A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 935: Cession of Six Kingdoms
East Palace.

Xiaohuangmen passed the emperor's order to let the prince receive the envoys from Xue Yantuo, Western Turks, Tuyuhun and Tubo.

"All the Tibetan people want to marry the Princess of the Tang Dynasty. Your Majesty puts the prince in charge of this matter."

After receiving this task, Li Chengqian did not dare to be careless and immediately took it seriously. He first summoned Li Yifu.

"Xue Yantuo Qu Qiang Mobei, the Western Turks have been in internal strife for many years, and Tuyuhun has begun to disturb the border areas in recent years. Although Tubo is far away, we have heard of the rise of the snowy plateau.

Now there are two strategies to stop the imperial attack. The first is not to send troops to destroy it, but to marry it and soothe its ears."

Cheng Qian asked, "Where do they go from here?"

Li Yifu's official career has been smooth in recent years. He and the prince were both students of Wu Huaiyu. Cheng Qian also trusted this senior brother very much. Li Yifu now serves as the imperial censor and still works part-time in the East Palace to provide advice to the prince.

"Since the founding of the country, the Supreme Emperor has actually always been in favor of the policy of peace and marriage. When the saint came to the throne, he did not object to peace and marriage. For example, at the beginning of his accession to the throne, the saint used the daughter of the clan member Li Shentong to marry Tuli Khan.
Later, Xue Yantuo, Xi Tujue, Tuyuhun and others also proposed marriage many times, and His Majesty also agreed. "

Cheng Qian also knew that when all the Tibetan people asked for marriage, the emperor agreed. However, after the Sui Dynasty was in turmoil in the Tang Dynasty, most of the household registrations had not been restored, and the Turks were also aggressive. , in fact, it was just a delaying tactic. It set very harsh conditions and required them to prepare for the wedding ceremony.

Li Yifu smiled like a little fox, "That's not easy. It's more than a thousand miles from Mobei to Lingzhou. It's a long journey through the desert. There is no water and grass on the road. There are thousands of oxen and camels, fifty thousand horses, and ten sheep." Wan, what do you want to eat on the way? Under normal circumstances, more than half of it will be lost when it is delivered to Lingzhou.
If they want to arrive as promised and the gifts are sufficient, they will have to prepare double the number of livestock when they set off. But even the current Yi Nan will find it difficult to come up with this number, let alone double the number? "

"The situation in the Western Turks is better. There has never been a day of peace in the Western Turks in these years. In the eighth year of Wude, Tongye sent an envoy to propose marriage. The Supreme Emperor followed Pei Ju's suggestion of making friends far away and attacking closely, and sent King Gaoping to the Western Regions to agree to the marriage. In the first year of Zhenguan, Tongye Zhenzhutong Qijin of the Hu sect came to Chang'an and offered a treasure of ten thousand nails and five thousand horses in order to marry the princess. However, the marriage was not possible because Jieli threatened and blocked the road."

Now Jifan comes to ask for marriage again,

Cheng Qian listened carefully, "What do you mean, the saint actually doesn't really want to get married to Xue Yantuo?"

"Yi Nan is now bringing up old matters and asking for marriage again. Naturally, the west has been stabilized, so he wants to go south. He wants to make peace with me, the Tang Dynasty, and then calmly clean up the DTZ tribes and seek Monan."

Of course, if Yi Nan really delivers enough livestock as promised, then the worst he can do is marry a princess.

So I put it off again and again.

"Then how to deal with their marriage proposal?"

He smiled and said, "Xue Yantuo Yinan can't do it at all. Mobei can now raise 10,000 cattle and camels, 50,000 horses, and 100,000 sheep, but it is basically impossible to send them to Lingzhou properly. So as long as we continue to make this request before, and we really don't pay off if Xue Yantuo doesn't come, if we really want to take action, then in the end it will be a bitter fruit, or even a poisonous fruit, which they cannot eat."

"What if Yi Nan can really prepare all the gifts to Lingzhou?" Cheng Qian asked.

If it really comes out, Xueyantuo will be deprived of almost half of his property. It is even possible that Xueyantuo Khanate will expropriate livestock from the Tiele tribes in order to prepare this sky-high price for the gift, which may even cause complaints and even complaints from the Tiele tribes. It's a rebellion, and then Mobei will be in chaos.

