The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 713 Taking advantage of the situation
Li Yan started to cry about his poverty at the right time: "Father, the Jinyiwei still has too few people. The northern grasslands are vast and sparsely populated, and the vast desert is thousands of miles away. If a few hundred people were thrown in, it would be like a mud cow entering the sea, without a sound."

"Also, the funds have all been spent. Every move of those spies in the grasslands will cost a huge amount of money. The one million strings of cash that my father gave me some time ago has already run out, so."

The expenses of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were indeed high, but not as high as Li Yan said.

Although the Jinyiwei was starting from scratch, Li Yan had a clear goal in mind. The core forces that the Turks needed to focus on were only the Khan's tent and a few important tribes. As long as there was targeted investigation, the current size would be enough.

However, Li Yan's vision was too broad and he spread out too much at once. He wanted to take into account all the future enemies and hidden dangers in the northern part of the Tang Dynasty, from Tubo, Tuyuhun, and Gaochang in the western regions to Shiwei, Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje in the east. So, a mere 500 people were not enough.

Therefore, Li Yan was obsessed with expanding the size and surveillance scope of the Jinyiwei, and now he was using the critical situation within the Turks to put some pressure on Li Shimin.

In addition to the Flying Tiger Army incident, he successfully completed the task assigned by Li Shimin. He also got him nearly 20 million strings of wealth. Faced with such a huge amount of resources, Li Yan was not a saint, so he was naturally envious.

This means that the case has not been concluded yet. If the various departments in the court knew that Li Shimin had so much unplanned budget, the disaster situation across the country would probably increase several times in a short period of time, and all places would try to take a piece of it from here.

Li Yan was no exception. He had to take the initiative to cut a piece of it, otherwise Li Shimin would think that he had secretly withheld it.

Although it does exist.
How can such a huge amount of money be passed through hands and the ground is wet?
But intercepting the information himself and Li Shimin thinking that he intercepted the information were two different things. Taking advantage of the current favorable situation, from a private perspective, he had just performed a great deed and needed a reward; from a public perspective, the information provided by the Jinyiwei was very important for the upcoming Battle of Dingxiang.

At this time, as long as the request is reasonable and necessary, Li Shimin will consider it.

Sure enough, after hearing what Li Yan said, Li Shimin was stunned.

After a while, he showed an attitude that he had known it would be like this, sighed, walked back to the imperial desk, took out a stack of banknotes from the drawer and handed them to Li Yan: "I will give you another one million strings of cash, and allow you to recruit another thousand spies to supplement the Jinyiwei."

"Hou Junji has agreed to train the Flying Tigers, but he did it in secret. I asked him to train in the Forbidden Garden of the Imperial Guards in Zhongnan Mountain. From now on, you will continue to manage the Flying Tigers in public and provide cover for them."

"You can recruit soldiers from the Sixteen Guards to form the Flying Tiger Army!"

"However, I can give you the people, but you don't need to keep the rest of the money. I allow you to run the East Factory by yourself, and it's already very good to use the profits to make up for the expenses of the Imperial Guard. Instead of always asking me for advice, you might as well think about how to solve the expenses yourself, that is the long-term solution."

The main force of the Jinyiwei was dispersed to the north, and almost no people were left in Chang'an City. This was why Li Shimin was so straightforward. Compared with the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of border soldiers in the north, a mere thousand people could not even make a wave.

Therefore, Li Shimin had no idea about the number of Jinyiwei. The main reason why he did not give more was that he was reluctant to pay. Before, 500 people were given 1 million strings of cash, and now 1,000 people are given 1 million strings of cash. If more people are added, more money will have to be paid.

Li Shimin was really reluctant to do so, even though he had nearly 20 million strings of cash in his hands, once the war machine was started, the money would flow out like water!

Li Yan was overjoyed when he heard this. He originally just wanted to get some money, and saying that the problem of manpower was just an exorbitant price was asked. He didn't expect Li Shimin to be so generous that he actually allowed him to expand the Jinyiwei by a thousand.

It is estimated that this is also because he saw that the Jinyiwei can indeed find out useful things, proving the value of their existence, so Li Shimin increased the investment. In addition, this time he took the blame for him and made a reward of nearly 20 million strings of cash, so he was so happy.

"Don't worry, Father. This is because the Turkic war is imminent and there is no time. Otherwise, I can let them develop slowly. Isn't this for faster achievements and to prevent Jie Li from unifying the grasslands?"

Li Yan took the banknote and said happily, "Moreover, the most important task of the Jinyiwei now is to find out more internal intelligence of the Turks and provide detailed data for the emperor's command and decision-making and the Northern Expedition Army. The Jinyiwei is the eyes and ears of the Tang army."

"Any penny spent on the Jinyiwei will be used to fight against the enemy country and will not be wasted."

