At the Mingde Gate in Chang'an, a knight in black galloped towards the city gate. When he saw the city gate, he had no intention of slowing down. The knight whipped his horse fiercely and accelerated instead. This kind of situation can only happen with the eight-hundred-mile express report.
But that kind of messenger has special eye-catching clothes and shouts, '800-mile urgent military situation!'
But the knight in front of him was obviously not the same. The soldiers guarding the city were furious. The captain led a dozen soldiers and rushed forward with spears. "Stop!" the captain roared loudly. ()
The knight slowed down slightly, took out a token from his arms, waved it at the captain, and snorted coldly, "I scared the shit out of you!"
The captain was so frightened that he hurriedly got out of the way and shouted to the city gate: "Get out of the way and let him pass!"
The soldiers moved away one after another, and the knight speeded up his horse again, rushed into the city like lightning, and disappeared. Looking at the knight's disappearing back, a soldier asked the captain in a low voice: "Boss, which royal family is this?"
, so arrogant?”
"Hmph! I'm not afraid of the royal family anymore."
The captain sneered, but when he thought about the bronze medal, he lost confidence again and said with lingering fear: "It's Tang Feng!"
"Tang Feng?"
The soldiers next to me were shocked and stunned. That was the most ruthless intelligence agency in the Tang Dynasty, with boundless power. They said you were a spy of the Sui Dynasty, so they immediately arrested you. You don’t even know how you died. You can’t afford to offend me!
The knights of Tang Feng rushed into Mingde Gate, galloped on Zhuque Street, and galloped towards the Prince of Qin's Palace... In the Prince of Qin's Palace, Li Shimin was discussing the expansion of Tang Feng with the mastermind Fang Xuanling and the chief historian Sun Shunde.
In August, the Tang Dynasty recruited more than 100,000 soldiers from various places, which restored the Tang Dynasty's military strength to 300,000. Li Shimin recruited 80,000 soldiers and gave them to Duan Hongzhi, Yin Kaishan, Liu Hongji and others for training. He has already trained two or three soldiers.
months.
Although the number of troops increased, Li Shimin was not in a good mood in the past two months because his father finally rejected his proposal to attack Xiao Mian. Because Li Mi sent Shan Xiongxin to lead an army of 100,000 to attack Xiao Mian westward, Xiao Mian joined forces with Du
Fu Wei fought against the Wei army in Jiujiang County.
At this time, Xiao Mian's back was empty. He could take the opportunity to seize Yuzhang County and Poyang County. Li Shimin tried his best to persuade his father to send troops, but Prince Jiancheng said that this year was a disaster year. The burden on the people should be considered. Xiao Mian was just a turtle in the urn, sooner or later.
The thing on the plate persuades the emperor not to send troops and beware of the Sui army going south.
In the end, Li Mi's army was unfamiliar with water warfare and was defeated by Xiao and Du's coalition forces. He suffered tens of thousands of casualties and retreated to Jiangdu. Xiao Mian then turned back to station troops in Poyang and Yuzhang counties, thus losing this opportunity.** But at this time
Only then did they get information. It turned out that Yang Yuanqing's attack on Qingzhou was fake. He personally led his army to attack Goryeo and plunder food and supplies.
This news made Li Shimin extremely angry, but there was nothing he could do about it. The anger was useless. Unexpectedly, Prince Jiancheng took the opportunity to sue Tang Feng, saying that they did not find out the information about Yang Yuanqing's personal expedition to Korea in time, and missed the important military event, causing Li Shimin to be killed by his father.
scolded him severely.
Fang Xuanling stroked his beard and said: "Actually, I think Tang Feng is indeed a little weak in Taiyuan, mainly because he failed to bribe the core officials. Some important information cannot be obtained. I think Tang Feng does not necessarily need to expand, but should replace him.
More capable people have gone to Taiyuan to take charge, but Li Shouzhong's ability is still a little behind."
Changsun Wuji was Tang Feng's supervisor. He was most familiar with Tang Feng's situation. He nodded and said, "Sir, what you said makes sense. Li Shouzhong's ability is a little weaker. He was indeed unable to bribe important officials. This time Yang Yuanqing
He actually missed the opportunity to clean up Hebei's officialdom. I was also very annoyed and I agreed to replace him."
