldiers are defeated, at least they can consume the strength of the rebels.

Of course, the most suitable plan in Li Wei's mind was to immediately transfer the national army into Hebei to quell the rebellion.

Or, to be safe, follow the example of Emperor Dezong, you can issue an edict of amnesty to the Hebei vassals, and at the same time you can also issue an order to Huangchao in the southeast.

It is the safest to pardon these traitors and traitors first, and then find a way to defeat them one by one, so as to avoid direct war.

However, all the princes in the court, including the young Son of Heaven, were absolutely unwilling to bow their heads at this time. For them, when Dezong was in the past, it was an extremely dangerous time, and there was no way to do it. And they are not at a disadvantage at the moment, so it is impossible for them to bow their heads and admit that they are soft.

If you want to be a dignified son of heaven, you have committed a crime, and give an amnesty order to those rebellious ministers and thieves?

How is this possible? Even if the north and the south are fighting on both sides, but the court has millions of soldiers in its hands, how can it be afraid of a few rebellious ministers and thieves?

Li Wei's suggestion had been put forward a long time ago, but Li Yi rejected it without hesitation. Li Yi, who wanted to be the successor of Taizong, was absolutely unwilling to accept such a humiliating proposal.

In the face of these traitors, Li Yi's attitude was tough. Whoever dares to rebel, then destroy him!

Neither Dezong nor Xianzong completely wiped out the Hebei domains, and the shame of the defeat of the ancestors must be washed away with victory.

"Needless to say, even if I smash the pot and sell iron, I will destroy the four towns of Hebei!" The Son of Heaven announced to the important ministers of the Yanying Palace. "The territory of the Tang Dynasty will never allow rebellious ministers and thieves to stand on their own!"

"Your Majesty!"

In the Yanying Palace, all the ministers bowed down and echoed the emperor's bold words loudly. Although the vast majority of people such as Tian Lingzi did not think so, at this time, no one objected.

Li Yi's heart was a little clear, and his eyes looked at the left and right privy envoys of the Privy Council.

At present, the Privy Council has the title of Prime Minister above Prime Minister, and at the beginning of its establishment, their role was originally only to serve as an intermediate relationship between the government hall and the emperor. But now, the Privy Council controls the military power of the imperial court. It can be said to be on an equal footing with the political affairs hall.

The Privy Council is in charge of the military affairs, military defense, border garrison, and military orders, and the secret orders are issued to govern the country. All the guards are straight, the internal and external forbidden soldiers are recruited, the examinations, the relocation, the cantonment, the rewards and punishments, all are in charge.

The privy envoy Yang Fugong came out of the ranks, bowed slightly, and said in a sharp voice: "Your Majesty, the Privy Council has discussed with the upper and lower houses, and the results have been achieved. ”

"What was the result?" Li Yi asked. The authority of the Privy Council is very great, the left and right lieutenants are directly in charge of the army, and the Privy Council has the power to transfer.

At present, the military department of the court does not have much actual power, and the important ministers of the Yanying Palace discuss and decide important military decisions in peacetime. In addition, it is the Privy Council that really holds the power of the world.

As a privy envoy, Yang Fugong is full of contradictions in his heart on the current counterinsurgency issue. Yang Fugong served as the supervisor of the outer town in his early years, and he was no stranger to the military. On the one hand, his judgment of the current rebellion in the north and south was much worse than the judgment of many in the court. Like Li Wei, he did not believe that the imperial court could put down the rebellion within a year. Not to mention that the four towns of Hebei have always been strong, just to say that a grass thief Huangchao has been peaceful for four or five years, and it has not been pacified until now, but it is getting stronger and stronger, attacking cities and grabbing land everywhere, and even famous generals like Gao Biao can't be pacified. What's more, it is the Hebei domain that has been divided for so many years.

On the other hand, for this war, he hopes to take this opportunity to strengthen his strength.

Tian Lingzi has a divine army inside, and Gao Yu outside.

Zhang Tai befriended Li Jing.

Although Ximen Sigong was hit hard, there was still a lot of strength in the Right Shence Army.

On the contrary, it is his Yang family, and now there is almost no power in the Shence army, only his brother Yang Fuguang is serving as the prisoner of the grass thief.

Under such circumstances, Yang Fugong, on behalf of the Privy Council, put forward a plan, that is, to support Li Wei's strategy of transferring troops into Hebei to quell the rebellion.

"Your Majesty, the ministers and the Privy Council thought that the imperial court did not need to mobilize the towns, and the large number of troops was not conducive to unified command. Therefore, the plan between the ministers and the Privy Council is that the soldiers need to be good and not too many. First of all, Li Jing was transferred to lead the Zhenguo army into the pass to quell the rebellion, and used it as the main force to quell the rebellion. At the same time, Zheng Congyan's Hedong Army and Wufan cavalry cooperated with Li Jing to attack. In the south, Cui Anqian and Zhang Zimian gathered Henan soldiers and horses to garrison Luoyang, and then transferred the soldiers and horses of Shannan Dongdao, Xidao, and Jingnan to guard the first-line roads of Wuguan to prevent grass thieves from advancing westward. In addition, the minister also asked His Majesty to edict Li Guochang of Shatuo in the Gao Piao army to lead the Shatuo army north to participate in the war, and issued an order to pardon Li Keyong's crimes, so that he led the Shatuo army into Hebei to quell the rebellion. ”

"Shatuo people, Li Guochang father and son?" Li Yi frowned slightly when he heard the name.

After hearing that Li Keyong had left the Saiwai, he realized his wrongdoing, often felt deep remorse, and always wanted to seek an opportunity to atone for his sins. Now Li Keyong has more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in the north of Yinshan, and His Majesty can pardon his crimes and recruit him to enter the customs to quell the rebellion. The Shatuo army is strong, and if you use its troops, you should be able to make meritorious contributions. In addition, there are also Tatars, Xi, Hui and other ethnic groups outside the Saiwai, all of whom are dedicated to my Tang Dynasty. His Majesty can also issue an edict to recruit all ministries to enter the customs to quell the rebellion. As long as His Majesty agrees to ask for Hebei's wealth and reward, he can not spend a grain and grass on the court, and he will have tens of thousands of strong soldiers. ”

The two brothers, Yang Fugong and Yang Fuguang, both had old friends with the Li father and son, and these days, Li Guochang sent an envoy to see Yang Fuguang, asking for their brother's help, asking the emperor to pardon Li Keyong's sin, and to recruit Shatuo into the customs. Of course, Li Guochang guaranteed that the Shatuo people would be willing to be used by the Yang family in the future. Yang Fugong, who was bent on having a team of his own soldiers and horses, agreed without much thought. (To be continued......)