"The Khitans of Songdesert have begun to gather men. However, they are very hidden, and the scale of the assembly is also very small, at best it is only in the preparation stage", speaking of this, Laifu focused on another thing, "However, during this period of time, their contacts with the Silla maritime merchants were extremely frequent, and Liu Wuya and I have carefully inquired about it, during this time, the volume of trade between Songmo and the Silla maritime merchants is about three times larger than that of this time in previous years, and it continues to expand. Zhenla and other small countries originally had many sea ships that ran Yangzhou into Bohai."

"What was the main cargo traded between the Khitan and Silla?".

"Ironware, sea salt, and a lot of glue paint", hearing Laifu talk about this, Tang Cheng nodded with a smile, "The Khitan bought a lot of things that have been banned in the north now, and these items are all indispensable in wartime. Well, that's right, these Khitannu finally didn't disappoint me."

"Liu Suifeng also said the same thing as the young master", Laifu took out a letter from his arms and handed it over, "After finding out the things exchanged for the Khitan barter that day. So he sailed to Silla to find out the source of these iron and military weapons sold to the Pine Desert in Silla, and just as I was on my way back a few days ago, the servant who had crossed the sea with him came back first, and asked me to pass this letter to the young master as soon as possible."

Tang Cheng was really speechless when he heard Liu Suifeng's whereabouts, Liu Suifeng followed him to the grassland that day, and after getting Li Chengzhong from the Raole Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to the boundary river, there was nothing to do, and Tang Cheng wanted to leave him to work under him. Helplessly, Liu Suifeng insisted on refusing, and made up his mind to go to the north to have a look.

Liu Suifeng has a proud personality, and he has always been an equal friend with Tang Cheng before, but he is afraid that he will not be able to turn a corner when he suddenly wants to be a subordinate at this time. In addition, Tang Cheng also knew that the readers of this era had a fashion of roaming the world, Li Bai, Du Fu, and Gao Shi...... The list goes on, especially for young readers. Now that he has arrived at Raole outside the Saiwai, if he doesn't go to the end of the grassland to see, he is afraid that Liu Suifeng will not feel comfortable in his heart, considering these two aspects, Tang Cheng did not persuade Liu Suifeng who wanted to continue to go north that day to stop him, but just sent a few people to follow him.

In this regard, Tang Cheng thought that Liu Suifeng could go to the resting place of the Yan Ya at the end of the grassland, and also thought that it was very likely that he would turn back before he could walk halfway, after all, the further north he went, the more bitter the cold, and the sin on the road was unbearable, but the only thing he didn't expect was that Liu Suifeng would actually go out of the country in one go.

"This Liu Suifeng is really good Yaxing, such a big northland grassland is not enough for him to visit, he has actually crossed the ocean", Tang Cheng jokingly opened Liu Suifeng's transoceanic letter, and when he read the content at a glance, the sneer on his face had long disappeared. When he put down the letter, he couldn't help but praise, "Okay, Liu Suifeng's trip to Silla was not in vain."

In this letter, Liu Suifeng made a clear list of the Silla suppliers who traded with the Khitans, from the names of the suppliers to their addresses, and even some information about their relationship with the Silla royal family. Both the effect and the efficiency can be increased exponentially.

Silla was a subject state of Haidong of the Tang Dynasty, and it had always been deferential to the Tang court, and if there was this list, its royal family would not be able to shirk it even if they wanted to.

Seeing that the things sent were useful, Laifu also smiled, "Young master, you said that the Khitans are really so bold to dare to send troops this time?" Even my Tang Dynasty can't send troops casually, what are the Khitans, they dare? ”。

Since today's son Li Dan reiterated the edict of "the sea is as one" in the Taimiao, not only Laifu has this idea, but even the closely related Rao Lexi is also the same. The simplest reasoning is: even such a powerful Shangbang Celestial Empire is tied up and it is inconvenient to directly send troops to intervene in Raole, let alone others. As for the support of the Songmo Khitan people to the Shali Department, it is just to covet the abundant water and grass of Luoyanchuan at the junction of the two sides.

It's no wonder that these people have simple ideas, people in any period of time will always be limited by a specific era when they understand and think about things, and in this era, the strong state of the Tang Dynasty has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, not that they can't believe it, but in this context, no one would even think that even a giant like the Tang Dynasty would feel that it was inconvenient for others to touch something, of course, if it was because of the identity of the neighbor to take advantage of a little advantage, it would be another matter.

