Just as Li He's "Wu Yuan" said, "Why don't men take Wu hooks and collect 50 prefectures in Guanshan", the six towns occupy an area of 40 or 50 prefectures, with a total strength of 400,000, in fact, if they are united, they can definitely fight a protracted war. But if this happens, not only will the six towns be wilderness, but the entire Tang Dynasty is estimated to collapse. Therefore, Datang adopts a strategy of gradual and one-by-one solution. In this process, it is extremely important to divide and disintegrate the six towns. Fortunately, not everyone wants war and confrontation, and although the six towns seem to outsiders to be a dog, there are many contradictions inside. For example, Tian Ji'an and Li Shidao were stubborn, while Zhang Maozhao and Liu Ji were more obedient to the imperial court, and Zhang Maozhao repeatedly asked to raise the clan to join the court and move the bones of his father and ancestors to Chang'an. Chengde Wang Chengzong has centrifugal tendencies, but the elders of the Wang family are very afraid. As for Cheng Quan, since the pacification of Huaixi, the tribute has been much richer, and he has also asked to join the court twice. Between each other, Zhang Maozhao and Liu Ji are not in harmony, Liu Ji and Wang Chengzong are not in harmony, and there are always large and small contradictions for the imperial court to provoke checks and balances.

Now the imperial court is putting on a posture of fighting on all fronts, and the six towns are all planning their own plans. Zhang Maozhao and Cheng Quan both planned to enter the court, including Liu Ji, who believed that the imperial court would not trouble him, and Wang Chengzong, who became virtuous, reflected for a long time, and felt that in addition to saying good things for Wu Shaocheng, the rest had not done anything out of the ordinary, since his grandfather Wang Wujun returned to the imperial court under the persuasion of Li Baozhen, in addition to still maintaining semi-independence, the Wang family has not done much out of the ordinary, and Wang Wujun also arrested the children of the Li family who tried to divide after Li Baozhen's death. So everyone set their eyes on Ziqing and Wei Bo. Ziqing Li has been a bastard for decades, while Tian Ji'an has been a bastard for many years. These two are very strong, and if the imperial court pays attention to one of these two families, then in a few years, there may not be any new fighting. Tian Ji'an is not afraid, but Li Shidao is different. Wang Chengzong and Tian Ji'an gave more verbal support to Huaixi, in addition to some financial support, while Li Shidao paid a lot of actions, such as transporting grain and salt to Huaixi, such as sending an army of 2,000 people to Huaixi in the early days of the war under the banner of supporting the imperial army to quell the rebellion, but was intercepted by the Huainan army on the way, and retreated back under the strict orders of the prince. Li Shidao himself knew how big a crime was to assassinate a court official and wash the bloodbath. The backyard and Foguang Temple were breached one after another, and the imperial court did not announce the results of the interrogation, Li Shidao did not know whether his subordinates killed themselves according to the heavy oath they made in front of him, or how much they confessed. But it's always good to be proactive and protect yourself.

So Li Shidao sent Lin Ying, a Confucian official, as an envoy to visit Wei Bo, Chengde, Lu Long, Henghai and even Yiding to lobby for vital interests, and on the other hand, gather officials under the curtain to discuss how to deal with them. This time, Li Wenhui muttered for a long time, but only advised Li Shidao to be calm and not impatient, and wait and see what happened, while Li Gongdu, Guo Rihu, Li Cun and Li Yinghao all advised Li Shidao to lose his sincerity to the imperial court and strive for the initiative. Seeing that Li Yu and other generals were successively transferred to the Ziqing border, Li Shidao, who was panicked, decided to send Guo Rihu to the court. After hearing that Cheng Quan asked to move his family into the court and was appeased by the imperial court, Li Shidao, who was lucky, also expressed his heart on the seal, of course, it was not to move his family into the court, Li Shidao was unwilling. Instead, he sent his eldest son into the court to serve the emperor, to put it simply, to be a hostage, and in addition, to dedicate the three states of Yizhou, Mizhou, and Haizhou to the imperial court.

"Li Shidao wants to send his eldest son into the pledge, and offer the three states of Yizhou, Mizhou, and Haizhou, what do you think?"

