Chapter 88 eighty seven

Cen Wenwen on the side knelt down on the ground and said impassionedly: "Your Majesty, isn't it just 50,000 to 60,000 troops? At worst, I, the Tang Dynasty, will recruit another 100,000 troops to deal with them. If we can't get enough people, I will let all the nephews at home Joining the army, if that's not enough, I'll put on my armor and go into battle. But I can't agree to the emperor's death!" Li Shimin glanced at Cen Wenwen and said, "You think I'm willing to take this risk just to reduce the five or six Wan Enemy? You are wrong, I went to see Tuli, not only for the battle in front of me! The Northern Expedition to the Tang Dynasty will win, I firmly believe. But after defeating Jieli cavalry, there are some things to do, have you thought about it? No? Some things cannot wait until the war is over, such as clearing up the hearts of the people. Today, we rejected Tuli and lost the heart that came to our door. How can we win the hearts of the millions of people on the grassland in the future? What about your heart?" Seeing that Li Shimin had made up his mind, all the ministers stopped talking, and Li Shimin sent an order to invite Yinan to come to Chengqing Hall to speak.

At this time, Yi Nan was sitting in that wing, waiting anxiously for the result.Suddenly, there was a burst of light laughter outside the window, and a mature woman's voice shouted: "Ankang, slow down, how can you look like a princess if you are so crazy all day long? When you get married later, the son-in-law can't come into the palace every day to tell me about this!" The queen mother didn't train you well!" Then a delicate voice yelled: "Mother, I caught it, I caught it." The mature woman's voice said: "Let the queen see, what a beautiful butterfly, hey, why did you let it go?" The delicate voice replied: "Butterflies come in pairs, if my daughter doesn't let this one go, I don't know how sad that one will be." The voice of a mature woman said again: "Well, this world belongs to me My daughter has a good heart."

Yi Nan stood up, pushed open the window, his eyes suddenly fell on a beautiful face outside the window, this young girl's face was surrounded by a group of luxuriously dressed ladies in the palace, one of them was dressed as a queen.Needless to say, this girl is Princess Ankang.She also held a bamboo pole in her hand. At one end of the pole was a small copper ring with cobwebs wrapped around it. It was a tool used by children to catch butterflies. Empress Changsun saw the eyes of the young man peeking out of the window and asked, "Who are these people?" An eunuch behind her whispered a few words, Empress Changsun nodded slightly, and glanced at Yi Nan again. , said to Ankang: "Go, take a look at the other side of the garden." Ankang looked at the weird expressions of the eunuch and the queen, showing a thoughtful expression, followed the empress Changsun and walked forward, took a few steps, and turned his head suddenly, only to see Yi The man was still looking at himself from the window.Ankang muttered, "What's the matter, it's so mysterious."

At this moment, Zhang Xuansu was already carrying the hem of his robe and ran into the wing room covered in sweat, shouting: "Young leader, hurry up, the emperor invites you in." Yi Nan responded and walked out, but when he reached the door, Turning around again, he glanced at Ankang's back. The secret meeting between Li Shimin and Yi Nan lasted for nearly two hours. Through the meeting, Li Shimin learned a lot about the situation in the Jieli Ministry, and he believed even more that Tuli and the others really had the sincerity of the alliance.After sending Yi Nan away, Li Shimin immediately made a decision that he would take his eldest grandson Wuji to Yunzhong and order the prince to supervise the country.At the same time, Wei Zheng was sent to Jiangnan, Shandong and other places to speed up the preparations for the Northern Expedition's grain and grass. After the preparations for the alliance, the Northern Expedition will be chosen at an opportunity.

Li Shimin was well aware of the huge risks of this alliance, so he sent Zhang Xuansu to go north first to be in charge of contacting Yi Nan and others, and asked Changsun Wuji to carefully arrange his itinerary. Soldiers support. Yi Nan returned to the inn where he was staying, and Hetai came back from Pingkangfang when it was getting dark. Yi Nan told Hetai that he found out that an old friend happened to be in the Flying Tiger Army today. This person is Wu Guogong's nephew. The only thing he wants to do is to gamble, and he has already asked another old friend to invite him to a meeting at the inn, and by the way, get news about the Flying Tiger Army from him.Hetai had a lot of fun during the day, and when he came back to hear such good news, his face burst into smiles, and he repeatedly praised Yi Nan for walking wildly in Chang'an and finding friends everywhere.

Sure enough, an officer came the next day, and Yi Nan seemed to know him very well, and called him Third Brother Qin. The man didn't say much after he came in, and took out a pair of dice to gamble with Yi Nan and Hetai.After a whole morning of gambling, the visitor lost everything. Yi Nan put away the dice and said, "Brother Qin, let's play another day, this last one is not counted." But Brother Qin said, "How can this work?" Come on, follow me back to the camp, I have money in the camp, let’s go there and continue playing.” Hetai pretended to show a trace of fear, and said, “I’m a businessman, how dare I go to the military camp? Can't you wait here?"

Third Brother Qin shook his head and said, "That's not possible. If you slip away, follow me." Yi Nan pretended to be surprised and asked, "The camp also allows gambling?" Third Brother Qin said, "What's so strange about that?" , People in our Flying Tiger Army gamble in the camp every day." Qin Sange led them, and several people walked through the streets and alleys to the gate of the Flying Tiger Barracks, where a few soldiers guarding the gate were standing loosely. They were let in without questioning.After entering the gate, Hetai looked around, only to see that there was no one practicing on the school field, and the sound of gambling could be heard from every tent.

Hetai asked a little strangely: "Why, are they not afraid of being supervised by officials when they gather together so openly?" Third Brother Qin pointed to the big tent and said, "Responsible? Who is in charge? Who is in charge? Listen over there, when Officials gamble more vigorously than us!" After chatting along the way, Hetai finally realized that Li Shimin originally hoped to train an elite army to deal with Xieli, and many princes and ministers heard that this was a shortcut to promotion and wealth After sending his children here, Li Chengqian couldn't restrain himself, and military discipline became more and more lax day by day. Li Shimin came here twice at the beginning, and then never came again.Brother Qin San said: "Now the emperor doesn't count on this army anymore. The whole army is waiting for a decree to send us away one day. It's good that we have a leisure time and can gamble every day." Obviously, this The Flying Tiger Army could not be compared with the Flying Tiger Army during the Battle of Bianqiao, Hetai secretly revealed a smile in his heart.

Now that they have found the news they want to spy on, the two don't stay any longer, and quickly set off on their way back to report to Jieli.In Ashina's Khan Tent, Hetai and Yinan described what they saw in the Flying Tiger Army to Jieli and his generals sentence by sentence, and the generals laughed so hard that their stomachs ached.In the end, Hetai concluded: "Now this Flying Tiger Army has become a laughing stock. People in Chang'an are talking behind their backs that it is not a Flying Tiger Army, but a 'trash army'!" A general shouted: " It was spread so viciously, it turned out to be a group of wine bags and rice bags!" Everyone laughed again.

Soon the laughter stopped, Jie Li looked at them face-on, and said after a long time, "Why don't you laugh anymore?" Everyone looked at each other and dared not say anything. Jieli went on to say: "Do you think that with such a flying tiger army in Chang'an, you can underestimate Li Shimin? What if he put it up on purpose to confuse us? The news from the Tanma Report yesterday also said that Li Shimin recruited two more soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of government soldiers were sent to the northern towns. Yuchi Jingde, Li Shi, Chai Shao and other capable generals of the Tang army were all transferred to the Great Wall. Hou Junji also returned to Chang'an from Xiangyang. What is the purpose of Li Shimin's arrangement? Have you thought about it?"