Seeing the three brothers of the Xue family kneeling in front of him, Li Chongjiu said, "Okay, I didn't intend to pursue it, but not punishing it is not enough to convince the public, and it is not enough to explain to all the officials in the court. Xue Wanshu, Xue Wanche, and Xue Wanjun, you three are demoted to one rank each, and their salary will be fined for half a year."

"I thank Your Majesty for your kindness."

Even if they were punished, the three brothers of the Xue family would kneel down and thank Li Chongjiu. Otherwise, how could they say that Thunder and Rain are all Jun's kindness?

The ministers below did not dare to say anything when they saw Li Chongjiu scolding the three brothers of the Xue family. The Great Zhao Pingtang was about to come, and the arrogant soldiers and generals in the court below could deal with themselves.

Li Chongjiu was different from Liu Bang. When Liu Bang won the world, he was already in his fifties. He was worried that his descendants would not be able to control the meritorious ministers left by that year, so he cut them off one after another. Li Chongjiu was only thirty years old and the Spring and Autumn Period was in full swing, so there was no need to worry at all.

After the sanction of the Tang Dynasty, there was still a vast Western Region to gallop. As for the Japanese on the sea east, it was also a place where soldiers could be used. The cavalry of the Great Zhao could still attack from all directions, without any worries about the useless place for the good generals and finally backfire.

However, the Xue family was too powerful in Da Zhao. At present, Li Chongjiu was hitting moderately, which gave them a room for advance and retreat. But the warning was enough. If you hold on to it, you would have to hide your bow and cook the dog.

"This matter ends here, but I hope that all the ministers will learn from it and not be arrogant when they are successful. I hope to share the world with you, and I don't want to find that there are few faces missing at the end of the year." Li Chongjiu said.

When the ministers heard this, they breathed a sigh of relief, but many of them were sweating profusely.

The following topic returned to the attack on the Tang Dynasty. Many ministers thought that since Li Shimin was so afraid of the Great Zhao attacking the Tang Dynasty, then the next step of Li Chongjiu must be to implement the strategy of attacking the Tang Dynasty in the court.

But when Li Chongjiu said, "Unifying the world is my long-cherished wish, and it is also my great Zhao soldiers. There is only one last step left to pacify the world, and the strategy to attack the Tang Dynasty is not allowed to be further improved. Although luck is given by heaven, the achievements are achieved by people. I don't have time to wait too long. If I don't do thunder, are you still waiting for Li Shimin to tie his hands to surrender to me?"

"But I have adopted the considerations of all the ministers. I will not be Fu Jian, so it will be two years later when I will attack the Tang Dynasty! Within two years, the whole country will train troops, and our army will accumulate grain. As for the six government troops, all the troops will be expanded to 30,000, and the court guards will be expanded to 20,000, which will be a total of 200,000. As for the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, I ordered Song Jingang and Xiao Xian to be the governors of the navy, to build ships and train navy. Within two years, the ships have been completed and the soldiers are trained, and then they will attack the Tang Dynasty."

After Li Chongjiu said this, all the ministers present were happy and said it was together.

Chang'an City.

Li Shimin saw the secret memo sent from Youjing, put it on his desk, turned around and stared at the first snow outside the hall.

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui looked at each other, and they were all silent.

Li Shimin said for a long time: "Two years, two years later, will the snow scene still be the same?"

"Your Majesty, two years are not long, but it is enough if you rest and wait for battle." Fang Xuanling said to Li Shimin.

Du Ruhui said: "I'm afraid Li Chongjiu has no room for us to prepare. He just received the news that the Zhao army continued to mobilize troops to Jiangzhou, Hexi and Xiangfan to transport food and grass. It seems that they are going to prepare for a big battle. Even within two years, they will not give us a chance to breathe. They are preparing to take down Jiangzhou, Hexi and Xiangfan first to pave the way for the decisive battle and create a favorable situation. This is a strategy to slow down first and then urgently. Li Chongjiu's use of troops is really unsightly."

