Chapter 344
"Your Majesty, I just received an official letter from the Pengwang Mansion, and Pengwang Li Yuanze has passed away!" The Zongzhengqing reported to Li Chengqian.
The Zongzheng Temple was responsible for managing the affairs of the royal family. Once a member of the royal family passed away, they would submit an official letter to the Zongzheng Temple to report the death, and then the Zongzheng Temple officials would report it to the emperor.
"What did you say? My twelfth uncle passed away?" Li Chengqian, who had just returned from outside, was very surprised to hear this bad news!
Pengwang Li Yuanze was the twelfth son of Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan, and was younger than Li Chengqian. He did not expect that he would die before him.
"Why did Pengwang pass away?" Li Chengqian asked.
The reasons for the death of the princes and dukes must be recorded. When the princes and dukes submit official documents, they must clearly state the cause of death, whether it is death from illness or accident, etc.
"Prince Peng died of illness." said the Minister of the Imperial Clan.
"I know!" Without the Minister of the Imperial Clan saying more, Li Chengqian also knew what disease Li Yuanze died of.
"Prince Peng Li Yuanze has no offspring, should the Peng Kingdom be abolished?" asked the Minister of the Imperial Clan.
Generally speaking, according to custom, if the princes and dukes have no sons, it means that the kingdom is dead, and the court will take back the fiefdom and remove the title of the kingdom.
Of course, there are always exceptions. Some emperors will enfeoff their sons to this fiefdom and become the new owner of this fiefdom.
Some emperors could not bear to see the princes die without anyone to worship and offer sacrifices to them, so they would select a suitable person from the royal family to inherit everything of the princes and offer sacrifices to them.
"Didn't my fourteenth uncle Li Yuangui's fifth son Li Yu inherit the title of the twelfth uncle? Then Li Yu will inherit the title of King Peng." Li Chengqian said.
"Yes!" The Minister of the Imperial Clan said, "Please give the King Peng Li Yuanze a posthumous title."
"Give the King Peng the posthumous title of Si." Li Chengqian said.
There are three types of posthumous titles: praise-worthy posthumous titles, pity-worthy posthumous titles, and derogatory posthumous titles.
Si belongs to the second type of pity-worthy posthumous titles, which has a bit of sympathy. This means that Li Chengqian feels a bit of sympathy for Li Yuanze for not having a son and no successor.
"Confer the title of Minister of the Interior and Grand Commander of Jingzhou on Prince Pengsi Li Yuanze posthumously," Li Chengqian said.
"Yes!" Zong Zhengqing bowed and left.
When Li Chengqian returned to Ganlu Hall, a eunuch hurried over.
"Your Majesty!" the eunuch bowed.
"Why are you so flustered?" Li Chengqian asked, wondering if something had happened.
"Zhao Xiaozu, the military commander of Langzhou Road, sent someone to deliver an urgent report in 800 miles! Please take a look at it, Your Majesty." After the eunuch finished speaking, he handed the bamboo tube containing the secret report to Li Chengqian.
"Zhao Xiaozu!"
Li Chengqian did not reach out to take the bamboo tube directly. He remembered that last year, Zhao Xiaozu had submitted a memorial to him after defeating the Baishui Man and suppressing their rebellion.
Zhao Xiaozu said in his memorial that he had quelled the rebellion of the Baishui Man and killed the leaders of the Baishui Man, Tuo Mo Pu and Jian Mi Yu.
He also said that during the Zhenguan years, he conquered the Wu Man in Kunzhou and began to open up Qinglong and Nongdong as prefectures and counties. To the west of Nongdong are the Xiaobonong and Dabonong rivers, which have been inciting and luring Nongdong to rebel against the court. To the west of Bonong
borders the Huanggua, Yeyu, and Xi'er rivers, and the people are richer than those in the Shuchuan area. Because there is no big leader, it is easy to make enemies.
Zhao Xiaozu requested that now, taking advantage of the high morale of the troops who defeated Baishui, he should conquer them to the west and appease them.
