"You don't need to be so nervous..." Liu Che looked at the frightened envoy and waved his hands with a smile: "I have been ordered by heaven to rule the eight wastelands. The country of South Vietnam is also under my rule. The subjects of South Vietnam are also my subjects.
To my people, I have always been kind and generous..."
Faced with Liu Che's domineering declaration, the South Vietnamese envoy did not have any objection. Instead, he lowered his head and kowtowed in fear: "Your Majesty is wise!"
Liu Che chuckled.
Looking at the envoy's appearance, Liu Che could roughly estimate the degree of Hanization of the South Vietnam Kingdom.
This South Vietnamese envoy not only behaved in words and deeds, but also had the same etiquette and rules as the Chinese scholar-bureaucrats. Even his clothes and clothes were exactly like those of a Wu Chu scholar-bureaucrat.
By looking at a leopard, Liu Che could probably figure out the degree of Sinicization in Nanyue Kingdom.
It seems that Zhao Tuo, the so-called ‘Great Barbarian Elder’, has done a good job in opening up wasteland!
No wonder Taizu later praised him as "the first cadre to go south".
"Is the King of Nanyue in good health?" Liu Che suddenly asked confusedly.
"Replying to your majesty, and thanks to your great kindness, my lord is in good health and can still eat three measures of rice for each meal..." the envoy replied.
"Haha, that's good!" Liu Che said with a smile.
As for the envoy's answer, it was automatically ignored by Liu Che!
Three buckets of rice, do you think I'm a three-year-old child? Or is your Zhao Tuo a ragtag person?
However, Liu Che can also understand.
There was only one and a half politicians in South Vietnam.
That one is Zhao Tuo, and half is his prime minister Lu Jia.
To put it bluntly, Zhao Tuo only needs to die. With the clumsy political methods of the South Vietnamese rulers, Liu Che has many ways to make them want to die.
"Is King Wu's Huangwu Zuohu still there?" Liu Che asked again leisurely.
"Ah..." When the messenger heard this, he couldn't react and was suddenly attacked. He was immediately panicked and almost collapsed to the ground.
But that's not his fault.
Liu Che's imagination was so big and his thinking was so broad that even in the Han Dynasty, few ministers could keep up with him.
It took the messenger a long time to come to his senses, and he bowed his head and said: "Reporting to your majesty, my lord has been to the imperial Huangwu Zuoji since Emperor Taizong Xiaowen treated him favorably and refused to incriminate him. The kings and ministers of South Vietnam are sincere and frightened, so they only serve
The Emperor of Han is the King of Heaven. Now, my lord no longer even mentions the title of king. Before I leave, my lord tells me: The emperor of China is also the sage emperor! How can I dare to use the title of king to hear the king of heaven when I live in the wilderness?"
"As for the so-called King Wu? My lord has been taught by Emperor Taizong Xiaowen. He knows the righteousness of the emperor and his ministers, but he has abandoned it long ago!"
"Everything I said is true. If there is any deception, I dare you to punish me!"
Liu Che burst out laughing after hearing this.
Regardless of anything else, at least Zhao Tuo is truly unparalleled in the world in his ability to flatter others!
No wonder Emperor Taizong Xiaowen was deceived by him!
If Liu Che hadn't traveled through time and was reborn, he might have been fooled by South Vietnam's acting skills.
The so-called King Wu, Huang Wuzuo, is actually an old story.
Back then, when Empress Lu was in power, the South Vietnamese State bullied the Changsha State and lost the two forces of Wu Zhu and Yao. In addition, the Changsha King of that generation was a little itchy and took the initiative to provoke Zhao Tuo.
So the two countries started fighting.
As a result, the weak Changsha Kingdom was naturally defeated by the South Vietnamese soldiers without any pressure.
When Empress Lu heard this, she became furious.
He ordered Long to wait for Zhou Zao to command 50,000 troops and go to try to distract him. As a result, Zhou Zao was unlucky and happened to encounter a severe summer heat in the south. As soon as the 50,000 troops reached Changsha, more than half of them fell ill. There was no other way but to
It can help Changsha State reorganize its defense first and wait for the next year to fight again.
Who knows, Empress Lu will die next year...
After that, the various Lus took over the power, and the princes and ministers executed them.
Zhou Zao had no choice but to intimidate Zhao Tuo and return to the court with his troops.
Zhao Tuo saw that China was in civil strife, and that Changsha was nothing more than a paper tiger.
So he was brave enough to call himself the King of Wu of Nanyue. Two days later, he bought himself a guard of honor for the emperor like Huangwu Zuohu, proclaimed himself emperor, and took the title of Emperor Wu of Nanyue.
After Emperor Taizong Xiaowen ascended the throne, he discovered that someone actually proclaimed himself emperor?
This is not bad!