Li Shimin turned around and said, "I am not worried about the decisive battle in the future, but it's a pity that Xue Shou and Situ Qiu."

Fang Xuanling stepped forward and lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, this is a mistake for the minister. This plan for death is recommended by the minister to Your Majesty. Therefore, the deaths of both of them are all the blame for the minister."

Li Shimin looked at Fang Xuanling and said, "Sun Tzu's art of war says that the dead spies are lies outside, so that I can hear and know it and pass it on to the enemy. For those who are dead spies, they will definitely die. It's just Xuanling, your strategy has not been hidden from Li Chongjiu, or he is unmoved."

Fang Xuanling was full of shame. Xue Shou and Situ Qiu was arrested by Zhao State's news. He had long expected that he would pass on the false information that Li Tang was afraid of Li Chongjiu's attack on Tang through Xue Shou and Situ Qiu's two deaths, and then use the help of the ministers in Zhao State's court to defeat the Turks and Goguryeo, and then make the decision to attack Tang.

When this strategy was first implemented, Fang Xuanling reported to Li Shimin that although the State of Zhao was now strong, it had a sudden victory in the Turks, Goguryeo, and the soldiers and horses were suddenly defeated. It was the time when the soldiers and generals were arrogant. Although they were strong, they had a gap to take advantage of. As for the Turks, Liaodong, Lingnan, and Jianghuai, they were all newly surrendered, and the scholars and the people were prone to repeated recurrences.

If the Tang army defeated the Zhao army in one battle at this time, the advantages between the two countries would be reversed, and even if the two armies were in harmony, it would be beneficial and harmless to Li Tang.

Therefore, Fang Xuanling deliberately sent Xue Shou to lobby Xue Wanshu and spread the news that Li Tang was afraid of Zhao's attack on Tang. Unexpectedly, Li Chongjiu saw through Fang Xuanling's strategy and spent two years to cultivate troops and accumulate grain to prepare for a decisive battle with Li Tang.

Du Ruhui said: "Brother Fang's plan is good. If it were Li Mi, Du Fuwei, Dou Jiande and others, they would definitely fall into the trap, but it would not be enough to deal with Li Chongjiu. This person is not moved by external things and has his own opinions and judgments, so he is actually a strong enemy."

Li Shimin turned around and said with a smile: "Okay, Fang Qing doesn't have to blame himself. I have a responsibility for this matter. Two years, I have two years to prepare for the war. Who knows what will happen in the future? Since Li Chongjiu thought that the chance of defeating the decisive battle in two years, then I will take a look with him. Fighting with such an opponent is actually the biggest challenge in my life. It is necessary to defeat it with dignity to show my ability."

After hearing what Li Shimin said, Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui showed excitement. Li Shimin was really the heroic lord. He was so vigorous at any time. Even Li Yuan could not match this. If it were not for Li Chongjiu, neither of them would think that there would be someone else who could replace Li Shimin and become the lord of the world.

Du Ruhui also smiled and said, "Fortunately, Li Chongjiu has no weakness at all. He has only mediocre troops and has less command than His Majesty at the moment. I think it is a decisive battle at the moment, so it is our chance."

After hearing Du Ruhui say this, Fang Xuanling nodded slightly, and Li Shimin just smiled.

While the monarch and ministers were talking, footsteps from outside came in a hurry.

After entering the inner hall, a general knelt on the ground and hurriedly said, "Report to Your Majesty, the general of Zhao army, Wang Junkuo, led 50,000 Turks ten days ago, and obtained Xi cavalry, dug up the border wall and rushed into Hexi, breaking more than 20 cities in a row. Governor Yang could not resist, so he asked for help from Your Majesty. This is urgent!"

Even if Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruhui were always calm and experienced storms for a long time, he heard that Wang Junkuo rushed into Hexi and galloped across the river, as if he had entered a state of no one, his scalp was still numb.

