Tibet

Dugu Ming pondered for a while and said: Your father-in-law knows the situation in the west best. He suggests that you take Hexi first, and then attack Longyou or Shuofang after you have established a firm foothold. You must have a plan and a strategy. The key is to take the first step. , have you considered it?

Li Ye nodded, I plan to borrow Hanzhong for a year first, use Hanzhong as the logistics base, and go to Longxi along the West Lianyun Plank Road.

Dugu Ming also nodded, It's okay to borrow Hanzhong. We have stayed in Hanzhong. It has beautiful mountains and clear waters and a mild climate. It is indeed a place to recharge your batteries. Of course it is not as good as Jingxiang, but it is much better than the bitter cold places in the northwest. At present, Qinzhou is still in the hands of the imperial court, and a large number of refugees have gathered there. Cui Guangyuan is currently the governor of Qinzhou. You can get additional troops there. Based on Qinzhou, open up Weizhou and Jinzhou, and you are only one step away from Liangzhou. , so the next negotiations are very important.”

Li Ye smiled slightly and said: Many of us want to capture Longyou first. We mainly go out from Hanzhong, which is Longyou. Going to Hexi is a little too far.

Dugu Ming sneered and said: That's because you don't understand the situation. Do you know the upper, middle and lower armies of the Tubo army? Longyou is the top priority of Tubo's defense. The most elite Tubo native army of more than 100,000 Deployed in Longyou, the Chinese army was mainly composed of Tuyuhun people and was deployed to graze cattle in Hexi. The lower army was composed of a small number of Tubo generals and a large number of Hetao Han people and was deployed to plant wheat in Shuofang.

Of course, you can attack Shuofang, but Shuofang's army is the main force of the Tang army. If you capture Shuofang, you are also making a wedding dress for the court, because you are not the military governor of Shuofang. When you are negotiating with the imperial court, you can make any demands related to Hexi and Longyou, and the imperial court will probably agree to them. But if you make Shuofang's request, everyone in the court will think you are greedy, so we advise you to take Hexi. Hexi is indeed much easier than Longyou.

In the afternoon, Li Ye once again convened senior generals and civilian officials to discuss plans.

It has become a consensus to go to the northwest to fight Tibet, but there are several details that must be sorted out, and these are the most critical issues.

The first is the issue of military family members. Tens of thousands of family members live in Xiangzhou and Dengzhou and have settled down. Are they willing to move to the northwest?

Li Ye pondered for a long time and said: I have thought about it for a long time and let the family members make their own choice. If they are willing to follow us, we will give them three times the compensation for the land and exempt them from taxes for life. If the soldiers want to retire and stay, we will not force them. If the soldiers want to leave, we will not force them. If you are willing to leave with us and your family members stay, it is absolutely fine. If your family members come to join you again in the future, we will still give you three times the land compensation.

Secondly, I want to use Hanzhong as our buffer place. Our family members will stay in Hanzhong temporarily. Once we have established a foothold in Hexi, we will take our family members over. This is a top priority and we must fight with the court for at least one years, up to three years.

At this time, Pei Xiu raised his hand and said: Your Highness, there is another very practical question, and that is the Jingxiang soldiers. How many Jingxiang soldiers are willing to go to Longyou and Hexi with us?

There are currently 150,000 troops in Jianghan, more than half of whom are soldiers from Jingxiang. If this problem is not solved well, it will cause extremely serious consequences.

If the army is forcibly brought there, will it cause a large number of desertions and seriously shake the morale of the army? No one knows this.

Li Ye shook his head and said: The military is originally based on obedience. If you only want to join the army in your hometown, you are not a qualified soldier. In this regard, I don't think there is any need to look forward and backward. Of course, we must also carry out propaganda and tell the soldiers that we are going The purpose of Longyou and Hexi is to fight against Tibet and regain the Han Dynasty, and this is also the case.

What if you really don't want to go and a large-scale protest breaks out and you flee? Pei Xiu asked again.

Li Bi smiled slightly and said: This is an extreme situation. Usually there will be many signs before this, such as dissatisfaction, rumors, neglect of training, escape, etc. If a large-scale protest suddenly occurs without any signs in advance, what's going on here? There must be premeditation, planning, and connection. If this happens, I believe His Highness will not show mercy.

