Chapter 82: The First Appearance of the Splitting of the Grassland
The news of the Turkic war against the Xi tribe reached Chang'an in early December.
Li Zhiyun is neither sad nor happy about this. Because of his appearance, many things have changed, and Jieli is bound to kill Shibobi.
And similarly, he is bound to kill the Turks.
However, he still hopes to give him another year.
One year is enough!
If the Tang Dynasty is compared to a patient who has just emerged from the quagmire of the war in the late Sui Dynasty, then this patient, when he was weak, fought hard to fight off several Turkic invasions with serious injuries, but now his injuries have worsened.
After two years of recuperation, the patient began to slowly recover.
Now, the patient has the strength to get out of bed and walk, but it will take some time to recover before he can take up arms again to fight against the Turks.
Of course, Li Zhiyun could also choose to forcefully send troops to defeat the Turks regardless of his injuries. But the consequences would be a loss of national power and the people would be deprived of their livelihood.
He didn't want to gamble on the fate of the country, there was no need.
In the Tai Chi Hall, above the pavilion, coiled dragon pillars supported the dome. Li Zhiyun stood at the wind outlet, looking at the style of the imperial capital of the Tang Dynasty.
"Turk." Li Zhiyun took a slow breath, feeling that there was a huge burden on his shoulders, making him unable to relax at all times.
Yu Chigong, who was accompanying Li Zhiyun at the side, asked: "Is Your Highness still worried about the war in Youzhou?"
"Rather than worrying about the war in Youzhou, I am more worried about the situation of our Tang Dynasty next year. Once Shibo must die, Jieli will definitely turn around and go south. In the battle of Bingzhou in the fifth year of Wude, although Jieli was not defeated, he
He will not be willing to return home defeated."
Yuchi said respectfully: "Your Highness, I have always felt that our Tang Dynasty has more than 500,000 troops. If we mobilize all the troops in the pass to attack the government, we will have a million troops. Why worry about the Turks? Furthermore, with the plate armor passed down by Your Highness, the Turks
Nothing to worry about.”
The idea is really simple, Jingde.
Li Zhiyun said: "Jingde, as a general, you naturally only need to consider the battlefield. But have you ever thought about what the people of the Tang Dynasty want now?"
"What do the people want?" Yu Chigong asked puzzledly: "The general doesn't know."
I know you are simple-minded.
Li Zhiyun explained: "After years of war, the world is finally determined. What the people want is a world where they can farm in a stable manner, not a Tang prince who is aggressively militarizing."
"But if we don't defeat the Turks, how can the people be stable?" Yuchi Gong asked.
Li Zhiyun laughed and said: "Jingde, we must understand the difficulties of the people. In fact, they also know that the Turks deserve to die, but the people of the Tang Dynasty have suffered too much and too many people have died. Now, they need
catch my breath.
You are a brave general, skilled in bow and horse, but you should know what will happen if the bowstring is stretched too tight."
If the bowstring is stretched too tight, it will break!
Yuchi Gong understood, and he complimented: "Your Highness has thought carefully, and in the end it will be too late."
Li Zhiyun said bitterly: "So what if you think about it carefully, there are some things that cannot be solved by me thinking carefully."
Yuchi Gong pursed his lips and suddenly knelt down on one knee.
"Your Highness, I don't know how to assist His Highness Zuo in governing the country, but I am willing to charge into battle for Your Highness and hold the enemy chiefs accountable before you. I will ask for orders to lead the army to Shuozhou to resist the Turks!"
Seeing this, Li Zhiyun helped him up.
The breeze blew, and the monarch and his ministers looked at each other with trust in their eyes.
"Don't worry, you will be indispensable in the fight against the Turks."
"yes!"
After chatting with Yuchi Gong for a while, Li Zhiyun went to the harem bedroom to pay homage to his father.
Li Yuan is rarely awake now. Most of the time he is either sleeping or awake, wandering around the lake. He eats less and less, and sometimes he even just drinks some water.
The doctors are now trying their best to fight for time with the God of Death.
