[Lightscreen]
[What exactly were the fundamental flaws of the Guiyi Army? Nothing complicated, they lacked people.
When the Tibetans first sank their claws into Hexi, their priority was clear.
Reduce the Tang people to cattle.
They were stripped of their status and subjected to a reign of terror so casual it defied belief.
The Tibetans even engineered a particularly creative method of execution, threading leather cords through holes bored into the victims' shoulder blades and dragging them behind galloping horses until there was nothing left but bone and red dust.
But you cannot run a territory on blood alone. Eventually, the Tibetans tried to play the benevolent ruler card, attempting to sway the local Han nobility to their side.
They wanted to turn Tang talent into Tibetan tools. But they underestimated the sheer, stubborn grit of the Han people.
After all, the White-Haired Army of Anxi had not even been snuffed out yet.
Tang records from the era noted that when imperial envoys occasionally passed through, they found the land still teeming with Han people.
These people would swarm the roads just to catch a glimpse of the Great Tang's banners. Their questions were always the same, a heartbreaking litany: "Is the Son of Heaven well? Our children have not forgotten the robes of the Tang.
Does the Court still remember us? When will the army come?"
Realizing that brute force and soft persuasion were both failing, the Tibetans shifted gears. They started pushing Buddhism with a vengeance.
Bordering the Tibetan Plateau and India, they invited high-ranking monks to Dunhuang to preach.
Now, Buddhism is many things, but it is famously bad at two things essential for a frontier: production and reproduction.
Monks do not farm, and they definitely do not have children. It was the perfect biological suppressor for a stubborn population.
Add to that the catastrophe of the An Lushan Rebellion. Every able-bodied soldier in Hexi had been drafted into the internal meat grinder of the Central Plains, and almost none of them ever came back.
This left the gender ratio in Hexi completely shattered, with women outnumbering men nearly three to one. Then came the Tibetan civil wars and the resulting massacres, which acted as the final blow to the Tang survivors.
This was the real reason Zhang Yichao was willing to gamble everything to break through at Liangzhou. Without a fresh influx of people from the heartland, Hexi was a dying light.
It was the same slow death scenario faced by the Shu Han, a pocket of resistance waiting for the clock to run out.]
"Water without a source... how can it not dry up?"
Kongming let out a long, heavy sigh. He could see the writing on the wall for the Guiyi Army. "A shortage of men, a religion that forbids birth, and a century of constant warfare. If the Han people do not remain, how can the land remain Han?"
Ma Liang looked genuinely bewildered. "Is that why Emperor Wuzong of Tang went on his crusade against the Buddhists? Like General Zhang said, these monks come from India to beg for food in our lands, and then have the audacity to tell our people not to have children?"
Zhang Fei did not even have to think about it. "What is the point of living if you cannot even marry a wife? That is just nonsense!"
Kongming tilted his head, recalling his studies. "The Buddhism from India advocates for the extinction of desire. They practice precepts and meditation to gain wisdom and reach the state of the four shramana fruits. It requires the disciples to give up all pleasure and cultivate through suffering. It actually sounds remarkably similar to the philosophy of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius."
Zhang Fei was the first to scoff. "No drinking, no women?
Why bother being alive?
You might as well just jump in a hole and save everyone the trouble!
And if they are so into suffering, why are they seizing so much farmland?
No wonder the Tang Emperor burned their temples. They must have been incredibly arrogant."
Jian Yong let out a sharp, cynical laugh. "They are probably just like Zha Rong, that former Governor of Xiapi. They do not bother cultivating themselves.
They just use the rules to control everyone else while they line their pockets with gold. They will starve ten thousand peasants just to make sure the Buddha's statue gets a fresh coat of gold leaf for his birthday."
"Hypocrites!" Zhang Fei bellowed. "They deserve to be wiped out!"
Kongming rubbed his temples and waved for silence. "Let this be a lesson. If any Buddhist masters from across the borders show up, we keep them on a short leash. No land grants, no tax exemptions. We will see how holy they are when they actually have to work for a living."
Pang Tong leaned in, a devious smirk spreading across his face. "Kongming, I have an idea..."
Kongming raised an eyebrow and cut him off with a nod. "Your idea is brilliant, Shiyuan. The barbarians are a rowdy, violent bunch. They definitely need some peaceful Buddhism to calm them down and stop them from reproducing. Let us encourage it... for them."
