Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 145: Deploying troops and generals, the first real expansion

Liu Rengui and Yuwen Bao immediately went down to start preparing, and Li Yuanji then looked at Xie Shufang.

"Send a message to Junmai immediately, telling him not to worry about the Five Tribes, and to prioritize preparing the army, paying attention to Linyi's movements, and being ready to attack Linyi at any time!
He then sent another order to Li Xiang, asking him to immediately gather the troops from Guizhou, Xiangzhou, Rongzhou, Zhaozhou, Hezhou, Liuzhou, Huanzhou and other places, and lead the army into Yongzhou, Tianzhou and other places to launch an attack on the five tribes of Liaoren.

The order was sent to Tan Dian, and the army set out while training, heading immediately for Jiaozhou, under the command of Xi Junmai, preparing to launch an attack on Linyi.

Send a message to Feng Zhixun to organize the army and prepare for war, so that the army can be ready to go into battle at any time.

Go and ask Yang Shu and Yu Minghe to come over here right now."

Li Yuanji was now also furious. Since they were going to fight, they might as well fight together. Although most of Li Xiang's troops did not have armor and had not undergone systematic reorganization, they had the advantage of numbers and their combat power was definitely superior to those of the other troops.

As the guard of Prince Qi's palace, Li Xiang would be too incompetent if he couldn't even do drills and simple training. Lingnan was lagging behind in all aspects, especially in the military. Although Li Xiang was not a famous general, he must have the ability to be a guard, which was already a dimensionality reduction attack.

This time Li Yuanji was determined to go all out. He sent his elite troops to attack Linyi and the armies from various states to attack the five tribes. He didn't believe that he could not deal with these people.

After hearing this, Xie Shufang hesitated for a moment, then spoke softly.

"Your Majesty, can you let Wei Yunqi, the Duke of Yangcheng County, lead five armies to provoke the enemy? Wei Yunqi is the general of the crown prince. Given the relationship between Your Majesty and the crown prince, write a letter to Wei Yunqi and then submit this matter to the saint. The saint will definitely agree.

Or he could report the matter to the saint and mobilize a large army from Yaozhou and Rongzhou to attack the five tribes of Liaoren (now part of southwestern Yunnan, west to Ruili and Yingjiang, south to Daluo and Mengla, and southwest to the Salween River, also known as the Nujiang River).

It will be easier to capture these places at that time, and they will definitely lead their troops back after the capture, which will not have any impact on the king's occupation of the five regions of Liaoren. What do you think?"

After hearing this, Li Yuanji fell into deep thought. He knew Wei Yunqi, a man who was also good at both civil and military affairs. He was good at governing with civil skills and keeping the world safe with military skills. He was a famous general in the Sui Dynasty. He was born in the public house of the Wei family in Pengcheng. Now he was also a general sent out by Li Jiancheng, just like Luo Yi.

Li Jiancheng had many generals commanding troops outside, scattered throughout the Tang Dynasty. In all directions of the east, west, south and north, there were troops led by General Li Jiancheng. Li Jiancheng had the largest number of troops in the north. Among the 200,000 northern Tang troops, the main generals were all Li Jiancheng's generals, but there were also Li Shimin's men mixed in.

For example, Wei Yunqi, now the Marquis of Yangcheng County, the Governor of Suizhou, and the Minister of War of Yizhou Xingtai, is Li Jiancheng's man, and his good partner, Dou Gui, the Minister of Yizhou Xingtai, is Li Shimin's man. After the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Wei Yunqi was killed by Dou Gui.

The power of these two people overlaps to a great extent. As long as they are in power, they are almost all interdependent.

What Li Yuanji was thinking was that once he wrote to Li Yuan and asked Wei Yunqi to lead the army to assist in the attack, Dou Gui would certainly come along. At the same time, this would also be a way for Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin to place a nail on him in his territory.

On the one hand, he wanted to establish a base, and on the other hand, the Jinchi tribe (Ruili, Longchuan, etc.) and Mang tribe (Menghai, Jinghong, etc.) among the five tribes were not, strictly speaking, included in his fiefdom.

The reason why he values ​​these places is because they are land routes connecting Pyu, Zhenla, Liuzhao and other places, and they lead to India and Tubo. This is why he wants to take over these places. As long as these routes are opened up, his business can also open up a business route from the land.

The Western Han Dynasty opened up the Silk Road, which strengthened the connection between the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions, enabled the Han Dynasty to reach out to the outside world, and spread its influence to the Western Regions. He could also open up a road to wealth here, which further deepened his influence.

