Although the aristocratic family has brought him a lot of help, this incident made him know that the aristocratic family is not so easy to control.
He also thought carefully about what Han Wen said and felt that there was no chance of success.
As long as he can succeed, he will be the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the common ruler of the world.
He was previously thinking about the position of prince, but now he has a chance to directly become the emperor. It would be a lie to say that he is not interested.
But he was not completely blinded by the throne. He knew that if he did this, he would probably become a puppet of the family.
After all, most of the people under his command now are from aristocratic families. If he really seizes the throne, the court will definitely have to go through a cleansing process, and then the aristocratic family's power will be greatly increased.
He had read the history of Sima Dai Wei.
If the minister is strong and the master is weak, the outcome will not be much better.
Li Tai felt that he should find a force to balance the aristocratic family, so that the aristocratic family would not become dominant.
As for this candidate, Li Tai thought of Hou Junji.
Hou Junji has followed Li Shimin for many years and has made many achievements and has considerable prestige in the army. When the time comes, Hou Junji will control the military power and act as a check on the aristocratic family.
As long as the family does not have military power, the threat to him will not be that great.
Thinking of this, Li Tai called a confidant and whispered instructions.
After hearing this, the confidants took the order and left.
…
Although Lin Xuan did not attend the morning court, he still knew what happened in the morning court.
He doesn't want to get involved in these things, and he can't get involved.
However, not long after he heard the news, people from the palace came.
Lin Xuan initially thought that Li Shimin came to him because he wanted to talk about Li Tai, but when he thought about it carefully, it was unlikely.
After all, Li Shimin had already said at the time that Li Tai would become a vassal in half a year, so there was no point in talking to him about this.
Since it's not Li Tai's business, it's probably grassland's business.
While Lin Xuan was thinking about the situation in the grassland, the carriage came to the gate of the palace, got off the carriage, and after checking, he came to the Manna Palace under the guidance of the eunuch.
Outside the Ganlu Hall, Lin Xuan also saw Cheng Chuliang and Changsun Chong who were on duty. Lin Xuan nodded to them and entered the hall.
Changsun Chong looked at Lin Xuan's back with a confused look on his face. He was a prince-in-law. Why should I stand guard but he didn't?
"I see your Majesty." Lin Xuan bowed.
Li Shimin waved his hand and said, "This is the secret report sent by Bai Qi and Xue Rengui. Take a look."
After speaking, he handed the two letters to Li Mu.
Li Mu bowed his body and took the letter, then stepped forward and handed the letter to Lin Xuan.
Although Xue Rengui said he was writing a letter to Lin Xuan, the letter must have reached Li Shimin first. If the letter reached Lin Xuan first, it would be of no benefit to either of them.
Lin Xuan took the letter and read Baiqi's letter first.
Lin Xuan was not surprised that Baiqi could investigate the information about the grassland.
Although it is difficult to impersonate the nomads, they still rely on the Tang Dynasty for the salt, iron and some daily necessities they need.
Now that the border market is not open, we can only buy it from those smuggling merchants. It is very simple for Baiqi to plant some spies in the caravan.
The content of the letter is not much, it just states that martial law has been imposed on the border between Western Turks and Xueyantuo, and there have been many minor frictions, but there has been no major war.
It's good that Baiqi can investigate this. After all, the caravan can enter the grassland, but it can't contact the high-level officials of the two countries.
However, the general situation of the grassland can also be analyzed from this information.
It can be described as being on the verge of breaking out.
Lin Xuan read Xue Rengui's letter again, and after reading it, returned the letter to Li Mu.
"What do you think?" Li Shimin asked.
It's not like he handed over the entire grassland war to Lin Xuan.
If the Tang Dynasty mobilized a large army, it would not be able to hide it from the grassland.
After all, there are many foreign races in the Tang Dynasty. Who knows which ones are spies from the grassland.
The mobilization of 10,000 or 20,000 troops can be concealed, but the mobilization of 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands of troops is too difficult to conceal.
The surprise attack on East Turkestan was also due to the university's road closure. As long as the road was blocked in advance, the spies would have no way of reporting the news.
But it's different now. There are so many small roads in the mountains. Without God's cooperation, people alone can't seal them.
When he called Lin Xuan over, he was actually hinting to Lin Xuan that it was time to set off.
"Your Majesty, I think there will be a war on the grassland soon." Lin Xuan said.
From all indications, the grassland war is not far away.
"I also see it this way. If you want to greatly weaken the strength of the Western Turks and Xue Yantuo, Datang cannot enter the game too early, and your role is particularly crucial." Li Shimin said.
Lin Xuan naturally understands his role. If the grassland side wins too quickly, it will not be a good thing for Datang.
Even though unifying the grasslands will definitely consume a lot of strength, unification and division are two different concepts.
The best result is that they are evenly matched, and both sides suffer in the end, and Datang pacifies the grassland in one fell swoop.
But the battlefield is constantly changing and anything can happen, and Lin Xuan's role is to give the weaker side some time to breathe at critical moments.
"Ashenasher, tell him that as long as he surrenders to me and is granted the title of Duke, he will still command our troops." Li Shimin said.
Lin Xuan wanted to conquer Ashina Sheer, and he could guess it from Xue Rengui's letter.
Li Shimin already knew about the situation Ashina Sheer was facing now. He had no other choice but to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. He had previously thought of recruiting Ashina Sheer to surrender, but it was just not time yet.
Clearly, the time has come.
"I understand."
Li Shimin didn't say anything, but Lin Xuan mentioned this matter to Li Shimin when he was about to leave.
If you want to pacify the grassland, killing alone is useless.
The Central Plains dynasties fought with the nomads for more than a thousand years, and the nomads on the grasslands changed one after another, but they never changed.
Only integrated occupation can fundamentally solve this problem.
And if you want to integrate the Turks into the Tang Dynasty, Ashina Sheer cannot kill them.
On the contrary, he also needed preferential treatment to let other Turks know the benefits of joining the Tang Dynasty.
Spending thousands of gold to buy horse bones is nothing more than this.
Since Ashina Sheer cannot be killed, Lin Xuan cannot promise him some empty promises. Otherwise, if he rebels when the time comes, he will set a negative example.
As for the granting of official positions and titles, only Li Shimin agreed.
"After Ashinasheer surrenders, what do you plan to do with him?" Li Shimin asked.
Lin Xuan pondered for a while and said: "I plan to keep it secret and let him stay where he is and pay attention to the movements of the Western Turks. If the Western Turks gain the upper hand, they will send troops to harass their rear, while I will lead people to resist Xue Yantuo."
Li Shimin nodded, this arrangement is undoubtedly the best.
"I have asked the Ministry of Industry to speed up the production of repeating crossbows. There should be nearly a thousand crossbows in ten days. You will bring them all with you by then, and I will leave the matter of the grassland to you. Don't let me down." Li Shimin said.
In fact, there were many candidates. Li Shimin sent Lin Xuan mainly to train Lin Xuan.
Most of the current generals in the Tang Dynasty are already very old. The younger ones, such as Li Ji and Hou Junji, are also older than him. After a hundred years, these people will no longer be useful.
He trained Lin Xuan for the future emperor, which is why Lin Xuan never wanted to take power and he didn't care.
He wanted to use Lin Xuan, but he was not prepared to use it extensively.
In this way, Lin Xuan can be trained, but he will not have too much power, which is just right for the next generation of emperors.