Chapter 278: His Career Was Not Halfway Through when He Died

If we talk about the soul of the Han Dynasty.

In addition to the emperor, there is another envoy who cannot be avoided: Su Wu.

He became famous in the Xiongnu, made great contributions to the Han Dynasty, and was sent to all directions. He did not disgrace the emperor's orders and did not lose the dignity of the country.

And Wang Xuance was a completely different envoy.

He was also humiliated and put life and death aside.

The difference is that Wang Xuance seemed to have no idea of ​​living in peace from beginning to end.

He did not waste a single soldier of the Tang Dynasty, but used the national prestige to drive the soldiers of the vassal states and punish them with thunder.

"With such talent, it's a pity to be an envoy."

This was the first thought that Zhang Fei had.

Fa Zheng shook his head:

"The generals of the Tang Dynasty are so talented. If they join the army, they may become mediocre generals and it is difficult for them to be outstanding."

Zhang Fei immediately felt that it made sense.

The Tang Dynasty seemed to have never lacked generals, and even the emperor was one of the most capable ones.

The Hu people were willing to die for him, and even the Khan gave up his position and ran to the Tang Dynasty to be a general.

When everyone wants to be the first, it is really difficult for a general to stand out.

"No wonder everyone in the Tang Dynasty is a general star, and they all want to take risks."

Just like attacking the Kingdom of Khotan, it can be clearly seen on the map that the Kingdom of Kucha has been destroyed, and the connection between the Western Turks and Khotan has been cut off.

It is safest to stabilize the land of Kucha and slowly attack Khotan.

But this Tang general did not do so. He was willing to sacrifice his life for merit and almost risked his life to lead only 50 people to the capital and ordered them to pay tribute to the Tang Dynasty.

It can be seen that the generals of the Tang Dynasty were eager to make merit.

However, Fa Zheng was a little curious:

"The troops led by Wang Xuance were not Tang troops, but they were able to be unstoppable."

"Such a rich place, why is it so vulnerable?"

[But since we are talking about India, we can also talk about this magical place.

As for why the combat effectiveness of India is so poor, the caste system makes the lower-level soldiers lack the will to fight to the death, which is only one of the reasons.

The Indian plains can indeed be called a land of natural gifts. It can easily feed 1.4 billion people and can also do food export trade, but of course there are disadvantages.

The most important thing is that there are iron mines, but there are no coal mines. It is impossible to develop the skills of 100-fold steel, steel pouring method, steel frying method, etc. like our ancient times, and there is no way to study the best armor and weapons.

We all know that swords can be played with at will in the era of cold weapons.

If you privately keep bows and crossbows, you will be punished with exile at the lightest and exile at the worst. If you privately keep armor, you will be hanged at the lightest and the whole family will be executed at the worst.

The importance of armor in the era of cold weapons can be seen.

The lack of armor not only leads to the low combat effectiveness of the Indian soldiers, but also makes it difficult for the central army and the local army to open up the technological gap, and the dynasty's rule is difficult to be stable and long-term.

This is also the reason why Wang Xuance fought so hard.

Secondly, it is because the place is too rich, and it is all large plains suitable for farming, which leads to no danger to defend.

In the words we are all familiar with, India is a standard four-war land.

Then there was another fatal problem. India did not produce horses, and even simple light cavalry could not be developed.

The final result was that the Persians, Macedonians, Bactrians, Parthians, Yuezhi, White Huns, Mongols, etc., wearing armor and riding war horses, passed through the Khyber Pass, and they were all like gods of war, conquering India in turn.

In this case, Wang Xuance was naturally unstoppable.

However, when we talk about Wang Xuance's treatment in later generations, there are many differences.

There is a saying that Wang Xuance destroyed the country but did not get any benefits, but let Tubo profit, so Li Shimin was not very happy in the end, so he treated Wang Xuance more harshly. We can talk about this issue one by one.

Tubo during the Zhenguan period did not care much about India, because although it could go to India, the road was very, very difficult to travel.

Therefore, Songtsen Gampo only sponsored 1,200 soldiers and horses. If Tubo really wanted to intervene in India, it would not be difficult for Tubo to directly send out 10,000 soldiers.

In history, Tubo conquered India after the An-Shi Rebellion. At that time, Tubo had completely occupied Hexi and the Western Regions. It can be seen that even for the ambitious people in Tubo, the territory of the Tang Dynasty was much more attractive than India.

Moreover, the late Zhenguan period was the honeymoon period between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo. The two sides fell out fifteen years after Wang Xuance destroyed the country.

And there is another piece of evidence. In the early Kaiyuan period, the country of Geshimi in Eastern India sent envoys to pay tribute to Emperor Xuanzong and brought a letter:

Since the establishment of the country, I have been a vassal of the Heavenly Khan... I and the king of Central India have blocked the five main roads of Tubo and prohibited entry and exit... The troops of the Heavenly Khan who arrived in Bolor, although there were 200,000 people, could deliver food to help. The country also has the Maha Bodama Dragon Pond, and is willing to build a temple for the Heavenly Khan.

The words are very clear. They have always recognized the signboard of the Heavenly Khan and have been obeying orders to defend Tubo from entering India.

And they also hope that the Tang Dynasty will attack the Bolor Kingdom. As long as the troops do not exceed 200,000, they can pack the food and grass.

Finally, he helped Maha Potama Longchi to pass on the message that "willing to build a temple for the Khan of Heaven" meant that he was willing to let the Tang Dynasty station troops in his country.

Secondly, Wang Xuance was not treated harshly.

Before he left, he was the Chief of the Right Guard, a rank of 7th rank.

After he came back, he was a doctor of Jiachao, a rank of 5th rank.

