Yi Nan is a male lord, and it is under his leadership that the Xue Yantuo tribe, which is a branch of the Tiele people, succeeded the Eastern Turks and became the overlord of the Mobei grassland. In addition, it is worth mentioning that Yi Nan is still a very sober king, he knows the difference between his clan and the Tang Dynasty, so when he was in power, he always tried to avoid conflicts with the Tang Dynasty.

When Li Shimin personally led a large army to conquer Goguryeo, he once said to the envoy sent by Xue Yantuo in a provocative tone: My sixth son and I want to use troops against Goguryeo, if Yi Nan thinks this is an opportunity, then I welcome him to come! However, Yi Nan was very frightened after hearing this, and not only sent an envoy to Li Shimin to express that he had no intention of going south, but even hoped to send troops to assist the Tang Dynasty in attacking Goguryeo, but Li Shimin refused.

It is also this character of Yi Nan that he will repeatedly tolerate the Tang Dynasty's encroachment on the Northeast Grassland, but unfortunately in the end, when there is no way to retreat, he has to gather an army and fight with the Tang Dynasty in order to survive, but unfortunately the 300,000 army is gone, most of them have become prisoners of the Tang Dynasty, and the country is even more Zhang Jian to retaliate, burning, killing and looting all kinds of evil. As a result, Yi Nan couldn't accept this blow, and finally died of anger.

After the death of Yi Nan, Xue Yantuo was in turmoil, and the two sons had a dispute over the succession of the Khan, and at this time, the Hui Hui, the servant bones, and the Tiele tribes attached to Xue Yantuo also began to lose confidence in Xue Yantuo, among which the leader of the Hui tribe, Tu Midu, took the lead in raising troops, taking advantage of Xue Yantuo's civil strife, and secretly contacted Zhang Jian, the two joined forces and suddenly attacked the Xue Yantuo royal court on the Tula River, as a result, Yi Nan's two sons were killed, and all the royal family members were also slaughtered by Tu Midu. Xue Yantuo officially perished.

The once-powerful Xue Yantuo was destroyed by the Tang Dynasty, and this result greatly shocked the countries of the Western Regions. In particular, the Western Turks in the chaos were even more shaken. Among them, the Ebilu Khan and the Ebishababa Yehu Khan, who were attacking each other, wrote one after another. expressed his surrender to Datang, and ensured the smooth flow of the land Silk Road, and no longer dared to make any small moves in secret.

Xue Yantuo was destroyed, the biggest threat to the northern grassland of the Tang Dynasty was finally eliminated, originally according to the original history, after Xue Yantuo was destroyed, it was the Hui people who took over most of the forces of the Xue Yantuo people, and although the Hui have always been friendly with the Tang Dynasty, there have been a lot of frictions in the middle. Later, it was wiped out by the Qiangs, and a new round of power change began in the northern steppes, and later the powerful Mongols rose, bringing endless disasters to the Central Plains Dynasty.

However, the current Datang has already formulated a plan to annex Mobei, preparing to solve the biggest threat in the north in one fell swoop. Therefore, after the fall of Xue Yantuo, Li Ji and various armies marched together and controlled most of Xue Yantuo's area in one fell swoop, and all the tribes that dared to resist were all bloodily suppressed by them. Even in order to achieve the purpose of deterrence, plus there was no surplus food, so they did not leave any prisoners at all during the suppression, and all those who resisted were exterminated.

Under such iron-blooded means. Xue Yantuo is in danger, and no one dares to resist anymore, and this happens to confirm that sentence. The steppe people are afraid of power but not virtue, and the bloodier your methods are. The more they are afraid, the only way to beat them and kill them. These steppe people will be more honest in the future.

The bloody methods of Li Ji and others also made the affiliated tribes of Xue Yantuo such as Hui Hui feel awe, and it was precisely because of this that they unanimously expressed their support for the next actions of the Tang Dynasty, for fear of accidentally causing the disaster of extermination.

After receiving the news that Xue Yantuo had been preliminarily pacified, Li Shimin immediately dispatched officials, divided Xue Yantuo into 11 prefectures, and set up the Anbei Metropolitan Protectorate, which was in charge of the military and political affairs of the 11 prefectures, and temporarily took Li Ji as the capital protector. After all, it is still only a preliminary decision there, and a powerful military general is needed to guard it, and Li Ji, who killed Xue Yantuo this time, is undoubtedly the best candidate.

After the establishment of the Anbei Metropolitan Protectorate, a large number of Xue Yantuo's clansmen were reduced to slaves, and the Hui and other tribes were affected by the snow disaster, and each tribe was very poor, so they asked the Tang Dynasty for help. However, under the influence of Li Su, Li Shimin will no longer do loss-making business, he promised to provide food for various tribes, but he needs these tribes to produce a certain number of young men every year, these men need to serve the Tang Dynasty for ten years, or join the army or enter the inland to work, anyway, everything has to be arranged by the Tang Dynasty.

In addition to the more than 200,000 prisoners of war captured in the war, after the Tang army entered the Xue Yantuo Khanate, some Xue Yantuo nobles and affiliated tribes were all reduced to slaves, these slaves were huge, and the slave market of the Tang Dynasty was flooded for a time, and even some slaves were transported to Taiwan, Luzon and other places.