But Emperor Taizong Xiaowen at that time was more like a puppet than the emperor.
The military and political power is in the hands of the veteran ministers, and the three or two cats and dogs that are available to them cannot be put on the table.
Therefore, there is no need to fight.
So, Zhao Tuo's old friend Lu Jia was called and asked to go on a mission to South Vietnam.
He also sent people to find Zhao Tuo's relatives who stayed in China, especially Zhao Tuo's ancestral tomb, sent people to repair it, and selected several farmers to guard the Zhao family's tomb.
It seems quite upright and upright.
But Liu Che thought about it privately, isn't this the way the underworld in later generations kidnapped hostages and extorted ransom?
This is clearly telling Zhao Tuo: If you don’t accept it, tear down your ancestral graves! Kill your relatives!
Therefore, what a hell if Zhao Tuo is convinced!
Anyway, according to what Liu Che knew in his previous life, Zhao Tuo retained his imperial title and Huangwu Zuohuan until his death, and his tomb was as good as that of the Chinese Emperor. I don’t know how many gold captains in later generations had the idea of taking his tomb.
The so-called Huangwu Zuohuan is the traditional Chinese emperor's chariot.
The emperor's chariot has a yellow cover as its roof and is named Huangwu. A yak's tail or dove tail is placed on the scale on the left side of the emperor's chariot as a sign and decoration. This is the Zuohuan.
How could a 'barbarian elder' come up with this orthodox emperor's driving etiquette, which originated from the Zhou rites?
Anyway, Liu Che didn't believe that Zhao Tuo, who was appointed by Qin Shihuang as the deputy commander of the southern army and a senior general in the Qin Empire system, would make fun of serious political issues like Huangwu Zuoji.
Therefore, Zhao Tuo played a trick on Emperor Taizong Xiaowen.
His so-called self-destruction of the imperial title was actually just a show.
But he no longer openly promoted himself to the outside world as the Emperor Wu of South Vietnam. He usually went to court and went on tours, and still regarded himself as the emperor. Huangwu Zuohuan was still by his side.
But for politicians, as long as they can live up to their reputation, even if they know it is a lie, they can recognize it by pinching their noses.
What's more, the Han Dynasty at that time was simply in poverty.
After the Zhulu Rebellion, the treasury was so poor that it could run away with rats.
The little wealth that Liu Bang and Empress Lu had worked hard to save fell into the pockets of the heroes in the process of the princes and ministers jointly destroying Zhu Lu.
The majestic emperor of the Han Dynasty couldn't even drag the skirts of his favorite concubines on the ground, and he couldn't even build a pavilion for himself!
Where does the military spending come from?
Let's just forget about it.
However, no one expected that the situation in this world would change so quickly!
After the late emperor smashed Liu Bi's crown prince to death on a chessboard in Chang'an, the entire situation in the south of the Han Dynasty changed.
King Wu Liu Bi began to prepare for rebellion and revenge.
If you want to rebel, Mitsukoshi has to deal with it.
Relying on Wu's strong national, financial and military power, Wu Jun made Mitsukoshi surrender without much effort.
In order to counter the erosion of Wu State, Nanyue State started the tradition of sending the prince's son as a hostage in Chang'an.
However, the Yellow House Zuohuan still exists after all.
Zhao Tuo could hide it from others, but he couldn't hide it from Liu Che!
Liu Che didn't want Zhao Tuo to keep that kind of thing like Huangwu Zuojun's rebelliousness and slap in the Han Dynasty's face.
The reason he spoke this time was just to scare him. Liu Che believed that Zhao Tuo was a smart man who knew what to do.
For a realist politician like Zhao Tuo, he also knows how to weigh the pros and cons.
Therefore, Liu Che waved his hand and said with a smile: "Really? Is my intelligence source wrong?"
The messenger was so frightened that he was sweating profusely.
Zhao Tuo still retains the matter of Huangwu Zuohuan. After the Han Dynasty became more and more powerful, it became a state secret of the South Vietnam Kingdom. In the past ten years, Zhao Tuo no longer used the imperial title to issue orders openly.
I didn’t take Huang Wuzuo’s car to go on tour again.
He was just afraid of irritating the Han Dynasty, especially the King of Wu who had lost his son and was mentally disturbed.
The Huangwu Zuohu and the imperial system were also in the Nanyue Palace, and Zhao Tuo was enjoying himself.
After the fall of Korea, Zhao Tuo was deeply afraid that Chang'an would turn his target on him, so he burned the Yellow House Zuohu, which could attract hatred, overnight.
"There is a spy in the palace!" the messenger thought fiercely.
If there were no spies to deliver the news, where would the emperor of the Han Dynasty know about it?
"When I return to the country, I will report it to King Ming and find out the spy!"
