Tibet.

Chapter 1385 Accidental Capsize
Just within a few days of the Silla court's surrender to the Tang army, fighting on the other two battlefields also ended one after another.

The Pyongyang defenders attempted to ambush the Tang army in the suburbs, but were discovered by Tang scouts. Nan Jiyun led his troops to bypass Silla and launch a counter-ambush. The Silla army discovered that the ambush was discovered by the Tang army, and fell into the ambush circle of the Tang army when they retreated in a hurry. Ten thousand Silla soldiers were ambushed and wiped out by the Tang army.

The Battle of Xiongzhou that took place almost at the same time almost replicated the Battle of Hanzhou City. The Tang army used firearms to blow open the city gates and rushed into the city. In just over an hour, 10,000 Silla soldiers were killed in street fighting with the Tang army.

At this point, Silla's last 80,000 troops were completely wiped out by the Tang army and faced the same fate as Nanzhao. A small country without an army could only be slaughtered by a big country.

The reason why Li Ye did not use the means he used to deal with Khitan and Xi to directly destroy Silla, but instead used the Nanzhao model to deal with Silla was also due to long-term considerations. First of all, he had a legitimate reason to go to war, which was the most important thing. Silla was not a tribe like the Khitan and Xi, nor had it killed Tang Dynasty princesses like the Khitan and Xi did. The Tang Dynasty had strong enough public support to destroy it.

Silla has always been a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty and a younger brother of the Tang Dynasty. It is a completely reasonable and legal country. The Tang Dynasty has no reason to destroy it. Even if Li Ye forcibly destroyed it, it would leave a bad mark in history books.

But Li Ye had another excellent reason to send troops, which was to restore the territory of the Tang Dynasty in the fourth year of Xianqing. The territories of Goguryeo and Baekje belonged to the Tang Dynasty, but were shamelessly stolen by Silla.

Therefore, it is completely reasonable and legal for Li Ye to restore the territory of the Tang Dynasty in the fourth year of Xianqing. It will also win the support of all classes in the Tang Dynasty, which means he has a legitimate reason to do so.

Therefore, since the war had a legitimate reason, there was no need to destroy Silla and put oneself in a passive position. Instead, one could adopt a slow-paced approach. As long as the Tang Dynasty could continue to operate for another ten or twenty years, the final annexation of Silla would be a natural outcome.

One month after the Tang Dynasty captured the capital of Silla, the special negotiating envoy Jin Zhenzhi was too embarrassed to return to Silla and committed suicide by drowning in the sea in Dengzhou.

At the same time, Ma Lin's express report also arrived at the court, indicating that the Silla army was completely wiped out, and the Silla king and the Silla court opened the city and surrendered.

Li Ye urgently convened a meeting in the Political Affairs Hall.

"I just received news that King Hyegong of Silla, Jin Qianyun, surrendered to the Tang army in Kaesong. It turns out that what you can't get at the negotiation table can only be obtained on the battlefield."

Zhang Li smiled and asked, "Your Majesty, do you still want to negotiate with Silla?"

Li Ye shook his head. "A defeated general is not qualified to negotiate with us. The army of Silla has been completely annihilated. Now Silla is a fish on the chopping board. How to deal with this fish is up to us to decide."

"Does Your Majesty have any good plans?" Zhang Li asked again.

Li Ye smiled and said, "I only have a few basic plans. The first is to determine the borders for the fourth year of Xianqing. The second is that Silla is not allowed to have troops. The third is that the Tang army must station troops in Silla. Apart from these three plans, the other plans require your advice. In short, I have only one goal, which is to make Silla willingly merge into the Tang Dynasty within 20 years."

Wei Jiansu smiled and said, "I have a few ideas that can serve as a starting point for discussion."

"Prime Minister Wei, please speak?"

Wei Jiansu said calmly: "My first thought is about the political structure of Silla. The biggest characteristic of Silla is that the trunk is weak but the branches are strong. The king of Silla basically has no power, while the nobles of Silla are very powerful. The nobles of Silla are just like the nobles of Goguryeo, and they will become the biggest obstacle for us to annex Silla in the future. Therefore, my first measure is to reduce the nobles of Silla."

Li Ye nodded. Wei Jiansu's first suggestion hit the nail on the head. Using the Nanzhao plan did not mean that they had to copy the Nanzhao plan. The reason why Nanzhao could be preserved was because there were five disloyal brothers in Nanzhao who were determined to separate from Nanzhao. Therefore, if Nanzhao did not have sufficient military strength, it would sooner or later split into six kingdoms again. Now the signs had appeared. Two kingdoms had already become independent, and only four kingdoms were left.

The same goes for Silla. It needs to reform itself according to its own characteristics. If the Silla nobles are not completely eradicated, it will be impossible to win the hearts of the Silla people in fifty years, let alone twenty years. The lesson of Goguryeo is there.

Destroying the Silla aristocracy also destroyed the Silla intellectuals, and the remaining peasants returned in just ten years, not twenty years.

"Prime Minister Wei, please continue!"

"My second suggestion is to make the land the government's home. All the land should be taken over by the government, and then various conditions should be set, such as actively sending sons to school, actively speaking Chinese, wearing Chinese clothes, and actively returning to the Tang Dynasty and pledging loyalty to the Tang Dynasty. Then the land can be granted. Farmers in any country are very realistic. As long as there is land, tax exemptions, and enough food to eat, they will be loyal to whoever they want. They will not consider any family and country feelings. This is very obvious in the farmers in Kyushu, Japan, and I believe that the farmers in Silla are the same."

