Chapter 398: Bitter Cold

This year's winter seems to be particularly cold, people in the Guanzhong area can feel that the wind and snow are heavier than in previous years, but the inland is good, and the Hetao Anbei area to the north is even more bitter cold, and the Tang Dynasty near the Turkic Khanate "Three Surrender Cities" military and civilian winters also have the difficulty of lack of materials, and in the past two months, there have been grain and materials from the interior one after another; The nomadic people further north are expected to have a bit of a hard time this year, and it is inevitable that livestock will freeze to death, and it will be difficult to provide for the ice and snow

"Three surrendered cities" that is, from the territory of the country to the outside of the "east surrender city", "middle surrender city", "west surrender city", located in the north bank of the Hetao, although named "surrendered", but not to accept the surrender of the Turkic nobles and built, but the foreign garrison city group, and the surrounding military towns, states to form a defense system inside and outside the Hetao, with a prominent military garrison nature, and at the same time have a variety of other functions, such as military and political center, transportation hub and economic center city and its surrounding areas to organize reclamation, It partially solved the supply of military rations and the expenditure of funds for the local garrison

At this time, Shuofang to the west of the surrendered city has a total of about 70,000 Han soldiers, soldiers and horses, stationed in various military towns, under the control of Zhang Renyuan, the head of the Shuofang army, Lingzhou and other places also have the attached Xianbei people and other cavalry coordination, all ethnic groups form a joint defense system (the Tang army does not build the Great Wall), the biggest threat to the north is still the Turkic Khanate, although the Turks have been defeated by the Tang army many times in recent decades, and the situation that can be sent to Chang'an is no longer the same, but the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse

Zhang Renyuan, the governor of Shuofang, served as an envoy in the palace in Beijing, and also served as an official in Youzhou, but the place where he made great achievements was to manage the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks in the Turks, and the combination of war and pacification made him achieve his current position and fame

Every feudal official has a place where he can become famous, usually in one direction, because dealing with foreign relations for a long time can make him more familiar with the local situation, such as Cheng Qianli and Du Xianam's achievements are the Western Regions and Helong in the west...... And Zhang Renyuan is in the north

In recent years, the northern border of the Tang Dynasty has been relatively peaceful, which is inseparable from Zhang Renyuan's ability and contributions, and he has a son, Zhang Zhifu, who is also in the same system as his father, as a helper of his right-hand men

Zhang Renyuan's base camp is located in Lingzhou, Shuofang Dao, and there is another person who has been exiled here and is almost forgotten: Li Yixun

Li Yixun's title is the king of Heze, he is the son of Li Shangjin, Tang Gaozong's grandson Tang Gaozong has several sons, in addition to those born with Wu Zetian, and other concubines also have children, but most of them are not good After Wu Zetian became in power, almost all of the princes who were not born to her died of illness or accident "inexplicably".

Li Shangjin (the father of Li Yixun, the king of Ze) is one of them, Li Shangjin's biological mother is the palace man Yang of Gaozong, and then his fate has been bumpy, and he has been in fear for a long time until the first year of Zai Chu (690), Wu Chenghei asked Zhou Xing to falsely accuse Shangjin and Sujie of rebellion, so they were recalled to Luoyang and handed over to Yushitai to deal with, and later Sujie was killed in Nanlongmenyi, Shangjin was quite frightened after learning about it, so he hanged himself...... In this way, Li Shangjin was frightened to death by the sinister political struggle

After his death, the seven sons left behind were also unlucky, all of them were exiled to Xianzhou at first, six of them were successively eliminated in the local area, only the surviving heir Zewang Li Yixun survived, Tang Zhongzong was restored to get rid of the dangerous situation that could be killed by others at any time, and lived in obscurity in Lingzhou

Perhaps only those who have experienced these hardships will be reluctant to show off their bloodline, and usually prefer to live a low-key life Li Yixun has never interacted with people in Chang'an, and he is almost in a state of seclusion in Lingzhou, and the locals have rarely seen him go out hunting and playing, and he has faded out of people's sight

Not to mention contacting Chang'an, he is not much in contact with the local officials, just like a monk who has got rid of the world, but few people know, he and Shuo Fang's head Zhang Renyuan's personal relationship is quite good, is the kind of person who can be close to each other, every time Zhang Renyuan returns to Lingzhou from various inspections, he will wear cloth clothes in a very low-key manner, and go to drink two cups with Li Yixun with three or two entourages, this kind of friendship has been freed from the constraints of secular etiquette, but is very casual

They often talk about Taoism or Buddhism, or about some things on the northern border, and neither of them is very obsessed with religious beliefs, and talking about monks and Taoists is just a kind of elegance or hobby

This time, Zhang Ren was willing to come back from the Sanshou Surrender City, and went to the government as usual to hand over the affairs, and when he was ready to rest, he went to visit Li Yixun

Zhang Renyuan looks like he is in his forties, his facial bones are a little prominent, and his face looks thin and angular, because he has been at the border for a long time, and he is still a little dark, but even if a person from a literati background is not very white in appearance, he can still easily reflect that temperament

He carried a jar of wine and went like this, not even other gifts, the jar of wine seemed to have just been dug out of the soil, and it was still stained with some dirt and walked to the gate of the palace, those servants were very familiar with Zhang Renyuan, and immediately came up enthusiastically to ask for warmth and talk, and then took him in

When I saw Li Yixun, I saw that this prince was only in his thirties, his face was very pale, about the lack of outdoor activities, that kind of paleness seemed to have a saying called noble white, a little sick, but his face was born in a phalanx, the heavenly court was full, his chin was square, and his facial features were upright, in the end, it was the blood of the Li Tang royal family

The two of them sat down, and the servants came up with the marigold, but Zhang Renyuan patted the wine jar Kaifeng and poured wine into the wine cup himself, "When I dig it up today, this jar of wine has been buried in the ground for three years."

