The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 645
In the past few days, Li Yuan has been in a state of rapid heartbeat, joy and surprise. The joy is that Li Mi's feat of slaughtering the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River did not cause much turmoil in Wei, which made Li Yuan very encouraged.He felt that the Guanlong nobles under his command didn't seem so scary. As long as he could kill all the heads and core members of the Guanlong nobles with a quick horse like Li Mi, each family would fall into a leaderless situation. At that time, you can do whatever you want to concoct the children of the Guanlong nobles. As for the former officials of the Guanlong nobles, they have lost their followers and can only be loyal to the Li family.

What surprised him was that Yang Tong led [-] Sui troops to approach Xiangyang, and the arrival of the Sui troops plunged the whole city into chaos.

After urgently recruiting monks and Taoist priests to join the army, the current garrison in the Jingxiang area has reached as many as 35. In addition to the 12 troops in Yiling County and the 1 troops in Chongling County, there are [-] troops outside Xiangyang City. Commanded by Li Xiaoji and Huai'an King Li Shentong, they were stationed in the eastern suburbs of the capital as backup for Yincheng County and Anyang County. The Xicheng Shiquan, Xicheng Xunyang, Xicheng Huangtu, Xicheng Fengli, Xiyang Xunxiang, Xicheng, and Xicheng of the Hanshui defense line were stationed in the eastern suburbs of the capital. Yang Wudang, Xiyang Junyang, and Xiangyang Yincheng each have [-] troops stationed there, and Xiangyang City also has [-] yuan from the forbidden army, and Li Jiancheng's [-] new troops, if counting [-] Wuchuan soldiers.

But everyone knows that this 35 army seems scary, but after excluding Li Shimin's 1 direct descendants, Chongling [-] elites, Zhang Shigui's [-] elites, [-] yuan from the forbidden army, [-] new troops, [-] Wuchuan soldiers, and Li Xiaoji Apart from Wan Jingrui and Li Shentong's [-] elites, the rest of the [-]th Army were all recruits who were forced to enlist in the army. Not to mention that their training couldn't keep up, and they didn't even have enough armor and weapons.These soldiers can be gathered in numbers. If they are allowed to fight against the Sui army, I am afraid that not only will they not be able to help the elite division, but it will cause panic and lead to the defeat of the entire army.Isn't Du Fuwei, who was murdered by Xiao Xianjun, a living example?

This morning after morning break, Xiao Yu hurried to the imperial study room. He only received Li Shimin's personal letter early in the morning. In the letter, Li Shimin mentioned that Yang Tong was very likely to attack Li Mi, and that all his actions in Nanyang were just paralyzed. Li Mi also thought that Yang Tong would use the method of attacking Goguryeo to deal with Li Mi, that is, to send a surprise army to go south along the coast and directly attack Jiangdu City from the Yangtze River.Although this is only Li Shimin's guess, Xiao Yu quite agrees with this point of view, because he also thinks that Yang Tong likes to use the sword to take a slanted combat style, so it is very likely that he will take this dangerous move. This tactic has already achieved results in Goguryeo. Yang Tong It is also normal to repeat old tricks.

At the same time, Xiao Yu also believed that Li Mi was a natural ally of the Tang Dynasty. Only by maintaining the power of the three pillars of the Sui, Tang and Wei Dynasties could the Tang Dynasty gain a foothold for a long time. Otherwise, the next one would be the Li and Tang Dynasty.As for Lin Shihong and Meng Hai's bandits, who are hard-to-change, small rich and short-sighted, they are not qualified to be compared with the Sui, Tang and Wei Dynasties. If they hadn't lived in the south where the water network is criss-crossed and staggered several princes, these two would have been wiped out countless times. all over.

Xiao Yu walked into the Hall of Martial Virtue, and came to the Imperial Study Room not long after, he cupped his hands to the eunuch on duty and said: "Please report to the Holy Majesty for me, just say that Xiao Yu has something urgent to see!"

