Chang'an Mingde Gate, a black-clothed knight galloped in, seeing the city gate, but there was no intention of slowing down, the knight whipped the horse, but accelerated, this situation is only available in the eight-hundred-mile expedited express, but the kind of messenger has a special eye-catching costume, and will shout, 'Eight hundred miles expedited military information!' ’

But the knight in front of him was obviously not, the soldiers defending the city were furious, and rushed forward with a dozen soldiers with spears for the first captain, "Stop! The lieutenant roared loudly.

The knight slowed down slightly, touched a token from his bosom, shook it at the captain, and snorted coldly, "Scared your dog's eyes!" ”

The lieutenant was frightened, hurriedly dodged, and shouted to the city gate: "Get out of the way, let him pass!" ”

The soldiers dodged one after another, the knight increased the speed of his horse again, rushed into the city at a gallop, disappeared, looking at the back of the knight's disappearance, a soldier asked the captain in a low voice: "Chief, which royal family is this, so arrogant?" ”

"Humph! I'm not afraid, my lord. ”

The captain sneered, but when he thought of the bronze medal, he lost his confidence, and said with palpitations: "It's Tang Feng!" ”

"Tang Feng?"

The soldier next to him was frightened, it was the most ruthless intelligence hall in the Tang Dynasty, with boundless power, saying that you were a spy of the Sui Dynasty, and you were caught in it, and I didn't know how to die, I couldn't afford to provoke it!

The Tang Feng knight rushed into the Mingde Gate, galloped on the Vermilion Bird Street, and galloped in the direction of the Qin Palace......

In the Qin Palace, Li Shimin was discussing with the mastermind Fang Xuanling and the long history of Sun Shunde to expand the Tang Dynasty, in the past few months, the Tang Dynasty recruited more than 100,000 troops in various places, so that the Tang Dynasty's military strength was restored to 300,000, Li Shimin raised 80,000 soldiers, and handed them over to Duan Hongzhi, Yin Kaishan, Liu Hongji and others for training. Been training for two or three months.

Although the number of troops has increased. But Li Shimin's mood in the past two months was not good, because his father finally rejected his proposal to attack Xiao Miao, because Li Mi sent Shan Xiongxin to lead an army of 100,000 to attack Xiao Miao. However, Xiao Mo united with Du Fuwei to fight against the Wei army in Jiujiang County.

At this time, Xiao Miao's back was empty, and he could take the opportunity to seize Yuzhang County and Poyang County. Li Shimin tried his best to persuade his father to send troops, but the crown prince Jiancheng said that this year was a disaster year, and the burden of the people should be considered.

In the end, Li Mijun was not familiar with water warfare and was defeated by the Xiao Du coalition army, with tens of thousands of casualties. returned to Jiangdu, and Xiao Mian turned back to Poyang County and Yuzhang County, so that this opportunity was lost in vain. And that's when they got the information. It turned out that Yang Yuanqing's attack on Qingzhou was fake, and he personally led his army to attack Goryeo. Looting of food supplies.

This news made Li Shimin extremely resentful, but he was helpless, and his resentment was useless, but the prince Jiancheng took the opportunity to tell Tang Feng, saying that they did not find out the information of Yang Yuanqing's personal expedition to Goryeo in time, and missed the major military incident, so that Li Shimin was severely scolded by his father.

Fang Xuanling brushed his beard and said: "Actually, I thought that Tang Feng was indeed a little weak in Taiyuan, mainly because he didn't buy the core officials, and some important information was not obtained, I think Tang Feng didn't have to expand, but should be replaced by a more capable person to go to Taiyuan to preside, Li Shouzhong's ability is still a little worse." ”

The eldest grandson Wuji is the director of Tang Feng, he is the most familiar with Tang Feng's situation, he also nodded and said: "Mr. is reasonable, Li Shouzhong's ability is a little weaker, and he really failed to buy important officials, this time Yang Yuanqing had the opportunity to clean the officialdom in Hebei, he actually let it go in vain, I am also very annoyed, I agree to change people." ”

