At this time, the voice of the white tiger came from outside, and he said: "What military report is so urgent, can you say it later?" Now the prince is busy. ”

Li You smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Ash Naqing said embarrassedly: "Lord, business is important, you should go to the military newspaper first." ”

Li You said, "White Tiger, let him in." ”

The person who came was a messenger sent by Ashina Simo, and Ashina Simo's letter said that they had already laid down Yanqi and Yuli.

Li You said with a smile: "General Ashina Simo is really powerful, and he completed the task so quickly. ”

The capital of Yanqi is called Sifang City, which is a stone city, which is extremely strong, and the siege is not the strong point of the grassland cavalry, so Li You specially sent them a giant siege vehicle and part of the fire attack team.

That's it, and Li You also expects that it will take a long time for them to be able to fight.

The courier gave a briefing.

It turned out that Yanqi was very close to Gaochang, only more than 600 li, and Ashina Simo's men and horses were originally stationed on the border of Yanqi, which was only a day's journey from there. As a result, they are the first to reach their goal.

When they arrived in Yanqi, they found that there were only more than 1,000 defenders inside, and the main force had been taken away by the Lili to participate in the civil war. Therefore, after they besieged the city, they sent merchants in Yanqi in Gaochang to enter the city to tell them what they had seen and heard in Gaochang, and soon the people inside opened the city and surrendered. As a result, even siege vehicles were not used.

Ashina Simo still used the old way, and went to surround Yuli again, and sent the Yuli people found in Yanqi into the city to persuade them to surrender, but they also surrendered.

All of these people surrendered so easily, not only because of the strong means of the coalition forces to attack the city, but also because of the policies formulated by Li You.

Li You's policy to deal with these effects of the Western Regions was to severely punish those who resisted the cities that did not surrender.

As long as they surrendered, the safety of the lives and property of the country's residents was guaranteed, all the officials remained in office, and the lord of the country was canonized by the Tang Dynasty to preserve their glory and wealth, and they were only sent to Chang'an.

Under this policy, the lives of everyone except the lord were basically not affected in any way, so the lord of the country tried to resist, and not many people supported it. When they saw the powerful coalition forces outside the city and the lack of reinforcements themselves, someone came in and told them about the Tang Dynasty's policy, and most of them wisely chose to surrender.

In just 48 days, the first phase of the coalition mission was completed.

The coalition forces defeated Gaochang, Yanqi, Yuli, Yiwu Milan, Ruoqiang, Jimo, Jingjue, ? Rong Lu and Mi Guo. It is very interesting that Xiao Wan had a riot in their country, and the people killed the king and took the initiative to defect to the Tang army.

So far, the coalition forces have conquered 10 countries in the Western Regions, and the population of the Tang Dynasty has increased by 470,000.

Li You's days in the Western Regions are very leisurely, and he is really a little happy to enjoy the special food of various places in the company of beautiful women all day long.

Unfortunately, at the end of May, he received Li Shimin's order to suspend his expansion in the Western Regions, and asked him to hand over the affairs of the Western Regions to Gao Yong and return to Chang'an with Hou Junji.

The Marshal's Mansion.

Hou Junji asked: "Your Highness, after the Great War, the Western Turks are currently very weak, and the minister has drawn up a battle plan that can defeat the Western Turks in one fell swoop and bring the entire Western Regions into the Tang Dynasty.

Let us go back now, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. ”

Gao Yong and others also suggested attacking the Western Turks, and he said: "Your Highness, now that the coalition forces are strong and their morale is high, it is a great time to conquer the Western Regions, and it would be a pity to miss this opportunity." In the future, it will be too difficult to attack the Western Regions again. ”

"Yes, Your Highness, you can't withdraw your troops." Xue Rengui and others also said.

They are right, at present, the coalition forces have rich experience in fighting in the Western Regions, and have formed 16 regiments of cavalry in the Western Regions, plus Hamid's men and horses, the total strength has reached more than 80,000 people.

