In Jinling City, in the Royal Courtyard, Li Xuan was having a small meeting with several ministers on duty in the imperial study room, and what everyone was talking about was exactly how to discuss a truce with the Tatars and mutual trade.
"According to my opinion, these Tatars are very willing to cease war and trade with each other!" Qian Mengjiu said: "According to colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when they were negotiating in Youzhou City, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Even without much pressure from their colleagues, they just gave up a few border towns and cities.
And judging from their actions, it is estimated that if we force one or two, it is possible that they will hand over all the remaining seven or eight border towns and cities. Since their will is so strong, they might as well contact one or two, who knows?
You can get unexpected benefits!”
At this time, Lieutenant General Lei Wan on the side said: "The matter of the border town does not mean that they really want to stop the war and negotiate a peace at all costs. Our army's view is that they are more likely to know that they cannot defend these cities.
It’s better to pretend to be generous about the border town and take the initiative to let it go!”
Speaking of this, Lieutenant General Lei Wan paused for a moment, and then said in a confident tone: "If it weren't for the Huguang Battle that held back a lot of our resources, otherwise, many border towns in the north would have been recaptured long ago. As long as
With sufficient supplies, if our army is given half a year, no, three months, we can recapture all the border towns and cities along the northern Great Wall defense line!"
"We lack cavalry, so it is hard to say how to fight outside the pass, but it is easy to capture and recapture the border towns and cities in the pass. Let alone us, even if the former Ming army went there, they could still capture it.
Back, the Tatars were all cavalry, and they were good at field combat, but when it came to city offensive and defensive battles, they were far behind. If Qian Ming hadn't taken the initiative to put them in prison at that time, they would have even tacitly allowed the Tatars to occupy these border towns.
, these Tatars haven’t even been able to enter the Great Wall yet!”
"The time is ripe. We can take it back by ourselves. It's only a year and a half away!"
Lieutenant General Lei Wan's confident words can be regarded as setting the tone for the Army, that is, the Army does not believe that the Tatars' transfer of these cities has any practical value.
But if the empire's vital interests are given away just for this little time, then the empire will suffer a loss!
And if the empire suffers a loss, the army will never agree!
The territory of the empire was conquered by the Eternal Saint King with his army. Every inch of land and every Tang Tongbao is stained with the blood of army soldiers!
However, Lieutenant General Lei Wan changed his mind at this time, and then said: "Of course, if they can open up the supply of horses, it is okay to give them a little sweetness!"
At this time, Lieutenant General Lei Wan basically put forward the army's views and opinions on behalf of the army, that is, in principle, the empire cannot suffer a loss, but if the Tatars are stupid and dare to provide a large number of horses to the Tang Dynasty,
Then the Army was the first to agree!
As long as there are enough horses and two or three years of preparation, the Army will have the ability to march north to the grasslands. By then, the agreement will be nothing more than waste paper. The Army believes that Your Majesty will be very happy to see the Army march to the grasslands.
, to open up the territory for the Tang Dynasty!
To put it simply, the Army only needs horses. If there are no horses, the Army will object!
And it is not just the army generals who can see this. In fact, Liu Bagou, Qian Mengjiu and other civil servants also know the importance of horses. The mutual trade between the central dynasties and the northern grasslands in the past dynasties is basically inseparable from horses.
This vocabulary!
The people in the northern grasslands also know very clearly what their biggest bargaining chip is, and they always want to use horses in exchange for more benefits. Of course, they also know that once the Central Plains Dynasty gets a large number of horses, basically
This is their end, so even if they sell horses, they will never be sold in large quantities.
At this time, Liu Bagou also spoke: "Yesterday, my colleagues from the Ministry of Commerce also approached me and said that they hope to reach a mutual market agreement as much as possible without harming the interests of the empire. They said that if the mutual market is opened,
, then many commodities of the empire will have a new sales channel. Tea, salt, porcelain, silk, woven cloth, soap and many other commodities can be used to exchange a large number of horses, cattle, sheep, gold and silver for the empire. In addition, it is said that,
There is a shortage of wool in the industrial market of the empire, and it is difficult to find enough wool for a woolen fabric factory newly built by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, and production is currently very difficult!"
After hearing this, Li Xuan was a little speechless. Recently, the officials of the Ministry of Commerce have been thinking about opening up the commodity market every day and looking for various industrial raw materials!
Regarding the expansion of overseas trade, colonization, and exploration of new routes, the Ministry of Commerce was more active than the Navy. Although it was Li Xuan's original intention to establish the Datang Western Company, in fact, the Ministry of Commerce also had a lot of troubles.
of strength.
In order to persuade the Navy and Army to allow the establishment of Datang Western Company, the Ministry of Commerce lobbied the top brass of the Army and Navy for a long time.
Finally, after many negotiations, the company armed forces of the Tang Dynasty Western Company were adopted. All its officers must hire retired officers. In the event of war, the company armed forces must unconditionally obey the orders of the Privy Council and the Naval Command to support the army and navy.