Li Shimin pondered for a long time and said: "Yang Yuanqing cleans the officialdom in Hebei, it will take at least a few months, there should still be a chance, Li Shouzhong has been in Taiyuan for a long time, he is more familiar with the situation, if he is replaced now, after the newcomer is familiar with the situation, the opportunity may be gone, we can urge Li Shouzhong to spare no blood, win over the more powerful Sui officials, and grasp the internal information of the Sui Dynasty, I think he should be given another chance." ”

"Your Highness is right, it doesn't hurt to give him another chance, I just hope that Li Shouzhong will not live up to His Highness's expectations."

was discussing, and a guard suddenly came from outside the door: "His Royal Highness King Qin, Taiyuan Tang Feng has urgent information!" ”

Just as Tang Feng was talking, Tang Feng arrived, Li Shimin nodded, "Someone came in!" ”

The guards walked into the lobby with the black-clothed knight quickly, and the black-clothed knight knelt down on one knee and saluted Li Shimin with a fist, "Humble and arrogant, on the orders of Hall Master Li, send a letter to His Highness!" ”

The guard presented a letter and a red cloth bag on a red lacquer tray, Li Shimin glanced at the red cloth pocket, but picked up the letter first, he took out the letter from the envelope, shook it open and hurriedly read it.

The letter said that the Sui Dynasty introduced a new kind of silver coin, which was extremely hot in the market, and everyone was grabbing this kind of silver coin to collect it, and there was no circulation in the market at all, Li Shouzhong deduced that this was just a temptation of the Sui Dynasty, and would immediately launch a large-scale silver coin.

At the end of the letter, another piece of information was added: Not long ago, a fleet of more than 100 tugboats arrived in Taiyuan, and the fleet was full of silver ingots, one of which weighed more than 30 catties.

This information made Li Shimin take a breath of cold air, the Sui Dynasty was going to launch a large number of silver coins, and he would hand the letter to Fang Xuanling casually, "Sir, take a look!" I'm afraid something is not good. ”

Fang Xuanling took the letter, read it hurriedly, his brows furrowed, at this time, Li Shimin's eyes fell on the red bag on the plate again, he picked up the red bag, and shook out a stack of silver coins from it, there were twenty of them, the same size as Sui Xinqian, but thicker, is this the hottest new silver coin of the Sui Dynasty?

Li Shimin picked up a silver coin, carefully pinched the edge with his index finger and thumb, held it high, faced the light, squinted at the silver coin, the workmanship is exquisite and delicate, there is a square hole in the middle for threading, it is engraved with the words 'Yuan and Tongbao' in Yang, and the back is a 'silver' word, the same as the copper coins of the Sui Dynasty, the copper coins of the Sui Dynasty have been changed to 'Yuan and Tongbao' since the second batch, and they are no longer called five baht coins.

After reading the letter, Fang Xuanling handed the letter to the eldest grandson Wuji, and said to Li Shimin solemnly: "Your Highness, this matter is not trivial, if the Sui Dynasty has a large amount of gold and silver, and begins to use silver as currency, this will definitely plunder the wealth of the world, if this situation is not changed, as long as it takes two or three years, it will be Sui strong and Tang weak, and the Tang Dynasty will be in danger!" ”

The eldest grandson Wuji also finished reading the letter, frowned and said, "We can strictly prohibit the use of this kind of silver money in Datang." It is also possible to cut off trade with the Sui Dynasty. Such a crisis may be avoided. ”

"It's useless!"

Fang Xuanling shook his head, he handed a silver coin to the eldest grandson Wuji, "This kind of silver coin is a good thing at a glance. The silver content is at least 90% or more, and even if we prohibit the circulation of silver money, merchants can completely melt it and extract silver. Even the Sui Dynasty didn't use silver money at all, and directly used silver cakes, we can only prohibit the outflow of materials from Guanzhong at most, but we can't help the outflow of materials from Bashu Jingxiang, as well as the tea and rice silk cloth in the south of the Yangtze River, will definitely flow to the Sui Dynasty in large quantities, the eldest grandson and long history, you should understand this, this kind of silver money will make the price of Datang skyrocket. Public resentment is boiling, just like the sharp rise in prices at the beginning of the year. ”

