Wei Zheng's face suddenly flushed and red. The other party's words left him speechless. The three northern counties were Liu Wuzhou's territory, which did not belong to the Tang Dynasty. The Northern Sui Dynasty occupied Liu Wuzhou's territory. What reason did the Tang Dynasty have to persuade the other party to give up the territory?

Wei Zheng bit his lips and said, "My Crown Prince has been in charge of Taiyuan since last year. He fought more than a dozen battles with Liu Wuzhou, basically annihilated Liu Wuzhou's main force. The Tang army also paid a heavy price for this. It's like planting a peach tree. We loosen the soil, fertilize, catch insects, and raise the trees with great effort. Seeing that the peaches were born, when the peaches were ripe, you easily picked the peaches. Does Military Secretary Fang think this is fair?"

Fang Xuanling smiled and said, "This peach metaphor is more vivid. Of course we understand the hard work of the Tang army, but as I said just now, we talk about the principle. This principle is who does the peach tree belong to? Is it the Tang Dynasty or our Northern Sui Dynasty?"

Wei Zheng was stunned, and Fang Xuanling continued: "Duke Li raised an army in Taiyuan, and the army immediately went south. Liu Wuzhou's rebellion was one month earlier than Li Gong's rebellion. He took the lead in occupying Mayi County and Yanmen County. Before Li Gong's army entered Guanzhong, Liu Wuzhou's army occupied Loufan County and directly threatened the safety of Taiyuan County. Li Gong urgently sent Liu Wenjing to the Turks to request the Turks to mediate, but Liu Wuzhou did not continue to attack Taiyuan, so from the beginning, the three northern counties were not the land of the Tang Dynasty.

To put it bluntly, even Taiyuan County is not. The reason why Li Gong was in charge was that he was the late emperor appointed by Taiyuan. He was a minister of the Sui Dynasty and Taiyuan was the territory of the Great Sui Dynasty. Of course, if you continue to calculate this, it would be a mess. Therefore, we also adhere to the principle and take the time when Li Gong established the country and ascended the throne. When he ascended the throne, how to divide the territory of Liu Wuzhou and the Tang Dynasty was our benchmark."

"But the Tang Dynasty never divided any territory with Liu Wuzhou, so where can there be principles?"

"Mr. Wei's words are untenable. If there is no principle, then Liu Wuzhou's army attacked Linfen County the year before yesterday. Do we think Linfen County is also the territory of Liu Wuzhou? Of course, we also know that the Tang army and Liu Wuzhou experienced many major wars, and both sides suffered casualties. However, the Tang army fought with Liu Wuzhou in order to defend Taiyuan, and was out of defense. The Tang army never stepped into Mayi County from the beginning to the end. Why do we think that Mayi County and Yanmen County were the territory of the Tang Dynasty?"

Fang Xuanling's words were loud and could not be refuted by reason. Wei Zheng sighed for a while and said, "It seems that we have our own reasons, and it is difficult for each other to convince each other. I will go back and report to His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Fang Xuanling looked at him deeply and said earnestly: "Your Highness of the King of Qi has a piece of advice to Prince Jiancheng. After all, the prince is the prince. If the prince does the emperor's affairs, the country will be in chaos."

Wei Zheng stood up solemnly and bowed deeply, "Please thank the military advisor for your good words on my behalf. Wei Zheng said goodbye first."

Fang Xuanling personally sent Wei Zheng out of the camp, watched Wei Zheng's carriage walk away, and then returned to the central army's tent. Zhang Xuan stood in front of the sand table with his hands behind his back and stared at the Hetao area. He had already firmly controlled the three northern counties. He actually didn't care how Li Jiancheng was trying. Relatively speaking, he was more concerned about Li Jing's expedition. Now Li Jing's army should enter the core area of ​​Wuyuan County."

At this time, Fang Xuanling walked in and said with a smile: "Your Highness, Wei Zheng has left."

"How?" Zhang Xuan asked with a smile.

"As Your Highness expected, Wei Zheng did not come because of the spoils of war, but to merge with the three northern counties, I told him a great reason."

"Can he accept the military advisor's principle?" Zhang Xuan asked with a smile again.

"Wei Zheng may not be able to accept my great truth, but Wei Zheng accepted His Highness's advice. He called it a good word, and he asked me to convey his gratitude to His Highness."

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "He did not accept my advice, it should be that I coincide with his ideas. However, Li Jiancheng may not be willing to accept my advice. Judging from all the signs, the conflict between the Li father and son in the concept of governing the country is very deep. Sooner or later, the conflict between them and their father and son will break out."