After conquering Yanqi, they found an oil field there, established a fierce fire oil refining workshop, and the craftsmen also mastered the method of processing and making various siege equipment in the Western Regions. It's a powerful force that's been run-in.

If the Western Regions are not attacked, this force will collapse.

First of all, the 16 regiments of cavalry in the Western Regions, if they don't fight, it's useless to keep them, and they can't afford to raise them, so they can only be disbanded. The coalition forces must also be disbanded, the Tuyuhun and Turks must also return, and the craftsmen must return to their original positions.

If you fight the Western Regions again in the future, you will come with another 200,000 people, who have no experience and do not have the unique environment of the Western Regions now, and they will work hard and lose money. It may not be possible to conquer the Western Regions.

At this time, Wang Xuance had already sent news that the two sides of Desire Valley and Yu Lishu were tired of fighting, and there was a tendency to shake hands and make peace with the Ili River as the boundary as in history.

Faced with the situation in front of him, Li You thought about it for a long time last night. He thinks that Li Shimin is wise and martial, and since he asked Li You and Hou Jun to go back, there must be something big going on in the court, and they must be asked to go back to help solve it. There may also be something that involves them and needs them to go back and explain.

Now it is a dilemma, the coalition forces are currently making great achievements, and now they will go back, and the credit will be great, and it will be very beneficial to them personally. However, if they returned, the imperial court would miss a great opportunity to recover the Western Regions.

If you don't go back, you will have the problem of resisting the decree. If some people add to the problem, they may end up in a bad situation.

The imperial court is very complicated, it doesn't mean that you can be recognized if you work hard for the country outside, Yue Fei has won countless battles, but he can't save his life. The list goes on.

He thought about writing a piece to explain the situation in the Western Regions in detail, but this back and forth would take a long time, and the fighter plane had already been wrong.

What to do?

After careful consideration, now, Li You has made up his mind.

"You are all right, and you can't afford to miss this opportunity under any circumstances," he said. My opinion is that you continue to fight here, and I will return to Chang'an to protect you. ”

"Lord Wang, don't go back, you're gone, we're not sure." Xue Rengui said.

"Yes, you can't go, lord." Hou Cheng and Qualcomm and others said.

Xue Rengui, these young people, still don't know the danger. Hou Junji, Gao Yong and Sima Jiong know the traps in the officialdom. Hearing Li You say this, they were relieved.

Li You is the nemesis of impeachment! Playing a conspiracy with him, that is, looking for a draw!

In the end, Li You said: "You can fight here with confidence, the better you fight, the easier things will be." Rest assured, your credit is indispensable. ”

June 22, Chang'an City, Fanglin Gate.

The sun is shining brightly, and the wind is warm in early summer. The soldiers guarding the gate performed monotonous tasks all day long, one by one listless.

At this moment, they looked at a few fast horses coming in the distance, and the knights on the horses had a red patch on their backs.

"Red Flag Victory!" The soldiers were in good spirits.

The people of Chang'an City knew that His Royal Highness King Qi led troops to the Western Regions, and later heard that the Gaochang Kingdom had been defeated and cotton seeds had been brought back. And then there was no news for a long time.

Li You has always kept a low profile, and before completing the first phase of the task, he did not report to the imperial court. After conquering the 10 countries in the Western Regions, I didn't expect any red flags to report the victory. Because he is going to fight the Western Turks next, he doesn't want to be so ostentatious for the time being.

However, Li Shimin suddenly asked him and Hou Junji to come back, and it must have happened to the imperial court. For the benefit of the soldiers of the coalition army, Li You had to take the lead before returning to Chang'an.

Soon, the messengers came to the gate of Fang Lim, and they shouted: "Great victory in the Western Regions, the Tang army has defeated the 10 countries of the Western Regions!" ”

After entering Chang'an City, the messenger continued to shout loudly and headed straight for the military headquarters.

Soon, Chang'an City became lively.

A few days later, Li You quietly returned to Chang'an, first called Yin Hongzhi, and asked, "Uncle, what happened to the imperial court, why are you in such a hurry to let me come back?" ”8)