After the farming was completed, the emperor returned to Chang'an with his sons. On the way, a row of plate-armored knights on horseback guarded the carriage. They all restrained their murderous aura for fear of disturbing the owner of the carriage. The civil servants following the team were smiling. This is
Their great Tang cavalry!
The four-wheeled carriage is equipped with a parallel-bar shock absorber, making it as smooth as walking on flat ground while running on the track, with more than a dozen purebred war horses roaring and pulling, making it extremely majestic.
Several princes were lying on the window, watching the scenery of flowers, plants and trees passing by quickly, exclaiming in wonder from time to time, or asking the emperor about the magic of this rail carriage.
Li Zhiyun answered with a smile, his eyes moving back and forth on his older sons, seemingly thinking.
The ministers are anxious about the crown prince, but he is not. However, once he chooses a successor, he will do his best to train him. He will never be like the emperor in the Tang Dynasty who guarded the prince as much as he guarded thieves.
Historically, starting from Li Jiancheng, every subsequent Tang prince was suspected of being deposed.
He was not trying to set a good example, he was just looking for the future of industry. Li Zhiyun had considered that if two generations of emperors supported industry, then the emperors who succeeded him in the future, no matter how stupid and incompetent they were, would not be able to completely destroy the achievements of industry.
The expansion of the two generations of emperors was enough to expand the empire's territory without limit.
Therefore, the successor after him is very important.
This is related to his great cause.
At this moment, the Western Region, Gaochang Kingdom.
The current king of Gaochang, Qu Wentai, can be said to be singing every night, mainly because the Yinwu Kingdom was destroyed, the Western Turks were in civil war, and he himself was protected by the Tang Dynasty. It can be said that he did not have the slightest worry and lived a dreamy life every day.
Life.
Two words, comfortable.
But he is comfortable, but some people are not. For example, Qu Wenhe, who is also from the royal family, is the same generation as Qu Wentai, but he is from a collateral royal family. He is currently the prime minister of Gaochang State and assists Zuo Qu Wentai in handling Gaochang state affairs.
"General Zhang, although the destruction of Yinwu will be of great benefit to Gaochang, we must guard against the ambitions of the Tang Dynasty. In the past, our country did not get half of Yinwu's land, and only took a small amount of money. It is a shame that all the grain and fodder of the Tang army were produced by me, Gaochang. This is
Is it reasonable?”
In the royal city of Gaochang, in the mansion of Zuowei General Zhang Xiong, Qu Wen congratulated and lamented loudly.
Zhang Xiong's ancestral home was Nanyang, Henan Province, and his ancestors moved to the Western Regions. His aunt was the Princess of Gaochang. He married a royal daughter and became the general of Zuowei in Gaochang. He was involved in strategizing and military affairs.
"What do you mean?" Zhang Xiong looked confused. He was tall and burly, but just sitting there gave people a strong sense of oppression.
"I heard that Su Lie was appointed as the general manager of Yinzhou by the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. We might as well let him leave Gaochang and station him in Yinwu. In this way, if the Tang Dynasty reveals its evil intentions in the future, we can respond in time and deal with it." Qu
Wen He said.
Zhang Xiong frowned, picked up the wine cup and drank it all in one gulp.
"Does your Majesty agree to this?"
Qu Wen shook his head in congratulations, hating that iron could not make steel and said: "Your Majesty, you are living in a drunken dream. You only think that with the Tang Dynasty as your backer, you can sit back and relax. You are really stupid. As ministers, we should solve your problems for you. Things that your Majesty cannot consider should be dealt with by you."
It's up to us to think about it for him."
Zhang Xiong was silent for a moment and said: "However, it is the king's intention to lead the Tang army to protect our country. Now that Yin Wu is destroyed, our country will no longer have worries. If we want to drive the Tang army away now, wouldn't it be an act of crossing the river and burning down the bridge? If the emperor of the Tang Dynasty knew about it, he would probably
Accountability King.”
"Don't hesitate!" Qu Wen congratulated: "There must be no hesitation in this matter, otherwise if things continue like this, the country will no longer be a country and will become a tributary of the Tang Dynasty."
Zhang Xiong pursed his lips. He wanted to say that, in fact, there was nothing wrong with being a tributary of the Tang Dynasty. With Gaochang's military strength, it was no match for the Tang army. Once the Tang Dynasty emperor was offended, things would only become more difficult to deal with.
