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

Sifang Pavilion.

A few days later, amidst the curious gazes of envoys from various countries, the Lin-yi envoy was "invited" out of the Sifangguan by several Tang soldiers amidst a chaotic commotion.

He slapped the envoy's letter of credence across the face, ignoring the envoy's embarrassment and anger.

He then dropped a notification that sent shivers down the spines of the envoys from Southeast Asian countries in the Sifang Pavilion.

"Linyi disobeys the imperial decree, outwardly complies with but inwardly defies our Great Tang, and shows no sincerity towards our suzerain state. From this day forward, our Great Tang will no longer accept tribute from Linyi. Go back to where you came from!"

"From this day forward, if even one person in Linyi dares to consider themselves a vassal of the Great Tang, the Great Tang will surely destroy them!"

Although it was only a few soldiers and a sixth-rank official from the Ministry of Rites who came to deliver the imperial edict, the words they spoke caused the envoys from the surrounding countries to tremble with fear.

As for the Lin-yi envoy, his eyes were instantly glazed over.

Upon noticing the entrance to the Four Directions Pavilion, the envoys from various Southeast Asian countries, such as Siam, Cambodia, Pyu, and Lin Yi, who had initially just been watching the spectacle, suddenly developed strange expressions.

An invisible fear surged into the heart of the Lin Yi envoy in an instant.

"My lord, it's a misunderstanding! There must be some misunderstanding! I, Lin Yi, would never dare to harbor any disloyal thoughts, nor would I ever!"

however.

No matter how much he pleaded and explained, the officials from the Ministry of Rites, after announcing the decree, didn't even glance at him and decisively turned and left.

He left behind only the Lin Yi envoy, whose cries of grief, like the lamentation of a parent who had lost their child, echoing through the air.

On the very day that the Lin-yi envoys were expelled from the Sifangguan, and the Ministry of Rites completely severed ties with Lin-yi through diplomatic procedures, the Ministry of Rites received congratulatory messages from various Southeast Asian countries, including Zhenla, Siam, and Pyu.

In addition, several other countries also expressed their willingness to accept the Tang Dynasty's policy of using Tang paper money in future trade.

And soon, gold will be transferred from within the country...

"Ha, what a bunch of spineless bastards..."

"Fight the bald man!"

Li Chengqian chuckled and had just put down the memorial from the Ministry of Rites when he heard the little ox beside him let out a childish cry, which made Li Chengqian burst into laughter.

"He's a cheapskate, not a bald-headed warrior."

He reached out his finger and fiddled with the little girl's chubby pink hand.

Looking into the other person's dark, innocent eyes, still untainted by the mundane realities of daily life, she taught them how to speak.

"Bald-headed...Royal brother!"

"Pfft!" Li Zhi, who was not far away, couldn't hold it in.

Li Chengqian: "......"

He stared speechlessly at the innocent little girl, who suddenly burst into laughter for no apparent reason.

"Hey, your royal brother spoils you so much and plays with you every day, and you still curse your royal brother to go bald... If anyone's going to go bald, it'll be your ninth royal brother."

Li Zhi pursed his lips, having become immune to his elder brother's words, which were always wishing him no good.

However, at this moment, the Eighth Prince, Prince Yue, Li Zhen, who had been brought by Li Zhi to help process documents, touched the top of his head, a look of worry flashing across his face.

While the siblings were playing around, Wang De suddenly strode over.

He bowed and whispered, "Your Highness, Minister of Rites Tang Jian requests an audience."

At the Ministry of Rites, Li Chengqian frowned as he glanced at the memorial he had tossed on the table. These were just a few fickle little countries; he didn't believe that such a matter required Tang Jian to personally come to him.

"Let him come over..."

Tang Jian was quickly brought in, and after exchanging greetings, he solemnly presented another memorial to the emperor.

"Your Highness, the King of Japan has sent an envoy, claiming he wishes to jointly develop those gold and silver mountains with our Great Tang..."

"Let them go!"

Li Chengqian, who had originally intended to reach out and accept it, immediately withdrew his hand and refused without any hesitation.

At the same time, I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Joint development? That's utterly absurd! Do they really think that just because they have mountains of gold and silver on their own soil, they can take a share of the pie from our Great Tang? That's incredibly arrogant!"

Tang Jian opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but Li Zhi, who was standing to the side, seemed to notice his predicament and had Wang De take the memorial from his hand and put it in front of him.

He opened it, raised an eyebrow, and couldn't help but move closer to his elder brother.

"Brother, why don't you take a look? These Japanese devils are truly... fascinating."

After pondering for a long time, Li Zhi finally uttered a profound word: "妙" (wonderful).

Li Chengqian accepted the memorial.

Open it and take a look.

It was said to be a letter from the King of Wa, but in reality, it was signed by Soga no Emishi, a powerful minister in present-day Wa.

That does fit the current state of things over there.

The wording in the letter was clearly carefully considered and deliberated. It adopted an extremely humble attitude, and although it was ostensibly about cooperation, it sounded like a plea for assistance from the Tang Dynasty.

"Of the silver mined at the Iwami Silver Mine, 80% is allocated to the Tang Dynasty and 20% to Japan. Furthermore, Japan does not require silver; they will accept Tang Dynasty paper money as payment..."

