Needless to say the funeral of Feng Deyi. He was the first prime minister to die in office in the early Tang Dynasty, and he was also a founding hero. Besides, everyone else in Lingyan Pavilion was still alive, so it was even more extraordinary that he was the only one who walked in front.
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For Li Po, whether it was to care about the friendship between the emperor and his subjects, or to let other heroes see him, Li Po was not the kind of ruthless and unjust king, so he must pay more attention to the funeral ceremony and chase after the princes.
On the day of the funeral, all the officials came out and sent him to the countryside.
The ancestral land of the Feng family is in the Bohai Sea. After the death of Feng Deyi, the body must be returned to his hometown. The fallen leaves return to their roots. People in this world pay attention to this. Many ministers will choose to take the initiative to serve in their later years and return to their hometown.
Buried in ancestral graves.
Feng Yandao was young, so Li Po promised that he would not need to support the spirit to return to his hometown, so there was no need to mention the matter of keeping the spirit alive, and he could only stay in mourning in the capital.
So Li Po also ordered Yang Gongren, the Minister of Punishment, to select two people from the Yang clan in Hongnong, called them fake sons, and sent the coffins of Fengde Yi all the way back to the Bohai Sea for a rich burial.
The person in charge was accompanied by the nephew of Gao Biaoren, the young minister of Honglu Temple.
These people are all in-laws of the Feng family, so it is appropriate to give Feng Deyi a gift.
Feng Deyi's funeral lasted for more than half of the winter. By the time the funeral procession left Chang'an, it was already the time to wear warm clothes and flowers were blooming.
Of course, it is impossible for the DPRK to focus solely on mourning Feng Deyi and abandon other political affairs.
Near the end of the year, Li Po received another letter from the north. The Turkic Khan Ashina Yang Huan wanted to have an alliance with the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty again in the summer. The location of this alliance was also chosen.
It is located at the border market between Yulin and Turks.
Back then, Yang Guang formed an alliance with the Turkic Qimin Khan near there, because it was closer to the heartland of both countries.
As for the reason for the alliance, Ashina Yang Huan never elaborated in his heart. This need not be stated explicitly, everyone knows it in their hearts.
First of all, the Turkic Eastern Khan Ashina Duowen is at the end of his rope, but after all, he occupies Liaodong. How to end it requires good communication between the two sides.
The two aunts and nephews have developed a tacit understanding in dealing with Ashina Duowen in recent years.
Ashina Yang Huan easily raided Ashina Duowen's lair without wasting a single soldier, and his political skills were simply not comparable to those of the rude and cruel Turkic nobles.
Moreover, it is not simple in general, almost forcing Ashina Duowen to go south to the peninsula, either to fight with Goguryeo, or to join forces with Goguryeo to deal with the Tang army heading north.
What he did was a conspiracy to kill with a borrowed knife. No matter whether Ashina Duowen wins or loses, it will not hurt the Turks.
In fact, in the final analysis, what she is playing with is people's hearts, because she knows that when the Tang Dynasty began in the Sui Dynasty, Goguryeo was a thorn in the hearts of the Tang people...
During the last alliance meeting, she had repeatedly tried to test the situation, and knowing Li Po's experience, she was even more certain that after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the first one to deal with would be Goguryeo.
But what she didn't expect was that Li Po was so patient that he did not follow the old route of Yang Guang's northern expedition and march from the direction of Yingzhou, but chose to send troops by sea.
First, they destroyed Baekje, conquered Silla, and then destroyed Japan. Then they increased their troops on the peninsula and fought against Goguryeo from south to north. They succeeded in the first battle, almost with divine help.
These news about the Tang Dynasty were actually transmitted from Chang'an back to the Holy Mountain. Nowadays, the two countries have frequent exchanges. There is no need to take the long way to Jin. Instead, they go directly north to Shuofang and Yulin. Urgent news takes ten years.
It will arrive in the next day, which can be said to be very fast.
From the end of autumn to the end of the year, three groups of Turkic envoys came.
Along the way, they were escorting Ashina Qiuluo's daughter Ashina and Su to Chang'an to marry the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. This group of people arrived earlier, and the two countries had already negotiated on this matter. This is also evidence of the increasingly close exchanges between the two countries.
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Soon, another Turkic envoy arrived to congratulate Datang on its crucial military victory.
This was the third group at the end of the year. This time they made a request to reunite with the Tang Dynasty next summer. It was obviously a decision made after careful discussion by the nobles in the Turkic Khan's tent.
No matter what the matter was, the Turkic envoys coming to Chang'an one after another showed that the Turks attached great importance to the Tang army's attack on Goguryeo, and the military strength of the Tang Dynasty was increasingly respected by the Turks.
That's right, it's military strength. Most Turks don't have a clear concept of national power. They only see how sharp your swords and guns are and how brave your warriors are.
The series of military victories of the Tang Dynasty spread to the distant Turkic Khan's tents, causing the Turkic nobles to pay attention. Those who used to shout from time to time to go to war with the Tang Dynasty and avenge their shame gradually faded away.
What replaced it was full vigilance.
The two countries are entangled in their grievances and it is impossible to have unreserved friendship...
After the Tang army defeated Pyongyang City, the capital of Goguryeo, there was no sign of crossing the Yalu River.
During the exchange of letters, Li Po's meaning was also very clear, and he was waiting for Ashina Yang Huan to give a solution to Liaodong.
