Chapter 119: Pretty unique?

Tumidu's words were of course from the bottom of his heart, but to the ears of the envoys of various ethnic groups, they had a different meaning.

What you said... there is something else behind your words!

Are you hitting us?
What does it mean that some dogs bite everything after they are full and don’t know who their real owner is?

My loyalty to His Majesty the Khan is evident to all!

The most loyal Khitan didn't think so. Instead, he felt that what Tumidu said was right.

In fact, the Khitans were truly loyal subjects of the Tang Dynasty. If it weren't for Wu Zetian's mischief, Li Jinzhong would not have rebelled.

The envoys returned to their homes, each with their own thoughts, and reported to their leader what they had seen and heard in Huihe.

All the tribes reached a consensus spontaneously, that is, to enter the Xueyantuo territory to rob... and uphold justice.

Tribes with a large population, such as the Khitan, usually acted alone. As for tribes with a smaller population, such as the Pugu and Tongluo, after discussing the distribution method, they chose to join forces and fight.

Pugu, also known as Pugu, is the tribe from which Pugu Huai'en, a famous general of the Tang army during the Anshi Rebellion, came.

While the Tang allied forces were sharpening their swords, the Xueyantuo troops were also preparing to harass the Tang army.

The two sons of Xueyantuo Khan Yinan, Bazhuo and Yemangtulishi, returned to their respective troops and raised an army with 15,000 men each.

However, they had not gone far when they ran into the looting coalition forces of Tubo, Pugu and Tongluo.

Seeing the Xueyantuo army approaching, it was too late to save the situation, and the coalition forces of the three tribes could only bite the bullet and prepare to fight.

Fortunately, Yemang Tulishi's troops were not numerous, and the three tribes that came out to plunder were all elite troops. Although the casualties were a bit high, Yemang Tulishi's losses were also not small.

More importantly, Yemang Tulishi felt sorry for the injuries suffered by his subordinates and seeing that the enemy was a tough nut to crack, he ordered his troops to withdraw.

But you can't fight with all your might. If you fight with all your might, you will lose your strength. How can you fight against Ba Zhuo?
Bazhuo also encountered the same dilemma, but he was much more shrewd than Yemangtuli, so he just watched the Khitans looting from afar. Anyway, they were not looting the Xueyantuo headquarters, so there was no need to go up and rescue them.

As the days passed, the Xueyantuo began to retreat, and both sides suffered losses in the battle.

But after all, the battle took place in the Xueyantuo territory, and it is winter now, so life is really difficult.

This time it was not Yinan's turn to advocate peace. Even the stubborn elements under his command began to come to Yinan and ask him to apologize to His Majesty Xiangtian Khan.

Looking at his subordinates in the tent who were begging him to submit to the Khan, Yinan suddenly felt a long-lost sense of pleasure in his heart.

Damn you, I told you before that I wanted to make peace with them, but you didn’t agree. Now you know how painful it is when this stick hits you, right?
"Some time ago, the Tang Dynasty asked us to hand over the Qibi tribe, but you refused." Yi Nan sighed and said, "Today, the Khitan, Huihe and others came to harass and plunder your tribe. Don't you think it's too late to ask for peace now?"

"His Majesty the Khan has a mind as broad as the sky, so he will naturally not take our mistakes to heart..." Some people tried to save their reputation and even hoped that Li Shimin would not pursue the matter.

"Khan, just agree to the Tang Dynasty's request!" Another person stood up and said, "It's winter now, and those tribes that are vassal states of the Tang Dynasty are coming to plunder our territory again. It's not the same as being a thief for a thousand days, but you can never be on guard against thieves for a thousand days!"

"The Tang Dynasty not only demands the release of Qibi Heli, but also demands the handover of the Qibi tribe. You said before that this would damage the prestige of our Xueyantuo tribe. What do you say now?" Yinan asked again.

"Let's hand it over. They were the ones who betrayed the Tang Dynasty first. Now our Xueyantuo is under the rule of the Tang Dynasty. This is only natural!" everyone said.

You won't cry until you see the coffin. Yi Nan also feels a little tired.

He is now different from the man who had just become the leader of the largest tribe on the grassland more than ten years ago. At that time, he was full of ambition, but now he has been smoothed over by life.

It would be more accurate to say that his edges were smoothed out by the Tang Dynasty rather than by life.

Yi Nan and you both want to know the terror of the Tang army.

Before the 13th year of Zhenguan, Xueyantuo still had a good memory. Since the 13th year of Zhenguan, Xueyantuo had conflicts with the Turkic tribes under the control of the Tang army. After the challenge to the central authority in the 15th year of Zhenguan was completely defeated, Yi Nan sent envoys to pay tribute continuously and requested a marriage alliance.

