Tibet

Li Ye had already prepared the draft, and he said calmly: "Reporting to your majesty, this is actually the spoils of two wars. One war was a battle between the two wars. The opponent was the Eastern Army of the Great Eater. We annihilated the Eastern Army of the Great Eater. The remaining troops seized a large amount of wealth.

The second war was against the Khazar Turks. The Hezhong Army annihilated more than 20,000 enemy troops, occupied the Aral Sea city of Bandar, and seized millions of gold coins. These two wars greatly consolidated the Tang Dynasty's dominance over Hezhong. area’s sphere of influence. "

Li Longji had read the military report of the Battle of Talas and knew that the Eastern Legion of the Great Eater was the Tocharians who believed in the Great Eater Cult, but who the Khazar Turks were, he was at a loss.

"General Li, tell me about the Khazar Turks. I don't know much about them."

Li Ye brought a map, and immediately a eunuch hung the map on a wooden stand. Li Ye pointed at the map and said: "Reporting to your majesty, the Khazar people are actually the Gesa tribe among the nine surnames of the Uighurs. They moved westward to the Caspian Sea area. They merged with a large number of local small tribes and established the Khazar Khanate. Because they received the support of the Western Turks, there were also many Turks in the country, especially in the early years of Tianbao. After the demise of the Turkic White Eyebrow Khan, a large number of Turks fled to the Khazar Khanate. "

Li Ye pointed to the two large lakes and said: "Your Majesty, this is the Aral Sea, which is the size of Hedong Road, and the larger lake to the west of it is called the Caspian Sea, which is the size of four Hedong Roads. It is quite large. To the south is the Great Food Dynasty, to the west is the Great Qin Kingdom, and to the north and east is the territory of the Khazar Khanate."

Li Longji nodded and asked: "Where is Datang's sphere of influence?"

"To the east of the Aral Sea, it is more than four thousand miles away from Suiye. To the south of the Aral Sea are the Nine Sogdian Kingdoms. The vast land east of the Aral Sea is the sphere of influence of the Tang Dynasty."

Li Longji smiled and said: "For the first time, I know that the territory of the Tang Dynasty is so vast. I also know that the Caspian Sea is actually four Hedong Roads wide. It really broadens my horizons. Governor Li, please continue talking!"

Li Ye pointed at the Khazar Khanate and continued: "There are two major forces in the Khazar Khanate, one is the Khazar force, and the other is the Khazar Turkic force. Since the Khazar force converted to Judaism, the contradiction between the two major forces has intensified. Tianbao In the ninth year, the White Shire was destroyed, and the Khazar Khanate lost its biggest foreign enemy, and civil war broke out.

Probably last year, the Khazar Turks were defeated and moved eastward, targeting the Yili Valley under the jurisdiction of Suiye. In October last year, three thousand forwards reached Yibohai and massacred Ge Luolu who lived on the west coast of Yibohai. tribe, Hsinchu immediately joined forces with the chief of Ge Luolu, Narman, and annihilated three thousand invaders when the heavy snow came. "

Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan listened with great interest. Li Ye paused for a moment, and Li Longji smiled and said, "What next?"

"Then today, after the beginning of spring, I led more than 10,000 troops to unite with the Geluolu people to march westward to intercept the Khazar Turk army that was preparing to move eastward. At the Turgai River, about two thousand miles away from Suiye, they encountered the enemy on their way eastward. The Khazar Turk army had more than 17,000 people. We had a great war. In the end, the Tang army annihilated the enemy army that attempted to invade eastward at the cost of more than 1,000 casualties. However, the families of the Khazar Turk army were still in the Aral Sea. The city of Banda to the east is also there, as is the wealth accumulated by the Khazar Turks.

I led an army of 10,000 men to continue the western expedition. Just two days before we arrived in Bandar City, the Khazars tore up the agreement reached with the Khazar Turks and occupied Bandar City first. Your Majesty, please pay attention to this Bandar City. s position. "

"What happened to the location?" Yang Guifei asked.

"Bandar City happens to be located on the very fertile alluvial plain of the Yaosha River. According to the location, this should be the land that belongs to the Tang Dynasty. I led 10,000 troops to Bandar City and asked to share the possessions that belong to us, but the Khazar The people refused, and since they did not have many troops in the city, they humblely led the army to capture the city.”

"Did General Li massacre the city?" Concubine Yang asked worriedly.

Li Ye shook his head and said: "Bizhi never killed the old, weak, women and children, nor did he kill prisoners. The reason why Bizhi captured this city is because this city does not belong to the Khazar Khanate, but to Ashinasa, the leader of the Khazar Turks." Bu's private territory, now this city has become the westernmost city of the Tang Dynasty, and I named it Xianhai City. There are currently a thousand Tang troops stationed there."

"Not bad!"

Li Longji repeatedly praised: "With this city, the westernmost boundary of the Tang Dynasty will be stabilized at the Aral Sea."

Speaking of this, Li Longji narrowed his eyes and asked: "How much wealth did the Tang army get by seizing Aral Sea City?"

