Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 504: Huaye Xianghui Tower

Kaiyao has been in business for fifteen years.

The train that the research institute had been researching for several years was finally brought to the table. Afterwards, many noble families headed by the Chen family began to build a railway that connected the north and the south. Under the order of His Majesty the Emperor, the entire Tang Dynasty began to run at a rapid speed like a machine.

The process of the railway running through the north and south was also the process of rapid development of the Tang Dynasty.

In this process, countless people began to be "burned", but it did not attract anyone's attention, because those who burned, those who burned for the Tang Dynasty all gained enough benefits and glory.

At the end of the fifteenth year of Kaiyao, the ruling class of the Tang Dynasty finally realized a problem. They could not continue to let the people of the Tang Dynasty burn. Doing so would only overdraft the future of the Tang Dynasty in advance.

so.
The rulers of the Tang Dynasty began to think of ways to change all this.

They finally realized a problem - since people were needed anyway, why... why not find some barbarians?

The barbarians are not considered to be any kind of people, wouldn’t it be better to let them take on the function of “fuel”?
The precious people of the Tang Dynasty should be used in other places.

This is the price transfer.

After searching for a while, the noble rulers finally found the person they thought was suitable - the Indian.

The Indians are perfect as fuel for the Tang Dynasty's progress.

First, they are very close.

What does "near" mean? It means that they can quickly get people here and replace the burning Tang people, provide them with benefits, and those replaced Tang people can do other things.

Second, this group of people have a natural sense of slavery.

They were instilled with the idea of ​​"lowliness" by the local rulers - the unique hierarchical system in India made the people at the bottom dare not and could not resist, and they were themselves a kind of slaves - this idea has lasted for many years, perhaps thousands of years?

No one knows.

But all in all, this group of people is very useful.

Third, India also has a large population, but there are not many people who truly hold power. They have a large number of slaves that can be supplied to the Tang Dynasty.

So, at the end of the 15th year of Kaiyao, a group of well-equipped "wealthy merchants" began to travel along the waterway to India, preparing to conduct some friendly negotiations with the ruling class there.

But it ultimately failed.

The rulers of India were very arrogant and thought that the Tang Dynasty was insignificant. They even killed a merchant who went there - the merchant was the illegitimate son of a Tang Dynasty nobleman, which angered the nobleman.

What is even more coincidental is that the nobleman’s other son is the concubine, or lover, of the princess of the time.

Through pillow talk and exaggerated descriptions, this small merchant dispute became a provocation from India to the Tang Dynasty.

The eldest princess's crying made Li Chengqian fall into a state of rage, and the Tang Dynasty at this time also became angry because of the anger of this majesty, just like a good guy suddenly turned against him.

Spring, the sixteenth year of Kaiyao.

The Tang Emperor Li Chengqian issued an edict that since the land of India disrespected the majesty of the Tang Dynasty and killed the Tang envoys without authorization, the Tang Dynasty would launch a war against India!

And it is a war that will never stop!

Unless the rulers of India realize their mistakes!
Afterwards, Li Chengqian ordered Li Jing's son and Chen Lin'an's son to be the "main generals" and divide the troops into two routes, one to go by water, and the other to station troops on the border, attacking Tianzhu from two directions respectively!
A magnificent voice came from the Taiji Hall, and then the entire Tang Dynasty fell into a state of war.

Of course, this war did not cause any negative impact on the Tang Dynasty. After all, the Tang Dynasty was now too powerful. The ships sailing on the sea were like steel monsters, and the soldiers on land did not have to walk to the border. Instead, they could go to the border via the "railway" that had been under construction since the 13th year of Kaiyao, and sit on the train that could run day and night without the need for human or livestock driving.

Yes.

In the 13th year of Kaiyao, after the internal combustion engine and the train were invented, the Tang Dynasty began to gather all its strength to build a railway. While this railway ran through the north and south, it actually went all the way from Chang'an to the border between Tianzhu and the Tang Dynasty.

This is really too coincidental.

