The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1140: Each Has Its Own Plans (Part )

Li Yan felt secretly relieved when he saw these people kneeling on the ground.

In the past, when these nobles came to court, they would kneel before him and raise their tablets before reporting. If there was no court etiquette for all the officials to kneel together, they would not have knelt before a young emperor like him alone.

Now, those whose lairs were stabbed no longer cared about their dignity. They looked panicked and somewhat begging.

Hearing the emperor's friendly attitude, Shandong felt relieved and somewhat had a good impression of the young emperor who was not biased towards the Guanlong nobles. Many people looked at the emperor with goodwill.

However, even so, everyone knew that the emperor did not have much say in the current situation in the court. If they wanted to change the strategy, the obstacle was not with the emperor, but to convince the other two groups in the court.

Of course they knew that the imperial court would definitely send troops to eliminate the Turks, but a moment earlier or later made no difference to the imperial court, and it would even be of great benefit to the other two major forces.

But for the Shandong nobles, it was a matter of life and death.

After all, Hebei belongs to the court and to them. In the final analysis, it is still theirs, so they are more anxious than the court.

Cui Benshan said angrily: "Your Majesty, I suggest that the court send elite cavalry to Hebei to eliminate Shi Luodie."

"Lord Cui, do you know how many cavalry the court will need to mobilize to eliminate such a powerful enemy?"

The courtier Liu Bo snorted and stood up and said, "If we want to fight back, the court will have to mobilize a force no less than that of the Turks, at least 200,000 or 300,000. The court only has a few cavalry, and most of them are distributed in the northern border and the western regions."

"If we mobilize the troops here, what if the Right Wise King goes south, or if there is chaos in the Western Regions? Although Shiluodie is coming with great force, they have no escape route, just like fish caught in a net. As long as the Right Wise King's troops do not show up, their fate is sealed."

"The court only needs to fortify the city, clear the fields, and prevent them from obtaining food and logistics. Slowly tighten the encirclement, and they will naturally be trapped to death. If we send troops to fight them head-on, even if we destroy them, how many people will our Tang Dynasty lose?"

Liu Bo's words echoed in the hall, and for a moment, all the ministers in the hall fell silent.

Ten years ago, the Tang Dynasty had a total of about two million troops, scattered across the country, most of which were assigned to local Zhechongfu to guard the local areas. In the past few years, the territory of the Tang Dynasty has more than doubled due to continuous expansion.

The military force also expanded rapidly, reaching a total of three million, of which about 300,000 were cavalry, accounting for 10% of the total.

Although it is only 10%, it is already a huge scale.

You know, in the third year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin invited Hou Junji to train the Flying Tiger Army, with a total of only 30,000 people. Together with the border troops from all over the north, the cavalry of the entire Tang Dynasty was less than 100,000, and now it has expanded three times.

Before, there were no horses; now, there is no money.

The cost of maintaining a qualified cavalryman is at least the cost of ten infantrymen. The annual expenditure of the court to maintain this cavalry, which accounts for only one-tenth of the Tang Dynasty’s army, accounts for more than half of all expenses.

The cavalry of the Tang Dynasty was different from that of the Turks. The Turks were a nation of horsemen, and each tribe had its own herd of horses. Every herdsman rode on a horse, carried a bow and a pot of arrows, and a scimitar on his waist, and he was a cavalryman.

There is no need to pay salaries in normal times. When going to war, whoever grabs something gets it.

Even if there are casualties, the Khan will not be held responsible.

Such cavalry, with almost no cost, the grassland people could easily pull out hundreds of thousands of cavalry corps. The superb riding skills and huge numbers made up for the lack of equipment, allowing them to look down on the world, dominate the past and present, and always suppress the Central Plains dynasty.

They even regard agricultural people as sheep and compare themselves to hunting wolves.

In contrast, in the Central Plains, a qualified cavalryman not only had to undergo long-term training, but also had to receive a salary more than three times that of an infantryman, and also had to provide horses. The horses had to be equipped with a full set of cavalry gear, and every soldier had to wear armor.

Weapons such as longbows, spears, halberds, shields, etc. are all indispensable. Some types of soldiers are also equipped with flying axes and short spears according to different needs.

It is said that one cavalryman is worth ten infantrymen. Strictly speaking, the expense of ten infantrymen is not even as much as that of one cavalryman.

Why did Qin Shi Huang build the Great Wall to guard against the grassland people? It was not that he had never fought against them, but that he could not conquer them at all. Later, Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, and Emperor Chengzu of Ming, Zhu Di, all used their national strength to conquer the grasslands, but ended up dragging down the national strength and still could not do anything to the grassland people.

It must be said that in the long history of agricultural society, the Central Plains dynasty only attacked during a few periods of prosperity. Most of the time, it was on the defensive because it could not afford to fight and could not defend if it attacked.

Although the Central Plains dynasty could be extremely powerful for a time, it was difficult for it to maintain a constant state.

The barbarians on the grassland only need to avoid their sharp edge and wait for them to become corrupt and weak, then they can easily attack. This is an almost irreversible situation.

