The night was already deep, but the lights were still brightly lit in Wanshou Palace.

Usually at this time, the Empress Dowager had already fallen asleep, and the elderly did not sleep deeply and were prone to wake up, so most of the lights in the palace were often extinguished and not allowed to be bright forever.

However, tonight, the Empress Dowager was not sleepy. After leaving the house of the family banquet and returning to Wanshou Palace, she not only did not fall asleep early, but instead took someone to get paper and pen Buddhist scriptures and copied them at her desk.

The palace people didn't know why the Empress Dowager was like this, but they didn't dare to ask more questions. They just stood by with anxiety, watching the Empress Dowager's arms trembling, and copying the scriptures with great difficulty.

Li Tong came outside Wanshou Palace, worried that it would disturb his grandmother's rest, so he did not make people speak loudly. He planned to ask if his grandmother was already asleep, he would come and greet him tomorrow.

When he stepped into the outer hall quietly, he was shocked after seeing this scene. The palace people rushed to see the ceremony. Li Tong waved his hand a little and walked quickly to the empress dowager's case. Seeing that many copied scriptures had accumulated on the desk, he hurriedly wanted to take down the brush from his grandmother's hand before entering, and couldn't help but say, "Just worship Buddha and understand the scriptures, just understand the meaning, why should grandmother be tired and hurt her? If there are any distractions that cannot be resolved, tomorrow I will invite the famous master of the famous temple in the capital to enter the palace to perform a ritual..."

"Sit there, don't make trouble!"

Wu Zetian raised his left hand and patted Li Tong's palm that was approaching, and raised his chin to signal him to sit on one side, while he continued to copy the scriptures at his desk. After nearly half an hour, a scripture was finished copying. Wu Zetian sat up straight and stretched his waist slightly. Seeing this, Li Tong hurriedly stepped forward and gently knocked his grandmother on his shoulders and back.

The emperor's massage technique was naturally poor, but Wu Zetian enjoyed it quite a bit, stretched his eyebrows and eyes slightly, raised his hand and pointed to the copied scriptures on the desk, and ordered the palace servants to say, "Send these scriptures to several famous temples in the capital to offer sacrifices, so that monks can do lessons in the morning and evening, and do not slackew!"

When the palace servants entered, they took away the papers that were copying scriptures. Wu Zetian turned his head and looked at Li Tong and smiled and said, "The emperor knows that the scriptures your grandmother copied are prayers?"

After hearing this, Li Tong shook his head. He was not very interested in this kind of thing. Although he had been waiting for a while, he was just sleeping and restless, and he didn't even look at the content copied by his grandmother.

Wu Zetian was not surprised by this, but just sighed and raised his hand to knock the saint's forehead, saying a little resentful: "You kid, you are disrespectful to gods and Buddhas in your heart. It is hard for you to actually make the tricks like "The Rain Sutra" that year, and you are fascinated by people!"

When Li Tong heard this, he was a little embarrassed. He raised his hand and scratched his head and smiled embarrassedly: "After all, my grandmother is deeply caring for her, so that I can have a place to show it."

Of course, Wu Zetian was not trying to pursue the story. After hearing this, he sighed again, put the saint's palm into his palm and then said, "Your grandmother was not in the past years. After all, she had no power and strength to take care of her relatives. She could give my grandson some protection after a moment of planning. But now the weak old woman needs her relatives to provide care for her..."

This naturally sounds a bit bitter. Li Tong held Wu Zetian's thinner palm with his backhand and sighed: "It is inevitable that people will live a long and strong. This is also the reason why the human ethics needs to be followed. In the past, my grandmother took care of me to grow up, but now the young generation has the ability to support my parents and live a life of their lives."

"I know that you have a deep filial piety, otherwise there would be no place for this old woman to live in the world?"

Wu Zetian smiled first, then picked up the scripture and said, "This sutra is to pray for peace between the country and the country, and all the things that children and men have built can succeed..."

When Li Tong heard this, he vaguely understood: "Grandma is not worried about Xikang's use of this?"