With the pressure from Hanoi and Xiangfan now, Zhao State has only taken out one-third of its troops, which has forced Li Tang to be strong. Now, Zhao State has better than Li Tang, regardless of its territory, its population. If Li Chongjiu is willing to cultivate troops and accumulate grain to prepare for war, the time when Zhao State transforms its real potential into strength is the time when Li Tang is most afraid of it.

No matter how good Li Shimin is at governing the country, he cannot change all this. When the gap between money, food and military strength continues to widen, Fang Xuanling's concerns will become a reality. Two years later, the huge gap between Tang and Zhao may be even greater.

But for Li Shimin, he had no time to think about so much. How to repel the attack of Wang Junkuo's 50,000 troops is the key at present.

Four years of innovation,

In October, Zhao State general Wang Junguo led 50,000 troops to attack Hexi. Li Shimin revived general Qu Tutong, and used Yang Shidao and Chai Shao as deputy to lead the army to attack north and repel the harassment of Zhao's army.

In the same month, Li Tang Prime Minister Xiao Yu rebelled against Tang and returned to Zhao, and Li Chongjiu appointed Xiao Yu as Duke Xu.

In December, Xu Shiji led 30,000 troops to go south and took advantage of the snowy weather to attack Xiangyang. Li Tang and Zhang Gongjin led his army to defend the death, and the Zhao army finally returned in vain.

In January of the fifth year of the reform, Li Chong conferred the son of Concubine Su and was named Li Tong.

It was the month, and the imperial concubine Li Zhiwan was pregnant.

In February, Lujiang King Li Yuan surrendered to Zhao, Yuchi Gong and Xue Wanjun took the opportunity to lead the troops southward, break through the Tang army's defense line, and capture the Tang army's three counties in Hedong.

Li Shimin issued an edict to scold Duan Zhixuan, the general manager of Jiangzhou, and did not dare to fight. After Duan Zhixuan was scolded by Li Shimin, he attacked and counterattacked, but was defeated by Yuchi Gong.

In March, Li Xiaogong, the famous general of Li Tang, died suddenly during a banquet in Chang'an Mansion. There were many different opinions in Chang'an City, and some people suspected that Li Shimin secretly sent someone to poison Li Xiaogong. The Li Tang royal family was even more anxious all day long.

In May, Xue Wanshu and Shan Xiongxin led their troops from Luoyang to attack Nanyang, and the two armies won and lost each other.

In the same month, Wang Mahan led the newly trained 30,000 Yi Guards to Luoyang, and Xue Wanche also led the newly trained 30,000 Wu Guards to Yingchuan, while Xu Shiji led the garrison troops, and Shan Xiongxin led the Hou Guards to retreat to Hebei for rest.

The four major government troops implemented rotational battle strategies, and anyone with discerning eyes could see that Li Chongjiu was clearly using government troops to train Li Tang.

In July, Xue Wanche had just been transferred to Henan, and there was no rest for a moment. Xue Wanche met with Song Jingang and Xiao Xian, the general of Jiangnan Road, and led an army of 50,000 to attack Xiangyang from both sides of water and land.

Seeing that Zhao's army was coming fiercely, Zhang Gongjin immediately asked Li Jing for emergency.

The two armies fought hard around Xiangyang City for more than 20 days, but Zhang Gongjin was not in support. Seeing that Xiangyang was about to be destroyed, Li Jing personally led 5,000 elite troops to detour Xue Wanche's army and cut off the Zhao army's food route. Xue Wanche was unable to resist being attacked from both sides and could only order the troops to retreat.

In August, the imperial concubine Li Zhiwan gave birth to a prince for Li Chongjiu. Li Chongjiu was very happy and ordered a general amnesty for the whole world.

In that month, Wang Mahan defeated the Tang army in Nanyang and captured Nanyang County.

In September, the Turkic Khan Ashina Momo colluded with Li Tang to rebel. Li Chongjiu ordered the suppression and ordered Wang Junkuo, Tuli, and Yinghefu to attack Ashina Momo in three ways.
Chapter completed!