On the first day of October in 889 AD, after a year of silence in the east, the Tiance army suddenly sent troops to Hazhongfu, and before the main infantry arrived at the battlefield, the vanguard had already entered Hezhongfu. The city gate order of the early rebellion was quietly opened at night, and the forward troops of the 30,000-strong army rushed forward and disarmed all the sleeping Hedong troops.

Early the next morning, Yang Tiancheng's headquarters had already entered Hezhong Mansion, and used it as a base camp, gathered follow-up troops and began to sweep the Hezhong area, and the neighboring Danzhou was also besieged at the same time. The Shatuo people did not have the slightest feature in terms of city defense, and the city gate was blown open in less than a day. And the gunpowder of this battle was also completely exposed to everyone's sight, and this new weapon of the Tiance Army also became the object of other princes trying their best to imitate spying after the war. However, at this time, the gunpowder technology of the Tiance Army had reached the second-generation level, and the first-generation gunpowder had even been transferred to the construction corps of the logistics department as their supreme weapon for opening mountains and building roads.

With the Tiance army entering the river in a big way, Yang Tiancheng also publicly played the banner to the outside world, and the Tiance army followed the wishes of the Tiance general Li Xuanqing, in order to rescue the people of the Central Plains, and to avenge the killing of his brother, and even directly released words to people from all walks of life in Hezhong Mansion: The Tiance army will take revenge in the name of righteousness. and announced the truth of Li Cunxiao's killing for the first time, hoping that the heroes of the world will discuss it.

"Lord, how did I find out that Tiancheng also has the demeanor of a little four? This mouth doesn't leak when it speaks, and it can be used for anything. Cen Tianshi, who had already rushed back from Chang'an City, also came to the General Staff Office Area of the Military Department Building after arranging for Tuoba Si Zhi to sit in Hexi, and looked at Li Xuanqing holding the battle summary sent back by Yang Tiancheng and said with a smile: "But Tiancheng's sentence is good in the name of righteousness, we are now here to avenge him for Li Cunxiao's descendants among the Shatuo people. ”

Li Xuanqing smiled bitterly when he saw his appearance: "Sir, don't make trouble for me, now let's think about how to deal with the aftermath." Tiancheng's voice, our strategy for dealing with the Shatuo people after the war will be revised. Not to mention the news from Xuan Yingwei, An Xiuxiu has already sent someone to Fengzhou, and Chen Fan has already connected with him. Therefore, at least Li Cunxiao's descendants among the Shatuo people will change a lot towards us. ”

Cen Tianshi heard Li Xuanqing's words and groaned slightly: "In fact, the existence of Shatuo people is not all bad, Datang has always been eclectic and tolerant of everything. As long as we maintain the dominant position of our Han people, we are already a family. Tian Khan is the co-ruler of all ethnic groups in the world. ”

Cen Tianshi's words made Li Xuanqing's heart move, the 56 nationalities emphasized by later generations are one family, and the tone of emphasizing the Chinese nation can actually start at this time. Thinking of this, he said, "Sir, I have an idea. It is based on the purpose of Tiance Mansion as the basic definition, and all those who are willing to follow our goals and objectives are all a family, regardless of their tribal origin, so as to create a mixed but unified concept of a large nation. Internally, we should weaken ethnic distinctions and safeguard national habits and interests externally. ”

"The Lord means to mix the people in our jurisdiction and create a mixed and unified nation. So which one is the main body to carry out the transformation? Cen Tianshi was taken aback by Li Xuanqing's words.

"Naturally, it is mainly based on the Han nationality. Our Datang culture is eclectic, in fact, it is the eclecticism of Han people's questioning. On the basis of the main body of Han culture, it absorbs the essence of other tribes and blends them, so as to integrate them into a whole. Li Xuanqing waved his hand and said: "Actually, this is a conscious or unconscious phenomenon, but our Tiance Mansion actually promotes the accelerated development of this process. How will the unification of the world treat the northern nomads in the future? How to treat the Tibetans in Tibet? And the small tribes of the old land of Anxi? Use our advantageous culture to assimilate them, use our powerful military power to conquer them, and use the power in our hands to rule them, so that the power of the poor generation, these places will truly become the land of my Datang. Only in this way can Datang ask for restraints, exert its strength externally, and go out to the extreme sky sea. ”

"My lord, has this solved the internal contradictions of Datang?" Cen Tianshi nodded and said: "This method can be operated, ethnic integration can not only enhance the strength but also allow the main body of the Han nationality to be continuously stimulated, and obtain the cultural essence of these integrated tribes." ”

