Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

In other words, the camera has not yet been invented in Taiyuan Prefecture.

Otherwise, at this moment, after the two sides exchange greetings at the meeting, they should sit down.

The sounds of camera shutters clicking and magnesium powder exposing will inevitably fill the air.

But even so.

The four newspapers now belonging to Taiyuan Prefecture and Chang'an respectively—the *Da Tang Xin Bao*, *Da Tang Ri Bao*, *Da Tang Shang Bao*, and *Da Tang Guan Bao*—are all under the direction of Li Chengqian.

Reporters were dispatched to the scene.

Along the second-floor corridors on both sides, a group of painters, well-known officials and merchants from Taiyuan Prefecture also gathered at today's meeting.

Even Li Xuanyun, who came from the eldest branch of the Guzang Li clan and served as the governor of Shanzhou and had seen many grand occasions, couldn't help but feel a little nervous in such a scene.

Not to mention, sitting opposite him at this moment was Murong Shun, the representative of Tuyuhun.

"Cough cough..."

Sun Yi, the eunuch who had just been "assigned" to Crown Prince Li Chengqian's side by Li Er half a month ago, coughed twice.

Standing in the middle of the negotiating table between the two sides.

"With all representatives from both sides present, the representative from the Tang Dynasty will now state the terms of the peace talks..."

Li Xuanyun, who had finally come to his senses after Wang Ming gently nudged his elbow, instantly straightened up.

He was initially a little nervous, but now that the matter was right in front of him...

But he instantly got into the zone.

With a "smack," he slammed his hand on the table.

Amidst the astonished gazes of Murong Shun and the angry stares of the surrounding Tuyuhun nobles, spittle flew from his mouth.

"Dafeichuan and Chishuiyuan have now been captured by our Great Tang and have been under our control for nearly two months. Currently, 15,000 Turkic wolf cavalry, 3,000 heavy cavalry from the Eastern Palace, 3,000 infantrymen from Shanzhou, and 4,500 infantrymen from Liangzhou are stationed there!"

"Both places are already part of the territory of our Great Tang Dynasty, this is an indisputable fact!"

"What my Great Tang Dynasty wants to discuss today is nothing more than that your Tuyuhun people provoked my Shanzhou border defenses first, and I, as the governor of Shanzhou, am the proof!"

"Since you have been defeated, the consequences of the Tang army's march, the depletion of military supplies, and the consumption of military equipment should all be borne by you, Tuyuhun!"

"Our first condition for peace talks is that Tuyuhun must pay our Great Tang an indemnity of five million strings of cash!"

"hiss!!!"

"Fuck!!!"

"How many, how many?!"

Li Xuanyun's move was so blatant that even Murong Shun, one of his own, was immediately disgusted.

Even the wealthy merchants, Taiyuan officials, and envoys from surrounding countries who were present at the ceremony were instantly taken aback.

Many people doubted that they had misheard.

Five million strings of cash?! Why don't you just rob us?!

Beside Murong Shun, the chief of the Tuyuhun Bai clan cursed angrily.

As the governor of Shanzhou, Li Xuanyun was naturally a familiar figure to them. At this moment, they were no longer making exorbitant demands, but rather seeking conditions that would be as much as a snake swallowing an elephant.

He was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table and stood up on the spot.

"Li Xuanyun, you old bastard, are you out of your mind because you're so poor? Five million strings of cash? Do you even know how much five million strings of cash is? Even if you sold your godforsaken city of Shanzhou a hundred times, you still couldn't scrape together five million strings of cash!"

"You, you think my Tuyuhun are really so easy to bully?!"

However, on the other side, Cheng Chumo, who was sitting next to Li Xuanyun as the deputy envoy for peace talks, glared at him.

Despite never having been a bandit, he possessed a family tradition of banditry, and with a hoarse voice like Cheng Yaojin's, he instantly overwhelmed the opposing side.

"Bully you? I'll fucking bully you, so what!"

"If all else fails, let's fight it out! If any of you Tuyuhun people still have any balls left, then don't cower in fear, come to Dafeichuan and Chishuiyuan and fight us!"

"Five million strings of cash is enough for you? My Great Tang Dynasty didn't ask for ten million strings of cash, so you should be secretly happy!"

The Bai clan chief's aged face flushed red instantly, then quickly turned bluish.

Trembling, he pointed at Cheng Chumo, who looked like a bandit and tyrant, his mouth agape as if he had suddenly lost his breath.

The Bai clan members behind him were so frightened that they hurriedly went up to help him sit down.

It was clear that from the very beginning, the Tang Dynasty and the Tuyuhun were already on the verge of war.

