The result of the cabinet meeting was that it was decided to transfer 8,000 elites from the two towns of Shannan Dongdao and Western Hubei to Guanzhong for use, and at the same time leave 8,000 elites of Hun Ho's army in Fangzhou, and only let him take 5,000 men to Hebei. In addition, with the approval of the cabinet at the proposal of Li Yu, it was decided to quadruple the size of the military weapons superintendent. The workshop in Chang'an was doubled, and a large ordnance workshop was rebuilt in Luoyang.

Li Yu felt very helpless about this result, the troops in Guanzhong were more than 100,000, and the troops along the border were about 180,000, plus these 16,000 people, there were 200,000 people, and most of them were elites, but the battle line was too long to prevent it. The strength of the imperial court has reached as many as 180,000 after being put into the battlefield in Ziqing, 120,000 in Weibo, and 30,000 in Wei Bo pretended to be placed on the side of Weibo, which has also reached 150,000. Even the armies of Henan, the internal and external battlefields have mobilized 500,000 tens of thousands of soldiers.

These 500,000 people are not numbers on paper, but real people. What is a real person? Li Yu said:

"It is everyone who wants food, military salaries, clothes, bedding, armor, weapons, war horses, and countless dollars and food."

These 500,000 people will cost the imperial court nearly a million yuan a month. Fortunately, they entered the state of war one by one, otherwise this battle had been fought for more than half a year, and Li Yu would have died of distress. However, while rejoicing, Li Yu also clearly realized that only 300,000 of these 500,000 or so people were really involved in the war, and if all of them were invested, he was afraid that the cost would more than double. In order to cope with these 300,000 soldiers, Luoyang opened a new large arsenal to recruit displaced people to do things. In order to cope with the two-front battle of 600,000 people, Li Yu ordered the armory workshop in Chang'an to be doubled.

It would have been easier if war had been a matter for military men only. For these 300,000 people, the imperial court has mobilized 500,000 people. The full-time civilian husbands recruited by Ziqing when the war first started were simply not enough. can only deal with the army of Li Yu and Li Guangyan, and the newly invested Wu Chongyin, Cheng Quan, Zhang Maozhao, Fan Xichao and other armies need the support of the people. One can imagine how large a large number of civilians would have to be mobilized if the war broke out again on the Western Front. Millions of laborers are not engaged in production and are engaged in war, and Lu Zhen will have nightmares when he thinks of ruling here, and Emperor Li Yu will have nightmares. After all, the ruling can be changed, but the emperor cannot be changed. The plans that were laid out on paper at the beginning of the war now seem to be a bit like talk on paper. Li Yu really felt why Li Jiang couldn't be happy. It's not that Li Jiang doesn't treat the country as a country, but he treats it too much.

Although the pressure on Li Chen's shoulders was heavy, the ministers now praised Li Yu on the contrary. For Li Yu's foresight, he took precautions. In the era of Dezong, the imperial court could only support a war of 200,000 people to pacify Huaixi for about two years on the premise of ensuring production. However, under Li Yu's more than six years of operation, the imperial court has opened up its financial resources, streamlined redundant personnel, reduced taxes, laid a solid foundation, and rested with the people. It has been more than half a year since the war was fought, and it is still supported by the state treasury, except for the border of the war zone, other local production, especially Jianghuai, where the lifeblood of the imperial court is located, has hardly been greatly affected, and even the tax rate has not been added. On the contrary, the scale of maritime trade has expanded. These cannot but be said to be the emperor's holy wisdom.

Of course, Li Yu was happy to hear someone praise him, but Li Yu now realized that now was not the time to be happy. The crisis is coming. Looking at the advance of the official army on the sand table, Li Yu couldn't wait to transfer two armies, three armies, and four armies from Yunzhou City to Guanzhong right now. But as Li Jiang said:

"Although most of Ziqing has been lost, its vitality has not been greatly damaged."

Nearly 100,000 elite people from Ziqing have been assembled near Yunzhou, and there is Tian Ji'an behind him, and Wang Chengzong behind Tian Ji'an, and none of the troops on the front line can be withdrawn.

Li Yu still knows the truth that the outside must be safe first. In the era when the people's wisdom was not yet open, it was completely impossible to expect to launch a public opinion propaganda offensive under the slogan of unanimity to the outside world to exert pressure on the rebels. I can only grit my teeth and hold on for a while. Since it is not possible to assemble a large army to repel a foreign enemy, it is necessary to try to avoid fighting on two fronts through political and diplomatic means. If political and diplomatic means still fail to achieve the goal, then we can only retreat to the next best thing and delay the outbreak of war as much as possible.

"No matter what, we must stabilize the situation on the border until after the summer harvest in Guanzhong."

Li Yu said to the prime ministers. Under the current financial pressure of the imperial court, everyone knows what the summer harvest means and what the summer harvest in Guanzhong means. The summer harvest in Guanzhong means that when Jianghuai money and grain are out of reach, it can support more than 100,000 troops on the border for more than a year.