Due to the Huaixi War, Li Yu, who had not appeared for a long time, sat on the regimental bench and asked the five prime ministers in front of him, Li Jifu, Lu Zhen, Pei Tuzi, Wu Yuanheng, and Li Fan. In fact, the five prime ministers all knew Li Chen's thoughts, not for Luoyang's affairs, but for Wei Dan's affairs, and Li Xuan would also kill Li Shidao. Lu Zhen said:

"Your Majesty, the mobilization of military salaries and grain and grass is convenient, but Li Shidao has more than 100,000 armor, and our army has only 100,000 soldiers and horses in Huainan, Wuning, Zhongwu, Yicheng, Xuanwu, and Dugi Dao, and the mobilization of the First Guards Army, Eighth Army, Tenth Army, and Fifty-second Army takes time. It will also take time to appease the other three towns (the court has already assessed Yiwu and Henghai as their own), and it is also necessary to guard against the invasion of the Tibetan Uighurs in the autumn and winter. Just after the war, half of the people's hearts thought about the war, but they also thought about the treatment, Your Majesty, do you think Li Shidao is sincere? ”

Without waiting for Li Yu to answer, Lu Zhen continued:

"The minister thought that Li Shidao would not surrender sincerely. In this case, the imperial court also needs time, why not let him finish the trick and let the world see what he looks like as a clown? ”

This is also true, with ironclad evidence in hand, I am not afraid that he will turn over the flowers. Li Yu acquiesced to Lu Zhen's proposal, and the topic shifted to Hebei. Li Yu asked Li Jifu:

"What's going on with Tian Ji'an?"

Li Jifu replied:

Tian Ji'an refused to settle down, and had recently met with envoys from Ziqing, Chengde, and Lu Long, and he himself sent envoys to meet with Zhang Maozhao and Cheng Quan. Zhang Maozhao and Cheng Quan both secretly reported that the three towns of Hebei wanted to rebuild the alliance to protect themselves. Liu Ji is now undecided, and Wang Chengzong is said to have sneaked to Weibo not long ago to meet Tian Ji'an. It is not known what was discussed, but the Department of Grain Statistics judged that the two companies must have reached some kind of agreement. Although the crusade against Li Shidao is moral, and the evidence is conclusive, these people are not people like Wang Wujun. The minister thought that if the imperial court could not control Wei Bo, other towns in Hebei would send grain and grass supplies to Ziqing through Wei Bo, and even soldiers. The minister is worried that if it is not handled properly, the story of the four towns will repeat itself. ”

Li Jifu's words are indeed old and to the point. The towns of Hebei are connected from end to end, with the same qi and branches, hitting a little and other points will help, therefore, Xichuan, Xiasui, western Zhejiang and even Huaixi are easy to do, but the towns in Hebei have become the climate, which is not easy to get. Even if Yi Ding and Henghai were on the side of the imperial court, the other four towns were not easy to get along with. The planning of Ziqing had been a central issue of the imperial court since March, but it was never possible to coordinate relations with other towns. With the evidence in hand, anyone will admit that Li Shidao should be beaten, but for the towns in Hebei that don't care about Wang Fa, Li Shidao should be saved. For these martial arts regimes, they may not understand the allusions of the cold lips and teeth, but after cleaning up Huaixi, they will clean up Ziqing, and after cleaning up Ziqing, they must be them, such a simple truth, these martial artists still understand. Historically, after Tian Xing led Wei Bo Liuzhou to Shun, the imperial court severed the connection between Ziqing and Chengde and other towns, and the troops on three sides won successive battles, forcing Ziqing to have civil strife. Now Tian Ji'an has no signs of early death. Last month, Fu Zai made a second envoy to Hebei to preach consolation, but I still don't know how effective it is. Li Yu stood up alone and walked towards the sand table, Li Chun hurriedly got up from the side and supported Li Chen.

This sand table, last year was dominated by the situation around Huaixi, and this year it was replaced by the situation in the north of Ziqing Hebei. The sand table next door is the Tibetan Uighur situation. Li Yu first got up and looked at the situation in the Tubo Uighurs, and then paced over to see the situation in the north of Ziqing. The prime ministers got up and gathered around the sand table. On the sand table, the Taihang Mountains stretch for thousands of miles, separating Hedong and Hebei, and the Yellow River is gushing, passing through Weibo and Henghai. A little further south from the Yellow River was the territory of Li Shidao, the land of the Twelve Prefectures, which controlled almost the entire territory of what was later Shandong Province. Li Chen's hand was gesturing over the sand table, and Li Chun inserted a small red flag (why a small red flag?) according to Li Chen's gesture. ）

"Huainan marches from here."

