The Turks' strategy towards the Central Plains was similar to what Gao Shilian had predicted, and the attacks launched by Jieli Khan were only tentative attacks.

He launched raids on a number of border areas that bordered the Tang Dynasty. Both sides have their own winners and losers in these attacks.

Some of them were repelled by the Tang Dynasty border soldiers at the beginning of the battle, and some powerful troops only plundered some property and population after defeating the Tang Dynasty defenders, and there was no intention of going deeper, and obviously there was no intention of starting a full-scale war with the Tang Dynasty.

Among them, there are two important checkpoints, because it is close to Chang'an, Kyoto of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Gaozu directly sent Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng over.

As soon as these two brothers came out, the Turkic soldiers and horses in these two places were not their main force, so naturally they could not bargain for anything.

The two sides met together and fought twice, and the Turks found that these were two hard bones, and after gnawing on them, they immediately retreated.

However, Liu Heimin, the generals of the Tang Dynasty who can fight have been restrained by frequent border attacks than the Turks recently, giving him room to grow rapidly, and after he arrived in Hebei, he quickly made a big show again.

At the beginning of September, Li Xuandao, the king of Huaiyang County, fought a battle with Liu Heimin outside the city of Dingzhou, and the army was defeated and retreated.

In Gaozu's view, his fourth son, Yuanji, is not as good as the eldest son and second son in terms of strategy, but he is also a good fighter.

In addition, in March this year, he was in the limelight in the battle against Liu Heimin with King Qin, and he made great achievements. After Liu Heimin's defeat in Luoshui in March, his strength is not great, so it should not be a problem for him and Li Xuandao to join forces and defeat Liu Heimin.

But Gao Zu seems to have overestimated his son's ability and underestimated Liu Heimin's ability.

King Qi's individual strength is quite outstanding, and he is also very brave in front of the battle, but his military strategy and tactics are worse than Liu Heimin's, but it is more than a notch, without the coordination of King Qin, as soon as he and Liu Heimin meet, he suffers several losses in a row.

After he arrived in Hebei, he fought Liu Heimin for the first time, and Xu Shanhu, the assassin of Beizhou, was martyred in the battle, and then Liu Junhui, the assassin of Guanzhou, rebelled and took refuge in Liu Heimin.

Then there was the martyrdom of Li Daoxuan, the king of Huaiyang County, in the battle, and Liu Heimin quickly broke through Cangzhou.

Gaozu and the courtiers finally understood at this time that although the King of Qin and the King of Qi were both people who galloped on the battlefield, it did not mean that the King of Qin could defeat them, and it was the same if the King of Qi was replaced.

"Zhuqing, what do you say about this Liu Heimin? This man was arrogant, had just suffered a major defeat in March of this year, and after only a few months, he had made a comeback, and not only that, but he also colluded with the Turks. ”

"If you can't eradicate this fang as soon as possible, and let him continue to develop in Hebei, then there will be Turkic tigers eyeing him outside, and he will be vicious inside, and my Tang Dynasty will be in danger." In the court, Tang Gaozu looked at the courtiers with an angry face and asked.

"Your Majesty, in the opinion of the ministers, it is better to come back as soon as possible and let him deal with Liu Heimin." As soon as Tang Gaozu's voice fell, a Chinese scholar surnamed Yan stood up and admonished.

"The minister thinks it's inappropriate, the King of Qin is now far away in Qinzhou Road, and the Turks opposite him have been quite rampant recently, Qinzhou Road is one of the most important gateways of my Tang Dynasty, if this pass is lost, the consequences are unimaginable."

"Besides, in March this year, King Qin only defeated Liu Heimin, but failed to completely eliminate him, even if he is transferred back now, it may not be able to completely solve Liu Heimin."

"In the opinion of the ministers, it is better to transfer the prince back, and he will lead the troops to recruit Liu Heimin." As soon as Yan Shilang's words fell, Pei Lin stood up.

Pei Lin can be said to be the most favored minister by Gaozu's side, as soon as he stood up, there was no one in the court for a while, and Yan Shilang only frowned slightly, but he didn't say anything.

It's not that Pei Lin really has such great ability, and the court of Nuoda has become his hall of words, but his suggestion is really not bad.

Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, in terms of the most proficient at war, and has not tasted defeat so far, except for King Qin, and Li Jing, who has only begun to emerge in three years and is now in the limelight, the crown prince has been built.

At the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the crown prince Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin were arrogant for a while, after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, he had less time to go out, and the light was gradually suppressed by Li Shimin, but this does not mean that he will not fight.

In terms of courage and danger in the use of troops, Li Jiancheng may not be as good as the King of Qin, but relatively speaking, he is more stable than the King of Qin. (The battle between Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong back then made everyone fully aware of the power of King Qin, if the commander of that battle was not King Qin, if he was replaced by anyone, he would not dare to guarantee victory, because the prince also demanded the withdrawal of troops at that time.) ）

The most important thing is that King Qin's merits are high enough, Li Jiancheng is the crown prince, but in the past few years, he has been crushed by King Qin.

If this battle is fought by him and he can win it in one fell swoop, it will be extremely beneficial to the Tang Dynasty and the stability of the crown prince's position.

It is inconvenient for King Qin to let him make meritorious contributions, and Li Jingyuan is in Lingnan, except for the crown prince, he really can't find a more suitable candidate.

Out of such thoughts, after Pei Lian's words fell, the courtiers had no other objections for a while.

Gao Zu glanced at everyone: "It seems that everyone supports Pei Qing's suggestion, since this is the case, I will give the crown prince an edict." ”

The prince is now in Fengzhou, the distance from Chang'an is not too far, with a post road fast horse, two days of the edict to his hands, Li Jiancheng received the edict, the heart was surprised and happy.

He has been sitting in Chang'an for the past few years, constantly watching his second brother Li Shimin's achievements, and seeing more and more people and courtiers praising Li Shimin, his heart has long been unbalanced, and he has long wanted to have a big battle to consolidate his position.

For this reason, after receiving the edict, Li Jiancheng immediately rushed back.

Gao Shilian's sons Gao Cheng and Gao Zhixing were quite puzzled when they learned that Gaozu was going to send Li Jiancheng to conquer Liu Heimin instead of sending King Qin.

After having dinner with their father one night, they couldn't help but ask Gao Shilian: "Father, this Liu Heimin is making a comeback, why didn't Your Majesty send King Qin, who had already defeated him once, but the crown prince?" ”

"Because King Qin's merits are already big enough, and the current Liu Heimin is not as difficult to deal with as before March this year, it is more than enough for the crown prince to deal with him."

"Another reason is that King Qin is now far away in Qinzhou Road, Qinzhou Road is one of the most important gateways in the border between my Tang Dynasty and the Turks.

"Since the crown prince is close enough to be qualified for this errand, His Majesty naturally wants to give this opportunity to make contributions to the eldest son first, but ......" Gao Shilian glanced at his son and said with a smile.

"But what?" High fulfillment and high to line blurt out at the same time.

"However, in order to ensure that there are no accidents in this battle, Your Majesty is afraid that one more person will be sent with the crown prince." Coats said.

"Who to send?" High fulfillment and high to line at the same time.

"Princess Pingyang." Gao Shilian said with a smile.