November 17, the sixth year of Datang Tianbao. Since a thin snow fell at the beginning of the month, the weather in Chang'an City has become colder and colder day by day. On the streets, people in thick winter coats hurried with their sleeves cuffed. The cavalry patrolling the city of Nanya Jinwu Guard, who was galloping by, still roared back and forth, and the white air in the mouths of the soldiers on the horses and horses was steaming, and the cold wind brought up made the people next to them squint their eyes and cover their faces to avoid the side.

In the winter warm pavilion on the second floor of the Xingqing Palace Diligent Government Affairs Building, the three braziers in the corner of the wall are burning red, and the warm pavilion is as warm as spring. Xuanzong was thinly dressed and sat on the warm floor and looked at the letter, not only did he not feel the slightest cold, but a thin bead of sweat oozed from his wrinkled forehead.

"How can it be justified, how can it be justified." Xuanzong suddenly threw the letter to the ground, and said angrily: "Bastard, you have failed my expectations." ”

Several chamberlains standing on the side were startled, and the tall and gray-haired chief of chamberlains standing on the side, Gao Lishi, hurriedly bowed down and asked, "Your Majesty, what happened?" ”

Xuanzong was still angry, and pointed to the fold on the ground and said: "Look, you pick it up and gamble, what does Wang Zhongsi say on this fold?" ”

Colliers hurriedly walked along, bent down to pick up the letter, unfolded it, and read it slowly. Xuanzong stretched out his hand to take the tea on the table and drank it, touched his lips and found that the tea was cold, and suddenly he was angry, waved his hand and threw the tea cup, hit the forehead of a waiter and scolded angrily: "Dog slave, I don't have to worry about serving me, I got a cup of cold tea for me to drink." ”

The chamberlain covered his bloody forehead and said again and again, Gao Lishi frowned and shouted: "Don't retreat, Li Dequan, don't you make hot tea for Your Majesty again?" ”

The waiters were busy cleaning up the garbage and re-brewing tea. Gao Lishi approached Xuanzong's side and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty is angry, Fan is not angry about this letter, it is important to take care of the dragon's body." ”

Xuanzong glanced at Gao Lishi and said, "Have you seen this twist?" Tell me what's wrong with this Wang Zhonghe? ”

Gao Lishi thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, the old slave thinks that there is nothing, Wang Zhonghe's twist and turn is nothing more than because he has encountered difficulties in attacking the city, and he has asked to postpone the attack on Shibao City." The old slave doesn't know how to fight, but the old slave feels that Wang Zhonghe, as my leading general of the Tang Dynasty, should know when to fight and when to withdraw. His decision must have been deliberate......"

Xuanzong said angrily: "Lux, you only know and mud all day long, if anyone wants to maintain it, you can't maintain anyone." Can't you see the meaning of Wang Zhonghe's compromise? Look at these few sentences, what do you say: 'This crusade against Tibet, the minister felt that it was not appropriate at the beginning. The laborers attacked far away to punish Tibet, and seized its city but could not defend it, which was a move to work the people and lose money. It is unwise to raise a division and mobilize the people in order to retaliate against the Tubo for killing my two ministers of the Tang Dynasty. Capture the city for the sake of taking the city, revenge for the sake of revenge, for the sake of the so-called face of the Tang Dynasty, this is a great achievement......'. Do you hear that? Wang Zhongsi is scolding me for a great achievement. It's so powerful, even I dare to scold, am I a person who is so happy? Well? Lux, you say, am I a person who rejoices in great achievements? ”

Xuanzong stretched out his hand and knocked on the table angrily, knocking the mahogany table case with a loud sound.

"Your Majesty is angry, of course Your Majesty is not a person who is good at great achievements, does Your Majesty still need meritorious service? Datang has today's weather, all of which are the ability of His Majesty, if you talk about merit, there is no match in the sea, do you still need to go to the great joy? Wang Zhonghe's words are a bit excessive, he is straight, His Majesty looked at him in the palace, and knew that he was not deliberately disrespectful to His Majesty. Colliers laughed.

