Chapter 123 Offensive and Defensive Alliance (asking for monthly ticket)

Although they talked and laughed, the people of the Tang Dynasty who were watching were also wondering in their hearts.

Regardless of whether the people of the grasslands are Turks or Tiele, they are all a people on horseback and have grown up on horseback since childhood.

Whether it is horse riding or horse archery, they are things people have been playing since childhood.

For this first project, I hope Datang can't even make it into the top three?
Seeing that the grassland people who participated in the worst horse riding and archery competition all got scores of 9, 7, and 8, it was finally the turn of the Tang Dynasty contestants to compete in horse riding and archery.

The first person to participate in the horseback archery was contestant No. 1003 from the Tang Dynasty.

He mounted his horse, drew his bow, and put an arrow on it, all in one go, and happily got the third, fourth, and second rings.

After all, he was not born to be good at riding and shooting, so the people of the Tang Dynasty did not blame him too much, but instead cheered for contestant No. 1003.

Contestant No. 1003 also felt a little embarrassed, but seeing that the people were still so enthusiastic towards him, he could only bow to everyone embarrassedly.

The second one is contestant No. 1002, who is better than him...but also still as bad as him.

The Sixth Ring Road, the Fourth Ring Road and the Fifth Ring Road, in short... on average, there is one more ring than the Fourth Ring Road.

Amid the cheers, contestant No. 1002 saluted the people with his arms crossed, feeling proud instead of ashamed.

There is no other reason, it’s mainly because there is someone worse than him at the bottom.

Although the people were still cheering for him, they no longer had any hope for the remaining 1001.

The first two were not accurate, let alone the last one.

Li Ji covered his face with his hands, looking as if he couldn't bear to watch.

He was a little confused as to why Li Xiang had to find him and ask him to select two people whose archery skills were neither good nor bad, (somewhat bad with a little bit of good), to participate in the horse riding and archery competition.

Isn't this just asking for trouble?
But considering that Li Xiang was the favorite to win the championship, Li Ji decided to sell him.

"Is it possible that our Tang Dynasty is really going to be at the bottom?" Li Shimin muttered to Li Xiang. He even wanted to roll up his sleeves and fight himself.

After all, it is well known that in the Tang Dynasty, when it comes to shooters, Lao Li is still the best.

In fact, it’s not these people’s fault. After all, those who practice riding and shooting are all in the Black Armor Army.

"Don't be anxious, old man. Just look down." Li Xiang said confidently.

Following Wang De's introduction, a young general in a white robe, who was extremely arrogant, came out riding a white dragon horse.

It was Xiaoxiang's trusted and beloved general, Xue Rengui.

"1001, we are dressed so ostentatiously, please don't lose face!" the people around shouted.

It would have been fine if he was wearing something else, but Xue Rengui was so handsome and dressed so ostentatiously that the people immediately lost their sympathy for him.

"That's right, we have survived swords and guns!" The Tang army soldiers were also adding fuel to the fire.

"Yes, cheer up! Cheer up!"

Xue Rengui crossed his arms and saluted the "cheering" crowd around him, looking extremely immodest.

Li Shimin smiled and shook his head, looking at Li Xiang and said, "This kid, like Luo Shixin, just likes to stand out."

Finally, he added: "I heard that he can eat, but he is not a glutton."

"Just watch, he draws a six-stone bow." Li Xiang said with a smile.

"Oh, six stones..." Li Shimin said indifferently, but suddenly he realized it and asked in disbelief, "Duo Shao?"

"Six stones." Li Xiang said with a smile.

At the same time, the sound of drums was heard. Li Xiang said to Lao Li, "Aunt, let's watch Xue Rengui shoot arrows first."

Li Shimin immediately looked towards the center of the field and saw the young general in white robe galloping past. He twisted his horse in an extremely unscientific posture and shot three arrows in a row, straight at the target!

Someone immediately ran over, checked the target, and reported to Wang De.

Wang De slammed the table and cheered loudly, "Congratulations to contestant No. 1001 from Datang. The first arrow scored points! The second arrow scored points! The third arrow also scored points!"

There was a moment of silence in the field. No one had expected that this extremely arrogant young player could bring such honor to the Tang Dynasty.

"Good! 1001! It really brings honor to the Tang Dynasty! It doesn't lose face!" Everyone immediately cheered in unison.

Li Shimin stretched out his hand to cover the awning, and subconsciously muttered: "He is such a great archer, I love him to death!"

"Hahaha, didn't Grandad just say that I'm a glutton?" Li Xiang asked with a smile.

"I judged people by their appearance, hahaha." Li Shimin didn't think it was a big deal and admitted his mistake straightforwardly.

