A sudden blizzard from the north swept across the entire Northeast region. It was not until three days later that the blizzard gradually subsided. The sun came out, and the world was already covered with snow, and rivers were frozen.

The Raole River in Songmo Prefecture of Khitan is actually the upper reaches of the Liao River. The Khitan tent has been moved to the bank of the Raole River. The men have entered the Bohai Kingdom to fight wars. There are only more than 200,000 elderly, weak, women and children left around the tent.

The Khitan implemented a tribal alliance system, consisting of eight tribes, and was ruled by the Yaonian clan among the three major Khitan clans. Li Huaijie was the chief of the alliance. His Khitan name was Dinian Zuli and called himself the Khitan Khan. For a long time, he was just the nominal leader of the Khitans. The Khitan power was actually controlled by Niri, the leader of the Khitan Presbyterian Church. It was not until Niri died a few years ago that Li Huaijie monopolized the power.

This was the heyday of the Khitan, with a population of more than 600,000 and nearly 200,000 soldiers in armor. However, the Khitan was greatly damaged by years of war against the Tang Dynasty. Especially in the 11th year of Tianbao, the Khitan was defeated by An Lushan, and more than half of the children of the Khitan and the Xi people were captured by An Lushan, which caused the Khitan population to be greatly reduced and its strength was greatly damaged. Only five of the eight tribes were left. If An Lushan had not been defeated by Shi Siming, then the Khitans were finally annexed by An Lushan, rather than the Khitans annexed An Lushan army.

It was precisely because the Khitan's strength suffered huge losses that Li Huaijie decided to join forces with Xi and Yan to attack the Bohai Sea, in an attempt to obtain population and resources from the Bohai State.

The capture of the Bohai Sea has always been a strategic plan for the Khitans. It was not until a hundred years later that Yelu Abaoji finally destroyed the Bohai Kingdom and realized the long-cherished wish of his ancestors.

But history has undergone subversive changes due to the appearance of Li Qing'an. The Tang army used sea transportation to send 100,000 troops to the Bohai Kingdom, which also became a nightmare for the Khitans. When the Khitans' army was deeply trapped in the Bohai Kingdom, a Tang army composed of 10,000 cavalry began to sweep the Khitans and the Xi people's troops. This was another catastrophe after the Khitans suffered An Lushan's defeat six years ago, but this time it was a catastrophe.

Of course, not all Khitans on the banks of the Raole River. There are still more than 100,000 people scattered in various places. This is just the tent. These more than 200,000 people are the most important tribes of the Khitan. The young and strong men went to the Bohai Sea to fight, leaving only the elderly, weak, women, children and many Han slaves.

The Han slaves were mainly women. They were all Han women who were captured by the Khitans from various prefectures and counties in Hebei during the Anlushan rebellion. Like the Xi people, they had a strong desire for Han women. This was not just a physiological need, but an urgent need for population reproduction. This population reproduction demand continued for hundreds of years. When the Uighurs declined and the land occupied by the Khitans expanded, but their population reproduction could not keep up, this demand became even stronger. A beastly culture was gradually formed and was inherited by the later Jurchens, which led to the tragic experience of Han women in the Song Dynasty.

There are 50,000 60,000 captured Han women in the Khitan camp on the Raole River, almost every household has them. They are slaves and are not counted. They bear the most heavy labor during the day, and are tragically ravaged by their masters at night, living an inhuman life.

As the heavy snow stopped, the elderly Khitans and women and children walked out of the tent to feel the joy of the first winter snow. Groups of Khitan children rolled in the snow, wrestling, and heavy snowball fights, laughter spread throughout the snowfield, while the female slaves of Han went to the cattle and sheep tent to clean the sheep dung and cow dung, and wanted to feed grass and milk them, and could not see them in the snowfield.

At this moment, a long black line appeared on the hills in the distance. The 10,000 Tang troops led by Zhao Chongjie arrived. Soon the Khitans discovered them. They began to panic and fled to the camp. Zhao Chongjie looked coldly at the Khitan camp tent that stretched for more than ten miles ahead. He resolutely issued an order, "Kill only women and children, and kill them all!"

