The eighth day of February is the day before the scientific examination.
Afternoon.
A long letter lay flat on the table, and the sunlight outside the window fell on the letter paper.
Li Xuan looked at the letter and her expression became serious.
Liu Jinyu walked in with the support of the maid Xiaoyun, and carefully walked back to the room wearing a pink chest-length skirt.
Li Xuan quickly stood up and helped Liu Jinyu to sit on a couch covered with blankets.
Liu Jinyu moved a little to make herself lie down more comfortably. Her eyes inadvertently glanced at the long letter, and she asked curiously: "Where does this letter come from?"
Li Xuan picked up the long letter, handed it to Liu Jinyu's hand, and said softly: "The letter is from Hangzhou. It is a letter from Li Yi, the captain of Guoyi, who is in charge of the three thousand new soldiers of Wu and Yue. The three thousand new soldiers in Hangzhou have received orders from the Ministry of War. , they, together with the soldiers from Kuaiji Prefecture and Xinlin Prefecture, as well as the remaining 6,000 new soldiers, as well as the soldiers who had withdrawn from Dongdao, set off one after another, joined the soldiers from Henan Road, arrived in Chang'an one after another, and then headed to the Western Front via Chang'an."
Although his tone was light, Li Xuan's expression was serious. The army was mobilized and the war was about to begin.
Liu Jinyu glanced at it, nodded, and said: "In two months, all these soldiers will arrive in Lintao and then be divided into various armies."
Li Xuan frowned, then sighed and said: "Is it used to supplement the troops?"
Liu Jinyu shrugged and said: "The troops from Zhechongfu on the Western Front are all transferred from Longyou, Guanxi, and Hebei. The troops in Henan and Jiannan are not large, and the troops from Jiangnan Road can only be used as supplementary troops. It’s good that we didn’t directly let them serve as auxiliary troops.”
Northern soldiers have always been tall, strong, hard-working, and have always been the first choice for soldiers.
In this Western Expedition, if it had not been for the serious losses of good families in the north and insufficient replacements in recent years, it would not have been easy to recruit southern soldiers.
"With a hundred thousand troops, I don't know what the Ministry of War plans to do." Li Xuan looked disappointed.
"In the land of Tubo, not many Jiangnan soldiers can even ride a horse. Most of them are used as infantry... Lang Jun wants to seize this force, so he will know how to do anything when he sees it." Liu Jinyu raised his head and looked at Li Xuan sighed softly: "If Lang Jun wants to go this time, he will probably go to Lintao and Lanzhou at most. I'm afraid he won't even have the chance to go to Qinghai-Tibet."
Seeing Liu Jinyu's expression of pity but eyes full of smiles, Li Xuan could only shrug helplessly, not knowing what to say for a moment.
Liu Jinyu obviously knew something, but no matter how Li Xuan asked, she wouldn't tell.
In the early days, there were still some official documents from the court sent to the palace, but after Dou Xuande was transferred to the position of Minister of Household Affairs, there were fewer and fewer official documents.
Originally, the right minister Dai Zhide was appointed concurrently as the Minister of Hubu. Now that Dou Xuande is transferred to the position of Shangshu of the Hubu, Dai Zhide can focus on the official affairs of the Shangshu Province. The pressure on Liu Rengui has also been reduced a lot. Liu Jinyu is needed here. Much less.
"I hope so. There's nothing bad about Lintao and Lanzhou." Li Xuan smiled softly and said nothing more.
Liu Jinyu looked at Li Xuan in surprise and confusion: "Did Mr. Lang notice something wrong?"
Li Xuan shook her head slightly, sat next to Liu Jinyu, hugged her gently, and said: "Qin Ling, the Prime Minister of Tubo, is definitely not someone to be trifled with. Even if our government is fully prepared for this time, no one knows What kind of strange moves can he use? In this battle, we will either win or lose, or we will end up in a draw."
"Lang Jun's opinions are always unexpected." Liu Jinyu looked at Li Xuan in surprise.
