Chapter 61 Killing the Tang envoy and destroying the country: I heard that you defeated Emperor Taizong of Tang?
Li Shimin quickly recruited modern people who liked to play pranks and appointed them as envoys and deputy envoys.
Diplomatic delegations visit abroad every year, and it is normal to strengthen business exchanges, especially under the new policies.
Only Li Shimin gave repeated warnings before the modern working delegation set off, asking them to take it easy.
"You have to have a limit. Just seek your own death, and don't get the soldiers and officers escorting you killed as well."
"Don't worry, Boss. I promise to die beautifully and brilliantly!"
"Don't worry, leave it to me! I'll definitely die in style!"
The workers patted their chests and made the promise with full confidence!
After the delegation set off, Li Shimin thought about learning from the lessons of the previous attack on Goguryeo. This time he must set off as early as possible and withdraw the troops before the cold weather in September.
Silla, together with the former southern territory of Goguryeo, recruited soldiers in March, set out in April, and returned to the city in September. The five months in between might not be enough.
And since it's a long expedition, time is even tighter.
But the Tang soldiers were not resistant to cold. If they failed to conquer the city, they would have to wait until next year to go again.
[Erfeng, don't you have cotton in the Tang Dynasty? Why don't you make cotton clothes?]
[Wear more cotton clothes, you can definitely get through October, right?]
"Cotton? Can that stuff be used to make clothes?"
After hearing this, Li Shimin and modern workers looked at each other in confusion.
It was only after Lu Shuyuan had lived in Datang for a long time that she understood this misunderstanding, so she explained:
"It's like this. The cotton that the people of the Tang Dynasty thought of is not the same variety as the cotton we modern people refer to."
The cotton of the Tang Dynasty was the Kapok cotton, so even if people in the Central Plains knew about cotton, they only thought it was an ornamental plant.
This kind of cotton can mostly only be grown in areas such as the Western Regions. It has a small yield and poor fiber elasticity, making it unsuitable for making cotton clothes.
[The cotton we are talking about is actually Asian cotton that was introduced from India during the Song Dynasty.]
It's too late to go to India to collect Asian cotton now! How can we get enough without five to ten years of large-scale planting in the Central Plains?
Also, cotton collection and seed removal are very troublesome, and there simply isn't enough time in one year.
[Then I'll just make down jackets! At worst, I'll just pluck some more duck feathers!]
[Don’t you know that down jackets will shed down?
Even with our advanced textile technology today, down jackets still shed, not to mention the linen clothes of ancient times!
[That’s right, by then everyone will be riding horses while wearing down jackets?
My goodness, the Tang army rushed over and all of them were covered in white and flying duck feathers. Hahaha, so funny!
"What is a down jacket?"
Li Shimin always liked things that sounded furry.
Wen Yuping, Lu Shuyuan and others discussed it and felt that the Tang Dynasty version of down jacket was not impossible.
"Firstly, we in the Tang Dynasty have large-scale poultry farming, especially ducks, so we have a source of food!"
“As for the problem of fleece, it’s better to use multiple layers of linen, add sheepskin or rabbit skin, and sew them in a tic-tac-toe pattern.
The outer layer is filled with silk batting and hemp paper, and then the inner layer is filled with down.”
In addition to silk, linen, and leather, clothes in the Tang Dynasty also used silk floss for filling and warmth. Many people also wore linen paper clothes for filling.
[The main reason is that the Tang Dynasty was in the warm period and the weather was relatively hot, so the coldest temperature in Korea might be more than 20 degrees below zero?
Anyway, it’s definitely not as cold as it is now. 】
If that's the case, filling it with 30 to 50 percent down is enough to keep you warm.
[It’s just a pity for Yaya!]
It seems that the pure down jackets we have now require the feathers of three hundred ducks for one piece!
Then 10,000 pieces of clothing would require 3 million ducks to become bald!
One hundred thousand geese... quack]
This is not a big problem, and it is not as demanding as modern times where only duck down can be used.
With a wave of his hand, Li Shimin started collecting duck feathers and duck down throughout the Tang Dynasty.
The imperial court offered a good price for the purchase, so the people were naturally more than happy to accept it. Within a month or two, all the ducks and geese in the Tang Dynasty were bald...
[Ahahahahahahahahahaha, if I were the recorder, I would definitely write it down in the history books!
This must be a global historical wonder! 】
The ducks' feathers were shaved off again and again, and the ducks and geese became completely autistic, but the Tang Dynasty version of down jackets was soon made.
