"Okay, then give him an approval document, and then let the government of Jiannan Road come forward to purchase the horses!" His Majesty Li Er said somewhat casually.
As long as he can get these tens of thousands of high-quality war horses, he will have the confidence to resist Tuyuhun's invasion!
"How is Cheng Qian doing recently?" His Majesty Li Er continued to ask.
Wei Zheng smiled bitterly and said: "Reporting to your Majesty, the prince's daily schedule has been arranged by Su Chen. Apart from eating and sleeping, there is basically no extra free time."
"But from the news coming from Jiannan Road, it can be seen that the prince is much more stable now than before."
Hearing this, His Majesty Li Er asked curiously: "Su Chen actually arranged things for Cheng Qian other than raising horses?"
"Logically speaking, at this stage of Mafang, there shouldn't be too many things going on. Why is Cheng Qian so busy?"
Wei Zheng continued: "Su Chen also handed over the affairs of Jiannan Road and Su Dao to the prince."
"I also heard that Su Chen asked the prince to exercise his body according to the military training method every day."
"I also assigned him a lot of homework, saying that I would give him a good test when the prince comes back!"
His Majesty Li Er nodded and said: "This little bastard actually took my words to heart. He really put some thought into it!"
"I hope Cheng Qian can gain more when he comes back this time."
"Please step back and settle the matter with the horse as soon as possible and send it to the soldiers."
"Yes! I will live up to His Majesty's high expectations!"
After saying that, Wei Zheng left the imperial study room.
After Wei Zheng left, His Majesty Li Er sighed silently.
Looking at the reports about Tuyuhun before him, he felt quite bad.
This time it was indeed his negligence that led to the current situation.
But it was also because he saw that there was too much grain harvested, and Su Chen said that there would be so much grain in the future that it would become moldy, so he took this opportunity to throw out all the old grain.
But who would have thought that this would give Tuyuhun an opportunity to take advantage of!
In fact, if you really want to talk about it, His Majesty Li Er cannot be entirely blamed this time.
Because Tuyuhun has been performing well in the past year and dare not show any disrespect to Datang.
But who would have thought that Tuyuhun, who was originally an honest man, would suddenly extend his claws and claws against Datang!
It can only be said that things are unpredictable...
For a while, His Majesty Li Er couldn't think of any good strategies, but he didn't dare to ask Su Chen.
As long as he is afraid that Su Chen will know that he sold all the grain to Tubo, which caused this situation, why don't you scold him bloody?
His Majesty Li Er can even imagine Su Chen's tone and tone at that time. He will definitely be so angry that he will reach bliss early!
And all he can do now is to stabilize the situation, and then slowly make plans to win steadily.
After several hand-picked military generals came out, His Majesty Li Er also sent spies to Tuyuhun to probe for information.
After the entire Tang Dynasty was in full operation for half a month, His Majesty Li Er once again encountered a problem.
He found that he seemed to be too optimistic about Datang's grain storage situation!
In addition to growing grain and the emergency grain that must be stored, even if the granaries in Guanzhong and Jiannan Province are included, there is only enough for a hundred thousand troops to barely survive for a month, which is really a drop in the bucket.
When fighting nomads like Tuyuhun, the consumption of soldiers is not a big problem, but the key lies in the rations of the war horses!
Originally, Tuyuhun already had an advantage in terms of the number of horses. If they were at a disadvantage again in terms of food, this battle would probably be much harder to fight than expected!
The Tuyuhun and the Eastern Turks are different. Although both are nomadic peoples, the reason why the Tang Dynasty was able to defeat the Eastern Turks was that it had the right time, place and people. It caught up with them and suffered heavy losses due to snow disasters, so it was able to annihilate them in one fell swoop!
But there are no natural or man-made disasters in Tuyuhun now. The country's strength is sufficient. Coupled with the developed animal husbandry industry, they have no shortage of high-quality horses. Both quantity and quality are top-notch.
At the same time, their weapon smelting is also quite advanced, and the scimitars they forge are very sharp, no weaker than the Mo Dao of the Tang Dynasty!
Moreover, after hundreds of years of development, the grassland peoples have already developed a unique way of fighting.
Throughout history, they have been a headache for all dynasties!
Because there is no way to completely defeat them!
If you're done fighting, run away; if you can't fight, run away!
Even if a large number of them are killed, within a few years they will pop up like leeks and be cut again and again.
As long as they are discovered to be weak for a period of time, they will start a crazy invasion southward!
Historically, no matter how powerful the regime in the Central Plains was, it could not completely wipe out the countries on the grasslands, and border harassment often occurred.
As a military general, His Majesty Li Er has a deep understanding of this. Facing this somewhat rogue way of fighting, he also has a headache.
…
In the Taiji Hall, the officials came to court early in the morning.
In the main hall, Li Er was sitting on the dragon chair with a gloomy expression, while the ministers were lined up on both sides with serious faces, standing with their hands tied.
His Majesty Li Er asked in a deep voice: "Now all the food and grass on the front line have been transported."
"Except for a few state capitals in the east, there is not much grain stored in official warehouses."
"Based on the current situation, it won't be long before the soldiers will face the embarrassing situation of food shortage. Do you have any suggestions?"
Dai Zhou took a step forward, raised his hands and said: Your Majesty, I think it would be better to replace all the soldiers' rations with red soybeans and leave the rice for the horses."
"In this way, we can last ten more days."
These days, Dai Zhou's food collection from the private sector has not been going well either.
Except for Jiannan Road, most areas have just begun to plant red soybean rice, so the food hoarded by the people is still mainly red soybean.
Feeding red succulent to war horses has little effect at all and cannot give the war horses sufficient physical strength.
He had no choice but to come up with this idea.
Regarding Dai Zhou's words, His Majesty Li Er thought for a while and said: "Although this is a method, it is not enough."
"Do you have any other ideas?"
The ministers looked at each other, and all of them were silent.
After a while, Changsun Wuji said: "Your Majesty, according to the news from the inn."
"The hundred knights sent to inquire for the news will arrive in Chang'an in the next day."
"It's not too late to listen to the news they brought back and make plans."
"If we can delay Tuyuhun for a while, the problem will be solved."
Just after getting off the ground, he also said: "Now it seems that there is really no good solution."
"I suggest that we prepare for the worst for the time being, so that the troops on the front line do not have to take the initiative to attack, and try to delay Tuyuhun as much as possible."