Although it is said that the war is dangerous, Li Xuan's view is different from that of most people in the court.
Most people in the court believed that the Tang Dynasty would win this battle.
Having learned the lesson from the defeat of Dafeichuan, the whole army was united and determined to take revenge. How could they be invincible even if they were half a mournful soldier?
Li Xuan smiled faintly, and then said: "In a war between great powers, we should be stable first, and then look for opportunities after stabilization. But this time, in our battle against Tibet, we only have stability, but it is difficult to find opportunities. In this way, even if it is If we successfully capture Tubo, our government will inevitably suffer heavy losses."
Liu Jinyu frowned, looked at Li Xuan and asked, "There is something in Lang Jun's words!"
"This is what the lady said, it has nothing to do with being a husband." Li Xuan smiled and then waved her hand.
Li Xuan did not have high expectations for this battle between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo, because he did not have any memory of the battle between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo.
Although ordinary people have not heard much about a great victory like the Battle of Baijiangkou, they have occasionally been exposed to it. However, this time, it did not make much splash in history, so this one is 90% likely to be A no-win situation.
Really smart people have already thought about how to end the war before it breaks out.
…
If this battle really ended in a draw, Li Xuan would not be dissatisfied, but on the other hand, once an accident is discovered, opportunities will appear at the same time.
But the premise is to understand the layout of Tubo. Li Xuan may not be able to see through some of the layout of Qinling, but people like Pei Xingjian may not be able to see through it.
So we still have to start with Pei Xingjian.
"If Lang Jun really wants to, then I'm afraid he really has to hold the three thousand new soldiers in his hands." Liu Jinyu suddenly said, and she was also a little surprised and doubtful about the future battle situation.
"Three thousand new soldiers are not very impressive among the 100,000-strong army, but it is not that easy to get these three thousand new soldiers." Li Xuan couldn't help but shook her head slightly, and then said: "It depends on how the Ministry of War arranges it. of."
"How about asking someone to ask?" Liu Jinyu looked at Li Xuan with a half-smile.
Li Xuan waved her hand directly and said: "There are rules in the government, and anyone who spies on military aircraft at will will be killed... However, it is not completely hopeless."
"Oh?" Liu Jinyu looked at Li Xuan in surprise, then frowned and asked, "Does anyone else know about this matter?"
"Yes." Li Xuan nodded and said: "The grain and grass transferred by the Ministry of Revenue and the roads renovated by the Ministry of Works can give us a glimpse of one or two things. But if you want to know more, maybe you can start from the two people. .”
"Which two people?"
"One is the King of England." Li Xuan remembered that Li Xian had told him to take care of Li Xian, and Li Xuan roughly knew that Li Xian was probably going on the expedition.
Liu Jinyu nodded solemnly, and then asked: "What about the other person?"
"It's Zabala, the envoy of the Tubo Kingdom." A sneer appeared at the corner of Li Xuan's mouth, and he said softly: "If you want to say that the person who knows the most about the mobilization of our army, then in addition to all the ministers in the court, the person who knows the most is probably this person. An envoy from Tubo, especially for the overall situation."
"That's true, but didn't we say that all the informants of the Tibetan envoy in Chang'an have been eliminated?"
Looking at Liu Jinyu with a surprised face, Li Xuan shook his head slightly and said softly: "Those eyeliners that have been removed are all things that can be seen by us. These are just things in the hands of the deputy envoy of Tubo. He is the only one who knows what is in the hands of the envoy."
After a pause, Li Xuan said softly: "The Tang Dynasty and Tubo are so closely related to each other that it can't be summed up by just a few informants and a king of the East China Sea. The remaining ones, unknown to everyone, are the real people of Tubo." The trump card.”
Liu Jinyu suddenly raised his eyebrows, as if he thought of something: "I see."