Li Shimin thought for a long time and said: "It will take at least a few months for Yang Yuanqing to clean up the officialdom in Hebei. There should still be a chance. Li Shouzhong has been in Taiyuan for a long time and is familiar with the situation. If he changes people now, the chance will be gone after the new person gets familiar with the situation.
, we can urge Li Shouzhong to spend all his money to win over more powerful Sui officials and master the inside information of the Sui Dynasty. I think he should be given another chance."
"Your Highness is right. It doesn't matter if you give him another chance. I just hope that Li Shouzhong will not disappoint His Highness's expectations."
While they were discussing, a guard suddenly came from outside the door: "Your Highness, King Qin, Tang Feng in Taiyuan has urgent information!"
Just when Tang Feng was mentioned, Tang Feng arrived. Li Shimin nodded, "Order someone to come in!"
The guards led the knight in black into the lobby quickly. The knight in black knelt down on one knee, cupped his fists and saluted Li Shimin, "I am humble and cynical. I am following the order of Hall Master Li to deliver a message to His Highness!"
The guard presented a letter and a red cloth bag on a red paint tray. Li Shimin glanced at the red cloth bag, but picked up the letter first. He took the letter out of the envelope, shook it open and read it hastily.
The letter said that the Sui Dynasty introduced a new type of silver coin, which was extremely popular in the market. Everyone was grabbing this type of silver coin to collect, and it was not circulating in the market at all. Li Shouzhong concluded that this was just a test by the Sui Dynasty, and that the coin would be launched on a large scale immediately.
.
At the end of the letter, another piece of information was added. Not long ago, a fleet of more than a hundred tugboats arrived in Taiyuan. The fleet was fully loaded with silver ingots. A silver ingot weighed more than thirty kilograms.
This information made Li Shimin take a breath of air-conditioning. The Sui Dynasty was actually going to introduce money on a large scale. He handed the letter to Fang Xuanling and said, "Sir, take a look! Something might be wrong."
Fang Xuanling took the letter, read it hastily, and frowned. At this time, Li Shimin's eyes fell on the red bag on the plate again. He picked up the red bag and shook out a stack of silver coins, a total of twenty
It is the same size as the new money of the Sui Dynasty, but thicker. Is this the most popular new silver coin of the Sui Dynasty?
Li Shimin picked up a silver coin, carefully pinched the edge with his index finger and thumb, raised it high, faced the light, and squinted at the coin. The workmanship was exquisite and delicate. There was a square hole in the middle for threading, and it was engraved with Yang characters.
It has the four characters "Yuanhe Tongbao" and the word "silver" on the back. Like the copper coins of the Sui Dynasty, the copper coins of the Sui Dynasty were uniformly changed to "Yuanhe Tongbao" from the second batch and were no longer called five baht coins.
.
Fang Xuanling read the letter, handed it to Changsun Wuji, and solemnly said to Li Shimin: "Your Highness, this matter is not trivial. If the Sui Dynasty has a large amount of gold and silver and starts to use silver as currency, it will surely plunder the world.
Wealth, if this situation does not change, in just two or three years, the Sui Dynasty will be strong and the Tang Dynasty will be weak, and the Tang Dynasty will be in danger!"
Changsun Wuji also read the letter, frowned and said: "We can strictly prohibit the use of this kind of money in the Tang Dynasty, or we can cut off trade with the Sui Dynasty, which may be able to avoid this crisis."
"It's no use!"
Fang Xuanling shook his head and handed a silver coin to Changsun Wuji. "This kind of silver coin is a good thing at first glance. It contains at least 90% silver. Even if we ban the circulation of silver coins, merchants can melt them.
To withdraw silver, even the Sui Dynasty did not use silver coins at all and directly used silver cakes. Most of us
We can only prohibit the outflow of supplies from Guanzhong, but we cannot prevent the outflow of supplies from Bashu, Jingxiang, and Jiangnan. There will definitely be a large amount of tea, rice, and silk from Jiangnan. Changsun Changshi, you should understand this. This kind of money will make prices skyrocket in the Tang Dynasty.
