Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 152 Li Er: I gave birth to a founding emperor?!

Li Shiji walked into the Lizheng Hall exhausted.

He originally planned to send a letter back first, but considering the seriousness of the matter and that his continued stay in Pingzhou would be a nuisance, he simply returned to Chang'an first.

Because it was related to the situation in Pingzhou, which His Majesty was most concerned about, he did not dare to delay and rushed back, even faster than the messenger.

Under the guidance of the eunuch, he didn't even have time to drink water and rushed into His Majesty's imperial study.

He was the only person in Chang'an who knew about the great victory in Liaodong, and he couldn't wait to report this great news to His Majesty.

As soon as he stepped into the study, Li Shiji saw Yang sitting quietly beside the emperor with a pale face.

He subconsciously lowered his head, ignored the inappropriate look, and took a step back.

He also felt that it would be too rude to leave quietly after being summoned by the emperor, so he didn't know whether to go forward or backward, and just stood there awkwardly with his head down.

"It's okay, let her listen too." Li Shimin ordered majestically and calmly.

When Empress Changsun was alive, she was also in this position, accompanying His Majesty to receive ministers...

Li Shiji gathered his scattered thoughts and was about to speak.

His Majesty spoke first:

"The Weizhou troops you lead this time are only the vanguard in the battle against Goguryeo.

"Don't I know military affairs? With this little force, it is beyond your ability to carry out a long-distance attack and defeat the 150,000 bandits of Goguryeo.

"So this defeat is not your responsibility.

"When the troops from the four places and the civilians from the two prefectures have gathered, we will march together to sweep across Goguryeo, and you will still be in charge."

Oh, Your Majesty, how did we end up in defeat... Li Shiji, who had been cautious all his life, had the urge to interrupt the emperor for the first time.

But everyone knows that interrupting the emperor is a serious misconduct in front of the emperor, regardless of whether other concubines are present or not.

So, Li Shiji could only lower his head and listen to Li Shimin's endless chatter, his toes instinctively scratching on the floor.

"I sent you there for another purpose. I also gave you specific instructions before I sent you out."

Li Shimin suddenly changed the subject and his tone became extremely serious.

Yang immediately looked at Li Shiji with a burning gaze, and her pale face regained some color.

There is a huge disparity in strength, and there is nothing we can do about losing the battle.

As long as Li Ming and the others can return safely...

Li Shimin stared at Li Shiji and said word by word:

"Did you bring the person back?"

"Your Majesty..." Li Shiji finally got the chance to speak and was about to explain the situation.

"No need to say more, are you back or not?"

Li Shimin spoke with a domineering tone, his hair and beard standing tall, like a majestic lion.

Whenever ministers talk about other things, whenever they avoid questions, it means...

Li Shiji could only tell the truth:
"I didn't come back because..."

Yang's face turned pale instantly, as if her backbone had been drained out. She sat limply on the ground, barely supporting herself with her hands.

Li Shimin's eyes were bloodshot. He grabbed Li Shiji's shoulders and roared like an angry lion:
"Then where are they???"

Hiding deep in Yanshan Mountain? Being taken abducted to Pyongyang? Or has it already...

"Probably in Yingzhou." Li Shiji said objectively.

"Ying...Yingzhou?"

Li Shimin trembled slightly, his eyes flashed with confusion, and countless thoughts ran through his mind.

After a brief pause, he let go of Li Shiji's shoulder as if nothing had happened and commented calmly:
"Oh, they broke through and joined Zhang Jian? Not bad."

The glimmer of hope rekindled in Yang's eyes, and she sat up straight at once.

"Well, not entirely..." Li Shiji carefully selected his words:
"It's His Highness Li Ming..."

Li Shimin interrupted him and sneered without a smile:
"Why, are they going to Yingzhou in such a swaggering manner, taking the main road?
"Did the Goguryeo people withdraw their troops?"

Are you kidding? The Weizhou troops led by Li Shiji were not only small in number, but also exhausted from a long-distance raid, having abandoned their armor and baggage.

With such weak strength, he was able to break through Yanshan and capture Pingzhou. He was considered a famous general.

Still want to defeat 150,000 enemy troops?
I wouldn't even dream of doing this!
"His Majesty……"

Seeing that the explanation was getting worse, Li Shiji couldn't hold it in any longer. He took this opportunity to quickly tell the key points:

"As Your Majesty said, Goguryeo did retreat.

"But the credit is not mine, but that of His Majesty Li Ming!

