big song poppi

Chapter 654 0651 [The Tang people are fierce and invincible! ]

In the inner city of Kyoto, the mansion three streets away from the Imperial Palace was pitch black.

Under the bright moonlight, a maid with thick white powder on her face and wearing wooden clogs took small steps through the courtyard and flower beds.

Arriving in front of a wooden house, the maid took off her clogs and walked to the door on the wooden floor.

There were sounds of quarreling in the house, but both sides of the quarrel were trying to keep their voices down.

The maid held the dinner tray in one hand and knocked gently on the door.

The next moment, the quarrel stopped abruptly.

"Who?"

After a while, a deep male voice was heard from inside the room.

Although the tone was steady, it gave people a feeling of something indescribable strangeness.

The maid replied, "Your Highness, Prince of France, it is your servant."

"Come in."

After getting permission, the maid pushed open the wooden door and walked in.

In the moonlight, I saw a middle-aged man with a mustache kneeling on the tatami.

The man had delicate features, a fair complexion, and with his gorgeous clothes, he looked quite a handsome man. However, his eyes were dull, not as lively and energetic as those of ordinary people. It was obvious that he was an idiot.

This person's name was Kakuho, and he was the youngest son of Emperor Shirakawa. Since he was born out of wedlock, he had no chance of becoming emperor, so when he came of age he became a monk in Ninna-ji Temple and was granted the title of Prince of Dharma.

Like Goryeo, Buddhism had a high status in Japan, and it was common for the emperor, princes, and even the dignitaries to become monks and practice Buddhism.

Especially in the imperial line, except for the prince who will succeed the throne in the future, the rest of the princes will basically be sent to various temples to become monks.

If the emperor becomes a monk, he is called the Dharma Emperor, and if the prince becomes a monk, he is called the Dharma Prince.

Kakuho's mother, Minamoto Shishiko, was from the Minamoto clan. She was originally a court lady (a female official) in the palace and was secretly favored by Emperor Shirakawa. After giving birth to Kakuho, Emperor Shirakawa seemed to be tired of playing with her and betrothed her to Fujiwara no Tadamichi. Later, she gave birth to Fujiwara no Tadamichi, the current regent.

Actually, Fujiwara no Tadamichi and Kakuho are half brothers.

This is the case in Japan. The royal family and the powerful are all one family, so intermarriage is just incest within the family. For example, Kakuho's mother, Minamoto Shishi, and her mother, Fujiwara no Masako, are Fujiwara no Tadashi's aunt. They are real siblings within the third degree of kinship...

Incest like this is everywhere. Over the years, most children born to royal families and powerful people have congenital diseases, but normal children are very few.

This is also one of the reasons why the Japanese high-ranking officials have been sending their descendants to the Central Plains for hundreds of years.

On the left and right sides of Jue Fa, there is one person sitting on each side.

One had a shaved head and wore a monk's robe, while the other was dressed as a warrior.

The maid knelt on the ground, moving quickly on her knees, and came to the low table and presented the plate: "Your Highness, Prince of France, please have your meal."

There were only three fist-sized rice balls on the plate, each with a pickled plum on top.

Jue Fa frowned and said in a dissatisfied tone: "Why is it Yu Wu again?"

The maid replied, "Your Highness, please forgive me. Now that the Tang people have occupied Kyoto, I dare not light the fire to cook hot food in front of you to protect your safety."

Jue Fa was obviously very hungry. He picked up a rice ball and chewed it in big mouthfuls. His eating manner was extremely ugly. He mumbled incoherently, "When will the Tang people leave?"

"..."

The maid lowered her head and said nothing, not knowing how to answer.

"You go down first."

The warrior waved his hand.

His name is Minamoto Sukekazu, a member of the Minamoto clan's branch family. He is the head of Kakuho and is responsible for protecting Kakuho's safety.

Although this position is low, he should be a close confidant of Kakufa. However, Japan is different from the Central Plains. After the prince enters the temple, he usually studies Buddhism with the monks, and the duty of guarding is taken over by the monk soldiers. In addition, the monks do not like samurai, so Minamoto no Suke's position is extremely embarrassing.

Not to mention the wise abbot in front of him, even a small monk soldier commander dared to order him around.

"Hay."

The maid knelt down again, walked back to the door, then stood up and closed the door again.

After she left, Gensuke whispered, "The Chinese army has only a few thousand people, while we have more than 100,000 Kyoto civilians and thousands of samurai. Your Highness, if you raise your arm and call, your followers will surely gather. If we take them by surprise, our chances of winning are very high."

As soon as he finished speaking, Tong Ming retorted: "The Tang people are fierce and cannot be defeated. Even Kyoto was captured in an instant. You are nothing but grass in front of the Tang army."

The Tang people are a huge mountain pressing deep in the hearts of the Japanese.

Not only was it because during the Tang Dynasty, Japan repeatedly sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty to study, but the Tang Dynasty also dealt a heavy blow to Japan militarily.

In the first year of Emperor Gaozong's Longshuo reign, Su Dingfang led his army to attack Goguryeo.

After the Taika Reform, Japan's self-confidence swelled and it felt that the Tang was no match for it, so it accepted the request for help from Baekje's remaining ministers and dispatched 40,000 samurai and more than a thousand large and small warships to help Baekje.

Facing the 50,000-60,000-strong coalition force of Japan and Baekje, Liu Rengui led more than 10,000 Tang troops and 170 warships and defeated them at the mouth of the Baekgang River.

In this battle, the Tang army suffered less than 500 casualties, killed 8,000 enemies, captured more than 20,000, and burned or sank more than 400 Japanese warships. Smoke rose to the sky above the mouth of the Baekgang River, and the sea water turned red.