This is not an easy problem to solve. First of all, Ashina Duowen still has the strength to fight to the death. Secondly, there are many tribes in Liaodong. For both countries, there are worries that they are beyond their reach. They need a
A safe way to solve it.
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The Turks have chosen the place for the alliance, and Ashina Yang Huan's letter is also very certain that Li Po will not refuse.
The two countries formed an alliance three years ago because they both realized that their national strength was weakening and it was no longer appropriate to fight each other. The best strategy was to conserve their strength.
In addition, they are related to each other and have been on good terms with each other before, which laid a good foundation for the alliance.
And next year... it will be time to meet again and talk.
Li Po knew very well what Ashina Yang Huan wanted to talk about. In addition to further delineating the boundaries, or even completely solving the issue of ownership of Liaodong, there was also the Western Region...
The Turks had rested for so many years, and Ashina Yang Huan could not do nothing. The Turks could get news from the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty would naturally be able to find out what was going on in the Turks' country.
Ashina Yang Huan has been consolidating her power over the years. The year before last, she reformed the Turkic official system and enfeoffed several minor khans.
In the north, the Turks killed their old enemies and fled, basically eliminating the threat from the north.
Along the foothills of the Tianshan Mountains in the west, the Turkic royal court has also been sparing no effort to win over their in-laws and Tiele tribes again to gain an advantage over the Western Turks.
Ashina Yang Huan was good at maneuvering, but had poor strategic vision. Moreover, she was a woman who controlled Turks, which was inherently deficient.
Therefore, if she wanted to realize her strategic vision, she needed a "firm" ally like the Tang Dynasty. To this end, she made many concessions even though the Turks still had an advantage over the Tang Dynasty.
Now it was time for Datang to repay her favor. She believed that her nephew was more clear-minded than Yang Guang and would give her full support.
Just like when he took a risk and killed Ashina Elivo... instead of forming an alliance with the Western Turks to control the Turkic royal court like the former Sui Dynasty.
It is difficult to explain these things clearly in the exchange of letters, so there are prerequisites for the alliance to be reunited again.
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"Zhangye has now opened a border market, but there are not many merchants coming and going. Last year, I ordered people to pretend to be business travelers and went there several times. However, the road was difficult, and people and land were two different places. I encountered bandits from time to time, and suffered a lot of damage.
News about it is also very sparse.
The people who came back just said that Tongyehu Khan had a heroic appearance, and he won over all the countries in the Western Regions. He won great victories in several conquests, and he also married into Tiele tribes, and gradually became famous in the Western Regions..."
Looking at Zhang Liang talking eloquently, Li Po nodded frequently.
Zhang Liang has made a lot of progress, and when he talks about business, he is very clear-cut. How can he still see that he was just a farmer cultivating the fields before?
This is a type of growth that transcends classes. There are few in the world and throughout the ages.
"In recent years, our Tang Dynasty has deployed troops on the sea, and there has been chaos in the Tubo region. There has been some negligence in the Western Regions. This is the crime of me and others. However, I think that if your Majesty wants to know the details of the Western Regions, I am afraid you have to learn from
The Western Turks came to visit."
Li Po nodded, "I don't blame you for this. Things in the Western Region have always been a pearl in the emperor's crown, just to add glory and glory. It's just a decoration, but in fact it has no big use..."
Zhang Liang breathed a sigh of relief. He was suddenly summoned to the palace today and was asked about matters in the Western Regions, which made him quite uneasy.
Today's Military Intelligence Department, how can I put it? It has powers and responsibilities both internally and externally, but they are fragmented. Internally, it is not as good as an inspector temple, and externally, it is not as good as a scout in the army. Even Zhang Liang himself felt very sad when he looked at the various news in the daily newspaper.
It's a big deal. I don't know what the Military Intelligence Department should be in charge of now.
If the rights and responsibilities are not very clear, it will inevitably lead to confusion. You can control everything, but in fact you can control nothing.
What made Zhang Liang particularly uncomfortable was that as the Tang Dynasty gradually became better in diplomacy, it also highlighted Honglu Temple, so it often had dealings with the Military Intelligence Department.
Recently, someone has proposed that part of the Military Intelligence Department be placed under the jurisdiction of Honglu Temple, so that Honglu Temple can control the overall situation.
This is an act of decentralization of power, and naturally it is something that everyone in the Military Intelligence Department cannot easily agree to, because once he takes such a step back, Zhang Liang does not know if the various guards, or even the Supervisory Temple, Dali Temple, the Criminal Department, etc. will do anything again.
If you ask, wouldn’t the Military Intelligence Department be completely dismantled?
Zhang Liang couldn't bear to part with it after years of hard work.
He had discussed it with Xie Zheng, Liu Chaozong and others, and the best result was actually to take the Military Intelligence Department out of the Ministry of War and start a new one, just like the Supervisory Temple.
Even if it is directly under the jurisdiction of three provinces, it is much better than being under the Ministry of War.
But after all, His Majesty still has the final say, and we have to find the right time to do it.
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Of course, what the emperor said at this time did not sound entirely untrue to him.
A pearl? Since it can add glory to His Majesty, it is useful. The emperors of the former Han Dynasty and the northern monarchs of the Southern and Northern Dynasties would all look to the west.
How could the Tang Dynasty ignore it? Moreover, the Tang Dynasty had already destroyed several countries in the six years since its founding. With such martial arts, what does it mean to get another pearl to put on the crown?