With the support of both water and land lines, his business will only become smoother. In this era, there are very few people who can come by sea. Even within the Tang Dynasty, most merchants do business by land. As for those countries outside, it is difficult.

This is one of the reasons why he hesitated. If Li Yuan did not give him this place, he would go crazy to fight for it. As long as he could take it, it must belong to him, Li Yuanji. Even if Li Yuan came, he had the final say.

As for the other one, Li Yuanji also had a headache and then looked at Xie Shufang.

"If we submit a letter to the Saint, how much time will it take? From the time we submit the letter to Chang'an, it will take a while to finalize it, and then the decree will be issued to Wei Yunqi and us. It will take at least half a year.

This period of time is still at least, it may be close to a year, and this is just to finalize the dispatch of troops. It will take at least three months for the army to enter the territory of Diao Ren. Then, it will take at least half a year to launch a major attack. This is still at least.

That is to say, if we submit a petition to the Saint and dispatch troops to conquer these places, it will take at least two years. This is the most optimistic scenario. If the weather is bad or the war does not go smoothly, it may take up to three years!"

Li Yuanji could actually accept three years, but what he could not accept was that in less than a year, the Xuanwu Gate Incident would break out, and the situation would be different by then. Although these places were remote and poor, why would the newly-appointed Li Jiancheng or Li Shimin want them?
What if he would rather take a place that needs subsidies from the court than give it to Li Yuanji? Then his way of business expansion would be blocked, unless he turned around and passed through the territory of Zhenla and Pyu, but without the army on land, deterrence would be a problem.

After listening to this, Xie Shufang was very confused for a moment. In his opinion, there was no problem with the time, so why didn't Li Yuanji accept it?

He didn't know there would be something like the Xuanwu Gate. He only knew that when the time came, Wei Yunqi's army would attack the Jinchi and Puzi tribes, and the army they sent here would attack the Liaozi and Heman tribes. In Xie Shufang's eyes, the war would be over in about a year.

The air was suddenly quiet, and after a while, Li Yuanji's voice suddenly came.

"Shu Fang, I will do as you say. Write a letter to the Saint right now and ask Wei Yunqi to lead the army to attack the Jinchi and Puzi tribes. I will also write another letter to the Saint to include those places in my fiefdom.

But they are all bitter and cold places, I don't think the saint would care about them, so he just gave them to me to manage. That's it, everything else remains unchanged, no matter whether the saint agrees or not, we will just gather the army and start fighting directly.

Go and call Yu Minghe and Yuwen Bao now. I will write a letter. You can send someone to deliver it to the capital in a hurry. "Li Yuanji suddenly realized that these places were his home turf. No matter who came to power, could he just refuse to give them? His army was there. No matter whether it was Li Jiancheng or Li Shimin, would they dare to fight him when the Tang Dynasty was in internal and external troubles?

As long as he is not the kind of ant that can be killed by a pinch, and as long as he is strong enough, no one will fight with him. If they have to fight, it will be after the Tang Dynasty develops, but he will be able to get those places as well.

As long as Li Yuan now acknowledges that the place is given to him, no one can take it away. He said that whether it is Li Jiancheng or Li Shimin, they can only give those places to him.

As for planting nails, he can just remove them slowly later. Besides, if Li Shimin comes to power, he can also try to win over Wei Yunqi. He is very envious of such a capable person.

After hearing this, Xie Shufang was stunned for a moment, then he went down excitedly to start making arrangements. Watching Xie Shufang go down, Li Yuanji also began to write letters, a family letter and a memorial.

After writing the letter, Li Yuanji's face was still solemn. Now he still needed to wait for Feng Ang to arrive. If he wanted to fight, he had to have Feng Ang's army. His own army and the army in Tan Dian were not enough. He had to recruit Feng Ang's army.

This can be said to be the first time he started expansion in a real sense. He must be fully prepared. As long as he conquers Ryukyu, the Five Tribes, and Linyi, and develops them later, he believes that with his own fiefdom, he will not be worse than the Tang Dynasty, or even better!

Li Yuanji would never allow failure in his first outward expansion. If he failed this time, it would take at least several years before he could expand outward, and he could not accept that time.

In addition to these, he was also taking a gamble on whether there would be a system task that would allow him to expand his fiefdom. Anyway, it was related to development. As for Lingnan today, development would inevitably reach a peak, and only if the territory expanded could development continue.

