Chapter 339 Li Chengqian: My father has already finished my work

I have to say that Liu Zude's proposal is quite tempting.

What man could resist the opportunity to paint a map?
It turns out that men remain young until they die.

Children's hobby is drawing maps on their beds, and adults' hobby is coloring on maps.

The current Mayan region is the most perfect canvas in Li Yin's eyes. Given his personality, he will definitely not be able to resist the temptation to dye on it.

"This is a very good proposal." Li Yin expressed his high approval: "Let's do it this way. How can I allow others to snore beside my bed? I have decided to unify Maya!"

Li Yin's ambition gradually grew, and he also planned to come up with a great idea.

Even though they are brothers, in this respect, he and Li Chengqian are somewhat similar.

However, after his evil deeds, Li Chengqian no longer thought about his great idea.

After being tortured continuously, Li Chengqian began to think carefully and prepared to put forward his ideas after careful research.

As the saying goes, Chang'an was not built in a day (Li Xiang's words), Li Chengqian felt that this made a lot of sense.

There is nothing wrong with what he said. Li Chengqian thought to himself that not only was Chang'an not built in one day, but even one day belonged to Li Jiancheng.

Of course, Li Yuanji had no share either.

After more than half a year on the throne, Li Chengqian no longer had the ambition he had when he first ascended the throne.

Naturally, the ministers had no intention of urging him to work diligently. After all, not every emperor was Li Shimin. Some emperors could make greater contributions in their lifetime as long as they didn't make any trouble and just had fun in the harem than he would have done through his hard work.

For example, Yang Guang’s contribution to the Sui Dynasty through his death was greater than his entire life.

Li Chengqian would naturally not fall to the level of Yang Guang, but it would be better to have less trouble.

His father had already done all the work he was supposed to do in his lifetime during the Zhenguan period.

In the Yonghui Dynasty, everything was going according to plan and in order. Li Chengqian also adopted Li Xiang's suggestion of "following Xiao's rules and Cao's rules firmly" and did not change anything.

He is now a ruthless stamping machine.

But then again, even though Li Chengqian didn't come up with any great ideas, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty was growing stronger day by day.

From this we can see that having a capable father is useless. If the descendant is as prodigal as Yang Guang, it will be useless even if he has three emperors of the level of Li Shimin before him.

After several months of long journey, Li Ke also brought his men to the Western Regions.

The Han Dynasty was officially established, and its capital was set in Gaofu, which is today's Kabul.

It extends to Persia in the west, India in the south, Gumo in the north, and the Pamir Mountains in the east. This is the territory of Li Ke's Han Kingdom.

After arriving in Gaofu, Li Ke did not rush to use military force, but first conducted a census of the country to get a thorough understanding.

Afterwards, he issued various decrees, such as reducing domestic taxes, and quickly won the hearts of the people.

The Western Regions at that time were not as tenacious as in later generations. There was no religious consciousness and no national consciousness. Li Ke's policies were better than at any other time, and this was enough to make people follow him wholeheartedly.

At the same time, Persia, which was at war, and the Indian countries in the south sent people to express their congratulations to Li Ke.

What Li Ke did not expect was that even Li Xiang and Fu Lin, whom he had mentioned, sent envoys to Gaofu to congratulate him.

Fulin's situation was not very good either. Ever since the fierce war with Persia, a prophet had rapidly risen in the southern peninsula.

Under the guidance of this prophet, the Arab states quickly united together, defeated the strong with the weak many times, and became almost invincible.

The newly born Caliphate quickly directed its war towards Fulin. In the seventh year of Zhenguan, the Caliph's army advanced in four directions, attacking Jerusalem, Bosra, Damascus, and Homs, and received support from the "Monophysites" in these areas.

In the eighth year of Zhenguan, the Arab side, led by the brave general Khalid, defeated the Byzantine army in Blas in Transjordan and Achinadan in Palestine.

In the ninth year of Zhenguan, the Arab army captured Damascus, and Jerusalem and Syria also fell into the hands of the enemy.

Heraclius sent his brother Theodora to fight, and once recaptured Damascus and other cities, but was defeated in the Battle of the Yarmouk River in June, and Theodora was killed in the battle.

After that, the Arabs pursued the victory, and by the time Heraclius died in the 15th year of Zhenguan, the Jerusalem area, Syria, Jordan and even Egypt had become part of the vibrant Arab Empire.