After the order was sent to Chang'an, the Tibetan envoy who had not seen any important figures for a month and a half after arriving in Chang'an suddenly found himself becoming popular. First, the former prime minister Li Fan, who had stayed in Chang'an and had not yet arrived in Shannan Dongdao, hosted a banquet in his official residence to entertain him, and then Taichang Qing Quan Deyu was bumped into by him on the street. In the end, the crown prince Li Chun met with the short Lizang in the East Palace. After a few things, someone will suddenly appear on Chang'an Avenue and say to him:

"Yo, isn't this Your Excellency?"

From being ignored to being pointed at on the street, this can't help but make Lun Lizang a little flattered. Flattered, he started to think about the short standing.

The first two times I came to Chang'an, I basically didn't take a picture of the prime minister, and only a counterpart official sent him away, and this time he saw almost all the big people in Chang'an, which made him want to sing a song. However, as an envoy, the vision and wisdom of the short and Tibetan are all available in Tibet. Soon, he understood that the Tang Dynasty's kindness to him was entirely due to the rebellion of the eastern feudal towns and their reluctance to repeat the border affairs. Therefore, after staying in Chang'an for a few more days, he formally asked the officials of the Ministry of Rites to go to Luoyang to pay homage to the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and sure enough, he received a positive response from the officials of the Ministry of Rites.

After several missions, he finally gained something, and he couldn't help but be very excited about the short Lizang. After receiving the notice from the officials of the Ministry of Rites to prepare to leave, he immediately repaired two letters and returned to China, one for Zampu and one for Da Lun. In the letter, he talked a lot about the difficulties of his mission and the progress he had made. Finally, in the letter he advised:

“······ The minister (I) will definitely achieve a big harvest when I go to Luoyang this time, not only can all the contracts reached before be overturned, but the minister (I) want to seek more benefits for Da Zampu from Tang. In order to accomplish the mission, please ask Zampu (Da Lun) to station heavy troops in Hexi, put pressure on Tang, and think that the external force of the minister (me) will be able to achieve our goal without costing the lives of my Tubo warriors. ”

At the same time that the contents of these two letters were sent to Tibet by the fast horse, a letter with the same content appeared on the prince's desk, and then was sent to Luoyang by the fast horse. After Li Yu got the Chinese version of the letter, he breathed a long sigh of relief and said to Lu Wen:

"Aiqing, it's up to you to follow the next."

On the same day, Li Yu issued an edict appointing Lü Wen as a scholar of the Zhongshu House, and prepared to let Lü Wen preside over the negotiations after he arrived in Luoyang.

On April 21 of the third year of Xingzhi, when the short Lizang was about to arrive at Tongguan, Li Yutun soldiers were in Dong'a. Opposite him was Wang Ji, the general of Ziqing who was beaten all the way by him. Li Yu's army was 40,000 and Wang Ji's army was 30,000.

Before arriving in Dong'e, Li Yuanyi was ordered to lead the 10th Army of the headquarters to march eastward, preparing to cooperate with Li Tinghui to attack Dengzhou and cooperate with Cheng Quan to monitor Qingzhou. Wang Zhixing, a senior general of the official army, is still working hard to completely pacify Zizhou. Wang Jitan heard very clearly, Li Yu's account now only has the 55th Army of the headquarters, the 1st Army of the Liding Advance Department, the 52nd Army of Hou Weiqing's Department, and a few soldiers and horses of other departments, claiming to be 50,000, but in fact there are less than 40,000 people. Moreover, in the past few months, he has fought from Yanzhou to Caozhou, and from Caozhou to Dong'e, he has come from afar, and his foothold is not stable.

Although Wang Ji has only 30,000 people under his command, most of them are elites who have been recuperating in Yunzhou for a long time, and they have a home advantage, and behind them are tens of thousands of elites who can be reached at any time by Li Shidao, Liu Wu and Nie Feng. Wang Ji felt that he could fight with Li Yu.

"His Royal Highness the King of Qi, the minister thinks that even if he can't repel Li Yu, he can also severely damage his army and frustrate his spirit. Otherwise, when Li Yu stands on his heels, it will be difficult to beat him again. At that time, the officers and troops were surrounded on all sides, and it was not easy for our army to gain the initiative. ”

Wang Ji confidently suggested to Li Shidao. Li Shidao, who was already very depressed, was really in good spirits. To Wang Jidao:

"Wang Qing is really a general. This proposal was very feasible in my king's opinion. Wang Qing can go back to Dong'a to prepare first, and wait for the king's order. ”

Li Shidao also said to Wang Jidao:

"Within three days, this king must personally lead 8,000 tooth soldiers to Dong'e to fight side by side with Aiqing, and defeat Li Yu in one fell swoop. Then the king will be rewarded! ”

Wang Ji returned to Dong'a with great ambition to prepare, but he waited for five days for Li Shidao's order, and he waited for three different orders one after another.

(Full Text)