"It was His Highness Li Ming who defeated the enemy's 150,000-man army with only the power of Pingzhou!"

After these words were spoken, the study fell into a brief silence.

Li Shimin's expression was blank and he looked back subconsciously.

Yang sat upright in her seat, like a sculpture, with a blank expression.

The parents suddenly realized that they seemed to know nothing about their own son and listened to Li Shiji's report in a daze.

"His Highness Li Ming has great strategies for governing the people and the army, and with the assistance of Hou Junji, Xue Wanche, and Wei Daijia..."

"Wait a minute." Li Shimin came back to his senses and interrupted him:
"The Goguryeo king's army is a regular army, not a peasant army like Dou Jiande, who was dispersed by Xue Wanche and his 200 men."

Even if the household registration is re-confirmed, the total population of Pingzhou is just over 100,000.

Even if you exchange civilians for soldiers on a one-to-one basis, there will still be a shortfall of tens of thousands!
Is Li Ming really a living Bodhisattva or a deity who can blow the enemy back to the east of Liaoshui River with just a breath?
In other words, the report was given by Li Shiji, who was the most reliable, and Old Li was willing to listen.

If it were any other general, he would have kicked that boastful guy back to the front line long ago.

"Your Majesty, the King of Goguryeo is dead."

Li Shiji said:

"He was instigated by spies sent by His Highness Li Ming to rebel and was stabbed to death."

Li Shimin didn't say anything else, but just stared at Li Shiji.

Li Shiji immediately knelt on one knee:
"Everything is true. If it is false, I will die without hesitation.

"The battle report from the Pingzhou front was immediately sent to Chang'an, which can confirm what I said."

Then he took out a letter from his pocket:

"This is a handwritten letter from His Highness Li Ming. I will present it to you."

This flamboyant handwriting is obviously his own.

Huh... Yang finally relaxed completely.

Li Shimin closed his eyes slightly, took a deep breath, and said calmly:
"Get up."

ended?
Is the Liaodong Rebellion really over?
Even without the court taking any action, Li Ming managed to settle everything?
He felt unreal.

But in front of his subjects, Li Shimin suppressed all the questions and exclamation marks in his mind, and made the next arrangements very coldly:
"The deployment of troops and food supplies in the four places and two prefectures remains unchanged, and the Liaodong marching route will remain in place and will remain under your command.

"Take advantage of the internal chaos of Goguryeo and destroy it in one fell swoop."

Li Shiji hesitated a bit, but still presented the peace treaty with Goguryeo:

"His Highness Li Ming on the front line seems to have different ideas.

"These are the preliminary terms of the truce reached between Your Highness and the Regent of Goguryeo. Your Majesty, please make the final decision."

Hey, does this brat really think he is the master? He even dares to make peace with the enemy without asking for permission?
Li Shimin wanted to be angry and laugh at the same time.

This behavior can only be described as quite "Li Ming".

"You step back and I will make the decision." Li Shimin ordered calmly.

Li Shiji immediately bowed and retreated.

Li Shimin turned to Yang again:

"You should go back and rest first. I have some things to do. You have been the most restless in the past few months."

Yang knew what her husband was thinking. She didn't ask any questions and left with a smile, her steps as light as a butterfly.

Li Shimin listened to the footsteps gradually fading away, and after confirming that there was no one around, he could no longer hold back his inner excitement and raised his arms and shouted.

good very good!

He is capable of both civil and military affairs.

He can defeat the enemy on the front battlefield, but he can also use conspiracy and trickery to cut off the enemy's source of support.

Moreover, he managed to reverse the situation with his own strength, despite the doubts from all the civil and military officials in the court!

This child has the style of his father...

No, he is not only similar to his father, he is even better than his father!
"If I were in this situation... I might not be able to break through as quickly as he did."

Li Shimin asked himself that the starting point of his entrepreneurship was actually higher than Li Ming's in Liaodong.

Their Li family was originally relatives of the Sui Dynasty royal family. Their father, Li Yuan, was the cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui. Li Shimin's first appearance was to protect Emperor Yang of Sui.

If Li Shimin were allowed to become a bandit and associate with mountain bandits and farmers...

Put yourself in his shoes. Even if you put yourself in his shoes, it is impossible for him to win the hearts of the people, build an iron army from scratch, and compete with 150,000 regular troops in just a few months.

"Gathering people's hearts, a grassroots start-up, unwilling to be inferior to others, hiss..."

Li Shimin suddenly had a strange feeling.

