Of course, there was a heated debate in the court around the question of which Jiedu troops and horses to send to attack Tibet. Of course, Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong could not be stupid enough to directly name Wang Zhonghe's Hexi Longyou soldiers and horses to attack the Tubo people. Because it would obviously immediately remind people of the stalemate between Wang Zhongji and the left and right phases, Xuanzong would also see their intentions at a glance. Therefore, when playing this matter, Yang Guozhong and Li Linfu both wisely chose to avoid talking about the question of where to send troops and horses to attack.

Many officials believe that Wang Ji and Luo Xizao died in Jiannan, and it was the defense of Tubo Bison City, which is adjacent to Jiannan Province. Of course, it is necessary to dispatch the Jiannan army to conquer Tibet, and it is best to take Bison City and catch the culprits who killed Wang Ji and Luo Xizao to be regarded as real revenge.

But the proposal was quickly rejected. Because the rebuttal put forward by the opposing party is more effective. At present, the Jiannan army has only more than 30,000 soldiers and horses, and has experienced the great battle of conquest of Nanzhao, so it is not suitable to fight again. Moreover, strategically speaking, it was a relatively stupid act to send troops from Jiannan Province to attack Tibet.

The reason why Jiannan Province originally had only 30,000 soldiers was not because its geographical location was not important, but on the contrary, the border between Jiannan Province and Tubo stretched for more than 600 miles from north to south, which was the longest border line between Jiannan Province and Tubo in all sections. According to the convention, it is not too much to triple the number of troops in Jiannan Province, but in fact, Jiannan Province has always only had a limit of 30,000 and 700 troops, but there is also a specific reason.

The reason is that although the border between Jiannan Road and Tibet is very long, stretching for hundreds of miles. However, from south to north, the bordering borders are complex terrain. For example, from Yaozhou to Huichuan in the south of Wangzhou, it is a place of dense forests and rocks in large mountains and valleys. Peaks as high as hundreds of zhang or even thousands of zhang abound, except for a rugged mountain road leading to Yaozhou, there is no road for the Tubo soldiers and horses to invade at all. Therefore, on the border southwest of Jiannan Road, only a heavy army needs to be stationed in Yaozhou to resist the enemy of Tibet. And from Huichuan to Beizhou, Yazhou, and even Chengdu, the border towns in the area of Maozhou, Beihanzhou, and Tubo are all vast sand seas. The Tubo people are not fools, and it is obviously an irrational way to let the army cross the Baili Sand Sea to attack the city of Jiannan. The army may be able to fight across the sand sea, but what about logistics? What if you lose and retreat? Obviously, these practical issues are something that any leader with a modicum of common sense should consider.

Therefore, there is a reason why Jiannan Dao has always only had 30,000 soldiers, because there is no need for too many soldiers and horses to be stationed here. Deserts and mountains are natural defensive barriers, and neither the Tang Dynasty nor the Tibetans are worried about the peace of the border in this region. The reason why the imperial court agreed to increase the number of 20,000 troops to Jiannan Province this time was not only Yang Guozhong's active request, but also a large part of the reason was that after the rebellion of Nanzhao captured Yaozhou City, the Tubo people forcibly mobilized 30,000 soldiers and horses from Luqi City to cross the mountains, forests and deep valleys along the Jinsha River to reach Huichuan in order to assist the soldiers and horses of Nanzhao State. This shows that the Tibetan soldiers and horses have the possibility of being able to attack Jiannan. It gave Jiannan Province another reason to increase the number of troops.

But in fact, the invasion of the Tibetan soldiers and horses was based on the loss of Yaozhou City. As long as Yaozhou City is not lost, the Tubo soldiers and horses will not dare to insert into the Huichuan between Yaozhou and Wangzhou, but they will kill themselves and encounter a north-south attack. At that time, in order to show his support for Ge Luofeng's war against the Tang Dynasty, Tubo drove 30,000 soldiers and horses from Luqi City to Wangzhou. How many hardships and dangers have been experienced, how many people have died in the torrent of the Jinsha River, and how many materials have been lost, only the Tibetan people know in their hearts.

