Chapter 337: Before fighting against the outside world, one must first make peace with the inside
Even if a young man like Murong Zhou had some courage, he was not worthy of Li Yuanhui's attention. With strong men like Chang Yanheng, Zhang Zhen'e, Yuchi Jingde and Luo Shixiang around him, ordinary warriors would not be worth his attention.

However, his father Murong Xu is now the Minister of the Imperial Guards, one of the Nine Ministers, in charge of the armory in Chang'an, which is an important position.

This kind of person is worth winning over.

But if you openly try to win over Murong Xu, that would definitely be a taboo. After all, Murong Xu is Li Yuan's man, and he is one of the meritorious officials of the Yuan Cong faction who followed Li Yuan for a long time.

Li Yuanhui would not bother about this, but he could establish some connections through Murong Zhou.

He didn't need Murong Xu to speak for him, he just needed to pass on some information to him. And he believed that Murong Xu would understand what he meant.

As for Murong Wuji, Li Yuanhui directly submitted a memorial to recommend him as the Secretary of the Central Secretariat.

As the first official recommended by the King of Qi, it was not a particularly high-ranking position, but it was a relatively noble position and he could keep abreast of the developments in the palace and the court at any time.

After thinking about it, Li Yuan agreed to this recommendation because he was aware of the concerns of the fourth brother.

However, Murong Wuji's appointment had just been confirmed, and he had not yet been sent to Luoyang to summon him to the court, when the fourth brother's letter of recommendation arrived again.

He recommended Lu Xiang as Shangshu Youcheng and Gao Zhixing as Menxia Shilang.

The Shangshu Zuo Cheng and Zuo Cheng were high-ranking officials in the Shangshu Province, below the Zuo Pushe and Zuo Pushe, and were able to participate in confidential matters and the formulation and implementation of strategies.

The position of Menxia Shilang was also very important, ranking below Shizhong.

Li Yuanhui is currently serving as the Minister of the Interior, so the Minister of the Interior has become the actual person in charge.
Li Yuanhui also gave the reasons for recommending these two people, they are both from Hebei.

Gao Zhixing was from the Gao family of Bohai and was from Jizhou.

Lu Xiang was from the Fanyang Lu family and was a native of Youzhou.

Li Yuan immediately understood what Li Yuanhui meant. This was a strategy to attack Northern Yan's heart.

Although the emperor had not changed and was still Murong Yang, he moved from Luoyang to Ji County, and the original "Eastern Yan" became "Northern Yan".

Because of the change in the main body of the political power, the current Northern Yan court is filled with Hebei gentry.

The number one powerful official, the Grand Chancellor of all provinces, the Commander-in-Chief of all military forces at home and abroad, the General of the Cavalry, the Grand Marshal, the Recorder of the Secretariat, Duke of Han Liu Xuanji, was a native of Zhuo County, Youzhou.

Lu Qinzhi, the Shangshu Zuo Pushe, was from the Fanyang Lu family and a native of Youzhou.

The Minister of the Central Secretariat, Cui Liyong, was from the Qinghe Cui family and was a native of Jizhou.

Of course, in addition to the strategy of winning hearts and minds, this was also a way of carrying out a private agenda. But there was no other way, so Li Yuan agreed.

Because the court is so big, can't it accommodate a few people recommended by the King of Qi?

If you don't even give me this little bit of face, how can you expect the Jianghuai elite troops under the King of Qi to work for the Tang Dynasty?
In addition, these two people are also very suitable to be the face of the store. They have suitable qualifications and impeccable abilities.

Li Yuanhui did not push further. His foundation was not in the court, so it was meaningless to fight for it. Instead, it would cause Li Yuan and his second brother to reject him. It was unnecessary.

After all this coming and going, it was already the end of the first year of Wude.

Murong Wuji also set out from Luoyang to Chang'an to take office, and Li Yuanhui personally saw him off. Murong Wuji also knew the significance of Li Yuanhui's recommendation of him, so he expressed his attitude very clearly: "As long as the King of Qi has an order, no one dares to disobey."

As the year draws to a close, military operations should have been suspended. But in the dead of winter, some people refused to celebrate the New Year.

