The night quietly shrouded the Daming Palace, and the time for retreating from the dynasty has passed for a long time, but in the night, several carriages came to the Daming Palace again under the escort of the attendants, and then an orange lantern appeared in the Daming Palace, and the figures of the Tang Xiangguo appeared again, Pei You, Cui Yu, Han, Chu Xingshui, Yuan Zai, Zhang Potian, Yang Yan all came in turn, with serious expressions, obviously temporarily summoned into the Daming Palace, the soldiers on duty silently looked at the figures of the Xiangguo in a hurry, and many people faintly felt, Something big must have happened in Datang again.

In the Zichen Palace, the seven Xiangguo exchanged heads and discussions, no one knew what was going on, the court was very calm these days, and nothing major happened, at this time, Cui Yu suddenly saw his grandson sitting in the corner of the hall, he was chatting with Han Yu, the Zhongshu person on duty today, Cui Yu couldn't help but be stunned, "Yao'er, when are you coming back, what are you doing here?" ”

Cui Yao hurriedly stepped forward to salute his second grandfather and said, "Back to my second grandfather, my grandson just arrived in Chang'an at noon today, and His Majesty summoned me in the afternoon and ordered me to attend tonight's meeting. ”

"I see, I understand His Majesty's purpose in calling us here." Chu Xingshui laughed, he turned back to several Xiangguo and said: "I heard that the prime minister of Da Shi has come to my Da Tang, and Yao'er is here again, needless to say, His Majesty must have summoned us here for the matter of Da Shi." ”

Everyone suddenly realized that Chu Xingshui was right, and at this time, there was a shout from the guards in the hall: "Your Majesty has arrived!" ”

The seven Xiangguo immediately quieted down, Han Yu and Cui Yao behind also stood up, and after a while, Zhang Huan walked into the hall quickly, he was wearing an ordinary regular clothes, and he could see that he was in a good mood. Zhang Huan glanced at everyone, nodded and smiled: "All Aiqing have arrived, but I am too late." ”

"Your Majesty!" Everyone bowed in unison.

"All love is exempt." Zhang Huan sat down, he waved his hand and said, "Everyone, Aiqing, please take a seat, it's time for the next dynasty, you can feel free and don't have to be too formal." ”

One by one, they took their seats. Han Yu sat at the recording table, unfolded the plain paper, picked up the pen and prepared to record, more than a dozen eunuchs lit the lamp, and the hall became brightly lit, like day.

Zhang Huan pondered for a moment and said slowly: "I summoned you here today because I have a major national policy to discuss with you. Today I received a handwritten letter from the Caliph of the Great Eater. ”

As soon as Zhang Huan's words fell, several people turned their heads to look at Cui Yao, and Zhang Huan saw him. smiled slightly: "Yes, this handwritten letter was brought by Cui Yao from thousands of miles away, and it was written by Da Shiwen, now let Cui Yao read it to everyone." ”

Cui Yao immediately stood up. He picked up the letter from the eunuch and read it a little nervously, "To His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, I am the fifth caliph of the Abbasid Empire, Harun al-Rashid, and I hereby send a letter to His Majesty the Emperor in order to establish a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries

Cui Yao read it very slowly, and he read a letter of about 2,000 words for almost a quarter of an hour. Han Yu worked hard to write a book. Rashid's letter was recorded, and the seven ministers listened attentively to Cui Yao's reading from beginning to end. No one feels incredible, they know. This is not a joke, this will be a major decision for Datang.

After Cui Yao finished reading, he silently retreated, Zhang Huan glanced at everyone, and spoke first: "I have been thinking about this matter for a whole afternoon, there has been a profound contradiction between the Great Eclipse Monarchs, the Caliph hopes to get our assistance in order to regain his own power, in return, he promised that the Great Eclipse will give up his support for Hui Hui, my original intention is to agree to this plan, but the stakes are very high, I specially summoned you to discuss this matter again, I hope you can put forward your own opinions." ”

This matter came in a hurry, everyone was not mentally prepared, the hall was silent for a while, and Zhang Huan did not urge, he knew that everyone needed time to think about it.