As for whether they can succeed, Li Zhiyun himself doesn't know, and maybe the imperial doctors don't know either.
Only God knows.
Li Zhiyun thought about it and decided to hoard food.
Although he hopes that the Turks will fight internally and give him another year to develop, if it does not go as he wishes, there will be a battle between Datang and the Turks next year.
No matter what, he needs to make more preparations.
Take food for example. Although his income from food this year is pretty good, he doesn't mind having too much food.
When it comes to buying food, it's definitely not possible to start from the common people, who themselves won't have enough to eat. It's only possible to buy food from aristocratic families. They have lots of land, so they definitely have food reserves.
Thinking of this, Li Zhiyun called for Wen Yanbo, Minister of Civil Affairs.
"Your Highness wants to store grain?"
"That's right." Li Zhiyun said: "Now that the war in Youzhou has begun, Shibo will definitely be defeated, and Jieli will definitely go south next year. And next year is very important for the Tang Dynasty. If it can survive, the situation will be reversed, and the offensive and defensive situation will change. If
If it cannot survive, then the Tang Dynasty will have to lie dormant for several years before it can sweep away the decline."
Wen Yanbo thought about it for a moment, but he didn't have any opinion at all.
"Your Highness, Wei Chen actually feels that swallowing your anger appropriately is actually a good way to delay."
"What's the meaning?"
Wen Yanbo explained: "Your Highness might as well follow the old example of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty and marry most of the Turks to divide them internally."
Marriage...and marriage?
Li Zhiyun's face turned slightly ugly and said: "The internal divisions in the Turks have now begun to bear fruit. Xue Yantuo's visit to the court is a clear proof. Furthermore, if they are not divided among themselves, no matter how we try to separate each other, I am afraid that
It’s hard to have any effect.”
Hearing this, Wen Yanbo understood. This prince was very stubborn and unwilling to get married.
He cupped his hands and said, "Wei Chen understands and will go back to prepare for the grain storage."
"Shang Shu Wen must remember not to take food from the people."
Unavailable for people’s food?
Wen Yanbo thought: "If this is the case, we can only buy grain from grain merchants, or..."
Family!
Li Zhiyun said: "I have always believed that Wen Shangshu is a capable minister. I hope you will not disappoint me."
Hearing this, Wen Yanbo was speechless.
But he still agreed, no matter what, just because he was a minister of the Tang Dynasty and loyal to the prince.
The duty of a minister is to share the worries of the king.
His Royal Highness the Prince promoted him to be Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and he wanted to repay his kindness.
"I obey."
After leaving Zhengshitang, Wen Yanbo thought for a long time on the road and decided to divide his targets into two parts: aristocratic families and grain merchants.
Among them, grain merchants are easy to deal with, as long as you have money, you can buy them.
In order to prevent unnecessary panic, Wen Yanbo decided to send people to secretly purchase grain in Jingzhao and Luoyang.
As for the Aristocratic Family, he decided to take action himself.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs' annual income this year is actually not much, but the prince has given him a lot of money from his private treasury, so he is not worried about not having enough money.
Furthermore, when the imperial court buys grain, who would dare to raise the price?
The first target is Pei.
I heard that the Pei family is a big family and there must be a lot of food.
After Pei Ju learned about Wen Yanbo's intention, he directly agreed without any objection, and expressed his willingness to donate 50,000 shi of grain to the court for free.
In addition, the Yang family of Hongnong, the Yu family of Guanlong, and the Dugu family were all willing to sell grain to the court at low prices.
After learning the news, Li Zhiyun sent someone to deliver an imperial edict of commendation and verbally thanked him.
Li Zhiyun guessed that the reason why these people were so knowledgeable was due to the benefits he gave them and the long-term relationship management.
No matter what, this time I bought food, at least more than 200,000 dan were put into the warehouse.
It wasn't much, but it made him feel happy.
After all, these people still have righteousness in their hearts.
The only thing that hurts may be the money from selling briquettes, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs has to spend a lot of its annual revenue.
But it doesn't matter. If the Turks are killed in the future, Li Zhiyun will get back thousands of times from the Turks.