Why does it feel like this youngest son born to him and Yang has a lot of the style of his great-grandfather?

Not Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan.

It was the Emperor Taizu Gao of the Han Dynasty...

Wow, the Tang Dynasty has only been passed down to the second generation, and it’s great that there is another founding emperor.

Li Shimin shook his head, dismissed this dangerous idea, and his eyes fell on the peace treaty with Goguryeo on the desk.

"This kid dared to act on his own and negotiate peace with the enemy chieftain privately. He really has no respect for the king.

"Well, well, considering the distance between Liaodong and Pingzhou, and the ever-changing battlefield, the commander-in-chief can make decisions on the spot."

Li Shimin subconsciously defended Li Ming's presumptuous behavior in his heart and opened the text of the peace treaty.

The entire agreement is very lengthy and full of confusing nonsense, making it very difficult to read.

After reading it once, Li Shimin's mind was full of question marks.

If he understood correctly...

Li Ming neither asked Goguryeo to cede territory nor to pay tribute? Wasn't the war fought in vain?
We clearly won the battle, but we didn’t get a penny?

So magnanimous, is this still Li Ming?
If it weren't for the signature and seal at the end, Li Shimin would have suspected that this was a forged document by Goguryeo spies.

"No, given this kid's character, it's impossible for him not to take revenge on Goguryeo, and it's even more impossible for him not to take advantage of any opportunity..."

Li Shimin carefully studied this long and complicated text.

Finally, at the end of the text, the negotiating parties reached the point where they were almost exhausted.

Li Shimin discovered the three hidden mines buried by Li Ming from between the lines of the tiny calligraphy.

It is written in difficult Chinese characters:

"Free trade, freedom of the press, environmental protection..."

What does it mean and what is the purpose?

Due to the limitations of the times, Li Shimin could not fully understand these three tight shackles that are now placed on the heads of many developing countries.

But he was certain.

Li Ming had no good intentions in cramming these three clauses into this most easily overlooked corner without thinking anything.

What on earth is this little guy planning...

Li Shimin thought for a long time but got nothing. He stopped worrying about it for the time being and picked up the handwritten letter written to him by Li Ming.

This was the second letter Li Ming had written to his parents in half a year, following the letter for help sent by Chang Sun Yan.

This is what my son does when he’s on a business trip. It’s like he’s missing and he hardly ever contacts his family.

Li Shimin opened the letter, sat down at the desk, and read it word by word.

The sun sets in the west and the lights come on.

Under the oil lamp, Li Shimin read his son's letter over and over again.

Apart from the greetings at the beginning, the introduction to the current situation and the course of the war, Li Ming focused his writing on the previous chaos in Liaodong -

The grassroots were left to their own devices, indigenous warlords emerged, government offices became mere decorations, and the people suffered greatly.

The root cause of all this is just one word:

Far.

It can take at least a month to deliver a message, and half a year is not uncommon.

As a result, the imperial court's rule over the area was in name only, and apart from the name of the Tang Dynasty, it was almost the same as a foreign country.

"That's true..." Li Shimin was deeply touched by this.

The "chaos" in Liaodong, or rather, the "chaos" caused by the Liaodong incident in Chang'an, was fundamentally due to a series of misunderstandings caused by poor communications.

This is why loyal ministers are mistaken for thieves and great victories are mistaken for great defeats.

Therefore, the last paragraph of Li Shimin's letter to Li Ming resonated strongly:
"If I brazenly use military force in the northeastern border, even if I sweep across Goguryeo, what benefit will I gain?"

Goguryeo is farther away than Liaodong, covered with dense forests and swamps, and transportation is more inconvenient.

Even Liaodong was difficult to control, and in essence it became an area ruled by local clans, tantamount to a foreign country.

Wouldn't Goguryeo, which was more remote, colder and had a more complex ethnic group, be even more difficult to rule?
Governing the local area requires enormous energy, and it requires stationing troops and maintaining stability.

Not to mention the staggering cost of breaking through Goguryeo's mountain fortress defenses.

The costs are so high, yet the benefits are limited.

They can neither control the local natives nor utilize local resources.

There aren't many fields to farm in that damn place.

"Indeed, I didn't think enough.

"Don't raise an army out of anger. It's not worthwhile to attack Goguryeo..."

Li Shimin was shaken.

He was almost fooled by Li Ming and decided to give up his plan to wipe out Goguryeo.

If Li Ming was present at the scene, he would have had a sly smile on his face.

However, your father is still your father.

Li Shimin was more cautious.