"So the Ministry of Civil Affairs can ask the Department of Education to organize a group of literati to start studying the feasibility and specific operation plan, in addition, we already have party members now, and there are Tahi tribes in the north, if there is any feasible plan to try, it will not harm them anyway." The Han culture is still very advanced for them. Li Xuanqing said with a smile: "However, one thing that needs to be emphasized is that the Han people themselves must add one to their own cultural traditions, that is, to bring forth the new, keep pace with the times, and take innovation as a national characteristic." Otherwise, sooner or later, someone will catch up. ”

"Don't worry, my lord, I will go back and let Neng and Si advise them to study it carefully, this is a great cause that will be in the future, and the time will not be sloppy. And according to the lord's words, the victory or defeat of this battle is not the first, but the national integration is a major event. When Cen Tianshi heard Li Xuanqing's words, he immediately realized the importance of it, and he couldn't sit still and was about to start acting, but he was pulled by Hu Xiaosi, who had just entered the door, and pressed him to his seat and said: "Sir, don't be so anxious, this battlefield is actually a process of integration, and war is actually a catalyst to accelerate the process of national integration." ”

"I said Xiaosi, I think you can come to my Ministry of Civil Affairs, how to talk about this matter, it's almost time to catch up with the lord." Cen Tianshi said with a smile.

"Sir, have you forgotten, I'm just a Hu person, okay? This point is still right for the lord, Hu Han's other lord doesn't care about nature, I don't care, this person doesn't care about nature, and his character is noble. So for the concept of this big nation, I am in favor of it with both hands. But what is the appropriate name for this new nation? Hu Xiaosi grinned and said.

"Let's call it the Chinese nation. All the ethnic groups in the land of China are one family, and it is not the Chinese nation that does not want to integrate, and the mission of our Tiance Mansion is to find a way to integrate them, and take this as our goal. Li Xuanqing didn't even want to directly apply the concept of the afterlife.

"Little Four, you came here in a hurry, is there something wrong?" Cen Tianshi felt very satisfied after muttering a few words, only to find that Hu Xiaosi had come in, and suddenly smiled: "I can't take care of anything in this hurry." ”

"Lord, a letter from Fengzhou, An Xiuxiu has decided to surrender, I hope we can accept him, and he also said that Gao Siji also means this, but I hope we can avenge Li Cunxiao. and reported on the deployment of the Shatuo people near Daizhou, where he was located. Chen Fan asked us if we should start the northern line in advance. Hu Xiaosi handed the information in his hand to Li Xuanqingdao.

"Chen Fan can continue to keep in touch with An Xiuxiu, but don't do it until the northern front achieves results on the southern front. You can give An Xiuxiu a guarantee, if he is discovered by Li Keyong, he can lead his troops to retreat into Tiande City, or occupy Shengzhou and other places to join our army. Li Xuanqing shook his head and said: "Li Keyong has been able to suppress Zhu Quanzhong for many years and does not dare to move the strength of his cavalry, although Li Cunxiao is gone, but the strength of others has not been damaged, we must keep enough strength, after eliminating Li Keyong, the northern front will also have to undertake the task of fighting with the Khitans, and the southern front will suppress Zhu Quanzhong's covetousness, the task is very heavy, and our plans cannot be exposed in advance." ”

Hu Xiaosi nodded and said: "I understand what the lord means, Tiancheng's southern front has just started operations, and my Xuanyingwei's plan has not been launched for a long time, and it has not yet achieved the goal of containing the enemy and dispersing the enemy's forces, and it is impossible to destroy the overall plan for his only twenty or thirty thousand people at this time." ”

"By the way, I heard the lord say that when you Xuan Yingwei infiltrated, you were propagating the concept of equal division of land and equality for everyone, how is the practice?" Cen Tianshi didn't have any opinion on what the two said, but he just remembered something and asked.

Hu Xiaosi disappreciated: "The slogans of the people uprising and rebellion in troubled times are actually good, but no one can really implement these into practice." I just piloted the policy of our Tiance Mansion in advance in the Youhe area, and the result was really not ordinarily good. The next step is to return to their roots and let them know that in the northwest, this has become the national policy of our Tiance Mansion. In this way, the people's hearts will be attached to my Tiance Mansion in an instant. What does the history book say, as soon as the king arrived, the people naturally ate pot pulp to welcome the lord. ”

Li Xuanqing was also dumbfounded when he heard it, but with a few people discussing this matter, it was widely spread in the Youji region. The news that the people in the jurisdiction of Tiance Mansion shared the land equally, everyone was equal, lived and worked in peace and contentment, and there was no tax and labor quickly appeared on the streets and alleys of major states and counties under the propaganda of Xuan Yingwei. Those forces that had already raised troops to revolt also changed their appearances, and played the banner of the advance army of Tiance Mansion, calling on their people to join Tiance Mansion.

