After Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an secretly returned to the capital, he rested until mid-November before returning to the court to handle state affairs at the daily court meetings.
During this period, Chang Yuchun, the Duke of Wei, had already sent Yu Siqian, the emperor's newly appointed "top scholar," to the Western Regions to serve as a groom in the Tang army that was building the Great Wall outside the Great Wall, in accordance with the decree of Emperor Zhaowu.
The case involving tea and horse smuggling in four provinces and eight prefectures of the Tang Dynasty was also sent back to the Ministry of Justice for retrial in accordance with the emperor's decree. Those involved in the case but not directly involved, along with their entire families, were given lenient punishment or exempted from punishment, which demonstrated Emperor Zhaowu's benevolent governance and magnanimity.
When an imperial edict was issued ordering officials of the second rank or above from various regions to come to the capital to report on their duties, there were also special messengers who would travel along the official roads to deliver the edicts to their respective regions.
Everything in the court was progressing smoothly and according to plan.
Meanwhile, in Jinling City, the people who had worked hard all year began to prepare for the upcoming Lunar New Year, the first New Year under the rule of the Tang Dynasty.
At the same time.
Far away in the Western Regions, nearly 100,000 prisoners of war and wounded soldiers of the Arab Empire's eastern expedition, who had been pardoned by Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an, finally crossed the snow-capped mountains and valleys of the Pamir Plateau and set foot on their homeland, led by Bisuma, the captain of the guard of the expeditionary general Turhong.
In fact, news of the Abbasid Caliphate's 800,000-strong army's eastward expedition against the Tang Dynasty, which resulted in a crushing defeat in the Western Regions and the annihilation of all 800,000 troops, had already reached the Abbasid Caliphate a month earlier.
However, this knowledge was limited to the princes and nobles in the imperial court.
The news of the army's crushing defeat was met with unanimous silence from the Caliph Safah down to the civil and military officials in the court. No one intended to release this news, which would affect the morale of the army and the people.
The people of the Arab Empire, kept in the dark, naively believed that their eastern expeditionary army was invincible and marching unstoppably towards the wealthy Tang Dynasty in the east!
They also hoped that when the imperial soldiers who were on their eastern expedition returned victorious, they would bring them herds of cattle and sheep and countless treasures of gold and silver.
After all, in the Abbasid Caliphate's past expansions, the imperial army, from top to bottom, would always set aside a portion of the spoils of war to subsidize the people at home.
This is why the Abbasid Caliphate was so militaristic, and why it was so successful in its wars against neighboring countries, eventually building a vast empire that now spans Asia, Africa, and Europe.
The benefits of this external expansion and the war profits generated truly benefited everyone from royalty and nobility to ordinary people.
Even so, the spoils that these ordinary people could receive were nothing more than scraps that the princes and nobles didn't want.
Under the deliberate propaganda of Abbasid Caliphate officials, even ordinary young men of the Arab Empire began to dream in small groups of themselves of going to the vast Western Regions to herd livestock and to the rich Tang Dynasty in the East to seek their fortune.
Of course, all of this is predicated on the day when Turhun, the first warrior of the Abbasid Caliphate and the Imperial General of the Eastern Expedition, returns in triumph with the Imperial army on the eastern expedition.
Therefore, when Bisuma, the captain of the personal guard of the Eastern Expeditionary General Turhun, led his wounded soldiers, who had traveled a long distance and endured countless hardships, to the land of the Arab Empire.
Those Arab people who dreamed of gaining some benefits after the imperial army conquered the Western Regions and approached the Tang Dynasty felt as if the sky had fallen!
In particular, when they learned that the Abbasid Caliphate's first warrior, the Eastern Expeditionary General Turhun, the god of war in the hearts of countless Arab people, had actually died on the battlefield.
At that moment, the entire population of the Arab Empire fell silent.
Looking again, the once mighty army of 800,000 who had marched eastward has now returned with less than 10,000 wounded soldiers missing limbs. The entire Abbasid Caliphate has become even more silent.
They couldn't even muster the slightest thought to erupt in silence.