The overwhelming Tang cavalry rushed down the hills, like an avalanche, swept towards the Khitan camp. The Tang soldiers waved their swords, their eyes full of killing, desire and excitement of plunder. Hundreds of slow-running Khitan old men were chased and killed by the Tang army. In an instant, the overwhelming group of Tang cavalry rushed into the Khitan camp.

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After more than two hours, the killing gradually stopped, and the cruelty of the war was revealed at a moment. When Khitan soldiers massacred civilians and raped women in the Bohai Kingdom, their families could not escape the misfortune. When the Tang army restored military discipline, tens of thousands of left-behind men were killed, and many Khitan teenagers who were able to get on horseback could not escape death, leaving only tens of thousands of women and children.

The Han women who became female slaves were also liberated. Their humiliation and anger erupted at this moment. However, when the Khitan men were killed and they could not vent their pain, their anger turned to the Khitan elderly and children who bullied them.

When the bullied women are allowed to take revenge, the hatred and cruelty they burst out are incredible. Many Khitan elderly and children are killed by them. They occupy their master's property, strip their mistresses of their clothes, humiliate them in every possible way, and offer them to the Tang soldiers, so that they can also get the taste of being humiliated. There was a burst of crying in the Khitan camp.

Finally, Zhao Chongjie ordered the Tang army to restore military discipline and no longer abuse the Khitans, and began to bury the bodies. The soldiers buried the bodies and returned to the camp, resting and resting. The 500 military police team began to concentrate on counting the number of Khitan women and children, counting cattle, sheep and property. It was not until dusk that the counting finally ended.

In Li Huaijie's golden silk tent, Zhao Chongjie was listening to the report of the march Sima.

"Report to the general, we captured a total of 173,000 Khitan women and children, including 132,000 women, 41,000 children, about 800,000 cattle and sheep, nearly 200,000 horses, and a total of 25,000 women in various prefectures and counties in Hebei. Most of them were very quiet, but some of them were quite unstable. Many women were clamoring to go home. May I ask the general, what should we do?"

Zhao Chongjie pondered for a moment and said, "Come together the most clamoring women, I want to give them a lecture."

One hour later, more than a thousand women were gathered in front of the tent. They were all wearing lambskin coats, warm leather boots, and thick sheepskin pointed hats on their toes.

Although they were making a big fuss in the camp, they all calmed down at this time, and they were very nervous, not knowing what fate they would encounter again.

It was already dark at this time, and more than a thousand soldiers held torches and surrounded them. The firelight reflected the snow red. Zhao Chongjie climbed onto the temporary wooden platform. He saw the fear in the eyes of the women and knew that they were already soldiers of the plants and trees.

He sighed in his heart and said loudly: "Don't be afraid, we are the Anxi Army, and we will rescue you by the orders of His Highness Zhao."

After stopping, he asked again: "Do you know who Your Highness is?"

A little woman nodded to show that she knew, but most of the women were confused. They were housewives at home and did not care about state affairs. They only knew that they were a prince, but who they were not aware of. Seeing that many people did not understand, Zhao Chongjie simply announced loudly: "Your Highness Zhao is His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. I will rescue you by the order of His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty!"

The soldiers burst into cheers, "Long live! Long live the general! Long live His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty!"

Many women burst into tears. The shame they encountered made them unable to help themselves at a moment. The crying infected everyone. Almost all women started crying. Many people knelt down and cried, "General, we are going home, please, let us go home!"

Zhao Chongjie's eyes also turned red. He waved his hand and said loudly: "Please listen to me and wait until I finish speaking, and you will make a decision!"

He took a deep breath and said, "You may not know the current situation in your hometown. Then I tell you, Hebei Road is now in ruins, most of the people have evacuated, and all prefectures and counties are empty cities, and An Lushan is still fighting with Shi Siming. When you go back now, you can only become their captives again. Your fate is even more miserable. Moreover, this winter came particularly early, the heavy snow has been closed, and you can't go back at all, so you can only be frozen to death halfway through the road. So you follow my arrangements and spend the winter here. After next spring, the Tang army calms down the rebellion of An Lushan and Shi Siming, and then send you back. At that time, the court will place you and reunite your family."

The women stopped crying, and they listened blankly to Zhao Chongjie’s arrangements for them.

