Hearing Sheena's worried words, Harold said with a smile: "Sister Sheena, you're right, I'm just a student, and national affairs are not something I can get along." ”

Sheena said, "That's good. There was a conflict between the Tang Dynasty and the Arabs, and the people of Chang'an may have an opinion about the Arabs, you must pay attention to your words and deeds and don't get into unnecessary trouble.

You're in school, does anyone have an opinion of you? ”

"No, I got along well with my classmates at school and didn't get any of them," Harold said. ”

Harold was very low-key in school, he was very good to his classmates, and everyone had a good impression of him.

Hina said, "It's not too early, it's time for you to go to school, I'll send you out." ”

Sheena and Harold walked outside the East Palace, and happened to meet Li Su, who had returned from the Chenghui Palace.

"Hello brother-in-law." Harold saluted.

"Oh, it's Harold, how are you doing at school?" Li Su asked.

"Very good, thank you, brother-in-law." Harold said.

Li Su said: "Recently, you have rarely come, next time you come, have a meal with your brother-in-law." ”

Harold said, "Okay. Brother-in-law, I went to school. ”

Looking at Harold's disappearing back, Li shook his head with a smile and walked into his study.

That afternoon, Li Su did not go to the Taiji Palace, but locked himself in the study, carefully filtered the whole incident again, made sure that there was no omission, and picked up a pen to draft a document.

He pondered about this document for a whole afternoon, and finally finished writing, he sent someone to call Du He, and said to him: "You sent a competent person to send this letter to Li Jing secretly. ”

Longyou Dao Tang Army Headquarters.

The war in Tibet was stalemate, and Li Jing also began to adjust his tactics. After summing up, he held that in Tibet, it would be difficult to achieve major results in the adoption of a large corps of troops in Tibet, and under the complex terrain conditions.

There were not many cities in Tibet, and most of the Tubo people were scattered in the mountains, and they divided into small units and adopted guerrilla tactics, which caused the Tang army to suffer repeated losses.

The Tang army dispatched a large number of men and horses, but could not catch the main force of the other side, and where the Tang army was weak, it was repeatedly attacked.

Li Jing decided to advance steadily with the large army, relying on the superiority of troops, adopting the tactics of parallel advance of large corps, not giving the Tubo people a chance to divide and encircle, and to capture their military points and economic towns one by one, gradually destroying their war potential.

In the areas occupied by the army, strong troops were dispatched to carry out divisional clearance and strengthen law and order.

On this day, he was holding a military meeting to lay out the new tactics of the Don Army to the senior generals.

At this moment, the messenger of the Flying Tiger Army arrived and handed him a letter from the emperor.

In the past, correspondence between the front and rear of the Tang Army was generally delivered by the communications department of the General Staff. The emperor sent people from the Flying Tiger Army to deliver the letter, indicating the importance and secrecy of the letter.

After reading Li Su's letter, Li Jing was deeply impressed!

He also wrote a reply, and he said to the messenger of the Flying Tiger Army: "Please tell the emperor that the minister has understood his intentions, and the minister will definitely sing this play." ”

Chang'an City.

A piece of news spread that the war in Tibet was not going well, and the Tang Army's Western Route Army, Hou Junji, had been forced to retreat to the area east of the Nu River. No progress has been made in other directions.

Early Dynasty, Taiji Palace.

Today is a great court meeting, and all the officials above the fifth grade in Chang'an City participated.

The main topic of the meeting was to discuss the war in Tibet and the situation in Persia.

There was a lot of discussion in the court, and the ministers expressed their opinions, and finally formed two main opinions.

The first opinion is to abandon Persia and make every effort to win the war in Tibet.

The second opinion is that it is necessary to win the war in Tibet and ensure that Persia is not annexed by the Arabs.

Both of these views involve the continuation of the troop build-up.

Wei Chigong, speaking on behalf of the military, said: "Your Majesty, although there are millions of Tang troops on the front line of Tubo, there are no less than one million people in Tubo who can mobilize people to participate in the war.

Moreover, the Tibetan people have a geographical advantage, and in this case, it is not easy to win the Tibetan war.

In order to end the Tibetan War as soon as possible, the minister suggested that a large number of troops be increased in Tibet.

The importance of Persia is also unquestionable. It is related to whether the imperial court can keep the Western Regions.

Now, there is a rebellion within Persia, and the Arabs are eyeing it, and the court should send a large army to guard against it.

The minister suggested that at least one million more people should be recruited into the army throughout the country to accomplish the above tasks. ”

Wei Zheng stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the minister thinks it can't be. Although the population of Datang has reached more than 30 million, most of them are new people in recent years.

Some of these new populations are new births in the last decade, and they have not yet grown up.

The other new population is the new subjects of the imperial court who have expanded their territory over the years. They have not yet fully integrated into the Tang Dynasty, and it can even be said that they are still an unstable factor.

In this case, the imperial court will recruit a large number of people into the army, which will have a comprehensive impact on the construction of the country.

Therefore, the minister suggested that the conscription could be appropriate, but it should be controlled within 300,000 people. ”

Gao Jingming came out and said, "Your Majesty, the minister agrees with Lord Wei's opinion.

Supporting the front line of the Tibetan War, as well as the existing personnel in Persia, as well as the normal domestic expenditures, the pressure on the treasury was extremely great. If there is a large-scale recruitment, the financial resources of the imperial court will be difficult to support.

Therefore, the amount mentioned by Lord Wei is still acceptable, so it cannot be exceeded. ”

Wei Chigong said: "How can this work? It doesn't make much use to send such a few people right away. ”

The ministers discussed these two opinions one after another, and in the end, those who agreed with Wei Zheng's opinion accounted for the majority.

Wei Chigong said: "Your Majesty, this can't work, it can't solve the fundamental problem."

The minister suggested that the imperial court gritted its teeth and insisted, and must recruit more than a million troops to participate in the increase of troops in these two directions.

As for the lack of financial resources of the imperial court, the minister was willing to donate a year's fortune to support the imperial court. ”

After so many years of blood change in the court, most of the current ministers sincerely support the court, and the atmosphere in the court is very positive. Wei Chigong's statement aroused a response from the ministers.

The ministers expressed their stance one after another that they wanted to learn from Wei Chigong.

Li Dan, on behalf of the Ministry of Industry, and Huo Qiang, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce, also expressed their intention to call on industry and commerce to donate money and materials to the imperial court.

Li Su was deeply moved, and he said: "In times of crisis, it is a blessing for Datang to have loyal courtiers like you.

I thought about it again and again, and thought that this matter, Wei Zheng's opinion, was still feasible.

In my opinion, the foreign wars of the imperial court should not exhaust the financial resources of the imperial court and affect the normal domestic economic construction.

According to the state of the Tang Dynasty's national strength, I decided to temporarily conscript 300,000 people into the army.

Another 300,000 people will be transferred from the domestic garrison and 500,000 people will be drawn from the armed police force.

These three groups of people, a total of 1.1 million people, 400,000 were sent to Tibet, and 700,000 were sent to the Persian front,

In this way, the imperial court only added an additional burden of 300,000 people, which was not much pressure on the imperial court's finances. ”

Wei Zheng and others all agreed.

Wei Chigong said worriedly: "Your Majesty, in this case, there are less than 100,000 people left in the field army in the entire Tang Dynasty, and there are only 200,000 armed police forces.

In the event of turmoil, how will a huge country deal with it? ”