If there is such a task, there will definitely be a lot of contribution points. It definitely won't be a few hundred points, it will definitely be thousands or tens of thousands of contribution points.

Even if there is no such task, with the expansion of territory and more abundant materials, his development will be better and faster, so he will not lose out.

After a while, Xie Shufang arrived with Yang Shu and Yu Minghe. Li Yuanji handed the memorial and the letter to Xie Shufang. Xie Shufang went downstairs immediately. Li Yuanji also looked at Yu Minghe and Yang Shu.

"I called you two here because of the war. I will use troops against the five tribes of Liaoren and Linyi. You two, once you are ready, lead the army to Yongzhou immediately. I have already sent a message to Li Xiang, asking him to lead the army to Yongzhou and Tianzhou.

When you meet up, Yu Ming and you will serve as the main generals, and Li Xiang will be the deputy general. As for the army, in addition to Yang Shu's 5,000 troops, I will give you another 3,000 troops. If you want more, there will be none. The rest of the army will be responsible for the task of attacking Linyi.

Yu Minghe, I will leave this important responsibility to you. Li Xiang is the guard of my palace and is very experienced. When you go there, you must not be stubborn and should listen to his opinions. I will not say too much about the details.

On the battlefield, the situation is unpredictable. You are the son of General Yu Qingze, and have been taught by Yu Daorong for many years. You have studied all the military books and strategies, and your theoretical foundation is richer than anyone else. In addition, you have also practiced in quelling the rebellion in the Five States before. Now let's get started.

I have high hopes for you, and I hope you won't let me down and become like Zhao Kuo and Ma Su. I will not interfere in this war against the five tribes, but I only want a result. I will give you all the power, including the power to make decisions on the spot and to execute first and report later.

If there is an emergency, or if you are undecided, please write to me at any time. Remember, the territories of the five tribes must be occupied. Remember, no matter who you are, no matter what the other party’s identity is, you cannot give these places to others!
These places must become my fiefdom, remember?"

Li Yuanji had to give detailed instructions, otherwise he was afraid that these people would fail to deliver and would not dare to rob. He did not want to work for others, so he had to be his own landlord.

After hearing this, Yang Shu immediately agreed. As for these things, Yang Shu always listened to whatever Li Yuanji said and did whatever Li Yuanji said. For Yang Shu, if Emperor Li Yuan came, as long as Li Yuanji gave the order, he would dare to chop Li Yuan down directly.

In Yang Shu's eyes, everything he had was given by Li Yuanji. If it weren't for Li Yuanji, he, his relatives, and those people in the cave chieftains would still be living the hard lives they had before, and often facing threats to their lives.

Everything is different now. Yang Shu obeys Li Yuanji unconditionally. He knows that he has no ability, so he has no objection to anything Li Yuanji arranges.

Yu Minghe was shocked when listening to Li Yuanji's words. He was really shocked. For such a large-scale battle with so many troops, Li Yuanji actually asked him to be the commander-in-chief of the army. Even Li Xiang, the guard of the Prince of Qi's Mansion, was only his deputy.

Yu Minghe calmed down, his eyes full of determination. He knew that Li Yuanji was training him. He also knew Zhao Kuo and Ma Su. He also knew how good at fighting his father was. Now that the opportunity had come, in Yu Minghe's eyes, he must seize this opportunity.

Yu Minghe remembered everything Li Yuanji said and knelt down on one knee in front of Li Yuanji.

"I have received your order. Please rest assured, my king. I will definitely defeat the five tribes and incorporate all these areas into your fiefdom. No matter who it is, anyone who comes to seize your fiefdom, even if it is just an inch of land, I will repel them!"

Li Yuanji nodded with satisfaction. He really wanted to train Yu Minghe. There was no problem with his loyalty and his foundation was very solid. The only thing was that he lacked actual combat experience. He could only grow through fighting. Once he started to grow, his growth would be very fast.

Currently, the only people under his command who can truly stand on their own are Xie Shufang and Su Dingfang. Liu Rengui and Xi Junmai are still a little lacking in ability. Only after fighting a few battles will those two grow into people who can stand on their own.

But he only has these few people now, and Yu Minghe is such a good seedling with a very high potential, and he is willing to train him. Originally, he wanted to make him his deputy first, but now Su Dingfang has not come back, and Xie Shufang has to stay behind for emergency, so he has no choice but to let Yu Minghe take over.

"Go down and get ready. I'm waiting for your good news!"

(End of this chapter)