Xuanzong shook his head and said: "Wang Zhonghei has been in the palace with the prince since he was a child, and his father Wang Haibin was also killed in battle with Tubo. I took pity on him as a loyal servant and orphaned by the general, so I took him as a fake son and raised him in the palace with the prince. I looked at him like a son, but he let me down. I gave him 150,000 troops and plenty of food and grass, and now two months have passed, but instead of patrolling in front of the Stone Castle, he has written this letter asking for the withdrawal of his troops to avoid the battle. Isn't this just giving up halfway, consuming so much grain and grass in vain, and dying so many soldiers in vain? From now on, the Tubo people will have to laugh at me, and the Tang Dynasty is as timid as a mouse. ”

Gao Lishi said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, don't think too much, Wang Zhongji may have his reason." ”

"What's the point?" Xuanzong was dumbfounded: "Look at Jiannan Dao Wang Yuan, how many soldiers and horses do you have at hand?" said to take the bison city, and immediately came to capture it. With only 2,000 soldiers and horses, he took Bison City, annihilated 5,000 Tibetan defenders, and sent the head of the culprit who killed Wang Ji and Luo Xixiao to the capital and handed it over to Wang Luo's two families to worship their souls. This is the majesty of my Datang, although those who offend me will be punished from afar, even if it is a bison city in the hinterland of the hundred-mile desert, my Datang Heavenly Army can also drive straight into one fell swoop. Look at Wang Zhonghe, with more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in hand, with the full assistance of the imperial court, but he was frightened by a small stone castle city and wanted to retreat. ”

Gao Lishi was silent, Xuanzong was telling the truth, a month ago, the good news that the Jiannan army had taken Bison City in one fell swoop reached the capital, and the head of Lu Xizan, the guard of Bison City, was also delivered. This matter shook the opposition up and down. Wang Yuanzhen led the army to break into the desert and took the city of Tubo in the desert, which created a precedent for the Tang army to enter the desert battle, and it is no wonder that His Majesty was deeply impressed.

"Lux, immediately announce that Li Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong will enter the palace to see me. I want them to see this piece of Wang Zhonghe. See what they have to say. Xuanzong said in a deep voice.

"The old slave sent someone to invite him. Lee Sang-kook's illness has not yet healed, but he doesn't know if he will be able to stay. ”

Xuanzong said: "It's okay, I went to visit the day before yesterday, Li Xiangguo looked good, he said that as long as I have something to summon him, you can sit on a soft chair and carry him into the palace to discuss things, you can take my soft chair to pick him up." ”

Soon after, Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong both rushed to the warm pavilion of the diligent government affairs building of Xingqing Palace to see them. Yang Guozhong knelt down and saluted, Li Linfu struggled on the soft chair to get up and salute, Xuanzong hurriedly waved his hand and said, "That's it, I don't pick your salute, I don't have to get up." Lux give Wang Zhonghe's recital to the two Xiangguo to take a look. ”

Gao Lishi came over with the fold in his hand, Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong quickly browsed it, and both of them had angry looks on their faces. But in fact, both of them already knew the news that Wang Zhongsi had asked to withdraw his troops and give up the attack on Shibao City, because Dong Yanguang's performance to the political hall was half a day earlier than Wang Zhongsi's performance. When Li Linfu learned of this, he immediately told Yang Guozhong.

"What do you two think of Wang Zhonghe's proposal?" Xuanzong said in a deep voice.

Yang Guozhong glanced at Li Linfu and took the lead in saying: "Your Majesty, the minister doesn't know why Wang Zhongsi wrote this letter, and the feeling to the minister is that Wang Zhongsi seems to be a little delaying. Chen Fei was dissatisfied with Wang Zhonghei, but from the beginning of the war, the news from the front has always made Chen feel puzzled. At first, Wang Zhongsi said that because he encountered the blockage of quicksand, he could not capture Shibao City before the weather became cold. And now, the weather is getting colder, and the quicksand should have frozen, but Wang Zhongji asked to withdraw on the grounds of cold weather. The minister always felt that Wang Zhongji seemed to be deliberately delaying without fighting. The minister could not judge the reason, the minister was not on the battlefield, and could not make arbitrary judgments. ”

Li Linfu smiled slightly, and secretly scolded Yang Guozhong in his heart for avoiding the important and trivial, obviously the focus of the attack in this compromise is that Wang Zhongji vainly said that His Majesty is so happy, but Yang Guozhong made a few words of attack with an understatement of the past, this is going to attack by himself. But Li Linfu doesn't care, dealing with the prince's party is Li Linfu's unsparing effort, and Yang Guozhong is understandable for playing tricks, but he can't be so lightly understated.

