After two rounds of negotiations, the Tang Dynasty and Tubo finally reached an agreement, first, the two sides opened mutual markets in Longyou and Xichuan, mainly private trade, supplemented by official trade, and the two sides traded livestock, grain, daily necessities, medicinal materials and other goods;

Second, the Tang Dynasty agreed in principle to cede half of the Great Dou Tu Gu, and the specific matters were negotiated by the local chiefs of the two sides;

Third, the Tibetans agreed to abandon the end of the city, and in response, the Tang Dynasty would withdraw its troops from Shule, and the Tang Dynasty would send envoys to Anxi, urging Anxi Jiedu to make Guo Xin withdraw his troops from Shule.

After reaching a negotiation agreement, the two sides agreed that the Tang Dynasty would send a special envoy to the Longyou border to build an altar and meet the alliance.

Li Shi immediately sent Fan Ze, a member of the Ministry of Rites, as the envoy to build the altar, and went to Longyou to build the altar with the deputy envoy of Tubo, Ou Qizan.

Li Shi also appointed Yang Yan of Xiangguo as the envoy of the alliance, Cui Hanheng, the secretary of the Honglu Temple, and Zhang Yi, the envoy of the Longyou Jiedu, as the deputy envoys, and went to Longyou to form an alliance with the great minister of Tubo.

The results of the negotiations had not yet been announced to the public, so Shi Donglai arranged for carrier pigeons to send the results of the negotiations to Zhangye as soon as possible, and the Tang-Fan negotiations were related to the security of Hexi and the vital interests of the Sogdians, and it was necessary for Guo Song to know about this matter as soon as possible.

In the Jiedu Mansion, the officials were blown up, and the Tang and Tibetan negotiations made everyone indignant, and the problem of ceding half of the big Dou Tu Gu was not big, but the consequences of the Tang army's withdrawal from Shule were very serious, which meant that the southern route of the Silk Road that had just been opened would be blocked by Tubo, and Shule was the only way to Tocharo, and once Tubo completely controlled Shule, the Sogdian caravan would no longer take the southern route.

"How can the imperial court agree to such conditions?"

Zhang Qiu'an, who joined the army, was extremely annoyed and said: "We spent money and effort, and it was easy to open up the southern trade route, now it's okay, what was not lost on the battlefield, but it was actually lost at the negotiation table, and a window that Anxi just opened was closed again, how can the court be so cowardly and unprincipled?" ”

"Zhang joins the army, pay attention to the attitude you say!"

Cui Wenjing knocked on the table dissatisfiedly and said: "The imperial court is based on the overall situation, and will not only consider the interests of Anxi, please don't criticize the imperial court at will!" ”

At this time, everyone's eyes turned to Guo Song, Guo Song paced back and forth in the lobby with his hands in his hands, he was not as excited as everyone else, he was the chief official after all, and he had to consider the problem from the perspective of the chief officer.

First of all, Anxi has nothing to do with him, he has no right to interfere with the court's strategy against Anxi, if he is excited to write against it, he will be impeached by Yang Yan, and secondly, he went to Anxi again, and has a deeper understanding of Anxi's situation, and more importantly, the two sides have reached an agreement, and it is difficult to collect it, and he can not change the outcome of the negotiation in addition to expressing his dissatisfaction.

Guo Song said slowly: "I've been thinking about why Tubo is bent on taking Shule, before I thought they were trying to provoke the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the Anxi countries, this time I went to Anxi only to find that they used Huairou means to win over the Anxi countries, in fact, they have successfully separated the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the Anxi countries, and the occupation of Shule is at most to strengthen this kind of discord, which is of little significance to Tubo." ”

Speaking of this, Guo Song turned back to the crowd and said: "Now I suddenly thought of another possibility, Tubo is bent on occupying Shule, in fact, it is not only to occupy Anxi, occupying Anxi is on the one hand, and more importantly, Shule is convenient for them to send troops to Tocharo at any time, they want to attack Tocharian based on Shule, and at the same time launch a war against Anxi based on Shule, and the strategic location of Shule is very important to them. ”

The crowd was lost in thought, and they had to admit that the knots made them see deeper and farther than they did.

