Li Mu solved the things that were satisfactory, and wrote a letter to praise him. He also stated that if Li Mu wanted to, he could be appointed as Duke of the Kingdom. In line with his identity as the Secretary of the Legislative Yuan, it would not work for the time being. Although Li Mu's identity is no longer unknown, no one in the world knows. But if Li Mu was appointed as the prince, it would be the same as Li Shimin admitting that the Xuanwu Gate Incident was wrong. Moreover, if Li Mu was appointed as the prince, it would give the court a vague state. When one day, when Li Shimin returned to heaven, would the prince be inherited by the world, or would it be returned to Li Jiancheng's lineage and inherited by Li Mu?

Li Mu's current power has completely lost its power.

Li Mu has managed Dingxiang, Luoyang, and Yangzhou. These three places are all important towns of the Tang Dynasty. In addition, his stepfather Tang Jian manages Shuzhou and is in the southwest. His adoptive father Li Ji, the governor of Bingzhou, led tens of thousands of troops and troops to Liaodong. Although he did not have an open operation in Chang'an, Li Shimin knew that Li Mu's father-in-law Bai Naoer has now become the leader of the "Daoer" in Chang'an City, with four pillars under his command, like a big net, holding the 108 square meters of Chang'an City tightly in his hands.

What kind of person Bai Naoer is, you can tell with your eyes. It is obvious that someone is managing him, and the people who manage him, if nothing unexpected happens, all come from Jisitang.

Li Shimin has always been a big concern for Jisitang. He wanted to wipe out Jisitang more than once, but the more he learned about Jisitang, the more he discovered that Jisitang could not be wiped out, and it could not be wiped out.

Take this business as an example. Without Jisitang, most of the trade routes in the Tang Dynasty would be cut off. From now on, if vendors do not leave prefectures and counties, the economy will inevitably be greatly affected.

Therefore, Li Shimin must let Jisitang exist unless one day he thinks of a system that can completely eliminate Jisitang.

Li Shimin was a civil and military man throughout his life, but he was not good at financial affairs alone. Looking at the court, there were not many people who were good at business. These people were tied together and were not Li Mu's opponents.

Now, the enemies of the Tang Dynasty are left outside, Xue Yantuo and Goguryeo. Inside, there are two major enemies that Li Shimin fears the most, one is the aristocratic family and the other is Li Mu.

Although aristocratic families are abominable, Li Shimin is confident that they can be suppressed. Because they are a mess of sand and can never be condensed. Li Mu and Li Shimin have no choice. It can be said that if Li Mu wants to rebel, Li Shimin will not have the confidence to control the situation.

But even so, Li Shimin still dared to let Li Mu be the governor of the country and the minister of the Shangshu. Such a broad mind is indeed a role model for emperors throughout the ages.

...

Li Mu was the Minister of State, and all the affairs of the court were eventually handed over to him. Even Fang Xuanling was nominally his subordinate. In order to strengthen his connection with Li Shimin, Li Mu trained hundreds of carrier pigeons. With them, the information transmission became more convenient. Basically, any news could be transmitted in three to five days.

The information will come to Li Mu first, and then he will choose whether to make it public. He dispatched Tang Guan back and set up a news agency under the Tang Dynasty Daily. He is responsible for organizing these news every day, and posted daily notices at the entrances of major Chang'an buildings to publicize the news of the king to calm the people.

In April, Li Jiru's army arrived in Youzhou. In May, Li Shimin's car drove to Dingzhou. The soldiers were not accustomed to the local conditions and became sick. Li Shimin personally asked the sick soldiers and entrusted them to the prefectures and counties for treatment. There were many places where the powerful people did not seek a name and volunteered to join the army in private. Li Shimin issued an order, praising the courage of these people, but did not agree to their request to follow the army, but dismissed them.

At the end of May, Li Ji led his army to cross the Liao River from Tongding to Xuantu. He officially entered the territory of Goguryeo. The military and civilians of Goguryeo were very scared and all the cities and towns were guarded by themselves. Li Daozong led thousands of soldiers to Xincheng. Zhang Jian led his army to cross the Liao River and marched towards Jian'an City, defeated the Goguryeo defenders and beheaded thousands of levels.

In June, Li Ji captured Gaimu City in Goguryeo and captured more than 20,000 people and more than 100,000 stones of food. At the end of June, Zhang Liang led his army to cross the sea from Donglai to attack Beisha City. Cheng Mingzhen led his army to arrive at night, and Wang Dadu was the vanguard. In July, the Tang army captured Beisha City and captured 8,000 men and women.

