Chapter 50: War Is About to Begin

To be honest, Li Tai was already quite satisfied that Que'er managed to procure seventy to eighty thousand bolts of inferior hemp cloth.

Had Li Tai tried to source such a quantity himself, it truly would have been beyond his reach; only a massive merchant establishment like the Zheng family could conjure up so much in one go.

As the very first garments for these commoners, Li Tai never intended for them to wear these clothes for a lifetime—three months of wear would be more than enough.

What he needed was for them to earn enough money within those three months to buy a brand-new set of clothes and discard these old ones.

After all, what Li Tai desired was for currency to circulate actively in the hands of the common people, rather than having them clutch their coins so tightly that they practically wished to take them down into their graves.

Simply put, aside from this minor episode, the transition of refugees into commoners was proceeding in an orderly and methodical fashion under Li Tai's guidance.

Although an immense number of people had flooded into the entire Guanzhong region, Gaoling had established its own self-contained system for pacifying the populace. These influxes of people were swiftly and orderly digested, transforming instead into the driving force behind Gaoling's development.

To the uninitiated, Li Tai appeared to be scattering wealth recklessly, acting like a deity of fortune scattering riches to compel the common folk into action.

Yet Li Tai knew very well that as long as the imperial court could still afford to dispense grain, his little strategy could continue to play out.

First of all, in this era, grain itself was a form of currency. Secondly, while it seemed as though he was constantly spending money, in reality, what he was parting with were merely material supplies.

As for currency, though it appeared to be draining away, as long as it did not flow out of Gaoling in massive quantities, everything remained strictly within his control.

Therefore, Li Tai had them wear tattered clothes precisely in the hope that they would proactively purchase new ones. His ultimate objective was to keep money circulating within Gaoling, as food, clothing, shelter, and transportation formed the foundational bedrock of the common people.

Just as Li Tai's stability-maintenance efforts managed to hold out until July, a torrential downpour finally arrived.

The rain poured down in sheets, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief—Li Tai was naturally no exception.

Although the planting season for winter wheat had not yet arrived, he could use these next few months to experiment with planting legumes to nourish the soil.

When the time came to sow winter wheat in the winter, next year's harvest would be all the better.

Of course, if the drought had persisted for a while longer and left him with insufficient time, there would have been no opportunity to plant legumes.

One had to bear in mind that newly reclaimed fields were best sown with a batch of beans to enrich the soil; otherwise, while one could not exactly say the newly opened land would yield a complete crop failure, breaking even would be considered a tremendous favor from the heavens.

Due to the drought, Gaoling's entire operational rhythm had centered around work-relief projects, through which Li Tai kept these commoners alive.

Yet with the arrival of the rain, farming became the paramount priority.

Do not mistake Li Tai's establishment of a port and dredging of certain river channels through work-relief projects as anything more than a boost to Gaoling's commercial trade, which had indeed grown quite prosperous.

Nevertheless, Li Tai understood clearly that commerce in a feudal era was nothing more than rootless duckweed, unworthy of excessive investment.

Because this era was genuinely not an age of capital, but an age of land, constrained by a lack of productive forces!

One could not deny the immense impact of commerce on society as a whole, but the societal productive forces of the feudal era dictated the upper limit of the non-agricultural population.

If he were to encourage commerce, aside from facing suppression by the imperial court, more importantly, his own fundamental power base would begin to waver.

Consequently, before productive forces had developed to a certain degree, Li Tai had no intention of encouraging commerce.

For the prerequisite for the emergence of capitalism was the existence of a sufficiently large non-agricultural population capable of entering the secondary sector.

At this moment, as the drought eased, Li Tai immediately began encouraging the common people to head out and till the fields.

As for the work at the docks and other locations, it was consciously scaled down, all to redirect a portion of the populace back into agriculture.

Li Tai recognized the potential of the working class, but until productive forces reached a designated level, no matter how great that potential was, it remained merely potential.

It was much like during the Investiture of the Gods in primeval times, when the Western Sect was perpetually proclaiming that the West was about to rise; had it not been for the great tribulation of the investiture, Zhunti would probably have shouted those words for a lifetime.

