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

Chapter 1166 Li Ji was fooled
Next, Shi Luodie introduced the deployment of the Tang army and ordered: "This Khan has decided to leave Ashina Moduo to lead 50,000 people to defend Ande City and attract the southern Fang Cheng Yaojin's troops. Then he will personally lead 200,000 main forces to the north to meet Li Ji's troops."

"We can wipe out his 100,000 cavalrymen in one swoop. If Li Ji's cavalry is lost, Cheng Yaojin's cavalry will not be a concern."

They like to use their strength to bully the weak and their numbers to bully the few. Seeing this arrangement, the beasts were very excited and said loudly: "The Khan is wise. We will obey your orders."

Shi Luodie nodded with satisfaction. He was now very skilled in controlling the overall situation and controlling people's hearts. He first suppressed and then praised, and easily mobilized everyone's mentality. With the belief that he must win, he could naturally burst out with extraordinary strength and win this battle.

"The reason why I retreated layer by layer was to separate their cavalry and infantry, and then find an opportunity to annihilate them."

Shi Luodie nodded, looked at one of them and said, "Ashina Moduo, Ande is also a famous important official in southern Hebei. The city is deep, the walls are high, and all kinds of city defense equipment are complete. The Tang army is also cavalry, and the large group of siege infantry is still behind."

"You just need to hold on to the city. When my army destroys Li Ji's army, we will return and cooperate with you to annihilate Cheng Yaojin's army. In this way, the war in the Tang Dynasty can be won."

Seeing that the Khan still trusted his own people more at the critical moment, Ashina Moduo was very excited and patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Khan, I will defend the city to the death and not let the Tang army cross the city wall before the Khan returns."

"Well, I believe you."

After the deployment was completed, no one objected. Shi Luodie said decisively: "You all go and gather the troops, bring three days' worth of dry food, and go out immediately to the north to meet the enemy."

"We obey the order of the Great Khan." All the beasts responded in unison, and then turned away with serious expressions.

Shi Luodie smiled slightly. They were trapped in the dead end now. Even if there were some tribes that were not on good terms with them, had second thoughts, and were good at protecting themselves, they had no way out. There was only one way to survive, to defeat the Tang cavalry and break the deadlock of being surrounded on all sides.

Otherwise, it will be a dead end.

It is said that the small ones are good at planning, while the big ones are good at situational awareness.

Shi Luodie no longer cares about the gains and losses of a city or a place. Instead, he looks at the whole world, manipulates the situation to create the situation he wants, and then achieves his goals.

Then the Turkic camp began to get busy. When it was almost dawn, the earth rumbled and trembled. Taking advantage of the cover of night, the 200,000-strong army marched northward in a mighty force. A great battle that would determine the fate of the Tang Dynasty had thus begun.

However, in this war that is destined to go down in history, no one can tell who is the enemy and who is the friend, and whose victory will be better for the country and the people.

Gonggao City is an unknown small city in Jizhou, but its geographical location is very important, located between the Zhang River and the Ji River.

Li Ji led a cavalry of 100,000 people to march north from Julu, and they advanced smoothly all the way, winning battle after battle, constantly "recovering" lost territory, and annihilating various Turkic land distribution teams along the way. They detoured through Wuqiang and Leshou, crossed the Zhangshui River and headed south, entering Gonggao City.

The magistrate of Gonggao County was a member of the Qinghe Cui family and he warmly entertained Li Ji and his party.

After a long march, Li Ji and several important generals in the army were exhausted and went into the city to rest. One hundred thousand cavalrymen were stationed directly in the south of the city, simply erecting wooden fences and setting up camp without even digging trenches.

It is no wonder that the army acted so casually. Before Li Ji left, Li Yan specially summoned him to the imperial study and informed him of the "real situation" of the Turks in Hebei.

Li Yan shamelessly quoted Zhangsun Wuji's statement that 300,000 Turks went south, passed through the Liaohe Plain, the Liaoxi Corridor, and dozens of siege battles in the vast area of ​​Hebei. They suffered heavy casualties and their number was less than half of what it had when they came.

Hearing this, Li Ji subconsciously let down his guard.

Also, if the Yanshan defense line and Liaozhou were not lost, the Turks who had penetrated deep into the heartland of the Tang Dynasty would have been like dogs that had lost their homes, and would have been in a state of panic all day long. Blindly attacking cities everywhere would have also resulted in heavy losses.

Li Ji thought that although the cities in the interior of the Tang Dynasty were not as strong as those in the border areas, no matter how fragile they were, they could still hold out for some time and consume some of the enemy. He did not believe that the Turks had fought all the way to the north bank of the Yellow River without suffering too much loss.

He certainly knew that the division of land by the Turks would seriously weaken the city's defenses.

But under the control of the government and the aristocracy, as long as a siege war was formed, it would inevitably cause some losses to the Turks.

Dozens or hundreds of losses will naturally accumulate into huge casualties.

Poor Li Ji, who was a famous general, had always been hanging around in the army. He did not understand the operating methods and mentality of the officialdom, and was fooled by the official system that believed that "respect is more important than right and wrong", "if you are right, you are right; if you are wrong, you are wrong", and became a victim of superficiality.

