Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Chapter 917 Historical Evaluation
"So it seems that the King of Linyi is actually missing the point!" Heba Yun laughed.

"That may not be the case!" Gu Jiaer said with a smile, "I know that for the Tang Dynasty, this temple and pagoda are not that useful. The people are the foundation of the country. But for the Linyi Kingdom, that may not be the case!"

Among the many kingdoms in ancient Southeast Asia, Vietnam was actually a latecomer. Since the Qin Dynasty conquered the Baiyue and established counties, Vietnam had always existed as a county of the Central Plains Dynasty until the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. It was not until 937 AD that the local tyrant Wu Quan of Jiaozhou defeated the expeditionary army of the Southern Han Dynasty at the Bach Dang River, realizing the actual independence of Jiaozhou. Two years later, Wu Quan proclaimed himself king, and later generations of Vietnamese honored him as Wu Xianzhu.

Ancient Vietnamese historian Le Van Hsiu (Tran Dynasty official, scholar-official, author of "History of Dai Viet") believed that Wu Quan's feat of defeating the Southern Han and becoming king was "a man who calmed his people with one anger, good at planning and fighting. Although he regarded himself as a king, he did not ascend the throne and change the era name, but the orthodoxy of our Vietnam was almost restored." Wu Shilian (official of the Later Le Dynasty of Vietnam) believed that Wu Quan's achievements were not only reflected in military achievements, "he appointed hundreds of officials, established court ceremonies, and set up clothes and clothes, and the scale of an emperor can be seen. It's a pity that the country did not last long and the governance was not effective." Le Song (minister and historian of the Later Le Dynasty of Vietnam) evaluated Wu Xianzhu as "a genius who saved the world", but he mistakenly trusted Yang Sange, "but he entrusted the wrong person, and brought disaster to his descendants."

In the words of Tran Trung Kim, a famous modern Vietnamese historian (author of A Brief History of Vietnam and Prime Minister of Emperor Bao Dai), "Ngo Quan killed traitors at home to avenge his master, and defeated powerful enemies abroad to save the country. He is truly a loyal and righteous man whose reputation will be passed down through the ages. Thanks to heroes like Ngo Quan, our southern country was able to break free from the shackles of the northern country for 1000 years, and at the same time paved the way for the Dinh, Le, Ly, and Tran dynasties to establish independent regimes in this southern border in the future."

Modern Vietnamese historians say: "Ngo Quan ended the period of national subjugation that lasted for more than a thousand years. Our nation won autonomy and opened the prelude to long-term national independence. His victory in the Battle of Bach Dang River opened a new era in the history of our nation - a period of development of Vietnam as an independent feudal state and rapid growth of the Vietnamese nation."

"Wu Quan decided to abolish the post of Jiedushi of the northern feudal dynasty, proclaimed himself king, and established an independent kingdom. Guluo (the ancient capital of Ou Luo during the reign of King Anyang) was once again selected as the capital of the independent kingdom in the 10th century. This is a very meaningful event. It carries forward the glorious tradition of our nation in building and defending the country for a long time, and shows the firm belief of our nation in defending the independence it has achieved after more than a thousand years of unyielding resistance to the invasion and rule of foreign feudal classes."

Among the above evaluators, Le Van Hsiu, Ngô Thi Liên, and Le Thong were officials, scholars, and scholars of the ancient Vietnamese dynasties. Tran Trung Kim was a modern Vietnamese nationalist, bourgeois politician, and educator. In order to resist the French colonial rule and seek Vietnam's independence, he even cooperated with the Japanese during World War II. In 1945, when Japan was about to be defeated, he supported Bao Dai, the last monarch of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam, and established the so-called "Vietnamese Empire". Tran Trung Kim himself served as prime minister. A few months later, Japan was defeated and the "August Revolution" broke out in Vietnam. The Vietnam Independence League (Viet Minh) overthrew this short-lived empire. Bao Dai abdicated and went into exile in Hong Kong. Tran Trung Kim returned to the education sector to study academics, and was replaced by the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the predecessor of the current Vietnam. The last paragraph of the evaluation of Ngo Quan, excerpted from the "History of Vietnam" compiled by the Vietnam Social Science Committee, can be said to be the official evaluation of Ngo Quan by the modern Vietnamese state.

The above-mentioned evaluators are from different backgrounds, different times, different positions, and some are even political enemies. But although their evaluations of Wu Quan are from different perspectives, their results are highly consistent.