A heavy snowstorm in the northern desert froze countless cattle and sheep to death. The Turks had a hard winter, so they turned their attention to the south. The Turks divided their troops into five groups and launched an army of hundreds of thousands to invade the Central Plains.

They attacked Youzhou, Bingzhou, Longyou and Guanzhong respectively.

Liu Xuanji led his cavalry quickly back to Youzhou from Jizhou, and fought several battles with the Turks in Yuyang, winning all of them.

In Chang'an, Li Yuan asked Li Er and Li San to be responsible for the defense of Longyou and Guanzhong respectively.

Due to the lack of war horses, the Tang Dynasty could only be in a strategic defensive state. However, in terms of tactics and local battlefields, the elite cavalry of the Tang army continued to use their equipment advantages to drive out the Turkic cavalry and stationed large troops at strategic roads and dangerous passes.

The Turks had no chance to gain anything and faced a strong counterattack from the Central Plains army, so they had to return empty-handed.

However, in the early stage, it still caused considerable losses to Longyou and northern Guanzhong under the rule of the Tang Dynasty. More than 10,000 people were abducted by the Turks and taken northward, but fortunately, Jin Wang Li Xuanqing sent troops in time to rescue the people and livestock abducted by the Turks.

After the Turks were expelled, the King of Qin returned to Chang'an and immediately proposed in the court meeting to recover Shuofang, which is the Hetao region.

Shuofang, Yunzhong and other counties were ceded to the Turks after Murong Zan, a commoner of Liang, rebelled and signed an alliance with them.

The Shuofang, or Hetao region, is located just to the north of Guanzhong. If a military town could be established in Hetao to resist the Turks, the security of Guanzhong would be greatly increased.

The King of Qin's initiative also caused considerable controversy.

There were generally two opinions in the court of Chang'an. One was that Shuofang had been part of the Central Plains since the Han Dynasty and must be taken back, but there was no rush. After all, the world was not unified yet, and Hebei, Youji and Bingzhou had higher priority.

Another opinion is that we should send troops to retake Shuofang immediately in the second year of Wude. After Shuofang is returned, Guanzhong will be stable, and a stable Guanzhong will naturally be more conducive to the unification of the world.

It is hard to tell which of the two opinions is right or wrong, but Li Yuan is worried that using military force against Shuofang at this time will lead to a war with the Turks.

Especially now, the Tang Dynasty was just established and had not yet completed the unification of the world. Guanzhong was also exhausted due to years of war.

Furthermore, if we want to recapture Shuofang, we will need to mobilize a huge amount of resources. If we waste our national strength, will Liu Xuanji in Hebei take advantage of the situation?

These are all factors that need to be considered.

However, the King of Qin, who caused this controversy, did not strongly push for the use of military force against Shuofang. It seemed that after proposing it, nothing happened.

In the end, Li Yuan directly rejected the suggestion of sending troops to Shuofang at this time, and proposed a resolution to personally lead an expedition to Hebei after the new year.

He also said that Northern Yan was a serious threat that must be eradicated first, as the saying goes, "To resist foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the internal situation."

In the first month of the second year of Wude, before the fifteenth day, Li Yuan sent an envoy to Luoyang to serve as a vanguard and to consult Li Yuanhui on behalf of the emperor about the use of troops in Hebei.

Li Yuanhui was prepared for this, as he had already discussed the military strategy with his staff, and simply sent the envoy back to Chang'an with the proposed actions.

The general idea of ​​this strategy is to take Bingzhou first, and then use Bingzhou's geographical location to gain a dominant position over Hebei.

In terms of time, it took three to five years to capture Bingzhou, and eight years to capture Hebei, which can be regarded as a gradual process. It took a few more years to recuperate and accumulate food and grass, and then divided the troops into three routes, namely Nanyang, Bashu, and Jianghuai, to attack and destroy Cao Xuan in Jingzhou.

After taking Jingzhou, he organized a large number of naval forces upstream and sailed down the Yangtze River, destroying the Eastern Wei in one fell swoop.
The entire strategy of unifying the world will take about a dozen years, and the basic order is north first, south later, difficult first, easy later.

From a purely strategic feasibility perspective, there is no problem, but Li Yuan is obviously not satisfied.

Because he is not young anymore, he is almost 60 years old, who knows how many years he can live?

(End of this chapter)