A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 600 The Raid on Khali
"Zheng Yuanzhu, Grand Master of Ceremonies, Left Martial General, and Duke of Xin of the Great Tang Dynasty!"

"Li Chen, Junior Minister of the Imperial Clan Court of the Great Tang Dynasty, Acting Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Prince Xiangwu!"

Taiyuan, at the foot of Xuanweng Mountain, Jinci Temple's Nanlao Spring.

Two envoys from the Tang Dynasty came to pay their respects to Jieli and request peace talks.

Khan Jieli roasted lamb by the Nanlao Spring, whose water gushed forth from a ten-foot-deep underground rock, flowing endlessly and clear as jade.

Such a precious place,

Jieli, however, made a mess of things, with smoke and the smell of mutton filling the air.

"They arrived quite quickly. Let them wait outside until my lamb is roasted."

They deliberately left the two Tang envoys waiting for two hours.

Jieli not only roasted the sheep, but also ate all the roasted mutton before summoning the two Tang envoys.

"Hey you two, we meet again. Have you eaten yet?" Jieli asked with a smile while picking his teeth.

A whole roasted lamb is reduced to just a skeleton.

Zheng Yuanzhu couldn't help but recall the days he had been detained in the Turkic Khaganate, where he herded sheep and horses and slept in sheepfolds. At every banquet hosted by Jieli, he would call a few of them to accompany him, but they would only be given a plate of boiled beef and mutton offal, which was often half-cooked.

Those were truly nightmarish days.

As someone who had been sent as an envoy to the Turks several times, Zheng Yuanzhu knew the Turks well, as well as Jieli Khan, and even his entire family.

"Great Khan, I am here on the orders of the Emperor of the Great Tang Dynasty to serve as an envoy to the Turks, hoping that the Tang and Turks can turn hostility into friendship and restore their old alliance."

"Fine." Khagan Jieli spat out the scraps of meat he had removed. "You want peace talks? Fine, but I remember very clearly that last time you kept talking about peace, and I agreed."

But then you turn around and betray the alliance by sending troops to attack.

Let's settle this score first.

Whose idea was it to send troops last time?

Surely they can't have broken their promise before the Emperor in Chang'an?

Zheng Yuanzhu stood there and quickly said, "What happened last time was all a misunderstanding. Of course, Your Majesty will not break the agreement."

"Misunderstanding?" Jieli spat a mouthful of phlegm onto Zheng Yuanzhu's boots, causing Zheng Yuanzhu's face to change, but he could only suppress his nausea.

"Li Yi instigated Gao Manzheng of Mayi to rebel, and Li Daoxuan attacked Yunzhong City,"

"And the ambush at Huanghualing,"

"You say this is a misunderstanding?" Jieli stood up and said angrily, "First, hand over Li Yi and Li Daoxuan, who broke the alliance, to my Turkic people for punishment."

"Then the captured Turkic warriors were immediately released."

"You also have to pay compensation. Each soldier must be returned with three warhorses, two sets of iron armor, and one set of bow, sword, and spear."
In addition, one hundred bolts of silk will be provided as compensation…

Jieli made an exorbitant demand, but Zheng Yuanzhu was not surprised, as he had prepared for this before coming.

Jieli asked for an exorbitant price, so they bargained on the spot.

Jieli was still talking,
"You must first pay three thousand taels of gold and three hundred thousand bolts of silk as a token of your apology and sincerity before I, the Khan, will negotiate with you."

"I will only withdraw my troops once you have delivered all the Turkic warriors you have captured in previous campaigns to Taiyuan."

"From now on, the annual tribute will be five thousand taels of gold and five hundred thousand bolts of silk. In return, our Turkic people will sell ten thousand horses, as well as sheep, cattle, camels, etc., to the Tang Dynasty..."

"The Princess Changping whom your emperor promised to marry must be sent to Taiyuan immediately. I will not withdraw my troops until I see the princess."

Li Chen felt resentful upon hearing Jieli's arrogant attitude, especially since the princess he demanded for a marriage alliance was his own sister, A-Wu.

"From now on, the border of Hedong will be Shiling Pass, and the area north of it will belong to my Turks, including Shiling Pass. My Turks can return the prefectures of Bing, Shi, Lan, Xi, Ze, Lu, Jie, Hao, Lü, and Jin to the Tang Dynasty."

