Zhangchou Jianqiong was really curious. He wanted to know what kind of brilliant plan Ang Lee had to make Pi Luo Ge not dare to touch the Tang dynasty's Cuandi …
Ang Lee showed confidence and said seriously, "First, the Tang dynasty must firmly control the power of pacifying the rebellion. We must not give the power to pacify Cuandi to the King of Yunnan. Second, no matter how great the pressure is or how fierce the resistance is, the Tang dynasty must eventually station troops in Cuandi to firmly control the place. Thus, the King of Yunnan can only give up Cuandi."
Hearing this, Zhangchou Jianqiong cast a surprised look at Ang Lee. Ang Lee's plan was aimed at Pi Luo Ge's Achilles' heel. As long as the Tang dynasty controlled the power of pacifying the rebellion and finally stationed troops in Cuandi, Pi Luo Ge would not be able to do anything unless he directly led the army to attack the Tang Army. But in this way, Nanzhao and the Tang dynasty would completely turn against each other, and Pi Luo Ge would not be able to bear the consequences.
In other words, Pi Luo Ge had been carefully fighting a battle of wits and courage with the Tang dynasty for his own benefit. He wanted to seek as many benefits for himself as possible without infringing on the core benefits of the Tang dynasty and within the acceptable range of the Tang dynasty's imperial court. This was a typical ingrate, an ingrate that could never be fed. If the Tang dynasty continued to connive, Pi Luo Ge's demands would become more and more, and eventually he would occupy all of the southern Jibu province of the Tang dynasty. This would cause serious damage to the Tang dynasty.
"Li Xiaowei's knowledge and courage are far stronger than ordinary people. It is the fortune of the Tang dynasty to have such a talent like Li Xiaowei. Fine, even if I lose my official position, I will write a letter to His Majesty, detailing the King of Yunnan's ambition. His Majesty must not give the power to pacify Cuandi to the King of Yunnan."
Zhangchou Jianqiong's tone was heavy, and his brows were deeply furrowed, showing a posture of worrying about the country and the people.
This was the result that Ang Lee wanted. After a short pause, he cupped his fists and said, "Marshal Zhangchou Jie, if I can get the opportunity to level the land, I will definitely do my best to serve the Tang dynasty."
Zhangchou Jianqiong naturally understood what Ang Lee was implying. He nodded with a smile and said, "Alright, this official will write to His Majesty to plead on Officer Li's behalf."
"Thank you for your help, Commander Zhangchou."
"Commandant Li, you'll be leaving Yi Province tomorrow. You'll be staying at my place tonight. I still have many questions to discuss with you."
Zhangchou Jianqiong and Ang Lee felt like old friends at first sight and sincerely invited Ang Lee to stay.
"Then this humble servant will accept your offer."
After returning to the relay station and making arrangements for his subordinates, Ang Lee once more went to Zhangchou Jianqiong's residence to discuss the current state of the world with Zhangchou Jianqiong.
Conversing with someone who had his own thoughts was a very pleasant thing. That night, Ang Lee and Zhangchou Jianqiong talked about everything and expressed their ambitions to their hearts' content. Only in the middle of the night did they return to their rooms to sleep.
The next morning, Li An remained in Zhangchou Jianqiong's residence and continued to discuss the situation in Nanzhao and Cuandi with Zhangchou Jianqiong. Only at noon did Li An leave.
After lunch, Xi Yu and the rest of the troops arrived at Yi Province and met up with Ang Lee's vanguard. They rested for a while and waited for Ang Lee's orders to set off.
"Big Brother, Assistant Minister Xi and the others have already arrived. When will the troops set off?"
Ang Lee thought for a moment and then looked at Li Kunxiong. "Kunxiong, immediately notify the Nanzhao diplomatic group and have them prepare to set off. In an hour, everyone will set off."
"Yes, Big Brother."
"Big Brother, the five assassins who escaped yesterday still haven't been caught. I'm afraid they won't rest for the rest of the journey."
Li Feiyu was slightly worried.
Ang Lee nodded. "Have you found out the identities of the three assassins we killed yesterday?"
"I can't find out their identities, but I'm sure they're from Lang Qiong Zhao."
Ang Lee sighed. "Last time it was Deng Qiong Zhao, this time it's Lang Qiong Zhao. I'm afraid the remaining forces of the other three Zhao Lords won't rest either. We won't be lonely on the journey. Tell the soldiers to be alert and be on high alert."
"Yes, Big Brother."
An hour later, the Nanzhao diplomatic group and the Tang dynasty diplomatic group, totaling more than a thousand people, left Yizhou City under the leadership of Ang Lee. They set off in the direction of Chang 'an, which was thousands of miles away.
