Thief Emperor

Chapter 961 The Emperor's Family

Liu Bo has been in contact with the Khitan tribe outside the Great Wall for a long time.

When Li Yun initially occupied Hebei Province, Liu Bo had already begun contact with the Khitan tribe. This period of time was earlier than the founding of the Li Tang Dynasty. If you count carefully, it has been more than nine years, almost ten years.

His son in the Wugu tribe of the Khitan is eight or nine years old this year.

Moreover, in the past few years, he has visited the Khitan tribe several times, and he has more than one son. The current Liu Bo is tied to the Khitan Wugu tribe.

This binding was tacitly approved by Emperor Li, and it can even be said that it was arranged by Emperor Li himself.

Because the transportation capacity of this era is too poor.

Poor transportation capabilities mean that transporting troops and logistics will be extremely difficult. No matter how powerful the central dynasty is, the area it can directly control will not be particularly large.

Moreover, to put it bluntly, power seems to be boundless and powerful, but in fact the imperial court is just a few houses, and Emperor Li's palace is just a part of Luoyang city.

Since ancient times, there have been all kinds of open and covert struggles between the central and local areas, and the imperial court could not exercise jurisdiction over areas too far away.

In this era, imperial power did not extend to the countryside, and Emperor Li's power only reached the county level at most.

This is determined by the productivity environment and cannot be changed no matter who the emperor is.

The land of Liaodong outside the Great Wall is too far away from Luoyang. It is difficult to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over it. Even if a government office is set up there by force, it will probably only last for one or two dynasties and not for long.

The best way is to divide and then control.

As for the strategy of dividing the Khitan tribe, whether in this world or in another world, there are many ready-made precedents for Li Yun to copy. That is to select more Khitan Khans and give them all titles. In this way, the court will not even have to pay too much attention to them, as they will fight among themselves.

It would be difficult for the Khitan tribes to prosper again.

The Khitan tribe chosen by Li Yun was the Wugu tribe within the Khitan tribe, a tribe that Liu Bo had been in contact with for a full ten years.

If nothing unexpected happens, one of the future Khitan Khans will come from the Wugu tribe. At that time, Liu Bo's descendants in the Wugu tribe may come in handy.

Of course, the prerequisite for division and control is to defeat the current Khitan Khan Yelu Yi first. Otherwise, under the intimidation of Yelu Yi, those Khitan tribes may not dare to accept the rewards from the Li Tang emperor.

And now, the Khitan Khan seemed to have finally realized that there were some problems within the Khitan tribes, and at this critical juncture, he allocated a part of his troops to attack the Wugu tribe outside the Great Wall.

Liu Bo was silent for a while, then looked at Meng Qing and said, "The news from outside the Great Wall has been reported to Your Majesty by the Nine Departments, but it will take at least two or three days for Your Majesty to get the news. Now, Khitan Khan Yelu Yi is probably planning to resolve some of his own internal risks while defending Youyan."

"And the Wugu tribe he attacked this time was willing to surrender to the imperial court many years ago."

Meng Qing understood what he meant and said immediately: "Brother Jiu, this battle has to be fought anyway, there is nothing to say. I have already ordered my men to enter Youzhou immediately to fight the Khitans."

"Whatever ideas you have here, I will try my best to cooperate with you."

Liu Bo thought about it, shook his head slightly and said, "No, no, no."

"On the front battlefield, you are the commander-in-chief. It is not your responsibility to cooperate with others. Only others can cooperate with you. Even Jiusi must fully assist you. I came here just to tell you about the situation outside the pass."

Meng Qing thought for a moment and said, "Brother Jiu means that while the Khitans are in turmoil, we should attack Youyan as soon as possible to put some pressure on Yelu Yi?"

"It's not just Youyan anymore."

Liu Bo said sternly, "They may not be so determined to defend Youyan. Xiao Meng, after your troops head north, you must fight all the way to Yingzhou."

"Yingzhou is a strategic location for controlling the inside and outside of the Great Wall. The pass back then was here. The Khitans can give up Youyan, but they will never give up Yingzhou easily. This place can hold back a large number of Khitans."

"After we take control of Yingzhou, we can consider going eastwards."

"When the time comes, whether to fight or not will no longer be in the hands of the Khitans, but in ours."

Meng Qing nodded slowly.

"I've made note of what Brother Nine said."

Liu Bo looked at him, hesitated for a moment, and continued, "We have almost finished talking about official business. I will stay in your army and assist you in the battle on behalf of the Nine Departments. Now I have something private to say to you."

Meng Qing looked at him and said sternly, "As long as it does not hinder your majesty's order, I will do my best."

