People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1546: If the Li family is not killed, how can the Tang Dynasty be replaced by the military?
The drizzle is lingering and the night is in Chang'an.

Shengyefang, the government office of Lecheng County.

The wind chimes rang softly and the shadows swayed.

Li Xuan walked calmly between the pavilions and corridors. The Liu family's housekeeper led the way in front. The study was looming at the end of the corridor.

Along the way, Li Xuan didn't see any member of the Liu family.

It has been like this since he entered the Lecheng County Mansion. Li Xuan has not met any member of the Liu family.

It is the same even if he is the son-in-law of the Liu family.

However, Li Xuan was not surprised at all and walked into the study with a calm face.

Liu Rengui sat in the center hall, holding a piece of paper in his hand, looking thoughtful.

"Greetings, Mr. Yue." Li Xuan stood in the hall and bowed solemnly.

Liu Rengui raised his head, looked at Li Xuan, and said with a sigh: "After reading "On Teachers", I'm afraid all the students in the world will regard you as their teacher."

Li Xuan lowered his head slightly and said, "I was just forced into a state of emotion by someone's words."

"If Wu Sansi had known that he would help you rise to fame, he probably wouldn't have said anything." Liu Rengui put "On Teachers" on the table, raised his hand and looked to the left: "Sit down!"

"Yes!" Li Xuan sat at the top with a serious expression, only two arms' distance away from Liu Rengui.

"We will set off westward tomorrow, leaving Fanzhou in early May and entering the Western Regions in June. We will dispatch troops in July when the autumn grass is lush and green. My dear son-in-law has really picked a good time." Liu Rengui raised his eyes and looked at Li Xuan. What he admired most about Li Xuan was that he could always seize the most suitable time to attack.

"Except in autumn, it is difficult to capture the main force of the Turks at other times." Li Xuan sighed lightly.

The Western Turkic territory is vast and its cavalry gallops like the wind.

When Li Jing conquered the Eastern Turks, he sent troops in winter.

Although there is not much water and grass in winter, there are only a few fixed lakes for soldiers to drink.

As long as these points are captured, the mobility of the cavalry will be completely restrained.

Li Xuan is now sending out troops in early autumn, and what he wants is the Turkic cavalry.

Only when the Turkic cavalry came out could he capture and massacre them.

"Horse grass can be solved, but what about people?" Liu Rengui raised his head and looked at Li Xuan with a frown.

It's still the same problem. The Western Turkic territory is vast, and in a head-on battle between soldier and general, the Tang Dynasty is not inferior to anyone. However, in cavalry combat, it is common for the battlefield to stretch for thousands of miles.

How to ensure the supply of food and fodder for the army in this area of ​​thousands of miles is Li Xuan’s real problem.

"The Turks are good at the kite-flying tactic. Mr. Yue forgot that Lun Qinling is also best at this tactic." Li Xuan looked up and gently reminded Liu Rengui.

Liu Rengui frowned and said, "There is no Maduo in the Western Regions. There is no Tongtian River as a barrier for you to stay in Qamdo, and there is no weather power to help you... You want to tell the story of the General of the Cavalry."

General Huo Qubing was awarded the title of Wolf's Lair.

The reason is that there is no logistics.

"If you want to exterminate the Turks, the best thing is to become a Turk." Li Xuan looked at the teacup on the table and shook his head gently, "But unfortunately, the late emperor did not allow it, and your majesty probably will not allow it either. If my grandson-in-law messes around, I'm afraid he will be punished if he returns immediately after we have just pacified the Western Turks."

Li Xuan smiled bitterly.

If Li Zhi were alive, if Li Xuan did something wrong, he would at most be fined a few months' salary, and that would be all. But now that Li Xian was in power, Empress Wu could legitimately deprive him of all his military positions.

What Li Xuan cares most about now is his reputation. Even though he has the merit of destroying the Western Turks, he dare not reveal his flaws.

"If you don't do this, how can you destroy the Western Turks?" Liu Rengui looked at Li Xuan with curiosity.

"Let's start a battle first." Li Xuan looked forward, which happened to be the west. He said softly, "We will defeat the Western Turks in one battle and completely break their confidence. The rest will be the tactics of strategy... Duke Jiang still had some connections in the Western Turks."

When Tubo and Tang Dynasty went to war, in addition to the Tuyuhun battlefield, they also opened up the Western Turkic battlefield.

