Cen Shen forked his hand and retired, left the Hedong Jiedu Envoy's Mansion, and led his entourage to the grassland again.

Li Chongbao's Jiedu army name is Wang Yu, born in the Taiyuan Wang family, and is Wang Wei's cousin. He saw Li Chongbao carrying a picture scroll and couldn't put it down, and when he stepped forward to inquire carefully, he learned that he was going to marry the daughter of Hui Khan.

This Wang Yu's eyes rolled and he had a plan in his heart, and said to Li Chongbao: "I don't know what the ambition of the son will be in the future?" Why did you marry this bearded girl? ”

Li Chongbao naturally couldn't say it, I just liked the beauty of the family, so I only pushed and said: "This matter is related to the stability of Shuofang and Hedong on the border of the Tang Dynasty, and only by marrying the lord of Hui Hui can we form an alliance with Hui Hui." ”

"Oh, I see, have you ever thought about it, your father will inevitably replace the Tang Dynasty in the future, and the only ones who can inherit the world are you and the little son Li Xu, I don't know how the son feels?"

Li Chongbao nodded and said: "My father has always treated our brothers equally, but our three older names all account for a Chongzi, but the younger brother has a unique name, he was called Li Zuoguo when he was first born, and now he has changed his name to Li Xu. ”

Wang Yu made a suggestion next to him: "Gongzi is right to think like this, Gongzi, you are still the eldest brother, and you are more qualified to inherit the unification than Li Xu." It's just that you should plan for yourself now, such as marrying a wife, you must be cautious and not make a decision lightly. ”

Li Chongbao suddenly realized: "What do you mean? ”

"That's right, in the future, it is not only your son's ability to determine the inheritance, but also your wife, and the bloodline of your heirs. Your father will definitely not choose a grandson with Hu blood, let alone let Hu Ren be the crown princess, let alone the queen of the world. Especially after the Sogdian An Lushan and Shi Siming's rebellion, people all over the world are changing their concepts, everything is returning to the orthodoxy of the Chinese Han people, and the Hu people are no longer popular. ”

Li Chongbao nodded convincingly and said, "Mr. has a point, oops! Hurry up and prepare a horse for me, I'm going to chase Mr. Cen Shen back! ”

He led more than a dozen guards to ride out of Yanmen Pass, ran along the official post road for dozens of miles, and finally caught up with Cen Shen. Cen Shen and the others also led the horse team, leisurely and leisurely went back to the tent of King Sujinhan, and saw that Li Chongbao led people to chase after him, Cen Shen asked unhurriedly: "Childe, do you have any advice that you forgot to say?" ”

"No, Master Cen, I have to be cautious about marrying a wife, so I came here to ask Mr. to slow down."

Cen Shen smiled generously: "Childe has changed his mind, it doesn't matter how you decide, you can refuse in front of Gele Khan." ”

Li Chongbao said embarrassedly: "I didn't think about this matter, don't blame Mr., but I still want to bother Mr. if you can ask Khan and let Xuezhu be my side room." ”

Cen Shen almost couldn't hold back his laughter, this Li Chongbao really took a fancy to Khan's daughter, but he was afraid that the identity of his wife would affect him. It's just that this request is a bit too much, no matter how bad the other party is, she is also the biological daughter of Hui Khan, how can she tolerate giving you Li Chongbao as a concubine.

"Well, I can mention this to the Khan, but don't expect too much from Childe."

"Yes," Li Chongbao hesitated, remembering that the emperor of the Northern and Southern Dynasties in the past could set up two queens, so he could also set up two queens in the future, a Han queen and a Hui queen, naturally there is no problem of the prince's bloodline being impure, and his ** can also be satisfied.

After Li Chongbao made up his mind, he took a deep breath and said, "Master Cen, I have already decided that I am willing to marry the Khan's daughter. He said that he took a tiger tooth fishing sinker from his neck, handed it to Cen Shen and said: "This is the tiger's tiger tooth obtained when hunting beasts in the mountains, and it was given to the lord of Xuezhu as a token of love." ”

Cen Shen nodded, took the pendant and turned on his horse, and entered the vast grassland.

A month later, Li Siye ordered Wei Yingwu to send the county lord of the Li Tang royal family to the tent of the Hui Jin Khan in Mobei. Then the envoy turned into a messenger, and took the Khan's daughter Xuezhu to Taiyuan to marry Li Chongbao.