This was repeated several times until the target was placed 200 steps away, at which point the winner was decided.

The first place is Xue Rengui, contestant No. 1001 from the Tang Dynasty; the second place is contestant No. 1002 from the Turkic tribe, named Geshulue; and the third place is a contestant from the Tongluo tribe, named Duolan Gegeluo.

Three people stood on the podium, Xue Rengui stood in the highest position in the middle, and next to him were Ge Shulue and Dolan Gegeluo.

Seeing Li Shimin walking towards them, the three of them were filled with excitement.

What an honor it is to be received by the Heavenly Khan, to be personally awarded a medal, and even to be given a name by him?

The first person to receive the award was the first place winner Xue Rengui.

Li Shimin took the medal and put it on Xue Rengui personally.

"I promote you to be the guerrilla general and the brave general of Yunquan Prefecture." Li Shimin patted Xue Rengui's arm and encouraged him, "Stay with the Prince of Hengshan first, and when there is a war in the future, come to my side and serve me."

"Yes!" Xue Rengui patted his chest and bowed.

Li Shimin looked at the second place, Ge Shulue, beside him and put the medal around his neck.

"Please grant me a name, Your Majesty the Khan!" Geshulue still couldn't hide his excitement, and the emotion in his tone had not yet subsided.

"From now on, you will be called Shu Lue, with the courtesy name Dingce." Li Shimin named him with a smile, then took a pen and ink from the side and wrote it down for him.

It is a supreme honor to be given a name and a character by the Khan himself.

Ge Shulue... should be called Shulue. He knelt down on the ground, unable to suppress his excitement: "I... I have a Chinese name now! I am a Tang person now!"

"Why don't you thank me?" Dolan Gegro, who was standing next to him, kicked him and kindly reminded him.

Shu Lue finally reacted and bowed to Old Li.

Old Li encouraged him a few words, took the bronze medal, walked up to Dolan Gegro, and put the medal on him.

"Please give me a name, Your Majesty the Khan!" Dolan Gegeluo also said so.

Li Shimin pondered for a moment and said cleverly, "From now on, you can be called Roland, and your courtesy name will be Abel."

Roland also thanked him repeatedly, and was very excited. In addition to the gold, silver and bronze medals, the first place winner also received three sheep as a reward, the second place winner received two, and the third place winner received one sheep.

After the award ceremony, Li Shimin returned to the stands again.

He really liked this award ceremony.

The sports meet lasted for two days, and the most popular events were sheep-catching and polo.

Grabbing sheep is a traditional activity on the grassland. Datang did not participate in it, for one reason and for another reason he was not interested in it.

The audience in the Tang Dynasty also came to watch the fun, watching people riding horses and robbing sheep on the grassland, which was quite entertaining.

But the people of the grassland are different. How could they not be excited when they saw that the Tang Dynasty actually included their favorite events in the sports games?
Polo is an activity that is loved by people in the Tang Dynasty and on the grasslands, and it is the one that receives the loudest cheers in the entire stadium.

On the evening of the day the conference ended, Li Shimin summoned the leaders of various tribes together and entered Shuozhou City.

In the Shuozhou government office, Li Shimin prepared a sumptuous dinner for the leaders of various tribes.

Just as Li Xiang said, the state banquet of the Tang Dynasty must match the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.

There were ten dishes and one soup in total for the dinner, which seemed like a lot, but the plating style was completely that of Western cuisine, aiming for the principle of less but better.

Regardless of how it tastes, at least the appearance of this dish is absolutely high-end and classy.

What's more, Chinese food is naturally delicious in appearance, aroma and taste. Although the leaders of each tribe are all big-bellied men from the grassland, they began to hypnotize themselves under the influence of their own CPU.

What do we, the rough folks on the grassland, know about food culture? Eat! Eat without saying a word!

This is not called being young, this is called elegance. Do you understand elegance?

It was the same as the previous banquet for Tumidu, except that Wang De stood in the center of the venue and explained the various dishes to the leaders of each tribe.

The dinner was divided into two groups, one for the grassland leaders and the other for the athletes who won various medals. Fu Bao was in charge of the athletes this time, explaining the Tang Dynasty state banquet to them.

In the eyes of the grassland people, the cuisine of the Tang Dynasty was so beautiful and exquisite that even picking up chopsticks was considered a blasphemy.

If they weren't extremely hungry, no one would pick up their chopsticks to touch the dish that was truly a perfect work of art.

With the state banquet hosted by the Tang Dynasty, this sports meeting came to a successful conclusion.

The only thing that was not perfect was that Yinan's face looked a little bad.

He knew that the sheep that Li Shimin rewarded to the athletes came from the compensation from Xueyantuo.