Li Mu looked at the battle report in his hand and then looked at the map hanging on the wall. He thought to himself that Goguryeo was just a few tricks? The Tang army was simply unstoppable. According to this progress, it is estimated that they could go back to the court before the end of the year.

As if he had a premonition of what Li Mu thought, the army attacked Liaodong City and was subjected to tenacious resistance. It was as powerful as a bamboo shoot and stopped here. Li Shimin was so angry that he cursed Emperor Yang of Sui. According to the information sent back, Li Shimin cursed for five days.

In fact, it is not Li Shimin's fault for scolding him. This has to be traced back to a period of history. Why is Liaodong City so strong? In fact, it was not like this. In the ninth year of Daye, Emperor Yang of Sui personally led the army to attack Goguryeo. At the end of April, Emperor Yang of Sui ordered the generals to attack Liaodong City and allowed the generals to "work at a cheap price". The Sui army set up flying towers, crashed cars, and ladders under Liaodong City, and dug tunnels to cooperate. They attacked the city day and night for more than 20 days without conquering Liaodong City. Both the Sui Dynasty and Goguryeo were seriously injured and injured.

He attacked Liaodong City for a long time but did not capture it. Emperor Yang ordered more than one million cloth bags, filled with soil, and wanted to pile them into a Yuliang Avenue that was thirty steps wide and was as high as the city, so that the soldiers could climb the city along this road; he also built eight-wheeled chariots, which were high above the city wall and shot down into the city. Just as the siege was ready and was about to conquer Liaodong, when the situation was critical, Yang Xuangan rebelled. In order to lead the army to quell the rebellion, Emperor Yang of Sui secretly summoned the generals to withdraw his troops.

The military supplies, equipment, attacks and tools left by the Sui army were abandoned as hills, camps, tents, and blocks. These supplies were not wasted at all, and were all used by Goguryeo to strengthen the Liaodong City. Therefore, the Liaodong City that Li Shimin faced was a stronger Liaodong City that had resisted the Sui army for several months and had no way to make the Sui army. This was all the result of Emperor Yang of Sui's brainlessness back then. How could Li Shimin not be angry?

Seeing that the blitzkrieg was impossible, Li Shimin had to change his strategy. He surrounded Liaodong City, surrounded it without fighting, and divided his troops to fight aid. At first, the results were significant. Goguryeo's army was indeed quite different from the Tang army in frontal combat. But after fighting a few times, they were not stupid. If they could not fight head-on, would they still have to wait for you to kill? They believed that the city walls of Liaodong City were tall and the city was full of food and grass, and it was not a problem to hold on for a year. The Tang army worked hard on the expedition, and the food and grass supply line was more than a thousand miles away, and it would definitely not last long.

Since there is no support, there will be no support there. All Goguryeo's army has been huddled in its own city and implemented the strategy of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields. Whenever the Tang army goes, it often cannot even see a commoner, and when it attacks the city, it will not be able to attack for a while. The two sides have entered a stalemate and no one can do anything to anyone.

Li Shimin had to prepare for a long-term struggle and ordered Li Mu to collect autumn grains and transport them to Liaodong at the same time. At the same time, Li Mu also asked him to find a way to collect meteorites and make explosives. If he wanted to break the Liaodong city, he would rely on the flesh and blood of the soldiers to fill it. I don’t know how many casualties would be. But if there was gunpowder, he would be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

...

Just when Li Mu was struggling to make gunpowder and deliver it to the front line, a piece of news that caught people off guard reached Chang'an.

Nishu is dead.

The news sent back by Li Xiaogong said that Nishu died of illness. But Li Mu did not believe that he had met Nishu. In his memory, Nishu did not look like a seriously ill person. There must be something strange about his death.

In fact, Li Mu was not very concerned about Nishu's life and death. But the problem now is that Nishu is the maintainer of the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Turks. Nishu is the great khan of the Western Turks, and the Western Turks will be in harmony with the Tang Dynasty. If Nishu dies, his successor may not continue to implement his former policies. Once the Western Turks advance eastward, it will be nearly 200,000 cavalry, and it is impossible to resist it with just the 50,000 troops from the Dingxiang Protectorate.

Not to mention, there is Xueyantuo in the north.

Li Mu did not dare to neglect it. On the one hand, Fei Ge sent a letter to Li Shimin, and on the other hand, he quickly notified the left-behind officials to come to the East Palace to discuss the matter.

I couldn't wait for Li Shimin's decision, and the news would take at least half a month. But it would take ten days for Dingxiang to send a message back and forth. If the news came again, it would be too late.

If it is really the worst case, no one can help Dingxiang when the Western Turks march eastward. Only by organizing the existing forces and finding ways to support Dingxiang.

