Wentang

Chapter 809 Monotheism and the Making of Public Opinion

Yue Shan said: "It's not enough for you alone to understand, more people should understand. Write an article, or write a book, and tell the world about this experience."

Wang Xuance quickly declined and said, "This is your knowledge, dean. Students are lucky if they can listen to it. How dare you steal it like this."

Yue Shan smiled and said: "You still don't understand, you are a person who experienced it firsthand, and only those words from your mouth can be convincing."

"And this book can't be written from the victor's attitude, it has to be written from the perspective of a reflective person, so as not to arouse the resentment of the scholars in the vassal state. So this book must be written by you."

"As for plagiarizing ideas, I don't care, but it seems that you can't get over the hurdle in your heart. How about it, just indicate in the book that this idea was taught to you by me."

Only then did Wang Xuance agree: "Here, thank you, Dean, for your success. The students are very grateful."

This is indeed fulfillment, as the saying goes, standing upright and standing up for morality, he has achieved this, and he has been appointed as a high-ranking official.Li De this point, he knows his own affairs, he can't count on it.

Then there is nothing left to say.

But Liyan was even more difficult, and he didn't think he had that chance, but now Yue Shan gave him this chance.

Yue Shan said again: "With your merits, you could have won a better position, but the sage still put you in the position of Shaoqing of Honglu Temple. Do you know why?"

Wang Xuance asked for advice: "Principal, please give me some advice."

Yue Shan said: "There is a very important and dangerous task. It is possible to become the Duke of the future. If you fail, you will die. If you are willing to take it, you can start preparing for it now."

"It doesn't matter if you don't want to pick it up, it's human nature and a saint can understand it. You can go back and think about it before giving me an answer."

Wang Xuance asked: "May I ask, is this task dealing with foreign countries?"

"Correct."

Wang Xuance said without hesitation: "Don't think about it, I agree."

Yue Shan said: "I still suggest you think about it carefully, this task is very dangerous, life and death are between five and five."

Wang Xuance said: "If it's other missions, I might need to think about it, but going to other countries is my specialty. If I don't even dare to do this, I might as well resign and go home and become a rich man."

Yue Shan said appreciatively: "Okay, you really deserve to be Wang Xuance, you didn't disappoint me, now I will tell you the mission."

"The sage is going to launch a western expedition next year, uniting the Sassanid Dynasty and the Arab Empire to go to war. In addition to commanding the generals, we also need a mission to contact the Western countries. I recommend you to the sage as an ambassador."

Wang Xuance said in surprise, "Western Expedition? So fast, doesn't it mean that we have to wait for Ningyuan's farming work to be effective?"

Naturally, he couldn't tell him the real reason, so Yue Shan found an excuse and said: "The Sasanian Dynasty is about to fail, and the Tang Dynasty must send troops in advance."

Wang Xuance said contemptuously: "The Sassanid Dynasty is too incompetent. The huge country has been wiped out from the outside in just a few years."

Yue Shan said solemnly: "When you are in contact with the West, you'd better not have this kind of thinking. Most monotheistic religions have narrow thinking, but narrow thinking often tends to make believers go to extremes."

Wang Xuance nodded to express his understanding. He has seen people who believe in religion and are obsessed with demons. Their narrow thinking goes to extremes, which is extremely dangerous.

"Christianity and Greenism are the best among monotheistic religions, and their teachings are very inflammatory. Their believers are the most extreme, and they are not afraid of death in war."

"Different from us, the soldiers of Datang are not afraid of death in battle, but our soldiers are willing to fight to the death for the sake of the country, family and fame."

"Their idea is very simple, to fight for the god they believe in, and to die is glorious and they can be rewarded by God and go to heaven."

"If we say that the fearlessness of our Tang soldiers is to live toward death, their fearlessness is to actively seek death. Can you understand the difference?"

"Hiss." Wang Xuance couldn't help but gasped, he was too aware of the difference.

There is a saying: Soft people are afraid of hard ones, hard ones are afraid of horizontal ones, horizontal ones are afraid of stupid ones, and dumb ones are afraid of death.

The fearlessness of the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty is a combination of toughness and horizontality, and monotheism is a combination of stupefaction and recklessness.

It's not that the combat effectiveness of the Tang soldiers is not as good as that of the opponent, but that the opponent's thinking is terrible, and if they are not prepared, they may fall into trouble.

But soon he thought of a loophole: "The Zoroastrianism believed by the Sasanian Dynasty is also a monotheistic religion, right? Why are their soldiers so low in combat effectiveness?"

