Hebei, Leshou.

Jincheng Palace.

The Xia Dynasty emperor Dou Jiande sighed in the hall, and the air in the hall was frozen.

"Have the princess not here yet?"

Dou Jiande asked.

The waiter in a corner of the hall hurriedly replied in a low voice, "The princess has not arrived yet."

"Then let's urge you to do something, but a girl stays in the military camp all day long."

The eunuch's gentle footsteps went away, and Dou Jiande sat in front of the imperial case, supporting his head with one hand, but was frowning.

In just one year, the situation has been completely different.

Last New Year, Dou Jiande had already wiped out most of Hebei. He was a genius who even submitted to him. He wrote poems and essays to praise him as Liu Jinu of the Southern Song Dynasty. He also came from the bottom and joined the army. Then he rose up and dominated the world in troubled times, saying that he would be able to unify the world in the future.

However, before listening to these hymns for a long time, he encountered the dilemma in Henan. He fought with Li Mi for a long time, and many casualties were injured. As a result, Luo Cheng took advantage of the situation and killed Dugu and occupied Fanyang in Beijing. Then he swept across Boling, Hengshan, and Shanggu. When he hurriedly retreated, although he stabilized the situation, Dou Jiande had no more land to expand in the past year.

He fell into the swamp of suppressing thieves in Wei County and Xiangguo County.

In more than a year, the two counties have not yet been pacified. Not only have they not been pacified, but the two thieves have also frequently penetrated into his Xia Kingdom, burning, killing, looting, and suppressing more and more.

All signs show that he was actually suppressing not only Song Jingang and Zhen Zhai'er, but many soldiers and horses that went deep into the Xia realm were originally disguised by the light cavalry of the Qin army.

In addition to Luo Cheng's double-teaming on his north and south sides, he occasionally threatened the navy and his marines from the east, which made Dou Jiande feel very powerless.

Although he owns most of Hebei, he is completely surrounded by Luo Cheng and completely blocked.

Many literati and officials who used to praise him even secretly ran to the Qin army territory.

While trying to suppress bandits, they had to deal with the threat of the Qin army surrounded by all sides. Dou Jiande had to keep his troops stationed on all sides all year round. The result was a significant increase in military expenditure, a sharp increase in military demand and food consumption, and it also greatly affected the lack of labor in the territory and the cultivation of fields.

Now in the country's territory, prices have risen severely, food is scarce and labor is insufficient.

An increasingly serious vicious cycle.

The escape of many gentry officials has made the local governance of Xia State chaotic, and the severe drought this spring has spread throughout Hebei. By now, this summer, extremely bad results have occurred.

This summer harvest is a bad harvest.

The harvest is less than one-third.

Dou Jiande, who was already short of food, was facing an upcoming famine.

Even if Luo Cheng does not lead the army to attack, as long as the situation in front of him continues, Dou Jiande himself will collapse.

But if he disbanded most of the 200,000 troops and went home to farm, the military pressure would increase greatly and it would be difficult to defend against the possible attacks of the Qin army on all sides.

If you keep it, you will not be able to hold on.

If you don't defend, the Qin army may come here at any time.

in this case.

Two missions arrived at Leshou one after another.

One branch was an envoy sent by Luo Cheng. I don’t know how many times it was. Luo Cheng still hoped that Dou Jiande would submit and reiterated the old saying, saying that after submitting, he could be granted the title of Changle Marquis after his previous relationship, and he could be granted the title of Changle Marquis and the civil and military talents under him, so that he would not harm the people of Hebei at all.

Unlike in the past, Luo Cheng's envoy also made a request this time, which was to let Dou Jiande dispel his doubts. The emperor proposed to take Dou Jiande's daughter Zhaorong, the second of the Nine Concubines, second only to the Queen and the Four Concubines and Zhaoyi in the harem.

This proposal of marriage was not an exaggeration. In the view of the Qin envoy, it was the emperor's kindness and a guarantee for Dou Jiande and Xia army.

In terms of age, the emperor is less than thirty years old, which is very compatible with the age of the Red Line.

It can be said that the Qin monarchs and ministers have put a lot of thought into solving the Hebei problem.

Dou Jiande was a little moved, but also a little unwilling to accept it.

The past decade of fighting has reached this point. Since he had ascended the throne and became emperor, it would be difficult to turn back on this journey. Now he has given up Hebei and taken down the crown and returned to Qin. He is unwilling to accept it.

