Early Tang Dynasty: forge ahead

Chapter 490 Conspiracy
Chen Qingsi bid farewell to Pei Yan and went to the palace to meet Li Zhi.

After Li Zhi asked Chen Qingsi to take a seat, he began to talk to him about Tubo.

"Something happened on the Tibetan side, and we missed one person, which caused all our plans to fail."

Chen Qingsi waited for Li Zhi to finish speaking, and before he could give any details, he continued, "I have already heard from Brother Zilong about the specific situation."

Li Zhi raised his eyelids and uttered "Oh" in a questioning tone.

The reason why Chen Qingsi was trusted and respected by Li Zhi was not only because Li Zhi really could not do without Chen Qingsi, but also because he was well versed in the ways of being an official.

He was able to avoid leaving any loopholes in major matters and not give others the opportunity to criticize him behind his back.

When Empress Wu was inexperienced at the beginning, she thought she had found Chen Qingsi's weakness several times and wanted to use it against Li Zhi, but she ended up suffering every time.

Pei Yan's matter could be a big deal or a small one. If he pretended not to know, he would listen to Li Zhi repeating the situation in Tubo to him.

If Li Zhi knew about this later, he would feel uncomfortable even if he didn't say it, and there would be a small crisis of trust.

Even if it is just a small thing, if it accumulates, it will be bad.

In particular, Li Zhi was a petty emperor who would not just laugh off unhappy things.

Chen Qingsi still remembered Pei Yan's initial support and said, "An accident happened in Tubo, and Brother Zilong felt very guilty and wanted to make up for his mistake. He knew that I was an expert on Tubo and had a lot of research on Tubo issues, so he wanted to know the reason for the failure from me, so he told me about this."

Li Zhi's face was obviously a little relieved, and he said, "Since you know the details, I won't waste my words. As for the current Tubo, do you think we should pay more attention to it?"

"Of course!" Chen Qingsi really ignored Mangsong Mangtsen, the second king of the Tubo Empire.

As the grandson of Songtsen Gampo, Mangsong Mangtsen is not famous in history. The main reason is that his father died earlier than his grandfather Songtsen Gampo. Songtsen Gampo died of illness at the age of 33. One can imagine how old his grandson was when he succeeded him as the king.

Like his grandfather Songtsen Gampo and his father Gongritsan, they were all short-lived and died in their early thirties.

In short, Mangsong Mangtsen was a puppet protected by Galdongtsen. After Galdongtsen's death, his son Zansiruodobu continued to serve as the great minister, and the power was still in the hands of the Gal family until his death.

The power of Tubo was taken back from Lunqinling by Trimalo with the help of his son Tridu Songtsen.

It goes without saying that Qinling had great military talent, but his political level was not as good as his brother Zansirodabbu, and he was killed in Qinghai by Chimalo.

Mangsong Mangzan did not leave much ink on his memory, but Chimalo wrote extensively about him.

Now it seems that Mangsong Mangzan was truly capable, but his abilities were concealed because of his short life.

The fact that Chimalo was able to raise his arm and get his ministers to respond might have been due to the foundation secretly laid by Mangsongmangzan.

Now, because the Gar family was weakened in advance, he also showed his own edge in advance.

It turns out that no one should be underestimated.

Although Chen Qingsi did not know Mangsong Mangtsen, it was indeed remarkable that he was able to forgive Galdongzan and even use Galdongzan to control the overall situation for himself.

"The Tubo people have suffered a series of defeats, and their strength has been greatly reduced. In particular, their elite armored cavalry has been completely wiped out. Logically speaking, they have no strength to fight again, and it will not affect the overall situation. But we cannot rule out that they will gamble their national destiny and fight us."

He thought for a moment and said, "No, they will definitely risk their country's fate to fight us. Unless we lift the sanctions against them..."

Li Zhi asked, "What do you mean?"

Chen Qingsi said: "The economy and people's livelihood do not allow it. The individual materials on the plateau are indeed very rich, but it is difficult to be self-sufficient due to the influence of the environment. They need to trade to obtain living materials that are not available on the plateau. Only us and the Arab Empire can meet their needs. If we do not lift the sanctions and blockade against them, the Arab Empire will definitely use this to coerce Tubo and force them to continue to be our enemy. Therefore, I estimate that it will not be long before the Tubo envoys will apply to enter the capital again, hoping to be forgiven by Your Majesty in the name of the Tubo Zamp, and put all the blame on others in order to obtain forgiveness and restore relations as before."

Li Zhi said: "That's true, that's a good idea."

Li Zhi's biggest flaw is that he is petty and vindictive, but in many cases, being petty and vindictive has its benefits.