"Have Your Highness decided to negotiate with the Tang Dynasty?"

Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "Of course we are talking to their court. At this time, we must avoid suspicion, so as not to think that we are provoking the relationship between them, father and son."

After pausing for a while, Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "Actually, there is nothing to talk about in the division of spoils. I want to talk to the Tang Dynasty about Lingwu County or Yan'an County. This cannot be discussed with Li Jiancheng, so I must find their emperor."

"So Your Highness used the excuse of trophy negotiation and then introduced this topic, right?"

“That’s exactly that!”

Zhang Xuan smiled, and he walked a few steps behind his hands and said, "The military advisor can draw a draft of the trophy division, and divide the trophy according to the number of troops sent. We will give another 30-cent pension money for each family of the dead Tang army. After the draft is drafted, I will ask Ling Jing to return to Zhongdu and discuss in detail with Ziwei Pavilion."

"Why let me go back to Zhongdu!"

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "I decided to lead 10,000 cavalry to Hetao and set out early tomorrow morning. The aftermath here needs to be handled by the military advisor. Let Ling Jing go back. I believe Ling Jing will understand what I mean."

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As Zhang Xuan said, Wei Zheng's idea was indeed coincided with Zhang Xuan's advice. He also believed that the prince Jiancheng had done a bit offside in some aspects. For example, last time he arbitrarily agreed to the Tang army send troops to join forces with the Sui army to fight against the Turks, which directly violated the emperor's orders, and even agreed to the Tang army to enter the Sui army camp to achieve the integration of the Sui army. Although this is more conducive to fighting with the Turkic army, the political consequences are extremely serious and will seriously anger the emperor.

Another time, the prince asked him to go to Sui Ying to discuss and return to the three northern counties. Although the tough attitude of the Northern Sui Dynasty made Wei Zheng come to waste, Wei Zheng was worried that it was on a mission to negotiate the matter itself. It was obviously a matter of the court, and it should be the emperor's decision, but the prince must interfere and go further and further on the wrong path.

Wei Zheng really wondered why the prince made mistakes again and again? Of course, the prince would not be confused for a moment, nor was he naive in his thoughts. This made Wei Zheng vaguely feel that the prince was dissatisfied with his son today. It should be for this reason, which made Wei Zheng even more worried. If this matter is handled improperly, it may trigger a dispute over the imperial power among the top leaders of the Tang Dynasty.

Two days later, Wei Zheng returned to Taiyuan City. He went straight to Jinyang Palace and found Li Jiancheng. He walked into the study room, but saw Li Jiancheng's personal soldiers cleaning the bookcase, which made Wei Zheng stunned.

Li Jiancheng said lightly: "I received an imperial edict from my father in the morning and asked me to return to Beijing to report my work immediately. I am afraid that I will not come back again after I go, so I packed up all the books."

"If Your Highness returns to Chang'an, who will guard Taiyuan?" Wei Zheng asked anxiously.

"I have appointed General Wang Junguo as the princess general of Taiyuan, and Wang Bodang as the princess general of Lishi. They are guarded by their "Two Kings". The Taiyuan front line should be foolproof."

Li Jiancheng glanced at Wei Zheng and asked again: "How is the negotiation situation?"

Wei Zheng shook his head with a wry smile, and then explained in detail the matter of his mission to the Sui Army camp, and finally said: "Zhang Xuan refused to see me, and the reason was self-evident, but he also knew the purpose of my visit, so he implicitly reminded us that this negotiation should be carried out by the courts on both sides."

Wei Zheng thought Li Jiancheng would be furious, but Li Jiancheng was silent. After a while, Li Jiancheng said: "If Zhang Xuan thinks this is a matter of the court, I have no objection. Please write a detailed report on this matter. Then I will hand it over to my father!"

"What about the division of spoils?" Wei Zheng asked again.

Li Jiancheng waved his hand impatiently, "Leave it to the court to deal with it."

Wei Zheng didn't expect Li Jiancheng to give up so easily. He had refused to listen to his advice before. Something must have happened here. Wei Zheng asked in a low voice: "Your Highness, what happened?"

Li Jiancheng snorted coldly and said, "Li Zhongwen secretly wrote a letter to his father, impeaching me for being arbitrary, and listed a bunch of so-called "facts". His father's edict was very tough, and probably also affected by his letter. At this time, I will no longer let some people catch me."

Wei Zheng was very shocked. Li Zhongwen dared to impeach the crown prince. It was unheard of. Aren’t he afraid of revenge after the crown prince ascended the throne?
Chapter completed!