The decision to send troops to Jingxiang won the unanimous support of the ministers, and the seizure of Jiangxia mining area was an important reason to send troops, but the iron ore alone was not enough to explain Li Yuan's extreme ambition to expand eastward, the fundamental reason was that Zhang Xuan occupied Jianghuai and was ready to launch the Jiangnan Campaign, Li Yuan was afraid that the southern land would be monopolized by Zhang Xuan, so he was impatient to send troops, and the increasingly severe copper and iron problem became the best excuse for him to send troops to Jingxiang. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In the imperial study, Li Yuan was so excited that he paced back and forth, and the decision to send troops to Jingxiang was always supported by the courtiers, and the following are the details of the troops.

Li Shimin said on the side: "Erchen has been observing Zhang Xuan's plan to attack Jiangnan, only from a military point of view, Zhang Xuan first occupied Danyang County, with Danyang County as a logistics base, it is indeed a very clever strategy, Erchen thinks we can also learn from this strategy, with Xiangyang County as the foundation, to establish a logistics center." ”

"But Xiangyang County is in the hands of Wang Shichong, does the second brother plan to launch the Nanxiang Battle again?" Li Jiancheng asked suspiciously.

Li Shimin shook his head and smiled: "I didn't mean to launch the Nanxiang Campaign, half a month ago I sent someone to Xiangyang County to investigate, and found that Xiangyang County had made Wang Shichong a little anxious recently. ”

"What do you mean by that?" Li Yuan asked anxiously.

"The key lies in Zhu Ji, Wang Shichong surrendered Zhu Ji, the cannibal demon king, and inadvertently offended the Jingxiang clan, I heard that Wang Shichong is also ready to send Zhu Yu to lead the army to be stationed in Xiangyang County, which has aroused a strong backlash from the Xiangyang people, and the major scholars in Xiangyang County have joined forces to organize a righteous army of more than 10,000 people, they drove away the Xiangyang Taishou appointed by Wang Shichong, according to the autonomy of Xiangyang City, and also defeated the Yang Gongqing army that came to suppress, and tens of thousands of scholars in Luoyang also jointly asked to kill Zhu Yu to thank the world and support Xiangyang's righteous actions."

"And that kind of thing?" Li Yuan looked at Li Jiancheng with considerable interest.

Li Jiancheng nodded, "Erchen also heard that because of Zhu Ji's matter, Luoyang City is indeed in an uproar. ”

"Then what does the emperor mean?" Li Yuan asked with a smile at Li Shimin again.

Li Shimin bowed down and said: "Erchen means that we can negotiate with Wang Shichong and exchange Xiangyang County with Wang Shichong on terms." ”

"On what terms?"

"We can exchange Hongnong County and Wang Shichong in our hands, and we can recognize Wang Shichong as the replacement of Yang Sui and recognize his imperial position, and at the same time we can buy Wang Shichong's brother Wang Shiyun, and this matter will be secure."

Li Yuan pondered for a moment, then looked at Li Jiancheng again, Li Jiancheng thought for a while and said: "This plan is feasible, but if we get Xiangyang County, how can we establish contact with it, I mean how to transport military rations and materials." ”

Li Shimin said with a smile: "You can use the Han River for transportation, I have investigated, the Danshui of Shangluo County leads directly to the Han River, and it is a little difficult for a thousand stone cargo ships to sail, but a 500 stone cargo ship can go directly from Shangluo County to Xiangyang County, and we will pay Wang Shichong a loan fee, I believe that Wang Shichong will be willing to accept this deal." ”

Li Jiancheng nodded, "In this case, you can give it a try." ”

Li Yuan smiled happily at Li Shimin and said, "I will leave this matter to the emperor." ”

"The son obeys the order, but the son hopes that his father will do me another favor."

"What?"

"Erchen heard that the Dugu family treasures a pair of mother-son night pearls, and Erchen hopes that his father can ask for it."

"You mean.... Wang Shiyun? ”

Li Shimin nodded affirmatively, and Li Yuan smiled: "Then I'll give it a try." ”

........

The border between Chang'an and Luoyang is not Tongguan, but Kunguan, east of Kunguan belongs to Wang Shichong's territory, west of Kunguan, north of Luoshui, including a small part of Henan Province and half of Hongnong County belong to the Tang Dynasty, which is also a major heart disease of Wang Shichong, Kunguan is too close to Luoyang, lack of strategic depth, but Wang Shichong is afraid of the Tang army, the Tang army does not come to attack him is already lucky, how dare he take the initiative to provoke a war.

After Wang Shichong usurped the throne and ascended the throne, he has been in a state of anxiety, on the one hand, many officials are unwilling to serve him and leave with their seals, which makes there are many vacancies in the court officials, and his brother Wang Shiyun alone has concurrently held more than a dozen positions, and he has to select learned young people from Taixue to serve as court officials.

The second is that the counties of Nanyang did not accept his rule, and the local scholars opposed his usurpation of the throne on behalf of Sui, and Wang Shichong had no choice but to let the crown prince Wang Xuanying go to appease the southern counties, but the effect was not obvious.

