"Let's not say whether this matter is true or not, even if it is true, when will the change of emperor in the Tang Dynasty be decided by us, the subject countries? Needless to say, there is no way for me to form an alliance with the Khan of Ebilu. Zhenzhu Khan directly denied it.

"Pearl Khan, please let me finish my sentence." The envoy said with a calm face.

"You speak."

"Datang is destined to expand! With the current pattern of Datang, you should know very well that they stopped at several passes in the West Kunlun Mountains, why? It is because these places are strategically important, as long as these places are controlled, it means that the west side of Datang is almost worry-free. ”

"The presence of tens of thousands of troops in these places is enough to curb the westward road, unless it is detoured from the far north, but the ice and snow in the north, and the primeval jungle, tens of thousands of miles, this is a road that no tribe or army can gamble on."

"In such a situation, the ambition of the Tang Dynasty is obvious, and the Tang Dynasty wants to completely eliminate all threats within its own borders, whether it is you Xue Yantuo and the nomads in the north, or Goguryeo and other countries are all in the bag of the Tang Dynasty."

"I'm not afraid to tell Zhenzhu Khan about you, one of the purposes of my coming here is to contact Zhenzhu Khan, and the second purpose is to use Zhenzhu Khan's sphere of influence to contact Goguryeo, and we will collectively attack the Tang Dynasty."

"I don't know what the Khan thinks, but why do we nomads have always lived in this bitter cold land? At this point, Khan, please think about it. After the envoy finished speaking, he left directly.

After he left, Zhenzhu Khan fell into deep thought, his character was actually relatively timid, otherwise, he would not have directly backstabbed Jieli in the first place.

There is no doubt about the strength of the Tang Dynasty, and it is not the first time that Yibi Lulu has sent envoys over, but what the other party said this time made Zhenzhu Khan have to think about this problem.

That is, if Datang really wants to clean up all the threats around him, then they Xue Yantuo must be the next target.

As for what the other party said about uniting with Goguryeo...... Not at all.

Because they still have Khitan and Murwei between them and Goguryeo.

The strength of the room is stronger, but the room is very backward as a whole, and it is not comparable to the Tang Dynasty. And the Khitan is even smaller, and they will not join forces with Xue Yantuo against the Tang Dynasty at all.

Because they are on the side of Datang, it may not be an accident, but if they are on their side, Datang will be gone, so how do you choose?

As long as you are a person, you know which one to choose.

What's more, this is so far away from Goguryeo, and even farther away from Epi Lu, tens of thousands of miles away, how can these countries cooperate with each other? What if one of the countries moves and the other doesn't? Wait for death.

This is not realistic at all, especially since these countries are all subjects of the Tang Dynasty to each other, if someone repents halfway and directly informs them, isn't that sending their heads out?

Who wants to be the first bird?

"What do you think?" Zhenzhu looked up at the other people in the felt tent.

When this envoy was there just now, Zhenzhu Khan also had several subordinate ministers here, and they were all Zhenzhu Khan's henchmen, or generals who directly belonged to Zhenzhu Khan's family.

"Khan, there may be some truth in what the other party said, but in fact we don't have a choice." An old man in his fifties suddenly spoke.

"How?"

"The Tang Dynasty built about seven new cities along the way from the Hetao area to Jiuyuan, Wuchuan, and even to the location where the Khitan was located. These cities are no more than 400 miles away from each other. Within the one-day support speed of the cavalry, and a few hundred miles behind Wuchuan City is Yanmen Pass. ”

"In these newly built cities, Datang has been immigrating to the border cities, as well as transporting food, weapons and equipment and other materials, and I am afraid that a lot of grain and grass have been stored in these cities."

"The important thing is that the walls of these cities, not to mention the speed of construction, they are not like some of the cities on our steppe at all, but they are earthen walls, but stone cities."

"That means we can't do anything about these cities. And Datang is also invincible. The old man said all the questions with a serious face.

"If we are at war with Datang, Datang relies on these cities, can attack and retreat, and it is not a big problem to take us down at all, and according to some information we have gathered, Datang now seems to have bumper harvests year after year, and there is no shortage of food at all."

"Khan, do you think that when Datang is not short of food, we can fight against us?"

"After all, the population of our Xue Yantuo Department is not too large, and our pasture is enough for us to graze, this is not the time for us to attack Datang, at least not to choose to be hostile to Datang when Datang is strong." The old man spoke.

As for the population problem mentioned in the mouth of this old man, the Pearl Khan knew what it meant, or the khans of the nomads of the past generations knew.

The nomads who have lived in this grassland since ancient times have learned how to use limited pastures to feed the largest population reasonably, summing up a rigorous and brutal method of sustainable development.

Once the population increases, and the livestock needed to feed the population also increases, exceeding the limit of the grassland, they will launch an attack on the Central Plains Dynasty, and if they succeed, they can grab supplies and territory to support their lives.

If it fails, then the defeat will result in the death of a large number of people, thus greatly reducing the number of people who need to be fed, and still be able to continue to live.

If Zhenzhu Khan also crossed over, he would have known that the Mongolian Plateau north of the Central Plains, not counting the location of the eastern chamber and Khitan, could maintain a population of no more than three million people at most.

The total number of livestock is maintained at a maximum of between 30 million and 50 million. If this number is exceeded, then the grasslands will be destroyed.

Of course, the Pearl Khan does not know the exact number now, he does not know how many herdsmen he has, how many livestock he has.

But they naturally have their way of observing, controlling the number of cattle, sheep and horses owned by ordinary herdsmen within a certain range, minimizing the number of nobles, as long as they know roughly how many tribes there are, they can roughly know whether they can continue or not.

When livestock starve to death, be alarmed.

And now, thanks to Xue Yantuo's surrender to the Tang Dynasty, Zhenzhu Khan also has some literate people under his name, and the population of their Xue Yantuo Department is currently about 1.8 million.

When it is far from the limit, it is not beneficial to start a war with Datang at this time.