Li Yu's finger pointed at the position of Shuyang, and then drew to the northeast, Dao,

"Take Haizhou. Then he entered Tancheng to deter Li Shidao and contain the soldiers and horses of Lunan. On the Wuning Army, Li Yu commanded the First Guards Army, and the 10th, 52nd, 55th, and 56th armies of Shence (the 55th and 56th armies were the newly acquired numbers of the Wuning Army) recruited for the south of Yunzhou, and from here, Xuzhou, marched into the army, took Jinxiang, and approached Yunzhou. ”

"Here,"

Li Yu's hand was on the position of Kaocheng, and said:

"With Wang Pei as the deputy envoy of Xuanwu Jiedu and the envoy of the soldiers and horses, he commanded the 53rd and 54th armies of Xuanwu (the 53rd and 54th armies are the names obtained by the Xuanwu army) under Li Guangyan's control, and went straight to Kaocheng and entered Yunzhou."

"Here,"

Li Yu's hand clicked on the position of Huazhou and said:

"With Li Guangyan as the west of Yunzhou, he led the 47th Army of Zhongwu, the 39th Army of Yicheng, and the 8th Army of Shence to march from Huazhou. Dugi Province (near Luoyang) transferred two more brigades of guards to him, in addition, the Zhaoyi Forty Army, the soldiers and horses are Cao Hua, right? It is also under his command to contain Wei Bo and Chengde. ”

"Give Wu Chongyin enough food and grass weapons for a year."

"Can you transfer another soldier to Luoyang and be the backup of Wu Chongyin, Xi Shimei, and Cao Hua?"

Li Yu asked Li Jifu and Lu Zhen. Lu Zhen said:

"Township soldiers can be recruited to form regimental training to supplement the insufficiency. However, the first army can only be transferred from the south, and the guest army is only used as a reserve, which is easy to cause trouble. It's just that it's overstretched without adding it, and it needs to be sorted out. ”

Li Jifu echoed Lu Zhen's view. Li Jifu is cautious and independent, but he respects Lu Zhen very much and is respectful. Li Yu saw that Pei Tuzi and Wu Yuanheng did not object, so he said:

"Write it down and discuss it later."

Then Li Yuyou set his eyes on Hebei and said:

"Zhang Maozhao's 57th and 58th armies, Cheng Quan's soldiers and horses are also organized into two armies. Even if these five armies were reinforced with more than 5,000 men each, they could not take into account the three sides of Chengde, Weibo and Ziqing at the same time. In this way, let Cheng Quan cross the river, and Zhang Maozhao did not move, containing Wang Chengzong and Tian Ji'an. The Seventh Army of Shence was handed over to Li Wentong to lead to strengthen Hedong. In this way, Hedong, Yiwu and Zhaoyi oppressed Wang Chengzong, let Yu Youye and Zhang Maozhao do their job, and used Heyang, Zhaoyi and Yicheng to oppress Wei Bo, so that Wu Chongyin and Xi Shimei had a higher posture and reduced the pressure on Zhang Maozhao. I don't think Wang Chengzong and Tian Ji'an dare to brazenly confront the imperial court, right? If necessary, troops can be transferred from Hezhong and Hedong to Yiwu. ”

"It's just that Henghai and Yiwu don't rely on it, and Cheng Quan is lonely and can't speak, how can it be good?"

Li Yuxuan fell into deep thought again. Li Jifu said:

"For the time being, Cheng Quan is ordered to stay put, and he will not send it. Henghai was caught by Lu Long, Wei Bo, and Ziqing, Cheng Quan's life was really sad, and if he really wanted to fight, he couldn't even supply military salaries, grain and grass. ”

Li Yu nodded. Then he asked:

"If I let Liu Ji send troops to attack Wang Chengzong, how sure will Liu Ji agree?"

Li Fan was taken aback and said:

"Your Majesty, you can't, fighting on two sides and three sides is a taboo for soldiers!"

Wu Yuanheng also thought that Li Yu wanted to start an all-out war, so he hurriedly said:

The minister estimated that Liu Ji was seventy percent sure that he would send troops, but Wang Chengzong was innocent, and the division was unknown, so Wei Bo had an excuse to officially get involved in the war, and in this way, the court was fighting on two fronts. In the west and south, the imperial court has invested 11 armies, nearly 140,000 people, and the monthly military expenditure will be close to 300,000 yuan, plus Zhaoyi, Heyang, Hedong, Yiwu, and Henghai, which are responsible for containing Wei Bo and Chengde, as a reserve, Dugi Dao, Hezhong, Xuanshe, Shannan Dongdao soldiers and horses, once a war with Wei (Wei Bo) and Zhao (Chengde) starts, at least 8 to 10 more armies, at least 100,000 people, so that the monthly military expenditure will reach 500,000 yuan. In connection with the transfer of civilian power and the loss of military weapons, I am afraid that the cost of a month will be at least more than one million. If the Tibetans and Uighurs take the opportunity to enter the Kou again, Your Majesty and the ministers are afraid that at that time there will be a great river up and down, and there will be beacon fires. Liu Ji seems to be deferential to the imperial court now, but when the situation changes, who knows what he will do? Your Majesty, Lu Long has nearly 100,000 elite soldiers, and there are Khitans available. Your Majesty, please think again. ”

