Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1381: Sending Envoys to Goryeo
Everything in this world is diverse and different. Some are rising, some are falling, some are full of vitality, and some are dying.

The Tang Empire, which had accomplished the great cause of unifying the north and the south and whose national strength was growing rapidly, naturally belonged to the former. Especially after the Tang emperor led his army on a western tour and defeated the Western Turks, thus establishing his hegemony in the Western Regions in one fell swoop, the country's national strength became increasingly unstoppable.

In exact contrast to the situation in the Tang Dynasty, the remnants of the Northern Qi retreated to Liaodong after losing Hebei, Jinyang and other places.

When Jinyang fell, this group of Northern Qi troops, led by Hulugu, broke out and fled all the way to the Liaodong region. They supported Gao Huan's twelfth son Gao Ji as emperor and continued the Northern Qi dynasty.

Previously, the Tang Dynasty had been busy with other affairs and had no time to fully pursue and eliminate the remnant forces of the Northern Qi Dynasty. In addition, the painstaking efforts of Hulugu and other loyal ministers to maintain the situation allowed this small remnant Qi court to continue to exist in the Liaodong region.

Previously, General Yang Zhong was stationed in Youzhou and led the pursuit of the remaining enemy forces, forcing them to retreat to the territories of the Donghu tribes such as Kumo Xi and Khitan. However, as most of the Tang army withdrew, the remaining Qi invaded southward again. Under the resistance of the local garrison, the territories of both sides were basically located north of Huanglong in Yingzhou.

After he broke out of Jinyang and fled to Liaodong, Hulugu dreamed of returning to the south of Lulong Pass, recovering lost territory, and reviving the country. Therefore, he spent most of the year wandering around the Yanshan Mountains north of Lulong Pass, waiting for an opportunity to return to Hebei, and left the rear affairs mainly to his brother Huluxian.

On this day, Hulugu was planning to leave the camp and head south to choose a location to build several offensive beacon towers. Suddenly, a messenger from the rear came to report that a conflict had occurred between the troops in the rear and the Khitan, and that they were about to send troops to attack the Khitan.

When Hulugu learned about this, he was shocked and did not bother to build a beacon tower. He hurriedly led his troops back to the base camp in the rear.

If it were the early Northern Qi Dynasty, Hulugu would naturally not have to take the Khitan, a mere Donghu tribe, seriously. Even the Northern Qi's Youzhou governor could attack the Khitan at will.

But the situation is different now. They fled to Liaodong after their country was destroyed. Now they are still based in the territory between Khitan and Kumo Xi. The two tribes are happy to take them in in the south to resist the expansion of the Tang army. If there is a conflict between them, it will directly affect the stability of the rear, let alone launch a counterattack.

At the beginning, when this group of people fled from Jinyang, they were as panic-stricken as dogs that had lost their homes and had no place to live, but as the situation gradually stabilized, they could not continue to be displaced. Moreover, they had established a regime in China after all, and they could not let their emperor always rule the country like this.

Especially seeing that it was difficult to regain the territory in a short period of time, a city-state palace was built on the eastern foot of Yanshan Mountain in the past few years as the seat of the current Qi court, and this palace was named Yanshan Xingyuan. From this name, it seems that these Northern Qi survivors still fantasize about one day being able to end their hunting and return to Jinyang and Yedu.

Over the past few years, Yanshan Xingyuan has grown into a large city with more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians. In addition to the Jinyang soldiers who were led by Hulugu to break out of Jinyang, there were also some remnants of the lost country who were gradually gathered, and of course, the population of the Donghu tribes who were plundered or annexed from Hebei.

Although he was defeated in the battle with the Tang Dynasty, Hulugu was still a well-deserved first-class military talent of the time, especially with an elite Jinyang Military Division Brigade under his command. He was also a very powerful and terrifying presence in the Liaodong region today, and few opponents could match him.

However, although Hulugu was good at military affairs, he was not good at managing the people's livelihood. There were few such talents among the people he brought from Jinyang. Therefore, although there were many people gathered around the Xingyuan, there was little order. In addition to joining the army to receive rewards, the people could only do the most basic things such as firewood collection to obtain supplies and maintain their survival. Every winter and early spring, there would be starving people everywhere in the mountains and fields.

However, these were not the focus of Hulugu's attention. The only thing he cared about was to expand his army, wait for the right time, and restore his country.

When Hulugu returned to the Xingyuan, an armed force of thousands of people had gathered outside the garden, and several generals in armor were clamoring for battle.

"what's going on?"

Seeing Hulugu returning, the scene became quiet for a moment. Hulugu turned his gaze and walked straight to his brother Huluxian, asking in a deep voice: "Don't you know that I will join forces with Khitan and others to attack Tang? Why do you allow your people to take revenge for personal grudges?"