Throughout history, Tubo had wanted to fight and unite many times. It coveted the wealth of Tuyuhun, the Western Regions, Liangzhou and Longyou, but was reluctant to give up the profits from trade. After taking advantage, it wanted to negotiate. Li Zhi never indulged them. Even after losing and the Tang Dynasty's undefeated streak was broken by the other side, he still did not choose to retreat and looked for opportunities to get back on track.

Li Zhi would not give Tubo any opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

Chen Qingsi also said: "I estimate that Tubo is trying to take this opportunity to please both sides, to gain the benefits of the Arab Empire, because the Arab Empire needs them to tie down part of our troops. They also want to benefit from our Tang Dynasty, taking advantage of this critical moment when we want to deal with the Arab Empire with all our strength. As for the final choice, whether to keep the troops in place or to gamble on the country's destiny and go to the plateau, the decision-making power is in their hands..."

Li Zhi could not stand threats: "I don't trust Tubo, nor do I want to bet on Tubo's intentions. If he wants to fight, then fight. I am not afraid of killing one more person."

Chen Qingsi also thought the same thing and responded, "I am ashamed that I am in a dilemma and cannot be as decisive as Your Majesty. Since Your Majesty has made the decision, I will try to deal with them all."

Li Zhi nodded with satisfaction. He had decided to use Chen Qingsi until the victory over the Arabs. He would use gold, silver and fame to support him and would not use him until necessary. He did not mind giving him more power before then. He said, "It is still the old rules. For the military dispatches of Tubo and Arabs, there is no need to report to the Political Affairs Hall. Just hand it over to me. I will approve it and then let the Political Affairs Hall execute it."

According to the rules, all matters concerning the dispatch of various parties must be passed through the hands of the prime minister, and then passed to Li Zhi. The prime minister has the right to withhold and reject the memorial, so that the memorial will not appear on the emperor's desk.

The privilege granted by Li Zhi avoided this first link. Of course, the prime minister also had the power to reject the memorials agreed by Li Zhi.

As long as the memorial does not have the seal of approval from the prime minister, it is not considered a convincing memorial.

It seems quite democratic, provided that Li Zhi removes the power that allows him to replace the prime minister.

Li Zhi suddenly thought of "Chimaluo" and said, "Is Chimaluo still useful? Does the Tubo incident have anything to do with her?"

There must be some.

Chen Qingsi knew how powerful the other party was, so she was probably responsible for most of it. However, he couldn't explain how he knew so much, so he said, "I haven't had much contact with Chimalo, so I can't be sure. Keeping her around is still useful. With her around, we can connect with the Meilu clan. If we want to control the Tibetans on the plateau, we have to cultivate pro-Tang forces. Just like the current Tuyuhun..."

At this point in time, Tuyuhun is no different from the territory of the Tang Dynasty itself.

Most of the high-ranking officials of Tuyuhun were students studying abroad in the Tang Dynasty. After being betrayed repeatedly by the pro-Tubo nobles in Tuyuhun, their king trusted the Tang Dynasty even more than his own people. This time he was trapped in Fu'ai City again, and was so scared that he dared not stay in Qinghai Lake at all. He gave up the control of Fu'ai City to the Tang Dynasty and retreated to the Tang-Tu border to become a free and easy king.

The climate on the plateau was a big test for the Tang army, and they had to let them fight each other and then train obedient dogs.

It was just right for the Meilu family to suffer betrayals one after another.

Li Zhi said: "Pei Qing is not as far-sighted as you in this regard, so I'll leave Chima Luo to you. You contact her, and if you find that she is related to the current situation in Tubo, just kill her directly, and there is no need to report it specifically."

Chen Qingsi rolled his eyes and said, "Your Majesty, I would like to ask you to give Chima Luo a reward. I heard that she never puts down her books in the Hongwen Academy. She has read thousands of volumes over the years and her writing skills are not inferior to those of the Tang Dynasty scholars. Why not make her a scholar in the Hongwen Academy, which will be like buying a horse bone with a thousand gold coins."

Li Zhi said without hesitation: "I agree."

Hongwenguan!
Chimalo leaned against the railing quietly, gazing at the withered lotus flowers in the center of the lake. Her eyes were slightly red as she thought about her parents and her future husband. How could he betray her?
If Lu hadn't sacrificed so much for him, would he really not feel anything at all?
"What is Madam Zhuo thinking about?"

Chimalo's full name is Meilu Zhuosa Chimalo. For convenience, she gave herself a Chinese name, Zhuomalo, so most people in Hongwenguan called her Madam Zhuo.

Chimalo had heard the footsteps a long time ago and thought it was Pei Yan.

At this moment, he suddenly heard Chen Qingsi's voice and hurriedly stood up to return the greeting.

During the years in the Tang Dynasty, Chima Luo's freedom was restricted to a certain extent. She spent almost all her time in Hongwenguan. She knew very little about the outside world. The only things that really gave her some understanding of the outside world were some things that her classmates talked about when chatting with each other.