The Tang Dynasty currently has 300,000 cavalrymen, of which 250,000 are scattered along the long northern border from Liaodong to Yanshan, Hedong, Guannei Road, Hexi, and then to the Western Regions, and 50,000 are stationed in the capital. If all the cavalrymen are gathered together to fight a decisive battle with Shiluodi just for Hebei, it is almost impossible. What's more, in terms of cavalry warfare, the Tang Dynasty may not be as good as the Turks.

If the Tang Dynasty failed to win the first battle, it would expose the weakness of the empire and attract the attention of other tribes on the grassland, and it would be in danger of being destroyed.

Therefore, as soon as Cui Benshan's proposal came out, it was immediately questioned by Liu Bo, and most of the ministers in the palace also disagreed with it.

Cui Benshan had also been in the central government for a long time, so he naturally understood this principle. After thinking for a while, he said, "Your Majesty, I suggest mobilizing the cavalry of the Mo Nan Grand Military Governor's Office to enter Hebei."

"No, absolutely not."

Cen Wenben could no longer stand by and watch, so he stepped forward to stop them, saying, "Master Cui, don't forget that the tribes in Mo Nan are, after all, a branch of the Anashi clan. If we let them deal with others, maybe we can consider it."

"Even if they are facing the Right Wise King, they will not waver."

"But Shiluodi is the most authentic branch of the Ashina clan. Jieli and Tuli are dead, and the barrier between the two tribes no longer exists. If the tribes in the south of the desert are transferred to the interior of the country, they will think that the Central Plains can't even deal with a part of the Turks, and they will inevitably look down on us."

"Secondly, both tribes are branches of the Ashina clan. If the two tribes merge, wouldn't that be adding fuel to the fire?"

"Shiluodi already has 300,000 troops. If we add the 200,000 troops from Mo Nan, our Tang Dynasty will be in real danger. Therefore, no matter what, I do not agree to transfer the Mo Nan tribes into the Tang Dynasty."

Cen Wenben knew that Mo Nan was the power of Dai Wang Li Jue. If Li Jue made great achievements in this matter, it would inevitably increase his prestige and arouse his greed. This would shake the position of Crown Prince Li Xiang. As the Crown Prince's tutor, he had to stand up to protect Li Xiang.

Eliminate things that may threaten you and shake the foundation of the country.

However, his concerns were not without reason. Xiao Yu also stood up and said, "Master Cen is right. Besides, if people of the same bloodline who were once regarded as brothers kill each other, it will easily arouse their dissatisfaction."

"If the internal troubles are not resolved by then and new chaos is created, it will be a loss instead of a gain. I, an old minister, do not agree with this move."

"I don't agree with it either." Then some other ministers stood up and expressed their opinions, rejecting this idea.

There are four major clans in Hebei, namely the Fanyang Lu clan, the Boling Cui clan, the Qinghe Cui clan, and the Zhaojun Li clan. These four clans almost divided up the entire Hebei province. The Fanyang Lu clan occupied the Youyan area in northern Hebei, with Youzhou and Jizhou as the core.

The Cui family of Boling was based in the central and western parts of Hebei, with Hengzhou and Dingzhou as its base.

The Qinghe Cui family was located in the southeastern part of Hebei. Jizhou, Dezhou and Dizhou, which were adjacent to Qi and Henan, were their territory.

The Li family of Zhaojun has been developing southwards. The terrain of Hebei is slightly narrow from east to west and slightly long from north to south. The southwestern corner of the province has even penetrated deeply into the territory of Henan, and all the areas north of the Yellow River have been included in Hebei.

And within this extended corner, Xingzhou, Mingzhou, Xiangzhou, Weizhou, and even Weizhou which is closest to Luoyang, are all the territories of the Zhaojun Li family.

The vast Hebei Province is centered on these four top families. The rest of the second- and third-rate families, as well as some peripheral wealthy families, are all closely related to them. It can be said that as long as these four families betray, Datang will immediately lose Hebei.

The loss of Hebei would often lead to unrest in Henan and Qi, leading to chaos in the whole country.

Due to historical reasons, the north has always had two political centers, one is Guanzhong and the other is Hebei. Relying on these two places, the north is also easily divided into two countries. And often when the north is divided, the southern regime centered on the Yangtze River Basin will also become independent.

As long as the two northern regions are unified, the south will be brought under the jurisdiction of the central government, but the power that truly determines the unification of the world is in the north. There have always been many heroes competing for supremacy, and it is not surprising that these two forces will push forward the struggle for hegemony.

The Hebei nobles all knew that in recent years, relying on the rise of northern trade, Hebei, as a necessary place for the influx of Yingzhou silver mines, also prospered with business. On the one hand, the Guanlong nobles were jealous, but on the other hand, they also wanted to restrict them.

If the Turks had only attacked Hebei, they might have been happy to sit back and watch the fight.

The eight-way encirclement strategy proposed by Zhangsun Wuji and the Central Government showed that they were not in a hurry to eliminate the Turks. The Turks rushed into Hebei without leaving any way out, surrounded by the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

The Turks will be doomed sooner or later. Now, if we just move a little slower, we can use the Turks to greatly weaken the Hebei nobles.

But the Turks were too cruel. Not only did they take the money, they also confiscated the property.

In addition to confiscating the property, the land had also to be divided.

(End of this chapter)