The Battle of Baekgang really frightened Japan, and it hastily built military fortresses in the Seto Inland Sea and a large circle of siege cities in Dazaifu, Kyushu, to resist the Tang army's attack on Japan.

In addition, Emperor Tenji was so frightened that he moved the capital from Asukaoka Motogu to Omi Otsugu, in case the Tang army broke through Setouchi, there were still passes to defend and they could also escape from Lake Biwa.

Fortunately, the Tang Dynasty had no interest in the isolated Japanese mainland and did not take any subsequent military action. However, even so, this battle completely frightened the Japanese people. From then on, they changed color when talking about the Tang Dynasty and were timid when seeing the Tang people.

"The Tang Kingdom is long gone!"

Gensuke was furious.

The other side had a fierce Tang man on the left and an invincible Tang man on the right, which boosted the others' morale and destroyed his own prestige, making him furious. If the other party was not of a noble status and was the abbot, he would have chopped the other party to death with a knife.

Tong Ming looked contemptuous and said, "How can a coarse and lowly person like you know the wealth of China? In the past, I followed Master Hui Tong across the ocean to China to seek the truth. I saw that the harbors were filled with ships as numerous as cattle hairs, some as large as giant whales in the sea, the cities were prosperous like fairyland, the scholars were elegant and graceful, and the people were numerous, all of them were tall and strong."

"Even if the Tang Dynasty is gone, the Tang people are still Tang people. How can Japan win?"

"you……"

Gensuke was speechless after being refuted. He simply stopped arguing with him and turned to look at Juefa: "Your Highness, time is running out. It will be too late to take action when the Chinese reinforcements arrive. Please give the order, Your Highness, and I will contact the samurai and civilians in the city immediately."

At this time, Juefa had already eaten all three rice balls. After burping, he muttered, "No, no, we should make friends with the Tang people."

Hearing this, the warrior felt disheartened and glared at Tongming secretly.

It's all the fault of this evil monk, who has been whispering evil words into Your Highness's ears all day long, telling you how great China is. Your Highness has the mind of a child and is incapable of distinguishing right from wrong. Over time, he has become like this.

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Tong Ming smiled slightly, clasped his hands together and said, "Good. China is a country of etiquette. They must have a reason for sending troops here. Tomorrow I will go to the palace and have a detailed talk with the Tang officials. If we can persuade them to withdraw the troops, wouldn't it be possible to avoid the disaster of war?"

"Well."

Jue Fa nodded and waved his hand, saying, "I'm sleepy, you guys go down."

"I'll take my leave."

"I humbly resign."

The two men stood up, bowed deeply, and then left.

After leaving the courtyard, Tongming changed his previous compassionate and gentle demeanor and stared coldly at Yuan Zhuhe: "If you dare to speak nonsense in front of His Highness again, you will be killed immediately!"

Feeling the strong murderous intent in the other party's words, Gensuke was startled. He slowly raised his hand and reached for the hilt of the knife at his waist.

Seeing this scene, Tongming was not afraid at all, and a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.

The next moment, seven or eight monks holding long-handled swords walked out of the shadows on all sides and surrounded Gensuke.

Yuan Zhuhe paused, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and said in a timid tone: "I am the chief appointed by His Highness, how dare you kill me?"

Tongming ignored him and ordered the monk soldiers, "Take him away and keep him under strict guard."

"Hai!"

The monks responded in unison, quickly subdued Gensuke, stripped him of his weapons, and took him away.

……

The next day.

As the sun rose, the people of Kyoto spent the first night in fear.

In the palace, Ju Zhukang knelt on one knee, looking ashamed and said: "I have failed to do my job well, please punish me, General!"

Yesterday's ambush not only allowed the enemy to successfully break out, but most importantly, Emperor Toba was shot dead and Emperor Shirakawa's life or death is unknown.

Sun Zhi's expression changed and he stared at him intently.

Emperor Toba is crucial to the stability of Kyoto. Now that Toba is dead, what can be used to stabilize the people's hearts?
Mr. Jae-in's original plan was to recapture Empress Toba, issue orders in his name, and introduce several benevolent policies, such as distributing land to the people and rewarding surrendered samurai with official positions.

In this way, the lower-class people and samurai, as vested interests, will spontaneously support the puppet Emperor Toba.

Just wait for the princess to lead the army and radiate in all directions with Kyoto as the center.

The hall was extremely quiet. Ju Zhukang lowered his head, feeling uneasy.

After a moment of silence, Sun Zhi suddenly smiled, stretched out his hand to help Ju Zhukang up, and comforted him in a gentle voice: "Victory and defeat are common in the military, Ju Jun, don't worry about it. This ambush, running day and night, Ju Jun, you have worked hard, go down and rest quickly."

After all, he is the first Japanese to surrender, and as an example, he should be treated with courtesy.

Otherwise, if it were someone else, Sun Zhi would have ordered his men to drag him out and give him fifty military sticks first.

call!
Ju Zhukang breathed a sigh of relief and was touched: "Thank you, General, for your understanding!"

After watching the other party leave, Sun Zhi hurried to the back garden and found Mr. Yin: "Toba is dead, Shirakawa was seriously injured, and was escorted away by Fujiwara Tadamichi and others."

Mr. Tora frowned, "Does Toba have any princes left in Kyoto?"

"No."

Sun Zhi shook his head.

Mr. Yin looked a little unhappy: "This is going to be difficult."

At this moment, a guard came quickly and reported: "Commander, the Japanese monk wants to see you!"

Sun Zhi was stunned: "Japanese monk?"

The guard replied, "Yes, he is said to be the abbot of some temple, and the guru of a Dharma prince."

Sun Zhi was confused, but Mr. Yin's eyes lit up and he hurriedly ordered, "Bring him here quickly!"

(End of this chapter)