Just as Li Tai had wrapped up most of these affairs, August arrived, and Emperor Taizong dispatched an imperial messenger to summon Li Tai to the Taiji Palace.

Well, as Emperor Taizong had successfully consolidated imperial power over the years—particularly after weeding out and eliminating the old retainers left behind by Emperor Gaozu one by one—he finally no longer needed to linger in his former quarters at the Eastern Palace this year, having moved instead to the Taiji Palace to handle affairs of state.

Faced with Emperor Taizong's summons, Li Tai naturally did not dare to delay in the slightest, immediately boarding an ox-cart and heading toward the imperial palace.

Guided by an eunuch, Li Tai arrived before Emperor Taizong and bowed, saying, "Your son pays respects to Your Majesty. May Your Majesty enjoy peace and good health."

"Rise!" Emperor Taizong looked at Li Tai and said, "You have done exceedingly well in handling this drought, especially the memorial you submitted. It was written with absolute clarity, backed by solid evidence, and most importantly, it made extensive use of data while cutting down on flowery rhetoric, making it instantly comprehensible at a glance. Who wrote this?"
"Ma Zhou, the Scribe of the Prince of Yue's Manor!" Li Tai recommended him to Emperor Taizong, saying, "This man is exceptionally quick in perceiving matters, extremely prudent in his disposition, and possesses a rare talent seldom seen in this world!"

"Look at that smug look on your face!" Emperor Taizong smiled and said, "Severe though this drought was, your Gaoling absorbed the refugees and preserved stability throughout the entire Guanzhong region.

The court officials who assisted in managing the disaster relief shall be promoted by one rank in nobility, while those without official court posts shall be credited with a meritorious deed, to be calculated when they eventually assume office.

As for this Ma Zhou..."

"What about Ma Zhou?" Hearing Emperor Taizong's words, Li Tai felt a mixture of confusion and nervousness.

Although Ma Zhou seemed to be in charge of nothing in particular, in practical terms, Li Tai found him remarkably handy to use.

After all, while he himself provided the overall planning, Ma Zhou was capable of executing the specific details. If he were to be replaced by someone else, Li Tai truly would not be able to find such an exceptional person capable of overseeing the big picture on short notice.

When all was said and done, Li Tai was still far too young; direct personal rule was entirely unrealistic.

Many strategic blueprints required a talent like Ma Zhou, who could bridge the gap between higher-ups and subordinates, in order for his policies to be effectively implemented.

"Keling recommended Ma Zhou, feeling that serving as a mere scribe in the Prince of Yue's Manor under you was underutilizing his great talents.

Xuanling also submitted a memorial praising this Ma Zhou, and I originally intended to transfer him away directly.

However, considering that you still need him to assist you, I shall wait until your three-year term in Gaoling is fully completed before transferring Ma Zhou into the central government.

Therefore, I shall withhold his reward for the time being." Emperor Taizong stated quite candidly to Li Tai.

Li Tai smiled and replied, "That would truly be Binwang's great fortune! He possesses the talent of a prime minister; remaining by my side is indeed a waste of his abilities.

During this disaster relief effort, Binwang expended his utmost physical and mental energy. He has always been fond of fine wine, and I humbly request that Your Majesty bestow upon him some fine palace wine as a reward."

To be frank, the fact that Ma Zhou had caught Emperor Taizong's eye brought Li Tai both joy and surprise, but upon reflection, it was entirely logical.

After all, Ma Zhou was fundamentally just like him—what he lacked was merely a platform to showcase his own talent.

Whether it pertained to managing the locust plague, resolving the winter crisis, or even this recent drought, while he himself had formulated the blueprints, the person who genuinely executed those plans down to the last detail was Ma Zhou.

Thus, his capability to get things done naturally came to be noticed by Emperor Taizong.

Li Tai was not the sort of psychological deviant who could not tolerate subordinates surpassing him.

