It turned out that there was indeed a civil strife among the Turks. www.biquge.info In fact, the civil strife of the Turks has never stopped. On the steppe, the khans of various tribes fought against each other from time to time. Since the first year of Tianbao, after the defeat of the three major tribes of the Turkic Khans, the Hui Hui, the Qarluq, and the Ba Simi, the Turks have been mired in civil strife among the tribes. The Tang Dynasty took the opportunity to divide and rule it, and successively canonized the leaders of several Turkic tribes, that is, to make the Turks discord and contain each other. This is also one of the reasons why the Turks have been unable to pose a huge threat to the northern territory of the Tang Dynasty in the early years of Tianbao.

The leader of the Hui tribe is named Guli Peiluo, who was originally Ye Hu of the Hui tribe. Ye Protector, tribal leader also. In the Turkic civil strife in the early years of Tianbao, Guli Peiluo and the other two tribes killed the Turkic Great Khan Gulu, becoming the most powerful tribe in the northern Turkic region. After that, Xuanzong lost no time in sending someone to give Guli Pei Luo a reward and crowned him as the governor of Hanhai. In the third year of Tianbao, Guli Peiluo made persistent efforts to destroy the nine major tribes in the northern Turkic region, and the sphere of influence almost included a large territory in the northern Turkic region. Xuanzong once again gave a big gift and gave him the title of Huairen Khan. The letter of the Khan's order implies that Guli Peiluo can legitimately become the new master of the Turks, and it also implies that Guli Peiluo can challenge the position of the white-eyed Khan who succeeded to the throne after the death of Gulu Khan. At the same time, Xuanzong also asked Wang Zhonghe, who was stationed in Shuofang, Hedong at the time, to give Guli Peiluo a private promise, telling Guli Peiluo that as long as you fight against the Baimei Khan, Datang is on your side.

With the hints of the Tang Dynasty in the open and secret, coupled with the rapid improvement of the strength of the Hui tribe, Guli Peiluo began to fight with the last Turkic Khan, the White Eyebrow Khan. The guns are dry. At the beginning, the Baimei Khan took advantage of the lack of troops in Hedong Province after the Tang Dynasty attacked Tubo and captured the surrendered city. But he was later driven out by the Tang Army, and a large part of the reason was because of Guli Peiluo's attack and harassment on him in his abdomen. Originally, the Tang Dynasty raised hundreds of thousands of troops to attack Tubo, and then the troops were seriously depleted, which was the best opportunity for the Turks, but they did not dare to attack the Tang Dynasty because of the pressure of the bone force Pei Luo. At this point, I have to say that Guli Peiluo has done Datang a great favor. Otherwise, Datang may have to fall into an extremely passive situation at that time. Even in Wang Yuan's hands at that time, there were only less than 50,000 soldiers and horses available.

When An Lushan rebelled, smoke erupted in Datang. The Turkic territories in the north were also full of smoke. Originally, this was another opportunity to take the opportunity to attack Datang, but the white-eyed khan was unable to look south. Because of the Huairen Khan of the Hui tribe, Guli Peiluo, after several years of preparation, began a large-scale journey to unify the Turkic tribes.

In the past year, the Turkic internal war continued, Guli Peiluo and the soldiers and horses of the Baimei Khan fought dozens of battles, and finally in the battle of the Orkhon River in early August, the 150,000 Hui cavalry broke the 260,000 soldiers and horses of the Baimei Khan, and completely defeated the Baimei Khan. The white-eyed khan led more than 10,000 remnants to flee all the way to the south, and Guli Peiluo chased all the way to the south, and finally the white-eyed khan had nowhere to flee and chose to flee to the Tang realm. The attack on the surrendered city a few days ago was a helpless move by the white-eyed khan. They had to capture the surrendered city of the Tang Dynasty as a place to stay, because they had no way to retreat.

Guli Peiluo arrived with soldiers and horses, and the white-eyed Khan had no way to escape, so he had to fight in the city. The results are predictable. After the city was broken, the Baimei Khan fled south to the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty, but was chased by the cavalry led by Guli Peiluo, and slaughtered the Baimei Khan on the Gobi Desert almost in front of Li Guangbi's 20,000 soldiers and horses, completely turning the Turkic bravery into history.

Guli Peiluo learned that the 20,000 soldiers and horses of the Tang army were marching towards the surrendered city of Fengzhou, and he immediately sent someone to explain the reason for this incident to Li Guangbi, the general of the Tang army. He also said that he would immediately lead the army to evacuate the Datang border and return the surrendered city to the Datang soldiers and horses. He also said that if the generals of the Tang army were interested, he was willing to meet with the generals of the army, talk about it, and ask him to convey his greetings to the Tang Emperor on his behalf.