"We will share some of the Khitan property with you, cattle, sheep and tents. There will be an army to protect you. You will be safe and wait for the day when you return to the south. But from now on, you must obey the management of the army and not seek revenge and trouble. If there is any person who does not obey the order, she will be deprived of her property. Have you heard?"

Zhao Chongjie's final voice was very stern. Seeing that the women didn't dare to say anything, he obviously felt fear in his eyes. Knowing that this was effective, he waved his hand and said, "Now you go back to the account first! Have a good rest. There will naturally be soldiers coming to register and allocate property for you tomorrow, but no more noise is allowed."

More than a thousand women have gone back by themselves, many of them are riding horses, and the farthest person has to walk more than ten miles. Zhao Chongjie pondered for a moment and then ordered his subordinate Zhang Zhong to say, "You can lead two thousand brothers to stay here. Pay attention to restraining the military discipline of the soldiers and treat these poor women who have been captured well. If there is any situation, I will naturally send someone to contact you."

"Is the general going to Rao Le?"

Zhao Chong nodded, "There are more than 100,000 people on the Xi side, and I will also conquer them. I will leave this to you. Remember, I will restrict military discipline and do not indulge soldiers too much. Otherwise, I cannot explain to the general."

"Please rest assured, General, I will definitely restrain my brothers!"

Zhao Chongjie patted his shoulder and went back to the tent. The next morning, Zhao Chongjie led another 8,000 cavalry toward the Xi people's base in the south.

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The first light snow fell in Chang'an in October. Compared with the blizzard in Bohai Kingdom, the light snow in Chang'an fell very gently. The fine snowflakes were flying in the sky, and were blown by the cold wind from time to time to form long snow chains. When they fell on the roof, they accumulated a thin layer. They fell on the ground and soon melted, turning into black snow mud. The carriage drove by quickly, splashing a splash of water.

Chang'an has been very peaceful these days. It is almost the end of the year, and the rice price has been further reduced to 60 cents per bucket. With the full recovery of the canal transportation, grain and taxes in the official warehouses in various parts of the south of the Yangtze River have been escorted to Beijing, enriching the Chang'an official warehouse and effectively calming down the grain prices in the market.

If the currency flows too much in the market, the supply of materials must be increased so as to effectively stabilize prices.

Three hundred cavalrymen escorted Li Qing'an's carriage and drove into Chunming Street and rushed towards the direction of Daming Palace. It has been almost half a month since Li Qing'an returned to Chang'an. In Jiangnan, he used the case of Yang Xunwu to clean up the officialdom of Huainan and Jiangnan. Seven governors were warned, seventeen county magistrates were demoted, and a group of officials such as county magistrates and county magistrates were cleaned. Nine of them were raided and jailed. However, except for Yang Xunwu, who was beheaded and raided, the rest of the officials were not guilty of death. Li Qing'an always grasped a certain degree. His purpose was to shock the officialdom of Jiangnan, and not to cause bloody storms in the officialdom of Jiangnan, which was not conducive to the stability of the political situation.

Li Qing'an went to the Daming Palace to hold a meeting with the Political Affairs Hall to discuss the matter between Khitan and Xi. He had just received information from Li Baozhen. Li Baozhen fought very well in the Bohai Sea. He wiped out nearly 100,000 Khitan coalition troops in the two battles. Now Li Huaijie's 50,000 troops are besieged in Huzhou City. They have cut off their food and live by killing horses.

Zhao Chongjie led 10,000 cavalry to sweep Songmo and Raole, and basically the old nests of Khitan and Xi had been wiped out. He needed to raise the issue of resettlement of Khitans to the Zhengshitang.

The carriage drove into the Daming Palace and stopped in front of the gate of the Secretariat. A personal soldier opened the door. Li Qing'an got off the carriage and walked quickly towards the Secretariat. He entered the meeting hall of the Political Affairs Hall. The seven prime ministers were already waiting here. Zhang Hao, Cui Ning, Wang Jin, Yan Zhenqing, Pei Min, Liu Yan, and Guo Ziyi all gathered together.

Seeing Li Qing'an coming in, all seven stood up and bowed and said, "The palace is down!"

"I'm so sorry, I'm a step late."