"Your Majesty, let me say a few words first." Standing up was the Ministry of War Shangshu Yuanzai, he nodded to everyone, and said slowly: "Five years ago, I was entrusted by His Majesty to deal with the Khitan problem, and the Khitan people were scattered and settled in fifteen states in Hebei and Hedong, and now five years have passed, and at the beginning of the year I made a special trip to check the effect of the resettlement, and the results really surprised me, in just five years, most of the Khitans and Han people have been integrated, they intermarry with each other, wear the same clothes, speak the same dialect, and farm and pay taxes in the same way, especially young people, You can't imagine that they used to be Khitans, I have asked a lot of people, they don't care whether they are Khitans or Han Chinese, the key is to let them be fed, clothed, and have their own land, from this matter I understand, in fact, the people who oppose the Khitan southward migration are their nobles, some people who have lost vested interests, the real poor Khitans don't care who they are, they live in our culture, they will take the initiative to adjust to adapt to my culture, over time, this sense of cultural identity will melt themIf we are the opposite, if we are accommodating to them everywhere, giving them money and rice, and giving them preferential treatment, in the end we will be arrogant to them, but will give them a sense of inequality, and if they are slightly unsatisfactory, they will revolt and become independent, and they will think that their preferential treatment is a kind of discrimination, so Your Majesty will kill their nobles by forceful means, forcibly scatter and resettle their people, and treat them equally with the Han people, although they will be a little dissatisfied at the beginning, but over time, they will gradually integrate into the Han civilization, Completely eliminated the threat of the Khitan land. ”

Yuan Zai said this in one breath, he found that he was a little off-topic, so he smiled apologetically: "Why am I saying this?" Because I think of the Uighurs, their population is actually not large, at most a million people, not only them, the Huns, the Turks, these nomads in the north of the desert have always been our confidants in the Central Plains, more than a thousand years have never stopped the invasion of the Central Plains, but our dynasties have no way to solve the threat in the north, I think the most critical point is that we have never included the Mobei into our territory, if we can take this opportunity to level the Hui in one fell swoop, I hope the Tang Dynasty will continue to march north, The Tang Straight Road was built, and the immigrants to the north in the form of military towns were moved, and the Hui people were moved south to the Central Plains and dispersed and resettled. Completely solve the threat of northern nomads to Han civilization. ”

Won Jae said impassionedly, this is a plan that he has been thinking about for three years, and he has never had the right opportunity to put it forward, and today, he finally found the best time to put forward his opinion.

Perhaps due to the influence of Yuan Zaidi, the atmosphere in the hall began to liven, and Pei You and Cui Yu both said that the Tang Dynasty had been weak for a long time. A Broken Leaf Battle has exhausted the little national strength that has just been restored, and it will take at least thirty years for Datang to recover to the strength of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, and it should be hard to do a good job in internal affairs, and it is not appropriate to conduct a large-scale war within twenty years. A peace treaty should be concluded with Da Shi, but Hui Hui has always been a sword hanging over Datang's head, and this Hui Hui infighting is an excellent opportunity. If this opportunity is missed, Datang will definitely pay a heavy price for attacking it again in the future.

Regarding Pei and Cui's opinion of giving up Tocharo, Zhang Huan also smiled and said nothing, which did not represent his point of view, although Tocharian and Kangguo, Anguo and other places west of the Yaozhi River could not be captured by Datang for the time being. But it does not mean that they have to be abandoned, there will be no eternal friends and eternal enemies between countries, there are only national interests, and a peace treaty may be concluded between Datang and Dashi now, but who can predict the future?

Zhang Huan didn't speak, he had been silently listening to everyone's speeches, and he found that Chu Xingshui wanted to speak several times and stopped. smiled slightly: "If Chu Aiqing has anything to say, please say it directly." I need to listen to everyone. ”

Chu Xingshui is the only living person among the heads of the seven great families of the previous generation, and he is the oldest one in Xiangguo. He is also in his sixties, almost reaching the age of retirement. Seeing Zhang Huan ask him, Chu Xingshui stood up and said with a smile: "I agree with everyone's point of view, Dashi is too far away from us, even if we conquer it, we can't govern it, I am in favor of destroying it first, but I have another idea, that is, the Tang Dynasty should also maintain a good relationship with the Byzantine Empire at the same time, and the best medium for this relationship is trade, and the imperial court should vigorously encourage the Tang Dynasty merchants to go abroad to trade in the West, not just the Hu merchants to come to the Tang Dynasty, but also expand the sea trade, With Yangzhou and Guangzhou as seaports, private merchants were allowed to go to the West to obtain profits, and a large amount of overseas trade could not only bring prosperity to the handicraft land, but also bring new revenue channels to the imperial court's finances