From then on, the Fulin Empire became a country with a greatly reduced territory, struggling under the attack of the Arabs.

The emperor who reigns now is Constance II, nicknamed "Bearded Constantine". He is the grandson of Heraclius and inherited the throne of the Roman Emperor in the 15th year of Zhenguan.

The Court of Defeat was not only famous for its defeats, but also for the swordplay and bloodshed in its palace politics, which became the prototype for countless Western novels in later generations.

Since the mysterious death of Constantine III, the father of Constantine II, in September of the 15th year of Zhenguan, supporters of Constantine III, who were persecuted by Queen Mother Martina, military commander Valentinus, Philagelius and other ministers fled to Chalcedon with Constance, and with the support of the army, forced Martina to appoint Constans II as co-emperor. Martina was unwilling to fail, and appointed Constans II and her own sons Marinus and David as co-emperors at the same time, which completely angered them and the army.

At the end of September, the Senate held a meeting to announce the dethronement of Heraclonus, also known as Heraclius II. Heraclonus' nose was split and Martina's tongue was cut off, and they were exiled to Rhodes. The eleven-year-old Constans II was elected emperor, and Martina's chaotic politics came to an end.

This year, Constans II just turned twenty-one years old.

Constans II was not only curious about this Han king who came from the mysterious ancient Eastern country, but also respected him.

Even though he was thousands of miles away from the Tang Dynasty, Constans II had heard of the great reputation of the Tang Emperor.

Since he was a child, bards from Persia had been telling him about the great achievements of the Tang Emperor, including but not limited to the Battle of Wulao Pass where eight hundred troops defeated one hundred thousand, as well as various genius arts of war.

As for the Persian bards, the source of their stories was the Tang Dynasty’s missionary group.

There were also several students from the Tang Dynasty who were very interested in Fulin, so they traveled across mountains and rivers to Fulin and were summoned to the palace by Constans II, where they listened to their stories about the Tang Dynasty day and night.

For Westerners of that time, the Tang Dynasty represented not only mystery but also power.

The barbarians who were so powerful in the north of the Tang Dynasty were as tough as the Germanic people who destroyed the Western Roman Empire. However, they were still unable to withstand the Tang Dynasty's military force. They were trampled to pieces by the Tang Dynasty's iron hooves, and even their leaders were taken to the Tang Dynasty's capital, Chang'an, to dance.

Constans II was full of longing for the Tang Dynasty, and he also hoped that one day he could capture the Caliph and make him dance in Constantinople. He also secretly vowed that he would never let Constantinople fall into the hands of the Arabs.

Of course, he didn't know that eight hundred years later, Constantinople would fall and even its name would be changed to Istanbul.

But then again, Kostantiniyye is the Turkish name for Constantinople, while Istanbul is the common name in Greek. Officially in the Ottoman Empire, "Kostantiniyye" was the official name of the city until the 20th century, but Istanbul was occasionally used.

The name was actually changed to Istanbul after the founding of Turkey by its macho founding father Kemal.

After meeting with Fu Lin's envoy, Li Ke kept him and talked for a long time, from morning to night, and he was still not satisfied.

He was eager to know the current situation in Central Asia. As they talked, they talked about the peace and war between Persia and Eastern Rome, the rise of the Arabs, the history of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the establishment of the Heraclius dynasty.

Contrary to what most people imagine, the Eastern Roman Empire was not a dynasty that lasted for a thousand years. It was also divided into many dynasties, just like our country was divided into Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han and other dynasties. They were also divided into the Leonic Dynasty, the Justinian Dynasty, the Heraclian Dynasty and other dynasties.

Most of these dynasties lasted no more than a hundred years, only the Macedonian dynasty and the last dynasty, Palaiologos, lasted more than a hundred years.

Li Ke also learned a piece of information from the conversation with the envoy. Since the Fulin Empire lost provinces such as Egypt, Africa and Syria, grain production has greatly decreased, meat consumption has begun to increase, and wool and linen have replaced raw cotton produced in Egypt and become the main raw materials for textiles.

That night, he decided to send someone back to go with the envoy to Fulin to find out whether it was true as the envoy said.

If this is true, then Li Ke will become rich.

At the same time, Li Ke set the tone, which was to unite Persia and Fulin to deal with the emerging Arab Empire.

