The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 545: Court Discussion
Soon, Li Yuan held a military and political meeting in the side hall of Wude Hall, attended by Prince Li Jiancheng, Jin Wang Li Shimin, Qi Wang Li Yuanji, Xiangguo, General, Ministers of various ministries, and Minister of Internal History Feng Deyi, etc., Xiangguo Dougui " "Sick" did not come, but his younger brother Dou Cong, the great general of Youtunwei, and Dou Jing, the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, participated, while the Dugu faction was represented by the minister of the Ministry of Industry, Dugu Huai'en, and the master craftsman Yu Yun.

Inside the hall, there was a faint scent of sandalwood. The people sat on both sides, each with a couch. Everyone straightened their backs and looked solemn.

"Dear dears, even now, I don't hide anything. I'm actually trying to settle accounts with you. What account? The number of Sui troops. I'll count them one by one from west to east, so that everyone can have an account." Prepare in heart, and at the same time, let everyone understand the heart of the Tang Dynasty."

Li Yuan, who was sitting high on the dragon couch on the jade steps, said slowly to the crowd: "Bao Sui has hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the border of our Tang Dynasty, and there are three legions in the northwest. The first is the Tenth Army of the Sui Army in Lintao County. The number is 38, and the coach is Xue Wanche; the second is the Hanyang Ninth Army, with 20 people, and the coach is Wang Fubao; the third is the Hanchuan Seventh Army, the number is [-], and the coach is Yu Chigong. Zhao and Shangluo are dominated by county soldiers, and the number is [-] to [-]. In Xiyang and Nanyang, there are the Seventh Army led by Xue Wanjun, the Fifth Army led by Yang Shanhui, and the Second Army led by Qin Qiong. The main battle army of the Sui Dynasty had a total of [-] troops, and at least [-] people, not counting the slaves. Not to mention other places, in the direction of Jingxiang alone, there were three major armies with a population of up to [-]. The pressure here is definitely the greatest.”

Everyone knew in advance what was to be discussed, and in fact they all knew that the next step would be to attack Jingxiang, but when Li Yuan uttered shocking figures, they all felt terrified.

"The enemy ahead is so powerful that I couldn't find a good chance to win, so I quickly retreated to Xiangyang. If we confronted Nanyang for a long time, then the Sui army would attack the heart of the Tang Dynasty from other places, so I had to send this army Take it back to Xiangyang in its entirety, and deal with the possible enemy troops, only to ensure your own safety can you say anything else, otherwise, the enemy troops will drive straight in and destroy our Great Tang Guozuo."

Some people listened and nodded silently!It is understandable that Li Yuan decisively withdrew his troops in order to preserve his vitality.

Li Yuan, sitting high at the top, saw that everyone showed understanding, and couldn't help but smile with satisfaction. He counted the numbers of the Sui army. Will speak out, and simply took the lead in taking advantage of the vastness of the Sui army to justify his act of retreating without fighting, "Now that the country is in crisis, everyone can speak freely! No matter what you say, I will not care about anything."

This time Li Yuan learned the lesson, he was not in a hurry to tell Li Shimin's three strategies, and he didn't tell any of his courtiers beforehand, but was going to see what everyone thought.

Seeing that no one spoke for a long time, Xiangguo Xiao Yu walked up and said, "Your Majesty, let me throw bricks to attract jade."

"Xiao Xiangguo, please tell me." Li Yuan's eyes were full of encouragement.

"Thank you, my lord!" Xiao Yu bowed his hands, and then said: "Not long ago, Li Mi also sent an envoy to the Tang Dynasty. He said that he hoped that the two families would join hands to fight against the Violent Sui Dynasty. I believe that the Violent Sui Dynasty is powerful and cannot be defeated by one family. , you can unite with Li Mi. If the Sui army comes to attack, let him contain a certain amount of troops for our Tang Dynasty. Similarly, if the Sui attack Wei, our Tang Dynasty will also respond."

"Minister, seconded"

"The last general, second."

Everyone supported.

Li Yuan nodded and said: "Li Mi is a smart man, and he knows that he will be the next step to watch the Great Tang fall. The Ministry of Rites will immediately send someone to contact Li Mi!"

"Here."

"Wait!" Another prime minister, Liu Wenjing, stood up.

"Liu Xiangguo, what's wrong?" Li Yuan asked curiously.