The battle of Xue Yantuo made the slave merchants of the Tang Dynasty happy, and also made some wool textile factory owners and wool merchants very excited, because with the development of the wool textile industry in recent years, the demand for wool has become more and more large, and the grassland of Mobei is controlled by Xue Yantuo, they want to import wool from there, they have to pay a lot of taxes to Xue Yantuo, and now that Mobei has recovered, they can just pay taxes to the government as in China.

However, compared to those businessmen, there are still two people in Datang who are happier than anyone else, these two people are Li Zhen and Li Yun, who are dedicated to recruiting soldiers and horses, although the two of them have recruited a group of students from military academies, but these students are all middle and senior officers in their future army, but it is a big trouble for the most ordinary soldiers in the army.

Originally, in Li Zhen's imagination, he wanted to recruit an army composed entirely of Han people, after all, fighting in Tianzhu, a place where all foreign tribes were fighting, naturally his own people were the most trusted, but he soon found that this was very difficult, firstly, because they had to fight far away from their homeland, which discouraged most people, and secondly, because the Tang Dynasty has expanded rapidly in recent years, it also needs a large number of troops.

Li Zhen and Li Yun were very troubled for this problem of the source of soldiers, and even Li Zhen proposed to borrow troops from Li Su, but was denied by Li Yun, because Li Yun knew that the sixth brother Li Su has now immigrated from the Tang Dynasty in large numbers, which shows that he is also extremely short of population in his hands, and Li Su has newly defeated Luzon, I am afraid that the army in his hands is not enough, and there is nothing to borrow.

However, after the battle of Xue Yantuo's demise this time, Li Yun, who had a better brain, suddenly thought of a way, that is, to follow Li Su's approach to the grassland people, recruit some tribes from the grassland, and then transfer these grassland people overseas through Li Su, and then they will recruit warriors from these grassland people, and then use the Han people in their hands as officers of this army, so as to control the entire army.

In addition, the reason why these grassland people are used, Li Zhen and Li Yun have a second reason, that is, the terrain of Tianzhu Continent is flat, which is very suitable for cavalry combat, and the intelligence provided by Li Su also said that there are prevalent chariot soldiers, cavalry and elephant soldiers, and the chariot soldiers are not to worry, the elephant soldiers are ready to use firearms to restrain them, and the remaining cavalry can only use more elite cavalry to fight the enemy, and when it comes to elite cavalry, what cavalry can compare to these grassland people who grew up on horseback?

After Li Yun figured out the full details, he immediately shared this idea with Li Zhen, and Li Zhen was also overjoyed, now that they have all the generals in their hands, and they are all already adults, then they can really implement the whole plan. But before that, they have one last thing to do, that is, to ask for the consent of their father Li Shimin first.

Li Zhen and Li Yun need to form an army, and they are not used to rebel, they just want to follow Li Su and build a world of their own with their own hands. So there is no need to hide this matter from Li Shimin, and even they have to take the initiative to tell each other, in order to get their father's strong support.

In the Liangyi Hall of Taiji Palace, Li Shimin stood with his hands in his hands, looking at Li Zhen and Li Yun who were standing below with calm eyes. As their father and the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, he naturally knew the actions of these two sons during this time, and even he knew that Li Zhen and Li Yun had recruited military cadets to prepare to form an army.

"You two really figured it out?" Li Shimin asked in a calm voice. When he knew about the small actions of his two sons, he thought that these two sons were preparing to rebel at first, but soon he knew the hidden secret, and while he felt relieved, he also had some reluctance.

"Qi Qi father, the sons and ministers have already thought about it, the sixth brother has set an example for us, so as the prince of the Tang Dynasty, and also the son of the father, we can't just live a mediocre life, only by establishing immortal achievements, can we not go in vain in this world!" Li Zhen and Li Yun said loudly at the same time.

Li Shimin sighed in his heart, it seems that these two sons are also going to stay away from him, but since they have this ambition, he, as a father, naturally can't stop him. Thinking of this, Li Shimin showed a smile of approval on his face and said: "Okay, for my father to agree to your request, I will send someone to send you to the Anbei Protectorate after a while, as for how many grassland tribes can be recruited, then it all depends on you." ”

"Thank you, Father!" When Li Zhen and Li Yun heard this, they all replied happily. Now that the famine on the side of the Anbei Protectorate has not passed, as long as they come up with enough food, they will not recruit as much as they want.

Seeing the happy appearance of the two sons, Li Shimin explained a few more words to them, and then suddenly said: "You are all adults, and the rest of you are fathers, so you don't know when you will be able to come back, so go to the palace to accompany your mother more often these days, and try to let them relax!" ”

"Yes, the retainers are retired!" Li Zhen and Li Yun said with a wry smile at the same time, if the mothers of the two knew about them, it was estimated that there would be no nagging, and then their ears would suffer again.

But just as Li Zhen and Li Yun turned around and were about to leave, Li Shimin suddenly thought of something, and immediately said, "Wait, don't leave yet!" (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please go to read. )