A month later, Gao Buer came to the capital and was ceremoniously welcomed by the imperial court, and the whole Chang'an was festive. Different from the bustle of Chang'an, the Turks at this time were suffering from a heavy snowstorm that had not been seen in a century. The heavy snow carried the bitter cold, causing the cattle and sheep on the grassland to freeze to death, and the war horses were also injured countless times.

In fact, the Turkic snowstorm broke out in 627, according to historical records, a large number of Turkic cattle and sheep were frozen to death in this year's snowstorm, affected by the snowstorm, the great famine broke out in the second year, the history is called the great famine, to 629 years, the snowstorm came unexpectedly again, making the Turkic already fragile economy even worse, internal contradictions intensified, and turmoil occurred frequently.

Although Jieli is nominally the king of the steppe, in fact, the Turks are a country similar to the alliance of later generations, and it is the kind of alliance that bullies the weak, and the interests of the allies are basically controlled by the powerful Jieli, in order to strengthen their own strength, Jieli has not done less to harm others and benefit themselves.

The three-year famine has caused the population of the steppe to drop sharply, and in the early Tang Dynasty, the Turks claimed to have more than one million people who controlled the strings, but now it is the limit to be able to gather three or four hundred thousand. Therefore, in order to save the lives of his own people, Jieli tried his best to squeeze other tribes on the one hand, and prepared to send troops south to plunder the Tang Dynasty.

Evil Sun Ridge, where Jieli Khan's tooth tent is located.

The fire in the big tent was vigorous, and the Turkic nobles and tribal leaders gathered together, and although the beef roasted on the stove was already browned and extremely charming, no one was interested in moving it.

Sitting on the throne, the eagle-like eyes scanned the people in the tent, and all of them had a look of grievance, obviously there had been a fierce quarrel before.

The firewood burning in the fireplace occasionally made a "crackling" sound.

Jie Li brought the mare's milk wine glass in his hand that he didn't know how long to turn close to his lips and took a sip, and said coldly: "Since the year before last, this cold winter has put most of our grassland people into a dilemma, but the prey will always be hit and eaten by the best hunters, and you all come to complain to me, and now the only way is to reorganize the soldiers and horses to go south to loot the rich Tang Dynasty." ”

A great man stood up and said, "Great Khan, my relics are willing to send troops south with the Great Khan to attack the Tang people, but I ask the Great Khan's army to stop plundering my tribe. ”

Jieli said with a straight face: "Relic, what are you talking about, the army directly under Ben Khan was originally provided by various tribes for foster care, so it can't be said that plundering is so ugly." ”

He didn't give him a chance to refute when he said that, and said to the others: "Ashina, Ashde, Sunong, Zhishi, and Bayan What do you say?" ”

Ashina and Ashde were Turkic nobles, and of course they supported Jieli to go south, and the leaders of several other tribes thought about it and put forward the same requirements as the leaders of the relics tribe.

Jieli grimaced, scraped over them with sharp eyes, and finally let out a sigh of relief, and snorted coldly: "In this case, let's go and prepare, in order to feed our people, we will go south in ten days, and I will say ugly words in front, no matter what the result is this time, we will divide the spoils according to the size of the efforts of each department, if anyone is cheating and cheating, don't blame Jieli for not being emotional." ”

Shi Yili, the leader of the tribes, withdrew from the big tent, the leaders of Ashina and Ashde stayed, and Ashnasimo, the general of Jieli's subordinates, stood up and said: "Great Khan, with our strength is enough to go south, why take them with us, since they are not willing to serve the Great Khan, then let them go and talk to the god of the snow-capped mountains." ”

Jieli sneered: "This time, the situation of the tribes is not optimistic, we have to compete with Li Tang, and we can't do without the support of the tribes." The last time he went south and won without a fight, it was because Li Tanggang passed through the Xuanwumen incident, the domestic instability, and the emptiness of Chang'an, this time I am afraid that it will not be so cheap, so although we are the main ones in going south this time, we can also take the opportunity to consume other tribes, so that they can be obedient. ”

"The Great Khan is wise. But it's only been three or four years, and no matter how strong he Li Tang is, he is not like cattle and sheep on the grassland, letting us eat meat. ”

Ashina Simo's words made everyone in the big tent laugh loudly, and even Jieli didn't think that the Tang Dynasty could be strong there.

On the other side, Gao Buer came to Chang'an and went to Shangyang Palace to see Li Yuan first, the old guy is now drunk and dreaming of death, radiant and envious, but Gao Buer can see at a glance that he is overindulgent, and he is afraid that he will not live for a few years if he continues like this, but in his heart, it is estimated that there is not much difference between being alive and dead.

Seeing Gao Buer coming, he was very happy, and met Gao Buer in the fat powder pile with his chest exposed, and he was not afraid that the concubine would go away, until he was heroic and wanted to share the beauty with Gao Buer, Gao Buer had to take the road in a panic.

Then Gao Buer took Gu Ci at the gate of Shangyang Palace to see Li Er, this Shangyang Palace Gao Buer can enter and exit casually, but it is definitely difficult for other courtiers to get closer, so for the sake of Gu Ci's safety, Gao Buer can't take Gu Ci in, so he can only let him wait outside. Besides, they all know what kind of place this is, and it's too late to hide, and they won't go in until their heads are pumped.

In the palace, Li Er took the civil and military officials to discuss the steam engine brought by Gao Buer, originally Gao Buer came with Wenren Buzhi, this mechanical genius, but Wenren Buzhi is an ancient person after all, and he respects the emperor like a god, and suddenly the emperor appeared in front of him, and he couldn't help but urge him to explain the principle of the steam engine.

"Since Uncle Huang has brought a steamship, why don't you perform in the liquid pool of the palace?" After Li Er understood the principle of the steam engine, he proposed with great interest.

Gao Fuji naturally agreed, and called Gu Ci, who was isolated from the crowd, and asked him to arrange it, after all, the installation of this steam engine is also a hard job.

Gu Ci, who had just been excluded by a group of bigwigs, heard that Gao Buer had asked him to prepare to perform a steam engine for His Majesty the Emperor, and he was immediately in good spirits, and after the consent of His Majesty the Emperor, seven or eight wrestlers came in and carried the steam engine in the direction of the liquid pool, and the sampan boat brought by Gao Buer was carried into the palace.

When they saw the sampan ship sailing automatically without wind driven by the steam engine, everyone was amazed and had a deeper understanding of Xinxue.

Just when Li Erjunchen was looking forward to the appearance of the steam engine and the arrival of the industrial age, he suddenly heard a report from Hongling's urgent envoy: "The Turkic army of 200,000 is in Koubian, and the forward is approaching the land west of the river!" ”