Pei Min's hearty smile dissipated a lot.

This time it was Yao Chong's turn, and Qi Huan stopped talking silently.

What they said makes a lot of sense, but Pei Min is also very clever to point it on the key point.

Recover lost land!

Throughout history, the Chinese have had an obsession with regaining lost lands.

Especially the stronger the country is, the more important it is to "recover lost territory".

Yao Chong and Qi Huan dare to say that it is meaningless to recover the Jiuqu land of Hexi. Even if Li Longji does not deal with them, the scholars and people in the world who hear the news will poke their backbone.

This is also the pride of the Tang Dynasty. The literati of the Tang Dynasty never avoided war and feared war. Instead, they had the impulse of yearning for the corpse of horses and horses.

It is also because of this that the unique and passionate poetic style of frontier poetry was pushed to its golden peak in this era. In the Tang Dynasty, the number of participants in the creation of frontier poetry and the large number of poems was unprecedented in previous dynasties and throughout the Tang Dynasty.

Pei Min saved the situation of the decline of the main battle, but it was not a victory. He then said: "Hexi Jiuqu land could be traced to the pre-Qin period. When the Qin people obtained Hequ horses from the Qiang people, used them for military purposes and trained powerful cavalry units. The Qin army could benefit from the Qin army's arrow formation that was invincible in the world and the iron cavalry that defeated the enemy. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, in order to improve the horse breeds in the Central Plains, the excellent horse breeds from the Western Regions were herded in the Hequ area of ​​Qinghai. The descendants of these horses made contributions to the Han Dynasty's expedition to the Huns. It is said that the army and horses of the world will come out of Hequ seven times. If there were no Hequ horses provided by Hexi Jiuqu, the generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing might not have achieved such brilliant achievements in history."

"Recently speaking, Emperor Taizong attached importance to horse politics and built Hequ military horse farms in Jiuqu, Hexi, and raised 450,000 horses! With the abundant military and horse resources, the areas where our Tang Dynasty soldiers pointed were invincible. The Weiyuan military horse farm was far from enough to provide our army's current needs. The Hexi Jiuqu could make up for such shortcomings. Recovering the Jiuqu land in Jiuqu is a crucial step to enhance our Tang Dynasty cavalry. If you want to gain an advantage in the duel with foreign races, the strength of the cavalry is essential. We cannot tie our hands and feet before regaining such a strategic location, resulting in missing opportunities."

Yao Chong and Qi Huan's military level are far inferior to their political talent, but they also heard that the meaning and value of the Shibao City in Hexi is very important to the Tang Dynasty.

"The Duke of the State said this is not without reason!" Yao Chong recognized Pei Min's remarks for a long time.

Pei Min nodded and smiled at Yao Chong. It was precisely because of this that he couldn't hate Yao Chong. Yao Chong's intention to the Tang Dynasty was indeed a reference to heaven and earth. He deserved the reputation of a wise minister, but it was only a huge flaw in his personality that led to the current situation.

Seeing that Yao Chong had convinced him, Li Longji stood up and said, "Hexi Jiuqu is the territory of my Tang Dynasty. I will not give up any land for this territory. I will summon Tubo envoys to clarify my attitude today. Unless I return the Jiuqu area of ​​Hexi and withdraw from Shibao City, there will be no possibility of my Tubo in Tang Dynasty."

"Your Majesty's wise!"

Li Longji's idea was settled, and the civil and military ministers naturally flattered and flattered him.

Pei Min suddenly thought of something and said, "Your Majesty, the army that offered prisoners is almost going to Chang'an!"

Li Longji said in a daze: "It will arrive tomorrow, and it has been scheduled to hold a prisoner offering ceremony at noon tomorrow."

During the Zhenguan period, no ceremonies were held for the destruction of the country, but no ritual was held for the prisoner offering. However, since Wu Zetian's attack on the Tang Dynasty, the military strength of the Tang Dynasty has been deteriorating, and there has been no decent achievements for more than ten years.

Four years ago, the Tubo invasion war, and the Tang Dynasty fought very beautifully, but no important figure was captured. Because of insufficient cavalry, it was inconvenient to pursue, and there were very few prisoners, and no prisoners were held.

This time, the temptation battle in Guangen Town was different. Pei Min mobilized Liangzhou, Longyou, all the horses of his own son Shence Army, and Tubo cavalry rushed to attack Guangen Town for a hundred miles. After a long siege, his physical strength was exhausted. Only a few lucky soldiers escaped by luck. Most of them either died in battle or were captured. Among them were Tubo veterans like Di Dayan, the second-ranked military figure.

In terms of the record, the results are not as good as those of the Tubo invasion, but the results are the most abundant in the past 20 years. In addition to big figures like Di Dayan, there are also three ten thousand commanders, more than a dozen thousand commanders, and 28,000 prisoners of war. There are more than 30,000 war horses, among which two are particularly majestic dragon horses.

This is so great about merit, it seems that it is the nature of the Li family: whether it is Taizong Li Shimin, Gaozong Li Zhi, or Li Longji, they all have this problem.

With such a result, Li Longji proposed to hold a prisoner offering ceremony without hesitation.

Looking at Pei Min, Li Longji smiled and said, "What kind of insulting tricks are Pei Qing thinking about?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the civil and military officials couldn't help laughing, obviously thinking about the fact that Pei Min threw the Tubo envoy into the pigpen as a pig.

At first they also thought Pei Min was absurd, after all, a Tubo envoy. The diplomatic and humiliating envoys between the two countries was equivalent to humiliating the king, which was inconsistent. However, as the purpose was revealed, they couldn't help but applaud him: it was undoubtedly a great act of kindness and righteousness. As for throwing the Tubo envoys into the pigpen, they both took it as nothing, because they were not born in Chang'an, at the foot of the emperor.

Pei Min cried out and said, "It's not a shame, but it's just that the Tubo envoys come to my Tang Dynasty and want to make a deal for them as usual. My Tang Dynasty does not lack strong men, and more than 20,000 men are a drop in the bucket. It's better to use it to exchange cattle and horses and continue to exchange for the people of my Tang Dynasty."

Li Longji frowned and said, "The prisoners today are different from those they were originally. They were deposed people, but now they have the power to fight. If they are put back, they can pose a threat to our Tang Dynasty. You can't destroy them all."

Pei Min shook his head and said, "Tubo compromised last time for face, and the number was within the scope of tolerance. For more than 20,000 people and injured his own muscles and bones, the old Tubo woman would not do it. As for those prisoners, Your Majesty does not have to worry about it. If you can capture them once, you can capture them for the second and third time. As long as you have the value for money, those prisoners are not worth it."

Crucially, he did not make it clear and planned to say to Li Longji in private later.

In this transaction, he mainly exchanged for war horses.

The Jiuqu land in Hexi is a grassland. To recover the Jiuqu land and gain a foothold, a strong cavalry team is needed.

The current military and horse reserves of the Tang Dynasty, coupled with the seized spoils, were not enough to maintain the needs.

On the one hand, doing daily transactions with Tubo can make up for the shortcomings, and on the other hand, it can also weaken the strength of Tubo's cavalry and set the foreshadowing for the counterattack of Hexi Jiuqu.
Chapter completed!