Since Li Siyuan succeeded to the throne, Li Congjing has been in Luoyang to help stabilize the court, and it is the first time that he has been out for government affairs, but this is not an accident for everyone. Because Li Cunxuan corrupted the court and let the villain steal the high position, after the central officials were purged by Li Siyuan, there are now too few ministers available in the court, and if there is a big burden, it is natural for Li Congjing to fall on his shoulders.

"It is not difficult to deal with the affairs of the displaced people, the key is how His Highness wants to deal with it, or to what extent." The room was brightly lit, Mo Li still spoke first, and when he saw Li Congjing looking over, he smiled slightly, opened the folding fan and shook it gently, "Of course, His Highness's thoughts, but he knows it." In that case, what are your Highness's plans? ”

"To deal with the affairs of the displaced people, the first thing is not to make them chaotic people, and to take risks and become the party to the disaster." Li Congjing said, "Since the summer and autumn floods, the imperial court has ordered the local government to properly handle this matter. ”

Wang Pu said: "However, His Majesty has sent His Royal Highness to investigate, but there is a letter in the local area, saying that this matter has not been properly handled, and the displaced people have not been properly resettled, and they may become chaotic people this winter?" ”

"Exactly." Li Congjing said.

Mo Li continued: "In this case, the focus of this trip is not only to verify the facts, but also to consider how to deal with the situation. Moreover, if the localities are really unable to resettle the displaced people, they will have to plan a place for them to live in after helping them survive the winter. ”

"This place of shelter can only be the place of origin." Li Congjing sat down on the low collapse, "Cleaning up the floods, reorganizing the fertile land, building people's houses, and allocating land are all the meanings of the question." While the water of the river is now calm, it is necessary to strengthen the embankment to prevent the people of this place from suffering any more disasters in the future. ”

After talking for a while, everyone agreed on the matter, had a clear plan for the travel arrangements, and Li Congjing immediately ordered the preparations to begin, so that he only had to officially set off.

After agreeing on this matter, Mo Li and Wang Pu had nothing to do, so they were ready to get up and leave.

"Shu is different." Tao Yaoyao, who was holding the water cup, raised his head at this time, and his voice was light, "Meng Zhixiang has two ambitions." ”

Mo Li and Wang Pu, who were getting up, were shocked when they heard the words. Li Congjing was about to get up, and when he heard this, he gave up his thoughts about sending Mo Li and Wang Pu.

"Meng Zhixiang wants to rebel?" Wang Pu repeated in surprise, his eyes widening. The words came out, and after thinking about it, I felt that it was not impossible, the key was that Luoyang was determined, and there was quite a lot of chaos in the town army around the country, some time ago Li Congjing was also ordered to quell a turmoil, when this person was uneasy, the imperial court had limited energy, and naturally focused on stabilizing internal affairs. He was so frightened that he forgot to move.

Mo Li was also frightened, and the open folding fan snapped and put it away, with this action, it can be regarded as stabilizing his mood, and he sat down again without saying a word, ready to listen to Tao Yao talk about the details.

Tao Yao glanced at Wang Pu, "Having two ambitions does not mean that there will be rebellion." Just as Wang Pu heard that Shensong was loose, she added unhurriedly: "However, Meng Zhixiang monopolizes Xichuan, and even the heart of the two rivers, but it is obvious. ”

"Monopoly is followed by independence, independence is rebellion, and the time is different sooner or later." Mo Li reacted from the initial shock, and his thinking became clear.

Tao Yaoyao continued: "Previously, Guo Gong attacked Liangchuan and obtained 8 million silk from the former Shu treasury, and Meng Zhixiang intercepted 6 million on the grounds of rebuilding Xichuan. After Li Shaohong returned from Liangchuan, he explained the matter to the imperial court, and then the imperial court urged Meng Zhixiang for a long time, but Meng Zhixiang refused to send the other two million to the imperial court. ”

"At this time, Lone also heard about it." Li Congjing said, "Now that the imperial court is in the autumn of money, my father has mentioned this wealth several times. At these times, my father had even intended to send someone to Xichuan to transport the wealth back. ”

"The military intelligence department found out the news that Meng Zhixiang rewarded and punished people in Xichuan, bought people's hearts, recruited soldiers and horses, contacted and befriended the envoys of Dongchuan Jiedu, and even rumored that he had plans to become in-laws. What kind of heart this person has, naturally there is no need to talk about it. Tao Yao said, "As Mo Li said, if it is not contained, it will only be a matter of time before Meng Zhixiang rebels against the Tang Dynasty." ”

"The imperial court has no plans to use troops recently, and it cannot use troops externally." Li Congjing said that the country has recently suffered drastic changes, and stability is the overriding theme, whether it is against Liangchuan or other places, it is impossible to raise troops to attack for the time being.

"In this way, how to solve the matter of Xichuan? You can't watch it break out of the control of Datang and become a place for thieves, right? Wang Pu said.

"How has Jing Nan been doing lately?" Li Congjing didn't answer directly, but asked Tao Yao.

"Frequent envoys with Wu Guo." Tao said.

Li Congjing was silent.

Although Jingnan has its own land, it has always respected the Central Plains Dynasty, but Gao Jixing, the king of Nanping, is really a villain. When the Tang Dynasty invaded Shu, he had ordered Gao Jixing to recruit envoys for the southeast of Xichuan, Gao Jixing invited himself to attack Zhong, Wan, Gui, Xia and other states, Li Cunqiao allowed it, who knew that when the war occurred, he sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, and did not send troops.

