"Your Highness, since I took charge of the Ministry of Rites, I admit that although I have not made any major political achievements, I have also never made any major mistakes. As a minister of the Tang Dynasty, I naturally consider the interests of our Tang Dynasty. Diplomatic mediation? I believe that diplomatic mediation is actually to make the majesty and virtue of our Tang Dynasty recognized by all countries. Just like when Your Majesty was enthroned, all countries sent envoys to accompany you, and all nations came to our Tang Dynasty to congratulate. This is the majesty of our Tang Dynasty, and it is my main responsibility as the Minister of Rites." Dai Zhide looked unhappy. The Ministry of Rites has always attached great importance to etiquette. If it was as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said, the great Tang Empire would be extremely rude.

Li Hong shook his head speechlessly and smiled bitterly, but the other court officials were all shocked. Dai Zhide's words were extremely tough. Although the two had always been at odds, they were limited by the relationship between the monarch and his subjects. His Highness said so, and Dai Zhide could only listen. Even if he was dissatisfied in his heart, he could not refute the prince in front of all the court officials.

"Dai Zhide, if this is your purpose as the Minister of Rites, I think you can resign and return home." Li Hong narrowed his eyes and stared at Dai Zhide's cheek.

"Hmph, I don't know what I did wrong as the Minister of Rites. If Your Highness wants me to resign and retire just because I contradicted you just now, as a minister of the Tang Dynasty, I have nothing to say." Dai Zhide was determined to fight to the end. He ignored the pulling of the Minister of Personnel Li Yiyan next to him and continued to speak toughly.

Li Hong smiled indifferently and said slowly: "If all the officials of my Tang Dynasty were like you, we would just wait for the destruction of the country. What's the point of dreaming about a century-old foundation? Back then, you were a student of Wang Xuance and were recommended by him to enter the court. Now that you are in the Ministry of Rites, have you achieved half of his achievements?"

"Your Highness, I don't understand what you are talking about. Wang Xuance, as an envoy to the Western Regions, naturally had his faults and merits. Although I am not half as good as him, I admit that I have never brought in people like Luo Ersababa! Nor have I ever let my Tang Dynasty fall into a difficult situation because of my ideas!"

All the court officials in the council hall gasped. Although Wang Xuance was not convicted, everyone knew that the late emperor was poisoned to death after taking some of Wang Xuance's immortality pills after he captured a monk from the Western Regions, Luo Ershua!

Although Wang Xuance was not convicted for this incident, he never received any promotion from then on and became a forgotten man in the court.

Although Li Zhi still sent Wang Xuance on diplomatic missions to the Western Regions after he ascended the throne, Wang Xuance had already lost the charm of "one man destroying a country" in the past.

...

...

What's more, at that time, there was Xuanzang's journey to the West to seek Buddhist scriptures, which had a much greater impact than Wang Xuance's "destruction of a country by one man". Naturally, all the limelight from Wang Xuance was snatched away by Xuanzang. So even now, Wang Xuance has been dead for several years, and people still have mixed opinions when they mention him.

Li Hong still had a faint smile on his face. He slid a charcoal pencil back and forth on the table and said slowly, "Although you have never done anything like Wang Xuance, you are now very much like the Nepali minister who advocated lending troops to Wang Xuance when Wang Xuance was 'one man destroying a country'."

Seeing the bewildered looks of the ministers, Li Hong took the thin wooden stick from Xiaoxue's hand, stood up from his seat, and pulled open the black cloth behind him. Suddenly, what appeared before everyone was a huge sand table of the Tang Empire, including the topographic locations of other countries surrounding the Tang Dynasty, all with detailed markings.

Li Hong sneered at Dai Zhide, then glanced at the ministers again and said, "Back then, Wang Xuance and Jiang Shiren were on a diplomatic mission to India with more than 30 people. They were robbed by A Luoshun, a small country affiliated with India. In the end, Wang Xuance escaped alone and borrowed 7,000 soldiers from Nepal. As a result, Wang Xuance made an extraordinary achievement. He relied on himself and the 7,000 soldiers he borrowed to destroy the small country of A Luoshun, which killed Jiang Shiren and 30 others on the way. But where is Nepal now? Dai Zhide, you are Wang Xuance's disciple. Do you still think it is worth it to send reinforcements to Goryeo?"

After Li Hong finished speaking, he looked at the court officials and said, "History is always conservative, history is always similar, and history can always give you great enlightenment in the details! Dai Zhide, you strongly advocated sending troops to Goryeo. If we send troops to Goryeo again, we will be eroded by India and Tubo like Nepal. Nepal is now occupied by Tubo and India in half. Why? Because he borrowed troops from Tang officials and destroyed A Luoshun! A Luoshun is a vassal state of India. Why did Tubo fight for it? It's because Nepal destroyed the strategic balance there! Forced the two great powers to feel crisis because of Nepal's actions! That's why they want to destroy it! Dai Zhide, do you want my Tang Dynasty to be like Nepal?"

Li Hong threw the thin wooden stick in his hand to Xiaoxue and sat back in his seat in a bad mood.