"About four million gold coins!"

"What about Ju Zhanti? How much did you get?"

"About two and a half million gold coins!"

"How are they distributed?"

"The imperial court only pays half of our salary for soldiers' rewards and salaries. We ourselves have to pay 600,000 yuan a year, and half of it is presented to His Majesty."

"There should be more than one million gold coins in that Broken Leaf!"

"There are still 1.5 million, which are considered surplus from the war."

Li Longji narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment, nodded and said: "Okay! Let's talk about your appeal."

"I have only one request for this humble post. The Hezhong Governor's Mansion is short of troops. I beg your Majesty to increase the number of troops to 24,000."

Li Longji smiled slightly and said, "Do you need so many troops in the river?"

"Your Majesty, I have captured the city of Bandar from the Khazar Khanate. The Khazars will not give up. It is very likely that the Tang army will face a big war next year. The Khazar Khanate has an army of 80,000. Even if they send half of their troops, there will still be four Thousands of people.

Suiye's current strength of more than 10,000 Tang troops is no match for them. When the time comes, it will not be a matter of not being able to defend Aral Sea City. They may also occupy half of the Hezhong area. This is one of them.

Then Dabolu's Tibetan army expanded westward. They will march to Tochara. The time is next year. Dabolu has 30,000 Tibetan troops. We, the Hezhong Dudu Mansion alone, have more than 10,000 Tang troops. We will definitely not be able to defeat them. We can only deal with them. It's very difficult for us to fight on one side, not to mention that next year we will probably fight on two sides. I am extremely anxious and ask your Majesty for help. "

Li Longji nodded, "Surge in troops is of great importance, let me think about it carefully!"

The three million gold coins promised to him by Li Ye have not yet been received. How could he immediately agree to increase troops?

As the saying goes, ‘If you don’t see a rabbit, don’t let an eagle fly; if you don’t see money, don’t increase your troops. ’

Li Longji called Gao Lishi forward again and whispered to him about the Prince Consort case. Gao Lishi nodded repeatedly before resigning with Li Ye.

Li Longji smiled at Yang Yuhuan and said, "Hearing what he said was so magnificent, I want to go to the Western Regions."

Yang Yuhuan said coquettishly: "Your Majesty, I am yearning for the Western Regions even more. I want to hear more stories about the Western Regions!"

"Okay! You can summon him at any time. I just said that he is specially allowed to enter the palace."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Yang Yuhuan hesitated and asked, "Does Your Majesty want to send him more troops?"

Li Longji squinted his eyes and smiled: "Let me wait until I get three million gold coins before I think about it!"

Li Ye followed Gao Lishi to his official room. Gao Lishi asked him to sit down and said, "When will you leave?"

“We have to leave by September at the latest, otherwise it will be too late.”

Gao Lishi nodded, "Then there is no rush to increase the number of troops. Let His Majesty think about it."

"Mr. Gao, I'm afraid it's too late to mobilize troops from the Central Plains. I hope to mobilize 6,000 troops from Anxi and Beiting to Suiye."

"This plan is not bad. I will report it to the emperor, but now let's talk about the problem at hand. The emperor wants you to be responsible for investigating the death of the consort and find the real culprit within a month!"

Li Ye's eyes widened, "This case has nothing to do with me! Besides, I am a border general, not the Dali Temple of the Criminal Department."

"They investigate theirs, and you investigate yours, without interfering with each other. This time, the imperial concubine recommended you to investigate the case. I can see that she appreciates you. Don't let her down."

"But I'm getting married on August 16th."

"So I give you a month. It won't affect your marriage, and it will benefit you. Even if you can't get it, your father can get it."

Li Ye had no choice but to agree.

Gao Lishi smiled and said, "Just tell me what resources you need."

"I need manpower, I need power, and maybe I will kill people."

Gao Lishi took out a gorgeous short golden sword from the locked iron box and handed it to Li Ye, "This is the Shang Fang Emperor Sword. The Emperor asked me to give it to you. Seeing the sword is like seeing a saint. It is much more powerful than that gold medal." , only the censor can hold it. If you have the title of censor, you can hold it, but you can only hold it for a month at most. There is also a principle. You can suspend officials with your sword, but you cannot remove them, let alone kill them. I mean Officials of the ninth rank and above, and the rest of the good people, it is up to you to decide."

"Where is the army mobilization?" Li Ye asked again.

"Outside Chang'an City, a maximum of one thousand people can be mobilized, and within Chang'an City, a maximum of a hundred people can be mobilized."

"I'm still short of manpower."

Gao Lishi said calmly: "Dali Temple Qing Jiwen is my person, you can go to him to ask for someone."

"And my father's resignation!" Li Ye simply asked.

"It is temporarily frozen, and the imperial examination cases are also frozen. It depends on your performance!"

Gao Lishi smiled and asked: "You should have an idea about this case. Where do you plan to start?"

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said: "There is something suspicious about the warriors in the Prince Consort's Mansion. I suspect there is an insider!"

Gao Lishi gave a thumbs up.