Chapter 29 Twenty-eight

Jieli stood up and took a few steps in the tent, talking to himself while walking, "It seems that Chang'an's city defense is not as weak as we imagined. Did Li Shimin send troops here from elsewhere?" Then Jieli returned He turned around and asked Botie, "Where is our rear army?" Botie replied, "Back to the Great Khan, Tuli arrived at Nanyou, and Qibiheli arrived at Qishan Mountain. They said the road was too narrow for the horses to run fast. It will take three days at the earliest for them to catch up with us." Jie Li snorted, "I knew they wouldn't come here quickly!"

Zhishi Sili said: "Khan, I don't think we need to wait for them, let's use the people who have arrived ahead, and go all the way to Chang'an before Li Shimin wakes up." Jieli glanced at Zhishi Sili "No! Wait until all the people have arrived before attacking. Shiling Qibi Heli's men and horses will advance to Gaoling and wait for orders. After the Tuli Ministry approaches me, I will lead the main force to go straight to the Weishui River in the north of Chang'an and form an encirclement of Chang'an. Tomorrow Hey, you go to Chang'an yourself and let Li Shimin surrender!" After speaking, he turned his hands away, walked out of the tent with a gloomy face, and kicked an earthen pot aside at the door of the tent.The earthen jar made a "bang-dang" sound, Zhishi Sili and Bo Tie looked at each other in blank dismay.

Zhi Shili complained to Bo Tie: "Let Li Shimin surrender? Is Li Shimin the one who surrendered?" Bo Tie looked outside the tent, and then said to Zhi Shi Li: "The Great Khan asked you to try Li Shimin. It’s not true.” Zhi Shili’s face was full of contempt: “Li Shimin, what kind of falsehood does he have to try? It’s true that he is sweating. I have 200,000 cavalry invincible all the way. When he arrived at the city of Chang’an, he became afraid!” Bo Tie swung his dagger Picked up a piece of meat and stuffed it into his mouth: "Do you think that Da Khan is afraid of Li Shimin?" Holding the arrow and thinking hard for a moment, he looked at Bo Tie and heard what he meant. Tuli, Qibiheli and others were slow No, no one knows what they are thinking.

On the second day, Zhishi Sili walked into the Hall of Taiji with two entourages arrogantly. In front of Li Shimin's ministers, instead of kneeling down, he just cupped his hands and said, "I am the envoy of the Supreme Khan of the Grassland. I met the emperor of the Tang Dynasty!" Li Shimin looked at him and didn't answer for a long time.After looking at each other for a while, Zhi Shili couldn't hold his breath anymore, and he shouted: "Hey, are you people from the Central Plains so ignorant of the rules?" Li Shimin sat on the dragon chair, stretched out his hand, and reprimanded: " You bastard! When Emperor Wude raised his troops in Bingzhou, he once had an alliance with your lord, saying: "Rescue each other in emergency, and deal with Sui Emperor together. Now you have betrayed your trust, come here uninvited, crossed the Great Wall, and knocked on my capital. You say, it’s not me." Do you know the rules or do you Khans not know the rules?"

Changsun Wuji sneered at the side: "Oh, with such a khan, there are naturally such courtiers, who are still standing and talking in front of the Tang emperor, who do you think you are?" Hou Junji clenched his hands, There was a sound from the joints, and his eyes turned to Zhishi Sili and said: "In front of the emperor, those who do not kneel will die!" Zhishi Sili was flustered for a while, but quickly calmed down: "What do you want to do? There are millions of my army outside the city, Now is the time for you to bow down to me, Ashina, and you should kneel down. Emperor Tang, you started from Bingzhou, and you should know that over the years, Ashina’s cavalry has been invincible in the world. The city has been reduced to ashes. Now my lord is mobilizing the whole country to march south. How can Chang'an's three-foot dangerous wall resist it? Those who know the current affairs are heroes. The Great Khan hopes that you will have self-knowledge, and please surrender as soon as possible. The Great Khan is lenient and will allow it You set up a tooth tent on the side of his sweat tent, so that your Li family can preserve their wealth and honor, and the people of the world will also be saved from suffering."

Li Shimin laughed loudly: "Lord madman, it's still daylight, and you are uttering such nonsense here. Hou Junji, find a place for him to stay in Menxia Province. If he continues to talk nonsense, every sentence will be rewarded." Give him a whip!" Hou Junji stretched out his big hand and grabbed Zhishi Sili, dragged him away.Zhishisili struggled: "Emperor Tang, you can't treat Lishi like this! You can't treat Lishi like this!" The expressions of Zhishisili's two attendants changed, and Li Shimin said to them: "Go back and give me a lesson!" Xieli reported a letter, don’t think that a few horses and a group of rough men can treat the world as nothing, behind me, there are thousands of people from the Tang Dynasty, if he really dares to fight, hmph, under the city of Chang’an is his graveyard!” A follower ran away with his head in his arms.

Xiao Yu cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, you are an envoy of Jieli holding arrows and thinking force, it would be inappropriate to imprison him." Li Shimin smiled and said, "The reason Jieli stationed hundreds of thousands of soldiers outside Chang'an and did not immediately attack the city was because they didn't know us at the moment. The military is so insane, and I want to find out the truth for him. If we show a little weakness, Jieli will make up his mind and rush into the city! Tell me, should I break the etiquette? , imprison this envoy?" In front of the courtiers, Li Shimin remained extremely calm, but he was actually extremely disturbed.As the emperor, he knew very well that there were not many troops in the capital that could be used to fight Xieli at this time.Li Jing's army hadn't gone south yet, although Chai Shao, Zhang Liang and other ministries who were closer to Chang'an came to King Qin in the starry night, but there were not many troops, and they might not be able to help the big event.Under the bloody maw of the wolf going south, the Tang Empire has really reached a critical juncture of life and death!

In addition to Li Shimin, Du Ruhui, Minister of the Ministry of War, was also very aware of the current situation of the court. That night, he went to the palace for a secret audience and advised Li Shimin to prepare for the worst.This so-called worst-case plan is a matter of establishing a reserve.It stands to reason that the eldest son Li Chengqian, the king of Zhongshan County, should be appointed as the heir. However, as we all know, the eldest son of the emperor has a weak temperament. At this time, there are chaos in the Eastern Palace and the remnants of the Qi Mansion, and there are strong bandits outside. The world is in a precarious state. Among them, several respected veterans suggested that Li Shimin should choose a resolute prince.

Although the veterans spoke tactfully, Li Shimin understood that only the third son, Changsha County King Li Ke, can be called resolute now.Li Ke was the son of Concubine Yang, and these veteran officials had held important positions in the former Sui Dynasty. They supported Li Ke not only because his character was stronger than Li Chengqian, but also because they still had a complex for their homeland hidden in their hearts that was inconvenient to explain clearly.But Li Chengqian is the eldest son of the empress after all, and Li Shimin himself was able to win the Xuanwumen Change, half of it was due to the power of the eldest grandson family. Uncle Sun Shunde was a general who followed Li Yuan when Taiyuan raised troops.If Li Chengqian is not established, he will indeed be sorry for his grandson's lineage.

At this moment, Li Chengqian was in the army of Hadong Changsun Shunde, and Li Ke was in Chai Shao's army. This was the eve of the Xuanwu Gate change, and Li Shimin sent someone secretly to deal with the unexpected.Before he ascended the throne, he sent two people out of Beijing, one to pick up Li Chengqian and the other to pick up Li Ke.But Li Shimin was still in conflict as to who to stand for, and it was difficult to decide for a while.