Chapter 134: Turkic Conspiracy

Five days later, Emperor Yang Guang of Sui led the inspection team to continue to the north, after resting for a few days in the Fenyang Palace, at the beginning of April, the inspection army arrived at the south bank of the Honggan River, which is still the territory of Mayi County, and dozens of miles away in the north is the towering Great Wall, which was built since Yang Guang ascended the throne, stretching from the Honggan River to Yanmen County, more than 200 miles long, walking west along the Great Wall, you can reach Yanmen County within a few days!

Just when more than 100,000 patrol troops, along the Great Wall towards the direction of Yanmen County, a grassland falcon flew over the Sui Dynasty army, over the Great Wall, and continued to fly north for more than 300 miles, in the northernmost north of the Great Sui on the north shore of Swan Lake, but it is an endless Turkic camp, stretching for dozens of miles, the Turkic Shibi Khan has led hundreds of thousands of troops to the Sui and Turkic borders.

The falcon flew through the large camps, and finally, under the guidance of the whistle, flew to a huge tent covering an area of several acres, which was the Turkic royal tent, and in front of the royal tent stood a man in his thirties, with a golden helmet and golden armor, and his eyes were as cold as an eagle, he was the Turkic Shibi Khan.

Shibi Khan stretched out his arm, and the falcon chirped, and landed peacefully on his arm, and Shibi Khan untied a half-roll of skin from the falcon's leg.

The sheepskin was covered with dense text, all of which were information about the Sui Emperor Yang Guang's northern inspection this time. Shibi Khan looked at it again, his face was full of smug smiles, the Great Sui Emperor Yang Guang actually appeared on the border of Saibei, it was like a fat deer running in front of the hunter, it was simply a suicide!

"Pass my orders, and the army will go!"

……

In the endless grassland north of Yanmen County, an army of tens of thousands of people is slowly moving north, this army of about 30,000 people, is the core army to protect the Sui Emperor Yang Guang.

According to the previous agreement reached between the two sides, in order to express the sincerity of both sides, the number of escort troops of both sides on the shore of Swan Lake cannot exceed 30,000, and within 300 miles, the armies of both sides cannot exceed 100,000!

According to the information obtained by the Sui army, the Turkic Shibi Khan, who was stationed north of Swan Lake, had only more than 25,000 troops around him, and there was a Turkic cavalry more than 100 miles away, with no more than 30,000 people.

Yang Guang also gladly carried out the agreement reached between the two sides, and only let 30,000 elite cavalry escort him to continue the north to meet, and the rest of the patrol army was left near Dai County, led by the general Xue Shixiong, ready to meet Emperor Yang Guang of Sui at any time.

A few years ago, when Yang Guang first went north to inspect, he rode in a magnificent mobile palace, which was a movable castle, hundreds of steps long and wide, surrounded by 200,000 troops, and moved quickly on the vast grassland, attracting the worship of thousands of grassland subjects, which was also the apex of the prestige of Emperor Yang Guang of Sui!

At this time, Yang Guang can only sit in a royal tent built on a huge wooden car, and there are more than ten pairs of large wooden wheels on both sides of the wooden car, which are pulled by dozens of strong horses, compared to the mobile palace of the year, but it is a lot shabby!

Yang Guang was unhappy that in the territory of the Great Sui, he announced that he would summon the Turkic Shibi Khan, but in fact it was a meeting between the two sides on an equal footing, and the attitude of the Turkic Khan was very tough, unilaterally deciding the location of the meeting, as well as the escort armies of both sides at the meeting, and threatening Yang Guang to cancel the meeting if he did not agree. All the way north, Yang Guang's face was always gloomy and he didn't say a word.

This time, when they went north to Swan Lake, dozens of important ministers followed, all of them rode on horses and followed on both sides of the imperial tent, and everyone's hearts were heavy, and they felt that everything was not good.

They all remembered the northern tour a few years ago, when the national strength of the Great Sui reached its peak, all countries worshipped, and the Turkic Qimin Khan was prostrate on the ground, not daring to look up, what a scenery they were at that time!

But this time it is completely different, needless to say, it is not as good as the worship of the various ethnic groups in the steppe back then, and even the negotiation between the two sides on an equal footing is a bit unnegotiable, and even the time and place of the meeting are designated by the Turkic Khan, which is clearly the Great Sui Emperor went to the Hajj Turkic Khan.

The shabby imperial tent, the weak troops, and even the honor guard were forced to cancel, these are all appearances, but the problem in the bones is the decline of national strength, and today's Great Sui is far less powerful than it was back then.

"Pei Gong, the military strength of 30,000 cavalry is too weak, which makes people feel uneasy!" Wei Xuan, the secretary of the military department, looked at the grassland in the distance, looking a little worried.

Pei Ju smiled bitterly, "30,000 troops are actually not too little, the key is that there are too few reserve troops accompanying us this time, and there are only 150,000 troops including the army guarding the camp in Taiyuan in the rear." If the Great Sui was still in its heyday, the 150,000 troops would already be more than outstanding, but the current environment is really worrying! ”

Wei Xuan sighed, "Pei Gong is right, the peak national strength disappeared in a blink of an eye, the Son of Heaven is nominally implementing elite troops and streamlining the government, but in fact it is self-destructing the Great Wall, I really don't understand, why did Your Majesty disband the military governments of the counties?" ”

Pei Ju shook his head, "Your Majesty, he is actually very helpless, in the past few years, the annexation of land by families in various places has become increasingly rampant, the number of homesteaders has decreased, and the court taxes have become less and less year by year, and they can no longer afford to raise an army of millions." If the local government is allowed to raise its own army, then these military governments will inevitably become the private army of the wealthy families in various places, repeating the scene of the local powerful division in the late Han Dynasty, so instead of being controlled by the local powerful families, it is better to disband directly, the current number of troops, although only three or five in the heyday, but at least in the hands of the court! ”

Wei Xuan was silent for a moment, "The key is to conquer Goguryeo three times, which consumes too much national strength!" ”

Pei Ju still shook his head, "The three conquests of Goguryeo just cost the old capital left by the first emperor, and they couldn't move the strength of the court, and the fundamental reason is that the land annexation is becoming more and more serious year by year, which seriously weakens the court tax, and last year's national tax was only more than 10% of the heyday!" ”

Wei Xuan was shocked, "Is it so serious?" ”

"Otherwise, why would Your Majesty rather endure humiliation and meet with the Turks, Your Majesty is to eliminate the hidden danger of the Turks going south! Otherwise, once the Turkic iron cavalry moves south, the Great Sui, which is suffering from internal and external troubles, will be powerless to resist at all, and I am afraid that the Great Sui will collapse and collapse from this! ”

Wei Xuan was silent, he also knew that the land annexation was very serious, but this land annexation involved too many interests, and the court was powerless to stop it, and even he Wei Xuan himself had two manors in Guanzhong, with 3,000 tilts of land, and controlled hundreds of tenant farmers, let him return the land and dissolve the tenant farmers, would he be willing? Wei Xuan sighed secretly, Da Sui was already sick to the bone marrow, and it was difficult to heal.

At this time, a cavalryman galloped over and bowed to the two of them, "Lord Pei, Lord Wei, Your Majesty has summoned!" ”

Pei Ju and Wei Xuan looked at each other and nodded, and then urged the horse to follow the cavalry towards the imperial tent of the Son of Heaven......

Is the overlord of the late Sui Dynasty good-looking?