History always repeats itself in surprising ways. The example he just cited was exactly the same as the reality a few years later when the Tang Dynasty was unable to take care of itself and was in the same situation as Nepal!

It's just that a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and the weakened Tang Dynasty could not be shaken by those small countries. However, Anxi and Andong, which were obtained with great effort, lives and blood, were finally forced to be abandoned due to lack of troops and inability to maintain them!

Dai Zhide looked at the sand table behind him. He didn't expect that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was using counter-evidence to prove that his insistence on sending troops was wrong. This made him speechless in the face of such solid evidence, and he didn't know how to refute it.

Liu Rengui also quietly stared at the sand table behind Li Hong. As a general, his keen sense of touch was unmatched by others. He took a deep breath and said, "Your Highness, the Nepal you mentioned is just a vassal state, but our Tang Dynasty is now respected by all the countries in the world. We are now strong in military and horses, and have many famous generals. I think it is not something that a small country like Goryeo can defeat. Even if Anxi is unstable now, I don't think that the situation you mentioned will happen to the Tang Dynasty for a while."

"How long is your "half a while"? One year? Two years? Ten years? Or eight years?" Li Hong wanted to slap him in the face!

How many people hold this so-called superior country mentality? What happens in the end? Look at Japan, which learned so much culture from the Tang Dynasty. More than a thousand years later, it left so many helpless, heart-wrenching cries and tears on this land!

Pei Yan and Cen Changqian from the Secretariat nodded involuntarily after hearing Liu Rengui's words. In their hearts, as subjects of a superior country, especially in this confident Tang Dynasty, no one would believe that the Tang Dynasty, which is now in its heyday, would face a crisis.

"Your Highness, I think what Minister Liu said is absolutely right. Why don't we send a few troops to reinforce Liu Renyuan and Sun Renshi? This way, we can preserve the reputation of the Tang Dynasty and also publicize its majesty." Zhang Wenguan, who was the right servant of the Shangshu Province, also said at this moment.

Li Hong looked at everyone and just shook his head speechlessly. If it was really as Zhang Wenguan said, then it would be no different from going back to the old ways. Didn't history show that Qibi Heli was sent first, and then Li Ji was sent afterwards?

If what Zhang Wenguan said is true, wouldn't all my words be in vain?

"Jinghui, tell them about the situation of Goryeo's grain and grass, especially Goryeo's harvest in the past two years, and the current number of households of soldiers in our Tang Dynasty." Li Hong rubbed his temples with a headache and said to his subordinate, Jinghui, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

"Yes, Your Highness."

"After more than a year of investigation by the Ministry of Revenue on the government soldiers across the country, as well as the survey of grain and fodder in Liaodong..." Jing Hui told all the data to the bigwigs in the court one by one, like beans pouring out of a bamboo tube. Moreover, he also delivered the forms in his hand to the court officials.

After Jing Hui sat down, Li Hong took the data that Yang Jiong handed over again, and after taking a look at it, he did not ask Yang Jiong, who was not qualified to be here, to leave, but said lightly: "Inform them."

"Yes, Your Highness." Facing the bigwigs sitting in the court, Yang Jiong was nervous and didn't know how to address Li Hong, so he awkwardly called him "Your Highness".

Li Hong waved his hand indifferently and said, "This is a new academic discipline introduced by Chongwen Hall, calculating the future. In other words, through the pen and paper in our hands, using the knowledge we have learned, we can calculate how long the soldiers of our Tang Dynasty can cope with two wars at the same time. This includes the number of households of our Tang Dynasty soldiers, the number of soldiers of different ages, and the average number of casualties in a war. From this, we can infer how many years it will take for our Tang Dynasty soldiers to die in the resolutions of you court officials!"

Seeing Liu Rengui's stunned look in the court, Li Hong continued calmly, "Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, the virtue and dignity you want, if not backed up by the might of the Tang Dynasty, your virtue and dignity will be nonsense in the eyes of others! Dai Zhide, let me tell you a sentence that should be hung on the wall of the Ministry of Rites, which is: A weak country has no diplomacy! If you still don't understand, you can really resign and go home. You are no longer suitable to be the Minister of Rites."

Seeing each court official carefully studying the data in their hands and whispering to each other from time to time, Li Hong believed that perhaps these advanced calculation methods could make these officials who were lying on the halo of the superior country sober up.

Liu Rengui looked at the data in his hand with an extremely focused expression. According to the simple and easy-to-understand figures above, it would be extremely difficult for the Tang Dynasty to continue to use troops in Liaodong and Anxi at the same time within three to five years.

Especially with the decrease in the number of households of the Fu soldiers and the death of a large number of young and strong soldiers, the Fu soldiers over 40 years old gradually became the main force. By that time...

Liu Rengui didn't dare to imagine it, if these numbers were true... No, these numbers were indeed true. He knew better than anyone how many people died in battle in Liaodong every year.

In addition, Goryeo has had bumper harvests in recent years in its remote mountainous areas, but when the Tang Dynasty soldiers fought in Liaodong, it was always the Tang Dynasty itself that provided food and fodder!