On August 12 of the third year of Yifeng, an urgent military report came from the Qinghai front: The army of our Taohe River was heavily damaged in Qinghai, the former army was surrounded by the Tubo, more than 30,000 people were almost wiped out, 20,000 people were annihilated, nearly 10,000 people were captured, and less than 1,000 people fled back, and the main general Liu Xianli and the deputy general Wang Xiaojie were seriously injured and captured by the Tubo people.

This was an urgent military report sent by the Shanzhou Assassin Shi, which was sent to Chang'an with an urgent dispatch of 600 li, and the emperor Li Zhi and the empress Wu Zetian were extremely shocked after receiving the military report, and immediately urgently convened the ministers to discuss the situation.

Li Zhi, who rarely gets angry at the court meeting, looks angry, with a blue face, pacing around in front of the throne, ignoring the low shouts of Wu Zetian, who is sitting behind the curtain.

Over the years, Li Zhi has always obeyed Wu Zetian's words, and everything is basically decided by Wu Zetian, and there has never been a scene where Wu Zetian called him to ignore him.

After all the summoned ministers arrived, Li Zhi glared angrily, looked at the courtiers of His Royal Highness, waved the military newspaper in his hand, and shouted loudly: "The army under the command of the Taohe Road marching army encountered the Tubo army led by the Tubo Great Discussion Qinling near Qinghai, and the 30,000 army led by Liu Xianli, the former army commander, was surrounded by the Tubo army, and the whole army was wiped out, and Liu Xianli and his deputy Wang Xiaojie were captured..."

When some uninformed ministers first entered the palace, they saw the emperor's appearance and knew that something big had happened, but they did not dare to inquire into each other.

Many important ministers in the court know that the emperor's angry appearance has appeared again, that is, in the first year of Xianheng, when Xue Rengui's army was defeated in Dafeichuan, and nearly 100,000 soldiers were almost wiped out. After receiving the news, the emperor was also furious in front of the courtiers, and even a precious jade plate on the imperial case was smashed on the palace, which frightened many courtiers.

After the defeat of the Dafeichuan army, the main generals who led the army to conquer Tibet, Xue Rengui, Guo Beifeng, and Ashina Daozhen were heavily reprimanded in the court, and some people suggested that they should be executed to set an example, and later the emperor Li Zhi was comforted by the empress Wu Zetian, and also read the great achievements made by several people in the previous years.

This time something similar happened, the opponent was still Tubo, it was also a fiasco, and the fatal thing was that several leading generals were captured by the other party, including the dignified Tang Dynasty Zhengsanpin's Ministry of Industry Shangshu and Zuowei General, which was even more humiliating than the defeat of Dafeichuan that year.

In recent years, the imperial court has made a lot of countermeasures to the continuous invasion of Tibet, and the cities in the direction of Tubo have been reinforced, and heavy troops have been arranged to prevent the attack of the Tubo, and have also achieved certain results, and the Tubo have become a twisted trend, and with the gradual growth of the Tang Dynasty's national strength, the advantage has slowly shifted to the direction of the Tang Dynasty, and some important ministers in the court have also suggested several times that the imperial court use heavy troops against Tubo again.

During the Longshuo period, Tubo attacked Qinghai, Tuyuhun who was attached to the Tang Dynasty did not support, Murong Nuo, the king of Tuyuhun who originally stayed near Qinghai, and his wife Princess Honghua fled to Liangzhou, and they repeatedly asked Emperor Li Zhi to send troops to help them restore the country in the next few years, and many courtiers also suggested that the emperor send troops to recapture the Qinghai area, so that there is a buffer zone between my Tang Dynasty and Tubo, and can graze war horses near Qinghai.

It has been eight years since the defeat of Dafeichuan, and the shadow caused by the defeat has gradually dissipated, and the national strength of the Tang Dynasty is even stronger than that year, and the emperor Li Zhi and the empress Wu Zetian finally agreed to send troops to attack the Tubo people in Qinghai.

This time, the Tang Dynasty also dispatched an army of 180,000 under the banner of recovering the country for Tuyuhun, just to annihilate all the Tubo troops living in Qinghai in one fell swoop. Although the scale of the war was small and the number of Tubo annihilated was small, these good news made the emperor and empress, as well as the courtiers, very happy, thinking that this time they could finally hit the Tubo people hard. But I didn't expect that after our army won several small-scale battles, it was defeated again, just like the defeat of the Dafeichuan army back then, which was intolerable to the emperor, the empress in charge, and the ministers of the court.

Everyone knows that the army is defeated, and under the emperor's anger, the generals who lead the troops will definitely be dealt with severely, but will this time be dealt with in the same way as last time?

Many people are worried about the commander Li Jingxuan in front, as well as the captured Liu Xianli and Wang Xiaojie, the commander Li Jingxuan will be punished, that is certain, Liu Xianli and Wang Xiaojie, who were defeated and captured, the imperial court will definitely be condemned, but these two generals have been locked up in the Tubo military camp as prisoners, and it is not known whether they can come back, and no one knows in what form the emperor's disposition will take.

But even if these two generals can't come back, their families will definitely be implicated, not to mention that if Liu Xianli and Wang Xiaojie surrender to the Tubo people, in that case, their families who stay in Chang'an will be in a very miserable situation.

"You say, how are we going to respond?" Li Zhi continued to yell. It may be that he was angry and angry, and Li Zhi was followed by a series of coughs after the roar, and the courtiers were even more frightened.

After the emperor's cough stopped slightly, Shang Shu's right servant shot Dai Zhide and said: "Your Majesty, our army was defeated in the Qinghai War, and we must first stabilize the morale of the army and make necessary measures to prevent the Tubo people from continuing to attack. The minister thinks that he should now send someone to contact the Tubo people and negotiate peace, so as to give our army a chance to breathe, and then make other plans after the army's morale is stabilized!"

"Your Majesty, our army has suffered a fiasco, and the army's morale must be unstable, and we must strictly order the main general in front to defend the city to the death, and not give the Tubo people a chance to take advantage of," Zhongshu Shilang and Xue Yuanchao, the third rank under the same Zhongshu Sect, also came out to play, "Again, the minister thinks that the generals who are defeated because of the severe punishment of the army!" ”

"Your Majesty, the minister seconded the proposal! Our army was defeated, and the leading generals in the front had unforgivable crimes, and the ministers also felt that they had given heavy responsibility to the leading generals who had lost the battle, so as to set an example! It is precisely because the generals who have lost battles in the past have not been punished accordingly that the defeats of our Tang army have become more and more over the years..."Zuo Shuzi and Zhang Da'an, a third-rank under the Tongzhong Shumen, came out and played, "In order to prevent the Tubo people from continuing to attack, the armies in Liangzhou, Shanzhou, Lanzhou, Hezhou, Kuozhou, Taozhou, and Diezhou should be ordered to support and contain the Tubo people!" ”

"You Aiqing is right!" Li Zhi frowned, he had already sat back on the throne, and after listening to the recital of the ministers, he said: "The situation ahead must be stable, and the generals of the defeated army, I must give them heavy responsibility..."

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ps: 1. Daming Palace was renamed Penglai Palace, Hanyuan Palace, the first year of Shenlong (705 AD), Wu Zetian restored the name of Daming Palace, but for convenience in the book, it is called Daming Palace.

2. The "Zetian" in Wu Zetian's name should be his title after becoming the emperor, but it has become customary, and later generations called it so, and the book also uses it as its name!

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