The official rank of the Tang Dynasty was 9th rank and 30th rank, and it was assessed once a year. Based on the results of the four-year assessment, only qualified people could advance to the next rank, and only those with good political achievements could be promoted a little more, and the official positions above the 5th rank needed to be reported to the emperor for decision.

In this system, Wang Xuance was directly promoted to the 5th rank, and the emperor kept it in mind from the 5th rank onwards.

If we really want to say that the most ruthless thing to Wang Xuance should be fate:

The Tianzhu doctor brought back did not cure Erfeng's illness.

Just now Jane was in the emperor's heart, but the emperor died.

The emperor had even taken the medicine he had brought back from the doctor.

Wang Xuance's official career had just begun, but the ship sank. 】

Li Shimin felt that he had underestimated this area, his brows raised uncontrollably, and he even picked his ears with his fingers:

"How many?"

But in fact, there is no need to explain. Guangmu said it in a simple and clear way. Li Shimin just couldn't believe it, and the meaning of grain export was also simple and easy to understand.

"With a population of 1.4 billion... still have room to sell food?"

For comparison, Li Shimin remembered another set of data:

"I remember that in the fourth year of the Great Cause, China had a population of 46 million, which was the peak of the Sui Dynasty. This number was less than half a billion."

Du Ruhui came out and said:

"This is the number of future generations. Looking at the future generations, with the help of science and technology, their farming methods are far better than ours, and they can be used by hundreds of millions of people."

Even though he said this...but Li Shimin still couldn't let go.

In the fifth year of Daye, there were nearly nine million households, and in the Wude year of the Tang Dynasty, the approximate number found was two million households.

At first glance, it seems that 30 million people died in the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, but Li Shimin also studied it carefully.

In the fourth and fifth years of Daye, Emperor Yang made great efforts to search for hidden households, and in order to increase tax revenue, he forced brothers to separate their families and then collect taxes on a per-household basis.

Although tax revenue increased significantly, Li Shimin looked back and concluded that this was the beginning of great chaos.

Therefore, in the past two years, Li Shimin specially added a law: if the parents are alive, the children will be punished by dividing the family.

The suggestion to clean up hidden households has also been ignored, and a reward policy for the birth of babies has also been introduced to allow the people to recuperate and recuperate.

Although Yangdi's methods were criticized by him, at least he did make great efforts to clarify the population, but now a comparison...

"Nearly twenty great years..." Fang Xuanling also marveled.

Du Ruhui, who is also the prime minister, understands the mood of his old friend:

"I really don't know what good strategies will be used to govern a country like this in future generations."

On the other side, the generals were already quite moved.

Li Shi𪟝 summed it up:

"No armor, no soldiers, no horses, no danger."

Then he raised his eyebrows and exclaimed like Li Shimin:

"Doesn't this mean we can attack at will?"

And looking at the numerous passers-by of the Khyber Pass in later generations, Li Shi was filled with envy:

There are so many countries coming and going, why can’t there be one more like China?

Su Lie nodded fiercely, while Changsun Wuji stared at him honestly and unceremoniously:

I was the first to take credit for this!

But after seeing that a small country in Eastern Tianzhu dared to promise to supply food and fodder for an army of 200,000, Changsun Wuji felt that he had to fight:

"Since General Maogong has accomplished the feat of destroying Xue Yantuo, why not forgive Your Majesty's regret and consult the detailed military strategy for building Goguryeo?"

Li Shi 𪟝 was now completely on edge and did not give in at all:

"When the Tang Dynasty's naval division is first established, attack it with surprise troops and advance by land and water. Goguryeo can be leveled with a snap of the finger."

"Then it is time to turn west and use the cavalry to take sea ships. The peace of Tianzhu is just around the corner."

Changsun Wuji's round face turned red, but in the end, after pointing his short round fingers at Li Shi𪟝 twice, he finally put it down bitterly.

Now that I have no official position and can't even speak loudly enough, why don't I just make some innuendo on His Majesty and get back to myself as soon as possible?

His eldest grandson Wuji also wanted to be loyal to the country.

Li Shimin has never cared about this. After all, although these old ministers can fight, the final decision-making power has always been firmly in his hands.

Li Shimin could only express his deep sympathy for Wang Xuance's experience, but there was nothing he could do about it.

After all, he was already dead by then, what else could he do?

And now that Wang Xuance has been activated as soon as possible, there is no regret at all.

Li Shimin stroked his slightly curled beard and thought about this casual comment from later generations.

Stationing troops in other countries? In addition to providing food and fodder for soldiers and horses, this small country needs...

Should Datang be remunerated?

[Because of Erfeng's sudden death, Wang Xuance's soaring career came to an abrupt end.

Also because of Erfeng's sudden death, the Turks were preparing to rebel again.

The protagonist of this rebellion was the Tang general Ashina Helu, also known as Xiaolu for short.

Xiaolu escaped from the Western Turks and was chased by the Great Khan. After defecting to the Tang Dynasty, he relied on being the leader and made contributions in the battle to destroy the Kucha Kingdom.

Later, during the celebration, Erfeng thought highly of him and even put his own robe on Xiaolu to show his favor. He was promoted to General Zuo Xiaowei and Governor of Yaochi, and received very generous treatment.

But people are always different.

Some people cried and wanted to be buried alive after the death of Erfeng, such as Ashina Sheer, who was not worthy of being buried with Dubu Khan.

Some people immediately thought of rebelling and becoming a khan again after Erfeng's death, such as the foreign student Xiao Lu.

And it was also at this point that the demise of the Western Turks officially began.

And Su Dingfang, who had been sweeping the streets in Chang'an for thirty years, finally entered the stage of history with great fanfare. 】