In the Chaoyang Hall of Shenwu Palace, Yang Tong, Yang Gongren, Fang Xuanling, Yang Shidao, Wei Zheng, Wei Yunqi, Kong Yingda, Liu Zhenghui, and Ling Jing, who couldn't take care of eating, gathered together.

"Your Royal Highness, a major event happened in the Western Qin Kingdom, Xue Ju died of illness, and the second son Xue Renyue passed on to his deathbed, Xue Rengao was the generalissimo of soldiers and horses, Xue Rengao conquered the Great Earthquake Pass, and Zongluo Huke Hechi!"

This news surprised Yang Tong, Xue Ju has always been strong, why did he suddenly die? And it was not the eldest son Xue Rengao who ascended the throne, but the second son Xue Renyue, could it be that Xue Renyue played the role of killing his father? But judging from the follow-up development, it doesn't look like it!

"The West Qin Tree is scattered, the Xue brothers are short of food, and the strength is only so little, isn't it looking for death with Li Yuan?"

"It's dead!" Wei Yunqi smiled bitterly and said: "Xue Rengao captured the Great Earthquake Pass at the cost of more than 20,000 people, he left 10,000 defenders, and hurriedly rushed to the aid of Hechi, and was ambushed by Li Shimin!" Xue Rengao was defeated, and Xue Renyue was defeated and retreated to Heyuan County, Zong Luohu's subordinates were annihilated, and he was also killed by his generals, and his head was dedicated to Li Shimin, and the defenders of Dazhen Pass surrendered without a fight. The Liang division sent troops to the rescue, but was defeated by Qu Tutong, and the fierce general Xin Fang'er only led hundreds of horsemen to the north to Pingliang County. ”

"The Tang army was flat on all three roads, morale was greatly boosted, and then a big counterattack, Qu Tutong defeated Liang Shidu's cousin Liang Luoren in Liangyuan County, Anding County, annihilated more than 20,000 enemies, Anding County was lost, Li Shimin's troops Zhang Shigui recovered Hanyang and Tangchang, and took Lintao County of Western Qin without bloodshed, and Li Shimin conquered Tianshui and Longxi two counties."

After a while, Yang Tong asked lightly: "What is the performance of our army?" ”

"Xue Wanjun, the Shou of Huining County, took the opportunity to send troops to occupy Jincheng County and Caohan County, and Wuwei County Shou Duan Decao led 30,000 troops to occupy Xiping County and Shuihe County! On the order of Li Dudu, Fubao, the guardian of Lingwu County, led 25,000 elite cavalry to settle in Huining County, and Xue Wanjun clamped Li Shimin in Longxi in the north and west, and Duan Decao confronted Zhang Shigui in Caohan County. Wei Yunqi looked gloating and laughing.

"When I met this group of fierce people, Li Yuan was unlucky, my old father-in-law finally climbed Xue Ju, and made a wedding dress for us in vain!"

Yang Tong is very sympathetic to Li Yuan, you must know that today in history, his old man has almost unified the Central Plains. But now? Guan Zhong was threatened by Li Jing one after another, and was blackmailed by himself one after another.

Yang Shidao said with a smile: "Just take back Guanzhong." ”

"That won't do! Guanzhong is too complicated, and it is not easy to govern at all! Alas, how should it be blackmailed this time? I'm really worried about me, why can't Li Jing and them lose back? ”

Everyone rolled their eyes when they heard this, and Wei Zheng smiled: "Let him marry another daughter and give another dowry." ”

Yang Tong fainted to death, and this old Wei was not serious.

"Here is an urgent letter from Li Dudu Pegasus, please take a look at it." Yang Gongren presented a letter.

Yang Tong opened the letter and read it carefully, Li Jing said in the letter that Li Tang wanted to negotiate, and he was there for the time being, and at the same time said that Xue Rengao and Xue Renyue hoped that the Great Sui could help with food, and in return, they would launch an offensive in Hexi when the situation stabilized.

Xue's request made Yang Tong a little moved, if they can really occupy Hexi and cut off the Tang Dynasty's horse source, this is not bad, but he is also a little worried in his heart, Xue Ju's father and son are brutal, forcibly levied and extorted against the people, all the men are driven to join the army, and the people in the Hehuang area are very angry, their father and son do not hesitate to take refuge in the Turks in order to stand on their own, there is no national righteousness in their bones, they can't rely on the Turks now, but a large part of Xue's army is Tuyuhun people, they are cornered, It is very likely to lure Tuguhun to participate in the Central Plains War, so that Xihai County and Heyuan County, which Yang Guang had worked so hard to fight, may fall into the hands of Tuyuhun again.

However, the ethnic policy of the Tang Dynasty in history made him very disgusting, Li Shimin's border county policy was to let the Turks rule the Turks, the Khitans to govern the Khitan, and the Tuyuhun people to govern the Tuyuhun, this system was feasible in the heyday of the imperial court, once it weakened, the various ethnic groups were self-reliant, and in turn threatened the Tang Dynasty.

Relatively speaking, Yang Tong prefers the Sui Dynasty to occupy a place to govern a place, a little bit of sinicization policy, this kind of land occupation and county, set up officials, move the people to settle in the way of governance, this is undoubtedly really controlled by sacrificing the lives of countless soldiers to fight the territory, like Yiwu County, is the territory of Yang Guang era, this is less than 20 years, has been completely naturalized, if it is governed according to Li Shimin's set, in the Central Plains chaos now, it has long been re-established.