Pang Tong blinked, his evil plan having been finished before he could even start it.
Meanwhile, Guan Yu was thinking along a completely different track. "Can monks be drafted into the army?"
---
In the Ganlu Hall, Li Shimin's voice was quiet, but his words were cold enough to freeze water.
"If I ever catch their Tsenpo, I think I will try that leather cord trick. Thread it through his shoulders and drag him behind a horse right in front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
It seems like a fitting tribute to the survivors of the future, do you not think?
A little reminder to any barbarian kingdom that thinks about crossing the line."
Usually, this was the part where Zhangsun Wuji would try to play the diplomat, but he stayed quiet. Fang Xuanling kept his eyes closed, looking for all the world like he was deep in meditation.
That left Du Ruhui to play the voice of reason. "Your Majesty, comforting the future is not really a sound legal argument. And such a cruel execution might hurt the prestige of the Sage's Court."
Li Shimin did not blink. "The prestige of the Tang was built by my blade and the courage of my generals!
The Tibetans and the Goguryeo are treacherous, slippery snakes.
They do not deserve trust, and they certainly do not deserve mercy.
My mind is made up."
Du Ruhui just bowed, his mind already churning. He wondered if he should suggest that more officials be allowed to watch this light screen. It was getting harder to manage the Emperor's moods solo.
As for the Buddhist issue... Li Shimin felt a headache coming on. He remembered that Emperor Yang of Sui had been a devoted lay disciple. Buddhism was everywhere in the countryside. Li Shimin had seen it himself during his campaigns. Up until now, he had viewed it as a harmless way for people to pray for the afterlife. He had even commissioned temples on old battlefields.
"Xuanling, do these monks really not produce anything?"
Fang Xuanling nodded, then hesitated, shaking his head.
"Explain," Li Shimin commanded.
"The Tang Code clearly states that monks get thirty mu of land and nuns get twenty, and they are supposed to pay taxes," Fang explained carefully. "But the temples have servants and slaves who do all the actual work to support them. And..."
He trailed off. Du Ruhui finished the sentence for him. "And the Royal Family is constantly giving them massive donations. The temple estates are far better off than the average peasant's farm."
Li Shimin rubbed his jaw, looking distinctly unimpressed. "We will keep an eye on that."
[Lightscreen]
[Even before Zhang Yichao took Liangzhou, things between the Guiyi Army and the Tang Court were getting awkward.
Zhang Yichao desperately wanted the title of Jiedushi of Hexi, but the Court insisted on Guiyi Army, the Army That Returned to Righteousness.
A name the people in Hexi found patronizing and offensive.
In his internal documents, Zhang Yichao just ignored the Court and called himself the Jiedushi anyway. This, of course, fueled the Court's paranoia.
To be fair, Emperor Xuanzong was at least somewhat competent. But after he died, Emperor Yizong took the throne thanks to a forged edict from the eunuchs.
And Yizong was... well, let us just say he was the kind of man who would strip naked to push a grindstone. He just went in circles making a fool of himself.
Faced with Zhang Yichao, who had liberated Liangzhou entirely on his own, Yizong was terrified the man was getting too powerful. He decided it was time to start throwing dirt on the Tang dynasty's own coffin.
First, he strictly ordered Zhang Yichao to stay out of Liangzhou city. He appointed a separate Liangzhou Jiedushi and sent two thousand troops from all the way in Shandong to manage it.
Then, he stripped Zhang Yichao of his authority over eleven commanderies and demoted him to Jiedushi of only Guazhou and Shazhou."
Finally, after Zhang Yichao voluntarily moved to the capital as a hostage, Yizong had a brilliant idea. He sent Zhang Yichao's two sons back to Hexi to split the power with their cousin, Zhang Huaishen.
Just like that, the prestige of the Guiyi Army's leadership was shattered. Two years after Zhang Yichao entered the capital, the troops Yizong had sent from Shandong were wiped out by the rising Wumo tribes. Liangzhou fell, and the Hexi Corridor was severed once again.
From his golden cage in Chang'an, a heartbroken Zhang Yichao sent a petition begging Yizong to retake Liangzhou.
Yizong's response was a masterclass in gaslighting: "How can you criticize the Great Tang for not taking Liangzhou?
Do you have any idea how hard the government is working?
And besides, is this even your job? I know you are loyal, but do not bring this up again."
