Chastity Layman

"Tuqi Shi is not a noble breed. He comes from another tribe with a different surname. Wu Zhile is no more than a true subordinate. How can he dare to ask Datang for the post of Protector General, and even covet the position of Khan in vain?"

In Xuanzheng Hall, Privy Envoy Xiao Siye took a tough attitude.

The emperor sat down behind the curtain, his eyes were covered with gauze, eye drops were applied, and silver needles were pierced on his head. The noble concubine Xiao Huang waited carefully beside her, and the eunuch Gao Hu, who was newly promoted as envoy of Xuanhui Academy, sat on his knees, holding a vermilion pen.

In recent years, the emperor's flamboyance has become more and more serious, coupled with the emperor's distrust of the ministers of foreign courts, the emperor began to reuse the eunuchs who were slaves of the emperor. communication.

Afterwards, lieutenants of the left and right guards were appointed among the various armies of the Beice Imperial Army, and they were also appointed as eunuchs. As the emperor's cronies, these guard lieutenants are not only sent to supervise the army, but share the military power of the imperial army. Under the original system, the generals and generals of the guards did not directly command the troops, but the Zhonglang generals.

But it is higher than General Zhonglang, which is actually equivalent to the emperor serving as the actual chief general of the imperial army with the lieutenant of the guard army, controlling all Zhonglang generals.

The newly established Xuanhui Yuan is divided into the North and the South. This newly established inner court institution actually targets the Zhengshitang, which is the chief executive of the emperor's inner court.

In this way, the envoys of the Privy Council, the lieutenants of the guards, and the envoys of the Xuanhui Academy stood side by side with the political affairs hall, the Privy Council, and the Imperial Academy of the outer dynasty.

Since eunuchs are used, it is more convenient for the emperor to manipulate.

Gao Hu served as an internal servant, a senior official, and an internal servant supervisor, and also took the errand of the Xuanhui Academy. He became the chief executive of the emperor's inner court, and when the emperor was inconvenient to review the memorials, he replaced the emperor to approve the red.

Xue Rengui, deputy privy envoy to Beijing, had a different view on the tough attitude of his old partner Xiao Siye in Mobei. He spoke loudly in the outer hall, and his voice was heard behind the curtain.

"Although the strength of Ashina, the royal family of Western Turkic Khan, is declining day by day, they are the masters of the tribes after all, and their prestige is still there. Now Buzhen and Mishe are both dead. If the saint can grant grace, he canonize Buzhen's son Huseruo as It is also the best policy for the imperial court to have the new Protector of Mengchi, the Jue Khan and the Great General of the Right Guard, rule over the Wunushibi tribe and rule the barbarians with barbarians."

"If the imperial court directly abolishes the two capitals of Mengchi and Kunling, and puts the ten Turks of the hatchback under the jurisdiction of Anxi and Beiting, then a Tuqi leader like Uzhile will definitely be difficult to restrain, and conflicts will inevitably arise at that time Although the imperial court's Western Expeditionary Army has the upper hand in the battle with Dashi, after all, the war has not stopped for a while, and we still have to try our best to avoid turmoil among the Turkic tribes in the rear."

Behind the curtain, the emperor was lying there, listening to the arguments of the ruling generals in the palace, but he didn't make a sound, and Gao Hu picked up a pen to take notes.

Concubine Xiao Huang was kneading the neck for the emperor.

At this time, in the Privy Council, all the veterans came out. Li Ji was transferred to Zuo Pushe, Cheng Yaojin, Su Dingfang and other foreign officials. Member Hu will enter the Xifu government.

Regarding the turmoil of the Turkic people in the Western Regions, the attitude of the Privy Council was not unified.

The emperor's plan was to abolish the Western Turks. He felt that the time was ripe. Just like the abolition of the Eastern Turkic Khanate, the Western Turks should also be completely brought under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, and the system of restraints would no longer be enforced.

Xiao Siye supported the emperor, but Xue Rengui believed that the conditions were still immature.