"The manpower and resources needed for mining were provided by Japan, but the smelting of silver was handled by the Tang Dynasty, and the two sides supervised each other on the final silver production."

Upon reaching the end, Li Chengqian suddenly raised an eyebrow.

Soga no Emishi even wrote on it that, to show his loyalty to the Tang Dynasty, he was willing to send one Japanese prince and one Japanese princess to Chang'an as hostages.

"Ha, that unlucky bastard Shu Ming, he's had the worst luck of eight lifetimes to run into Su Wo's family."

Li Chengqian scoffed. Even in later generations, the surname Soga was an unavoidable presence in the history of that tiny country of Japan.

Although the whole family were treacherous and powerful officials.

But it lasted for several generations.

From Soga no Umako, who died of illness a few years ago, to Soga no Emishi, who has now succeeded him as the powerful minister, and then, this treacherous minister of Japan has a son named Soga no Iruka.

However, just like the "Sima clan" in the history of the Central Plains, the Soga clan was a similar existence in the history of Japan.

Eventually, even their surnames were lost to history.

"Your Highness, the Ministry of War has received several reports from the Duke of Lu that there is a shortage of manpower. First, they need to guard the mines. Now that there are more mines, they need more slaves, and the daily loss of slaves is also considerable. Second, they need manpower to capture slaves."

"After all, we don't know much about Japan's mainland, and our efficiency in capturing slaves is extremely low..."

Tang Jian whispered his opinion.

"Does Minister Tang mean to agree to their demands?"

Tang Jian hesitated for a moment, then nodded, but quickly added, "I just think that this matter is beneficial to us. We can leave the dirty and hard work to these Japanese devils, and our Tang soldiers can escort these gold and silver back to the country with peace of mind."

Li Chengqian gave a soft "hmm".

"Then let's do it your way. However, Minister Tang must have heard about the current situation in Japan. These bastards are all born with rebellious bones. I can accept the Tang Dynasty taking advantage of others, but I absolutely cannot allow others to take advantage of the Tang Dynasty."

"clear?"

Tang Jian quickly bowed respectfully and said, "This humble official understands!"

With the development of inland waterway transportation, the Japanese envoys, who had only been traveling by water from Chang'an for a few days and were still waiting in Dengzhou, received an official reply from the Tang Dynasty.

When he brought this good news back to Japan, Soga no Emishi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"That's great, thankfully the Tang Dynasty hasn't shown any intention of launching an attack yet..."

It is clearly a gold mine in our own country, but in the end, we have to adopt such a humble and pitiful attitude and pay a lot of costs and manpower to get even one tenth of it.

Soga no Emishi was naturally extremely frustrated and humiliated.

However, given the stark reality of the vast disparity in strength between the two sides, this was the best solution Soga no Emishi could come up with.

Moreover... Soga no Emishi pondered and put down the letter in his hand.

A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

"Now that things have been settled, it's time for us to show our sincerity to the Tang Dynasty!"

Recently, there have been quite a few families and forces in Japan that are not convinced by the Soga clan. They had originally planned to unite with each other to get a larger share of the mineral resources from the Tang Dynasty.

Unfortunately, very few people responded to his invitation that day.

"Master, the Ministry of Rites of the Tang Dynasty has not said that we are prohibited from using Tang Dynasty paper money to purchase weapons and armor in the future. If this matter is successfully completed, perhaps we can really unify this broken world!"

A retainer with a samurai-like appearance spoke in a deep, muffled voice.

The moment the people in the room were discussing the matter, their breathing quickened instantly.

Even Soga no Emishi had a burning ambition in his eyes.

He now controls Emperor Shumei and possesses one of the most powerful armed forces in Japan. All he needs to do is eliminate the rest who are willing to submit, establish trade relations with the Tang Dynasty, and purchase more weapons and armor.

Unifying Japan is not impossible...

October of the sixth year of the Zhenguan era.

The merchants of Guangzhou Prefecture were overjoyed and burst into tears when they finally received the long-awaited application from the imperial court allowing them to sail with the fleet to trade.

They seemed to already see their net worth skyrocketing dozens or even hundreds of times in the future, while Guangzhou was making large-scale purchases of goods for export.

In Japan, only a few years after the last chaotic war that broke out between two factions fighting over the succession to the throne, another bloody and brutal war broke out, orchestrated by Soga no Emishi.

Before his most trusted and most dangerous confidant, Mr. Motobu, could react.

It erupted suddenly.

Starting from the Asuka region of Gyeonggi Province in Japan, all the major samurai families that had close ties with the Mononobe clan were subjected to brutal attacks and captures by the Soga clan in just one day.

The head of the Mononobe clan and a number of important figures escaped the Asuka region under the desperate protection of the clan's samurai, but suffered heavy losses.

Not long after, Cheng Chumo, who was in charge of guarding the Iwami Silver Mine, received the first batch of slaves from the Soga clan of our country... a total of more than 20,000 people.

Cheng Chumo looked at the Japanese slaves in front of him, who were clearly more powerful and robust than the slaves they had captured.

Then look at Soga's retainers who are bowing and scraping to him right now.

His lips twitched involuntarily.

Sure enough, there's a reason why His Highness the Crown Prince dislikes these lowly Japanese.