After Li Chongbao returned with a new beauty, the cave room spent candle nights, like glue, and lived a sweet married life for more than two months, but his good life did not last long. Because Li Siye has decided to lead troops to attack Yan again, and if he wants to take the entire Central Plains into his own possession, he naturally has to lay down Shi Siming's nest from Yunzhou first.

Soon after Shi Siming became emperor in Luoyang, he deeply felt the importance of Youyan, so he began to implement the policy of two capitals, designated Youzhou as the northern capital, and lived in Youzhou for a long time, ready to attack Hedong occupied by Li Siye at any time, and left his son Shi Chaoyi in Luoyang as a guard.

In the fourth year of Yuan Shuo, that is, the second year of Li Heng's Shangyuan, news suddenly came from Jinling in Jiangdong that Emperor Li Longji and Emperor Li Heng died within a month, and the crown prince Li Yu succeeded to the throne.

He invited the old Sikong Guo Ziyi from Xiangyang to the palace to discuss the main direction of the Northern Expedition with his ministers. In terms of hatred, Li Siye occupies Chang'an to support the puppet emperor, and the greatest harm to the Tang Dynasty should be given priority to crusade. However, the areas occupied by Li Siye are all blocked by mountain ranges, and the mountains are lined up, and it is difficult for birds to cross, and it is too difficult to succeed.

In the end, at the suggestion of Guo Ziyi, the emperor chose the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains and chose Luoyang as the ultimate goal. And the army of 100,000 with Guo Ziyi as the main commander, Fugu Huaien and Changsun Quanxu as the deputy commander, divided into two armies, all the way from Poyang Lake into the Yangzhou Canal, along the canal north through Suiyang to attack Xuzhou, all the way from the land, attack Luzhou.

After the crown prince Shi Chaoyi learned about it, he immediately sent a document to his father for help, but Shi Siming's side was also under great pressure, and he had to directly face the encirclement of Li Siye's 120,000 army, and the prime minister Xue Song suggested to him that he temporarily surrender to the imperial court to announce his submission, give Luoyang to Li Yu, and withdraw to the north of the Yangtze River. Work together with the imperial court to clean up Li Siye first.

Shi Siming was the most flexible and changeable, knowing that one dozen and two would not work, so he immediately sent someone to Yangzhou to send a letter of surrender to Li Yu, willing to continue to be the envoy of Hebei Jiedu.

Li Yu didn't believe him, this person had already announced his submission for the second time, and he would definitely rebel again if he got a respite in the future. But this time Shi Siming made a huge concession that made him moved, and he directly gave up a large area of land in Henan, and Luoyang returned directly to the hands of Datang.

Most officials in the court suggested that the emperor should promise Shi Siming to return to obedience on the surface, let him and Li Siye wrestle in Youzhou, and the imperial court would reap the benefits of the rear at any time, and they could even go north to attack Wuguan and join forces with Shi Siming to flank Li Siye.

After discussing with Li Fuguo, Li Yu readily agreed, and sent eunuchs and envoys to the north to announce the decree, and named Shi Siming as the king of Xinyi, which sounded a bit ironic.

So Emperor Xiongwu of Great Yan took off his yellow robe, demoted himself from emperor to two-character king, and occupied the vast area north of the Yellow River. He ordered his son Shi Chaoyi to withdraw from Luoyang and shrink his forces to Yecheng, and the troops in Youzhou and Yingzhou were also replenished, reaching 180,000 for a time, far exceeding the 120,000 of Li Siye's expedition.

Li Yu ordered Guo Ziyi to lead his troops north to take over Luoyang and the surrounding areas left behind by the Yan army, and to send troops to Anyang and Xinyang. It also sent troops westward to wait for an opportunity to attack Tongguan and Wuguan.

Li Siye was not nervous and worried after learning about it, and after he took over Guanzhong, he focused on strengthening and expanding Tongguan and Wuguan, installing forts on the city wall, and the mountains and rivers on both sides of the city pass were steep. Unless it is a heavenly soldier and a heavenly general, he can attack it. He also ordered people to build dangerous passes between the eight paths of Taihang, and built the area between Hedong and Guanzhong into a strong fortress.

In this way, Li Siye was able to optimize the saving of defensive forces, thus freeing up manpower for key attacks.