"My lord, after the Sui Dynasty went south, the momentum of development is astonishing. I feel that Li Mi is not enough." Liu Wenjing said solemnly.

Li Yuan asked: "Xiao Xian and Du Fuwei both served for the violent Sui Dynasty. In this world, besides Li Mi, who else can fight against the Sui Dynasty with me?"

"Xiao Xian!" Liu Wenjing said two words lightly.

"Xiao Xian?"

"Xiao Xian has already surrendered to the Sui Dynasty, how is this possible?"

"..."

Everyone was surprised, the Holy Majesty said that Xiao Mian belonged to Yang Tong, but now Liu Wenjing actually said that he wanted to unite with Xiao Mian?Isn't this a joke?
"Is it true that Liu Xiangguo didn't joke?" Li Yuan looked expectantly at Liu Wenjing, who was always full of tricks.

"Of course not!" Liu Wenjing said solemnly: "Xiao Xian is ungrateful and suspicious, and it is Yang Tong who will kill the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. We can take advantage of his shortcomings and send eloquent people to go down to lobby. And with the promise of great profits, even if you can't win him over, you can say with great fanfare that he has joined forces with us, the Tang Dynasty, to fight against the Sui Dynasty!"

"An indirect trick?" Li Yuan's eyes lit up.

Liu Wenjing nodded and said, "Yang Tong has seen through our countermeasures, but Xiao Mian, who is suspicious, is afraid of being purged, so he can only fight with us! Even if we fail, we have nothing to lose anyway. This strategy also applies to Du Fu Wei."

"Haha! Good!" Li Yuan laughed and looked at Wen Yanbo, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, and said, "In my opinion, Wen Shangshu must go to Xiao Xian's place. Du Fuwei will send eloquent people there."

"My minister obeys." Wen Yanbo said with emotion

"Lin Shihong also needs to be contacted." Liu Wenjing continued.

"That's right, the violent Sui at this time is just like the Great Qin back then, no, it's even more terrifying than the Great Qin, and requires the concerted efforts of all the princes." Xiao Yu strongly agreed.

"Okay! Together."

"Here."

"The Ministry of Rites is responsible for contacting allies. Next, it's up to us." After Li Yuan finished speaking, he glanced at Li Shimin.

"My son has three strategies to present to my father..." Li Shimin got up knowingly, and explained the three countermeasures in detail one by one.

Li Yuan pretended to be thinking, and the meaning he showed was obvious, that is, let everyone choose one of three.

Everyone also knew that it was impossible to choose to give up Jingxiang's bad strategy; if Li Yuan had courage, he would choose the best strategy, but the risk was too great.If you seek stability, you will choose the policy.

At this time, Chen Shuda said: "Your Majesty, I must first clarify my attitude. Jingxiang cannot be lost. Without Jingxiang, only Bashu is left. We may not be able to support an army of 30. Therefore, I support the middle policy, and the court needs to send troops to support it." Chongling, but the ministers have different opinions on the details."

Li Yuan said, "If you have a different opinion, just say it. I will listen to all the different opinions."

"The key is the 13 troops used in the central policy. His Royal Highness King Jin meant to support [-] troops in Chongling and [-] troops in Jingling. But the problem is that in addition to King Jin's [-] troops in Xiyang, there are only about [-] left in Xiangyang. First of all, Anyang County can’t be less than [-], and the capital must keep at least [-], so how can we divide the [-] troops that barely squeezed out?”

Chen Shuda meant that a clever woman can't cook without rice, which immediately attracted a lot of whispers.

Li Yuan was also aware of this problem. Although 13 troops were indeed quite a lot, he had previously ignored the defense of Xiangyang itself. If [-] were taken away, why would they fight Chongling?Just go straight to Xiangyang and kill him.

Li Shimin also admitted: "Chen Xiangguo's analysis is very reasonable, but the transfer of 20 troops is the bottom line, because Jingling and Yiling are now empty of troops, and the garrison only has about 10,000 county soldiers, and they must be concentrated in Jingling. Mausoleum, if there were no [-] troops to defend, once the Sui army and Xiao Mian joined forces and entered Badong from Yiling, Bashu and Jingxiang would be completely cut off. In addition, the Sui army's strength in Xiyang and Nanyang would be at least [-]. , as the active offensive side, they are on the side of random mobilization, and we can only passively defend; at that time, it is very likely that [-]+ people will attack Chongling, besides, the Sui army still has slave soldiers, Chen Xiangguo, and an army of [-] , is actually a very conservative figure.”

