Pei Min's hearty smile dissipated the tense atmosphere a lot. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

This time it was Yao Chong's turn and Qi Huan to be silent.

What they said made perfect sense, but Pei Min was also very witty and pointed to the key.

Reconquest!

Throughout the ages, the Chinese have had an obsession with recovering lost territory.

In particular, the stronger and stronger the country, the more important it is to "regain lost territory".

Yao Chong and Qi Huan dare to say that it is meaningless to recover Jiuqu Land in Hexi, Shibao City, even if Li Longji does not clean them up, the soldiers and people of the world who hear the news will break their backbones.

This is also the arrogance of the Tang Dynasty, the literati of the Tang Dynasty have never avoided wars and feared wars, but have the yearning impulse of the horse leather shroud.

It is also because of this that the unique and passionate poetry style of Debiansai poetry has been pushed to the golden peak in this era. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the number of participants in the creation of Biansai poems and the number of poems were unprecedented in previous generations, throughout the Tang Dynasty.

Pei Min saved the situation of the decline of the main battle, but it was not yet a victory, and continued: "The Jiuqu Land in Hexi can be traced back to the pre-Qin period at the earliest, when the Qin people obtained Hequ horses from the Qiang people, used them in the military, and trained powerful cavalry troops. The Qin army can benefit from dominating the world, all thanks to the invincible Qin army's arrow array and the iron cavalry that destroys the enemy and defeats the enemy. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to improve the horse breeds in the Central Plains, the excellent horse breeds of the Western Regions were introduced to graze in the area of the Qinghai River, and the descendants of these horses made great contributions to the Han Dynasty's conquest of the Xiongnu. It is said that the world's military horses are seven out of the river meander. If there were no Hequ military horses provided by Hexi Jiuqu, the generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing might not have been able to achieve such brilliant achievements in history. ”

"Recently, when talking about Taizong, Emperor Taizong attached great importance to horse politics, and built a Hequ military horse farm in Jiuqu, Hexi, raising 450,000 horses! With abundant military and horse resources, the places that my Tang soldiers are pointing at are invincible. The Weiyuan Military Horse Farm is far from sufficient to provide what our army needs at present. And Hexi Jiuqu can just make up for such a shortcoming. Recovering the Jiuqu Land in Hexi is a crucial step to improve our Tang cavalry. If you want to have an advantage in the duel with the aliens, the strength of the cavalry is indispensable. We cannot afford to miss an opportunity by tying ourselves hand and foot until we have regained such a strategic location. ”

Yao Chong and Qi Huan's military level is far inferior to their political talents, but they also heard that Hexi Jiuqu Land and Shibao City are very important to the Tang Dynasty in terms of meaning and value.

"Guogong's words are not unreasonable!" Yao Chong approved of Pei Min's rhetoric.

Pei Min nodded and smiled at Yao Chong, it was precisely because of this that he couldn't get disgusted with Yao Chong. Yao Chong's intentions for Datang are indeed understandable, and the name of the virtuous minister is well deserved, but it is a huge flaw in his personality that has led to today's situation.

Li Longji saw that Yao Chong had been convinced, how to choose, it was obvious, he got up and said: "Hexi Jiuqu is the territory of my Tang Dynasty, and this territorial dispute will not give up an inch of land. I summoned the Tibetan envoy on the same day to clarify my attitude. Unless we return the Jiuqu Land in Hexi and withdraw from Shibao City, I will never be able to get through the Tang Dynasty and Tibet. ”

"Your Majesty Shengming!"

This Li Longji has made up his mind, and the civil and military ministers are naturally flattered and patriotic.

Pei Min suddenly thought of something and said, "Your Majesty, the army that sacrificed the prisoners is almost going to Chang'an!" ”

Li Longji was stunned and said: "Tomorrow will arrive, and it has been set to hold a prisoner sacrifice ceremony at noon tomorrow." ”

During the Zhenguan period, it was not for the destruction of the country, and there would be no ceremony to sacrifice prisoners at all. However, since Wu Zetian's visit to the Tang Dynasty, Datang's military strength has deteriorated, and there have been no decent achievements for more than ten years.

Four years ago, in the invasion of Tibet, the Tang Dynasty fought extremely beautifully, but it did not capture any important figures. Because of the lack of cavalry, it was inconvenient to pursue, and there were very few prisoners, so no ceremony was held to present the prisoners.

This time the bait battle of Guangen Town was different, Pei Min mobilized all the military horses of Liangzhou, Longyou and his son Shence Army, and the Tubo cavalry rushed for 100 miles to attack Guangen Town, and after a long siege of the city, the physical consumption was too huge, only a few lucky soldiers escaped, most of them were either killed in battle, or captured, including Tubo veterans like Ku Dayan, the second person in the military.

In terms of combat achievements, they are not as good as the Tibetan invasion war, but the results are the most abundant in the past 20 years. In addition to such big names as Kun Dayan, there are also three ten thousand commanders, more than a dozen thousand commanders, 28,000 prisoners of war, and more than 30,000 war horses, among which there are two dragon horses that are particularly divine horses.

This great joy seems to be the nature of the Li family: whether it is Taizong Li Shimin, Gaozong Li Zhi, or the current Li Longji, they all have this problem.

With such a result, Li Longji did not hesitate to propose to hold a ceremony to present the prisoners.

Looking at Pei Min, Li Longji smiled and said, "What kind of trick does Pei Qing think of again?" ”

As soon as his words fell, all the civil and military ministers couldn't help laughing, obviously thinking of the fact that Pei Min threw the Tubo envoy into the pigsty as a pig.

At first, they also thought that Pei Min was ridiculous, and he was the envoy of Tibet, and the diplomacy of these two countries was unreasonable to humiliate the envoy and humiliate the monarch. But as the purpose was revealed, I couldn't help but applaud it: taking home the people of the Tang Dynasty who were trapped in Tibet as slaves and slaves was undoubtedly a benevolent and righteous move. As for the matter of throwing the Tibetan envoy into the pigsty, it was invariably regarded as no such thing, anyway, it didn't happen in Chang'an, at the feet of the Son of Heaven.

Pei Min shouted: "Where is the Yin loss, it's just that the Tubo envoy rarely comes to my Tang Dynasty and wants to make a deal for them according to the old rules." There is no shortage of strong men in my Datang, more than 20,000 strong men, which is a drop in the bucket for us. It's better to exchange cattle for horses, and continue to exchange for the people of my Datang. ”

Li Longji frowned and said: "Today's captives are different from the original, they were wasted at the beginning, but now they have the strength to fight, and if they are put back, they can pose a threat to my Datang, so they can't be abolished." ”

Pei Min shook his head and said: "Tubo compromised last time for the sake of face, and the quantity is also within the range of bearing. For the sake of more than 20,000 wasted people, hurting her own muscles and bones, the old woman in Tubo will not do it. As for those captives, Your Majesty need not worry about them. If you can capture them once, the minister can capture them a second and third time, and as long as it is worth the money, those captives are not enough evidence. ”

Crucially, he didn't say it explicitly, and planned to talk to Li Longji in private later.

In this transaction, he mainly exchanged for war horses.

The Jiuqu Land in Hexi is a grassland, and in order to recover the Jiuqu Land and gain a firm foothold, a strong cavalry team is needed.

Datang's current reserves of military horses, plus captured booty, were not enough to maintain the needs.

Doing daily transactions with Tubo can make up for the shortcomings on the one hand, and on the other hand, it also weakens the strength of the Tubo cavalry and lays the groundwork for the counterattack on Hexi Jiuqu.

That's the main purpose!