After Shu was flattened, Gao Jixing boldly plundered 400,000 property transported from Shu to Luoyang, and killed dozens of escort officers. Some time ago, Li Siyuan sent someone to Jingnan to inquire about this matter, but Gao Jixing was full of denials and refused to admit the account, saying that the escort officer had fallen into the water and died, and he should ask the river god. Li Siyuan was indignant, but it was inconvenient to raise a division to fight at the moment, so he couldn't do it. Unexpectedly, Gao Jixing was so busy that he asked the imperial court for Zhong, Wan and other prefectures to include these places in Jingnan.

"How is Wu Guo?"

"No movement."

Li Congjing raised his head and asked Mo Lidao: "Shu Di must not be indulged, Jingnan must be vigilant, what is Mo Ge'er's opinion?" ”

He knew that in the original history, Meng Zhixiang was the emperor in Shu, and Jingnan finally took refuge in Wu. At that time, Datang was in the reign of Li Siyuan, and he dealt with both, but the final result was unsatisfactory. Is this because after Li Siyuan succeeded to the throne, Datang was not as powerful as Li Cunqiao when he was in power? Li Siyuan has the reputation of a Ming Jun, and he will not allow Meng Zhixiang and Gao Jixing to be able to do so for no reason. Why? It can only be that the domestic troubles have not been eliminated, and the country is not strong.

Meng Zhixiang was called emperor a long time later, but Xichuan became independent much earlier, and Jingnan joined Wu in these two years.

Of course, Li Congjing can't sit back and watch the development of history, Liangchuan doesn't need to say much, just say that Jingnan, although the land is narrow, but the land of projectiles, but because it is located in Jiangling, the place of governance is located in Jingzhou, and the geographical location is extremely important. In the future, the Tang Dynasty will attack the princes of the south of the Yangtze River such as Wu State, if you hold Jingzhou, you will be able to go downstream, and the army will go straight to Jinling and Guangling, which is the most appropriate and effective marching strategy, and it is also the usual method of attacking the south in history. Therefore, Datang must hold Jiangling in his hands.

Mo Li shook the folding fan lightly and slowly spoke: "The two rivers are leveled by the king, Meng Zhixiang is just picking people's fruits, there is no foundation in the two rivers, within three years, if Meng Zhixiang dares to openly rebel against the imperial court and support the army for self-respect, then the imperial court will know in Shu with great righteousness, and send thirty or fifty thousand elite divisions to attack it, why worry about not being peaceful." ”

"Jingnan, the land of projectiles, the land is less and the main is worried, just like the wealth is less and people are suspicious, the main worry is Sili, Gao Ji Xingsuo is also, people are suspicious, and Jingnan and Wu are also friendly. To treat Jingnan, it is advisable to attack slowly, if the court does not move, he will have it, and if he moves, he will not be given a chance to react! ”

Mo Li's analysis of these words is reasonable, Li Congjing nodded when he heard this, and thought it was true, of course, he was familiar with history, so he could see the doubts, "It is not easy to have 50,000 elite troops to destroy Shu in three years." It is also not easy to stabilize Gao Jixing, prevent him from taking refuge in Wu State, and not give him land. ”

An army of 50,000 may seem insignificant, but it is not. You must know that when Guo Chongtao attacked Shu, he only led 60,000 troops. Among these 60,000 people, the troops of the local festival envoys accounted for quite a few.

First of all, the 50,000 army needs to be all elite. Meng Zhixiang is not Wang Yan, he intends to occupy Xichuan, and naturally works hard, although he has no foundation, he should not be underestimated. It is much more difficult for Wang Shi to fight against Meng than for Guo Chongtao to fight against Shu.

Since the Tang Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the central army of the imperial court was mainly the Sixth Army and the guards and pro-army. It may seem like a strong army, but it is not. The Sixth Army and the guards are not very numerous, and they are responsible for guarding the palace and Luoyang, and the military strength that can be used for the campaign is 350,000. At present, the imperial court is mainly relying on the envoys of the festival. If it weren't for this, Li Siyuan only had a few thousand soldiers and horses when he raised his army, and although he gathered some people for a while, his troops were still weak. If Luoyang had 100,000 elite divisions, how could he flee without a fight, and how could Li Siyuan succeed so easily? And Li Siyuan has made things happen because of the history of assassination and festivals, which also shows that the festival has made the military prosperous.

Li Cunxuan's Sixth Army and the Guards and Pro-Army, after Li Siyuan's army, there was not much left, among which from Ma Zhi and other troops, Li Siyuan naturally would not use it, because the current Luoyang troops are actually very empty. 50,000 elites, most of them have to be newly trained.

What is the reason why the imperial court cannot have 100,000 elite central troops stationed there? At the end of the day, it's nothing more than two words: no money.

Li Congjing planned to curb such earth-shattering events as the Khitan state in Youzhou, and only expanded the army by 10,000 in three or four years in the land of Kyushu, which was still under the premise of his painstaking efforts and hard work. This is also the reason why after the start of the war, the army has been constantly recruiting troops and replenishing troops to the front line - Youzhou has not increased the strength of the standing army at all. After the war, if it were not for the "war to feed the war" and the financial support after the Bohai War, the Khitan indemnity, just the post-war pension, ordnance repair, enough Youzhou to go bankrupt.

In the end, once the central army went out to fight, the imperial capital was weak, and it gave the ill-intentioned people an opportunity to take advantage of, even if there were no such people, just the arrogance of the soldiers and the rebellion was enough to make people worry. Because of this, the stability of the country's politics has the room for these 50,000 elite divisions to go on the expedition.

It is precisely for this reason that the current focus of the imperial court's work should be on internal affairs, rather than rushing to fight abroad. Consolidating the foundation is a long-term strategy. Otherwise, once the war starts, not only will the outcome be unpredictable, but the country will probably fall into chaos again. Mo Li shook the folding fan lightly, "But he can't sit back and watch the changes in Liangchuan and Jingnan." In this regard, there are three strategies. ”