A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1034 The Prince welcomes you personally
"Your Majesty, the Duke of Jin has passed Lan Pass and will arrive in Beijing soon."

In Chang'an, in the Wude Hall of Tai Chi Palace, the emperor was personally instructing a group of heroes' disciples in archery. General Zuo Yulin and Xu Luoren, the governor of Jiangxia County, came over to report the latest news to the emperor.

Li Shimin watched Wu Chengsi draw his bow and nock an arrow in the distance, and fired three consecutive shots, all of which hit the target sixty steps away. He clapped his hands with satisfaction and applauded his son-in-law.

Xu Luoren lowered his head and continued, "The Duke of Jin first showed up at Hangzhou Port, then arrived at Dantu in Runzhou via the canal, then via the Yangtze River to Jiangxia, then from Han River to Xiangyang, then via Dan River to Wuguan, and then entered by land. Guanzhong······"

Li Shimin didn't even look back, he was still looking at the heroes and disciples on the field.

This group of young men includes both Han and Hu children, sons of the East and West Turks, Tuyuhun, Dangxiang, Xi, Khitan, Mohe, as well as the barbarian leaders of Lingnan, Qianzhong, Nanzhong and Annan.

However, only a small number of these young men were raised by the emperor in the palace. For example, most of the sons of Wu Huaiyu lived in Beijing but lived outside the palace. Their status was rather special. The emperor said that he wanted to teach them personally, but in fact everyone could understand that they were protons, especially the children of the barbarian leaders.

Wu Chengsi is naturally not a proton, he is the emperor's future son-in-law. Many of the young doctors from the Han family here are the emperor's future sons-in-law with the same status as the team, such as Cheng Yaojin's second son, Zhou Fanshao's son, Shi Da I'm sorry, wait.

"Wu Dalang's archery skills have improved again. It seems that he has practiced hard recently. I will reward you for making a bow with a hundred arrows."

Immediately, Xiao Huangmen ran to the school grounds and read out the emperor's reward in public.
Wu Chengsi thanked the emperor.

Li Shimin waved his hand at his son-in-law with a smile on his face, but he was thinking about Xu Luoren's report. Wu Huaiyu appeared in Hangzhou Port, which made it more certain that he had returned from Luzon.

He wanted Sanya, who was actually on Zhuya Island, to receive the news of being drafted into the court. He must have returned to Guangzhou first, then passed through Meiguan Road, crossed Daquling, followed Jiangxi's Ganjiang River to Jiujiang, and then passed through Jiangxia Xiangyang Wuguan Entering the pass,
Now it is too obvious that he first appeared in Hangzhou, Jiangdong, and took the canal to Runzhou.

Wu Huaiyu probably traveled from Luzon to Liuqiu, then back to Zhangquan, and then to Hangzhou. However, no one found his traces before he appeared in Hangzhou, and Li Shimin was not surprised. It was his previous decree that the three divisions should no longer be Looking for Wu Huaiyu.

If Wu Huaiyu deliberately concealed his identity and did not show up, it would be normal for officials in Liuqiu Zhangquan and other places not to know.

He did not cross the river in Runzhou to go to Yangzhou, but continued to take the Grand Canal to Bianzhou and Luoyang because the Bianhe section of the canal was not navigable in winter.

The Bianhe River was originally a natural river. It was dug by King Hui of Wei during the Warring States Period and was named Honggou. It was called Bianqu in the Han Dynasty and was expanded into Tongji Canal in the Sui Dynasty. However, people still used to call it Bianshui.

As a section of the Grand Canal, the Bianhe River takes water from the Yellow River and runs through the Huaihe and Yangtze Rivers. Every winter when the Yellow River freezes, it is easy to form freezing floods, which seriously affects the safety of sailing. Therefore, the Bianhe River is blocked from October to February every year and ships are prohibited. Sailing.

Around the Qingming Festival, when the glaciers melted, the Bianhe River began to open to navigation, commonly known as the Kaihe River.

Therefore, in winter and spring, the North Canal was unnavigable, and it was inevitable for Wu Huaiyu to switch to the Yangtze River in Runzhou.