In fact, Li Tai eagerly hoped that capable individuals would continuously emerge around him and catch Emperor Taizong's eye, thereby securing a foothold for themselves within the imperial court.

The logic was exceedingly simple: doing so would naturally forge a strong reputation within official circles.

Whether it was seen as him being surrounded by a constellation of talents or him monopolizing all power, to those lacking inside information, using the Prince of Yue as a stepping stone was a veritable shortcut to success.

Only by doing this would the pool of talent at his disposal never suffer an interruption, nor would it fall into internal wrangling and stagnation.

Naturally, doing so posed a grave danger even for a crown prince, because a single misstep could easily slap one with the charge of forming cliques for private gain.

Yet Li Tai had absolute confidence in Emperor Taizong. Leaving aside whether or not he was actually forming a faction, as one of history's rare benevolent fathers who could even forgive a crown prince who genuinely rebelled,

to be honest, Li Tai truly refused to believe that Emperor Taizong would find him intolerable merely on the grounds of factionalism.

Just as Emperor Taizong was preparing to offer Li Tai a few words of praise, he saw a robustly built general enter after receiving clearance from the Minister of War.

Li Jing bowed to Emperor Taizong and said, "Your Majesty, this is a three-hundred-li urgent dispatch sent by Zhang Gongjin, the Military Governor of Daizhou."

"No need for formalities," Emperor Taizong said with a solemn expression. "Could it be that the Tujue are making unusual moves? What has happened in Daizhou?!"

Upon hearing Emperor Taizong's question, Li Jing's gaze involuntarily swept toward Li Tai.

Although Li Jing knew Li Tai, this matter was genuinely no small affair. Even though Li Tai held the rank of a Prince of the First Rank, he was, after all, still just a child.

Li Jing worried that if Li Tai inadvertently leaked the information, it might stir up a massive uproar across the capital; after all, this potentially concerned a war against the Tujue.

"Your Majesty, this son shall take his leave and return to Gaoling first!" Li Tai bowed respectfully to Emperor Taizong.

"Very well!" Emperor Taizong was quite pleased with Li Tai's tact and said to him, "Continue to perform your duties well as a county magistrate, secure a top-tier evaluation, and thereby set an exemplary model for all magistrates under heaven!"

"Understood!" Li Tai answered decisively, then withdrew. As he walked away, he fell into deep, contemplative thought:

"Daizhou is the closest to the Tujue. For this memorial to require Li Jing, the Minister of War, to deliver it in person, it seems the punitive campaign against the Tujue is about to begin.

Probably everyone in the imperial court, and perhaps even Father himself, believes this will be a protracted, lingering war.

Yet they little suspect that Li Jing's personal expedition will directly annihilate the Eastern Tujue."

To tell the truth, were the Tujue weak? Absolutely not!

At least during the sixth century, it could be said to be the age of the Tujue. To the west, they locked horns with the Sasanian Empire; moving south, they wiped out the once-dominant White Huns; to the east, they exacted tribute from the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi. They were arrogant and formidable beyond measure.

Even though internal strife caused them to split into the Eastern and Western Tujue, their actual strength still gave them the power to suppress surrounding regions.

For instance, the Eastern Tujue could still subjugate northern China. To name just one example, the various northern warlords who vied for supremacy during the transition from the Sui to the Tang were basically all backed by the Tujue.

They acted much like puppet-masters standing behind warlords in later eras. To the Eastern Tujue, a constantly fragmented China would forever remain subject to their enslavement.

Furthermore, Shibi Khan was a visionary of extraordinary talent and strategy. Under his leadership, stretching from the Khitans and Xi in the east to Tuyuhun and Gaochang in the west, various nations surrendered and submitted to the Eastern Tujue. The Eastern Tujue commanded over a million archers, reaching an unprecedented peak of might where "never before had the Rong and Di been so blazing and formidable."

Just as Shibi Khan was preparing to exploit the chaos of the Sui-Tang transition to grab a share of the spoils and recreate the scenes of the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians, he suddenly died!