Le Van Hsiu said, "The orthodoxy of our Vietnam is almost restored." Tran Trung Kim said, "Our southern country was able to get rid of the 1000-year-old shackles of the north, and at the same time paved the way for the Dinh, Le, Ly, and Tran dynasties to establish independent regimes in this southern border in the future." The current Vietnamese government said, "Ngo Quan decided to abolish the post of governor of the northern feudal dynasty, proclaimed himself king, and established a legitimate independent kingdom. Co Lo (the ancient capital of Ou Luo during the reign of King Anyang) was once again selected as the capital of the independent kingdom in the th century. This is a very meaningful thing."

All three parties unanimously emphasized one thing: first, before the Qin Dynasty conquered the Baiyue and established counties, there was an independent Vietnamese country in Vietnam. Because of the invasion of the Central Plains Dynasty in the north, this country was destroyed. In the next thousand years, the local ethnic groups continued to resist the rule of the northern empire. This period was called "Northern Subjugation" by the Vietnamese in later generations. It was not until the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties that Wu Xianzu led the Vietnamese people to break free from the shackles of the north and established a Vietnamese country. Since then, the Vietnamese have had their own country. In the words of us Chinese, this Wu Xianzhu is a defender, liberator, and rebuilder, and is simply a great hero of "survival and continuation".

The Vietnamese can also trace their country back from the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties to more than 200 years BC (the Ou Luo Kingdom was also called the Anyang Kingdom, which was composed of Xiou and Luoyue. Legend has it that it was founded when the prince of the Kaiming Dynasty, Kaiming Pan (Shu Pan), fled to northern Vietnam after the Qin Dynasty destroyed the ancient Shu Kingdom. The capital was Gu Luo City, which is now Dongying County, Hanoi, Vietnam. It was later destroyed by Zhao Tuo, the King of Nanyue), becoming an ancient civilization that can almost be compared with the Chinese civilization.

Readers who have read this may have a very strange feeling. Any Chinese who has a little knowledge of ancient history will feel both amused and sad about what the Vietnamese did, because we are too familiar with these tricks. The Huns claimed to be the sons-in-law of the Han family and wanted to revive the Han Dynasty, the Tuoba claimed to be the descendants of the Yellow Emperor, the Yuwen claimed to be the descendants of the Yan Emperor, and the Shatuo people said their surname was Li, so they wanted to rebuild the Tang Dynasty, which was legitimate.

There is no way. Ancient Vietnam was a county of China for too long, so when they wanted independence, their first reaction was to learn from the Chinese. The Vietnamese themselves knew this, so while they tried their best to draw a line between themselves and the Central Plains dynasty, calling it "Northern Dependence", when facing other neighbors in Southeast Asia, they regarded themselves as Huaxia and Central Plains, and scolded the other side as barbarians, especially the Linyi, or Champa Kingdom, which occupied the southern part of today's Vietnam, and used all kinds of dirty words.

The reason is actually very simple. The ancient Vietnamese knew very well that they were different from the Champa people. Unlike Vietnam, which perfectly inherited the unified dynasty system of Chinese counties, most Southeast Asian countries were founded on Hinduism and Buddhism before the spread of Islam. Later generations figuratively called it the "Mandala" system. In this international system, there is no absolute power center. Each power center has its own dependents, who pay tribute to the power center, and the power center provides protection to the dependents. And each dependent may also have his own dependents, and the power center itself may be a dependent of another power center. Villages, towns, and city-states are all part of this huge system.

The hot weather, the rugged mountains of Zambia, and the monsoon climate that divides each year into two seasons, dry and rainy, make it extremely difficult to establish a vast territorial state in Southeast Asia. Even the most ambitious king could not concentrate power in one person's hands, but sent his sons and nephews to the many city-states that surrendered to him to collect tributes from them, rather than directly sending officials to manage the territory like ancient China.

As a result, the role of religion became extremely important. Almost all the rulers of ancient Southeast Asian countries would attribute their ancestors to a Brahman prince or a Buddhist saint, and use their huge wealth to build magnificent temples to prove the nobility of their bloodline and their piety to the gods, so as to gain more followers. Moreover, the worship of temples was one of the few large-scale economic activities in ancient times, which undoubtedly increased the financial strength of the rulers. Therefore, for the ancient rulers of Southeast Asia, spending huge sums of money to build temples was actually a very cost-effective, or at least a very normal action.

"So there are so many twists and turns!" Heba Yun laughed, "But in this way, the wealth accumulated in the temple will finally be ours!"