Li Shimin recalled that when Wu Huaiyu was still Prime Minister, he suggested to the court that the Bianhe River should take water from the Luohe River, which would greatly increase the navigation time. The Bianhe River is a section of canal that connects the Yellow River and the Huaihe River. It connects the south to the north and is very important. , especially for transporting grain from the Yangtze River and Huaihe River.

It's just that in the past few years, the imperial court has been focusing on overhauling the embankments of the Yellow River and Huaihe River. For the Bianhe River, it can only dredge and widen it first, and has not been able to put the matter of drawing water from the Luohe River on the agenda.

Today, the Bianhe River is still closed to navigation from October to February every year.

The emperor's thoughts arose and he remembered another canal plan that Wu Huaiyu had suggested. He said that when the Tang Dynasty became stronger in the future, a canal could be dug to connect the Nanyang Basin and the Central Plains. This plan was very grand. It was planned to dig a canal through the northeastern part of the Nanyang Basin. The Fangcheng Yakou is built in order to connect with Shahe River in the north and Tangbai River, a tributary of Hanjiang River in Nanyang.
In the end, the Tangbai River merged with the Cai River in the eastern Henan Plain, leading directly to Bianzhou and connecting with the Grand Canal.

If the Tangbai Canal is opened to navigation, another canal can be dug from Jingzhou to Xiangyang, and Jingzhou can be connected to the Xiangjiang River, and the Xiangjiang River has a Ling Canal that can connect to the Lingnan West Road.
This idea is quite remarkable. If these sections of canal are completed, it will be equivalent to adding a grand canal running from north to south in the western part of the Tang Dynasty.

Bianzhou, Chenzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou and Ruzhou in Henan are connected with Tangzhou, Dengzhou, Xiangzhou and Jingzhou in Shannan, Yuetan Hengyong in Jiangxi, Guizhao Fuwu in the west of Lingnan, and can be connected to the Xijiang River and directly to Guangzhou.

And Bianzhou can also pass the customs in Chang'an.

"His Majesty,"

Chamberlain Zhang A'an came over and interrupted the emperor's distraction.

"Ok?"

"The king's division that defeated Tubo in Jiannan Songzhou returned triumphantly and has arrived in Xianyang."

Hearing that Master Wang had arrived in Xianyang in triumph, Li Shimin came back to his senses with a smile on his face, "Fan Xing and the others fought beautifully,"

"Your Majesty, the leaders of the eight tribes of Dangxiang Qiang all led their sons to the capital to pay tribute with the king's division."

"The chiefs of Bailanqiang and the eight kingdoms of Weushui Xishan also came to pay tribute."

Xishan is a general name given by the Tang Dynasty to the mountains west of the Chengdu Plain and in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. The entire Xishan area is very large, including Aba, Garze, Qamdo and other places, where various Qiang tribes live.

Among these Qiang tribes, there are eight relatively powerful tribes, known as the Eight Kingdoms, namely Gelin Qiang, Baigou Qiang, Buzu Qiang, Nanshui Qiang, Ruoshui Qiang, Xidong Qiang, Qingyuan Qiang, Duba Qiang and others. .

Among them, the Middle Eastern Women's Kingdom claims to have a population of more than 40,000 households and more than 10,000 victorious soldiers. Its national custom places emphasis on women and despises husbands. It is a female-centered tribal country with more than 80 cities. It borders Maozhou in the east and Yazhou in the west.

The characteristic of Dongnu Kingdom is not only that it has a queen and that it is mainly women, but also that they are good at building fortresses and build heavy houses wherever they live. The residences of ordinary people have six floors, while the queen's residence has nine floors. Women served as officials and men fought in wars.

This time the Tubo crossed Zishan and fought to the bend of the river. Not only Bailan and the Dangxiang Qiang were coerced by the Tubo, but also the Qiang from the eight kingdoms of Xishan were coerced by the Tubo people, forcing them to attach themselves to Tubo and send troops and pay tribute.

Tubo is coming fiercely,

All the Qiang people in the Western Mountains are also terrified.
Although Tang Pang, the Queen of the East Lady Kingdom, had sent envoys to Chang'an to pay tribute as early as the Wude Dynasty, she was still afraid of Tubo's power this time. Although she did not directly submit to Tubo, she also paid tribute to Tubo.

No one expected that Tubo, who screamed so fiercely, would suffer such a big defeat in Songzhou. The previous months of confrontation had resulted in several small victories for Tubo, which was meaningless.