Li Yifu analyzed the prince, "Xue Yantuo now completely dominates Mobei. He not only unified the Tiele tribes in Mobei, but also repeatedly defeated the attacks of Tuoshe, Yugushe, and several Western Turkic Khans.
The Yinan Khan of Xue Yantuo now wants to conquer Monan. They want to annex the remaining DTZ tribes in Monan. However, after the imperial court destroyed the DTZ, they appeased all the tribes and granted Simo and Zhihusili the titles to rule all the DTZ tribes in Monan. , thought I was the Pingfan of the Tang Dynasty,

That was the closest the Western Turks had to the Tang Dynasty.
But Tong Yehu later rebelled against his relatives and was killed by his uncle Mohe Duo. Mohe Duo was originally just a small khan. He claimed that the people of the Great Khanate were not convinced, which triggered a civil war. When the crossbow was lost, all the tribes recommended Nishu, and Nishu supported Tongyehu's son Zheliteqin, who was Yibibolasiyehu Khan.

But the situation is different from the original situation.

"So it's better to implement the plan again. I agreed on the surface, but asked Yi Nan to prepare a wedding ceremony and meet him in Lingzhou. Xue Yantuo now occupies Mobei, and the betrothal gift will be as before, fifty thousand horses, oxen, Ten thousand camels each, and one hundred thousand sheep,
And they were asked to be sent to Lingzhou for handover. The number of people who will be handed over must be alive and strong, and the dead and sick ones are not allowed. If they are not counted, it means that the Yi men are not sincere.
Barbarians and Di cannot be courteous and righteous. If you marry them without preparing the betrothal wealth, you may be underestimating China! "

Even in order to contain Xue Yantuo, the imperial court also conferred the title of Xiaohan on Yi Nan's two sons, and even deliberately granted more titles to the Bodhisattvas of the Uighur tribe, all in order to divide and contain Xue Yantuo, contain Yi Nan's energy, and prevent him from going south. "

"Where are the Western Turks?" Cheng Qian asked again.

"That's natural. Xue Yantuo is the lord of Mobei and wants to get involved in Monnan. He has threatened the Northern Territory of the Tang Dynasty, so it is impossible to really make peace with them,"

The sky-high betrothal gifts demanded by Li Shimin made it impossible for Xue Yantuo and others at the time to accept the offer.

"But the teacher once said that the safety of the country cannot be based on the sacrifice of women. Not getting married or paying tribute is what I, the Tang Dynasty, should do," Cheng Qian said,
Li Yifu didn't think there was anything wrong with the marriage. The war was fierce and the war was dangerous, so the world was lucky to have a marriage plan. But Wu Huaiyu was his teacher, and he couldn't directly oppose the teacher.

Si Yehu and Mo Heduo attacked each other and proposed marriage to the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin refused on the grounds that your country was in turmoil, the monarch and ministers were not decided, and the war was not over, so there was no way to propose marriage.

In the fourth year of Zhenguan, Siyehu defeated Mohedu. Mohedu fled to Jinshan and was killed by Nishu. Siyehu became the Great Khan of the Western Turks.

But this Siyehu was arrogant and jealous. After becoming the Great Khan, he immediately sent out all the troops to conquer Xue Yantuo. The result was a huge defeat. However, he also conspired to kill Nishe, which put everyone in danger. And those who had previously relied on Siyehu DTZ established Ashinasheer and took the opportunity to launch an attack, seizing most of the territory of Western Turks and claiming to be Khan.
Nishu was Li Shimin's sworn brother, and the Tang Dynasty supported Nishu. Si Yehu was defeated and fled to Kangju due to internal and external troubles. He died soon after, and Nishu was canonized as Dulu Khan by the Tang Dynasty. During this period, Ashina Sheer, with the support of the Tang Dynasty, led his troops to fight back to Mobei, but ended up being defeated like Si Yehu.
Yugushe took the opportunity to rise again and fight with Nishu.

As of now, Ni Shu is about to die of illness. Yugushe, who fled from Mobei to Tianshan, is now unstoppable in the Western Region.
In this case, brothers Ni Shurang and Ershe came to Chang'an to ask for marriage, just to ask for help.

Yu Gushe is from DTZ, but now he has also attracted a group of people who were originally Si Yehu Khan and Mohe Duo Khan.

When Ni She was about to die, he intended to pass on the throne to his younger brother Tong'eshe, but many tribes did not support Tong'eshe. They would rather support the outsider Yugushe to become the Great Khan of the Western Turks.