As to whether it was intentional or whether the Tang Dynasty had planned it long ago, no one knows.

People's eyes were fixed on this war, although the people of the Tang Dynasty did not think they would lose this war.

But they still paid attention - in the court's "Dibao".

Information about this war would appear in the official gazette every few days, but after only half a month, no one paid attention to it anymore.

Because this war was too easy to fight.

When the war just started, the Tang Dynasty directly won complete victory on both routes.

Because the Indians never expected that the Tang soldiers would appear on the border so quickly - how long did it take from the time the Tang declared war on India to the time the Tang soldiers gathered and then appeared on the border?
Is there a month?
No.

In a completely unexpected situation, India's border was quickly breached, and this breakthrough caused India to lose many cities. By the time the Indian soldiers had gathered, the Tang Dynasty's soldiers were almost about to reach India's capital.

This made the rulers of India very panicked. They even began to secretly contact Li Dejian and "Chen Wushuo", hoping to get a chance to breathe by bribing these two generals.

Chen Wushuo and Li Dejian accepted these "bribes" at the suggestion of Li Chengqian, and asked the rulers of Tianzhu for more "bribes". The bribes they asked for also made the rulers of Tianzhu feel strange.

They don't want money, treasures, or gems.

What they wanted were the poor, lowest-class Vaisyas and Shudras, and they did not even ask for the number of Vaisyas, only the total number.

The King of India was of course confused by this question, and the answers of Chen Wushuo and Li Dejian were very simple - both of them had large fiefs, and some were even "Dukes", the highest-ranking people, so they needed "slaves" or "tools" or "servants" to help them do their work.

The wages of the Tang people were too high and they didn't want to pay, so since there were so many Indians, they asked the Indians to be slaves.

Of course, the rulers of India were somewhat dissatisfied with this, but only slightly. Why?
Because in their eyes, Vaisyas may still be considered human beings to some extent, but Shudras are not considered human beings in their eyes either, and are not even as noble as "cows and sheep", because cows and sheep can really be eaten for meat and are valuable.

Moreover, if cattle and sheep are not properly cared for, they will not be able to give birth.

But the Shudras are different.

It's so easy for them to give birth.

Therefore, under the threat of Chen Wushuo and Li Dejian, the Indian royal family and dignitaries, in order to please the two, immediately sent them a large number of "slaves", including 40,000 Shudras and 10,000 Vaishyas.

Although not all of them are young and middle-aged laborers, most of them are able to work.

After obtaining this batch of slaves, Li Dejian and Chen Wushuo quickly transported these people to the center of the Tang Dynasty by "train" - this batch of slaves were going to do something famous all over the world, or even something that would go down in history.

His Majesty Li Chengqian, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, planned to build a towering building in Chang'an City. The building was named Hua'e Xianghui Tower.

Li Chengqian wanted to use this huge building to announce something. Under his governance, the Tang Dynasty had surpassed the "Zhenguan Prosperity" of Li Shimin's era. Under his governance, the "Kaiyao Prosperity" was unprecedentedly invincible.

This is also the reason why Li Chengqian supported the eldest princess, or why he planned to obtain "slaves" from India.

Although cement and many tools have been invented in this era, building such high-rise buildings is still a very difficult task, mainly because some other machines have not been manufactured, so most of the time it still needs to rely on manpower to build.

There will definitely be a lot of casualties in the process of building such a huge building - this is something unacceptable to Li Chengqian, because the blood will make his governance seem a little "flawed".

Therefore, the Indians became his best tools.

This group of 50,000 bribed people were transported to Chang'an City, and then the construction of Hua'e Xianghui Tower began.

During this process, the war between the Tang Dynasty and India did not stop. Not only did it not stop, but it broke out even more fiercely.

The reason is that too many people were consumed in building the Hua'e Xianghui Tower!
In just one year from the 16th to the 17th year of Kaiyao, almost all of the 50,000 people died. The Tang Dynasty needed more people, and Hua'e Xianghuilou also needed more people, so the war continued.