"If you don't do it, how can you explain the Khitans' crazy hoarding of weapons and iron weapons?" Tang Cheng replied with a smile, "As for whether you dare or not, this is not a problem for the Khitan, don't forget that just twenty or thirty years ago, the then Governor of Songmo, Li Quanzhong, united with his brother-in-law Sun Wanrong to rebel against the imperial court, and in this great battle, the Khitans not only attacked Hebei Province, but even Yingzhou was broken." ”

"The young master is talking about the first year of the Wuhou Dynasty, after all, it was Zhao Wenhui, the then governor of Tangying Prefecture, who was too ruthless to insult Li Quanzhong and Sun Wanrong, and they were forced to rebel. That's it, they didn't lose later, which is different from the active invasion of Rao Leke this time."

"Yes, the army of Empress Wu went to crusade, but unfortunately he chose Jian'an Wang Wu Youyi such a fool when he ordered the general, which caused the two sides to lose all the front troops as soon as they took over, resulting in a great chaos in the army's heart, although they won in the end, but they also won reluctantly, which was greatly helped by Rao Lexi. It was in this war that a deep enmity was formed between the Khitans and Rao Lexi. ”

"In addition, the Khitannu are the most unfaithful at both ends of the rat, and during the Zhenguan period at the beginning of the founding of our dynasty, these Khitannu who were originally attached to the Turks saw that I was powerful. Immediately turned his back on the Turks and attached to the Tang Dynasty. After this great war in the Wuhou Dynasty, these thieves hooked up with the Later Turks. Now that a tribe with such a temperament has the opportunity to repay the old grievances of the past, how can they let it go? Not to mention the tangible benefits of cattle and sheep pasture, and Rao Lexi is indeed very weak now. No matter what the reason for the war is, but since these Khitannus are not even afraid of going to war with the country, they are still afraid of sending troops to spare it? ”。

The reason why Tang Cheng is so familiar with this history is actually closely related to the Chinese major he studied in later universities, in the battle between the Tang and Khitan twenty or thirty years ago, Chen Ziang, a famous poet with an extremely important position in the early Tang poetry circle, also participated, he first served as the staff officer of Jian'an Wang Wuyouyi, and immediately after seeing the defeat of the former army, he immediately admonished the commander, and asked to personally lead 10,000 people to fight on the battlefield for national merit. But Wu Youyi rejected him, and the unrelenting Chen Ziang then spoke again, which even completely angered Wu Youyi, not only did not adopt his suggestion and give him military powers, but also demoted Chen Ziang's official position from a staff officer to a soldier. Not long after that, Chen Ziang, who was extremely depressed, boarded the Youzhou Stage and wrote the "Song of the Youzhou Stage", which can be called the swan song of the ages.

I don't see the ancients before, I don't see the people who come after, I think of the world and the world, and I am alone and crying!

Thanks to this poem and Chen Ziang, later university teachers would specifically talk about this war when introducing the background of the work. also made Tang Cheng remember this history.

As for the other reason why he judged that the Khitan would send troops before, it can even be said that the most important reason is unspeakable, because this is closely related to the history that has not yet been born, even if he is not a history major in later generations, he also knows in a rough line that it was the Khitan that replaced the influence of the Tang Dynasty in the north, and by the time of the Song Dynasty, it had become the number one power in the north with a territory twice that of the Song Dynasty. In the face of such a people, when it comes to matters related to war, one can only conceive of him as a wolf, not a sheep.

After listening to Tang Cheng's words, Laifu asked a very realistic question, "If the Khitan really wants to send troops, then what should we do now?" ”。

"I have too little in my hands. In the face of the current situation, let alone dominant, it is a little reluctant to intervene. What else can be done but wait? Always wait until the opportunity arises to take advantage of the situation", Tang Cheng muttered to himself and recited the four words "follow the trend" again and waved his hand to Laifu and said: "Since it has been determined that the Khitan is preparing for the war, then you don't have to rush back, and go to Huairong and Xiao Tao for a few days first, and by the way, help me go to see the cat and them." After repairing and returning to Khitan, I can only focus on one thing."

"What does the young master mean?"

"The scale of the Khitans' participation in the war, and the number of soldiers and horses they send to Raole every time they add them, I have to know it."

Laifu didn't get together with Xiao Tao for a few more days in the end, because Tang Cheng found him another thing to do, and this matter was still in a hurry.

Liu Suifeng had two more copies of the letterhead brought back by the servants from Silla, one of the letters totaling three points was still sent to the East Palace of Chang'an through Jia Zixing's channel, and the other was transferred to the Youzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion by Tang Cheng as Sima of the Raole Governor's Mansion, and the last one was sent to the Hebei Provincial Observation Embassy by Laifu with a fast horse.

