Tibet.

Chapter 902: Counting to Lose

Liu Yan was responsible for the specific details of the negotiations, and Huangfu Yun, the minister of the Ministry of War, was in charge of the negotiations. The first was paid mining. The Helong Army proposed a one-time purchase of Chenjiagou and the surrounding land of thirty miles. This plan was approved Wei Jiansu agreed, and the two parties finally reached an agreement to purchase the land for 30,000 yuan.

The second is the principle of sharing, but there must be restraint under the principle of sharing. After discussion, the two parties decided that each party can only exploit six oil wells at most.

The third detail is the easiest to solve. The Helong Jiedu Mansion will build a martial arts hall in Fushi County and recruit no more than a thousand warriors to guard the oil fields. The same is true for the imperial court. The Yanzhou garrison must not exceed a thousand people.

While the two sides were actively negotiating, Li Ye accompanied Wei Jiansu to visit Jincheng County.

Walking up to the top of the city, Wei Jiansu looked at the Yellow River not far away, then looked to the west, and said calmly: "Next, your highness will use troops against Tubo!"

Li Ye nodded, "We are already making preparations. We will take advantage of the current conflicts within Tubo to recapture Shanzhou. It will not be good for us if we delay any longer."

"There's something I want to remind you!"

Wei Jiansu pondered for a moment and said: "You have to be careful of Pugu Huai'en. He has proposed to the imperial court many times to seize Shuofang. Even when you sent troops to Luoyang, he secretly wrote to the emperor, pointing out that Shuofang was empty and strongly suggested to the emperor. He agreed to send troops to retake Shuofang, but I persuaded the emperor to reject it."

Li Ye knew Pugu Huai'en. Historically, he was indeed ambitious and attempted to rebel against the Tang Dynasty, but failed.

"Thank you, Wei Xiangguo, for reminding me, I will keep an eye on this person!"

Wei Jiansu said again: "I found that this person had colluded with Yu Chao'en, and Xiangzhou was defeated miserably. Yu Chao'en passed the responsibility to Guo Ziyi, and recommended Pugu Huai'en as the governor of Shuofang. On the surface, this Yanzhou incident It was Yu Chaoen who encouraged the emperor to send troops to Yanzhou, but it was Pugu Huaien who was behind the push. I suspect that he wanted to provoke a conflict between the imperial court and the Helong army, so that he could find an excuse to send troops to Shuofang. From this matter, I saw the tacit understanding between Pugu Huaien and Yu Chaoen."

"Why didn't Wei Xiangguo tell the emperor?"

Wei Jiansu shook his head, "The emperor will not believe what I say, and the emperor thinks it is a good thing for the eunuchs to control the army, but the emperor does not know that Yu Chaoen cannot control Pugu Huai'en, but Pugu Huai'en takes advantage of Yu Chao'en Well, I can still dissuade him in the court, but when I retire, no one will be able to control Pugu Huai'en. I'm worried that when he is dissatisfied with his desires, he will take risks and rebel."

Li Ye said coldly: "If Pugu Huai'en rebels, I'm afraid the emperor will not trust the generals anymore and will go even harder to take back military power. The biggest beneficiary will be the eunuchs."

"Indeed, when An Lushan and Shi Siming rebelled, the emperor no longer believed in any generals. If Pugu Huai'en rebelled again, the emperor would not trust the generals at all and would only rely entirely on the eunuchs. The court would be in darkness. It was the Tang Dynasty. What a misfortune!"

Li Ye put his hands behind his hands and said calmly: "If you don't break, you won't stand. If you don't, you won't be able to succeed. Since the court is going to be shrouded in darkness, let's let the storm come more violently!"

After three days of intense negotiations, the two sides finally reached a series of results, including an agreement on the three principles and its detailed rules for resolving the Yanzhou incident, including the Xiaoguan non-defense agreement, the imperial army and the Helong army not to cross the border with each other, etc. .

Li Ye stamped and signed the formal agreement, and Wei Jiansu signed and sealed the agreement on behalf of the court. Wei Jiansu then led his men back to the court.

Wei Jiansu immediately informed the emperor with an eagle's letter that the negotiations had reached an agreement. Li Heng was overjoyed to receive the eagle's letter. He immediately issued an order to order Pugu Huai'en's army to withdraw from Yanzhou immediately.