Upon hearing this, Li Chen could no longer hold back and asked, "The prefectures south of Shiling Pass that the Great Khan spoke of are now occupied by the Turks?"

"Does the Khan think he can conquer even the prefectures of Xin, Dai, and Wei north of Shiling Pass?"

"If the Great Khan does not retreat to the borderlands quickly, I'm afraid he may not be able to leave easily."

The atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Jieli stared at Li Chen with the ferocity of a wolf.
Li Chen stood straight and met his gaze without fear.

"Hahaha," Jieli suddenly burst into laughter, "King Xiangwu certainly knows how to joke. I, the Khan, command hundreds of thousands of archers; I can come and go as I please."
If you truly anger me, I will lead my troops to Chang'an to personally confront Li Yuan.

The first meeting ended unhappily.

The two were taken to a tent to rest.
A Turkic vassal brought a bucket of food, which contained boiled sheep liver and horse lungs.

Upon seeing this food, the two immediately recalled the days they had been detained in the Turkic Khaganate.

"That damned wolf."

Zheng Yuanzhu couldn't help but curse, saying that this was a deliberate insult to them, reopening their wounds.

They were even being threatened that they could be detained again.

"Perhaps the court should consider letting the Prince of Qin fight another battle. If he can win another great victory, or even just a few minor victories, and annihilate some of Jieli's followers, he won't be so arrogant anymore."

"Yes, we need to use war to force peace. We have to hurt them badly before they'll be willing to talk."

···
"Wolves can never be satisfied,"

Li Yi stopped his horse on the hilltop, watching the Tang army winding northward. "Even wolf cubs raised from a young age are relatively well-behaved when they are young, but once they grow up, they will suddenly revert to their wild nature one day, and will naturally escape back to the wild, or even turn against their masters."

"Don't try to raise a wolf like a dog. You can't feed it properly, and it's an ungrateful wretch."

Looking at the Prince of Wu'an before him, Liu Shiche's opinion of him rose even higher.

The emperor has sent envoys to Taiyuan to negotiate peace and has issued an edict to cease hostilities.

Yet this man dared to defy the King of Qin's decree and secretly send troops north. "What if Jieli reaches a peace agreement with Zheng Yuanzhu and is willing to withdraw his troops?"

"So what?" Li Yi said domineeringly, "In recent years, our Great Tang has had countless peace negotiations with the Turks, going back and forth repeatedly. Have you ever seen the Turks take peace negotiations seriously? In their eyes, peace negotiations are less than toilet paper."
Each peace treaty was nothing more than an excuse to extort money from the Tang Dynasty after they had plundered enough.

Next time, they will continue their southward raids, paying no heed to any peace negotiations.

"If the Turks are like this, why can't our Great Tang do the same? What truly maintains peace is not a piece of paper, but the balance of power."

Only when our strength is overwhelming and instills fear in the Turks will they take us seriously.

Liu Shiche, the magistrate of Mayi County, has been having a very difficult time lately.

Yuan Junzhang led the Turkic army back to Mayuan, while he, as the county magistrate, was responsible for guarding the area. General Gao Manzheng and Li Gaoqian met them in battle at Lahe Valley and won a great victory.

However, as the Turkic army reinforced the area, Li Gaoqian was the first to lead the Daizhou army away.

Then there was Gao Manzheng's deputy general, who secretly contacted Yuan Junzhang, launched a mutiny, killed Gao Manzheng, captured Mayi City, and surrendered. Liu Shiche had also survived the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty.
That night, realizing something was wrong, he immediately took advantage of the chaos to escape from the city.

"What if the court blames us?" Liu Shiche was worried for Li Shimin and Li Yi, but even more worried about Li Yi.

Li Shimin, after all, was the emperor's legitimate son. As long as he didn't rebel, he would at worst be recalled to the capital and left to languish. But Li Yi might be killed by the emperor.
Liu Wenjing, Liu Shirang, Li Zhongwen—aren't there many meritorious officials who were killed by the emperor?

Especially those like Liu Wenjing and Liu Shirang, whose deaths seemed even more hasty.

Despite being registered under the Zongzheng clan, the Prince of Wu'an was ultimately not a close relative of the imperial family.

There are some things that a prince can do, but a county prince cannot.

"This battle is a must; there is no turning back," Li Yi said.