"Emperor, you are very smart and have great talent and comprehensive ministers in the court. You are the elite. Since your monarch and minister have made such a plan, you must have some of your own reasons. How could you, an old woman, be disgusted with words and interference?"

Wu Zetian had long stopped asking about the political affairs of the central government of the court. Although she felt that it was not appropriate for the court to use troops in Xikang this time, she did not speak out, but silently returned to her bedroom.

But now the grandparents and grandchildren are in this bedroom, and there is no other idleness around them. When talking about this, Wu Zetian finally did not suppress her worries. After a moment of silence, she said again: "In the old year of your grandmother's involvement, the court had already made plans to attack Xishan to attack Tubo, but due to many difficulties in reality, she was unable to take action in the end..."

Of course, Li Tong knew about this matter. When the court made this discussion, hoping to open up a new battlefield to fight against Tubo in Xishan, he had already arrived in this world and had initially integrated into the current situation.

The situation in the Tang Dynasty was not optimistic about the external situation. Not to mention that the two Qinghai wars with Tubo during the reign of Emperor Gaozong ended in failure, Wei Daiji, sent by Wu Zetian, also suffered a great defeat, which made the entire court not optimistic about the Western Front strategy.

When a Tubo chief could not stand the power of the Gar family, he conscripted the troops over and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the court had the idea of ​​bypassing Qinghai, Longyou and launching an offensive to Tubo from other places. In essence, he was afraid of being beaten by the Gar family.

Wu Zetian continued: "The Xishanfeng Mountains are rugged and there is no thoroughfare for the army to enter and exit. Moreover, there are many Qiang and Hu troops in the other side, which are difficult to unite and consolidate. Not only can it not help the military power, but it will greatly interfere with the army's attack and attack. Moreover, there are no Jingjia brigades in Shannan. Since the Tang family started its business, they have rarely planned military affairs plans from the other side..."

Although Wu Zetian herself does not have very outstanding military strategies for external affairs, the things she stated are objective and profound problems. Even in the Kaiyuan New Year, the relevant situation has not changed much.

The harsh traffic environment in Xishan is obvious to all. Although with the development of Tang-Tibet trade, many new roads have been opened and operated, these passages are already quite difficult to use for people and goods, but they are not suitable for large-scale marches of the army.

As for the Qiang Tuman people on the other side, there is no need to say more. Although their overall strength is not strong, as a local national force, relying on the complex mountain and forest environment, guerrilla evacuation is a headache and troublesome problem for the Tang Dynasty and Tubo. It is precisely because of this that the Tang Dynasty charged the murder of the Tubo envoys on the Xishan Shengqiang because there was no way to verify it.

There are no elite troops in Shannan, so this is definitely not a regional discrimination, but is determined by the overall national policy of establishing a country in the Tang Dynasty. The first of the two major areas of Shannan Road is Jingxiang in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. This place has been a major town in Shaanxi during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Whenever the Southern Dynasties used troops to the north, Jingxiang was the preferred place to send troops.

The Tang Dynasty was established and took Guanzhong as its basis. How could it vigorously develop the Jingxiang military and allow the close-up outside to have the power to threaten the security of Guanzhong? After years of rectification, the military foundation of the other side was extremely weak, otherwise Wu Zetian would not dare to put Li Xian under house arrest in Shannan Prefecture.

The four frontier towns in Shuzhong will be even more impossible to vigorously develop military affairs, and it can only exist as the back garden of Guanzhong.

The existence of these factors made the Yongchang court unsuccessfully abandon the plan to attack from western Sichuan to Tubo in the old days. But now, the relevant situation has not improved much, so it is natural that Wu Zetian has such concerns.

Although the Tang Dynasty did open up a new front in western Sichuan in history, and it won brilliantly in the process of fighting against Tubo, the representative personnel was that Wei Gao, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty, defeated Tubo. However, Wei Gao's victory was based on the fact that Tubo had completely controlled Longyou, and the court had no choice but to integrate the management and integration of the Qiang tribes of the Xishan Mountains, and the court was secretly weak, and the military and political power was almost completely delegated to the local area.