This completely made Li Keyong unable to sit still, originally thought that these were just mossy diseases, and the army could naturally be exterminated as soon as it arrived, but at this time, the appearance of these people and these slogans made him suddenly realize that these eighty percent were ghosts sent by the West. And as these slogans spread more and more widely, those areas of the uprising began to divide the land and even the cattle and sheep and other property seized to the Shatuo people were divided equally, Li Keyong clearly felt that his foundation was being pryed into little by little. Although the Shatuo people informed the Youji region that they did not pay much attention to agricultural production, and even converted farmland into pasture in many places, food was the most important thing related to the stability of his army. Now that this foundation is destroyed, his rule will naturally be shaken.

Li Keyong, who had thought about all this, even asked Xue Atan and Li Chengsi to lead an army of 50,000 while concentrating his forces to deal with Hezhong Mansion, and began to go to various places to suppress the rebellions one by one. In this way, together with the troops he sent to various places in the early stage, it has reached more than 100,000. In the face of this nascent cavalry force, those rebel armies that had not been baptized by the great war were not opponents and were exterminated one after another. But what caught the Shatuo people off guard was that every time they suppressed one rebellion and ignited the flames of war in another, these uprisings continued like sparks, and each time it became bigger and more widespread. The rebel armies in the Youzhou area, which had not received a major blow in the early stage due to distance, even organized a large army and went out of their own base areas to start attacking the city. This completely disrupted Li Keyong's deployment. As a last resort, Li Keyong once again sent additional troops from the base camp of Taiyuan Mansion to mobilize the 50,000 troops that were originally going to reinforce the direction of Hezhong and go to the northeast.

In this way, the troops on the frontal battlefield in the direction of Hezhong and Yang Tiancheng were completely contained, so that Yang Tiancheng went out of the pass with 100,000 people, and the opponent's strength was not as good as his own for a time. However, after Li Ke mobilized 150,000 troops from the Shengzhou, Yunzhou, and Shandong fronts, the number of Shatuo cavalry in the Hezhong region increased to more than 200,000, putting tremendous pressure on Yang Tiancheng, but Li Ke also completely drained all his forces in the rear with this move. If Xue Atan can't complete the task on time, then Li Keyong will face the embarrassment of having no soldiers available in the future.

However, at this time in Hezhong Mansion, Yang Tiancheng also competed with each other when he learned that the opponent's follow-up forces were coming on a large scale, and asked the Chang'an base camp to mobilize the second army corps, so that under the condition that the central garrison battalion did not move, the frontal corps had already concentrated four corps, close to 150,000 troops, with Hezhong Mansion as the center, forming a wide front, ready to meet the opponent.

And Li Xuanqing of the base camp waited for Xu Tianxiang to come back from Lingzhou, and also set off from Chang'an with the personal guard battalion, went out of Tongguan, and commanded this big battle, and at the same time let the heavy cavalry battalion be deployed to the Fangzhou area, ready to support the frontal battlefield at any time. In this way, Hezhong Province has become the most high-profile area in the world at present, and the Tiance army and the Shatuo people have concentrated nearly 400,000 horses, and the huge army arrays and camp tents are endless. Both sides are full of energy in the hope of defeating the opponent's living forces in a battle and gaining the initiative for the subsequent battle.

And at this time, Yang Tiancheng sent people to erect dozens of big flags along the front of his camp, and eight big characters hunted in the wind: In the name of righteousness, revenge. and ordered the whole army to prepare a ritual, so he did a rituals in the middle of the camps on both sides to mourn the soul of Li Cunxiao.

This move stunned the opponent, but as Li Cunxiao's portrait was hung up, many Shatuo people began to burst into tears, missing the invincible general. In this way, although the soldiers of the Tiance Army felt inexplicable, it greatly shook the military heart of the Shatuo people, and even many soldiers who had served under Li Cunxiao's account spontaneously came to mourn and hugged their heads and cried in front of Li Cunxiao's portrait. This situation has changed from sneaky at the beginning to an endless stream later, and the front-line generals cannot even prohibit it.

Yang Tiancheng's on-the-spot action gave great convenience to the later resettlement of the Shatuo people, and it also played a great role in promoting the whole war. After Li Xuanqing learned the news, he showed a long-lost smile.