On the surface, he had to say: "Your Majesty knows clearly that my Lord has always been loyal and loyal. How dare you go beyond the rules of a monarch and his ministers?"
Liu Che smiled, but he didn't believe a word of what the messenger said.
Liu Che knew very well that Zhao Tuo even dared to proclaim himself emperor, so why wouldn't he dare to just bully the emperor?
For Zhao Tuo, just pretending to be false or conciliating is enough!
The key to South Vietnam still lies in Zhao Hu and his son.
Controlling Zhao Hu and his descendants is like turning Nanyue into a real vassal of the Han Dynasty, and then slowly infiltrating it. When the time comes, naturally you can do whatever you want.
Liu Che felt that he already had an understanding of the Nanyue Kingdom and its domestic political attributes, as well as the feelings of the aristocratic ministers of Nanyue towards the Han Dynasty.
South Vietnam, if it wants to evolve peacefully, it must at least wait until Zhao Tuo is dead!
As long as Zhao Tuo lives, he can control the situation with his prestige and popularity.
It's clear just by looking at the messenger in front of you.
This envoy was already very Chinese. At least, Liu Che could communicate with him without any obstacles, and the other party could skillfully use allusions from the Han Dynasty to speak.
But he was loyal to Zhao Tuo wholeheartedly and sacrificed his life.
Zhao Tuo ruled South Vietnam for nearly sixty years, and he was kind to all tribes, especially his actions since he came to power. Even Liu Che also appreciated it.
For example, according to Liu Che's understanding, Zhao Tuo strongly advocated intermarriage between Han and Vietnamese without distinction. In order to strengthen national integration, he would insist on accepting women from all classes in Baiyue as concubines every year.
Zhao Tuo is ninety-one years old this year!
It’s really hard for him to still insist on marrying a concubine!
As for Zhao Tuo's subordinates, they were forcibly matched with Baiyue girls.
For another example, in order to change the situation of South Vietnam's backward agricultural level and primitive farming technology, Zhao Tuo dispersed his troops to various tribes in Baiyue, taught the Vietnamese people to use farm tools, cultivate intensively, and spread China's advanced agricultural technology to all tribes in Baiyue.
The tribe made Baiyue leap from primitive society to feudal society.
He also vigorously promoted the county system, taught Chinese culture, and trained Baiyue indigenous officials.
In today's South Vietnam, Vietnamese and Chinese officials are almost indistinguishable.
Everyone has a Chinese surname and writes Chinese characters in Chinese.
More importantly, Zhao Tuo once mobilized his troops. He went down to the grassroots level, dug wells, dredged rivers, filled swamps, and opened roads.
It is no exaggeration to say that it was Zhao Tuo who completely integrated Guangdong, Guangxi and even Jiaozhi into China.
You have to know that now Zhao Tuo has established counties and implemented rule in Vietnam in later generations, and he is getting along well with the local indigenous people.
From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, Jiaozhi County was an integral part of China. Even in the era when the Five Husties disrupted China, Jiaozhi was firmly under China's control.
It was not until the fifth generation that unfilial descendants led to the division of Jiaozhi, and then the monkeys barked.
Therefore, if Zhao Tuo is willing to join in, Liu Che will definitely not hesitate to reward him generously. He will even give Liu the surname and split the earth to become the king. Hereditary inheritance - Zhao Tuo's achievements are definitely worthy of such a reward!
But it's a pity that Zhao Tuo is not that stupid.
How could he be naive if he could achieve the status of Zhao Tuo and go through the experience he did?
"The envoy has returned home. Please tell the King of Nanyue..." Liu Che stood up and suddenly said: "Mr. Zhao has the merits of Taigong and Guan Zhong's service. I am very respectful. If one day, unfortunately, we meet each other, I will treat Duke Zhao kindly."
, treat him like a state guest!”
Taigong is Jiang Taigong, the founder of Jiang Qi. Jiang Taigong ruled Qi and integrated Dongyi into the Chinese lineage. From then on, Qi and Lu became an integral part of China.
Guan Zhong assisted Qi Henggong, united the nine princes, unified the world, and saved the Chinese civilization from collapse. He also put forward the earliest nationalist slogans and the theory of the Hua-Yi debate.
These two people are sages whom Liu Che admires very much.
Zhao Tuo's achievements were no less than those of Taigong Guan Zhong.
In Chinese history, there are countless Zhao Tuo.
It was these ancestors who fought hard, overcame thorns, and shed their blood to create the territory of China in later generations and the heavenly kingdom.
Of course, at this time, Zhao Tuo's existence hindered unification and was a potential enemy of the Han Dynasty.
Liu Che still understands this clearly.
Therefore, towards Zhao Tuo, respect should be regarded as respect, and attack should be regarded as attack.
In the future, future generations will comment on the history.