The students of Hongwenguan were either elites from aristocratic families or descendants of nobles. They had very broad vision, and the topics of their conversation were all remarkable people or rare events.

Chen Qingsi appeared the most frequently. Chimalo knew that Chen Qingsi was a strong enemy of Tubo and thought highly of him, but later he found that he had really underestimated him.

In particular, she has read a lot of Chinese classics over the years and has a certain appreciation for Chinese culture.

Chima Luo was full of admiration for those exquisite poems. Even though she had no chance to participate in the Fengshan ceremony, she could imagine the scene of foreign congratulations from the words "The gates of the nine heavens were opened, and people from all over the world came to pay homage to the emperor." She could imagine how magnificent Mount Tai was from the words "I will climb to the top of the mountain and look down on all the other mountains."

The ignorant Chimalo even imagined that Mount Tai was higher than their sacred mountain, Mount Everest.

Hearing that the person coming was Chen Qingsi, Chimalu couldn't help but stand up and salute.

Seeing that Chimalo looked a bit like a scholar from the Central Plains, Chen Qingsi couldn't help but smile secretly. This is the charm of Chinese culture.

He also returned the greeting.

Chima Luo was shocked when he saw Chen Qingsi return the gift. He quickly calmed down and asked, "Are you here to see me off?"

Chimaluo thought that it was better to have Mr. Chen accompany him before his death than to have that idiot Pei Yan by his side.

Chen Qingsi asked knowingly, "See you off? Where to?"

Chima Luo said: "The situation in Tubo has been determined. I am no longer useful to you. What's the point of keeping me here?"

Her tone did not sound happy, but rather a little sad.

Chen Qingsi knew that what he thought was correct.

The current situation in Tubo is not what Chimalo wants to see.

In fact, the situation in Tubo left King Mangsong Mangtsen no choice, and choosing Gar Dongtsen was the only and best choice...

But Chimalo didn't know. Chimalo was isolated in Hongwenguan, and her understanding of Tubo was limited to a general idea.

She knew that Lun Qinling was dead and that Tubo had been defeated, but she could only guess how much they had lost and what Tubo's current situation was.

Although Pei Yan was a male chauvinist and underestimated Chimalo, he was not really stupid. He was just too clever for his own good.

The letters that Chimalo sent to Meilu were all confirmed over and over by Pei Yan to be correct. If Chimalo really wanted to make all of this happen in Tubo under Pei Yan's nose, he really didn't have the ability to do so.

It is true that Trimalo's real intention was to use the Tang Dynasty to get rid of Galdonzam, but the Tang Dynasty's goal was to get rid of Galdonzam and cause great unrest in Tubo, while Trimalo wanted to get rid of Galdonzam to avenge his parents and get rid of the powerful ministers for the Tubo Zamp, so that Mangsong Mangzan could take power. And the Meilu clan would be reused for assisting the Zamp to get rid of the thieves and restore their former glory.

Although both of them were to eliminate Galdongzan, the meaning behind it was completely different.

But now Mangsong Mangtsen chose Gardongtsen, which was definitely beyond Chimalo's plan.

There is no doubt that Chimalo was abandoned.

Chen Qingsi said, "Madam Zhuo, you have misunderstood. I am here to congratulate you. Madam Zhuo has studied classics and history in the Hongwen Academy and has achieved excellent results. His Majesty was very surprised and specially conferred the title of Bachelor of the Hongwen Academy on you. Madam Zhuo is also the first female Bachelor of the Hongwen Academy. It is a cause for celebration."

Chima Luo was stunned at first, but after thinking carefully, he also realized what Chen Qingsi was thinking and shouted, "You..."

The situation in Tubo was clear. King Mangsong Mangtsen chose Gardongtsen, so the Molu clan, who were determined to eliminate Gardongtsen, would inevitably be treated coldly.

The power of the Meilu clan in Tubo was deeply rooted. Neither Mangsong Mangtsen nor Galdongtsen dared to eradicate it. No one would be stupid enough to cut his own aorta.

However, as long as the Meilu family is treated coldly and their promotion is cut off, the strength of the Meilu family will be affected and will decline little by little until they are replaced by others.

Without Lu, the family would have been treated unfairly, but he himself was highly valued by the Tang court.

What would happen if it spread to Tubo?
What would King Mangsong Mangtsen think? What would Gardongtsen think?
The key point is, who would think so if there was no Lu family?
No one wants to disappear, and no one can sit idly by and watch power disappear bit by bit.

Not everyone in the Meilu family is loyal to the emperor. A large number of people care about the interests of their own family.

This forced Mangsong Mangtsen and Galdongtsen to suppress the Meilu clan and force the Meilu clan to turn to the Tang Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)