Li Guangbi was pleasantly surprised, and what he witnessed was the last battle of the Uighur people to conquer the Turks. Unexpectedly, the white-eyed Khan, who brought a lot of trouble to the Tang Dynasty, was killed by the Hui leader on the desert Gobi in front of him, and in the future, the northern border of the Tang Dynasty will be replaced by the leader of the Hui people, Guli Peiluo.

Li Guangbi felt that he should accept Guli Peiluo's invitation to meet the Huairen Khan, who had destroyed the Turks, although his generals objected, saying that it was a ruse by Guli Peiluo, to lure him to the meeting and then kill him. But Li Guangbi knew that it was pointless for Guli Pei Luo to kill him. The soldiers and horses led by themselves are not opponents of the Hui people at all, and they can do whatever they want without booby-trapping the main general. Their 20,000 soldiers and horses would not be able to resist their southward movement at all, if they really had the idea of going south. It's better to meet with this Hui Khan, first, to find out his intentions, and second, to be close to him, after all, he is stationed in the north, and it is inevitable to deal with them. What made Li Guangbi decide the most was that he knew that this Hui Khan had been favored by His Majesty, and that his tribe was in the northern Turkic region, and had never had any fights and grievances with the Tang army, but on the contrary, it had always been in a state of friendly exchange.

The next afternoon, the two sides met in the surrendered city. To Li Guangbi's delight, the Hui Khan had great respect for him, and there was no arrogance or rudeness at all. During the conversation, Guli Peiluo expressed concern about the situation in Datang, and made a vague suggestion, that is, if Datang needs help from the Hui people, as long as His Majesty the Emperor of Datang says a word, he Guli Peiluo will immediately send troops to help Datang quell the rebellion.

When Li Guangbi heard this, he suddenly grasped the straw that saved his life. As the so-called endless road, he and Guo Ziyi are worried about the lack of combat strength of soldiers and horses, and it is difficult to fulfill their promise to His Majesty. At present, the strong Uighurs are willing to help put down the rebellion, and that is not great news.

However, Li Guangbi also understands that the consequences of attracting foreign soldiers into the Tang Dynasty are likely to be devastating, and it is easy to ask God to send God, once these guys come and don't leave, then they will be sinners of the Tang Dynasty. So Li Guangbi cautiously proposed a way to borrow troops, that is, to ask the Hui people to lend elite soldiers to his command, so as to avoid those thorny problems. The only thing that needed to be negotiated with the Hui was the cost and reward of the borrowed soldiers, and the problem of soldiers and horses was solved by mercenary.

Guli Pei Luo is so shrewd, of course he knows Li Guangbi's worries. But he unexpectedly agreed to Li Guangbi's request. However, Guli Peiluo proposed to formally negotiate this matter with the Tang Dynasty, and the terms of the negotiation were made clear in black and white. The reason why Guli Peiluo is like this is because even after he defeated the Turks, he is full of devastation under his leadership, and he hopes to get more rewards in this way, and use the ability of elite soldiers to convert materials and money into food, so that his Hui tribe can come out of the post-war decline as soon as possible. Of course, the civil strife of the Tang Dynasty is also like a huge and weak prey tempting the Hui people, and they are also looking for opportunities to gain more benefits in the civil strife of the Tang Dynasty.

In this way, both sides take what they need and hit it off. After Li Guangbi returned to Lingzhou, he immediately discussed the matter with Guo Ziyi in detail. Although Guo Ziyi felt that it was not very reliable, she couldn't withstand Li Guangbi's bitter persuasion. In addition, Guo Ziyi also felt that without external help, he and Li Guangbi would not be able to fulfill their promise to capture Chang'an, so they nodded and agreed. And Guli Peiluo has also stayed at the Datang border to wait for news, and he hopes to get a specific reply from Datang within a month. If no agreement could be reached within a month, he would have to turn back with his army, for the cold winter was coming, and it was impossible for his army to stay in the field camp and wait indefinitely.

This is why Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi immediately wrote a secret letter to ask Xuanzong for instructions, and the two of them waited for the news from the imperial court with anxiety. They were worried that what they were waiting for was a reprimand and angry scolding from Xuanzong, but obviously they were too worried.

In the heavy snow outside Lingzhou City, Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi saw the figure of Li Mao galloping over, and the two glanced at each other, and they both breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing Li Mao coming in person, it means that His Majesty has agreed. Li Mao must have come here to negotiate with the Hui people on behalf of His Majesty.

Li Mao crossed thousands of mountains and rivers along the way, rugged and bumpy places, and rushed to Lingzhou for thousands of miles, tasting all the bitterness and suffering. Riding a horse in such bitter cold weather was something he had never experienced as a pampered man. When I fled the capital, I was escorted by a large team, and there were cars along the way, although it was hard, but it was bearable. And now, the light rider Jane rushed from Chengdu to Lingzhou, which was not the same as the situation at that time.