Although Yu Gushe has not yet become a Khan, his power is not small, and he also sent people to Chang'an this time.

When he was in Gaochang, he had been granted titles and titles by the imperial court, including Xiaohan, Prince of the County, and Governor.

Yu Gushe's current success is inseparable from the support behind the scenes of Datang.

"Your Highness, since Zhenguan, the Western Turks Mohe Duo Khan and Si Yehu Khan have been defeated successively, and Ashina Sheer, who calls himself Dubu Khan, has also been defeated and is still alive.

Now that Duolu Khan is about to die, and Yugu is gaining momentum, who does Your Highness think the court should support? "

"Do you want to help each other?"

"We cannot let the Western Turks unify. A unified Western Turk will threaten the western border of the Tang Dynasty, but we cannot ignore it. This marriage proposal to Tong Er She and Yu Gu She is a good opportunity,"

The Tang Dynasty could offer Xue Yantuo 50,000 horses, 10,000 oxen and camels each, and 100,000 sheep as sky-high betrothal gifts to Lingzhou, and the same could be done to the Western Regions.

"It is possible for Tong'er to propose to the princess of the Tang Dynasty, but he must provide a betrothal gift with sufficient sincerity and cut off the six kingdoms of Qiuci, Khotan, Shule, Zhujubo, Congling and Yanqi as a gift."

The ceremony issued by Li Yifu was from the six countries in the Western Regions.
There were many small countries in the Western Regions, all of which were surrendered to the Western Turks. The Great Khan of the Western Turks granted the kings of each country the title of Qilifa. He also sent the Western Turk nobles to lead troops to garrison in the villages. They were given the title of Tutun and led troops to guard and collect taxes.
The city-states in the Western Regions are basically vassals of the Western Turks, and even powerful countries like Gaochang are not immune.

The Tang Dynasty has only won one Yiwu in the Western Regions.
However, the long-term strategy of the Tang Dynasty is definitely to enter the Western Regions and restore the Western Regions Protectorate during the strong Han Dynasty. Now we are taking the opportunity to ask Nishu to cede the six kingdoms as a tribute.
It cannot be said to be taking advantage of others' danger.

"This condition can also be told to Yugu She in secret. Whoever can offer these six countries as a gift, then I, the princess of the Tang Dynasty, will marry him!"

"They're just afraid they won't, right?"

Li Yifu chuckled, "The current situation in the Western Regions, whoever can get the support of the Tang Dynasty may destroy the other party."

Li Chengqian understood,

If you are reluctant to leave the six cities, not only will you not be able to defeat the Princess of the Tang Dynasty, but you may also be destroyed by the opponent.

"Now five of the six countries are in the hands of Ni Zhe, and Yu Gushe has only one Yan Qi in his hands,"

"That's not important. What's important is who is willing to sign an alliance with us and cede the six countries. As long as they are willing to sign an alliance to cede the six countries, then these six countries will be our tributary countries of the Tang Dynasty. Even if the Tang Dynasty has no time to move westward for the time being, it can still The Six Kingdoms all belong to the Tang Dynasty,"

"Then the Tang Dynasty took over the Six Kingdoms. Did he really marry the princess and send troops to support it?"

"It's okay to get married, but we should send troops as a token gesture." Li Yifu smiled treacherously. Datang wanted to take advantage of it, but he would not really sacrifice his life for them.
I wish that the fight in the Western Region would be as fierce as possible. It would be best if two tigers compete with each other and both lose.

"What about Tuyuhun and Tubo?" The crown prince mentioned those two countries again.

"We can do the same to them as we did to Tongeshe and Yugushe in the Western Regions," Li Yifu said, "but we don't want them to cede cities and gangs, and they have no city-states to cede."

"I ask for livestock gold and silver as a gift, but..."

"Tell the two Tibetans, Tuyuhun and Tubo, that the Tang Dynasty can only agree to marry one princess to one family. Whoever wins the marriage of the Princess of the Tang Dynasty depends on who is sincere,"

Naturally, this sincerity is more than who gives more gifts, but the purpose is not to get more gifts, but to make the two neighboring countries have enmity and enmity. It is best to provoke them to fight. When they fight, Tuyuhun Naturally, they were unable to invade the borders of Datang again.

"I suggest you choose Tuyuhun in the end, and it is best to marry the son of Murong Shun, King of Daning in Tuyuhun, and let King Murong Nuo of Yan pay homage to me, Princess of the Tang Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)