Therefore, in fact, the place with the longest border is the most peaceful because of the restrictions of the terrain. In the territory of Kennam Province, the number of clashes between the two sides is only a handful. On the contrary, the areas under the jurisdiction of Longyou and Hexi, which are north of Jiannan, are very different.

A few years ago, the Tang Dynasty was defeated and annexed Tuyuhun, and the main forces of the attack were the Longyou Army and the Hexi Army. Tuyuhun was conquered by the Tang Dynasty, which completely eliminated the buffer zone between the northeastern border of Tubo and the west of the Longyou River of the Tang Dynasty, and turned it into a direct face-to-face. In the battle for Tuyuhun, the Hexi Army of the Longyou Army fought several battles with the Tubo soldiers and horses, and only after defeating the Tubo soldiers and horses did they gain control of Tuyuhun.

In this area where the two sides meet, there are no mountains and dense forests, and there are no deserts across the country. Some are just large expanses of desolate and flat Gobi desert. The only mountain range is the rocky mountain, which is not very high and has more than ten valleys connected by it. To the left of this stone mountain is the place where the Tang Dynasty and Tubo fought intensively. The attack here is more conducive to the advance of the large corps. To the southwest of Jishi Mountain are two important lakes in the Tubo Kingdom, namely the Suling Lake and the Zhaling Lake. As we all know, the reason why the Tibetan State was able to establish a strong state in the desolate Western Regions was because of the important lakes and rivers within its borders, otherwise it would be impossible for this country that occupies most of the area of the desert Gobi to exist and develop.

The lakes were the most important places in the northern part of the Tibetan kingdom, and several cities were built around these two lakes. Several cities such as Doma City, Stone Castle City, and Antelope City are all important fortified cities in the Tibetan Kingdom. There were 80,000 or 90,000 soldiers and horses stationed in these cities, which was almost half of the entire army of the Tubo State. It can be seen from this that the Tubo State also knew very well that this side of Jiannan Road was not the focus of defense, and what really needed to be defended was the Gobi Desert in the northeast, which was conducive to attack, and the Jishi Mountain, which could not be used as a barrier. The Longyou and Hexi armies are the most dangerous existences. If this march can occupy several cities around the two lakes, it will obviously make this retaliation more devastating, more able to hit the arrogance of Tibet, and more able to reflect the strength and majesty of the Tang Dynasty.

The reasons against this retaliatory action with the soldiers and horses of Jiannan Province are irrefutable, and even Wang Zhongsi agrees with this view, although the crown prince Li Heng knows that this is a ploy by the left and right ministers to transfer Wang Zhongsi out of the capital, but he has no reason to refute it. And in fact, Li Heng didn't think that this matter was serious in his heart, but on the contrary, he felt that this matter might be beneficial. Imagine, if Wang Zhongsi can quickly occupy the Tubo city near Zhaling Lake and defeat the Tubo defenders this time, it will be a great merit. When the time comes, it will be more powerful and more powerful, and His Majesty will have a better impression of Wang Zhonghe. What may seem like a bad thing can actually be a great thing. As for Wang Zhongsi's ability to lead the army into battle, Li Heng would never doubt it.

Moreover, the proposal to send troops to the Southern Army of the Sword is also unreliable in Li Heng's opinion, in Li Heng's mind, Wang Yuan is still a chess piece that can be controlled at a critical time, Li Heng needs Wang Yuan's hidden chess piece, at least not to the point of destroying this chess piece at present.

So this controversy quickly reached a consensus, and Xuanzong ordered Wang Zhongsi to leave Beijing immediately and go to Hexi Longyou to prepare for the war. And Yang Guozhong also went to the imperial court, and proposed with a selfless appearance that in order for Wang Zhonghei to defeat the heavy troops of Tubo in the southwest of Jishi Mountain and the two lakes in one fell swoop, the imperial court should supply all the newly made weapons and armor to the two armies of Longyou and Hexi. This move was greatly praised by Xuanzong, who issued an order to suspend the replacement of equipment for the two festivals this year, and fully supported Wang Zhongsi to lead the army to punish Tibet.

