Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 849
Hebei, Leshou.

Golden City Palace.

Emperor Dou Jiande of the Xia Dynasty sighed long and short in the hall, and the air in the hall froze.

"Is the princess still here?"

Dou Jiande asked.

The waiter in a corner of the hall hurriedly replied in a low voice, "The princess hasn't arrived yet."

"Then remind me again, a girl who stays in the military camp all day, what does it sound like?"

The servant's light footsteps faded away, Dou Jiande sat in front of the imperial case, propped his head with one hand, but had a sad face.

In just one year, the situation has completely changed.

During the New Year last year, Dou Jiande had wiped out most of Hebei, and he was so angry that some literati even wrote poems to praise him as Liu Jinu of the Southern Song Dynasty. He also came from the bottom and joined the army. He rose up to rule the roost, saying that he would be able to unify the world in the future.

It’s just that he hadn’t listened to these hymns for a long time before he encountered the predicament in Henan and fought with Li Mi for a long time, resulting in many casualties. In the end, Luo Cheng took advantage of the situation, killed Dugu and usurped Fanyang in Beiping, and then swept Bo Mausoleum, Mount Heng, and Shanggu, etc., waited for him to retreat in a hurry. Although the situation was stabilized, Dou Jiande did not expand any more in the past year or so.

He fell into the swamp of bandits in Weijun and Xiangguo counties.

For more than a year, the two counties have not been pacified. Not only have they not been pacified, but the two thieves have frequently penetrated into the territory of his Xia Kingdom, burning, killing and looting.

All kinds of signs showed that he was not only suppressing Song Jingang and Zhen Zhai'er, but also many soldiers and horses who went deep into the Xia Realm to loot, and they were originally disguised as Qin Jun's Qingqi.

Coupled with Luo Cheng's double-teaming on his north and south sides, and the threat from the navy and its marines from the east from time to time, Dou Jiande felt powerless.

Although he owned more than half of Hebei, he was completely surrounded by Luo Cheng and completely blocked.

Many literati and officials who used to sing praises for him even secretly ran to the Qin army's territory.

On the one hand, he wanted to suppress the bandits and on the other hand, he had to deal with the threat of the Qin army surrounded on all sides. Dou Jiande had to keep troops stationed on the four sides all year round. great impact.

Now in the territory of Xia Kingdom, prices have risen severely, food is in short supply, and labor is insufficient.

An increasingly serious vicious circle.

The escape of many gentry officials made the governance of the Xia Kingdom chaotic, and the severe drought this spring spread throughout Hebei.So far this summer, there have been extremely bad results.

This summer harvest, poor harvest.

The harvest is less than one in three.

Dou Jiande, who was already short of food, was facing an imminent famine.

Even if Luo Cheng doesn't lead the army to attack, as long as the current situation continues, Dou Jiande himself will collapse.

However, if he disbanded most of the 20 soldiers and horses and went home to cultivate the fields, the military pressure would increase greatly, and it would be difficult to defend against the possible attack of the Qin army on all sides at any time.

Shou, lack of food, unable to hold on.

If you don't defend, the Qin army may come over at any time.

under these circumstances.

Two missions arrived in Leshou successively.

One is an envoy sent by Luo Cheng. I don’t know how many times this is the envoy. Luo Cheng still hopes that Dou Jiande will return, and he repeats the old story. He is the Marquis of Changle, and he is appointed to use his civil and military talents, and will not harm the people of Hebei.

What is different from the past is that Luo Cheng's envoy also made a request this time. In order to reassure Dou Jiande, the emperor proposed that Nadou Jiande's daughter be Zhaorong, who is the second of the nine concubines, second only to the fourth queen in the harem. Concubine and Zhaoyi.

This marriage proposal was not too much, even in the eyes of the Qin envoy, it was the emperor's kindness and a guarantee for Dou Jiande and Xia Jun.

In terms of age, the emperor is less than 30 years old, which matches the age of the red line very well.

It can be said that Qin's monarchs and ministers spent a lot of brains in order to be able to solve the Hebei issue.

Dou Jiande was a little moved, but also a little unwilling.

After nearly ten years of hard work, he has come to this point. Now that he has ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, it is difficult to turn back. Now he is unwilling to give up Hebei and take the crown to Qin.

