Chapter 1054: Preparing to attack Tang, Lei Yu's family
The first year of Jianwu in the Han Dynasty.

End of March.

Su Mingzhe redrawn the boundaries of the various prefectures in Qi State, and then arranged officials at all levels before leading the army to continue the expedition.

Mid April.

Su Mingzhe destroyed half of the Dingnan army in one battle.

Early May.

The entire territory of Dingnan Army was incorporated into the name of the Han State.

End of June.

Following the old rules of Qi State, Su Mingzhe redefined the boundaries of prefectures in the entire Dingnan Army, arranged officials at all levels, and continued his expedition with the army.

Early July.

Su Mingzhe began to attack the Ganzhou Uighur tribe.

The Ganzhou Uighur tribe had a vast territory, connecting the western region of the Tianshan Mountains.

Su Mingzhe led the army westward and spent three months to wipe out all the Uighur tribes.

When the Western Regions countries north and south of the Tianshan Mountains heard that the Han army was coming, they all offered to surrender.

It’s almost October.

At this time, heavy snow began to fall in the Western Regions, Tubo and other places.

Su Mingzhe was unable to expand the results of the war, so he could only randomly arrange some officials to carry out the most rough management of the Western Regions and other places, and then lead the army back to Chang'an.

Early November.

After ten months of expedition, Su Mingzhe returned to Chang'an City.

After offering sacrifices to the predecessors in the Taimiao, Su Mingzhe held the first grand court meeting since his return.

In the Taiji Palace, all the ministers came to see the emperor.

A strong man shouted:
"If there is something going on, go ahead and leave if there is nothing going on!"

"I have a memorial!"

Prime Minister Wei Yi, who was standing at the head of the right side, came out quickly, holding up his imperial tablet, and said:
"Your Majesty, the saint is benevolent and has unrivaled martial arts. He destroyed the three kingdoms of Qi, Dingnan, and Huihu in one battle, expanded our territory by thousands of miles, and increased our population by tens of millions..."

After a lot of flattery, Wei Yi got to the point - the territory of the Han Empire was expanding too fast, there was a shortage of officials everywhere, and the Ministry of Personnel had no one to send, so he asked the emperor to hold another special examination.

Su Mingzhe readily agreed to the suggestion.

Subsequently, other officials continued to submit memorials.

These officials knew the emperor's temper, so most of them spoke briefly and did not dare to use flowery words.

Of course, it’s still time to flatter people.

Other than that, we're basically talking about business.

Ten months had passed since Su Mingzhe went on the expedition, and the Han Kingdom had accumulated a lot of things.

This grand court meeting lasted for four hours before it was declared over.

The meeting is over.

On the second day.

Su Mingzhe also summoned the three dukes and nine ministers to the imperial study to hold a small high-level court meeting.

Small court meetings are completely different from large court meetings.

When the grand court meeting was held, Su Mingzhe retained the military's habit of meeting in which everyone except him, the emperor, stood.

The ministers had nothing to eat or drink.

If you want to go to the toilet, you have to report to the censor who supervises all officials.

When it came to the small court meeting, Su Mingzhe began to show all kinds of courtesies to the three dukes and nine ministers. Not only did he give them seats, tea and snacks, he also considerately allowed them to go to the toilet to solve their physiological problems.

In addition to the issue of treatment, there is also the issue of the importance of the events being discussed.

In the grand court meeting, the discussion mainly involves some "big and general" matters, which basically require collective wisdom and efforts.

At the small court meeting, the main discussions were on detailed national policies and specific events.

It was often the Emperor Su Mingzhe who asked directly and then summarized the opinions of the ministers.

In the blink of an eye, it was noon.

Seeing that the court affairs had been settled, the ministers prepared to leave. Su Mingzhe suddenly spoke with a somewhat unwilling tone:

"Now, Liang, Shu, and Tang have formed an alliance and are guarding the borders. My dear ministers, tell me which one we should attack next year?"

The ministers looked at each other in bewilderment.

The Han people have been fighting for a whole year this year, and everyone thought they could have a year's rest next year.

Seeing that everyone seemed to be resisting, Su Mingzhe couldn't help but raise his voice:
"The Tang Dynasty has more than 300 states, but our Han Dynasty has abundant martial virtues, but it does not even have 50 states..."