Originally, the two major festivals that needed to be changed this year were Hedong Road led by An Lushan and Anxi Town of Gao Xianzhi, but now they can only postpone it. Anxi Jiedu made Gao Xianzhi down, but Hedong Dao Jiedu made An Lushan very annoyed, and was hidden by Yang Guozhong, An Lushan jumped like thunder, and scolded Yang Guozhong's ancestors for eight generations.

And the reason why Yang Guozhong ordered someone to send the tattered equipment backlogged in the treasury of the Ministry of War to Jiannan was not that he deliberately embarrassed Wang Yuan, but that he did it on purpose. In Yang Guozhong's view, this move can break the rumors that the so-called Jiannan Jiedu envoy Wang Yuan is Yang Guozhong's personal rumor that has been in the dust recently. As the left minister and the imperial prince, once he is slandered as having a close relationship with the envoys of the same external festival, he will follow in Wei Jian's footsteps. Therefore, Yang Guozhong did this on purpose to tell the world that he was by no means involved with Wang Yuan. In addition, Yang Guozhong's doing this also showed that he disregarded everything else in order to fully support Wang Zhongsi's military action, and made a posture of attaching great importance to Wang Zhongsi's military action to punish Tubo, which was not only to win Xuanzong's appreciation, but also to block the rumors of discord between himself and Wang Zhongsi that circulated in private. Show yourself a big heart.

All in all, this is the most thoughtful move that Yang Guozhong has considered, which not only achieved his selfish purpose, but also won a lot of applause. Even Xuanzong praised Yang Guozhong and said: "Guozhong is now much fairer, and he is quite good-looking." It's rare to be able to think about the big picture. Some of the words I had heard from others before, Guozhong proved with his actions that they were slander. I am very relieved that after Li Xiangguo is old, Guozhong is worthy of the great responsibility. ”

……

Wang Yuan was completely unaware of all this, and this military operation against Tibet was a top-secret operation, and the imperial court did not publicly announce it. Because the imperial court did not want to leak the news before the military action to let the Tibetan people take precautions, this is also what Wang Zhongji requested. Therefore, the two officials of the Ministry of War actually did not know the news that the imperial court was about to use troops against Tibet. As the specific officials of the Ministry of War, if it weren't for the fact that the matter of allocating weapons and armor to the Longyou and Hexi armies had to be handled by them, they would not be able to tell Wang Yuan that pitiful little bit of news. And even to tell this little bit of information, in fact, is not allowed, that is also part of the secret.

It was the revelation of this bit of news that made Wang Yuan judge that the imperial court would have the possibility of military action, if there was a military action between the two armies of Longyou and Hexi, the target would be either Tubo or Turkic, and the possibility of Tubo was obviously greater, because the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo had deteriorated in an all-round way recently. Wang Yuan was a little worried that this matter would affect Jiannan, and if he fought with Tubo, it was very likely that it would affect him. However, Wang Yuan was suddenly relieved, this batch of tattered equipment was transported from the capital, making it clear that there was nothing to do with the Jiannan Army in this operation, otherwise how could he do this? Wang Yuan even felt that this was a good excuse, if he needed the assistance of the Jiannan Army in the battle, he could use this tattered equipment as a prevarication, and no one had anything to say.

Wang Yuan didn't want to bother with these things, sooner or later it would come to light, and Yang Guozhong would at least come to a letter to explain the matter. Wang Yuan has been thinking about his own problem over and over again in his heart, that is, how to quickly find a way to make money, not to make small money, but to make a lot of money, a lot of money. Especially when this batch of tattered equipment came, Wang Yuan's willingness to this was even stronger. If you want to complete the transformation of the Jiannan Army and various military ideas in your heart, you can't rely on the imperial court, you can only rely on yourself, and there is no other way.