Cui Wenjing nodded, "You can see it very thoroughly and completely agree, so how should we deal with it?" ”

"This is not something that the Hexi family can deal with, I want to make a suggestion to the Son of Heaven to strengthen the defense of the two towns of Qiuci and Khotan, and to increase troops and materials."

"Why Khotan?" Pan Liao asked puzzled.

Guo Song smiled faintly, "Khotanese Town has choked the passage between the plateau and Shule, if Tubo wants to launch a war against Anxi, the first thing is to capture Khotan Town to ensure that the logistics are not cut off by the Tang army." ”

"What about the business road?" Zhang Qiu An suddenly said urgently.

Guo Song groaned and said: "Merchants really can't go to Tocharo, that's it, but we can encourage merchants from Anxi countries to come to Shazhou or Zhangye to trade, the purpose of our opening of the trade route is to make this passage faster and more convenient, as long as there are merchants coming and going, supplies and commerce along the way will develop, which is conducive to promoting the connection between Anxi countries and Datang, as for commercial taxes or anything, it doesn't matter, and it can even be exempted." ”

Guo Song's words undoubtedly set the tone, and Guo Song immediately wrote a note to the Son of Heaven, which was sent to Chang'an quickly.

........

Perhaps Tubo was afraid that the Tang Dynasty would repent, this time both sides of the alliance made rapid progress, and both acquiesced to the simple treatment, originally with cattle, horses, sheep three animals for the alliance gift, and then Tubo Zampu and the Tang Dynasty Son of Heaven to participate in the alliance, because the monarchs of the two countries did not participate, in the Longyou Jiedu envoy Zhang Yi's proposal, both sides agreed to use chickens, ducks, geese for the alliance gift, which reduced the size of the alliance.

Yang Yan of the Xiangguo and the Great Minister of Tubo Shang formed an alliance with the Emperor of the Altar, recognized the three agreements signed by the two sides to the heavens, and agreed on the border between the two sides.

This alliance was very important for both countries, the population of Tibet was seriously insufficient, the financial resources were almost cut off, especially the defeat of Shazhou caused heavy losses to the army and materials of Tibet, which directly led to the fall of the Tibetan minister Shang Xijie, and the Tibet had to suspend troops to restore the national strength, which was also forced by the situation.

At a critical juncture, the Tang Dynasty reached an alliance with Tibet, which was conducive to the Tang Dynasty's concentration on reducing the domain.

In the Qilin Hall of Daming Palace, a guard was reporting his trip to Hebei to Li Shi.

"Your Majesty, the feudal towns in Hebei are extremely well guarded, the lowly post enters Weizhou from Xiangzhou, all the way is a checkpoint, the lowly post is a mountain road, in Wei County, the lowly job is used to live in the store with the road issued by the Chang'an government, the shopkeeper immediately reported to the county government, the county government sent someone to arrest me, fortunately a guy reminded me, the lowly post was able to escape."

"And then?" Li Shi asked with an extremely ugly face.

"I spent money to buy a Weizhou road, all the way north, but the accent was not right, I was almost arrested several times, and it was easy to get to the boundary of Fanyang Jiedu, and I couldn't get in here at all, a caravan told me that I must have a tax payment record issued by Youzhou, so I let it in, I followed the caravan and mixed in, the counties can no longer see the banner of the Tang Dynasty, the people here said that the court is not the Chang'an court, I later learned that it actually refers to the Jiedu Mansion, the people said that the Son of Heaven is going to reduce taxes this year, and the lowly job was confused, and later I knew, What they call the Son of Heaven turned out to be.... It's Zhu Tao. ”

"What!" Li Shi was furious.

The guards were so frightened that they knelt down, trembling and didn't dare to say any more, and after a while, Li Shitie said with a blushing face: "You go on, say your true feelings, I want to listen to the truth, not those false things." ”

The guards knelt down and said: "Your Majesty is angry, everything that the humble post said is true, it is all seen and heard by the humble position, the feudal towns in Hebei are only superficially dealing with the imperial court, but in fact they are already independent kingdoms, and the humble officials know that each state of the Hebei feudal towns has two official offices, one is specifically to deal with the imperial court, as if they also report to the imperial court, but they actually have another official office, called the feudal office, this is the real official office, and the common people only recognize this official office." ”

After the guard described what he saw and heard in detail, he retreated, Li Shi was still immersed in huge shock for a long time, and the privy envoy Huo Xianming said: "The old slave has a sentence in his heart, I don't know whether to say it or not?" ”

"You say!"