The body is tired and hard, and every day it is as cold as being in an ice cellar, and even the hands and feet are red and swollen and ulcerated from the cold. But in fact, Li Mao's heart is not as tormented as his body, in fact, his heart is very excited and happy. This time, on the orders of his father, he came to Lingzhou to negotiate with the Hui people about borrowing troops, carrying his father's treasure seal in his arms, and his crotch was his father's mount. In Li Mao's life experience, there has never been such a moment. This is enough to prove that he is the person who Xuanzong absolutely trusts at this moment, which also means one thing, he will also be the best candidate for the successor in the eyes of his father.

Moreover, being able to leave that place in Chengdu made Li Mao's mood even more excited. In Chengdu, there is actually little room for manoeuvre. The father is still the emperor, and the sense of oppression and panic brought by Wang Yuan is even more lingering. Wang Yuan was like a huge dark cloud hanging overhead, and at some point, lightning and thunder would thunder, and the sky would collapse. Compared with other people's sluggishness and indifference, Li Mao definitely thinks in his heart that Wang Yuan will be rebellious. Li Mao has read so many history books, and each of them is written what kind of behavior will be done by a person who is highly meritorious, and it is impossible to make Li Mao believe that Wang Yuan is loyal and serves Li Tang's country without two hearts. Moreover, although there is no evidence of what happened on Ma Weipo, it is basically obvious, and Wang Yuan is no longer trustworthy. After making such a deceitful act, it would be foolish to believe that Wang Yuan would be loyal.

Therefore, now that he can get out of Wang Yuan's control, Li Mao actually feels extremely relaxed and happy in his heart. Compared with the clouds and crises in Chengdu, the free air he breathed after leaving Chengdu swept away the gloom in his heart. Compared to freedom, the hardships on this road are nothing.

Along the way, an extremely bold idea has been lingering in Li Mao's heart, it is an idea that is both exciting, exciting, and terrifying. It was a dangerous idea, and Li Mao knew that if he didn't get it right, he would be burdened with the name of rebellion, but that thought had been lingering, exuding a deadly allure like a moth to a fire, making Li Mao's body still sweat with excitement in the cold and frost along the way. But he hasn't figured it out yet, he's not sure if he dares to do this, he needs to listen to Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi's tone, and then decide whether to do this, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi's support is the key to the success or failure of this matter.

……

Outside the southern city of Lingzhou, in the heavy snow of goose feathers, Li Mao saw the figures of Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi, who were standing outside the city to greet him. Seeing the two of them waiting on their horses, Li Mao breathed a long sigh of relief and galloped close with a whip.

Li Guangbi and Guo Zi Yice immediately stepped forward and shouted in unison: "Is it His Royal Highness King Shou? ”

Li Mao shouted loudly: "General Li, General Guo, it's me, I'm Li Mao." I have been ordered by my father to come to negotiate the matter of borrowing troops. ”

Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi hurriedly rolled their saddles and dismounted, knelt in the snow and shouted: "Minister Li Guangbi (Guo Ziyi) greets His Royal Highness King Shou." ”

Li Mao laughed and turned over and dismounted, wanting to fall to the ground steadily in a vigorous posture, but he didn't expect that the long-term riding and cold made his legs blood-blocked, his legs were numb, and as soon as his feet landed, he fell crookedly into the snow.

"His Royal Highness King Shou, are you okay?" Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi hurriedly stepped forward to inquire and helped Li Mao up from the snow.

"It's okay, it's okay, I guess it's because I'm so happy to see you. Hahaha, finally arrived in Lingzhou. Li Mao struggled to stand up and smiled awkwardly.

"After hearing the news of the arrival of His Royal Highness King Shou, Guo Dashuai and I waited here. I was going to greet His Highness, but I was afraid that the direction of the heavy snow would fall and I would miss it, so I kept waiting outside the city gate. Your Highness has had a hard journey, so go back to the city to rest. Drink some hot tea, eat some hot wine and hot food to warm up. Li Guangbi said busily.

Li Mao smiled: "Very good, I haven't eaten two meals, as soon as you say hot wine and hot food, my stomach is hungry and growling." ”

Everyone immediately drove back to the city, and when it was dark, Li Mao had already comfortably taken a hot bath, put on a thick Qiu Yu and sat in the flower hall of the back house of Lingzhou Jiedu Mansion.

The giant candles in the flower hall were burning, and the charcoal in several large braziers was burning red, and the heat filled the whole room, making the room warm like spring. The food was steaming hot and had an enticing aroma. Li Mao's face was flushed, and the whole person was also refreshed, and he had already moved his index finger when he looked at the table full of wine and food.

"Your Highness, please use it as you like, in the poor countryside, there is nothing to entertain His Royal Highness King Shou." Li Guangbi saw that Li Mao was already hungry, and said with a smile.

