Chapter 273: The Grand Marshal of the Army of the World, Hebei Province
It was not Di Renjie's sudden idea to direct Xueyantuo's target towards the Uighurs and other tribes, but actually it was also Li Xiang's idea.

Of course, he did not want to divert trouble to the north and harm the Huihe and other tribes. As early as half a month ago, Li Xiang had already made arrangements with the Huihe and other tribes.

Not only the Uighurs, in fact Li Xiang also ordered people to remind the Turks. However, the traitor in the Turks was a high-ranking official, making it difficult to guard against.

After all, Li Xiang could not have imagined that Ashina Hongen would collude with Xueyantuo to raid Dingxiang.

If Li Xiang could predict such an abstract thing, he would be a true god.

Bazhuo was also very tight-lipped. He did not tell anyone about the traitor within the Turkic community.

After escaping Dingxiang with Datushe, the frightened Ashina Moduo first went to the army stationed in the south, and then went all the way to Chang'an under the escort of others.

This matter is so big that he has to report it personally.

However, after taking a few steps, he met the special envoy sent by Li Daozon to recruit Turkic troops.

After learning about this, the envoy did not dare to delay and rushed back to the Shuozhou base with his men.

After seeing Li Daozon, Ashina Moduo burst into tears as if he had seen a relative, and told him about what happened to the Turks in Dingxiang.

"This is outrageous!" Li Dao Zong slammed the table and immediately ordered: "Pass my order, the whole army must prepare for battle, send Hongling to rush 800 miles to Youzhou to report this to Duke Ying!"

In addition, Li Daozon sent an urgent envoy named Hongling to Chang'an to report the news. As for Dadushe and Ashina Moduo, they just followed behind slowly.

Shuozhou is closer to Youzhou than to Chang'an.

The news first entered Youzhou. After Li Shiji learned that the Turks were once again severely beaten by the Xueyantuo, he immediately sent urgent envoys to the Khitan, Mohe, Uighur and other tribes to discuss how to fight against the Xueyantuo.

Li Shiji also sent a letter to Su Dingfang and Liu Rengui, telling them of the emergency situation and asking them to be prepared to temporarily fight the Silla rebels alone.

Li Shiji redeployed his troops and prepared to guard against the invasion of Xueyantuo.

On May 25th, the Hongling envoy sent by Li Daozon also arrived in Chang'an City.

After learning that the Xueyantuo marched south and attacked Dingxiang, Li Shimin was furious.

He urgently convened a court meeting and called Li Simo, who was still serving as a guard in the capital, to discuss countermeasures.

"Just five days ago, Xueyantuo Khan Yinan died of illness, and his son Bazhuo proclaimed himself Xueyantuo Khan." Li Shimin looked around and then set his sights on Li Simo: "On the night Yinan died of illness, Bazhuo led his army south and marched straight to Dingxiang."

"Ashina Hongen colluded with Bazhuo and opened the gate of Dingxiang as an insider. Dingxiang was attacked by the Xueyantuo army that day. Only a few people in Dingxiang, including Ashina Moduo and Datushe, the son of the former Xueyantuo Khan Yinan, escaped. The rest either surrendered to Xueyantuo or were captured by Xueyantuo."

Li Shimin's words were like a heavy hammer, hitting Li Simo's heart.

After hearing that the Xueyantuo had breached Dingxiang City and only a handful of people escaped, Li Simo felt a sharp pain in his heart, and he fainted in the court without being able to breathe.

"Prince!" Everyone stepped forward and hurried to check what had happened to Li Simo.

"Call the imperial physician." Changsun Wuji shouted first, and then began to maintain order.

Soon, the imperial physician Qian Shu walked into the hall and began to examine Li Simo's condition.

After a while, Qian Shu stood up and said to Li Shimin: "Your Majesty, the Prince of Huaihua is just angry and has no serious problem."

After a while, Li Simo also woke up.

After waking up, the first thing he did was beat his chest and stamp his feet.

Although he wants to live in Chang'an City permanently, it doesn't mean that he has no feelings for his tribesmen.

"Don't worry, Prince Huaihua." Li Shimin comforted him and said, "The letter also stated that Ashina Moduo's troops and several other troops are still under the protection of Prince Jiangxia and Duke Ying. They are still safe for the time being. There are still more than 100,000 civilians and more than 20,000 elite soldiers."

Li Simo covered his face and continued to sob.

"Your Majesty, Xueyantuo's actions are truly outrageous." Changsun Wuji was the first to speak out: "Bazhuo openly attacked Dingxiang and treated our Tang Dynasty as nothing. This outrageous behavior must be punished!"

"I and your Excellency second this motion." Li Simo stood up and agreed with Changsun Wuji along with the other ministers.