Li Qingan apologized and smiled: "The wheels on the road were a little broken, and I changed another carriage, so it was late, so everyone has been waiting for a long time."

Li Qing'an's eyes fell on Guo Ziyi. This was the third time he had a meeting with all members of the Political Affairs Hall, but every time Guo Ziyi remained silent. However, when Li Qing'an was not present, Guo Ziyi spoke very enthusiastically, criticizing the current situation and expressing his ambitions. Li Qing'an knew that this was Guo Ziyi's still a little knot. He smiled at Guo Ziyi and sat down.

Everyone also sat down one after another. An official gently brought the door of the meeting hall, and the hall suddenly became quiet.

"Dear Ministers, I was deeply pleased that the last time I submitted the Bohai Road plan to the Zhengshi Hall, and I received the final approval from the Zhengshi Hall...."

At present, the Zhengshi Hall is the highest power organ of the Tang Dynasty. As the marshal of the world, all major actions in his nominal form must be approved by the Zhengshi Hall, so that he has a legal status. He proposed to place the Bohai Sea under the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty and change it to the Bohai Road. This plan was also submitted to the Zhengshi Hall.

As the supreme authority of the Tang Dynasty, it not only needs to safeguard the vital interests of the Tang Dynasty, but also takes moral responsibility. The Bohai Kingdom, unlike the Hezhong region and the Tochar region, was recaptured from the hands of Dashi and could be directly under the jurisdiction.

However, the Bohai Kingdom is in different situations. It is a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty. After several generations of emperors, it has recognized its independence. Moreover, the Bohai Kingdom has also paid tribute for years and has not done anything that violates the vassal state's duty. Therefore, Li Qing'an proposed the initial plan to directly swallow the Bohai Kingdom, which was morally untenable. This plan also experienced fierce debates within the political affairs. Except for Zhang Hao and Liu Yan supporting Li Qing'an, the other prime ministers almost unanimously opposed it, which violated the basic moral bottom line of the Tang Empire.

The original intention of the court was not to not want the Northeast region to return. On the contrary, this was something that the Tang Dynasty had always wanted to do since its founding. The Sui and Tang dynasties sent troops to this area one after another, which was a continuation of this idea. Finally, because of the rise of Tubo, the Tang Dynasty had no time to look east, so it was forced to accept the current vassal method.

What the Political Affairs Hall wants is a kind of morality that can be explained to the world, a glamorous return, rather than a forceful occupation that takes advantage of others' danger.

As a last resort, Li Qing'an made another revision of the plan, changing the direct annexation to gradual ownership, implementing garrisons, immigration, retaining the royal family but disbanding the court, and the three-step plan sent by the prefectures and county officials by the court. After the conditions are ripe, the Bohai Kingdom will be changed to the Bohai Channel, and the time is set to five years. This is a moderate compromise plan. This plan was basically accepted by the Zhengshi Hall. In the end, the Zhengshi Hall changed the deadline from five years to ten years, and the plan was passed.

In this way, the Bohai Road plan was no longer Li Qing'an's personal idea, but the national strategy of the entire Tang Dynasty, which was deployed and implemented by the court.

Li Qing'an was very ambitious. The Bohai Channel he referred to was not only the Bohai Kingdom, but also included Silla, Khitan, Shiwei, which is today's north of Sakhalin Island to Siberia and Alaska. In the Tang Dynasty, these places were basically unmanned areas. Once the Bohai Channel was officially established, it would become the third largest administrative region of the Tang Dynasty after Anxi Road and Hezhong Road.

What Li Qing'an wants to report today is the latest progress of the Bohai Battle and the resettlement of the Khitans.

"... General Li Baozhen defeated the Khitan coalition forces in the Bohai Kingdom. The areas where Khitan and Xi are located have been cleaned up. Now there are a total of 240,000 Khitan women and children who need to be moved in. In addition, nearly 40,000 women and children who have been captured in Hebei Province. I suggest that we learn from the lessons attached to the Hu people in the past, and no longer give them land to live alone, but break them up and place them in Hedong and Hebei prefectures and counties, and establish household registration by the government. I wonder what the ministers think?"