In fact, there is no need for Fang Xuanling to analyze, Li Shimin also understands the crisis that this kind of money will bring to Datang. He was very worried. couldn't help but say hatefully: "This is the evil result caused by the loss of Huining, and now it comes out." If it is not stopped, Datang will be destroyed on this small silver coin. ”

Fang Xuanling said slowly: "Your Highness, Weichen has three strategies, maybe he can avoid this crisis." ”

Li Shimin was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Sir, please speak!" ”

"Your Highness, first of all, the 'broken' plan to destroy the silver money of the Sui Dynasty, we might as well use white copper to make the same silver money as the Sui Dynasty, and invest a large amount of money in the Sui Dynasty, so that the Sui people no longer dare to believe in silver money, and dare not use silver money again."

This is a poisonous trick, but it can't be put on the table, and it can't last, it can only maintain a temporary effect, Li Shimin pondered for a while, and then asked: "What about the second strategy?" ”

"The second strategy is the 'increase' policy, in fact, we also use silver as currency to fight against the silver money of the Sui Dynasty, of course, this requires a lot of silver, which is also our difficulty."

Li Shimin smiled bitterly, if he could get the silver, he would have done it a long time ago, after the Huining silver mine was taken away, they had also been looking for silver mines, and they only found a few small mines, and there was nothing to gain, he sighed and said: "Mr. will talk about the third strategy!" ”

Fang Xuanling's gaze became cold, and he said lightly: "The third strategy is the 'absolute' strategy, if the first strategy and the second strategy don't work, then there is only one way, Your Highness should know what I mean!" ”

Li Shimin nodded slowly, "I understand, I will go into the palace to meet my father, this matter is very important, and I can't delay it for a moment." ”……

In the Wude Hall of Taiji Palace, the Tang Emperor Li Yuan is receiving envoys from the Turks, this time the Turks sent two envoys, all the way to Taiyuan, all the way to Chang'an, Jieli Khan is very skillful, he wants to make full use of the Sui and Tang Dynasty disputes, for the Turks to seek the greatest benefits.

The envoy who came to Chang'an was called Mo Yanzhuo, who was the second minister of the Turks, and he came to Chang'an on the order of Jieli Khan, hoping to do three things, one is to form an alliance, the second is to trade, and the third is to marry.

In the side hall of the Wude Palace, Li Yuan sat high on the dragon couch, with a smile on his face, while the envoy Mo Yanzhuo sat at the bottom, with a respectful face, and the crown prince Li Jiancheng and the five Xiangguo were all sitting opposite.

For the Tang Dynasty, the alliance was a concession by the Turks, and in the initial connection between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks, it was the Tang Dynasty that submitted to the Turks, and the alliance meant that this submission was abolished and became an equal status.

Jieli Khan was an extremely pragmatic man, he didn't need this kind of meaningless submission, he wanted tangible benefits, and he wanted the Tang Dynasty to sell pig iron to him.

The marriage is the icing on the cake, it is a new measure to harmonize the relationship between the two after reaching an alliance and trade, but Jieli Khan has already married Princess Quegasi as Kedun, so he can only marry the daughter of the Tang Dynasty clan as a side concubine, but not a princess.

But for the Tang Dynasty, the alliance is extremely important, which is to free the Tang Dynasty from the bad influence of the initial submission to the Turks, which has long been spread all over the world and has been criticized by many people, which is very important for the Tang Dynasty, which is eager to maintain the orthodox image of the Tang Dynasty.

"I am glad to form an alliance with the Turks, and I am willing to give the daughter of the clan to the Turkic Khan as a concubine, as for trade, please allow me to consult with the minister, and then give your envoy an answer."

Although Mo Yanzhuo looked respectful and could speak fluent Chinese, his tone was very resolute, "Dear His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, on behalf of the Khan, I am very grateful to His Majesty the Emperor for his sincerity, but I need to kindly remind Your Majesty that trade is a prerequisite for alliances and marriages, and I hope Your Majesty will pay more attention to trade that is profitable for both sides." ”