"Try to fight as hard as possible."

Liu Bo looked out of the tent and said with a wry smile, "Otherwise, your ninth brother's ten years of business will be ruined in an instant."

Liu Bo has been managing the Wugu tribe for a full ten years. If the Wugu tribe is destroyed, his subordinates who remain there will naturally find ways to bring his children out, but this would also mean that his ten years of hard work outside the Great Wall would be ruined in an instant.

Meng Qing only considered it for a moment, then slowly nodded and said, "Okay, Brother Nine."

"I got it."

…………Luoyang, in the imperial palace.

Emperor Li and Empress Xue sat together to eat, while Crown Prince Li Yuan and Fifth Prince Li Hu sat at the tables on either side, eating their meals obediently.

The fifth prince was also born to Empress Xue and was Li Yun's second legitimate son.

He and Queen Xue had four children in total. The first two were sons, and the next two were princesses.

The fifth prince, Li Hu, was born in the second year of Zhangwu and is only six years old this year. As for the two princesses, they are still very young.

Giving birth is very exhausting. Now, both Li Yun and Empress Xue are nearly 40 years old, and Emperor Li has no plans to let Empress Xue give birth again.

In other words, he will most likely only have two such second sons in the future.

Now, the four of them sat together, as if they were a family eating together. Emperor Li ate a piece of meat in big mouthfuls, then turned his head to look at Empress Xue and asked casually, "Madam, didn't two more families bring their daughters to Luoyang earlier? Did you see them?"

He looked at Li Yuan before continuing, "Yuan'er should also arrange a marriage."

These seven years were the critical time for the establishment of the new dynasty. Emperor Li was busy almost every day. It was not until after the Chinese New Year this year that everything was on track and he had some free time.

Previously, the task of choosing a princess consort for the crown prince naturally fell on Queen Xue.

The two had a very good relationship. Until now, Emperor Li was still accustomed to calling Empress Xue "Madam" in private, rather than the more distant "Queen".

After hearing what Li Yun said, Empress Xue looked at him with some anger and said, "How can it be so easy?"

"You must look for the daughters of the former members of the Anti-Theft Team. Of the more than 170 brothers who came from the Anti-Theft Team, only about 50 are still in the court. And among these 50 or so, not every family has a daughter."

"There are daughters, but few are of the right age."

Empress Xue sighed and said, "Up to now, after more than two years of tossing and turning, only seven or eight families have brought their daughters to Luoyang. I have seen them all."

“I haven’t seen anything suitable.”

She looked at Li Yun and whispered, "There are so many daughters of wealthy families in Luoyang City, why do you have to look for them among the anti-theft team?"

"Because the old people who came from the anti-theft team all came from humble backgrounds, just like our family."

Emperor Li put down his chopsticks and said slowly: "Until now, the one with the highest status and the most power among them is only someone like Chen Da."

"But they are the cornerstone of our Li Tang army."

Li Yun reached out and knocked on the table, saying, "Choose a princess consort from among them, and our family will be forever tied to them, so that Yuan'er can succeed to the throne in the future."

Emperor Li lowered his head and drank a sip of tea, then continued, "The structure of the court will remain stable, and the imperial power will not be lost at all."

The state is a machine of violence, and power is actually the degree of control over this machine of violence.

To put it more bluntly, it is military power.

In the middle of a dynasty, the imperial power sometimes fell into the hands of others, and the ultimate reason was the loss of military power.

For example, in the Ming Dynasty of another world, the emperor might not even be able to control the three major camps in the middle period, so his voice was naturally not loud, and he needed to reason with the civil officials with red faces, otherwise, he had to use the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The couple whispered to each other. The Crown Prince, who was eating not far away, looked up at the couple and was about to speak when a young eunuch hurried into the palace and bowed to the emperor, saying, "Your Majesty, there is an urgent report from the Duke of England."

The young eunuch paused and said, "General Meng from Hebei Province also has urgent news."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Li took a deep breath, waved his hand and said, "Got it, send it to Ganlu Palace."

The eunuch responded with a "yes" and retreated cautiously.

Empress Xue looked at the eunuch, then turned her head to look at Li Yun. Seeing that Emperor Li's breathing was a little rapid, she immediately shook her head and said, "Go if you want to."

Emperor Li smiled and said, "We agreed that we will have dinner together as a family, so we have to finish eating before leaving."

"Your husband, keep your word."

Queen Xue pulled him up and pushed him out.

"Go quickly, go quickly."

Queen Xue said with a smile.

"So that I won't have to record my sin in your diary in the future."

(End of this chapter)