At the end of the 17th year of Kaiyao, in the freezing cold, the Indians finally surrendered.

It was also the end of the same year.

Chen Wushuo, the legitimate son of the Chen family, the prince of Lin'an, and the mighty general, signed a series of treaties with the King of India on behalf of the Tang Dynasty. This series of treaties covered everything, such as the gold and silver compensation paid by India for killing the Tang envoys, the pensions for the Tang soldiers who died in this war, and India's compensation to the Tang Dynasty, etc.

Among them, gold and silver are minor matters. The document, later known as the "Kaiyao Treaty", clearly stipulated that India needed to provide "one million" slaves to the Tang Dynasty every year.

This is also one of the reasons why the Tang Dynasty was denounced and insulted by some countries that were not included in the Ming Federation Republic Empire in later generations.

Because this treaty set a precedent for not treating "people" as "people".

Of course, no matter which era, the Chinese people did not regard these people as human beings. They just thought of them as tools - slaves, and they were very justified.

The ancients have said it.

"A white horse is not a horse, is it a barbarian?"

So what's wrong with these people being tools? No problem at all.

With a large amount of manpower and material resources and the operation of the entire Tang Dynasty's machinery, the Hua'e Xianghui Tower was completed in the spring of the 19th year of Kaiyao. The blood of the Indians shed beneath this huge building - of course, this was also the glory of the Tang Dynasty.

There is no building in the world larger and more magnificent than the Hua'e Xianghui Tower, not even in Chang'an, the political center that has become the symbol of the Tang Dynasty.

Hua'e Xianghui Tower was built in the suburbs near Chang'an, and that area had long been transformed into another core of the Tang Dynasty. When Chang'an City becomes stronger, this place will be incorporated into the jurisdiction of Chang'an City.

The appearance of this towering building symbolizes that the Tang Dynasty officially entered one of its most prosperous periods - why is it called one of its most prosperous periods?
Because this was the peak that could be achieved in the economy, culture, and military in this era and in this technological age, and the Zhenguan Reign was also the peak that could be achieved in that era, and even the Kaiyuan Prosperity that followed was also the peak that could be achieved in that era.

The imperial edicts of these three eras are collectively called the "Three Emperors' Prosperous Era", symbolizing the prosperous era created by the three most powerful emperors of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin, Li Chengqian, and Li Chengqian's grandson "Li Shizhi".

Of course, although Li Chengqian’s son Li Xiang did not achieve the achievement of being the greatest emperor of all time, he still inherited a little bit of the distance between these three prosperous times.

He was considered a good emperor, but there was a certain gap compared to his grandfather, father, and even son.

This is also something that can't be helped.

Who made his grandfather, father and son all tough guys?
In later generations, historians often made fun of Li Shizhi for this fact, saying that he was not as good as the old and not as good as the young.

Twenty years of glory.

The surrounding countries were all conquered by Li Chengqian. Whether it was the Western Regions or Europe further away from the Western Regions, they all surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.

June, the summer of the 20th year of Kaiyao.

During the hottest time of the whole year, Li Chengqian held a banquet in Hua'e Xianghui Tower. According to historical records, almost all the famous countries in the world at that time participated in this banquet.

This is true even for countries far away in Europe.

It is recorded in "The Book of Tang" that the king of the Frankish Kingdom, the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, the emperor of the Arab Empire, the king of the Great Gao Dynasty, the emperor of the Persian Empire, the king of India, the king of Japan, and so on all participated in this grand event.

At such a grand event, emperors of all empires expressed with great respect and humility that they were willing to give up the title of "Emperor" and respect the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty as the "Heavenly Emperor" of the whole world.

Among them, the emperors of the Byzantine Empire, the Arab Empire, and the Persian Empire, three giant empires, presented their "crowns", and the Tang Emperor Li Chengqian crowned them again.

The Tang Emperor Li Chengqian bestowed the title of "Empire" on Byzantium, Arabia and Persia, and allowed them to be called "Emperor".

From then on, the whole world truly surrendered to the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
(End of this chapter)