Although Pugu Huai'en was extremely dissatisfied, at this time, he did not dare to openly resist the Holy Will. He had to send someone to inform Pugu Bin to lead his army to withdraw from Yanzhou.

But he had conditions. Pu Gubin must withdraw with a full load of kerosene, otherwise he will be severely punished by military law.

At night, five hundred soldiers of the Helong Tang Army sneaked into Fushi County from Dongcheng, while Pugubing's 10,000 troops were stationed near Chenjiagou, still thirty miles away from the county seat.

Five hundred soldiers from the Helong Tang Army were divided into five groups and rushed to five pottery workshops. Zhao Hui led a hundred soldiers to the largest pottery workshop, knocked out several soldiers stationed at the kiln, and tied them up.

The owner of the workshop, whose surname was Chen, saw hundreds of fierce-looking soldiers rushing in, which frightened his whole family into trembling. Dongzhu Chen suddenly recognized Zhao Hui and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, "It turned out to be General Zhao, but I was frightened!"

Helong Tangjun is his food and clothing parents, so of course he is not afraid. Zhao Hui asked: "How many clay pots were burned in this batch?"

"Reporting to the general, a total of four thousand were fired in the five kilns!"

"Are you out of the kiln?"

"It will cool down for another day today and come out of the kiln tomorrow!"

Zhao Hui's men had been monitoring the kiln, so they arrived at the right time. Zhao Hui immediately said: "Destroy all the pottery pots, and we will compensate for all losses!"

"Then I can't explain it to General Pugu!"

"What do you want to explain? Your whole family will hide first. They will withdraw soon."

Dongzhu Chen had no choice but to open the kiln door. The soldiers of the Tang Army dragged out the burned jars and smashed them all to pieces before quickly evacuating. Dongzhu Chen also quickly packed up his belongings with his family and fled to a relative's house to hide.

All 12,000 new pottery pots from the five pottery making workshops in the city were smashed. Of course, this was only part of the pottery pots purchased from other prefectures and counties, and all the pottery pots and containers purchased from other prefectures and counties were also destroyed by sneak attacks by the Helong Tang Army on the way.

Before dawn, Pu Gubin received the news. He was immediately shocked and led the army to the county town. What he saw was the fragments of pottery pots strewn on the ground in various workshops. It was a mess everywhere and he could not find a complete pot.

Pu Gubin thought of his father's harsh military laws, and he was so frightened that he couldn't stand still, and he sat on the millstone with a pale face. What should he do? How to explain to his father that his father would push him out of the camp and behead him? Thinking of this, Pugu Bin was so anxious that he almost cried.

At this time, Lieutenant General Liu Yuanbing said to Pu Gubin: "General, actually we have another way!"

Like a drowning man grasping for a life-saving straw, Pugu Bin grabbed him and said, "Quickly tell me, what can I do?"

"General, there are containers like this in every household, including water jars, rice urns, and wine jars. As long as you are ruthless enough, you can search from house to house, especially in the cellars of restaurants. There will definitely be a lot of wine jars."

Pugu Bin was a little hesitant, and Liu Yuan said coldly: "General, the Jiedushi is not recognized by his relatives. If he ruins his important affairs, both you and I will be worried about our lives. Why are you hesitating at this time?"

Pu Gubin gritted his teeth and said: "Okay! This time I will listen to you!"

Pugubing personally led 2,000 people to guard three oil wells, and asked Liu Yuanbing to lead 8,000 troops to search various containers from house to house in Fushi County. Suddenly, the county was in chaos, and the soldiers took the opportunity to plunder people's property. There was civil strife in the county. Make a ball.

Pugubing's army then looted Jinming County and Fenglin County. It must be said that Liu Yuanbing's suggestion was indeed cruel and effective. A total of thousands of large vats and more than 20,000 large pottery urns were looted, and thousands more were commandeered. cart.

Pugubing ordered all the containers to be filled with kerosene, sealed with soil, and loaded into carts. The carts had baffles on all sides and were covered with wooden boards and thick felts. Gunpowder arrows could not be shot even from a long distance. Wearing carts, 10,000 troops closely guarded the convoy, heading south in a mighty manner.

This time Zhao Hui lost. He led his army to attack many times along the way, but to no avail. He had to watch helplessly as an army of 10,000 escorted the kerosene away.

(End of this chapter)