"It's just..." Liu Li frowned and asked, "It was already decided last time to help the Silla royal family quell the civil strife and punish the criminals. Now the Xueyantuo are rebelling again. Although the Tang Dynasty is strong, it cannot fight on two fronts. What can we do?"

"Silla is a minor problem, while Xueyantuo is a serious threat." Changsun Wuji said, "If Xueyantuo unifies the grassland, the threat to the Tang Dynasty will be far more severe than that of Silla. I suggest that we put aside the issue of Silla for the time being and focus on dealing with the threat from the grassland!"

"What Changsun Sikong said is very true." Fang Xuanling expressed his support: "The threat to Silla lies in the internal strife in Silla. There is still the King of Silla to support it, and the Andong Protectorate is its backer, so it will not be in danger for the time being; but Xueyantuo has already annexed Dingxiang. If it is allowed to grow stronger, it will become a threat to our Tang Dynasty!"

Hearing what the two said, Li Shimin nodded slightly.

Li Simo also came out and said, "Last time, I wanted to accept the King of Wei's proposal to remove the Turkic name, submit to the Tang Dynasty, and completely accept the Tang culture. Unfortunately, people in my clan, led by Hong En, strongly opposed it, so the plan did not come true. Now that Dingxiang has been attacked by Xueyantuo, our Turks have no place to go. I would like to submit again, remove the Turkic name, and completely submit to the Tang Dynasty. I hope Your Majesty will approve it!"

After saying that, Li Simo knelt on the ground and bowed deeply.

"Since Prince Huaihua is interested, I think this is feasible." Li Tai spoke first.

However, just after Li Tai finished speaking, a person he never expected came out to express his support for him.

"I also think it is feasible." Li Chengqian also said.

Of course, Li Chengqian was not supporting Li Tai. He knew that this bad idea was proposed by Li Xiang.

Since it was my eldest son who proposed it, wouldn’t it be nice for me, as his father, to support him?
Seeing that the Crown Prince and the King of Wei both agreed to accept the Turks' complete submission, all the ministers looked at each other and expressed their support.

However, what no one expected was that two opposing voices sounded at the same time.

"No!" Those who spoke out against it were Li Shimin and the Crown Prince Li Xiang.

Everyone looked at the two in astonishment. No, what was going on?

Li Shimin glanced at Li Xiang with relief and motioned for him to speak first: "Grandson, tell me, why not?"

"As the suzerain of the Turks, we naturally cannot take advantage of them." Li Xiang crossed his arms and said righteously, "Moreover, as the Celestial Empire, how can we do such mean things? Even if we had not surrendered, we would have sent troops to seek justice for the Turks."

"What's more, the Turks have already submitted to the Tang Dynasty and have become the northern vassal of the Tang Dynasty. If we sit back and watch the Xueyantuo annex the Turks, where will the credibility and prestige of the Tang Dynasty be?"

"As for the rest, I think we can discuss it after we defeat Xueyantuo. The most urgent task now is to defeat Xueyantuo first, and then discuss the matter of submission!"

Hearing Li Xiang's words, Li Shimin nodded with satisfaction.

Good, this grandson...is similar to me!
Li Chengqian and Li Tai looked at each other, then both looked at Li Xiang with fierce faces.

Oh, you little bastard...

Despicable behavior? So in your eyes, your father and your second uncle are villains?
For the first time since Empress Changsun's death, Li Chengqian and Li Tai felt a deep empathy for each other, and they also had the same idea.

This Li Xiaoxiang deserves a beating!
Li Simo certainly thought about what Li Shimin would say, but he never expected that Li Xiang would be so synchronized with Li Shimin.

After hearing Li Xiang's words, Li Simo knew that his surrender was definitely a sure thing.

Not only is this matter settled, but their future life in the Tang Dynasty will be smooth sailing for at least a few decades.

Li Xiang did not give up benefits just for the sake of the Tang Dynasty's reputation as the Celestial Empire. Relatively speaking, if he could defeat the Xueyantuo, no one in the Turkic tribe would dare to object. But if he just accepted it, it would be somewhat suspected of taking advantage of someone's misfortune, and there might be people within the Turkic tribe who would think that the Tang Dynasty was taking advantage of someone's misfortune.

In this way, the Turks will also completely surrender... Well, it has nothing to do with the hundreds of thousands of Tang troops behind us. We in the Tang Dynasty are peace-loving.

The little elephant is now doing his best to maintain Lao Li's glory and strive to uphold this "kingly way".

"What the Crown Prince said is very much in line with my opinion!" Li Shimin nodded and said, "The matter of the Turkic people's submission is not urgent for the time being. The most urgent task is to defeat the Xueyantuo first!"

"Your Majesty, I beg to fight!" Li Xiang said again: "I am willing to capture Xueyantuo Khan Bazhuo alive and bring him to Chang'an to be punished!"