The Ashina family of the Western Turkic royal family has been fighting too fiercely in recent years, and now it is true that there are no successors. Huseruo, Yuanqing, etc. are far inferior to Buzhen and Mishe.

On the one hand, the Tang Dynasty has continuously entered the Western Regions for decades, and on the other hand, it has continuously strengthened its control over the various tribes of the Western Turks. Therefore, after experiencing this round of internal strife provoked by the emperor behind the scenes, the Western Turks are indeed There is no leader among the dragons, and there is even a power vacuum.

Compared with Yuan Qing, the son of Mi She, Hu Seluo is still serving as Guanglu Shaoqing in Luoyang, but he has always been a hostage in the court. His father died in battle in the Western Regions, and the emperor issued a decree to inquire about his crimes. Huseruo could only plead guilty on the table, and did not dare to be dissatisfied.

Not to mention returning to the Western Regions and inheriting the family business and tribe.

He dare not.

I don't want to either.

Hu Seluo stayed in Luoyang for a long time. Back then, he followed his father to Chang'an to attach himself to the emperor of Tang Dynasty. He almost grew up in the Central Plains. He didn't have much affection for the distant Western Regions. After staying in Luoyang, Chang'an for these years, he also loved Datang's strength is more understood, but also more feared.

His father died suddenly during the campaign against his cousin Mi She, and the court condemned him instead, how could he fail to guess the reason?

So when some voices appeared in the court, saying that he was going to go back to continue to khan, after the command of the five crossbows was lost, he directly wrote a letter in fear, expressing that he did not want to leave Luoyang.

Isn't it good to be a rich and idle person in Luoyang?

What are you going back to the Western Regions for? Wu Nushibi would not listen to him, as for Na Wulezhi, he is now the strongest leader among the five departments, and even secretly recruited Che Bishi and Shu Nishi to form an alliance, with strong troops and ambitious ambitions. When he was alive, he could still hold him down, but after his father died, he didn't have the slightest foundation in the Western Regions, how could he hold such a person down?

If you are lucky, if you go to the Western Regions, you will be ostracized, and become a nominal Khan and Protector. If you are unlucky, you will be strangled to death by Wuzhi, and you don't know how he died.

He is not as grumpy as Yuan Qing, just like his father Mi She, he would rather enjoy a few more years in Luoyang.

However, for Xue Rengui, deputy envoy of the Privy Council, who would consider Huseruo's feelings and ideas? From his point of view, although the Western Turkic royal family has been weakened by internal strife, the strength of all ministries is quite strong, especially Even in these years of internal fighting, several powerful forces have also risen.

For example, Tuqishi and Ge Luolu both have the strength to replace the Ashina family.

When Tuqishi himself divided the Dudu's Mansion at the end of Zhenguan, he obtained the fiefdoms of two Dudu's Mansions. One was divided into two, each of which occupied one mansion, and they were very powerful. A small alliance was formed. When Buzhen was alive, with the series of titles of Datang County King, Canonized Khan, Protector, and General, he could barely hold down Uzhile and his son.

Ge Luolu originally belonged to Mishe, and partly belonged to Mobei. It is located at the north and south foot of Jinshan Mountain. It is known as the three surnames Ge Luolu. In the division at the end of Zhenguan, the three surnames Ge Luolu even owned four governors' mansions, which belonged to Beiting and Mo north.

In terms of strength, Ge Luolu people are not as good as Tuqishi.

However, because of the stability of the Mobei Western Regions in the past two decades, the Ge Luolu people of the three surnames who originally belonged to the Eastern and Western Turks and were caught in internal strife and fought against each other restored their relationship, and even became closer and closer, and the Ge Luolu people of the three surnames also A force that is not weak across Jinshan has been formed.

As for the two small alliances, Tuqishi and Ge Luolu, they are not the Turkic headquarters themselves, they belong to other tribes with different surnames, and the two tribes are adjacent to each other.

