An important state meeting is being held in the Yin'an Hall in the imperial city of Chang'an City.

The level of this meeting was very high, except for the emperor Liu Yutong and the crown prince Liu Yan, only the officials at the level of the left and right servants, the six Shangshu and the Shangshu Ling in the service could participate. That's because the topic of today's meeting is very important, and the fundamental problem is that after the division of the Turks in the north, each sent an envoy to demand that the trade between the two countries be resumed with the Silk Country.

Now the problem arises, neither of the two divided Turkic countries wants to lose the Silk Country, an important material exchange partner. However, the two countries are already on the same page, and whoever the Silk Country resumes trade with is bound to offend the other party, and the idea of Tuqi is very simple, if they can't exchange the materials they need through trade, then they will use robbery.

Anbalturi controls the western part of Tukchi, and is the main route between the Silk Country and the countries of the Western Regions; The eastern region controlled by the red wolf Abicheril could attack at any time along the Hexi Corridor to the Liaodong region. Whichever deed of distress will cause huge trouble. Therefore, how to choose between the two has become a headache.

Han Kemin's opinion was to favor trade with Abiciel, because Abicheril's eastern region was weaker than the west, and trading with him at this time could not only make the relationship between the two countries closer, but also be tantamount to showing favor to Abicialir and helping him to compete with Anbalturi. As long as the strength of the two countries remains balanced, then Anbalturi will not be able to invade the trade routes of the Western Regions of the Silk Country.

The newly appointed right servant Yan Ming is a friend of his predecessor Li Zaixing, and of course he has inherited Li Zaixing's political ideas, but his qualifications are still young and not enough to compete with the entrenched Han Kemin. Therefore, although he did not agree with Han Kemin's point of view, he did not put forward a sharper rebuttal.

However, the secretary of the military department, An Jingbian, put forward the opposite statement: "What the servant shooter said is indeed reasonable, but the actual situation will not be as smooth as the servant shooter should. First of all, the raiding of caravans was originally the old business of Tuqi, and there was no need for a large army at all, please see how many of the sand bandits on the Silk Road were large-scale? They only need a few small troops to put a huge threat to our trade with the countries of the Western Regions, and this kind of harassment is difficult to suppress, it is simply impossible to prevent; Secondly, although Anbalturi has always coveted the wealth of our country, and has made several threats to the former Khan Immidi to attack our country, but now the territory he controls does not give him the opportunity to pose a threat to our country, and if he loses the opportunity to trade this time, then he has no choice but to rob it from the caravan, and Han Fu's practice may only intensify his hostility towards our country; Thirdly, the attitude of the red wolf Abichili towards our country has always been unclear, it is said that this is a man of both strength and ambition, and it is not clear what his intentions are for our country. According to the following inference, his current strength is insufficient, even if we do not trade with him, he must do his best to deal with the attack of Anbalturi and have no power to harass our borders, on the contrary, if we trade with him and fatten this guy, Anbalturi may not be the opponent of the Red Wolf, once he defeats Anbalturi and turns around against our country, this scourge will probably be greater than that of Anbalturi. ”

As soon as An Jingbian finished speaking, Yu Xian, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, immediately refuted: "An Shangshu's statement seems reasonable, but in fact, otherwise, Abicilir defeating Anbalturi will be detrimental to our country, so if Anbalturi is supported to defeat Abicili, the situation may not be better." It is better to help Abicheril, whose attitude is still unclear, than to help Anbalturi, who is hostile to our country, and at least he may become a friendly neighbor with our country because of his gratitude to our country. ”

This may seem to exist, but it is actually illusory. Abiciel is a tyrant, and he may be able to endure it for a while, but that will only lead to a greater evil. An Jingbian retorted.

Liu Yutong, who was half-lying on the dragon couch, supported his head with one hand, and last year's serious illness damaged his body, and at the same time made his spirit much worse than before, although there were only so many important ministers to discuss, it had already made him feel physically exhausted. He pressed his eyes tightly, tried to concentrate for a moment, and then slowly spoke: "The opinions of all the Qing family have already been understood. What do you think about this? ”

Seeing this, the ministers hurriedly stopped. Liu Yan, who was standing aside, bowed and said, "Erchen obeys the order." According to the ministers' humble opinion, there is a truth in what you have said, and the root cause is for the long-term interests of our country, but an important factor has been ignored in this consideration. ”

Liu Yutong opened his eyes slightly and said, "Let's hear it." ”

"Yes. This Turki is divided into East and West, and neither Abicheril nor Anbal Turi can maintain friendly relations with our dynasty for as long as the Great Khan of Imidi. So no matter who we trade with, we won't get good results. ”

Liu Yutong frowned: "You mean to cut off trade with both countries?" ”

"Of course not. Father. On the contrary, Erchen believed that friendly trade should be maintained with both countries. On the surface, it may seem like an unflattering act on both sides, but in fact, since we already know that neither country will be truly friendly with us, why should we care too much about offending them by doing so? ”

The corners of Liu Yutong's mouth turned up slightly: "Go on." ”

"We trade with both countries, and if we do it diplomatically, we can show both countries that we have no hostility towards them, and that we dare not offend either of them. We are currently at war in the kingdom of Goryeo, and it is believed that the two new Great Khans are well aware of this, and it is only natural that we do not want to fight on both sides at the same time, so it is necessary to maintain friendly relations with them. In this way, the other party will at least relax their guard against us, which is obviously more beneficial to us.

Next, I'm going to introduce factors that none of you adults have considered. That is the existence of the country of Goryeo. According to the latest battle report, our army won a great victory in the first battle of Liaoshui, killing more than 40,000 enemies, and now the battle line has advanced to Xuansu City. This brings us to the question of whether our strategy for Goryeo should end with the recapture of the territories they occupied, or whether we should aim to capture their capital, Pyongyang. ”

Liu Yutong stretched out his hand and waved it: "Yan'er, your topic is a bit far away, we are discussing the issue of sudden agreement." ”

Liu Yan bowed his head and said: "Father, Erchen introduced this topic precisely for the issue of the Sudden Contract, and the strategy of Goryeo is related to the overall strategy of the Sudden Contract, please let Rong Erchen talk about it in detail." ”

When Liu Yutong heard him say this, he had no choice but to beat his spirit and said, "Okay, you can talk about it." ”