"Your Majesty, rest assured. With these manpower and funds, I will make achievements as soon as possible and promote the alliance of the Tuli, Xibi and Xueyantuo tribes at all costs to give Your Majesty a bigger surprise."

Li Shimin felt much more comfortable after Li Yan said this. Thinking about it, the investment of Jinyiwei was worth it just based on the previous intelligence, not to mention the implementation of the subsequent strategy of division and harassment to contain Jie Li's steps. What Li Shimin didn't know was that Jinyiwei was only a preliminary structure, and many people were still groping for their work, and they didn't even know the location of some tribes. How could they possibly find out the core content of the Khan's tent?
These details were revealed to Li Shimin in advance by Li Yan based on the timeline of the plot, as well as some sporadic information and future developments from the front, so that Li Shimin could develop his strength as much as possible while he had money recently and before the war began.

If we don't take advantage of the court's need now, and wait until the war between Tang and Tu is over, the army in the north will be so large that Li Shimin will have to find a way to reduce it. How could he allow Li Yan to expand the Jinyiwei?
Besides, the Jinyiwei has not achieved any remarkable results since its establishment.

In the final analysis, the establishment of any department or force in the court must be beneficial to the country and the people, and cannot be just for its own needs. Ultimately, the value and importance of this department in the court must be reflected in its effectiveness.

The Jinyiwei is still small now, but as it develops, it will eventually come to the surface and be known by the ministers.

By then, whether it can withstand the doubts of the court officials will depend on what irreplaceable role it plays in the interests of the country and the people.

Now, as the crown prince, he is protecting the Imperial Guards, but by then, the Imperial Guards will have to support the Eastern Palace in return.

Therefore, the upcoming alliance of the Tuli, Qibi and Xueyantuo tribes and their secret surrender to the Tang Dynasty in order to play a key role in the upcoming Tangtu war was targeted by Li Yan. Anyway, this was how the situation was going to develop next.

If he let Jinyiwei take part in the plot, then the great credit would go to Jinyiwei and himself behind the scenes. With this credit, even if some officials questioned the legitimacy of Jinyiwei's existence in the future, he and Li Shimin would have an explanation.

The Jinyiwei provided the court with a steady stream of enemy intelligence, and facilitated the alliance of three grassland families, splitting the Turks and pulling more than 100,000 hostile forces who would have stood on the side of Jie Li to the side of the Tang Dynasty, effectively supporting the front battlefield and being an important part of the Tang Dynasty's victory over the Turks.

With this great achievement, the Jinyiwei was firmly established and no one could say anything bad about it anymore.

After the war is won, the Jinyiwei can step into the spotlight openly and become an important part of the Tang Dynasty’s military. At critical moments, they can effectively support the Eastern Palace through the periphery.

Looking back to the time when Li Shimin was the King of Qin, if it weren't for the fact that the Tang Dynasty had always been threatened by foreign enemies, how could Li Yuan have tolerated Li Shimin's gradual growth in the military if he needed Li Shimin's military talents to annex the rebel kings and resist foreign invaders?

He gradually built up the power to oppose the crown prince, and even surpassed the crown prince and the court, possessing the prestige and strength to take over the entire Tang Empire.

The external reconnaissance function of the Jinyiwei provided convenience for Li Yan to extend his influence to the periphery. On a small scale, the Jinyiwei could only passively gather intelligence and information about the enemy. On a large scale, they could even indirectly influence the enemy's decision-making and control their actions.

By guiding and stimulating the outside from time to time, the decision-makers of the Tang Dynasty can be influenced, which can cover up and bypass Li Yan's actions and situation in Chang'an.

The development and growth of the Jinyiwei is imminent, and this is also the most important purpose of Li Yan's visit this time.

After all, establishment is only the first step. If it is kept in the dark, its scale and role will be limited. If it wants to grow and develop, it must be brought to the surface openly. Only by having a place in the court operation system can it really play a decisive role.

In Li Yan's plan, after the Tangtu War was over, the Jinyiwei would seek to make it public.

Li Yan had never been involved in this kind of special department before. After he had truly mastered and run it for a period of time, Li Yan found that his previous worries about the development of the Jinyiwei and the exploits of Li Shimin were a bit petty and unnecessary.

From the very beginning of its establishment, this secret department could not be disclosed to the outside world due to its special nature.

The department involves a large number of confidential information; even the establishment of some posts, the exploration of tasks and the way of transmitting intelligence are all impossible to replicate. The core and most valuable thing is not the department itself, but the secret agents who fly towards targets everywhere like moths and penetrate deep into the enemy.

This kind of top-secret information is usually in the hands of the department head and cannot be changed by simply dismissing or transferring him to another position.

Therefore, for every head of Jinyiwei under Zhu Yuanzhang, there was only death but no dismissal.

(End of this chapter)