The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 257 The Poisonous Dragon Dagger
Hearing Li Yuan's intention to expand the army again, not to mention Duguzheng, Dou Wei, Liu Wenjing, Pei Ji, Chen Shuda, Xiao Yu, the six ministers of the "political affairs hall", even the prince Li Jiancheng and the gambling king Li Shimin were also frightened.

The above eight people all have serious and dignified faces!Because Li Yuan's decision is completely a huge gamble of no success or success.

"The money and food in the inventory, plus the commercial taxes of the southern counties sold in advance, are more than enough to recruit one hundred thousand troops. The key is that we can't last long!" Li Jiancheng spoke very cautiously and laboriously. He said in a heavy tone: "The army's Normal armaments and daily training costs a lot! Wartime not only consumes military rations, but also replenishes damaged armaments, and rewards and pensions are also involved after the war. All of the above are not something we can afford for a long time."

Li Yuan frowned and said, "The Sui army nourished war with war, and the more they fought, the richer they became. Could it be that we can't get rich from war?"

Li Jiancheng glanced at Li Shimin, the defeated general resentfully, and stopped talking!But he said in his heart: The prerequisite for the Sui army to fight and get richer is to win every battle, but what about us?Repeated defeats!The spirit of repeated defeats and battles is commendable, but all of this is at the cost of an empty treasury.

Li Shimin clenched his fist, and finally lowered his head helplessly. Besides embarrassment, helplessness, and shame, there were more emotions such as depression, unwillingness, dissatisfaction, and anger.

He felt that his strategic vision was correct, but when it was applied to specific tactics, he failed repeatedly. In his memory, he seemed to have never won a game, and the defeat of Xue Ju in Qianshuiyuan was not a military one. victory.When fighting with the Sui Dynasty, he was always pressed to the ground by the Sui army and beaten to the ground.

But Li Shimin didn't think he was incompetent. He believed that a series of failures were caused by the court of Li Tang Dynasty.

Maybe after too many failures, Li Shimin also became calm. Through constant reflection, he has already understood the difference between himself and Yang Tong.

There are many reasons why Yang Tong won repeatedly and the Sui Dynasty became bigger and bigger.

First of all, Yang Tong is superior to the military and government, and he has never used the children of aristocratic families who have made a name for himself. His civil and military officials are very pure and pragmatic.In terms of military affairs, Li Jing, Li Jing, Pei Renji, Yang Shanhui, Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, Pei Xingyan, Niu Jinda, Su Dingfang, Yu Chigong, Xue Wanjun, Xue Wanche, Wang Fubao, Duan Decao, Zhang Zhenzhou, etc. are all from small and medium-sized wealthy families and came from poor families. stand alone.In addition to reusing these people, Yang Tong has full trust in them, so that the generals can use their talents without any worries.

Yang Tong even entrusted the defense of the 'capital' of Yecheng to his general Shen Guang. His unreserved trust made his subordinates come out in large numbers of talented people, bright stars and united.

However, his own father never handed over the military power to generals outside the clan, and even his own son, he sent a supervising army.It was the narrowness, narrowness, and suspicion of the father that made Tang Jun deeply fettered in combat!Such an army may be able to defeat small forces with short-sightedness and shallow foundations such as Xiao Mian, Xue Ju, Liang Shidu, Lin Shihong, Du Fuwei, Shen Faxing, and Li Zitong, but when facing the vibrant Sui Dynasty, they will fight repeatedly. In the end, even the imperial palace was completely burned down by a big fire, which completely wiped out the morale of the army and the people.If this continues, not to mention defeating the Sui Dynasty, even Wang Shichong, Li Mi, and Dou Jiande, who vigorously rectified the army, will be able to suppress the Tang army.

From a farther perspective, this is actually a poor family with pure interests defeating the old aristocrats with entangled interests and selfish interests.The underprivileged people in the world finally got fair and just treatment, and all of them worked hard to forge ahead. It is only natural that the Xin Sui with this mainstream trend of thought is becoming stronger and stronger.However, the Guanlong nobles, the Guandong gentry, and the southern gentry had narrow-minded eyes, and they all stared at their own one-third of an acre of land. It was only natural that the Tang Dynasty they supported was declining.