Because Pi Luoge burned down Songming Tower and caused the death of the Five Imperial Lords, the remaining members of the Five Imperial Lords hated Pi Luoge to the core. As Pi Luoge's son, Yu Chengjie naturally became their target of assassination. Thus, this journey was destined to be chaotic.
On the way back to the East Maiden Kingdom, Li An and the troops under his command had already gained a wealth of experience in anti-assassination. Therefore, the task of guarding this time would definitely be slightly easier.
Yu Chengjie was not an easy person to deal with. However, the real purpose of his trip was to seek the support of the Tang Empire for his succession. Ang Lee had expressed his full support for his succession. For this reason, Yu Chengjie was always very polite to Ang Lee and was willing to listen to all of Ang Lee's arrangements. This saved Ang Lee a lot of trouble.
As Ang Lee had expected, along the way, he encountered many assassins who intended to assassinate him. However, under the strict protection of Ang Lee, these assassins either gave up voluntarily or were thwarted by Ang Lee. In short, Yu Chengjie was scared but not hurt. Not even a strand of his hair was touched by the assassins.
Of course, Ang Lee knew very well that these so-called assassins all came to assassinate Yu Chengjie because their lord was burned to death by Pi Luo Ge. They were angry and took the risk to assassinate Yu Chengjie. Their actions also showed their loyalty to their lord who died tragically, which made Ang Lee admire them.
Therefore, Ang Lee did not kill these assassins. After capturing them, he quietly released them and warned these assassins not to overestimate themselves. As long as Ang Lee was there, the assassins' assassination plan would never succeed.
Perhaps they were persuaded by Ang Lee, or perhaps Ang Lee's protection was so tight that the assassins had no way to attack. Along the way, there were fewer and fewer assassins. After arriving at Chen Cang Road, they did not encounter any more assassins. Everyone was relieved, and Ang Lee also relaxed a lot.
"You're fine. You let assassins go casually along the way. Aren't you afraid that someone will kill you?"
Li Feishouyu looked at Ang Lee and ridiculed him.
Ang Lee's expression was relaxed. "The assassins we captured are all insignificant people. It's not a big deal to let them go. Even if His Majesty knows, I'm not afraid."
Li Feishouyu smiled gently. "You think that we have done a great service by eliminating the 20,000 soldiers of Tufan, so His Majesty will not punish you for such a small matter."
"That's right. His Majesty is the ruler of a country, the master of the world. He is more concerned about the overall situation. As long as we complete the overall task given by His Majesty, His Majesty will not care too much about these small matters. As an official, if we don't even have this little bit of autonomy, how can we be successful?"
Ang Lee jumped onto a tall boulder and looked down at the beautiful rivers and mountains in the distance.
Li Feishouyu also jumped up and stood beside Ang Lee. "To be honest, I feel that you deliberately let the assassins go for another purpose."
"Oh, what purpose?"
"Although I'm not very sure, I feel that you have a deep prejudice against Nanzhao. You support and sympathize with the rebels of Nanzhao."
"Feishouyu, do you think this is not good?"
"It's fine. Nanzhao is an ally of the Tang dynasty. It has always supported the Tang dynasty. If Nanzhao is divided again, there won't be a strong force to restrain Tufan in the south. Wouldn't this be a great loss for the Tang dynasty?"
What Li Feishouyu considered was not the threat that Nanzhao would pose to the Tang Empire after it became strong, but if Nanzhao was divided again, it would be a scene of scattered sand. In this way, they would not be able to effectively restrain the Tufan Empire in the south. In fact, these divided small countries would be forced to join the Tufan Empire in order to protect themselves.
Ang Lee naturally took this into consideration. For this reason, he did not intend to let Nanzhao be divided into six small countries again. Letting these assassins go was just to add some trouble to Pilote. It would make Pilote have to spend more energy to deal with domestic affairs, thus weakening his ambition to expand. Moreover, these assassins were not capable of threatening Pilote's foundation at all. Except for the powerful Tang Empire, no other force could disintegrate the Nanzhao Kingdom that Pilote worked so hard to unify.
The Tang Empire needed their little brother in Nanzhao, but at the same time, they should also guard against this little brother being disobedient. For example, in the future, the United States not only needed Nihon to share the strategic pressure, but also strictly limited the strength of Nihon to prevent them from biting back. It was a very smart strategy. In the future, the Hua Xia Empire always tried its best to help its little brother. In the end, after the little brother unified the north and south, it turned against the Hua Xia Empire that helped them, causing Hua Xia to suffer a great loss.
Ang Lee felt that the Tang Empire should not repeat the mistakes of the Hua Xia Empire. One should be kind, but one should not be too kind. If one were to help others too much, others would think that it was a matter of course. Not only would they not be grateful, but they would also treat those who helped them as enemies if their further requirements were not met.
