Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 347 Li Yi: If you don’t pick up money when you go out, you will lose out!
As soon as these words were spoken, the air suddenly became silent, and the enthusiasm and excitement of the crowd gradually subsided.

There is a faint sadness brewing in my heart.

They each sat down on a chair, waiting to be summoned.

Liu Jinyang and others waited for about an hour. Zhang Zhidong came back and spoke to them in the tea room.

"Guys, please come with me."

"The king summons you!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Jinyang and others stood up from their chairs and followed Zhang Zhidong to Li Yi's study.

Soon, they arrived outside Li Yi's study.

Zhang Zhidong went forward, knocked on the door, and spoke.

"Your Majesty, Liu Jinyang and others have arrived."

As soon as he finished speaking, a response came from the study.

"Well, bring the person in!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Zhidong stretched out his hand and pushed open the door of the study, stepped sideways to lead the way, and motioned Liu Jinyang and others to follow.

Liu Jinyang and others took deep breaths continuously, and finally stepped into Li Yi's study with excitement.

The first thing they saw was Li Yi, who was sitting behind the desk, looking very dignified.

Although they had never seen Li Yi in person before, they were actually familiar with Li Yi's face.

Well, after all, this face is the portrait on the silver dollar, who wouldn’t recognize it?
Several people saluted in front of Li Yi.

"I pay my respects to Your Majesty. May Your Majesty be well and healthy!"

Li Yi heard this and waved his hand with a smile.

"Haha, brave men, there's no need to be so polite. Please excuse me!"

As he spoke, Li Yi stood up from his seat and walked up to the few people.

Looking at the seven people in front of him, Li Yi felt deeply gratified. He walked up to them and patted their shoulders one by one, speaking in a gentle voice.

"What a brave man! He dared to jump into the turbulent Yellow River. He is worthy of being a soldier I personally led!"

"You didn't embarrass me!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Jinyang spoke with a trembling voice.

"Your Majesty, this is what we should do."

"You once taught us that we are soldiers and should stand before the people when there is danger."

"We are all still alive. It is not the turn of ordinary people to take this risk."

After being patted on the shoulder by Li Yi himself, Liu Jinyang felt that he would never wash this set of clothes for the rest of his life.

Li Yi continued with a smile.

"Your heroic deeds on the Yellow River embankment can be said to have played a very positive leading role for the entire army."

"From today on, you will be the role model for the entire army."

As he spoke, Li Yi motioned the attendant beside him to come forward.

The servant was holding a tray with several brocade boxes on it.

Li Yi opened one of the brocade boxes, took out a medal from it, pinned it on Liu Jinyang's chest himself, and then said.

"Today, I will personally confer honors on you and your family as a reward!"

The full name of this medal is the Yellow River Rescue Special Merit Medal.

The medal was shining with golden light. It was made of pure gold, not gold-plated. It weighed one hundred grams and felt heavy in the hand.

On the front of the medal is carved a surging Yellow River, with a line of words engraved on the river: "Go singing with generosity, and regard death as returning home."

This line of text was written by Li Yi himself, and then carved and printed on the medal by a craftsman.

Of course, this medal is not just commemorative, it also has a lot of practical benefits.

For example, one does not have to bow when meeting an official, his descendants can get extra points in the imperial examination, tax reductions can be given, and one can bring his medal to see Li Yi at any time. He is also given matching land and houses, as well as gold and silver as rewards.

Not to mention the invisible benefit of priority promotion.

If there are several candidates for the same official position, the superior will undoubtedly give priority to the person who has been awarded a medal when promoting.

Not to mention that their medals were awarded by Li Yi himself.

Li Yi personally awarded medals to the people in front of him one by one, and then encouraged them to continue to make contributions to the Tang Dynasty in the future.

Of course, Li Yi did not forget those who sacrificed.

Orders were also issued to posthumously award and commend them one by one. Although they had sacrificed their lives, their families would still benefit from these posthumous awards and rewards.

Well, these are not only for the dead, but also for the living.

Li Yi is well known for his generosity in rewarding his subordinates.

He never skimped on these things.

Liu Jinyang and others touched the medals on their chests, their faces full of excitement and excitement.

Now they are so excited that they are speechless.

After doing all this, Li Yi talked with Liu Jinyang and others for a while.

Seeing that it was almost noon and time for lunch, Li Yi invited them to stay and have lunch with him.

After lunch, Liu Jinyang and others were sent out of the headquarters, while Li Yi continued to handle government affairs.

……

"Your Majesty, Director Guo of the Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Department has an urgent message."

Zhang Zhidong came to Li Yi's study with a telegram and asked for a meeting.

Li Yi put down the pen in his hand, looked up and said.

"come in!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Zhidong pushed the door open and handed a telegram in his hand to Li Yi.

Then he began to report.

"Director Guo said two things in the telegram."

"One is that Vietnam sent envoys to ask for peace with the Tang Dynasty, and ambassadors from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain sent diplomatic notes hoping to promote peace."

"The second thing is the news from Japan. Japanese Ambassador Takeda Michihito said that the Shogun has approved sending troops to assist the Tang Dynasty in the war against Vietnam, and the first batch of 5,000 people will be sent to Vietnam within a month."

After listening to Zhang Zhidong's report, Li Yi closed the telegram and fell into deep thought. After a moment, he spoke.

"We can discuss Vietnam sending an envoy for peace talks."

