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

Chapter 891: Political Discussion in Chengqing Palace (I)

Thinking of the terrifying Right Wise King, Fang Xuanling's face became serious and he said decisively: "Your Majesty, this boy must not be kept any longer. From the fact that he invaded the territory of Biheli without hesitation this time, it can be seen that this man is ambitious, overbearing and has no scruples."

"We cannot allow them to grow any further. The Tang Dynasty must immediately send troops to wipe out the Turks."

Li Shimin was very hesitant. The Tang Dynasty was now in a critical period of transformation, and internal reforms were in full swing. The only military force it had, apart from managing the Western Regions, was sent to the Liaodong Peninsula in the northeast, where it was deeply involved.

Even Zhangsun Wuji, Hou Junji, Yuchi Jingde and other generals were still staying there, presiding over the overall situation and cooperating with the civil officials in governance.

After Li Jing, Cheng Yaojin, Li Ji, Li Daozong and Changsun Shunde went to Hebei, they waited until Changsun Wuji's army entered the Three Kingdoms of Korea and then returned home. After all, they sent troops just for show and to build a memorial archway.

A tiny Liaodong Peninsula is not worth involving so many famous Tang generals.

The Tang Dynasty has a vast territory, and there are other places that need to be pacified. These generals cannot stay in Liaodong for a long time and need to stay in Chang'an.

After Hou Junji lost Jingzhou due to "carelessness", Li Shimin was furious and wanted to summon Hou Junji back to Beijing to be punished. However, Zhangsun Wuji said that Liaodong needed a general to guard it, so it was better to let Hou Junji stay at the front line to make meritorious contributions.

Many ministers also advised him against it. After all, none of the ministers in the court could find any motive for Hou Junji to deliberately indulge the enemy. Hou Junji and the Right Wise King were not even remotely related, so it could only be attributed to a military mistake.

Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling, who knew the inside story, could not find any reason why Hou Junji helped "hide the eldest son of the crown prince".

The people on Li Tai and Li Ke's side were even more afraid that Hou Junji would protect the Eastern Palace again after returning to the capital and cause trouble for them, so they went with the flow and helped Hou Junji.

Let him pass safely and continue to stay on the front line.

Li Shimin later issued an edict to remove Hou Junji from his post as General of the Right Guard as a punishment, and allowed him to continue serving in the army.

Now, at this critical juncture when the Tang Dynasty was rising from the ashes, it was obvious that it could not afford such a long and drawn-out expedition.

The reason why the previous Battle of Dingxiang was hastily launched three years after Li Shimin ascended the throne was not because of the strength of the country, but more because the Turks had unified the grasslands since the time of Shibi Khan, and they wanted to expand outward.

The center of gravity had already been moved south to the south of the desert, bordering the Tang Dynasty.

Later, there was chaos in the Central Plains. The Former Sui Dynasty suffered heavy military losses in the Hebei and Liaodong areas. After the change of dynasties, the north was even more empty. Jie Li further squeezed the Turks and pushed their power to the Guannei Road area on the south bank of the Yellow River.

The Battle of Dingxiang was actually fought at the doorstep of the Tang Dynasty. If Jie Li's focus was still in the south of the desert or further north, the Tang Dynasty would not have fought this battle. Because the Tang Dynasty, which had just been established and stabilized, could not withstand a national war deep in the desert.

Although the current Turks are living in a corner after the split, they are far away in Urg and Hulun Lake, three or four thousand miles away from Chang'an in a straight line.

It may not be easy to lead an army on a long expedition.

In addition, the Turks would not just wait there to fight a positional war with the Tang Dynasty, but could make use of their great depth to maneuver. The Tang Dynasty's army needed strong logistics and baggage support, and if they failed to win quickly, defeat would be waiting for them.

On the vast grassland, nomadic people are the masters of that land.

"Your Majesty, you can't!"

Seeing Li Shimin showing a thoughtful and hesitant look, and Fang Xuanling was inclined to send troops to Mobei, Li Jing hurriedly stopped him and analyzed: "This old minister was a little confused in the court today. The barbarians are unruly and have never obeyed the king's rule. They are also perfunctory to the court."

"However, they have always been small fights, never this rampant."

"It seems that Mobei is closer to Xueyantuo. I think Yi Nan must have known the situation in the north, so he took advantage of the situation and made such an excessive request to threaten the emperor."

"The Right Wise King is as good at fighting as Jie Li was back then. He is very fast in his battles. It took him only two months to defeat Bi Heli and drive him to the vicinity of Yu Dujun Mountain. If he retreats a step further, he will be between Mo Nan and Jinshan Grand Commandery."

Li Jing said solemnly: "Your Majesty, at this time when the situation is unclear, you must not send troops rashly. Now both the east and the west are ready to make a move. If we attack the Turks, the Yi Nan will take the opportunity to become stronger; if we attack the Yi Nan, I am afraid that the Turks will attack us from behind."

"After the Battle of Dingxiang, half of the grassland fell into the hands of the Tang Dynasty. In fact, it was divided into four parts. After six years of management, the Ashina Yun tribe in the south of the desert has been incorporated into the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty. No matter how the grassland changes, this part can be regarded as the homeland of the Tang Dynasty."

"It is our core interest. There is no way we can let it go!"

"The northern desert is divided into three parts: the Turkic Khanate in the east and the Xueyantuo in the west. Both are very powerful. There is also the slightly weaker Biheli in the middle, which serves as a buffer."

"Now that the Turks have destroyed the Biheli, the eastern and western tribes have bordered each other and are facing each other, delicately maintaining the balance of the grassland. We in the Tang Dynasty must not think of destroying one of them, not to mention whether we can win." "Take a step back, even if we destroy one side, the other side will lose its constraints and the grassland will be unified again, which is the most disadvantageous to our Tang Dynasty."