The nobles could directly use the fur version of down jackets, which would not cause the down to leak out at all. After Li Shimin tried it on, he felt so hot that he was sweating, and now he was completely relieved.
While he ordered vigorous promotion, he also began to contact the modern envoys who had been sent there before.
“No, you’ve been on a mission for a month, and the weather is getting hot soon!
Why haven't I heard the news of your death yet?"
[Ahhh, boss, I'll do it as soon as possible! I'm not slacking off! I'm really trying too hard to get myself killed!]
I'm on the brink of death every day. But I'm also wondering why I haven't died yet!
[The King of Silla is really too patient, he is simply a ninja!
I was almost riding on his head, and he could still smile at me. Boss, I'll try to die as soon as possible!]
Li Shimin was anxious and urged again, so the workers Wang Qing and Xiao Yun who received the news looked at each other.
Damn it, the boss is not satisfied!
But they are not dead yet, so I really can’t blame them!
As envoys, Wang Qing and Xiao Yun were warmly received by the entire Silla court on their first day in Silla.
The king personally went out of the city to welcome them, and also brought out the best food and held a banquet with singing and dancing to entertain them.
Everyone knows that the Tang Dynasty now has a capable emperor, so people in Silla naturally dare not neglect him, let alone offend him.
Wang Qing and Xiao Yun had stupid and unhappy faces, but when they saw Silla's song and dance performance, they immediately broke down.
Oh my god, what is this dance?
Especially the suona and the xiqin which is similar to the later erhu, are they performing a funeral?
[Oh my god! My grandpa’s cotton-flecking sounds better than this!]
And isn't that huqin really sawing wood? Is it true that great force can bring about miracles?
And that suona, how could it be played so awfully! How could something this horrible be called a musical ensemble? And why were the court officials still enjoying it with such relish?]
"It must be that when they went to the Tang Dynasty to study, our ancestors didn't teach them well, so they learned the music of other people's funeral processions!"
The key is to just learn it. A thousand years later, would they still dare to apply for world heritage status using such an ugly musical instrument and claim it as their own?
It makes me angry just thinking about it!
Wang Qing immediately overturned the table and said coldly:
"How dare you bring out such a nasty thing?!"
All the prostitutes immediately knelt down to apologize, and everyone in Silla was as quiet as a chicken. The King of Silla said with a smile:
"It's their poor skills that really embarrassed them in front of the envoys."
Xiao Yun nodded, looking disgusted:
"It's indeed a show of ugliness. Do you know why you Silla people play the same instrument so badly?"
"It's mainly because you're stupid and not diligent!"
"Yes, yes, it is indeed the problem of these artists!"
Before the king finished speaking, Wang Qing interrupted him impatiently and said:
"I mean all of you, everyone here is stupid, including you!"
Silla people: ...?
[Hahaha, it feels so good to be so impolite and throw a tantrum!]
[I really enjoy watching you being annoyed and picking on you, but you just have to hold it in.]
Wang Qing and Xiao Yun, who were present at the scene, were naturally even happier. After all, the faces of the Silla people on the other side had changed, but they still had to swallow their anger and apologize with a smile.
It was okay for the king to scold others like this. They even received a gift from the king that night.
Real gold, silver, agate and jewelry are all top quality goods.
These ministers smiled and asked them carefully what they had done wrong.
"How would I know? Anyway, I get mad when I see you guys! I just want to beat you up and vent my anger, right?"
The Tang Dynasty envoy said with his head held high.
Everyone in Silla: ...?
That night, it was said that someone in the Silla palace was so impatient that he wanted to draw his sword and kill the king, and the king tried hard to persuade him.
Everyone's faces looked uglier than if they had eaten shit, but they still had to treat the Tang envoys with a smile the next day.
"Family, I feel like the orange president of the United States!
It feels like I'm going to the two bases in my own backyard and going crazy!"
The migrant worker envoy was completely let loose, becoming even more irritable, angry and impolite.
After all, if you are picky about food at home, you will be beaten by your mother, but here, if you complain that their kimchi is not tasty, you can just overturn the table.
Even the king had to apologize and then give them better food.
So the two of them first found fault with Silla's food and kimchi, and then began to demand gold, silver and treasures.
Wang Qing opened his hand and made a five, intending to ask for five hundred taels of gold, but the other party immediately took out five thousand taels of gold and gave them!
Workers:!!!
Wang Qing and Xiao Yun's pupils trembled, and they pinched each other hard to wake up. Wang Qing then continued angrily:
"Humph! Don't you know how to reflect on yourselves?