After setting the tone, Li Ke began to prepare for war on the one hand, and continued to sort out the people's livelihood on the other.

As the saying goes, the people are the foundation of the country, and if the foundation is solid, the country will be peaceful. Li Ke understood this truth.

He didn't want to be driven back to the Tang Dynasty before he even got settled down.

By then, not only would she be ashamed to face anyone, even her mother, who had always been proud of her, would not be able to hold her head up in front of her sisters.

Speaking of Concubine Yang, she is now truly proud of herself.

She had two sons. The eldest son became a vassal king and was appointed as the real king of the Han Kingdom. Now she is not only the queen dowager, but also the queen mother of the Han Kingdom.

In the harem, she was always so arrogant and seemed to be in high spirits. She was not like a fifty-year-old woman at all.

This is the amazing thing about the vassal states. Not only is the king alone, his mother is also the queen mother, his wife is the queen, and his son is the crown prince.

Some people have never understood it, and even corrected it in the barrage, saying that the chess master of the Han Dynasty killed the prince of Wu. However, at that time, Liu Bi's son should have been the prince of Wu.

Apart from the fact that Old Li was a little fickle and spent every day with Concubine Xu Hui, Concubine Yang didn't have anything that was not going well.

But she was also very content. She was already fifty years old, and the emperor could still visit her palace when he had time. This was much better than most of the concubines.

One of the reasons is certainly that she is still very young, but the biggest reason is that her two sons are very competitive.

If she knew what great things her second son Li Yin had done in Yindian, she would probably faint from excitement.

After more than half a year of investigation, Li Ke also found out the exact situation of Fu Lin now.

He planned to start trading with the countries in the Western Regions to enrich the Han State, and then discuss other things.

At the same time, he wrote a letter back to the court, explaining the current situation in the West.

After receiving Li Ke's letter, Li Chengqian did not dare to neglect it and immediately summoned Li Xiang and Li Su to the palace for discussion.

"Aye?" Li Xiang walked into the palace and saw Li Chengqian holding a letter, his mind still in turmoil.

What? Could it be that Aye has some new idea?

"Xiang'er is here?" Li Chengqian nodded at him, "Sit and wait for a while, your aunt will be here soon."

Li Xiang came forward curiously and asked, "What's wrong, Father? Why did you summon Aunt to come to Daming Palace? Is something big going to happen?"

"It's nothing serious. Your third uncle sent me a letter." Li Chengqian waved the letter in his hand.

However, what Li Chengqian did not expect was that Li Xiang sat there motionless.

"Why, don't you want to take a look?" Li Chengqian asked curiously. He thought Li Xiang would come and get it directly.

"If father wanted to show it to the child, he would have handed it to me long ago." Li Xiang said with a smile, anticipating Li Chengqian's prediction.

Li Chengqian:......

It's not a good thing for this child to be too smart...

After a while, Li Shu walked into the Purple Palace.

"Brother, this is Xiang'er." Li Shuhe greeted the two.

"Shu'er is here?" Li Chengqian nodded, "Please sit down. I have something to discuss with you two."

As he said this, he handed the letter to Li Shu and said, "You and Xiang'er, take a look. This is a letter from the third brother."

Li Shu took the letter and opened it. He read it with Li Xiang who came over. He raised his head and asked, "Third brother, do you mean that the Egyptian region is where cotton is produced?"

"Not only does it produce cotton, it also produces natural soda ash." Li Xiang said casually, and then said: "It seems that Third Uncle has really worked hard. It hasn't been long since he figured out the basic situation."

"The problem now is that Egypt is occupied by the Arabs, and the cotton and grain-producing areas are all controlled by the Arabs. If we rashly do business with Fulin, we will definitely be targeted by the Arabs." Li Chengqian stretched out his hand and knocked on the table: "We not only want to sell cotton and grain, but the Arabs also want to sell them, forming a competitive relationship. The sky is high and the Tang Dynasty is far away. In addition, they have recently risen and are invincible. It is hard for them not to have some ideas about our caravan."

"Isn't our purpose to go there to deal with the Arabs?" Li Xiang nodded and said, "Conflict with the Arabs is not a problem. The problem now is that we want to trade with Fulin and the countries west of Fulin. Can our army provide protection for the caravan?"

(End of this chapter)