Yue Shan said appreciatively: "Yes, it's good that you can think of this. The teachings of Zoroastrianism still have a lot of content about primitive worship, which is not that extreme, and it doesn't have that much power to confuse believers."

"Another reason is that the Sasanian dynasty has been established for hundreds of years, and the ruling class has long been corrupt."

"One general is incompetent and exhausts the three armies. It is useless for the ruler to corrupt the soldiers, no matter how brave they are. Therefore, the Sasanian Dynasty, which believed in Zoroastrianism, could not defeat the nascent Arab Empire."

"But even so relying on the size of the Sasanian Dynasty, it will not fall so soon. The last straw that broke the camel's back came from the Turks."

"The Turks were defeated by us and migrated to the west. Those who could migrate were young and strong. After they arrived in the west, they were more willing to attack the declining Sasanian dynasty and rob their land."

"Under the pincer attack from both sides, the Sasanian Dynasty tried its best to resist, but it was useless, and it was quickly disintegrated. If the Tang Dynasty did not send troops, they would soon perish."

Wang Xuance said clearly: "So that's the case. The situation in the world really affects the whole body. The Turks we defeated actually affected the situation in the West."

Yue Shan continued: "You must not underestimate the threat of Zoroastrianism because of this. In the past, the Sasanian Dynasty was willing to make good friends with the Tang Dynasty. One reason is that the two sides are far away from each other and there are no cultural disputes."

"The second is that they can benefit from the foreign trade of the Tang Dynasty. The silk, glass, porcelain, tea and other commodities of the Tang Dynasty are worth more than gold of equal weight when transported to the West."

"They can make a lot of money by being middlemen and collecting commissions. Naturally, they are willing to make friends with Datang for the sake of profit."

"Now that they are facing the danger of destroying the country and need Tang to save them, they are more willing to let go of their prejudices."

"Although Zoroastrianism is the most inclusive religion among monotheistic religions, it still has strong exclusivity."

"At that time, all the countries in the Western Regions believed in Zoroastrianism. After Buddhism was introduced to the Western Regions, it was strongly resisted by Zoroastrianism. The two sides fought for hundreds of years and finally ended in the complete failure of Zoroastrianism."

"Facts have proved that monotheism is the most exclusive, and it is unlikely to coexist with other religions. Even with the inclusiveness of Chinese civilization, it is very difficult to reform it."

"So when you are in contact with the other party, you must be careful, raise your vigilance to the highest level, and don't take chances."

Wang Xuance said solemnly: "Here, the students must bear in mind what the dean said today."

Yue Shan nodded and continued: "The main purpose of sending troops this time is to accumulate experience in the Western Expedition and test the reaction of the Western world. The scale will not be particularly large."

"The focus is still on your missions. You must find out the situation in the West, their real thoughts, and provide the most detailed and reliable information for the next step of Datang's national policy formulation."

Wang Xuance said: "Here, the students must complete the task and live up to your high expectations."

Yue Shan said: "This matter is still in the confidential stage, don't tell anyone. Next, you don't need to spend too much time in Honglu Temple, just concentrate on writing that book, and then study the situation of various Western forces. "

……

Li Shimin should have reached a consensus with his confidants in private and began to prepare for the Western Expedition.

First of all, the teacher must be famous. The Central Plains Dynasty has been paying attention to the word name since ancient times, and such a big event as the Western Expedition needs the name of righteousness.

The name is very easy to find. First, the merchants of Datang complained that their goods were robbed in the west, and people were killed and suffered heavy losses. They hoped that the court would uphold justice.

This incident naturally aroused widespread discussion on whether or not troops should be sent for businessmen.

According to the past habits, it is naturally not worth it. Who will ask you for justice for the low status of the merchants, but when the merchants told the total amount of losses, everyone lost their voices.

If Datang left it alone, it would cause millions or even tens of millions of losses due to the lack of business routes.

Money touches people's hearts. In front of so much money, no one dares to easily say that they can't send troops.

But in any case, sending troops for the sake of merchants always feels a bit contrary to common sense.

At this time, a group of people were keenly aware of this trend of public opinion, and immediately began to take action.

These people are the envoys of the Sasanian Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty.

Megapanos is the nephew of Sasha King Yizuqi. He has repeatedly come to the Tang Dynasty on behalf of the Sasanian Dynasty and asked for military support.

However, Datang always shied away with various reasons, preferring to support military equipment rather than sending troops. The problem was that Sassan did not lack weapons and equipment, but what he wanted was real reinforcements.