You made the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty so angry, and you don't even know how to admit your mistake?"
The King of Silla felt a pang in his heart and quickly asked what was going on.
"Hmph! You'd better eat with your hands from now on!
You learned to eat with chopsticks from our Tang Dynasty, and now you come back here and claim that you invented chopsticks? You say we copied you?
You learned food, clothing, language, writing, clothing, and customs from the Tang Dynasty, and you actually claim that they were invented by you thousands of years ago. Are we, the Chinese and Tang people, shamelessly stealing them from you? "
“No, how could such a thing happen to Silla!
Who dares to be so shameless and bold?"
The officials of Silla immediately became anxious and vied with each other to explain that they knew these were from the Tang Dynasty and were grateful for it.
"Who on earth is spreading this rumor? We have never heard of it!"
The King of Silla felt a pang in his heart, fearing that there really were Silla people who were so shameless.
This is like he doesn't want to live anymore and wants to drag the whole country of Luo down with him.
"I dreamed that you, the descendants of the Silla clan, are so shameless!"
King of Silla: ...???
The people of Silla were collectively speechless, but they still had to patiently coax Wang Qing and tell him that dreams should not be taken seriously.
But Wang Qing insisted that the people of the Tang Dynasty believed in the art of prophecies and divination, so he took the dream seriously, and was very special and angry about it.
"After thinking about it, I can only blame you Silla people for being shameless!
How about this, if you let me ride you today, I'll let you go for now!"
This way I can finally succeed in committing suicide, right?
Wang Qing and Xiao Yun were waiting to be paid their wages after their death. However, they did not expect that the King of Silla would be furious and wanted to draw his sword, but was stopped by someone nearby.
A minister tried to smile and said that the king was weak and might fall if he was ridden, so they should do it instead.
Wang Qing: ???
No, he didn't die like this?!
Wang Qing and Xiao Yun actually rode around the Silla ministers. After returning, they sighed that courting death is not such an easy task!
After several days of unsuccessful attempts and receiving pressure from their boss, Wang Qing and Xiao Yun became extremely anxious.
So that night, when the King of Silla was asleep, they broke into the palace and cursed at the king's confused face.
"Well, you Silla people are so shameless! When our Emperor Taizong conquered Goguryeo and returned victorious, you actually tampered with history!
You said that Goguryeo was your Silla people, and that you shot one of Emperor Taizong's eyes blind, forcing him to cede land and pay compensation under the city?
You Silla people are so brave! "
"No, it's impossible, this is absolutely impossible!"
The people of the Silla Kingdom were stunned, but were scolded by Wang Qing and Xiao Yun.
Finally, the King of Silla wrote down the original text of this history himself, and under his instructions, he emphasized that Goguryeo and Silla were two different ethnic groups.
And how Goguryeo suppressed Silla in the past, and how the Tang Dynasty suppressed Goguryeo.
After finishing the manuscript, the two men asked the people of Silla to copy more than a thousand copies of the manuscript overnight, and then buried them in various cities of Silla.
And let the nobles and ministers of Silla keep it as a family heirloom.
In this way, when their descendants conduct archaeological excavations, it is impossible for them to burn their own ancient history and refuse to acknowledge it, right?
[It’s okay, it’s okay. Just ask their kings to stamp the documents, sign their names and put their fingerprints on them, and then take a few copies back to the Tang Dynasty!
If their descendants refuse to admit it, we will use it to slap them in the face!
That’s a good idea!
Wang Qing and Xiao Yun immediately ordered the Tang soldiers to bring the manuscripts back to the Tang Dynasty as quickly as possible, and then rushed to the King of Silla, raised their daggers and said they would blind one of his eyes to avenge the "revenge" in their dream.
King of Silla:?!
This is really unbearable!
The people of Silla finally killed the two men.
At this point, the King of Silla immediately wrote a letter to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty to explain that this was not Silla's fault!
I really don’t know what’s wrong with you, the Tang Dynasty envoys!
However, the Tang Dynasty had already rushed back to the Tang Dynasty the news that the envoy was killed by the Silla people.
Suddenly, everyone in the Tang Dynasty, from top to bottom, from officials to common people, was angry.
So what? What if our Tang Dynasty envoy goes crazy?
Even if our Tang Dynasty envoys want to kill your king, can you Silla kill us Tang people?
"Hey, I've always told you overseas people not to get crazy all the time!
Now, even my life has been lost!"
Li Guangbi sighed and shook his head, but soon he angrily asked the emperor to go to war to pacify Silla, which dared to rebel!