After Li Jing's analysis, Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling also felt that things were getting difficult. How could the situation, which was originally so good, suddenly change so drastically?
Li Shimin asked anxiously: "Brother Jing's words make sense. In your opinion, how should we respond?"

"Your Majesty, now it is not a question of whether we should send troops or not, but the huge crisis that the Tang Dynasty is about to face. We must find a way to prevent the two tribes in the grassland from forming an alliance due to private peace talks and jointly dealing with the Tang Dynasty."

As soon as Li Jing finished speaking, Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling's faces suddenly changed. They hurried to the half-person-high map of the desert on the side of the study. Thanks to Li Yan, the Tang Dynasty now has a more detailed map of the northern geography.

Although the grassland forces migrate and have no fixed place to live, fortunately the famous mountains, rivers, lakes and streams will not move around. They only need to be remarked according to the latest settlements of different forces.

The three of them came to the map. Li Shimin stared with a frown at the north of the Chantian Khan Road. The Yudujun Mountain Range stretched for thousands of miles from the northwest to the southeast. A large area of ​​territory in the north fell into the hands of the Turks.

A thousand miles southwest of Yu Dujun Mountain is the birthplace of Ashina Shi, the southern foot of Jinshan Mountain Range. In order to suppress Jie Li and the Turkic Khanate, Li Shimin divided this place into the sphere of influence of Xueyantuo.

Let this rising star from the grassland who had a deep hatred for Jie Li occupy this place, and turn the Xidan area here into a provincial capital, and place the headquarters of Yinan's Jinshan Grand Commandery here so that it can be governed by the court.

However, in order to expand his power, Yi Nan does not often stay here.

Instead, he led his army to expand to the northwest, constantly annexing and destroying the small countries and tribal forces entrenched in the northwest. In just six years, taking advantage of the Tang Dynasty's inability to look north and the Turks' inability to clean up the mess, he conquered the dominant and most powerful force in the northwest, the Qarluk tribe.

There were also the Basimi, Dubo, Jiegu, and Kyrgyz tribes, which bordered the Western Turks, and thousands of miles to the northwest were included in the sphere of influence of the Xueyantuo tribe. It can be said that the actual territory under the jurisdiction of Yi Nan was not inferior to that of the previous New Turkic Khanate.

He had four or five hundred thousand capable and battle-hardened soldiers under his command, far more than Bi Heli.

Xueyantuo has expanded to the extreme northwest in recent years, and the Western Turks in the west are not weaker than the former Jie Li Great Turkic Khaganate, which is also a behemoth. Yi Nan did not dare to target them easily, so he had to shift his attention to the Western Regions.

They were eyeing Tingzhou, Luntai, Anxi, Puchang, Yiwulu and other places in the western part of Longyou Road of the Tang Dynasty.

The defense pressure in the western part of the Tang Dynasty was very high. Everyone knew that if the Yi people continued to grow stronger, they would rebel sooner or later. However, in order to buy time, they still adopted a strategy of appeasement and appeasement, and continued to give them money every year. On the surface, it was to relieve the disaster, but in reality it was to stabilize the cost.

The rulers and ministers of the Tang Dynasty knew this. If the Yi people had not been busy expanding outward, coveting the Tang Dynasty's money, and being wary of Jie Li in the east, the Yi people would have rebelled long ago.

The Tang Dynasty also had concerns, mainly because it needed Yi Nan to fight against the distant Western Turks and to control Jie Li in the east.

A hundred years ago, the Turkic people, a branch of the former Xiongnu and Rouran, flourished in the southern foothills of the Altai Mountains and later went east to establish a Khanate.

During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, conflicts arose within the Turkic Khanate. In the second year of the Sui Dynasty, the Turkic Khan Shaboluo ordered Apo Khan to invade the south, but was defeated by the Sui army. Shaboluo used the excuse that Apo had retreated without orders and attacked Apo.

After Awa was defeated, he fled to the western part of the country to fight against Dahan Khan.

Datou joined forces with Apo to oppose Shabolue. In the early years of Kaihuang, during the Sui Dynasty's war against the Turks, Emperor Wen of Sui adopted political tactics, formed alliances, and provoked divisions. Coupled with military strikes, the Turks split into two.

The two sides attacked each other, and the Turks officially split into two khanates, the East and the West.

The Eastern Turkic Khan Shaboluo was in the northern border of the Sui Dynasty. After many generations of succession, the throne eventually fell into the hands of Shibi Khan. Shibi was a man of great talent and strategy. He took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains to obtain a large amount of resources and refugee craftsmen from the Central Plains, unified the various tribes on the grassland, and became very powerful.

Under the might of Shi Bi's army, the Western Turks continued to retreat westward.

It retreated all the way to Central Asia, and its influence reached the Western Sea, bordering the Byzantine Empire in Western Europe and the Sassanid Empire in the Middle East.

Although the Tang Dynasty did not have much contact with the West, it was not familiar with the situation there.

However, Western merchants traveling along the Silk Road also knew that the Western Turks had not perished, but had occupied large tracts of territory in Central Asia and established a khanate that was no weaker than that of the Eastern Turks. The Tang Dynasty was extremely wary of this.

It is not difficult to eliminate the Yi people, but the difficulty lies in that the large territory left behind cannot be taken care of.

In the end, it would either benefit Jie Li in the east, or lure the Western Turks over, creating a powerful enemy. Considering this complex situation, the Tang Dynasty adopted the method of using barbarians to control barbarians. Instead of obstructing the expansion of the barbarians, it indulged them.

This led to the gradual growth of Yinan and its current size.

(End of this chapter)