Established a thousand-year family from the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 664 The Republic and the Emperor (23)

Republic 460 Fourth Year Winter (674)
A large-scale battle broke out between the Tang Empire and the Xueyu Zhou Kingdom over the ownership of the Western Regions.

The Tang Empire sent 15 troops, the Zhou State sent 15 troops, plus the [-] troops of the Western Turks, the same [-] troops.

The total strength of the two sides reached a staggering 30, and most of them were cavalry.

The scene of the decisive battle of the 30 troops in the south of the Tianshan Mountains (the four towns of Anxi) is extremely spectacular.

Moreover, both the Tang Empire and the Xueyu Zhou Kingdom used the original cannons in large numbers in battle.

The city walls of the Western Regions are vulnerable to the original cannon. The countries of the Western Regions are sandwiched between the two great powers of the Tang and Zhou Dynasties, and the Western Turks took advantage of the fire to loot them.

If he surrendered to Xueyu Zhou, Datang would send troops to burn, kill and loot.

If they surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, the Xueyu Zhou Kingdom and the Western Turks would send troops to burn, kill and loot.

If you are brave, remain neutral, and want to be independent, it will be even worse. The Tang Dynasty, the Snowy Zhou Kingdom, and the Western Turks will come to burn, kill and loot you at the same time.

It also depends on the geographical location. Only those with a remote location can have both sides. For example, in the Yan Kingdom during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, those who were caught in the middle often could not have both sides, but were beaten left and right.

"The Western Regions belong to the Western Regions!"

"Kick out the Central Plains people, Zhou people, and Turkic people!"

Some insightful people in the Western Regions want to unify the countries of the Western Regions, establish an alliance, and resist invaders from the Central Plains, grasslands, and plateaus.

When the Great War broke out in the Western Regions, the Republic was not idle. After receiving the news, it immediately turned against the Khitans again, and even the Kumoxi people.

The Kumoxi people were worried that the Khitan-Yan coalition army would rob them, so they simply betrayed Datang and followed Khitan and Yan to attack Datang.

Khitan and Kumoxi invaded the Youyun area of ​​the Tang Empire, and Yan State invaded the Shandong area of ​​the Tang Empire.

This is the embarrassment of being in the middle of the geographical position. It affects the whole body, and every time it has to attack from all directions.

Most of the territory of Yan State is in the vast sea. In the current era of land power, no one will go overseas to grab territory. Therefore, Yan State only needs to guard against Shanhaiguan and Liaobei Swamp, and there is no need to disperse its forces.

The alliance between the Republic and the State of Zhou naturally caused dissatisfaction among many people in the country.

"The Great Tang is the orthodox, the real civilization. The snowy state of Zhou is barbaric and ignorant, a backward, evil country. How can our country of Yan form an alliance with such a backward, evil country as Zhou?"

"Why don't you want to embrace real civilization? Why don't you want to form an alliance with Datang? Instead, you want to form an alliance with the barbaric Zhou State? The rulers are all idiots! Meat eaters are despicable! They don't understand anything, they don't understand at all, only the Great Tang is the country of civilization, we must form an alliance with Datang!"

"The cowardly nobles of the Yan Kingdom knelt down to the barbaric Zhou State and regarded the Emperor Zhou as their father. They didn't have the character that a scholar-bureaucrat should have, and they didn't know how to form an alliance with the civilized Tang Dynasty. They only knelt and licked the barbaric Zhou people. "

"It's a disgrace that our country of Yan has formed an alliance with a barbaric country like Zhou! Yan country, hurry up and perish!"

The alliance with the state of Zhou has huge resistance within the republic, because all social strata of the republic are full of "Mutang thoughts".

Emperor Yu and the aristocrats of the Yan Kingdom, under tremendous pressure from public opinion, forcibly entered into an alliance with the Zhou Kingdom for the benefit of the country, hurting the fragile hearts of many "admirers of Tang".

There are also "Tang admirers" who are worried about the damage to the interests of the spiritual motherland-the Tang Empire, so they publicize the barbarism of the Zhou people.

For example, the deeds of Zhou people burning, killing and looting in Tianzhu.

Zhou people are indeed barbaric, which is true, but what effect does this have on the Republic's choice to form an alliance with Zhou?

Whether to form an alliance or not depends not on the form of civilization, but on whether it is in line with the national interest.

But obviously, the "admirers of Tang" would not care about Yan's national interests.

After all, in their hearts, the Tang Dynasty is the motherland and the orthodox, and the Yan State is just a barbarian country that survived by luck.

Once upon a time, Li Chengqian, the prince of the Tang Dynasty, thought that the Tang Dynasty was a barbarian and wanted to overthrow the Tang Dynasty.

But now, many virtuous scholars in the republic also think that the republic is a barbarian and want to overthrow the republic.

What is the voice of public opinion?This is the right to speak of public opinion!

Before the Republic completely shattered the Tang Empire's imperial hegemony, there would always be many such "Tang admirers", and they couldn't be killed endlessly.

Mu Qiang, human nature!

One day, the Republic will become an imperial hegemony, and the people of the Central Plains will naturally take the initiative to kneel and lick the Republic, thinking that the Republic is orthodox, and that the Central Plains is a barbarian.

Faced with these doubts, Di Yu didn't bother to explain.

Prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain, it is useless to talk too much, everything still depends on strength to decide.

When the strength of the Republic is not as good as that of the Tang Empire, it is meaningless to debate the scriptures ten thousand times. It will only be ridiculed. When the strength of the Republic is far greater than that of the Tang Empire, there is no need for the Republic to debate the scriptures. The aristocratic families in the Central Plains will take the initiative to argue for the Republic.

"Let them talk, let them scold, don't worry about it, just arrest the few bosses who dance the most. The killing is endless. This kind of thing can't be solved unless the Republic can completely smash the Tang Empire."

With the lessons of the [Lin Zhi incident], the ruling class of Yan State has become more mature in its response to ideology and public opinion.

It is definitely not possible to ignore it completely, but relying solely on killing is to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.

Punish the one who jumps the most, warn the one who jumps the most, and ignore the little flies.

In addition to influencing the Republic's normal interests and diplomacy, the "Musangists" also want to influence historical records.

For example, in the books written by some scholars who claim to be strong, they recount what he thinks is the "Battle of Pyongyang".

In his book, the Yan State suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Pyongyang, losing 40 troops, while the Tang Army won a complete victory, beheading 40 Yan troops, with only a few hundred losses.

The reason why the Tang army did not take advantage of the victory to destroy the Yan State in one fell swoop was because the Tang Dynasty was a teacher of civilization and benevolence, and could not bear the misery of the common people, so they voluntarily withdrew their troops after the victory, hoping that the people of the Yan State could be spared from the suffering of the war.

The book "Explore the Truth of the Battle of Pyongyang" is very popular in the literary circles of the Republic.

Although there are witnesses who have witnessed the Pyongyang Battle and tell the real truth, it is actually Empress Yan who won a complete victory and beheaded 20 Tang troops.

However, people are only willing to believe what they want to believe.

No one believes the explanations given by those who witnessed the Battle of Pyongyang, but people are more willing to believe the words in books.

Only 20 years after the end of the Battle of Pyongyang, some people began to search for the "truth".

When the republic is too weak, no matter what it does, it is wrong even to resist aggression, and it will be considered as standing still and rejecting civilization.

When the Republic is too strong, no matter what it does is right, even if it invades others, it will be considered as spreading civilization and helping others to Sinicize/Yanhua.

(End of this chapter)