From then on, Yinan behaved like a grandson in front of the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin sent envoys to scold him many times, but he could only be angry but not say anything.

And now these subordinates finally felt the pain, and Yinan could only sigh: "The Tang Dynasty also demanded compensation of 100,000 cattle and 50,000 sheep."

"This won't do!" Yinan's subordinates said one after another.

They handed over Qibi Heli and the Qibi tribe because they felt that they had little to do with them. It was just handing over one person, so what loss would there be?
But cattle and sheep are different because they really have cattle and sheep at home.

"Okay, you don't have to hand it over." Yi Nan glanced at them, sneered and said, "Then wait until these vassal troops have harassed you to exhaustion, and the Tang army will raid our Khan's tent in one fell swoop. By then, let the Tang army take as many cattle and sheep as they want!"

"This……"

After hearing this, everyone looked at each other.

This is indeed the truth. If you pay it now, you won't have to lose your life. You can just pay some of the cattle and sheep as compensation.

If we wait until the Tang army comes to take them, they will not only take the cattle and sheep.

As we all know, the Tang army has a great passion for human heads.

His martial virtue was so abundant that in the Western Regions and on the grasslands, when there were children crying in the middle of the night, the elders in the family would scare them by saying "The Tang army is coming"!
Now that things have come to this, everyone can only do as they are told.

There's no way, what Yinan said makes sense.

Even if the Tang army did not take action, the Tang allied troops that came and went like the wind would be enough to give them a hard time.

Now that we have decided to make peace, we will definitely act quickly.

That night, Yinan personally came to the tent where Qibi Heli was imprisoned, and even brought a golden and crispy roasted whole lamb.

After all, he was a "wanted criminal", so Yinan had to be cautious. Since he met Cui Dunli, he had been kept in solitary confinement and no one could see him.

Since Li Shimin personally led the army to lead the army, Qibi Heli's treatment has obviously improved a lot, and it has become a bit like "please sit down, please take the seat of honor".

Seeing Yi Nan coming in person and bringing delicious food, Qibi Heli thought he was here to persuade them to surrender again.

Even though he had been on a hunger strike for several days, he still had no intention of eating the whole roasted lamb.

"Don't waste your breath. As a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty, I will never betray the Khan!"

Yinan immediately put on a smile, asked his men to prepare the roasted whole lamb, and placed a set of knives in front of Qibi Heli.

"Haha... How could that be, General Qibi?" Yinan smiled apologetically, "We still have to eat this meal..."

"As a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty, I will never eat a single bite of your food!" Qibi Heli snorted coldly.

"Oh, that won't do." Yinan said immediately, "If General Qibi gets starved, the Khan will blame me when he sees how thin he is." Qibi Heli immediately grasped the point. He thought Yinan was finally willing to let him go, so he looked at Yinan and asked in disbelief, "What did you say? To see His Majesty?"

Yi Nan slapped his thigh and said, "General, you don't know that after Tian Khan knew about the misunderstanding between you and me, he immediately led the army in person to rescue you..."

Hearing these words, Qibi Helihu's eyes became moist.

I thought Yi Nan had finally given in, but I never expected that it was His Majesty, to whom he was loyal, who did not abandon him and even led an army to rescue him...

He stood up unsteadily, then fell to his knees in the direction of Chang'an, crying loudly.

"How can I be so worthy as to ask Your Majesty to condescend to come and rescue me in person!"

He cried and pounded the ground weakly.

Yi Nan was afraid that he would cry too much, so he immediately went forward to support him and whispered in his ear: "General Qibi, you should eat something. You don't want His Majesty the Khan to see you looking thin and haggard and feel sad, do you?"

"Yes...you are right!" Qibi Heli wiped his tears hastily, walked to the side of the roasted whole lamb, picked up a knife, cut off a piece of meat, and stuffed it into his mouth.

After chewing it twice, he felt sad. He sat on the ground, tears streaming down his face. He beat his chest with his hands, his mind full of how to be loyal to Li Shimin.

When Yinan saw that Qibi Heli was finally willing to eat, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Just eat, just eat...

If Qibi Heli were to die of starvation, I'm afraid the heads of the entire Xueyantuo would not be enough to atone for the crime...

On the other side, members of the Khitan tribe were also captured by the Khan's personal guards and tied up.

Qibi Heli's younger brother, Qibi Shamen, stuck his neck out, jumped up and down, and asked, "What are you doing? We have already surrendered to Xueyantuo, why are you arresting us?"

However, one word from the Khan's personal guard made Khibi Shamen sit down on the ground with a deathly pale face.