After seeing the Tang Dynasty envoy Tang Jian, Dou Jiande's mind to return to Qin was even more shaken.

Tang Jian is Li Yuan's Yuanmou hero. He is not good at commanding troops and fighting, nor is he good at government affairs, but he is the best lobbyist. general officer.

Even the last time he went to Turkic as an envoy, he successfully reached an alliance with Jieli Khan.

Now Tang Jian came to Hebei after all the troubles, but he took a lot of risks. Guanzhong and Hebei were blocked by the Qin army. Tang Jian and his party came here secretly pretending to be a caravan. After being spotted by the Qin army, many people were lost, but Tang Jian finally managed to reach Leshou City.

Tang Jian described an excellent alliance prospect to Dou Jiande.

Tang, Xia, and Turkic armies were allied together, and 50 troops attacked Qin. After Qin was destroyed, Xia gained Hebei and Guanwai, Tang gained Hedong and Henan, and Turks gained Monan Hetao Daibei.

The three win-win.

Tang Jian also brought Tang Emperor Li Yuan's request for a marriage proposal, hoping to marry Princess Xia as a red line for King Qi, so as to end Tang Xia's friendship.

"The three coalition forces first break through Taiyuan, then my Tang Lord will be in Chang'an, Guanzhong, and Xia Lord will be in Fanyang, Hebei, and then the three coalition forces will send troops from Taiyuan to the south. At that time, the three families will unite as one, swoop down, and go straight to Luoyang. Luo Cheng will be defeated. .”

Tang Jian said that the three coalition forces first broke Dingxiang, then entered Daibei Mayi, and then broke Taiyuan, and then the coalition forces helped Dou Jiande capture Fanyang to him, and then the coalition forces went down to Luoyang.

Three 50 coalition forces, the prospects are very good.

This is not counting Li Yuan's 10,000+ troops on the Guanhe defense line at Tongguan Wuguan.

"As long as the three join forces, no matter how powerful Luo Cheng is, he will surely lose!" Tang Jian said.

a long time.

The sound of footsteps interrupted Dou Jiande's thoughts.

He looked up and found that his daughter's red thread was coming.

Princess Hongxian came into the palace, but she was still wearing a military uniform, a bright armor with a gold-woven cloak, and a phoenix-winged helmet in her hand.

Seeing him like this, Dou Jiande frowned.

"Xian Niang, how can you behave like this all day long?"

"Father, Luo Cheng once said a word, women do not give up to men, his wife Shan and concubine Li have all put on armor and made great military achievements."

Dou Jiande shook his head, not arguing with his daughter, "Mother Xian, the emperor summoned you to discuss something with you."

"Is it the matter of the envoys from the Tang and Qin families asking for marriage?"

Dou Jiande nodded, "Unexpectedly, you have already heard of it."

"The daughter will not marry anyone. The emperor wants to form an alliance with Tang or return to Qin. This is the father's right, but the daughter does not want to be a bargaining chip."

"you····"

Dou Jiande sighed again, "When the officers and soldiers ransacked the house in the Sui Dynasty, you and I were the only ones who escaped the catastrophe, but unfortunately your mother and brothers all died tragically. If your mother is still there, it will not delay you until now. You must have already chosen Hao Erlang to marry."

"Father, don't say these things."

The red line stopped his father from talking about these past events, "I have no opinion on whether my father should belong to the Qin Dynasty or form an alliance with Li Tang, but my daughter does not want my father to accept the canonization of the Turkic people."

When Tang Jian came, he not only brought Li Tang's request for marriage and alliance, but also the canonization given to Dou Jiande by Turkic Jieli Khan.

Jieli Khan canonized Li Yuan as Dingyang Khan, and now he canonized Dou Jiande as Pingyang Khan.

One Dingyang and one Pingyang actually meant to pacify the Yang family of the Sui Dynasty, but in essence they were all Turkic vassal khans, and Jieli’s requirements for Dou Jiande were the same as Li Yuan’s. The land and population laid down in Hebei were for Dou Jiande. But the money and silk woman wanted to give it to him.

"Father, you can fight for hegemony and become the emperor, but you can't be the Khan of the Turks!" Hongxian said to his father.

Dou Jiande sighed, he didn't know what Xieli was thinking, but Li Yuan could accept the title of Dingyang Khan, so he didn't know what it meant.

(End of this chapter)