Three years later, Zhang Yichao died. His nephew, Zhang Huaishen, described his uncle's final years with a heavy heart:
"A sudden dream of disaster, realizing that while he had the will, he no longer had the time."
Ten years later, the poet Sikong Tu passed through the region and wrote down what he saw: "The sons of Han all speak the tongue of the barbarians, and they stand on the city walls and curse the Han people."]
"Another idiot emperor!"
Li Shimin finally snapped. That final poem, those two lines from Sikong Tu, hit him like a physical blow. The Hexi region that the Han and Tang had worked so hard to open, the land that had flourished for a century, was gone. Truly, permanently gone.
If the children of the Han were speaking the language of the barbarians, they were not Han anymore. And if the people were not Han, the land was not Han.
Li Shimin paced the room, fuming. "He spent three years opening the road, and you demote him?
He comes to the capital in a show of ultimate loyalty, and you try to sow discord in his family?
You have not even finished your dinner and you are already breaking the bowl! And he got the throne through a fake edict?
Pathetic! If that grandson of mine were standing in front of me, I would run him through with my sword myself!"
Zhangsun Wuji was sweating bullets. He realized that the Emperor's grandson comment technically included his own descendants, but he was not about to point that out. He just took two very quiet steps away from the screaming Emperor.
Fang Xuanling did not even look up. He was too busy recording every single word.
Du Ruhui, however, was staring at the poem on the screen. He let out a long breath and whispered, "Xuanling, I think I want to lead an expedition one day."
Fang Xuanling looked up, surprised. Du Ruhui took a deep breath. "The territory of the Tang will stretch for ten thousand li under our watch. Within that space, there will be a thousand different winds and a hundred different tribes. We cannot kill them all."
His eyes were burning with a strange intensity. "I want to do what Zhang Yichao did. I want to go out there and see it for myself. I want to see how we can rule a hundred tribes so that this Golden Age does not just flicker and die."
Fang Xuanling shook his head. "You do not need to go that far..."
"No," Du Ruhui said firmly. "The screen said I was supposed to die next year. Now that my illness is gone, I have a second chance. If the Tang's Golden Age can happen without me, then I might as well go to the frontier and find a new way to govern. Maybe I can find a way to make it last."
Fang Xuanling sighed. "I was just going to say, after the Turks, the Emperor is definitely going after Goguryeo. He is going to lead the army himself. Do you really think he is going to leave you or me behind?"
---
In Gong'an, the mood was one of collective heartbreak for Zhang Yichao.
"A legendary general who never found a worthy lord," Liu Bei sighed. "The Late Tang owed that man far more than it ever paid."
He was thinking the exact same thing as Li Shimin. Man, I wish that guy was on my team.
"Kongming's luck is much better than Zhang Yichao's," Zhang Fei noted. "He found my Big Brother. Zhang Yichao just found Kongming arch-nemesis."
Zhang Fei felt genuinely sorry for the guy. "If Kongming had to deal with an Emperor like that, he would probably have retired to Nanyang to grow cabbages a long time ago."
Kongming did not know whether to laugh or cry. "The Emperor's name was Yi, but it is not the same Yi as Sima Yi."
But that was a minor detail. Kongming pointed to a much bigger problem. "Liangzhou is lost again. The roads are cut. And they let Zhang Yichao keep the title of Jiedushi while he is stuck in the capital?
How was the Guiyi Army supposed to fight under those conditions?"
It was a question with no answer.
Pang Tong summed it up perfectly. "Liangzhou was not lost by the people. It was thrown away by the Emperor. He spent more time playing power games than ruling his empire. He really was the one who shoveled the last bit of dirt onto the Tang's coffin."
As the group sat in their shared melancholy, Zhang Fei suddenly clapped his hands together.
"Wait a second! If you look at it that way, Adou just found another guy who is worse at being an Emperor than he is!"
Everyone in the hall looked at each other. They did not know whether to laugh or cry, so they did a bit of both.
[Lightscreen]
[Well, that is about it for this episode. I talked about Zhang Yichao mostly because his story is so similar to Prime Minister Zhuge Liang's.
He just had even worse luck.
He gave everything he had to the state, only to be distrusted by the Court.
Today, the Dunhuang manuscripts that record his deeds are scattered across the world, collected by France and Japan for various reasons.
In the next episode, let us talk about the second-generation rulers of the Three Kingdoms. Is it really true that if you have a son, he should be like Sun Quan?]