"You should save this for your discussion with His Majesty the Khan!"

The next day, Yi Nan personally led his men to Shuozhou to ask for peace from the Tang army.

This time we are not sending an envoy, after all, sending an envoy does not reflect the sincerity of seeking peace.

But Yinan's luck was not very good. Just two days after he left, he ran into the Uighur leader Tumidu who came to raid the valley again.

However, his luck could be said to be good, after all, the Uighur leader and he had both served under the Turks in the past, so they knew each other.

Upon hearing that Yi Nan was planning to surrender, Tumidu was overjoyed and offered to escort him all the way to Shuozhou.

Of course Yinan agreed with many thanks. After all, the Tibetans didn't know who he was, and he would be in big trouble if a fight broke out.

A few days later, Yi Nan finally arrived at Shuozhou safely.

After all, Tumidu was a well-known figure in the Tang Xie Army. There were many tribes along the way that coveted the Yi man, but after all, Tumidu was by their side, and there were so many soldiers following him, so they would not have any evil thoughts.

So it was frightening, but not dangerous.

Li Ji stood on the top of the city wall, looking at the cattle and sheep all over the mountains, and couldn't help but tremble again.

Wow, so many cattle and sheep!

Accompanying Yi Nan to Shuozhou this time was his son Yimang Tulishi. After seeing Li Ji, Yimang Tulishi subconsciously began to shiver.

It was not because of anything else. He had just fought a battle with Li Ji on Baidao last year, and tens of thousands of troops were wiped out. He only escaped with a few light cavalry.

Is it possible to not have psychological trauma when facing Li Ji?
In Shuozhou City, Li Xiang had just finished today's lessons.

Although he had left Chang'an, Li Shimin said that the child was still young and could not neglect cultural studies, so he personally became Li Xiang's teacher.

Old Li has fully indulged in the dream of being a teacher. He is always cheerful during every class and is more motivated than anyone else.

The content of the lectures was not about any of that or that stuff, but about using history as a mirror to tell Li Xiang about the gains and losses of governing.

Li Xiang yawned. He was actually a little sleepy just now.

Wang De came in from outside, took a letter and handed it to Li Xiang.

"Prince, this is a letter from Princess Jinyang to you."

Li Xiang was cheered up. He took the letter and opened it.

"Xiang'er, I haven't written to you for a few days. Are you doing well in Shuozhou? Every time I think of Xiang'er, I feel heartbroken. I wrote to you a few days ago to comfort my longing. If you still miss me, please send me a letter. I hope Xiang'er will come back soon. Sibai."

Li Xiang put down the letter and scratched his head.

Could it be that the letter I wrote a few days ago was not delivered to Chang'an?

Attached to the letter was also a letter from his father Li Chengqian.

My goodness, it's even more disgusting than Lao Li's tone. What the hell is this "yeah yeah yi'er yu si"? Did you copy this format from your father? Tell the truth!

Li Chengqian's tone was more severe than Li Mingda's. Apart from the sentence "I miss my son to death", the whole article was full of reprimands for being heartless. He had been gone for so many days without writing to his aunt, his mother, his brother, his second uncle, and his youngest uncle, and finally he whined and said that he had not even written to your father.

Li Xiang was speechless for a while. Just when he was about to write a few replies, he heard a message from outside saying that Xueyantuo Zhenzhu Khan had come to apologize.

Li Xiang thought that "carrying a bundle of thorns to ask for forgiveness" was an allusion. When Li Shimin summoned Yinan to come in, Li Xiang found that Yinan was shirtless with a bundle of thorns tied behind him.

Wow, you guys are all pretty good at learning Chinese culture...

This style... is quite unique?
Li Ji was behind Yinan, his eyes looking elsewhere, not even looking at Yinan.

Of course, Li Shimin also saw Yinan's embarrassing look, but fortunately he was good at controlling his energy, so he suppressed his smile.

"I, the guilty minister Yinan, pay my respects to His Majesty the Heavenly Khan!" Yinan came before Li Shimin and bowed his head with a very respectful attitude.

I have to pay homage this time. Xueyantuo is almost crippled...

"Well," Li Shimin asked knowingly, "What crime have you committed?"

"I shouldn't have been so foolish as to detain General Qibi. This is my fault!" Yinan said sincerely, "This time I came to Shuozhou with the traitor of the Qibi tribe, General Qibi, 50,000 cattle and 100,000 sheep. I only ask His Majesty the Khan to forgive me this time. I swear that as long as I live, Xueyantuo will never rebel against the Tang Dynasty!"

(There should be another chapter soon)
(End of this chapter)