"Please wait a moment, Xiangguo."

The eunuch went inside to report, and soon brought back Li Yuan's oral order, and saluted: "Xiao Xiangguo, Your Majesty invites you in."

Xiao Yu knows that it is difficult to convince Li Yuan now, but he also thinks that he must explain clearly to the Holy Majesty to make him realize the importance of Li Mi to Datang.

……

In the imperial study, Li Jiancheng was introducing the progress of pig iron to Li Yuan.

"Father, we have collected pig iron and ironware from monasteries, Taoist temples, and folks in the past two months. We have obtained a total of two million catties of pig iron and 40 catties of copper, which can basically meet the needs of recruits for weapons and equipment. The supervisor is now working day and night to forge weapons and armor."

"Has the Sui Dynasty kept its promise?" Li Yuan asked a little nervously. Now he has no energy to deal with the messy government affairs. Xuanling's promise is very important.

"The Sui Dynasty kept their promise, and the food was high-quality rice, but..."

"But what?"

"It's just too expensive."

"During the chaos of war, Wanguan Bingleng's family wealth is not as real as a bucket of rice, so it doesn't matter if it's more expensive." Li Yuan pondered for a while, and then said: "It takes too long to make a weapon or a set of armor, and you can't make much in a short time. It can be postponed a little bit. First cast all the collected copper materials into Kaiyuan Tongbao, and be sure to exchange all the gold, silver and copper coins into food before the war breaks out."

"I obey." Li Jiancheng hesitated for a moment, then agreed.

"How is the mine going?"

"Iron mines in Pingqiang County, Meishan County have been found, but the mines are located in the lower layer of the rock, and it is difficult to mine them. If they are fully mined, they can only produce about one million catties of iron per year, which is far from meeting the needs of the army and the people. Now the local government has been ordered to fully mine and set up a smelting factory in Pingqiang County. The first batch of pig iron can be smelted in at most three months. It will be transported from Pingqiang County to Longyou County, and then directly to Yiling Liutou Beach through the river. " Having said that, Li Jiancheng glanced at his father, and said: "My son decided without authorization to order the Meishan county guard to dig an official road from the mine in Pingqiang County to the riverside in Longyou County."

"This is all small things, Huang'er has done a good job." Li Yuan waved his hand and asked again: "Is there any associated copper mine produced in the Pingqiang Mine?"

Li Jiancheng shook his head, "Basically not."

Li Yuan was silent, and suddenly felt a little uncomfortable, because the pig iron and copper materials Li Tang collected from the people were actually eating at the foundation of the Sui Dynasty, which he cursed and denounced, which made him extremely embarrassed.What worries him even more is that he cannot live on his laurels for a long time, and at most he can only recruit one or two more times, otherwise it will trigger a civil uprising.

After a long while, Li Yuan said slowly: "We held a court meeting specifically for copper and iron, because pig iron and copper ingots are of great importance and imminent. Without copper and iron, we cannot build an empire. If we do not have stable copper and iron Supply, if we can’t make weapons and armor, if we can’t make Kaiyuan Tongbao, our Tang Dynasty won’t be able to last, so although we have discussed it, if we can’t find a stable source for a long time, the crisis will always plague us, and even intensify , until our Tang dynasty can no longer sustain it, I hope the emperor knows the seriousness of this matter."

"My son understands."

"The emperor continued."

"Father, copper and iron are produced in mines. It's easy to find as long as you find them. Ever since I discovered the lack of copper and iron, I have sent craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry to Bashu to look for ore veins, but this is a very time-consuming task, and sometimes even It was the mine that was found, but could not be transported out due to traffic."

"Have you ever thought about solving it from the outside?"

"I have thought about it, but it is basically impossible." Li Jiancheng said with a wry smile: "There are ten famous iron mining areas in the world: one is Liyang, the other is Jiangxia, the third is Handan in Wu'an, the fourth is Liaodong, the fifth is Zhuojun and You Beiping, sixth is Wuyuan, seventh is Yanmen..."