With the lessons of An Lushan's rebellion, the Tang Dynasty basically reached a consensus that the Hu people no longer gave them land to live in, but instead implemented a plan to move inward to live in the Han and Hu people, and gradually assimilated the Hu people. Therefore, it was reasonable that Li Qing'an proposed this plan and no one opposed it.

But Guo Ziyi heard a clue and asked slowly: "I heard what Your Highness Zhao said, there are only the women and children of Khitan and Xi, where are their men?"

Li Qingan smiled slightly and said, "Shangshu Guo should know that the Khitans are soldiers, and men are fighting in the Bohai Kingdom, so their nests are only women and children. Of course, if there are prisoners of war, then there will be men."

The other prime ministers in the Zhengshi Hall did not know much about this. Li Qing'an said it seemed to make sense. Everyone is soldiers! Naturally, men went to fight, but Guo Ziyi knew very well. If everyone is soldiers, there must be men in the tribe. It is impossible for all of them to fight. He also guessed that it must be Li Qing'an who ordered a massacre in the Khitan and Xi's nests, so only women and children were left.

At this time, the two of them looked at each other, and there was a strong pressure in Li Qing'an's smile. To be precise, it was actually a warning, warning Guo Ziyi not to cause trouble. Guo Ziyi's head slowly lowered and he stopped talking.

"Dear Ministers, if this plan can be passed, tomorrow spring, the army will transport the Khitan people back to the Tang Dynasty by large ships. After the war in Hebei is over, we will slowly arrange it. Please vote!"

The government affairs hall is a seven-person system. Generally speaking, most people are better than others and pass it. However, some major matters, such as the construction of the Bohai Road, launching wars on the other side, must be agreed upon by all government affairs halls. Such matters are called first-level political cases.

Therefore, a proposal must first be determined by five Zhongshu Sheren, which is called "decision". Political cases at level three and below do not require approval from the Political Affairs Hall, but are directly approved by the Minister of State on duty by the ruling affairs.

However, even if the low-level political case is decided by one person, it must be reviewed by the Ministry of Education. If the Ministry of Education fails to pass the third review, it will be upgraded to the second level and handed over to the Political Affairs Hall for voting.

Since the ruling affairs pens are rotated every ten days, from this perspective, the powers of the seven prime ministers in the ruling affairs hall are actually the same, and everyone has ten days to master the ruling affairs pens.

This is the power constraint mechanism designed by Li Qing'an. In the future, even if he becomes the emperor, he can only interfere in the first and second-level government affairs. He can propose or reject it. When his opinions conflict with the Political Affairs Hall and cannot be reconciled, he has only one way. He has the right to dissolve the Political Affairs Hall and re-elect the new Political Affairs Hall by the officials of the fifth rank or above court. Of course, the emperor will nominate the difference.

This is actually the essence of the three provinces and six ministries system, which is to use the power of the prime minister to restrict the power of the monarch, but to ensure that the power of the monarch is not obsolete.

Li Longji used the means of issuing an internal edict by the Hanlin Bachelors to undermine the power of the Political Affairs Hall, while Li Yu, Emperor Daizong of Tang Dynasty, used the means of elevating all officials to a higher level to expand the scope of the emperor's personnel appointment and removal.

Li Qing'an clarified this system and implemented the system that officials recommended for the first time. These plans can undoubtedly avoid the consequences of the dynasty's decline due to the emperor's incompetence in the future.

Of course, in the future, Li Qing'an will also consider using the emperor's difference nomination, and the plan to vote by the Political Affairs Hall, etc., etc., so I won't talk about it here.

Li Qing'an's Khitan resettlement plan has been taken out and was reviewed by the Secretariat. The plan was soon decided and belonged to a B-level political case, which means that it can be passed as long as the majority agrees.

Perhaps the prime minister did not pay attention to the meaning of the word "women and children", or perhaps the prime ministers knew it and deliberately pretended to be stupid. This political case was successfully passed. Six to one, only Guo Ziyi opposed it. He retained his principles, but gave Li Qing'an face and did not reveal the incident of Li Qing'an massacre of Khitan men.

Seeing that the vote was approved, Li Qing'an relaxed in one breath and stood up and said, "There is another plan, which is the possibility of the Uighurs invading Hebei. I would like to discuss this with you again and prepare for the war as soon as possible."
Chapter completed!