What a joke! If our Tang Dynasty officials go crazy, then we, the Tang Dynasty, will be the sole responsible party.
What the hell do you think Silla is? Do you want to die?
Faced with the anger of the Tang Dynasty officials and the emperor, the envoys sent by Silla wanted to explain.
But Li Shimin refused to listen and I was very angry. I didn't even give him a chance to speak and just executed him.
Then, all the military generals in the Tang Dynasty court rushed to volunteer to go to the battlefield.
The opportunity for military generals to make meritorious service finally came, but everyone was extremely competitive.
But at this time Li Shimin said that troops must be sent, but he planned to be the commander-in-chief and lead the troops himself.
Everyone:!!!
"Your Majesty, I disagree!"
"No, Your Majesty, you cannot go to war!"
"A son of a wealthy family should not sit idle in the hall, Your Majesty!"
Such unity in the court was rare.
Even the modern workers stood by, looking up at the sky and the ground, feeling that the boss's situation had nothing to do with them, and they didn't say anything and just sat in a daze.
Li Shimin: ...
"No, my dear ministers, haven't you seen me fight in the past?
My ability as a general is still acceptable, my dear ministers, rest assured!"
It’s because I know your fighting style that I don’t allow you to go!
The most vehement opponents came from Yan Zhenqing, Li Bai, Li Guangbi and others who had fought alongside Li Shimin.
Because they really don't want to experience the despair of their coach running into the enemy's encirclement and being unable to catch up again...
What’s more, Li Shimin is now the emperor, His Majesty Taizong!
If something goes wrong, what will the Tang Dynasty do? They don't want to have an emperor like the retired emperor anymore!
All the officials strongly opposed it, but Li Shimin also became stubborn and determined to lead the army.
After all, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t go to other places in person, but he must go to Goguryeo in person!
"Your Majesty, when Emperor Taizong was in Goguryeo..."
Wang Wei was just about to talk about the lesson that Emperor Taizong had taught him when he suddenly looked up and saw Li Shimin staring at him expressionlessly. He was so scared that cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
[Hahaha, you're always bringing up all the topics. Emperor Taizong is watching you!]
The court officials also thought of this and realized that His Majesty must have been upset at the time.
Then each of them made a concession.
Your Majesty can go to the battlefield, but you can only stay in the rear and must never rush out as the vanguard again!
"Your Majesty, you must remember this, you really can't do it the same way as before!
You are a different person now..."
"I know, I know, I know!"
When all the ministers in the court were sending Li Shimin off to the battle, they gave him countless warnings and instructions like an old mother, expressing their deep concern. Li Shimin's ears were so tired of hearing them.
It was so hard to get such an opportunity to go to war, but before he even finished speaking, he led his army and rode off.
This time, Li Shimin still adopted the previous strategy of sending troops, dividing his troops into several routes.
The total military force was about 100,000, of which nearly 20% were Hu people.
At this time, the territories of the Tang Dynasty and Silla were no longer the same as they were during the reign of Emperor Taizong a hundred years ago.
At that time, Li Shimin did not capture the Anshi City of Goguryeo, but later, after the territorial expansion during the reign of Li Zhi, the area north of the Yalu River belonged to the Tang Dynasty.
The area south of the Yalu River, such as Anshi City, later became a vacuum zone where neither Silla nor Tang Dynasty had any say, and was later occupied by the emerging Bohai Kingdom.
In front of the new emperor of the Tang Dynasty who was quite similar to Emperor Taizong, Bohai, a small country that had risen for less than a few decades, did not even have a chance to resist.
Before Silla and Bohai could react, Li Shimin had already led his army to capture several cities and attack Anshi City.
This time he learned from previous lessons and decided to divide his troops into three groups.
One group dug deep trenches in front of Anshi City to hold the enemy back; the other group marched eastward to capture Dandong Fengcheng and then formed a siege.
The last group was the navy that had been newly trained in recent years. They went directly south and landed in Kuandian, Dandong, south of Anshi City, cutting off Anshi City's retreat and food supply.
Finally, after a month of siege, Anshi City ran out of ammunition and food and took the initiative to send troops.
Fighting the main force of the Tang army with cavalry, infantry and Modao is seeking death.
Especially since Li Shimin was now the emperor, he personally beat drums to cheer for the soldiers in the rear, and the morale of the Tang Dynasty soldiers was even higher and they were ready to fight.
"Kill! No one can compete with me for heads!"
