Chapter 825 Five Years Later (XIV) Du Qinghui
Note: The timeline needs to be explained here.
The premise of the previous chapter where the King of Annam held a banquet in the palace in Champa is that, as mentioned in this chapter, Annam was able to occupy Champa ahead of schedule thanks to the assistance of the Tang Dynasty.
Let me explain again. As mentioned earlier, the Tang Dynasty sent troops from Jiangnan East Road southward to conquer the stronghold of the people behind the opium case in the south.
The "southern lands" here refers to the Indochina Peninsula and the islands in Southeast Asia.
This story involves multiple time travelers. The opium incident is linked to Europeans who traveled through time and discovered that they had a hideout in the South, which led to the war.
(I will post maps of the Tang Dynasty and the Indochina Peninsula in the book club community; feel free to check them out if you're interested.)
In the text, the King of Annam is willing to go to Champa as a vassal, listen to the Tang Dynasty, and be the most obedient little brother.
Historically, at this time, the Indochina Peninsula was basically never peaceful, with Annam, Champa (also translated as Champa), and Zhenla (present-day Cambodia) constantly fighting each other.
In particular, Annam and Champa had always had friction, with Annam advancing south and eventually destroying Champa.
In official history, Champa was destroyed in 1697, which was the 30th year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign in the Qing Dynasty.
For the sake of the plot, I skipped the timeline and made Champa be destroyed earlier, with only a small number of remnants remaining.
The small countries in the Indochina Peninsula had different names in different periods of Chinese history. For example, the area now known as Vietnam was called Annam during the Tang Dynasty, and was renamed Jiaozhi during the reign of Zhu Di in the Ming Dynasty.
I only glanced at it and didn't delve into the history of the Indochina Peninsula. I hope those who like to study historical records won't take it too seriously. This article is fictional and entirely made up by me.
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The following is the main text:
Jiang Yijun and Bi Qionglan went to the Champa Palace to attend the Little New Year banquet held by the King of Annam. In a mountain valley quite far from Champa, Du Qinghui, Lü Yunting, and three generals of the Imperial Guard from different routes gathered in front of a sizable sand table in a small wooden house.
The sky was dark, and oil lamps had already been lit inside the house.
A general surnamed Wang raised his oil lamp and shone it on the spot on the sand table. "If we can get through this place and defend it well, then we will surely win this battle!"
For more than a year, Du Qinghui led his men from Songping County (now Hanoi area of Vietnam) and sailed along the coastline, relying on cannons at sea and gunpowder on land, which greatly helped the King of Annam to catch Champa off guard.
Otherwise, the King of Annam wouldn't have been able to occupy the original royal palace in Champa to hold a banquet.
However, the further south they advanced, the more difficult the battle became. Besides the fact that the soldiers were not used to the climate, the main reason was that the number of soldiers sent south was not actually that large, and each one was very precious.
As for the Annamese soldiers sent by the King of Annam, not to mention the language barrier, the key issue was that they were unruly and, due to religious differences, there were always disagreements.
Therefore, Du Qinghui and his men skipped the Annamese troops and only brought Tang soldiers to fight this battle.
In addition, the area is mountainous and forested, with complex terrain and changeable climate, making it extremely difficult for Tang soldiers from outside the region to fight.
Most importantly, the Champa people, whose religion is unknown, are truly ruthless.
Even when captured by the Tang people and whipped, they still refused to obey.
Lu Yunting nodded slightly at the location General Wang pointed to, and said, "The inhabitants here are not as obedient as the Annamese. They could simply submit like the Annamese, but they insist on fighting us to the death."
There are rumors among the Imperial Guard that they actually kill people, drink their blood, and eat their flesh.
This time we must subdue them all, or at least most of them. If that fails, General," Lü Yunting looked at the silent Du Qinghui, "I propose we set the mountain on fire!"
Lu Yunting's suggestion drew the attention of everyone in the room. Not only General Wang, but also Generals Li and Zhou, standing to the side, looked at Lu Yunting with surprise. Even in this foreign land, he was still dressed in a scholar's robe, holding a folding fan, and looked every bit the approachable scholar. All three of them had only one thought in their minds:
Indeed, those who excel in reading have strong hearts!
Seeing that Du Qinghui did not show any disagreement, Lü Yunting became even more enthusiastic and added, "Although it rained today, it only rained heavily in Champa."