At the beginning of the year, Sassanian and Arab battles were defeated again, and the disaster of national subjugation was imminent.Yi Sideng hurriedly sent him to Datang again to ask for help, but he still failed to get the answer he wanted.

He also knew that if Datang did not send troops to Sasan, it would be over soon, so he did not return to China like the previous few times, but stayed in Datang to lobby.

It's just that Datang ignored him at all, which made him very frustrated.

As more and more bad news came from the motherland, the group of them was also anxious.

They also heard about the fact that the merchants of Tang Dynasty wrote to request the imperial court to send troops for protection. Naturally, Megapanos and others were overjoyed, and immediately sent people to inquire about the specific situation.

"Have you found out clearly? Is it true?" Megapanos asked eagerly.

Otaspes didn't bother to catch his breath, and quickly swiped his sword: "I found out clearly, the news is true."

"The Turks and the Tang people have a deep blood feud, and they have been looting the caravans of the Tang people. Although the big cannibals dare not rob them openly, they do such things secretly."

"The merchants in Datang said that if this continues, they will lose tens of millions of gold coins every year. Now there are many fewer people who oppose sending troops."

"Hiss, tens of millions of gold coins." Megapanos envied him, the Great Tang was too rich and powerful.

But he also knows that now is not the time to be jealous, but he is glad that the trade volume is so huge, only in this way can he impress the monarchs and ministers of Datang.

"It is not ordinary people and officials who can really play a decisive role, but the Emperor of Tang Dynasty and a few prime ministers. Only they can express their views. Have you heard any news about this?"

"No, our goal is too obvious, and it is difficult to get access to this kind of secret information from high-level officials, but Datanghuang Commercial Bank is involved." Otaspes said.

Megapanos said in surprise: "Is the Royal Commercial Bank involved? Yes, yes, they are the biggest merchants, and they will suffer the most if their business routes are blocked."

"The Royal Commercial Bank is the property of the royal family, and the damage to its interests will directly affect the income of the royal family. Haha... really blessed by the God of Light."

Otaspes also said excitedly: "These big businessmen are backed by the dignitaries of the Tang Dynasty, and their actions together will definitely affect the decision of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty."

Megapanos said: "We can't just sit idle and continue to ask the Emperor Tang. Just say that we are a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty, and we are willing to protect the trade routes from infringement, and ask the Tang Dynasty to send troops to attack the Turks and the big cannibals."

Otaspes said, "Okay, I'll submit my credentials right now."

Megapanos stopped him and said, "Don't worry, we still need to get in touch with the merchants of Datang, show them our friendly attitude, and promise them benefits."

"Also, people in Tang hate Turkic people the most. When propagating, we must put the threat of Turkic people first. This will make it easier to arouse hatred in Tang people."

"I also have many businessmen from Persia in Chang'an, and I want to call them up to promote. This is our best chance to persuade Emperor Tang, and we must not miss it."

Otaspes said in admiration: "You are still thoughtful, I will do it right away."

After speaking, he hurried to deal with this matter.

After he left Megapanos, he called another follower and said, "Prepare some generous gifts for me immediately, and I will visit several prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty one by one."

The credentials of the Sassanid Dynasty were still rejected, but what pleased Megapanos was that the attitude of the Honglu Temple officials who were in charge of receiving them was much better this time, and their tone was not as blunt as before.

For these diplomats, a possibility immediately came to mind... Datang's internal attitude towards sending troops has changed, which is really great news.

They stepped up to win over businessmen and lobby high-ranking officials who have the right to speak.

Yue Shan, the No. [-] dignitary, is naturally also the target of the visit, and he is also the key target of the visit.

But he didn't see these envoys, it's not that he didn't want to see them, but it wasn't that he couldn't see them.

A big reason why the emperor can be so reassuring about him is that he does not seize power and only acts as a counselor, which is also the tacit understanding between him and the emperor.

If he met with foreign envoys in private, it would be beyond the scope of the adviser's functions, so the Sassanian envoys were doomed to return disappointed.

But he didn't move and others moved, and Changsun Wuji was the first to receive the Sasanian envoy.Although no answer was given, the mere act of being interviewed explained everything.

Encouraged by this, Megapanos and others became more motivated to lobby.

Then Li Ji and Liu Hongji, the principal and deputy envoys of the Privy Council, also received them respectively.

At the same time, thanks to the efforts of the Sasanian envoys and merchants, more and more people know that the Turks are preparing to fight back when they are resurgent in the west.

The direction of public opinion in the ruling and opposition parties has finally begun to change.

(End of this chapter)