Li Ye was greatly impressed by Wei Jiansu's two plans. With Wei Jiansu's introduction, everyone started to speak.

Dugu Lie suggested that all weapons of Silla be confiscated, the use of pig iron in Silla be strictly restricted, and all iron farm tools be publicly owned, provided when needed and taken back after use.

Xiao Hua suggested destroying Silla's copper coins and only using Tang copper coins, while also implementing Tang taxes.

Liu Yan suggested destroying all of Silla's historical records and books, and finding the Central Plains roots of all families, so that the Silla people would believe that their ancestors were descendants of the Han people who remained on the peninsula during the Han Dynasty.

Ma Lin soon received a handwritten letter from Emperor Li Ye, which required him to exterminate all Silla nobles except the king and his children, send all women to the Tang Dynasty, execute all men except children, and confiscate their property. Ma Lin immediately invited his aide Zhang Sishui to discuss countermeasures.

Zhang Sisi was about forty years old, very shrewd and experienced, and good at coming up with unexpected ideas.

He looked at the emperor's handwritten letter and nodded, saying, "It was actually written by the emperor himself, which means this matter is extremely important and extremely secret. We can't kill them too directly, as it will provoke them to resist. We can use tactics."

"Sir, do you have any good ideas?"

Zhang Sishui smiled slightly and said: "The best way is to move the capital. Didn't we say before that we would move the capital to Hanzhou?
Hanzhou has the best and most land in Silla. Although the nobles are reluctant to move the capital, they will not resist strongly. As long as the general says a word, the property and land of those who move the capital will not be confiscated, most of the nobles will reluctantly agree to move the capital.

When the capital is moved, it will be divided into the royal camp, the noble camp and the civilian camp. Of course, the treatment will be different. The nobles will definitely support it, and they will not be willing to mix with the civilians.

Then, based on the division of camps, they were further divided into male and female camps. The young children must follow the female camp. After walking 200 miles to Rongzhou, the team can change to traveling by boat. I heard that it rained heavily at this time of year, and several ships unfortunately sank during the night sailing in the wind and rain, including ships of nobles and civilians. No one would say anything, they could only say that they were unlucky. "

Ma Lin nodded, "What if someone swims ashore?"

"How is it possible? The cabins are locked. How can they escape?"

"And what about the money they carried?"

Zhang Sishui narrowed his eyes and said, "As long as the hatch is locked, the money can't get away. We'll find it when we salvage it, and then give a little bit to the women, and that'll be enough to keep it secret."

Ma Lin pondered for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, "Let's do it!"

Moving the capital was something that had been decided long ago. Despite strong opposition from the nobles, Ma Lin was ruthless. Those who were unwilling to move the capital would have all their property confiscated, and their entire family would become slaves. On the contrary, those who were willing to move the capital could retain the land on both sides of the Han River.

In this way, under the coercion and inducement of the Tang army, 300,000 people from Jincheng, Silla moved their capital to Beicheng in a mighty manner.

For the convenience of management, the Tang army divided all people into eight camps. One was the royal camp, which was limited to King Huigong Jin Qianyun and his children and concubines, a total of more than one hundred people. The second was the noble camp, including all certified nobles and their families, a total of more than one thousand people. For the convenience of management, it was further divided into men's camp and women's camp, young children and their mothers. The rest was the civilian camp, which was also divided into men's camp and women's camp.

It rained all the way and the weather was humid, so the army moving the capital moved very slowly. It took them eight days to cover only 200 miles, and the team was already exhausted.

At this time, Ma Lin decided to transport everyone to Hanzhou by boat. This decision was welcomed by everyone. The royal family left by boat first, followed by the noble women's camp, and the noble men also boarded a half-old ten thousand stone ship.

The nobles and royal family left first on the large ships that could carry tens of thousands of tons of cargo, while the common people followed on ordinary ships.

Three days later, the fleet encountered heavy rain on the river eighty miles east of Hanzhou. In the middle of the night, more than a dozen ships capsized in the wind and rain, including a large ship carrying more than 500 nobles. All the people on board were unfortunately killed.

When they arrived in Hanzhou, the people of Jincheng learned the news that the ships had capsized due to heavy rain. Fourteen ships had capsized and more than 3,000 people had died. Both noble women and women of the common people knelt by the river and cried.

The Tang army quickly found more than 2,000 bodies and transported them to Hanzhou. The next step was to identify the bodies and bury them. The Tang army also gave each deceased noble household 300 taels of silver and ordinary people 50 strings of money.

With the actual benefits, they first comforted the women who had lost their family members.

Of course, this time only the nobles in the capital were eliminated. There were still many nobles living in various parts of Silla. Ma Lin spent three years using various means to eliminate the nobles in various parts of Silla one by one.

Five years later, the king of Silla died of illness, and several of his sons had died one after another. His only eldest son stayed in Chang'an and refused to return to Silla. Silla was left without an heir and was declared extinct.

At this time, all the officials in various states and counties of Silla were sent from Chang'an. There were no local officials, and the court officials had all died in the disaster five years ago.

Before we knew it, Silla became history.

(End of this chapter)