It's a bit of a hanging. But Li Yu didn't want to do that. Li Chanted:

"The two prime ministers are reasonable, but what I want is not to start a full-scale war, but if Chengde and Wei Bo are opposed, when the troops are insufficient, can they borrow Lu Long's soldiers and horses."

Li Jifu said:

"Even if Lu Longken is used by the state, the military expenditure in January will be 150,000 yuan more. There is also a defense against the northwest, Datang can't afford it, Your Majesty. ”

Is it necessary to re-expand the army? Li Yu's heart scratched and thought. Li Jifu looked solemn on the side, obviously already calculating. Troop strength and military spending have always been major issues affecting wars. Seeing that Li Yu and several others were worried about the military expenses, Pei Tu, who had been very quiet, spoke to himself.

Pei Tuzi said:

"Your Majesty and the ministers, don't forget that there is still an army in the imperial court that can be used. This army numbered more than 100,000 men, and the mobilization did not weaken the border defenses, and the cost of a month was about half that of the other armies. ”

Li Jifu, who was nervously calculating, was stunned and said:

"Pei Xianggong laughed, where is there such an army in Mandatang?"

Pei Tu laughed to himself:

"Li Xiangdon't forget, this army was built by Li Xiang."

Seeing that everyone was still confused, Pei Tuzi explained:

"Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, ladies and gentlemen, have you forgotten the sergeants who went to various places to build roads, bridges, and repair water conservancy? At present, most of the water conservancy has been renovated and most of the roads have been completed, and at least 40,000 or 50,000 people can be selected to use them. Most of these sergeants are veterans and can fight with a little training. The imperial court can reorganize these sergeants, but they will not be given numbers, nor will they go to the battlefield, they will only be given the name of a regimental training, and they will be arranged near Luoyang and in the area of Hezhong, and they will be half army and half civilian in peacetime, and they will be paid half salary, and if they can be used, they will be paid the same as other armies. I don't know if it's possible? ”

Seeing that everyone was looking at him with strange eyes, Pei Tu jumped in his heart and hurriedly ended his explanation. Li Yu can already be described with his heart at this time, if it weren't for the fact that it was too shocking, he would have wanted the prince to hold Pei Tu and kiss himself for him. Genius, so fucking genius, isn't this the reserve system? In modern society, no, in any society, retired veterans are the most important part of the country's reserve defense forces, the first choice for wartime mobilization. I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it. Li Yu couldn't help laughing and said:

"Pei Xianggong's words have solved my worries for a month!"

Several other people also praised Pei Tuzi. Lu Yi added:

"With this gathering of other regimental exercises, the imperial court can at least have an extra 100,000 troops."

The closed minds of the crowd suddenly became active. Li Yu suddenly thought of what Wu Yuanheng had just said, and asked:

"Wu Xianggong, how did you calculate the military expenses just now, and then tell me."

Wu Yuanheng didn't know why Li Yu suddenly asked such a question, but he still repeated what he had just said. When Li Yu heard "?????? In this way, the monthly military expenditure will reach 500,000 yuan. Even with the mobilization of civilian power and the loss of military weapons, I am afraid that the cost of a month will be at least more than one million??????" , suddenly:

"Yes, Wu Qing, you say it again, plus what military spending is at least more than one million yuan a month?"

Wu Yuanheng repeated:

"The mobilization of civil power, the loss of military weapons. Your Majesty, is there anything wrong? ”

Li Yu laughed and said:

"There is nothing wrong with what Wu Aiqing said. It's just that I thought that the loss of weapons would cost money, so why would the mobilization of civilian power also cost money? ”

The Tang Dynasty implemented a system of rent adjustment, and the people had the obligation to contribute labor to the government, and there was no need to spend money to use the people's labor, so Li Yu asked. Everyone also thought that Li Yu asked this because of this, Li Fan gently shook his head at the emperor's ignorance, and said:

"Your Majesty, the mobilization of people's power is too much, which will delay production!"

Li Yu asked:

"It's not that I don't know, I'm just curious, why doesn't the imperial court give money to the people?"

(Full Text)