"Your Majesty, the old minister doesn't want to be in vain why Wang Zhonghei is like this. Wang Zhongsi said that the three cities occupying the land of the two lakes in Tibet were useless, and the imperial court had no defensive power, so it was useless to attack them. But the old minister wants to say, first, this battle is the battle of revenge on Tubo, which has a bearing on my Tang face, Wang Zhongsi said that this is called a great joy, so let's count what he said, what about the great joy? As long as it can deter a small country, it is not necessarily wrong to rejoice in great achievements. Second, the argument that the so-called capture cannot be defended is untenable. Because Wang Yuan of Jiannan Province took Bison City and held it. As far as Lao Chen knew, Wang Yuan adopted the method of Fengsui chain early warning, and stretched his tentacles out of Bison City for a radius of sixty miles. No matter where the enemy is attacking from, you can calmly deal with it. The terrain of the land of the two lakes is many times better than that of the desert of Buffalo City, and Wang Zhongsi said in vain that he could not defend it, which was very absurd in the eyes of the old minister. ”

Xuanzong nodded and said: "What Xiangguo said is reasonable, and I don't understand the reason why he said that he couldn't keep it, when did Wang Zhongji become so cowardly and cowardly?" I'm very sad. ”

Li Linfu said a lot in one breath, and he was a little breathless. After a pause, he said: "Lao Chen and Yang Zuo initially proposed a crusade against Tubo, but in fact, it was not entirely because of the revenge of Wang Ji and Luo Xizao. In fact, the old minister knew that His Majesty had always been obsessed with the Tubo State in his heart. What Chen and Yang Zuo thought to each other was that if they could take the land of the two lakes and three cities this time and hold it there, it would be to drive a nail in the brains of the Tubo people and become a bridgehead for my Tang Dynasty to penetrate the hinterland of the Tubo country. If His Majesty wants to destroy the Tubo Kingdom, with this bridgehead as a pedal, he can drive south and level the Tubo Kingdom. Therefore, in Lao Chen's view, occupying the land of two lakes and three cities is an important chess piece. Even if His Majesty does not want to set foot in Tibet for the time being, it can create conditions for future generations to set foot in Tibet. ”

Xuanzong patted the case and said: "It is still Xiangguo's heart to know me, and think about the future of Datang." Twenty years ago, I made a grand wish to let the territory of the Tang Dynasty stretch from Kunlun Mountain in the west to Yin Mountain in the north, but unfortunately my energy and time are limited. But if you can see the day when you set foot in Tubo in the twilight of my life, you will be able to smile at the emperor and the ancestors when you return to heaven in the future. ”

Yang Guozhong secretly admired Li Linfu's cleverness, Li Linfu really had a clear insight into His Majesty's mind, and he knew exactly what His Majesty liked to listen to and what he didn't like to hear.

To put it bluntly, Li Linfu actually knew that Xuanzong was a great achievement, and Wang Zhonghe's evaluation was not wrong at all. But he still has to scratch Xuanzong's heart with this matter, and Xuanzong's heart is itching, so that Xuanzong can agree with his words more.

Xuanzong really did not live up to Li Linfu's painstaking efforts, took the initiative to get into the trap set by Li Linfu, and said loudly: "Come, send a decree to Wang Zhonghe, reject his request, and ask him to take Shibao City within a month, and no longer prevaricate for various reasons." ”

Li Linfu hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, don't be like this, this is not good." ”

Xuanzong was surprised: "What's the matter? ”