After seeing Tang Jian, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty, Dou Jiande's intention to return to Qin became even more shaken.

Tang Jian was Li Yuan's meritorious official. This man was not good at commanding troops and fighting wars, nor was he good at government affairs, but he was the best lobbyist. With his perfect tongue, Li Yuan had persuaded and persuaded him to surrender many local generals and officials.

Even the last time he went on a mission to the Turks, he successfully reached an alliance with Jie Li Khan.

Now Tang Jian has been here to Hebei for a lot of trouble, but he has taken a lot of risks. Guanzhong and Hebei were blocked by the Qin army. Tang Jian and his party pretended to be a caravan and came here secretly. They spent a lot of gold and silver on the way, and were even seen through by the Qin army for a while, losing a lot of manpower. However, Tang Jian finally successfully arrived at Leshou City.

Tang Jian painted an excellent alliance prospect to Dou Jiande.

The three armies of the Tang, Xia and Turks allied together, and 500,000 troops attacked Qin. After destroying Qin, Xia obtained Hebei, outside the pass, Tang obtained Hedong and Henan, and Turks obtained Hetao Daibei in the desert and south of the desert.

The three companies win-win.

Tang Jian also brought a request from Emperor Tang Li Yuan, hoping to marry Princess Xia for the King of Qi to make the love of Tang Xia.

"The three coalition forces defeat Taiyuan first, then our Tang Lord is in Chang'an, Guanzhong, and Xia Lord is in Fanyang, Hebei. Then the three coalition forces sent troops from Taiyuan to move south. At that time, the three coalition forces formed one, swept down, and headed straight to Luoyang, and Luo Cheng would be defeated."

Tang Jian said that the three coalition forces of the three families first defeated Dingxiang, then entered Daibei Mayi, and then defeated Taiyuan, and then helped Dou Jiande to capture Fan Yang to him, and then the coalition forces went to Luoyang.

The three coalition forces of 500,000 are very good.

This does not include the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Li Yuan’s defense line in Wuguan, Tongguan.

"As long as the three families join forces, no matter how powerful Luo Cheng is, he will definitely lose!" said Tang Jian.

a long time.

The sound of footsteps interrupted Dou Jiande's thoughts.

He looked up and found that his daughter's red line was coming.

Princess Red Line came into the palace, but was still wearing military uniform, with bright light armor and a gold cloak, holding a phoenix-winged helmet in her hand.

Seeing him like this, Dou Jiande frowned.

"Win Madam, how can you behave like this all day long?"

"Father, Luo Cheng once said, "A man is not as good as a man. His wife, Shan and concubine Li, have all dressed in armor and made considerable military achievements."

Dou Jiande shook his head and did not argue with his daughter about this, "Movie Mother, my father summoned you to discuss something with you."

"Is it the envoys of the Tang and Qin families who asked for marriage?"

Dou Jiande nodded, "I didn't expect you to have heard of it."

"No daughter married, and the father wants to form an alliance with Tang or surrender to Qin. This is the father's power, but the daughter does not want to be the bargaining chip in it."

"you"

Dou Jiande sighed again, "When the Sui Dynasty officers and soldiers searched the house, you and I were there, and I escaped by chance, but it was a pity that your mother and brothers all died tragically. If your mother was still there, it would not have delayed you until now. You must have chosen a good man to marry him."

"Father, don't talk about these."

Red Line stopped my father from talking about these past events, "I have no objection to whether my father surrendered to the Qin Dynasty or formed an alliance with Li Tang, but my daughter does not want her father to accept the Turkic enthronement."

Tang Jian came, not only brought Li Tang's request for marriage and alliance, but also brought the enthronement of Dou Jiande by the Turkic Jie Li Khan.

Jie Li Khan conferred Li Yuan as Ding Yang Khan, and now he is conferred Dou Jiande as Ping Yang Khan.

One to determine Yang and the other to adjust Yang actually meant to pacify the Yang family of the Sui Dynasty, but in essence they were just the little khan of the Turks' subordinate vassal. Moreover, Jie Li's request for Dou Jiande was the same as Li Yuan. The land captured by Hebei was given to Dou Jiande, but the woman of money and silk wanted to give him.

"Father, you can fight to dominate the world and be the emperor, but you can't be the son of the Turks!" Hong Shi said to his father.
Chapter completed!