"Okay, well, then you're welcome." Li Mao raised his chopsticks and began to eat and drink, Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi were diligently pouring wine and persuading the dishes, and Li Mao ate a mouth full of oil.

After a few glasses of wine and a few fatty lamb chops, Li Mao suddenly stopped eating chopsticks, lowered his head and let out a long sigh.

Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi were shocked, and Guo Ziyi hurriedly asked, "Your Highness, what's the matter?" Is it that the wine and food are not to His Royal Highness's taste? Such a poor and remote place really cannot be compared with Chengdu. If Your Highness thinks that the food and wine are not to your taste, I will let the cook re-cook them. ”

Li Mao raised her head, and her face was actually full of tears. Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi were even more shocked, and hurriedly asked, "What's wrong with Your Highness?" Is it rude that the two of us are not well entertained and rude? If there is any rudeness, please also ask Your Highness to punish it. ”。

Li Mao waved his hand slowly, lifted his shirt to wipe his tears, and sighed: "Don't do the two of you." I just suddenly remembered my father's coming. My father ate coarse tea and light rice every day in Chengdu, and the dishes were no more than five plates, and the diet was extremely bland. It can be said that I can't even eat a decent meal, and I am eating a full house of wine and food, which is really ...... It's really hard to feel at ease. My father has worked hard for me all my life. When he was old, he suffered such a catastrophe, and he couldn't even eat a decent imperial meal. How can I, a son, have peace in my heart? ”

Li Guangbi was surprised: "How can this be? Your Majesty can't even eat such food and drink? ”

Li Mao shook his head and said: "You don't know, what kind of thrifty movement Wang Yuan launched in Chengdu, and said that the Tang Dynasty should tighten his belt to tide over the difficulties." He asked his father to save money in the palace, cut the amount of internal officials and palace laves, reduce the amount of supply, and say that it is enough to eat enough food, dress warmly, and not waste people's money. He asked his father to set an example for the people, but his father had no choice but to follow his advice and eat only brown rice and a few simple vegetables at each meal, and even meat was rare. You say, 'As Lord of the peoples, when did you come to such a point?' I, the people of the Tang Dynasty, don't even have the ability to feed their majesty? ”

Li Guangbi frowned when he heard this: "Wang Yuan has gone too far, people in the world can be hungry and cold, and they must be fed and clothed by the Lord, this is the way of the ministers." How could he do that? ”

"This person is not right-hearted, he makes the people of the world frugal and frugal, but it is said that his house is full of big fish, big meat, fine clothes and jade food, singing and dancing every day, and drinking and feasting." Li Mao said fiercely.

Guo Ziyi's thick eyebrows tightened, slapped his palm on the table, and said angrily: "How can Wang Yuan do this? That's not true. Did he really put himself above His Majesty? This is a great rebellion. ”

Li Mao hurriedly said: "General Guo should not be angry, it's not because he has heavy troops in his hands, my Datang is now honoring him, otherwise how can he be allowed to do this?" But at present, there is no one to compete with it, and they can only swallow their anger. Thinking about my father's sad face every day with coarse tea and light rice, I feel pain in my heart. ”

"What about heavy troops? He is a minister of the Tang Dynasty, and his soldiers and horses are all soldiers and horses of the Tang Dynasty. Is it possible to support the army and respect itself? Outrageous. Guo Ziyi shouted angrily.

Li Guangbi waved his hand and said, "Guo Shuai, don't be angry, isn't the current situation obvious?" Wang Yuan's heart is clearly revealed, his move to kill Fang Xuan is a move to force the palace, what else is there to say. In Chengdu, of course, he can do whatever he wants, but now that His Majesty is in Chengdu, we can only be vain. It's not like you've never seen his face. The most important thing now is that the two of us are entrusted by His Majesty to rebuild the soldiers and horses, so that they will not dare to act rashly. You and I have a heavy responsibility on our shoulders. ”

Li Mao nodded hurriedly and said, "What General Li said is very true, you two are now the hope of your father. When I came, my father told me to bring you a message, saying that it doesn't matter if he is wronged now, the important thing is that you two fulfill his wishes. Establish a large army as soon as possible to fight against Wang Yuan. As long as someone restrains him and makes him unable to cover the sky with one hand, his arrogance will inevitably be low. The safety of his father depended to some extent on the actions of the two generals. The two generals must recover Chang'an before Wang Yuan, and at that time, Wang Yuan's lie that he delayed not recovering Chang'an will be exposed, and his reputation will inevitably fall. The two generals must understand the hard work of their father. ”

Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi both nodded and said: "Please rest assured, Your Highness, the two of us have never dared to forget Your Majesty's trust, and now I have 60,000 soldiers and horses, which should not be underestimated." ”

Li Mao said: "Why is it only 60,000? What a lot of recruits. ”