Li Ye also said: Everyone must understand that our move westward will not be solved in one or two days, but will be extended for a long time and gradually move westward. There will be enough time to prepare, so we will also have enough time to deal with various situations. This is an unexpected situation. Now we are just finalizing the principles and direction. As for the details, we don’t need to think so much about it for the time being.”

Everyone then shifted the direction of the discussion to issues of principle, and everyone unanimously decided to send out scouts to understand the situation in Longyou and Hexi. Only with solid information can they decide whether to choose Hexi or Longyou?

At the same time, the second principle was decided. Try to take 150,000 troops to Longyou and Hexi. If you really don't want to go, then you won't be forced to do so and allow the soldiers to retire and return home.

Two days later, Taichang Qing Li Yu led a negotiation team composed of 20 officials and 300 soldiers to Xiangyang.

Li Mi, on behalf of Jiedushi Li Ye, welcomed the arrival of the negotiation team and arranged for them to stay in a distinguished hotel.

But what Li Mi didn't expect was that one of the deputy negotiators turned out to be Cheng Yuanzhen, the chamberlain supervisor. This was obviously because Emperor Li Heng didn't trust Li Yu and sent Cheng Yuanzhen to monitor the entire team.

Cheng Yuanzhen is the third person in the eunuch group, preceded by Li Fuguo and Yu Chaoen. Cheng Yuanzhen is Li Fuguo's deputy. He is loyal to Li Fuguo and of course has the trust of Emperor Li Heng.

The first thing Cheng Yuanzhen did when he came to Xiangyang was to remove the incompetent supervisor Feng Yanhuan, scold him severely, drag him down and beat him with thirty sticks, and then take him back and punish him severely.

After dealing with Feng Yanhuan, Cheng Yuanzhen took a few eunuchs to visit the mountains and rivers. It seemed careless, but this was Cheng Yuanzhen's cunning.

Cheng Yuanzhen also brought more than a dozen Tianji Tower warriors. Tianji Tower was a secret group founded by Li Fuguo, which specialized in carrying out various surveillance tasks assigned by Emperor Li Heng. There were people from all walks of life in it, and they were led by Li Fuguo's confidant Ju Wenzhen.

The guards and maids currently monitoring Li Dai are under the jurisdiction of Tianji Tower.

Cheng Yuanzhen went on a tour and apparently relaxed his supervision of the negotiation team, but in fact, more than a dozen Tianji warriors monitored everyone's every move. Of course, everyone did not know that there were Tianji warriors among the escort soldiers. .

The next morning, at the VIP Hotel, Li Mi also led a dozen officials to have the first negotiation with Li Yu, and Li Ye also participated in the negotiation.

Li Yu read out the emperor's decree and renamed Li Ye the King of Qi. The status of King Qi was not low in the Tang Dynasty. He was a second-class prince. The previous King of Qi was Li Longji's brother Li Fan. His son was renamed Queen of Shaanxi. King Qi was The title became vacant.

Li Ye's King of Lu belongs to the third class of princes, and is in the same first class as King Wu, King Wei, King Huai, King Guo, King Bian, King Zheng, King Long, King Song, King Yong, etc.

Being promoted to the second-class prince is a further step. King Qi is the same as King Yue, King Wu, King Han, King Shaanxi, King Xue, King Dai, King Ning, etc.

But King Qi is not yet the core prince. The core prince is also called the first-class prince, which consists of the ten princes of Tang, Qin, Yong, Jin, Qi, Wei, Zhao, Chu, Shu and Han.

At the same time, Li Ye was granted the title of military governor of Longyou and military governor of Hexi, controlling the states in Hexi and Longyou, and commanding an army of 150,000 in Longyou and Hexi. He also urged Li Ye to resign as military governor of Jianghan and observer of Shannan East Road as soon as possible. job.

This was also the helplessness of the imperial court. It did not dare to forcibly remove Li Ye from his position, so it had to negotiate. If it had been someone else, it would have been removed directly. Why would it need any supervision?

In addition, the 150,000-strong army is just an empty shell, with quotas only. Li Ye is allowed to form an army of no more than 150,000 people.

To Li Yu's relief, Li Ye readily accepted the appointment and the new kingship. The only thing left was how to resign from the posts of Jianghan Jiedu Envoy and Shannan East Road Observer Envoy.

After reading the decree, Li Ye left with the decree, and the two sides immediately began the first round of negotiations.