Therefore, Xue Rengui believes that the death of Buzhen and Mishe is actually not a good thing for the imperial court, because although Mishe and Buzhen are at odds, they are very respectful to the imperial court, and they even have to rely on the support of the imperial court to suppress them. Two strong departments.

Originally, the imperial court supported the two, sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight, and let them compete. In this way, it will be difficult for Ge Luolu and Tuqishi to grow stronger.

But the emperor insisted on getting rid of Buzhenmishe and the two tribes. As a result, the Western Turkic royal family completely declined and could no longer suppress the tribes, especially the Tuqishi and Ge Luolu tribes.

So now Tuqishi directly asked the emperor to take over the post of Mengchi Duhu, and also hinted that he wanted to take over the position of Khan.

Originally, the imperial court could still use the descendants of Buzhen and Mishe, the two Datou Khans, and the fame of the Ashina royal family to suppress them.

If the imperial court refuses, and abolishes the Western Turks and withdraws the two capitals, it will inevitably lead to the rebellion of Wu Zhile and other ambitious factions.

Xue Rengui then strongly advocated that Huseruo and Yuanqing be appointed as the successors of the two Khans, continue to divide Mengchi and Kunling as the guardians, and use the identity of the Ashina royal family to unite with several other tribes to suppress these two outcroppings. strong department.

The meal should be eaten in one bite.

Destroying the Western Turks is indeed an established strategy, but it also depends on the timing.

Xiao Siye thought that now is the time to take the opportunity to abolish the Western Turks and dismiss the Second Capital Protectorate. If Wuzhile dares to think wrong, then he will kill the chicken to make an example, and he will clean it up together, and then the others will be honest.

Tuqishi is now mainly nomadic in the area from Yili River to Suiyechuan, but Datang runs two military towns here, Yili and Suiye, and there are hundreds of military farms in the village.

The frontier army of the Tang Dynasty garrisoned fields, one tun was 5,000 mu, and one hundred tun was 500,000 mu of land. After decades, the Tang army cultivated so many military fields on the two rich plains of Suiye and Yili that The two major military towns are completely self-sufficient in food.

In addition, the pastures in Liangjun Town can also provide sufficient war horses, draft animals, skin and meat for the army town.

Xiao Siye believed that the strength of Suiye and Yili's army towns could completely suppress Tu Qishi, and if they dared to disagree, they would just take advantage of the situation to attack and destroy them, completely reforming the land and returning to the people. What's more, in addition to the military town where Suiye and Yili left, there are Ting, Xi, and Yi prefectures in Beiting behind, as well as Anxi prefecture Yanqi and Qiuci prefectures in the south of Tianshan Mountain.

The strength of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions was not comparable to that of the Zhenguan period.

If Wu Zhile dared to have ambitions, he would seek his own death, so why should he be afraid. Datang is capable of expeditions to the Western Regions, competing with Dashi in Persia, and even gaining the upper hand, so what is there to be afraid of fighting a Turkic tribe in the north of the Tianshan Mountains?

Several other ruling figures also expressed their opinions, basically both opinions, and they couldn't agree on it for a while.

Xiao Siye asked behind the curtain for an order.

The hall fell silent for a moment.

The emperor still had his eyes closed.

"Zhaijia?" Concubine Xiao called in a low voice, thinking that the emperor was asleep.

The emperor moved his right hand, raised his finger and tapped on the armrest.

"Give Pei Xingjian the Sima of the Anxi Governor's Mansion and the envoy of Mengchi's Xuanwei Economic Strategy, and Zhao Wang Fangyi as the envoy of the Suiye Army and the envoy of Suiye Township."

"Give Laiji the title of Sima of the Beiting Metropolitan Government and the envoy of Kunling Xuanwei Economic Strategy, and order Liu Rengui to be the envoy of Yili's army and envoy of Yili Township."

The emperor dictated with his eyes open.

Gao Hu worked hard to record.