, public dissatisfaction is boiling, just like the price surge at the beginning of the year."
In fact, without Fang Xuanling's analysis, Li Shimin also understood the crisis that this kind of money would bring to the Tang Dynasty. He was so worried that he couldn't help but said bitterly: "This is the consequences of Huining's fall. Now it's out.
If it is not stopped, the Tang Dynasty will be destroyed by this small piece of money."
Fang Xuanling said slowly: "Your Highness, I have three strategies to avoid this crisis."
Li Shimin was overjoyed and said quickly: "Sir, please tell me!"
"Your Highness, the first thing is to 'break' the plan and destroy the Sui Dynasty's silver coins. We might as well use white copper to make the same silver coins as the Sui Dynasty. A large amount of money was invested in the Sui Dynasty, and the Sui people no longer dare to believe in silver coins, and dare not use silver coins anymore.
."
This is a poisonous trick, but it cannot be put on the table and cannot last long. It can only maintain a temporary effect. Li Shimin pondered for a moment and then asked: "What about the second strategy?"
"The second strategy is the 'increase' strategy. In fact, we also use silver as currency to fight against the Sui Dynasty's money. Of course, this requires a large amount of silver, which is also our difficulty."
Li Shimin smiled bitterly. If they could get silver, they would have done it long ago. After the Huining Silver Mine was taken away, they have been looking for silver mines, but they only found a few small mines, with no harvest. He sighed and said: "Mr.
Let’s talk about the third strategy!”
Fang Xuanling's eyes became cold, and he said calmly: "The third strategy is the 'ultimate' strategy. If neither the first strategy nor the second strategy works, then there is only one way. Your Highness should know what I mean!"
Li Shimin nodded slowly, "I understand. I will go into the palace to meet my father. This matter is of great importance and cannot be delayed for a moment... In the Wude Hall of Taiji Palace, Emperor Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty was receiving envoys from the Turks.
This time, the Turks sent two envoys, one to Taiyuan and the other to Chang'an. Jieli Khan was very skillful. He wanted to make full use of the dispute between the Sui and Tang Dynasties to seek the greatest benefits for the Turks.
The envoy who came to Chang'an was called Mo Yanzhuo, a Turkic minister. He came to Chang'an on the orders of Jieli Khan. He hoped to accomplish three things. The first was to form an alliance, the second was to trade, and the third was to form a marriage.
In the side hall of Wude Hall, Li Yuan sat high on the dragon couch with a smile on his face, while the envoy Mo Yanzhuo sat at the bottom with a respectful look on his face. Prince Li Jiancheng and the five prime ministers sat opposite.
For the Tang Dynasty, alliance was a concession by the Turks. In the initial contact between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks, the Tang Dynasty surrendered to the Turks, and forming an alliance meant canceling this submission and becoming equal status.
Jieli Khan is an extremely pragmatic person. He does not need this kind of meaningless surrender. What he wants is tangible benefits, and he wants the Tang Dynasty to sell pig iron to him.
Marriage is the icing on the cake. It is a new measure to harmonize the relationship between the two after reaching an alliance and trade. However, Jieli Khan has already married Princess Yigas as Ketun, so he can only marry the daughter of the Tang Dynasty clan as his concubine.
And cannot marry the princess.
But for the Tang Dynasty, alliances were extremely important. This was to free the Tang Dynasty from the bad influence of surrendering to the Turks in the early days. This incident had already spread throughout the world and had been criticized by many people. This was crucial for the Tang Dynasty, which was eager to maintain its orthodox image.
.
"I am very happy to form an alliance with the Turks, and I am also willing to give the daughter of the clan to the Turks Khan as his concubine. As for trade, please allow me to discuss it with the minister and give you a reply to your envoy."
Although Mo Yanzhuo looked respectful and could speak fluent Chinese, his tone was very firm, "Dear His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, on behalf of the Khan, I am extremely grateful to His Majesty the Emperor for his sincerity, but I need to remind your Majesty in a friendly way,
Trade is the prerequisite for alliances and marriages. I hope that His Majesty will pay more attention to trade that is profitable for both parties... To be continued. You are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation.) rq