The Honglu Temple informed Silla that the ban on the trade in weapons and iron weapons to the Khitan was destined to take a long time because of the long distance, and with the current degree of change in the situation of Raole, I am afraid that it will be impossible to wait, and it is the most feasible way for the Hebei Provincial Observation Embassy to intervene in this matter for the sake of the future. After all, Hebei Province was not only the closest to the grassland in the Tang Dynasty, but also the first avenue in the Tang Dynasty, and its own influence should not be underestimated. And the actions of these Silla merchants are actually invisibly harming the trade profits of Yan Guan's envoys, so there is no worry that he will not be careful in this matter.

In response to the changes in Raole's situation, while the Khitans were preparing for war, Tang Cheng was also in full swing to advance his own arrangements.

After personally sending Rifle away, Tang Cheng, who had already returned to the boundary river, did not rush back to the newly built leather tent, but looked at the horizon that was faintly like a black line in front of him, and after a long time, he let out a long breath.

As Rao's situation officially entered the final battle between the two tigers, he fell into a new busyness after only a few days of leisure when Nanori last came, but this busyness did not make him tired, on the contrary, it contained great expectations in the apprehension.

Thinking that when he stepped into this grassland recently, he only had the idea of taking Li Chengzhong away safely, and he didn't expect that he could come to the current situation in the changing situation of Raole. In the same way, he now does not know whether the goal he vaguely set at the beginning will be finally achieved as the situation unfolds.

The goal that has never been spoken to anyone is so big! It was so big that Tang Cheng tried his best to make careful use of every resource he could muster, but he only barely came to the present, and came to this situation where he still lacked dominance over the overall situation. Rao is that he has done so much, and now he can only wait, and wait until the last opportunity arises to take advantage of the situation. Although this idea is good, what he cannot grasp is whether the final decision of the Khitans and the subsequent direction of the situation will be as he expected, and the result is more likely to be in vain than the slim chance of success. As a result, all his exhaustion these days has turned into a meaningless bubble.

Fortunately, Tang Cheng is a tenacious character to the bone, and fortunately, at least so far, the main line of the development has not deviated too much from the previous estimate, so he can continue to persevere without slackening.

Busy, tired, how can you not be busy and not tired? When things reached the point where the Khitan was about to intervene, Tang Cheng's entire system engineering had already entered a period of the most variables and the greatest pressure. By this period, the previous means were no longer sufficient, and he must now use all the forces at his disposal to pull in the combat power of Li Longji, the Youzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and Jia Zixing and Longmen Xi, so that he can have the capital to bet when the most important opportunity joint point appears.

It's easy to do this thing that involves these people, but it's hard to do, and not to mention the countless uncertain variables in between, the calculation and grasp of time alone can make people exhausted. And as long as there is a problem in one of these links, the result of the exchange will inevitably be a failure after the mountain.

This is a huge project, and it is also a dangerous game of an eight-year-old child wielding hundreds of pounds of large iron vertebrae, the reason why Tang Cheng did not mention his idea to anyone is because he knows that no matter who hears his idea and goal, he is afraid that he will be regarded as a madman.

The risk of failure is extremely high, but what if it succeeds? During this period of time, Tang Cheng relied on this idea to inspire himself with infinite energy and fighting spirit again and again.

Once successful, he will not only be able to realize his ideal of change on the steppe; It will also make a great contribution that will shake the imperial city of Chang'an. And by this great achievement, it occupies a high point in the upcoming Kaiyuan Dynasty, the most prosperous Kaiyuan Dynasty of the Tang Dynasty. And then with this high point, relying on the officialdom methods that have been experienced since the time to push the ideal of change to the entire Datang world, in the meantime, it is no longer limited to a small dragon gate, the entire 360 states of the Tang Dynasty, and even the 800 states will become the stage for them to realize the ideal of change.

The Tang Dynasty was an incomparably brilliant, incomparably splendid, incomparably high-spirited and incomparably romantic era, since it had crossed into the most golden Chinese years in the history of the Chinese dynasty, Tang Cheng did not mind adding a myriad of idealistic colors to this omission of romantic era.

Life needs to be able to eat well, but being able to eat is by no means the whole of life, the higher level of life after abundant food and clothing needs to find and strive to chase the ideal, Tang Cheng's path to a higher level of life began in Yangzhou, and it is unknown when the final realization will be, maybe he will end up with an extremely bleak ending like all the idealists in history, but this does not prevent Tang Cheng from wanting to try it out from the bottom of his heart.

Even such a thing has already been encountered, what else in this world would not dare to do?

Tang Cheng looked at the empty grassland in the distance, letting the thoughts that flew out of his fiery heart drift freely, and after a long time, he collected his mind and turned back to the leather tent to start a new busy. Thousands of high-rise buildings rise from the ground, even if the realization of the ideal is small, it is done step by step. For Tang Cheng, who is one of the few traversers who has really farmed, he understands this truth!