Li Mu immediately did not hesitate, and his first order was to personally take over the Dongcheng Arsenal and supervise the production of gunpowder. At the same time, Li Mu also asked Li Chengqian to issue an order to allocate 20,000 troops from Shuzhou to support Dingxiang to prevent the movements of the Western Turks.

He also wrote a letter to his father-in-law. Now Gaochang State advocated Zhang Xun, who asked him to contact the countries of the Western Regions. He united all the forces that could be united and moved closer to the Dingxiang Protectorate. The surroundings of Dingxiang were all potatoes, so food was definitely not a problem. What is lacking now is people, people who are looking forward to the Tang Dynasty.

...

It was already six days after Li Shimin received the news. Seeing the words on the note, Li Shimin remained silent for a long time. Seeing his face changed, Changsun Wuji and others also had a premonition of something wrong. Li Shimin sat for a while before handing the note to Changsun Wuji and others for circulating it.

"Ni Shu is dead..."

There were only a few words on the note, but it was like a thunderbolt. Before sending troops, Li Shimin discussed matters with important officials more than once, and the Western Turks had been discussed more than twenty times. Most people believed that forming a brotherly alliance with the Western Turks was the basis for the Tang Dynasty to let go of the Eastern Expedition. With the obedience shown by Nishu, the probability of the Tang Dynasty stabbing the knife in the back when it was conquering Goguryeo was almost zero.

But who would have thought that Nishu would die?

How he died now doesn't matter anymore. What's important is that he is already dead. There are many people inside the Western Turks who are hostile to the Tang Dynasty. The last time the Western Turks advanced eastward almost put the Tang Dynasty in danger of destruction. Now half of the elite soldiers of the Tang Dynasty are in Liaodong. If the Western Turks invade at this time, these soldiers and horses will not fly back even if they have wings!

Li Shimin murmured: "Do you want me to follow Emperor Yang of Sui and withdraw troops from the slightest end?"

Li Jing remained silent, not knowing what he was thinking. Others were also talking about it, and they couldn't argue. Changsun Wuji was anxious. He wanted to control himself and not show anxiety. But he really couldn't control it anymore. The power of the Changsun family was basically in Longyou. After conquering Tuyuhun, in order to mine the salt mine, the Changsun family sent a large number of children and laborers to the shore of Qinghai Lake.

These areas are the only way for the Western Turks to advance eastward. Not only the Changsun family, but most of the nobles of the Tang Dynasty are from Longyou. Their wealth, lives, and ancestral tablets are now in Longyou. Seeing that their hometowns are about to be taken over, how can they not be anxious?

Now that the war has entered a stalemate, the Goguryeo army cannot retreat. Both sides are just consuming it, and they don’t know when it will be. Instead of not having any results here, it is better to return to the court to preserve their foundation and ancestors.

If it was really because of wasting time here, the family was slaughtered and the ancestral hall was burned. It would be like a place where there was no face to see the ancestors again.

Li Shimin took the expressions of these people in his eyes. He raised his hand and stopped Changsun Wuji and refused to let him speak. He said to everyone present: "How to make a decision, I have to think about it. All of you must not spread this news. If it disturbs the morale of the army, no matter who it is, I will not forgive." After pausing, Li Shimin said: "You all go back, auxiliary machine, Li Jing, you two stay."

The others surrendered one after another, and Li Shimin also held his back. However, Eunuch Gao was guarding outside the door and looked at the two people in front of him.

"What do you think about this news?"

Changsun Wuji couldn't wait to answer, "Your Majesty, I think I must go back to the court."

Li Shimin frowned, feeling unhappy, but he didn't show it, saying, "Tell me your reasons."

Changsun Wuji knew Li Shimin a little more than Li Shimin himself. How could he guess what Li Shimin thought: "Your Majesty, I am thinking about the clan. I don't deny this, but I am not just that. Your Majesty may have thought about what would happen if I don't go back?"

"What?"

"Your Majesty, now there are only half of the soldiers in China that are normal. These soldiers are stationed across the country, and very few can support Dingxiang. If Dingxiang fails, the Western Turkic soldiers will be directly aimed at Chang'an. This scene is like the Bianqiao Alliance back then!"

Li Shimin's pupils shrank, and the Bridge Alliance was the greatest shame in his life. Changsun Wuji mentioned this and it seemed as if he had stabbed him in his heart.

"If Your Majesty does not work, it will cause panic in the country. Let's not mention the people for now. Can Your Majesty trust those families and gentry? Will they survive and perish with the Tang Dynasty? I am afraid that if Dingxiang is lost, they will become kings and govern the land like the end of the Sui Dynasty!"

"If this is true, the people of the world will return to dire straits!"
Chapter completed!