Huo Xianming said slowly: "Jingluo Western Regions is actually just icing on the cake, the premise is that the Central Plains is prosperous, the people are in their hearts, and Your Majesty is gracious in all directions.

But now, the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty is about to form two imperial courts, Your Majesty needs to fight the country for the second time, the Western Regions is really not important, it is not wise to waste too many resources to the Western Regions, this is the heartfelt words of the old slave, please Your Majesty Mingjian! ”

That night, Li Shi almost did not sleep all night, the grim situation of the towns in the Central Plains of Hebei made Li Shi toss and turn, difficult to sleep, the next morning, Li Shi issued an order, Xuanhe West Jiedu made Guo Song rush into Beijing.

........

At this time, Xiangyang City was surrounded by 50,000 Huaixi legions, and the defenders in the city were less than 10,000 people, all relying on the tall and strong city walls to defend, but after all, the troops were too small, and Liang Chongyi was gone.

At this time, Li Xilie's Huaixi Army marched all the way west, occupying Anzhou, Chuzhou, Tangzhou, Suizhou, Yingzhou, Jingzhou, Fuzhou, and finally entered Xiangzhou.

It was originally Yang Yan's plan to let Li Xilie come to exterminate Liang Chongyi, but now that it has caused such serious consequences, how can he let the Son of Heaven know?

In the camp, Li Xilie respectfully accepted the will given by Li Shi, the Son of Heaven, and he gave the envoy a lot of money, and sent him to Xiangyang City with a smile on his face, but he came back furious.

"When I'm Lee Hee-yeol a beggar? Summoned to come, lingering away, I gave him my life, so many soldiers died, where is the soldier's pension? Where is the compensation for my money? A king of Nanping wants to send me away? ”

At this time, Li Xilie's aide Zhao Sui persuaded: "Lord, the Son of Heaven wants to give face, this time is very delicate, and we can't let the court target us." ”

"But just go back, I'm not reconciled!"

Zhao Sui rolled his eyes and said: "The prince can go to the Son of Heaven, just say that many bandits take advantage of the fire to rob, pretend to be the Huaixi army to rob the people, and ruin the reputation of the Huaixi army, we must exterminate these bandits, in this way, at least we can occupy the three states of An, Chu, and Tang, expand our power, and then wait and see the situation, if it is profitable, we will occupy Jingzhou and Yingzhou, so that there is a guarantee of three states for retreat, and two more states for entering." ”

"Wonderful! What a brilliant idea. Lee Hee-yeol was overjoyed.

Zhao Sui said again: "There is another suggestion for the humble position, I heard that Lu Qi is extremely greedy for bribes, the prince can send someone to bring gold silk into Beijing and buy Lu Qi, and he will speak for us in front of the Son of Heaven." ”

"Why don't you buy Yang Yan?"

"Yang Yan is a person who values power rather than profit, and the effect of buying him off won't be too good, or Lu Qi is easier to deal with."

Li Xilie groaned slightly and approved Zhao Sui's suggestion.

Zhao Sui persuaded again: "Since the prince has to make a long-term plan, it is still necessary to properly restrain the soldiers, and winning the hearts of the people is the way to self-reliance." ”

Li Xilie is extremely ambitious, has the desire to be the emperor, of course he knows the importance of winning the hearts and minds of the people, his restraint on the Huaixi army has far exceeded his uncle Li Zhongchen, but the Huaixi army is committed to plundering, complaining to him greatly, he knows that he can't be restrained, so he acquiesced to the looting of the soldiers.

Li Xilie was a little embarrassed, but he promised to take Xiangyang and loot the soldiers for three days, and he said after a while: "Finally, if you rob Xiangyang again, I will let them restrain and not be allowed to mess around again." ”

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[Brothers, march for a thousand monthly passes, and ask for the support of those who have tickets!] 】