"Zheng Yuanzhu and King Xiangwu are still with Jieli. If our army launches a surprise attack, they will also be in danger," Liu Shiche reminded again.

The two envoys were, in a sense, the Minister of State Ceremonies, the General of the Left Martial Guard, the Duke of Xin, and a member of the Zheng family of Xingyang, one of the five prominent clans, as well as the Crown Princess's cousin.

The other prince, Li Chen, was the son of the emperor's uncle. His elder brother was Prince Xiaogong of Hejian, who was famous for pacifying the southeast.

If these two men were killed by the Turks because of Li Yi's surprise attack on Jieli, then in the end, the blame would inevitably fall on Li Yi.

Li Yi gazed northwards.
That's the direction of Taiyuan, the Dragon City.

"War always requires sacrifices, so why should only generals and soldiers be sacrificed?"
A prince from the imperial family and a court official both died in service to the king; they too sacrificed themselves for the country.

Liu Shiche was secretly alarmed.
It seems that King Wu'an and King Qin are going all in, with no choice but to succeed or die trying.

"Jieli still has 100,000 troops in Taiyuan, and at least 30,000 troops on the left and right flanks are retreating back to Taiyuan. There are also many followers in the north."

He reminded Li Yi that although Taiyuan City was no longer in the hands of the Tang Dynasty...

But Taiyuan is more like Jieli's home ground.

They don't have any advantages.

"War isn't about killing heads, doesn't Military Advisor Liu understand that?"

Liu Shiche was, after all, from a prominent family in Xuzhou. His father had been the governor of Nanhai during the late Sui Dynasty, and he himself had raised a force at the end of the Sui Dynasty, calling himself the general manager of Northern Xuzhou.
Even now, he still couldn't quite believe it.
Li Yi is leading 5,000 cavalrymen and is now heading to Taiyuan to launch a surprise attack on Jieli Jinlang's camp.

Meanwhile, Qin King Li Shimin led 20,000 men behind him.

Five thousand cavalrymen as the vanguard

One hundred thousand Turkic troops attacked Taiyuan.

This must have been an incredibly audacious and reckless move, especially since the emperor had issued an edict ordering them to cease hostilities and send envoys to negotiate peace with Jieli.

This is even somewhat unsportsmanlike.
While negotiating peace with Jieli,

But then they sent troops to launch a surprise attack.

Why is the usually composed Prince Wu'an, Li Yi, acting so recklessly this time? And Prince Qin, Li Shimin, has actually gone mad with him.

"Don't worry, although it's only five thousand cavalry, look at what kind of five thousand cavalry they are." Li Yi looked at the advancing cavalry with great confidence.

The commander of the troops was Li Yi, and the five generals under him were all fierce generals of the time: Qin Shubao, Luo Shixin, Yuchi Gong, Cheng Yaojin, and Duan Zhixuan.

Five generals, each commanding a thousand cavalry.

Yuchi Gong commanded 1,000 heavily armored cavalry, while Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin each commanded 1,000 elite Xuanjia cavalry, and there were also 2,000 light cavalry.

The soldiers were elite troops.

He will be a fierce general.

Each of these five chief generals also had two deputy generals under their command, all of whom were fierce generals of the same caliber as Niu Jinda, Wu Heita, and Li Junxian.

Besides,

In preparation for this surprise attack,

Li Shimin and Li Yi also brought their most prized possessions, the Divine Machine Thunder and the Divine Machine Arrow.

Saying it was a desperate gamble might be a bit of an exaggeration.
However, Li Shimin could not tolerate a peace treaty at this time, nor could Li Yi accept it.

Moreover, Li Yi also received a message from Feng Deyi's family that once the Taiyuan peace treaty was reached, the emperor would transfer the Prince of Qin to Jiangnan to quell the rebellion and appoint him as the military commander of Jiangzhou Road.

Li Yi was to be transferred to Youzhou, and Dao Xuan was to be transferred to Xizhou.

Li Yuanji was appointed Marshal of Hedong and Grand General of Bingzhou, Li Yuan was appointed Grand General of Dingzhou, and Liu Zheng was appointed Grand General of Daizhou.

This news shocked Li Yi, and it also shocked Li Shimin.

Both of them knew there was no turning back.

The only option is to take a gamble.

(End of this chapter)