"General, that's right!" Gugar said with a smile, "But if you do this, I'm afraid it will arouse public anger. You must be prepared in advance!"

"What do you mean?" Heba Yun asked.

"Although the Linyi Kingdom is not the strongest among the barbarians, this Shiva Bhadrapati Temple is indeed well-known far and wide. Shiva is even more famous. If you take the property inside without permission, there will definitely be many devout monks who will call on their followers to take revenge!"

"So that's what's going on!" Heba Yun laughed. "If enemies come, we will stop them with soldiers. If floods come, we will block them with earth! I want to see what these barbarians are capable of!"

"General!" Wang Bo beside him asked, "What should we do with the enemy chief's body? Should we hang his head for public display?"

Heba Yun looked at the corpse on the ground and suddenly laughed: "No need, Mr. Wang, get a piece of fine silk, wrap the corpse, wipe its face, and send a few people to deliver it to the gate of the enemy's palace!" "This is-"

"Didn't Gugar say that the people here like to attach their ancestors to the gods? Well, I will show them that the descendants of gods can also die!" Heba Yun laughed and said, "The King of Linyi always has a few henchmen who have been deeply favored. If their heads are hung up for public display, it will inevitably arouse their desire to avenge their master and unite against the enemy. Although I am not afraid of him, there is no need for the soldiers to shed unnecessary blood! Gugar!"

"I am here, what do you want, General?"

"You can write in Linyi language, right? Please write a letter for me and tell the people here that we are here to avenge them for interfering in the rebellion in Jiaozhou. Now that the main culprit has been eliminated, we don't want to kill more people. As long as they surrender before dawn tomorrow, I will protect their lives and families. Otherwise, the king's army will be furious and we will all be destroyed. It will be too late to regret! Have you finished writing?"

Gu Jiaer heard Heba Yun's kowtow, and his forehead was already covered with sweat. He finally translated the document Heba Yun dictated into Sanskrit. The Linyi language was developed from Sanskrit letters, and the upper class of Linyi people could basically understand it. After he finished writing, he checked it again and handed it to Heba Yun carefully: "General, please read it?"

"I don't know him, what are you showing me?" Heba Yun said with a smile, "Has the body been cleaned up? If it's cleaned up, send someone to deliver it over!"

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Bang bang bang, bang bang bang!
"Your Highness, Your Highness the Princess!"

Heavy knocks echoed in the corridor. Shaya curled up in the blanket, but the knocks seemed to have claws and drilled into her ears. She trembled all over, as if the knocks turned into kicks, and the kicks turned into rams, and finally turned into battering rams. She got up, found a dagger, rushed to the door, and put her eyes close to the peephole. The torches illuminated the corridor. It was her uncle, the guards, and the maids who knocked on the door.

Not enemies or mobs, Shaya breathed a sigh of relief, put the dagger under her skirt, close to the base of her thigh, then she took a deep breath and opened the door: "What's the matter?"

The king's younger brother, General Jayaharavarman, looked as pale as a dead man. He licked his lips and said, "Shaya, your father, His Majesty, is dead. He died very bravely on the battlefield. The Tang people have sent someone to send his body back, along with a letter -"

Shaya only heard Jayaharavarman's first sentence. She didn't hear what he said afterwards. She just looked at the somewhat unfamiliar face in front of her, whose lips kept opening and closing.

"Where is it? Where is my father?"

"It's in the banquet hall!" Jayaharavarman replied somewhat embarrassedly, "Please follow me!"

Shaya followed her uncle to the banquet hall, where the king's body was placed on a long table. To be honest, the body was in much better condition than Shaya had imagined. Its face and hair had been scrubbed, its body was wrapped in fine silk, and even smeared with perfume. The king looked like he was asleep, except that his chest was no longer rising and falling. Shaya felt that she should tear off her clothes and throw herself on her father's body and cry loudly, but she found that she could not shed tears.

"What about the letter?"

"Here!" Jayaharavarman handed it to his niece: "The Tang people said that we were involved in the rebellion in Jiaozhou, so they sent troops to punish us. This is complete nonsense--"

"Is it true?" Shaya asked.

"What is true and what is false?" asked Jayaharavarman.

"Of course it's about participating in the Jiaozhou rebellion. Did father really intervene?"

"This kind of thing..." Jayaharavarman turned his head away in embarrassment: "When a rebellion breaks out in a neighboring country, everyone will do something. You can't just sit there and watch, right? If they were in the same situation, the Tang people would do the same!"