A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1023: Don’t rush, wait a little longer

Chang'an,

On Longshou Plateau,

The construction of Daming Palace started again,
Li Shimin stood at the construction site on the plateau and looked to the north, which was the direction of Xianling Mausoleum.

"His Majesty,"

Xu Luoren, the general of Zuo Yulin, stepped forward and said, "Baiqisi has found out that the Duke of Jin is not recuperating at Lingao Port in Yazhou."

The emperor was not surprised,
"Maybe he went to Luzon?" Li Shimin said, "Wu Qingyang is particularly concerned about his private land."

Liu Dewei, the governor of Guangzhou, and Zhang Fuguo, the Guangzhou shipping envoy, have secretly sent them to Chang'an. A batch of local tribute from Luzon is to be sent to Chang'an. The tribute has been notified to Guangzhou Port to prepare to receive it. It is said that they are some Luzon specialties, small buffalo and small black cattle. Pigs, some dried fish, dried fruits, abaca mats, carpets, corals, tortoise shells, etc.
"Your Majesty, Baiqi hasn't found out where Duke Wu has gone yet, so he can't be sure whether he went to Luzon."

Li Shimin waved his hand, "No need to check,"

He knew in his heart that Wu Huaiyu must have gone to Luzon.

Xu Luoren stood aside with some surprise. Is there really no need to investigate this matter?
The emperor holds his hands behind his back,
"I heard that the Tibetan envoys started fighting with the Tuyuhun people just after they arrived in Chang'an?"

"The men of Lu Dongzan met the people of the Prince of Heyuan in the West City. The two sides had a quarrel, and then a group fight broke out. Three Tubo people died, and five of the Prince of Heyuan also died."

Humph, Li Shimin sneered twice.

"Go and tell Princess Honghua's consort to restrain herself,"

"Your Majesty, that Lu Dongzan is very noisy right now, jumping up and down."

"Ignore him, I can't even slap him. In this case, although the Tuyuhun people deliberately provoked trouble, the Tubo people also took the opportunity to cause trouble. Do you really think I can't see it?"

The Tubo people are still blocked at the foot of Gansong Ridge and are riding tigers southward.

As the weather gets cooler,

The Tubo people couldn't sit still anymore. They were anxious. Lu Dongzan sent 5,000 taels of gold, but Li Shimin accepted it.

Lu Dongzan also gave a lot of jewelry, and even some dried yak, Tubo women, etc. The emperor also accepted them all, but when it came to marrying the princess,

Li Shimin only replied.

Didn't you Zanpu say that you brought two hundred thousand soldiers and horses and came to Chang'an in person to ask for the princess? I am waiting in Chang'an. If he can enter Guanzhong before the snow falls in Chang'an this year, then the Tang Dynasty will marry him a princess.
And she's guaranteed to be the emperor's daughter.

The implication is that if Tubo wants to marry a princess, it will be impossible unless Songtsen Gampo can come to Chang'an and break into Guanzhong.

But now Songtsen Gampo can't even capture Songzhou.
Even Gansong Ridge on the border of Songzhou could not be taken, and the eight parties and other parties all turned against Tibet.

What did Tubo use to march into Guanzhong?
The five thousand taels of gold that Lu Dongzan had worked so hard to send, and even jewelry, dried yak, and red-cheeked Tubo women, were all rewarded by the emperor to the frontline soldiers in Songzhou after changing hands.

There are now 50,000 soldiers of the Tang Army stationed in Songzhou. On average, ten Tang soldiers can share one tael of these 5,000 taels of gold. At the same time, one person can also share 800 Kaiyuan Tongbao.
Given that the current price of grain in Chang'an is only five qian per dou of rice, that can be exchanged for sixteen shi of grain.

Not only did the emperor do this, he also went out of his way to reveal it.
Lu Dongzan was so angry that his teeth almost broke after hearing this.

When the prince of the Tuyuhun River, the governor of Qinghai, and the quasi-consort of Princess Honghua, who now lived in Chang'an, found out, they sent people to provoke the Tibetans.
Then there was a big fight between the two groups in the West City.

Xu Luoren retreated.

The emperor walked around Longshou Plain for a long time and returned to Tai Chi Palace.

The prime ministers asked for an interview.

"Xuan!"

