The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 201: Money and Sex
Whether in terms of official position or resume, Xianyu Zhongtong seems to be the best candidate at the moment.

Li Lin thought for a moment and agreed, saying, "Okay, I will follow the advice of Yang Canjun and appoint Xian Yu Zhongtong to Yaozhou."

After arranging the personnel, Li Lin and his confidants drew up a preliminary battle plan, and then selected the generals to go into battle.

Zhang Qiantuo set out first, trekking through mountains and rivers to Nanzhao, where he met with the Nanzhao King Piloge.

Piluoge was very enthusiastic towards Zhang Qiantuo and hosted a banquet for him. He also readily agreed to Zhang Qiantuo's order to send troops.

After three rounds of drinking, Zhang Qiantuo said, "Your Majesty is so loyal to the court. When I return, I will definitely report the situation to Prince Yong and the Saint on your behalf."

Pi Luoge said: "Thank you so much, General Zhang."

"No need to thank me." Zhang Qiantuo smiled slightly, "I will naturally report this to Prince Yong and the Saint, but there are so many people and the people below may not know the king's loyalty."

Zhang Qiantuo's words clearly meant he wanted money. Only when the money was in place would others know Piluoge's loyalty.

Pi Luoge heard the hidden meaning, but he didn't want to give it, so he pretended not to understand and said: "The king's loyalty to the Great Tang Saint is witnessed by heaven and earth. The Saint is wise and powerful. If someone slanders me out of thin air, the Saint will surely see through it."

"This……"

Zhang Qiantuo's smile turned cold, and his hand holding the cup paused unnaturally. He was silent for a long time before he said, "The saint is naturally wise, but Nanzhao is thousands of miles away from Chang'an. If..."

Zhang Qiantuo stopped talking here.

Because he saw a girl.

The girl was in her twenties, had a stunning appearance, fair skin, a silver chain around her neck, and was wearing the ethnic costume of the Nanzhao Yi people. She walked with graceful steps.

Zhang Qiantuo was stunned and couldn't help but praise: "What a beautiful lady!"

Zhang Qiantuo was only looking at the girl but ignored the man behind her.

The man behind the girl is Ge Luofeng.

And this girl is Ge Luofeng's wife.

Seeing Zhang Qiantuo being so rude, Geluofeng was furious, but he knew that now was not the time to quarrel with Zhang Qiantuo, so he endured it and walked straight to Zhang Qiantuo, blocking his view of his wife, and toasted Zhang Qiantuo, saying, "General Zhang, I am busy with official business and am a step late. Please don't blame me, General Zhang."

Zhang Qiantuo turned his head to look at Ge Luofeng's wife, then came back to his senses and said, "Don't blame me, don't blame me. Who is this lady?"

Ge Luofeng said: "She is the little king's princess."

"Oh." Zhang Qiantuo nodded, and then glanced at Ge Luofeng's wife and said, "The lady from Nanzhao is really stunning!"

Hearing this, Ge Luofeng's facial muscles trembled with anger, and the veins on his hand holding the wine glass suddenly popped up. He tried hard to suppress his anger and changed the subject, "General Zhang, should we discuss the specific details of sending troops?"

"Yes, it's time to discuss it." Zhang Qiantuo responded quickly, "You Nanzhao sent troops to attack eastern Yunnan from the south, and Prince Yong led his troops to attack from the north. We will attack from both the north and the south."

Hearing Zhang Qiantuo's answer, Ge Luofeng couldn't help but turn his anger into laughter.

Because if Zhang Qiantuo was a competent envoy, he should have clarified the specific number, time, route of Nanzhao's troops, as well as the division of interests in the eastern Yunnan region after the troops were dispatched.

But Zhang Qiantuo was only interested in money and sex and had no intention of discussing these details.

Ge Luofeng didn't know why the Tang Dynasty would send such a person. While looking down on him, he smiled and said, "Okay, Nanzhao will definitely do as you say. General Zhang, you have come a long way, please enjoy the feast."

Zhang Qiantuo said happily: "You are also a loyal person!"

After Zhang Qiantuo finished speaking, he drank his wine with peace of mind and enjoyed the music and dance of Nanzhao.

After two days of great fun in Nanzhao, Zhang Qiantuo returned home feeling very satisfied.