"All the heads must be mine! Kill them! I want to achieve merit, military merit, great merit!"
God knows that there have been no wars in the Tang Dynasty in recent years. It is so difficult for military generals and soldiers to get promotions and salary increases for their merits!
The opportunity to show off in front of His Majesty has come!
One person fights, the whole family enjoys!
The Tang army was so angry that they were like hungry wolves that had been hungry for a long time and ran out to eat meat, which frightened everyone in Tianmu and the soldiers on the opposite side.
The decisive battle ended quickly. Li Shimin finally made up for his regret of not being able to capture Anshi City with his own hands.
In this beautiful war, the Tang Dynasty suffered minimal losses and its momentum was so strong that it frightened both Bohai and Silla.
Silla didn't even put up much resistance, and the Tang army stormed straight to Anshi City and Pyongyang south of Dandong.
Pyongyang was captured with almost no effort, much easier than Anshi City.
Li Shimin conquered more than a dozen cities of Silla along the way, and it was not even September when he reached the Silla capital of Jincheng.
The reason is simple: the Silla people are too weak to fight!
Thinking of this, Li Shimin felt that the sense of accomplishment from conquering Silla was not as great as from conquering the city of Anshi.
"No, the Silla people surrendered too quickly, didn't they?
And although he sounds fierce, he's actually quite weak."
[Hahaha, Er Feng has proven with his strength that those guys are just barking and bluffing idiots!]
[Next time, please write in history that Goguryeo was a skilled warrior, completely different from Silla!]
[That's right, when the dead Goguryeo people heard about the later thefts by the Koreans, they would be so angry that they would crawl out of their coffins and spit on them!
How can you even steal someone else's ethnicity? Bah!]
At the end of August, Silla's thousand-year-old capital, Jincheng, was surrounded by an army of 100,000.
Moreover, Li Shimin's newly formed navy had cut off the last retreat route for these nobles to go south to Japan.
The fate of Silla depended on this decisive battle. The ministers, nobles, and king of Silla were so worried that their hair almost fell out.
They even began to regret that they had not killed the two Tang Dynasty envoys!
Why are they so irritable? Why can't they hold back?
Isn’t it just that the king lost one eye?
It’s better than the country’s demise now!
"It's okay. People in the Tang Dynasty can't stand the cold. Didn't Emperor Taizong of Tang withdraw his troops because of the cold weather in September?
The cold weather arrived early this year, and now it's about to snow! Even the heavens are helping us, Silla!
If we hold on a little longer, we will definitely be able to wait until they withdraw!"
The nobles of Silla still held on to the last glimmer of hope and waited and waited.
Sure enough, it was only the beginning of September, and the drizzle suddenly turned into a heavy snowfall, and the temperature dropped sharply.
The people of Silla were all overjoyed and knelt down towards the sky crazily!
However, at this moment, the soldiers guarding the city ahead ran over and said in panic that the Tang army had not withdrawn at all, but had all put on strange thick clothes.
The Silla nobles and ministers climbed up the city wall and were immediately shocked.
It turned out that the tens of thousands of Tang soldiers on the opposite side were all wearing thick clothes made of unknown materials.
The clothes were bulging, and the soldier was wearing gloves on his hands and a hat on his head.
Even the ears were wrapped up, so they didn’t get cold at all!
The Silla people were completely desperate.
Although the weather was cold, the Tang Dynasty soldiers had chili hot pot, potato stewed beef, roasted sweet potatoes, and even hot pot with red oil and chili peppers.
His Majesty the Emperor personally encouraged everyone and dug trenches himself, which deeply moved the Tang Dynasty soldiers.
How could an emperor do such dirty work? Only their majesty would lead by example!
As a result, the soldiers became more motivated, shouting and killing outside the city, and attacked the city many times.
Li Shimin also rode a tall horse and often went out of the city to patrol in the cold weather.
In the end, the already weak Silla could not bear it anymore, and the king personally went out of the city to kneel down and surrender, offering the city and a letter of surrender.
I just hope that the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty will spare their lives because they knelt quickly and correctly.
"I have already said that those who surrender will not be killed.
Since you surrender sincerely, I will naturally treat you well."
Hearing this, the King of Silla and the nobles breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Li Shimin rode his horse to the kneeling King of Silla, looked down at him and said with a smile:
"I heard that you, Silla, had the audacity to claim to be from Goguryeo, and that you shot Emperor Wen Taizong of the Tang Dynasty in the eye under the city of Anshi, forcing him to kneel and beg for peace?"
King of Silla:……!!!
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