As soon as the prime ministers entered the palace,

Wei Zheng couldn't wait to speak out, "Your Majesty, Tubo has stationed troops on the border of Songzhou and now intends to call a truce. Qi Zanpu also sent the Prime Minister Lu Dongzan to come and sent many gold and silver gifts to seek peace. Why not, Your Majesty? Take the opportunity to call a truce?"

Li Shimin glanced at Wei Zheng, "Wei Gong's eye disease seems to be more serious."

These words put Wei Zheng in a difficult position, "Your Majesty, tens of thousands of soldiers are stationed at the border. They have been stationed for a long time, and countless people have been eaten and chewed every day. Besides, there is no point in delaying it like this.

Tubo is not adjacent to the Tang Dynasty, and the place it lives in is a place where it is difficult for Han people to adapt. If the Tang Dynasty and Tubo continue to confront each other like this, what else can they gain except losing both sides? "

Te Jin, Xiao Yu, who inspected the school's Ministry of Civil Affairs, also agreed to end the confrontation. He believed that such a waste was purely a dispute of will, a waste of national funds, and the gain outweighed the loss.

Now that Tubo is willing to bow its head, it will take advantage of the situation and make peace.

Li Shimin looked at the two old men and snorted coldly, feeling very dissatisfied.

"You stay in the center of the capital all day long, but you can't see the long term as Wu Huaiyu does in Lingnan."

"It is impossible for me to negotiate peace with the Tubo people now, let alone make peace with them. This war will not end in such a hazy way,"

"The Tubo people initiated the war, but it was the Tang Dynasty that had the final say when it would end."

"And I don't intend to end it now,"

"Don't worry, wait a little longer, the fruit will be ripe."

"Just like the persimmons in Guanzhong, they are not yet ripe at this season. If you pick them at this time, they will only taste bitter in the mouth and cannot be eaten at all. But wait for another two months, the persimmons will turn red, and after a frost, they will be ripe. Then It will be soft, glutinous, sweet and juicy,”

"Everything went as planned,"

The original plan, which was proposed by Wu Huaiyu when he was still in Chang'an, was to drag the Tibetan people in Songzhou until late autumn or even winter.

The Tang army would wait until they had to retreat, and then the Tang army would launch a counterattack. The Tang army would make the Tubo people's road home turn into a road paved with corpses.
In Wei Zheng's view,
This plan is very risky, because the battlefield is outside Songzhou, outside the country, at the source of the most dangerous river, in the south of Jishi Mountain,
There is a mountain there called Han Crying Mountain,

When Han people come here, they will feel severe physical discomfort, burst into tears unconsciously, and even die when they climb over the Han Weeping Mountain.
If it is delayed until autumn and winter, and the counterattack reaches the Dafeichuan area, it will be very dangerous for the Tang army.

Although the emperor believed that when Li Jing defeated Tuyuhun, both the northern and southern armies passed through Jishi Mountain, penetrated deep into Dafeichuan, and even attacked Xingxuchuan and Baihai.
The Tang army was also experienced in the terrain in this area.

But Wei Zheng still believed that the battle was fought in the summer. It was a hot summer, and the Dafeichuan area was covered with frost and rain, and the mountains were covered with snow. When Li Daozong and others pursued, they also climbed over the snow-capped mountains. In order to quench their thirst, people ate ice and horses. Snow.

It was still summer,
If it were winter, the situation would only be worse and more dangerous.

There was no need for the Tang Dynasty to take this risk. If something happened to tens of thousands of soldiers there, the loss would be too great for the court.

Now that the Tubo people are seeking peace, they will just go with the flow, and the Tang Dynasty will also gain face and dignity.

But the emperor refused.

Must fight,
The Tubo people dared to provoke the Tang Dynasty again and again, which Li Shimin could not tolerate. Songtsen Gampo was not the same as before, so why did he dare to shit and urinate on the neck of the Tang Dynasty like this?

If you don’t conquer the Tubo people this time, don’t teach them a lesson, and simply agree to them, they may come back at any time.

It must be beaten hard and subdued.

Until now, Li Shimin was willing to spend the first half of the year to paralyze and hold back the Tibetan people. Now that the fruit is about to ripen, he can't stop there.

Of course there is no 100% chance of winning in a war.
But what Li Shimin was most sure of was war.

Wei Zheng and the others could not influence his opinions in this area.