The onlookers gasped in shock.

Sun Yi hurriedly shouted to maintain order.

"Now is the stage for both sides to state their demands. The representative of Tuyuhun should not interrupt. Peace terms are negotiated. The fact that we are sitting here demonstrates our sincerity in seeking peace..."

Finally, the chaotic scene was quieted down again.

Sun Yi couldn't help but wipe the sweat from his forehead.

Li Xuanyun snorted coldly, ignoring the Tuyuhun nobles glaring angrily at him.

spoke again.

"Secondly, our Great Tang Dynasty intends to build two cities in the vicinity of Dafeichuan and Chishuiyuan. Tuyuhun is obligated to provide sufficient corvée labor for our Great Tang Dynasty to construct these cities... at least 200,000 people!"

Two hundred thousand? !

The group looked at each other in bewilderment. A small country like Tuyuhun had already been defeated by Tang troops of 30,000 to 40,000 men in the Dafeichuan and Chishuiyuan areas.

Now they still want to pay 200,000 in corvée labor?

That would probably mean they'd have to send their Busabo Khan Murong Fuyun to work on the city walls carrying bricks, wouldn't it?

On the Tuyuhun side, some people were already on the verge of fainting from anger, pinching their philtrum while breathing heavily.

"Third, the appointment of a crown prince in Tuyuhun from now on must be confirmed and approved by the Tang Dynasty before the crown prince can be established. Moreover, the Tang Dynasty does not recognize any Khan who is not a legitimate successor to the throne."

"Fourth, the people of Tuyuhun, even slaves, have the right to freely choose their nationality, and the Tuyuhun nobles and royal family shall not obstruct them. Furthermore, their property in Tuyuhun is sacred and inviolable, and the Tuyuhun authorities shall not seize or confiscate it."

Fifth, all tribes within the Tuyuhun territory must learn Chinese language and characters, and tribal leaders and nobles must take the lead.

"Sixth, a free trade agreement shall be signed, stipulating that Tang Dynasty caravans and chambers of commerce shall not be subject to any interference in their operations within Tuyuhun territory. Those who violate local Tuyuhun laws shall not be subject to judicial action by the Tuyuhun authorities, but shall be transferred to the Tang Dynasty for handling."

"seventh......"

Reporters from major newspapers across the Tang Dynasty quickly took notes on the peace talks with pencils.

The surrounding merchants and envoys, upon hearing the peace terms that Li Xuanyun had presented, knew that some of them would certainly be adjusted as the negotiations progressed.

But at this moment, their hearts were filled with horror.

If they sign this agreement, will Tuyuhun still be Tuyuhun?

Their status was probably even lower than that of the vassal states of the Tang Dynasty!

In order to better coordinate the upcoming second batch of Japanese students coming to study in Tang Dynasty China, the Japanese envoy Soga no Kiseki applied directly to Tang Dynasty China to stay in Taiyuan Prefecture.

He was also present at the scene, standing on the second floor, his head behind the handrail in front of him, listening to Li Xuanyun's conditions below, and he gasped in shock.

Fortunately, the Tang Dynasty now needs the help of Japan.

Fortunately, the Crown Prince of Tang had a very good attitude towards Japan.

Otherwise, given their current state of internal strife, without the protection of the divine winds at sea, they probably wouldn't have been able to withstand the might of the Tang Dynasty...

"The Tang Dynasty is utterly arrogant! They completely disregard us, the Tuyuhun! It was clearly your Tang prince who provoked us first! It was your Tang prince who wanted to settle scores with us regarding the Sui Dynasty... You..."

A nobleman from the Heba clan slammed his fist on the table in anger.

Upon hearing this, the merchants and Tang Dynasty officials present exchanged bewildered glances.

They wanted to laugh, but the occasion was inappropriate, so they all forced themselves to laugh until their faces turned red.

He thought to himself, "Settling old scores with the Tuyuhun over the Sui Dynasty... that's definitely His Highness's style..."

however.

Upon hearing this, the Goguryeo envoy's expression changed instantly.

If we're talking about the biggest grudges against the Sui Dynasty, then it has to be Goguryeo. If one day, the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty uses the same reason to target Goguryeo...

What should be done?

Murong Shun looked at the chaotic scene with a headache, then glanced down at the peace terms he had prepared.

I never expected this.

Now that things have come to this, the governor of Shanzhou on the Tang side is surprisingly ruthless from the start.

If all these conditions are agreed to.

The entire Tuyuhun kingdom could be said to have become a slave of the Tang Dynasty.

Murong Shun coughed twice.