Li Shimin's words gave everyone a feeling that they were stretched thin. Datang obviously still had 30 troops, but in the end there were no soldiers to use.

Chen Shuda said in a deep voice, "If that's the case, we can only conscript again."

As soon as he finished speaking, Dou Jing and Dugu Huai'en Dugu sneered at the same time. Li Yuan felt angry when he thought of the fact that the two factions threatened him with a letter of decree, but he had already spoken freely and could not speak. And no letter, so he had to endure his anger and said: "Jiang Zuo Dou, do you have any suggestions?"

Dou Cong stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I think Chen Xiangguo's recruitment of soldiers is taken for granted?"

Everyone was silent when they heard the words. The recruitment has been too ruthless in the past few years. The army has been forced to conscript no less than 60 to [-] people, almost to the point of being turned into a soldier. If the force is recruited again, the people may rebel.

Dugu Huai'en also said: "Jiang Zuo Dou is right. Now there are not many young people under the age of 40. I am also worried that forced recruitment will cause a large number of people to flee into the Sui territory, which will cause a greater crisis."

Li Shimin said: "What Dugu Shangshu and Dou Jiangzuo said is indeed reasonable, but the reality is like this. If you don't recruit soldiers, you can only sit and wait for death. Instead of watching the Sui army gradually encroach on the land of Jingxiang, how about It is better to simply retreat into Bashu. Therefore, we must make a decision between recruiting troops or not recruiting troops. If recruiting troops, we will implement the middle policy. If we do not recruit troops, we will implement the worst policy.”

Dugu Huai'en and Dou Jinghan kept silent, but Li Shimin's attitude was obvious, if he didn't recruit soldiers, he would move the capital, draw the flames of war to Bashu, and let everyone die in Bashu together.

At this time, Li Jiancheng, who had been silent all this time, said: "If you want to recruit troops, you can only recruit them in Bashu, because even if there are not many on Jingxiang's side, at the same time, this is just in case, so that you can replenish the army in time. I think In terms of Bashu, which has never experienced war, it is not difficult to recruit [-] to [-] troops."

Li Xiaogong, who was allowed to participate, said: "My lord, [-]% of the troops I lost in Xiangcheng before were from Jingxiang. That is to say, the Bashu side did not actually raise many troops. It is too exaggerated to say that they are mopping up the ground for soldiers."

Now, Dugu Huai'en and Dou Jing have nothing to say.

Seeing that the two of them were silent, Li Yuan nodded and said, "Since everyone has no objection, then we have made a decision. First, send [-] troops to rush to Chongling, and recruit another [-] troops from Bashu, and divide the number among counties, In each county, everyone must complete the number of recruits, otherwise they will not be prefects and county magistrates."

But another question arises again, who can be handsome?
At this time, almost everyone's eyes were on Li Shimin, but Li Jiancheng thought that Li Xiaogong was more suitable. First, Li Xiaogong was in Jingxiang all the year round, and he was more familiar with the terrain here than anyone else. Second, Li Shimin was too strong and radical. It may not be possible to listen to Chai Shao's opinion, so if Li Shimin goes, there must be a situation where the generals disagree, which will lead to failure faster.

"Father, my son recommends Xiaogong to lead the army to rescue Chongling. Xiaogong is very strategic and has been fighting in Jingxiang. He is familiar with the terrain and topography. He is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate."

Xiao Yu also supported: "Your Majesty, I agree with the Prince's proposal."

"Father, my son also thinks that Xiaogong is the most suitable candidate." Li Shimin's broken army is still in Xiyang, and he doesn't want to go to Chongling to defend passively, and to endure the violent bombing of the Sui army again.He urgently needs a victory to restore his reputation. It is difficult to take advantage of the Sui army, so he can only use Xiao Mian's idea. If Xiao Mian does not join the anti-Sui alliance, then he will be the chief general in the direction of Jingling. Annihilating Xiao Xian and opening up territories will restore his lost prestige after the failure of the Eastern Expedition.

Li Yuan nodded, and said to Li Xiaogong: "Xiaogong, today I resume all your previous positions and appoint you as the Marshal of the Marching Army to lead an army of [-] to assist Chongling, and the President will take charge of the battle in Chongling."

"The last general obeys orders! I will definitely live up to my majesty's great trust." Li Xiaogong got up and saluted respectfully.

(End of this chapter)