Chapter 756 Times have changed
Chapter 756 Times have changed
Li Jiancheng came to Luoyang again, and this time he was received by Prime Minister Liu Wenjing.
The day after Li Jiancheng arrived in Luoyang, Liu Wenjing was ordered to negotiate with him. It was called a negotiation because the Luoyang court did not think there was anything to negotiate between them.
How could we allow the Li family to control Guanzhong? It is simply a foolish dream. At most, we can give your family some benefits, and Guanzhong will return to the Sui Dynasty peacefully.
The two sides negotiated for nearly an hour, and basically each said his own thing. Li Jiancheng demanded that Guanzhong should have its own army and be independent for 50 years, while Liu Wenjing proposed that the Li family be given a position as an advisor and a position as a minister, and could be granted the title of a prince, which could be hereditary.
After the negotiation, Liu Wenjing hurried to meet the emperor and reported the negotiation progress to Xiao Xia.
"Your Majesty, the other party proposed to establish themselves in Guanzhong for fifty years and acknowledge themselves as ministers of the Sui Dynasty. We proposed to give the Li family the same treatment, including a position as an advisor and a position as a minister, and to confer the title of Prince of a county on Li Yuan, allowing him to inherit the throne and granting him a fief of 3,000 households. However, the other party was not interested. Today's negotiations were basically about each party expressing their own views. We did not respond to the conditions proposed by the other party. We ignored their proposal for independence, and they ignored the treatment we proposed."
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "To put it bluntly, they want the substance and give us face."
"Yes! That's what they mean. They want us to satisfy their vanity of a unified dynasty, while they want actual benefits and control of Guanzhong."
Xiao Xia shook his head. "Since they don't accept our goodwill, there's nothing to talk about. Also, did they mention the matter of Yan'an County?"
"Of course they did. They accused us of taking advantage of the situation. They were fully focused on dealing with the Turkic invasion from the south, but we stabbed them in the back and demanded that we immediately withdraw from Yan'an County and Diaoyin County."
Xiao Xia laughed, "You can reply to him like this. We are not stabbing him in the back, but protecting the land of the Central Plains Dynasty from being occupied by the Turkic forces. We are sharing the pressure for them, and we are fighting against the Turkic forces together."
"If that's the case, they will demand that our troops withdraw from Guannai Road after the war."
"Of course the army can withdraw. As long as we destroy Liang Shidu and Li Gui, our army will withdraw, but will the Guannei Road still belong to them then?"
Liu Wenjing also laughed, "I understand. If we can't destroy them, there's no need to retreat."
Xiao Xia waved her hands. "You still don't understand what I mean. Morality is always a double-edged sword. They use morality to attack us, so we will fight back with morality. This kind of moral suppression is only effective at the beginning. Once the rice is cooked, who will pay attention to your talk of morality? It's like a young woman complaining that her father married her to a man 20 years older than her for the dowry. At first, everyone sympathized with her, but when she gave birth to three children, she still complained. Who will sympathize with her at this time? This is called the passage of time.
By the same token, after the passage of time, it is meaningless to talk about withdrawing from the Guannei Road. "
Liu Wenjing said happily: "I understand. If we occupy the Guannei Road on the pretext of resisting the southern invasion of the Turkic forces, and then we defeat the Turkic forces, wipe out Liang Shidu, and recover Hetao and Hexi, then morality will be on our side."
Xiao Xia nodded, "We must attach importance to morality and legal principles, but we cannot be constrained by them. Morality and legal principles are just excuses for us to send troops. In the end, strength is king in this world!"
Liu Wenjing nodded silently, and then asked, "How does your majesty plan to recover Guanzhong?"
Xiao Xia walked to the window with his hands behind his back and said calmly, "I was still worrying about this matter before, but I heard a piece of news recently, and I knew that Li Yuan's situation was over." Liu Wenjing did not speak, and continued to listen to the emperor's explanation. Xiao Xia smiled and said, "Li Yuan made a major strategic mistake. He confiscated 10,000 hectares of land from the Yuan family."
"Your Majesty, are you saying that he has completely offended the Guanlong nobles?"
Xiao Xia shook his head. "The Wuchuan Society has been disbanded. The Guanlong nobles have become history and no longer exist. He was not wrong to confiscate the Yuan family's land. The strategic mistake he made was how to deal with these lands. He actually auctioned off 10,000 hectares of land. If it were me, I would confiscate all the land of the Guanlong nobles, auction half of it, and use the other half as military pay to distribute to the soldiers at one time, 50 acres per person. In this way, he can get at least 50,000 most loyal soldiers. These soldiers fight for the land, or for the future. With military pay, the soldiers will only fight for the present and for money. If I give them one more string of money per month than Li Yuan, these soldiers will come to me. This is the difference between land and money. As for Guanzhong..."
Xiao Xia kept it a secret and smiled slightly, "Wait until we take over the surrounding areas and surround them in Guanzhong. Tongguan will be ours, and Wuguan, Dasanguan, and Xiaoguan will all be in our hands. Gradually, the counties will also begin to pledge allegiance to us. Finally, we will compress them into the city of Chang'an. At this time, is there any point for them to fight back like trapped beasts?"
Li Jiancheng's team stayed in Luoyang for only three days. They realized that there was no need to continue the talks, so they had to leave Luoyang in disappointment and return to Chang'an.
Xiao Xia immediately summoned Yang You. Historically, Wang Shichong killed Yang You three days after he abdicated, while Li Yuan was a little more patient. He waited for a year after Yang You abdicated and everyone had forgotten about him before he killed him. This is the difference between Li Yuan and Wang Shichong, one is fifty steps and the other is a hundred steps.
When Yang You saw his uncle, he immediately knelt down and burst into tears. Xiao Xia hurriedly helped up the fourteen-year-old nephew, and her nose also felt sore.
"Child, don't cry. Now that you are home, no one will dare to bully you anymore. Let's go meet your father and brother."
Xiao Xia brought Yang You to Anfu Palace where Empress Dowager Xiao lived. When Empress Dowager Xiao saw her grandson, she was so happy that she burst into tears. The three brothers hugged each other and cried bitterly.
Xiao Xia sat next to her brother Yang Zhao, holding his hand and said with a smile: "I brought all of your children back!"
Yang Zhao stared blankly at his three sons, then walked over unsteadily, touching one son's head, then that son's, mumbling something. The three sons hugged their father and cried together.
Xiao Xia sighed softly, turned around and left Anfu Palace.
The next day, Xiao Xia issued an edict to confer the title of King of Chen on Yang You, and ordered him to learn calligraphy from Xue Ji, the secretary of the Central Secretariat. The three brothers focused on studying calligraphy and literature and devoted themselves to learning. King of Yan Yang Dan became the disciple of Yu Shinan, the chief academic officer of the Imperial College, and King of Yue Yang Tong became the disciple of Ouyang Xun, a scholar of the Hongwenguan.
This is the best way to protect the three brothers, keep them away from politics, achieve something in literature and art, and let them have a good end.
Later, Yang Dan took over his master's position and served as the chief academic officer of the Imperial College. In his later years, he founded Songshan Academy, which became the largest academy in the world.
When Yang Tong came of age, he was appointed Shaoqing of the Zongzheng Temple. At the age of 40, he was appointed Qing of the Honglu Temple. He represented the emperor on diplomatic missions to the Frankish Kingdom and the Visigothic Kingdom, which were later France and Spain.
As for Chen Wang Yang You, he was in poor health and taught in the Hongwenguan all his life. Later he became the chief academician of the Hongwenguan. In his later years, he created his own Yang style of calligraphy and became a great calligrapher of his generation.
(End of this chapter)