It only rained a little here. I asked an elderly local who knows the weather well, and he said there's absolutely no rain expected for the next two days!
As he talked, Lü Yunting became more and more excited. He stepped forward, approached the sand table, took a small flag, and planted it on a hill.
“There is a stream upstream here. We sent people to add medicine beforehand. The people from the Imperial Medical Bureau who came with us this time already had some medicine packets. It doesn’t have to be a blood-killing medicine. Any medicine that can make people weak or drowsy is enough.”
In this way, after waiting overnight, the fire can be set when the sun is at its strongest the next day.
Those who survived both times will surely flee down the mountain to stay alive. As long as we send troops to guard this place and this place," Lu Yunting took out small flags again and planted them in two places, "we can directly stop them."
There should only be a few people left who escaped, so they pose no threat to our deployment.
The solution is to send the Annamese soldiers who are staying here into the mountains to arrest them.
Thinking about it this way, the Zhenla royal family would be even more subservient to our Great Tang.
Lü Yunting's insane plan was ultimately not approved by Du Qinghui, who said, "It's not time to go to such lengths yet."
"Let's try General Wang's plan first. If that fails, then we'll discuss the Yun Ting method."
Lu Yunting wasn't upset about being rejected; he just shook his head but didn't say anything more.
General Wang, General Li, and General Zhou bowed to Du Qinghui before leaving the wooden house. The three returned to their respective hiding places, waiting for the appointed time to lead their troops out.
Inside the wooden cabin, only Du Qinghui and Lü Yunting remained. The two sat facing each other. Lü Yunting held a warm teacup in his hand, looking at the shadows of the trees outside in the moonlight, and couldn't help but say, "General, today is the Little New Year."
Du Qinghui knew, of course, that today was the Little New Year. He paused for a moment, glanced at Lü Yunting, and then called the guards outside to come in.
After giving the order, two plates of cakes and a bowl of steaming soup appeared in front of Lü Yunting a quarter of an hour later.
Lu Yunting picked up a piece of cake and ate it. After tasting it, he looked at Du Qinghui with some surprise: "General, Commander Xue has arrived."
The taste of these pastries is something our camp's cook could never make.
Du Qinghui picked up the bowl of soup dumplings in front of him, which was clearly twice the size of Lü Yunting's, took a sip, and then, while picking up some soup dumplings with his chopsticks, nodded and responded to Lü Yunting's question: "Yes, Xue Yao came, but he's already left."
The two finished their soup dumplings and it was almost time for their agreed-upon action.
Lu Yunting got up and walked to the window of the wooden house to wait. Sure enough, a few breaths later, a red smoke appeared in the southeast direction.
Immediately afterwards, two red signal lights appeared in the southwest direction.
"It's started."
After saying this, Lü Yunting felt a pang of emotion. He turned to look at Du Qinghui, who was still sitting calmly at the table drinking tea: "General, when I first recommended myself to you, I always thought that maybe I could learn from Zhuge Liang and help the monarch ascend the throne."
Who would have thought that today, I would be the one who destroys a country, thousands of miles away from Chang'an?
"General, I, Yun Ting, truly cannot imagine what good days I will have following you in the future."
As Du Qinghui listened to Lü Yunting's words, which were both teasing and wistful, he recalled what Emperor Wu had said that day: "Do you think I wanted to be this emperor?"
After sighing, Du Qinghui looked out the window at Lü Yunting. He coughed lightly and said to Lü Yunting, who had turned around, "Yunting, you are only thirty years old. If you are willing in the future, we can go to the New World together. If you like, it is not impossible for us to establish a country on the New World."
However, the world is peaceful and stable now, and it is not easy to break this peace. I do not want to start a war.
This military expedition is also intended to establish a foothold here, so that as we build better and better ships in the future, it will not be unfounded for us to go further south to search for the new continent.
"If you wish, I can assist you in ascending the throne when the time comes."
Lu Yunting was utterly dumbfounded by Du Qinghui's words. "General, have you gone mad from eating too many soup dumplings?"
Lu Yunting stepped forward and reached out to touch Du Qinghui's forehead. "He's not hot. Could it be that he has been unintentionally affected by the witchcraft here?"
Instead of comforting Lü Yunting, Du Qinghui made Lü Yunting worry more. He raised his hand and slapped Lü Yunting's hand away, saying with a dark face, "I think you just can't bear to give up the prosperity of Chang'an!"
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