The Tang Empire helped Nanzhao to unify the Six Zhao, which was already a great favor to Piluoge. Piluoge should be loyal to the Tang Empire for this reason and should not put forward higher requirements. If the Tang Empire met their higher requirements, it would inevitably lead to the effect of feeding the enemy with rice. How to deal with the relationship with Nanzhao and limit the strength of Nanzhao to the range that was most beneficial to the Tang Empire was a great test of the wisdom of the officials of the Tang Empire.
"Shouyu, you worry too much. Pi Luoge is a man of great talent and strategy. How could he cause a split in the country just because I let a few assassins go? Besides, I don't intend to cause a split in Nanzhao. I just don't want Nanzhao to continue growing stronger. Also, I sympathize with these loyal people. They came to assassinate Yu Chengjie to avenge their lord. They can be considered loyal and brave men."
"So that's what you think. I misunderstood you. But Chang 'an is not far away. Let's think about how His Majesty will reward us."
"Promotion and a lot of rewards. These can't run away."
"I hope so."
"It's getting late. Gather the troops and get ready to set off."
Without the interference of the assassins along the way, the speed of the troops was obviously much faster. The daily distance traveled was at least 30% faster than before. Chang 'an was getting closer and closer.
####
In the Zichen Hall of the Daming Palace, the Emperor of the Tang Empire, Li Longji, was reading the latest news about the rebellion in Cuandi. His brows furrowed deeply from time to time. Although the power of the Cuandi tyrants was very limited, Cuandi was mainly mountainous. It was very difficult for the army to conquer it. The rebellion of these tyrants brought great trouble to the imperial court of the Tang Empire.
At present, the situation in the northeast was unstable. The Later Turks were also extremely chaotic. Tubo was always a huge threat. There were also frequent wars in Anxi. The imperial court of the Tang Empire needed to spend a lot of money. If they sent another military force large enough to deter the tyrants in Cuandi, they would have to spend a lot of money. This made Li Longji very distressed.
"I have not treated King Cuandi, Cuan Chongdao, and the others unfairly. I have promoted them, but they joined forces and openly rebelled against me. First, they killed Zhu Lingqian, the City Builder I sent. Now, they have broken into the county and killed the county officials of the Tang Empire. This is really outrageous."
Li Longji abruptly threw the memorial in his hand to the ground and exhaled heavily through his nose.
Gao Lishi, who was waiting on the side, saw that Li Longji was angry and obediently stood in place. He did not give any advice or comfort. After all, the rebellion in Cuandi was a political matter, and eunuchs could not act as regents. Gao Lishi understood that he could not cross this red line.
"Great General, where is Li Xiaowei and the Nanzhao diplomatic mission?"
"Everyone, they have already arrived in Qizhou's Wang County. They will arrive in the capital in a few days."
"Mm, that's good."
Li Longji nodded and sighed in relief.
"Everyone, the Right Prime Minister requests an audience outside the palace."
Li Longji raised his head slightly. "Let him in."
"This subject, Li Linfu, pays respects to Your Majesty."
"The Right Prime Minister has come at the right time. Have you read this memorial?"
Li Longji glanced at the table in front of him. Gao Lishi understood and hurriedly picked up the memorial on the table and handed it to Li Linfu, who was a few steps away.
Li Linfu glanced at it and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, I have read it."
"Oh, what does the Right Prime Minister think?"
"Your Majesty, King Cuandi and the others openly rebelled against the Tang Dynasty. They first killed Zhu Lingqian and then broke into the Tang Dynasty's city. Their crimes are unforgivable and must be severely punished to restore the prestige of the Tang Dynasty."
Li Linfu expressed his opinion righteously.
Li Longji was quite satisfied when he heard this and nodded. "In your opinion, how should the Tang Dynasty quell the rebellion in Cuandi?"
"Attack from two sides. The Tang Dynasty's army will attack from the north, and Nanzhao will attack from the south. In this way, the Cuandi tyrants will definitely be defeated."
Li Linfu didn't know much about military affairs, so he casually gave his opinion.
Li Longji agreed when he heard this. He also thought so. As long as the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao attacked from the north and south, the Cuandi tyrants would have a hard time resisting. Moreover, with the help of Nanzhao, the Tang Dynasty could greatly reduce the pressure on the Tang Dynasty, and the military expenses would also be reduced. It could be said that it was killing two birds with one stone.
"Your Majesty, in a few days, the Nanzhao diplomatic mission will arrive in the capital. I feel that the King of Yunnan has sent the Second Prince, Yu Chengjie, at this juncture. It is very likely that it is for the matter of the Cuan Land."
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