After hearing this, Huluxian said bitterly, "It's just that this time the Khitans went too far. They broke into my mountain north pasture, killed hundreds of herdsmen, and took away thousands of cattle and horses, saying that they were to compensate for the losses they suffered in the previous attack. Dozens of imperial horses were also taken away, all of which were very rare Hexi fine breeds. The Supreme was furious and ordered everyone to gather together to attack and kill the Khitans..."

Hearing what Huluxian said, Huluguang's expression became a little gloomy again.

On his way back, he had learned the whole story of the conflict, and the story began in the second half of last year. Knowing that Emperor Li Boshan was going to lead a large army to tour Hexi, Hulugu felt that this was an opportunity, and wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Emperor was on a tour and there was no one in charge of the situation in the Tang Dynasty to launch a counterattack and prepare to fight back to Hebei.

To this end, he also sent people across the sea to contact some Northern Qi survivors in Guangzhou and other places, and agreed that once the army attacked Lulong Pass, these people would also agree to start an uprising in their respective territories in response, and strive to create a wave of resistance in the entire Northern Qi territory in one go.

To achieve this goal, his own troops were obviously not enough, and they were even unable to attack Lulong Pass. In order to further enhance his momentum, Hulugu invited the Khitan, Kumo Xi and other tribes to act together, and agreed that once they entered Hebei, all the spoils of war would belong to them. At that time, the Tang army coming to support them would be resisted by their Qi army, and these Donghu tribes could let go and plunder in various states in Hebei.

This was undoubtedly a great temptation for the Donghu tribes, so the two sides hit it off and agreed to send troops together to attack Lulong Pass in the autumn.

However, before they could send out their troops, Youzhou took action first. Tang general Wang Lin led a group of troops across Yanshan Mountain to the north and went straight into the Khitan territory. They set fire to hundreds of miles of grassland, burning a large amount of grass that had not yet been harvested, and killing and injuring many herdsmen's cattle and sheep.

Although the two sides constantly attacked each other, most of the time it was just routine fighting and looting. Wang Lin was the only one in the Tang army who used all kinds of mean means, and setting fire to the Khitan grassland and killing herdsmen was just one of his means.

Due to the heavy losses, the Khitan asked the Northern Qi to compensate for their losses. Hulugu naturally could not agree to this. First of all, it was because he was not careful enough and was taken advantage of by the enemy. Secondly, he could not afford to compensate for such a huge loss. Therefore, he only replied that if the Khitan invaded Hebei, they could be allocated a few more spoils as compensation. The Khitan naturally refused to agree to this. They just gritted their teeth and insisted that only if the Northern Qi compensated them first would they cooperate to send troops together, otherwise they would give up the matter of sending troops.

The two sides kept arguing with each other, and some things happened in Northern Qi that delayed the plan to send troops, and there was still no activity until the beginning of spring this year. The Khitan side was increasingly short of supplies after the cold winter, so they demanded more urgently, and this time they directly sent troops to plunder the ranches of Northern Qi, which led to this dispute.

Hearing that Emperor Gao Ji wanted to send troops to retaliate against the Khitan, Hulugu felt even more troubled. After a moment of hesitation, he said to Huluxian in a deep voice: "I will go to the Supreme to advise him. You should restrain the soldiers here first and don't let them go out lightly!"

After saying this, he hurried into the garden.

Yanshan Garden was built in the style of Jinyang Palace, but was far inferior to Jinyang Palace in terms of overall scale and the splendor of architectural decoration. The pine wood used to build the main hall even had large pieces of bark remaining, and the entire hall was filled with a pungent smell of pine resin. Therefore, Emperor Gao Ji was not willing to live in the hall, but lived in a stone pavilion in the garden.

When Hulugu returned to the garden, Qi Lord Gao Ji had already seen him from the pavilion. When Hulugu entered the pavilion to ask for an audience, he said with a smile: "Prince Xianyang returned in time to lead the troops to attack the bandits. How dare the little Khitan be so arrogant and offensive? He should be severely punished so that he will not dare to be disobedient again!"

"This is just a small matter, it is not worth starting a war for it. Besides, our country and Khitan still have an alliance, and we have agreed to attack Tang together in the future. If we go to war because of a little disagreement, it will be even more difficult to please the Hu people and gather their strength. I ask Your Majesty to put the overall situation first and not use troops to attack them first."

After Hulugu entered the cabinet, he bowed to Gao Ji and said.

Gao Ji's face darkened when he heard this, and his tone became stiff: "What else is more important than life and death? A few barbarians in Songmo dared to violate my authority, how can I talk about confronting the Tang Dynasty? If this barbarian barbarian is not punished, how can I control the barbarians? The king came to persuade me, am I making a fuss about nothing?"