The meeting was held until the early morning of the next day, and everyone spoke freely, and finally formed a complete set of national strategic plans, including the basic national policy of Dashi, Byzantium, Hui and Tubo, and the main peace of Dashi and Byzantium, the two sides established good trade relations, and vigorously encouraged trade between the East and the West to promote the better economic and cultural development of the Tang Dynasty, while the unique geographical environment of Tubo made it impossible for the Tang army to enter, so it was suppressed first, and the Central Plains materials were strictly prohibited from flowing into Tubo, and the internal strife in Tubo was maintained as much as possible, let the Tubo gradually weaken and die out in the internal strife, and the Hui reached a consensus that the Tang Dynasty should completely destroy this steppe nation within two or three years, expand the territory of the Tang Dynasty to the north, and connect Mobei with the Central Plains in a military town, immigration, and straightforward way.

As soon as dawn, an urgent order was sent from Chang'an to Lingzhou.

Lingzhou, that is, the former Lingwu County, Shuofang Jiedu envoy location, commanded the three armies of Jinglue, Feng'an, Dingyuan, three surrendered cities, governed the realm of Ling, Xia and Fengzhou, the original garrison of 64,700 people, as Tubo gradually declined, the focus of defense of the Tang Dynasty began to shift to the west and north, and the status of the Shuofang Jiedu envoy gradually improved, in the adjustment of troops at the beginning of the year, the Western Regions Protectorate became the first garrison of the Tang Dynasty, with a total of 120,000 garrisons, and under it the establishment of Beiting, Anxi, Xiaye, Dawan four major metropolitan governors; The second is the Shuofang Jiedu envoy, with a garrison of 100,000 troops, becoming the second largest Jiedu Mansion in the Tang Dynasty, and at the same time reducing the troops of Longyou, Hexi, Hedong and Fanyang.

In order to prevent the formation of a new jiedu to make the autocratic power, the imperial court adopted three effective measures: first, the military expenses and food of each jiedu were borne by the imperial court (except for the military household tuntian system used by the capital protector of the Western Regions), and the military was strictly prohibited from seeking profits in various garrisons without authorization; The second is that the Imperial Historical Observatory regularly dispatches military inspectors to monitor possible violations of the various armies; The third is the implementation of the rotation system of the Jiedu envoys, in which the major generals of the sixteen guards of the imperial court take turns to serve as the Jiedu envoys in various places, as well as the four major governors under the jurisdiction of the Western Regions Metropolitan Protectorate, with a term of four years each.

The current Shuofang Jiedu envoy is Li Shuangyu, the general of the left prison guard, this old subordinate of Zhang Huan has always been known for his loyalty and prudence, at noon that day. He received an 800-mile express from Chang'an, an edict from Zhang Huan, ordering him to detain the Great Food Messenger Ye Haya on the spot.

This news should be said to have come very timely, Ye Haya has arrived in Dingyuan City, a hundred miles away, Li Shuangyu is preparing to lead the army to lead them across the Yellow River, Ye Haya brought 3,000 guards, which violates the Tang Dynasty's regulations that foreign envoys cannot enter the country with more than 1,000 escorts. After repeated negotiations, Li Shuangyu agreed that the reduction of Yehaya's guards would be divided into two steps, the first step would be to reduce the number of people by 1,000 in Jiuyuan, and the second step would be to reduce the number of people by another 1,000 in Lingzhou, and the Tang Army would be responsible for the safety along the way.

In order not to arouse the suspicion of the other party, Li Shuangyu made a two-handed arrangement, he deployed 10,000 troops on the east bank of the Yellow River, and he himself personally led a thousand light horsemen to cross the river to welcome the arrival of the prime minister of Dashi.

After Yehaya set out from Halfobali. First arrived in Jiuyuan, there are two roads to go from Jiuyuan to Chang'an, one is to go south along the original Qinzhi Road. This is the most convenient road, the cavalry can even reach Chang'an in only half a month, and the other is to go south along the Yellow River and cross the river in Lingzhou. The road was much farther, because Yehaya was guarded by troops, so the Tang army did not allow them to take the Qin Straight Road, and could only go south along the Yellow River.