Liu Che calculated the time in his mind and found that Zhao Tuo could probably live another ten years.
"As long as you don't seek death, I will let you die in peace. In the future, your descendants will guard your tomb and offer sacrifices to you, and enjoy incense and blood!" Liu Che said silently in his heart.
But the messenger was frightened to death.
What does this Han emperor mean?
Soldiers meet each other????
He quickly kowtowed: "How dare I and my lord rebel against the Han Dynasty? My lord often teaches me and others. The Son of Heaven, our Heavenly King, is sacred and majestic, inviolable, supreme and indestructible. Your Majesty walks like a dragon or a tiger, like a god."
Heaven, the blessings extend to birds, beasts, grass and trees, and rain and dew spread all over the world. I and my lords are sincere and frightened. I only wish to be your Majesty's vassal forever. I will invite you to court every year, pay tribute every year, and be your Majesty's minions forever! Please give me a clear warning!
"
As he spoke, he kept kowtowing until his head almost broke.
When Liu Che saw it, he couldn't help but become curious.
How could South Vietnam produce such a loyal minister?
It is indeed rare!
Liu Che flipped through the credentials and saw this person's name: Zheng Yong, courtesy name Zijiang.
Looking at his appearance, he is obviously of mixed Chinese and Vietnamese descent.
Liu Che pondered for a moment and said: "Zheng Qing's name comes from "Poetry. Zhou Nan. Han Guang" Jiang Zhiyong. Isn't it incredible?"
Zheng Yong kowtowed and said: "Your majesty, the Holy Ming Wu Guo, the name of this minister is chosen by the teacher, and it is indeed derived from "Poetry"!"
Liu Che nodded: "I will always be as long as the water, and I will always think of the rivers and seas. Who is your teacher?"
Zheng Yong kowtowed and said: "Your Majesty, my mentor, Duke Zhao of Guangling, Jiangdu. Master Zhao came to South Vietnam from Guangling twenty years ago. He taught his children, poems, calligraphy, etiquette, and music to my ministers. I can't thank you enough."
!”
Liu Che nodded, roughly understanding what was going on.
At that time, there was a King of Chu Yuan, Liu Jiao, in the Han Dynasty. His favorite thing was to spread culture. With the support of Liu Jiao's private treasury, many literati, just like Tang Sanzang went to India, with the support of King Chu Yuan, went to Mitsukoshi.
The southwestern barbarians set out to spread culture and Chinese ideology in a foreign land.
After the death of King Chu Yuan, his son, King Ying Ke of Chu Yi, was also a young man of letters. He continued to follow his father's path and support cultural undertakings.
Later, Xiaozhu was able to eat Mitsukoshi so smoothly and develop the southwest. King Chu Yuan and King Chu Yi must be credited with this achievement!
Most of these scholars who traveled far and wide to spread culture were from the Confucian lineage.
Therefore, the later rise and dominance of Confucianism was not without reason. Just its persistence, perseverance and piety in its own doctrines and thoughts put it several steps ahead of other schools of thought.
Liu Che couldn't help but ask: "Is Teacher Aiqing still here?"
Hearing this, Zheng Yong couldn't help but reveal a slightly sad look on his face, and kowtowed: "My mentor drove to the west two years ago. I and my disciples personally supported the spirit and sent my mentor's coffin back to his hometown..."
"I am also touched by the teacher's kindness in preaching, imparting knowledge and solving doubts..." Liu Che turned around and told Wang Dao, "Pass on my order and order King Jiangdu to visit Zhao Jun's grave and send people to pay tribute and sweep it!"
As Liu Che spoke, he spread out a piece of white paper on the table, splashed ink on it, wrote down a sentence, handed it to Wang Dao, and ordered: "Go and carve my words on the stone in front of Zhao Jun's tomb!"
Wang Dao took the piece of white paper and took a peek at it, only to see eight big characters: If you don't say anything about peach and plum, you will make a mistake.
For Liu Che, this inscription was not only his reward for those literati like Zhao Jun who worked hard to spread Chinese culture, but also a political statement on his part.
I intend to use this to tell people all over the world: I will no longer pursue the Confucian scandal, and you should stop pestering me.
It is also a strategy used to win over Confucian people's hearts.
Of course, I would like to express my gratitude to the South Vietnamese envoy Zheng Yong.
In Liu Che's view, Zheng Yong may be a good chess piece that can be used to stir up the situation in South Vietnam.
Even if it doesn't work, it can still improve the reputation and leave a good impression in the minds of the scholar-bureaucrats and nobles in South Vietnam, which will facilitate the peaceful evolution in the future, right?
Anyway, it was just an inscription. Even if it failed, Liu Che would not lose anything.
What's more, this is a good thing that kills two birds with one stone! (To be continued...)