Coupled with Li Yan's deliberate misleading, it was natural to conclude that the Turks' strength had been greatly weakened.

The Hebei nobles who fled to Guanzhong naturally knew the truth, but they would not tell it out.

Should we tell the world that so many cities in Hebei were in vain, and that the soldiers, in order to covet land, even secretly condoned the Turks, did not resist, and let the Turks enter the city? Impossible.

This is a secret that people know but cannot speak out loud, because once it is made public, the court will have to discuss it.

Why would the people help the Turks and oppose themselves?
It may even trigger a wave of reflection, and some knowledgeable people in the court will question the aristocracy's unrestrained annexation of land, which will inevitably lead to the hollowing out of the court's foundation and a reversal of public opinion. Under this pressure, it is very likely that corrections will be made at this time.

Even among the nobles, some people would stand up. After all, the stability of the country was the fundamental guarantee for them to safeguard their own interests. Especially those who were the actual controlling shareholders of the Tang Dynasty would naturally not sit idly by and watch the court being hollowed out.

In this era, the most visionary people are mostly from aristocratic families.

If the foundation of the court was shaken by the land issue, everyone would discuss some reform policies for this situation, such as analyzing the distribution of land between the nobles and the common people and ensuring a certain proportion.

It can satisfy the needs of the nobles while ensuring the minimum survival of the people, and keep the risk of getting out of control within a reasonable range.

This will undoubtedly cause losses to the aristocratic families.

In fact, Li Yan can do this now.

The aristocratic families and the wise men in the court all knew that land was limited and endless annexation would inevitably lead to self-destruction. However, the ownership of land changed relatively slowly and intangibly, and if you didn't occupy it, others would.

This process may stretch out to dozens or even hundreds of years, until the ancestors who have a good understanding of the situation pass away one by one, and the new generation of people comes to power. This "knowledge" will gradually be forgotten, and finally the control of the overall situation will be completely lost.

The power of the noble families in the early Tang Dynasty was obviously stronger, so why were they able to stabilize the situation and create a prosperous era? Why not in later generations?
It is because the nobles who had come through the Wei, Zhou, Qi and Sui dynasties chose to stay behind the scenes, hold ownership, and hand over management rights. They knew that if they took another step, they would appear to be the rulers of the world, but in fact they would be destroyed, so they chose to step back, leaving room for maneuver and maintaining their advantages forever.

After generations of inheritance, their descendants have forgotten why their ancestors did not "dedicate their family to the country". They no longer control their desires, eat as much as they can, and do as much as they can.

As a result, the family declined after reaching its peak, and a ruthless man like Huang Chao emerged and wiped out the family that had been passed down for hundreds of years.

The bones of the nobles were trampled on the streets, and the inner treasury was burned to ashes. It was Huang Chao who did it, but they brought this upon themselves.

Today's ministers do not have a macro and clear understanding of the proportional division of land.

If Li Yan could draw a chart showing the distribution of land throughout the ages and the rise and fall of nations, it would surely attract everyone's attention, and then they could work out a hard red line to ensure the number of self-cultivating farmers from which the state could collect taxes.

Once the red line is crossed, the country is in danger.

As long as this resolution is passed and supported by the nobles, they will control the seizure of land and transfer the need to expand their power to other areas. On the other hand, the court will have the power to curb land annexation "according to the law".

However, if we draw this red line now, the proportion will definitely not satisfy Li Yan.

The amount of arable land in the Tang Dynasty is now approximately 30% to 70%, with ordinary people accounting for less than 30% and aristocratic families accounting for more than 70%.

In Li Yan's plan, self-cultivating farmers would account for more than 80%, and the estates of aristocratic families would be reduced to less than 20%.

Only such land distribution can be the foundation of a healthy and prosperous dynasty.

However, such a division can only be achieved in the early days of the founding of the country, when the vested groups of the previous dynasty were cleansed and most of the land returned to the hands of the people.

The Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui Dynasty system. In order to quickly complete the transition of power, Li Yuan recognized all the interests of the aristocratic families left over from the former Sui Dynasty. Therefore, the change of dynasties between the Sui and Tang Dynasties did not achieve a complete transformation.

If the issue of land division is raised now, it will either not be passed or the proportion passed will be very embarrassing. Even if it is half, it will not satisfy Li Yan. Once a resolution is made, for example, the court uses the law to determine that the nobles legally own 50%, it will become a shackle for the emperor.

Therefore, Li Yan put all this after this turmoil.

Due to the concealment of officials and nobles who fled to Beijing from Hebei, Li Ji did not know the true situation of the war in Hebei. In fact, the war fought by the Turks was unprecedented, and military means were used as a supplement to the main political offensive of "dividing the land."

Therefore, although the Turks conquered a lot of territory, the army did not suffer any losses.

The Hebei nobles exaggerated a bit, and Changsun Wuji exaggerated it a bit more. When it comes to Li Yan's turn, it won't be an exaggeration to "destroy the ambitions of others and enhance the prestige of one's own family"!
(End of this chapter)