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Chapter 4363 4365 [Proclaiming Himself Emperor]

After pacifying Jizhou, Qi and Lu, and with Lingnan nominally surrendered, Li Yuan deposed Emperor Yang You, proclaimed himself emperor, named the country Tang, set the capital in Chang'an, and named the reign Wude.

Upon learning that Li Yuan had proclaimed herself empress, Song Que also established a country in Lingnan and proclaimed himself emperor.

Just like ancient Annan, it nominally submitted to the Central Plains dynasty, but in fact, in its own territory, it called itself the emperor.

Song Que named his country "Han", named the reign title "Hanxing", and set the capital in Guangzhou. Song Que's ancestors migrated south to escape the war in the late Western Jin Dynasty and finally settled in Lingnan.

Therefore, Song Que was also proud of his Han ancestry and despised people like Yang Jian and Li Yuan who were mixed-race of Han and Xianbei. He believed that they were barbarians and foreigners, and not of pure Han descent.

Therefore, when he founded the country, he once again named the country Han, meaning that he was the orthodox Han people.

However, when Li Yuan learned that Song Que had also proclaimed herself queen, he chose to acquiesce and endure in silence.

Because with the current strength of the Song clan, he really couldn't do anything to him. So he could only pretend that nothing happened for the time being.

……

Over the following period of time, the Han State began to continuously immigrate to the Southeast Peninsula.

It was agreed that anyone who went there would be given land to share, so it attracted a large number of landless poor people.

At the same time, Lingnan widely planted corn, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, etc., and grain production remained high. The people could basically fill their stomachs, which attracted a large number of people to move to Lingnan to survive.

Of course, after occupying the south, Li Tang also obtained seeds of crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, peanuts, and peppers, and began to promote their planting in the areas under his rule.

The promotion of these high-yield crops solved many famine problems and enabled the common people to make a living. As long as the common people had something to eat, they would not think of rebelling. Therefore, the Li Tang Dynasty was able to maintain its rule.

……

In the following years, the Han Dynasty colonized Southeast Asia while developing science and technology and educating the people.

Rice, ore, gold, silver, coal, and jewelry from Southeast Asia were continuously shipped to Lingnan.

Because the ship was powered by steam, it could travel back and forth without waiting for the monsoon. As long as there was no typhoon, the ship was very sturdy and was not afraid of capsizing.

A cargo ship with a load capacity of thousands of tons can indeed carry a lot of things.

In terms of science and education, a large number of books were printed due to the popularization of woodblock printing, and the promotion of high-yield grain crops also increased farmers' income and enabled children to receive education.

Otherwise, when food production is insufficient, children will have to work on the farm to increase food production. At this time, they will not be able to study.

In addition to the Four Books and Five Classics, many other subjects such as geography, biology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and medicine were added, and Xiang Nan was responsible for writing and teaching them.

In addition, he also supervised the construction of large blast furnaces, large ships, heavy artillery, etc., but they were not built in Lingnan, but in the Red River Plain, Chao Phraya River Plain and Mekong River Plain.

Because the Red River Plain is rich in coal mines, Cambodia, Laos and Siam are rich in gold, tin, iron ores... and the quality is much better than that in the Central Plains, the local indigenous people are just used to mine the ores.

Through colonization, a large amount of wealth was transported to Lingnan, which enabled the Han Dynasty's science and technology and economy to develop very rapidly. In terms of economic strength and technological level, the Han Dynasty had actually surpassed the Li Tang Dynasty.

... During this period, as in history, in the third year of Wude, the Xuanwu Gate Incident broke out in Li Tang.

Li Shimin killed his elder brother Li Jiancheng and younger brother Li Yuanji and became Li Yuan's only son.

Li Yuan was then forced to pass the throne to Li Shimin, who then changed the reign title to Zhenguan, thus starting the Zhenguan Reign.

After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he accumulated strength and subsequently defeated Liang Shidu of Xiazhou and Tuyuhun of Qinghai. In the fourth year of Zhenguan, he pacified DTZ. In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, he conquered the Western Regions and established Anxi Protectorate. In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, he personally led an expedition to Goguryeo and won a great victory. In the twenty-second year of Zhenguan, he established Anbei Protectorate in Mobei and Shanyu Protectorate in Monan... The extent of the territory expanded was the largest in history.

After Song Que knew about this, he admired his martial arts.

Under his management, the economy and people's livelihood of Li Tang also rose steadily. This was also due to Xiang Nan's high-yield crops, especially sweet potatoes and potatoes, which could yield more than 1,000 kilograms per mu, which really solved the problem of food for the people and greatly increased the population of Li Tang.

Moreover, these crops can be grown in cold and harsh lands, which made it convenient for Li Tang to cultivate land at the border, thus solving the problem of insufficient grain production at the border and the need for supply dispatch from the interior, making Li Tang's rule over the border more solid.

……

In the 20th year of Zhenguan (the 17th year of the Han Dynasty's founding), Song Que died of illness and passed the throne to his son Song Shidao.

Song Que's temple name was Taizu, and his posthumous title was Shengwu Emperor. After Song Shidao succeeded to the throne, he changed the reign title to Longxing.

In order to facilitate the management of Southeast Asia, he moved his palace from Guangzhou to Vientiane on the Chao Phraya River Plain.

First, Vientiane is located in the center of Southeast Asia, not too far from the Chao Phraya River, the Mekong River and the Red River Plain, so it can effectively control these areas. Otherwise, if it is located in Hanoi, Bangkok or Phnom Penh, it will be far away from other places, which is not conducive to governance.

Secondly, Vientiane is located at the foot of the mountains. If he attacks it from the north to the south, it will be difficult to fight through the layers of rain forests. If he attacks it from the plains in the south, he can lead his men into the mountains.

Although Vientiane is located in the tropics, the climate is generally pleasant, with the highest temperature in summer only reaching 35 or 36 degrees, which is quite comfortable. After all, the temperature in northern China can also reach 35 or 36 degrees.

Xiang Nan and Song Yuzhi did not move to Vientiane like him, but stayed in Lingnan.

Because Lingnan still needed someone to be responsible for its management, and Song Shidao had full confidence in his brother-in-law Xiang Nan.

He knew that Xiang Nan was not interested in fame and fortune. If Xiang Nan wanted to be emperor, it would never be his turn. His father would pass the throne to Xiang Nan. So he left Lingnan to Xiang Nan. He was not afraid at all that he would declare himself king.

However, Xiang Nan did not serve as a formal official. He only occasionally gave instructions to the officials in charge of managing Lingnan to prevent them from acting recklessly.

……

In the 23rd year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin passed away and passed the throne to his son Li Zhi, also known as Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and changed the reign to Yonghui.

In the early days of his reign, Li Zhi worked hard to govern the country. He made use of loyal ministers such as Zhangsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang, which enabled the economy and people's livelihood to continue to develop. Therefore, he was called the one with "the legacy of Zhenguan."

He successively conquered Western Turkic, Goguryeo, Baekje, Goryeo and other countries, further expanding his territory. Li Zhi even sent troops to harass Lingnan.

As a result, when the army was halfway through the journey, it encountered extreme weather conditions of thunderstorms and hail that were rare in a century.

Hailstones the size of eggs were hitting them with a crackling sound. Even wearing armor was useless, and they were still covered in wounds and bleeding from their heads. Thunderbolts and lightning exploded above their heads, and many soldiers were electrocuted to death.

In the end, the army had lost most of its troops before it even reached Shaoguan, and morale was completely lost, so Li Zhi had no choice but to give up.