"Your Majesty, the official family went to Xiangluan Pavilion today."
"Xiangluan Pavilion?"
After hearing Lin's report, Liu E was very surprised.
Xiangluan Pavilion is the residence of Cao Xiuyuan (from the first rank). Cao Xiuyuan was one of the late emperor's concubines and came from the Zhending Cao family.
"Yes, today General Cao came to the palace to visit Cao Xiuyuan, and the officials are also there."
Liu E frowned slightly when she heard this. Although Cao Wei had not dispatched him yet, he was sure that the Cao family would be a general for generations to come, and his father Cao Bin was a very popular minister.
Not only that, most of the in-laws of the Zhending Cao family are from the families of civil servants and military generals. Even if Cao Wei does nothing, the power of the Cao family cannot be underestimated.
Personally speaking, Liu E didn't like to see the Guan family and the Cao family getting too close.
the other side.
Xiangluan Pavilion.
Although Cao Wei entered the palace today in the name of visiting his sister, his actual purpose was to meet the official family.
Hearing with the ears is false, seeing with the eyes is true.
Even though Cao Qian praised the officials as being in the sky and not in the earth, Cao Wei didn't believe it all.
It is a matter of great importance to determine the rise and fall of the Cao family. If he does not meet and chat with the officials in person, Cao Wei will never be able to let go.
"In the past, when the Xia people invaded the territory with large troops and cut off the food roads, Pei Du was assigned to guard Lingzhou. He was left alone and without reinforcements. His pricks were stained with blood. He hurriedly called for help. However, the troops failed to arrive, the city fell, and there was a bloody battle."
"Every time I see this place, I feel sad in my heart."
"General Cao, Xia (Xiazhou) people are so ambitious, why should you teach me?"
"Hey, can I use it?"
As we all know, during the Song Dynasty, except during the founding period, the military faced the dilemma of lack of war horses.
When it comes to the lack of horses, we have to mention the land of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and Lingzhou. The land of Yanyun was ceded to the Khitan by Shi Jingtang.
(Lingzhou, present-day Lingwu area of Ningxia)
At that time, the Song Dynasty had not yet been founded.
Lingzhou is another place where horses are raised, and the loss of Lingzhou is directly related to Song Zhenzong.
During the Xianping period, Li Jiqian, the founder of the Western Xia Dynasty, once expanded to the outside world. Lingzhou was adjacent to Xiazhou, the ancestral land of the Western Xia Dynasty. There was no room for others to snore next to the couch.
If Lingzhou had been occupied by the Song Dynasty, it would be equivalent to occupying a bridgehead in the Xixia territory.
Therefore, Li Jiqian continued to increase his troops and tried to capture Lingzhou.
Faced with Li Jiqian's heavy troops gathering in Lingzhou, the imperial court had three mainstream views. One was to stick to the important town of Lingzhou and unite with other Tibetan tribes bullied by Li Jiqian to jointly fight against Li Jiqian.
The second is the story of aiding the Western Han Dynasty to defeat the Xiongnu, opening up farmland, building cities, and setting up the Western Han Dynasty Protectorate.
The third is to completely abandon Lingzhou.
The reason for supporting the last view is that Lingzhou is located in a remote area, where Yi and Qiang people live together. It is the kind of place where the food is tasteless. There is no need to waste people and money just for the sake of Lingzhou.
It just so happened that Song Zhenzong did not dare to conquer the west, so what he wanted most was to abandon the land.
As a result, Lingzhou was "strategically" abandoned by the Northern Song Dynasty.
The Peidu Department mentioned by Li Jie was the city guarding Lingzhou at that time. Because the imperial court chose to abandon Lingzhou, Lingzhou became a desperate place.
In the end, Pei Ji died in Lingzhou.
Pei Ji's death, which was not a crime of war, was completely tricked by the abandonment faction.
Once Lingzhou was lost, the Northern Song Dynasty completely lost its gateway to the Western Regions. Other Tibetan tribes in the northwest, such as the Uighurs, Liangzhou Tubo and other tribes, who wanted to trade with the Northern Song Dynasty, had to bypass Lingzhou and go to Jingzhou (today's Gansu Province).