"As an envoy, Lu Dongzan actually dared to kill people in our Tang Dynasty. He is too wanton and a mere barbarian who does not know the etiquette and laws of the king." The emperor issued an order and imprisoned Lu Dongzan in Dali Temple. Those of his men who participated in the fight were considered murderers. Those who hurt others were put to death and those who hurt others were exiled.

"Exile them to the sea in Luzon!"

"Your Majesty, the two countries are at war with each other without killing the envoys. They are envoys after all."

Li Shimin looked at Wei Zheng who came to remonstrate, "It's right not to kill the envoys when the two countries are at war, but as an envoy of the vassal, how dare you be so unscrupulous? Although the people they killed were from the Tuyuhun tribe, Tuyuhun is also my son of the Tang Dynasty. civil,

The Tibetan envoys should abide by the laws of the Tang Dynasty when they are in the territory of the Tang Dynasty or in the capital of Chang'an. If they involve killing or assaulting the people of the Tang Dynasty, they must naturally be dealt with according to the laws of the Tang Dynasty. "

"That Lu Dongzan, expel him from the Tang Dynasty!"

"As punishment, cut off one of his ears!"

"Your Majesty, doing this will definitely make Tubo people hate you."

"so what?"

Li Shimin didn't want the fat in his mouth to escape now. He had to add fuel to Tubo Zanpu's fire.

It's not too cold yet,
We have to hold off the Tubo people for a while longer.
It would have been better if Songtsen Gampo was angry because one of his ears was cut off for his great lectures, or resentful because his envoys and followers were executed and exiled by the Tang Dynasty.

I hope that young man can have some youthful spirit,
End the court discussion,

Li Shimin stayed alone in the palace.
He poured himself a cup of tea,

Fell into deep thought for a long time.

The emperor didn't drink the tea until it was cold. He got up and went to the map.

Yazhou Lingao Port,
That was where Wu Huaiyu should have been, but Baiqi said he was no longer there at all.
The emperor's eyes moved eastward,

The Luzon Island that finally fell into the sea, Wu Huaiyu must be in Luzon at this moment.

The emperor looked at Lu Song and after a long time just shook his head.

Luzon is definitely not as simple as what Wu Huaiyu told him now, but no matter how you say it, it is just an island in the South China Sea, and no matter how big the island is, it is just an island.

It will never go beyond Liuqiu and Zhuya Islands, after all, they are too far from the mainland.

Wu Huaiyu's careful management, in Li Shimin's view, is actually not a bad thing. Wu Huaiyu has selfish motives, but who doesn’t have selfish motives?

My brother-in-law, Changsun Wuji, refused to move after his death all these years. Regardless of whether he was granted the title of governor or the title of farewell, he just stayed in Chang'an and refused to move. However, Wu Huaiyu deliberately left Chang'an in recent years, first to develop Liuqiu, and when the imperial court entered, he also cooperated very well.

Then he went to run Luzon again, and now he shows a strong desire to control Luzon.

The emperor was not worried.

Luzon posed no threat to the Tang Dynasty, and the Wu family's management of Luzon did not threaten the Tang Dynasty.

On the contrary, the more Wu Huaiyu attaches importance to Luzon and the more he tries to manage Luzon, the more he reassures Li Shimin. This means that Wu Huaiyu's focus is not on Chang'an.
This made Li Shimin feel more reassured about Wu Huaiyu, at least more so than Changsun Wuji.

Li Shimin felt that he had seen through Wu Huaiyu. The Wu family lacked a solid foundation. Wu Huaiyu was worried that the Wu family would fail in the court struggle in the future, so he had to arrange an escape route early.

Such Wu Huaiyu made Li Shimin feel that he had a pattern, understood the general situation, and even knew how to advance and retreat, and how to measure things.

A large deep-sea island thousands of miles away from the Central Plains,

No matter how hard the Wu family operates, it will not pose any threat to the imperial court in a hundred years. On the contrary, the Wu family was willing to put a lot of energy into the deserted island in the deep sea, which made the emperor feel more at ease.

If people like Changsun Wuji, Li Jing, and Li Ji were willing to go to the South China Sea to become island owners like Wu Huaiyu, Li Shimin would be much more relaxed. It is a pity that Changsun Wuji stared at Chang'an and refused to leave. Even if he was given the title of hereditary governor, he was not willing to leave Chang'an for even half a step.

(End of this chapter)