This place is not very far from the Queen City. After riding horses for two days from the port, several generals arrived at the Queen City. Soon the news shocked the entire Queen City nobility.
As the king of the Queen Kingdom, Honri Shedai is close to forty years old this year, but she never expected that she would encounter such a drastic change in middle age. When she got the news, she felt numb all over.
This... & how is this possible? As a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty, who doesn’t know how powerful the Tang Dynasty is now? The ships of the Tang Dynasty were constantly shuttled back and forth throughout the Nanyang Sea. Could the Queen Kingdom not know about it? Moreover, the continents opposite the Queen's Kingdom were already part of the Tang Dynasty, and of course they knew that.
"Your Majesty, this is a slander. It is an excuse deliberately found by the Tang Dynasty in order to invade our territory. We cannot compromise." Below the court, a minister said indignantly.
"I agree. Look at this so-called edict. It doesn't matter if it is not issued by His Majesty the Tang Dynasty. Just because five people died, do you want our country to surrender? Just let the Queen surrender? What do you want to do next? Directly annex us? ?" Another minister said equally angrily.
"As I said a few years ago, the ambitions of the Tang Dynasty have been clearly revealed. If you look at countries such as Xue Yantuo and Shi Wei, they have been continuously annexed by the Tang Dynasty. The various islands in Southeast Asia and the mainland have also been annexed by the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty has planted its own flag."
"At that time, you said that as long as we sincerely followed the Tang Dynasty and became a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty, we would not be in danger. What about now?" A man in the uniform of a military commander also stood up in the crowd.
Benli Shedai listened silently. She didn't know some of the words, but were these the key points now?
"Is there a possibility that Mangbu really did these things?" Another minister suddenly said after being silent for a while.
His words silenced everyone in the court, but after the silence, the previous minister jumped out and said: "So what if Mangbu really did this? It is indeed attached to our Queen Kingdom. But we have no way of managing them."
"Yes, so what if you did what you said and really did it? Then the Tang Dynasty sent troops to the Queen Kingdom because Mangbu was attached to our Queen Kingdom, and also because of these five lives, and the army pressed on the border, so they asked us to surrender. What can you do? What can we do?" The minister glanced at him lightly, and then said calmly.
Um... The whole court suddenly became quiet, and everyone was stunned. Yes, even if Datang really did it, so what?
"Right Minister, what do you think we should do?" Benli Shetai took a deep breath and spoke. Almost all the small countries around the Tang Dynasty followed the example of the Tang Dynasty and implemented the three provinces and six ministries system, but many countries did not need so many officials. , so there is no need for so many departments, and many structures will naturally be streamlined.
For example, the Queen's Kingdom has left and right ministers. The two prime ministers are the highest officials, and there are other departments below to handle the affairs of the country.
"Your Majesty, now I think we shouldn't discuss this nonsense. No matter whether the Tang Dynasty wants to annex us or not, or whether it's because the real Mangbu did these things, it is useless to pursue these reasons. The point now is that the Tang Dynasty Not only are the army pressing down on the border, but at least tens of thousands of elite troops have arrived to take control of our country’s largest port.”
"The other party not only controls our port, but also asks Your Majesty to lead the country to surrender. In other words, we must give an explanation to the other party. Whether we are willing or not, we have only two choices now. First, war. Second, find a way to negotiate." The Right Prime Minister said seriously.
The right minister's words made other ministers also fall silent, because it seems that now... it seems that they have only this choice.
"My dear friends, what do you think? War? Or peace talks." Benli Shetai looked at them and asked.
When it came to the war, everyone stopped talking, including the general who had yelled fiercely before. The Queen's Kingdom actually has hundreds of thousands of soldiers in total. The problem is that these soldiers are scattered in all directions throughout the Queen's Kingdom, and many of the soldiers themselves are just to make up the numbers.
If we simply count the elite soldiers who are capable of fighting, only 50,000 of them can be called an army.
But can 50,000 elites defeat the Tang Dynasty?
"If we have to go to war, we can choose to use mountains and forests to fight against the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty doesn't have much experience with our mountains and forests in Southeast Asia, and they may not be able to adapt to the climate here. I think we still have another battle. Power." An older general in the crowd suddenly said.
"There is no chance. Places such as Linyi and Guangdong also have mountains and forests that are no less than ours, and those places also have a large number of mountain people. These mountain people can easily adapt to such jungle terrain."
"The most important thing is, if we retreat to the mountains and forests, what if the other party doesn't entangle with us and goes straight to our capital? Do we have to abandon the capital?" Another general of about the same age shook his head.
"You two, is it possible that we don't have any chance?" the prime minister who spoke before asked.
"Yes, our chance lies in how determined the Tang Dynasty is." The old general who spoke later said calmly, "Of course, if Your Majesty is determined to fight, I am willing to lead the troops."
Seeing the different expressions on the faces of these ministers, Benli Shedai was a little helpless and said, "General Afei, please assemble the national army as quickly as possible. We need to talk, but the troops that should be assembled must also assemble. "Benli Shetai sighed.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Who is willing to go to the port as an envoy to talk to the generals of the Tang Dynasty this time?" Benli Shetai asked.
"Go ahead, sir," said the right minister who had just stood up.
"Then I'll trouble the right prime minister."
When the meeting was held here in the Queen's Kingdom, thousands of miles north of the Queen's Kingdom, the army led by Hou Junji had broken through to the main gathering place of Mangbu. However, at this moment, only the soldiers following Hou Junji were left. 10,000, and the remaining 10,000 troops were led by Zhang Liang and went straight to Wangbu.
Hou Junji's vanguard has already made contact with a large tribe in Mangbe, but the so-called large tribe only has less than 3,000 people.
At the location of the main Mang tribe dozens of miles away, Mang Chai, the leader of the Mang tribe, stood up with a shocked look on his face: "What did you say? The Tang army is coming?"
"Yes, leader, Datang's army has arrived in Matsube's area."
"Is the Tang Dynasty crazy? I just killed a few mountain people from their tribe." Mang Cai was stunned. They were the ones who killed the people! But Mangchai only found out about the person who killed Datang after he killed someone, but he didn't care at all.
Because this land, not to mention the Tang Dynasty, has belonged to their mountain people throughout the ages, and outsiders cannot enter at all!