Li Yixun picked up the wine glass and put it in front of his nose, sniffed his half-closed eyes, and praised: "No wonder it is full of mellowness"

Zhang Renyuan said with a smile: "A good wine that has been hidden for one or two decades is called a fragrance"

The two of them gossiped around without a match, only old friends could get along like this, and after a while, they fell into a short silence, only to find that the surroundings were already very quiet, and the servants in the palace were okay and did not dare to come in and disturb

Zhang Renyuan said in a very casual tone: "I went to the vicinity of Yinshan a while ago, the snow was too big, and I had to transfer grain from the big warehouse near the left to survive this winter, and the Turks were also sad, so they sent someone over to ask for help...... Fortunately, the border has been quiet in recent years, otherwise in this kind of year, the nomads in the north will definitely want to enter the customs to plunder......"

Zhang Renyuan casually chattered about the border affairs, and then Li Yixun suddenly said in a deep voice: "I heard that there was an accident in Chang'an not long ago, and now I want to Zen the Xue family, have you heard?" ”

"Hmm" Zhang Renyuan's expression froze, and he responded quietly

They suddenly fell silent again, and after a long time, Li Yixun's face showed a rare indignation: "My century-old foundation of the Tang Dynasty is going to bury the hands of the wolf's ambitions, which can be tolerated!" Zhang Ren was willing to listen to it without saying a word, and his face had become very stern

Li Yixun suddenly looked at him excitedly, and said earnestly: "Those two thieves are in the Huaqing Palace outside Chang'an, if you get the help of Zhang Gong's divine soldiers, my Tang warriors will ride south to eradicate them in one fell swoop, and restore the foundation of Li Tang, which is the work of eternity!" If Zhang Gong is willing to help me, Datang Jiangshan is willing to share it with the Zhang family! ”

"The prince is a little quiet," Zhang Renyuan frowned and said cautiously, "Please let the prince know clearly, although the minister is the head of Shuo Fang and controls tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, but there are many Taiping henchmen in each town, and some of them are very hidden, we can't guard against it at all If we want to transfer the soldiers of Shuo Fang to do such a big thing, I am afraid that the Taiping Party that has not yet left Chang'an will know, at that time, a holy decree and an imperial history can put Zhang to death, or the other party has a guard to encircle and suppress Shuo Fang with the elite military expenditure of the whole country, even if the gods go down to earth, there is no possibility of victory, What's in it? ”

Li Yixun suddenly burst into tears and cried: "I knew that there was today, more than 20 years ago, it was better to go to Jiuquan with my father and brother, but it was easy to live now, seeing that Sheji is in trouble and powerless, it is really better to die than to die!" ”

Zhang Ren was willing to hurriedly say: "Zhang has been a close friend with the prince for many years, and there is no reason to take care of himself, but everything will fail, and sending him to death in vain is not only worthy of the prince, but also useless......"

Li Yixun was heartbroken, and the more he cried, the more fierce he became

At this time, Zhang Renyuan pondered for a moment, knelt on the ground and said: "The minister has a plan, how about the prince?" ”

Li Yixun stopped and rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, looked at him hopefully and said, "You don't hurt to say it."

"Without Chang'an's military order, the Tang army in the north cannot be mobilized to the south, otherwise the risk is too great, which is tantamount to throwing yourself into the net, but the Turks are ......"

Li Yixun asked in a deep voice: "Do you want to use the entry of foreigners to quell the chaos?" Will this be criticized by the corporal of the world, and public opinion is not in my favor? ”

Zhang Ren said: "The plan for the future, there is no other way, this year happens to be the way of heaven is not good, the Turks have difficulty in winter, and they have sent people to me for help many times, we just took this opportunity to discuss with them, borrowing troops with food and grass materials, the Turks have no reason to refuse, because after the Tang Dynasty built the three surrendered cities, the Turks want to turn their faces against us, the chances of victory are very small, and the resistance to progress will be great; In this case, they can only negotiate with the Tang Dynasty and ask for food borrowing, and both sides have their own needs, and there is a great chance of negotiating."

Li Yixun looked pensive, pondering the joints, Zhang Renyuan analyzed: "At that time, let the Turks ride quietly south, we just need to make sure that the people at the critical pass can be trusted, and I will rely on my power to hold the head of Shuofang, and it is not difficult to arrange some people...... At least the risk is much smaller than directly transferring the Tang Army south, and it is easier to hide big things."

"The Turks are more than thousands of miles away from Chang'an, and they are willing to take this risk if they go deep alone, so they are willing to take this risk?" Li Yixun began to ask some detailed questions

Zhang Ren was willing to say: "Let them go out day and night, as long as they can reach the Huaqing Palace and kill those two people, there will definitely be changes in the world next, and the Turks will surrender directly to the Tang Dynasty after completing their mission, and when the political situation is settled, they are innocent and meritorious, what is the risk?" ”Q