"Although the Tubo Kingdom claims to have over 100,000 troops, they have to station 20,000 near the southern border, and over 10,000 near the border with Tuyuhun. There are also quite a few around their holy city. In fact, there aren't many people who can be deployed to quell the rebellion, and some of them are from other chieftains. Songtsen Gampo may not trust them."
Yuchi Jingde seemed to see what Li Xiang was thinking. He was also an outstanding general of the younger generation of the Tang Dynasty, so he could know what Li Xiang was thinking from his words. How could people like us not have any pursuits?
"If we were to concentrate our forces to suppress the rebellion, we would have 40,000 to 50,000 troops. These 10,000 or so wouldn't be able to hold out for long. By the way, what's the cause of this civil unrest in Tubo?"
Li Xiang suddenly thought of an important thing. He had always thought about problems from a military perspective. You must know that this was a chieftain rebellion, so it should involve the chieftain's vital interests.
"Wasn't that the Prime Minister's idea? Before leaving Chang'an, he gave the Tibetan king a suggestion: weaken the power of the chieftains, send officials to their territories, and even try to get involved in tax collection..."
After hearing what Cui Fu said, Li Xiang basically understood what our Han emperor called "reducing the power of the vassal states."
The Tubo Kingdom also encountered the same situation. The financial situation of the central government was worrying, but the chieftains below lived a very luxurious life. No one would be comfortable with this, so Lu Dongzan prepared to weaken the power of these chieftains. It was indeed a good idea at the beginning, because the actions were not big at the beginning and did not involve the actual rights of these chieftains. But later the actions became bigger and bigger, so some people couldn't help it.
"Then why didn't the other chieftains rebel?"
Chang Sun Chong said with some doubt, you know, the interests of these chieftains are the same. If dozens of chieftains make judgments at the same time, the possibility of the existence of the Tubo Kingdom is probably not high. For our Tang Dynasty, it would be best if they are divided into dozens of groups.
"It seems that the Prime Minister has implemented some kind of trial policy. I'm not entirely sure, but it was first implemented in the territories of a few chieftains. Songtsen Gampo gave the remaining chieftains a guarantee that he would not change their current rules..."
After hearing this, everyone seemed to understand that Lu Dongzan and Songtsen Gampo were implementing a divide and conquer strategy.
What was going on in the heads of those chieftains? Did they really think they could escape the reduction of their fiefdoms? That was absolutely impossible.
"No wonder the old man has been so irritable these past few days. It seems that the Zamp can't handle it anymore."
Chang Sun Chong thought about the recent days and admired Lu Dongzan even more. There was such a big chaos in the country, but you were still delaying your return because of a woman. If I were the emperor of Tubo, I would just chop off your thing.
"How many chieftains does your Cui family have a good relationship with?"
Li Xiang was too lazy to care about Lu Dongzan. Even if he was causing trouble for Lu Dongzan, it would only annoy him for a while. We must start from the root and make this turmoil last longer. At that time, even if Tubo wanted to challenge us, we have to see how much strength we have in our hands. These days, strength is everything. Talking alone is useless.
"Your Highness wants to contact them?"
Cui Fu was also a smart man. He guessed Li Xiang's thoughts immediately, but he did not answer immediately. The main reason was that he had been away from Tubo for a long time. He didn't know how the relationship there had developed. It would take some time to figure it out.
"As a Tang Dynasty person, of course I hope that places other than Tang Dynasty land will always be in war."
As soon as Li Xiang said this, everyone in the room laughed out loud. Although they thought so in their hearts, no one had ever said it out loud. The more vigorously you fight, the safer we will be. Otherwise, we have to be on guard against you every day. When you start fighting, you won't be in the mood to care about us. Maybe we can gain a big advantage over us if we send troops later.
"Your Highness is right. I share the same idea, but I've been away from Tubo for too long, and it would be too troublesome to exchange letters with them. Why don't I go ahead and find out more about the situation?"
Although it was the first time that Cui Fu and Li Xiang met, this guy had already seen from the silver note that Li Xiang would not treat his subordinates harshly. As long as you are useful to him, he will never be stingy with rewards. That's why this guy wanted to take the risk and return to Tubo again.
"Then pack up and hurry back to check. If you hear any news, send me a message as soon as possible. Also, you and my people need to establish a communication channel. No matter how much it costs, it just needs to be reliable. If you need money, just let me know."
This is exactly what Li Xiang wanted, but he didn't know what the other person was thinking. If he forced him to return to Tubo, he was afraid that some things would not go well.
"Your Highness, we are going to see a bride off, not to fight a war."
Yuchi Jingde felt his heart beating faster. It was just as Cheng Chuliang said. As long as he was with Li Xiang, there would be all kinds of surprises every day. An unexpected situation might change your future. He didn't believe it before, but today he believed it completely.
"I didn't say we should go to war, but there's a war going on in their country right now. We have to get this information. Once we get it, we have to do something. Tubo has always been a danger to us. If it weren't for them, why would we still have Tuyuhun? They would have invaded us long ago."
Li Xiang had an innocent look on his face. Although he acted as if he didn't want to fight, everyone could see that this guy was a warmonger. As long as he was involved in a place, don't expect peace there.
In addition to Cui Fu, Li Xiang also gave orders to Zhangsun Wuji's subordinates. Although these people could not get any high-end information, they should be able to collect some information on the market. He should integrate all the intelligence agencies in his hands and let them speed up their work in Tubo. Li Xiang must find out the scale of the rebellion and the attitudes of other chieftains.
Yuchi Jingde and Changsun Chong were also busy. Yuchi Jingde left the team first and rushed to Liangzhou at full speed. Li Xiang also sent a memorial back to Chang'an. Some things could not be avoided without Li Shimin...