"Enough!" Li Yuan rudely interrupted the other three mines that Li Jiancheng was about to talk about. He knew that these three iron mines were located in Yang Tong's territory without listening.Listening to this is really scary, why don't you know?
"..." Li Jiancheng shut up in embarrassment.

Li Yuan said with a dark face: "I don't believe that there are no mines in Bashu except Meishan. Let the officials of the Ministry of Industry read the books together and search for them one by one from the "District Yu Tuzhi."

"My son obeys."

Li Jiancheng paused, and then said: "The governor of Wenshan County sent a letter saying that many Qiang people came to exchange their daily necessities. Bringing cattle and war horses, what does your father think?"

Li Yuan's eyes lit up: "It couldn't be better."

"Your minister can ask the local officials to try."

"very good!"

As soon as the words fell, Xiao Yu quickly stepped inside, bowed and saluted: "My minister sees the Holy One!"

"Xiao Xiang has something important to say?" Li Yuan asked.

"My lord, I believe that the attack on Li Mi by the weak Yao Junsu and Du Fuwei is most likely a bait thrown by Yang Tong. In fact, Yang Tong is very likely to have gone south along the coastal road and attacked Jiangdu from behind. City. Your Majesty, once Jiangdu City is breached, Li Mi is very likely to become the second Gao Jianwu."

In the letter, Li Shimin told Xiao Yu emphatically to let him take the contents of the letter as his own thoughts. It is his supporter. If Xiao Yu gets a reward, it will be good for Li Shimin; third, after Xiao Yu finishes speaking, Yuwen Shiji will bring his own letter to the palace to face the saint, and then Li Jiancheng, after the three-pronged approach, To make the proposal of sending troops to support Li Mi more convincing, the father will also seriously consider Li Mi's importance to the Li Tang Dynasty, instead of vetoing it.

In fact, Li Yuan is well aware of the importance of Li Mi to the Tang Dynasty. At today's court meeting, Li Tang's monarchs and ministers specifically discussed Zheng Yuanbi's request for help. With Li Mi in Xuzhou, Jianghuai, and Jiangnan, the Sui army would not and would not Dare to attack the Tang Dynasty with all its strength, this is the consensus reached today.It was the first time Yang Tong had heard of the idea of ​​marching south of the Yangtze River by sea, but when Xiao Yu mentioned the word 'Gao Jianwu', he immediately recognized this statement.

For a while, I was both happy and worried.

The joy is that Yang Tong's preferred enemy is not himself, so that he has enough time to deal with internal enemies; the worry is that once Li Mi is defeated, the Li and Tang Dynasty will lose their most powerful natural ally.

After a long while, he sighed deeply: "Even if we see through Yang Tong's plan, it's too late to inform Li Mi. From Xiangyang to Jiangdu, it will take at least ten days. The interrogation will take even more time on the road, and when the messenger arrives at Jiangdu City, Jiangdu City may have already fallen."

"My lord, there may be a way to save it!"

"What can Xiao Xiangguo do?" Li Yuan immediately understood what Xiao Yu was going to say, because at the court meeting, some people also said that they wanted to march into Jianghuai, but he vetoed it.

Xiao Yu said: "Your Majesty, we can send troops to Nanjun to force the Sui army from Jingxiang to concentrate in Nanjun, so that the army of Chai Fuma can attack Yao Junsu and Du Fuwei's Sui army from behind..."

"Impossible." Before Xiao Yu finished speaking, Li Yuan, like a cat whose tail was stepped on, immediately blew up, and refused politely and flatly: "I am destroying Buddha and prohibiting Dao. Gods and Buddhas have been offended all over to get such a small number of soldiers. These soldiers have been trained for less than a month, and they don’t even have equipment. How can they fight? Do you use wooden knives to fight? This is the last strength of my Tang Dynasty. I can’t be defeated. We will never agree, never agree to send a single soldier.”

