Chapter 72 seventy one

The arrival of Hou Junji finally made Li Shimin heave a sigh of relief. He had worked so hard to hope for this result. Before accepting the appointment, Hou Junji asked the emperor to let the prince leave the Flying Tiger Army with dignity, but Li Shimin refused. He told his beloved general that when he started training a real Flying Tiger Army, the The old Flying Tiger Army will continue to exist, as a cover to deceive people's ears - until the war begins!Li Shimin said: "Jieli has experienced hundreds of battles, and he can be regarded as a generation of heroes. If the prince does not go on stage to pour Jieli's ecstasy soup, how can this big show of concealing the truth and showing the false can fool his eyes? Junji, for tricks Acting, don't tell him about this."

Hou Junji said worriedly: "Your Majesty, it's just that the crown prince has suffered too much! He's still young, and I'm really worried that his shoulders won't hold up." Li Shimin was also a little sad, he patted He patted Hou Junji on the shoulder and said, "Who made him the prince? He should shoulder more burdens for this country than others." Li Shimin and Hou Junji had a secret meeting in the Chengqing Hall all day, and at dusk when the sun was setting in the western mountains, they rode their horses together to a field west of the Bianqiao, where the battle between the Tang army and Jieli cavalry took place in the ninth year of Wude That's where Hou Junji's brave Flying Tiger Army fought to the last eleven.Li Shimin asked him to take him to see the tomb of the old Flying Tiger Army. Hou Junji pointed to a wasteland and said, "The old minister originally wanted to build a separate tomb for them, but the little girl Haitang told me that the Flying Tiger Army is not our Marquis." It is the Flying Tiger Army of the Tang Dynasty, so I buried them here along with the 10,000 soldiers who died in battle!"

Li Shimin said with some emotion: "Haitang is right, they are heroes of the Tang Dynasty!" Hou Junji turned around and shouted: "Chi Deli, beat the drums and blow the trumpet!" Chi Deli waved to a small group of soldiers behind him, a battle drum was beaten loudly, and a row of trombones blasted into the sky.Hou Junji's desolate voice resounded with the wind in the wilderness: "Monkeys, did you hear that? The emperor is going to make a northern expedition, get up quickly, and follow me!" The setting sun was like blood, and the war drums and bugles called over and over again for the legendary army that had gone away. Although nothing appeared in the wilderness until dark, in everyone's hearts, those cavalrymen who were silent in the mud really The one has stood up and is holding his military flag forward to the wind.

The training of the new Flying Tiger Army officially started on the second day. The first step is the selection of soldiers. Because of the special mission, the selection of soldiers for this army is very strict. Some town generals are drawn from veterans with actual combat experience, and some are recruited from civilians.These people were all recruited in the name of selecting the guards of the imperial palace in Luoyang, the eastern capital, for the emperor. After arriving in Chang'an, Hou Junji personally selected them from among these selected people.The location of the military training was found by Fang Xuanling. It was very secret. It was a Sui Dynasty Imperial Guard barracks that had been abandoned for many years in Zhongnan Mountain. The time will be repaired to the extent that it can garrison troops.Li Shimin personally went to the scene to check and was very satisfied with Fang Xuanling's efforts.

Even so, Hou Junji was still not at ease about the secrecy. He had served soldiers for many years, and he knew that it was impossible for a surprise soldier to truly hide under the Nine Grounds.But this time, Li Shimin's request to him was to quietly forge an unprecedented sharp blade, until it was stretched to Xieli's neck, and the other party didn't notice it.This really put Hou Junji in a difficult situation. After thinking about it, he remembered an old incident when he pacified Ding Jie.When Hou Junji's army first arrived in Xiangyang, Ding Jie suffered several times. His troops stationed in the surrounding counties were constantly attacked and suffered huge losses. It seemed that the other party knew the situation of the Tang army well. The method of the festival is to constantly rob the military pay that Hou Junji transported to the front line, and judge the reality of the Tang army in each place from the amount of military pay.Just when Hou Junji was feeling very troubled, a businessman came to him and gave him a good idea: store the military salary in the merchant's shops in various places, and only issue vouchers to the officers and soldiers, and the officers and soldiers took the vouchers to go to various shops After exchanging money, since then, Ding Jie could no longer accurately grasp the reality of the Tang army, and became deaf and blind, and the situation on the battlefield was reversed.

Since the Flying Tiger Army is a soldier, it cannot use military pay. Once the pay is used, it will affect the household department, military department and local officials. No matter how careful you are in other matters, as long as you keep this ventilation window, you can hide nothing. Can't stop.Hou Junji told Li Shimin about his experience, and summed up the reason why Tibetan soldiers need to hide their wages first.Li Shimin listened with gusto, and asked Hou Junji, "Do you want to use the old method again?" Hou Junji told Li Shimin that this time he wanted to do it more thoroughly: first borrow money from the merchant, and use the merchant's money Pay to buy food, and after the battle is over, the court will pay back the money and interest to the merchants.As a result, even the account books of the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of War have no clues.Li Shimin repeatedly claimed that he slapped Hou Junji on the shoulder, and said: "There is no account in the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of War, which means that the imperial court does not have this soldier at all! The entire imperial court has been concealed, let alone Jieli? Ji, I didn't expect you, Zhang Fei, to be able to use embroidery needles!" Hou Junji smiled and said, "This is also fed with human blood."

Li Shimin asked again: "Wouldn't those businessmen tell the story?" Hou Junji shook his head and said: The credit of the real business people is their livelihood, and they will never confide even a trace of the secrets of their customers.The Flying Tiger Army has thousands of soldiers and horses, and the annual expenses are not a small amount. Li Shimin worried that no businessman could afford so much money.But Hou Junji told him: "It's not difficult for the businessman I know to come up with the money, but for such a large sum, I'm afraid Your Majesty will have to come forward to guarantee it in person."

Li Shimin gave Hou Junji a false look, and then said with a smile: "You are commanding my army, okay! For you to train this elite army, I will put down my body for a while, tell me the time, and I will personally Go borrow money for you." Hou Junji was moved, and bowed again and again: "Thank you, Lord Long En!" The next day, Hou Junji led Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling and others secretly to the wealthy businessman he said. It turned out to be the Dou family where Princess Ankang often went to learn piano.Because of the relationship in Xiangyang, Hou Junji and Dou Yi were very familiar with each other, so he explained to Dou Yi the purpose of his visit and told him that he was borrowing money for the emperor to repair the Luoyang Palace.He winked and said to Dou Yi: "Mr. Dou, we have been dealing with each other for not one or two years. The emperor borrowed money, and you can't ask for high interest."

Dou Yi couldn't believe that today's emperor would come to his mansion, he said tremblingly: "I wonder how much the court wants to borrow?" Fang Xuanling, who was accompanying Li Shimin, said: "500,000 taels of silver, it's up to you Let's decide." A young man who had been standing behind Dou said, "Since the emperor borrowed the money, we don't want it." It was Dou Yi's adoptive son Mu Yikuan who was speaking, and he took out a piece of paper and wrote four words on it. Come: "One million taels of silver", then picked up a seal and dropped it, put it in front of Li Shimin with both hands and said: "With this document, it can be used at any time in several shops in Chang'an, the villain."