On the way back, he also kidnapped two girls from Nanzhao.

Geluofeng did not go to see Zhang Qiantuo off. When he learned that Zhang Qiantuo had taken the Nanzhao girl back, he was so angry that he smashed the cup in front of Piluoge. "Shameless!" Geluofeng cursed.

Seeing his son so angry, Pi Luoge said, "Don't be angry, my son. I will write a letter to the Emperor of Tang and sue him."

"It's useless." Ge Luofeng shook his head. "If the Tang Dynasty wins in eastern Yunnan this time, the Emperor will be happy and won't care about these details. If the Tang Dynasty fails in eastern Yunnan, the Tang generals will definitely put the blame on us. How can the Emperor trust outsiders like us then? Moreover..."

Ge Luofeng sighed, and then continued: "And the Tang Emperor is not as wise and powerful as he used to be."

"What do you think?" asked Piloge.

Ge Luofeng said: "I originally thought that we in Nanzhao would not help either side, but now it seems that we need to side with Tubo."

Piloge said: "That would be equivalent to declaring war on the Tang Dynasty."

Ge Luofeng nodded, picked up the broken pieces of the cup that was handed to him, cut a cut on the palm of his hand, and blood flowed out of his palm and dripped onto the ground.

Pi Luoge was horrified, and quickly took Ge Luofeng's hand to check, and asked: "What are you doing?"

Ge Luofeng said: "It is better to die with honor than to live in disgrace. Throughout history, small countries like Nanzhao have never had dignity. But I want to let Nanzhao survive with dignity in this gap."

Upon hearing this, Pi Luoge was overjoyed and said, "My son has such ambitions. Why should we worry about Nanzhao not being able to grow and develop? Your father orders you to be the Grand Marshal of this northern expedition and lead the Nanzhao army into eastern Yunnan. When the time comes, you will have full authority to decide how to fight!"

"Thank you, father!" Ge Luofeng kowtowed to Pi Luoge and said, "It's a pity that Zhang Chou Jianqiong went to the northern part of Jiannan. If he led his troops to eastern Yunnan, I would definitely capture him and bring him to you to avenge my hatred!"

Pi Luoge said: "Zhangchou Jianqiong knew that he was not in harmony with me, so he wanted Prince Yong to send someone to ally with Nanzhao, but Prince Yong did not know how to judge people, and sent a shameless Zhang Qiantuo."

"Prince Yong?" Ge Luofeng smiled disdainfully. "Prince Yong has lived in Chang'an for a long time. How could he know these grievances? This time he personally led the troops to attack eastern Yunnan, which is a great thing for us."

Piluoge nodded in agreement and asked someone to call a medical officer to bandage Ge Luofeng's wound.

Geluofeng waited for the wound to be bandaged and asked, "Has the Tibetan envoy left?"

"Not yet." Pi Luoge shook his head and smiled bitterly, "This Enlan Dazalugong just refused to leave Nanzhao. I once ordered someone to hint him to leave, but he took the initiative to pay the rent."

Ge Luofeng asked: "How much did you take?"

"One hundred thousand pieces of cloth." said Pi Luoge.

"Okay!" Ge Luofeng nodded approvingly, "For the rent money, I want to go meet him."

Piloge said: "If you want to go, go ahead."

"I'll go right away." Ge Luofeng retreated, walked to the door, turned around and kowtowed to Pi Luoge, saying, "I will never let my father down."

"It's hard work, my son."

Piluoge smiled slightly and watched Geluofeng leave.

As Geluo Feng had just left, his younger brother Chengjie walked in and bowed to Piluo Ge.

Pi Luoge looked at Chengjie and asked faintly, "Child, if I die, will you fight with your elder brother for the throne?"

Chengjie was shocked when he heard this, and he immediately knelt down and said, "I dare not."

Piloge said: "You'd better not dare."

　Zhang Qiantuo's story may sound a bit far-fetched, but it is completely based on history. The war in eastern Yunnan also coincides with historical events, except that there was no troublemaker like Li Lin.

　　After learning about the events in eastern Yunnan and Nanzhao, I once again lamented that real life is more shocking than fictional plots.

　　I originally wanted to briefly mention Nanzhao, but since it has a greater impact on the protagonist and the Tang Dynasty, I chose to write more about it. If you have any opinions, please feel free to let me know.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)