Even those once radical young people are no longer impulsive.
It wasn't just because the 800,000-strong imperial army had been defeated, but also because their idol, the Abbasid Caliphate's number one warrior, the Eastern Expeditionary General Turhong, who was regarded as a god of war, was defeated and killed on the battlefield in just three moves by the Tang Emperor Chen Huai'an's halberd.
Just as Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an had predicted, the impact of General Turhong's death on the battlefield in the Arab world was no less than the annihilation of the 800,000-strong eastern expeditionary army in the Western Regions.
When the coffin of General Turhun, who had returned from his "Eastern Expedition," arrived in the capital Baghdad, Caliph Safah personally went outside the city to help carry the coffin, which was considered to be the last courtesy given to the old general who had fought for the Abbasid Caliphate for many years. He also held a state funeral for him.
After the funeral of General Turhun, the Abbasid Caliphate held a court assembly following the leak of news of the army's disastrous defeat in the eastern expedition.
At the meeting, Tursun, the elder brother of General Turhong and the prime minister of the Abbasid Caliphate, gave a systematic summary speech on the disastrous defeat of the empire's eastern expedition.
Finally, he did not forget to convey to Caliph Safah and the Arab civil and military officials in the court what the Great Tang Emperor Chen Huai'an had instructed his personal guard captain, Bisuma, to say.
Tursun said, "Your Majesty, the Great Emperor Chen Huai'an of the Tang Dynasty once shouted outside the Uyghur Black Tiger City, 'Submit to the Tang Dynasty, and I will ensure your complete burial!'"
Wow!
These words shocked everyone present.
The civil and military officials in the court were whispering among themselves, wondering if the Great Tang Emperor Chen Huai'an was preparing to launch a westward expedition and invade the Abbasid Caliphate.
On the throne, Caliph Safah's expression was grim.
Tursun continued, "Your Majesty, I believe this should be a warning from the Great Emperor of Tang, causing the Abbasid Caliphate to abandon its plans for an eastern expedition."
"According to reports from the returning soldiers of the Eastern Expedition, the Great Tang Emperor Chen Huai'an has already begun constructing a Great Wall stretching hundreds of miles across the Pamir Plateau and the Tianshan Mountains."
"This move can be seen as a manifestation of the Tang Dynasty's intention to divide and rule the territory of my Abbasid Dynasty!"
After a pause, Tursun said with a solemn expression, "One point worth noting is that the 500,000 laborers who were forced to build the Great Wall outside the Great Tang Dynasty were all soldiers of my Abbasid Dynasty on its eastern expedition!"
hiss--
Upon hearing this news, the imperial court was once again in an uproar.
All the officials, military and civilian officials, and nobles of the Abbasid Caliphate couldn't help but gasp in shock.
They all thought to themselves that Emperor Chen Huai'an of the Tang Dynasty was simply killing them and destroying their spirit!
Since he had already won the war in the Western Regions, why did he bother to release the wounded soldiers back to their country, conscript the able-bodied soldiers into labor service, and carry out large-scale construction on the border between the two countries?
This move was clearly telling the subjects of the Abbasid Caliphate that their sons, husbands, and fathers were being forced into labor for the Tang Dynasty on the Pamir Plateau, and that they were building a Great Wall beyond the borders that would prevent their families from seeing and reuniting.
If you want your families to be reunited, you must petition the Caliph to have the Empire send another expeditionary force to the Pamir Plateau to rescue your families.
Otherwise, we can only watch helplessly from within the country as they toil day and night on the Great Wall beyond our borders, until they die far from home!
However, now that even the Abbasid Caliphate's greatest warrior, the Eastern Expeditionary General Turhun, has died on the battlefield, even if the empire wants to launch an eastern expedition to relieve the soldiers in labor service, which general would be willing to take the order to go on the expedition?
The army was attacked, but there was no general to command it.
If they don't fight, it will be difficult to quell public discontent within the country;
Could it be that, as the Great Emperor of Tang said—surrender to the Tang Dynasty and you will be spared a proper burial?
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