Li Chengqian thought this was a great opportunity to take down Big and Small Bonong and pacify these barbarian lands.
Now it seemed that Zhao Xiaozu should have lived up to his expectations and should have pacified Big and Small Bonong, and turned that area into an autonomous region as he wished.
Li Chengqian did not speak, and the eunuchs still maintained their original posture, not daring to move at all.
Li Chengqian reached out and took the bamboo tube, saying, "You can leave!"
"Yes!" The eunuchs hurriedly bowed and left.
Li Chengqian opened the bamboo tube seal, poured out the secret report inside, opened it and read it.
Just as Li Chengqian expected, this secret report was the victory report that Zhao Xiaozu reported to the emperor.
Zhao Xiaozu lived up to the expectations of the emperor and led his troops to defeat the barbarians in the southwest. He killed the leader of Xiaobonong, Mo Sheng, and captured the leader of Dabonong, Yang Chengdian.
Other barbarian tribes that gathered troops to protect themselves, some with tens of thousands of soldiers and some with thousands of soldiers, were also defeated one by one by Zhao Xiaozu and made to surrender. The barbarians in the southwest were completely pacified.
"Are you all so happy? It's been a while since I've seen you all so happy! It seems that Zhao Xiaozu should have brought you good news." Wang Quan said with a smile.
"Zhao Xiaozu reported that he has quelled all the rebellions in Langzhou. The leaders of the southwestern barbarians, Luowuhoushan, Tumopu, the great ghost master Dugan, the great leader of Zhoujinshui, Jianmiyu, and the ghost master Dongpu, were all killed by him."
"Even the leader of Dabonong, Yang Chengdian, was captured alive by him. In order to shock the southwestern barbarians, Yang Chengdian was beheaded and displayed to the public." Li Chengqian said.
"Congratulations! Congratulations!" Wang Quan congratulated Li Chengqian.
Li Chengqian ignored Wang Quan and thought about the problem in Yunnan. There were six Zhao in Yunnan, and they were all tribes that surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
Yunnan borders on Tubo. Except for Mengshe Zhao, one of the Six Zhaos, which has always been attached to the Tang Dynasty, the other five Zhaos often abandoned the Tang Dynasty and attached themselves to Tubo because of the threat from Tubo.
Therefore, in the eyes of the Tang Dynasty, Mengshe Zhao was the best partner of the Tang Dynasty.
Because of the relationship with Tubo, the southwestern border of the Tang Dynasty has actually been unstable. The other five Zhaos would invade the territory of the Tang Dynasty at the instruction of Tubo.
This made the Tang Dynasty very annoyed, and it often sent troops to encircle and suppress them. Seeing that the situation was not right, the Five Zhaos immediately surrendered and reattached to the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was surrounded
by too many enemies, and it really did not have too much energy to deal with the five fickle Five Zhaos, so it agreed to reattach to the Tang Dynasty.
Once the Tang Dynasty withdrew its troops, it would not be long before the Five Zhaos would betray the Tang Dynasty again under the threat of Tubo.
The Tang Dynasty was not tired of this kind of inconsistency, but it did not have much energy to deal with them. After all, there were Tibetan troops hiding among them, and it was impossible to destroy them all at once.
So the Tang Dynasty thought of its own Mengshe Zhao, which was later called Nanzhao, hoping to use it to destroy the Five Zhaos and contain the power of Tibet, so that the southwestern border of the Tang Dynasty could be peaceful.
Mengshezhao also wanted to use the power of the Tang Dynasty to destroy the Five Zhaos and unify the entire Yunnan area. The two sides hit it off immediately, so the Tang Dynasty strongly supported Mengshezhao, greatly increasing its strength, and finally destroyed the Five Zhaos.
In the end, Nanzhao became the biggest hidden danger on the southwestern border of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Chengqian would never allow such a thing to happen. If he wanted to get rid of it once and for all, he had to completely destroy the Six Zhaos.
However, the Tang Dynasty did not have enough military and financial resources to support the destruction of the Six Zhaos.