After fighting, the big bosses of the army and navy agreed to grant the Datang Western Company permission to form an armed force, and sent active-duty troops to retire and join the Datang Western Company. Otherwise, what would the Datang Western Company do?
So many officers and soldiers!
You know, there were only three military academies in the Tang Dynasty, namely the Martial Arts Academy, the Imperial Academy, and the Hai Academy, which were directly affiliated with the army. Even the Guards had no professional military academies.
If the Tang Dynasty Western Company wanted to obtain officers, it could only rely on the army and navy!
Everyone discussed and discussed, and finally reached a consensus, and Li Xuan personally set up several principled issues that could not be discussed!
First of all, we must not talk about artillery, because artillery is a weapon for attacking fortresses. If the Tatars have a large number of artillery, the Great Wall will be full of loopholes in minutes!
But as for muskets, some can be sold appropriately, but they must be limited to backward matchlock guns, and the quantity cannot be large.
Anyway, the Tang Dynasty has begun to completely replace the flintlock muskets, and although the matchlocks have not been completely withdrawn from active service, they have basically been reduced to second-line equipment.
At the same time, to be honest, the technical content of muskets is average. In the surrounding countries, Fuso has them, not to mention the Europeans, and there are also many countries in Central Asia. If the Tatars want it, it is
What can be obtained through Central Asia, West Asia, and Europe is just a little more troublesome.
Besides, if the Tatars gave up the traditional mounted archery and started playing line musketeers, it would be a good thing for the Tang Dynasty!
Li Xuan felt an inexplicable sense of joy when he thought of the Tatars giving up their traditional mounted archery and hiring a bunch of line musketeers. He would definitely beat them to the point where their parents would not be able to recognize them.
These days, if the Tatars dare to compete with the Tang Army in a musketry exchange, they are basically seeking death!
In addition to guns and cannons, horses must also be obtained. This is the prerequisite for the Tang Dynasty to cease war and trade. If there are no horses, then there is no need to talk about it, because the Tang Dynasty has no other urgent needs for other things from the Tatars.
To horses, that's nonsense, keep on beating!
If you can't exchange horses in the mutual market, then continue to wage war to grab them!
The horses used by the Tang cavalry were all stolen, first from the Ming army, and then from the Tatars!
Besides, the Tatars are not the only ones with horses. There are also horses in the Chahar tribe in the east. This so-called central Mongolian household has been unlucky in recent years, and was beaten and killed by Anta Khan, and finally escaped.
Arriving at the Liaodong Hetao, the southeastern half of the Greater Hinggan Mountains.
Further west, there is the Oara. Although many years ago the Oara were the life and death enemy of the Central Plains Dynasty, but now, the Oara people have long since died, and the great enemy of the Central Plains Dynasty is the Tatars.
As for uniting Oara and Chahar to fight against the Tatars, this was what the Ming Dynasty did before, and now the Tang Dynasty is planning to continue to do it!
Therefore, although horses are very important, it does not mean that the Tang Dynasty cannot obtain them from other places. Even the two grassland tribes mentioned above do not sell horses to the Tang Dynasty, but there are also Central Asian tribes where horses
There are many!
After Li Xuan determined these principled bottom lines, the next thing was to hand over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Even the many ministers on duty in the imperial study room were busy with their own affairs.
Anyway, people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are the most professional at doing this. Although they are the ministers of the imperial study, unfortunately, among the seven ministers on duty in the imperial study, none are from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so they are not good at this kind of feudal affairs!
The only person in the Imperial Study Room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is just a walking minister in the Royal Study Room. In the past two years, there have been more walking ministers in the Royal Study Room, more than twenty. Basically, as long as they are
The head of a relatively important department can get the title of walking minister. If there are too many people, the title will become less valuable.
At least, they are not qualified to participate in today's small meeting in the imperial study room. Only seven ministers on duty in the imperial study room can participate!
After the people at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received accurate instructions from above, they started negotiations with Tagli!
What are we talking about? Naturally, we are talking about armistice and mutual trade, the handover of border towns, and horse trade!
But after several conversations, Tagli discovered that what these officials from the Tang Dynasty's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said was basically the same as what he heard in Youzhou City. It didn't work either way.
Even his request to see the emperor was not allowed.
If you want to have an audience, you must first sign the truce agreement and then we can discuss it. Otherwise, why do you, a Tatar, have an audience with our supreme Eternal Saint King?
Well, even if the agreement is signed, it doesn't mean that you can meet whenever you want. It depends on the mood of the Holy Emperor!
If you are in a good mood, I will let you take a look from a distance. What is important to mention is: you must not look directly at the Holy Emperor for a long time when you are in audience. You can only look at it once, and then you must lower your head, otherwise it will be disrespectful.
!
If the Holy Emperor is in a bad mood, why don't you stay in Tagli to cool down?