As soon as Li Xuanyun sat down, looking at the peace terms he had prepared in his hand, he spoke helplessly.

"We are willing to lease the Chishui River and Dafeichuan to the Tang Dynasty for fifty years, at a rent of three million strings of cash, with an initial payment of at least one million strings of cash required."

"The Tang Dynasty cannot station more than 10,000 troops in either of these locations..."

The first meeting, naturally, ended in failure.

The two sides had vastly different conditions, and ultimately the meeting ended in discord.

However, discussions about this meeting began to spread rapidly throughout Bingzhou Circuit, and even in the circuits surrounding Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty, as major newspapers published the news.

"Hahaha, this Li Xuanyun is quite bold. Five million strings of cash, tsk tsk tsk. Compared to him, I seem rather petty."

Xiande Hall of Yangcheng Palace.

Li Chengqian's loud laughter reached the secretariat in the side hall.

As he fed the fish in the central pool of the hall, which had grown quite plump, he couldn't help but shake his head in admiration.

Upon hearing this, Li Tai, the Prince of Wei, who had already packed up his convoy and was preparing to leave Taiyuan with Li Ke, sighed and shook his head.

"Five million strings of cash? If Fusi City really had that much money, why would our army be stuck in the Dafeichuan and Chishuiyuan area and not move forward?"

"Even if you sold the Tuyuhun Kingdom today, you wouldn't be able to come up with five million strings of cash."

Li Chengqian did not refute, but looked at the many peace negotiation conditions proposed by Li Xuanyun in the document in his hand and nodded secretly.

He's a guy who understands colonization, though.

After a long silence.

Li Chengqian suddenly sighed.

"It's still because our Great Tang Dynasty is not strong enough. If we had built cities near the plateau earlier, we wouldn't have had to go through all these roundabout ways. We could have simply pushed Tuyuhun and even Tibet aside."

There's one thing he didn't say.

If we were to defeat Tibet at this time, it would be truly simple.

Songtsen Gampo had not yet unified the plateau, and Tibet had not yet introduced Buddhism; its religion was still closer to the Bon religion of primitive tribes.

The various tribes had low levels of civilization and were very scattered.

The level of their means of production and materials was even difficult to compare with that of the Tuyuhun, who were already learning from the Tang Dynasty in all aspects of their systems.

But alas...

He did not have the manpower to reach the plateau and maintain combat effectiveness while stationed there long-term.

"If these Tuyuhun people can be properly divided and won over to the Tang Dynasty, then we could potentially form an army like this..."

With a sense of loss, Li Chengqian personally escorted his third brother, Prince Li Ke of Han, and his fourth brother, Prince Li Tai of Wei, out of the city gate and then to the dock at Fenhe Bay.

"Third and fourth brothers, you must take care of your health in Dengzhou and Luoyang. Do not reveal the body-refining methods and medicinal bath formulas I gave you, but you must practice them diligently. We men of the Li Tang Dynasty cannot neglect our martial arts."

"And you, Qingque, I grant you permission to establish a firearms bureau in Luoyang, but everything will be overseen by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If I find out that you are not supervising properly and there is a risk of leaks, I will immediately order the Embroidered Uniform Guard to take over!"

"Once you get there, if the locals resist, go all out. If anything goes wrong, your brother will cover for you. But remember, you must put the people first. If you harm the people or exploit anyone, I will personally lead men to arrest you..."

On the dock.

Li Chengqian kept rambling on and on.

At this moment, he even felt the same emotion as Empress Zhangsun, who felt "a mother worries when her son travels a thousand miles."

Even though he was a time traveler, the feelings these younger brothers had for him were genuine, and he had carefully nurtured them for so long.

I had already come to regard them as my own younger brothers in my heart.

I watched as Li Tai and the others boarded their ships one by one, and as the clear sound of the departure gong rang out, the fleet set sail.

Li Chengqian remained standing in the same spot the whole time.

"Your Highness, you've prepared so much for the Prince of Han and the Prince of Wei, there won't be any problems..."

Wang De comforted her from the side.

Li Chengqian sighed and nodded.

Just when Wang De thought Li Chengqian was about to return to the city, a carriage arrived.

"You can go up now..."

Li Chengqian's words stunned Wang De. Looking at the dry rations and boxes prepared on the carriage, an ominous premonition rose in his heart.

"Your Highness, this..."

Before he could ask a question, Li Chengqian took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to the other party.

"Go back to Chang'an and go to my father's palace. Ask him to transfer Li Xuanyun's official title to Bingzhou Circuit... If you can't do it, you can retire in Chang'an."

Wang De: "!!!"