But after thinking about it, Yang Tong still felt that he was unable to govern so many places, so he should still support the Xue brothers, lest they directly lower Tuyuhun, so as to drive a wedge in the Western Regions in this way, so as to protect the influence of the rule of the family in the Western Regions, whether Li Tang takes it in the future, or the Xue brothers hold it, it is still the territory of the Han family, and it will not involve international disputes in the future, but relatively speaking, Li Tang is definitely more reliable than the Xue brothers. First, it can consume Li Tang's national strength, and second, it can keep the rule of the Han family.

As soon as I thought about it, I made two decisions.

The first is to support the Xue brothers to gain a foothold in Dohe and Heyuan, and the second is to sell Xiping, Doohe and Caohan to Li Yuan, so as to achieve the goal of consuming the national strength of Li Tang and Tuyuhun and keeping the country. Of course, you can also use these three counties to exchange his Pingliang and Honghua counties with Liang Shidu, Liang Shidu's territory is surrounded by the Great Sui from the east, north and west, and it is forcibly borrowed by the Sui army from time to time, and the south is Li Yuan's territory, these two forces are not something he can afford to provoke, and there is no room for development here at all, so this guy must be unable to sleep and eat, and he can get out of the encirclement of the Great Sui, it is estimated that he can't ask for it.

When he said his thoughts, everyone unanimously agreed to exchange land with Liang Shidu, because in this way, the territory of the Great Sui in Guannei Dao would not sink a big pit, and it was also very convenient to connect Yan'an County in the east and Jincheng County in the west, and more importantly, after Liang Shi went to Xiping, Watering River, and Caohan, Li Yuan wanted to get the land of raising horses, he had one more opponent, and he needed to fight one more enemy.

For Li Yuan, everyone has also gone from the first disapproval to today's attention, Li Yuan may have some character flaws, but it is by no means that his level is not good, but he has never had a chance to rest since he started his army in Taiyuan, and he has been repeatedly defeated by the Great Sui who has been preparing for a year or two, if he is given a year, then his army will definitely transform into an elite.

And he is very level in the direction of governance, especially in the way of balance, in the treatment of Guanlong magnates, he focused on supporting the Dugu clan and the Dou clan, so that each of the two families with a faction to fight openly and secretly, so that he can benefit from it; In the court, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin were also used by him to maintain their thrones.

Since the end of the Battle of Bingzhou, with the deliberate support of Li Yuan, the contradiction between the eldest son Li Jiancheng and the second son Li Shimin has gradually become public, this contradiction may not be a dispute for succession, but only a difference in political opinions, for the contradiction between their brothers, Li Yuan not only did not interfere, but continued to give Li Shimin military power, thus giving Li Jiancheng a certain pressure on the prince.

There are two reasons why Li Yuan supported Li Shimin to fight for the crown prince:

First, Li Yuan is in the prime of his promising life, how to say that he has a life span of more than ten or twenty years, and the crown prince Li Jiancheng is already thirty years old, if there is no accident, Li Yuan still has twenty years of emperor life, but at that time Li Jiancheng is already a fifty-year-old prince, if no one restricts him, it is difficult to ensure that Li Jiancheng takes risks and launches a palace change. Now the rise of Li Shimin has caused Li Jiancheng and his party to focus their attention from the throne to the gradually rising Li Shimin, and the two sons are fighting, as long as it does not endanger the society, it is conducive to his control of the throne.

Second, now is the era of troubled times, Li Yuan has to give his son a great autonomy, let them form a strong team to win the world for themselves, if there is only one simple faction, then, forcing the palace This kind of thing is likely to happen, and the two sons are of equal strength, which is more conducive to Li Yuan's control over them.

How can such a scheming person be easy to match? What's even more powerful is that he took advantage of Yang Tong's hatred of Guan Long's magnates, and knocked on Guan Long's magnates step by step, so that the other party had to rely on his side and give him a steady stream of nutrients, if he can dominate the world, then, Guan Long's magnates have been weakened to a terrible point, at that time, Li Yuan can clean up Guan Long's magnates as much as he wants.

Today's Guanlong magnates are suppressed in Guanzhong, and Yang Tong will not accept these people, so in addition to following Li Yuan all the way to the end, in fact, the Guanlong magnates have no choice, and they don't even dare to support another person to replace Li Yuan, because the form of Guanzhong is really dangerous, if there is a civil strife in Guanzhong, it will only benefit Yang Dong, once Li Yuan is defeated, with his dual identity as a dignified emperor and Yang Dong's father-in-law, or be spared, but the Guanlong magnates will be unlucky, because they are a huge force that promotes Li Yuan's rebellion, It is also a key factor in the turmoil of the Great Sui, and the Yu culture of killing the monarch is also from the Guanlong magnates, for such a huge power group with many evil deeds, Yang Tong will never let them go. Therefore, in fact, Guan Long's magnates had no choice but to follow Li Yuan's rhythm. It can be said that this is also the biggest dividend that Li Yuan has obtained after failing again and again, and with the full support of these people, Li Tang will eventually burst out with terrifying energy. can take advantage of external troubles to play the selfish Guanlong magnates, I have to say that Li Yuan is a very powerful character.

It is precisely for this reason that everyone supports Yang Tong to suppress Li Yuan in an all-round way, so that Guan Long's money becomes Da Sui's money.

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