The Qiang people in the Western Mountains only knew that Tubo was suddenly defeated and routed thousands of miles away. It is said that they attacked Gansong Ridge fiercely and could not defeat it for a long time, losing troops and generals, and their morale was greatly reduced.

Then one night,
The Tang army, which had only been defending but not attacking, suddenly broke out and attacked the Tibetan camp at night.

In that battle, some people said that the Tang army invited heavenly soldiers, and others said that they borrowed ghost soldiers from hell. In short, the sky was dark and the earth was dark, and there were even all kinds of thunder and lightning.

The Tubo army was defeated, and the Tang army pursued and killed them for more than half a month, until they reached Bailanqiang and completely drove the Tubo people across Zishan.

It is said that the Tubo people not only died this time, more than 10,000 Tubo soldiers, but also eight top nobles died, all of whom were nobles with more than 10,000 households.

There were countless other noble officials, not to mention the losses of cattle, sheep and livestock.

After Tubo was defeated and retreated to Zishan, Bailan, Dangxiang and other Qiang people all joined the Tang Dynasty. Naturally, the Xishan Qiang and Dongnu and other eight countries also hurriedly apologized to the Tang Dynasty.
The kings of the eight countries even came to Chang'an in person.

Li Shimin's face was full of smiles, and he was very proud of himself.

Wei Zheng, Xiao Yu and others had been urging them to negotiate with Tibet and call a truce.

ridiculous,

How dare Tubo barbarians threaten the Tang Dynasty?
How could he, Li Shimin, be blackmailed by Zanpu, who was less than twenty years old?
It is not impossible to marry a princess of the Tang Dynasty, but the attitude must be sincere.
The Tang Dynasty can only grant the marriage, rather than them snatching it away.

Only what he gives can be taken. If he does not give, Tubo Zamp cannot reach out.

This half year,
He knew that many people couldn't stand it, but Li Shishi was determined because he was confident. This was not only because this strategy came from Wu Huaiyu, but also was approved by many people such as Li Jing, Qin Qiong, Chai Shao, etc.
Wu Huaiyu's proposal was just in line with his wishes.

In terms of fighting, Li Shimin is the emperor, and Zan Puxiang is not qualified to fight against him.

In half a year, Datang harvested fully mature fruits, which also allowed Datang to completely subdue the Qiang and Tuyuhun.

Of course, it also allowed Li Shimin to see clearly the ministers in the DPRK.
Although some ministers are good at domestic affairs, they are really not good when it comes to fighting, such as Wei Zheng and Xiao Yu.

But Fan Xing's performance was indeed good enough this time.
The emperor's strategic plan was perfectly executed and the expected results were achieved.

Even if he insists on using Hou Junji as his commander, he probably won't do better than him.

Fan Xing is worthy of being an experienced general. When Hou Junji was just his personal soldier, Fan Xing had already achieved the title of Duke with numerous achievements in battles.

"Let the prince go to Weiqiao to welcome the king in person on my behalf, and also pick up the leaders from afar such as Tuyuhun, Dangxiang Qiang, Xishan Qiang, Bailan Qiang, etc."

The emperor paused.
"Go and get two sets of golden armor from my collection, one for the prince, and one for the prince to take to Fan Xing. Let the prince wear the golden armor and ride in a chariot. When he comes back, let Fan Xing ride in the chariot and offer it to the Imperial Ancestral Temple."

"By the way, let Dangxiang Qiang and other chiefs from various tribes go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple to observe the prisoner's gift, and then send them to Honglu Temple to entertain them."

Wearing the golden armor bestowed by the emperor, he rode in a chariot with the prince.

Prisoners were offered to the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Li Shimin gave Fan Xing the greatest honor.

This treatment,

Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, that is, when Li Shimin and Li Ji fought in the Central Plains, Dou Jiande was captured at Hulao Pass, and Wang Shichong was forced to land in Luoyang City. After their triumphant return, the emperor specially ordered Li Shimin and Li Ji to wear golden armor and ride in a military chariot to Chang'an to present prisoners. .

As for Wu Huaiyu who also entered Beijing today, the emperor knew about it, but did not send anyone to greet him.

(End of this chapter)