But now, these conditions are obviously not achieved, so no matter how the strength of the two countries is comparing, launching an attack from western Sichuan to Tubo is definitely a very risky military operation.

Seeing Wu Zetian's worried look, Li Tong stopped keeping her insidiously, but explained with a smile: "If only this makes my grandmother worry and can't sleep at night, there is no need. Because the court's Shannan strategy is just a plan to confuse the enemy, and the military strategy plan has always been concentrated in Qinghai!"

"This, what's going on?"

When Wu Zetian heard this, he immediately widened his eyes and looked surprised and suspicious.

"Xikang is located in a remote place and is dangerous outside the mountain, so it is not suitable to make big moves. If the army is really used, it will hit the thief's mind and fall into the dangerous plan. Even if the troops are irritated and take back Xikang, there is no practical improvement for our border affairs and defense. Moreover, this situation is close to the thief and far away from me. The thief will be unable to disturb him..."

Although Xikang was a territory that Li Tong strongly presided over and developed, he did not exaggerate Xikang's strategic value in border defense. Xikang's land had no need to send troops to garrison for a long time. No matter how hard it was learned, it would be difficult for Tubo to cause actual strategic suppression on western Sichuan.

Therefore, the strategic value of Xikang is far less important than the significance of Qinghai and the Western Regions to the Tang Dynasty's border defense significance. From the past, the court's business strategy for Xikang, Li Tong had no plans to take long-term military possession. Now Tubo Zanpu has forcibly occupied Xikang again, which is also a predictable result in the border defense strategy.

Of course, this strategic attitude does not mean that Xikang is a useless place to eat and be a pity to abandon, but the application method is different from the common territory of the land. Since the Tang Dynasty already has Xikang, it will never be easily vomited out.

Although the court had an attitude of trying to make a big spoil in Xikang, the main purpose was demonstration and confusion. The Tang Dynasty had been operating in Xikang for several years and had a strong foundation. Moreover, the Tubo's actions this time would inevitably seriously attack the already large-scale Tang-Tibet trade.

The Tang Dynasty made this gesture to tell the people of Xikang and those stakeholders on the Tang-Tibet trade route that the Tang-Tibet would never give up on Xikang, and encouraged the relevant people to bravely resist the damage to the interests of Tubo on this side.

At the same time, doing so can temporarily attract the power of the Tubo country to Xikang, thus providing strategic opportunity for the Tang Dynasty's military operations in Qinghai.

If it were under normal circumstances, the Tang Dynasty did not want to provoke the war in Qinghai. Once the war broke out with the Gar family in full swing, Tubo would become the fisherman. But now Tubo Zanpu and his subordinates have been concentrated in Xikang, and it is difficult to invest quickly in Qinghai.

So if the Tang Dynasty enters Qinghai at this time, it will create a dilemma for Tubo. First, Tubo does not believe that the Tang Dynasty has the strength to fight on two fronts? Secondly, should Tubo protect Qinghai or Xikang? Faced with such judgments and choices, as long as there is a mistake, the opportunity will be fleeting, which will not only bring about losses on the battlefield, but also further intensification of conflicts among the country.

Although Wu Zetian lacked a strategic perspective on the overall situation, after listening to Li Tong's explanation, he knew that he was not blindly arrogant and wanted to force his troops to Xikang. At the same time, he sighed with relief: "Young people are indeed smart and skillful in planning border plans. If they can take back Qinghai this time, then not only your grandmother, but even your grandfather will be proud of having such a mighty successor in the family!"

However, after saying this, Wu Zetian said with concern: "Garqinling, which is entrenched in Haixi, is definitely not a common person in the world. He has inevitably suffered setbacks after several use of martial arts. Now, although the situation has changed, he is eager to seek business and will not be able to sit in the court to plan Qinghai. So which general is going to send to supervise this matter this time?"

After hearing this, Li Tong smiled and pointed at himself: "Although Qinling is evil, it is not invincible in the world. I will strive to win this time! I will go to the other side in person to get the lost land for my Tang family for more than half a year!"
Chapter completed!