"Your Majesty wants to punish the Khitan, which is reasonable. However, military force is very dangerous and should be used with caution. Moreover, the Tang Kingdom is hoping that I will become enemies with the various Hu people in this area and continue to attack them. Now my military action will go into the enemy's mind. Why should we punish the Khitan with weapons? I will go and teach them so that they dare not act recklessly again. Your Majesty can wait in the garden!"

Hearing what Hulugu said, Gao Ji was silent for a while, and then he said in a deep voice: "Then follow your words, and remember not to let the evil bandit chief off lightly!"

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

When Hulugu left, an eunuch in the hall couldn't help but whispered, "Prince Xianyang rejected the emperor's will with just one word. Now he is in charge of major affairs alone, and all the miscellaneous affairs are in charge of Fengle. The emperor is just relaxing in the garden..."

"Isn't it good to be idle? If it weren't for the loyalty and hard work of the Prince of Xianyang, I would have been forced to go to Chang'an by the Tang Dynasty. How could I be idle here? I still need to be grateful and polite to the prince. You, my slaves, don't speak lightly about the right and wrong of the Prince of Xianyang!"

After Gao Ji heard this, his face immediately darkened. He stared at the eunuch and spoke in a deep voice, but there was a hint of loneliness and desolation between his brows.

After pacifying Qi Lord Gao Ji, Hulugu went to the outside of the garden to disband the assembled armored soldiers, and then led hundreds of his trusted followers directly to the Khitan territory.

Today's Khitans are mainly distributed between the Song Desert in western Liaoning, north of the Yanshan Mountains. Their territory is not small, but it is quite scattered, and their internal organization is relatively loose. Their power is not even as strong as that of the neighboring Kumo Xi.

The leader of the Khitan tribe was called Ruhezhu. After learning that Hulugu was coming to see him, he did not dare to neglect it and hurried to the north of Yanshan Mountain to meet him. When Hulugu explained his purpose in a stern voice, Ruhezhu hurriedly shook his head and said, "I really don't know about this matter. Maybe it was done by some of the stubborn soldiers of the tribe. They are so bold that they deserve to die! When I return, I will investigate and punish them severely, and don't let my tribe commit the same crime again!"

He was trying to shirk the responsibility by laughing it off, and pretending to be sincere, he dismounted and gave his mount to Hulugu as a gift, saying that this was compensation.

Hulugu could tell that the Khitan leader was trying to shirk his responsibility, and he came here not to seek an explanation, but to urge the Khitan to send troops. So he frowned and said in a deep voice, "The two sides are now working together, so we can ignore some trivial matters. Only our Qi army is thirsty for blood and war, and we need to send troops urgently. Now that the Hebei provincial army has disbanded and returned to their hometowns to farm, it is a good opportunity to attack. Besides, the Tang lord has not returned yet, so it is easiest to succeed if we attack now!"

"Doesn't the Prince of Xianyang know? The Tang ruler's western tour has concluded and he is about to return to his country. This time he has defeated the Turks and is returning with the Turkic Khans!"

The eastern part of the Khitan territory borders the grassland, and there are some herdsmen migrating back and forth, as well as merchants traveling there, so the news is well-informed. When the Khitan Ruhe leader heard that Hulugu was still obsessed with sending troops to the Tang Dynasty, he hurriedly opened his mouth to ask.

To be honest, it was because he heard about the glorious deeds of the Tang Kingdom west of Jinshan that he was reluctant to get involved with the remnant Qi forces, so as not to make enemies with the great country. Not to mention the Tang Dynasty, even the Turks who had been completely conquered by the Tang Dynasty were not the ones that the Khitans could provoke!

"Is there such a thing?"

After hearing this, Hulugu's face suddenly changed. After he led his troops to retreat to Liaodong, his channels of communication with the outside world were sharply reduced, and his eyes and ears were quite blocked. In addition, he had been wandering between the peaks and valleys of Yanshan Mountain since last year, trying to invade, so he really didn't know much about the latest changes in the situation.

After hearing Khitan Ruhezhu talk about the Tang army's awe-inspiring deeds in the Western Regions, Hulugu's face became even uglier. He no longer cared about the robbery of the pasture. After severely reprimanding Khitan Ruhezhu, he returned to Yanshan Garden with a heavy heart.

After returning to the garden, Hulugu summoned all his subordinates and told them the latest news. After listening to them, everyone felt more and more depressed. Feng Xiaoyan, who was born in Bohai Feng family, said: "The reason why Tang Kingdom did not attack us before was not because it was not strong enough, but because it had no time to withdraw. Now that everything in the west has been settled, the matter in the northeast must be taken seriously. Now I must quickly make strong reinforcements and rely on each other to resist the attack of the Tang army. Your Majesty should send an envoy to Goguryeo to discuss the situation with its king and form an alliance!"

After hearing this, Hulugu nodded slowly. Although he was somewhat reluctant, he had to admit that the Tang Dynasty was becoming increasingly powerful and was no longer something that the remnant Qi forces could contend with.