It was precisely his death that granted the Central Plains a precious window of opportunity, allowing Emperor Taizong to eliminate all enemies in the north one by one and rebuild the northern defense line, so that when the Tujue eventually sought to push south, they could not gain even a fraction of an advantage.

It could be said that without Emperor Taizong, whether the Great Tang could have achieved unification after the Sui Dynasty was an entirely unknown question.

After all, had they failed to subdue the northern warlords within a short span of time, once the Tujue recovered their vitality, resolving the threat would not have been so easy.

This was somewhat akin to how a great leader, taking advantage of the standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union in Germany, decisively launched the Three Great Campaigns to annihilate the main forces of the Nationalist army.

Sometimes the international window of opportunity granted to China was fleetingly brief; miss it, and one might have to wait an entire century.

"Yet what can I do in this war? A cautious and meticulous person like Li Jing will likely not afford me any opportunities whatsoever!"

Li Tai narrowed his eyes slightly, his mind beginning to calculate how he might manage to grab a share of the profits.

No matter what, Li Tai felt that once he returned, he could harvest the medicinal herbs he had planted, dry them over the next few months, and have them ready for use when the war finally erupted.

As Li Tai departed, Li Jing handed the memorial over to the eunuch, who then presented it to Emperor Taizong.

Emperor Taizong perused the memorial, reading Zhang Gongjin's petition for a military campaign, and softly recited the listed justifications:

"First, Jiali Khan is extravagant and tyrannical, slaughtering the loyal and virtuous while keeping sycophants close.

Second, tribes such as the Xueyantuo have already rebelled.

Third, Tuli, Tuoshe, and Yugu She have all offended Jiali, leaving them with nowhere to hide their shame in embarrassment.

Fourth, the regions north of the frontier have suffered through frost and drought, leaving grain supplies scarce.

Fifth, Jiali has alienated his own kinsmen and entrusted heavy responsibilities to foreigners; the Hu people are fickle and treacherous, so the moment the Great Tang army arrives, internal turmoil will inevitably erupt.

Sixth, Han people fled to the northern territories to escape chaos in earlier years, growing numerous by now; recently, they have gathered armed forces and occupied strategic passes. Once the grand army crosses the border, internal response will naturally follow."

"Yaoshi, today's affair is of the utmost magnitude. We must summon Xuanling, Keling, Chengfan... and other key officials from the Three Departments and Six Ministries to deliberate together.

Stay right here for a moment. I shall order men to summon them all over; today, we must deliberate and reach a definite conclusion."

Emperor Taizong said to Li Jing with a grave and earnest expression.

"Your subject obeys the imperial decree!" Li Jing answered Emperor Taizong respectfully, standing as straight as a ramrod.

To tell the truth, there were truly very few military commanders in this world who belonged to the chaotic alignment.

That was the sort who grew joyous merely upon killing and grew excited solely upon fighting, caring not for the reason behind the war, so long as there was a fight.

Normal military commanders emphasized that warfare was a matter of state—a ground of life and death, the Dao of survival and destruction—and must be thoroughly investigated.

Simply put, one had to gauge the extent to which a war should be fought, the objectives to be achieved, when to call a halt while ahead, when to press the advantage in pursuit, and even in the event of failure, under what conditions one should bow the head and acknowledge defeat rather than stubbornly holding on when defeat was inevitable.

What they feared most was bogging down in the quagmire of war, unable to extricate themselves when they wanted to, and incapable of winning when they wished for victory.

Thus, as to whether he should wage this war against the Tujue, Emperor Taizong undoubtedly held a degree of hesitation in his heart.

After all, the situation in the Great Tang over recent years had been plagued by consecutive natural disasters; the foundation was far too thin, and under normal circumstances, this war ought not to be fought.

Yet if both sides were strong and vigorous, and the cavalry-oriented Tujue truly leveraged their advantages, how many Great Tang generals could stand their ground against a counter-charge by Tujue cavalry!

Therefore, faced with the memorial submitted by Zhang Gongjin, even Emperor Taizong found himself gripped by a trace of hesitation at this moment.

(End of this chapter)