Secondly, the Tang Dynasty could not even implement the unfair insider-operated imperial examinations and the land equalization system. This Guanzhong is still dominated by the old aristocracy.The pitifully few official lands are all occupied by relatives of the emperor and fiefs of founding meritorious service.If the soldiers have made military exploits, the ones who get the rewards are always the children of the family who are the backbone of the army, and the rewards for ordinary meritorious soldiers are pitifully small.The Tang Dynasty, whose rewards and punishments are unknown, did not get the support of the people and soldiers at the bottom, which is a matter of course.

However, in the Sui Dynasty controlled by Yang Tong, the government was clear and the officials did not dare to take profits and invade the people. Even if there were illegal officials, they would not touch other people if they were killed, and there was no game or compromise between high-level officials.The official administration of political affairs is clear and clear, which is supported by the people.The Sui Dynasty had clear rewards and punishments in the military, and clear rewards for promotion, and all soldiers were made to use their lives.

Seeing that Li Jiancheng brought the topic to him, Li Shimin didn't even bother to argue.Because he knew that if his father did not change, he and Li Xiaogong, Chai Shao, Zhang Shigui, Changsun Shunde, Hou Junji, Liu Hongji, Wang Junlang, Li Zhongwen, Dou Kang, Duan Lun and others who were restrained in the war would still fail. It's not that everyone is incompetent, but that Tang Jun's existing framework binds everyone's hands and feet. Victory is an accident, and failure is inevitable.

The ups and downs of the Sui and Tang dynasties, one up and one down, all made Li Shimin worried, and also made him gradually lose confidence and patience in the court ethos of the Li and Tang dynasties.

"King Jin, you are a Taiwei, what do you think about the expansion of the army?" Li Shimin didn't want to talk, but Li Yuan couldn't get around him after all.

The system of three provinces and six ministries in the Tang Dynasty has not yet been perfected, and because the interests of too many people are involved, after the founding of the country, the official system of the old Sui Dynasty has been used, and the official positions are quite chaotic.In addition to the king of Jin, Li Shimin also had the titles of Taiwei, Situ, Daxingtai Shangshuling of Longxi Road, Yongzhou Mu, General Left and Right, and Shangzhu Kingdom.Like Yang Tong during Yang Guang's lifetime, he has so many titles that he can't even remember them.

Hearing this, Li Shimin, who had been silent for a long time, said helplessly: "My minister thinks that the elder brother is right. It is the extreme for our Datang national strength to support a 20 army. The high proportion of taxes generated by the 35 army has made the people of the Datang There are many complaints. If the army is expanded again, within three months, the entire Guanzhong and even the entire army of the Tang Dynasty will have no food. This does not take into account the lack of harvest and natural disasters."

The implication of Li Shimin's words is that it is not impossible to expand the army, but to maintain the number of large troops for a long time, it is necessary to build military settlements so that the army can be self-sufficient in food, thereby reducing the pressure on the court and the people.

He opened his mouth, and he simply expressed his thoughts: "At least right now, we can't afford to support 35 troops. According to Erchen's intention, my Tang Dynasty should cut down 15 troops and let him work in Tianshui and Longxi. , Lintao, Jincheng, and Fanghan as military bases! Farming during the busy season and organizing training during the slack season. If there is a good year, I think 35 troops can barely maintain it. But the days before the autumn harvest is still quite a severe test. "

His words also revealed a ruthless fact. Although Li Yuan owned Guanzhong, Bashu, and Jingzhou counties, and Bashu was a major grain-producing area, he still could not maintain an army of 40. Under this national condition, the Tang Dynasty had only two There are two options, either disarmament or tax increases, otherwise Li Tang will collapse without a fight.

Therefore, Li Shimin proposed the plan of military settlements to make the army self-sufficient, then it can support 40 to [-] troops to compete with the Sui army. Taxes to appease public grievances.

"Father, what the second brother said is right. What our army should do now is to recuperate. 20 troops is the limit that my Tang Dynasty can bear." Li Jiancheng was the first to agree. On top of the interests of the Tang Dynasty, the two brothers maintained a considerable balance. tacit understanding.

The official population of the Tang Dynasty was more than 700 million. This seems to be a huge number, but the fields of the common people are all Susukida with low production capacity. Even if all their grain is collected, it will not be able to support an army of 40.

Looking at the reluctance of his father, Li Jiancheng comforted him with a smile: "Soldiers are expensive and elite, not to mention that the 15 troops that have been laid off are not completely disbanded. When we have enough wealth in the future, we will send these troops away." It’s not too late to join the regular army.”