But he had no choice. After all, he had to bow his head when he was under someone else's roof.

Regarding the fact that they had offended the Xueyantuo, small and medium-sized tribes such as the Huihe were still somewhat worried. They were still afraid of the Xueyantuo's military might and feared that they would retaliate against them in the future.

Old Li knew their concerns. He had actually proposed this matter a long time ago. When the wine was hot, he raised his glass and said, "Everyone, it is not easy for us to gather here. I feel deeply that there are constant disputes on the grassland, and it is common for large tribes to bully small tribes. In order to prevent this from happening, and for the long-term peace and stability of the grassland, and for everyone to live in harmony, I plan to make a rule for everyone."

"If there is a conflict between the two tribes in the future, they can go to Chang'an to request a ruling. If it really can't be resolved, they can compete at the sports meeting."

"In addition, I intend to form an alliance. In this alliance, we will be allies, take what we need from each other, protect each other's caravans, abandon past hatreds, and prohibit attacks. What do you think?"

Hearing this statement of abandoning past grudges, everyone except Yi Nan looked happy.

If they joined this offensive and defensive alliance, it would mean that Xueyantuo would never be able to settle old scores with them in the future.

If you dare to raise an army to punish me, then don't blame the Tang Dynasty for not having a sharp enough sword.

Of course Yinan understood what Li Shimin meant. That was to use the mighty power of the Tang Dynasty to forcibly suppress him from taking any action of revenge.

You asked him whether he wanted to take revenge on the Huihe and other tribes. Of course he did.

But if you ask him whether he dares to offend the Tang Dynasty, he really doesn't dare now.

"I think it's a good idea." The leader of the Huihe tribe, Tumidu, was the first to stand up and say, "We all jointly recommend the Tang Dynasty as the leader, and the other tribes will each perform their duties. This is really a good thing. I second the proposal!"

The Khitan leader Dahe Kuge also stood up and said, "I also think the Khan's proposal is very good!"

Afterwards, the rest of the tribes stood up one after another to respond to Li Shimin's proposal. Even the leaders of several vassal tribes of Xueyantuo stood up to express their support for Li Shimin's proposal.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Yinan could only stand up reluctantly and express that he had no objection either.

Seeing that the biggest troublemaker had no objection, Li Shimin laughed and said, "If that's the case, then let's do it this way. After the sacrifice to heaven tomorrow, the covenant will be formally established."

"The Heavenly Khan is wise!" Everyone bowed down.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, several leaders of small tribes came forward and asked Li Shimin to help them resolve some minor conflicts among themselves.

Of course Li Shimin did not refuse. Small conflicts would become bigger and bigger if they were delayed.

The first to stand up were the leaders of Tongluo and Pugu.

"Your Majesty, the Khan, we sent out troops the day before yesterday and captured more than ten thousand cattle and sheep."

After Chief Tongluo finished speaking, Yinan's face became even uglier.

Damn it, all they stole were my cattle and sheep!

The leader of Tongluo noticed Yi Nan's ugly face, but ignored him and continued, "We in Tongluo suffered many casualties, so we wanted to share more cattle and sheep to make up for the losses, but the people of the Pugu tribe made greater contributions and refused to give in."

"I know what you mean." Li Shimin said with a smile: "Since the people of the Pugu tribe have made great contributions, they should share more cattle and sheep; the people of the Tongluo tribe suffered heavy casualties, so we should add more people. What do you think, my two ministers?"

The two looked at each other and were very satisfied with this distribution plan.

"In that case, then I thank His Majesty the Khan for his arbitration!" The two of them expressed their gratitude.

After the two men retreated, people from two other tribes came forward and wanted Li Shimin to help them resolve the conflicts between the tribes.

Li Shimin also accepted everyone who came to him. Having been in power for a long time, he had long learned how to treat everyone equally. He did not have to think too much to give the two tribes a relatively satisfactory result.

Everyone once again admired Tian Khan's wisdom. Li Xiang stood aside and felt proud to see everyone praising him.

Of course, he was not just feeling proud of himself, he also learned a lot from it.

We have to learn from Li Shimin's political wisdom.

Of course...Yinan didn't want to mention the conflicts between Xueyantuo and other tribes, and other tribes also tried their best to avoid mentioning matters related to this aspect.

In short, a world where everyone is happy and only Xueyantuo is injured has been achieved.

But he had no reason to say anything, after all, he was the one who made the mistake first.

After dealing with the conflicts among the tribes, Li Xiang also stood up.

This was something he had discussed with Li Shimin a long time ago. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the elephant also wanted to extend its nose to the various tribes on the grassland and firmly control them from another perspective!

(The third update is here. I'm about to faint...)
(End of this chapter)