Time flies, years sing long, and the founding heroes of the Tang Dynasty are really old. was originally young and vigorous, working hard for the world together, but now, in the blink of an eye, Shaohua is white-headed, but it is already separated by yin and yang.

I don't know when Li Shimin has shown a trace of old age, his temples are slender, and there are many wrinkles on his forehead. The same is true of the ministers who followed him to fight the world, they are all past their most glorious years, and now they are all a little old.

Wei Zheng is gone, Qin Qiong is also gone, and a sad mood can't help but rise in the hearts of these people.

The most terrible thing is not death, but waiting for death. Even if you are a royal and noble family with all the power in the world, it is difficult to escape this fear in your heart.

Li Shimin let out a long sigh and staggered out of the mourning hall slightly. The next day, Wei Zheng's body was buried with a ceremony. Li Shimin personally went to the tombstone to pay respects.

Although the founding heroes of the Tang Dynasty are old, this prosperous era has just begun. The old man is still determined!

In the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, Datang was seriously ill in the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate. The Western Turks were dissatisfied with this, and attacked the Silk Road several times, but did not dare to engage the Tang army head-on, often fighting for a while, grabbing enough things and running. Or colluded with the armies of the Arab Empire to come to the territory of the Tang Dynasty to rob money and grain.

Ever since the Western Turks lost control of the Western Regions, he often went to the territory of the Arab Empire to cause trouble. At this time, the Arab empire was just emerging, and it had not yet reached the level of a superpower spanning Asia and Europe. I don't know why, they didn't know each other with the Western Turks, and finally hooked up and set their sights on the pockets of merchants on the Silk Road.

Compared to Europe, which was still a barbarian society, the treasures of merchants on the Silk Road were a fatal attraction for them.

Arabs are greedy for money, very, very greedy for money. What are the forty thieves of Alibaba, Aladdin's magic lamp is telling the story over there, which can be seen from this.

Originally, the kings of the Arab Empire wanted to conquer the declining Roman Empire. However, after tasting the sweetness of the Silk Road, he quickly lost interest in the Roman Empire and turned his attention to the Silk Road. and colluded with the Western Turks, and the two were embarrassed and colluded to rob the Silk Road.

Li Shimin was furious about this, but he was helpless. Because these two countries are completely bandit countries, riding horses and running so fast that you can't catch up with them.

And they don't fight you head-on, often hundreds of people are a group, they attack and loot when they find a caravan, and often end the war and retreat within a quarter of an hour, at this time, the caravan that encounters robbery doesn't even have time to send the news, how can it be possible to intercept these robbers.

For this reason, the court felt a big headache. On the contrary, it was Li Zhi who paid attention to make the eyes of the Manchu civil and military people shine.

He developed the theory of "feeding war with war" as a defense against the banditry of the Western Turks and the Arab Empire. The so-called "feeding war with war" refers to using war to stop war.

At present, the domestic grain and grass reserves are abundant, so why not transport more grain and grass to the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate, so that the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate can recruit the local people and form a powerful army to patrol the Silk Road to defend against the enemy?

Anxi Protectorate is already short of resources and scarce food, if it can use this way, it can not only resist foreigners, but also solve the problem of local people having enough to eat, it is simply a double win.

Li Zhi's remarks were highly praised by the courtiers, and they were very surprised that Li Zhi could have such a vision, coupled with his status as a crown prince, he received a lot of praise, and even Li Shimin smiled when he looked at him, showing a satisfied look.

Only Li Zhi felt a little weak, and secretly glanced in Chen Fei's direction, and saw Chen Fei dozing behind the crowd, and he was relieved again.

Li Zhi's proposal was unanimously approved by the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, and Li Shimin immediately ordered that grain and grass be sent to the Anxi Protectorate, and the Anxi Protectorate recruited local people to form an army for drills.

In this way, the atmosphere in the Western Regions, which had just been calm for a year and a half, gradually became tense again. However, for most of the people in the Western Regions, they were willing to accept this order.

Because the land resources in the Western Regions are limited, food and grass are very tight, if they can join the army in exchange for food, they still think it is very cost-effective, even if they fight for their own lives!

The Western Turks were also aware of the Tang Dynasty's movements, and they were afraid of the Tang Dynasty's retaliation afterwards, so they temporarily hid and harassed the merchants much less. After all, they have learned the military strength of the Tang Dynasty, know that this powerful neighbor is not easy to mess with, and look at the countries that have offended the Tang Dynasty in recent years, none of them have ended well, either they have been destroyed or driven out of their original territory (the Western Turks themselves), so the Western Turks are still self-aware and have not gone too far.

However, the Arab Empire did not know how powerful the Tang Dynasty was, although he heard that the Tang Dynasty had destroyed many surrounding countries, but in his opinion, those countries were just small fish and shrimp, and he didn't pay much attention to it.

When his allies retreated, he intensified his efforts and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to squeeze the Western Turks out and monopolize such a large piece of fat for himself.

At the end of the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, the Arab Empire suffered a large-scale famine, and a large number of people had nowhere to go, so they lived in the wilderness and starved to death in the desert. Under pressure, the Arab Empire had to expand outward, looking for fertile soil on which its people could be fed.

So they set their sights on the Tang Dynasty, in their eyes, it was a very rich place, full of gold, full of delicious food, as long as they could capture the Tang Empire, then they would no longer be afraid of famine.

At the end of the same year, 100,000 cavalrymen of the Arab Empire invaded the Anxi Protectorate. The Anxi Protectorate immediately organized soldiers to resist and asked the imperial court for help.

I have to say that one of Li Zhi's original suggestions played a very crucial role when the war came.

After a year of recruitment, the Anxi Protectorate already has a not weak army, although it still lacks training, but it has experienced several bloody battles, and it is not all recruits who don't understand anything.

In the face of the attack of the Arab Empire, the Ansi Protectorate led his troops to resist, defending the city and resisting the defense with a small number of thunderbolts stored in the city.

The Arabs had never seen a thunderbolt fire, and they were indeed frightened by it at first. However, they soon discovered that although the thunderbolt fire was powerful, the Tang army did not have much stock, and it was quickly used up. So they attacked the city again with a roar, and almost took it several times.

Fortunately, the soldiers of the Anxi Protectorate were very brave and withstood the attack of the Arab Empire.

At the beginning of the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, Cheng bit gold, Niu Jinda, and Li Daozong led reinforcements to arrive at Anxi Duhufu. At the beginning of the first battle, thousands of enemies were killed, and the Arab Empire was shocked by the combat effectiveness of the Tang army, retreated ten miles, and withdrew after seven days of confrontation.

Although the Arab Empire retreated for the time being, everyone understood that the war between the two empires had only just begun!

(End of chapter)