Li Xuan was in Tuyuhun, and Pei Xingjian was in Western Turkestan.

Li Xuan had 100,000 soldiers of the Tang Dynasty with him, but Pei Xingjian went to Western Turkestan quietly and did not bring many people with him.

Relying entirely on the military strength of Anxixi Town, he moved back and forth, won over and provoked the enemies, and finally led the Tang Dynasty and five of the ten tribes of the Western Turkic Khaganate into battle.

In the end, Zan Xiruo could only retreat to the Great Snow Mountain with his own troops and one of the ten tribes.

Now, that tribe has long been under the command of Li Xuan.

Li Xuan allowed them to trade with Fanzhou without being disturbed by the four towns of Anxi.

These are Li Xuan’s arrangements in the Western Regions.

"I always feel like you have a lot of things left to say." Liu Rengui looked at Li Xuan and couldn't help but frowned.

Li Xuan smiled calmly and then stopped talking.

Liu Rengui also fell silent. After a long while, he finally said, "Sanlang has been transferred to Panzhou as a military officer."

Li Xuan's expression calmed down, and gradually he became indifferent.

Liu Sanlang, also known as Liu Yuanqing, was the third son of Liu Rengui and the father of Li Xuan's concubine Liu Shubi.

"I heard that the Ministry of Works is preparing to requisition timber from Lingnan and Sichuan for use in the emperor's enthronement hall. Once Silang is ordered to leave the capital, it will probably take three or four months for him to come back." Liu Rengui sighed. Li Xuan's actions were too obvious.

Liu Yuanqing and Liu Yuanlang, Li Xuan's two fathers-in-law, were transferred out of Chang'an by him through various means. Liu Rengui could still protect the two remaining women in the family. Seeing Li Xuan continue to remain silent, Liu Rengui finally said, "Do you really think that things will go to that point?"

"I don't know." Li Xuan shook his head slightly, sighed, and said, "No one wants the situation to reach that point. In fact, everyone is making preparations and watching carefully to see how the situation will develop."

Liu Rengui lowered his head slightly. He knew this very well.

As soon as Wang Fulai died, Liu Rengui realized something was wrong.

Li Xuan was making preparations, and Liu Rengui was also making preparations.

The rest depends on how the situation will develop.

Liu Rengui raised his head and looked at Li Xuan seriously: "My dear son-in-law, have you ever thought about claiming to be sick and not going to the Western Regions, staying in Chang'an and stabilizing the country? How about that?"

Li Xuan looked up in surprise, looked at Liu Rengui, and said in disbelief: "Mr. Yue, are you going to ignore the war in the Western Region?"

"Which is more important, the stability of the central government or the war in the Western Regions?" Liu Rengui looked at Li Xuan deeply and said, "When you returned to Chang'an, you transferred Wei Sili to guard the palace gate. You didn't just want to push the Wei family to the forefront, did you?"

Li Xuan bowed his head slightly and said, "The Wei family is the Queen's family. They can interfere in the affairs of the Emperor and the Queen Mother, but it's better for us royal family members to stay away from them."

"My dear son-in-law, have you really never thought about staying? With your prestige in Chang'an, plus Qin Shandao who is guarding Chang'an, Yuan Jiazuo, the chief officer of Yongzhou, the Wei family, the two counties of Chang'an and Wannian, the left and right Qianniu Guards, the Jinwu Guards, plus your position as the Prince's Guardian and the Right Guard General, it is enough to balance the changes in Luoyang." Liu Rengui persuaded Li Xuan seriously.

Li Xuan bowed his head slightly: "Mr. Yue, if this matter is just an internal matter of Luoyang, then it is a struggle among the royal family. If my grandson-in-law is also involved, then he is suspected of treason."

Liu Rengui turned his head and looked at the "On Teachers" on the table, then said softly: "So you are ready to lead the army back in the future, right?"

The atmosphere in the entire study suddenly became cold.

……

Li Xuan raised his head slightly with a calm expression.

He could hear that there was no sound in the entire Lecheng County Mansion, including the previous housekeeper who disappeared at this moment.

There was no one in the entire Lecheng County Government.

But outside the entire Lecheng County Government Mansion, there were countless heavy voices.

There was also the faint sound of weapons rubbing against each other.