"..." Xiao Yu had black lines all over his head. He never expected that the emperor would reject him so quickly. He had no plans, but he couldn't say a word.

Li Yuan was furious, and said nothing with a gloomy face.

Yang Tong finally calmed down, but you, Xiao Yu, asked me to take the initiative to fight. Isn't this asking my soldiers to die?My soldiers are gone, and my life is gone.

Li Jiancheng understood why his father was angry, and quickly became a peacemaker: "Father, Li Mi and us have a relationship with each other, and the importance is self-evident. Xiao Xiangguo is so eager to consider the general situation of the world. Your canonization Xiao Xiang is the Prime Minister of the Political Affairs Hall and the Imperial Censor, isn't it because he likes Xiao Xiangguo's upright and upright qualities?"

Speaking of this, Li Jiancheng cupped his hands to Xiao Yu again and said: "Xiao Xiangguo, I understand your feelings. But the emperor also said that most of our soldiers are recruits who can't even fight, and we don't even have armor and weapons. How can we save Li Mi? The key is that Yang Tong has the strength to start a full-scale war. If we provoke him, the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the Sui and Wei Dynasties are very likely to break out at the same time. At the time of life and death, who do you think can save us?"

If Li Shimin heard Li Jiancheng's words, he didn't know how he felt, anyway, Xiao Yu was speechless.

"Xiao Xiangguo, it's not that I'm timid and fearful. It's just that I'm not as strong as others. We have to admit it. We used to be ambitious, arrogant and afraid to face reality, so we fought and failed repeatedly. If we don't have a long memory, we will really perish. At this time, Li Yuan also regained his breath, and sighed: "There is nothing I can do to help Li Mi. The only thing I can do is to send a few more messengers to let him pay attention to the movement at sea. We can only resign ourselves to fate."

Xiao Yu sighed helplessly, and said in a low voice, "I understand."

Li Yuan said in a harmonious voice: "It's good to understand. If Li Mi is destroyed, the Sui and Tang Dynasties will also start. There is not much time for us to prepare. Xiao Xiangguo should focus on the government, so that we can fight Yang Tong in the future. "

Xiao Yu knew that in the final analysis, it was the Holy Majesty who was frightened by Yang Tong, and had completely lost the fighting spirit to fight for the upper reaches and to rise into the sky. She wished she could withdraw from Xiangyang immediately and go to a corner of Bashu, where she could spend the rest of her life in peace; but Yang Tong killed Li Mi No, as long as you control the overall situation, you can draw hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and then attack Li Tang with the momentum of a big victory.

In the current Li and Tang Dynasty, even the emperor has lost the will to forge ahead. What is the use of the four dangerous passes in Bashu?How long can Li Tang Guozuo, who has lost his support, persist?How can the days of lingering last for a long time?
This made Xiao Yu suddenly think of her brother-in-law, Yang Guang, who was drunk in Jiangdu back then.

Looking at Yang Tong again, although he occupied Guanzhong, which is in danger of four passes, he never relied on it.Although countless manpower and material resources were spent to build a tall and strong new Great Wall, he positioned it as a fortress before the attack from the very beginning.With this Great Wall, the army can conquer outside the territory without any worries.This is the aura that a king should have.

How similar is this to Li Yuan at the beginning of the war?

After comparing them one by one, Xiao Yu, who is a devout Buddhist, suddenly felt a sense of fate and reincarnation.

But so what?The road is chosen by oneself, and there is no turning back if you want to retreat.

Suddenly, Xiao Yu felt an unspeakable exhaustion in his heart, bowed to Li Yuan in a somewhat dispirited manner, and said softly: "I will take my leave."

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Brothers and sisters, the second update is here, for those who have tickets, here are some consolation tickets!
(End of this chapter)