"Okay! It's up to you."

Li Yuan's two sons were in step with each other, feeling a little relieved, but also a little complicated. They felt that their sons joined forces to persecute him, making him lose the majesty of a king.Seeing Liuxiang's expression again, he felt very gloomy.

"Your Majesty!" At this time, Xiao Yu said from the side: "Jin Wang's army station is indeed a good recipe. I have been an official in Hechi County for several years, and I know the Hehuang area quite well. Although the land there is relatively barren and the food production capacity low, but it is rare to hear that there is a famine problem, and the root cause is that Hexi can obtain meat supply from Tuyuhun.”

Everyone understood what Xiao Yu meant, and Li Yuan said, "Xiao Aiqing said that we can trade with the grassland to obtain meat, right?"

Xiao Yu nodded and said: "If you can get meat supplements, it will greatly improve the soldiers' physical fitness, and the food consumption will also be reduced accordingly. I have done statistics before, and if there are meat supplements, a soldier's food consumption will be halved. Moreover, the physique and strength will increase, so meat is very important for soldiers."

Li Yuandao: "Hundreds of thousands of troops need millions or even tens of millions of cattle and sheep every year. But the demand for silk, cloth, ceramics, and tea in the grassland is not great. What do we use to exchange so many cattle and sheep?"

"Salt, pig iron, weapons, and armor are all they need."

As soon as Xiao Yu finished speaking, everyone immediately objected, "Pig iron, weapons and armor are absolutely not allowed."

Xiao Yu didn't tell the difference, just looked at Li Yuan.For a while, the hall fell silent.

Li Yuan glanced at everyone and said: "I understand Xiao Aiqing's meaning. Tuyuhun's strength is not what it used to be. Even if we have salt, pig iron, weapons, and armor, it is not a big threat to our Tang Dynasty. After trading with them, we not only Obtaining meat can also deduct their support for Xue Liang's coalition forces, which can be regarded as creating conditions for the recovery of Hexi! Xiao Aiqing, I will use you as my envoy to reach an agreement with Tuyuhun as soon as possible."

"Here!" Xiao Yu responded.

Seeing that Li Yuan had made up his mind, everyone stopped talking.

Li Yuan continued: "Then, let's talk about the attack."

"Father!" Li Shimin stood up and said solemnly: "The use of trade to stop Tuyuhun's support for the Xue-Liang coalition has greatly reduced the pressure on the Hexi side. Only [-] troops are needed to recover the Hexi and Hehuang areas. , it is more than enough to wipe out Li Gui. Under this premise, we can increase our southern strategy, and this time the key target of the attack is not Xiao Xian, but Zhu Can."

"Zhu Jie has an army of 10 people, but he uses human flesh as his rations. His brutality is unpopular, and it will not involve the interests of Xiao Xian, Wang Shichong, Li Mi, Lin Shihong and others. We can completely follow the people's will and take down what he occupies Nanyang, Xiangyang, and Chunling counties!"

"No!" Li Yuan flatly refused: "We have suffered too much because of the division of troops. This time, I will concentrate on annihilating the Xue-Liang coalition forces and Li Gui, so as to ensure the safety of the west." It's not too late to clean up the gangsters like Zhu Can afterward."

Clean up later?
Li Shimin was very dissatisfied. Will there be another chance later?Wang Shichong has already rectified, will he miss the opportunity?

Seeing that Li Shimin was dissatisfied, Li Yuan simply said to Li Jiancheng: "Prince, you can tell King Jin!"

"I obey!" Li Jiancheng bowed his hands, and then said to Li Shimin: "Although Yang Tong's expedition to Goguryeo, the Sui army has 15 warriors in the pass, but they have never moved. The necessary elite garrison, when the second brother goes out, he must bring enough troops, so as not to be taken advantage of by the Sui army! Moreover, the contract period between my Tang Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty has expired, and they have no worries at all when they send troops at this time of."

Li Shimin frowned, feeling that this style of play was too conservative, but he didn't say anything more, he also knew that not only was his father afraid of being beaten by Yang Tong, but also his thoughts were not unreasonable.After thinking about it for a while, he simply took the mission to attack Xue Liang's coalition army and Li Gui.

(End of this chapter)