Li Shimin certainly knew Li Xiang's ability. He originally wanted to agree, but then he remembered that his wife was pregnant.

"The Crown Prince's wife is pregnant, so it's better for the Crown Prince to stay in Chang'an. What's more, we have the Duke of Ying and the Prince of Jiangxia in the north. They will take care of things." Li Shimin said.

Li Xiang said, "Your Majesty, I think the Xueyantuo incident is very strange. I am afraid there is another reason. That is why I asked to lead the army to fight."

"Oh?" Li Shimin immediately took Li Xiang's words seriously and said, "Tell me, what's so strange about this?"

Li Xiang organized his words and then said, "I think that there is civil unrest in Silla at this time, and the Tang Dynasty has already recruited troops and prepared to punish the criminals; and the Xueyantuo may want to take advantage of this opportunity to profit from the chaos, so they went south to annex the Dingxiang Turks during this window of opportunity."

"But the same thing happened once in the 15th year of Zhenguan. The Xueyantuo troops led by my half-brother Dadushe were defeated by Duke Ying with 3,000 cavalry. Logically speaking, the Xueyantuo would not dare to invade the Tang Dynasty for another ten years."

"Silla is a small country, a tiny place with a population of only a million and a small piece of land. How can it contain the Tang Dynasty's heavenly soldiers?" Li Xiang continued: "Besides, Silla is already in civil war at this time. The Silla royal army alone is enough to give the rebels a headache, let alone the Tang Dynasty's heavenly soldiers? Ba Zhuo couldn't have thought of this."

"Therefore, I think that Bazhuo must rely on someone else!" Li Xiang said with the final word.

"Someone else?" Li Shimin stroked his beard and pondered for a moment. Then he looked at Fang Xuanling and Zhangsun Wuji, and they all said in astonishment: "Western Turks?"

"I only have a suspicion, but it's not accurate." Li Xiang pointed at the map and said, "In the 16th year of Zhenguan, the Western Turks invaded Yizhou and were repelled by Anxi Protector General Guo Xiaoke. Although they were defeated this time, it also exposed a fact, that is, the Western Turks are still intent on our Western Regions, and will continue to invade once the time is ripe."

"If it's just the Western Turks, Xueyantuo, or Silla, none of them would pose a threat to the Tang Dynasty." Li Xiang continued, stretching out his hand and drawing Silla, Xueyantuo, and Western Turks on the map. "If Silla, Xueyantuo, and Western Turks collude with each other, they can cause trouble to the Tang Dynasty in three directions. And these three places are too far apart. The momentum of the three countries is just like the snake of Changshan. If you hit its head, its tail will come, if you hit its tail, its head will come, if you hit its middle, both the head and the tail will come. Perhaps this is the reason why Bazhuo had the courage to invade the south."

Li Xiang's analysis made sense and everyone nodded in agreement.

In fact, everyone in the Tang Dynasty court was relatively familiar with Ba Zhuo.

"If the Western Turks invade Anxi Protectorate again, and at the same time, the Xueyantuo also move south again..." Zhangsun Wuji's eyes gleamed, "Bazhuo has made a good plan. He attacked Dingxiang and will not move south again. Perhaps he is waiting for the Western Turks to take action."

"If this is really the alliance, what Changsun Situ said makes sense." Xiao Yu nodded.

"Whether the Crown Prince's guess is correct or not, I think it's always better to be cautious." Ma Zhou said immediately: "I think we should quickly send someone to notify the Anxi Protectorate and order Guo Xiaoke to prepare and guard against the Western Turks invading Anxi again!"

"Yes, Prince Bin is right." Li Shimin nodded slightly and said, "Send an urgent envoy to Anxi Protectorate to order Guo Xiaoke to prepare the army for war."

As he said this, he looked at Li Xiang again.

Old Li was actually also struggling over whether or not to let Li Xiang lead the army into battle.

Little elephants are very rare, so Li Shimin was somewhat reluctant to let him go on the expedition.

But then again, as the Grand Protector of the Andong Protectorate and the Grand Governor of the Dengzhou Protectorate, Li Xiang naturally has the ability to integrate the two places.

Dengzhou is prosperous and was built by Li Xiang. The officials there also have a close relationship with Li Xiang. If something is transferred from Dengzhou, they dare not have any objections.

In that case, just send him there, just to relax.

Seeing Li Shimin's hesitation, Li Xiang nodded at him eagerly.

Seeing his eldest grandson's anxious look, Li Shimin laughed in his heart.

He finally gave the order: "Send an order, appoint the Crown Prince Li Xiang as the Grand Marshal of the Army, the Grand Chancellor of Hebei and Henan, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Warfare!"

(Ask for some monthly tickets)
(End of this chapter)