They walked for nearly half a month before finally arriving in Lingzhou, which was already full of autumn in late August, with strong north winds sweeping across the Loess Plateau, often blowing up dust. There's always a hint of dusk in the sky.

In the carriage, Yehaya looked out the window with great interest. On the left are gentle hills, with ravines crisscrossing thick loess. As if the traces of being cut by a knife, a few miles away is the Yellow River, the mother river of the Tang people. From the winding circle, you can see her figure by chance, majestic, dignified, galloping thousands of miles, and on the right you can see the towering mountains in the distance, where is Helan Mountain.

"Your Highness Vizier, twenty miles ahead is the Lingzhou Ferry, where we will cross the Yellow River."

The place where Ye Haya translated was a Sogdian merchant about 50 years old, he had been back and forth between Dashi and the Tang Dynasty for many years, and could speak fluent Chinese, which Ye Haya brought from Baghdad, he had been a trade merchant for 30 years, and had been to many places in the Tang Dynasty.

He saw that Ye Haya was very interested, and introduced with a smile: "The vegetation here is scarce, and a large amount of loess is swept into the river, making the river water show a turbid yellow, so it is called the Yellow River, but then go south is the Tang Dynasty has developed agriculture and dense population Longyou, where the Tang Emperor started." ”

"Have you met their Emperor Majesty?" Yehaya smiled gently.

The merchant shook his head, "I've only heard that he is more concerned about the people's welfare, and often goes to the people to inspect the people, but I have never met him. ”

"This time I have a meeting with him, and I need you to be the translator, and then you can meet him."

As soon as Ye Haya finished speaking, someone suddenly pointed ahead and shouted, "Look, my lord, it's the Tang Army here." ”

Ye Haya looked forward, only to see the yellow dust rolling in front of him, and an army was galloping towards this side, Ye Haya smiled: "Don't worry, this is the Tang army that is here to lead us across the river." ”

Soon, the Tang army drove in, Li Shuangyu turned over and dismounted, strode forward and saluted: "Li Shuangyu, who is in the Xiashuo Fang Festival, is ordered by His Majesty the Tang Emperor to lead the distinguished guests across the river." ”

The translator whispered a few words to Ye Haya, Ye Haya nodded and smiled: "It turned out to be General Li, thank you for your hard work, I am the Great Food Country Vizier Yahaya." ”

The interpreter translated Ye Haya's words into Chinese, and specifically pointed out to him that the meaning of Vizier was the Xiangguo of the Tang Dynasty, and Li Shuangyu hugged his fists and said: "Let's prepare the boat and ask the prime minister to go with me to cross the river." ”

Tang army in front of the way, a group of people continue to gallop forward, an hour later, the brigade arrived at the Lingzhou Huangsha ferry, here is the most important river crossing in Lingzhou, this area of the river is open, up to more than 20 miles wide, is the main section of the Yellow River water transport, at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Gaozu Li Yuan had ordered the formation of the Yellow River water division here, in case of Turkic invasion, now it has become the most important wharf for the Yellow River water transport, a large amount of grain from the east of the river to the Yellow River waterway.

Two big boats have been parked at the ferry, which can transport more than 300 people at a time, Li Shuangyu said apologetically: "Please forgive Xiangguo, our ships have gone to transport grain, only two ships are available, and we can only send the army across the Yellow River in several times." ”

This was a bit unexpected by Yehaya, and he groaned for a moment and said, "Okay! Guests do as they please, just do what General Li says. ”

He got out of the carriage and boarded one of the big ships surrounded by two hundred guards, and more than a dozen Tang soldiers also followed as guides, and the big ship finally staggered off the shore, breaking through the turbid Yellow River, and slowly sailed towards the far opposite bank, Li Shuangyu kept watching the big boat disappear, and the corners of his mouth showed a trace of imperceptible sneer.

On August 26, the sixth year of Dazhi, the Great Food Weizier Yehaya who sent the envoy to the Tang Dynasty was detained in Lingzhou by the Shuofang army, and the 2,000 guards who escorted him to the Tang Dynasty were also captured by the Tang army one by one when crossing the river, and all of them became prisoners of the Tang army. Continued, if you want to know what happened next, UC e-book Chinese network, more chapters, support authors, support UC e-books! )