Jingchuan).
Of course, the Song court was not without understanding people, such as the famous minister Zhang Qixian, who had announced as early as the Taizong period that Li Jiqian would annex Lingzhou and Xiazhou.
During the Zhenzong Dynasty, Zhang Qixian proposed the policy of "attacking the barbarians with barbarians", but the Song court did not firmly implement this policy.
When Cao Wei was appointed as the magistrate of Zhenrong Army (Jingzhou), he continued Zhang Qixian's strategy and actively won over the Tibetan tribes in order to check and balance Li Jiqian's tribe.
It's a pity that Cao Wei was just a military minister. Even though he had great strategies, the court did not adopt his suggestions.
In short, the Song Dynasty's response measures were very informative, and it would not be inappropriate to use the word "shabby" to describe them.
Finally, the Xisiluo mentioned by Li Jie is also one of the political powers in the northwest region.
Since the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, Hexi and Longyou have been occupied by the Tubo people for a long time. In the late Tang Dynasty, the last Zanpu (Tubo ruler) Purang Dama was assassinated.
Since then, the two-century Tubo dynasty has completely disintegrated, and the Tubo region has begun a chaotic state of separatism.
It was not until the early Song Dynasty that the chaotic situation in the Helong area became slightly calmer.
Nowadays, the nominal co-owner of the Tubo people in the Helong area is Zusiluo. Zusiluo is a descendant of Tubo Zampu and has noble blood.
However, the situation now is not very good.
When Zusiluo was twelve years old, he was robbed by Li Lizun, the leader of the Tibetans in the Helong area, and resettled in Kuozhou, where he was honored as "Zanpu".
In a sense, what Li Lizun did was a trick of "holding the emperor hostage to order the princes".
Zunsiluo is a pure descendant of Zanpu. With him, Li Lizun can control the Tubo people in the entire Helong area through Zunsiluo.
Li Lizun was controlled internally, but externally he also hoped to be canonized by the Song Dynasty and named himself "Zanpu".
However, Li Lizun's plan was seen through by Cao Wei. Cao Wei told Zhenzong that Zanpu was also named Khan. When Li Zun learned about it, where could he place the slave?
As the saying goes, there are no two days in the sky and no two masters in the earth. Zhenzong had a rare moment of sobriety and did not directly give Li Lizun the title of Zanpu.
The Song court refused to grant the title, which directly led to Li Lizun's rebellion against the Song Dynasty. While leading troops, he encouraged other Tibetan tribes to rebel.
However, Li Lizun's revenge did not work. Cao Wei defeated Li Lizun's troops in Sandu Valley and pursued them for thirty miles, beheading more than a thousand people and seizing countless cattle, horses and other supplies.
Because of this battle, Li Lizun's prestige was greatly damaged. Not only did the Tubo tribe dissatisfied with Li Lizun, but even the Tubo people took the opportunity to escape from Li Lizun's control.
On the other side, Cao Wei suddenly felt moved when he heard the official mentioned "唃宮宰".
Hey, he's very familiar with me.
As early as the Dazhong Xiangfu period, Cao Wei had the idea of winning over Xisiluo.
In fact, Zu Siluo also had a good impression of Cao Wei. If Cao Wei had not defeated Li Lizun, he would not have been able to take the opportunity to break out of the fence.
Although Zusiluo has now taken refuge with another Tibetan leader, Wen Buqi, this time he has taken refuge with Li Lizun, which is completely different from the last time he relied on Li Lizun.
The former is an active attachment, trying to use Wen Buqi's power to expand his own team, just like Uncle Liu Huang during the Three Kingdoms period.
Therefore, the two people who joined forces, Zun Siluo and Wen Buqi, had their own motives.
Zun Siluo hoped to take advantage of Wen Buqi's influence. Why didn't Wen Buqi want to take advantage of Zun Siluo's identity to unify the many tribes in Tubo?
Cao Wei has been managing the northwest for decades, and he has long been familiar with the information about the various forces in the west.
At this time, if you help Xiansiluo, it will be like providing help in times of need. If Xiansiluo can defeat Wen Buqi, the Helong area will be stable for at least several decades.