Wei Yi saw that Su Mingzhe was going to attack the three "old-fashioned empires" of Liang, Shu and Tang as soon as he opened his mouth. He remembered that the Minister of Revenue had come to him to complain that there was no surplus in the warehouse from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and he couldn't even take out the big reward at the end of this year. He could only remind him:

"Your Majesty, our Han Dynasty has only been established for a year. Although the Yi Nu Army is invincible, the soldiers are tired after fighting for a long time and it is difficult for them to fight again. How about we rest for a year and wait for sufficient food and grass before starting the war again?"

"No, since ancient times, opportunities are hard to come by and will never come back! Now our Han army is at its peak. If we don't take advantage of this opportunity, and if the three kingdoms accumulate their forces, I'm afraid the casualties will be even greater."

Su Mingzhe still remembers that he almost captured Luoyang, the capital of Liang State last year.

If I had taken the opportunity to capture Luoyang last year, I might have taken over the entire Liang State by now. Why would I still be worrying about which country to attack?

A middle-aged man with a short beard suddenly stood up, bowed to Su Mingzhe and said:

"Your Majesty, I think we should attack the Tang Kingdom!"

"Oh? Tell me the reason."

Su Mingzhe looked at the other person gently with his deep eyes, as if encouraging him to speak out his reasons boldly.

"The false emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Cunxu, founded a country for the Shatuo tribe..."

Just as the minister with short beard was about to explain his reasons, he saw the smile on the emperor's face quickly fade.

Although he didn't know what was wrong with what he said, the short-bearded minister was smart and immediately said seriously:
"Although Li Cunxu claimed to be the heir of the Tang Dynasty's Li clan, he disregarded morality, favored actors, and persecuted loyal ministers and generals..."

As the short-bearded minister described Li Cunxu's crimes, a smile appeared on Su Mingzhe's face again.

now it's right.

Like what we said before about "the Shatuo tribe established a country", we should talk less about this kind of disloyalty in the future.

After all, there are now dozens of foreign tribes under the name of the Han Dynasty.

The short-bearded minister listed Li Cunxu's thirteen crimes in one breath.

Several other ministers also understood what was happening and united in accusing the Tang Emperor Li Cunxu.

The Han Dynasty is different from Liang, Shu and Tang.

It can be said that the current Han Dynasty was built entirely by the efforts of Su Mingzhe alone.

In front of Su Mingzhe, everyone is called the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, but in fact they are just "workers" and have no shares at all.

So, when Su Mingzhe made it clear that he must go to the battle.

As a result, a group of workers wanted to persuade Su Mingzhe, the sole proprietor, to change his mind. Isn't this just looking for trouble?
I have to say that the minister with short beard has good eyesight.

Seeing that everyone had reached a consensus, Su Mingzhe couldn't help but smile more and more:
"One more thing, the former prime minister of the Tang Dynasty is my father-in-law. My father-in-law was diligent and loyal to the king, but was eventually forced to death by Li Cunxu. As his son-in-law, I also have the responsibility to avenge him!"

The ministers: "..."

The pilgrimage meeting is over.

The manifesto to attack Emperor Li Cunxu of the Tang Dynasty was written by officials from the Ministry of Rites.

Su Mingzhe ordered someone to bring Tang Guo's information.

He needs to think about how to fight next year's battle in order to minimize casualties.

Last year, the Tang Kingdom had 300,000 soldiers, and the number of soldiers capable of fighting reached 120,000 to 130,000.

However, Su Mingzhe currently controls only about 120,000 soldiers, and the remaining hundreds of thousands of soldiers are surrendered soldiers and are of no use.

When attacking the Tang Kingdom next year, Su Mingzhe will send 80,000 soldiers to guard the border. In this way, he can only lead 40,000 righteous slaves and tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers to fight.

The comparison of military strength between the two sides is extremely disparate.

If Su Mingzhe didn't study the other party's information carefully and exert his power, he would really be afraid of capsizing in the ditch.

"Li Cunxu, 43 years old, is the son of Li Keyong, the Prince of Jin. After Li Keyong passed away, the throne of the Prince of Jin was taken by his younger brother Li Kening. Li Cunxu could only inherit the title of a captain. In order to regain the throne of the Prince of Jin, Li Cunxu married Princess Zhenning, the daughter of Emperor Zhu Wen of Liang..."

"The eldest son Yuanxiang, born to Li Cunxu and his ex-wife, is 24 years old this year..."

"The second son Yuanjie, the eldest son of Li Cunxu and Princess Zhenning, is twenty years old this year..."

"The third son Yuancheng, the second son of Li Cunxu and Princess Zhenning, is twelve years old this year..."

(End of this chapter)