"But the conditions must be proposed by our Tang Dynasty. First, Vietnam must cede the northern part of Vietnam to our Tang Dynasty and make compensation for the war in Vietnam to compensate for the losses of our Tang Dynasty."

"In addition, Vietnam will open all its coastal ports to our Tang merchants and allow them to trade freely."

"Tariffs must be agreed upon between Tang and Vietnam."

"Moreover, if Tang merchants and expatriates commit crimes in Vietnam, Vietnam cannot punish them. They must hand them over to Tang and let Tang deal with them."

"Also, in order to demonstrate the peace between the two countries, Vietnam must dismantle all coastal artillery batteries and disband its naval forces."

"In addition, our Tang Dynasty will divide concessions in Hue, Saigon and other places in Vietnam, station troops in the concessions, and send officials to manage them."

"Well, as for the specific details, Director Guo will discuss it at his discretion. There is no need to be too polite to the Vietnamese."

Faced with Vietnam's request for peace, Li Yishi made many demands.

What about ceding territory and paying indemnities, opening up to trade, agreed tariffs, extraterritoriality, stationing troops in concessions, and dismantling coastal artillery batteries...

Li Yi was prepared to give Vietnam everything he could think of.

As for Vietnam’s refusal to agree?

Okay, if you don’t agree, then just continue fighting.

Since the Tang army could take Hanoi directly by sea, they could also take Hue by sea.

Peace talks?

Peace talks can only be held when the strength of both sides is similar.

If the power gap between the two sides is too great, the only option is to seek peace.

You should make peace with whatever others say!

Another reason is that Li Yi chose to accept Vietnam's peace request when the Tang army's front-line troops had a great advantage.

It’s not that Li Yi doesn’t want to swallow up the whole of Vietnam in one breath, but because the Tang army is now a little exhausted!
On the battlefield, the Vietnamese army was indeed vulnerable.

But the problem was that the number of troops the Tang army could use to conquer Yue was very limited.

The navy and the army together only have about 20,000 people.

If these 20,000 people work together to fight a large army, they will naturally be invincible.

Based on the level of the Vietnamese army, it is impossible for them to withstand the offensive of the Tang army.

However, if the Tang Dynasty wanted to completely take over the occupied territories, it would have to divide its troops to garrison the local areas.

Among the 20,000 Tang troops, there were nearly 5,000 naval forces, and there was no way to divide these 5,000 troops to garrison in local areas.

The total number of troops that can be deployed to garrison local areas is only about 15,000.

Fifteen thousand people may sound like a lot, but northern Vietnam has a considerable number of important cities, and fifteen thousand people are simply not enough.

If there are fewer troops stationed, the Vietnamese will rebel and counterattack.

But if too many troops were divided, the Tang army would be unable to advance further.

As a result, the Tang army fell into a dilemma where they were short of manpower, good at defending but not good at advancing.

Under the current situation, peace talks are actually the best option.

The Tang army's attack on Vietnam was ultimately for food.

It would be great if we could get the food through negotiations.

Of course, peace talks do not mean that Li Yi has no intentions towards Vietnam.

He thought that after the Tang Dynasty had resolved its domestic affairs, he would find a random excuse to turn against them and continue the fight.

After thinking for a while, Li Yi said.

"As for Japan sending troops to assist the Tang Dynasty in conquering Vietnam, well, tell Chen Yucheng to make good use of the shogunate troops."

"Pacify North Vietnam as soon as possible!"

To a certain extent, the 5,000 people provided by the Tokugawa shogunate solved the urgent needs of the Tang Dynasty.

Although five thousand people are not enough to support large-scale combat, they are enough to garrison local areas and quell rebellions.

Zhang Zhidong continued to ask.

"Your Majesty, what about the diplomatic notes from the Western countries such as Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain?"

When Li Yi heard this, his eyes moved, and he already understood the purpose of Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

Britain and France are not good people, and the Anglo-Saxons are born bad guys. They want to fan the flames of war all over the world and make all countries fight so that they can profit from it.

The reason why they stepped forward to promote peace this time must be that Vietnam had some handle on them and they had no choice but to do so.

In this case, the Tang Dynasty must find a way to gain some benefits, otherwise it will suffer huge losses.

Well, if you don’t pick up money when you go out, you’ll be at a loss.

But at this time he wanted to test him, so he asked Zhang Zhidong in front of him with a smile.

"Zhang Qing, how do you think the Tang Dynasty should respond?"

After hearing this, Zhang Zhidong pondered for a while and then spoke.

"In reply to your Majesty, I think Vietnam must have some leverage over the Western Barbarians."

"Perhaps the Tang Dynasty can use the peace talks to get this handle from Vietnam and use it to control the Western Barbarians."

"In this way, we can gain some benefits from the Western Barbarians."

"Secondly, it can alienate the relationship between Vietnam and the Western Barbarians."

"Third, we can make the Western Barbarians pay the price for instigating the war between our Tang Dynasty and Vietnam."

“It can be said that one kills multiple birds with one stone!”

Upon hearing this, Li Yi nodded with a smile.

“That’s right!”

"Just reply to Director Guo accordingly."

He was very satisfied with Zhang Zhidong's answer.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Zhidong immediately clasped his fists and accepted the order, then turned around and went to convey the order.

Li Yi stretched and prepared to take a rest.

(End of this chapter)