"As a general, I only obey the king's orders. If the king needs it, I will take charge of it myself."
Hearing this, Qu Wenhe shook his head repeatedly, "That's all, since you are unwilling to help, then I'll take my leave."
After saying that, he got up and left directly.
Zhang Xiong did not keep him, but sent him out of the house. Before leaving, Qu Wenhe couldn't help but persuaded him again, and even threatened him a little.
However, Zhang Xiong didn't care at all.
After sending off Qu Wen's congratulations, Zhang Xiong returned home.
The second son, Zhang Huaiji, rushed to his father with a wooden sword in his hand.
"Sir, I want to ride a horse!"
Zhang Xiong laughed, reached out and picked up his son, "Okay, I will take you to Baili City to ride horses tomorrow!"
Baili City.
This place is where the Tang army garrisoned.
Zhang Xiong and Su Lie have a good relationship. There are two main reasons why they have such a good relationship. One is that Zhang Xiong was originally Han, but he later moved to Gaochang. As the saying goes, when a fellow countryman meets a fellow countryman, they both shed tears. As they are both Han Chinese, they are naturally closer to each other.
.
Secondly, Su Lie's money opened the way. When he came to Gaochang, the emperor gave him a large sum of money to win over the nobles of Gaochang. Zhang Xiong was naturally a key figure among them.
Zhang Huaiji rode a pony and shouted in the school grounds. Zhang Xiong and Su Lie rode side by side and talked.
"Zhang Gong's son rarely has courage, but he may become a general in the future." Su Lie gently touched his beard.
Su Lie is now thirty, no longer as green as before, but more stable.
After Zhang Xiong heard this, he was very happy. He admired Su Lie's military skills. When he heard Su Lie's praise of his second son, he immediately laughed and said, "I take the good advice from Su Lie."
After a pause, he asked: "I wonder where the sons under Mr. Su are now? If they were here, the younger generations could get close to each other."
Hearing this, Su Lie twitched the corner of his mouth, remembering the son who had a fight in primary and secondary schools in Chang'an, and shook his head helplessly, "He's in Chang'an."
"Chang'an is the best place in the world, where the imperial capital is located. If we have the opportunity in this life, we will go there in person." Zhang Xiong finished sighing with emotion and asked: "I heard from merchants that Chang'an's newly established school is eager to learn something. I wonder if Mr. Su knows something about it."
?”
Su Lie said: "It's true, my son is attending primary school."
Thinking of his son Su Qingjie, Su Lie felt a little headache. He had been working hard outside for these years, but he wondered if he was practicing martial arts at home.
The two were riding horses and chatting about idle things.
After a while, Zhang Xiong saw that there were not many people around, so he reminded him in a low voice: "Yesterday, Qu Wen congratulated me on his visit. The implication was that he wanted to drive Su Gong out of Gaochang."
"Oh?" Su Lie cheered up slightly, narrowed his eyes and said, "Is this serious?"
"Seriously." Zhang Xiong said: "I can't go into details about the specific things. I just hope that Mr. Su will be careful and don't be fooled."
"Thank you, Mr. Zhang, for reminding me." Su Lie clasped his fists slightly, and then asked, "General Zhang, for this great act of justice, I will report it to the saint and praise him in the future!"
Zhang Xiong smiled bitterly and shook his head, "It doesn't have to be like this. I just don't want to die because of Qu Wenhe's stupidity. His thoughts are too naive and he doesn't know the truth. How dare I keep secrets from him."
In his opinion, even if Qu Wentai said that he wanted to drive away the Tang army, he felt it was inappropriate. With the style of the Tang army, they did not want to leave. If you drive them away, you would give them an excuse to take action. And once the war starts, Su Lie will
If you can defeat Gaochang, how can you talk about the Tang Dynasty's million-strong army?
How could the small country of Gaochang be the rival of the Tang Dynasty?
Soon after, Zhang Xiong left.
Su Lie also mobilized manpower to investigate Qu Wenhe. Soon, he received specific information that Qu Wenhe had been persuading Qu Wentai to become independent from the Tang Dynasty.
The good news is that Qu Wentai didn't agree to him.
The bad news is that this Qu Wenhe, in addition to persuading Qu Wentai, is also secretly contacting the Shiluo tribe of the Western Turks.