…
As the sun set in the dusk, Li Xuan walked calmly among the pavilions and corridors. Li Bi followed Li Xuan and said softly: "Report to the prince, King Luo Bin, Song Zhiwen, and Yang Jiong, nothing has changed in the past few days. . Song Zhiwen has been staying at Hongwen Hall, Yang Jiong will start taking part in the examination tomorrow, and King Luo Bin will leave Wugong County at noon today and return to Chang'an. It is said that one of his friends will take part in the scientific examination tomorrow."
Li Xuan paused, and then said: "Send the order to take back all our people tonight. From now on, we will no longer pay attention to King Luo Bin, Song Zhiwen and Yang Jiong."
"Here!" Li Bi accepted the offer without asking any reason.
"In addition, there is the matter of Yingxu's caravan. My subordinates' spies have now detected that the internal guards have begun to secretly take over the caravan." Li Bi mentioned it again.
Li Xuan took a breath, and then said: "Let Li Mo set off tomorrow to Lanzhou and find a way to control the shopkeeper and director of Yingxu's caravan in Lanzhou?"
"Don't those managers care?"
"Don't worry about those people." Li Xuan chuckled and said: "On the surface, the British government's general managers in Lanzhou are the most important, but this so-called importance is just for what the British government said. People who are of no use to me are not as good as the shopkeepers and chief executives below who are really doing things. Control them and hide them carefully. Although the internal guards will not notice them, there is nothing wrong with being careful."
"Here!" Li Bi immediately handed over his hand.
Li Xuan sighed softly. The people in the inner guard seemed to have a lot of power, and their killing power was shocking enough. However, they could not escape the suspicion of being too ambitious and too weak in caravan affairs.
This is not a matter for the imperial family, nor is it something belonging to the official family.
"After our people infiltrated, they tried to use the caravan's eyes to detect the movements of the Tibetan people on the plateau. What this caravan can detect is definitely more important than what we ourselves can detect. More." There was a trace of cruelty in Li Xuan's eyes.
There is also a caravan under the command of Prince Peng, but it mainly travels to the Western Regions. Tubo has less contact, but it is not completely untouched.
However, there are far fewer people who dare to go deep into Tibet like Li Jingye. Therefore, apart from the Ministry of War, the best way to find out the truth about Tibet is to borrow Li Jingye's group of people.
"Keep an eye on the people below the shopkeeper in Lanzhou and recruit them appropriately. Once this caravan goes bankrupt one day, we will recruit all the useful people among these people." Li Xuan said in one sentence Come and be ruthless.
"What about the ones east of Lanzhou?"
"Don't worry about it." Li Xuan waved her hand directly and said softly: "The inner guards will destroy this trade route by themselves, and before it is destroyed, they will take all the money that can be looted from this trade road. Loot them all. In Lanzhou and west of Lanzhou, it doesn't matter how barbaric we are, but as we cross Lintao to the east, more and more of them will fall into the eyes of Chang'an. We don't need to care about this thing, it is really useful. Yes, in the Western Region."
The inner guards had great power in Chang'an, Luoyang, and even the entire Tang Dynasty, but the further away from Chang'an and Luoyang, the harder it was to exert this power.
Not to mention going east, going west, beyond Lanzhou, this right has begun to weaken rapidly.
After leaving Yumen Pass, those who guarded the interior may die in the desert at any time.
Therefore, the inner guards rarely appear outside Yumen Pass, and Empress Wu's influence rarely goes beyond Yumen Pass.
There are too many unknown powers hidden outside Lanzhou and Yumen.
There were so many aristocratic families in the Tang Dynasty who invested in the Western Regions not just for the benefit of caravans.
…
In the west courtyard, rows of long tables are placed on both sides of the courtyard. The stove is burning fiercely in the courtyard, and the whole courtyard is warm.
He Zhizhang and Zhuge Minghui were sitting on the left and right. He Zhizhang lowered his head and didn't know what he was thinking. Zhuge Minghui looked at him with a hint of worry.
At this time, a voice came from outside the courtyard: "The prince is here!"
(End of chapter)