The third thing is the trouble that Zhu Ji brought to him, Xiangyang County, Huai'an County, which had been deeply poisoned by Zhu Ji, strongly demanded to kill Zhu Ji to thank the world, they even organized a righteous army, drove away the Taishou appointed by Wang Shichong, according to the autonomy of the city, Wang Shichong was angry and ashamed, and sent Yang Gongqing to lead the army to suppress, but Yang Gongqing could not capture Xiangyang City, and was burned by the locals The grain ship was burned and returned to Nanyang County in embarrassment.

On this morning, a gorgeous carriage stopped in front of Wang Shiyun's mansion, Wang Shiyun is Wang Shichong's brother, Wang Shichong originally wanted to crown him as the king of Qi, but he was afraid of offending Zhang Xuan, so he changed his title to the king of Yue, and at the same time appointed him as Shangshu Ling, in charge of the six departments of Shangshu, and the power leaned towards the government and the opposition.

Wang Shiyun is far from having Yu Shiji's talent and knowledge, but he is not much worse than Yu Shiji in bribing and asking for money, and even better than the blue.

The janitor had developed a pair of sharp eyes, and when the magnificent carriage arrived, his eyes suddenly lit up, and the carriage was actually inlaid with precious stones, who could this be?

At this time, a well-dressed middle-aged man got down from the carriage and said to the porter: "I am from Chang'an, my surname is Wu, and I have something important to ask to see your prince!" ”

"Do you have a greeting, sir?"

The middle-aged man took out a wax-sealed prayer note and gave it to him, and the porter took the prayer post and rushed towards the house.

This middle-aged man was the envoy sent by Li Yuan

, According to Li Shimin's plan, Wu Shiyun first came to visit Wang Shiyun and sought Wang Shiyun's support, so that Wang Shiyun's support was very simple, as long as he took out the treasure that made him tempted.

After a while, a young man dressed in a fancy costume hurriedly walked out, it was Wang Daocheng, the son of Wang Shiyun, Wang Daocheng bowed and saluted, "My father is waiting for Mr. Wu in the study, please come with me." ”

Wu Shiyun followed him and walked quickly to the house, and soon came to Wang Shiyun's study, Wang Shiyun was already waiting in front of the study, Wang Shiyun looked white and fat, with a big cake face, looking like a kind shopkeeper, but a pair of small eyes full of treachery, always showing his greedy side from time to time.

Wang Shiyun had already learned that Li Yuan had sent an envoy to Luoyang, but he didn't expect that Wu Shi Tong would come to visit him first, which made him full of doubts.

The two exchanged a few words, then walked into the study and sat down with the guests, and Wu Shitong briefly said what he meant, and said with a smile: "In the past, some unpleasant things did happen to our two families, so let it be a thing of the past, my son of heaven wants to reconcile with Zheng Guo, and he is here to be my envoy, and I hope that Shang Shuling will say a few more good words in front of your son of heaven." ”

"Well said! Say! ”

Wang Shiyun was polite, but the look in his eyes was clear, no matter who he was, he didn't know what good words were if he couldn't get something beneficial.

Wu Shi Tong smiled in his heart, took out a palm-sized brocade box from his arms, put it on the table and said with a smile: "This is a gift from my family to Shang Shuling, and it is also a heart, please be sure to accept it." ”

The brocade box looks general, wrapped with gold thread, when Wang Shiyun picked it up, his hand sank, it turned out to be a gold box, his heart was full of expectations, slowly opened the box, and the red satin mat inside turned out to be a large and a small two white beads, the big one is like a chicken egg, and the small one is like a pigeon egg.

Wang Shiyun's heart jumped suddenly, could this be the legendary Night Pearl?

The Night Pearl is the treasure of the emperor, and Yang Guang also has more than a dozen, but he took all of them to Jiangdu, and Luoyang has none of them, so Wang Shiyun only heard of its name, but he has never seen the real thing, he is only puzzled in his heart, but he does not dare to confirm it.

The warrior got up and put down the brocade curtain, and the room suddenly became dark, only to see the two beads gradually began to become brighter, brighter and brighter, Wang Shiyun was so excited that he couldn't breathe, he separated the beads, and soon the two beads rolled together again.

"Could this be the two mother and son night pearls that Dugu Xin got from Bashu back then?"

Samurai Tong smiled and nodded, "Unique in the world!" ”

Wang Shiyun put down the beads and asked solemnly, "What do Tang Tianzi want me to help?" ”

He is not stupid, Li Yuan must have asked for something important when he gave him such a valuable treasure, and he may not be able to do it.

"Actually, it's just a small favor, we want to exchange the land east of Tongguan for your country's Xiangyang County, and we also want to lease the Han River channel in Xiyang County."

Wang Shiyun didn't speak for a long time, he stared at the two night pearls for a long time, and his eyes gradually glowed with greed. (To be continued.) )