"No one wants to go that far." Li Xuan turned to look at Liu Rengui, with a trace of pain in his eyes, and shook his head and said, "Wang Yue, the initiative to decide all this is not in the hands of grandson-in-law, nor in your hands, but in the hands of the Queen Mother."

The entire Luoyang was in the hands of Empress Wu.

"Have you ever thought about this, Mr. Yue, what the political situation would be like if the Queen Mother had no ambitions?" Li Xuan looked at Liu Rengui.

Liu Rengui's expression changed slightly.

Li Xuan shook his head and said, "The Queen Mother guides the government affairs and intervenes in major events to suppress Pei Yan's disorderly politics and control the overall situation. It won't take too long. Just three years will be enough for the Emperor to control the world. Then naturally the country will be peaceful and the people will be safe. The world will last forever, and no one will have any delusions, but..."

Li Xuan couldn't continue. All the problems were on Empress Wu. How could you force others to do anything?

"If you stay in Chang'an, the situation may still be salvaged. If you leave, when you come back in the future, there will be mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and the world will be in chaos." Liu Rengui looked at Li Xuan pleadingly.

As the Shangshu Zuo Pushe, what Liu Rengui least wanted to see was chaos in the world.

"No one wants to see chaos in the world." Li Xuan shook his head and said bitterly: "The Queen is in power. If she is willing to keep the throne of the Son of Heaven and use her grandson-in-law, then the grandson-in-law has fought for the Queen in the Western Regions for ten years without regrets. Even if she is unwilling to use her grandson-in-law, it is fine to let him be an idle person. The only thing to be afraid of is..."

Li Xuan smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "I am afraid that she has no intention of saving her grandson-in-law's life. Not only her grandson-in-law, but also the entire lineage of King Peng, the entire clan, and even the entire Li Tang royal family. She has no intention of saving them. Even the entire Longxi Li family and the Zhaojun Li family will be killed completely."

"Why has it come to this!" Liu Rengui's breathing became heavy.

Li Xuan raised his head, looked upward, and said softly, "If I can use the life of one person to exchange for the peace of the world, my son-in-law doesn't mind the sacrifice. However, if you use the life of an entire clan, a surname, and even the lives of all the Guanlong nobles, the Hedong clan, the five surnames and seven families, everyone's lives, to send her Wu to the throne, then forget it."

Liu Rengui wanted to say something, but he couldn't get it out.

"Back then, Yuan Tiangang calculated that the Tang Dynasty would be replaced by the military. If the Li family is not killed, how can the Tang Dynasty be replaced by the military?" Li Xuan turned to look at Liu Rengui, shook his head, and said, "The Northern and Southern Dynasties were less than a hundred years ago. The Sui Dynasty perished in just two generations. If our Li Tang does not want to perish in the third generation, we must use swords to save the world."

"Why is it so?" Liu Rengui couldn't help but stand up. He looked at Li Xuan with some trembling: "The Queen Mother is the mother of the Son of Heaven."

“So, as long as the emperor is still the emperor, my grandson-in-law is willing to bow down to me. But if the emperor is no longer the emperor and the queen cannot tolerate my Longxi Li family, then this will be a fatal blow to my Longxi Li family.” Li Xuan sneered lightly.

Liu Rengui staggered a little. Even he couldn't tell how Empress Wu would treat Li Xian.

If Empress Wu wanted to take power, how could she leave Li Xian, the legitimate heir to the throne of the previous emperor, alone?

As long as Li Xian sat there and issued an imperial edict, countless people would come to support him.

Therefore, Empress Wu would not keep Li Xian. She would depose Li Xian and enthrone Li Dan. The throne she seized from her brother would not be so legitimate.

It was the same with Emperor Taizong back then, not to mention that what Taizong seized was only the crown prince position from Crown Prince Li Jiancheng.

However, what Li Dan seized was the throne that Li Xian had legitimately inherited from Emperor Gaozong.

So when Li Dan ascended the throne, he was ultimately just a puppet.

The most important thing is that Empress Wu’s ultimate goal was not to make Li Dan a puppet, but to become emperor herself.

Yuan Tiangang said many years ago that Wu would replace Tang.

Dynasties changed and the Five Barbarians invaded China. Even if Liu Rengui did not want the world to be in chaos, he had no choice.

Finally, Liu Rengui spoke again: "If you are really worried about this, shouldn't you stay in Chang'an and use the troops in Chang'an to turn the tide?"

(End of this chapter)