After he finished reading Li Ming's letter for the last time, he relaxed a little and then picked up the letter paper again.

This time, it is read backwards.

Li Ming's letter was filled with a lot of well-reasoned arguments, so it was very difficult to read.

When Li Shimin read to the end, his brain was already tired and he didn't want to think any more.

So it would be easy to accept the private words he smuggled in at the end.

But when Li Shimin took a break and cleared his mind, he re-read the arguments that Li Ming had cunningly hidden in the following paragraphs.

He immediately discovered Li Ming's true intention:

"That guy wrote a lot of things, just to persuade me not to attack Goguryeo.

"why?"

There is no doubt that Goguryeo must be the biggest threat to Liaodong.

Regardless of whether the imperial court can actually control the local area, wherever the heavenly soldiers sweep through, there will be no problem in ensuring peace for several years.

Why did that guy stop it?

Li Shimin continued to dig deeper along this clue and found another question that puzzled him even more:

"After the Jiucheng Palace is completed, I will make him a king.

"Why does he want to go to that damn place called Liaodong instead of anywhere else?"

He didn't want the prosperous, flat, and conveniently located Yangzhou and Xuzhou.

Why did I choose to go to the complex and barren Liaodong?

After being put in danger and getting into trouble for nothing, Li Ming did not learn his lesson and continued to seek death, stopping the imperial court from attacking Goguryeo.

Why is that?
"Liaodong, Goguryeo..."

Li Shimin was puzzled and paced back and forth in the study.

When he looked up in surprise, he subconsciously came to the map again.

"Geopolitics, geopolitics, is the fundamental starting point of all strategies..."

Li Shimin held an oil lamp and studied the north of Yanshan Mountain inch by inch.

With the desert to the west and the sea to the east, Yanshan Mountain is like a gateway, blocking the path for large-scale outward expansion of China's hinterland.

Liaodong is like a small crack in a door, not big, but a link leading to the vast land of Northeast China.

Nowadays, this joint has been assigned to the so-called "Liaodong Military Town" and is under the jurisdiction of Liaodong Jiedushi Li Ming.

However, after facing the threat from Goguryeo, this governor actually refused the court's assistance and still wanted to keep Goguryeo.

What does it mean……

"No, he doesn't want to keep Goguryeo..."

Looking at the map, Li Shimin suddenly understood:
“He wants to stop the imperial court from getting involved there!

"What does he want to do?"

Li Shimin felt that he had almost grasped the key point. He put down Li Ming's letter and picked up the shelved peace agreement again.

After reading it again, he discovered the hidden meaning of these seemingly absurd clauses.

“Does he not want to cede land because he feels that the newly ceded land will not be given to him to manage?

"As for the tribute, it won't go into his pocket..."

"Does he regard Goguryeo as his own private property?!"

As for the three confusing conditions that Li Ming inserted into the treaty, Li Shimin didn't know what specific effect they would have.

But he could guess that this must be Li Ming's lifeline to conquer Goguryeo.

"Good fellow, what a good fellow..."

Li Shimin gradually understood everything.

“Liaodong is not the border of a country, but the starting point of a country?

"He wants to use that place as a springboard to annex Goguryeo and expand northward step by step?!"

What is there to develop in that wild land... Li Shimin subconsciously raised this question.

"No, I have been misled by wrong and delayed information...

"Pingzhou can hide hundreds of thousands of people, so that place may not be wild..."

It gave birth to Goguryeo, a country that could farm, build the Great Wall, and gather an army of 150,000.

This shows that the natural conditions in the Northeast are not bad.

Coupled with Li Ming's amazing management skills, the family may flourish in the future...

"He wants to rule the entire northeast region outside of the Tang Dynasty?

"Including Goguryeo, Khitan, Shiwei, and Mohe?!"

Then, keep heading north until you reach the icy and snowy area where no one can survive and become a nomad?
"Let's turn south and cross the Yanshan Mountains..."

Standing in front of the map, Li Shimin was shocked by his son's plan.

They occupied a corner of the territory, developed the wild areas, and were eyeing the Central Plains...

This strategic composition seems familiar.

There have been several similar incidents in history.

The first time was to develop Jingchu and challenge the powerful Chu State.

The first was the tyrannical Qin Dynasty that dominated the Western Rong and eventually conquered the six kingdoms.

"That kid, that kid..."

The corners of Li Shimin's mouth couldn't stop twitching.

Wow, I really gave birth to a founding father of a country?

Which country does that kid want to start?

(End of this chapter)